Blog

Chapter 7: My Beautiful Jewel – September 10, 2019

After a little while, they sat down, she at the piano, and he with his guitar.  And they began to play together.  It flowed nearly effortlessly.  As though they had been made for each other.  His guitar strumming complemented each stroke of her piano keys.

“My beautiful jewel,” Jimin began to sing.  

“I searched all the treasure troves – treasure chests?” 

He was composing lyrics aloud as she continued to play the piano.  Questioning his choice of words.  He played around with more words as they practiced together, but nothing satisfied him.  He groaned.  

“I have so much I want to say to you, Jumi.  My heart is overflowing.”

“Say that then,” she whispered as their eyes locked.

Jimin opened his mouth and began to sing in that clear, sweet voice that always wrapped around her and reached down deep inside of her to pull her towards him.  A lone tear slid down her cheek.

“Jimin, was your voice woven into my soul when I was born?  It feels like you’re drawing me to you when you sing over me.”

“I am,” he smiled.  “Come here,” he whispered.

Her eyes collided with his.

Embarrassed, she blushed.  “Jimin…we’re at school.”

“Okay,” he sighed.  “But, someday, I want you to sit on my lap.  If you’re comfortable with that,” he hastened to add.

He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.  That was for sure.

A smile teased her lips.  “Someday.  Maybe,” she added with a quirk of her eyebrow.

He smiled at her and picked up with her suggestion.  He turned on Voice Memos to capture anything good he stumbled upon. He strummed his guitar again and began to sing in those dulcet tones that transported her to heaven. 

“My heart is overflowing.

Your heart is always glowing.

Now my heart is racing, see?

‘Cause your heart is facing me.”

“Jimin, that’s beautiful.”

“Just like you,” he grinned.

Then he strummed his guitar and tentatively sang another stanza.

“I searched all over the world

To find that one special girl.

Looked in ev’ry treasure chest.

Searching for the very best.

“My heart was always hunting,

Willing to be confronting

All the woes that do chase you,

As long as I could face you.

“I did travel far and wide

To bring sweet you to my side, 

I was seeking treasure

Worth far more than I could measure.”

“Jimin!  It’s really good.”

He frowned.  “I think I’ll split those stanzas over verses one and two.”  

He hummed while he strummed the strings.  Then inspiration seemed to hit again.

“Longed to find a resplendent ruby.

Something very fine that could truly

Brighten my life with its kind color.

Wouldn’t settle for something duller.

Want to find a glittering diamond 

That would light up my heart like you did.

“I desired a shining sapphire,

Sparking with the bluest of fire,

Carrying me to freedoms, boundless.

Wanted to be always limitless.

Needed an amusing amethyst.

Looking for real love, not just some tryst.

“I needed a glowing garnet

Like the finest wine incarnate.

Wanted an elegant emerald. 

Who would have thought I could be so bold?

I desired a fiery topaz; 

Fill my soul with its passionate blaze.”

Jimin paused.  “I’ll have to work on that part.  I think I need to divide those lyrics up over the first and second verses too.  But I’ll need another couplet.  Ahh!  I’ll come back to it later.”

He kept strumming his beautiful guitar as she played the piano.

“But you are my beautiful pearl.  

Not simply an average girl.

(I just need you)

I don’t need precious stones 

Or sparkling tones.

(I just need you)

I don’t need rubies red, 

Or sapphires said.

(I just need you)

I don’t need emeralds green, 

Or garnets keen.

(I just need you)

I don’t need sapphires,

Or cyan fires.

(I just need you)

I don’t need diamonds,

Lonely islands.

(I just need you)

My beautiful pearl,

My beautiful pearl.”

He vocalized for a few bars.  Then he added a bridge at the end.

“For I found them all 

When I found you.

The colors of the rainbow 

I see them all in you.

Bouncing off your sheen,

Red, orange, yellow, green.

Shining through you,

Purple, indigo, and blue.

My beautiful pearl,

My beautiful pearl.”

Jumi just sat and stared at him.  She had written the basic melody for this song, but Jimin had made it so much more.  And her love for his lyrics was flowing down her face in crystal streams right now.

As Jimin hummed the last few chords of the song, he glanced up to see the tears sliding down her beautiful face.  He just wished she’d take off the sunglasses, so he could see her speaking eyes in all their glory.

––

Jimin glanced up at her.  “Jumi, you don’t have any lines in this song.  We need to change it.  So the beautiful pearl responds.  It wouldn’t have to be very many lines.  So you don’t have to sing much.”

She looked terrified.  Her face had paled.  And it was a blank slate.

“Please,” Jimin begged her.  “Sing for me.”  

When she remained silent, he whispered, “Just one line.”

He didn’t think she was going to respond.  She sat quite still for a very long time.  He closed his eyes as his heart dipped.  She still didn’t trust him fully.  It made him so sad.  

Then, without warning, she opened her mouth in a haunting melody and sang just one line.  But that one line was enough to give him chills.  The good kind.  No, the magnificent kind.

“Please just look at me,” Jumi’s voice spiraled up out of her chest to wrap around him in ecstasy.

Stunned, Jimin gazed up at her.  “Your voice is so…”

“Repugnant?”

“Rich.”

His word arrested her.

Rich?  Her voice?  Was the beautiful boy deaf? 

“Listen,” she responded.  “I know it sounds like I’m crunching on gravel when I sing.  You don’t need to mock me.”

She’d heard his voice.  It had stunned her.  She had wondered if God had made a mistake when they were born.  Had He accidentally switched their voices?  Jimin had the clear, high voice she wanted.  And she’d obviously been handed a boy’s voice.

Her voice was deep and rich.  Comforting him like a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter’s day.  It wrapped around him, reverberating with beauty.  He stared at her in shock.

“Your voice is magnificent.”

She simply stared at him.  He really believed her voice was magnificent?

“Please, Jumi, sing again.  Even if only for me.  Then, sing for me!  I want to hear you.”

She bowed her head and sat still and silent.

He set his guitar down in its case and crossed the few feet separating them.  He sat down next to her on the piano bench.  Right next to her.  She could hear his breathing.  Like last night.  

The intimacy of those moments stole stealthily over her once again.  She was being wrapped up in his breath.  Like a cocoon protecting her from the onslaughts of the world around her, his breath surrounded her completely.  Or so it seemed to her.

Then a new sensation distracted her from his breath.  The warmth of his hand slid over hers as his palm came to rest over the top of her hand in her lap.  She’d splayed her fingers on her thigh.  Now they were happily trapped beneath his.  And that palm was radiating heat.  It was now engulfing her too.  Was he seeking to completely envelop her with himself?

She turned her head slightly towards him.  

Just then he bent his own head near her ear and whispered, “Jumi.  Sing for me.”  

His breath flowed across her skin, making her shiver with delight.  

In that mesmerizing moment, Jumi would have given Jimin anything he asked of her.  She closed her eyes and concentrated on his breath still teasing her ear.  Without accompaniment of any kind, she opened her mouth and began to sing a song she’d sung for years.  One her voice knew by heart.  One she had written long ago.

And Jimin sat stunned as the strength of her voice surrounded him and probed the depths of him.  He was shaken to his very core as he listened to her.  How on earth had she not realized that she had a voice from heaven?

Deep and mellow.  Soothing and rich.  It stirred his soul and made him want to claim her lips with his own.  To capture that voice in his own mouth and release it himself.  It was simply stunning.

“Please just look at me.

Tell me what you see.

Don’t look away,

Some other way.

“Set your eyes on me.

Tell me I’m lovely.

Come set me free.

Please just love me.”

She fell silent.  Jimin just stared at her bent head.

“Jumi,” he breathed.  “I don’t have words.  I don’t know who lied to you.  I don’t know who told you your voice was ugly.  But…your voice is angelic!  It’s wonderful!”

As Jimin gushed, Jumi was reliving a nightmare.

“Who do you think you are to speak to me that way, you little bitch!?  No one wants to listen to you!”  Her appa sneered at her.  “And just get rid of all those stupid dreams in your head!  You’ll never be a singer!  I can’t stand your whining voice.  Just shut the hell up!”

Then, his stinging slap had exploded across her cheek to reinforce the power of his devastating words.  She’d been fourteen, and he had broken her heart that day.  

She’d been used to him breaking her body, but the shattering of her soul reached new depths that evening.  It left scars on her spirit.  Ones that still cut her so deeply.

Now, she began to sob.

“Jumi.”  Jimin furrowed his brow in concern and alarm.  “What is it?  What’s wrong?”

“It was my appa,” she gasped.  “He told me my voice was awful.  That no one would ever want to hear it.  That I should shut up.  So I did.  Around him.  

“But when he wasn’t home, I would still sing my heart out.  I can’t stop singing.”  She sobbed into her hands.  “It’s like air to me.  I have to sing, even if no one will listen.”

“I’ll listen.  I will always listen to your voice.  It’s beautiful.  So beautiful.”  He paused a moment.  “You believe me, don’t you?”

She sat still.  “It’s so hard to believe that anyone wants to hear me.  He never did.  And he said…”

“Don’t pay any attention to what he said.  He’s wrong.  He’s a liar.  He’s deaf.  Jumi,” Jimin grabbed both of her hands in his and tugged her towards him.  Which was awkward since they were still sitting side by side on the bench.  He stood up and straddled the bench so he was facing the side of her body.  Though she was still facing the piano.

Then he reached up and gently removed the sunglasses from her face.  So he could stare into her eyes.  He set the glasses on the piano and tenderly grasped her hands again as he gazed deeply into her velvet eyes.

“I will always listen to you.  I promise.”  He cleared his throat.  “Where did you learn this song?  Did you write it yourself?”

She nodded.

His grin stretched across his sweet face.  “I think it’s perfect!  We can use the part you just sang to me as the intro to My Beautiful Pearl!”

Her eyes grew wide.  “What?”

“You’ll sing only those eight lines.  Then I’ll sing the rest of the song.  My voice will pale compared to yours.  You’ll be a hard act to follow.  But I’m okay with that.”  His gaze pierced hers.  “What do you say, Jumi?  Will you sing with me?”