The breeze was a bit cool, but warm enough to not let her shiver in her white fluffy dress. She was also grateful that the stylists did not insist on heels because then she would be sinking in the soil. The river’s water was nice and serene, rippling gently along like a wide sheet of silk along a passing breath of wind. 

Luhan’s fingers felt nice intertwined with hers, long and slender against her shorter ones. She hoped she moisturized her hands enough so they weren’t too blunt against his. Piano lessons could be harsh on skin sometimes. Not to mention her part time job which probably should be for men. But anyways. Luhan planted his feet after awhile, and she looked up at him who smiled down at her with the bright moon slightly lighting up his beautiful face.

“Let us sit, shall we?” he motioned her towards the patch of bright green grass closer to the river. She nodded and smiled back.

Jenny smoothed down the back of her dress before sitting down but Luhan stopped her as she did.

“Wait,” he said and shrugged off the black blazer he was wearing, shook it off and placed it neatly against the grass. He then smiled at Jenny and motioned for her to sit. Biting her lip and trying to ignore the beating of her heart, she sat down on his blazer. He then sat comfortably beside her and took back the hand he was holding earlier.

She decided that maybe she was given the privilege to look at him all she wanted. Nonetheless she looked at him. As she did, she thought she would always, ALWAYS treasure the way he looked under the moonlight. He looked ahead, at the sparkling waters which made his brown eyes twinkle like diamonds. It even made them look a bit more like amber and not brown. Under the moonlight, the shadows that the angles of his face gave, and the plains that they shaded on his face made him look more like a painting; a masterpiece of delicate hands, weaving delicate through canvas to create perfection. And that was what Luhan was: Perfection. And nothing, not even the fact that he shifted his eyes from the waters to hers made look away.

“Hey,” he chuckled, “before anything about me,” he cleared his throat, “I want to know a little more about you, Jenny Lee,” he gestured his free hand towards her, pulling their connected hands to his lips, kissing briefly at the back of hers.

“Anything,” she whispered into the dark and he seemed pleased by that.

“Uhmm…” he pursed his lips and squinted up at the moon as he thought, and she thought he looked adorable like that, his eyes turned into slits and his shapely lips thinned out. “Ah!” he exclaimed and she giggled at the very Korean acquired way of letting someone know that the light over his head just lit up.

“Tell me about piano,” he started, “What got you into music? What made you want to play? Did your parents make you? Why did you like it so much that you decided to take it to the end?” she giggled a little at the way he asked the questions. He sounded like a news reporter.

“Uhhmm…” it was her turn to purse her lips, “It’s a bit of a long story….but I’ll keep it short but interesting.” 

Luhan shifted beside her and saw that he angled himself so he was facing her more than the river. She racked her brains to make it short because it really was a long story.

“Well,” she started, “I was enrolled for Ballet when I was three years old. I saw ballerinas on tv and thought they were so beautiful with their flexibility, their fluidity. As a child, I of course knew nothing of flexibility and fluidity…but the way they moved looked so beautiful to me that I wished to move like that, to have so much control of my body, to have control and strength. I asked my parents for lessons and they were quite willing, despite the fact that I was three. But they were supportive, like they always were. After a while of being in it…well, not a while but maybe about three months, we were told that we got to do recitals. I didn’t understand what that meant at first, but when we saw our teacher’s performance one day, I surely got excited.

‘Mr. Chang will be here to play the piano for you guys!’ our teacher told us, ‘listen to his music and we will make a choreography to it!’ our teacher announced so excitedly. We all sat on the floor, our little tutus puffed up around us. A man then came in and we all looked at him. He was a tall skinny man with eyeglasses hanging low on his tall nose. He seemed familiar and we realized he was the man that played at our teacher’s performance. He proceeded to the grand piano that sat in the corner of the room. The piano always sat there in the corner. No one was allowed to touch it other than if our teacher played for us to dance to. But she only played for fun. She was good, but not as good as Mr. Chang. 

Mr. Chang sat down and opened a book of music in front of him before hovering his fingers over the keyboard. He then started playing a piece that until now I still do not recognize, but it was so fun and upbeat and he looked like he wasn’t a person. He didn’t look like he was playing on the piano. He didn’t look like he was a musician and the piano was his instrument. As he played and moved along with the music….he looked like he was part of the grand piano. It looked like the instrument and the musician are of one entity. Mr. Chang was so immersed into his music that he let it flow through him, he let himself be part of the instrument to make music together…..it looked like a masterpiece in itself, it did not just sound like a masterpiece….after that, I wanted to learn how to do that. Although the song Mr. Chang ended up playing for us was something else completely, I still thought he was part of the piano no matter what he played. And I think that was beautiful, and I thought to myself…I wanted to do that. I wanted to sit and make music and have the time of my life as I play and create and share music with everyone around me. As a child I just thought it would be fun….but now I think I also want to affect people around me the way that Mr. Chang has affected me. 

So, two years later at five, I insisted on my parents to get piano lessons. I insisted and cried even when they said I can’t do it or that there’s no money for it I still insisted. I screamed and cried and did all that I could. I kept on it until another two years passed, at seven, when finally they said ‘okay Jenny, better do good.’ At that moment there was not a time when I took the lessons for granted. I persisted even when it got tough and so voila!” she smiled, looking up at the moon and the waters throughout the story just so she didn’t get distracted by the perfection that was Luhan, “here I am now,” she ended and finally looked away from nature and back at the most beautiful person in the world.

She felt her heart skip and her breath hitch when she looked at Luhan. She found him gazing at her with such soft tenderness in his eyes that she couldn’t help but blush, she knew the tops of her cheeks tainted pink by now.

“That’s a beautiful story,” Luhan said gently and reached over to her jawline and she leaned into his touch unknowingly. She then pulled away and breathed in deep before smiling up at him, pulling their hands together on her chest and held them there.

“Your turn!” she said in a cheerful tone.

“Anything,” he answered just the way she did and he chuckled at her eagerness.

“What got you into music? Into being a performer? What was predebut Luhan really like?” she asked, cringing a bit at the last question. Maybe she shouldn’t have asked. But he nodded anyway and it was then his turn to look away and into the moonlight and the sparkling waters.

“What got me into music….My father was a really good musician. He sang and played the guitar all the time. He didn’t get famous or perform, but when there were gatherings, or small get-togethers with friends….he would always sing and play. Everyone thought he was a good singer. He sang with such good range and there was a tone in his voice that is unique to him that people tend to point out. I kept watching him when I was a child. As a son, you knew that everything your father did was cool. And I couldn’t deny the fact that he in fact has the coolest voice. At the age of five I started memorizing song lyrics from verse 1 to the end, even the staccatos and some instrument sounds in between words would be added to my singing. By age seven I too, like you, insisted on taking lessons. But it was harder for me. I never got lessons. I only sang when I wanted and got better by myself. By the age of nine I started joining competitions and I would win, contest after contest I would win. My father was proud of me I knew, but that didn’t stop him from telling me not to be a singer when I confessed, ‘You will only be a play thing for the public,’ he had said but nothing phased me. By the age of fifteen I got a part time job as a server at a local restaurant. There they had tvs. When it was slow, I would watch when music shows would come on. There I saw a Korean channel and watched Shinhwa. There I discovered Kpop and performing. I found that that was the one thing I will always want to be. I told my father this and he looked at me straight in the eye. I looked back at him, unblinking. His expression changed when I didn’t even dare look away and he said, ‘okay,’ it was so simple. Just one word. He said nothing else and let me join community choirs and sing my lungs off at home all I want. I haven’t given much attention to dance until I moved to Korea three years after. I didn’t take lessons but I made friends and learned from them. Two years later I got into SM. Luhan before being Luhan was just simply…..Han. Lu, with Classmates, xiao Lu with close friends and Han with my family. I was always shy and quiet. I didn’t get into anyone’s business and only showed interest in things that truly do stir up my curiosity. I never touched what wasn’t mine and I never really laughed too hard. I had many friends, female at that,” he chuckled at the memory and she loved the way his cheeks lifted, “and was likable I would like to think,” he finished then and looked back at her and she gasped, looking away.

They both jumped when Luhan’s phone buzzed in his pockets. 

“Crap,” he cursed and answered his phone.

“We’ll be right there,” he said and stood up hurriedly, “we have to go for dinner!” he said and Jenny’s heart sank. But there was so much more she wanted to know about him and it was dinner time which meant that was it. That was it for the time with Luhan because after dinner she’ll have to go back to the hotel and pack up(like there’s anything to pack up) and leave by the next morning. 

Luhan held fast on her hand and pulled her along with him back to where the car was. They reached the shadows of the trees where she met him and he stopped and caught her by both her shoulders.

“Hey,” he lightly panted and smiled at her, “There’ll be so much more time for us, okay? I promise you…..there will be much more time for us,” he repeated and, though a bit tentatively, he leaned in and kissed her softly before pulling away and took her hand again. There was no doubt that by then she was really light on her feet because he had to carry her bridal style back to the car.

“WHOOO!!!!!” Kris cheered from the car, “Newlyweds!!!” he teased them and shot a party popper at them and the couple laughed heartily before jumping in the car, Jenny in the middle. 

The car zoomed out of the place and sped through Seoul to the restaurant where the rest of EXO waited.