Beyond The Music

Chapter Fourteen - Steven

I walked into the music room and smiled when I saw Mika already seated behind the piano. She smiled when she saw me and pressed a piano key softly. "Sit down and lets play," she patted the seat next to her and smiled.

"Fine but what do you want to play?" I sat down and smiled as I pressed a random piano key.

"How about When the Love Falls by Yiruma," she looked up and smiled at me before pressing the beginning note.

"Yiruma?"

"Yiruma frequently performs at sold-out concerts in Asia, Europe and North America. He writes his own music and stuff. He's very good because he started play at the age of 5 and then when he was 10 he moved to London and had duel citizenship. He went to a school but I can't remember which one to play piano and then when he was older he gave up his UK citizenship to serve in the North Korean Navy. I love his music but I never have the time to play all of the time because I don't have a piano at home."

"Really?"

"Yeah, do you want me to play one of his songs for you, I've memorized almost all of them."

"Can you play the one you said before?"

"When the Love Falls?"

"Yeah."

"Alright" she looked up at me and smiled as she pressed another piano key. Her fingers glided over the piano keys gracefully as she smiled. The song had a sad tone to it but it was really good and Yiruma knew what he was doing because the song was really nice and I'm actually surprised Mika memorized almost all of his music pieces. I remained quiet as she closed her eyes and lowered her head slightly as she finally finished the master piece and turned to me with a smile. "Did you want to play something now?"

I gave a small shrug and smiled when she laughed softly and shook her head slightly before turning towards me with a smile.

"Come on, you have to play something, okay. Play something original. Something I've never heard before"

"I don't really have a lot of originals on the piano."

"That doesn't matter. Just play something that's yours, okay. It doesn't have to be good," I laughed softly and she smiled and gave a small nod.

"Fine. Don't be mean when it's finished, okay. It's not refined yet so there are still some bits that needs help"

"I can do that, no play," I placed my hands on the piano keys softly and smiled as I began to play an upbeat melody for a few minutes until it switched to upbeat to slow and then back up to a faster and cheery pace. I smiled as she laughed softly and placed her hands in her lap for a few minutes until I had finally finished the song.

She clapped her hands and smiled as I laughed softly and raked a hand through my hair, "wow. That was amazing, Steven. It really was."

"I know," I winked at Mika and she laughed. It was such a sweet sound it made my chest hurt.

"What are you doing?" I pressed a random key as she smiled and looked at me.

"I'm going to play something and you're going to join in at any time, okay but if you mess up then you have do whatever I want for an hour and same goes if I mess up. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal but can I ask you to do whatever I want during that hour?" she smiled and pressed a random key.

"Yep. It can be whatever you want and I have to do it but once that hour is up then it's over and the same thing goes for you too."

"Fair enough. So what song are you going to play?" I smiled at Mika as she rubbed her chin between her index finger and thumb slowly.

"Hmm. How about Knockin' on heavens door by Guns'n'Roses again, yeah? I can't think of anything else that would challenge both of us, but it would be more challenging for you as you only started learning this year. So what do you say?" she raised an eyebrow at me and smiled slightly.