The Piano
The Piano (One-Shot)
"Do you remember the first time we met?" Kim MiSun asked, turning a page in the book she was reading. Her husband, Kim DongHyun, chuckled at the memory and rested his chin on his wife's shoulder, replying,
"Of course. Why do you ask?"
"I just like remembering," she said in response, looking up from her book to gaze at the aging grand piano in the corner of the room.
* * * *
"You ready?" a boy asked a seventeen-year old DongHyun, who grinned and held up a bag full of spray-paint cans. The first boy laughed and said, "All right! Let's go ruin Principal Yang's life!"
The two teenage boys ran down the hallway to the auditorium, where they had planned to spray-paint random sayings on the stage and sound booth. On the way there, DongHyun heard the sound of a piano emanating from one of the music rooms. His friend kept going, but DongHyun slowed to a stop, listening to the music--not just hearing it. Curiously, he looked through the small window in the door to see a girl playing the piano. Her long straight hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and her bangs hung low over her eyes. She kept her gaze on the piano keys as her hands lithely flew across them, creating the beautiful sound by which DongHyun was enchanted.
Without even realizing it, DongHyun had opened the door and stepped inside, slowly walking towards the girl and the piano. For a while he stared at her hands, how quickly they moved along the keys, but he stared longer at the girl's face. At first glance, she was just blankly watching her own hands as the pressed against the polished wood, but DongHyun saw something in her eyes. He saw the tiny twitches when she wasn't satisfied with the sound. He saw how the bottoms of her eyelids would just barely lift up in an almost invisible eye-smile when she was pleased with what she played. He noticed that the girl never once blinked--how some people would probably find that very strange--but DongHyun didn't think that.
The whole time he listened to her, he didn't blink once either.
Finished with the song, the girl put her hands in her lap and kept looking at the piano. DongHyun, realizing the song was over, cleared his throat and quietly said, "Excuse me..."
Startled, the girl jumped up slightly and put a hand to her chest when she finally took notice of DongHyun's presence. Looking up at him warily, she asked, "How long have you been there..?"
DongHyun sheepishly turned his gaze to his feet as he answered, "Um...for a while..."
The girl had now calmed her breathing and looked away, shyly mumbling, "Sorry, I didn't notice you came in..."
An awkward silence quickly inundated the room, and the two students shifted in discomfort. Desperate to break it, DongHyun took in a deep breath and said, "You play really good--I mean, well. You...you play well. I really like the way you play. N-Not that I've heard you play before, I mean...I don't even know you, but...um..."
DongHyun stopped talking before he could make a bigger fool of himself, and he felt extremely awkward under the girl's gaze. He wished he could look back at her, to see what she was thinking, but he was too embarrassed. A moment of silence passed between them before the girl whispered, just loud enough so DongHyun could hear it,
"Thank you."
Finding some courage within him, DongHyun looked up at her face and found that she was smiling. Suddenly, he felt his heart fill up with warmth, and he couldn't help but smile back.
"My name's Kim DongHyun. What's yours?" he asked the girl, surprised at his own newfound confidence. Her smile widening, the girl answered,
"It's very nice to meet you, Kim DongHyun-sshi. I'm Lee MiSun."
* * * *
Laughing so hard that tears were forming in his eyes, a twenty-six year old DongHyun covered his pink face and exclaimed, "Ah! That was so embarrassing!"
Smiling at her husband squirming in his seat on the couch, MiSun mused, "I thought it was kind of cute how you kept tripping over your own words."
DongHyun playfully glared at his wife and whined, "It was terrible for me... I didn't even know what I was saying. The words just kept coming out."
Hugging him around the waist, MiSun leaned her head against DongHyun's shoulder, kissed his cheek, and whispered,
"I know. I still love you, though."
DongHyun placed a chaste kiss on her temple and put an arm around her smaller figure.
"I love you, too."
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