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"but nothing makes a room feel emptier
than wanting someone in it."

— Calla Quinn —

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[ 3RD PERSONS VIEW。]

The news spread out quick throughout the school hallways, nothing was more grand and known than the Zhong Chenle finally coming back after being gone for like a week.

Jisung fumbled with his locker, not seeming to get the lock open. Groaning, he was close to punching the metal door when a hand stopped him. He craned to his side, finding his best friend whom he had missed dearly.

Eyes widening, he covered his agape mouth in shock. "Holy– you're back!" his voice squeaked out of the sudden. Chenle laughed, "Yup, I sure am." he nodded and easily unlocked Jisung's locker.

The younger boy grinned, "Thanks!"

"Seems like you saw him already." the two boys stopped their conversation, facing the girl who leaned against one of the lockers.

"Lihua!" Jisung called out and she simply smiled at him, waving her hand as a friendly gesture.

"Have you met the others yet?" she questioned her cousin who just shook his head in return. After their talk during the weekends, they had planned everything out that they had to gather up everyone. Lihua was nervous to pull up a something like this, it's not everyday you would experience something out if the ordinary.

They were basically teens, trying to figure out what happened behind their friend's death.

"Looks like someone came back." a boy stated beside them. By the tone of his voice and the way he stood, Chenle could easily recognize the male.

A smirk formed on his lips as he quirked a brow up at the new presence, "Lee Donghyuck!"

"Zhong Chenle." the said boy called out with the same amount of energy, the only problem was it sounded way too sarcastic that even someone who's really oblivious could have noticed. "It's good to have you back." he mumbled and opened his locker.

Sighing, he could hear a bunch of loud conversations between the cliques of students not far away from where they stood. His left eye twitched in annoyance, his fingers gripping tightly onto his locker, knuckles turning white.

Chenle eyed the few students who kept spewing out nonsense. He scoffed, approaching the clique despite Lihua and Jisung's many protest not to.

"Does it make you feel good?"

The group of girls and boys stopped talking, averting their attention onto the now dark blue haired teenager. Gritting his teeth, one of the boys raised a brow at Chenle, "You have something to say, coward?"

Chenle remained unbothered by his attempts to call him names. He tilts his head, "I asked you. Does making rumors about us make you feel good?"

"If it does then what are you gonna do about it?"

Chenle plainly shrugged, "Honestly, nothing. Because I would obviously hate to spend my precious time teaching you what's right from wrong– it's basically the school's job to do that."

The boy had his arms akimbo, "Acting tough after running away from your own friend's death?" he let out a short, fake laugh, "and I obviously know what's right from wrong."

"By your attitude right now, that statement of yours says otherwise."

"Chenle– stop." Donghyuck stretched out an arm to place on the younger's shoulder.

The other boy eyed Donghyuck before tilting his head, "Well, look at that, it's the unfortunate one."

A scowl on his face, Donghyuck quickly raised his fist but Chenle got a hold of his wrist before he could even throw a punch. "Don't."

The older gritted his teeth, "He's annoying the fuck out of me, Chenle!"

Chenle didn't answer him, instead he let his hand go making it drop down onto Donghyuck's side. "Let's just go."

And with that, they left the clique with those annoying smirks plastered on their faces.

Entering the classroom, Donghyuck flailed his hands up, quite disappointed he wasn't able to teach the guy a lesson.

Chenle only pursed his lips together as he tried to locate his desk. He approached his desk, stopping when he noticed the empty desk beside his. It was Haruki's.

He bit his bottom lip, mind voided of thoughts as he continued to stare hard at the desk. Seeing her desk just made him go through a ton of heart clenching memories. Chenle couldn't help but accept the fact she was now just a memory, no longer was she the girl who breathed life like it was the most precious thing to her.

"I heard someone's going to transfer." he uttered, looking at Donghyuck who just shrugged and plugged his earphones in.

"Don't care, never will."

The dark blue haired teen grunted and ruffled his hair. Slowly, Donghyuck was turning back into his old self, the boy who isolated himself from other people. The boy who was seen as dangerous and scary because of his father.

"I have plan." the younger quipped.

"Not interested." Donghyuck declined quickly making Chenle slump his shoulders.

"Just listen–"

"I don't want to." the stubborn boy shook his head making Chenle sneer at him.

Renjun casually walked into the classroom, settling down his desk which was in front of Haruki's. He glanced at Chenle, a small smile on his mouth, "You're back."

"I sure am."

Renjun docked his eyes onto the purple haired boy behind Chenle. He sniggered and shook his head, "There's no point talking to Donghyuck, you won't be able to convince him."

"That's not going to stop me." Chenle retorted, arms crossed.

— • • • —

"Are you sure about this? You've been checking out the school for about four days now, Haruka." her father told her as they left the office.

The girl hummed softly, looking around the place, "I just... need to ensure some things."

Mr. Choi sighed and patted the top of her head, "I'll be leaving tomorrow again."

Hearing her father say that, it wasn't much of a surprise, he was a busy man who was always out of the country.

"I'll let you roam around for a bit, okay? We'll have to leave soon, they're bound to have lunch in a few minutes." her father pointed out and she nodded, "Don't worry, I won't be long."

"I'll be at the parking lot waiting."

The girl figured her way to the music room, thankfully no one was occupying it. She had a faint smile on her lips as she approached the grand piano sitting right in the middle of the room.

Taking a seat, she pushed the cover open, revealing the set of black and white piano keys. Haruka let her fingers danced against the keys as she dozed off quickly onto the music.

The melodies she created brought a peaceful feeling inside her heart. She was so immersed in her music that she didn't notice that the bell already rang, signaling that it was already lunch time for the students.

Chenle stretched out his arms, a yawn escaping his mouth as he walked down the hallways of the school. Everyone was crowding the cafeteria and he didn't have an appetite to eat at the moment, so he decided to roam around, since lunch time meant almost all of the students were by the cafeteria.

As he walked down the club hallway, he could hear the sound of the beautiful piano flowing into his ears. Heart lightening, he could easily pinpoint the musician's choice of piece.

"La Campanella by Liszt and Paganini." he murmured, the sound of the piano gradually getting louder the closer he got to the music room.

Sneakily, he peaked through the small opening of the door, seeing a familiar back figure of a girl with dark brown hair. Chenle watched as her fingers pushed each key gently with care, it seemed like her fingers were dancing on clouds.

He closed his eyes, letting his mind get lost within the music. He admits that he had fallen in love quickly with how the musician managed to craft her sounds gently. It wasn't his first time hearing this musical piece, but he had to also admit that it was she could easily be one of his favorite just to hear her play this piece again.

La Campanella was one of the hardest written piano pieces, that's what most musicians believed. The way the piece was crafted in an extraordinary way brought difficulty. With a grade composition of ten, a beginner won't even be able to pull of a piece such as La Campanella.

As someone who played the piano, Chenle knew it would take days, weeks, months, even years! Just to perfect this piece and here, he witnesses a girl who could play the piece seamlessly, as if she was born to play the piano.

He easily remembered those times whenever Haruki would randomly play a musical song just because she claimed to miss the sound of the piano. Hearing those words from Haruki, he had assumed it was either Haruki or Mrs. Choi playing the piano, but they didn't.

Soon, she came to an abrupt stop making the teenage boy shove away his little day dream. He gulped and walked away quickly as he heard her footsteps growing close.

The boy continued to walk further, hearing distant footsteps. He turned to look at the girl, only to find her gone.

"Who is she?"

— • • • —