Piano Keys | Kim Taehyung | ✓

‖ Espressivo ‖

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Espressivo : (Italian-means 'expressive') it is an instruction that means that a passage should be played with expression, or expressively.

[Each and every piece she played, every note and piano key she hit, she brought out the  feelings and expressions expressed by the composer.]

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THE PAST, DAEGU

Iseul was playing the piano with such fervor that even though I was supposed to be studying as she practiced, I couldn't make my eyes look away from her.

She was playing one of my favorites as per my request earlier, i.e. Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata and the only reason why she had not yet shooed me away to let her practice and myself study for my upcoming test was because I had convinced her that listening to classical music would help me concentrate and a subject like Mathematics required concentration.

Iseul was exempted from giving the test (lucky her) as she had to go away on one of her competitions and it was an international one (and she had been smugly rubbing that fact in my face and making me jealous, mind you.) I was  about to turn fourteen back then and my birthday was just a two days away.

Suddenly she stopped playing, something which very rarely happened because once she started playing, she would spend hours on the piano and not get up once. If she could have her way, she would be glued to the instrument, that's how much she loved playing it. 

And she was really good at it and many even said that she was wasting her talent by not going abroad to study.  I think I was a little envious of that- the fact that she was one of the best  at something which she loved doing because I hadn't yet found my calling. I was an easy guy who had envisioned his life as a farmer just like my parents or if not, if I was given the liberty to dream a little bigger than that, a saxophonist surely. 

One thing I did know was that I really was in love with Park Iseul and wanted to be by her side as a friend or as a lover-it didn't matter who; just that I wanted to be with her.

Those years were kind of a sweet torture for me- for those early teen years were the ones when my feelings (and hers too) were all over the place. 

'I had this strange desire to go and hug her tightly sometimes or to press my lips against her plump, pink ones...'

"Yah! TaeTae stop staring at me and study pabo!"

Iseul broke me out of my little day dream by turning around in her seat and facing me with a half annoyed and half amused expression.

"I was just listening and trying to learn the keys and notes!" 

I quickly came up with an excuse and she rolled her eyes but grinned at me. Her grin always made me lose my control, that full-blow all-white-straight-teeth grin made my heart skip a beat every time she bestowed one upon me but she didn't know that.

I gave her a sheepish one in return and she got up and sat next to me, too close. Her soft hair was brushing my arm, making goosebumps rise as she peered into the open textbook in front of me.

"It's boring isn't it? I hate maths ugh! Thank the lord that I don't have to give this test this week., I would've surely flunked." 

She sighed sympathetically at first but smirked in the end, again rubbing salt on my wound. When I shot her a glare she giggled, and I just couldn't stay mad at her for even one second so I joined in her laughter.

"Taehyungie, do you want to take a break?"

Those words were of course music to my ears and I nodded a yes at once. Iseul giggled again at my enthusiasm and ruffled my hair, making a few strands fall on my forehead. I loved it when she did that, when she would run her long fingers in my hair- it was my personal heaven on Earth.

"Do you want to play anything?"

She asked me as she dragged me to her piano bench and made me sit next to her. I nodded and started playing Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy', the first song she had ever taught me.

When I finished I expected her to praise me like she did when we were kids and even squeeze my hand but all I received with a hard punch on my shoulder. When I asked her what was it for, she simply replied,

"You're not a kid anymore! Do you expect me to pat your head and say good job? You missed a few notes and made mistakes and it wasn't expressive at all! This is the easiest piano piece by Beethoven and yet you play it so flatly and  dully?! Even five year-olds play it better Tae, I'm ashamed as your piano teacher!"

I couldn't believe that she would criticize it. I mean I was just casually playing it, I wasn't participating in a National competition but she did. 

I knew Park Iseul in-and-out but no one could ever guess what would come next with her and that was part of her charm. But she could be sweet when she wanted to be. 

Before leaving town for her competition, she had asked me to come over to her house for an early present.

 It was the first time we were ever going to spend my birthday apart as we never missed each other's birthday and so she was a bit reluctant to leave, but I had asked her to win the competition as my gift and she had agreed.

That night, she didn't play classical music but a simple ballad-'Always' by Bon Jovi. To my great astonishment, she sang too. 

And when I hugged her and said thank you, she pulled back and kissed my cheek; making both of us blush once again and my heart almost have a heart attack.

It was the best birthday gift you had ever given me, Park Iseul.

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