Strings of the heart

Chapter 1: The Audition

The hall smelled faintly of polished wood and rosin - that warm, familiar scent that always made my heartbeat trip a little faster. I clutched my violin case tighter, the leather cool and smooth under my fingers, and tried to breathe through the rising nerves twisting inside me.

This was it.
My audition for the National Youth Orchestra of Sri Lanka - the dream I had carried for years, whispered to myself every night before sleep.

Inside, the hall buzzed with quiet tension. Violin strings being tuned, soft scales from the woodwinds, the metallic click of a music stand being adjusted. It was comforting and terrifying all at once.

I was scanning the room when I saw him.

At first, I thought he was just another senior player helping with the auditions. He stood near the front, hands loosely folded, watching the candidates with a calmness that felt almost unreal. There was something about the way he stood - precise but relaxed - that made him look... different.

Then he looked at me.

Just a second.
Not even that.
But something inside me shifted, like a delicate string in my chest had been plucked.

It wasn't dramatic, movie-style attraction.
It was recognition.
A strange, deep awareness - like he understood something about me I hadn't fully understood myself.

"Next candidate," someone called.

My heart dropped, but I stepped forward.

I raised my violin, fingers trembling for only a moment, and began to play. The hall fell away, the world narrowing into sound and breath and the faint pulse of my own heartbeat. Every now and then, I felt his eyes on me - not judging, but listening.

Truly listening.

When I finished, he gave me the smallest nod. So subtle I might have imagined it. Yet it sent a tiny spark through my chest.

As I packed my violin afterward, I couldn't shake the feeling he had left behind. I didn't know his name, or who he really was, but his presence clung to me like an unfinished melody.

And as I walked out of the hall, one thought kept looping in my mind:

Why did it feel like I had known him before?

****
On my way back home I couldn't help but wondering who he might be. I've read a bunch of romantic novels with phrases like his/her eyes glittered in a way like they were talking, but never truly believed in them.

Until I meet him.

My ambitions never were about a person. They were the only thing in my life which completely belong to myself. Yet the moment I stepped Out after the audition something changed. I wanted this. Not just for the orchestra, but because it might be my only chance to see him again.

***