Piano Keys | Kim Taehyung | ✓

‖ Major keys ‖

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Major: A scale which corresponds on the piano to all the white notes. Generally, major keys sound 'happy' while minor keys sound 'sad'.

[All he ever wanted was for her to always play major keys in her life (i.e to always be happy), and he was determined to remove all the minor ones-anything which would make her sad or dampen her spirits. He would go against the world for her, even if it meant playing the minor keys himself .]

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THE PAST, DAEGU

When we were around seven years old, she once told me this interesting fact excitedly like she was telling me a national secret- that the white notes, the major keys generally sound happy and cheerful while the minor ones sound sad and plaintive.

I widened my eyes at the new tidbit of information but observed that it was indeed true when I heard her next play the piano. 

As the years passed by and I realized that I was deeply in love with my best friend, I decided that   I would do anything for her to never be sad like those melancholic key sounds. Childish and incredibly cheesy it may sound, but I wanted her to always remain like the white notes.

And Iseul could be quite a bit stupid at times, clumsy as she was. She was a bit shortsighted too, she couldn't even see that I loved her even though I did show it plenty of times.

I told her once when she was a bit anxious for her upcoming competition. It was an important one, much more important than the one on my birthday a few months ago.

We were sitting next to each other in her room as she was practicing, and she stopped playing with her head in her hands and a soft sigh escaping her lips,

"I'm tired, I'll stop for now."

I could see that she was, she had been practicing for quite a while now. I could see the slight but still noticable dark circles under her hazel orbs, the result of her staying up the whole night to finish her school assignments. 

I knew it was difficult for her to juggle schoolwork with her piano practice, but she somehow managed to pull it off being the brilliant prodigy she was. But still, I didn't want her to compromise her health for it.

I had to nag her to eat all three meals properly sometimes and even make her forcefully sleep on time whenever she had a big recital coming up. Her father was mostly busy but that didn't mean he didn't love her because he did but he wasn't home all the time as he was a doctor. 

Well, I have to admit, being a single parent to Iseul must've been tough with her being really headstrong and not the type of girl who would back down without a fight. She could have crabby mood swings, mostly when she was nervous about something or stressed which wasn't frequent but still. And don't even get me started on the tantrums she used to throw as a small kid...

Even though she played the piano with the elegance and grace of a fallen angel, she could be very clumsy at times and I often had to clear up her messes. She would tend to fall down a lot too as she never saw where she was going. Growing up, I used to play the nurse and apply medicine to all her knee scratches. I was also the guinea pig who had to hold her hand when she had to go to the hospital to get vaccinated as she hated needles.

"TaeTae, do you remember me telling you that the black and white keys that coexist on the piano, that even though they differ, they just like happiness and sadness, coexist side by side."

She suddenly blurted out, her eyes unfocused and her thoughts far off somewhere. I was a bit surprised, as she wasn't one of those deep thinkers, she was an easygoing jovial person usually.

However, I didn't comment on it or contradict her. I merely wrapped my arm around her shoulders and squeezed them gently and we sat together in silence which was a rare feat because we were both very talkitive.

"You know, even if the sad keys do exist, I can always play those Major keys for you to brighten up you day." 

I finally broke he silence and pressed the A C major triad notes- C, E and G a few times over and over, until her face broke out in a huge grin. 

Then she did something completely unexpected- just like she had all those years ago while teaching me how to play  'Ode to Joy', she grabbed my fingers and placed them under hers as she took control of the piano.

We both giggled as she played the triad over and over, and even though I had been doing the same a few seconds ago, when she pressed the keys they sounded so so much better than when I had; the notes sounding truly joyful- as if they had a life of their own. 

The keys became alive when she played them, weird as it sounds. It was a beautiful moment, a very cherished memory of our fingers overlapping each other's as we goofed about and randomly pressed random major keys, our heads thrown back in laughter and her hazel eyes twinkling brighter than ever before.

If I had a camera, I would've loved to capture that moment. But even so, that evening is engraved in my heart forever.

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