VIRTUOSO - A MYG Story

CHANSON

CHANSON

A song for one or more voices.

"Oh."

The one-word response from Sang immediately brought Hobi and my eyes to each other. He knew something.

"Oh?" Hobi asked.

"Yeah. I might know something about that..."

Sang sat in silence on the other end of the phone for a long pause, probably gathering up the words, and courage, to say what he knew he'd have to say.

"When Yoongi was young, sometime in primary school, our mom had a friend of hers working with him on his piano lessons. She was busy performing and dad was always at work. I was too busy with my own rehearsal schedule and high school courses to help him, so she asked this guy to tutor him. My parents never spoke to me about it directly, but I remember the night they told him to leave and to never return. He had done something to Yoongi and I guess they'd found out. I've never spoken to Yoongi about it. He's never asked about it. I wasn't even sure he remembered it at all. But it sounds like maybe this could be related."

I cried into Hobi's shoulder as he held the phone in shock. He didn't have to say anything for me to know that this was the first he was ever hearing of such trauma from Yoongi's past, telling us both that either Yoongi kept it from us, or he didn't remember it at all.

"Do you believe he's safe?" Sang asked us, and we couldn't honestly answer him.

"I don't know. He was in his studio with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, then told me to leave. He said he's going to move out of the farmhouse," I don't know what I expected him to do with any of this information, living far away in Maryland, but like Hobi said, perhaps he knew something we didn't.

"I know you don't know us, but we want to help him. Is there anything we can do?" Hobi asked with desperation in his voice, "I'm worried about him, man."

"I will fly out there if it comes down to it. Check his studio. See if he'll talk to you, Hope."

Three soft taps on the door.

"Yoongi, it's me." Hobi stood outside the studio door, trying not to disturb the lesson parents and students milling about in the hallway.

Not wanting to draw too much attention to himself, Yoongi quickly opened the door and let him in.

"What's going on with you, brother?" he asked right away as Yoongi took a step back into the room. He dragged his fingers down his face in frustration, his eyes bloodshot with bags beneath. He was evidently still keeping himself tucked away in a perpetual state of self-inflicted misery. Hobi had seen it before, but not to this extent.

"Nothing," he answered dryly.

"Nothing? You called yourself a monster? Broke up with Faye..."

"I had to."

"But, why? Explain it to me, Min."

Yoongi didn't know how to form the words, nor did he know what the point would be of Hobi knowing what he'd uncovered about himself.

"I can't."

Hobi took a deep breath and stared at Yoongi with intense eyes, "I called Sang."

Yoongi looked betrayed, even though he knew it was irrational. There was no fallout with his brother, but for his best friend to reach out to him without speaking to him first...