Ellie - Chad Sugg

these nights are lonely songs that never end...

where do we go from here?

Loud music was what woke Mingyu up the next morning. It didn’t take him long to realize it was coming from his neighbours’ apartment. Chan and Jihoon were living next to him and they loved dancing a bit too much in his opinion. Too much as in practicing pretty much all day long.

Last night they had been told not to use the practice room at the company that day, since their sunbaes of Nu'est were there all day preparing for their comeback. They only had a few days left and at that point the choreographers were so tensed up, that other music drove them so mad they would run around the company building screaming, especially if the choreography didn't turn out the way they pictured it. They had experienced that before and didn't want to risk being yelled at again.

But restricting Jihoon and Chan from dancing was like restricting someone from breathing. Their apartment was close to empty in the living area apart from a TV on one wall and a massive stereo underneath it. They had even covered one of the walls entirely in mirrors. The beat was booming through the building and Mingyu felt his heart start beating in sync with the music.

He turned around in his sheets, quietly counting to thirty. The music got louder for a second, then was turned off and instead he heard Seungcheol yelling at Jihoon and Chan, as well as he could in his deep morning voice, what had gone to their minds, that they were having their music on nearly full volume so early in the morning.

Mingyu took a glance at his alarm clock; it was midday already. Same could be heard from Jihoon in the other room a few moments later. Then Seungcheol told them to stop yelling because that didn't make his hangover any better, to which Jihoon replied that it was best to fight the headache with more loudness and the music again. Mingyu heard their apartment door being thrown shut, meaning Seungcheol had left to his room again. 

He had to smile to himself. This had happened multiple times already, but he knew it would never change.

A few minutes later someone knocked very loudly on Mingyu's door so that he would hear it over the music. Still sleepy he got up to open it and it was Hansol standing in front of it.
"How can you endure that?" He asked nodding towards Jihoon and Chan's apartment. “Come on, have breakfast with us.”

Us, that was him and Jisoo and today probably Wonwoo as well. He liked to go from one apartment to another now that he wasn't living with Mingyu anymore, though his bed had been moved to Seunggwan and Seokmin’s living room with a lot of difficulties.

“Hm, sounds good.” Mingyu answered and followed Hansol through the hallway around two corners and to the front door of his apartment. The music had only gotten slightly quieter. The walls were thin as paper here, which was the only minus about this place. Compared to the other dorm, where they were sleeping with at least 5 people in the same room, in bunk beds and all in the same  apartment, where you couldn’t even get five minutes for your own had been hard to bear with. But thanks to their success in the business, they had gotten to move here.

Hansol knocked on the door a few times before Jisoo, wearing  pyjama pants and an apron, opened. A wave of pancake smell washed over Mingyu. And he loved it. Jaehwa had always made them when there was something to celebrate. Or she was just feeling really happy.

“Aren’t you coming in?” Hansol asked, who had already sat down at the table inside.

Mingyu shook his head to get a hold of himself. “Sorry, I’m still a bit tired.” he said as he closed the door behind him. The apartment was nearly the same as Mingyu’s, just mirrored. It was about as light as his own, because of the massive building with the reflective windows, which was standing on this side.

“How many do you want, Mingyu-ah?” Jisoo asked from the kitchen corner. A plate with already around a dozen of pancakes was standing next to the stove on the counter.

“Three.” He replied and sat down next to Hansol, who was hungrily staring at the piled up food.

“Are you not going to ask about me, hyung?” Wonwoo’s sleepy voice asked from behind them. Mingyu turned around, to see his feet sick out behind the couch, he was lying on.

“I’ll ask about you, as soon as I see you awake.” Jisoo replied, getting some plates out of a cabinet.

“Urgh, stop being so noisy with those.” He groaned. Mingyu got up from his chair and now could see Wonwoo, still wearing the clothes from last night, his head hidden underneath his pillow, the blanket nearly falling off of him. After a short moment of consideration, Mingyu quickly pulled away his hyung’s pillow. He jumped up in less than a second, reaching out for the thief and caught him at the hem of his shirt, pulling him on his temporary bed and starting to tickle him. Mingyu was usually the one who liked to annoy his friend and push him around, but if Wonwoo got mad, he could become violent too. Or a tickle-monster.

“Yah! Why did you do that?! Do you not even care the slightest about your hyung’s condition? Because it’s horrible!” Wonwoo yelled, as Mingyu laughingly tried to free himself from his grip.

“Maybe if you tried drinking less, your condition on the next morning would be better.” Jisoo called from the kitchen. “How many, Wonwoo?”

“Five. I’m hungry.” He replied, finally letting go of Mingyu, who quickly went back to the table to avoid another attack. Wonwoo followed him and sat down on the opposite side. His hair was standing in all directions from his head and he had deep bags under his eyes.

Jisoo left the kitchen part of the apartment, carrying all four plates at the same time. “There you go. Eat well.” He said, as he sat down across from Hansol, who looked incredibly happy now.

The pancakes were great, but not as great as the ones Jaehwa had always made, Mingyu thought. And there she was again.

“Why are you frowning? You get to eat delicious pancakes, thank you Jisoo, and even got tickled. How can you still be upset?” Wonwoo asked in the short time between finishing one pancake and starting another.

“Hm..nothing.” Mingyu replied.

“Nothing meaning, she still hasn’t called you?” Jisoo asked.

“What, you already got a new girl?” Wonwoo nearly choked on his food.

“No, idiot. Jaehwa.” Jisoo said, hitting the younger’ head lightly.

“Oh, I saw her last night.” Wonwoo mentioned casually.

“You what?” Mingyu asked, his eyes getting big. “Did she ask about me?”

“Yeah, yeah she did. She asked how the concert went and whether you were there. But because you weren’t in the mood for going out with us, I had to tell her no. She then asked whether you missed her.” Wonwoo jabbered, as if it was just an every-day situation.

“So?”

“Well, I told her that you told me, you’re sure about her coming back soon and you seemed like you don’t care much to me.” Wonwoo continued in the same chattering tone.

“And Jaehwa?” Mingyu inquired, already knowing it couldn’t have ended well.

“After we talked for a little more she walked off being very pissed. Sorry, I’ve already had a bottle of soju with Seokmin at that point.” Wonwoo said and went back to eating.

Mingyu took a deep breath. This was not good. Not good at all. He knew Wonwoo always liked to exaggerate when he was drunk and it had probably come across as if he didn’t give a single about her anymore and knew she’d be crawling back sooner or later.

“Are you okay?” Hansol asked after a while of silence. He hadn’t known a single thing about the whole situation, but he was smart, so he had probably figured it out by then.

Mingyu nodded.

“I’m sure she won’t be so mad at you. How could she?” Hansol reassured, but Mingyu knew, she probably wouldn’t want to exchange a single word with him anymore for sure. He nodded again, putting on a little smile. He didn’t want them to worry.

Mingyu stayed with them for a little longer, not touching his food anymore. His hunger had faded, just like his hope. After helping Hansol with cleaning the dishes, he left towards his apartment again with Wonwoo, who left a couple doors before him to take a shower and change at Seunggwan and Seokmin’s and in some ways also his place.

Jihoon and Chan had turned down the music a lot then, so all Mingyu still heard in his apartment were the faint beats of a hip-hop song. He sat down with his laptop on the couch and while he waited for it to update, he thought about what must have happened as he had been here.

Jaehwa might have waited in front of the club, knowing him and his friends would go there. Under the streetlights she would have waited, the ground shaking from the loud music inside. She would have seen most of his band arrive, chatting and being hyped, and would have looked for him in their group. But she hadn’t seen him. Mingyu could practically see her thin tall figure, letting her shoulders hang and losing her perfectly straight posture she had gotten from the years of doing ballet. Jaehwa might have waited a little longer, while his friends were in the club, drinking and dancing and having fun. She might have seen Hansol, Seunggwan and Chan arriving and wondering why he didn’t come with them. Then she had probably entered the club, desperately looking for him in there, but not being able to find him. That was probably when she spotted Wonwoo and started talking to him. In Mingyu’s mind he could see his girlfriend’s expression changing from hopeful to sad to mad and deceived in some way and then leaving quickly, trying to keep her cool, but tears forming in her eyes. She had always started crying so easily, but she wouldn’t have shown it in front of all these people.

A short melody from his laptop pulled Mingyu out of his thoughts, telling him he could log in now. As it started to load, he searched for his phone again, listening to Jaewha’s music.

He scrolled through his twitter feed, when he found a tweet from Jaehwa: How can one be so wrong about a person? Such ignorant people in this world…

Mingyu knew she was talking about him. So he had been right about her being absolutely mad at him. For a while he just sat there, reading her words over and over again, while listening to the light acoustic songs she had liked a lot. It was mostly unknown artists which were her favourites. A song called “Ellie” by Chad Sugg started playing and it was really beautiful. He had heard it a lot before, but never really tried to consciously pay attention to it. It was wonderful and since he knew Jaehwa really liked it, he decided, he wanted to share it with others as well.

Listening to Chad Sugg’s ‘Ellie’ right now. Beautiful song, you should check it out. He typed into the small white box on the left and then clicked the button underneath. Just seconds later the mentions pretty much exploded with “Oppa, oppa! You’re online! Tweet me!”, so he decided to leave the internet alone again and just listen to all those songs Jaehwa had listened to. A journey through all sorts of genres and languages started and at some point Mingyu lost himself in the melodic flow of words about love.

AN: Woo! I managed to complete another chapter! Actually, a friend of mine reads all of them, before I post them anywhere and I sent this to her roughly a week ago, but she still hasn't found the time to read it, so without even the slightest feedback, you get to read it! Yay! And I also have holidays in 2 weeks, so then I will have mroe time to write and update more frequently (Don't believe everything I say. It is highly possible, that I will still only get over my laziness one day per week.) Anyway, I hope you liked this and thanks for reading ^-^