July was ending too. This day was the second and last time I ever went to Song Sori’s house. It was a pretty average summer day. I assure you, things like fate don’t exist.

That day, Song Sori was particularly more down than usual. It seems like the lackeys that hang around her didn’t notice it. It’s not like I can say I perfectly understood her, either. But there were certainly signs of anxiety in her voice and her face. I didn’t selfishly go up to her in school or something. But something was different after school. Usually, she would wait for me by the school front gate, but instead she was trying to head home right away. I saw that and felt an unmatched sadness.I chased her and blocked her way to home. I just stood next to her without saying anything. Song Sori raised her face. It looked like she was letting out a sigh of relief.

Song Sori didn’t want to go to the record store and I didn’t ask further. Even before she mentioned that there was no one home, I was already following her up the hill.

Being in her house was less awkward than before but it was still pretty weird. Though, this time I decided not to head straight into her room. I followed her to the big living room, which had things like a refrigerator, a television, et cetera. The wall on the opposite end was open and led to a yard. There also seemed to be a door to the bedroom for her parents but I didn’t go there. I sat in the living room, feeling the wind that passed by my ears.

I couldn’t see Sori so I turned around. Sori was sitting on her knees, staring at the floor. I thought she was praying or something. In silence, I watched Song Sori, who had her face down. She was sleeping. I didn’t want to wake her. So I watched the sunlight, and the shadow that sunlight created as it beamed upon the living room.

When she woke up, she gasped loudly. As she stood up, she kept saying “sorry” to me, like she was speaking to her boss or something. I nodded. She sounded like she was about to cry. I think she wasn’t apologizing to me, but rather to herself.

“I can’t sleep well recently.”

“You can’t sleep well?”

I instinctively repeated her sentence about sleeping. I couldn’t sleep well all my life, until I met her and it got better. Perhaps I became afraid perhaps it worked the other way for Sori.

“Are you alright?” I asked a meaningless question.

“Yeah, I’m okay. It feels good to have Sia looking out for me.

“What?”

“Well, you seem like the kind of girl who doesn’t worry or care about anything... Oh, is that bad to say?’

Song Sori smiled and her face became bright again. And, as if a lightbulb lit up in her head, she exclaimed and told me to wait for a moment. I thought she was going to get another record. While she went to her room, I laid down on the floor in the meantime. it was cool and chilly. It was a particularly windy day, so it was even more chilly.

Song Sori came back with a keyboard wrapped around her. When I tried to stand up, she told me it was okay to stay down. Apparently this was one of those keyboards that didn’t need to be plugged in to make sounds. Sori installed the stand, while facing the yard.

She started playing a piano piece without any explanation. It was a digital sound so it didn’t sound clean, but the melody formed a nice tune. I thought I had heard it before, but classical music wasn’t my strong suit, so I quietly searched my memory. But there was no need. It was that song that I heard over the speakers the first time I came to the record store. (I looked this up later, but it was an aria called “O Mio Babbino Caro” from the opera Turandot.)

I could only see Song Sori’s back, but her emotions could be heard in her performance. The velocity would become stronger, but the tempo never changed. I was only hearing her play for the first time, but I could tell her talent at first glance. (Or first listen?) The song itself was simple. But that minimalism is how she could attach her own feelings to it. It was as if each note being played from that keyboard had her sweat and tears on them.

The performance lasted for only a short 1 minute and 30 seconds. Sori no longer seemed like the girl I knew. I thought that I had formed some special relationship with Sori by listening to music and talking with her. I considered myself different from anyone else at school. But even I had never heard Sori express herself for 1 minute and 30 seconds like this before. And now that she had shown herself, I felt so stupid. I was no exception; I had approached her with selfish intent as well.

As I had these thoughts, I stared at Sori dumbfounded, and she took this to mean I was left speechless. She laughed by herself. When I heard her laughter after such a long silence, I woke up. I stood up. And I didn’t know what to do, so I just walked in front of Sori. She looked at me weirdly and said, “What’s wrong?”. I couldn’t answer her. Except, those words that came out of my mouth were ones I had been burying deep inside my heart all this time; the same words that I could not let go of.

“I love-”

“...Huh?” Sori interrupted me.

“The performance. I loved that.”

“Oh~ Yeah...” Sori sounded like she was disappointed. “Well, obviously! Thanks, though.”

Sori held both of my hands with hers. I still hadn’t internalized what I just said what they meant. I just wanted to do whatever she wanted to do.

“Kay, kay. I could play more fun songs. Do you have any requests?”

“Play whatever you want, Song Sori.

Song Sori made a surprised face. “Did you just, call me Song Sori?”

“You don’t like it?”

“No. I just thought... that might’ve been the first time you called my name. Hee hee.”

Song Sori made a weird laughter and started turning some knobs on the keyboard. She seemed to be changing the sound. She soon started playing again. This time, it was a synth sound that sounded like a string instrument. They started forming harmony. The notes seemed to fly in the sky. They were elegant, comfy. Like a mother’s embrace, it emitted nostalgia familiar to the ears. When Sori started playing the melody with her right hand, I instantly recognized the song. It was from Spring Summer Autumn Winter’s first album, “I Guess Everyone Changes.”

It was difficult to not be surprised. I wasn’t all that curious about how she knew the song. I was just surprised it was this specific track from that album out of all the others. But it wasn’t time for me to ask about that. I chose to sink myself into the music instead. Before I knew it, I started humming along. Sori slowed down her performance and looked at me.

“Sia, do you know this song?”

“Huh?” Then I finally realized I was singing along. “Yeah.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I just remember hearing it once on TV.”

“TV? Like in a commercial?”

“No, the band was playing it. I don’t remember their name. I remember the whole song though.”

“You... memorized all of it?” I couldn’t even believe what I was saying.

“I’m just going off the top of my head. But if you know the song, then it’s perfect! Sing for me.”

“What?”

“I... So I only remember the chords. I don’t really remember the lyrics. You sing it for me.” I didn’t really get it, but I did understand the part about me singing.

“No.” I turned my head.

“Aw... C’mon~”

Sori grabbed my hand with her right hand and started playing the notes with her left hand again. I looked at her face. It was completely different from the one I saw at school. I saw those genuine eyes that only I knew; that smile she made only for me. I wished that she could always make this face. I wished that she didn’t have to fake a smile even after having fallen asleep as soon as she got home because she was that tired. I wanted to provide for her a hundred - no, a thousand more smiles. For that, I thought I could do anything.

I sang, tightly holding onto Sori’s hand. I had the lyrics all memorized since I was a kid. But it was worlds below what Sori had done, learning the entire song just from hearing it once on TV. I kept looking at her and continued singing. Sori was focused on the keyboard. I looked at her face by her side, and it was as if I could sink myself into her. I could not believe I was living in the same world - in the same time as this person next to me. I could not believe that we could meet each other.

When the chorus came, she let go of my hand and started using her right hand to play another melody. Now she was completely focused on the performance. I kept singing by her side. I sang like my throat was going to break. It was embarrassing, but I thought it’d be fine if it was next to this girl. I wanted to believe that she also thought it’d be fine if I was the one hearing her performance.

My lips went dry and my eyelids became wet. For a brief moment, we became one. Changing each other, turning nothing into something.

“I guess everyone changes

Yeah, because you changed too

Looking at the way you changed

I also changed alongside“

- Spring Summer Autumn Winter, “I Guess Everyone Changes” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38T7qvWRCw0)