The Coven: Book 1

Chapter 60 - Music Room

“Alright! Done, girlies.” Yoongi said cheerfully, closing the cover of the massive grand piano in the music room.

Mina bit her lip and smiled, giddy. Her fingertips were already tingling with the need to touch the beautiful ivory keys. Jimin was seated in the small loveseat by the wall, cross legged and smiling at his mate’s giddiness as she clapped in happiness when Yoongi closed the piano.

“It’s all tuned and ready to go. Let me just go wash my hands, they’re all dusty. I should’ve taken better care of this guy, it was all dirty with dust.” Yoongi said, frowning a little as he tried to shake off the dust from his palms.

Emily hugged his torso “Thank you, Yoongi!”

“You’re welcome, babygirl. Anything!” He kissed her forehead before he finally slipped from the music room to clean his hands.

“Ah, I can’t believe you guys had this beauty in here and haven’t used it in years.” Mina squealed, awed at the stunning piano in the middle of the room.

The music room had large windows that went from floor to ceiling, with white drapery opened to let the pinkish tones of daybreak inside the room. Emily had been completely dumbfounded. It had now been three months since she had been in the mansion, after arriving that one afternoon, and she had no idea this room even existed. The room was fairly large, with a few bookshelves over at the far wall and the big grand piano basically at the center, turned so the player would face the windows, on an angle.

Needless to say the place was beautifully decorated, in a classical style, like the rest of the mansion was. Much like Jin’s relatives had left it.
The grand piano, the twin’s learned, belonged to Yoongi and had been made in France. It was a beautiful ebony tone of wood, with small intricate designs on the bellyrail assembly. On the inside, it was made of a pretty wood tone, that almost looked golden orange against the stark black of its outside.

It was truly beautiful.

Emily had found in the bookshelves an arrangement of thin books with several scores in them, from various composers. It seemed Yoongi had a bit of a preference for the impressionists, because Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and so on, were there. The brunette even found some old compositions by the hand of Yoongi himself, but those she decided to keep and perhaps ask him to play them for her.

Perhaps some light persuasion would do the trick for that.

“Blame the dust on Yoongi, babe. Jin has the cleaning ladies clean the whole place, but the poor women don’t know how to clean the inside of the piano.” Jimin said, eyeing her as the redhead touched the beautifully varnished surface of the instrument.

“Guys?” The small voice by the double opened doors made all three of them look towards the newcomer “Oh, you found the piano!”

“Yoongi just tuned it for me. Wanna play a bit, too?” Mina said, taking a seat in front of the piano.

“Nah, you’re better than me.” Amelia said, walking inside the music room.

She had one of her new dresses, a soft powder blue, that cinched her waist and went all the way to the middle of her thighs.

Over the last three days that had passed after she had been shopping, Amelia looked like a complete different person. After almost four months of just wearing leggings, wool sweaters, Jungkook’s t-shirts and hoodies, no one was used to seeing her look so casually feminine. It seemed she liked dresses, seeing how she was wearing another one. Her brown and red hair was always so pretty and wavy that the girl looked ethereal.

Ellie would be stopping by tomorrow and everyone was a little curious to see what her reaction to Amelia would be, seeing how she had been so surprised with the twins and Lucy. The poor girl had been so overwhelmed with her brother’s wedding and how her bar had been so full lately that she barely had any contact with the guys.

Namjoon was always particularly mopey, too, seeing how he didn’t talk much with her.

“What are you gonna play?” Amelia asked, getting closer to the piano with her arms crossed.

“Oh, Oh! I know!” Emily raised her hand, suddenly excited to request something “How about ‘Für Elise’? Please?”

Mina scrunched her nose a little, seeming displeased with the request but adjusted herself on the seat and stretched her fingers.

Jimin was a little giddy, now, waiting for her to start and play, curious to see his mate play the piano. He didn’t know why, really. Probably the fact that Mina seemed to always talk of it like she really loved playing the piano, like she honestly enjoyed it. So, seeing some part of her and learning more about her, and Emily and Amelia as well, was always good.

He watched as the woman’s elegant hands were now on top of the keyboard, set to start dabbling on the black and white keys. Mina took a deep breath and then her fingers moved. Jimin had heard the song before, a little more rushed and quick paced. Mina, however, was taking her time, playing it to have it sound more eerie, slow and lazy.

Mina’s hands were gracious, her soft skin brushing along the keys with expert movements. She knew exactly what she was doing, now with the most serious look on her face, eyebrows a little furrowed in concentration.

Yoongi arrived back in the room and walked to take a seat beside Jimin, at the same time Mina was beginning to pick up the pace of the piece.

“Damn, she’s good.”

“Thought you wouldn’t come back.” Jimin said, leaning back on the couch and crossing his arms.

“Wouldn’t miss this. But Mina’s good, man. Her hands are like butter on that keyboard, the hell?” Yoongi said, frowning as he looked at the ginger Witch as she played.

Amelia smiled a little towards Yoongi and then noticed the pile of scores near him. She walked towards the small books and started inspecting them.

“What’s this?” She quietly mumbled, picking up a few to look through them.

“Some of the pieces I was learning. Didn’t get through all of them, some are really hardcore for me.” The pale haired vampire explained, picking up one in particular with a sonata by Mozart.

“I think Mina knows all of these…”

“Weird flex, but okay, I guess.” Yoongi grumbled, frowning at the information.

Amelia suddenly gasped, her brows raising in light surprise and eyes widening when she spotted a particular small book. Her hand reached for it and she started to flip through the pages.

“Ravel… I loved Ravel!” She said, a little excitement now lacing her voice and in her eyes.

“You like his pieces?”

“His pieces?! We dated for a year!” Amelia said, smiling cheekily at him while she turned towards Mina again.

The redhead played the last few keys of ‘Für Elise’ and then stretched her arms and hands with a sigh.

“That was a good warm up. Even if I hate ‘Für Elise’…” Mina said, then turning to look at Amelia, who was now sitting beside her “Oh, of course you would choose that one.”

Amelia smiled cheekily again, positioning the sheet music on the music rack perfectly.

“Amelia dated Maurice Ravel?!” Yoongi asked, a little dumbfounded.

“You know how people say that ‘Jeux d’eau’ was dedicated to his teacher?” Mina asked, looking back at the two vampires sitting on the couch.

“Yeah, Gabriel Fauré.” Yoongi quickly answered, waiting for Mina to continue.

“That’s what he told everyone. Ravel composed it for Amelia.” The redhead said, a knowing smile on her face as she looked back to Amelia, who was smiling and expectantly waiting for Mina to start playing her favorite piece.

Amelia didn’t have to wait much more. Mina brought her attention back to the keyboard and her hands instantly went to the right keys. Yoongi was a little stupefied, then. Ravel’s pieces were hard. This one in particular was a little too much work. One of the reasons he hadn’t touched much Ravel. Unlike ‘Für Elise’, that was simple and easy for beginners, ‘Jeux d’eau’ was a whole composition of different sounds and keys put together in such a complicated manner that Yoongi had just put it aside like the lazy bum he was. But Mina would be considered a true professional, delicately skimming through the keys like her hands were touching clouds.

Her hands were swift and delicate as she dabbled each key with the perfect timing. Each tone of color, each expression was there.

Meanwhile, Amelia was in pure heaven. Each key perfectly emulated the soft sound of water drops, the imagery in her head one of the once still water on a lake now dancing in unison with the fairies. It was beautifully composed. Amelia clearly remembered Maurice getting  uncharacteristically giddy and cheerful when she had settled on the couch, in his house’s music room, waiting for him to play her ‘her present’.

“For me?” She had said, a little confused as to why he had invited her over on a Wednesday afternoon.

“Why, of course! Would it not be idiotic of my person to ignore how much you inspire me? I do hope you enjoy it… ‘Tis not quite finished, but I find that, with you here, my mind will fill in the blanks.” Maurice so very cheerfully said, going through his papers in a bit of a rush and setting them on the music rack on his dark wood piano.

And she remembered how dumbfounded she had been the moment the man had started to play. Funny how she had been so awestruck by him, back then. It hadn’t been more than a crush, even if he said he was ‘strikingly in love’ with her.

Mina finished the piece, the last few keys soft and quiet, like the rain had just barely stopped and only a couple drops still ventured down.

Amelia sighed and smiled at her.

“Thank you.” She cheesed.

“You’re welcome. I love playing this, though, it’s always nice.” Mina said, picking up the book from the music rack to close it and give it back to Amelia “Alright, any requests?”

Yoongi and Jimin were the ones that looked through the small books with endless music sheets in them, with Emily now sitting on the floor besides Yoongi’s legs, reading one of his original pieces. Parvati, her white tigress was laying on the ground close to her, head on top of the woman’s thigh and sighing in contentment once in a while. There was no sign of Lakshmi, for now, but the more wild tigress like to spend time tormenting Hoseok in the living room.

“So, did any of you guys date any other musician? You know, like Amelia apparently dated a renowned compositor.” This time it was Jimin asking, extending a book to Mina that contained one of Debussy’s most complicated pieces.

“Not that I know of.” Emily said, looking through Yoongi’s notes on the papers.

“Well, one of Lucy’s apprentices, Dahlia… She dated a painter, but I can’t remember which one it was. Monet? Or was it Manet?” Mina looked at Amelia, as if asking for her opinion.

“Definitely not Manet, he was a dick.” Amelia sentenced, shaking her head.

Yoongi snorted, leaning on the couch and waiting for Mina to start playing again. She did and, much like Ravel’s piece, Debussy flowed from her movements on the piano, hands exquisitely moving from key to key.

Lucy picked up the soft sound of music from the office, where she was going through some papers with Jin. He seemed to be regretting this whole thing of buying the ‘stupid company’, as he called it, considering now he had too much work to do and he hated it. The guy was already thinking of a way to get rid of it and a month had barely passed.

But the sound of Debussy on piano distracted her from the finance reports she had been reading the past hour.

“You have a piano?” She asked, recognizing Mina’s intricate way of playing.

Jin stopped what he was reading, in his place on the other end of the couch, and looked up at her, a little lost, before he finally acknowledged the sound of a very soft piano in the not so far distance.

“Uh, yeah, in the music room. Yoongi mentioned he would tune it up for Mina today.” He said, nodding and then lowering his head to go back to his reading.

“Oh, right, Mina mentioned the music room.” Lucy mumbled, now completely disregarding the papers in her hands “She’s playing Debussy. It’s been a while since I heard her play.”

“If it’s been a while for you, imagine for me. We need to have a night out with Jimin and Mina, I miss hearing her sing, too. Last time I heard her it was the twenties.” Jin joked, smiling a little.

When Mina was done, Yoongi nodded in appreciation, looking at Jimin a little surprised that the woman was this good. Hell, Jimin hadn’t shut up yet about Mina’s jazz singing skills and how much he wanted the rest of the guys to go see Tara’s Bar. It was actually surprising to know she was this good at the piano.

As Mina and Emily engaged in some light conversation with Jimin, about one of Mina’s tutors while in France, Amelia was now dabbling in the keys slowly and absent mindedly. Her fingers moved slowly on the keys closest to her.

Mina diverted from the conversation to look at the younger woman as she played the few notes melancholically, recognizing the lullaby.

“You haven’t played that in a while.” Mina mumbled, smiling at her.

“It’s been in my mind a lot these days.”

“Why?” Mina frowned “Is everything okay?”

Amelia nodded, sighing as she lowered her hand from the keyboard.

The younger Witch knew how to play the instrument. She had never been as good as Mina, as one of the tutors said, but Amelia had a good grasp of it and could perform quite perfectly.