Quiet | BTS ✓

17

As Yoongi makes his way down the hallway towards the music room, he can feel himself becoming more excited. He's worked hard on composing this song for the assignment, and he really feels that he's captured the emotion of loss that he felt for so long when he was alone.

Since he's been back, he's found it easy to compose song after song, the notes and melodies flowing from his mind like water in a river, his story morphing into the art that he's been longing to create for as long as he can remember. Yoongi is an artist, and coming home has brought him such peace. He discovered a piece of himself that he ached for when he was away.

He is whole again, and now the music flows freely and wonderfully from his fingertips, allowing him the freedom he has craved so desperately for his entire life. Aria craves the same freedom he now feels, and he is as determined as ever to guide her along into the light of the art that is music. She may not be able to sing anymore. She may not be able to show her parents how beautifully she can create music without using her voice. But she can show the rest of the world while her parents are with her in her heart that is slowly healing from her torment.

"Hi," Yoongi says, smiling, as he sees Aria waiting for him on the piano bench.

She turns around and smiles back before turning back towards the piano and playing random notes idly.

"Are you sure you want to sit here and listen to me practice?" Yoongi asks, sitting down beside Aria. "I can just come back later if you want to practice alone right now."

She shakes her head and grabs Yoongi's hands in her own, placing his hands on the keys to get her point across that she wants to hear him play.

Yoongi lets out a soft laugh before reaching into his bag and getting out the sheet music for the piece that he wrote before placing it on the piano and warming up for a few moments.

"This is about how I lost myself when I left my home," Yoongi explains while he's warming his fingers up. "When my parents disowned me for choosing music, I left my hometown to get away. I'd always wanted to come here and study under my uncle, but my parents are very dishonorable people. If they had found out that my uncle was teaching me music, they would've wormed their way into the Dean's head with their money and gotten him fired. I never wanted my uncle to suffer for showing me something as beautifully pure as music, so I repaid him by getting out of his life before my parents could hurt him. And for three years, I did just that. I stayed away from my dream school and I stayed away from my uncle that always treated me as a son. And in turn, I kept myself away from the music. How could I truly let myself be one with the music if I was such a failure?"

Yoongi sighs and stops warming up as Aria's hand comes to rest gently on his, urging him to continue.

"My uncle was so patient with me while I was being so stubborn. He gave me my space, but he still called me to try to convince me to come back. He did everything he could to convince me that it's okay to put myself first. But the problem with that was that I had already put myself first once and I nearly destroyed everything. Just because I wanted to play music instead of own an electronics company. So why would I put myself first again and risk my uncle's job? I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was so scared for him. And I was scared for myself because I couldn't write a single song. It's like the moment I left, the music shut me out. There was a wall between me and my potential and the only way to break it down would be to come back here and just let myself be truly free. And my uncle assured me that my parents won't interfere, since to them, I no longer exist. To them, I am a stranger. And I guess I am since I am not who they thought I was, or rather who they hoped I was."

Aria squeezes his hand for a moment before pulling back, and he takes that as a signal to begin to play.

The piano comes to life underneath his fingertips as it always does, sending the melancholy notes floating through the air like clouds heavy with rain.

The story of loss that Yoongi is telling is not one that is told often. Normally, one hears of the word "loss" and thinks of something physical that was once in their grasp but now out of reach. But to Yoongi, nothing was more defining than when he lost himself because he nearly lost everything along with that piece of him that he abandoned. If he had stayed away, he would have continued to wilt, his petals crumbling to the floor around him as he sits at a piano. The music he holds so dear would have looked sadly at him from afar, silently begging him to go home and find that piece of himself that was chipped away by his cruel, demanding parents.

His uncle and the piano in the music room were his solace; his safe place. He left all of it behind in his desperation to get away from the suffocation of his seemingly inevitable future. In one moment, he chose the music but he also ran away from it simultaneously, therefore the music was never his to begin with. Not until he gathered the courage to come home to this piano and to his real family.

He came back and suddenly, the music was his best friend, his soulmate, his partner. The music was no longer hiding away in a darkened place of his mind; it was bright, and it was free.

He chose the music when he left home. But the music didn't choose him. Not until he came home.

As the song comes to an end, Yoongi feels nearly overwhelmed with the emotions surrounding the piece he's just played. He remembers so vividly the pain he felt waking up every morning, forcing himself to stay away from where he truly belonged. That pain will echo in his heart forever, and he will never forgive himself for hurting not only himself, but his uncle and his precious music as well.

He feels a soft hand caress his cheek and that's when he realizes that Aria's just wiped a tear away from his face.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. "I just hate myself sometimes."

Aria gently takes his face in her hands and turns it so he's facing her, and that's when Yoongi notices that she has tears in her eyes as well.

Slowly, Aria leans forward and presses her lips to Yoongi's forehead, lingering for a moment as she desperately tries to convey the thoughts that are locked inside her mind.

Yoongi takes a deep, shuddering breath before collapsing into Aria's arms, letting his head fall into her shoulder. They wrap their arms around each other in a warm embrace, both of them silently promising a better future for the other.