Quiet | BTS ✓

34

Time, to Yoongi, is different now.

Before Aria, time stood still. The air was stuck inside his lungs as he was frozen in place by his sorrow. He could swear that time stood still just to spite him, knowing how badly he wished to be in a different time altogether.

Now that Yoongi has Aria, time is flowing like water; effortlessly and serenely. He doesn't wish for time to be any different than it is. Aria showed him that moving forward isn't something to dread. In fact, he looks forward to each new day now that he has something to look forward to.

Someone to look forward to.

It has been one month and two days since Yoongi walked into the music room that night, and every day since then, he has moved forward one step at a time, one day at a time, breathing slowly but freely.

He is not underwater. He is not stuck in a standstill.

The path forward is the path Yoongi is on, and beside him, hand in hand, is the girl of his dreams.

"I know you didn't want any gifts," Yoongi says to Aria as they begin to walk into the school, the moonlight capturing Aria's beauty in an ethereal way, "but I wouldn't have been able to not get you anything for your birthday."

Yoongi hears Aria sigh, but he just grins and tightens his grip on her hand.

After nearly having to drag his girlfriend to the music room, Aria's jaw drops at the sight.

The music room is flooded with flowers; rose petals are scattered on the floor, vines of vividly colored flowers hang from the ceiling and in the center of the decorated room is their piano.

Yoongi leads Aria to sit down on the bench, and he seats himself next to her.

"I wrote this for you," he says softly, leaning over to kiss her cheek before placing his fingers onto the keys.

He's practiced this piece so many times that he doesn't need the sheet music; he has every note memorized in hopes of making it as perfect as possible for such a beautiful person.

Yoongi has never been able to capture his feelings for Aria with music before; all he knows is sadness and melancholy pieces through which he can successfully articulate his pain. He's never written about a happy moment; he's never composed a piece out of love.

The first notes of the piece emerge into the air around the couple, and Yoongi softly smiles as he plays. On September 2nd, Yoongi walked into this very music room and he met Aria, who only saw him as an intruder, someone who shouldn't have ever heard what he heard that night.

And now, a month and two days later, on Aria's birthday, she is seated next to him on the piano bench she was seated on that night, and she is listening to him play his absolute heart out. Yoongi has never wanted anything but to help the girl next to him; he just wanted to hear more of her beautiful music while urging her out of the darkness she was so lost in.

This song is so many things. It is a confession; it is a promise; it is a story. It is a story of the broken remnants of two people coming together through their love for music, eventually finding a connection to the other. Each half of this divine being will maybe never be quite as whole as they once were, but each half is the best that they can be when they are together.

Their story does not consist of only light; there are corners of darkness in the pages of their story that cannot be erased or altered.

Each half of the story, before becoming whole, only had music as comfort. They each had family supporting them and loving them, but only the music understood the pain. Only the music understood what story each piece of their broken souls was telling.

And then they found each other, and it was like they were each what the other needed most to be able to do what was essential to surviving: they needed to learn how to love themselves above all else.

Above the music, above all other beings, they needed to learn how to love every scattered piece of their soul and they needed to learn how to bring those pieces back from the darkness to become whole.

Aria needed Yoongi.

Yoongi needed Aria.

With each other, they now stand strong on their own. They now face the future and not only do they walk towards it now, they walk towards it with smiles on their faces.

Yoongi has never heard Aria speak. He will never hear her say his name. He will never hear her laugh. Yet all she needs to do is look into his eyes and he knows exactly what she is thinking.

He hears her; he's always heard her.

"Happy birthday, beautiful," Yoongi says as his hands come to a gentle stop on the keys. "I look forward to the future because it is a future with you in it."

Aria tentatively reaches her hand forward and places it on Yoongi's left hand that is still resting against the keys.

Gently, she caresses her fingers against the hands that tell her such beautiful stories through music. She caresses his fingers like she caresses the keys of a piano, with a loving and tender touch as she watches his fingers in awe.

"Did you like it?" He asks in a small voice as he watches their intertwined hands resting on the keys.

Yoongi hears Aria let out a small breath and he turns his attention to her face, seeing her eyes slowly close and a single tear roll down her rosy cheek.

She nods and smiles to herself, unaware that Yoongi is watching her face carefully to be able to absorb every emotion she is currently feeling.

After giving Yoongi's hand a gentle squeeze, she reaches her hand into her back pocket, pulls out a folded up piece of paper and hands it to Yoongi, who takes it and unfolds it to see the message written in Aria's handwriting.

"There is something I want to show you. It could change everything."