(Song: Half light~ BANNERS)
They walked into the room that Aresu had prepared for him.
She had positioned multiple white candles all around the room and their flickering light filled the space with a shimmer of calmness and familiarity. Outside the last beam of sun hid behind the skyscrapers.
"It's beautiful," he mumbled, fingers stroking over the dark wood of the instrument.
"Go on," she whispered and leaned on the wall, ready to get enchanted.
He smiled, sat down and took a dead breath.
Aresu raised her phone up without him knowing, ready to film him as part of the audition.
And then it began.
And Aresu's breath got caught in her throat.
It was as if she saw him again for the first time in her life.
The room was bathed in a dim, melancholic light, as if the very atmosphere echoed the somber notes resonating from the ebony and ivory keys of the grand piano. The light danced on his short hair as he sat hunched over the instrument, his fingers trembling as they hovered over the keys, hesitant yet determined. Each keystroke was laden with an unspoken agony, his heart pouring out its grief through the language of multiple tones. At some point it was as if Grisu couldn't hear the music anymore for as all she heard was his breaking heart.
As he pressed down on the keys, the weight of his emotions reverberated through the room. The haunting melody filled the air, weaving its mournful tale of loss and longing. With each chord, Rafe's fingers seemed to dance with a sorrowful grace, the notes rising and falling like waves crashing against the shores of his soul. She was an ocean, deep and sorrowful. She saw a yard of flowers. She saw the high mountains and cold air.
And all the really saw was him.
Her heart ached at the sight of him, so consumed by his sorrow that he seemed almost ethereal, like a wraith drifting through the mist of his own grief. She longed to reach out to him, to wrap him in her arms and chase away the shadows that clung to him like a shroud.
But all she really felt was love.
The person she knew was so much more than she had known. And yet the music revealed only little.
Music seemed to be his solace, something he was forbidden of doing and yet was something that he was so talented in.
As the final chord faded into silence, Rafe's hands fell away from the keys, his chest rising and falling with the effort of his exertion. He sat there for a moment, his breath coming in ragged gasps, before he finally turned to look at her.
Their eyes met, and in that moment, all the pain and sorrow seemed to melt away.
Aresu smiled as tears fell down and pressed stop on the recording button.
"Oh my god..." she whispered and tried to get rid of her tears.
"Are you crying?" He asked, concern seeping though his raspy voice.
"No?" She laughed sweetly and hiccuped once more.
"Was I so bad?"
"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Oh my god Rafe. I hate you for not playing earlier."
Aresu crossed the room and touched the keys with her slim fingers.
A small note could be heard. Her answer to his melody.
"I would listen to it every day."
"You would get bored."
"Never. Never of you."
And so, as the last rays of sunlight faded from the sky, they stood there together, their hearts entwined in a melody of love and longing, the echoes of Rafe's piano sonata lingering in the air like a bittersweet memory.
And Rafe actually got the job...