Her Lilting Tune

The following sequels are;

(2) 'Making Up' the Nice Guy - Kang Minhyuk focused

(3) Flawed Expectations (discontinued)

(4) Growing Backwards - Lee Jungshin focused

P r o l o g u e
 

The taste of salt on his lips. The howling wind. The grains of sand between his toes. The early morning vapour. The acoustic strumming. The crashing of waves. The seagulls guffawing. The sun's rays behind the clouds. Her long wavy hair. Her gentle hazel eyes. The tiny mole on the back of her wrist. Honeysuckle.  Her loose flowing dress. Her lilting tune...

Lee Jonghyun opened his eyes, cringing at the ceiling light. Yawning, he leaned onto the side of his bed and squinted over the mattress. He was certain that he had heard a thump. When he saw his old acoustic guitar lying on the ground, his heart skipped a beat. Hastily, Jonghyun swung his legs over the side of the bed and immediately picked up the instrument.

He strummed a C chord and listened to it fill the emptiness of the room. Jonghyun then commenced playing a series of chords. It sounded right. After delicately examining every inch of his guitar, Jonghyun felt more at ease. His most prized possession was not damaged.

For as long as he could remember, Jonghyun had a bad habit of playing the guitar before falling asleep. He had tried to stop doing it various times, but he couldn’t. He did fear that one day he would break it in his sleep and wake up to it being in wooden shambles.

Glancing at his cheap rectangular plastic clock on his bedside table, he noted the glowing white digits that read '03:00'. Damn, he needed to sleep. The band were going to fly out to Japan that afternoon and he desperately needed some rest.

His health wasn’t the best at the moment. Due to the work’s hectic schedule, out of all his bandmates, he Jonghyun had lost the most weight. Jonghyun wasn’t sure if he’d ever adjust to the new lifestyle. CNBLUE becoming on the most popular bands in Korea was exhausting.

Jonghyun tossed and turned. When he had settled to lying on his back, he groaned when he met the lights on the ceiling glaring down on him.  Rolling off of his bed, Jonghyun dragged his feet towards the switch and as he was about to turn the lights off, he caught onto a beat clamouring from the room across his.

He's still awake?

The beat was contagious, almost hypnotisingly addictive. Intrigued, Jonghyun found himself being drawn into the room.

Yonghwa was sitting by the desk, fiddling with Garageband. The leader was staring unblinkingly at the monitor, completely and intently focused. Jonghyun knew that whenever Yonghwa was this focused, he was trapped in his own world, oblivious to everything surrounding him. He could relate to Yonghwa because that was exactly how Jonghyun was like whenever he'd get into his guitar trance mode.

Jonghyun crept closer, sneaking behind Yonghwa. Besides Yonghwa's desktop, Jonghyun could see a notepad of scribbles and half a mug of coffee. The coffee looked cold because no steam was rising from it, and there a few stamps of old dried coffee stain marks on the notepad cramped with scribbles.

"My aching love, it’s bitter as if I've swallowed poison?" Jonghyun leaned forward and began to read the lyrics from the notepad out loud. He spoke,"Wow, that's really intense, hyung."

Wide-eyed, Yonghwa gazed  incredulously at Jonghyun as if he had seen a ghost. He ran his fingers through his disheveled dark brown hair, letting out a sigh. "You've got to stop doing that! I almost had a heart attack."

"Doing what?" Jonghyun grinned, feigning ignorance.

"You know what! Popping out of nowhere. It's your specialty."

Jonghyun shrugged. He was often described as the quiet awkward one in their band, because he had the uncanny ability to appear out of thin air. Jonghyun prided it as one of his skills. Only he could get away with floating around, eavesdropping on secret conversations to even eating the last slice of bread in their dorm. He liked to do things at his own pace. At first the three other boys had been frustrated by how he lived, but they eventually grew accustomed to him. However, Yonghwa could never get used to Jonghyun sneaking up on him.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Yonghwa asked.

"I did. I dreamt of Busan."

"Tell me about it. I'm homesick too. The last time I went back home was with Seohyun..."

Jonghyun watched Yonghwa glance at his rusty silver wedding band on his finger. Although Yonghwa had completed filming We Got Married almost a year ago, the band had known that their leader had lingering feelings for the youngest girl in SNSD. Seohyun and Yonghwa had even tried dating while WGM finished airing, but due to multiple schedule clashes between both their groups, it had been deemed impossible.

"Those lyrics," Jonghyun observed. "You're writing about sister-in-law, aren't you?"

Yonghwa looked at Jonghyun as if he had verbally punched him in the face. Yonghwa lowered his head and admitted with an exasperated voice, "Of course. I miss her."

"Perhaps when both our group activities die down, you can be with her again. Just have patience," Jonghyun suggested, picking his words wisely. "I'm sure that she loves you still, hyung. You're her first love."

"It's not that easy. I wish I could forget about her and toss all the memories we made away...but I can't."

Jonghyun was taken back with how Yonghwa was openly displaying his feelings. Yonghwa was the strong force in CNBLUE. He was the one that pushed them forward, strictly, sternly and even comedically. Seeing him through his cracks unwavered Jonghyn, then again Yonghwa never had to hide anything from Jonghyun. They understood each other.

"How did you do it?" Yonghwa said, lifting his head up and stared directly at him. "How did you let go of Sora?"

Jonghyun's throat dried up. He avoided Yonghwa's gaze, glancing at everywhere in the room but him. Jonghyun hated being pushed into a corner. He was the type that liked teasing other people, but when the attention was on him, he loathed it - especially when Sora was the main topic. Even hearing her name being said out loud after such a long time made him shiver.

"I don't think I ever have," Jonghyun replied, truthfully. "But your case is different from mine."

"Why?" Yonghwa dared. His voice had a slightly bitter edge to it. Jonghyun couldn't blame him for it. "You loved her, Jonghyun."

"I never left Sora, hyung." Jonghyun gave a weak smile. "She left me."

Before Yonghwa could protest, Jonghyun silently walked back to his room. The past was the past and Jonghyun knew that he could no longer do anything about it.

He had to move on.

•••••••••••••••

Last edited: 23.02.16

(a/n) Thanks for reading so far! Hope you've liked it. ;)

I'm not really sure how this works because I'm relatively new to this site/fandom. If you spot any errors, let me know. I'm pretty amazed by how you can use colours and edit everything here. It's great!

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