Sadly, summer was coming to an end and so was the amount of time that I got to spend with Jackson. Today he was leaving for China as he had just dropped his debut work but he was only going to be gone for a month at most before coming back. It was a formality of sorts, or whatever he was grumbling about. So, like the good lover I am, I stayed with him last night and helped him pack and pick out his airport fashion as he couldn’t give a bad first impression. When morning came we headed to the airport together as the newlywed couple was also arriving around the same time, and seeing as how I had their keys they’ll need me to get into the house.

Pulling on my hat, I leaned against the column outside wishing that they would hurry up. Hyung was starting to gross me out as he talked non-stop about how much he was going to miss his fiancé and a bunch of other gross stuff I didn’t care to hear. When did he become so disgusting? It’s all Junhyung Hyung’s fault no matter what the answer is. Sighing, I elbowed his side causing him to fall silent as he realized that he was talking way too much. Looking at the time on my phone, I really needed them to hurry up as I had to get to the studio to help someone with a song; I didn’t even know who it was, but Hyung said that we worked together before. Which did nothing to calm my curiosity.

“Did they die or something?! They’re taking forever.” Glancing at Hyung, he just shrugged making me sigh again as this was a mess.

“All you do is complain, is that anyway to welcome your two favorite people back?” Flinching, Sub’s voice was all in my ear as I didn’t even know when he had arrived.

“I can complain all I want to seeing as how I was kind enough to pick you two up.” Moving my finger between the two they just gave me shy smiles as I could only imagine what they were doing. “My brain is rotting because of you heathens. Anyway, let’s hurry I need to get to the studio.”

“Are you using my studio?” in my lips, I ran towards the car throwing the door open with a welcoming smile. “What did you do to my baby?”

“Nothing.” Hyung grabbed their luggage as I pushed them inside already knowing that I was going to hear a lot of nagging from the idiot. “Plus, how can you call a studio your baby? What about the people in it?”

“I worked hard for that studio, so it’s my baby; now, if you did anything, then just tell me straight up.” Rolling my eyes, I turned to Sub as he was oddly quiet.

“What’s wrong?” He didn’t answer for a while so snapping my fingers in his face he jumped a little before looking at me as if I was about to murder him. “I asked if you’re okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m just tired, why?” Glancing at Sik, he was staring at Sub with this look that just looked dirty; shivering, I asked Hyung to drive a little faster as that we just nasty.

I got dropped off at the company first seeing as how Sik still had a few days left of his vacation, which meant that he was more than likely going to help Sub with his coffee shop. Shaking my head, I greeted those that I passed by causing them to smile as they were happy to see me for some reason. I was just here the day before yesterday; they actually see me more than other people do nowadays. Shrugging it off, I entered the studio to see that I had enough time to set up. Turning on the computer, I began to flick and turn nobs as the sound engineer should be arriving soon to help me as I had to make this as summery as possible. It was just a good thing that they already had the lyrics and beats picked out, which meant that I had to do the bare minimum. The door opened causing me to stand from the couch as I made my way over to the chair thinking that it was the engineer, but to my surprise it wasn’t. Looking over, I came face-to-face with Lee Minhyuk as he was giving me this weird smirk making my eyes narrow.

“What are you doing here, Minhyuk-ssi?” Taking my seat, I spun around in the chair a little waiting on him to answer my question.

“Why else would I be here? To see you? No, I’m here to sing.” My mouth dropped a little as I had completely forgotten that we used to train together. “The CEO told me to come here. He even said that I would be helped by an old friend, which I thought was Hyunsik, but instead it’s you.”

“I’m as disappointed as you are, so don’t worry.” Rolling my eyes, I motioned for him to take a seat as the door had opened once more showing the person I was actually waiting on. “This is Suha, she’s a very talented sound engineer. I asked for her help seeing as how you want a summer bop instead of a ballad, so here we are.”

“Here we are indeed.” He greeted Suha with the upmost respect as if he was in front of a camera and I just wanted to gag. “I sent the music file that I got from another producer, so let’s get started; I have a schedule in the afternoon.”

Nodding, I began to search through the may emails I had before finding the one he sent as it was labeled with his name and a smiley face. Quietly sighing, I opened it listening to the beat for a second as it was a song more made for spring, but it did have a cooling effect.

“Can you read me off some of the lyrics?” He nodded before doing so causing me to hold my laughter as he hasn’t sung in a long time so his voice was a little horse. “How about you have a feature? Not to sound mean or anything, but this would be a great song for a feature.”

“W-Who do you have in mind?” Thinking on it for a few seconds, I knew the perfect person as this trainee was a good one.

Stepping out for a second, I grabbed one of the employees that are in charge of the trainees and asking for the one I wanted, they left saying that she would be up in a second. Thanking them, I went back into the room as I would introduce them when she got here. It didn’t take a second but it wasn’t all that long before a small knock on the door revealed the one I was looking for. She seemed a little shy as she greeted everyone causing me to stand as I thanked her for coming.

“Minhyuk this is Hye-Kyung who also goes by CHEEZE, and I think she’ll be perfect for this song.” He nodded as they shook hands which causing me to smile as this was going smoother than I thought. “Well, we can give her the chorus and you can take your verses, as usual; now seeing as how you’re busy, we’ll get your parts over with and keep Hye-Kyung after.”

Once everyone agreed, I sent Minhyuk in the booth as I told him to warm up his voice as we were crunched for time. He did his parts as it took up most of the time seeing as how he wasn’t listening even though I told him over and over again what he needed to fix. Scratching my head, I told him to come out as I sent Hye-Kyung in as I had more faith in her than I did in him. She ended up finishing her parts after two takes causing me to turn and look at him as he was pouting; he was so childish. Thanking her, I sent her on her way before checking the time as we would have to finish this another day that he was free, and he was pretty busy.

“We’ll finish this up next time, and hopefully then you’ll be prepared to actually try your best.” The words had flown out of my mouth with distaste and it made me realize that I indeed hung around Sik way too much.

“Oh, okay. I’ll call and let you know when I’m free.” He seemed dispirited but if he was going to start releasing music he was going to have to get used to it.

Following him out, I asked Suha to save our work and then she could go as well. Walking side-by-side, I had my hands in my pocket as I glanced at him every once in a while, before telling him to stop. He had a look of pure exasperation on his face which I would have laughed at but I think it’s time for us to both be serious.

“I know we’ve have a somewhat crazy past between us, but I want you to succeed no matter what I said all those years ago. You have to work hard to get good results and you know this first hand.” His face fell a little at my words which made me glad because he was getting my meaning. “How many times did it take before you passed the announcer test?”

“I passed it in two tries, even though I almost made it on the first try.” Rolling my eyes, I let out a small breath of air because he was so annoying. “Yes, I studied for at least two years trying to pass it but I did it. I get what you’re saying Eun and I’ll be prepared for our next session.”

I was kind of caught off guard by hearing him call me ‘Eun’ after all these years. We didn’t talk more as he left saying that he was going to be late. Standing in the middle of the lobby, I looked around to see that I should probably head home as I had nothing to work on until tomorrow. I should start looking into doing more shows while I’m at it.

“Eunkwang Sunbae?” Stopping, I looked over to see that it was Mark from 1Day, but where was BamBam? “I was just looking for you, and here you are. Isn’t that crazy?”

Nodding, I gave a weird laugh as this was awkward, especially with the way how he was looking at me.

“Ah, was there something that you needed? You said you were looking for me.” His face brightened up as if he had forgotten what he just said.

“Well it was more so Jackson, than you Sunbae but I know he left so I thought why not ask you instead.” I guess I’m the second choice now. “I was going to ask if you were working with anyone else? Because we’ve been working on our comeback song but we have no one to listen to it and see if it’s good.”

“Oh, well can I get back to you on that?” I didn’t want to give up my free time but by the look on his face I knew that I had no choice but to. “When do you need the review done by?”

“It needs to be done sometime this week, because we’ll start getting ready the week after next meaning that next week is going to be extremely busy for us.” Agreeing, I told him to tell their producer to send me the song and I would give them my feedback when I come in tomorrow.

I’m working with a few people tomorrow, but I should have enough time to visit them in between my sessions. He thanked me before running off as BamBam had suddenly appeared from somewhere with a look of distaste on his face. I’ve seen that look before but it has nothing to do with me as I’m content on my side of the fence. Hauling a cab, I got in greeting the driver who looked as if he would rather be anywhere else. My bad, but I didn’t apply for the job, so it has nothing to do with me. Telling him my address, he quickly pulled off not even giving me time to put on my seatbelt as he must have been getting off work and I stopped him.

“Oh, my daughter really loves this song. Have you heard it?” His expression changed suddenly causing me to sit up as I tried to look at the radio. “It’s by that rookie rapper King J. I never knew he could speak all these languages, it’s becoming rare to see as kids nowadays don’t really care about other languages.”

“Ah, yes, I do know this song. It is currently one of my favorites as well.” He turned up the radio so that we could both hear it.

Oh lord, oh lord, I truly feel blessed

Been trapped inside so long, but now I feel blessed

I’ll break rules like Rick Ross’ be saying

Spit fire like flame tools then burn them all

Money and fame don’t define me

Ain’t nobody give a – ‘bout a rule, that’s what I do

The system is the problem

It made a new me

Kingdom of freedom; now I’m run by me

Nodding my head along, I fixed my hat glad that he didn’t recognize me as we were getting closer to my place faster than Hyung ever had before. He must be driving way over the speed limit. Making it, I could only laugh because if this was a game then he would have the highest score. Paying him, I thanked him before getting out as I headed inside dogging those that seemed to want to take my photo; I don’t need any stupid scandals. A lot of these gossip pages just don’t know when enough is enough; they’ll make up anything just to get paid, and it’s really sad.

Entering my home, I flopped down on the couch turning on the TV as I could finally relax, well for now that is. My phone lit up as I saw that it was from a producer meaning that it was the 1Day song I’ve been waiting on. They sent it quicker than I thought they would. Reading over what was written with it, I saw that it said that they are trying to do something new as they wanted to work with a y concept. Keeping that in mind, I clicked on it listening as it did sound pretty y, it’s funny how they went from a laidback concept to a laidback y concept. The song was good and the vibe was also good, it was a worthy comeback song.

Pulling up a blank email, I texted him back the things that need to be fixed and gave an overall good review and as soon as I hit send my phone started to ring. Answering it, I waited as the number wasn’t one I had saved in my phone.

“I don’t have all day, so if you could speak.” They sighed letting me know that they were there and it just annoyed me. “Helloooo?”

“I heard you the first time.” Ah, if it isn’t Jinyoung. “I was just calling to see how you’ve been.”

“What? See how I’ve been? Hell must have frozen over for you to do such a thing.” He on his teeth before sighing as it must be more than that. “What do you want, Jinyoung-ah?”

“Don’t call me with affection like that, it makes my stomach churn. Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me with something?” My face turned up as I had no need to do him any favors, but I should also let go of the hate I have for him.

“What do you want?”

“C-Can you help me get in contact with Jaebum?” Choking on my spit, I couldn’t help but laugh as they were putting me in the middle of their stuff again. “Please, I haven’t been able to contact him for a few days now and I’m worried. I know he’ll pick up your call, so can you please do this one thing for me.”

“Didn’t you guys break up a while ago? Why are you so worried about him? He’s probably with his new thing.” He let go a disgruntled sigh causing me to twist up my mouth as he wasn’t being fair.

“I am his new thing and we got back together a few months ago. He was the one begging for me back and I took him back wanting to start anew, so can you please just get in contact with him?!” Scratching my head, I huffed out a breath of air because they just didn’t know when to quit.

“Fine, but you guys better leave me alone after this.” Hanging up, I texted that idiot as I got one back immediately.

Telling him to contact his wife, I ended the conversation with that as I didn’t care for the reply that he would give me. I told him what needed to be said and my part was now over and done with. People really just get on my nerves.

~~~~~

Papillon by Jackson Wang (x)