The Pianist || MYG || ✔

37

Daisy looked up from her sketchbook when she heard a soft tap on her bedroom door. A moment later, it gently opened, and her father stepped inside.

"Are you busy?" He asked, looking a little nervous.

Daisy put her pencil down and closed her sketchbook, "Just drawing,"

Her father took a deep breath and walked into the room a little more. He cocked his head to the side a little, "Who is this singing?"

"Park Jimin," Daisy said. A gentle piano melody was playing, with Jimin's soft voice singing over the top. It was one of his older songs, and Daisy had realised when she had looked into it, that the piano was actually composed and performed for the album by her tutor, Min Yoongi.

"It's quite nice," Her father said, "The lyrics are nice,"

Daisy nodded. She wasn't quite sure what to make of her fathers visit to her room. It was obviously an attempt at bridging the gap between them, but she wasn't sure that would work. There had been too much damage over the years.

He sat down at the edge of her bed, his eyes low. Daisy just watched him, waiting for him to speak.

Finally, he took a breath and opened his mouth.

"I was thinking," He said, "About what your teacher said; both teachers, that is. The things they were saying, to me, were offensive. They didn't know about music, and they didn't know you, or our family,"

Daisy frowned. If this was the way this conversation was going to go, she didn't want to hear it. However, just as she was about to tell him to leave her alone, he spoke again.

"But I was wrong. After thinking about it, I realised how right they were. They know you better than I do, Daisy, and I am your father. I always said I cared about how you express yourself, but I didn't let you do your art, and I forced you to play the piano, just because of your mother,"

He lifted his head to look at her, "I'm sorry," He said, "I was so caught up in the loss of my wife, that I forgot that you have lost your mother. I was selfish, and all I thought about was having you play. But she would have hated that more than anything. She loved the piano because you loved it. You went through just as much pain as I did; more, actually. And I didn't even stop to think about you,"

Daisy could feel her heartbeat increasing. Her father had never been this honest before, and now that he was acknowledging his mistakes, she felt all kinds of emotion building up in her chest. She felt pain at the loss of her mother and the fact that their family was torn apart by her death. But she was also feeling joy; he was finally realising what had gone wrong.

"I decided," He said, clearing his throat and getting to his feet, obviously not wanting to get too emotional in front of his daughter, "That if you want to stop playing, you can. I won't force you to do it anymore. Your mother would have hated to see you so upset, and I am sorry that it has taken me so long to realise,"

Daisy's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Her father was letting her quit the piano? That wasn't possible. He had been forcing her to practice and play for so long now that there was no way he would suddenly change his mind, just because of a few words her teachers had said.

"You're free to express yourself how you wish," He said, "I take everything back. If you don't want to play at the concert and enter the competition, you don't have to," He cleared his throat and went to the door, "Let me know when you want to quit and I will make arrangements for you to start a new course in Art in the next year,"

As the door closed behind her father, Daisy could feel a great weight lifted from her shoulders. Gone, was the pressure and the pain behind playing the piano. Gone was the ignorance and control of her father.

She was free to do as she wished.

However, as she looked at the image she had drawn on the pad in front of her, Daisy let out a small huff of laughter.

Her father was letting her quit. But she had already fallen in love with playing again.

She dropped the pencil and sketchbook on her bed and left her bedroom. Padding quietly down the corridor, she entered the piano room and closed the door behind her. She was extremely happy at this moment, and from what she had learned over the past weeks, there was only one way to express that joy.

Daisy sat down at the piano, placed her fingers on the keys, and began to play.

She could almost hear the voice of Park Jimin in her head as she played his song; the very song they had been listening to just now in her bedroom.

"All this is no coincidence"

It was as if right from the beginning, even if it was unconsciously, Yoongi had gone into her mind and tapped on the door holding her love for the piano. It was locked up tight with chains and padlocks when her mother died, but he had slowly, one by one, released the chains.

"Everything was destined"

And her father just now had released the biggest lock of them all. Now she was free to do as she wished, all the love and memories that linked the piano to her mothers joy had come crashing out like a tidal wave.

She would play not for her father, or her mother, or even for her teachers. She was finally playing for herself.

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AN: This chapters piece is "Serendipity" piano cover by Smyang