They made it halfway to their cabin before the sky opened up.

Seohyun shrieked at the sudden downpour. It came down in a rush of sheets, instantly soaking everyone and everything. Grabbing her hand, Kyuhyun pulled his girlfriend into a mad sprint for their room. Seohyun blindly grabbed at the strings of drenched hair flying in her face, nearly falling several times. Together the couple ran straight along the path sending puddles of water and mud up in sprays.The rain quickly obscured anything beyond a meter with its dense layers making them almost miss their white house, but somehow Kyu turned just in time.

Sprinting up the porch, Seohyun was ready to freak out when she slammed into a locked door. As far as she was concerned, Kyuhyun could not get that door open fast enough.

The second it unlocked, Seohyun flung herself inside to the bathroom where she yanked the shower hose off the wall, slammed on the water, and began spraying every speck of mud off of her skin. And dear god, there was a lot of it. The water stung, ice cold, but she didn’t care. It just had to come off.

“Seohyun!”

She ignored the call.

“Seohyun!”

She continued spraying. Rinsing her feet then her moving to her thighs. How did she get so dirty?

“Seohyun!” Suddenly the water turned off.

“Hey!” She cried. Jerking around, she saw it was Kyuhyun who had interrupted her cleaning, “What are you doing?”

“I thought you might want to try showering in the shower instead of the in the middle of the bathroom.” He replied dryly.

Blinking, Seohyun looked around. Her boyfriend was right. In her sleep-deprived panic, she had the shower and hosed off in the middle of the room. Now the tile floor was now covered in a pool of water least a centimeter deep.

“Oh my god. Oh my god!” She buried her face in her hands. This was ridiculous! Had she really needed to get the mud off so quickly that she didn’t have the sense to stand in the bathtub first? Gasping for air, she steadied herself on the sink. This day was just too much. Too much for disappointment. Too much activity. Too much Kyuhyun.

“Seohyun? Sweetie, it’s okay,” She felt a warm hand brush her face and she jerked back, alarmed. Her heart gave a pang which she quickly brushed off as her boyfriend’s surprised expression quickly morphed into a sour one.

“Right,” He spoke curtly, “I forgot.”

Seohyun couldn't respond to that.

Meeting his eyes, she allowed no emotion to seep through. The two of them were soaked. Drowned rats had nothing on her boyfriend's hair, but where long ago she would have , she could now only feel distaste.They stood dripping in silence for several seconds before Kyuhyun finally turned away.

“I guess I’ll let you shower now. We’ll clean up the water later.” He said, roughly brushing past her.

“Kyuhyun,” She wished she'd said nothing.

“Yeah?”

She didn't turn around, but she knew he had stopped in the doorway. Maybe he was expectant. She sighed, “You know this has been a really long day for me?”

“It’s barely the afternoon.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Silence.

“It’s just been tiring.”

She heard him shuffle a little, as if uncertain how to answer. She bit her lip as a thousand responses raced through her mind, either breaking down the wall which had elusively grown between them or shattering any hope she had left for this boyfriend of three years.

“Well,” She held her breath, “I could kind of tell, to be honest. No offense sweetie, but showering in the middle of the bathroom just because of a little mud? That calls for some sleep.”

Seohyun clenched her jaw. Always with those jokes.

“I’ll grab you some clothes alright? I don’t think we’ll be going to out for dinner tonight.”

Not responding, she stood stock still until Kyuhyun left, closing the door behind him. Then she kicked at the water sheer frustration.

“!” She squeaked when her toe hit the floor instead. Limping over to the side of the bathtub, she threw herself down on the edge. 

Why couldn’t he just ask what was wrong? After all this time, could he not read her at all? Or did he just not care?

Despite her best efforts, tears leaked out her eyes and trailed down her cheeks.

It just didn’t seem right. Kyuhyun was the most perfect man she had ever met. He was smart. He was funny. He was even loyal to the point of making it a flaw.

But then, why was he constantly distant these days?  Why could they go weeks without kissing? Why did he never fight to spend time with her?

And why was it that when he finally decides to take her on a romantic getaway and starts acting sweet and intimate, it’s only because he’s going to propose again to please his parents and needs to butter her up beforehand?

She had found the ring after breakfast, loosely tucked in his backpack. While most girls would’ve been thrilled or shocked, she was angry. Just angry. This entire trip, the most thoughtful gesture Kyuhyun had shown since they’d started dating, was just another attempt to prolong their relationship. As if proposing was the only way he could show he still cared. It meant nothing more than his dad handing him a ring before dinner or his mother pestering him to propose over a dessert.

Straightening herself, Seohyun took a deep breath.

No.

Kyuhyun was not doing this anymore. He could not just play the gentleman when he wanted something and then forget about her when he got it. For once in their relationship, Kyuhyun was going to have to prove his love.

Slipping out of her day clothes, Seohyun stepped into the stream of hot water, the finality of her decision helping release the tension in her body. She turned to the spray letting the water rinse away the moment. 

Finally, her boyfriend would feel the futility of giving and giving and giving and getting nothing in return. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ryeowook watched the rain come beating down from the lobby window. Instantly flooding the outer walkway, the steady flow of water began carrying all debris to the beach.  Though it wouldn’t be long before it was replaced with new leaves and branches to clear, such was the pain of being at the bottom of a hill.

Sighing, Ryeowook crossed his fingers. With any luck, his guests had made it back to their room in time. He’d gotten the feeling that Seohyun didn’t handle rain well.

Turning away from the window, the petite man surveyed the lobby. The automatic lights were still off since it was noon. The storm, however, had significantly darkened the sky, leaving the empty room in an ominous light. A sudden flash of lightening followed by its thunder did not help the mood.

Ryeowook shuddered. No way was he walking back to his cabin tonight. He’d just have to make do in the rec room with their beach towel blankets.

Stepping down from the bay windows, the guide wandered back towards the reason he was stuck in the main building. The glossy piano shone even in the dim light. It stood just beside the deck entrance. Single-handedly pushing the instrument back inside had been nothing short of a struggle but keeping the instrument from drowning was the least he could do.

All the countless hours he’d spent tinkering away on its keys, composing his own pieces, entertaining lingering crowds in the lobby, and teaching sweet Kat the magic of music, all of it had redefined who he was. This piano had brought back his love for the playing which he had given up so long ago.

Letting his hands glide over keys, Ryeowook smiled, savoring the smooth, worn ivory beneath his fingertips. Sanded curves over glossy wood, the Parker’s grand piano was nothing short of a masterpiece. According to the current owner, they didn’t make ivories like that anymore. Even when the front gate snapped or the roof got a leak, maintaining the piano always came first.There were a lot of downsides to having a musician for a boss, (complete lack of business sense came to mind) but benefits like these were well worth it.

Sitting himself down, Ryeowook began to play. A light hearted melody soon filled the lobby, sweeping the darkness away. Ryeowook allowed all the day’s tension to disperse as the giddiness from all the sugar flowed to his fingers. He played for only a minute more before a loud bang cut him off.

“Oh, thank god!”

Ryeowook jumped. Reeling around, he faced an extremely relieved looking Jonny panting with the door still swinging behind him.

“He was playing it; of course he brought the piano inside if he was playing it!” Kat stormed into view, looking highly exasperated.

Ignoring her, Jonny launched himself at the piano embracing it with a hug.

“Oh, I thought we’d left you out to die! I can't imagine what we would have done if you got rained on. Never scare us like that again!”

Ryeowook stared at the brunette who was clinging and scolding the instrument like a child who’d wandered off in the department store.  Four years of the twins’ weirdness and this was a first.

“Jonny,” Kat strode up to him, “Get off the piano.”

 “No,” The other shot back, “We are never letting it back outside again.”

“Jonny…”

“It’s a death trap out there! What if Wook hadn’t pulled it in?”

“Jonny.”

“It could have drowned! Just look at that storm!”

“Jonny!”

Kat snapped. Grabbing her brother’s collar, she yanked him off the piano top but stumbled backwards and let him slip. Reattaching himself to the piano’s leg, Jonny stuck his tongue out at his sister. Ryeowook burst out laughing. The twins’ antics were just too much fun. Maybe if he’d had some brothers or sisters he would’ve become more interesting.

Encouraged by his friend’s laughter, the brunette put on a dramatic expression and mockingly stated:

“You should have been more worried about it than me! Wook taught you how to play on this thing! Imagine all the memories that would have been lost if he didn’t push it in!”

“Jonny! The piano is fine, now come help me finish cleaning the dining room!” Kat turned to Ryeowook with a pleading look.

The petite man gave her teasing pout, “C’mon Kat. Where’s your sense of sentimentality? This is our piano we’re talking about.”

Huffing, the taller girl gave up talking to her mocking seniors. As she stormed back towards the dining hall, Ryeowook picked up on something about ‘immature’ and ‘dorks’ amongst her irritated mumbling.

“You’re just wasting your time! The chairs don’t need to be stacked if no one’s going to vacuum tonight!” Jonny called after her. Chuckling, the brunette shook his head before finally turning to Ryeowook.

“So, Wook! How was your day?”

The petite man glanced at the younger, who was still hugging the piano leg while staring at him with wide expectant eyes, and smiled.

“It was good, Jonny. It was really good.”

“That’s good!” The boy jumped up happily, “If we had one more lousy guest, I think I’d lose my mind!”

Ryeowook chuckled, “Bad day for you than?”

“The worst,” The younger amended.

Bouncing onto the piano bench beside Ryeowook, the brunette began giving a play by play of his entire day. From getting dragged out of bed at six in the morning by Colin to serving breakfast and lunch to last night’s erted businessmen who, without Ryeowook, had turned their creepy focus onto Kat.

“And then after they finally finish eating after like two hours of talking with their mouths full, the rest of the staff goes home and stick the ‘kids’ with the clean-up, so now Kat and I are stuck here for the night!” Jonny let out frustrated sigh and slumped in his seat, finally finished.

Ryeowook nodded thoughtfully. Pushing the events of his day out of his mind, he trained all his attention on the small brunette. Jonny was good at telling stories and he liked to listen. They were a good match.

“The only bright spot so far is that you saved it from getting worse,” Jonny looked at Ryeowook, “I cannot thank you enough for moving this thing in yourself, Wook. If the piano had gotten wet, we would have been so fired.”

The older shrugged. “It’s nothing. If I had known you two were still here I would’ve dragged you out help, but either way I wasn’t going to let this work of art get soaked just because it’s happens to be a little heavy.”

Jonny scoffed, “A little heavy,yeah. And that's a little rain,”

Another crash of thunder shook the room making him flinch.

Ignoring that, Ryeowook turned to the row of keys before him. “Would you like to hear something on it? It's been a while since I've played for you."

“Sure! What were you playing just now?”

“Oh, that was just something to reflect how I was feeling. Cloud nine!” He chirped, remembering the phrase from a TV commercial.

Jonny gaped at him, “You mean you just made it up?”

“Well, yeah," Ryeowook frowned. He'd hoped Jonny would ask about his day, but the attempt fell flat, "I think it’s called improvisation. It’s not too hard if you understand your major and minor chords. I wanted happy so I used A major pentatonic. It gives the whole thing a jazzy vibe because of the missing fourth-”

“Whoa there, Wook! You better save the music garble for my sister ‘cause you lost me at ‘pentatonic.’”

“Are you sure he didn’t lose you at ‘chord,’ Jonny?” Kat strode back in from the hallway looking rather peeved, “And thank you, you two, for helping me clean that mess in the kitchen.”

“They didn’t clean the kitchen, either?” Jonny asked, shocked. “What are we? Their cleaning service?”

“No, we’re their underpaid cleaning service.” She corrected. Leaning on the curve of the piano, Kat propped her head on her arm, “So boys, what is on the playlist tonight?”

“Songs that don’t exist yet,” Jonny piped in before Ryeowook could answer, “You won’t believe this! You know that piece he was playing when we came in here?”

“Barged in here…”

“Yeah! He just made it up, like right on the spot.”

“Are you kidding?” Kat looked severely unimpressed, “He’s been doing that to me for the last four years! I come in for my lesson and he’s just doing improv like a prodigy on this piano.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously! Half the songs he plays out here are pieces he wrote.”

Ryeowook smiled and looked away suddenly bashful.

“It’s nothing, you guys.”

“Nothing?” Jonny asked, incredulous, “Nothing is my mind after you’ve blown it. You’re actually more amazing than I thought! This just proves my point that you should hitch a ride to the U.S. and get famous as quickly as possible instead of wasting your time here.”

“Jonny, you know that would never work. I’m not performer material.”

“That’s not what Mr. Parker says! And he was famous!”

Ryeowook sighed as the conversation plunged back into the far too familiar argument. Mr. Parker this, Mr. Angleton that; they just couldn’t see that he would never gain ground in a world as competitive as the entertainment industry. He liked music but that was about it. Charisma was everything and you were either born with or without it. Wasn’t it obvious that he was without?

“But you’re so good, Wookie, and you’re just sitting here on Nowhere Island.” Kat sighed, “You ought to take my scholarship to Birmingham and go be incredible in England.”

“Yeah! You could go get all the degrees with fancy diplomas and whatnot. Then you could be like an official music professor and write the next Mozart piece!”

Ryeowook frowned, “Okay, two things. One, you cannot write the next Mozart piece because then it wouldn’t be a Mozart piece and two, I’m really done with all that you guys. I’m never going professional and I don’t need all those degrees let alone one under someone else’s name. When Yoona graduates she’s going to open her restaurant in France and I’m going to move and play for her there.”

“It’s the dream.” He added when his coworkers let out a collective groan.

“Yoona, again dude? Do you even realize how whipped you are?”

Ryeowook glared at Jonny, He didn’t know what ‘whipped’ meant but it didn’t sound good.

“Hey, she’s the one who convinced me to come work here so I wouldn’t be so judgmental if I were you.”

“Yes, she convinced you to move halfway across the world to work as a busboy four months a year. That is the peak of supportiveness.”

“I’m a musician! And doing this has helped me in ways you don’t even see!”

“Why? Because you’ve accomplished so much here?”

“I taught your sister piano! And guess how she got into college. Oh, by a music scholarship?” Ryeowook snapped, thoroughly annoyed now.

“Guys, stop it,” Kat’s stern voice muted them instantly, “Wookie, we’re not criticizing your relationship, we’re really happy to have met you, and I’m really grateful for all the free lessons,” Kat emphasized, eyeing her brother, “We’re just saying, since Yoona’s out chasing her dream, why aren’t you chasing yours?”

“Did you not hear what I just said? Playing for Yoona is my dream.”

Jonny scoffed. “Yeah? Well in that case; why aren’t you looking for a dream that’s less lame?”

This time, Ryeowook smacked him.

“Hey! Hey! No hitting!” Kat shouted when it quickly escalated into a full out schoolyard war. Rushing over, she pried the two males apart before it could become more than a slap fight.

Ryeowook huffed, making sure to turn away from his friends. He loved them to death and appreciated the praise but it was getting real tiring having the same arguments and criticisms thrown in his face. How was he to explain how he felt? About Yoona, about fame, about anything? When it came down to it, they just didn’t understand.

Gathering himself, the small man stood up and stormed away from the piano.

“You see what you do, Jonny?”

“He never should’ve waste his time with us anyway…”

Their voices faded away as Ryeowook got farther down the hall. He knew he was acting like big baby but he just hated every moment of those conversations. It just brought back too much stuff he didn't need. What he needed was to talk to someone, anyone, else who understood.

He angrily stormed straight down the hall until he ran out of hall. The narrow walkways were much darker than the rooms. Barely any light came in from the narrow windows. Looking out through them, he tried calculating the odds of him finding his way back to his cabin without drowning in mud.

Just as Ryeowook concluded that he would more likely get swept out to sea, something caught his eye.

Turning, his saw that it was red blinking light coming from Colin’s office. A phone.

Ryeowook bit his lip. No one was allowed in that office. Their manager had sworn instant termination of anyone who dared touch his stuff, and up until now, the musician hadn't thought twice about challenging it. But it was the only phone in the building that could call international and Ryeowook had never wanted to talk to Yoona than he did now.

Double checking that no one had followed him, he slipped through the opened door and hurried over to the blinking light. Ignoring the new messages, Ryeowook picked up the phone and took a deep breath. Colin would never have to know he made this call. The manager made international calls all the time so what would one more be to his list?

Steadying himself, Ryeowook began punching in the absurdly long list of numbers which he had memorized years ago and waited. The phone rang once. Twice.

‘Yoona,’ He thought desperately, ‘Please pick up. It’s after classes. It’s after dinner. Please pick up.’

“Bonjour, c'est Yoona!”

Ryeowook breathed a sigh of relief, “Hi Yoon, it’s Ryeowook. I’m so glad you could-”

“S'il vous plaît laissez un message! Bonne journée!”

The answering machine beeped in his ear.

Ryeowook sighed, suddenly deflated. Hanging up the phone, he sullenly wandered back out the office, closing the door behind him. He leaned on it for a moment, staring out the window. Rain made it so dark out. Perhaps he could pretend it was night so he’d at least be in the same time zone with her.

Another flash of lighting seared the sky. The deafening thunder followed fast after. The storm’s heart was close. Very close.

As the slaughter of raindrops struck the window, Ryeowook closed his eyes letting their steady beating wash over him. And he wished that just once, someone else would be there to understand his choices, his life. Just someone who knew.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Just so you know how Seohyun thinks. Because that sort of stuff happens when you don't communicate in a relationship. Don't hate me. 

Anyhow, as you can see there's a lot of pieces to this story so thank you for sticking through and waiting for something to happen. I promise not to make you wait much longer.  =)