In the music room at the end of the hall, a guitar rang out. A gentle, slightly melancholy melody drifted through the open windows. Quang was playing an old song. Khanh looked in that direction, his expression briefly darkening.
Mai suddenly realized there was a story between Khanh and Quang that she didn't know about. An old friendship, an old song, and perhaps things that had never been said.
"You should go see Quang," Mai said.
Khanh turned around.
"What about you?"
"I'll finish this part."
"You're not mad?"
"No." Mai forced a smile. "Old friends run into each other—they should talk."
Khanh remained where he was.
"Mai."
"Yeah?"
"If Quang makes you uncomfortable, tell me." "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"There you go again with 'I don't know.'"
"But I definitely won't let you deal with it alone."
The words left Mai speechless. Khanh picked up the notebook and walked toward the door, but turned back before leaving.
"Don't sing that song if you don't want to."
"Why?"
"Because I want the first time I hear you sing to be when you really want to sing."
He left the room. Mai watched Khanh's back, feeling warm and completely tangled up inside.
A little while later, Quang walked in. He wasn't carrying his guitar anymore.
"Where's Khanh?"
"He went to find you."
Quang nodded, then looked at the lyric sheet on the table.
"You still don't want to sing?"
"Yeah."
"Because you don't like the song?"
"Because I'm not confident."
Quang pulled out the chair across from her and sat down.
"Khanh once said you always look down whenever you have to stand in front of a lot of people."
Mai stared at him.
"He told you that?"
"He told me quite a lot."
"But there's nothing special between him and me."
Quang looked at her in silence for a few seconds.
"Do you really think that?"
Mai didn't answer.
Quang leaned back in his chair.
"Khanh isn't the kind of person who talks about other people. Back in middle school, even when I asked who he liked, he would just say no one."
"Then why is he telling you about me now?"
"Maybe because you're special."
Mai felt her heart pound, but not because of what he had said. Quang was looking at her far too directly, leaving her with nowhere to look away.
"You just met me today."
"But Khanh has been telling me about you for a long time."
"How long?"
Quang didn't answer right away. He turned his eyes toward the window, where the evening light was gradually fading.
"Since around the end of last semester."
Mai lightly gripped the edge of the sheet.
The end of last semester. That meant before the rainy day, before the blue umbrella, before she realized she was always hoping to see Khanh.
So how long had Khanh been paying attention to her?
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Khanh came back and stopped in the doorway. He saw Quang sitting across from Mai, then looked at the lyric sheet on the table.
"Quang," Khanh called.
His voice wasn't loud, but something in it made the room turn cold.
Quang stood up.
"We were just talking."
"Yeah."
"Want to meet in the music room this afternoon?"
"Later."
Quang looked at Khanh for a long moment, then nodded and left. Mai noticed a strange silence between them. It wasn't the silence of old friends meeting again after a long time. It felt like something that had once been left unfinished.
"Is something going on between you and Quang?" she asked.
"It's nothing."
Mai immediately looked up.
"Don't answer me like that."
Khanh froze.
"Like what?"
"You always say it's nothing. But clearly, it isn't."
He looked at her, his eyes gradually softening.
"We once entered a music competition together."
"And then?"
"Then I quit."
"Why?"
"Because I wasn't good enough."
Mai looked at him. Khanh was always the fastest person in class at solving math problems, the one who could calmly handle anything, the one who always acted like he wasn't afraid of a thing. She had never imagined that he, too, had something that made him insecure.
"Does Quang still play guitar?"
"Yeah."
"And he wants you to come back?"
"Maybe."
"What about you?"
Khanh looked down at his hands.
"I don't know."
Mai let out a very quiet laugh.
"You really only know how to say that one thing."
Khanh laughed too, but his smile was no longer as carefree as before.
"What about you? Do you want to sing?"