Delayed Duets
Title: Delayed Duet
Pairing: Kyusung
Rating: G
Summary: Waiting for a delayed train is easier when there is an open piano to use and a helpful stranger.
~
Two hours. My train was delayed two hours on top of an hour long layover I had originally. It wasn’t enough time to go anywhere but too long to just wait at the terminal. So that left me to wander the station.
I spent the first hour at one of the small cafés in the station but I couldn’t sit there any longer without going insane with boredom. Back to wandering, I came to the center plaza where there was a large crowd of people. Some just passing time at one of the many benches, others trying to perchance tickets, or speak to customer service. And that’s not counting all of the people just passing through to get from one side to the other.
With all the conversations going on around me, I didn’t hear it at first, but the further towards the center I got, I could hear the sounds of a piano. Settled in the middle of one of the walkways between the benches was a piano, nothing special, not like a grand or baby grand, but still a nice piano. Some kids were taking turns playing with it while their parents waited nearby. While most had no knowledge or skill, there were others who had obviously started to learn how to play and could make a simple but recognizable tune. It had been a couple years since I had played myself and part of me wanted to find out just how well I remembered.
Before I could realize what I was doing, I had settled myself on the bench when the children cleared and it was left empty. I could see a few people look expecting at me, being much older and assuming I would give them a show but I wasn’t even sure what to play, let alone give them something amazing to make their wait more enjoyable than the kids had.
Finally, I started playing, nothing special, just a little tune I remember from years ago. I couldn’t remember all of it, so it was mostly just being repeated. Occasionally I would slip in a few more notes and chords as I felt they fit. But it had been years and I wasn’t really confident about it anymore. I kept my head down, not wanting to see the stares from my audience, a few I could feel were still waiting for me to wow them.
Lost in my own thoughts and repeating melody, I didn’t notice the hand appear over my right shoulder and start playing alongside me. I was taken back but continued playing and spared a quick glance at the person. It was a guy, probably my age if not a little older, and he offered me a quick smile and continued with his additions to my tune. I didn’t glance much at his face, but I notice his small hands as they pressed the keys.
After a short bit, he reached across my back to play on my left as well, trying to smooth the transition. A couple words in a deep husky voice threw me off for a moment before I realized it was my random partner and I moved to play where he asked. He continued to occasionally give me verbal cues to play off of the melody I started and move into something more, but mostly it was his hands. So small compared to my own but they moved gracefully across the keys with no problems.
It was hard to hear his voice over the crowd, so he would show me what he wanted on the keys. He would start a new base cord and have me take over while he jumped back to my right side to start a new harmony. My original tune was still in there but I found myself expanding on it and playing beyond it based on his playing. And when we would stray too far and lose it, he seemed to seamlessly blend it back in whether playing it himself, or guiding me back to it without really realizing it.
The beginning was a little rough, and I had to either drop a hand or shift one way or the other to make room for his playing, but some time while we played, we found a rhythm between each other. There were still mistakes when we would trade sides but they were less noticeable and I started to pick up on his hands’ cues to tell when he was going to move.
Somewhere behind us, I could hear someone calling out, but I didn’t understand what they were saying, focused too much on playing. Though I still don’t know what was said, I could figure it out as the guy began to bring us back down to a close. I didn’t want it to end. It had been years since I played and it was never like this, never made sounds like this before or had someone to bounce off of. But I knew it would have to end at some point.
He guided us to the end, and played a closing cord. I was caught up in my thoughts that I missed most of the scale until the end and he asked me to do the swipe across. It was only then, when I heard the clapping and a few cheers that I realized that we had an audience again, and that I did give them a show thanks to the stranger who joined in.
Speaking of the stranger, I quickly turned around to see him leaving and immediately got up to follow, not ready to see him leave yet. He turned back before he went too far, possibly aware that I followed, and gave a sheepish smile and moved to shake my hand.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to jump in like that. It was good playing with you though.” He admitted, looking a little embarrassed at his actions.
“No, you are great. Made it something better than I started with. I’m Kyuhyun by the way.” I told him, trying not to fawn too much now that I have seen him and not just his hands. He was gorgeous and now I’m glad I didn’t see him initially or else I may have stopped playing all together and we would have never had our improvised duet.
“Jongwoon. It would be cool if we could play more but I have a train leaving in a couple minutes. So I have to run. It was nice meeting and playing with you Kyuhyun.” One last hand shake and he was leaving again. I wanted to stop him, but I couldn’t bring myself to cause him to be late and miss his train.
“Here.” I look down to a piece of paper being shoved into my hands and then back at the voice. “I’m Heechul, his brother. Call him sometime.” And then Heechul was rushing to meet his brother before I could say anything else.
I glanced back down to see the paper contained Jongwoon’s number on it and quickly entered the new contact into my phone. Somehow I knew I would be calling him at some point.
I looked back at the clock that hung over the plaza. Just an hour and a half left to spend before my own train would come.
A/N: Thanks for reading^^ Happy Kyusung Day.
I haven't written anything like this in a while but I had inspiration (a video this recreates) and really wanted to do something quick and short for Kyusung day, So I wrote this instead of sleeping like I should be doing.
Comments are appreciated.
^^ ♥
Pairing: Kyusung
Rating: G
Summary: Waiting for a delayed train is easier when there is an open piano to use and a helpful stranger.
~
Two hours. My train was delayed two hours on top of an hour long layover I had originally. It wasn’t enough time to go anywhere but too long to just wait at the terminal. So that left me to wander the station.
I spent the first hour at one of the small cafés in the station but I couldn’t sit there any longer without going insane with boredom. Back to wandering, I came to the center plaza where there was a large crowd of people. Some just passing time at one of the many benches, others trying to perchance tickets, or speak to customer service. And that’s not counting all of the people just passing through to get from one side to the other.
With all the conversations going on around me, I didn’t hear it at first, but the further towards the center I got, I could hear the sounds of a piano. Settled in the middle of one of the walkways between the benches was a piano, nothing special, not like a grand or baby grand, but still a nice piano. Some kids were taking turns playing with it while their parents waited nearby. While most had no knowledge or skill, there were others who had obviously started to learn how to play and could make a simple but recognizable tune. It had been a couple years since I had played myself and part of me wanted to find out just how well I remembered.
Before I could realize what I was doing, I had settled myself on the bench when the children cleared and it was left empty. I could see a few people look expecting at me, being much older and assuming I would give them a show but I wasn’t even sure what to play, let alone give them something amazing to make their wait more enjoyable than the kids had.
Finally, I started playing, nothing special, just a little tune I remember from years ago. I couldn’t remember all of it, so it was mostly just being repeated. Occasionally I would slip in a few more notes and chords as I felt they fit. But it had been years and I wasn’t really confident about it anymore. I kept my head down, not wanting to see the stares from my audience, a few I could feel were still waiting for me to wow them.
Lost in my own thoughts and repeating melody, I didn’t notice the hand appear over my right shoulder and start playing alongside me. I was taken back but continued playing and spared a quick glance at the person. It was a guy, probably my age if not a little older, and he offered me a quick smile and continued with his additions to my tune. I didn’t glance much at his face, but I notice his small hands as they pressed the keys.
After a short bit, he reached across my back to play on my left as well, trying to smooth the transition. A couple words in a deep husky voice threw me off for a moment before I realized it was my random partner and I moved to play where he asked. He continued to occasionally give me verbal cues to play off of the melody I started and move into something more, but mostly it was his hands. So small compared to my own but they moved gracefully across the keys with no problems.
It was hard to hear his voice over the crowd, so he would show me what he wanted on the keys. He would start a new base cord and have me take over while he jumped back to my right side to start a new harmony. My original tune was still in there but I found myself expanding on it and playing beyond it based on his playing. And when we would stray too far and lose it, he seemed to seamlessly blend it back in whether playing it himself, or guiding me back to it without really realizing it.
The beginning was a little rough, and I had to either drop a hand or shift one way or the other to make room for his playing, but some time while we played, we found a rhythm between each other. There were still mistakes when we would trade sides but they were less noticeable and I started to pick up on his hands’ cues to tell when he was going to move.
Somewhere behind us, I could hear someone calling out, but I didn’t understand what they were saying, focused too much on playing. Though I still don’t know what was said, I could figure it out as the guy began to bring us back down to a close. I didn’t want it to end. It had been years since I played and it was never like this, never made sounds like this before or had someone to bounce off of. But I knew it would have to end at some point.
He guided us to the end, and played a closing cord. I was caught up in my thoughts that I missed most of the scale until the end and he asked me to do the swipe across. It was only then, when I heard the clapping and a few cheers that I realized that we had an audience again, and that I did give them a show thanks to the stranger who joined in.
Speaking of the stranger, I quickly turned around to see him leaving and immediately got up to follow, not ready to see him leave yet. He turned back before he went too far, possibly aware that I followed, and gave a sheepish smile and moved to shake my hand.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to jump in like that. It was good playing with you though.” He admitted, looking a little embarrassed at his actions.
“No, you are great. Made it something better than I started with. I’m Kyuhyun by the way.” I told him, trying not to fawn too much now that I have seen him and not just his hands. He was gorgeous and now I’m glad I didn’t see him initially or else I may have stopped playing all together and we would have never had our improvised duet.
“Jongwoon. It would be cool if we could play more but I have a train leaving in a couple minutes. So I have to run. It was nice meeting and playing with you Kyuhyun.” One last hand shake and he was leaving again. I wanted to stop him, but I couldn’t bring myself to cause him to be late and miss his train.
“Here.” I look down to a piece of paper being shoved into my hands and then back at the voice. “I’m Heechul, his brother. Call him sometime.” And then Heechul was rushing to meet his brother before I could say anything else.
I glanced back down to see the paper contained Jongwoon’s number on it and quickly entered the new contact into my phone. Somehow I knew I would be calling him at some point.
I looked back at the clock that hung over the plaza. Just an hour and a half left to spend before my own train would come.
A/N: Thanks for reading^^ Happy Kyusung Day.
I haven't written anything like this in a while but I had inspiration (a video this recreates) and really wanted to do something quick and short for Kyusung day, So I wrote this instead of sleeping like I should be doing.
Comments are appreciated.
^^ ♥