Arpeggio: An Analysis

I shall assume you are reading this blog post because you were, at some point, confused while reading the story Arpeggio. If you are here for pure entertainment, all the better.

Let's begin with the significance of the title. An arpeggio in musical terminology is a progression of notes in a given sequence. Unlike a scale (your typical doh-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do) an arpeggio skips a few notes once in a while and can be visually represented as such:

Each section of this story corresponds to a note in a basic C major arpeggio. The arpeggio motif was chosen to highlight Yoona's time travel in this story. I'm sure you noticed the abrupt changes in weather and I assure you, it was an intentional attempt to draw your attention to her time jumps. To clarify, each time that Yoona takes the subway to her music academy, she is transported into a point in the future. Each time she takes the train back home, she returns to the present. Without getting into complicated time travel theories, we will say that time for her is linear and she disappears from the present as soon as she is arrives in the future. 

For those of you who have some knowledge of music, you will notice that each jump reflects the structure of an arpeggio: while Yoona only skips a week between C₁ and E, she jumps two weeks between G and C₂ (which is why Luhan is so forward with her because they have already become friends during that time). Once Yoona has reached the peak of the arpeggio (C₂), she can no longer skip forward in time and eventually returns to the beginning (C₁₎ where she meets Luhan in the present. Below is a rough timeline of her adventures.   

If you take a closer look at the dates, the change in season is another motif I was trying to incorporate (it just so happened that Yoona's actual birthday is at the end of May which made everything work beautifully). The story begins in the middle of winter where we are first introduced to a Yoona that is solitary and apathetic. It's not that she doesn't want to care, it's because she can't, having been alone for such a long time with only music as her company. However, as her present time moves forward and she encounters Luhan, she begins to open up. When we arrive at the last scene, it is spring and she has finally awoken, having realized that the music she so loves is more beautiful when there is someone to share it with. Yoona's introversion is highlighted by her lack of participation in conversations. In fact, all of the dialogue is one-sided until the end of the story, where she finally takes the initiative to speak.

I  hope the explanation improved your understanding and appreciation of the story, even a little bit. Of course, you are welcome to interpret it however you wish but I did want to share the significant themes that inspired me. Thank you for taking the time to read both the story and the analysis and feel free to leave me any questions below.