Duet Partner

Chapter 1

It turns out that hard doesn't even begin to describe the difficulties Brett is currently facing.

Writing an essay about the "Influence of National Identity on Classical Music" within two hours because you forgot it was due the next day is hard. Maintaining a social life between classes, lessons, rehearsals and your daily practice is hard. Convincing your Asian parents to let you major in violin performance is hard. It's really hard.

(Better believe it, Brett has got to know.)

But this – this is a Sisyphean task. It's just not feasible.

Brett is on the edge of despair when he arrives at his dorm room after orchestra rehearsal. With a sigh that bears the weight of a thousand grand pianos, he throws himself onto his bed. And because he is a firm believer in the saying "A problem shared is a problem halved", he promptly (and vociferously) begins to share his sorrows with his roommate whose nose is currently stuck in his music theory book.

"Mate, I'm totally fucked."

Silence. No answer from Alex. Which is not a problem. Yet.

Usually, Brett needs to whine a little bit before he's ready to listen to suggested solutions. His roommate and best friend knows this better than everyone else. Because let's face it: Brett is not exactly known for bottling things up and dealing with them alone. Don't let yourself fool by his deadpan expression - Brett Yang wears his heart and soul on his tongue.

Therefore, in their now two years of sharing a dorm, he has been very thankful for Alex's habit of approaching every predicament that is coming their way quite calmly and logically – he's the voice of reason in Brett's chaos.

Brett continues his monologue. "I'm this close to dropping out of the con because I can't seem to find a duet partner! I literally asked everyone in the orchestra but not a chance! Joanne and Zoe play together, Georgii paired up with Benny and Hyung seems to have finally gotten over himself and asked that violist he's been crushing on for months. And so on and so forth. Not a single string player is available. The woodwinds tend to stay for themselves anyway and who on earth wants to play a duet with a brass player?"

He pauses to frown in distaste. "I even begged a few violinists of the second and fourth year but it seems like every single student of this conservatory has too much on their plate. Either that – or it's all a cosmic conspiracy against me. I start to think I upset some great deity up there and now I have to take the rap."

At the word conspiracy Alex finally looks up from his book, a smirk on his face.

"Do you feel threatened? Should I call ASIS or will you?"

"Oh, go fuck yourself!" Brett shoots up from his bed in an attempt to smack his roommate's shoulder but dramatically flops himself back onto the sheets immediately – he can't be bothered with retalitation right now.

Correction: Alex is skilled in problem-solving – as soon as he's done with being a dickhead about it.

This time, it surprisingly doesn't take long. Alex snickers, then he gets serious and provides the mental support Brett has yearned for the last few hours.

"Shit dude, that really sucks! I'm truly sorry that I can't tell you otherwise but I won't be able to help you out with that either. I've been planning my duet with Sophie for the last weeks now and on top of that I got to learn like fifty different accompaniments."

Brett just shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah, I already figured, no worries."

"I can ask Sophie to be your collaborative pianist though. You probably didn't think about that either, did you?"

Alex is right, of course, as he always is. Sometimes Brett hates him for that – but right now he could kiss him. Figuratively, not literally. You know what he means.

"That would be great, actually. One problem less. Still, without a duet partner, there will be no need for an accompanist anyway."

They sit in silence for a few moments. Brett can almost hear the wheels turning in Alex's head. This is one of the qualities he appreciates the most about his best friend. Alex treats every problem like it's his own – and he won't stop until he has a satisfactory solution.

"What about the first years?"

Brett shakes his head. "I contemplated that too but do you realize how desperate that looks? Sounds like something that could spoil the rest of my time at uni. You know how people are and how quickly a bad reputation is earned. 'Brett Yang, the guy whose violin skills were so abysmal that nobody his wanted to play with him and he had to rely on someone who's mentally still in high school – because these people were the only ones on his level'. No thank you."

"Fair enough."

Alex thinks for a few seconds and then proceeds to come forward with the winning proposal of the evening.

"What about Naomi? I know she's a first year too but – even if you don't want to admit it – she doesn't play like one. And everybody is aware of that. You won't be pitied; you won't be made fun of. Plus, I'm almost certain she would agree to do it in a heartbeat."

Even if Alex's right again – well, about certain things –, everything in Brett rebels against the thought of asking Naomi.

"No fucking way! Bear in mind that this would mean spending way too much time with her! Which will probably result in her taking this the wrong way and clinging to me like I'm a fucking lifebelt again. Hell, that might be even worse than not performing at all!"

"Don't you believe that if you don't have a partner until Friday, Professor Walsh will pair you up with someone else anyway? I'm pretty sure that she won't let you cheat your way through this, even if you're her best student. And that means you better do it on your own volition - and under your own conditions."

Unfortunately, Brett can't argue against this watertight train of thought.

Of course, not participating is no possibility. Getting assigned a random partner should probably be avoided too. (Imagine having to play a duet with a tuba – Brett shudders.)

And just like that, he knows that he lost the fight. God damn it.

"Let's just say if I haven't found someone else until tomorrow evening, I'll ask Naomi. Deal?"

A pleased smile blooms on Alex's face.

"Deal."