Enjoy.

October 9th, 2019

"The entire world is built on the foundations of creative collaboration," Professor Laurent began. She placed her hands on either side of the lectern as she looked out at the entirety of the half-filled lecture hall. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she scanned each and every one of her students; her silky red-black hair rested steadily. "Therefore, for this midterm, I will be placing you into pairs."

The class collectively groaned. We all knew how important collaboration was— the only issue was that it was the first time that Professor Laurent specifically told us that we were getting into pairs.

"Your assignment," she continued, reigning the class back in. "Will be to create an EP of any genre, using any DAWs you deem fit. The EP must be a minimum of three songs and a maximum of six songs. More details will be available in the handout I will give you at the end of class— and on our class website."

I rested my hands on either side of my laptop, listening intently to the professor's directions and descriptions of the assignment. Excitement bubbled within me.

"Now, you might be asking; 'Professor, how am I supposed to make this EP presentable and professional when I don't have a budget?'" She cleared her throat. "I am here to also announce that you and your partner will have full access to the film and photography department. The students of that department are aware of this assignment, and they likely have their own assignments which tie into yours.

And lastly, the pair that receives the highest score on the project will have the EP released through a label underneath L.A.'s very own UMG."

The class erupted in applause, cheers, and raucous joy. While I shook my head in utter disbelief at the reward for the assignment. This was an opportunity that every single person in the class had been yearning for, desperately searching for. An EP release was one thing— but getting it released under a record label was nothing short of a dream.

And now that dream was within reach of everyone.

Once the class calmed down, Professor Laurent continued. "This project will be due on October 31st."

The 31st, huh? The date lingered in my thoughts for a few moments, before it was swept away by Professor Laurant's sudden exclamation.

"Oh! And before I forget, I will be choosing your partners for you," Professor Laurent casually reminded. "Right now." And she reached beneath her lectern and pulled out a small bowl with bright colored pieces of paper in it.

My head hit my desk. Why… Why now?

"Jaemin? Are you alright?" Professor Laurent asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," I called back. I repositioned myself and watched Professor Laurent draw the first ticket from the bowl.

"First is…" She trailed off as she fished a name out. "Son Jaemin!"

I sighed. Of course.

"And your partner is…" Professor Laurent retrieved another name. "Yeng Seraphine! Definitely an interesting pair. Jaemin, if you would please move your belongings next to Seraphine."

I looked to my left. And there, sitting on the opposite side of the lecture hall, was a bundle of pink hair. Seraphine waved at me, a small smile on her lips.

Could be worse. Even though the girl was fairly quiet, aside from the groups that Laurent assigned us to so we could discuss a piece of music that she'd just played for the class. She was knowledgeable, and I could work with that. Quiet people were much better to work with than people that didn't know their stuff.

I packed my things up and began to move towards Seraphine as Professor Laurent called out the name of the next student.

[;]

Seraphine sat on the opposite of the cafeteria table that the two of us shared. Her incredibly long pink hair was tied up high, and even then it still reached below the table. She wore a simple, oversized blue t-shirt that draped down to her knees, and she sported surprisingly childlike shoes with large soles and bright colors. But it still fit the rest of her appearance.

And as always, that little blue star beneath her left eye twinkled as the sunlight hit it at just the right angle.

"So," she began. "We're partners for this project…." Seraphine's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized me, analyzing my features as though she were trying to decide if she recognized me or not.

"Mmhm…"

We sat, trapped in a bubble of awkward silence that neither of us seemed to want to break through. I had no idea how to approach her. Seraphine seemed like a decent person, a good student too. But outside of the music she turned in or presented to the class, I wasn't sure what she enjoyed creating. And considering that all of her pieces for class were heavily orchestral, I had a lingering feeling that she wasn't being entirely honest with her most-oft presented genre.

Then again, neither was I. Professor Laurent was a fan of the classics. She generally graded easier if you turned in something that sounded Romantic. It didn't take more than two days for the entire class to come to that realization— not on our own, of course. When her syllabus landed on our desks, and she said that we would be spending over half of the term discussing Classical and Romantic composers and their pieces, we all knew.

Still never getting over that painting of Chopin she showed us. I shivered. I wasn't even sure if it was real or not, though the pose that the painter chose definitely made me lean towards the latter rather than the former.

Seraphine's voice pulled me back into reality. "Wait."

"Waiting," I replied.

Seraphine pulled out her phone and began to furiously type. Then, she glanced between her phone screen and me. "You are him!"

"I am?"

"There was someone who won the Cyrus Recitals four years in a row," Seraphine explained rapidly. "And when I heard that it was someone my age, I couldn't believe it. So, I did research, and his name was Son Jaemin." She giggled. "It's crazy that I didn't realize it until I got a good look at your face." She thrust a small hand forward. "The name is Yeng Seraphine, nice to meet you officially, Son Jaemin."

As I went to accept her handshake, I was surprised to find that her hands were heavily calloused. Just from the feeling of her fingertips against my palm, I could tell what kind of calluses they were. "You play guitar?" I asked.

Seraphine froze and pulled her hand free from his. "Yes, I do. Not that I'm any good or anything, especially not as a good as you when it comes to piano, but yes, I do play and—"

"Take a breath, Seraphine." I smiled. Now, we had something to actually talk about. "I'm sure you're a great player. Do you sing too?"

"I… I do," she replied sheepishly.

"Any specific genres?"

Seraphine cleared her throat, and she seemed to have calmed down slightly. "Well, I think my voice is more suited for pop stuff. On the lighter end. Maybe bedroom pop?"

"Bedroom pop?"

"And R&B," Seraphine added. She rested a single finger on her chin in thought. "I'm not like a powerhouse vocal R&B though. It's hard to get my voice to be that loud. And when I do try, it just sounds awful."

"I get it," I said. "I sing too."

Seraphine squealed. "You do?!"

Her loud outburst drew the eyes of others in the cafeteria, and she quickly bowed her head and apologized to them. Pink stained her cheeks as she turned her attention back to me. "You sing?" She asked, much quieter this time.

"Yeah. R&B. Pop. The same stuff you do, honestly," I replied.

"But your stuff for class…" She trailed off.

"Was just to impress Professor Laurent," I answered. "You know how she is with the classics."

Seraphine bobbed her head in agreement. "True, true. How long have you been singing?"

"Ever since I was a kid. I've been playing the piano for as long as I can remember, but I picked up singing after the piano. My mom refused to have a child that couldn't sing half as well as she could," I said. "What about you?"

"Me too. Maybe even longer? I think my parents have a home video of me singing at, like, four or something." She laughed. "I had a toy guitar, a stage outfit, and everything! I think I even had a setlist. It was very involved."

The mental image of a tiny, pink-haired girl singing her heart out for her parents was probably the most adorable thing I'd ever imagined.

"Well, my embarrassing childhood aside, what type of music do you listen to?" Seraphine asked, leaning forward slightly.

"A lot of Daniel Cesar and Gallant," I listed. "I listen to everything honestly, but it's mainly R&B and slow pop. And you?"

"I don't have a genre that I really dislike," Seraphine said. "But ever since last year, I've been obsessed with K/DA."

"That's a girl group right?" I only vaguely recognized the name, having seen it on the internet numerous times. It was pretty hard to escape the popularity of League of Legends, after all.

"Yup!" Seraphine replied. "Their song POP/STARS is absolutely amazing, and they're all really big inspirations to me. Definitely one of my recent favorite artists, if not my most favorite."

The pink-haired girl was brimming with enthusiasm, so I was inclined to agree with her. While I didn't share the sentiment, her passion towards the group was novel, and pleasant to see. It was rare to see someone so willing to talk about their interests. "I think they're okay— I haven't really paid too much attention to the K-pop scene and stuff."

"Not a fan?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't say that. I just haven't listened to it. Not that I have anything wrong with the genre, mind you."

"That's understandable," Seraphine said, smiling easily.

"Thanks, Seraphine."

"You're welcome, Jaemin."

She was silent for a moment before breaking out into a giggle. "I didn't expect you to listen to Daniel Cesar."

"Really? He's got a lot of good songs."

"He does, he does. What's your favorite?"

"Blessed, probably."

"And for Gallant?"

My reply was instant. "Jupiter, off of Ology."

Seraphine hummed in agreement. "That album was so good!"

"It was my top album that year for sure. You really can't beat Gallant's singing."

"Definitely."

"Your choice in music is pretty… personal, though," she commented absentmindedly, a smile on her lips.

"They're good songs. And nothing is wrong with loving love songs."

Seraphine grinned. "I agree."

And the field of silence surrounded us once again.

This time, though, it didn't feel as awkward.

This time, it was comfortable.

[;]

I walked with Seraphine out of the cafeteria, my hands tucked beneath the straps of my backpack. The large, open-air campus of UCLA stretched out before them. Students gathered in small groups on the fields of soft grass, or the blue umbrella-covered tables, or the simple wooden benches that rested alongside the sidewalks. Gentle conversation filled the air as we walked.

I smiled fondly. UCLA treated me well, and it wasn't a stretch to say that I loved the campus and the school. Realizing that I was drifting behind Seraphine, I jogged to catch up with her. It was then that I realized how much taller I was than her. At her full height, she stood around my chest, or just under my chin, I think.

"How tall are you?" I asked.

"Five foot three," Seraphine replied. "And you?" She asked, looking up at me.

"Six feet tall. I think. Something like that."

"Ooh," Seraphine dramatically cooed. She placed her hands behind her back and grinned slyly, skipping forwards slightly. "Yeah, most people are taller than me, but you're way taller."

"And most people are shorter than me." I placed my hands into the pockets of my pants. "I think that my sister's even shorter than you."

"You have a sister?"

"Yup," I said, popping the 'P.' "Seven years older than me. And she's a piece of work."

"Never would have figured that."

"That I had an older sibling?"

"That you had any siblings," she replied. "You kinda come off as an only child, I guess."

"Really?" I tilted my head, but decided to not dwell on it. "What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

Seraphine shook her head. "My parents never found the time to have another kid. And they always complained about how much work I was on my own, anyways."

I chuckled. "Your parents sound like fun."

She laughed and nodded, her azure eyes alight with joy. "Yeah. They're a handful." She smiled. "By the way, thanks for dealing with my awkwardness earlier. I haven't had many friends since coming here."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I traveled a lot because of my mom's job, so making friends was hard. And when I was admitted into UCLA, the cliques and friend groups were already established."

"Yeah," I said with a nod. I related far too much to that. I wasn't unpopular, nor was I entirely socially inept, but I was always too busy to have a good social life with a lot of friends. Between countless hours of work, school, and music, I didn't have much time for myself, much less keeping up with friends from classes. "It's hard to wiggle your way into friend groups so late into the term." I rubbed the back of my neck. "So, you're just been alone for the last two years or so?"

"Yep!"

"Oh." I would have felt bad for her— and a small part of me did— but Seraphine didn't seem in the least bit saddened or disappointed by her situation. Now, I wasn't even sure if anything got her down. "I'm sorry," I tried.

She shook her head. "Nothing to apologize for. I'm good at being by myself." Seraphine smiled softly. It sounded like there was a lot more to that, but we'd only just met. Diving into her thoughts wasn't necessarily the kindest thing to do. She stepped back to walk alongside me. "But I'm hoping you stick around."

I raised a brow. "Why me?"

"I've got a good feeling about you," she said.

"Well, I'm sticking around at least until this midterm is over."

"And then?" challenged Seraphine, attempting to wear a look of cockiness that didn't exactly suit her. She looked… sad, a startling transition from her normal countenance.

"If you'll have me, I'll stick around," I answered. "Of course, that means you'll be my friend too."

"It sounds like I'm signing a contract instead of becoming friends with someone."

"Well, that's not too far off the mark."

"How awful," she lamented.

I sighed. "Truly."

Serapine grinned.

Before I knew it, we stood in front of a blue Honda Accord within one of the parking lots that surrounded UCLA's campus. There wasn't a single scratch, dent, nor an inch of the car's paint that looked dulled or aged— it was perfectly spotless.

"How new is this car?" I asked. I walked around it, in complete awe.

"2019," Seraphine said. "My parents gave it to me as a present for getting into UCLA— even though I repeatedly told them that I didn't need a car, especially one so new."

"That makes sense." Before I could dwell on it, my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. Saved. "I need to take this." I fished out my phone and flipped it open. "Hello?"

Rakan's smooth voice sounded through the phone. "Jaemin. You're late. Are you not going to be able to make it to your shift?"

"I thought I was scheduled for…" I glanced at my watch. "Oh, fu— Sorry, Rakan. I lost track of time. I'll be there right away!"

"Take it easy. Just start heading over here. I've got Ori covering you for the meanwhile, I know how busy you are."

"Thank you, Rakan." I hung up the phone.

"Work?" Seraphine asked.

I nodded. "I'll catch up with you in class tomorrow, Seraphine."

"I can drive you, if you want?"

I froze. I felt my chest tighten. "I— I'm okay. Thank you, though, Seraphine."

"Are you sure? It's not any trouble for me." She began to open her car door.

"No, no. It's okay. See you tomorrow, Sera." I attempted a smile as I walked away. A cold hand gripped my heart, and I offered Seraphine one final wave. Just as I made it around a corner where she couldn't see me, I placed a hand on the wall to steady myself. I struggled to pull in air— feeling a deep pressure and great weight on my lungs. My vision grew fuzzy, hazy, as though I was peering through a dense fog.

It took me several long moments to calm myself down. To return my breathing and vision to normal. I let out a sigh as I straightened myself up. Feeling more exhausted than ever, my gaze lazily drifted up to the ceiling of the parking lot building. "It's been seven years, Jae. You should be over it by now."

[;]

I adjusted my black waist apron. The door to the staff room opened. A tall, pale man with slicked back platinum hair stepped inside. "Sorry about this, Rakan," I said.

He waved me off. "Like I said, don't worry about it. I know you're busy with work and school. Besides, Ori was here to cover part of your shift."

"Orianna?" I asked, slightly worried. Ori was a sweet girl. If a little… mechanical at times.

As if on queue, the staff room door opened once again. And a blonde-haired teen with wide, blue eyes paced into the room. Her hands rested perfectly still at her sides, and her blonde hair was parted evenly down the sides of her face. She looked at me. "Hello, Jaemin. I'm glad to see you again," she said, her tone perfectly neutral.

"It's good to see you too, Ori." I glanced at Rakan who simply shrugged back.

"Mr. Qaelin," Ori continued, drawing Rakan's attention. "Now that Jaemin is here, I will be leaving."

"Yes, of course. Thank you for doing me that favor, Orianna. And I believe I told you to refer to me as 'Rakan' when we weren't on the main floor."

"Ah yes. My apologies." She bowed her head. "In reference to the favor, it is no issue. My schedule was free, and I figured that Jaemin would appreciate the help, especially because he works so many hours in addition to going to school." She looked owlishly at me once again. "Is it stressful, Jaemin?"

I placed my hands in my pocket. "Yeah, it is. But you get used to it."

Orianna stood, frozen in thought. "I see," she announced after a few seconds. "I understand why you would say such a thing. Thank you for your wisdom, Jaemin." She bowed her head slightly.

I waved my hands in surrender. "Don't worry about it." Coughing into my hand, I turned back to Rakan. "Well, I'll start working now."

Quickly leaving the staff room, I stepped out into the main floor of The Grand Vastaya. It was probably the most unique restaurant I'd ever seen in all of L.A., and that was saying a lot.

Strangely colored vines and bark crawled the walls and stretched all the way up to the ceiling. And from the ceiling, wooden chandeliers carrying small lanterns flickered with a strange blue flame that illuminated the entirety of the dining area in a calming, ocean blue light. From the kitchen, bold scents of foreign spices and flavors drifted through the air.

Rakan and his wife, Xayah, created this restaurant around the same time I was at the age to finally start looking for work, which would have been about five years ago. When I saw the 'Now Hiring' notice, I immediately signed up. And ever since then, I've been working at The Grand Vastaya.

Over the years, the restaurant skyrocketed in popularity, but when the one and only Akali of K/DA praised the quality of the food, The Grand Vastaya became one of L.A. 's top eateries. But despite the massive influx of customers, neither Xayah nor Rakan wanted to jack up the prices or change the atmosphere.

At its heart, The Grand Vastaya was a homely place. The food served was always from homemade recipes, organic, and extremely delicious. However, the strangest part of The Grand Vastaya wasn't the food, nor the environment, nor the customers, but the employees.

For some reason, Xayah and Rakan hired the most unexpected people. Me included.

I jogged up to a teen whose blue hair was tied into a tight bun. She stood in front of the register, tallying up a party's receipt. "Jinx," I said. "Is that for table twelve?"

Jinx raised a brow, her brilliant pink eyes glancing at me. "No, it's for table seven. Why?"

"Just wanted to make sure. Table twelve said that they were served by you and were waiting for their receipt."

She looked at the receipt in her hand, and then on the screen of the register, and then back to the receipt. "Oh. This is for twelve."

I groaned. "Jinx…"

"Sorry! My head is just a little all over the place right now." Jinx quickly navigated back to the register's home screen and began the process of tallying the orders once again. "Sorry, Jae. Can you tell them that—"

"Yeah," I interjected, already moving back to the table. "I'm on it."

After I was brought on and trained, Xayah and Rakan hired Jinx. She began working about a month after I did, so she'd seen the humble beginnings of The Grand Vastaya. Jinx was really sweet Super energetic and gung-ho. And clumsy. She was a little prone to mischief, dropping things on accident, and, obviously, mismatching customers.

And after Jinx, came Lux. When I first saw her, I expected someone entirely normal. That assumption wasn't entirely off the mark. Lux was capable, independent, and driven. The only issue was that she's easily surprised— she made sure that all of her coworkers knew, of course, but even after four years of working together, everytime I called her name she was still caught unawares. As of this year, however, she's been excellent about taming her reactions. Where she once screeched like a banshee at the sudden calling of her name, Lux now flinched and sometimes let out a yelp, depending on the day.

As I weaved my way through the tables, taking orders from my assigned area and giving each customer my greatest attention, I bumped into Lux in the middle of the appetizer area. The blonde girl was in the middle of gathering tortilla chips into a bowl.

Carefully, cautiously, I walked up to her. "Lux?" I asked as quietly as I could.

As if I'd come up behind her and shouted in her ear, Lux flinched and her cheeks began to turn a violent shade of red. She ducked her head beneath the divider to hide her embarrassment from the customers. "I'm sorry, Jae."

"It's fine."

"I can't believe that I got surprised again. You weren't even trying to scare me that time."

"I would never try to scare you," I said. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm okay. Was I in your way?"

"Just a bit." I squeezed past her. "Be careful on your way out, Lux."

She gave me a thumbs-up and a smile. "You bet. Thanks, Jae."

"No worries."

And most recently hired, was Orianna, The Grand Vastaya's hostess She worked efficiently, almost too efficiently. She was almost like a machine with how many hours she stacked up during the week, and how quickly she seated customers, or how easily she dispelled front-of-house disagreements.

All of these female coworkers had me convinced that Rakan was trying to set me up with one of them. Or, worse yet, Xayah was trying to set me up with one of them. After I clocked in a year's worth of work at the restaurant, the two had been endlessly teasing me for my lack of a girlfriend, always talking about how good of a catch I was, or how talented I was.

I didn't let their teasing bother me, though. I didn't think I could handle a girlfriend back then, or now. Especially now. Things were so hectic for me and my sister, and it was only going to get more hectic once Eunkyung returned to school.

Eventually, the hours passed by and The Grand Vastaya approached closing hours. As the last of the customers filed out of the restaurant, the staff let out a long, deep groan. Especially me.

"Is it just me," I began, speaking to no one in particular as we all gathered in the staff room. "Or did everything seem to move faster today?"

Xayah shook her head. "If anything, Jae, you were moving slower today."

"What? Really?"

Rakan nodded. "Are you sure that these hours are fine with you? You come to work right after school, and I know that you're taking a lot of classes. Is that enough time for you to get everything done?"

I laughed as genuinely as I could. "Yeah. I manage just fine." It was stressful, for sure, but it was manageable. Working almost forty to fifty hours a week was normal for me. And I've always been going to school. It was nothing that I couldn't handle.

Xayah and Rakan stared at me, their eyes like lasers. Then, they glanced at each other.

"If you say so, kid," Rakan stood up. "Good work everyone. Let's have another good day tomorrow."

Oh! Almost forgot. "Actually," I said. "I have a pretty important midterm coming up, and I need to put a lot more time and energy into it than my last ones. Is it alright if I take the next few days off—"

"Yes!" Xayah exclaimed. She dove on the request like an eagle after its prey. "That's fine. Totally fine. That's great, actually. Just take the next two weeks off!"

"But I only need three days at most—"

"Two weeks off, paid!" She interrupted loudly.

"What?!" Jinx and Lux shot up from their chairs.

Kayn tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

"Why does he get special treatment?" Lux questioned.

"Yeah! What Lux said!"

"Because he hasn't taken a single day off since working here," Rakan said. "Even on the weekends, Jae is here early in the mornings, taking inventory with Xayah and Kayn. And he even comes in at night to help me." His thorough explanation dismantled Lux's and Jinx's disagreements in moments.

The two girls sat back down.

"Xayah," I said. "I really don't need two weeks off. I have a partner for the assignment, so—"

"Take the two weeks." Xayah crossed her arms. "The girls will be more than enough until you get back."

"But—"

"But nothing," Rakan interjected. "Kid, you're taking the two weeks off or we're firing you."

"I…" I trailed off. Any form of protest against the duo was pretty much pointless. "Okay. Fine. But I'm not happy about it."

Kayn chuckled. "Only you wouldn't be happy about getting two weeks off and being paid for it."

"Head on home, Jae," Rakan said. "Tell Eunkyung that we said, 'Hi'."

"I'll be sure to do so."

[;]

"You called her Sera?" Eunkyung joked as she grabbed a piece of kimchi with her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth. "It's your first time actually talking together, and you already had a nickname for her?" Eunkyung laughed. "That's pretty bold, Jae."

"It was an accident. She offered to drive me to the Vastaya, and you probably know how that went." I picked at my japchae with my chopsticks. "I don't know, it just came out. I didn't mean to say it."

Eunkyung nodded. "Did anything else exciting happen to you today?"

"Xayah and Rakan gave me two weeks of paid vacation," I announced casually.

"For?"

"My midterm. We're producing an EP for class. The presentation with the highest points will get their EP released through a label under UMG," I summed-up.

"And Sera's your partner?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"How is she musically?"

"I haven't gotten the chance to find out. Since I don't have work tomorrow, or the next two weeks for that matter, I'll have time then," I said. "But her fingers are pretty calloused from a lot of guitar-playing."

"If you say so." Eunkyung hummed. "I'm just happy that you're actually talking to people now. Even if it was forced onto you."

"Yeah, well, we'll have to see how long it lasts once I start working again," I said. "The EP is due on the 31st."

Eunkyung let out a small sigh. "And when are you presenting it?"

"The day before, I think. I still have to double-check that."

"Alright. Depending on how quickly the case gets processed, we might be going to visit them early this year," Eunkyung said. "You know how the office is."

"Mmh." Eunkyung worked as a lawyer. Well, more like a lawyer's assistant, since she hadn't gotten to proper education to actually present in a courtroom. But she sometimes sat in, learning through observation. Depending on a lot of different factors, she would sometimes clock in around eighty hours in a single week. Sometimes she broke over a hundred.

As the conversation wound down, Eunkyung and I finished our food at around the same time. "I'll do the dishes," I said, tapping her on the shoulder as she stood over the sink. "Go shower and head to bed."

Gratitude washed across Eunkyung's features. "Thanks, Jae."

"No problem, noona," I replied. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." And her door clicked shut.

[;]

October 10th, 2019

"So," began Seraphine. "How should we start this?"

Both Seraphine and I sat in one of UCLA's many recording rooms. I went to school early that same day to reserve the room, just in time before the rest of the music students did the same. Two KRK studio monitors stoon on either side of the computer, the bright yellow speakers shone like small stars. On the computer's monitor itself was an empty project on Ableton Live. Over my years of production and switching back and forth between nearly every Digital Audio Workstation under the sun, I'd grown the most accustomed to Ableton.

When I saw her in class, I noticed that Seraphine brought her Little Martin guitar. It was a solid guitar that fit the slightness of her frame, and her small hands.

"You know what," I announced. "Let's not worry about the music for today."

"But.. my guitar? And isn't the project due in two weeks? Shouldn't we work on—"

"Correction: let's work on other stuff before working on music today."

Seraphine pouted, but complied nonetheless. "Okay, what are we gonna work on?"

"How about genres and concepts for the EP?"

Seraphine bounced in her chair as though she'd suddenly remembered something. "Oh!" She retrieved her backpack and fished out her class notebook. "I actually wrote down some EP ideas during class today." AFter opening up to the right page, she turned the notebook to face me.

"Love, death, hope, dreams," I read. The concepts were scrawled all over the paper, as though she'd been writing them with her eyes closed. Most of the ideas were single words packed with a lot of depth, but they were all a little cliche. They were concepts that were written about over and over again. Sure, coming up with something entirely novel was impossible, but I believed that our EP should be something not frequently written about.

"How about this one?" Seraphine pointed to a word on the bottom right corner of the page. It was written so small that I could hardly see it, even from my closeness to the notebook.

"Reminisce?"

She nodded. "It means to think about the past, especially about better times and stuff."

"I know what it means," I said with a smile. "But I like the concept. There's a lot of possibilities for songs about our pasts. How do you feel about it?"

"It sounds good to me." She grinned widely, the little cyan star on her cheek shining. Seraphine wrote down REMINISCE across the top of her notebook.

"Now, we need to think about the EP's arrangement— which means what kinds of songs we'll write for it, and the relationship of each song to each other and the EP as a whole."

"Mmm." Seraphine hummed, her head tilting slightly as I continued.

"How about we start by drafting a track list?"

"Already?"

I shrugged. "I think it'd be a good place to start, considering—"

"What if we just jammed?" Seraphine interrupted. "I mean, we hardly know how the other person sings, and what their vocal timbre is. I think it'd be much easier to think of songs if we had a foundation to work on. Right?"

That's… pretty true. And while it wasn't at all how I composed, it made sense. I hardly collaborated with anyone else when I composed, it was usually just me in my room, either singing or writing for myself. Guess there's some truth to what Professor Laurent said earlier. I bobbed my head in agreement. "Alright, why not?"

"Yay!" Seraphine pumped her fist into the air and began to take her guitar out of its case.

I slid out the MIDI keyboard that was stored in the computer desk's drawer. Loading up a piano on the empty project and making sure that the speakers were properly connected, I waited for Seraphine to finish up. She had her hair tied up, and her many bracelets pulled back on her arm. Her guitar rested in her lap as she tuned it.

And much to my surprise, she tuned it by ear.

"Perfect pitch?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Just good relative pitch."

It wasn't every day that you saw a singer as young as either of us tuning a guitar by ear. Most needed an app or someone to tune it for them, but when you're surrounded by music for a large part of your life, tuning a guitar by ear became as simple as reciting the C-major scale.

Once she was done, Seraphine looked up at me. "Do you know Señorita?" She asked.

"Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello?"

Seraphine nodded.

"Of course I do," I replied. The song was the biggest hit of 2019. It was impossible to escape it.

"Great. I finished learning it earlier today, so we can sing that." She cleared her throat. Then she tested a note. As she opened her mouth and went to sing, it was only a split second of the note before her voice cracked two octaves up.

Horrified, Seraphine slowly turned away from me. Her pink cheeks darkened into a deep, cherry red as she attempted to hide her face in her hands. "I can't believe that just happened."

Fighting laughter, I waved aside her doubts. "It's nothing. A voice crack doesn't mean you can't sing. Sometimes it just means you're not warm. And I assume you haven't sung at all today."

"I know. But still…"

"Let's just get back to it," I interjected. "Here, I'll join you." I cleared my throat and tested a note, purposefully making it crack horribly. I was certain that she knew I'd done it on purpose, but Seraphine still giggled.

"Okay. Let's give it a shot?"

I nodded. I began to record us. Placing my hands on the appropriate keys of the piano, I waited for her to count me in.

Seraphine tapped her knuckles on the body of her guitar. "One, two, three, four…"

She began to sing, her voice filled the recording room. "I love it when you call me, Señorita. I wish I could pretend I didn't need you…"

I felt myself lift at the sound of her singing. It was beautiful, to say the least. She had a brighter timbre than I expected. It was light, airy, breathy at the right times and brilliant in the others.

The song was meant to be darker, sultrier— laced with the desperate desire to draw someone back into you— but in just one line she'd flipped that sound entirely on its head. And when it came to my part, I let out a breath before deeply inhaling and singing. "Land in Miami. The air was hot from summer rain, sweat dripping off me…"

The pink-haired singer shot me a grin. Her hands strummed along to the rhythm. Our version of Señorita was slower. Our voices melded perfectly with one another. It wasn't a song about wanting someone anymore— it was a song about loving someone, keeping someone by your side at all times.

"I love it when you call me, Señorita. I wish I could pretend I didn't need you. But every touch is ooh, la, la, la. It's true la, la, la…"

As we sang and played, the world around me faded away. The worries, the fears, the anxieties. It felt like I was flying— it was freeing in every sense of the word.

"I wish it wasn't so damn hard to leave you. But every touch is ooh, la, la, la. It's true la, la, la. Ooh, I should be running. Ooh, you keep me coming for you…"

As a beautiful, melodic eternity passed within the next few minutes, I could only focus on the music that echoed around us. It felt larger than life. It felt like I was something more, like I was part of something more. I sang and played with every fiber of my being. When Seraphine sang, I smiled widely at her, accompanying her singing with a harmony of my own. And when I sang, she did the same.

The only thing I could describe it as was magical. It was an experience straight out of a fairy tale, or a young-adult story about music. It was brilliant in every sense of the word.

And eventually, when the song finished, Seraphine and I could do nothing but stare at one another. Utter shock and pure awe washed across our faces. Shaking myself out my stupor, I quickly stopped the recording. "What… What was that?" I asked.

"You felt it too? Everything just—"

"Melted away," I finished.

She nodded. Carefully, as though it were made of glass, Seraphine set down her guitar. "What just happened?"

"I don't know," I replied with a shrug. "But it couldn't have been a bad thing, right?"

Seraphine shook her head. "I haven't had that much fun playing or singing since… Since, well, ever, honestly. It was amazing. What if it's one of those things where we're destined to sing together? You've seen those shows, right?" She stood up from her chair and put on a dramatic pose. "Two musicians meet in college, a meeting written in the stars! They rise to fame together, they're destinies as singers intertwining and becoming one!" She finished with an overdramatic flourish of her arms and her hair.

I laughed. "I don't know if I'd go that far. But who knows, maybe you're right."

"Oh, right. I forgot to ask you this yesterday." She sat back down and took out her phone. "Do you mind if we trade numbers?"

"Ah, right." I reached into my pocket and took out my own phone.

"That's… an old phone."

Compared to the smartphones that nearly everyone had, I still used a flip-phone. It was black, and had a long, thin body— an old Samsung t159. It was a little banged-up along the edges from years of constant use, but… "Yeah. It was a gift from my parents. It's a long story."

"I see…" Seraphine trailed off. "I'm sorry if I pried."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. You didn't know. It's nothing to apologize for." I navigated to the contacts section of the phone and then gave it to Seraphine to fill out her number.

After we both finished, we returned our phones to each other. When I saw what she'd saved her name as, I let out a small chuckle.

SERA (BEST PARTNER EVER)

Which was followed by a lot of star emoticons. If I didn't know that it was actually her, I would have definitely thought it was a spam number or something.

"Someone's enjoying themselves," she said.

"You saved your contact as an interesting name, that's all." I pocketed my phone.

Seraphine crossed her arms. "You just saved yours as 'Son Jaemin,' which is super lame."

I smiled and simply shook my head, turning my attention back to the computer. "Did you want me to save it as something else?"

"Mm…" Seraphine put a finger on her chin. "Well, I saved mine as Sera, do you have a nickname?"

"Jae," I replied.

She smirked. "Wow, how creative."

I lightly nudged her with my elbow. "Hey, yours isn't much better. We both just removed the other letters from our name and made it shorter."

Seraphine giggled. "By the way, I'm surprised you said it so easily yesterday."

"Not you too," I groaned.

"Me too?"

"My sister teased me about it too."

Seraphine laughed, wiping the edges of her eyes. "It sounds like I would really get along with your sister."

No kidding. Ignoring her other peals of laughter, I looked back to the recording of our cover. I played it, and our voices echoed within the small recording room. As expected, our voices sounded just as good as I'd imagined them to be, maybe even better. From the recording alone, one would think that we'd spent years singing together with how well our voices meshed together, and how well we played off of the other's singing.

"We sound amazing together," Seraphine murmured.

"Yeah. It's definitely… something."

"Here, let's save this first." She guided the mouse to the top of the screen and pointed to her backpack with her free hand. "In the front pocket, there's a USB there. Can you grab it for me?"

I searched through the pocket of her backpack that she described. After a few seconds, I managed to find the USB, zipping up her backpack and handing her the bright pink stick.

"Thanks," She stuck the USB into the computer. "I use Ableton at home, so I can work on this."

"As mixing practice?" I asked.

"Mmhm."

"Hold on." I took control of the mouse and moved it back to the project window. She would have a bit of trouble mixing it if everything was recorded on a single audio track. Not that I doubted her abilities, but mixing tended to happen in two stages: the first is the mixing of each individual track, and the second is the mixing of the song as a whole. "It's gonna be a little hard if everything is on one audio track, Seraphine."

"Sera," she said.

"Ah, right. You're okay with me calling you that?" I asked.

"Yeah. As long as I get to call you Jae."

"That's fine with me."

She grinned. "Good." Seraphine turned her attention back to the project. "So how am I gonna split this up into different audio tracks."

"Well, we can either re-record them or you can just mix it as it is. It's up to you."

"Then I'll mix it as it is at home," she said. Seraphine saved the project and exported it into her USB. "So, what now?"

"How about we try writing a song for the EP?"

"I…" She trailed off. Seraphine glanced to the side. "I don't know, what if we—"

"Sera, what's wrong?" I asked. "Why the hesitance?"

"I just… I don't know. I'm so afraid of the EP not being enough. Of not being happy with it. Of not being satisfied with it. Of not being listened to. Of not being heard."

I reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Then I'll listen to you. I'll hear you. Everything you have to say, everything you have to sing for, I'll listen to it all."

Seraphine looked up at me, her eyes wide and welling with emotion. A thin layer of moisture glistened across her azure eyes. "Really?"

"Really."

"Always?"

"Always."

"Promise?"

I smiled softly. "Promise."

Little did I know, that small promise would change my entire life.

Okay, so I revised this chapter, and it might be the only chapter that receives this treatment. I haven't decided on that yet, so we'll have to see. I wasn't happy with this chapter even when I finished writing it, and my opinion of it only lessened once I actually finished the story. So, I fixed it. Hopefully this is a lot better.