VIRTUOSO - A MYG Story

CRESCENDO

CRESCENDO 

Growing.

FAYE

Yoongi hadn't been in such a good mood in as long as I'd known him. He was bouncing off the walls with excitement as we departed for our second trip to New York. Threshold Studios would be expecting us the following morning and we were all en route to the airport, piled into the band's van just like old times.

* "아이씨!" Jimin cried out suddenly and I shot him a look of confusion. Meanwhile the rest of the guys just laughed.

"What's wrong?" Hobi asked, seeming like he was the only one who was actually concerned.

"Forgot all my reeds..." Jimin sighed, exasperated. "I always forget something."

"Well, good thing we're going to one of the biggest cities in the world. I'm sure we won't have issues finding some reeds. Don't sweat it, man." Jungkook tried to make light of the situation from the furthest back bench seat.

"Maybe we can call in an order and have it delivered to the studio." Taehyung chimed in. "Let me look into it..."

Without skipping a beat, Tae began searching on his phone, calling a bunch of places until he finally found one willing to one-day ship some reeds over to Threshold for us.

Traveling had been going smoothly other than the minor reed mishap. Even the plane ride had been going great. Once we were in the second half of our flight, however, I began to feel a bit uneasy. A little dizzy, maybe a little nauseous. I couldn't quite place it. I just didn't feel right.

Not wanting to take away from anyone's fun, I kept it to myself, dismissing it as motion sickness. That night at the hotel, though, I felt exhausted, queasy, and wanted only to lie down. I didn't want to worry Yoongi, so I didn't tell him that while he was in the shower, I snuck downstairs to the convenience store to pick up a pregnancy test.

Later that night, before going to sleep, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror staring at myself for what felt like a very long time. I swore that my face looked different. Like I wasn't the same me anymore. Glancing down at the positive test in my hand, I took a deep breath. I didn't want to tell Yoongi yet. I wasn't ready. This wasn't how I planned on finding out or telling him, so I decided to keep it from him until after we got home.

Thanks to hot tea and a comfy, professional studio with couches to relax onto from time to time, I was able to keep my nausea at bay. No one had any idea I was feeling off. I sang my heart out, enjoying every moment of the experience. It was a totally new feeling recording in a professional space with professional recording engineers. My voice sounded so strange after being processed through their equipment. Hearing my recorded vocals through the headphones almost felt like I was hearing someone else entirely. I sounded so polished and mature.

I glanced over at Yoongi and Hobi with deeply grateful eyes. They were the ones who got me to that point. They were the reason I was able to overcome myself. Because of them, I was standing in a studio, recording an album that would soon be promoted and sold. I had never in my life expected to receive such an opportunity.

"We should have the final album by next month, if everything goes according to plan." On behalf of the rest of the band, Yoongi and Hobi had met with the producers to iron out all of the details. We were having a celebratory dinner after the final day of recording, and were reflecting on how far we had come as a band.

"Wow! That's pretty fast, actually. That's great to hear. I expected it to take much longer than that to complete production," Jin replied, refilling some of the wine glasses around the table. I politely refused, telling them it would irritate my voice after all the singing I'd done. I had to tell them something in order to avoid suspicion. I wasn't normally one to pass up a glass of wine, after all.

"They expedited the process. Calvin insisted on getting the album out early. He mentioned trying to submit it for Grammy consideration, if it's completed on-time," Hobi explained, "They put a lot of money into this and it seems like they really want to push us."

It was hard to believe, but things were really beginning to fall into place with the band. Even after we got home from our trip, we still continued to practice and work on new material. We didn't want to fall behind on our progress as an ensemble, especially knowing that we may be asked for new material or performances soon after our debut.

After our first rehearsal back at home and after everyone had left for the night, Yoongi was in the kitchen making us a pot of tea. I took the opportunity to sneak a little surprise onto his piano that I had planned for well over a year.

"What's this?" He stood in front of the piano with a cup of tea in hand, momentarily distracted from cleaning up his music from the night's rehearsal. I watched nervously from the studio doorway as Yoongi placed his tea on the piano top and reached for the stone butterflies.

Yoongi stepped towards me with narrowed, questioning eyes. In his upturned palm were all three butterflies.

"Three?" His voice was soft as he stood in front of me. I reached out to cup my hand over the beautiful little carvings resting in his palm.

"Three," I repeated back softly, breaking into a smile.

"Are you–?"

I nodded and he tightened his fist around those butterflies and swept me up into his arms.

"You are?!"

Raw joy had overcome Min Yoongi, virtuoso. I'd never seen him light up so brightly as he did then. The rest of the night, we cuddled up in our bed, talking about all the ideas we had for the nursery, what instruments we predicted our future child might play, and we made the decision to wait until I was further along to tell anyone.

For the next several months, it was our little secret, something that we could keep to ourselves and celebrate just between us. We'd shared enough of ourselves with others already. It was time to finally focus on us.

Just us.

* 아이씨! is Aish! in Korean and is an expression of frustration.