Fire your guns

Jinki scrambled out of his bed exactly thirteen minutes before the expiry of the time limit he had set up himself. He pulled out his favourite boxers with a pineapple print on them, a pair of old jeans, two random socks and a wrinkled purple T-shirt out of the drawer, and rushed to the bathroom. When he got out with his to-the-ear long hair still slightly wet he realised that he had four minutes left. Jinki grabbed an old doughnut from the kitchen (Hmm, not so bad, actually) and after stepping into his running shoes without bothering to pull them on fully, he grabbed his jacket, the keys and left his flat.



~~~

Kim Jonghyun didn't like it when people were late. He would usually come earlier to all appointed meetings, just in case. Jonghyun also knew that most of the people he hung out with didn't really follow this rule and he was more than prepared for Jinki coming over later than after the promised hour and a half. As much as it was annoying and usually blew up all plans he'd made, he was willing to understand it on days like this. After all they did get pretty wasted the day before. That's why when a panting, a little sweaty Jinki showed up on his doorstep being about ten minutes late, Jonghyun couldn't find it in himself to be angry.

"Bloody winter. The sunshine is blinding, first I slipped on the snow, next I got all disgusting with sweat. Why does it have to be so hot in this jacket?" He mumbled, kicking off his shoes. "Move, I think I need another shower."

Jonghyun cleared his throat. "La-ater," he said, and Jinki frowned. Jonghyun's voice sounded even more terrible than on the phone. "Now come on, the Min's are alread-" here came a loud coughing fit, breaking the course of the sentence, "already here," Jonghyun finished, a tad bit out of breath.

Jinki entered the large living room, where, sitting on soft cushions in front of the TV set there were, true to Jonghyun's words, Choi Minho and Lee Taemin, the two remaining members of their spoilt lovechild - a rock band named "Roaring Razors".

 

~~~

Jinki and Jonghyun have been friends since the first year of junior high school. They first met at a pathetically dull school choir rehearsal. They quickly realised that they were not the best place to be at if you wanted to learn how to sing. They started to hang out together and somewhere in between Jonghyun's first crush on a one year older girl and Jinki's parents announcing him that he was getting a little sister at the age of fourteen, they came up with their common plan for the future.

Both of them quit the stupid school choir two months into the first semester, already knowing that one day they would establish their own band with real singing, with electric guitars and drums and the loud bass. (Jonghyun was also deeply convinced that female fans would go crazy about them and throw all their undergarments onto the stage)

Both of them started learning guitar and taking private singing lessons the very next day. It turned out it was much cheaper if you went in pairs.

When Jonghyun's younger neighbourhood playmate, Minho, heard of his hyung's dream, he admitted that he was taking guitar lessons, too. Shuffling his feet awkwardly, he confessed that he didn't really feel he was good at it, so maybe he would start learning to play the bass guitar instead so that he would be able join their band when it's formed. Jonghyun didn't have the heart to tell Minho that playing the bass wasn't easier than playing any other guitar, but it turned out that it suited Minho just fine.

Jinki's little cousin, Taemin, was an outcast at school. He was bullied on a daily basis. One day, when Taemin came home from school with a bleeding lip, bruised cheek and a sprained wrist, his parents decided it was high time to prevent their beloved son from being a whipping boy any longer. They had a serious talk and after an hour of heated discussion it was settled that Taemin would become the New Generation Drums Prodigy aka Korean Ringo Starr, thus winning his peers' respect and admiration.

During his freshman year in high school he was spotted in school corridor fiddling with his chopsticks by a third year student who introduced himself as Minho and asked Taemin if he hadn't been thinking about joining a rock band. Taemin can remember himself nodding uncontrollably like one of those bobbing head dogs before being given a stunning smile full of straight white teeth of a boy that would soon become his best friend.

Kibum didn't particularly like people. They were a loud mass of obnoxious, stupid wimps who only pretended to be awesome. He, on the other hand, didn't have to pretend. He was awesome, period. He was intelligent, sharp-tongued and fabulous. Highlight fabulous. What amused him to no end was that in spite of being a (he was aware of it) and his self-centred attitude for life, he was admired and actually liked by a  l o t  of people.

Kibum dreamt about being a star. A celebrity, someone that wouldn't go unnoticed to the eyes of the public. He wasn't afraid of life filled with paparazzi trying to muck-rake delicious bits of his private life from God knows where or fans stalking him wherever he went. He wanted to be known.

So when he spotted a notice scribbled on a pink piece of paper (he liked pink!) saying "Rock band seeks a vocalist" he tore it off the board and called the number written on the bottom of the page. The next day he named himself Almighty Key the Leader, and Roaring Razors were officially brought to life, with Jinki and Jonghyun as guitarists and backup singers, Minho as their mysterious bassist and Taemin as the small, lively drummer.

 

~~~

They started playing together as a five-member group in 2009. They did great, gaining popularity with the audience around their age, catching attention thanks to both decent renditions of all-times rock hits as well as their own, refreshing and captivating songs.

Jinki often said that while to his mind, their career was about to reach the peak, to Key's it apparently became insufficient. Suddenly, somewhere in late 2011 their front man, visual and the main vocalist of Roaring Razors decided that his destiny led in quite a different direction. Key left the group to pursue his dreams in London and become a world-famous fashion designer. No one held it against him, but Jinki remembered that pang of disappointment he felt when Kibum stated that he was no longer interested in making music. Jinki talked to Key on Skype quite often. Last time he did, Kibum was in Rio, complaining endlessly: at the 2000% air moisture, Brazilian models' curves that made it impossible for the dresses to fit well unless they were made of spandex, and terribly fattening food. He looked and sounded absolutely happy.

Key's decision left them hanging for a while, namely, half a year. Partly because they somehow lost their spirit, and partly because none of the remaining four knew what to do next. It was Key who had loads of friends who had friends who had friends, who let them perform at their clubs. It was Key who somehow squeezed them in as a supporting band for both smaller and bigger music events. It was Key who always sang most of the lines, not because he had the best voice of all of them, but because he was charismatic, full of energy and he influenced the audience in this magical way that made them stop caring about pitch-perfect singing and let them just have fun and sing along with them.

But it also was Key who shook them out of their stupor. He managed to do it via a phone call from Milan, throwing a few unpleasant, but surprisingly motivating streams of curses. And because he was getting ready for his very first show at Italy's Fashion Week at the same moment, the four people listening to him in Korea had the opportunity to hear Kim Kibum ordering his assistant around in a hilarious mix of basic Italian and intermediate English with some Spanish words weaved in between. The poor guy, José, was apparently Peruvian and the language barrier between him and Kibum was more of an obstacle than either of the two thought.

Kibum's reprimand went along the lines of "Remember what you've been dreaming about since you were ting your diapers, you ers", which made them realise two things. One - although he was not showing it often, Kibum really cared about the Roaring Razors. Two - they needed to wake up and get back to work, like, NOW.

That night, Roaring Razors were reborn as what they were now - a group of four young man of different personalities and various talents, with the common one being making music.

Jonghyun became the new lead singer. That went without discussions - he had the most vibrant voice out of them, one with the biggest scale. He was also most likely to interact well with the audience. While Jinki and Taemin were extremely nice and polite guys, they were also, paradoxically, horribly shy when it came to encouraging the people in front of them to get more into their performance. And Minho... Well, Minho was like the instrument he played. Necessary, but always in the back. Extremely stoic and composed, without an urge to shine and be in the centre of attention.

Jinki had always been the backup singer. At first he and Jonghyun complemented Kibum's singing together or took turns doing so. From the moment Kibum left, Jinki was left alone with the task of the backing, but he was perfectly fine about remaining in the background. And now the circumstances were forcing him to make a difficult decision…

 

~~~

”Hyung, there is no other option!" Shouted Taemin, standing up from his spot on a green-and-red striped cushion in Jonghyun's living room.

"I'm afraid Taemin's right," said Minho, stoically as always, reaching up for the youngest’s arm to rub it gently and calm him down.

Jinki turned to Jonghyun, searching for the last hope in his eyes. Jonghyun shook his head.
"Jinki, I won't get better in two days, I've-cough-called the doctor and I'm going to-cough-get some medicine for that , but the contest is on Tue-cough,cough-Tuesday. Tou have to do the main vocal. You know the lyrics. You have a really beautiful voice," Jonghyun rasped. ”We have been trying to get a place in this contest for yea-ehe-!" Jonghyun's words were cut off by yet another coughing fit.

"For years,” Taemin finished helpfully, "and you know well that if we don't take part this year, there's no other chance. Be confident! What is there to lose? You are leaving for Japan in three months and-”

"No need to remind me about that, Taem," mumbled Jinki.

Jinki had been assigned a job in the Japanese affiliate of the company he worked at. During five years of their activities as a band, in between rehearsals and gigs Jinki went to university, got a diploma and became a promising, young expert in stock exchange analysis, who additionally spoke Japanese on the advanced level. Consequently, he got the job at his first ever job interview and as much as he appreciated the fact that the possibility to work at the stock exchange in Tokyo opened him the door to every other job in the future, he wasn't happy to leave Korea, where his friends, his little sister and his parents lived.

"Please, do it for us. For Roaring Razors," Jonghyun whispered. "That's what we wanted to experience together."

Jinki looked into Taemin's begging eyes, felt the encouraging pat on the shoulder from Jonghyun and noticed Minho's expectant expression before letting out a loud sigh and giving them a small nod of consent.

Taemin howled with excitement, throwing his clenched fist up in the air in a triumphant gesture. Minho high-fived Jonghyun, who exhaled audibly with relief.

"Jinki-hyung, you are just amazing,” Taemin said. Next moment, he scurried off to the hallway and shrugged on his yellow puffer jacket. "I must go now, though. I still need to study for this horrible English test we have tomorrow. I dont get iiit!" The youngest whined from the other room, "Why do we have to learn English? I had enough of it at school. And it's Environmental Engineering, what does it have to do with English?"

Jinki grinned, "It's for when you'll have to build a dam on a river somewhere in Alaska, so that you'll be able to communicate with the moose."

Minho took his time to facepalm at the joke theatrically, and when Taemin peeked into the living room again, the bassist looked up at the maknae with an obvious pain in his eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to change places, Taem? At least English is a language that someone in this world actually speaks.”

It was turn for Jonghyun to chuckle soundlessly. He cleared his throat again with a pained grimace and said, "Come on, Minho, why so blue? Latin is awesome, Mister Lawyer. I heard that many, many words-cough-come from Latin."

"Yeah, in European languages, Mister Chef," said Minho, "I don't know any Korean words that come from Latin."

“But Latin can help you with your English!”

Minho huffed. “I speak English just fine, Jinki-hyung.”

Taemin peeked into the living room for the last time. "Okay guys, before you start arguing over linguistics issues, see you tomorrow! Thanks again, Jinki-hyung! Bye!"

The door clicked shut behind Taemin. Minho got up from his cushion and brushed off dust from his black jeans. Jonghyun hated vacuuming. "Yep, Taem’s right. Let’s not dwell on it. And maybe I'll go, too. I think I should call Jinri, she's been acting weirdly lately. I might have to take her out in the evening to... appease her a little."

"Listen to himself, Minho,” croaked Jonghyun, "it's obvious you're not happy in this relationship, in fact neither of you two is, if you ask me. You spend more time interning or whatever it's called now for a barrister and hanging out with us than actually going out with her."

Jinki nodded. "Jjong's right, she doesn't even text you so often anymore. If that's not the signal to break up, I don't know what is."

Minho eyed Jinki skeptically. "Hyung, I'm becoming more and more concerned about you. Do you really think the amount of text messages exchanged between people dating is what you base your judgement of their relationship on?"

 "Maybe I do, maybe I don't," sing-songed Jinki, "Either way, think about it. You might even make both of you a favour by bringing this to an end."

"No thanks," Minho answered before excusing himself to the bathroom, muttering something about single people trying to give dating advice. Minutes later he waved them goodbye and left in his long tweed coat and a checked scarf, wishing the two hyungs a pleasant afternoon.

As soon as Jinki and Jonghyun were the only ones left, Jonghyun brought his and Jinki's favourite Dorritos from the kitchen (they had had to be kept away from Taemin and Taemin's gluttony), and slumped down on the coach, now already occupied by his friend.

"She'll dump him today. Jinri.” Screeched Jonghyun.

"Nah, she knows about the contest," replied Jinki, wincing. To his ears, Jonghyun's hoarse voice sounded similar to a strangled parrot. ”She probably thinks he's a lousy boyfriend, but she doesn't wish him to get depressed and fail at the performance."

Jonghyun shook his head. "I still think it's gonna be today. Even I'd be frustrated over Minho if I was in her shoes."

"Wanna bet?”

"Sure thing I do."



~~~



"I'm still not convinced about this," muttered the new lead vocalist of the Roaring Razors, eyeing his reflection from head to toe. The four of them were getting ready to give the performance of their live in a tiny, stuffy room in the backstage of a music club named charmingly "Cuckoo Clock". The room was equipped in a simple school desk and a huge mirror (it took up 2/3 of one wall), in front of which Jinki was standing with a hesitant expression.

”Are you kidding? You look awesome, hyung! And the eyeliner makes you look really hot!" Taemin gave Jinki a huge grin and an enthusiastic hug from the side.

"Taemin," muttered Jinki, shoving the youngest away unceremoniously, "I know that you become super clingy when you get nervous, but really. Personal space."

"Personal space? Hard to get some in this chicken coop," Minho, who was tuning his guitar meticulously, threw a quick look around the small room.

"Still, don't plaster yourself onto me, Taem. I think I have enough things that are too close to my body with all these tight-fitting clothes," complained Jinki, tugging at the hem of his black t-shirt with an image of three skulls set on fire printed on it. ”And the jeans! They're... uncomfortable!”

The door of the room closed after Jonghyun, who squeezed himself in mere seconds before Jinki finished talking.

"Uncomfortable?" He laughed, which elicited a small cough from him before he could continue. ”Sure they are uncomfortable! But you're our visual for the night, Jinki! Screw uncomfortable, they are showing the best of you," he finished with a sharp slap to Jinki's bum.

Minho nodded. "Kibum always wore skinny jeans onstage, remember?”

"And he didn't have such nice and supple honey thighs to show off!", said Taemin, warming up his wrists, his chopsticks already lying on the desk next to him.

"Does it also mean that I have to have my nails polished black just like him? Please, somebody kill me,” whined Jinki, staring at his blunt, shiny-black nails, "but before you do it, remind me why have I agreed to do this!"

"Because you love us and I happen to currently sound like I'm fourteen again," Jonghyun replied kindly.

"You'll win them all, hyung, believe me," said Taemin, "all the accessories make you look like a real rocker, and the belt buckle! I can already imagine the girls in the first row fanning their faces from all the dirty images in their heads... What?" He asked, seeing the questioning looks on his hyung's faces. "It's the Superman logo! Didn’t you know that the shape of the belt buckle says a lot about what a girl can anticipate after it's opened...? What? You really didn’t?"

"I choose not to ask where or when you came up with this theory," said Jinki in a flat tone. "Okay, let's warm up a little," he suggested, changing the topic. Minho and Jonghyun were both holding their instruments ready and Taemin stood up behind his drum kit (there was no chair in the room). The "Bride", for starters?

 

~~~

"Fire Your Guns" was a contest for amateur bands (up to 7 members), encouraging young people to engage in music and compose their own songs. It was held annually in the beginning of December. In 2013, it was taking place at the Cuckoo Clock club and was going to be the 7th one. The rules stipulated that the winner is chosen both by the jury, who assess all artistic aspects of a performance, and the audience, who just follow their hearts and vote for the most exciting and memorable contestant.

The Roaring Razors applied for the contest in 2010, but they were told that it was not their time yet. The jury strongly advised them not to give up practice, because there were loads of potential hidden in their band, just waiting to be discovered and developed.

One year later they had to face Kibum's decision about leaving for the UK and participation in the contest fled their minds completely. In 2012 they were accepted into the finals, but then crushed mercilessly by "Grenades", their competitors from Busan, who caused a disturbance using countless curses in their lyrics and thrashing around the stage like a kennel of hounds possessed by Satan. They also won hearts of the audience by stripping one of their members off his shirt and while the jury were debating over the excessive using of swear words, the girls... well, the girls were busy throwing their undergarments onto the stage. Jonghyun, who saw it happen from backstage, got drunk that night and swore he was never going to get a girlfriend. Becoming an owner of a plentiful bras-and- collection had once been, after all, his dream.



~~~

 

“And here they are… Roaring Razors!”

The audience welcomed them enthusiastically. By the time Jinki made it to the microphone stand in front of the stage, he’d managed to notice a few familiar faces smiling at him. He tried his best to return the grin, but something seemed to freeze his face muscles. Oh my God, he thought, I’m gonna make a fool out of myself.

In no time Jinki heard Taemin give them the energetic pulse for the first song, titled “Runaway Bride”. It had been composed and written by Jonghyun; Jinki suddenly started to wonder if the previous year’s failure had anything to do with the lyrics. The lyrics. The introduction started and… Right, I have to start singing in, like, five, four, three, Holy , two, , one… Jinki swallowed, took a deep breath and let his mind go blank for a second, before concentrating solely on the song.

“You kept telling me

It meant more than live

You kept promising

Our love will survive

But now look at me,

I’m standing here like a fool

And everyone’s wondering,

Everyone’s wondering…

 

… where the heck is the bride?”

 

Jinki realised that despite all his worries, the singing was as easy as it had always been. And judging by how more and more people seemed to get into the song as it went, he thought that maybe, maybe he was actually doing a good job. The words in Korean were familiar, gliding past his lips easily.There's nothing to be afraid of, he thought when the song reached the chorus. Jinki turned around at that point, only to be met with three faces grinning at him widely. He felt their support, their relief at how he was doing. We are going to nail it, he thought and let out a high-pitched “Whoa!”, after reaching the end of the chorus. And finally, finally feeling confident enough, Jinki grinned back at his bandmates and jumped as Taemin hit the ride cymbal to point out the beginning of the second verse, turned back and faced the crowd again, and sung it just as he had imagined it should be sung, wholeheartedly, emotionally, but with ease. As Jonghyun stepped forward during the bridge to perform his solo, Jinki joined Minho on the left side of the stage and together they nodded rhythmically, watching their friend doing musical wonders with his instrument.

The enthusiastic applause started when the last notes of their song were still vibrating in the air. As they all gave small bows to the audience, Jinki spared a glance towards the jury’s podium – they were all scribbling something on the sheets of paper in front of them which Jinki knew had their band’s name on top of the page. Remembering he still had two songs to sing, he turned to Minho, who passed Jinki his electric guitar.

The second song was Nickelback’s “.”, and this time Jinki was supposed to sing and play simultaneously. He’d done it before, only not in front of so many people. But to his own surprise, he felt like this stopped to be the problem a couple of minutes ago. Now he began worrying about something else.

The song was in English and the lyrics were, well, suggestive, to put it simply. It was not every day that you got to sing about and while doing so, using the very name of it. Jinki was sure that the young people in front of the stage would be able to catch on the main points, and he could only hope they weren’t so close-minded and wouldn’t be offended at their choice of repertoire.

Fortunately, the teenagers seemed delighted to hear the song. It turned out quite a few of them had already known the song and during the second chorus Jinki was not the only one singing his heart out. For a moment the judges looked a little taken aback, but the two of them nodded with contentment at their rendition of the Canadian band’s piece and the other two looked more than satisfied after hearing it.

The third and last number was originally performed by Guns n’ Roses, but Jinki insisted they sung it in the contest for another reason. It was a part of the soundtrack from the musical “Rock of Ages”, Jinki’s all-time favourite, made into a film. He was really excited to sing “Paradise City” now, since most people associated the film with as widely known “I Love Rock&Roll”, but the song they chose was, to his mind, much more catchy, and it just made him feel… amazing.

“Take me down

To the Paradise City

Where the grass is green

And the girls are pretty

Take me home”

 

Jinki forgot about everything. At one point the music in the background faded away and as he performed his solo, he heard the boys behind him clap with the rhythm of the song, encouraging the audience to do the same. The people followed their lead eagerly and they kept clapping, singing along and accompanying first Jinki alone, then the whole band again, to the end of the song. Nothing mattered for him at that time. Whether they would win or not, the job waiting for him in Japan, his previous nervousness was only a mere reminiscence and it was only now that was important, because “now” was, at that time, the moment of Jinki’s full and pure happiness.

 

~~~

 

“You were absolutely fantastic,” this kind of praise was rarely heard from Minho, and it made Jinki felt even better.

“Incredible!” added Taemin.

“They’re right,” said Jonghyun.

They were back in their teeny-tiny room backstage, waiting for the results. When the afterglow of the successful performance faded a little, a tension of unknown verdict started to rise in them.

Jinki smiled at his friends. “Thanks. You know, for your great work onstage. You were awesome, guys. And thanks for making me sing today. It was… thrilling!”

Jonghyun chuckled. “Well, well, look at him now! Am I supposed to start worrying about my position in this band?”

“Maybe not permanently, but if we could take turns, maybe… I could sing from time to time?” Jinki asked tentatively.

The remaining three laughed. “Of course we could, you idiot!” Jonghyun assured him. “You’re as good as me, and I think my throat could use some rest for a couple of weeks,” as though to prove his words, he coughed a few times.

An anonymous voice in the corridor shouted, “All contestants, please come out, we’ve got the winner!”

T he members of Roaring Razors high-fived one another and left to face the verdict.

 

~~~

 

“And the winners are…” the host made a usual pause, long enough for almost everyone in the club to fall silent, “Roariiiing,,, Razoooors!” he boomed, which reminded Jinki vaguely of that guy introducing boxers entering the ring, before he realised that the name he just mentioned was their name and that could only mean…

“Congratulations! They get the main prize of 3 000 000 won and a mini-tour around South Korea, including concerts in Seoul, Daegu, Busan, Gwangju and Daejeon!”

“We won, hyungs, WE ACTUALLY WON! We must call Key!” yelled Taemin, jumping in joy next to Jinki. He threw himself all over his cousin and squeezed the breath of him. Immobilized Jinki laughed into his neck. They nailed it.

“Yeah, we won.”

 

~~~

The four of them were celebrating the victory in their favourite galbi restaurant, each of them devouring their second serving. Suddenly Jinki stopped chewing on the meat and looked at Minho, remembering about something.

“Minho!” he exclaimed after swallowing, making the rest jump in their seats.

“What is it, hyung?”

“How did things go with Jinri on Sunday?”, Jinki asked, eyeing Jonghyun. The looser of their bet was supposed to treat the other to soju.

Minho shrugged. “We broke up over the phone.”

Jonghyun did a small victory dance across the table. “I win!” he mouthed to Jinki, who scowled.

“No way! How come you were so calm during our performance then?” the eldest asked.

“Just like Jonghyun-hyung had said, we weren’t really in love with each other. It was a mutual decision.”

Jinki banged his head on the table. “Couldn’t you wait another three days? Geez, now I have to buy him soju!”

Taemin sat up straighter, his expression brightened. “Really? Buy us some soju, too, hyung, pleeease, will you? Hyung?” he pleaded with a sickening amount of cuteness.

“Thanks, Minho, really,” sighed Jinki. “Calm down, Taemin, people are staring. I will.”

“Yay!” Taemin cheered.

“But I’m going to take money from our prize,” he added mischievously.

“Hyuuuung…”

“What? It was you who insisted I look afrerf the money! No complaints!”

“But we were going to-“

“Silence!”

“Hyung, don’t spend it on alcohol!”

“You asked me to! Quit whining!”

“Hyuuuung…”

 

 

 

The end.

 

 

 

---

PS: The title of this fic is also the title of one of AC/DC songs which I happen to like a lot :)

PS2: names like Roaring Razors and Cuckoo Clock are the result of me loving alliteration. It’s awesome. (And I made Taemin an Environmental Engineering student for the same reason xP)

PS3: All songs mentioned in the story (apart from “Runaway Bride”) exist and helped me write a lot.

PS4: Love ya guys! I hope you enjoyed it! ^^