"If You Love Someone, Keep Asking"... The Piano Teacher Who Taught an Autistic Student for 6 Years Burst Into Tears [Warm and Fuzzy]

[Financial News] A teacher who spent six years teaching piano to a child with autism spectrum disorder and asking after the child every day was moved to tears when the child finally answered for the first time, drawing quiet sympathy from readers.

On the 20th, a post on Thread introduced the story of piano teacher A, who taught a student with autism. Three days after it was posted, the message had surpassed 110,000 views and received more than 4,000 likes.
A said, "Every time I eat kimchi-jjigae, I think of S, the autistic child I taught piano to for six years. The child could not have a conversation at all, and I don't know why I kept asking so many questions. I guess I was just curious."
He said he would ask the child at every lesson, even if no answer came back: "How are you feeling today? What did you eat today? Did anything fun happen at school today?"
Then one day, as usual, A asked, "Did you have a good lunch? What did you eat?" and was looking through sheet music alone. S then replied, "Kimchi-jjigae."
A said, "I turned around and said, 'What? You ate kimchi-jjigae?' and then cried like a madman. I could barely teach after that, and I cried again while telling his mother about it. I'm even crying now as I write this."

He added, "If you love someone, keep asking. They will answer someday."
As the post drew attention, A shared an update the next day, saying, "So many people read it overnight."
He said, "S is now in middle school, and I still meet him. If you want to give courage to someone vulnerable, don't treat them as weak. Treat them like an ordinary friend and stay with them. That is what I learned from that child."
He then expressed his thanks, saying, "Whenever my feelings of love start to fade, I will read the comments again."

After hearing the story, netizens shared their own experiences in the comments and expressed sympathy.
One user wrote, "In fifth grade, I was paired with an autistic friend and talked to them by myself for the entire year. Near the end of the semester, that friend had drawn a character I said I liked in a notebook and laid it out for me. We never had a direct conversation, but I think that drawing was our conversation."
Another user, who said they run a math tutoring center, wrote, "I ask a middle school student with selective mutism lots of questions and make all kinds of silly remarks. At first, he didn't smile, but these days he smiles a lot without making a sound. I really want to hear his voice someday."
Others responded with comments such as, "If you love someone, keep asking. I need to remember that," "That child's small voice must have carried so much weight," and "Whenever parents of autistic children feel like there is nowhere for them to stand in the world and they are becoming isolated, people like this always seem to appear somewhere and take their hand."

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