Dancing to Thunder - Kim Jongdae

All That Beauty

"I wanted to ask what had happened to all that beauty."

Han Yonhee found that the lightning danced for Kim Jongdae.

He was the one to show her -he must have trusted her enough-, taking her hand and pulling her away from the tree and to the edge of the hill where the ground began to slope down. Firmly grasping her wrist in his left hand, the boy raised the other and the Lightning snapped down towards his fingers in a great crack of thunder. Yonhee was startled and tried to pull away, but the boy still held her wrist tightly like a vise, as if making her watch. Finally, she was able to open her eyes and gaze (well, squint because it was so bright) at the lights before her. Yonhee could feel the heat crackling off each stroke of lighting, yet Jongdae seemed completely content with it, the jagged lines of white coming to rest at his finger tips.

"See, nothing to be afraid of," Jongdae said softly, slowly releasing the girl's wrist and leaving the area where his hand had been feeling empty. "It dances for me."

It dances for him.

"Does the thunder dance for you too?" After it came from her mouth, Yonhee realized it was an extremely stupid question. How could something that's not visible dance?

But Jongdae didn't seem the least bit phased or even stupefied by such a lame inquiry. "Yes," he said in the same, soft voice, "it dances for me too. But sometimes it's good to dance to the thunder. It has its own type of music."

What an odd thing to say, Yonhee had thought to herself initially, who dances to thunder? What kind of idiot does that? Perhaps the others had been right about this boy.

Then Jongdae spread his arms and tipped his head back, his naturally curved bow-like lips pulling higher in the shape of a shy yet content smile. The lightning danced in the sky around him and decorated the air with tiny sparks. Kim Jongdae let out a laugh then - a pure, high laugh that sounded similar to the soft twinkling of bells. It was pleasing, the sound of his laugh, and in that moment, Yonhee couldn't think about anything other than how beautiful he seemed in the luminescence of lightning.

Why did he keep all that beauty so hidden from the world? She certainly didn't know.