Bikram nodded and went there. "Now the turn for vocal candidates," Ritutandra said looking at the new list on the screen above her watch. She was about to call out a name when someone stumbled into the room. The boy's tongue hung out like a golden retriever's as he panted bending over his knees. "Wa.. wait. hah.. I'm.. huff... left." He straightened up and leaned against the wall saying "I'm left to present my piece of music." He was still breathing heavily. "I've cancelled your name for your garbage sense of time. You're late. Get out now." Ritutandra pointed her chin at the door. "Can you just me off this once since I'm your substitute?" The boy said in a cute voice. "No."
"Uh, guys, your VC is driving me out, won't you do me justice?" The boy said running his hand through his side fringe which was stuck on his forehead for sweating. As he looked at the others with his half-closed eyes and devilish smirk showing the dimple on his left cheek, little shrieks and screams came from the students gathered. "Oh my god! He's so hot!" "I wish I could kiss him right now!" "Look at those red highlighted strands! I'm itching to run my hand through them." "Aaaa, I can see those biceps even through his coat!" "Hey, look, your crush is here."
Loud whispers rose which Ritu had to suppress with her glare. The people shut up immediately. From them, a delicate-looking boy with the face of an angel raised his hand and said "Uh, VC, we all know that SVC Arko is a talented pianist. Um, can you give him a chance?" He peeked from under his bangs to see Ritutandra's face. "Aw, how sweet of you!" Arko gave him a flying kiss. The boy's face immediately turned red like an apple. Flustered, he said "Y.. yeah. No problem." "Are you done interacting with your fanboy? If yes then leave. If not you can carry on with your flirting outside." Ritutandra said raising an eyebrow.
"Honey, are you jealous?" he asked. "Very. And so very that if you don't shut your crap your honey will set honeybees on you and I guarantee that your face will be stung till you don't recognise yourself." Ritutandra said curling her lips slightly and looking straight at Arko. He gulped. He knew that look. She definitely was not kidding. And everyone in the room looked at Arko with pity and sympathy. He could feel their gazes and knew that it was not impossible for Ritutandra to turn her statement into reality.
Everyone in Ketu knew he was pursuing Ritutandra. He used to send her bouquets. After a week she said that if he did not stop she would have his head and draw flowers on it. At that time he did not believe her but two days later he woke up to see himself in the mirror exactly as she described. His entire head was shaved and different species of colorful flowers were drawn on his head. No matter what he did they did not come off. He had to stay like that for two months! At first, he tried to make himself better saying it was a declaration of her love for him but when he looked up those flowers on the internet he found out that all of them were wild and deadly poisonous. Henceforth no matter how much trouble he created they were not out of line. Ritutandra mainly ignored him or when he was too irritating her glare would shut him up.
"My poor heart." He made a sad expression clutching his heart. "But you can't deny that I'm an amazing pianist." his expression changed in an instant and became arrogant. "Mediocre." Ritutandra spat out. "Huh? Can anyone play like me in this room?... except you of course." Arko smirked. "He can." She pointed towards Bikram who had just come out of the practice room. "Hello. Aren't you the little popular celebrity?" Arko looked at him and said. Bikram furrowed his eyebrows. "So, the five people chosen till now will be the instrumentalists for the folk song." Ritutandra glanced at the people before her and said. The said five people rejoiced while the others congratulated them.
"As for the three instrumentalists for the solo song, it will be me, Arko and Bikram." Everyone exclaimed in surprise hearing her. Bikram also looked at her with astonishment. He felt like he was dreaming. He was about to thank her when she spoke again, "But the main instrumentalists will only be two of us. One is me and the other will be any of you two. Now you need to face off to determine who's going to be the background instrumentalist. Any questions?" No one spoke. It was a given that Ritutandra would be one of the main instrumentalists given her talent in instruments, there was no doubt about that and no one would question that too unless one had the guts to play better than her.
The silence was because of the tension between the competitors. One has been a talented instrumentalist in school for years while the other was a well-known celebrity, the top one at that. Arko was in the top five in the instruments division in Ketu while Bikram has performed live in front of thousands of people and earned their admiration. Each had his fans. Now the fans were torn between who to support, their all-time favourite or the new genius who captured their hearts. Arko was the first to play. He took his seat and warmed up his fingers. After that, he started playing. The piece started with a sharp and high tune and swiftly changed between the high and medium notes. The piece was mostly Allegro while changing to Allegretto sometimes. It kept people excited to see how the changes are happening. His fingers jumped from one key to another in a blur.
In just two minutes he captivated everyone and earned a loud applause. He bowed holding an imaginary hat and said to Bikram "All the best, little celebrity."