A Melody Barely Heard P.2 (Beethoven's Virus)
Title: A Melody Barely Heard P.2 (Beethoven's Virus)
Rating: PG
Pairings: Yoochun/Junsu
Word Count: 1800
Summary: It finally hit him. His boyfriend was deaf. Deaf with a love for piano.
Junsu awoke with an aching neck and a sniffling Yoochun in his arms. Looking around, he discovered that he was still in the living room, leaning against one of the piano’s legs. He watched as light filled the room and instantly disappeared.
The clouds were going by fast, Junsu noticed, as another patch of fluff blocked the sun from his living room window.
Looking down at the man in his arms, Junsu couldn’t believe that he was any different than who he was the day before. Sure, he had dark circles under his eyes, and his breathing was rickety and bumpy, like he had been crying (which he had been), but Yoochun often stayed up late to write songs. Junsu could try to treat today like a day with a hungover boyfriend. Not.
Yoochun was deaf.
He couldn’t hear. Not a bit, not at all. Junsu sighed, trying to fight back another bout of tears, and leaned down to peck Yoochun on the nose.
“Wake up,” he cooed, shaking the man a little. When Yoochun opened his eyes, Junsu wanted his smile to be the first thing the man saw. However, the second Junsu saw his boyfriend’s bloodshot, lifeless eyes, his smile suddenly disappeared, only to be replaced by more tears.
Yoochun reached his hand up to wipe the tears away, but in seconds, new ones replaced them. It seemed like the whole morning was spent crying, and wiping tears away, and crying, and kissing pain away.
----------------------------
“Hello? Mrs. Park?” Junsu asked, his phone pressed to his head. “I-I think you might want to come over,” His voice was still wavering, but he tried to sound as solid as possible if it was for Yoochun’s mother.
Soon, not only Yoochun’s mom, but many of his friends and family were in the house; all wanting to see Yoochun and just make sure that he truly couldn’t hear them. The whole house was a mess of tears.
What about the recital?
That was a frequent question, what about the piano recital? Junsu didn’t think he knew what to do. Yoochun definitely didn’t. The only thing Yoochun knew how to do was to sit in front of his piano, pressing down on a key over and over. His heart strained to hear the sound, but his body seemed like it had already given up.
Yoochun’s mom took her son’s head in her arms, pleading for him to look at her, but no. Yoochun only saw the piano.
Junsu felt his heart tear a little bit more with every tear shed in the house.
----------------------------
The day before the recital, Junsu had convinced its organizer to not recall the tickets. He wanted to give his boyfriend at least one chance. He had doubts himself, but was ready to wish for a miracle.
Yoochun was still expressionless during the car ride to the auditorium and as Junsu took his hand and led him through the winding hallways, up onto the stage. Over the two days, Junsu had not become accustomed to the man’s unresponsiveness.
Junsu pulled on Yoochun’s hand, and sat him down in front of the piano, on the stage he would be performing on the next day. Unlike every other time he sat in front of the piano, deaf or not, Yoochun didn’t move. His eyes didn’t have a flash of recognition. Nothing twitched. It was as if Junsu’s boyfriend had turned into a stone statue.
“Yoochun,” Junsu urged the man to try playing a song. He guided one of his fingers onto the piano, and lightly pressed down on a key. Yoochun’s eyes followed where Junsu took his finger and in his head, he somewhat heard the only melody Junsu knew how to play.
It was a pop song, something Junsu had been singing one day while Yoochun sat at his piano, as normal. His fingers had danced along the keys, accompanying his boyfriend’s sweet, clear voice. Junsu had smiled one of his brightest smiles and sat down next to Yoochun.
“Teach me,” he ordered Yoochun, who gladly obliged though Junsu only got through the basic melody of the chorus before giving up.
“We had joy, we had fun,” Junsu sniffled, tears threatening to once again take over, “We had seasons in the sun. But the hills that we climbed-” he abruptly stopped and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Yoochun paid no attention to the man beside him who was frantically typing away on his cellphone, and instead tried to finish the song. Even though he couldn’t exactly hear the notes, Junsu had sung this song at the top of his lungs enough times for Yoochun to basically memorize the whole thing.
Were just seasons out of time, he even sang along in his head.
Suddenly, Yoochun felt a tap on his shoulder and a phone was pushed into his face. Junsu didn’t look at him; he found more interest at the ground instead, and Yoochun only hesitated for a split second before taking the phone from his lover’s hand.
Ludwig van Beethoven. There’s no way you don’t know him right? Beethoven had turned deaf. He was like you, and they say his best musical pieces were composed after he lost his hearing. Don’t give up Yoochun. You have to do this. Hwaiting! (ﾉ´▽｀)ﾉ°☆.。.:*・♪
Yoochun smiled, his first smile since he realized he couldn’t hear, because this message was just so Junsu. He was right, after all. There was no way Yoochun was going down without a fight. No way.
He handed the phone back to Junsu, who took it with a teary smile. Closing his eyes and letting go of the world, Yoochun closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and set his fingers upon the ivory piano keys. It was as if nothing had changed, and a tiny voice he liked to call Hope in his head told him: Nothing has changed.
----------------------------
Junsu was ecstatic. After spending the whole day in the auditorium, he was certain that nothing would go wrong today. It didn’t matter if Yoochun couldn’t hear, because the performance that he had put on yesterday for only Junsu’s eyes and ears was the best he has ever experienced.
Yoochun was exactly as he was before, if not even more lively, when they came home yesterday. He played beautiful melodies, he showered Junsu with praises he couldn’t hear himself, he kissed, and he loved. Junsu sighed. Nothing’s different.
“Su,” a voice called, and Junsu looked up to see his boyfriend peering through the curtains, one hand holding the curtains away from his face, and the other one frantically searching around for Junsu.
“Junsu,” he repeated louder and instantly feeling at ease when he felt a hand on his. “Junsu,” he looked back, making sure it was his boyfriend he was talking to. “Why-why are there so many people, Su? You didn’t tell me there would be so many people.” Junsu laughed, as if he had been joking and gave the man a reassuring squeeze on his hand, but when Yoochun turned to face him again, fear and anxiousness was obvious in his eyes.
“I don’t want to, Su,” Yoochun didn’t pronounce his words right, but he couldn’t tell.
Junsu squeezed his boyfriend’s hand once again before taking out his phone. Someone came up to him and said that they should start the program soon. Junsu nodded, and in a few moments, he had conjured up a message on his cellphone again.
You’ve performed for more, Chun. Did you expect an audience of one Kim Junsu? ;P You have to start now. Are you ready? One, two-let’s go~
Yoochun hesitated, but was coaxed onto the stage by his boyfriend. He knew he couldn’t go back now, so he sat on the chair in front of the piano, and took a deep breath.
It’s ok. You’ve done this before, he told himself, but everything seemed so different. It was like he had forgotten all those long years of practice and turned back into a five year old, sitting in front of a big piano with not a clue in the world on what to do.
He saw the director’s cue but even minutes after the curtains opened, his hands were still unpositioned. Silent. Unmoving. The audience began to whisper, the staff began to hiss at him to start, but Yoochun couldn’t hear anything.
Suddenly, he stood up, knocking over the chair he was sitting on. Echoes vibrated through the auditorium. Just one kick of a chair, and it seemed like his life was over.
The audience only stared as he stormed off stage and into Junsu’s shocked arms. He squeezed the smaller man tight, tears pouring out of his eyes. Junsu was barely able to breathe out a “Yoochun” before he was gone again, stalking through the hallways.
A few surprised moments later, Junsu finally realized what had happened and started running after Yoochun. Everything was still silent, the audience hadn’t stood up from their seats yet, and all that was audible was Junsu’s frantic footsteps slapping against the tiled floor.
“Yoochun,” he shouted when he reached the man. He pulled at his arm, but his lover wouldn’t look at him, and only tried to push him away. “Yoochun,” his voice was shaky, but he tried to persuade the pianist to return, “You can do this, Yoochun, you can!”
The man squeezed his eyes shut, he couldn’t hear what Junsu was saying, but he didn’t want to see his lips move either. He could almost taste, smell, feel the words that came out of his boyfriend’s mouth and he didn’t want to know them. Yoochun pushed Junsu away with his eyes still closed and ran out the back door of the auditorium and into the streets of the night.
“Yoochun!” Junsu yelled after him, “Wait!”He tried to catch up with his lover, but by the time he reached the streets, Yoochun was already halfway across, eyes shut, ears deaf, and a speeding white truck right behind him.
“Yoochun!” Junsu screamed, three days too late. It was all gone in a flash-Yoochun, the truck, everything. Just a flash of white and they were gone.
“Yoochun! Yoochun!” It felt as if he was the deaf one. Junsu couldn’t hear anything; he could only see black and blood. Black. Blood. Black. Blood. Layered on top of each other, fusing into each other, hidden inside each other. No matter where Junsu tried to look, they were waiting for him there-black and blood.
There were lights everywhere and sirens went off, growing louder and softer, but that wasn’t what Kim Junsu heard or saw. Black. Blood. That was it.