Jongin lifted his head lazily from the movie he was watching on his phone under the front desk and looked up. A couple of giggling girls were looking at him expectantly. He lifted one lazy eyebrow in question and waited for them to speak.

“We want to rent for an hour.” –they spoke almost simultaneously, and giggled once again.

He nodded curtly and stood up to show them to the only empty room. They were walking behind him speaking and laughing in hushed voices. Jongin knew they were talking about him, he was giving them the perfect view of his behind, and that usually tends to happen when people witness it. They probably came here just because of him. But Jongin didn’t care, it’s not like he makes more money for it. It’s all the same to him, just as long as they restrain from attempting to touch him, and they keep their voices hushed so that he at least can’t hear all the things they are saying about him.

Just one more hour..

Soon his shift will be ending and he will finally be able to go home. He couldn’t handle it anymore, obnoxious people singing at the top of their lungs breaking sound barriers and his ear drums. It wasn’t like he was that great  of a singer himself but at least he didn’t go to Karaoke rooms and kill people’s hope for a better future with his incessant singing. He sticks to what he knows, dancing. And in an hour he can finally leave this retched place and go to his own personal little heaven.

He showed the girls in, his expression blank as they walked pass him looking straight at him. He closed the door behind them and let out a sigh. He walked slowly back to his place behind the counter and sat down. He could hear the noise of numerous people defiling the songs they were singing.

It’s going to be a long hour…

 

A small figure was walking down the street. He was wearing a hoodie even though it was two o’clock in the afternoon on a pretty hot day. His face barely visible he weaved through the people who were all hurrying who knows where. He pulled his hood closer to himself and felt a little safer when he had done it. He slipped through a glass door that leads to a basement.

 At the bottom of the steps there was a counter behind which roamed wild a set of jet black hair. He approached it quietly and waited for the worker to lift his head. Which he did, but only after a loud bang was heard as a door slammed open at the end of the hall and two gigging girls stepped out. The worker rolled his eyes, but his expression didn’t change from a bored one. He had the most amazing set of eyes Kyungsoo has ever seen. He felt like he disappeared a little inside of them even though the worker wasn’t looking at him, and seemed to not even notice he was there. Kyungsoo invited his mind to come back to him from its little excursion into the worker’s eyes, and just as he felt himself regain some of his bodily functions, he was shoved out of the way by the loud girls.

“Oppa, how much do we owe you?” –said one with an annoyingly cutesy voice.

“25 000 won..” – said the worker.

His voice was flat, and he sounded bored, and maybe a little annoyed, but the sound of his voice still seemed to do something strange with his body. His blood moved faster, and concentrated on making to his face and his chest. He thanked god quietly that he had his hood on, and that, apparently, the boy behind the counter still hadn’t noticed his presence.

The girls swooned at the sound of his voice, and reached for their wallets to pay, one of them added:

“Oppa, maybe next time you can sing with us?”

“I don’t sing.” –he stated matter-of-factly and took their money, giving them the receipt in return.

“Thank you for coming.”

They were disappointed for a second, but their smiles came back just as fast.

“You’re welcome oppa, we will see you again soon.”

As they went, they waved back at him, even though he wasn’t looking at them.
He had already started to resume his position at the counter, when another person ran down the stairs and almost crashed into Kyungsoo.

“Excuse me. I’m very sorry.” –said the person to Kyungsoo, before rushing around him and going behind the counter.

“Kai I’m so sorry I’m late, Chanyeol was being difficult and…”

“It’s ok Baekhyun”-said the guy with the mesmerizing eyes and the husky voice to the small one that had just ran in apologizing. “I get it. I’m glad that you two are getting along.”

The other muttered something that sounded like “that’s not what I meant”, but his face still flushed red at the other’s statement. This Kai still didn’t notice his presence, while the other, smaller boy, seemed to have forgotten about him as soon as he apologized for running into him. Kyungsoo thought that for once, his hood was actually working, it made him invisible.

“Just don’t be late tomorrow, because my training starts earlier.”

His face still looked bored, but there was a difference in his tone of voice when he was speaking to the girls and when he was speaking to this boy. He liked this voice even better. And it made him wonder what else his voice can sound like.

“I won’t.” –said the smaller boy named Baekhyun and smiled.

Kyungsoo wondered how he never saw this Kai here before. He always went to this Noraebang, and he had seen this Baekhyun here before, although he hadn’t known his name. This Kai however… He was sure he never saw him before, and yet it sounded like he worked here for some time now. You never lift your head up, maybe you just didn’t see him. His mind spoke back to him, and Kyungsoo though that he would have at least heard his voice, but then he remembered that he rarely speaks, so this boy also wouldn’t have any reason to speak back.

The soothing voice broke him out of his contemplations as it said:

“Ok Baek, I’m going now.” –he stepped around the counter, and almost crashed into Kyungsoo’s small body as well. Then he added to Baekhyun: “And you seem to have your first customer.”

His voice sounded different when he said that, so Kyungsoo looked up curiously. The taller’s eyes were searching his small form. He wanted to cover his face completely with his hood, but he just couldn’t move. Kai’s eyes were open just a little wider than they were when he was looking at the giggling girls, just enough so that his face didn’t look bored anymore. And he kept looking at Kyungsoo. At every single minute part of his face, and posture. Kyungsoo didn’t really know what to do, before a clearing of a throat was heard, and he jumped a little. He turned to the sound, breaking the trance Kai’s eyes had trapped him in and saw that it was produced by the other worker, Baekhyun.

“Hello, would you like to rent a room??”

“Wh-what?” –Kyungsoo’s eyes went wide, and his cheeks heated once again, this time he was pretty sure that they were so red, that the hole in his hood emitted a red light as bright as that of a traffic light.

“A room… Karaoke… Isn’t that what you’re here for?” –said Baekhyun kind of confused. Now that he looked closely, Baekhyun thought he had seen this kid here before, but he never actually so his face because he was always wearing a hood, and never looked up enough so that his face would be visible. The wide eyed boy was pretty cute if truth be told, but Baekhyun wondered if he was kind of slow.

Kyungsoo let out a sigh of relief, realizing what the worker had been talking about. He cursed himself for immediately thinking what he thought and looked up at the tall boy to see if he noticed where his mind had went to.

Kai was still looking at him the same way as before, as if he hasn’t even heard the exchange between the two shorter boys.

“Y-yes… Karaoke room… Yes.”-answered Kyungsoo, but his eyes were still fixed on Kai’s face. Kyungsoo thought that it was maybe impolite to gawk like this at the boy. He was so handsome that people probably did this to him all the time, but since the tall boy was looking at him as well, he reasoned that maybe he wouldn’t notice how smitten he was with him, and that it would only look like he was just staring back at him.

As Kyungsoo’s lips moved to answer Baekhyun’s question, Kai’s eyes, raced from their examining the small boy’s eyes to memorizing every curve and indentation in the lips of the boy. Kai had never seen such perfect lips before in his life. His eyes wondered back the other’s large eyes again and he thought that the only thing that could be considered as perfect as this boy’s lips, and maybe even more so, were his eyes.

Kai swallowed loudly, as he felt his heart speed up. He couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Alright, let me show you to your room.” –said Baekhyun’s perky voice, and Kai cursed him on the inside.

No, he can’t go. I haven’t introduced myself yet. I don’t know his name. I don’t know where to find him. He can’t go!

“O-okay…”- said Kyungsoo and blinked. He moved slowly to go around Kai, as Kai’s brain screamed for him to do something, to find out something that could help him find him later. But he couldn’t move. The only thing he did, was turn his head enough so that his eyes can follow his small form into the room at the very end of the hall. The same room those two girls were using not 10 minutes before. Kai thought how it ought to be scrubbed with bleach before someone as pure as this boy entered after those two, but all too soon he saw Baekhyun closing the door after the boy, and walking back to him.

“Are you ok?”-he heard his co-worker and friend ask him, but he couldn’t think that well, so he just nodded his head, and turned to leave.

“I’m gonna go.”

Their noraebang was full, and only after his mind cleared a little of the images of the beautiful, small boy, did the sounds of people singing, or maybe he should say screaming, come back to him. His eyes narrowed again, and his brows clenched closer at the awful sounds. For a moment he wondered how he hadn’t heard them while he was looking at the boy, but then he pushed the thought out of his head.

He’s not anything special. ­He told himself. Forget about it, you’re late, you have to go. This boy is nothing more than average.

He nodded once at the lies he repeated in his head, trying to persuade his limbs to move further away from the boy, and nodded once more in approval when his legs listened to his deceiving brain.

“Bye Baek.” –he waved at his friend who waved back and put his left leg on the first step of the stairs to go out of the noraebang.

That’s when he heard it. Amongst the teeth clenching, bone chilling and hair pulling sounds that could be heard from the karaoke rooms, a single voice made his teeth unclench, his bones, and flesh and skin for that matter, go warm, and his hair raise by itself. He felt goose bumps spread through his body and his eyes close in bliss. His ears strained to hear it better, and his feet moved involuntarily away from the steps and closer to the voice.

A harsh screech broke the sweet melody that had caressed his ears, and he broke from his trance. The couple that was in the room closest to him had been singing IU’s Good Day. He cringed at the horrible sound, and felt his bones chill once again as he could no longer single out that one voice but all the rest came crashing down on his sensitive ear drums.

Baekhyun was looking at him questioningly, but he just shook his head and waved at him one more time, before running out of that damned place.

When he stepped out in the sun, and fresh November air, his head cleared a little, and he welcomed the peaceful sounds of Seoul on a Sunday afternoon. He closed his eyes for a few moments enjoying the few rays of sunlight that had pushed their way through the thick blanket of clouds that had enveloped Seoul for some weeks now. A chilly wind hit his chest through his open jacket, and he shivered a little.

Opening his eyes, Kai wondered what had happened to him in there. That boy, his eyes, his lips, and his quiet voice. Why had they affected him so much? And whose voice had he heard, singing his favorite OST? Could it be him?

A car honked at him to cross the street, and he jumped a little, hurrying to cross and bowing to the driver.

No, there’s no way that was his voice, that guy is too small to produce that kind of a sound. His face scrunched in contemplation as he hurried to his bus station.  But if there was something in this world that could compare to the beauty of that boy’s lips and eyes, then it was that voice.