asian - this is a first.
He stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to the big building. People passed him on their way in and out of the building, but he felt like he was the only person there.
Another year.
The same place, the same people and, again, working toward a dream that didn’t exist anymore.
Kyuhyun was a second year piano student at Kyung Hee University and there was no music in his heart anymore.
He took a breath and walked inside the school, where hours always seemed to pass like centuries. The History of Music class drew on for what seemed like days. He wanted to feel excitement about learning about his favorite composers, but instead, he just felt jealousy. Jealousy, because they hadn’t lost the thing most important to them. Because they had managed to keep the music inside their hearts and make something great. He had always wanted to do that.
***
Every Wednesday he would go to the piano room he had booked for the rest of the semester and play for two hours, until his fingers hurt. He wanted it to be like it was before. When he would hurt because he loved playing so much that he couldn’t stop.
He would then get up, turn off the lights and leave.
***
On the third Wednesday of the semester, he was still playing, when someone opened the door quietly, but loudly enough that the player would notice. A soft, yet somehow still sharp voice said: „I..I’m sorry, but I think your time is almost up.“
Kyuhyun just nodded and finished his playing. The other, taller, boy was waiting beside the door, sheet music in his hands. Kyuhyun took his own materials, stuffed them in his bag and with a quiet „Bye“, he stepped out of the room. Trying to reach his phone from the bottom of his bag, he stood beside the door for a few moments. The melody that the other boy started playing inside the room made Kyuhyun’s mind blank. He could practically feel the passion with which the piece was played. He was overtaken by how much the other’s playing moved him. All he could do was stand there and listen.
***
The next week, the other boy found Kyuhyun just sitting at the piano. He turned his head, they exchanged quiet hellos and he got up. After a few moments of silence, Kyuhyun asked: „Can I listen?“ The answer was yes.
The emotions were almost overwhelming. It was hard to believe that someone still found so much joy in playing. That someone could so easily move others. He felt even more hopeless than before.
Without a word, Kyuhyun left before the other had a chance to react.
***
The next week he didn’t go to pracitce.
Nor the week after that.
***
Instead of a dark room and a locked door, the tall boy found Kyuhyun playing the piano in the well-lit piano room. After two weeks of absence.
„You weren’t here..“
„Yeah.“
„..Do you want to stay?“
„Yeah.“
„What’s your name?“
„Kyuhyun.“
„I’m Zhou Mi.“
He played and Kyuhyun listened.
***
And so it went for weeks. They never talked much, but the essentials seemed to be enough. Zhou Mi was a fourth year piano student, who’d moved to Korea from China six years ago. His heart was still filled with music.
***
On one Wednesday, Zhou Mi told Kyuhyun that there was nothing he could say or do that would make him not take Kyuhyun along to dinner after practice. Kyuhyun wasn’t one to argue.
To find a piece of home comfort, they ended up at a small Chinese restaurant, not far from the school. It was late and there weren’t many people there. Kyuhyun pointed at dishes on the menu and the older boy ordered for both of them, speaking in Mandarin.
The drink Kyuhyun had not pointed at, tasted slightly bitter and he could feel it intoxicate him slowly. He didn’t mind.
Zhou Mi seemed to tell him about everything- his life in China, why he had come to Korea, how hard it was at first, how the new language had gotten him into various troubles, how, after six years, he finally felt almost comfortable living in this country. He told Kyuhyun about how he got interested in music, who and what had inspired him and how music had never failed to be a motivator. He told the younger boy almost everything.
„So...what about you?“
Kyuhyun was never one to talk much, and the alcohol hadn’t done a lot to loosen him up. He told Zhou Mi about his family, his sister, who was in Europe, his interest in piano and sometimes singing...he told him about his decision to go into music instead of science, how beside all the serious things, he also loved video games. He told Zhou Mi the basic facts that made up this Cho Kyuhyun.
„You’re leaving a lot unsaid,“ was what they both thought when they got up to leave.
***
Zhou Mi played and Kyuhyun listened.
***
After a number of weeks, Zhou Mi was eager to finally show Kyuhyun his favorite movie that he’d seen back at home, many years ago. Kyuhyun liked the movie. Very much so. But even more, he loved how excited Zhou Mi got over the whole thing. He loved how the other boy couldn’t shut up about the cinematography and the soundwork. He loved...
***
Outside it was warm. They had been studying for their exams for two weeks already, always in Kyuhyun’s small apartment. Zhou Mi sitting behind the desk and Kyuhyun on the floor, behind the coffee table. Papers were everywhere and their soundtrack was the humming of the A/C. Tomorrow were their last exams, history of music for Kyuhyun and piano literature for Zhou Mi.
Kyuhyun got up to get something cooling to drink. In the kitchen it was warmer than in the airconditioned living room. Pouring himself a glass of cold water, he suddenly felt even more warmth. He turned around and for a moment, the heat made him light-headed. One hand in his hair, the other on his neck and warm lips on his. The kiss was full of passion, like most everything Zhou Mi did. There was longing and desperation in Kyuhyun’s.
Their lips parted and the older boys hand lingered on Kyuhyun’s neck. He turned around and went back to the living room.
They didn’t speak for the rest of the evening, or the night. One fell asleep on the floor, the other on the couch.
***
His phone’s alarm ringing, Kyuhyun woke up alone in the living room. He knew Zhou Mi had to leave earlier. He knew Zhou Mi had to leave for China that day, for what would seem like an eternity.
***
Hours passed like centuries.
***
It was July. His doorbell rang and lazily he went to open the door.
„I’m home.“
***
Kyuhyun’s heart was filled with music.
The sound of their bodies moving fervently against each other that night, the quiet words whispered between them, the buzzing air conditioner on the wall, the passing cars on the street below them.
It all melded together into aleatoric music.
It was not the kind Kyuhyun imagined his heart would be filled with.
But at least there was music again.
*hides*