Quiet | BTS ✓

61

"Please continue to practice your duets for the May concert," Mr. Min says as his students stand to leave. "The concert is in three months, so please continue to prepare for it."

A mumble of understanding erupts from his students as they begin to file out of the classroom. Yoongi and Aria stand from their seats next to each other. Yoongi takes Aria's bag and slings it over one of his shoulders as he puts his own bag on his other shoulder. Aria rolls her eyes and smiles at Yoongi before leading the way out of the classroom, the couple waving at Mr. Min as they make the familiar trek to the music room.

"Are you okay, love?" Yoongi asks in concern as they walk into the empty room. He's noticed that Aria's mind has seemed preoccupied for most of the day, and he's beginning to worry that something may be wrong.

She nods her head, still frowning slightly as she sits down on the piano bench and sighs heavily, her hands sliding down her face in frustration.

She turns her attention to Yoongi, who is standing behind her, and she points to her ear and then to the piano.

"Want me to listen?" He asks, placing their bags next to the piano as he sits down on the bench next to her. She smiles and nods as she gestures to her bag.

He hands it to her and she takes out some crumpled sheet music.

Yoongi laughs. "You're so disorganized."

Aria rolls her eyes while she smooths out the wrinkled papers and sets them up for her to play.

She glances over at Yoongi one more time, and he nods encouragingly at her as he grabs one of her hands and kisses it. "You know I'm here to listen, always."

She sighs once again and places her hands on the keys of the piano before a gentle tune begins to sing from the instrument underneath her gentle touch.

Yoongi immediately hears the tone of sadness and misunderstanding that she tends to portray in her music, but as he listens to the melody, he hears a hint of anger blossoming in the piece.

As Aria begins to lose herself in the song, he hears the storm that has been raging in her mind and he knows exactly what she is trying to get him to understand.

She is feeling a whirlwind of emotions as she continues to move forward with her therapists. She feels a sense of misunderstanding because she cannot easily communicate her emotions and thoughts, so she goes unheard by most. With that feeling comes the anger he can hear; she just wants to be understood and she wants to be heard.

Underneath the sadness, misunderstanding and anger that he hears, he also hears the main emotion she is feeling and portraying- the emotion she is most strongly connecting to as she moves forward.

She is determined.

She is determined to be understood, to be heard.

As Aria's fingers dance across the keys quickly and powerfully, Yoongi knows that she has completely come to terms with the fact that she is moving towards the future. She is letting go of the past and letting go of her fear, anger and sadness to move into a place in her life that is filled with understanding and acknowledgement.

She is no longer content with being the girl who gets ignored because she cannot speak. She wants to be heard; she wants to be known.

Aria's song comes back to the gentle mood it had in the beginning as it comes to a delicate end, and Yoongi can't help but watch her fingers slow to a stop on the keys. He is, as always, mesmerized by her talent and her portrayal of emotions.

"I love you," he whispers, his heart acting on its own as the words escape his lips.

Aria keeps her hands resting against the keys as her chest moves up and down heavily, her mind still reeling from such an intense emotional song.

"I love you," Aria says in a shaky, breathless voice and Yoongi's heart stops in his chest.

"What?" Yoongi says, his voice hoarse as he gently grabs Aria's shoulders and turns her to face him. "What did you just say?"

"I love you," she repeats, her bottom lip trembling as she holds in her sobs.

Yoongi's entire body feels as though he has been electrocuted; every nerve in his body is tingling as he stares at Aria.

He knows she has been working hard in speech therapy as well as opening up to her psychologist but he wasn't quite sure if she was ever going to be comfortable enough to try to talk outside of their offices.

Hoseok told him about Aria speaking to him the night of his birthday, and he has never felt so proud of her; she had stepped out of the comfort zone she held so tightly to her chest for years and gave Hoseok the best gift anyone could ever give him.

And now, today, in this moment, she's stepping out of her comfort zone for Yoongi.

His mind is going in an infinite amount of directions at once; he has so many questions while he simultaneously wants to kiss her and never let go of her beautiful, talented hands.

He wants to know how long she's been speaking out loud in speech therapy, but he also wants to hear her say "I love you" a hundred times in a row in her mesmerizing, angelic voice.

He wants to know what made her feel comfortable enough to finally begin to speak out loud to them, but he also wants to know how his name sounds coming from her beautiful lips.

"Yoongi," Aria says as if she can read his mind, nearly sobbing at this point. "I love you."

"You can talk," Yoongi finally says, tears in his eyes. "You're talking."

Aria opens her mouth to say something else, but shakes her head instead and pulls a folded up note out of her pocket, handing it to Yoongi as she wipes her tears from her cheeks.

He unfolds the paper and reads what she's written.

"I've worked through some of the psychological issues that were causing me to avoid speaking, but I do still have brain damage. I can form the words in my brain normally, but when I try to speak out loud, it doesn't come out the same. I can say single words, sometimes a phrase. I guess I'm no longer completely mute; my therapist helped me confront some demons that were holding my voice hostage, in a way. My voice is back, but they don't think I can ever speak normally again. But I'll always do my best. For my family. For you."