Key Thieves
Everybody grows up committing some trivial crimes. If you ask me what my first crime was, I'm not very certain. Maybe it was stealing my sister's cookies when I was much younger than now. However, if you ask me what my earliest crime was, I can be very certain. My earliest crime was committed when I was a senior in my high school.
If you spent your high school years in Korea, you would already be aware of how stressful it is to be a senior. It is mostly because seniors have to prepare a big exam to enter those dreamed universities. Of course, I was not exempt from this. I also had to prepare for the exam during this time, and as many other students did, I got a lot of stress. I felt a necessity to reduce it. At that time, listening to music became my biggest outlet to drain the stress. Musicians I liked the most at that time are still my best choices. Waiting for their new albums was a sweet endurance. I still remember when I counted days toward Coldplay's new album release.
One day, I visited the music class room with my friends. We had some fun making some ridiculous, stupid songs which were usually about calling each other dumb. Suddenly, one of my friends who played the piano came up with a really fantastic chord progression. I added some improvised melodies with improvised lyrics on those chords. Guess what? That was quite a song. After then, he and I visited the music room several times and enjoyed working on creating some new songs which haven't been sung by anyone in anywhere till then. He and I decided to call ourselves 'Yesterday' as a duet. We both could play the piano, but my friend was way better than me in singing at that time. Therefore, I created songs and gave him to sing. Of course, we were seniors and our main interest was studying. This 'Yesterday' thing was not dealt seriously. Only very few times we could gather as 'Yesterday', and each time was fun.
You know, however, once people taste some fun, they want it more, and so did we. The music class room was not open in anytime. It had its certain opening time for practicing instruments or singing. Needless to say that opening time was not focused on senior students' schedules. Whenever 'Yesterday' found some time to gather, the class room was always closed. That became our criminal motivation. My friend attained the key of that room. He said it was by coincidence, and I didn't ask detailed stories about it. What mattered was that we had the key! Attaining a key by coincidence is not a crime. Keeping that key might be a small crime. Using that key secretly for a private purpose would be a bigger crime than that……. In that sense, 'Yesterday' committed a bigger crime. We used that key to sneak into the music room and played our songs there. That was a bit against my conscience, but that was a big fun, so we carried on.
However, our sneaking meeting was not continued for very long time. Actually, it ended very fast. One day, when we put that key through the keyhole and opened the door, I noticed something was wrong. The first thing I noticed was that the lights were on. I was embarrassed at that moment, but I was far more embarrassed when I noticed that the music teacher was watching us directly from her desk. "Come here." Pierced by those two simple words, we couldn't move for a moment, but soon we found ourselves standing right in front of the desk. Second comment was simple either. "Give me the key back." Her voice was calm, which only made us more frightened. We were not scolded that much in that room. However, that case was handed over to other teacher, and that teacher said that we could be engaged in a big trouble for what we have done. We were very worried, but luckily, we ended up just cleaning the music class room for several weeks. I think teachers had mercy upon us so we can prepare for the exam. We had to clean up the music class room very neatly, but that was all right.
'Yesterday' didn't have a meeting for creating songs after then. My dear friend didn't want to go inside the music room again. "I just can't go." He had a really fragile mind. I think he didn't want to face the music teacher. However, I continued to write songs there, and when February came, I wrote a song called 'Graduation' to celebrate our graduation. I remember we together listened to that song.
Committing even one trivial crime is certainly a bad thing. However, I cannot deny that the time we sneaked into the music room was one of my precious times to remember. It's good to have precious experiences which can only be attained in student days. Those invaluable memories will make you smile when you feel lonely and alone. Plus, it will make both of your friend and you smile when you two meet after a long time. It would be the best if those kinds of experiences could be attained without sneaking inside a room, using a key which belongs to someone else.
I think your story was the best by far. haha! Anyways, on to the critique... What I liked best about this writing was the feelings that were conveyed within the story. It was quite touching and the reader could feel that you truly thought it was a precious memory for you. I was smiling the whole time I was reading it. Your main story was the time you and your friends stole the key to the music room and practiced playing music in there, plus getting scolded. The part that stuck out the most for me was when you wrote "We used that key to sneak into the music room and played our songs there. That was a bit against my conscience, but that was a big fun, so we carried on." I liked this part the best because I could totally sympathize with you. I felt the same way when I was stealing a textbook from the teacher, although that's another story by itself... anyway. I didn't find anything too unclear or misleading, so all in all you did a great job. One thing though. When you said "Second comment was simple either", either should be changed to 'too' or 'as well', or something like that. Either is only used when the former sentence is a negative confirming statement. Great job, keep up the hard work!
ReplyDeleteYoung-Lee Seo
Key Thieves
ReplyDeleteEverybody grows up committing some trivial crimes like stealing cookies. My earliest crime was committed when I was a senior in my high school. If you spent your high school years in Korea, you will already be aware of how stressful it is to be a senior. It is mostly because seniors have to prepare a big exam to enter those dreamed universities. Of course, I was not exempt from this. I also had to prepare for the exam during this time, and as many other students did, I got a lot of stress. I felt a necessity to reduce it. At that time, listening to music became my biggest outlet to drain the stress. Musicians I liked the most at that time are still my best choices. Waiting for their new albums was a sweet endurance. I still remember when I counted days toward Coldplay's new album release.
One day, I visited the music class room with my friends. We had some fun making some ridiculous, stupid songs which were usually about calling each other dumb. Suddenly, one of my friend who played the piano came up with a really fantastic chord progression. On those chords, I added some melodies and lyrics, both of which were improvised. Guess what? That was quite a song. After then, he and I visited the music room several times and enjoyed working on creating some new songs which haven't been sung by anyone in anywhere till then. He and I decided to call ourselves 'Yesterday' as a duet. We both could play the piano, but for singing, my friend was way better than me at that time. Therefore, I created songs and gave him to sing. Of course, we were seniors and our main interest was studying. This 'Yesterday' thing was not dealt seriously. Only very few times we could gather as 'Yesterday', and each time was fun.
You know, however, once people taste some fun, they want it more. So did we. The music class room was not open in anytime. It had its certain opening time for practicing instruments or singing. Needless to say that opening time was not focused on senior students' schedules. Whenever 'Yesterday' found some time to gather, the class room was always closed. That became our criminal motivation. My friend attained the key of that room. He said it was by coincidence, and I didn't ask detailed stories about it. What mattered was that we had the key! Attaining a key by coincidence is not a crime. Keeping that key might be a small crime. Using that key secretly for private purpose is a bigger crime than that……. In that sense, 'Yesterday' committed a bigger crime. We used that key to sneak into the music room and played our songs there. That was a bit against my conscience, but that was a big fun, so we carried on.
ReplyDeleteHowever, our sneaking was not continued for a long time. Actually, it ended very fast. One day, when we put that key through the keyhole and opened the door, I noticed something was wrong. The first thing I noticed was that the lights were on. I was embarrassed at that moment, but I was far more embarrassed when I noticed that the music teacher was watching us directly from her desk. "Come here." Pierced by those two simple words, we couldn't move for a moment, but soon we found ourselves standing right in front of the desk. Second comment was simple too, "Give me the key back." Her voice was calm, which only made us more frightened. Against our expect, we were not scolded that much in that room. However, that case was handed to other teacher, and that teacher said that we could be engaged in a big trouble for what we have done. We were very worried, but luckily, we ended up just cleaning the music class room for several weeks. I think teachers had mercy upon us so we could prepare for the exam. We had to clean up the music class room very neatly, but that was all right.
'Yesterday' didn't gather to make songs after that. My dear friend didn't want to go inside the music room again. Whenever I asked why, he just repeated, "I just can't go." I think he didn't want to face the music teacher again. However, I continued to write songs there, and when February came, I wrote a song called 'Graduation' to celebrate our graduation. I remember we together listened to that song.
Committing even one trivial crime is certainly a bad thing. However, I cannot deny that the time we sneaked into the music room was one of my greatest times to remember. It's good to have precious experiences which can only be attained in student days. Those invaluable memories will make you smile when you feel lonely and alone. Plus, it will make both of your friend and you smile when you two meet after a long time. It will be the best if those kind of experiences could be attained without sneaking inside a room, using a key which belongs to someone else.