Ages:

Chanyeol: 43

Baekhyun: 44

Yifan: 19

Yixing: 18

Jongdae: 17

Minsoon: 14

~

The soft pitter, patter of the rain beating against the roof soothed the occupants of the house as the night progressed. The house was quiet, save for the occasional snore here and there, each member of the house peacefully snoozing away in their respected bedroom. However, Byun-Park Minsoon remained wide awake in her shared bedroom with her older brother, Jongdae. She was supposed to be asleep three hours ago yet her eyes refused to be heavy. Throughout the night, she tossed and turned in an attempt to tire herself out to no avail. Three hours later, Minsoon is convinced that she is a nocturnal creature. She conveniently forgot that hamsters (Her ‘spirit animal’ according to her peers and family) were not nocturnal animals.   

Accepting the fact that she won’t be getting any sleep any time soon, Minsoon quietly climbed out of bed and silently left her room to the kitchen downstairs. Perhaps a drink of water will help. Or maybe a warm glass of milk.

As she became closer and closer to the kitchen, she noticed that the kitchen lights were already switched on. Hmm, she pondered, that’s odd. I remember turning them off after dinner. The night before, everyone was too tired from the day’s activities to clean up after themselves. Save for her dad and papa, both of which helped her clean the table, Minsoon washed the dishes and distinctly switched all the lights off, except the nightlight.

There, she found her older brother, Yixing, seated at the kitchen island wide awake. He was concentrating at the laptop in front of him with one of his earbuds plugged in and absentmindedly hummed an unfamiliar tune. Occasionally, he stopped to write something down in a notebook, presumably lyrics, before shaking his head and rapidly crossing out what he had written before. It did not take a genius to know that Yixing was mildly frustrated.  

Everyone in the family knew that Yixing occasionally had bouts of inspiration in the middle of the night. At first, it had concerned Chanyeol and Baekhyun because they were worried that their son was not resting enough, six hours at most. In fact, Baekhyun remembered how similar Chanyeol acted in their college days. Let’s just say that it ended with Chanyeol missing classes because Baekhyun forced him to stay home and rest. However, that soon passed when they realized that it was the way Yixing operated and they can’t change that.   

As if sensing her presence, Yixing unplugged his earbuds and turned to Minsoon’s direction. “Couldn’t sleep.” He stated. He took note of his sister’s dark circles that should not belong on a fourteen year old and sluggish actions as she entered the room. There are times, like right now, in which he became concern for her well-being. If you think he is horrible at taking care of himself, take a look at Minsoon.

“No,” Minsoon replied back. She suppressed a yawn as she searched the cupboards for cups. After finding one, she filled it to the brim with water and gulped down the liquid. Satisfied, Minsoon set the cup down on the counter next to the sink and turned back to her brother. With a soft smile, she questioned, “What are you working on?”

It was a truth that Minsoon loved her brother’s compositions. She loved how passionate Yixing was about music and how he expressed that through his own work. For as long as she could remember, Yixing was a musical genius. Whether it be an instrument or his own voice, he managed to use it in a way that would enchant sirens. Her dad was proud to say that Yixing inherited that from his side of the family (Don’t tell her papa).

Setting his pencil down on the notebook, Yixing focused his eyes somewhere around his sister, as if he was embarrassed. “It’s a song for a,” he paused as he searched for the right words, “friend of mine. Yeah, friend.”

Truthfully, Yixing was creating this song for someone he held dear to him. Someone he wished to be more than friends with. They had known each other for years to the point Yixing developed a mild (read: immense) crush on said person. When this person asked him to create a song for their crush as a confession, Yixing could not say no, despite the fact that his heart broke into millions of pieces. Unrequited feelings .

“But,” Minsoon prompted, “There is a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence.”

“I can’t write lyrics for this song.” He sighed. It was difficult to not rant his feelings into this song. Why did I ever agree to this? He mourned silently.

“What do you have so far?”

After a few moments of considering whether or not to show his sister his failed attempt of writing song lyrics, he handed his notebook to Minsoon. Her eyes scanned the page filled with scrawled words and strikeouts replaced with other words. Overall, it looked as though someone filled a hat with letters and lines, shook the hat a couple hundred times, and dumped its contents on a random piece of lined paper.

“I think,” she started as she pointed to a specific line, “You should replace this line. It doesn’t make sense.”

Throughout the night, Minsoon and Yixing collaborated together in editing the lyrics and music until a faint hint of sunlight filtered through the windows. The next morning, Baekhyun found his two angels fast asleep on the kitchen island, drooling on the cool granite surface. Around them, papers were spewed in different directions and Yixing’s laptop was slightly open with another piece of paper protruding from it. It took a lot of effort to not smile at the scene.

[“We should wake them up.”

“I can’t. They look so peaceful and cute.”

“They will wake up with an aching neck.”

“But-”

“Not ‘but’s, Baekhyun.”

“Can I at least take a picture?”

“... Fine.”

“Yes!”

“They will hate you for posting that you know.”

“Shush! Let me savor this moment!’

“Just warning you.”]

~

A/N:

We are almost halfway done with this book! See you next week!