A brown piano was playing the most beautiful melody he had ever heard

Park Jimin had always been a runner. A runner in any possible way. He runs when he doesn’t know what to do. He runs when he is sad or angry. He runs every morning to keep himself active and fit. He runs to see the boy. From little on he also ran away: from responsibility, from relationships, from problems, from uncomfortable situations. While for others jogging could be exhausting he loved the burning feeling in his lungs, when he sped up right before finishing and he would never want to miss the power he felt when the landscape rushes past him, because of his own speed. It already became a habit when he was little and noticed he was faster than others his age and over time it became a healing for him, whenever he had problems. For a moment he could forget what bothers him and weighed him down, because the only thing he heard was his blood rushing through his veins and the only thing he felt while running was the burning of his muscles and lungs…This was way more bearable than what awaited him if he held in and let everything happen. Being in action all the time had the advantage of not having to think about what pressed you down.

Jimin used to be a small kid and still was a small young man, but while running he felt more alive than anytime else. What had always made him content besides running was observing the people around him. Tall men, lanky women, lonely grandpas, bubbly kids and annoying teenagers. Jimin knew them all, he read peoples’ expressions like other people would read books and he always found something interesting. Just last week he had sat  across a middle aged man in a café who had done nothing but stare into space for hours while sipping a few gulps of his drink every thirty minutes and Jimin had wondered what bothered him. He had never get to known it, but he imagined the man being a low paid worker, who had to cover for his wife and five kids. Thinking like this made Jimin feel better… like others besides him also had problems they had to deal with. Until then nothing particularly special had happened to Jimin before, but it changed one day.

While he normally jogged the same route every morning through a park he had been forced to take another this day, because the park where closed for reparations. First Jimin had been disappointed but just ten minutes later he couldn’t have been more thankful for this old willow in the park falling across the road. His feet had just guided him through the unfamiliar streets and somewhere between his panting and blood rushing some noise had bothered him. A noise that shouldn’t be there…The tunes of a piano! Curious Jimin had been running towards the noise and to his utter surprise he had found the source of it just around the corner right on a small quiet quarter anyone would probably oversee by accident. In this corner Jimin had watched astonished how a boy fairly around his own age played the brown piano standing abandoned on the pedestrian way.

A brown piano was playing the most beautiful melody he had ever heard

All Jimin had ever seen was the back of this dark haired guy, but he felt like he knew him from inside out. The tune the boy had played that day never left his mind for the next hours. The music piece had been heart wrenching and had left a weird taste in Jimins mouth, like he had not drank enough for a day. Before he even had noticed he had felt how something cold ran down his cheeks and as he had touched his face surprised he had recognized the clear liquid as tears that ran down his face. Silently, to not disturb the guy Jimin had sniffled to stop the tears from dripping down, but they just wouldn’t. And this way Jimin had cried the first time in a long time and he cried for someone whose face he didn’t know and who he didn’t know at all.

Captivated Jimin had stood in the empty street and couldn’t move a muscle while he listened to the piano playing melody after melody, one more beautiful than the other. For the first time in years he hadn’t felt the need to run but the urge to stay and listen to the boy playing forever. Besides running Jimin had found something soothing to calm him and make him feel alive. The irony surprised even himself, because while the boy played like he was heartbroken and lost Jimin found consolation and piece in it like in running. The next day his feet had guided him to the small corner by themselves and while he had hoped for the boy to play again he hadn’t been very confident that he would be, but as soon as he had gotten closer to the place he could fathom the faint sounds of someone playing. Never had Jimin run fast than in this minute and never had he been more relieved to see the small frame of the boy. From then on he had never again run through the park.

The pieces the boy played never sounded familiar to Jimin, but they were still the most beautiful music he had ever heard, not only because they were well performed, but because they reflected his emotions perfectly. He debouched in the sound and rhythm of it and it led him to discover places in himself he didn’t know existed. Jimin never had been a believer or religious, but if he would have to choose something close how believers probably felt he would choose these little minutes in the morning when he listened to the boy play. And he always did. The boy didn’t miss to show up even one day of the week and Jimin started to jog because he wanted to listen to him and not because he wanted to run away from something. He ran to something not from something.

Today too Jaimin found the corner without problems, by now he would be able to find the spot with his eyes closed and the relief flushed through his body in waves as soon as he heard the familiar sound.

A brown piano was playing the most beautiful melody he had ever heard.

He stopped at his usual spot behind a tree, where he wouldn’t be seen and observed the boy. His small frame and dark hair had become so familiar that Jimin was sure to differentiate him in a crowd of hundred strange persons within seconds. Still he had never seen his face. He hadn`t had the courage to approach the guy he literary stalked since three month now and besides his piano playing he didn’t know anything about him, but that he was his lucky charm and around his age. Jimin was afraid to destroy what he had built over the weeks by seeing him. What if he had a totally different face than he would expect and what if he would never play again, if he showed because he would be too shy to do so. Most of all Jimin was afraid to be rejected by the person he felt so close with while never having talked to him.

The melody made a weird dissonant hopping sound and Jimin heard the boy cursing. A small smile formed on his lips, beca