Spiderlove ~ Lee Know ✓

Chapter 41 ://}

I take another deep breath, taking in as much fresh air as I can. I may love having people around me but thousands of students in a single auditorium does tend to feel suffocating.

"We're alone now, just like you wanted. Are you going to tell me why you hate the violin now?" Minho asks.

I take a look at my surroundings, and it doesn't come as a surprise that we're the only ones sitting on the benches outside the school. After all, everyone is still watching the talent show.

"Yeah. Here we go."

~flashback~

Yeona was four years old when her mother signed her up for violin classes. Her mother was always a classical music aficionado, claiming that it would always make her feel calm and blissful. Since she had never had the opportunity to learn an instrument, it was her dream for Yeona to be the musician.

Yeona loved the violin. She was extremely talented, as well as passionate, being very musical and conveying emotions miraculously on the elegant, melodic structure. Soon, she became the best musician in her elementary school. She was also one of the most talented students in her music conservatory, and passed every exam with flying colours.

As much as the violin was fun, it was difficult. Yeona had to take hours out of her day just to practice. This was easy enough in elementary school, but as she grew older, it got harder in middle school. On top of that, if she ever practiced for less than an hour, her mom would threaten to stop paying for her violin lessons, to which she would beg her mother not to with the promise to practice.

But overall, the difficulty was worth it. Yeona loved the violin, and everything was perfect.

Until it wasn't.

Yeona didn't know when it started, but at some point she started losing motivation. She started practicing less, which caused her mother to keep threatening her. Yeona would continue to promise to practice more...but secretly, the threats stopped affecting her. In truth, she didn't even care if she stopped going to lessons.

Because one day, when Yeona was twelve, she came to a saddening realization: she lost her passion for violin.

No feeling of joy came when she played, only stress and frustration. She could not enjoy it anymore, it started to just become a burden. Her instrument stopped looking like an elegant melodic structure and more like just a piece of wood. And the worst part was, she didn't even feel bad.

Yeona realized something else that day: She was never the one that chose to play violin. It was her mother. Her mother made her play the violin and put this burden on her, she never really had any say in it. And while she liked the road for a bit, her journey has come to an end. Yeona was presented with different paths--different passions, like drawing and badminton. Passions that really brought her joy, not stress. Passions that she chose and dedicated her time and effort to on her very own.

That's when she started hating the violin.

She didn't tell her mother. At least not yet. For Yeona had been preparing for the highest exam level for over a year, and her mother would be devastated if she gave up just one month before the actual exam. So, Yeona worked hard. She practiced every day for hours, harder than she ever had, to perfect her skills and get top scores on her exam. Not because she actually wanted to practice.