Chapter 8
My boyfriend has a bandSoonyoung and I were sprawled on the floor in his bedroom, surrounded by my guitar and loose sheets of lyrics. We had finished our daily routine at his flower shop, with me watering the plants and him arranging flowers. Turns out that his mother usually runs the shop and Soonyoung so happened to be filling in for her that day we met. His mother was a bubbly woman with an eyesmile just like her son's. She offered to do the rest of the work needed at the shop so we both decided to go to his house to finish the project.
His bedroom was tidier than mine. His cds lined neatly on the racks, arranged according to year and singer; Clothes in his wardrobe colour-coded; Towels pressed and folded on the toilet racks; I would've thought that this was his mother's doing but once we entered and I saw him bend down to straighten the rug, I knew it was all his work.
We could have completed our music project sooner but everytime we met up we'd end up doing other things like fooling around, going on drama marathons or falling asleep. But our project was almost done anyway. We just needed to record him singing accompanied by my guitar playing and we were all set to go. I had brought my laptop to do just this. It was kind of difficult because Soonyoung kept making over-exaggerated expressions when he sang causing me to stumble with my chord progression.
After a few takes we were done and good to go.
"You actually put in effort for this project," I said as I edited the music.
He choked on his doritos, "Excuse me. I do my best in all my schoolwork," And that was true. I'd seen his English test result which he scored A- in and his Math test, which he didn't even prepare for, which he had gotten a B in. He was just like Mingyu.
"Paying you was a mistake then," I opened my mouth, pointing towards it.
Soonyoung fed me a dorito before continuing, "Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way. I got myself a pretty shirt," I rolled my eyes.
We sat there in silence and I concentrated on editing the music, with only the sound of doritos crunching in our mouths.
"And…. that's a wrap!!" I yelled as I clicked "Save" on my laptop. Soonyoung reached his hand up to give me a five.
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The new Ninth Line and I walked down the steps into Jihoon's basement. Hung on a wall was a handmade poster saying: WELCOME SOONYOONG TO NINTH LINE! I figured it was Jihoon's doing because of the familiar sloppy lettering.
"It's SoonyoUng, not Soonyoong, dip," Mingyu whacked Jihoon's head lightly.
"My bad," Jihoon bowed his head slightly to Soonyoung as a form of an apology.
The band introduced Soonyoung around to the facility and gave him a spot on the mattress. That spot used to belong to Jisoo.
"Dude, do you play guitar?" Mingming asked Soonyoung who was staring intently at my study desk.
Upon hearing his name, Soonyoung looked up and shook his head.
"Aw man, Jihoon you're gonna need to play the song by yourself. Is that alright?" Mingyu scratched his head. I would have volunteered to play the main guitarist's part but I had stage fright so no. Jihoon gave him a thumbs up and they all sighed in relief.
The band got up to the small platform and got ready with their instruments. Soonyoung had the lyric sheet held in his hands, trying to memorise the lyrics as soon as possible. I smiled. They had a gig next Saturday and I could see that at least Soonyoung was putting in effort for the band. This boy didn't disappoint. The members practised their parts on the instruments while I went to finish up the lyrics to the new song I had written. It was a song inspired by Jisoo.
I wrote the last words and handed it to Mingyu. He briefly went through the script and looked up at me before saying, "Jisoo?" I nodded.
"This is really good but we're not performing it on Saturday," He said, his tone apologetic.
"Why not?" I whined, jumping up and down.
"Because," Mingyu stood up and ruffled my hair, wrinkling his nose, "I've got something else. Something special."
I pouted and Mingyu squished my cheeks. I reached up to do the same to his, tiptoeing to reach his height.
Soonyoung looked at us and coughed a little too dramatically, "Go back to practice,"
~
We were now sitting on the mattress, celebrating a productive day. Jihoon had plugged in the xbox ready to battle with Jisoo but found that his friend wasn't here anymore. He frowned.
"I'll play," Mingyu grabbed the other controller, taking his place on the spot where Jisoo used to sit to play against Jihoon. Jihoon beamed, pressing "play".
Mingming sat beside me, this time engrossed in "Korean Language Handbook 2"
"Woah, not bad. You went up a level," I said, patting Mingming's back. He flashed his eyesmile.
Soonyoung stood up to take a bag of chips from his bag and then sat back down on the other side of me. He fluffed a pillow before placing it on my lap and then proceeding to lie down on it, his leg bumping into Mingyu's back as he did so. I took locks of his hair and started to braid them.
Mingyu glanced at us and said, "Yah, Yah. Get off her- I mean my pillow. That's my pillow," He stuttered, looking from us to the tv and then back, trying to concentrate on both.
I laughed as Soonyoung opened the bag of chips. He stretched his hand out, offering some to me. I opened my mouth and he fed me some, just like how we always ate chips.
"You two stop it," Mingyu took a look at us. I raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, stop it as in don't eat on my pillow," He stuttered again.
Hearing this, Soonyoung and I got up and went to sit on the small couch, resuming the same position. Soonyoung told me really bad pick up lines and I laughed.
Mingyu eyed us for a bit too long because his avatar got shot by Jihoon's.
"Hell yeah! You just got beaten by the Big J!" Jihoon got up to his feet and started his victory dance.
"Aish!" Mingyu threw a fit, kicking the pillows in front of him, throwing his controller down. He approached Soonyoung and me, pushing Soonyoung to sit up. He then proceeded to take a seat between both of us, snatching the bag of chips from Soonyoung, stuffing them into his mouth. Soonyoung stared at me and I stared back, shrugging.
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A/N: Sorry for such a short chapter! But do stick around, I promise the story's gonna be awesome!! :-)
-T
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