Of Guitar Strings and Heartbeats (A JaeRosé High School AU)

Of Guitar Strings and Heartbeats

The school bell rang as the clock strikes 2 pm, signalling the end of school for the day. Students from every corner of the school started packing their belongings into their bags while teachers were busy reminding them of the schoolwork that needs to be submitted on their next lesson before dismissing the class.

Inside of Classroom XI E, a girl could be seen gathering her things in her seat before slowly putting them inside her bag. She was zipping up her bag when her phone screen suddenly lit up with a notification. She put down her bag and picked up her phone, clicking on the notification. The message app opened, showing her a message from her brother, informing her that he had some things to take care of, so he'd have to stay longer in school. There goes my plan to go home early. The girl sighed before typing a quick reply, telling him she would wait for him.

She softly ran her hands through her face and leaned back in her seat, thinking of what to do to kill the time while she waited for her brother. She was staring at the hands that was holding her phone on her lap when her seatmate's voice brought her out of her mulling.

"You're not going home?" Joy asked as she stood from her seat at her right.

The girl looked up and gave her a thin smile. "Later. My brother had some things to do before going home so I have to stay back and wait for him, since he's my ride and all."

Joy nodded. "I see. I'll be going then. See you tomorrow, Rosé!"

"See you tomorrow," she said as she gave her a small wave, watching her step out of the classroom.

Rosé looked around the classroom. Most of the seats were empty now since most of her classmates had gone off to go home or to go do their club activity. Only a few could be seen milling around the classroom. She glanced at the watch on her wrist – 2.10 pm – and decided she'd go visit her best friend's classroom to see if she's still there.

Rosé stood and picked up her bag before she made her way out of the classroom and into the hallway, destination set on Classroom XI C by the stairs. She passed some people on her way there and nodded at those that she knew.

When she reached her destination, she peeked inside to see her best friend, Lisa, sitting in a circle with some of her classmates. There were seven of them in total, five girls and two guys. All of them were singing together while two people from the group, which she recognised to be Mark and Wendy, were strumming the chords on their guitars.

Lisa greeted her when she saw her peeking her head from the doorway. "Rosé! Come, take a seat." she said as she waved her hand, signalling for the girl to come inside.

Rosé smiled at her friend and stepped into the room. She walked closer to the group and gave them a nod and a shy smile as they greeted her with a smile or a nod while still singing. She took one of the many chairs that were tucked under the desks and dragged it towards her friend's side before taking a seat and joining them at the circle. Once they finished the song that they were singing, they started asking her questions about how she's doing and she answered them truthfully. Satisfied with her answer, they went back to their previous activity and started singing another song. She recognised it to be one of the recently released song from an American singer and joined them in singing.

She suddenly felt Lisa's elbow lightly hitting her arm and turned to look at her with her eyebrows raised, silently asking, "What is it?" with her expression.

Lisa then leaned in towards her a bit and asked in a small voice, "You're not going home yet?"

Rosé shook her head and told her about her brother's message earlier and Lisa nodded at her answer, releasing a small "oh". After the short exchange, the two of them turned their attention back to what the others are singing and joined them.

Some time had passed since she sat down with the group. Mark even asked Rosé to play his guitar at some point, so she took it from him and started playing a familiar tune as the others sang around her. They were jamming to Taylor Swift's latest single when she suddenly saw her classmate, Jaehyun, walked into the classroom.

Jaehyun walked straight to where they are and stopped once he reached Mark who stood from his seat to greet him with a quick bro hug – you know, the kind of hug that guys do when they greeted each other, the one where they patted the other's back. Mark sat back in his seat when he's done greeting him and Jaehyun stood behind Mark's seat, both of his hands resting at the back of Mark's seat as he watched the group, quietly nodding his head to the beat. He gave Rosé a smile as a way to greet her when their eyes met and she smiled back, fingers still strumming the guitar.

She finished the song off with one last strum and handed the guitar back to Mark. Rosé smiled shyly and scratched her cheek when the group softly applauded her, saying her thank you in a small voice.

Mark stood from his seat once he had his guitar back and went to return his chair to its place before walking across the room to his seat followed by Jaehyun. The others, except Lisa, also stood from their place and returned to their seats or joined the two boys after putting their chairs to their rightful place. She watched them chat with one another or pack their belongings from where she was sat before turning her attention to Lisa to engage her in a conversation. She heard Wendy saying her goodbye and waved at the girl before returning her focus back to her conversation with Lisa.

After a while, Lisa excused herself to return to her seat. "I'm going to pack my stuffs real quick. I'll be right back," she said before leaving Rosé and went to her desk.

Rosé threw her eyes around the room as she waited. There were only four people left in the room, excluding Lisa and herself. Mark could be seen chatting with two girls, Yeri and Herin, at his desk while Jaehyun was busy playing Mark's guitar a little away from them, singing softly to himself. She had a clear view of him since he was sitting across from her on the other side of the room with nothing in between them but an empty row of desks. Her phone suddenly vibrated with a new text from her brother, telling her that he'd be done in fifteen minutes. She quickly typed an "okay" and clicked send, watching as the status turned from "sending" to "sent".

When she heard someone singing a familiar song, she looked up from her phone to see Jaehyun plucking the chords to Bruno Mars' Lazy Song while singing. She watched as his fingers moved against the fretboards to play the right chord, amazed at how easy he made it look. As someone who just recently learned how to play the guitar, she liked to watch others who were better than her at playing the instrument play as a way of learning. She suddenly looked up when she felt a pair of eyes on her to find out that Jaehyun has been watching her as he played and sang. Her eyes met his and he teasingly raised his eyebrows and nodded at her, giving her a toothy smile that brought out the dimples on his cheek as he sang the ooh ooh part from the song's post chorus.

She felt her heart skipped a beat as her breath got caught in her throat before it started beating hard and fast against her chest as if she had just ran a marathon. She could feel her face warming up and gave him a small shy smile before returning her gaze down towards her phone screen, trying to hide her flustered face with her long hair.

She was confused. In all her life, her heart had never beat as fast as it was currently doing right now. To think that Jaehyun, someone she's been friends with for almost a semester now, would cause her heart to beat so frantically against her chest from such a small gesture was just so bizarre. She tried to think of the reasons why Jaehyun's action could've brought such a reaction from her. And when realisation hit her, her eyes widened.

Shit.