That summer, we became each other’s voices
If there’s any problem, please delete it; no disrespect to the artist is intended.
All content is unrelated to reality.
When the moving truck set down the last box and left, the neighborhood was already full of frogs’ calls
Mom "Hana, the air is nice, right?"
I only nodded
The air was nice, but it took twenty minutes to walk to the convenience store, and the bus came once an hour
This was where Mom found her new job
When I said we were leaving Seoul, I didn’t object
The only funny thing was that I didn’t have any friends I’d be sad to leave behind
Mom "Hana, let’s make lots of friends here too, okay?"
When half the boxes were unpacked, the neighbor lady next door came over with a basin full of cucumbers
Hello, thank you
That was only two words, but I just moved my lips and in the end hid half a step behind Mom
The lady laughed, saying I must be shy, and went back
I propped my acoustic guitar case in one corner of the room and set my notebook next to it
The sentence I’d written the night before moving was still there on the first page
'Try saying hello first in a new place'
I’d already failed to keep it once, just an hour after moving in
That night, when I opened the window, the frogs’ calls flooded into the room
I wrote small letters in the corner of the notebook
'...start'
The first walk to school was farther than I’d expected
Instead of apartment buildings, there were rows of vinyl greenhouses, and the rice paddies had just started being flooded, reflecting the sky like a mirror
As soon as I reached the bus stop, the bus left right in front of me
Hana "...Ah"
Forty minutes until the next bus
In the end, I walked
By the time I reached the school gate, my sneakers were white with dust, and the first-period bell was ringing
On my first day as a transfer student, when I stood in front of the classroom, about twenty pairs of eyes all looked at me at once
My fingertips turned cold
Homeroom teacher "You’re Moon Hana, here from Seoul. Why don’t you introduce yourself?"
I had plenty to say in my head
And smile
They said the first impression is all about having the best smile
I pulled up the corners of my mouth with all my strength
Hana "...Mo...Moon Hana...I’m..."
The boy in the front row scooted his chair back a little
Boy "...Did you just smile?"
Girl "I don’t know, but it kinda scared me"
I tried to smile naturally, but it felt awkward and my face stiffened.
The teacher told me to take a seat, so I sat down.
With countless eyes on me,
there was one kid who wasn’t looking at me at all.
The boy in the front seat by the window, solving workbook problems with only one earbud in
He didn’t look up even once until I sat down
But the tip of his pen was tapping out a strange rhythm
Tap tap-tap tap
And so a week passed
Wanting to get closer, I picked up the eraser the kid next to me had dropped, and he jumped in surprise
At lunchtime, when I stood behind them for a long while trying to say, let’s eat together, everyone quietly moved their seats away
The rumors I heard in the hallway were even worse
Boy student: "What was the transfer student doing in Seoul before coming here?"
Girl student: "I don’t know, but they say if you make eye contact with her, you’ll have bad luck that day"
That’s not it
I just wanted to say hello
That day, at the far end of the hallway, a boy wearing a first-year nametag came running toward me with an armful of convenience-store bread, and we collided head-on
Three pieces of bread fell to the floor
I quickly picked them up and held them out
1st-year student: "Oh! Thank you, noona!"
With a face like he didn’t know anything about the rumors, he flashed a bright smile and ran off again
Noona
It was the first word anyone had called me by since I came here
I always ate lunch on the bench in the back courtyard of the annex
It was a spot shaded by wisteria, so no one ever came
It was still May, but the wind already smelled like summer
From my earbuds, the same person’s songs always played
An unnamed composer I’d stumbled on by chance on SoundCloud
The nickname was daymoon
The follower count was around forty
The songs always went up around two or three in the morning
When I listened to that person’s music, I strangely felt like I could breathe
I never once managed to leave a comment; I only secretly hit like
When I kept eating alone
sometimes I’d hear someone humming from behind the wisteria, past the gym storage shed
It was a very small sound, sung under one’s breath so no one would hear
But sometimes, as if unable to hold it in, a phrase would stretch up high
then suddenly shrink back down
When the bell rang for the end of lunch, the sound stopped as if it had been a lie
I didn’t know who was singing
It became a precious part of my everyday life.
Every night, I opened my notebook
Today, too, I didn’t say a single word
One thank-you to the lady at the snack shop
That was all my voice did today
As I wrote, the sentences strangely lined up like lyrics
Underneath them, I wrote in chords and placed the acoustic guitar on my lap
After quietly picking a few notes, I could finally breathe a little
Mom "Hana, how’s school? Did you make any friends?"
Hana : "...Yeah, a little"
It was a lie
Mom smiled and said, That’s a relief, then closed the door
I wrote one more line at the very bottom of the notebook
It was Friday in the third week since I transferred
The last Friday in May
Because it was raining, I couldn’t sit on the bench in the back courtyard
Looking for somewhere to go, I walked all the way to the end of the annex
A faded sign was taped above the classroom used as a storage room
Music room
Music classes were held in the new music room in the main building
So this was the old music room, the one no one used
Below it, a sheet of paper with handwritten words was taped on
The tape had yellowed, and one corner was peeling up
Band club
Knock required!!
The two exclamation marks somehow looked excited
But dust had piled up in front of the door
The door wasn’t locked
It smelled dusty inside
A drum set covered with cloth stood in the corner
And against the wall beside it leaned a guitar with all its strings slack
A faded sticker was stuck to the guitar body; it looked like someone’s name, but it had peeled halfway off, so I couldn’t read it
And by the window there was an old upright piano
I opened the lid and pressed one key
The note was slightly off
Still, I liked the sound spreading through the rain
I dragged over a chair and sat down
I fumbled through the melody I’d written in my notebook
Right hand melody, left hand whatever
Words I’d never once been able to say came out through my fingertips
Buried under the sound of rain, it felt like no one would hear it
So I played with no restraint
I don’t know how long I played
The moment I pressed the last note and lifted my hands
drurr-r
I heard the door open behind me
???? : "...That’s not how you play that"
I froze completely, unable to even breathe
Hello! I’m Hiki!
After thinking and thinking, I went and did it!
Please enjoy reading, and I’d appreciate your comments and hearts!
