"Competition with myself, nobody else. What a feeling, wish you well before I look in mirror in the morning, see a lion behind my iris" - Dreams Come True by NCT 127
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"Alright so uh, this is the orchestral practice room. It's quite big and it has the set up and everything. I have rehearsal here quite often," Dongmei pointed to the large room, doors open revealing a set of black chairs.
"Nice," Yangyang looked around at the facilities, realizing that this place was serious. It was rather small but that didn't mean anything as there was nothing but music on the walls, in the air. "Is it sort of rare for you to get out?"
"Yeah, it is. Even getting the right shift is hard because it's intensive training. That's why I work during my lunch break. It's a conservatory for a reason," She commented, yet that didn't seem to mean anything to her as she added on, "But I love it."
He nodded, turning to the girl with a concerned look, "I might not have trained at a conservatory but I know training. Are you sure you're not busy?"
"I don't have a lot of time but it's fine," She brushed it off with a smile as they walked further into the building. "That's the storage room, or as we like to call it, the submarine."
Yangyang peeked in, realizing it was a collection of all sorts of instruments sorted neatly into different wooden cupboards. Another door was placed between two cupboards, marked with the words Musical Library.
The student noticed his curiosity, laughing a little before explaining, "It's sort of like a library of sheet music. Quite important."
Understanding, he looked expectantly at her, wondering what she wanted to do. He had realized exactly how small the conservatory was when they were approaching the building.
"Oh and before we get to the other places, these are the individual practice rooms, where one-on-one lessons take place and where you can just practice, although a lot of people practice in their dorms," She pointed to the many rectangular rooms that lined the hallway as they walked out of the education area. "We might be back here later."
"It's really small compared to SM," He commented. He had trained in a much bigger place where you could easily get lost but this place was just a straight hallway with rooms, only spreading out at the end to two different rooms.
Of course, it wasn't really that small. The orchestral practice room could hold at least a hundred and there were at least 15 practice rooms. Plus, the amount of instruments in the storage room was far too much to count.
Dongmei laughed again, so beautiful to his ears, "Yeah, it's meant to be small though. It's hard to get into so I guess I was lucky I landed a scholarship. But anyways, we don't have a canteen because the school didn't put any budget towards it so we just go out and eat on our own. Or order take out, that works too. Or you could cook but I'll show you that later."
She pointed to reception area. A small room with a lady that sat behind a white counter. That was it. There were a few sofas for guests though, and a water dispenser.
But on the other side, was the common room. This room had bean bags laid all over the ground, a TV and a few students lounging on those items. Next to the hangout area was a kitchen, where he assumed where all the cooking took place.
"Yeah, that's about it honestly. Now, what do you want to do?" Dongmei asked him.
Dongmei, why the hell are you being so nice today? You literally promised yourself not to get close to him. Well no, not literally but still. Point still stands.
Yangyang shrugged. He didn't want to appear bossy but he didn't want to be the one who got them standing awkwardly together, wasting her time. "Uh, I don't know."
"Alright, we can go to my dorm, I guess."
>>><<<
The dorm building was a nice two story building situated on the side of the main building. Walking into the building was no problem but Dongmei had a certain reputation among the students to stick to herself and not talk to anybody else. This caused far too many looks as Yangyang attempted to ease the looks. After all, he was used to staring.
"Just act like they aren't staring. It's just like, three people anyways," He shrugged as she looked around nervously. He was right, the fact that the school itself was small made it so that there were only a few people wandering the halls.
"Easy for you to say," Dongmei mumbled under her breath.
A supportive hand was placed on her back, "Let's talk about something else then."
She turned to him, racking her introverted mind for a topic to talk about. Sadly, the only thing she could even think about was the whole apology situation.
In the past few days, she had constantly dwelled on not accepting his apologies. Yes, she still attempted to push down her emotions but Yangyang's common about being more open had gotten to her eventually. She broke off into a rant of some sort, "Oh and again, I'm sorry for not seeing how desperate you were and being so stubborn. I really should've just forgave you. Sorta wish I could turn back time-"
"Hey, do you know our song called Turn Back Time?"
"Should I know? I study classical music, not pop."
"It goes something like stop, rewind, turn, back time."
Yangyang launched into the choreography until Dongmei turned away in embarrassment before hearing a voice yell from the end of the hall. The student covered her eyes and did her whole 'let's pretend I don't know you' act, which made the idol turn to her to comfort her state of cringe.
"I swear I just heard somebody sing Turn Back Time. And I know it's none of the students because we barely get exposure to modern music anyways."
He giggled childishly, pulling Dongmei's hand to rush her to enter her dorm, "Come on, let's go."
>>><<<
"What the hell was that for?" Yangyang asked, backing away from her after a slap sounded through the air.
Dongmei shook her head violently, "I'm not letting you touch my violin. I usually wouldn't let people touch it and the fact that you're a crackhead doesn't help."
"Hey but I took violin lessons before- you can search my videos up on YouTube," He tried to defend himself as he raised his arms.
Damn, this woman is scary.
Staying stubborn, she crossed her arms, before sighing in defeat, "Alright. Once. If you mess with anything then you'll have to pay for the repair fees."
"Ok, ok, I won't ruin it. Promise," He said as he picked up the violin, carefully tucking it under his chin, "Uh, I never memorized any pieces."
Dongmei sighed, walking to a black wooden shelf, standing tall on the side of the wall. Her hands lingered at the rows of folders and books, eventually selecting one from the two row. Silently, she flipped through the pages of the book and slid it back in. Picking another one, she opened it and scanned it. Dongmei flashed a quick look at Yangyang, as if she was analyzing him, then sighed and handed him it, "Here, I'm not sure about your level so here."
He looked over the pages and shook his head nervously, "Uh, ok. This looks hard."
"Nah, it should be pretty easy. Look for Allettamenti per camera. Try the second movement. This is from my learning back before I came to Korea so it's pretty easy. Like really easy," She took the book from him and flipped it to the page she was referring to. She placed the music on the stand, looking at him expectantly.
Yangyang smiled at her casually before scanning the sheet music, "Hate to break it to you but I'm not trained like you are. It's like you with dancing. Don't judge if I screw up- ok?"
"Alright, if your notes are off, I won't say it out loud. Actually, I might," She chuckled, leaning back against the wall as the male gripped the bow tightly.
He started with the A, quickly finding a tempo. As he reached the first repeat, he followed the instructions and quieted down.
"It's a B natural, not a B flat," Dongmei pointed at the natural sign beside the notes, "It's fine though, pretty common mistake. Oh and play this as fourth finger and this as open. Look at the notes to figure out whether you're going to do open or fourth."
Yangyang prepared to repeat the section once again, going pretty strong until the shifting, in which the notes were too off for Dongmei not to note.
"Third position," She pointed to the note marked with a forte, "Shift from the A."
"Damn, you're tough," He commented before playing the note again.
"Higher. No, lower. No, just a bit higher. Yeah, that's close enough," She shook her head as he adjusted the note to match the correct pitch. "Alright, start from the note marked mezzo forte."
He played again, stopping once he reached the end of the shifting section, back to first position on a G. Looking at her for any feedback, she picked herself up again.
Dongmei ran her finger over the shifting section, "Pretty good, I would say. The transition is still pretty bad and dynamics need working on. I know this is your first time but it's pretty good sight reading. Better than I expected, honestly. But then again, this is an easy piece. The F sharp needs to be higher. I know you thought it was natural at first and transitioned into sharp when you realized so at least you know. Keep going."
Yangyang was satisfied internally. This girl was quite harsh, like she was analyzing his playing, every note. The compliment felt amazing.
After a few minutes, he sighed deeply and closed his eyes, "Alright, I'm done."
Dongmei smirked as he handed her violin to her, "My turn."
And with that, Yangyang's jaw dropped as she played an intricate slow piece. Easy on the surface yet he could still see the practice in it. All the tiny techniques and details weaved in.
"Alright, stop flexing."
"You flexed your dancing on me, so this is my revenge."
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just want you guys to know- im not making the piece up, it's actually like this and the parts he struggled on are the parts I messed up on when I was looking through this piece for this. apart from that though, the piece dongmei played is completely made up cuz im not that good at violin-