Schroeder's peers at Juilliard didn't know much about him. He had never been very outgoing to begin with, but growing up in a small town with a built-in friend group had left him complacent and antisocial around people he didn't already know.
A few other students had tried to strike up conversations with him, and he wasn't unfriendly or rude, but he had a hard time maintaining his end of those conversations. He always seemed distracted, bored, or even annoyed. He never smiled.
For the most part, he kept to himself, and regularly practiced on any piano that was nearby and free for student use. Despite his withdrawn nature (and the fact that he only played classical music), he sometimes drew a small crowd in the area, hanging around to work on homework, or just to sit and listen.
It came as a shock to the students when a girl with black hair and a blue Columbia sweater entered the classroom one day with a paper to-go bag, and in response, Schroeder's normally-blank face lit up. He didn't smile or anything when he saw her, but there was a definite life behind his expression that had only shown up before when he got into a one-sided conversation about Beethoven with a well-meaning fellow student.
It was soon revealed that this girl was his fiancé. They flirted and argued in equal measure, and he laughed with her, a very foreign sound to the rest of Juilliard. It was a bizarre sight.
Meanwhile, at Columbia, Lucy was known as a very no-nonsense, ambitious student. Woe be to any classmate who was partnered with her for any assignment or group discussion. She commandeered group projects like she was in the Navy, and she was well-spoken in class, but she turned every conversation into either an argument or a dressing-down.
She mentioned her fiancé pretty often. People assumed he had to be a pretty meek, passive person. They just couldn't envision Lucy dating anyone who didn't bow to her every whim.
Needless to say, they were excited when she mentioned the guy was picking her up after class one day. They were halfway expecting him to show up in a bow tie and suspender shorts.
When Schroeder finally showed up, he stood in the doorway and barked at Lucy to hurry up.
The room was too shocked at his boldness to notice that he didn't fit their mental pictures of him. This changed everything. Now, they were too scared of Lucy's reaction to his demand, especially once he added that he didn't have all day to wait on her.
Instead of blowing up and turning red, Lucy blew him a sarcastic kiss. "Just a minute, beloved! Light of my life!"
Schroeder responded that pet names wouldn't make them be on time for their dinner reservations, and she just laughed. Laughed . Nobody had ever back-talked Lucy at Columbia before without getting an earful.
She ran up to him with a sweet, uncharacteristic smile on her face, and he kissed her cheek as he took her arm. The pair left the flabbergasted classmates without so much as a look back or a farewell.