Intermission of the artists of life

Sanghyuk thought of himself as an artist.

An artist of choice, because he did everything and nothing, whatever he wanted.

He knew that he was smart enough to finish whatever university, but he chose to study performance and dance while he played in a band and acted at a local theater and maintained friendships with people across Korea and Japan and wherever life took him.

Really, he just loved to drift along life, always doing what he liked best at the moment.

It was no wonder that he gravitated towards people who also worked towards their dreams, whether it was artistic heights, tangled cords of the psyche or fact based medicine.

And it was also thanks to those people that he got the courage to tell his parents back during high school that he would go for his dreams rather than prestige. Those two people were Jaehwan and Wonshik, two hyungs he was really fond of and would never really tell them any of that…

He was on his way to one of them, walking through the winter covered streets with his bass guitar on his back and his too big scarf sitting snugly around his neck that hid his smile as he thought about his possible plans for Christmas and New Years.

‘Yo, are you moldering in here already?’ he asked, waltzing into Wonshik’s apartment with the intent to bother him out of his composing rage.

No one ever questioned how he and Wonshik got keys to everyone’s apartments.

Really, they should be more worried…

‘No time.’ Wonshik mumbled as he scribbled furiously while mixing a tune that most definitely was not for VIXXED.

Hyuk shrugged at the brush off, wandering into Wonshik’s kitchen to clean up the side effects of his condition. It usually happened when a music company requested some lyrics or a rap part or an entire demo, Wonshik worked and yeah… nothing much else.

He became a hermit who lived on take outs and coffee and nearly not enough sleep as he poured his heart out on mix tapes and wove his feelings into well written poetry.

Hyuk scrunched his nose up while throwing out take out boxes and plastic plates that were on the verge of walking out themselves, then proceeded to collect the crumbled papers from around Wonshik’s desk.

‘Hyung, when did you eat last?’

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘Want to order something?’

‘In a minute…’

‘You pay.’

‘What?’ Wonshik glanced sideways, quite deaf to everything he had just told him and Hyuk just grinned down at him.

‘Go wash up, hyung… And the beard has to go too.’ he grinned, pulling Wonshik away from his desk by his rolling chair.

‘But Hyuk…’ Wonshik tried to protest, but with enough distance between him and his work he could be convinced relatively quickly to just move already.

So they ended up sitting around the low table in Wonshik’s apartment, munching away on noodles as they sipped on the beer Hyuk brought along and he let his hyung ramble about work and his sister and how he really wanted to find a nice girl already.

And Hyuk smiled at the familiarity of it, because they’ve been doing it since high school.

‘So I was thinking about writing something for their wedding.’

‘But hyung, Hongbin-hyung and Hani-noona engaged just last month.’ Hyuk drawled, shaking his head.

‘And when did that ever stop Hongbin from doing things on a whim, for all we know they could be already married.’ Wonshik chuckled.

‘Okay, point taken. But Taekwoon-hyung wanted to sing on their wedding so I don’t think that even he dares to pull that one on us.’ Hyuk observed, finding a pretty good looking scribble of lyrics stuck under the desk’s leg.

‘He wouldn’t dare to, but Hani-noona would.’ Wonshik smirked, plucking the sheet out of his hand then nodded at it, probably finding it good enough himself.

‘Right, she kept her real name hidden for years too…’ Hyuk snorted and then leaned back on the floor with a loud sigh.

Wonshik nudged him with his feet, but he just waved a dismissive hand.

‘Is this about that person from Yongin?’ Wonshik asked, and he just shrugged in answer. ‘Okay, then. What about Jaehwan-hyung? I didn’t expect to meet him at our concert and I surely didn’t expect him to meet Taekwoon-hyung in that roundabout way either.’

‘The world is small.’ he smiled, and he also had a hand in some part of it. ‘I wonder when they will realize that they are stupidly hopeless.’

‘Jaehwan-hyung? I’m sure he already knows, just doesn’t acknowledge it and as for Taekwoon-hyung… Uh, not so sure about that part.’ Wonshik shook his head. ‘I don’t think I will ever figure him out completely.’

‘Isn’t that why we love him?’ Hyuk asked. ‘Admit it, we just sorta got stuck with him.’

‘Sure, and maybe it happened because he can sing while you absolutely butchered some of my songs back in high school.’ Wonshik teased.

‘Don’t bring that up, my voice even cracked on taking a breath back then.’ Hyuk grimaced.

Wonshik snickered and Hyuk threw an empty beer can in his general direction.

‘Wanna give it a try now? I have this song to finish by next week and could use someone else singing it for me.’ Wonshik smiled, nodding towards his desk, miraculously not breaking under the musical chaos on its surface.

‘Sure, been a while since just the two of us played.’

‘How about your voice?’

‘Do shut up, hyung.’

Sanghyuk wasn’t sure where he would turn up next, in Wonshik’s apartment again, in Japan, in his attic room or on a chase in Yongin…

But that was for the future to bring and he enjoyed the present while he waited, having a familiar grip on his bass guitar and singing new notes that he’d never heard before.

This mix of old familiarity and new instability was something he loved entirely too much.

‘Let’s go to Jeju together, hyung.’

‘Sure.’

Short, this one is short but I wanted to expand this AU a bit and show the main relationship indirectly through the others' eyes.
Hope you enjoyed the two artists' episode ;)

Next one will be a regular chapter~