“You know that song always make me want to run around head-banging until I pass out,” Jihoon commented, as the Planet X members finished a complete run through of Good Charlotte’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”.

“Feel free to do so as you wish, right now,” Leeyoung replied, shooting Jihoon a smirk.

Jihoon slammed his two drumsticks onto his snare drum, causing a loud, double beat bang. “You did not just say that to me!” he exclaimed, pointing a drumstick at Leeyoung.

“Yes I did,” the girl said, sticking her tongue out at Jihoon, “Whatcha gonna do about it, drummer boy?”

Lay watched from his spot at the head of the band members, his back turned to his microphone.

“I’m gonna… I’m gonna…” Jihoon stuttered, flailing his arms around wildly in frustration. “Damn it! What can I do to a girl that won’t get me arrested!” he complained.

“Shut up Jihoon,” Joongyu butted in, “You’re not actually going to do anything to our lead guitar player. No way in hell we are trying to have auditons, AGAIN.”

“Good point there,” Jinyoung agreed from his keyboards.

All the band members let out unified laughs. Lay watched Leeyoung beam from her stool, the stool that used to belong to Myungsoo in Planet X’s previous practice meetings, acting as if she’d been a part of the band for a very long time. It had been a week since the band had started rehearsing with her. She had officially been welcomed as a new member. Finally, Planet X could play the songs they’d been assigned for the American Rock Festival, and they could play them well, too.

“Lay Lay!!” called a deep, booming voice, from somewhere outside the practice room.

“Your dad’s calling you, Lay,” Joongyu said unnecessarily.

“Yes Baba?” Lay called back. His dad was leaving on a late afternoon flight to Japan. Lay was most likely not going to see him home, for who knew how long.

“I brought you guys a snack!”

All of the band members immediately leapt up and stormed out of the practice room, to greet Mr. Zhang and the stacks of pizza boxes in his arms warmly.

“Mr. Zhang, you know we love you, right?” Jihoon said, raising the pitch of his voice in a grotesque attempt to show affection.

“I love you too Jihoon-ah,” Mr. Zhang replied, placing the pizza boxes on a coffee table in the main room of the basement. While the band members swarmed all over the warm food, Mr. Zhang pulled Lay to his side.

“I left you food in the fridge. Beansprout Baozi and Deep-fried Mantou. Aren’t I just great?” said Mr. Zhang, placing a hand on Lay’s shoulder.

“I’m going back to Ramen for dinner,” Lay retorted, crossing his arms. He watched Leeyoung bickering with Jihoon again, and chuckled to himself.

“Have you confessed to her yet?” Mr. Zhang nudged.

“Baba, what are you talking about? I told you, we’re all friends here,” Lay snapped back.

“Son, don’t wait too long. A girl like that is going to get swept up right in front of your eyes, quicker than a heartbeat. And make sure you eat all the food I made. Don’t let any go rotten!” Mr. Zhang embraced his son goodbye. He then waved at the band members cheerfully. “Tzai Tzian kids! Be good now!” Before he left up the stairs, he shot Leeyoung a quick wink, which Leeyoung received brightly.

“Do I ever tell you how much I love your dad, Lay?” Leeyoung said dreamily, with a mouthful of pizza.

“All the time,” Lay replied.

Obnoxiously loud drum beats, buzzing electric guitar melodies, and blaring bass rhythms ripped through the crowded streets where the American Rock Festival was set up for the weekend. The Planet X members stood waiting, next up in the list of performances.

“Dude, where is Leeyoung?!?!?! We’re up next!!!” Jihoon cried, grasping his hair in his hands maniacally.

“Sorry I’m late!!” Right on cue, Leeyoung scrambled up to the band members, smiling goofily, breathing hard, hair messy and wind-blown from running. “There were so many people at the soup kitchen today! I told all of them to come here when they finished eating to hear us play!” She exclaimed excitedly.

“So… our audience is going to be a bunch of homeless people??” Jinyoung asked, looking rather uncomfortable.

“No, silly! Well, not completely… at least I hope so,” Leeyoung muttered.

“Oh shut up and get ready to go on stage!” Joongyu nagged, slinging his base over his head.

Lay adjusted the strap of his guitar and ran a hand through his hair, laughing at his band mates. He looked over at Leeyoung, bending down to fish her guitar out of her case. The bright pink, gem-studded guitar, almost as bright and energetic as her personality. With a sigh, he went over to her to fix the uneven strands of her loose waves.

“Hahaha, How do I look?” Leeyoung asked, as she stood still to let Lay’s handiwork touch up her hair.

“Very pink,” Lay replied, raising an eyebrow at her bright pink silk shirt and pink feather earrings.

“Is that a good thing?”

Lay bit his lip in thought. “It depends,” he said, smoothing down the last pieces to make Leeyoung’s hair nice and girlish. “So… I finished that song. Lyrics and everything.”

“Did you really?! That’s awesome!!” Leeyoung cried, jumping up and down.

“I want you to hear it,” Lay mumbled, his voice low.

Leeyoung smiled brightly, placing a hand on Lay’s shoulder. “I’d love to hear it, so much!”

“Okay… Wanna come over tomorrow?” Lay asked.

“Planet X! Set up on stage please!!” Some stage guy shouted obnoxiously, making Lay cringe as he stood there, watching Leeyoung.

“Tomorrow… works! I’m not signed up to volunteer tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear it,” Leeyoung squirmed with excitement as she fell in line behind Joongyu up to the stage.

“Fighting you guys!” Jinyoung said to the band. Lay exchanged nods and smiles with all of his band mates before facing the standing microphone and adjusting it to his height. As soon as he received the cue from below the stage, he introduced the band to the crowd, whom, thankfully, weren’t all homeless people. He announced Planet X’s first song, “Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous”, and then in a flurry of beats and nods, he was singing, letting his voice take control, his guitar dancing with the complex chords from Leeyoung’s first guitar part, the awe of playing music on stage as exhilarating as always.

Lay kept his face expressionless as he bowed to the cheers and applause of the crowd, whom, apparently, were a mixture of regular citizens, fangirls of Planet X from Lay’s high school, and a few homeless people.

He made his way down from the stage, his guitar loose around his neck, and finally, once his feet touched concrete, his face softened. He looked up, and his eyes started looking for Leeyoung.

“Leeyoung that was awesome!” A small group of girls had come up and gathered around her, while she stood over her guitar case, storing away her pink guitar.

“You looked so pretty on stage! And so did your guitar!!” Some girl commented.

Leeyoung smiled at the girls, chatting with them about her stage, answering their questions. Lay guessed the girls were Leeyoung’s friends from school. He recognized a few of the girls’ faces vaguely, but since he hadn’t even known that Leeyoung went to his school before he met her, he couldn’t assume anything about the other girls, just because he didn’t recognize them. She seemed happy though, to be around her friends, being praised as she deserved, being the incredibly talented guitarist she was.

It occurred to Lay that he and his friends had never thanked Leeyoung properly for filling in Myungsoo’s missing part. It had seemed that, because she had volunteered herself in such a confident manner, she didn’t need to be acknowledged in any way, because she had put herself there. But she probably did the exact same thing with all that volunteer work she did with the soup kitchen, Lay thought. People probably mistook her confidence and volunteerism for granted. Lay decided, he wouldn’t.

“Yo Lay, let’s go get some foooood!!!” Jihoon groaned, slinging his arm around Lay’s shoulders.

The other Planet X members had all stored their instruments away and were ready to go off to explore the festival. “What about Leey…” Lay began, but he was cut off at the sight of a familiar figure walking towards them, hands stuffed in his jean pockets.

“Uhh… Hey Myungsoo,” Jinyoung greeted meekly.

Myungsoo came up and glanced at the ground with the slightest hint of a modest smirk. “That was a pretty awesome stage up there, guys,” he said.

“Thanks,” Joongyu replied. “We got someone to replace you.”

“I see,” Myungsoo remarked. “And she’s really good. Doesn’t she go to our school? I think I’ve seen her before.”

“Yeah,” Jihoon nodded.

A moment of silence passed between them. Myungsoo kept glancing back and forth between the band guys and the ground. “Jiae thought you guys were great too,” he muttered. “She got a lot of the fangirls to come today. She says some of them are starting to girl-crush on your new guitarist.”

Jihoon and Jinyoung grunted and smiled, but mostly stayed out of the conversation, wanting to leave things to Myungsoo and Joongyu. Finally, after a slightly longer silence, Joongyu spoke up. “Myungsoo, let’s talk in private for a bit. You and me.”

Lay watched as Myungsoo and Joongyu walked off, shoulders hunched. Jinyoung let out a deep sigh. Lay and Jihoon understood what the sigh meant perfectly: all they wanted, was for their old group of friends to be okay again.

“Hey guys, I’m gonna go hang out with my girl friends for a bit, so don’t worry about me! Go have fun at the festival, I’ll see you guys later!” Called Leeyoung, shattering the heavy mood between the boys.

When Lay turned in her direction, Leeyoung was already walking off with her group of friends, waving to the three band members cheerfully.

“Well, we were gonna have fun without you anyway!” Jihoon yelled back. Leeyoung just smiled and disappeared into the streets.

Lay stared at the spot where Leeyoung had vanished with her friends. He had wanted to thank her and congratulate her. It looked like he was going to have to wait.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jihoon asked, twirling one of his drumsticks in his hand.

“I guess we can just go get food? Myungsoo and Joongyu will wander over to us eventually, especially if we have food in our hands,” said Jinyoung.

Lay found himself following his two friends to whatever food stall they wanted to eat from. His mind was far from thinking about eating, though. He kept looking back to see if Leeyoung would be around anywhere. For some reason, he kept having to reassure himself, he was going to see her tomorrow. He was going to see her tomorrow.

[A/N:]

Leeyoung rocking out on the drums ^^ I know it's not a guitar like in the story, but I hope you guys still like it~