#jazzlove

In the stillness between worlds, where mist curled like spun glass over emerald boughs, a young fairy named Yongsun gazed at her own reflection in the river. She smoothed her dark hair, marveling at how it caught the half-light, wondering if it would be enough — enough to look human, enough to walk among them, enough to find the sound that would finally make Prince Jihoon, the fairest and brightest of their court, notice her.

She had trained harder than any sprite or muse. Days and nights spent in the endless groves, her small feet bleeding from dances too perfect, her voice losing its natural lilt as she chased immaculate notes. She spun melodies of rain, laughter, and the sighs of ancient trees — all polished to gleaming perfection.

But no matter how tirelessly she sculpted her songs, when she stood before Jihoon, when the ethereal court gathered in crystal pavilions under painted skies, he barely glanced her way. His praise went to others — older, grander, more dazzling.

She was not enough.

"I must find a new sound," Yongsun whispered to the river. "A sound not even Jihoon can ignore."

They spoke, in secret corners of the Seelie Court, of mortal music — wild, reckless, imperfect. A thing that bled and soared all at once. A thing that could wake even dreaming kings. So Yongsun made her choice.

She hid her wings beneath a shimmer of illusion and stepped into the mortal world.

The city hit her like a crashing tide — so different from her realm. Neon instead of stars. Smoke instead of blossoms. Dreams that did not float but fought to survive.

Her feet ached after only an hour. The air buzzed and groaned. But Yongsun pressed on, drawn by something deeper — a low, pulsing beat, raw and alive. It tugged at her like a half-remembered song.

Down a forgotten alley, she found it: an open-air concert, strung between tired brick walls. Paper lanterns bobbed in the breeze, and a crowd — mortals, broken and beautiful — swayed together under the lazy pulse of jazz and R&B.

And there, under the only working spotlight, was a man.

His jacket was frayed. His saxophone was battered. His shoes were scuffed like an old pilgrim’s.

His name, she would learn later, was Jess.

Jess, the failed composer who once dreamed of symphonies but now lived paycheck to paycheck, ghostwriting jingles, tuning broken pianos, selling poems no one read. Jess, who wrote love songs by candlelight to lovers who had never existed. Jess, whose only audience had become street corners and empty cafés.

Yet when he played — oh, when he played — it was with a joy that no perfection could ever cage. There were missed notes. Cracks in the rhythm. A faltering breath here, a wild improvisation there. But it was alive. It was him.

The fairies of the Seelie Court, had they been there, would have winced at every technical flaw. But Yongsun's heart, so long starved of feeling, soared.

Jess, for his part, never noticed the girl with stars in her hair. He was too lost in the music, chasing a sound he thought he might never catch — but still, still trying.

Yongsun watched until the last note faded into the heavy night. Then, heart pounding, she stepped forward.

"You," she said, voice trembling with laughter, "you play like a fairy who forgot how to fly."

Jess, wiping sweat from his brow, blinked at her. Then he chuckled — low, hoarse, beautiful. "Is that good or bad?"

"It's the highest praise," she said solemnly. "And… I would know. I'm a fairy."

He laughed again, assuming it a flirtatious joke. "Sure. And I'm a lost prince."

"Maybe you are," Yongsun murmured, her eyes shining. And then, leaning close, she whispered, "Come play for queens and kings who dream."

Something about her — the glint in her gaze, the music woven into her every movement — made Jess follow without question. The night thickened around them. The alley faded, and the trees leaned in. The mortal world blurred into the timeless woods.

They stepped into the Seelie Court.

It unfurled like a dream: thrones carved from ancient living wood, pools that mirrored forgotten constellations, fairies spun from mist and starlight. The court buzzed with restless, haughty beauty. Here, perfection was law.

Yongsun shed her mortal guise, her wings blooming behind her like a tapestry of summer dawns. The fairies gasped at the human she had brought — ragged, flawed, mortal.

Jess stood trembling. He thought of running — thought of how easily he could disappear back into the alleys of his old life. But then Yongsun smiled at him — and suddenly, running seemed impossible.

She led him to the center of the clearing. She whispered, "Play for us." And he did.

The first note cracked. The second note soared.

Jess played not as a master, but as a man in love with sound itself. He did not strive for perfection. He reached for wonder, for ache, for laughter after grief.

The fairies — beings of precision and artifice — first winced, then paused, then leaned forward in fascination. Here was something their flawless songs had never captured: the trembling, breakable, glorious joy of being alive.

Jess saw none of this. He saw only her — Yongsun, dancing barefoot through the clearing, her hair streaming like dark rivers in the starlight.

He was supposed to be proving himself to them. Yongsun was supposed to be impressing Jihoon.

But as Jess's music poured out, as he lost himself in smoky melodies and broken rhythms, Yongsun’s heart chose — quietly, surely.

It was not Jihoon she wanted. It never had been. It was Jess — his stubborn soul, his imperfect hands, his music that dared to feel.

When the final note faded, a profound silence fell. Then — soft applause, laughter like bells. The fairies crowned Jess an honorary "Starborne Musician," weaving laurels of ivy and starlight around his battered saxophone.

Jess, overwhelmed, turned to Yongsun. "I don't understand," he whispered. "I’m… nobody."

She took his hand, her voice bright as morning rain: "You are the only dream I ever truly wanted to catch."

In the weeks that followed, love did not come like a blinding storm or a single victorious note. It came like music Jess had once forgotten how to hear — tentative, imperfect, unfinished. And it was all the sweeter for it.

Yongsun and Jess lived halfway between worlds now — a modest little house spun from woven wood and mortal brick, tucked at the edge where fairy fields melted into misty city streets.

Some days were honey-bright: Mornings spent tangled in sheets and sunlight, Jess humming lazy saxophone tunes as Yongsun braided tiny blooms into her hair. Evenings lost to clumsy duets — Jess teaching her old mortal songs, Yongsun weaving starlight into the air until even the fireflies forgot their own dance.

But not every day was a fairytale.

They fought, sometimes. Over foolish things: Jess’s stubbornness, Yongsun’s impulsiveness, how easily two hearts, so full of their own music, could fall out of rhythm.

"You never listen!" Yongsun would cry, wings flashing silver when anger crested. "And you never slow down!" Jess would shoot back, hands thrown into the air, words sharp as broken strings.

Yet somehow, even in the clatter of arguments, there was laughter waiting underneath — like a second song neither of them could unlearn.

Yongsun’s parents, ancient and regal as the drifting clouds, watched all this with eyes that had seen centuries pass. There were frowns at first, quiet worries whispered between sighing branches. But when Yongsun laughed — really laughed, deep and full as the earth itself — they exchanged a glance across the clearing and smiled.

Perhaps perfection was overrated, after all.

It was Yongsun’s father who first called Jess son. It was her mother who, in a rare moment of solemn grace, tucked a sprig of moonflower into his saxophone case for luck.

And luck, it seemed, had heard their blessing.

Jess’s music, raw and imperfect, bloomed like wildfire. Word of the "human who played for queens and kings who dream" spread like whispered fire. Mortals and fairies alike traveled from distant lands to hear him.

He no longer played for empty rooms. He no longer wrote poems no one read.

He played in theaters of living vines and rooftops kissed by thunderclouds. He played until the city’s stone heart softened. He played until starlight itself seemed to hum in time with him.

And every night, no matter how grand the crowd, no matter how golden the applause, Jess would look to the edge of the stage — and find her.

Yongsun, barefoot, wild-haired, eyes full of every dream he had dared to believe in.

In the end, he had not found his music in the roar of crowds or the silence of lonely rooms. He had found it in her — in the way she danced even when the song broke. In the way she stayed even when he faltered.

It was not a perfect love. It was better. It was theirs.

Hand in hand, they slipped into the woods — past thrones and pools, past judgment and fear. Into the new life they would build together: messy, mortal, magical.

Years later, in a home stitched between the roots of the old world and the dreams of the new, Yongsun would gather Jess and their children close beneath quilts woven of moonlight and mortal thread.

On nights when the stars hummed softly in the rafters, she would sing them a lullaby — a song made not of perfection, but of hope and belonging:

Where the Dreamers Sleep (A lullaby by Yongsun)

Beneath a silver-dusted sky, Where cloudboats sail and laughter sighs, The dreams we lost, the hopes we kept, Will find their way where dreamers slept.

Beyond the far and chimneyed seas, Where lemon drops fall from the breeze, There, love builds bridges out of mist— There, every wish is softly kissed.

If ever wings forget their flight, If ever hearts fall out of sight, Then close your eyes, my wandering one, And float along the thread of sun.

Where bluebirds rise on cotton air, And broken songs are mended there, The tears we wept, the stars we caught, Bloom gardens born of every thought.

So hush, my love, my heart, my sky, The dreams you dared will never die. Beyond the arc of rainbow’s gleam, Awaits the hearthlight of a dream.

Each step you take, each song you weave, Is written where the angels grieve, Yet laugh through storms and dance through fall— You are the bravest dream of all.

So fly, my heart, and if you fall, The clouds will rise and catch it all. Sleep sweetly now, for while you dream, I’ll guard your skies, your song, your stream.

And somewhere, far beyond mortal hearing, the fairies themselves would pause in their endless perfection to listen — and remember what it meant to feel.

Because sometimes, even perfect hearts must be taught to dream by broken ones. And sometimes, the bravest music is the song only two souls can hear.