Hanbin woke up abruptly, as if in response to someone’s command. It was still dark outside but the warm tone of the blue light suggested the sun was on its way. They were nearly out of time. He moved as gently as he could while extricating himself from Bobby’s arms. He didn’t want to wake him, the poor guy was tired enough as it was.

He untangled a leg trapped under Bobby’s, cleared a path through the sheets and in one slow, steady movement he commando rolled out from underneath the arm strewn across him. Bobby didn’t stir. He tucked the sheets back around Bobby with painstaking gentleness.

He pulled on clothes quickly and quietly, surprised by how awake he felt, like he’d never been asleep before. He closed the bedroom door slowly, leaving it just ajar so he didn’t make any noise. He made his way down the hallway.

He was just about to enter the kitchen area when there was a thud. He jumped and looked around to find a half-asleep Bobby had stumbled into the hallway wall. He’d pulled on a pair of boxer shorts, very quickly it seemed by how low they were sitting on his hips, and he was trying to pull on a hoodie whilst walking with closed eyes.

 “Jiwon! Go back to bed…” Hanbin whined as Bobby stumbled towards him, his eyes reduced to sleepy slits.

“Shut up.” Bobby growled dopily putting his hand over Hanbin’s mouth. “Let’s go.” He removed his hand and linked arms with Hanbin. Hanbin smiled gratefully as he led the drowsy but determined zombie-bunny up to the studio.

Hanbin sat forward on the chair headphones on, listening intently while scribbling down some notes that only made sense to him. Bobby sat right behind him, arms around his stomach, clinging to his back like a Koala,  and peering over his shoulder trying to wake up. He wore a set of headphones too and listened along as Hanbin made a few changes here and there. He understood what Hanbin was doing and why without needing to ask, he trusted Hanbin’s judgement more than his own when it came to polishing a song. He enjoyed the performance aspect of being a rapper by far, but it was good to improve his technical skills by observing Hanbin who was close to mastering the exacting editing process. Every few minutes Hanbin would simply turn his head slightly to Bobby to silently ask “All good? This sounds better right?” He would then feel Bobby nod against his shoulder and keep going.

Slowly sunlight started to peep through the studio from through the hallway that led to the studio loungeroom. Bobby realized how hungry he was. He gave Hanbin a squeeze around the middle to get his attention.

“Let’s take a break and eat.” He suggested, lifting one headphone off Hanbin’s ear.

“You go, I’m honestly not hungry.” Bobby believed Hanbin wasn’t hungry but he wasn’t going to settle for him not eating. He went downstairs and got together some breakfast, grabbed his phone from the bedroom (whoops, lots of unread messages), and headed back upstairs.

He pulled up a chair next to Hanbin and tried to pass him a bowl of cereal.

“No, really. I can’t eat.”

“Hanbin…” Bobby warned. He loaded a spoon with cereal and held it in front of Hanbin’s face so he couldn’t see the screen. Out of sheer desperation to avoid wasting anymore time Hanbin accepted the spoonful, munching away even though he really didn’t feel like it. Bobby made sure he finished the whole bowl and then fed him a banana, breaking it into smaller pieces and popping them in his mouth.  

As Bobby began his own bowl of cereal he decided it was finally time to read his messages. He’d barely looked at his phone since the incident with Hanbin that had led to their fight. Once things had cleared up between them he hadn’t wanted any distractions from Hanbin’s company. Hanbin was all he needed, the rest of the world could wait. He smiled as he discovered a series of texts from Jinhwan from the day before, each one increasing in sassiness.

>>so how did it go?<<

>>I’m waiting…<<

>>Still waiting.<<

>>ok. Cool. Fine. I don’t need to know anyway<<

>>Jiwon are you DEAD? Did he kill you or something? Because right now you’re ghosting me so hard it’s not even funny <<

>>You know what? I’m just going to keep texting your ghost because I bet they will reply faster than you ever did while alive<<

Bobby chuckled. Well at least he was prepared for Jinhwan’s rage when he got back to the dorms! He sent him a quick text.

>>all good. Will explain when I see ya<<

There was a text from his brother, and then one from Tablo which caught his attention. He opened it eagerly.

>>Heyyy sup. How you and Hanbin going?? Tell Hanbin I am breaking up with him because he never replied to my last text. Also I’m on the edge of my seat. Can’t wait to hear your new tracks. Just don’t know if the one hour meeting Yg has booked us all in for is going to be long enough to listen to and discuss for 4 tracks? We’ll see. See you soon dude<<

Bobby’s blood ran cold. Tablo was going to be there when they showed the songs to YG? He and YG were expecting FOUR tracks? He looked up and Hanbin was staring at him with a no-bull expression on his face. Dammit, he really needed to watch his facial expressions more when around Hanbin – he read him as easily as a kid’s picture book. Well, he had no intention of keeping this from Hanbin anyway, he needed to prepare him…

“Ah, Tablo messaged me..”

“And?” Hanbin looked up at him wearily as if to say “and what’s the bad news now? Just tell me.”

“Well Tablo is going to be at the meeting when we show YG the new songs, and well, they’re both expecting four new tracks…and we’ve only got…”

“Two.” Hanbin finished his sentence flatly. They looked each other grimly for a while, trying to process the new information. Hanbin finally sighed and ran his hand through his hair in distress.

“, I’m so embarrassed.” He muttered bitterly.

“Bin..”

“Aren’t you?” Bobby almost didn’t know what was worse. Seeing Hanbin in full panic mode like yesterday or seeing him enter this dark, cynical, bitter mode. Both were pretty horrible. Worst of all Bobby didn’t know what he could do to comfort Hanbin this time. YG had never specified how many songs they had to produce and they had both gone into the weekend with the intention of producing as many as possible…but it seems that YG’s idea of “as many as possible” had been a minimum of four…

Hanbin was mortified because with only two songs it would look like he hadn’t even tried to meet YG’s expectations. And not even trying at YG was the most unforgivable sin of all. And not even trying as the LEADER at YG…well, that was unheard of. Bobby could feel the despair radiating from Hanbin and filling the room.

And of course he was embarrassed himself – he was dying from embarassment. He wasn’t the leader but YG had made it pretty clear what he expected of him this weekend. He needed to be there to fire up Hanbin and do as much song production as possible. But it seemed that their relationship issues had really chewed up a huge amount of time…but what could they do? They literally had to leave in about 2 hours. That wasn’t even enough time to start writing a song and brainstorming a concept…

…Wait….Bobby looked down at his phone and suddenly had an idea.

“Hey, Bin maybe we’re going about this the wrong way…”

“What do you mean” Hanbin murmured at his computer screen.

“Well, I just had a thought…what about the boys?” Hanbin was looked up at him questioningly, trying his hardest not to get his hopes up but also desperately wanting a way out of this situation.

“I’m just thinking that, well, remember how ages ago YG told the boys to start writing songs in their free time to develop their skills?”

“Yeah…” Hanbin did remember and now he could see where Bobby was going with this. When YG had first arranged a meeting with the seven of them to discuss a potential comeback he expressed doubt that the other boys were ready to write their own songs for the album. He seemed to think they needed much more experience…both Hanbin and Bobby knew how deeply that had frustrated them. All they could do was take YG’s advice and keep writing…but they had so much other stuff to do all the time whilst touring that practicing song-writing definitely hadn’t been a topic of frequent discussion…

“Have you heard any of them? Like, have any of the boys actually finished a song?” Bobby asked quickly.

“Not that I know of…I know it was just something they were working on when they could during their free time…but Jinhwan and Junhoe have improved so much recently when it comes to music arrangement...” Bobby nodded eagerly in agreement.

“I’m gonna call Jinhwan.” The phone rang for a painfully long time then finally Bobby heard a long yawn on the other end of the line.

“What is wrong you? You don’t answer my texts and then you call me at 7am in the morning?” Jinhwan muttered, managing to sound both angry and sleepy.  Bobby ignored him – he needed an answer as soon as possible.  

“Jinhwan, remember how YG told you and the others to practice your song-writing??” There was a long pause as Jinhwan obviously tried to process the question while semi-asleep.

“…yeah.”

“Did any of you actually write a song and finish it?”

“Well mine’s not exactly finished, neither is June’s or Dong’s…but we worked together on our individual songs just the other day. They could be really good…but we’d need more time to work on them…what’s this about.”

“How much time would you need?”

“To do what?”

“To get at least two of those songs into final tracks?”

“Uh…where are you going with this? YG hasn’t given us permission to write for the comeback album…”

“But maybe he will change his mind if they’re good! And Hanbin and I know you’ve all gotten so much better…” There was a pause as Jinhwan was obviously thinking something through. “Are the songs good Jinhwan? If they are…”

“…Can you hold on?” Jinhwan asked.

“Yeah, yeah of course.” The phone went quiet for about a minute. Hanbin had now completely stopped work and looking at him on the phone, trying to follow the conversation as best he could.

“hey back. You still there?”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Ok we can have three finished songs by this afternoon.” Bobby burst into laughter and leapt to his feet. Hanin looked at him eager for an explanation.

“You ing serious??”

“Yeah…they will be good. We’re not going to blow this chance to prove to YG that we’re big boys now and that we can write hit songs. We’ve been working on them for ages…but we still need you two to help us.”

“Jinhwan, I love you. You know that right?”

“Of course you do. No hurry up get your asses back to Seoul. We need to be in the studio together. And also we kinda miss you two.”

“OK. We’ll leave soon.”

“Bye jerk, drive safe. OH. By the way how did things work out with Hanbin?”

“Good, really good,” Bobby giggled. He could basically hear Jinhwan’s grimace. Clearly his tone of voice had given away a lot of information.

“…You two are so gross. But I am glad. Come home.”

Bobby had barely pressed end call when Hanbin was at him for an explanation. Bobby couldn’t stop smiling now. Just as he’d hoped everything was coming together, everything was going to be ok. He took Hanbin by the shoulders excitedly.

“We’re all good Bin, the boys said they can have another three songs together by the afternoon.” Hanbin’s mouth fell open then he started smiling like crazy too.

…Hanbin knew the boys had been working on their own songs but they had all been so private about it. They were shy and self-conscious because YG had been so doubtful of their growth as song-writers. He’d just kind of assumed the songs were good but being saved by the boys for any potential solo work they wanted to do in the future…and he’d had no idea how far along the songs were…

“Are the songs good?”

“Jinhawn said they were and he was confident…we just need to get there to help them finish it off and add our verses. We can do this.” Hanbin smiled with dopey, joyful relief as Bobby took his hands and waved cheering them in the air for him.

“Yeah…we can do this. We need to head back soon then.”

“Yeah…we do.” Bobby agreed but he didn’t know now whether it was happiness he was feeling at the idea of returning to Seoul or incredible sadness…However his confusion hardly surprised him. After all, it had been a long weekend and he’d basically experienced every emotion available to man. He hardly knew what was what anymore.

***

They were packed now and standing in the foyer, hand in hand, taking a slow look around trying to work out if they had forgotten anything. A mood of nostalgia and bittersweet happiness had already overcome them and they hadn’t even left yet. Bobby turned to Hanbin and their eyes met, exchanging a look of understanding which said “yep, I feel it too.” They shared a brief tender kiss wanting to savour this wistful moment.

“Anything you wanna do before we leave?” Bobby asked against Hanbin’s lips. Suddenly Hanbin’s face lit up and he smiled goofily.

“Yes…actually…!”

“What?” Bobby couldn’t help smiling too whenever he saw Hanbin smile like that. It was the best, most infectious, dorky smile in the whole world.

“Well you see there was something I really wanted us to do when we first arrived, but of course neither of us ended up being in the right mood so I didn’t suggest it…”

“Yes…?”

“Well, it’s stupid but I really wanted us to jump on one of those huge bouncy beds upstairs! The first night I accidentally found Tablo’s bedroom when looking for the bathroom. It is the biggest most amazing bed I have ever seen! And I want to jump on it - the way we all used to jump on the hotel beds after we debuted!! Remember?? Whenever we arrived at a hotel straight away we’d all go crazy and jump around on the beds because we were so hyped up and excited!” Bobby laughed, remembering all their ridiculous hotel antics. How funny that Hanbin wanted to relive those childish moments…he was so cute and strange….and that was exactly why he liked him. Bobby grabbed Hanbin’s hand.

“Let’s go then.”

Next minute they were jumping up and down laughing like dorks on the massive, spongey bed in Tablo’s room, pillows flying and covers rippling like a linen sea around them. Suddenly Hanbin copped a pillow to the face and quickly a pillow fight began.

Sometime later they were both lying puffed and giddy on the bed. Hanbin was resting his head on Bobby’s outstretched arm. It had felt incredibly good to be silly, to be unapologetically young and stupid. He was craving moments like this more and more everyday…

They looked at each other in calm happiness, temporarily completely forgetting that they were two ambitious rappers with a serious deadline looming ahead – for that a blissful moment, as brief as it was, they were just two dorks in love.

“We should go Bin,” Bobby murmured eventually.  

 “I know,” Hanbin replied smiling sadly. They re-made the bed taking care not to leave a single trace of their jumping session.

***

They had put their backpacks into the back seat of the 4WD and were now in the front seat, taking a long last look at the beautiful house and forest through the front screen. It really was such an incredible property. It was a shame they hadn’t had time to explore more of it. Maybe they’d come back one day, but it would never be the same as this time weekend that had passed…

 Bobby set up the GPS and Hanbin curled up his legs to get comfortable for the drive home. He looked over at Bobby and gave his chin a tickle to get his attention.

“Ok Jiwon, start from the beginning. I want to know everything. Every detail.”

“…Of what?” asked Bobby confused. Hanbin looked at him incredulously.

“MOBB! I want to know about the writing process, the recording, every track, the album as a whole, and every single concert, what it was like working with Minho and Kush, every meeting with YG, every shoot and promotion. If you start now we can cover most of it before we reach the dorms. Anything that isn’t covered this trip will be covered as soon as we finish off the boy’s tracks.” Hanbin was looking at him earnestly with bright curious eyes. His heart swelled and throbbed happily.

Bobby twisted the key into the ignition, hit the accelerator hard, and the 4WD took off down the drive through the fields with a roar. He’d wanted to tell Hanbin everything for so long he couldn’t wait to get started. Also, they needed to get a move on. They had to get back in time for lunch with the boys, they had a comeback to discuss.

THE END

Thank you to all subscribers and readers. I had a lot of fun writing this short story and am actually really sad now it is over. If you like, please leave a comment and let me know what you enjoyed about the story and whether you would be keen for another chaptered work from me or maybe just some more cute oneshots. THANK YOU xx

P.S. I cross-post on AO3 ( http://archiveofourown.org/users/A_memory_box24 ) and Wattpad ( https://www.wattpad.com/user/A_Memory_Box ) - feel free to follow me on there too! 

AMemoryBox