02 | The Name
My Perfect Stranger
✗ Kim Rima ✗
"Let's see what I can do now...," I stop my steps and look around. It's almost midnight and I have walked away from my house for at least thirty minutes. It's not really difficuly to sneak out from that house since the security is not really tight.
Honestly speaking, instead of feeling guilty to leave my father alone in that house, I feel quite happy since I finally can do something on my own starting from now.
For your note, I'm not a rebelious kid. Even though I am the only daughter of a wealthy family, it doesn't make me the spoiled brat who acts like a Princess, who loves to spend money for fashion stuffs, jewelries, or going all around the world.
I'm not the tomboy type as well. Even though I don't really like pink color, but I can make sure that I'm not the kind of girl who likes boyish stuffs.
I'm just an ordinary girl who happens to live a luxurious life. I am indeed grateful with what I have but I will be more grateful if my father is not this stubborn, trying to bound me with his principal.
At first I was only a little girl who was treated really well by all people around me. Even though my father was really protective that he believed that a private tutor was enough for me, I never complained though since Yujin was taking a really good care of me. She's like my own older sister that I never had.
I don't go to public school. I don't have too many friends. I don't have siblings. Like other daughters would do, I just wanted to have a happy family, living a peaceful life.
Things changed.
Ever since my mother left him for another man three years ago, I've been living a life like a prisoner even in my own house. When I was ten years old, three of us moved to New York and my father struggled to have a success business.
After five years, my father was finally recognized as one of the most successful businessman. My father somehow turned into a really strict person who always told me that a world is not kind for every person and I must work really hard if I want to survive.
It may sound cliche but since he started to drown in his work and slowly abandoned me and my mother, my mother started to seek for her lost happiness and I guess she finally found it from this man who worked as a composer in New York.
I was sixteen years old that time and even I realized that it's wrong for my mother to cheat behind my father. Ironically I must admit that this man was the one who made me realize that I really loved music.
He taught me how to read musical notes, how to play a piano, and finally made me realized that music was my passion. Before my father found out about my mother, this man and Yujin noticed that I had a special gift called absolute pitch.
Absolute pitch, also reffered as perfect pitch, is an ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference.
I finally knew that it's the reason why I only need around one or two times to memorize a song. Now that I am really familiar with musical notes, I can even write down the notes of a song immediately after hearing the song carefully.
I had no idea how to describe the happiness I was feeling when I knew I could do something more than others. Unfortunately everything went out of my hope and then my mother was divorced by my father and she didn't object wih the decision as well.
She tried to beg my father for my custody but he refused and the decision was made; I must stay with my father. I thought it wouldn't be a problem but I was really wrong.
He started to forbid me from doing what I loved the most. Till this moment he really hates music because it reminds him with the man who took my mother away from him. Though he let me play piano and violin, I knew it's only for creating an image of elegant daughter of Kim family in front of his colleagues.
A week ago my father finally decided to return to Seoul. I was thinking of a possibility of him giving me my freedom to do what I loved but I was wrong... again.
Now that I am all alone without him, I have no idea what I must do actually. I don't know where I must go. I don't know what I must do to prove to my father that music can help me live even without him.
The question is how can I do it?
I need to find a place to stay. That's the first idea I have in mind. I step in the nearest cafe from my stand, hoping that someone can help me recommend a place where I can stay tonight. If there is no option for me, then a hotel will do.
I decide to ask the waiter about where a young girl like me can stay. He apologizes to me, telling me that he has no idea to help me. I bow to him, thanking him for his time.
When I turn around to seek for another help, a man with black hat is standing in front of me. He shows me my wallet, "You dropped this. Be careful next time."
"Ah!" I take it back and bow to him politely, "Thank you. Thank you."
How could I be so careless? Ah, yes, because I rarely walked out around by myself. I usually went out with my mother before she divorced with my father or perhaps Yujin would be my company.
Why do I feel lonely now?
While the stranger who just returned my wallet heads back to his seat, I am ready to leave when I realize he stops all of a sudden, staring at his empty table.
Curiosity takes over me and I approach him slowly. He doesn't look really happy as if something just happened to the table where he sat before.
"I'm sorry...," I murmur calmly and the man turns to look at me with shock on his face. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes, I just-" he stops and I am quite surprised by his voice. He sounds really mad and frustrated. "Someone just stole my notebook."
Without waiting for my reply, he sits on the chair, burying his face in his hands. A guilty feeling strikes me; if I didn't drop my wallet, he would never leave his seat and nothing would happen to his notebook, right?
"Aish, how can I finish a song now?" he rubs his temple impatiently. "I don't even remember the refrain part."
"A song?" I repeat out loud and quickly sits in front of him. An unexplained feeling of happiness to meet someone who has an interest in music fills my heart. "Are you a composer?"
"Kind of," he replies with a frown. I know he must be wondering why I even bother to ask about his job. "I have a sample of the song I need to finish inside."
Despite the fact that I am one of the anti-social type, I know for sure that I must make an amend when I've done a mistake to someone. This stranger has helped me and I must help him too, don't I?
"Do you still remember the notes or maybe how the song sounds like?" I dare myself to ask him. If he remembers at least how to sing it, I can write down the notes for him so he can continue his composing.
"Not really," he answers me, lowering down his hands. "I think I remember how to sing the first verse though."
That's enough for me.
"I...," my lips turn into a curve, "I think I can help you."
There are seconds of silence between us before he clears his throat awkwardly and asks me a really honest question, "How can you help me when you just met me?"
That's a good question. How can I answer him?
✗ Yong Junhyung ✗
Instead of giving me an answer, the girl takes out a spiral-bound notebook. I recognize it as a songbook because when she flips open the book to find a blank page, I can see musical notes on every page.
"Let's give a try," she states and then takes a pencil she put in the middle of the spiral-bound. "I'll try to identify the notes from the way you sing it."
"What?" I can't help myself to blurt the word out. This girl is really ridiculous if she is trying to make me act like a fool. Is it a new attempt of a fraud?
"I have this...," she pauses for seconds before continues, "...talent. I just want to help you. Don't worry. I promise I will help you if you just let me."
Not feeling really sure about her words yet I'm curious about her little talent she is talking about, I decide to test her. Not that I am the cruel person but, hey, I don't want to be fooled, do I?
"I don't have a good voice," I tell her beforehand, not wanting her to laugh at me. She gives me a quick nod and I take a deep breath before start to sing the refrain of "On Rainy Days".
"Biga oneun naren nareul chajawa
Bameul saewo goerophida
Biga geuchyeogamyeon neodo ttaraseo
Seoseohi jogeumssik geuchyeogagetji"
On the rainy days you come and find me
Torturing me through the night
When the rain starts to stop, you follow
Slowly, little by little, you will stop as well
I stop and then glance at her. She doesn't laugh at all. She doesn't even smile. Her eyes are locked on her own booksong while she taps the pencil on the table numerous times before she writes down musical notes on the blank page.
Doesn't she know that it's a song by BEAST? I'm kind of disappointed to know that the young girl like her doesn't know about one of our most popular songs.
"Here," she is done and then she shifts the booksong to me, to show me what she has written. I read it and my eyes widen in shock because every note she wrote is perfect.
Whether she already knew the song and acted like she doesn't know or she really has this talent to recognize musical notes just by listening to a song.
"Wait...," a thought crosses my mind suddenly. I look up and study her face. "Do you have an absolute pitch?"
She looks surprised by my question. She heaves a sigh and answers me calmly, "Yes, I do."
While I'm amazed by her answer because it's the first time for me to meet someone who has an absolute pitch ability in person, she breaks the silence, "I thought you said you remembered the first verse. This part sounds like a refrain part."
I am taken aback by her statement. How can I tell her that I was only giving a shot of her words?
"I have another one," I answer awkwardly. I try to remember the real one I want to create as a new song and then my bottom lip nervously, "Can I start now?"
She gives me a nod and then takes the songbook from me. I start to sing the first verse I have made slowly.
Just like before, she listens to me carefully and then starts to write down the musical notes after I finish my singing. I find it really interesting when she puts on the serious expression on her face, writing down the notes with her eyes never leave the page.
As soon as she finishes it, she shows it to me and I try to imagine the song in my mind. She opens and says, "I'm sorry if I'm being rude but I think it will be better if you put some additional notes because you're going to enter the refrain part after this, right?"
I shift my gaze from the musical notes to the girl. Her black thick-rimmed glasses and long black hair doesn't make her the most beautiful girl I ever met. There is nothing really special from her like white and fair skin or cute image.
It's simply the confident smile she has on her lips which makes my curiosity about her increases.
"You don't really need to do this. You know it, right?" I tell her, wondering about what she is thinking right now, sitting with a stranger at midnight, writing down musical notes for me. "You don't even know me."
"I insist to help you because I am the one who caused the incident," she replies. "Plus if you love to compose music, I'm pretty sure you're a good person."
What kind of mindset is that?
"Let's do give-and-take here since I don't want to have a life debt with someone else," I close the songbook and move it back to her side. I am really grateful for her help but having a debt to a girl is not really cool, isn't it? "What can I do for you?"
The girl blinks and tilts her head, thinking of something in her mind. She mutters calmly, "I need a place to stay. There are some issues occured and I must live apart from my parents for this moment. Do you have any idea where I can stay?"
Ah, a girl with family issues. I remember that there is an empty apartment in my apartment building. The woman who stayed there just moved after she's married. Maybe this girl can stay there.
"I don't even know your name yet," I finally speak my thought out loud. "My name is Yong Junhyung."
I thought I would see her gasp with surprise when she finally heard my name but she doesn't even give a glimpse of surprise on her face.
"My name is Seo Rima," she bows slightly, introducing herself. She straightens her body and then gives me a smile. "Anyway, Junhyung, who said that you don't have a good voice? Your voice is really good."
I look down and quickly take my coffee, pretending that I'm busy drinking it while I'm actually blushing because of her words.
She is not trying to compliment me for something. I don't know why but I just know it; she's just saying what's on her mind.
Rima.
A stranger who came into my life in the right time.
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