Do Kyungsoo again.

Something made Minseok let him stay. They sat awkwardly on the old couch, one staring blankly as he had begun to get into the habit of doing at the sheet music titled "Miracles in December," the other twiddling his thumbs and absentmindedly looking around the room.

Finally, Minseok broke the silence. "I think this is supposed to be sung by three people."

Kyungsoo cast him a curious look. "Huh?"

"There's three parts." Minseok tilted the paper so Kyungsoo could read it more easily. "See?"

After a brief moment's examination, the young singer nodded in agreement. "Yeah. What are you gonna do about that, though?" He was biting his lip, a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

"I know, you're hoping I'll ask you to sing a part. So I am." Minseok smiled crookedly when Kyungsoo failed to hold back a delighted smile. "And I'll be singing a part. But we still need one more person."

Kyungsoo's eyes, already owl-like, widened even more. "I have someone in mind. If I can convince him. Um, give me a second."

Before Minseok could respond, he jumped off the couch, pulling his phone out of his pocket, and hurried out of the practice room.

 

"So you used to sing?" Luhan raised his eyebrows, mildly surprised. "I had no idea."

"All the time," Baekhyun said. He shrugged. "It's been a while."

"Why don't you sing a bit for us?" Chanyeol prompted, nudging the shorter. He flashed him a toothy grin. "We won't laugh."

"You, not laugh?" Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "Impossible."

"For the last time, you three, get back to work!"

Luhan jumped. Joonmyeon glared at them from across the room, where he was helping a flustered seventh-grader with her math homework. "Sorry! We will!" Luhan called back with an apologetic smile.

Ring, ring, ring.

"Oh—ah, kkaebsong, lemme just answer this really quick," Baekhyun muttered, digging his phone out of his bag. He answered the call and brought the cell phone to his ear. "Hello?"

Luhan heard an indistinct voice say something.

Baekhyun frowned. Luhan tilted his head curiously. "Uh...  speaking..." the younger said slowly.

More words Luhan could not make out.

Baekhyun froze. "Sorry? I thought you said you were-"

The voice spoke again, sharply.

"No." Baekhyun dropped the phone, mouth open. Chanyeol immediately rose with a worried look on his face. "No. No, no, no, no, no."

"Baekhyun?" Luhan stood up too, just as Joonmyeon called.

"Baek, are you okay?" Chanyeol, who had practically dived to the shorter's side, knelt by him, his hands resting on Baekhyun's shaking ones. "Baek, answer me, please." His expression grew panicked. "Byun Baekhyun, answer me!" His hands tightened around the other's.

"It's him," Baekhyun breathed. His eyes were fixed on some distant horizon and his whole body was trembling. "It's him."

Luhan watched the exchange in shocked silence. Something about Baekhyun's reaction to whatever had just happened seemed familiar somehow, but before he could place his finger on it, Joonmyeon was by his side, asking him what was going on.

"I don't know," Luhan replied. "Someone called him and it's like he just shut down." He looked back to Baekhyun and Chanyeol. The latter's expression was panic-stricken, and the former was still unresponsive to Chanyeol's pleads for him to answer him.

"Alright." Joonmyeon stepped forward and put a hand on Chanyeol's shoulder. "Take him home. We'll talk about thistomorrow." Chanyeol gave him a grateful albeit stressed smile, then hauled Baekhyun to his feet.

"C'mon, Byun Baek," he said quietly. "Let's go."

"Here," Luhan said, stooping to retrieve the phone Baekhyun had dropped. He handed it to Chanyeol. The taller took it with a faintly shaking hand and, with a wave, helped Baekhyun through the exit and out of sight.

"What do you think that was about?" Joonmyeon asked, waving away a curious second grader.

Luhan didn't hear him. He realized what was so familiar about Baekhyun's reaction. Tao had looked exactly the same when Kris had appeared at his front door the day after the funeral. Tao had done the same thing.

He had done exactly the same thing. The denial. The shutting down. So what did it mean about Baekhyun?

 

Waiting for Kyungsoo to return, Minseok found himself lost in memory. Karaoke with Jongdae and his friends. Countless dinners after practice with Jongdae. Night after night cuddled on the couch with Jongdae. Ice cream dates with Jongdae. A funeral with Jongdae.

Going home without Jongdae. Dinners without Jongdae. Day after day without Jongdae. Lonely ice cream dates without Jongdae. Then, eventually, love without Jongdae.

Guilt stabbed a honeyed blade through Minseok's heart. Here he was telling Luhan to move on when he himself was hardly over Jongdae. When he was here remembering everything.

Karaoke nights with Jongdae and his friends Kyungsoo and someone else, a bright young man named Baekhyun.

(Now Minseok remembered plenty about Kyungsoo. Hopefully it'd make things less awkward between the two of them.)

They had been singing loudly and animatedly, and rather off-key.

"And IIII-"

"Jongdae, oh my god, stop," Minseok had laughed as Jongdae passionately belted out the lyrics.

"Will always love YOOOUUUU-"

"Baekhyun, please." Kyungsoo had given Baekhyun a light slap when the other joined in. "You two are gonna shatter the windows."

The two singers had paid their boyfriends no heed and continued singing as obnoxiously as possible. Jongdae eventually convinced Minseok to join in, though all of Baekhyun's tricks and aegyo could not get Kyungsoo to participate.

"Take me by the tongue and I'll know you," Jongdae and Minseok had chorused, grinning. "Kiss me 'til you're drunk and I'll show you—All the moves like Jagger, I've got the moves like Jagger-"

"I've got the moves like Jagger!!" Baekhyun had jumped in screeching. The four had all erupted into laughter, even Kyungsoo, who until that point had been watching with an expressionless face.

Then there was those ice cream dates. They'd be completely out of the blue—Jongdae would show up on Minseok's doorstep and say, "We're getting ice cream, let's go, let's go!"

One time in particular, Jongdae had skipped practice just to take Minseok out.

(Minseok had known because of how the singer pointedly pretended to not hear any inquiries of "Shouldn't you be at the studio?")

As they walked into the shop, they had been greeted by the young man behind the counter they were familiar with at that point, Kim Joonmyeon. Jongdae had waved excitedly, accidentally hitting a passing customer in the shoulder.

"Oh—sorry," the stranger and Jongdae had said at the same time. The stranger, a dark-brown haired, dazed-looking young man, had done a polite, apologetic half-bow before giving the bemused couple a brief smile that revealed a dimple in his right cheek and hurrying out.

"Uh-" Minseok had begun.

"That's Yixing," Joonmyeon had informed them quickly. "Comes by once a week, every week, always gets one scoop of butter pecan." When Minseok and Jongdae had flashed him a "why do you know all this?" look, he grew flustered and took refuge behind the glass case of ice cream tubs. "Okay, okay, what do you guys want?"

After buying their ice cream, the two had sat down at one of the tables to eat and talk.

"How's everything going with the singing?" Minseok had asked.

"Good," had been the short, uninformative answer.

"Good."

"Alright, not so good. Baekhyun wants to quit, and Kyungsoo's mad at him for wanting to. The deal with those dancer people didn't work out, the last few people who auditioned all weren't it, our manager broke his leg the other day, and everything's a mess!" Jongdae had finished breathlessly. He had almost pouted, his plastic spoon hanging from between his lips.

Minseok had smiled sympathetically and patted the younger's hand. "I get why you ditched today."

Jongdae had given him a wide-eyed, innocent look. "What do you mean, ditch practice?"

Minseok had rolled his eyes. "Very funny. Really though, you must be stressed." He had hesitated, trying to decide what to do next, then had reached over and brushed some of Jongdae's hair out of his eyes. "If it gets too much, I'm right here, okay?"

Jongdae had nodded, smiling gratefully. "Thanks."

But Minseok had never stopped to think what would happen if Jongdae was the one who stopped always being there.

"This is Jongin. Jongin, this is Minseok."

Minseok let his eyes wander across this Jongin's face. His skin was darker than Minseok's own. He was taller, with a figure modeled after a god, was what it seemed like. His hair, brown, was a styled mess. As for his jawline... Well, Minseok couldn't help but think that it was almost comparable to Jongdae's. Almost.

"Hi."

"Hi."

...

Kyungsoo cleared his throat. The other two stopped eyeing each other with a near suspicious air and turned their attention to the wide-eyed young man.

"Right." Kyungsoo adjusted his position so his knee wasn't resting on Minseok's leg, but ended up with his other knee in Jongin's lap.

Minseok really didn't get why they all had to sit on the couch, or why they had to be at the studio at all. It was Kyungsoo's idea, he told himself. So it's his fault.

Kyungsoo started talking again. "Okay. Jongin, I'm going to need your help as usual. And Minseok, you'll help too, but in a different way than Jongin." He pulled out his phone. "You remember Baekhyun, right?" he asked as his thumbs flew across his phone screen.

Minseok blinked. "Uh, yeah."

"Okay, good." Kyungsoo pushed his phone at the older. "Call this number with your phone."

Minseok looked down at the screen. Contact information for "Byun Fabulous" shone back at him. He gave Kyungsoo a questioning glance.

"He chose the name himself. I never had the heart to change it," was the flat reply. Jongin laid a hand on the singer's arm wordlessly.

"Wait, why am I calling Baekhyun?"

"To ask him to sing with us."

"Why don't you?" Minseok was getting more confused by the second. "You know him better."

Kyungsoo sighed. Jongin cast him a sideways look that was filled with conflicted emotions. "I tried, yesterday. But it didn't... work out. He dropped the call almost right away." Kyungsoo's wide eyes fell. "We just never talked after we broke up."

After Jongdae died, were the unspoken words, Minseok knew. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo had broken up soon after the death of the third person in their vocal trio, he remembered. And Minseok? He had cut off all contact with anyone who would remind him of Jongdae. Maybe that hadn't been the best idea, though.

"Alright. I'll call him."
 

A/N: can you believe it. i actually updated. amazing.

sooooo here you guys go! hope you enjoy...?

again, special thanks to chloe for thoroughly crying over reading each chapter so this story can be as... better... as... possible...

or something like that

(I AM AVOIDING A VERY SERIOUS TOPIC RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IF I TALK ABOUT IT I WILL JUST MELT AND DIE SO IM NOT GOING TO MENTION THE THING)

anyways, until next time

author out-