“Excuse me, but are any of you pianists?  I’m working on a vocal piece, and I need piano accompaniment.  Please, can any of you help me?”

 

Kyuhyun looks at the smiling but fretful Chinese man.  Normally, he would scoff and tell the guy to continue his search elsewhere, but he decides Sungmin needs time alone with Henry.  He nods.  The tall man’s smile widens, if that is even possible.  Kyuhyun wonders what he has gotten himself into.

 

The man leads Kyuhyun into a small rehearsal room that is adorned with only a piano and choral risers.  He motions for Kyuhyun to sit at the piano bench.  Kyuhyun grimaces but sits anyway.  He hopes that this won’t be a long practice, that the guy will get bored of his snarky remarks or his unwillingness to help.  However, hope is just the name of a girl that never loved him.  That may be why he likes guys.  He pushes aside his preferences and turns his attention back to the man that is rambling on about something.

 

“So that’s a little about myself.  Oh, I forgot to tell you my name.  How silly of me!  My name is Zhou Mi, but you can call me Mimi.  All of my friends do,” the man, or Mimi says.

 

Kyuhyun turns his head sideways and stares.  This guy is strange to say the least, but it is Kyuhyun’s own fault for deciding to be a good friend.  What is wrong with him?  Sungmin owes him.  Big time.  Kyuhyun blinks and notices that Mimi is looking expectantly at him.

 

He struggles for words.  Kyuhyun has no idea how to introduce himself to someone he likes, let alone someone that he isn’t too sure he wants to be around.  He thinks he has some sort of a sentence worked out when he looks back at the man.  The only image he sees is long legs stretched out across the risers.  He closes his eyes and hopes that the image will go away.  There is no time for imagination and attraction.  Hope lets him down again.  Before he finally answers Mimi, he decides there should be a better word for hope.

 

“I’m Cho Kyuhyun.  I guess you can call me…um…well, you can call me whatever you feel like.  It doesn’t really make much of a difference to me.”  

 

The smile on Zhou Mi’s face brightens, so much so that Kyuhyun thinks he might be blinded for life.  

 

“Is there something particular that you would like to play?  I mean, even though you were my only option, I would still like to know how far your skills go,” says Mimi in a voice as equally dazzling as his smile.

 

Kyuhyun can do nothing but smirk at the request.  He raises his fingers and lowers them so they rest on the ivory keys.  He just sits there with a dopey look on his face.  For show, he even sways his head side to side as if he is reveling in the music that isn’t coming from the piano.  Mimi just stares at the piano as if waiting for something to happen.

 

This goes on for several minutes.  Four minutes and thirty-three seconds to be exact.  Four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence.  Mimi decides that is long enough.

 

“So you believe in the music of the world, too!  I thought I was the only one to truly appreciate the wonder that we live in.  I’m so excited to have you accompanying me now!” 

 

Kyuhyun’s smile of accomplishment falls right off of his face.  He is perplexed.  That was supposed to be a joke.  Zhou Mi was supposed to interrupt and demand something out of him, or better yet, the Chinese man was supposed to call him a few expletives and berate him for being so lazy.  Kyuhyun never would have thought that this guy would actually like to listen to 4’33”.  He frowns and decides to actually play something to show off.  He’s not really sure why he feels compelled to do so, but he just does.

 

He isn’t quite sure what he’s playing.  It started out as Canon in D, but now it’s something much more whimsical.  He isn’t really sure why he starting playing Canon in the first place, so he decides that it doesn’t really matter.  He just closes his eyes and lets his fingers play whatever it is that they want.  His eyelids lift and his brown orbs search out those belonging to Zhou Mi.  Kyuhyun feels his fingers start to play Boléro.  Needless to say, he stops them before they get too far.  

 

 

Zhou Mi’s eyes find the floor and calculate all of the space between him and the piano.  They slide upwards once the piano legs are in sight.  He sees the pianist biting his lip and staring at his own fingers.  Zhou Mi’s smile is knowing, but he says nothing.  He thinks that Kyuhyun will do just fine.

 

He notices that Kyuhyun is a bit of a grump.  He also notices that Kyuhyun is an attractive grump.  Well, he had already known that he was attractive, and Henry had warned him that the guy could be a tad cantankerous.  He thought that his young friend had just exaggerated, but now he knows better.  He is sure that this guy can’t be all that bad.  Even if he is, Zhou Mi reasons that he will at least be something good to look at for a few days.

 

He had wanted to talk to the guy for weeks now, ever since Henry insisted that he visit him after practice.  Zhou Mi hadn’t been looking for anything when his eyes found Kyuhyun’s.  He is sure it was fate, even while admitting to himself that he doesn’t believe in such generic terms.

 

Henry had caught him staring and knew.  The teasing was worth it, he supposes.  He had formulated a plan that day.  However, he wasn’t as bold as he was in his own mind.  Zhou Mi had almost given up hope, but as luck would have it, he was assigned to compose a piece for a recital that will be taking place in a few months.  He had planned on writing the piece for a clarinet, but Henry told him that the guy also played the piano on occasion.  

 

Zhou Mi smiles.  He looks over his pianist’s facial features, stalling a bit over his mouth.  He had seen the woodwind instrument between those lips and had imagined what it would feel like.  He feels a blush forming as he decides that he was right to switch the song’s composition to that of a piano.  It leaves more time for them to talk.  And if he wants to be completely honest, Zhou Mi wants that mouth to do better things that play some silly clarinet.

 

 

Kyuhyun has seen Mimi everyday for a couple weeks now.   Sometimes all they do is talk.  Well, Mimi talks and Kyuhyun just nods.  If the mood strikes him, he butts in with some sarcastic remark just to watch the Chinese man’s face scrunch up to counter it.  It is like some sort of game, and Kyuhyun really wants to win.  He doesn’t know the rules, but he isn’t too concerned with the how-to’s when a particular voices sings out a melody that some people would call a sentence.  The sentence usually contains at least one mention of ‘Kui Xian’, which the man has decided to refer to Kyuhyun as.  Kyuhyun mouths it out and realizes that he has grown quite accustomed to the sound, even if it’s not really his name in Chinese.

 

When they aren’t talking, they just sit around and lose themselves in their own worlds.  He can’t speak for Mimi, but his world pretty much consists of the confinements of this squared room.  He never had much of an imagination.  Still, sometimes he fantasizes about the taller man.  Nothing too unrealistic happens.  It’s consistent with the day-to-day occurrences.  However, it usually ends with a kiss.  Kyuhyun admits he could stretch it out a bit more, but he doesn’t want this ‘thing’ between them to become uncomfortable.  A kiss he can handle.  

 

 

Zhou Mi is a bit disappointed.  He knows that this tension between Kui Xian and him is not one-sided.  Yet, here they are on opposite sides of the room.  He finished his composition last night, and he met with the guy to hear it one last time before he got it critiqued.  The pianist is staring at the ceiling while tapping his fingers lightly on the keys.  It is their last day together.  Well, they will probably still run into each other from time to time, but this could be the last time they will be alone with each other.  Zhou Mi pouts as he stands to leave.  He unconsciously swipes his fingers against his lips.  He wishes it was something else, but he decides that it’s probably for the best.  He grabs the music on the stand when he passes by the guy for the last time. 

 

As he walks out of the room he thinks of what a great three weeks it’s been.  He stares at the papers in his hand.  Perhaps the lyrics were a bit too subtle for Kui Xian to understand.  It probably isn’t that important anyway.  He slowly walks down the hall to his teacher’s office.  He smiles.  Someone there will appreciate his hopeless words of unrequited love. 

 

 

“I’m not saying that it wasn’t good.  It was.  I just want something that is completely your own, not something that any two-bit wannabe songwriter could do.  Write me something you feel.”

 

Zhou Mi stands unblinking long after his teacher’s comment is made.  He thinks of the words he wrote.  They are real words with real emotions.  They are about things that he does feel.  He rereads the vague description of someone that wants to share the world with love.  Maybe that’s the problem for him.  Zhou Mi has never really been in love.  Sure, there have been a few maybes.  He has definitely had his share of nos.  And even a couple of hell nos.  But there has never been a yes.  Not one.  Zhou Mi spends his time devoted to being in love with love, and he has yet to experience it.   

 

He looks down at the sheet of paper he had typed his lyrics on.  They seem so unworthy now, so mediocre.  If there is one thing he is not, it is mediocre.  He prides himself on that.  If that means he has to change lyrics, themes, and even tactics, then he will.  

 

He sighs.  This means he has to spend more time with Kui Xian.  He isn’t sure if this is terrible or not.  He likes the way the man is so aware of everything until he opens his mouth.  Then it’s like the world doesn’t matter.   It’s like the only place that matters is their little rehearsal room, and everything inside of those four walls is a secret.  

 

Zhou Mi isn’t one to get all poetic for no reason.  That much he knows about himself.  So why does he all of a sudden start describing a rehearsal room in a music hall as ‘their’ room of secrets?  A slight grimace sweeps across his flawless face momentarily before a smile replaces it.  

 

“I guess it’s back to work for me,” he says to himself without the slightest hint of disappointment.

 

 

Zhou Mi sighs.  “I don’t know what to write.”  

 

The statement has been clouding up his head for weeks now.  He voices it for no reason other than he feels it is way too quiet in the room.  

 

The younger male doesn’t even look up from the sheet music on the stand.  “Write about something you know.”

 

“Well, that’s awfully specific.”

 

“It should be.  You don’t know that much.”  Zhou Mi can almost see the smirk on Kui Xian’s face.

 

He chuckles to himself and says, “I know about fashion.”

 

The pianist turns halfway around on the bench so he can see the Chinese man.  The smirk changes into a softer smile, and Zhou Mi feels his heart pounding harder in his chest.  

 

“I don’t think anyone will dispute that,” he states while gesturing at Zhou Mi, “but who wants to listen to some guy sing about finding the perfect shoes?  Sing about something real.”

 

Zhou Mi looks at the younger man.  The smile is gone, but he notices a flicker of something in the man’s eyes.  “And what would that be, Kui Xian?” he manages to ask despite his shaky voice. 

 

Kyuhyun stands up.  He rakes his hand through his dark wavy locks.  “Honestly, Mimi, I’m not sure anymore.”

 

That’s all of the invitation Zhou Mi needs to close the gap between them.  

 

 

At first, Kyuhyun is a little confused.  He has been reliving this scene in his head for a while now, but he concedes that it is much better in real life.  He feels Mimi’s long fingers running through his hair and inching ever so slowly to caress his cheeks.  He swallows and blinks back all disbelief.  

 

He feels the man’s right arm sliding down his back, demanding even the smallest space between them to disappear.  It tightens around his waist as Mimi’s left hand dips under his chin to tilt it up.  The last thing Kyuhyun sees before his eyelids lower is soft lips moving towards his.

 

Kyuhyun is pretty sure that all time has stopped for the two of them.  There is no other answer as far as he is concerned.  Skin is touching skin.  Air is being exchanged.  Hearts are beating so hard and fast against chests that a whole new rhythm is created.  He struggles to keep up.  

 

 

How long has he been here?  Zhou Mi can’t really think about the exact time when all he remembers are the way pale arms felt around him.  He is held captive by his thoughts.  He savors the hours, the touches.  He is too lost in his own silence to really notice what is going on around him.  His skin still burns from kisses.  His heart is beating too fast to hear.  

 

He can hear the words, though.  With every beat of his heart, they become clearer.  He is in love…but does Kui Xian feel the same way?  

 

Panic stirs within him.  He believes his heart is breaking, but he can’t really be sure.  It hurts just the same.  Zhou Mi has always been eloquent and a firm believer in love.  This is not how he should experience love.  He deserves the fireworks and the rainy day kisses.  He wants the slow romancing in the night and the sweet whispering of the day.  More than anything, he is sure he needs the words.

 

“Don’t worry, Mimi.  The words will come.  Write what’s in your heart,” a familiar voice utters from behind him.

 

Zhou Mi snaps out of his imaginations to really look at his friend.  Henry smiles, but it’s not the usual ‘light-the-room’ smile he generally wears.  He can sense something is wrong with his friend.  He thinks of questions to ask and encouraging words to say, but he knows that it’s just not enough for Henry.  Henry always needed the feeling, the movement.  It was why he was such a great musician.  He could feel things.  Zhou Mi decides to drape an arm around the younger man.  The man just lets his head drop against his friend’s chest while the tears flow out.

 

In moments like this, Zhou Mi realizes that he hates silence.  He gently rubs Henry’s back.  If only the words would come faster, then maybe he could help his companion.  Zhou Mi hates feeling helpless.  He dislikes being useless, and right now, that’s how he would describe himself.  Henry keeps crying while the taller man wonders why love has to be so complicated.

 

 

“I think you’re in love,” Sungmin casually says while twisting the music stand around in circles.  

 

“What?  Where did you get such a crazy idea?  I am not in love with Zhou Mi,” he says without thinking.  

 

“I never said him specifically.”

 

“,” Kyuhyun mutters under his breath, expecting the jokes to start soon.

 

Sungmin smiles.  It has never been as bright as Mimi’s, but Kyuhyun is certain that it is typically more sparkling than this.  He buries his head in his hands, thinking of what to say to his friend.  He looks back up and realizes that Sungmin probably doesn’t want him to tell him everything will be fine.  Kyuhyun doesn’t know what is wrong, and Sungmin likes to remain mysterious.  Asking will prove to be futile.  He sighs.

 

He stares at the floor.  He memorizes the carpet’s odd patterns.  He does anything he can think of, anything that doesn’t involve words.  He settles on whistling.  

 

He hears the man beside him giggle and then the sound of him joining in.  Kyuhyun looks over at Sungmin.  His bunny-like friend’s face is streaked with tears.  He wonders what the cause of them is.  He darts his eyes back to the floor.  He starts to regret ever introducing him to Henry.  Then none of this would happen.  

 

A single thought permeates after all of the others vanish.  Without Henry, Kyuhyun would never have met Mimi.  He glances back at Sungmin.  The older man nods as if he knows.  Kyuhyun feels like the biggest jerk in the world.  Why did he have to fall in love when his best friend’s heart is falling apart?

 

 

Zhou Mi’s heart crumbles as each day passes.  He refuses to say anything about it to Henry, though.  He thinks that his friend has gone through enough.  He doesn’t need to burden him with his problems, too.

 

He finishes practice with Kui Xian early.  He suspects that the younger guy notices nothing.  He still feels the heat when the man kisses his lips.  Physically, their relationship is going great, but he doesn’t want to be just someone’s good time.  He needs more than the moments set to seductive music.  

 

He searches through his contacts on his phone for someone that he can bear his soul to.  He quickly passes acquaintances and other people he barely knows.  He skips the friends that will pity him.  He omits anyone that will tell him to forget Kui Xian.  Finally, he crosses out all but two names mentally.  Since he rejects the idea of talking to Henry, he presses the button and calls Heechul.

 

If anything is true of Heechul, then it is the rumor that he is brutally honest.  However, Zhou Mi is one of his ‘favorites’.  That doesn’t mean he’s exempt from the curse words or teasing, but it does mean that he won’t hang up halfway through the call.

 

He reasons that he should start his story from the very beginning, even before he met Kui Xian.  He tells everything.  Well, maybe he glosses over a few details that are too private for an impersonal telephone line to transfer.  He is amazed at how quickly the words came and went.  He is also surprised at how short the story was.  It had felt so much longer.  He pushes out the last words as calmly as he can.

 

“As soon as I finish the piece he’ll be gone.”  He breathes in and out as he anxiously waits for Heechul’s response. 

 

“Wait, is that what’s bothering you?  Do you really think that?”

 

Zhou Mi weakly nods before realizing that Heechul can’t see that.  He replies a soft, “Yes.”  

 

“From what I gather, he isn’t stupid.  That means he’s gonna suspect something if you never produce any music, so it looks like you’ll just have to tell the guy.”  

 

Zhou Mi says goodbye and thanks Heechul.  He hates his answer, though.  It isn’t the one he wanted, but he has never known his friend to be wrong.  If he says that words are necessary, then they probably are.  

 

 

Kyuhyun thinks that Mimi is pulling away from him.  He doesn’t understand why, but he doesn’t want to know, either.  So instead of asking, he tries harder to show him that he needs him.  

 

The reasoning may not be sound, but Kyuhyun doesn’t want words to get in the way.  Once they are said, they can never be taken back.  He hates that twisted set-up.  He refuses to hand out his heart to someone that is probably going to laugh.  Mimi is a little too cheerful and a smidge too talkative, but Kyuhyun has found that he looks forward to that.  He is scared the man he loves will realize that he could do better.  He will hang on to the end, even if his heart doesn’t make it. 

 

 

“I finished the piece,” Zhou Mi says quietly as he enters the rehearsal room.  It seems like all of the moments that are worth remembering happened here.  He hopes that this one will be one to add to them.

 

“Oh, well…what did you write it about?” Kyuhyun asks passively.  

 

“Why don’t you read it for yourself?”  That’s the only thing Zhou Mi can say.  He walks up to Kyuhyun and places a sheet of music facedown on the piano.  He bows slowly to show his thanks because he is sure that the words are gone.  Before he embarrasses himself further, he walks to the door.  He leaves it all behind.  Now it’s all up to Kyuhyun.

 

 

Kyuhyun has never been good at goodbyes.  He knows that this won’t be the last time he will ever see Mimi again, but he still feels that this moment is the end of something.  He looks into the eyes of a man that he has come to know, like, and love.  There are traces of worry and uncertainty.  Kyuhyun hears the sound of steady footsteps walking away from him.  He wonders why they beat in time with his breaking heart.

 

He rests his hand on the piano, just like he has done so many times before.  Everything is just the same, except Mimi is gone.  He feels tears forming in his eyes.  He lets his eyelids fall so he doesn’t have to see this place without him.  He bites his lips and remembers all of the times he wished it would be over.  He wonders if he could go back and tell himself to enjoy the minutes while he had them.  He wonders if it would still end the same.

 

He bends his head to lay it on his arm.  His other arm slides and gently shoves a piece of paper.  Kyuhyun’s head raises slightly as he moves his fingers to bring the white page closer.  He lifts it from the piano and flips it over.  He skims over the blank lines, and he gasps as he reads over the only words on the page.

 

I love you.

 

He reads them again and again, letting the full impact fill his head and heart.  He feels his lips stretch out a smile.  Tears are still visible in his eyes, but he doesn't care.  He runs to the door, twists the knob, and sprints down the hall in search of one person, his Mimi.  

 

Kyuhyun has never felt anything quite like the feeling he gets when he sees a body nearing the exit of the building.  He feels his heartbeat racing.  He just prays the right words come out.  

 

He imagines all of the things he should tell Zhou Mi.  He could tell him that he’s pretty sure that words never really had a meaning until he said them or how he can see his face everywhere he goes or that he was just another melody waiting for lyrics to complete him.  But all of the cute, romantic, ‘aww’ worthy statements fly out the window when the man turns around at the door.

 

 

Zhou Mi stands at the door, looking at nothing in particular when he sees Kyuhyun’s deadpan expression.  He wishes he could say something.  He’s not sure of what he would say, though.  Maybe he should apologize for…feeling.  He isn’t sorry, but if Kyuhyun would stop looking like that, then maybe he would lie.  Instead, he decides to just clench his jaw, grit his teeth, close his eyes, and hope this wouldn’t be as bad as he imagined.  

 

“Mimi, I hope that you have something else prepared.  This is definitely not going to wow anybody else.”

 

The statements are nothing romantic.  They are nothing beautiful, and they probably won’t be written down for posterity sake somewhere in a book.  But to Zhou Mi, they are some of the most beautiful words ever uttered.  He opens his eyes to see the guy that stole his heart, praying like hell that he hasn’t imagined this.  

 

He expects a smirk, a knowing grin.  But he is pleasantly surprised when Kyuhyun takes the few steps closer to him.  He feels warm arms encircling his body as the words he has been searching for found their way to his heart.

 

It almost feels like a dream.  Soft lips gently brush against his for just a few seconds.  Zhou Mi almost complains, but then they linger closer to his ears.  Kyuhyun kisses his cheek and whispers, “I love you, Mimi.”

 

“Oh, Kui Xian.”  That’s all he has time to say before a set of lips meet with his…and he realizes that sometimes words just get in the way.