Quiet | BTS ✓

51

Yoongi's senses come back to reality one at a time.

He can see the harsh stage lights burning on his pale, clammy skin.

He can feel the sweat on his palms as he wipes them on his jeans.

He can smell the mixture of colognes and perfumes decorating the skin of his classmates that sit in the audience, watching him intently.

He can taste the blood in his mouth from biting his lip so hard in anxiousness.

He can hear the applause.

He glances towards everyone in the audience below him to see them on their feet, their hands clapping together into a symphony of appreciation and admiration.

A symphony of acceptance; of understanding.

And then Yoongi feels it; he feels the weight of the world lift from his shoulders. He doesn't feel that desperation to stretch his arms out into the darkness to search for the control he once clung to; no, Yoongi only feels what he's always wanted to feel from others.

He feels accepted. He feels heard. He feels understood.

He sees his uncle in the crowd, sending him a small smile. He also sees his girlfriend, who has never looked more proud of him than she looks in this moment.

Yoongi's feet carry him off of the stage and back to his seat next to Aria, who immediately nuzzles her face into the side of his neck to send a message to him: She is proud of him and she loves him.

He turns and kisses the top of her head, letting out the biggest sigh of relief he has ever experienced.

He, Min Yoongi, just played an emotional piece that he wrote himself in front of his classmates.

He did it.

Yoongi's silent celebration is interrupted as he hears his girlfriend's name being spoken, and he feels Aria stiffen as she slowly sits up straight. Yoongi's body stiffens as well, longing for her touch to return to his skin as well as feeling anxiety for her. He knows how terrified she is for this.

"Let's go, hot stuff!" Someone claps from behind them and Yoongi turns to see a familiar black-haired man clapping and smirking at Aria, who is now standing and walking onto the stage. "Hey, aren't you a singer? Why don't you sing while you play, yeah? Put that old, shitty ass piano to some good use while you're at it."

The man laughs wholeheartedly and holds his stomach, a wicked gleam in his eye as his gaze stays locked at Aria, who is now seated at the piano.

Yoongi looks up at her to see her reaction, and she is glaring at the man, a furious look on her face. Yoongi starts to stand up as he turns to confront the man when he hears notes begin to echo through the air.

He turns his attention back to Aria, who has started to play. But this song is immediately different; it's not something Aria usually plays.

It's filled with a new emotion instead of sadness; it's radiating with strength.

The powerful notes crash through the air like waves in a tumultuous ocean, the message as clear as the emotion in it: She is strong, and she cannot be broken again.

She cannot be broken any further because she knows how it feels to be shattered. She knows how it feels to be so broken that she couldn't be sure if she would ever be pieced back together.

But she did. She stood up and used the strongest glue to put herself back together, piece by piece: hope. Hope is what she used to become whole again, and she'll be damned if she is going to let anyone tear her down as she once tore herself down.

So, she plays. She plays with dominance and a strength that she wears with pride; like a tiara. Because Aria is a queen, and she intends to protect her throne; her throne being this piano bench she is perched on.

Because not only did this man taunt her and her disability, but he also insulted the piano.

And for that, she will show him just how wrong he is.

About both of them.

The piano radiates the anger they both feel; it's like extra life was breathed into it just by the ignorant remarks that tumbled from the man's mouth.

Yoongi is sitting on the edge of his seat, watching Aria's hands dance so perfectly across the keys of the piano, her muscles tense as she dominates the room with the power radiating from her being.

Aria, with this piece, is not asking for everyone's attention; she is demanding it.

The auditorium is completely silent except for the piano's notes commanding every person's attention.

Nobody is daring to even breathe too loudly in fear of drowning out a moment of the melody striking through the air like lightning during a storm.

Only this storm is not a storm; it's a person who is bringing everything to a stop around her as she charges the atmosphere with her mere presence, the piano amplifying every cell in her body as she becomes something more powerful than she ever knew she could be.

But she is showing no fear.

Yoongi's eyes travel to Aria's face, and he can't help but smile proudly at her: She does not look sad. She does not even look angry.

She's smirking.

The confidence is pulsing around her as her fingers dance so quickly across the keys that they nearly become a blur; he's never heard such a powerful, dominating performance from anyone before, and he can feel the effect that it's taking on every single person in the room.

As she nears the end of the song, she turns her head until her gaze locks onto the man and she stares at him, the smirk glued to her face as she continues to play whilst not even looking at her fingers or the piano anymore.

She is taunting him.

And she continues to play perfectly, the power and confidence emanating from her as the man glares back at her, his ego shrinking with every note flowing from Aria's fingers to the air surrounding them.

The last few notes ring out in a delicate, soft tone and her hands fall away from the instrument, her eyes not leaving his as her expression evolves into a stoic gaze.

After a tense few moments of suffocating silence, the man storms out of the auditorium, his ego nonexistent, as he lets the door slam shut behind him.

"Guess he's failing this semester," Mr. Min says, shrugging as he sends a wink to Aria.

Aria's breathing is heavy as she tries to control her waves of emotions. Her breaths are ragged as she closes her eyes, trying to calm down from the emotional turbulence she has just experienced.

Yoongi stands up slowly, his eyes never leaving her figure, and begins to clap for her.

Her eyes soften as they meet his, and after a moment shared between the two, everyone snaps out of their trance and is on their feet to clap for the musician on the stage.

Because not only did she defend herself in the most beautiful, powerful way that she could, she also defended the music.

And if there is one thing everyone in this room knows, it is that music is what their souls are made of. It's why each of them chose to get a degree involving music.

And for Aria to shamelessly go on stage and put him in his place without even needing to say a word has given her a new reputation among her classmates.

No longer is she the quiet girl... she's a legend.