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"What do you to work on today?" Tao, my assigned project partner asks.

Two days ago, the two classes met in the wind ensemble classroom. The orchestra are sitting in the typical half circle setup facing the conductor's platform. Behind the conductor is a  white broad with several dry eraser markings of scales and notes.

The classroom was similar to the choir room in that it was large and spacious with rows of glass in the ceiling.

There were only a few differences. This specific classroom had lockers filled with instruments of various sizes. The back half of the room was reserved for the percussion section as they had an entire storage room dedicated to their inventory and set up.

At the entrance, Chen and I along with our fellow classmates stood awkwardly looking at the musicians as they burned holes into us. There was this sense of intrusion.

The wind ensemble professor was seemingly the only person in the room with a warm smile on his face, "Welcome, I'm Professor Jung." He greeted before he turned his attention to his class.

"Class, this is Professor Choi and her choir students. We will be meeting your assigned partners today." He explained. "Ms. Choi, will you like to add anything?"

"Today is the chance to meet and begin brainstorming ideas for the project. We don't expect for any notes on your sheet music yet." Ms. Choi briefly glances over at Mr. Jung. "But we do expect for all of you to be respectful of each other and the ideas in the process. Now, I will list off  pairings."

My choir professor began to read off each student to an assigned partner for the project.

Every time I would hear another student be assigned, I would peck up my ears to hear mine.

Chen had already been paired up with a trumpet player, who looked uninterested in this project fiasco. Finally, Ms. Choi called, "Byun Baekhyun, you will be working with Huang Zitao."

My eyes wandered the room to find Zitao when I spotted his raised hand. I weaved through the mess of chairs until I reached the empty spot next to the male.

Along the way, I noticed that the blonde haired male is holding a medium sized brass instrument securely to his hip.

I slid into the chair and Zitao gives me a small smile. He holds out his hand to me, "Tao, saxophone."

I stared at his hand for a brief minute before I decided to take it. It was only polite to do so. As far as I could see Tao didn't seem pretentious.

I reached out my hand and grasped onto his. I slightly bowed my head, "Baekhyun, tenor."

We exchanged smiles.

He seemed nice enough to be able to work on the project with, without any extra bullshit.

"We can work on figuring out where we will place our solo parts." Our project only had a few requirements, one of which is for a section of the composition to have a solo moment for each subject within the duet. There are plenty spots for each of us to have our shining moment since the composition is two pages long. 

"The parts can be one after another?" Tao suggested. 

"I don't know I think it will be too overwhelming if we did one solo after another." 

"What if we made your solo part the beginning and mine at the end?"  

Tao slowly nods along as he looks up at the ceiling in thought, "I can see that working..."

"The middle section of the composition can be where we blend your saxophone and my voice."

"Sounds like a plan." Tao smiles, writing down their shared ideas in his notebook that is sitting on a music stand. 

Although, this is the first official day that we are actually working on the project. It feels like we were already ahead of the game. We have our idea or outline if you will of what the composition will be like. 

After brainstorming about the matter of blending both the color of Tao's saxophone with my voice, the musician  suddenly thought of forming our composition into a fugue.

Staying true to my idea for the solo parts, the fugue would be able to show off both the similarities and differences between us.

We start to work on the actual notes, deciding to experiment. Tao plays random notes and scales on his instrument while I warm up my voice.  

The air is filled with incoherent sounds from different kinds of instruments and voices. There are brief moments in between the bursts of musical chaos that silence sets in the room.

At a time like these, the silence allows for me to remember remnants of notes still ringing in my ears. Even though, the notes might not be ones that Tao's instrument produces. It gives me a sense of calm before the storm of new ideas.

The storm of sounds filled the air once again like always for a few minutes until a new kind of sound emerges.

The soft mumbles and whispers slowly crescendo to tense chitter-chatter amongst the wind ensemble students.

"He's here..." A trombone player says.

"This will be interesting."

"I didn't think he would show up." A girl nearby mutters.

"Why did he show up?"

Another student sighs, "What an inconvenience." 

I peer over at Chen from the other side of the room. Chen's eyebrows are furrowed together as his eyes wander the room.

What is going on?

"Who is he?" Everyone directs their attention to the one choir singer that was brave enough to ask the question on their minds.

A female flute player scoffs, "Are you even a music major?"

"That's Chanyeol, he's a musical genius. He can play every instrument but he is known for playing the cello."

An abrupt crisp slam of Professor Jung's office door silences the entire class in an instance. Just as swiftly, project partners are talking through ideas, others start playing their instruments as if nothing happened.

I can't seem to force my attention back to Tao and our project when there is a very familiar figure standing by professor Jung.

An uneasiness slowly crawls into my body. I didn't need to lock eyes with the tall male enveloped in polished fashion to know that this Park Chanyeol, the talented cellist, is the same Park Chanyeol from that joke of a date.

He might look more proper in front of everyone at the moment but to me he is still a sleazy bastard.  

I burn holes into his confident stature as he conversing with the ensemble professor. Chanyeol turns to leave  until he notices me staring daggers at him.

If he was surprised to see me, he certainty didn't show it. Neither of us look away for what feels like minutes.

I clench my jaw, determined to win this unexpected staring contest. A glint of amusement flashes in his eyes when I refuse to give way. Soon a smug smile spreads across his fucking lips breaking my focus.

"Fuck." I hiss to myself. Chanyeol looks back at his professor. The smug smile on his mouth remains as he leans in to the older man's ear.

Mr. Jung nods along without hesitation or refusal. The older man looks in my direction, "Tao, can I see you and your partner up here please?"

Tao and I exchange looks before we organize our stuff in order to make our way up to the front. 

Weaving through the people, it is obvious that they gawking at us.

Chanyeol is standing off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest. Although, he isn't looking directly he is very much listening.

I don't like were this is going.

"Zitao, you'll be switching partners with Chanyeol."

"What--"

"Okay." The saxophone player simply agrees. Catching me completely off guard. How could he just agree with this?

"What about our project? We have already started our ideas." I protest.

"You can still work on it with Tao if you wish to." The professor explains with sympathy in his eyes, "However, your official partner is now Park Chanyeol. The project has to contain only the ideas that you and Mr. Park created." He adds with a sigh.

"So I can't work with him anymore..."

"Not for credit." He articulates. I stare at the professor, unable to gather any words to say. The professor pats my shoulder, "I'm sure you and Chanyeol will come up with great ideas together."

It was foolish to think it was the last of him. It didn't matter that I rejected meeting his friend.

Here he is again.

Only this time he is replacing my project partner with himself.

"Can't wait for us to get to work."  

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Hey guys! For this chapter I tried to use my past knowledge from when I was band class from elementary school to high school. It has been quite sometime since then. The only real music stuff I have done since is that  I took a music appreciation class for a college. I'm still not confident in my terminology.

I'm going to try my best to do it as best as I can. If any of you are wondering, I used to play the clarinet. I did have a project that was sort of similar. Also in my wind ensemble class the students really didn't like the choir kids.

I have no idea why but they would make fun of them (mostly the upperclassmen would do this).

Anyways, thank you for reading this latest update.

I hope everyone has a good day.

-Jiselle🌸