Chapter 4:First Notes,First Sparks

Chapter 4: First Notes, First Sparks

Hana

The second time she stepped into the studio, she didn't feel like she was sneaking into someone else's world.

Still an outsider—yes. But this time, she came armed with her notebook, a half-finished chorus in her head, and a quiet kind of hope she hadn't felt in years.

Jisoo was already there, fingers running over chords on the keyboard, humming something under his breath. He looked up when she entered, and his face broke into a smile so easy, it made her chest tighten.

"Thought you'd bail again," he teased.

"I thought about it," she said, dropping her bag beside the chair. "But then I remembered you still owe me snacks."

He handed her a bubble tea from the table. "I'm a man of my word."

She blinked at it. "This has bubbles."

He grinned. "Touché."

They started with her lyrics.

She read them aloud, voice trembling slightly. Jisoo didn't interrupt—he just nodded, now and then making small notes, adjusting a chord, humming a possible hook. And then, slowly, something began to form between them—a melody that matched the words, a rhythm that felt like a heartbeat rising from the page.

The door opened mid-session, and Taehyun—the blond skeptic from earlier—walked in with arms folded and earbuds still in.

"Just observing," he said when Jisoo gave him a look.

Hana kept going, nerves fluttering in her stomach. She played the rough demo she'd built—nothing polished, but filled with emotion. Raw, real.

When it ended, there was a brief silence.

Taehyun looked at her, brows slightly furrowed. "You wrote that last line yourself?"

She nodded slowly.

He gave a small grunt. "It was decent."

Coming from him, that felt like a five-star review.

Jisoo

He watched Hana from the glass window outside the booth, headphones over her ears, lips pressed to the mic as she recorded the second verse. Her voice wasn't flashy—it didn't aim for power notes or stardom. But there was a crackle of something real in it. Something the world didn't have enough of.

And for a moment, he forgot he was an idol.

He was just Jisoo, seventeen again, watching the girl behind the music room piano, turning emotions into melodies like it was magic.

He remembered the night before his audition—how he'd read her lyrics over and over until they felt like a lifeline.

He had wanted to call her so many times since then.

He just… didn't know how.

"Hana," he said after she stepped out of the booth, pulling off the headphones. "That line—I don't want to be saved, I just want to be seen—did you write that recently?"

She looked surprised by the question. "Last night. Why?"

He hesitated. "It sounded like something you wrote… for someone."

Her eyes darted away. "Maybe I did."

He smiled faintly. "He must be someone lucky."

Taehyun coughed behind them, startling them both. "If you two are done having a moment, the bridge needs a harmony."

Jisoo rolled his eyes. "Come help, then."

"I'm only doing this because the track has potential," Taehyun said. But then, just before heading into the booth, he turned to Hana and added, "Your lyrics are better than half the stuff we've been handed lately."

Hana blinked, taken aback. "Thanks… I think?"

"It was a compliment. Don't get used to it."

Jisoo snorted. "That's his version of love."

Hana looked at them both and smiled. For the first time in a long time, she felt something she hadn't let herself feel.

Like she belonged.

Later that night

Jisoo sat in the dorm kitchen long after the others had gone to bed, headphones in, replaying the demo Hana left behind.

He didn't just hear her voice—he felt it. In the pauses. In the way she lingered on certain words, like she was still carrying the weight of all the songs she'd buried.

He opened his notebook and scribbled something in the corner:

"Some songs aren't written. They find you."

He smiled.

She was back.

And he wasn't going to let her slip away again.

End of Chapter 4