Sweet Desire

03 Don't smile

The nasty sound of the piano keys struck a painful blow to my ears as I rested my head on them, even so, I didn't move, I had no strength for this. My eyelids were seeking down, but I fought it, I couldn't fall asleep in the practice room.

For the practice with Winter, I had to get up earlier than usual, and only thoughts about her helped me to get out of the warm bed.

It was difficult not only to persuade Winter to enter the competition but also to schedule practices at a suitable time. She claimed she doesn't have time in the evening because she goes to the academy but to me, it seemed that she just wanted to make me suffer.

I lazily raised my eyes to the wall clock. There were only a few minutes left until the scheduled time, will she even show up?

But precisely at 6:30, the door opened, and Winter walked in.

My drowsiness instantly vanished, and I shamelessly stared at her from head to toe. This time her hair was pulled back into a neat, low ponytail. A frustrated sigh escaped my mouth, I prefer to see her hair down. Stupid rules of this school.

On the other hand, in a fit of passion, it would be nice to—

"Why aren't you warming up?" Winter said instead of a greeting and took off her outerwear.

Where is her politeness...

"Good morning," I said anyway, lifting my head from the piano keys and fixing my hair, and then lied, "I've already warmed up."

The expression on Winter's face didn't change; it was the same boredom. She silently took a folder from her backpack and handed it to me. "Familiarize yourself."

"What's this?" I asked curiously, then frowned when I realized it was the music sheets. This wasn't going the way I wanted it to go.

"The piece we're going to play at the competition," Winter replied indifferently.

"You chose without me? What if I want to play a different piece?" I asked as calmly as possible. Anger gripped me as I hoped we would be choosing a piece together, so I could sit near her, and once in a while casually touch her.

"Well, if you wish to participate with me, you'll have to put up with it, besides the teacher has already approved," she said.

"You could have at least—"

"If you don't like something, I can inform the teacher right now that you're refusing to—"

"I am not refusing!" I answered fervently, not believing that Winter had dared to interrupt me.

"Then let's not waste my precious time and get started," Winter said as she sat down at the piano next to me and turned on the metronome.

Ugh, why is it so hard to deal with her? And I haven't even done anything to irritate her, or is she always this passive-aggressive? Like a puppy that looks cute until you reach out to pet it, and then it will bite your finger off without hesitating.

I stole a glance at her and noticed she didn't have a copy of music sheets.

"You don't have a copy?"

"Don't worry, I know it by heart."

"You've played this before?" I eyed her suspiciously. There is no way she memorized it in just one day.

"Yes, the teacher said I could choose something I've already played, so I wouldn't have to spend as much time preparing because I'm still going to study for the final exam," she said in a flat tone as she did a few exercises to warm up her fingers, and then added, "What? You have a problem with that?"