Senior Mag 2023: Melodies of friendship: from elementary school piano buddies to college roommates

Courtesy of Trevor Leung

Hong and Leung pose for a photo in the music building — the place they spend most of their tutorials and lunches.

The rich, mellow sounds of classical music resonated in the living room as then-second graders Channie Hong and Trevor Leung lounged on their piano teacher’s couch. They remember focusing their attention on Channie’s iPad as they watched “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

“I thought Trevor was just a nerd who loved playing piano at first,” Channie said. “I just saw him as a piano buddy.” 

However, watching movies and working on homework together before piano lessons soon became a weekly ritual, and it marked the start of a decade-long close friendship. The two carried on this tradition with annual outings to the movie theaters in celebration of Channie’s birthday. 

Fast forward a decade: The elementary school piano buddies will be rooming together at UC Berkeley this fall.

However, their friendship was not always as tight-knit as it is now. When Trevor enrolled in Argonaut Elementary School in fifth grade, Channie volunteered to be his designated buddy on the first day of school.

“I didn’t like him at first because he was a teacher’s pet,” Channie said. “But through middle school, we got the same teacher in every single grade, so he grew on me.” 

While Channie joked that Trevor was “a great help for homework,” the two’s friendship grew genuine from their interactions in shared extracurriculars such as orchestra and Science Olympiad. 

Trevor recalled that his favorite memory of them was a sixth grade piano recital. Channie had been assigned to perform directly after Trevor, and was “absolutely killing it at the beginning until he froze up at the end,” Trevor said. Their piano teacher walked up and played the ending chords to finish off the piece for Channie.

“I thought, ‘Man, that was kind of rough on his part, but it was kind of funny,’” Trevor said. 

While shared classes initially helped them forge their close bond in middle school, their friendship continued to flourish throughout high school, despite not sharing a class — aside from freshman year orchestra — until their senior year. 

“The best friendships you make in high school are with people you talk to outside of school and academics,” Trevor said.

When they weren’t hanging out in the music building during tutorials and lunches, they were making trips to the gym and Channie’s house after school or over the weekends.

“We’d known we’d be close friends, but we never thought we would be going to the same college and rooming together,” Trevor said.

Due to their differing majors, the two had applied to “mostly different schools” with little overlap in their college lists.

“But it worked out in the end,” Trevor said. “Fate brought us together.”

As their friendship evolved, so did their forms of correspondence: They started off communicating via emails in fifth grade, transitioned to Google Hangouts in middle school, then Facebook Messenger until their sophomore year, before finally switching to Discord — the platform on which Trevor announced to Channie that he’d been accepted to UC Berkeley in late March.

After Channie finished swim practice, he saw the Discord message, checked his own application portal and eagerly called Trevor to rejoice in their college admissions.

With Trevor majoring in bioengineering and Channie majoring in economics, the friends are excited to create new memories in college. They plan to explore their new campus, try new foods and enjoy their time together.

“I’m looking forward to making new memories with Trevor,” Channie said. “How cool is it that you get an opportunity to room with someone you’ve known since second grade?”