Melodies

30

Jihoon's POV
Everything from the moment she burst through my bedroom door went straight to shit for me. I've never been so afraid and guilty. I want her back. I just want to hold her in my arms and tell her it's gonna be okay, but I know she doesn't want to see me. I want to kiss her and take away all the pain I've caused her. I want her to be mine again.
-
As I watched her drive away in her car, I thought back to the letter she threw at me. When she threw it, I immediately picked it up and read those frightening words:

'Dear Miss Choi Aelia,

We're glad to tell you that we've reviewed your application and absolutely love your passion for playing. We would like for you to be a featured on one of our artist's, EXO's, tours as a part of the live band. We've noticed all of your awards and the music programs you're involved in and believe you'd be a great addition to our musical department!
The tour leaves in two months, meaning you'd have to leave your college to take the job. We'd love for you to start right away to get to know the boys and practice the songs we will assign you. If you accept this, please contact us at this email [email address] or call us at [number].

Thank you,
Lee Soo-Man
SM Entertainment'

When I read that, my heart broke. She applied for this huge job and I was going to be the first one to know about it but my dumbass fucked up. I'd be overwhelmingly happy for her if we didn't end so terribly. I mean, I'm still happy she has this opportunity but the fact that I won't be going to school with her anymore hurts even more.
After she was out of sight, I didn't go back to the apartment . I found myself going straight to Soonyoung's and when he answered to me on the verge of tears, he knew she found out without me even mentioning anything. He knew that means she's eventually going to find out about him knowing and never speak to him again, but it's not his fault. It's my fault. I never should've lied in the first place. But I liked her and I wanted her to be mine. I couldn't stop thinking of her after bumping into her. It was like seeing her for the first time again and she was absolutely beautiful the first time. I've said that before but you wouldn't understand unless you love her the way I do.
Soonyoung told me I should try talking to her, but I shook my head. I told him that she was stubborn and for something like this, she'd never want to hear me out. He knew I was right, but he kept telling me she'll listen eventually and she wouldn't hold a grudge for years. I don't know though. Aelia has gone through so much already and the fact that I added to that mess makes me feel even more guilty. I hate it. I want everything to go back to the way it was.
-
I spent the night at Soonyoung's, continuously having breakdowns as I talk about her and how I feel. I didn't go back to the apartment till this morning to change and get my backpack. Seungcheol wasn't there, thankfully, otherwise I'd punch the lights out of him.
Deeply sighing, I enter the gates of the school. I know as soon as Mingyu and Minghao see me, they're going to kill me, and for once I don't mind. My head hangs as I walk down the halls. The bell rings as soon as I walk inside my first class and my teacher looks at me weird. I'm never late to this class so it's unusual that I'm both late and depressed. Not only that, I look like utter shit too. My hair is messy and I have my uniform buttoned wrong, my tie is to the side and one leg of my pants is higher than the other. Some of the boys have this class with me so they give me a worried look.
Lunch comes around and I know I shouldn't but I have a small amount of hope that Aelia will still be there and just ignore me. When I arrive at the table, Aelia is nowhere to be seen. Great...
"Oh! Jihoon! Have you seen Aelia? She's not answering our calls or texts." Chan walks up to me.
"I saw her earlier, but she walked right past me without saying anything." Jun frowns.
"I sit right next to her in history and she didn't even look over at me. She seemed down almost..." Hansol looks at me and my heart pounds.
"She glared at me when I said hi! Is something wrong with her, Jihoon?" Seokmin pouts.
"Go ahead. Tell them. Tell the boys what you did to her." Mingyu stands up and glares at me.
"What you did to her...?" Wonwoo looks at me in confusion.
"Jihoon, what is he talking about?" Jeonghan looks at me in confusion.
"Yeah, you'd never hurt her... right...?" Jisoo gives me a worried look.
"Why aren't you telling them?! Are you too scared to admit you did something wrong?! Are you just a coward?!" Minghao yells at me.
"She found out..." Seungkwan stares at me with wide eyes, figuring out the situation.
A squeak comes out of me and immediately he glares at me.
"You said she wouldn't get hurt, Jihoon! The bet was supposed to be gone before she found out!" He yells at me.
"What bet? Jihoon, what is he talking about?" Chan asks.
"Jihoon and Seungcheol made a bet that Jihoon had to get Aelia to tell him she loves him within six months. Seungcheol was going to tell her that Jihoon lied to her. You know he lied to you guys too? He knew her before he met all of us that day. They met at her Juilliard audition two years ago." Mingyu informs them.
"Jihoon... is that true...?" Vernon whispers, staring at me with big sad eyes.
"Yeah.." my voice cracks, "It's true."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jisoo glares at me.
My eyes widen. Jisoo never cusses and the fact that he did scares me. Everyone stares at me with disappointment and anger and I can't blame them. The only one who hasn't said anything this whole time is Seungcheol. I look at him with a straight face, making him gulp with wide eyes.
"I can't believe you!" Minghao yells.
The next thing I know, I'm lying on the ground, Minghao on top of me, punching me continuously in the face. I just watch him, closing my eyes to take in the pain that I deserve. The yelling around me drowns out and I can barely hear anything. Everything happens in slow motion after that. I feel weight being lifted off me and I open my eyes to see Minghao being picked up by three of the boys. He struggles to get out of their grasps but they hold onto him, telling him calmly to settle down.
"I won't settle down! Not when my best friend is no longer my best friend!" He screams.
"She... She told you you're no longer friends...?" My eyes widen as I sit up.
"Not just me. Everyone who knew about the bet too." He looks at all six of us.
"Aelia... Aelia isn't my friend anymore...?" Seungkwan mumbles.
"Seungkwan..." I get up to go over to him, but Minghao pushes me by the shoulders.
"Stay away from him! Stay away from us! You've ruined everything! I thought you wouldn't hurt her! I trusted you to love her, you asshole! I could've loved her instead, but I let you!... I was wrong to let you get close to her. I was wrong to let you be my friend." He rants.
He considered me a friend? After all this time...? Wait a second....
"You love her?" Chan stares at him with wide eyes.
Minghao stares at me as he answers, letting me know all the hatred he has towards me.
"Yes... I love her... But that doesn't matter anymore. He ruined my chances of ever being the one to comfort her."
"Minghao..." Mingyu stares at him in shock.
"Oh my god... I can't take it anymore." I collapse onto my knees and grip my hair in frustration.
"Jihoon..." Seungcheol reaches a hand out to me.
"No! This is all your fault, you jerk!" I stand up, anger filling my face.
I go to punch him, but I break down crying instead. Not even when I went over to Soonyoung's did I cry this much. But now, in front of twelve other grown boys, I'm crying my eyes out for a girl who no longer loves me the way I love her.
"She's gone! She's no longer in my grasp! I'll never have her again! She wasn't supposed to get hurt! She wasn't supposed know! She was already in pain and this just caused her more!" I cry.
"Jihoon." Jisoo's soft voice fills my ears.
I look up to see all twelve looking down at me in surprise. They've never seen me cry before, not even when I forgot it was White Day and had to quickly bake her some cookies. This... This is real tears. Tears of pure sadness that she'll never know about. Tears that will forever live in my memory and will haunt me till I die.
"I'm sorry... I know this is hard for you as much as it is for Aelia. But Jihoon, this never should've happened in the first place." Jisoo pats my head. "You should've told her the truth when you had the chance."
"But she would've been heartbroken. She remembered me while I didn't."
"Yeah, but only temporarily. She would've gotten over it because she loves you. Even I know that." Chan frowns.
"You should've told all of us the truth too. Look at the advice we're giving you." Jeonghan looks at Seungcheol and glares, "And you. What part did you have in this? He said it's all your fault. Why's that?"
"I-"
"He's the one who came up with the bet." Soonyoung blurts out.
"Are you serious? You're the oldest one, Seungcheol. You should've been more mature than that to set a bet on Aelia. Especially one that plays with her feelings." Wonwoo glares at him.
"We thought it was going to end well. I just wanted them together while challenging Jihoon at the same time. I know it was wrong, but I thought it was going to be good for both of them." Seungcheol hangs his head.
"I've never heard of a bet having a happy ending." Jun glares.
"You knew she had a key to your apartment. Why weren't you more cautious about talking about it, idiots." Mingyu glares at them.
"We didn't even think about that. He just randomly started talking about it." I sigh as I wipe away all of the tears.
"I can't believe she's no longer my friend..." Seokmin covers his face, hiccuping a bit, "I barely even talked about it."
"I'm sorry, Seokmin. She loved you all. She loved me... And I ruined it for all of us." I close my eyes, trying to imagine this would all go away.
"You got that right." Minghao scoffs at me with crossed arms.
The bell rings for the next class and I tense. Music theory. Aelia will be in that class. I look over at Seungcheol and he opens his mouth as if to speak.
"Will Aelia be there?" Vernon asks.
"Of course she will. There's still the tradition." Seungcheol points out.
"Tradition? Aelia's leaving?" Seungkwan's eyes widen.
"They don't know about that either..." Mingyu face palms.
"About what?" Wonwoo asks, scrunching his eyebrows together.
"Aelia got accepted as EXO's violinist. She's going with them on their next tour." Minghao informs.
"That's awesome! She loves Exo! She must be so excited. I want to congratulate her!... If only I could tell her that." Soonyoung sighs, hanging his head.
"We have to get to class now or we'll be marked tardy. We'll all talk about this later." Seungcheol looks at everyone.
They nod, but I doubt anybody will talk after this.
As soon as we enter the room, I notice Aelia standing in the front of the room directly next to the teacher. She notices me walk in and rolls her eyes before looking at Vernon. Vernon looks at her with sad eyes but she purses her lips, looking away.
"Everybody hurry in. Today's class will be special." He turns to Aelia, "Miss Choi got accepted as a professional violinist and will be leaving the school."
"No! Aelia!"
"Oh no! The pretty talented girl is leaving!"
"Aww! I liked her playing on her violin."
"Today's assignment will be easy. As you know, the tradition of the school is whenever a student leaves before finishing a degree, they have to perform for us whatever they're leaving for. Because of that, your assignment will be to label all the notes and dynamics in each measure of her song. I have copied her music sheets for each of you. Pass this out, please." He hands the papers to Aelia as he continues.
I don't listen to the rest of what he says after that because I watch her pass out the papers. Whenever someone thanks her, she smiles and nods at them. But when she gets to me, she doesn't even look at me nor does she respond when I tell her thank you. She simply nods before going onto the next person.
"Um, Jihoon?" A girl sitting next to me whispers.
"Yes?" I look over at her in surprise.
"Are you and Aelia okay? She didn't even smile at you." She frowns.
"No... We're not... I wish we were."
"O-oh... S-sorry..." she bows a bit before leaning back into her seat.
"-and she'll be singing along with her violin piece."
I whip my head in the direction of my teacher. She will be what? I look down at the sheets and my eyes widen as I read the title: "Bound to You". [A/N: The song is 'Bound to You' by Christina Aguilera. The lyrics really fit this situation (to me at least) and I love this song so that's why I choose it as her "original" song.]
I lean forward in my chair to get a better look. I quickly look at Seungcheol next to me and his eyes are wide too. He's known her longer and he's never heard her sing.
"She's singing to a class before she even sang to us..." He whispers.
"Jihoon, read the lyrics..." Vernon elbows me.
I look down at the paper and flip through the pages. Oh god... This is about me...
"Aelia..." I mutter before looking up when I hear the first note of the song.
"Sweet love, sweet love. Trapped in your love." She starts to sing as she plays.
My eyes widen and I look at Seungcheol again. His jaw is dropped, but so is mine. Her voice is beautiful... Why hasn't she sang before with this talent?! I look at everyone else in the room to see they're just as shocked as I am. My eyes land on someone with their phone out, recording the whole thing. Aelia's gonna be pissed...
As the song comes to an end, her singing and playing become more powerful. Everyone stands up and claps for her when it's done. She bows in thanks then places her violin back in her case.
"Thank you, that was a wonderful piece." The teacher nods at her in approval.
She smiles and bows towards the class. She glances at me and my heart beats faster. Her eyes scan me up and down before taking a seat next to a boy I've never met, laughing with him as if they're best friends. My face darkens and I glare at the boy. Who the hell is he?!
When class ends and everyone piles out the door, I decide to be a dummy and run after Aelia one last time. Vernon and Seungcheol call after me, but I keep running. She left before everyone else when the bell rang so she is a good distance away already. All I can think at the moment is that if there's a small chance for me to even explain, I gotta try.
"Aelia!" I call.
Once she hears her name, she freezes. She must know it's my voice because she doesn't turn around right away. She only turns to look at me when I finally stand next to her, panting heavily.
"A-Aelia... P-please... Don't leave. The boys are devastated you didn't tell them you were leaving! I get your mad at me and Seungcheol, but leave the boys out of this!"
"If they really were my friends, they would've warned me about you instead of letting me get hurt the way I did." She states.
I stare at her with puppy eyes, wide and pleading.
"Aelia.... I-I love you." I whisper as I look into her eyes.
She shakes her head, laughing a bit with no humor. She looks back at me and bites her lip.
"I can't say that again... Even though I still do, I just can't, Jihoon. It hurts." She whispers.
"I'm sorry... I really do love you. I wish you could see that." I sigh, my head hanging.
"I'm leaving tonight." She blurts out.
"What...?" I look at her as soon as she says that.
"They asked me to start working tonight. I contacted the company this morning. They emailed me back right away, saying they want me to start directly after school."
"Oh my gosh..." I whisper, staring at her, speechless.
She presses her lips together before opening her mouth and sucking in her breath.
"Jihoon, I know we didn't work out the way I wanted and I'm overwhelmed by this. I thought you were my blessing. You made me warm inside. I loved it when you played the piano and sang your originally composed songs. Maybe it wasn't the right time for us..." she swallows, looking to the side, "Maybe five years from now, we'll meet again at a coffee shop down the road and start over." She smiles lightly at me.
"Aelia..." my eyes water again.
"Goodbye, Jihoon. We'll see each other again, I know it."
With that, she leaves the school, never looking back at me nor do I run after her again.