Work Text:
Bitter.
Bitterness is only what Jaehwan felt.
He looked at his mothers tired body, gripping his legs tightly as tears fell from his eyes, his loved one will no longer step foot in this world as a living person.
He wailed and sobbed on the hospital bed, hiccuping between his tears, his mother asked him to at least enter the competition, but it was too late now, the clock struck at 9:30 AM, his performance was supposed to be exactly at 9.
The person that sat him down in front of the piano, helping him guide his hands softly on the black and white keys, he remembers the time that his fingers pressed down on the instrument, his mother was the sole reason Jaehwan got him into music. The way his world lighted up as he saw that he could create such incredible things just from his fingers.
It was only natural that he lost his love for music because he lost his sole reason to continue.
5 years had passed, 5 years after he declared to himself that he would quit the piano, Jaehwan was now 20, walking home to his apartment from the university he’s going to.
He stood in the middle of the abundant cherry trees, taking in the scenery that only lasted for a few months in a year. Jaehwan sighed, before continuing to walk.
He looked around as he guided himself through the sidewalk, he could see couples being lovey-dovey and children playing about in the park, he also occasionally spotted people walking their pets.
He watched as the people around him were laughing and sharing smiles with each other, but in Jaehwan's vision, the world was so...dull.
He looked at the world so dully since he lost the will to play the piano 5 years ago, if he could reignite the flame he would, but he doesn't even know where to find that remaining flame within him.
He continued to stroll through the side, whilst checking on his phone in case he had any notifications, whether it would be random social media notifications or messages from his family.
Jaehwan received a message, it was from Mino, he clicked on her message, revealing that Mino had sent him a picture of an old trophy, probably from when he won a competition years ago.
Jaehwan was somewhat weirded out by Mino’s behaviour, even though she always acted like this, he was confused at how Mino got into his apartment. Jaehwan noticed that Mino texted him again.
‘You gave me your keys, and I decided to break in for funsies hehe’ Is what she wrote, Jaehwan had completely forgotten about that and messaged her back telling her to not break into his house as she pleases.
‘Yeah yeah, whatever! I’m asking when you’re gonna play the piano again! I miss hearing you play, you know?’ Jaehwan read the text, before typing in about how he could never even touch a piano again; he doesn't even have the courage to look at it anymore.
‘Aw, that sucks, I'll be looking forward to your comeback though!’ Jaehwan immediately turns off his phone, pocketing it.
Jaehwan continued to walk, although after a short while, he could hear a faint sound coming from a remote part in the park he was walking beside.
Jaehwan decided to investigate, he didn’t know why, but there was something pulling him towards it, a rhythmic and melodic sound could be faintly heard in the distance, Jaehwan continued to approach the source of the sound.
He finally reached the source, the sound was coming from…a violin. Jaehwan looked over the branch and saw children sitting, circling a man who was fairly tall and had light brown hair.
The man had a soft smile as his bow glided through the strings of the violin gracefully, the children around him were astonished by the sheer gentleness that was radiating from this man, Jaehwan too, was astonished, not just from the man’s gentleness, but his skill too.
Jaehwan continued to watch, his mind being entranced by the sound that the other was producing, until he finished the song.
The children around the man erupted in joy and amazement, begging the person to do another song as they clinged to his legs. The children kept resisting as the man was trying to calm them down.
One of the children turned around and their eyes met Jaehwan’s eyes. Jaehwan took notice of this and immediately froze, as the child ended up gripping the man’s leg tighter.
“Mister…There's a weird man staring at us.” The group immediately turned around to Jaehwan, as the children hid behind the man’s legs, they were telling the man to tell Jaehwan to ‘leave them alone.’
Although not looking like it, Jaehwan was panicking, he just stood still, unsure on what to do.
The man gave a soft smile to the children before approaching Jaehwan. Jaehwan freezes before blurting out a sentence.
“Please do excuse me- I didn’t mean to stare-” Jaehwan stumbled back as the man just kept getting closer to him, inching closer to his face, before standing up straight and saying something with a wide smile.
“I’m sure you didn’t mean to do it! In fact, do you wanna join us?” The man offered, extending his hand, Jaehwan persistently nodded and grabbed the other’s hand, before getting dragged to the tree the children were in.
And as the both of them reached the tree, the children were quite wary of Jaehwan, before the man reassured the children that he was no threat, and that he just didn’t mean to stare. Jaehwan looked at the other, confused.
Both adults sat down near the children, and they began to talk about music and whatnot.
“Hey! Weird uncle! Mister Yunhwan’s skills are awesome, right?!”
“Yunhwan…You mean…?” Jaehwan looked at the other person, who’s name is apparently Yunhwan, the man named Yunhwan widened his eyes in realisation.
“Right! I’m so sorry I haven't introduced myself before, I’m Yunhwan Kim, and you are?” Yunhwan reached out his hand, offering a handshake, Jaehwan hesitated for a bit before accepting the handshake.
“Jaehwan.” He awkwardly smiled.
“Jaehwan, huh…Do you have any interest in music?” As Yunhwan asked that question, the children immediately had their eyes on him, eager to know as to what drew Jaehwan into Yunhwan’s violin playing.
Jaehwan scratched the back of his head, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the pressure before answering.
“Ah…I used to play the piano.” And as Jaehwan answered, the children instead did not calm down, they instead threw more questions at Jaehwan like ‘When did you start?!’ or ‘Are you good at playing it?!’ and the like.
In the midst of the surge of questions, Yunhwan clasped Jaehwan’s hands with his own, holding Jaehwan’s hands tightly as he had a look of amazement plastered over his face.
“You play the piano?! Really?! That sounds so cool…” Yunhwan continued to stare at Jaehwan with starry eyes, Jaehwan now felt more overwhelmed due to Yunhwan’s sudden praise and the children’s questions.
Yunhwan snapped out of his trance, realising that Jaehwan might be overwhelmed currently. Yunhwan pulled away his own hands from Jaehwan, before turning to the children.
“Kids, let’s not ask questions anymore alright? It looks like Jaehwan doesn’t want to answer right now.”
“Aw…I wanted to know if he’s ever played in a competition like Mister Yunhwan did!” Yunhwan chuckled softly before patting the child gently on the head. Jaehwan was hesitating to answer the question, before gathering his courage to do so.
“I have, actually.” Jaehwan confessed, this causes the children to get more wild.
“Eh?! Really?! I thought Mister Jaehwan didn’t go to competitions cuz’ his face was too scary!” A child pointed at Jaehwan’s face. Yunhwan snorted a little and Jaehwan was a bit shocked at the remark.
“I don’t think the judges judge you for your face though…” Another child remarked.
“Really? The people I've seen competing all have friendly faces though!”
“That’s just the surface, dummy! Even a zombie could enter the competition if it could play the piano!”
Yunhwan looked at his wristwatch, realising it was getting pretty late. Yunhwan stood up as the children watched in confusion.
“Sorry kids, I need to go now! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Yunhwan waved goodbye and the children immediately latched onto Yunhwan’s legs, preventing him from trying to leave. The children were begging for Yunhwan to not go and that they were not tired yet. Jaehwan too, stood up since he had matters to attend to once he got back home from his apartment.
Yunhwan laughed softly, getting the children to get off from his legs, and once they did, Yunhwan crouched and assured them that Yunhwan was going back tomorrow. Surprisingly, this elicited a small laughter from Jaehwan, it felt oddly nostalgic.
Yunhwan and Jaehwan waved goodbye to the kids, as the both of them walked off together.
The both of them shared conversations as they walked in rhythm, it was about trivial things such as their favourite food, a tv show they liked, what they did at home, etc.
It felt like they’ve known each other for years, even though they only met a few hours ago. Jaehwan felt oddly safe in Yunhwan’s presence. ‘Maybe we were destined to meet…?’ Jaehwan thought to himself, before brushing it off, there was no way that was the reason.
Yunhwan suddenly stopped walking at a bus stop, Jaehwan realised that Yunhwan might be going on a bus. Yunhwan suddenly searched his bag for something, before pulling out his phone.
“Right, can I get your contact information?” Yunhwan asked Jaehwan, Jaehwan was taken aback by the question.
“Sure.” Jaehwan pulled out his respective phone from his pockets, unlocking it. The both of them exchanging their numbers and socials and whatnot.
Jaehwan still wondered why Yunhwan wanted his number even though they’ve only met once, so he asked Yunhwan a question.
“Is there a reason why you wanted to exchange numbers suddenly?”
“Well…It’s a bit complicated…” Yunhwan scratched his neck, looking away from Jaehwan, looking a bit embarrassed.
“I have a rehearsal on sunday, I was wondering if you could accompany the kids, their parents said they can’t come.” Yunhwan looked back at Jaehwan. Jaehwan was once again taken aback by Yunhwan’s words.
“I mean sure, but-” Yunhwan immediately beamed when he heard Jaehwan accept his request, he got close to Jaehwans face, maybe a bit too close as he clasped his hands around Jaehwan’s hands once again.
“Really?! Thank you so much!! I’ll text you the details later!” Yunhwan was a few inches away from Jaehwan’s face, Jaehwan’s cheeks reddening a little. Yunhwan had taken notice of this, and immediately backed off, face also reddening a bit.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean-” Yunhwan was cut off by the bus arriving at the stop, he immediately sprinted over inside it, sticking his head out to say a final goodbye to Jaehwan, only to go inside again, as the bus drove off into the distance.
Jaehwan pocketed his left hand, scratching his neck due to the fact that Yunhwan’s face was so close to his earlier. However, he ignored this and continued walking back to his apartment, unconsciously smiling to himself.
‘Maybe today wasn’t so dull.’