Under a Dark Moon [Oneus AU]

Bittersweet Symphony

The next few days passed by with relative quietness. Luella kept busy with Nellie, which kept her away from the Bahleen men staying in her family home. She imagined that it was her father's plan to keep her preoccupied while they were roaming about.

Even though she hardly interacted with them, Luella was prone to watching them from afar. She would sneak a peek in the parlour room whenever she had the chance to check on Dongju's recovery. He was getting better by the day, but his progress was a little mysterious.

To tell the truth, everything about them was a little mysterious. On two different occasions, Luella heard them leaving their rooms late at night, when the moon was high in the sky.

They were silent when they left, but the old, creaking doors of the manor were too familiar to Luella. She was rather hyper-aware of the sound, and it could wake her from even the deepest of sleeps.

She lay awake both nights, listening, waiting to hear their doors again. Before she could hear their return, she would always doze off again. Of course, by morning, they were back in the manor, acting as if nothing had happened.

Luella might have told her father, but she didn't want to create mistrust between him and the Bahleens. Dongju still needed to get better, so that they could return to their long journey home. Maybe after he got better, she might mention their curious late night adventures to her father.

She never really got a chance to talk to them herself for longer than a moment until a few days later.

It was early in the morning, nearly half a week later, when Luella woke to the sweet sound of the piano playing in the parlour room downstairs. A bittersweet wave of nostalgia hit her as she realized the last time she heard the sweet, musical keys of that piano was when her mother was alive.

Excited by the mere sound of it her mother's dusty old piano, Luella threw her blankets off and leapt out of bed with surprising energy.

Without even thinking about who might see her in her little pink slip of a nightgown, she barreled down the staircase and burst through the door of the parlour room.

Luella shoved open the door as if she expected to see her mother there, sitting on the bench and tapping her long, slender fingers along the ivory keys as she once did so many years ago.

But it wasn't her mother sitting there, waiting for Luella to join her on the bench. It was Keonhee, who stopped playing as soon as she threw open the door.

He looked up at her, then furrowed his brow in concern.

"Luella?"

Hwanwoong stuttered to a stop when the music ended abruptly. He fell back flat on his feet and clasped his hands together behind his back. When he noticed her clothing, or lack thereof, his cheeks reddened.

It was a rather short nightgown that left most of her legs bare. The straps were thin and the cut was low on her chest. Perhaps most distracting of all was her lack of a brassiere. Her little breasts were covered only by the thin satin of the gown.

"You..." She let out a soft breath, trying to shake the old and painful memories from her mind. "You play the piano?"

"Yes," Keonhee answered with a gentle nod. "Er... some. I'm... practicing. Is that okay?"

"Yes," she quickly reassured him. "Yes, I just... haven't heard anyone play the piano since my mother passed away. She was very good at it, and she promised to teach me one day. But she..."

Luella trailed off, her eyes darkening with a sadness that had lingered in her life for far too long. Keonhee understood. They all had people they had loved and lost, and the pain almost never went away. It only got duller with time.