SEVEN

Julie sat across from me in the small cafe with a continues stare while I just kept sipping my strawberry milkshake. After a while I got tired of my friend's stare and I waved my hand in front of her feeling slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked her and she finally seemed to come back to earth.

"I'm sorry. It's just..." Julie started, "I thought I was meeting up with a deeply depressed person today and here you are, looking all happy and optimistic."

"Well I guess I can still surprise you sometimes," I just said with a smile.

"But seriously, Monique," Julie then said, "did something good happen?"

"Hm maybe?" I said teasingly.

"Oh come on, are you not even gonna tell me? Me, your best friend?"

"Alright since you insist," I then said and moved a bit closer, "I kissed someone yesterday."

"WHAT?" Julie yelled and suddenly all eyes were on us.

"Would you calm down!" I said in a low but firm voice, "do you want your boss to scold you for scaring away all the customers?"

"Sorry," Julie said, "but what do you mean you kissed someone?"

"It's as I said, I kissed someone." Julie looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I already knew I wouldn't get away that easily. But then again, I wouldn't even bring up this topic if I didn't plan to spill everything. 

So without further hesitation, I told Julie about everything that happened, from the first day I met Yoongi, up until yesterday when he comforted me and kissed me.

"Oh. My. Gosh!" was all Julie could mutter after hearing my story, "that is like... like... the most romantic thing I've heard my entire life!"

"Alright no reason to overexaggerate," I said and let out a chuckle.

"I reminds me of that movie, Love Actually!" I looked at Julie like she had gone crazy right in front of me, but she just continued explaining, "you know, there's that couple who doesn't know each other's language, but after spending time together, they fall in love."

"You're out of your mind," I said even though I found the comparison cute.

"Now all you need is to learn Korean, and then he has to learn Danish and propose to you and you'll both live happily ever after."

"I'm sad to tell you Julie, but life isn't a movie," I said and crushed Julie's dreams without hesitation, "but I would lie if I said I wasn't a bit interested in learning more about him."

***

My talk with Julie ended up dragging out for much longer than expected, and in the end her boss had to come over and remind her that her lunch break ended a long time ago. We quickly apologized before I left the cafe and went home to my apartment.

After collapsing on my bed, thinking about my movie-like life, I turned my head and looked at the lonely piano. A smirk appeared on my face and I immediately got up and turned it on. My fingers moved over the keys with a happy and jumpy energy, creating a lively melody, but only after a while did I realize, I was playing this happy song all by myself.

I stopped playing for a minute and tried listening hard, but it was true. There was no sound coming from the other side of the wall. Was he not home?

My thought suddenly got interrupted when I heard the sound of my doorbell. Maybe it was Yoongi who wanted to play side by side instead of playing on another side of the wall.

My heart was jumping happily inside my chest as I ran over to open my door, only to be met by deep disappointment.

"Woah, you sure look happy to see me," Jae said sarcastically.

"I just... thought you were someone else," I said, feeling a bit dejected, "did you want anything?"

"I just wanted to give you this," Jae said before handing me a large envelope, "it's from Yoongi."

"Oh?" I said, the smile returning to my face, "why isn't he giving it to me himself?"

"Yoongi? He went back to Korea today."

My heart suddenly sunk deep into my chest and I looked at Jae like I almost couldn't believe the words he had spoken.

"He... he already went back?"

"Yes, he came here because he had been in a musical slump, if you can call it that," Jae began explaining, "you see, Yoongi is a composer at a big entertainment company down in Korea. But since last year he just stopped composing. It was like something was holding him back. So his company recommended that he had a change of settings and I told him he could stay with me."

I looked at Jae while I listened to this story about a man I knew only through music and I listened carefully to every word he said.

"And it seemed to help because he's been composing a bunch of new songs since he came here. So now he went back, but he made sure to tell me to give you this. It seems like you two became quite close while he was here." Jae looked at me with a smirk, but I really wasn't in the mood for his teasing, so I just yanked the envelope out his hands.

"Yes we did, thanks for bringing it to me, goodbye." I quickly closed the door before Jae could say anything else and I ran to my dining table and opened the envelope. My eyes widened when I looked down on the beautifully handwritten sheet music with a title written in English above.

"To You"

I didn't even blink before I had turned on my piano and put the sheet music on the music stand, quickly skimming through it before I slowly started playing.

Every note, every chord spoke words to me as if it was a letter written to me by him. No lyrics were needed, the music spoke the words in itself and my eyes were welling up as I kept playing through the pages.

Believe in yourself.

The words rang in my ears as I reached page two of the sheet music.

Love yourself.

The two words filled my heart when I played the chords on page three.

Follow your dreams and never give up.

My eyes were filled with tears and my cheeks soaking wet as I continued sobbing while playing the song to the end. I lifted my fingers from the piano, my fingers that were shaking like a person in shock and I just stared at the sheet music in front of me.

"How can you just tell me to follow my dreams and then leave me?" I said as I buried my face in my hands. Inside my mind I could see Yoongi's face before me. That stone face he always had, even on the night where he comforted me and held me tight. The face that told me everything would be alright.

But he was right. I didn't love myself. I didn't believe in myself. I probably never had. But I wouldn't let myself stand in my way anymore. Not now when I finally had found myself a new goal in life. A new dream. A dream I would do anything to pursue.

I wouldn't let anything stand in my way anymore, least of all myself.

And I for sure wouldn't let him leave just like that.

"The end"