I accidentally posted chapter 18 twice, once in the chapter 18 post and once in the chapter 19 post. If you read the duplicate, please return to chapter 19 and read the updated – and correct – chapter before reading this chapter. Sorry for the confusion!
Chapter 20: Wanna Breathe Your Breath – August 11, 2015
A wide smile stretching her face as she spotted Yoongi in his vehicle, Nari opened the door to exit the building. She ran to his car and jumped in. Surprised, she glanced in his backseat at the two men who looked suspiciously like bodyguards.
“Hello, Yoongi. Who are your friends?” she faced him.
“Ahin and Bitgaun. My bodyguards. But you probably already guessed that.”
She bobbed her head. “And to what do we owe this pleasure?”
“You hadn’t noticed them before? They go everywhere with me.”
She glanced back at them. And then she remembered. The day Yoongi had defended her from the Neanderthal. Yoongi had warned him that, if he ever returned, a surprise would be waiting for him. And then the man had looked outside and decided to capitulate.
“He saw them, didn’t he?”
“Pardon?” Yoongi squinted at her.
“The Neanderthal. He saw your bodyguards waiting for him outside, didn’t he? He knew if he messed with me, they’d be waiting for him.”
“I imagine so.”
“You kept them well hidden in your apartment.”
He grinned at her. “They fit so well in my cupboards.”
She glanced at him, and he chuckled. “They live in the apartment to the right of mine. Didn’t you wonder why my next door neighbor wasn’t complaining about the piano?”
“No one in their right mind would complain about you playing the piano. Not even at three in the morning.”
“I guess we’ll find out tonight.” Yoongi looked oddly nervous.
“You’re not really afraid to play for my appa, are you?”
“Who, me? Now why would I be nervous? Only my entire future rests on this performance tonight.”
She reached out and placed her hand over his. He glanced down and then back up into her eyes.
“I pick you,” she whispered. “Even if he rejects you, Yoongi, I choose you. I’ll follow you anywhere. We can leave our appas’ expectations and strike out on our own. We’ll find a restaurant that needs us. I’ll be a waitress while you entertain diners at your piano.”
He smiled ruefully at her whimsical picture. “Nari, your appa just made you a junior executive. I couldn’t ask you to leave such a lucrative position. Or to give up college.”
“You didn’t ask me. This is my choice. If he rejects you, I’ll leave with you tonight.”
His heart went spiraling into the heavens even as his stomach crashed to the floor.
“Now I’m ten times more nervous.”
“Why? You have me either way.”
“I don’t want you that way, Nari. Your future is too precious to gamble it on me. I’m afraid I’ll fail you, and you’ll end up resenting me.”
Her face grew sad. “Then you’d best play your greatest music tonight.”
“I intend to. I intend to.”
—
“Does it have words?” Her appa asked after Yoongi played the song he’d written for her the other night.
Hesitantly, Yoongi nodded, and Nari’s eyes grew as round as saucers.
“It does?!” she gasped.
Her appa glanced at her. Then he turned towards Yoongi. “Sing it for us while you play it again.”
Yoongi swallowed. He hadn’t anticipated this. Why hadn’t he just lied and said that it didn’t have words? He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and turned back towards the piano. He pictured himself alone with Nari in his apartment, sitting at his own piano. And he sang straight to her. If he was going to crash and burn, at least, he’d let the fire of his love be the thing that consumed him.
His fingers began to caress the keys and coax that captivating music from it once more. A few moments later his low rumble joined the chords of the piano in romancing the girl he loved.
As Yoongi’s deep purr began to invade her heart, Nari closed her eyes and let him romance her soul. Tears began to leak out from under her closed eyelids. Her appa watched the scene unfolding before him. As the man at the piano wooed his daughter in front of him. At his behest, in fact.
“I don’t need an answer from you.
I just need you to carry me through.
I don’t need to understand.
I just need to hold your hand.
“I don’t need you to support me.
I just need your love to transport me.
I don’t need to be untried.
I just need you by my side.”
A beautiful interlude intervened, and Yoongi hummed and vocalized throughout it before he began to sing the chorus in a voice that slid over Nari’s nerves with the comfort of melting butter.
“I want to breathe your breath.
You’re full of wonder.
I want to sing your song.
I hear you thunder.
“I want to live your life.
You’re full of delight.
Want you to be my wife.
Dancing by starlight.”
Her appa’s eyebrows threaded themselves together. Was this a marriage proposal?
“I want to dance your dance.
You’re full of treasure.
Wanna give you romance.
Beyond all measure.
“Want you to be my bride.
I hear you, forthright.
Just want you by my side.
I feel you ignite.
“A flaming fire in my soul.
It won’t burn out, this I know.
For you, this blazing desire
For you, just takes me higher.
With you.
With you.
Just wanna breathe your breath.”
Again, a captivating interlude lulled them into peaceful waters before Yoongi’s voice coaxed the second verse from his heart.
“I don’t need an answer from you
To understand all you have been through.
I don’t need to comprehend.
I just need you to be my friend.
“I don’t need you to rescue me.
I just need your joy to buoy me.
I don’t need to win the race.
I just need to see your face.”
His fingers chased themselves up and down that piano, tickling a magnificent melody from those tinkling keys before he sang the chorus, slightly altered this time.
“I want to breathe your breath.
You’re full of wonder.
I want to sing your song.
I hear you thunder.
“I want to hold your hand.
You’re full of sunshine.
Looking for something grand.
You are my new wine.
“I want to rub your feet.
You’re full of pleasure.
Your love makes me complete.
Girl, you’re my treasure.
“Want you to be my bride.
I hear you, forthright.
Just want you by my side.
I feel you ignite.
“A flaming fire in my soul.
It won’t burn out, this I know.
For you, this blazing desire
For you, just takes me higher.
With you.
With you.
Just wanna breathe your breath.”
Yoongi harmonized while Nari wept.
“Just wanna breathe your breath.”
She remembered. When they’d shared each other’s breath.
His eye caught hers. And he gave her the tiniest of smiles. The sweetest of smiles.
Her appa didn’t miss it.
Yoongi’s purr…. The best description of his singing voice.. Of course not when he mock sings/yells with Hope