Piano Keys | Kim Taehyung | ✓

‖ Accent ‖

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Accent: when a specific note or phrase is emphasized with an increase in intensity above other non-accented notes.

[ For him, she was like an 'Accent'-Always shining brighter and more intense than the other non-accented people surrounding him, who paled in her comparison; as was he for her. ]

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THE PAST, DAEGU

I had first seen her when I was around six or seven years old, when she came to visit our house along with her father who was my father's old classmate from his school days.

They moved back to Daegu from Seoul shortly after that and while her family was well off and obviously much, much wealthier than my parents, who were mere farmers while her father was a doctor, we became really close and went to school together.

By the time we were in middle school we were already inseparable, so much so that our homeroom teacher joked that we could pass off as Siamese twins as we were always, and I quote his exact words, "joined at the hip". Even the school rules which stated that boys and girls couldn't sit together in class couldn't deter us from doing so and eventually our teachers accepted the fact and gave up.

The only times we were ever away from each other was when she had to go to Seoul or Busan or any other city for her piano concerts- Iseul was a piano prodigy you see. She had been playing the instrument even before I met her, since she was only five years old.

In fact, Iseul was quite famous in our town, heck, one can even say in our country; as the 'genius prodigy of Daegu' and 'the next female Beethoven'. Many used to advise her father to let her study abroad but he being a single dad didn't want his daughter to live away from him, especially when he knew that Iseul would never agree to move in a million years.

At first it didn't bother me when we were kids but as we grew I knew our worlds were different and always had been so and I began to wonder why she hung out with me but when I voiced my thoughts one day, she got angry at me. It was the first time she ever got angry at someone as Park Iseul was a bubbly and cheerful girl who had an infectious smile and could brighten up any room she was in.

"Yah! How dare you say that?! You want to be kicked by me don't you?"

But when she saw my face, her expression softened and she took a seat next to me on the park bench of our school. I was avoiding her hazel eyes boring into my face to analyse my expression. We were almost twelve years old back then.

"Taehyungie..."

I felt her cool breath near my ear and jerked a bit at her nearness. We were used to closeness and skinship between us, but at that time we were just on the brink of teenage and her being so close used to make my heartbeat speed up and my ears turn red like they did in winters.

Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around me and buried my face in the crook of her neck, taking me by surprise. I stiffened a little but relaxed a few seconds later, breathing in her familiar scent.

She always smelt like strawberries and I knew it was because of the shampoo she used-she refused to use any other shampoo except her favorite one and she once threw a big fit when they stopped manufacturing it briefly.

She stubbornly refused to use any other company's shampoo and her father didn't know what to do with her. At last, I was the one who was told to convince her to use another shampoo with almost the same fragrance and she agreed and luckily they started manufacturing her favorite after a few months again.

"Don't ever say that TaeTae."

She said and pulled back, looking me straight in the eyes, dead serious. When I tried to escape her gaze, she placed her hands on my cheeks and forced me to look at her.

"To me, you are just like an 'Accent'."

I scrunched up my nose and frowned at her, not understanding her for a moment. But she didn't need to explain, for it dawned on me after a few seconds as I too shared her love for classical music-Of course, I wasn't as good as her with a piano, but I did like playing it. We were kindred spirits, and I didn't need her to tell me what she meant for I knew already.

"Iseul-ah..." I hugged her tightly, so tightly that I could feel her heart hammering against my own chest and rapidly beating heart.

"For me, you shine brighter than others and always will, brighter than any star in the night sky."

My heart warmed at her words and I think it was one of those many moments which made me fall for her.

You shone brighter than others for me too, Park Iseul.

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