Chopin - Prelude in B minor 

"I hate this song."

 "Okay."

"No, I really hate it."

"Okay."

"With a burning passion."

"Okay."

"If I had the chance, I would totally launch it into the sun."

"Kyuhyun..."

"Like seriously, it's such a downer. I think launching it into the sun would do us all a favour."

"Kyuhyun, just play the damn song."

"Ugh, fine."

Meet Yesung, a young piano teacher. Having been part of a long line of pianists and musicians, his future was pretty much carved out for him. Though the pressure and expectations from his grandparents can be rather intense at times, he doesn't mind. He enjoys piano, and it's certainly not due to the countless hours spent perfecting scales and those forsaken chords, it's mostly due to the music. Yesung had a difficult time putting his appreciation and devotion to music into words, but music was definitely something so...so...so great, dynamic, so present yet discreet, music was satisfying and never let him down, it had promises of greatness no matter what he played, it made him feel good and for him it was all that mattered. It had many facets, but most of all, it was never perfect, there was always something more to do, a single piece could be played a lifetime without perfection. He would never reveal this to anyone, it was much simpler to simply say he liked music. If he ever heard that, Yesung didn't even want to imagine the amount of teasing he'd go through...

He was his student. He was kind of an .

The problem was his age. Yesung was barely twenty one, and this...this devil had just turned seventeen. There was no way, in no situation what so ever that demon would respect him. Sure he respected him musically, Yesung was more than qualified for his job, despite having finished his studies in a private Conservatory of Music, he had proceeded to University to study music. He respected that, it was all the rest he didn't respect.

He was Cho Kyuhyun, the teenager his father had left him to teach. Retiring after fourty years of teaching, his father claimed that the ten years he had spent teaching Kyuhyun were a delight, and that it would be a shame to let a talent like that waste away for lack of a teacher. Yesung had met Kyuhyun at the many recitals his father had organised, and had seen the determination and passion he had for piano, so he immediately accepted. What he wasn't made aware of, was the relentless wit, sarcasm, and dry humour the boy possessed, and the fact that on some days he turned into a demon and turned the quiet lesson Yesung had imaged into something resembling the fiery pits of hell. To be fair, Kyuhyun was probably the reincarnation of Satan's butthole, so Yesung should have expected it.

The lessons were one hour long, fortunately for him, and he was paid more than enough. Kyuhyun's parents were both professors, and they insisted on having Kyuhyun learn something more than his elite math and science program at school, so they chose to make him learn the piano. But Kyuhyun didn't seem to dislike piano, which would have been the case for most teenagers in this situation. Kyuhyun didn't hate the piano, and he didn't hate Yesung either, though sometimes he wondered, what Kyuhyun hate the most was Chopin. And Gershwin, but that was a whole other story.

When he had told his father he wanted Kyuhyun to play Chopin for one of the many competitions his parents had signed him up for, his father had laughed, not a sarcastic and dismissive laugh, but a genuine laugh. Like it was the silliest thing his son had ever told him (despite Yesung having once claimed that he had telepathic abilities with turtles). His father had wished him luck and had left chuckling to himself.

And now he knew why.

"Yesung," he whined, "why Chopin? Why this piece of all the pieces you could have picked. Do you think there was anything duller available for me to play? How about I just lay my head on the piano for five minutes, that'll be more cheerful than this."

His disgust was evident. Lo and behold, Yesung had picked Chopin's Prelude in B minor. A classic, though it was technically part of the Romantic era, and a particularly nice piece, solid, and quite nice to listen to with all the rough edges smoothened out.

"What's wrong with Chopin? His music is very thorough and absolutely beautiful. Why are you always picking on him?"

"Yesung, do you even know anything about this guy?"

"Of course," he answered. He loved Chopin and he knew all about his tragic past and struggles, "he was Polish and took refuge in Paris after political scrimmage in Poland. He never got married, and he died of tuberculosis."

Kyuhyun nodded, "good, I was beginning to wonder whether you had left your head at home."

"What's you point?"

"Well, you know who goes to Paris, the city of love, and writes a depressing piece like that? Chopin. And depressed people. You're asking me to play the sorrow of a man...concentrated sorrow right there on this page in front of me. Do you really want me to do that?"

"It's sometimes nice to hear a sad song."

Kyuhyun nodded and played the B minor chord and turned his head towards Yesung."Do you heard that?" He played it again, "that's the sound of me getting so depressed because of that stupid song. Maybe I'll mope around for days, hell, maybe I'll start to write my own depressing music. Is that really what you want?"

Really, there was no winning with this guy, it was better just to change the subject.

"Just play the damn song, Kyuhyun. People appreciate this sort of stuff, no matter what you say."

Kyuhyun finally started the song, playing the ascending arpeggio with left hand, and the right hand playing softer B minor chords. Kyuhyun played it fairly well, which really bugged Yesung. He was proud of his student and his progression, he didn't quite understand Kyuhyun's hatred for Chopin. He passed the particularly difficult part, with double sharps that even he apprehended, and that Kyuhyun once described as "easy as making julienne vegetables with a butter knife" and finished the song in a soft pianissimo.

Why did Kyuhyun hate Chopin so much? It wasn't the music itself, Kyuhyun knew to appreciate the genius behind his pieces, and the aesthetics of the sound Chopin had despite them being rather sad. Or perhaps that was the key. He had never seen Kyuhyun sad, the closest thing he ever got to sadness was a sarcastic one liner and silence. That was it! The way Kyuhyun played this song, it was nicely executed, the dynamics, the notes, rhythms, tempo,  it was all very nice and Yesung was satisfied, but it was in performance that there was place for some much needed improvements. Kyuhyun played Chopin, he didn't perform Chopin, and as pretentious as it sounded, it was the perfect way to describe it. Kyuhyun hated sadness, so he hated Chopin.

"I know you're smiling stupidly. Why are you smiling stupidly?"

"Have you ever heard of something called a rubato?"

"Is it Italian for rubber ducky?"

Sometimes, Yesung really wanted to smack that smug smirk off his face. "It's a generally non prescribed artistic freedom allowing to accelerate or decelerate slightly. Something like robbing time without actually losing the tempo. It adds to the musicality of the piece, not so much the technicality. Try it."

"From the top?"

"Yes, and try to strategically place them. Though it's more of a feeling thing, using it too much will seem redundant and will make you lose points in a competition."

Kyuhyun gave him a non committed shrug and began the piece, following the general pattern that was prescribed for dynamics with the new notion Yesung had given him: accelerate in the ascending runs, decelerate in the descending runs. He slowed the piece at the difficult part, sometimes saying it would theoretically be "more pleasant to receive a cat's barbed up his " than to play that particular part, and gradually slowed the song in the last three measures.

Yesung hummed as Kyuhyun turned and quirked his eyebrow. "It's very nice, you play very nicely and it is all fairly accurate, though you did play an E instead of a D in measure three, but don't you think you could maybe put a little musicality into it? I mean, this is Chopin and this is from the Romantic era, you're allowed a bit of musical freedom. Get your head in the game, you know?"

"You are such a loser." Kyuhyun said, shaking his head in disbelief at his teacher.

"You know, I'm four years older than you."

"It's three and a half, what's your point?"

"It's all the same," Yesung dismissed, "in dog years I'm forty years older than you, so use honorifics."

"In dog years, we'd both be dead."

Yesung dismissed him again, seeing the time and calculating they'd have time for one last play through of the Prelude before the end of the lesson.

"I'm serious," Yesung stated. This usually worked to get Kyuhyun back on track. "Play it like you mean it. This is not just some song, this is the thoughts of a man, mind you probably depressed and wallowing in despair. But as a student and as a pianist, you have to respect that, and you have to honour the decision of Chopin to compose this piece the way it is.

"You sound like your dad, but unlike you, he just gave up the idea of having me play Chopin."

"Play it, no perform it."

It was truly beautiful, and it were performances like these that convinced Yesung to keep teaching Kyuhyun despite it all. Kyuhyun was extremely talented and could make quite the performance when he put his mind to it. Yesung could finally hear the story the piece was telling, and he could feel the sadness resonating in the relentless chords of B minor...B minor truly was a tragic sounding key.

Kyuhyun finished with a face, like he had tasted something foul that had left a bitter taste in his mouth. With his latest findings on the boy's personality, he could understand, he just didn't know why. But that was for another lesson.

"Well, if you play it like that at the competition, I can assure you, you'll win. That was beautiful Kyuhyun, see what happens when you put feeling into a song instead of just playing the notes? It really makes all the difference."

Kyuhyun just shrugged him off.

"Your competition is on Tuesday, right? I'll make sure to be there, I don't have class in the morning. Practice those rubato, and make the dynamics more dramatic. Don't forget to go slow, you don't rush a Chopin, it's like a deadly sin, and really try to get into Chopin's mindset before you perform it for the judges."

Yesung packed his bags, still not getting anything but shrugs from Kyuhyun, until he escorted him to the door. Leaning against the doorframe, his bags in hand, Yesung gave Kyuhyun last minute advice, rambling about finger flexibility exercises and the dangers of tendinitis when Kyuhyun interrupted him.

"You win this round Yesung, but I am not playing Chopin ever again."

Yesung laughed, "we'll see about that..."

A/N

Well I hope that lived up to everyone's expectations. I think I went a bit heavy on the imagery in this chapter, maybe that cat metaphore was not necessary but what the hell, it was funny. Or at least, I found it funny. Feel free to yell at me if I get too carried away by musical terms and I don't explain enough, I had a very strange piano teacher that had me counting the french equivalent of peanut butter when I encountered 16th notes so bear with me. In the end, hopefully everyone can learn something. I would also like to say that I do like Chopin, but he was depressed and his songs are sometimes depressing to play. 

Thanks to everyone who commented, please subscribe, comment, and enjoy. I'll be uploading the second chapter soon, about Beethoven.