People and Preludes Have Difficult Rhythms
We Don't Sell Our Souls10: PEOPLE AND PRELUDES HAVE DIFFICULT RHYTHMS
"Empty," by Winner
“Krav maga…krav maga…where are you…”
School had finished, and Naeil was waiting by the bus stop, scrolling through the numerous results for “krav maga tutorials” on her phone. She had heard krav maga was easy to learn and practical for self-defense, compared to classical martial arts. When she asked her old judo teacher about it, he suggested she just look up a course online and try to pick it up on her own. Problem was, there weren’t many krav maga courses in Korean.
“Seriously? 150,000 won? No way.”
Naeil was just considering the settling for a course in English (which would at least be more understandable than the Russian) when the bus drove up and she hopped in.
Naeil arrived at the church with time to spare, so she stopped by Pastor Lee’s office. It was nice to see him at his desk again, going through papers instead of sneaking upstairs to take food to Jimin. It wasn’t that she didn’t approve of the way he took care of people. She just couldn’t shake this feeling that getting involved with Jimin could put the pastor in danger. That was the last thing she wanted.
Pastor Lee looked up momentarily, blinking through his endearingly unfashionable glasses and smiling at her. “Naeil-ah,” he said. “Have you been standing there for long?”
Naeil shook her head.
“Did you need something?” he asked. He was already getting up, and Naeil immediately began waving her hands around, motioning for him to sit down.
“No, no, I’m fine, aboenim, don’t worry. I was just…thinking, I guess.”
He nodded, sitting back down. “Thinking is good. You have a wonderful mind, you know. You’re already growing up to become an amazing young lady.”
Pastor Lee said things like that to her all the time, but every time, Naeil’s heart almost ached from the warmth of those words. Because if he said it, he really meant it. And there were few people in the world who really meant what they said.
“Are you off to teach piano?” asked Pastor Lee, once again pulling Naeil out of her deep thoughts.
“Oh, yes.”
“I suppose you’ll have to ask that young man to move. Tell him he’s welcome to use the old piano in the dining hall, if he would like to. I know it’s not as nice as the one in the sanctuary, but—”
“Wait. He’s here again?”
‘He’ was Min Yoongi, and he had been hanging out at the church almost every day of that week, ever since he picked up Jimin last weekend. All he did was come in, greet Pastor Lee, play on the piano for about an hour or two, and leave. He left as soon as Naeil’s classes began. It just made him more suspicious in Naeil’s eyes. She was sure he had some ulterior motive. She just didn’t know what it was yet.
Naeil walked to the sanctuary from the other side, so Yoongi wouldn’t see her when she came in at first. Her view of him was partially blocked by the piano. Then his eyes came into view, lids fallen half-way, pupils focused on the keys below. It doesn’t seem like he’s here for a bad reason…but…
His eyes slid upward, locking onto hers for a moment.
“You’re here already?” asked Yoongi, not stopping his playing as Naeil approached.
“Yeah.” She took out her phone and looked at the time. “My student should be here in about five minutes or so.”
“Hm.”
He seemed to take this as license to continue and went on with his song, notes twinkling away as one melody ended and another began.
“…sunbae,” began Naeil, the word sounding a little strange now.
“Mm?”
“Why are you here all the time?”
“I told you. I don’t have a piano. This is a really good piano. Your pastor lets me play on it for free.”
“But there really isn’t a piano anywhere else besides here?”
“…I like this piano.”
Naeil pursed her lips. She came closer and leaned her elbows on the piano, snuggling her face into her palms and staring carefully at Yoongi’s. It wasn’t the most untrustworthy face she had ever seen, but it was just…so…empty. Sometimes she thought he didn’t care about anything. Even now, he seemed completely unfazed by her ill-concealed scrutiny. But she had seen his face soften once, just a little—that time when he came to pick up Jimin. And when he got really into a song, well—his eyes glowed like they were full of starlight.
Naeil grew tired of her fruitless personality analysis and started watching his fingers flitting over the piano keys.
“Is that…D minor?”
“Mm.”
“I like that key lately. Figured out a good song in D minor the other day.”
“Hm.”
Naeil cocked her head a little.
“Are you trying to write something or just messing around?”
“Both, I guess.”
“So…you don’t read music much these days?”
“Sometimes. I’m pretty rusty.”
“Working on anything right now?”
“Bach.”
“Ah…which one?”
“A prelude. Can’t remember the whole title.”
“I like a good Bach prelude. Except they look simple, but they’re so ridiculously hard to perfect.”
“Yeah…” Yoongi finally stopped playing and looked up. “I’m actually stuck right now. The finger work is killing me and I’m messing up the rhythm.”
“You should practice Bach in sequences.”
“Sequence—?”
“Seosaengnim!” came the cry from a boy who had just come in. “I’m heeeeere!”
The boy, about ten years old, shouted this all the way down the aisle until he got to the piano, stopping short at the sight of Yoongi.
“Who on earth are you?” asked the kid.
“I’m a random guy who likes to play piano.”
“I don’t know anyone with green hair who’s good at playing piano.”
Yoongi snorted. “Well, you just met one, you little punk.”
“O-kay, sunbae,” sang Naeil, jabbing him forcefully in the shoulder. “Time for you to leave.”
Yoongi clutched at his shoulder. “Fine, fine!” he cried, sliding off the bench. “I’m going away, see? Aish, what the hell is your finger made of, iron?”
Author’s Note
Ahhhhhh piano. My life. I would probably fall in love with any dude who could talk to me about composers while effortlessly improvising some sweet jams on the keys. We could be poor together HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA dang it.
So, yes. I changed update days again (sorry). That’s partially because I personally would think having such short updates so far apart is annoying but also because other people apparently think the same thing and so I want to do the less annoying thing for you guys because I’m really thankful to all the people who read this story :)
Comments