[Music Recommendation: "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips" by O'Neill Brothers (instrumental only)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

"See? I told you, she's lying," Hora smirked, and waggled her eyebrows towards Crystal. "She's like that, never appreciating herself. Tsk, tsk, tsk."

"I agree," Crystal nodded. Since when did these two become two peas in a pod?

"But it's really not—"

"Let me tell you this, Missy," Crystal raised her forefinger like a lecturer. "There are different kinds of voices in the world, all unique and beautiful to their own. "One, is like mine—a diva. I'm Soprano and I can sing really high notes, and kick a powerful punch into it. Then, there's Hora's kind which is an Alto, and somehow the husky, sexy type of voice."

"What? My voice is not sexy."

"Hate to break it to you, dearie, but it is."

Hora burst out laughing.

"And there's also your type, Senara, which is a Mezzo-Soprano in a way that's cool and soothing to the ear. It's like listening to calm water or spring."

"Yes, that's right. It's like when you sing a lullaby. Anyone who hears it can easily sleep."

"Uh-huh. So don't go comparing your voice to a diva's or others. You'll be comparing apples to oranges."

"Hmmm…" I tried to ponder about what they said.

"Don't 'hmmm' us."

"If you don't believe it, listen to this."

And Crystal played a recording of my voice—yes, for some reason she managed to record it in the nick of time. I always wondered how she's so great at pulling out her phone. She could be a reporter with her preparedness.

With all honesty to myself, trying to remove all my biased opinions about my voice, and listening to the recording… alright, I had to agree. I wasn't so tone-deaf after all.

"Okay, fine. But what's the use of having a good voice? I'm not trying to be a singer. My dream is to be a writer."

"Well my brother has a really nice voice, too, and he's not planning to be a singer as well."

"It may come in handy someday."

"Handy in what way? And wait a minute, Kaiden can sing?" I couldn't believe it.

"Yes," Crystal shrugged. "He's a jack of all trades so he's good at basically anything. You should see how many clubs tried to recruit him. Be it sports, arts, or things that require his genius, he can do it. Even cooking! He got all the good genes and I'm left with nothing but my pretty face and voice. Can you believe that? Ugh. The world can be so cruel!"

Hora and I chuckled. We didn't expect that. Plus, the way Crystal complained about it was so funny. She had a knack for keeping things entertaining.

When dinner time came, Crystal had the greatest idea of throwing a barbecue party instead of a normal dinner since we were all youngsters. Callan and Verrill were with us and we could all use the time to get to know each other according to her. So she ordered the maids to prepare it at the grilling area near the swimming pool—the perfect spot for a night time barbecue session.

Once ready, we all headed at the backyard of the house where the pool was. Long, cozy couches were set up in front of each other, with a long outdoor barbecue table in between like those you usually see in Korean barbecue restaurants. All the meats, veggies, side dishes, condiments, drinks, and other things we'll need were arranged neatly, along with the dinnerwares. We all just had to sit and grill all we wanted.

And so we all sat down like how we were during lunch at the school's not-so-cafeteria. It was funny how the six of us already had our seating arrangement fixed. We didn't even need to talk about it.

We laughed and chatted noisily as we ate. At one point, Callan sneakily asked the maids to get some wine or alcohol but Kaiden caught him and gave him a smack on the head. It seemed that Kaiden hated the smell of alcohol. How convenient! I hated the smell of alcohol, too.

I grinned thinking how we had similar likes—yeah, like a hopeless romantic, imagining a checklist of our similarities in my mind and ticking them when I found something common between us. Oh no. It seemed that my crush on him was just getting deeper. Dangerous, really dangerous.

In contrast to Callan, Verrill was a kind and polite person. He seemed to be the caring, loyal, gentleman type now that we've spoken to him. His smiles were so kind and out of the three of them—him, Callan, and Kaiden, I'd have to say that he's the most angelic one.

And that's not all! Verrill was a prodigy in music! He could play any instrument—literally! Though according to him, the piano was his favourite. No wonder he was so prim and proper like a prince. Most musically inclined people were kind and had a calm personality, as far as my knowledge goes.

Crystal urged Verrill to play but there was no piano outside. Instead, he played the guitar and we all sang to his music. I made sure my voice wasn't so loud though. Callan was a bit out of tune. Good thing Kaiden sang as well and Crystal was right. His voice was so beautiful and sexy—a baritone. Wait, did I just think of his voice as sexy again? Come on, Senara! Stop!

Anyway, it was a really fun and informative dinner. I guess Crystal's plan worked out—we did get to know each other. Turned out, Callan wasn't so detestable at all. He was really just the rowdy, mischievous, and naughty type of friend.

One interesting knowledge I gained was the reason why they were all so lean and muscular despite being in their teens. And it was all because of Callan. He was a "triathlete" and he was so good that he even competes and wins during yearly Triathlons. Of course, being an athlete, he needed to practice almost daily to which he mostly dragged Kaiden and Verrill with him. Thus, turning them to the hot studs they all were.

After hours of chatting that seemed to never stop, a cawing sound from afar distracted us.

Caw! Caw! Caw!

Then, a big raven flew towards us. The raven's dark feathers were so shiny and had a tinge of dark violet. Its eyes looked proud and as it flew nearer, the more stunning it became.

"What a beautiful raven," I murmured to myself, amazed by its beauty.

"Kyaaa! A raven!" Hora screamed out loud as she jolted up from her seat. "It probably smelled the aroma of the meat."

It was only then that I remembered ravens could be a pretty dangerous bird.