The following days consisted of Changkyun avoiding Jooheon. As much as Changkyun wanted to have Jooheon over on the nights he couldn't sleep, his morals got in the way of dialing his friend’s number.

Changkyun’s first date went rather well even though it hardly went as planned. 

First of all, he went with a different person than he was supposed to. As he had predicted, Wonho felt stood up when Changkyun didn’t show to the date, so he left and practically blocked Changkyun on all possible platforms, leaving no room for apologies or excuses. 

However, when leaving the cafe, Changkyun ran into an old friend of his from a summer music program the two both participated in a few years back. 

A few cups of coffee and hours of talking later, Changkyun and Kihyun caught up with each other. The younger listened to exciting stories from abroad and all over Korea about the other’s thriving success as a ballad singer. He wasn’t being promoted as an idol (to “preserve the raw ‘realness’ of his art”), so he was known to only a limited audience. 

Changkyun always loved to hear the older sing and write songs during that summer and was genuinely ecstatic for the young singer. They looked up videos on Changkyun’s phone and the younger was in awe. Not only had the other improved vocally, there was an upgraded passion and depth to the songs and recordings. 

Thoroughly enjoying his time with the black haired boy, Changkyun asked the older if he wanted to go elsewhere and hang out some more. The older cheerfully nodded his head and suggested, “Do you want to see my recording studio? It’s just down the street from here. I’m actually on break right now. You can watch me work and then we can do something afterward.”

The younger smiled in affirmation. “That’d be great,” he gleefully said as the other took hold of his hand to lead him to his workplace. 

The building was small and a bit run-down on the outside, but the interior was sleek and modern. Walls were lined with plaques and records of previous solo artists, some of whom Changkyun had listened to on occasion but wasn’t familiar with. 

His eyes followed the display until landing on an empty space labelled “Yoo Kihyun.” 

Kihyun noticed and smiled bashfully, “That’s for when I take the next win. Since our record is small, they rank the artists here by how many album sales each makes. My first album is about to be released, and I already have quite a following, so the company heads are expecting ‘great things’ from my sales. They already assume I will be this month’s top ranked artist here.”