Sungmin blinked, attempting to adjust her eyes to the colorful flashing lights. CNBlue weren't onstage yet; some other band was opening up, and people were just milling around the dance floor, waiting for the show to really start. 

Instead of grabbing a beer like her crazy friends, Sungmin was nursing a lemonade that was most definitely brought spiked. She brought her anti-date straws just to be sure. 

Just as she was about to go looking for Jonghyun, a tall boy with small eyes popped up in front of her. "Hey, are you Sungmin?" When she nodded, he looked relieved. "I'm Minhyuk, drummer of CNBlue. Jonghyun-hyung was going to look for you but he's having some sound system issues right now so he asked me to come get you." Sungmin nodded again. "Anyways, hyung says you're gonna hang out with us backstage for a bit! Want me to show you around?"

"Erm, sure-"

"Come right this way then, madame," he grinned. She decided she liked his eye-smile. "There's my drumset for the night, blue of course, there's Jungshin's bass, there's Jungshin-" Sungmin waved, "and there's Jonghyun-hyung's favorite guitar. He only brings it out when he's going to do something 'special'," Minhyuk rolled his eyes. 

"That's right," Jonghyun came up from behind. Minhyuk grinned and waved them off before disappearing backstage. "I do have a special plan for tonight."

"Really? Who's the unfortunate girl?" Sungmin looked around. 

"Rude. I'll have you know, our female fans pray for a seranade every time we play but it only happens every once in a while," he frowned. "It's someone you know."

Sungmin stared. "It better not be me."

He merely laughed. "Come on, you should meet Yonghwa-hyung and Jungshin."

"So this is Sungmin?" Jungshin towered over her as soon as she entered the backstage room. "We've heard a lot about you."

"Too much," Minhyuk snorted from where he was lounging on the couch.

A handsome boy sat in a salon chair, tapping away on his phone, before glancing up. "Huh. You're right, she is cute."

Sungmin turned back to Jonghyun, who was sheepishly rubbing his neck. "Why does he sound surprised?"

"Jonghyun-hyung is always talking about girls, but you're the first one we've seen who hasn't been caking it on, if you know what i mean," Jungshin said.

Sungmin frowned. "Girls can eat as much cake as they want to-"

"No, he means like, makeup. Every girl he's pointed out so far looks like she has to take off their makeup with a paint scraper after a night of partying."

"Oh. Well, still, makeup is a girl's choice." She pointed out. 

"Well, . She has a brain and personality too!" Minhyuk stage-whispered. 

"Anyways, what we're trying to say is, guys like the natural look best." Yonghwa droned. 

"You know who looks natural?" Jungshin stared at Minhyuk, "Oh, I don't know, Seo Joohyun?" They chortled at each other and raced behind the couch as Yonghwa stood up with murderous intent in his eyes. 

Jonghyun grinned wickedly. "She's not even 'natural' right now. She normally doesn't even wear makeup."

"No way!" the two younger boys raced across the room and peered down at Sungmin. "Damn, you must be really pretty if this isn't your 'natural face'."

Sungmin shrank back. "Um, no, I'm okay-looking I guess, and while I'm here in the last five minutes we have, can we please talk about something else?"

Yonghwa blinked. "Like what?"

She suddenly had the most fantastic idea. "You guys are all musical geniuses! How about you look over mine and Jonhyun's song arrangement as it is so far and let us know what you think?"

Jonghyun groaned. "You always find a way to make everything about school, don't you. Wait, you don't even have the piece with you!"

"Of course I do." She stared at him seriously. "You can put anything on your phone these days."

He sighed.

"Are you wearing... leather pants?!" Donghae stared. "Is this even real? Am I awake?"

"Shut up," Kyuhyun sulked. "Your stupid boyfriend made me wear them. They were a total to put on."

"Aww, Hyukkie, you made our Kyuhyunnie do something adventerous," Donghae cooed. Hyukjae brightened, as any praise from Donghae pleased him, no matter how ridiculous. 

"Where's Sungmin?" Kyuhyun frowned. He hadn't seen her often recently, as she was often working with Jonghyun, practicing ballet, or just being busy. 

"Ooh, you wanna show off your outfit? Well, surprise surprise, she has a new look to show you too!" Donghae cheered. Seeing Kyuhyun's stormy expression, she sighed. "She's hanging with CNBlue backstage, last I checked."

That damn Lee Jonghyun, Kyuhyun growled. Mentally, of course. He stomped to the back of the venue, flashing a pass at the security (issued by said Lee Jonghyun to all close friends) before opening the door.

He wasn't sure what he expected- maybe to see Sungmin standing aside awkwardly while Jonghyun threw around bad pick-up lines as his bandmates watched unimpressed- but he wasn't expecting Sungmin pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of four good-looking, talented boys as they listened to some guitar arrangement. Leaning in closest to her was of course the damned Lee Jonghyun.

"It's pretty good," Yonghwa leaned back thoughtfully. "I think you could change the key here a little bit, to match your respective voices better."

"Good idea. Though, I already know Sungmin here is gonna be a fantastic singer." Kyuhyun's mouth twitched. No, he wasn't annoyed. Just twitchy. 

"Have you ever heard her sing?" Jungshin raised an eyebrow. "Just asking."

"He's right." Sungmin agreed solemnly. "I totally ."

"No, you don't, you sing like an angel, and you'll be amazing so just go with it please," Jonghyun seemed exasperated.

Sungmin blushed slightly.

Kyuhyun was also exasperated. Please stop flirting with her, because you know, as a mutual friend, it makes me uncomfortable, not because I like her or anything, just.

"Oh, hey Kyu." Hey Kyu? Don't you 'hey Kyu' me, I've been standing here God knows how long- and then she turned around.

Holy .

"What is that on your face?"

Sungmin's eyes widened for a second. "Other than my usual skin and tiny hairs, just some eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss. Why?"

"What's the difference between lip gloss and lipstick?" Minhyuk whispered. Yonghwa shrugged.

"You look.. different." Kyuhyun shook himself out of it. "Anyways, I think the show is starting soon," he stared at Jonghyun for emphasis, "So we'd better get a move on."

"Oh right, you only have a few minutes left," Sungmin got up, "Thanks so much, Yonghwa-sshi, Minhyuk-sshi, Jungshin-sshi, it's good to have professional musicians' opinions." She shook their hands as they chuckled. 

"No need for the honorifics, Sungmin, we're practically family. Or we will be.. I feel like we'll be seeing you more often," Yonghwa cheekily glanced at Jonghyun, who ignored him. Instead of shaking her hand, he pulled her into his chest, fully aware of his friend standing there, seething. "Meet me after the concert, Sungmin-ah, we can talk more about.. the arrangement." 

Sungmin nodded quickly and pulled away, almost bumping into Kyuhyun. "Bye guys, good luck with your show!"

"Yes," Kyuhyun gritted his teeth, looking especially hard at his 'friend', "break a leg."

As they were leaving, Kyuhyun immediately asked, "What arrangement? Do you guys have some kind of secret deal?"

"Holy , are you wearing leather pants?" Sungmin poked his leg. "That's definitely leather. Definitely not very Kyuhyun."

"Are you listening to me?!"

"Yes." She huffed. "He was talking about the literal arrangement, for our music composition class." She looked off thoughtfully. "At least, I think he was."

Kyuhyun fumed. "He better have been, or-"

"Relax, Kyu! I say this everytime. I know how to handle myself. See?" She showed him her cup.

"Is that... an anti-date straw?"

"Yup. And it's not lighting up like a Christmas tree on crack so I'm fine, by the way. Always prepared," she tapped her head. Kyuhyun flicked her.

"Alright, I got it, Miss Capable. Ready for the show?"

"Always ready for some good music." She smiled excitedly. 

Just as they looked to the stage, the curtain opened and the lights brightened. "Hey guys, we're CNBlue! Thanks for coming out to see us tonight! Today is the perfect escape from homework, family issues, stress at work, you name it! Just sit back and enjoy the music!" Yonghwa grinned, looking a thousand times more excited, alive than he did backstage. 

Among the cheers, Kyuhyun heard Sungmin of course, who was next to him, as well as a banshee-like Donghae and her equally insane boyfriend Hyukjae. He could also pick out Zhou Mi, towering over all of the other girls there, Henry, an avid music-lover, Taeyeon's crew, including even Seohyun, whose eyes shined at the lead singer. She looked beautiful.

But when he looked down at his side, he saw someone who made him forget Seohyun, as she sang along to some slow rock song and swayed to the beat, with pure joy in her eyes. Under the dim lights he also caught a glance of her outfit for the first time that night- that dress was way too short, Heechul was a strange mother, but hey, leather jacket, it's like a couple look!- and his throat suddenly felt like the Sahara.

It was too early to say, but maybe he liked-

"Lee Sungmin, I dedicate this song to you. My workaholic, overly-stressed but seriously cute music composition partner, maybe you'll change your mind about seeing me as some knucklehead, eh?" he chuckled into the mic as tons of girls swooned, wishing they were Lee Sungmin.

Lee Jonghyun was going to get more than a knuckle to his head when Kyuhyun got to him-

"Relax." Sungmin was gripping his forearm. "He's just playing around. You know him." In a spur of the moment not-even-a-decisoin, she leaned on his shoulder.

As Jonghyun's admittedly sweet voice carried equally sweet words through the air, Sungmin hoped she wasn't imagining it when Kyuhyun leaned back against her side too.

Meanwhile, Donghae cackled as she snapped photos. "Look!" she sighed enviously. "While one hot guy sings her a serenade, she cozies up with another hot guy. How does Lee Sungmin do it."

Hyukjae glared at her. "You have me! I'm better than both of them combined."

Donghae shushed him. "Just enjoy the blackmail. We'll have some use for this some day."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

wheeee yes i can't believe this happened either, it's been what, 3 years since i started this fic? i'm super lame i know.

um...

i'm not sure, last year i couldn't make anything work but tonight i sat down and cracked my knuckles and BAM this happened so i hope you guys enjoy?? if you're still alive??

doing this for the fellow kyumin lovers out there. and lee jonghyun lovers. i portray him as a bad boy but he's actually so sweet and dorky I CRY. lee jonghyun <3 for life.

not promising consistent updates (as you all are probably aware) but i think i'm getting a wind of where i want the plot to go now.

after 3 years.

i know i i know i know I KNOW 

well... still.

hope my loyal readers and joyers enjoy <3