Episode 3: Ji Long's Piano

Exposition: Summer

After sitting through another concert in anticipation, Fenghuang, Ji Long, Dasun, and Song Lin snuck out of the concert hall together and began roaming the old cobblestone streets of Cologne, Germany.

"See, why can't my mom play the violin like that?" Song Lin complained after listening to an exciting street performer play the theme song of a popular movie.

"Don't be so rude Song Lin!" Dasun criticized, even though he was thinking the same thing.

Just then a group of teenage girls came sauntering by, laughing and chattering in German. Being much shorter than them at the age of nine, Song Lin stopped walking and looked up at them, eyes following them as they walked past. One of the girls noticed and turned to wave at him while laughing.

"Hey!" Ji Long lightly smacked the bottom of Song Lin's jaw. "Don't let your mouth hang open like that." He said strictly, but with an small smile tugging on the corner of his lips and a knowing gleam in his eye. Fenghuang couldn't help but laugh at them,

"You guys are such perverts." She joked at them.

"Hey! I'm not! I've never even spoken to a girl!" Dasun quickly defended himself, all flustered.

"Then what am I?!" Fenghuang actually grew angry at this.

"Well you...you don't seem like a girl...I mean you dress like one..but...like, your hair...it's really short...and you...you don't act like a girl a lot of the time..." Dasun stuttered and slowly backed up, holding his arms up to protect himself as Fenghuang slowly stepped forward, intimidating him.

Then Song Lin jumped in, throwing an arm around the slightly taller Dasun, "Now, Dasun, this is why you're so bad with girls! You're older than all of us, you're already 11 and you still don't know how to smooth talk. You've got to learn how to do it, what with that face of yours, if you can't smooth talk a girl, you'll never get a girlfriend!" He said a matter-of-factly.

"What's wrong with my face?!" Dasun looked at him, taken aback. Song Lin shook his head,

"Come on now Dasun, we all know you're not very good looking." Song Lin said nonchalantly.

"I thought I was very good looking!" Dasun protested, dumbfounded by this realization. Song Lin broke out into laughter, but then seeing Dasun's sincerely shocked expression he stopped,

"Wait...you were serious...?" His look of exasperation caused Dasun to stamp his foot and whine at the ground. Song Lin didn't know what to do about him anymore, and so he turned to Fenghuang, putting a hand on her shoulder,

"Fenghuang, don't mind this guy," He nodded his head towards Dasun, "he doesn't know what he's saying." Then giving his best smile and smoldering eyes he adds, " I think your hair is beautiful." Looking into Song Lin's eyes, Fenghuang didn't know what to say. Then Ji Long stepped in. With glaring eyes and a fierce expression, Ji Long grabbed Song Lin's hand that was on Fenghuang's shoulder, picked it up off her shoulder, and forcefully threw it to the side, all while maintaining steady eye contact with him that seemed to say back off. Shouldering past Song Lin, who was trying to hold a laugh in from how chivalrous Ji Long was, Ji Long walked over to the whining and exasperated Dasun.

"Dasun, listen to me." Ji Long gripped Dasun's shoulder, looking at him intensely. Dasun slowly lifted his head to look at Ji Long. "Dasun, I hate to say it, but it's true, you're not the handsomest. But that doesn't matter. I know you can sing. As long as you're good at something, the girls will come to you." Ji Long smiled his half smile, looking mischievous, "But you better get really good. You need it." He let out a short laugh and gave Dasun's shoulder a reassuring squeeze as his whining started up again. Turning to Fenghuang, who was captivated herself by the cool, intense aura Ji Long gave off, Ji Long said,

"Come on, let's ditch these guys. I've got somewhere to go." The two of them left Dasun and Song Lin behind. Fenghuang followed him through the streets, thinking to herself about that intense power Ji Long had over everyone.

___

The large cathedral before them was one the most beautiful works of history they had ever encountered. Ancient, gothic architecture that seemed to reach endlessly into the sky. The yellowish lights cast a beautiful glow in the evening. Sitting on the steps in front of the towering cathedral in the center of Cologne,  Ji Long hummed a catchy tune. Breathing in the warm summer air, Fenghuang listened, creating an accompanying harmony in her head. Finally Ji Long stopped humming.

"What was that?" Fenghuang asked, curious as to what the tune was.

"The start of our piece!" Ji Long said proudly.

"Our piece? You've started writing it without me?" Fenghuang protested.

The rest of the spring season, Fenghuang and her mother had toured throughout the major cities of Japan. All the while, Fenghuang sat at her little piano that they had transported to every hotel room trying to write the beginning of a piece. Not knowing what she wanted to write, she could only come up with notes that came together to form familiar sounds of popular pieces she had heard many times before. "It's harder than I thought to write something completely original." she had thought. Yet here was Ji Long, already having written the main melody of a piece.

Ji Long smiled and nodded his head, looking proud. Before Fenghuang could say anything else, Ji Long stood up,

"Listen!" He began humming again. The melody was exciting, it was impossible not to sway your head to the sound. The rhythm was tricky, seeming to dance all over the place, sometimes popping up, sometimes stopping short. Sometimes it sounded like someone should be singing, other times like someone was speaking . It was nothing like classical music, but it had all the potential emotion and imagery classical music could produce.

            His melody was interrupted by a loud, thundering rolling sound through the square they sat in. Looking over, they saw two people pushing a grand piano on wheels through the square. Earlier that night, while the four had wandered the streets listening to street musicians, they found a couple pianists that performed entertaining music on their grand piano in various places. The same two pianists now rolled their instrument on wheels into that very square.

"I'll go play it for you on the piano!" Ji Long raced down the steps.

"Wait!" She ran after him. She stood from a little distance as she watched Ji Long trying to speak with the two pianists. She laughed a little as she listened to him trying to speak German. Ji Long was never any good at learning languages. Fenghuang on the other hand, always studied up the basics of the language of the country they would be going to. Walking up to take his place, she smiled and asked the artists politely to play their piano. They smiled and looked at us, saying how cute we were and of course we could play their piano. She smiled at Ji Long, who made a face at her, mocking at her flaunting how she could speak German and he couldn't. Then he turned to sit down at the piano.

"This is only the exposition, you have to write the development." He said, readying his hands.

"Oh, it's going to be a sonata?" She asked confused, but he didn't hear her, he set his fingers on the keys and began to play. Sure enough, the same melody he had hummed moments earlier sang out of the piano. He played with excitement, grooving along to the music. His hands played with amazing accuracy and speed. He even improvised new twists and turns as he went, making it more elaborate and exciting. Even though they were standing in a warm, buzzing square in Germany, Fenghuang felt as though she was transported to another world. She had never heard any music like it before. Granted she had only ever listened to classical music and never had the time or opportunities to explore other genres. She was finally able to understand why Ji Long wanted to be a part of a this type of music, it was fun and exciting. While classical music could be those things too, it lacked the freedom and creativity Ji Long expressed; classical was strict, with rules outlining the frame, border, and edges of every piece.

"Wow, he's amazing!" She heard the people praising. A small crowd had begun to gather and flashes of cameras sparked continuously.

"How old are you two?" The pianist I had spoken to asked me. Taking a moment to recall the numbers she had learned to say in German, she answered,

"We are ten." Upon hearing this, more sounds of praise and amazement came from the crowd.

Ji Long looked completely oblivious to the crowd. He had his half smile on his lips, his eyes sparkled, his body moved to the rhythm and beat of the music. His focus and concentration was all on what he was playing. He began playing a repeat of the exposition he had just played, but this time with even more new twists and turns that weren't present the first time.

Fenghuang was captivated by the sound of the foreign music he played, but at the same time she was conscientious of the crowd around them. She grew nervous as she saw so many cameras. One of those pictures were bound to get published on a newspaper or magazine somewhere she thought. That's what she had come to learn through traveling with her mother and the ever-present paparazzi, wherever there were cameras there would be a published article with pictures nearby.

But she decided to worry about the pictures later. This was not only the first time Fenghuang had heard this type of music, but it was the first time she had actually seen and listened to Ji Long play the piano. She had always known that he played it, but they never had a chance to show each other. She let herself drift along with the beat, taking in the sound and talent of Ji Long's piano. But before she knew it, he had finished, ending on a note that gave conclusion, yet at the same time sounded like it wasn't quite the end. 

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Next Episode: 1-5-14