It was safe to say that Kim Jongdae, a.k.a. Chen, was in love.
Head over heels, an overall goner, eternally whipped... by music.
If he was feeling down, he'd listen to music.
If he was feeling angry, antsy, ecstatic or bored... he'd listen to music.
He'd take lyrics for inspiration, melodies to mold around his emotions, and he'd start singing to have an outlet of those emotions.
Yes, music was the answer to everything.
"But did you read the line '1940 to 1945'?" he asked into his microphone and from the corner of his eyes, he saw Minseok's eyes flitting down, presumably to go over the lyrics once more. He hummed, the sound a little distorted. He'd never guessed it before, but now that Chen had actually met Minseok, he was aware of how different his voice sounded through his speakers. It lacked the smoothness. He should invest in better headphones, but he wasn't a part-timer waiter for no reason.
"That's clearly referring to World War II." he added and Minseok hummed again, looking thoughtful.
"So, together with the lines about beings in cages, you're saying it alludes to concentration camps?" he guessed and blurry movements suggested he was tapping his pen against the desk.
"Yeah, but I feel like it's still an alternative universe. Or no, it says 'what the world feared all those years ago, 1940 to 1945' - so it's more of a distant future." Chen elaborated, making the theory up as he went.
"A dystopian one." Minseok said.
"Or a utopian one." Chen retorted.
"It's basically the same though, isn't it?" his friend cheekily replied and Chen grinned.
They were engaging in one of Chen's favorite occupations, especially late at night - analyzing song lyrics. He loved finding a song that intrigued him, that was a puzzle for him to solve. And Minseok was a clever person who possessed a very different way of thinking. At first, he'd been afraid his friend was only humoring him but by now, Minseok had entrusted to him that he actually loved to write, and that their little discussions were very inspiring. It was a funny thought to Chen, since Minseok wasn't an outwardly emotional person, and this translated to his works. He hadn't read a lot of them, ever content with taking what his friend was willing to offer, but he had a very clean, almost technical writing style with lots of mature emotions subtly creeping up on him in between the lines. Yes, not unlike a puzzle for Chen to solve. He liked that.
"I think 'I'm too tired to remember the word' is a key line, too." Minseok tentatively said, and Chen's hand flew over the graphic tablet, the pen hovering above the surface with practiced ease. The phrase was written down across a big document on his graphic program, joining a few others and the random doodles he and Minseok had made. Chen wasn't an artist, far from that even. But he loved messing with his graphic program, sketching layouts, organizing his thoughts... and sharing the program with Minseok. It was fun, like doodling on a sheet together in class.
"If you're too hazy and dizzy to recall certain terms... you think it's about being drugged or depressed?" Chen asked, absently drawing a stick figure in a cage. The blue cursor of Minseok's followed along to fill the cage bars with yellow color.
"I don't know, I'd tend to the drug version." Minseok said. Chen snorted.
"Of course you would. Druggie."
"Think about it, we have this person in a cage," his friend began, drawing a few goofy lines around the cage, suggesting the thing was glowing, "and he can't remember how morals and ethics work anymore... but he tries to remember? And he's not really... fighting it. So much lethargy. I don't know, I'd say he's drugged. To stay pliant, yanno?"
Chen hummed and scribbled a little black cat next to the cage, next to the quote "life with price tag = buy a cat at the pet shop", giving her comically big eyes, the only thing to stand out from its black body.
"I guess. It could be a metaphor, as people can be kept pliant and silent by all sorts of things. The drug could also be the mere flood of entertainment we're getting nowadays..." Chen speculated, watching the blue cursor travel to the cat, draw a simple arrow, and the scribbled letters 'Soo' appeared above it. He couldn't help laughing.
"Why Soo?!" he asked with a grin that was mirrored in the mischievous eyes of his friend, even through the shabby quality of his webcam.
"It looks like him. Look at how dark it is and how big its eyes are - think of Kyungsoo's dark clothes. Besides, a cat is super befitting, don't you think?"
"I don't know..." Chen mused, adding a bit of fuzz to the cat's ears, "cats look so aristocratic, but they're moody as . Soo may look a little y, and alright, sometimes he is in a bad mood, but overall he's just a really cool guy. You should see his face glowing whenever he gets ready to look 'completely casual' for Chanyeol - which happens a lot, ever since that pool party, by the way. Though it might be a nervous 'I wanna puke out my guts'-type of glow. Still. I'd say he's a dog, but... if anyone were to be a dog, it should be Chanyeol."
Following his words, Minseok sketched a little dog that wasn't very artistic, but a little speaking bubble with a very enthusiastic ":D" face made up for it. Chen snickered, writing Chanyeol's name below it. Minseok proceeded to link the two with an arrow, from Soo to Yeol, with a little heart in the middle.
"Cute." Chen stated blankly.
"I know."
There was no stopping after that. Inspired by wonderfully ridiculous character charts from mangas and dramas alike, they started sketching all of their friends. Instead of animals, they went for cute caricatures of everyone's face in a manga style. Chen drew Luhan with additional sparkles around his already sparkly eyes, and Minseok seemed to take great pleasure in drawing Chen's mouth in an extra cat-like fashion. They drew arrows back and forth, adding little thunder bolts for people who weren't on good terms (most of them were one-sidedly aimed at Baekhyun), musical notes for friendship, and hearts for love, after Chen had joked that they probably knew every gay person in a radius of twenty kilometers and were side kicks in a big romcom.
They had a brief discussion over whether Chanyeol should get a heart aimed at Kyungsoo, and settled on a heart with a little question mark next to it. They'd created a huge mess of arrows and doodles when the blue cursor added a last arrow, from Minseok to Chen.
And a heart.
Despite knowing better, Chen's own heart twitched.
"Aww, you know I love you, too." he joked, attempting to make the arrow a double-sided one, but Minseok stubbornly erased it right after.
"Liiiiar..." he teased right back and Chen pouted.
"How do you know?" he whined out and Minseok drew an adamant circle around the heart going from Chen to Lay.
"There's your heart, you player! You only have one. I'm obviously fated to suffer from one-sided love." Minseok sniffed dramatically and Chen laughed, ignoring the pricking sensation he felt.
"I think you're the liar here." he protested good-naturedly, but Minseok only flashed him an odd smile.
"You know I never lie."
The discussion wandered elsewhere after that, but that didn't mean the words stopped echoing around Chen's mind for the rest of the evening.
Ah, Minseok really shouldn't say stuff like that.
It gave him weird ideas he definitely shouldn't have about one of his best friends.

 

A couple days later had Chen in front of his computer, because let's face it, this was considered his natural habitat. Truth to be told, by now he liked to hang out at Minseok's coffee shop once in awhile, but since his laptop was usually perched up on the table, he was technically still in front of his computer. There was music running in the background, because of course it was, but the shreds of songs were rapidly cut off as Chen repeatedly tapped the skip button. A thoughtful grin was tugging at his lips, pen hovering above the graphic tablet once more. Chanyeol had linked him to a song meme. To be honest, Chen loved memes, but most of them were directed at artists. This one was different though, it was apparently part of a friendship meme. Chanyeol probably assumed he'd want to exchange it with Kyungsoo (and he probably would, later), but he'd been skyping with Minseok when he got it, and Minseok seemed inclined to try it, too. Now Chen was methodically going through the nine questions that both he and Minseok had to fill out separately. He'd made a bet with Chanyeol that he and Minseok would have more matching answers than the tall guitarist with his best friend.

1. First off - a song that describes you:
This one was easy. He filled in "Daijobu", a light-hearted, slightly hyper theme song of one of his favorite animes.

2. Now a song that describes your friend:
Hard. How to describe Minseok, in one song? What was essential about Minseok? He was mature but low-key quirky. Attentive and thoughtful, but not to the point of being melancholic. A picture-perfect introvert, but able to keep up a cheery, polite stance in public.
Hmm... the longer he thought about it, the more difficult it became. Maybe "Mr. Simple" by Super Junior... yeah. Because Minseok was 'simple' in the way he simply did what he wanted, not minded others. Instead of fussing, he'd just do something and get it done. Yes, Chen nodded to himself in satisfaction, this seemed like a good choice.

3. A song you like, but your friend hates:
There were a couple ones, but Chen settled on "Titanium" by Sia. He really, really liked that one, and sometimes he'd put it on just to see Minseok wrinkle his nose at the faint sound reaching him through his headphones.

4. An artist your friend has introduced you to:
Another easy one - Chen filled in Owl City. He was all about Japanese music, with very rare ventures into the international or national music scene (cue Shinee's Jonghyun), but Minseok was more of the radio listening type. On top of that, he usually put together the playlists for his coffee shop himself and really favored Owl City in those. That's how Chen really got to know them, during one evening when he'd made a list together with him. Minseok was convinced that barely anything managed to kill the employee's motivation quicker than lame, repetitive music. Chen could kiss him for that. If only his employers would think like that.

5. You could see the two of you partying to this track:
Okay, a little more difficult. Chen went for "Rockstar" by Super Junior, as he was positive Minseok knew this one.

6. This song has a special meaning for both of you:
Chen grinned. Obviously "Secret" by Megurine Luka, that faithful song Minseok had commented on, triggering their friendship.

7. If your friend is down, you'd send him this song:
He had a few options for this one and spent a few minutes aimlessly browsing through his music library before choosing "All I Wanna Do" by Amy Studt, a light-hearted English song he knew Minseok liked.

8. A song you've had an interesting discussion on:
Alright, this was getting as tough as his graduation exam. Which song didn't they have an interesting discussion on? After a bit of contemplation, Chen scribbled down "Tower of Sunz", another vocaloid song which they had the most mind-twisting discussion on so far, in his opinion.
Time for the last one.

9. And finally... a song to describe your friendship:
Chen spent a good fifteen minutes thinking hard about this one, before deciding to stop doing so.
"Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers opening" it was.
With a satisfied grin, Chen skimmed the finished meme and doodled a bit on it, before saving the picture. He'd wait for Minseok to send his, to avoid cheating.


It was around seven in the evening when his Skype made an obnoxiously loud noise (courtesy of Chen being afraid to miss it otherwise), and his head whipped up from his game boy.

[19:04]
From: Squirrel-Xiu
Done :3
But I gotta go to the gymn now, so ttyl?

Chen didn't hesitate closing his game (his Animal Crossing village would survive a few hours without him picking up their trash), and sent his own meme, eagerly opening Minseok's file. It was filled out cleanly, dark blue writing in the familiar, elegant handwriting Minseok had supposedly acquired while creating little artworks made of swirls during his work as well as writing on their old school chalk boards.
He typed a quick goodbye that reached his friend just in time before the icon changed to a red one.
Wriggling around to get comfortable in his blanket - because any temperature below 30 degrees warranted a blanket cocoon, for comfort - and began to read.

1. First off - a song that describes you: "Faster and Faster" by ChenChen :P
He snorted. Sure Minseok would right off the bat. Though it wasn't a strange song choice per se. After all, the cute song was all about moving forwards with enthusiasm, mastering your daily life with perseverance.

2. Now a song that describes your friend: "Married to the Music" by Shinee
...Chen could hardly deny that.

3. A song you like, but your friend hates: "Mad City" by NCT 127
Ah, yes. Minseok really had a rap-focused, hip-hop side to him that Chen wasn't too fond of. Well, everyone had a different taste.

4. An artist your friend has introduced you to: Jonghyun
Hah, he'd ing hope so. By now he'd reached a point where he could openly fanboy about the endless amount of sensual iness in Jonghyun's songs... and Minseok would agree.

5. You could see the two of you partying to this track: "Queen" or "Wild Boy" by History
Two songs. Cheater. Still, he'd have to look those two up.
After listening to them, Chen came to the conclusion that yes, he could see himself dancing to both of them. Damn.

6. This song has a special meaning for both of you: "Secret" by Chen
Finally, a hit! Though he'd obviously chosen to write Chen as an artist but whatever.
They were doing quite a terrible job at this, but Chen found himself pretty entertained nonetheless.

7. If your friend is down, you'd send him this song: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams
Ah, such a coffee shop song. In fact, he knew he'd listened to this song the first time he'd visited Minseok during his shift. Yeah, it definitely brought a smile to his face.

8. A song you've had an interesting discussion on: "Tower of Sunz" by Vocaloid
Hah, a second match! It was nice to know their discussion had left a similar impression on Minseok. The wide grin on his face slowly faded, as his eyes skimmed the last line.


9. And finally... a song to describe your friendship: "it" by Namie Amuro

"it"?
Wait, wait. Huh?
This must be a mistake, Chen thought with scrunched brows. He knew that song. He was the one introducing the Japanese singer to Minseok, after all, and had gushed about the perfection that was her latest album for quite some time. With numb fingers, he opened Youtube, clicking around until he'd found a subbed live version.
The cheerful, whistle-like melody filled his room and Chen stared at the yellow letters, not paying her stunning figure any heed for once.
 

Love is like a playground
We're playing tag now
We chase each other round, round, round...

Nope. It was exactly the song Chen had in mind. The song about a girl who merrily chased after someone... who was chasing someone else.

 

I can't catch you, you can't catch me
I trick you... and you trick me

This was just... Minseok probably switched up the song with another one. With the 'Space Invader' song, probably. It was a mistake.
Right?

 

I tag you, you tag her, she tags him
And you keep slipping away
If love's a game... I just wanna be "it"

He thought of Minseok, who never made mistakes due to being an air-head, unlike Chen.
He remembered the heart above the one-sided arrow pointing from Minseok to him.
And just like that, his mind was wiped blank.

 

Kyungsoo returned later that evening, a faint smile still lingering on his lips. He meant to greet Chen, but his roommate had his door closed, a rare sign which he respected. Despite it being around ten in the evening, loud music dully pumped through their apartment as Chen once again heard a song in loop. It was something he did, occasionally, when he felt ty - and he only ever closed his door when he felt ty.
Still, this time the song filling their apartment sounded exceptionally happy, and Kyungsoo wasn't sure what to make of that.

He loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me not
I love him, love him, love him, love him a lot...

This is the second time I ever hesitated, because I wasn't sure how to proceed... and again it's Jongdae's fault.
Why is this wonderful, little kitten giving me such a hard time?!

I can't possible talk about all the songs that I mentioned in this, but the one they analyzed was "Holy Forest" by Sekai no Owari, and you can listen and read along to "it" here:
Namie Amuro - it
 

Much love,
Sugar-and-Salt~♥

P.S.: I know, finding SUBBED Japanese videos on Youtube is nothing but a far-fetched, extravagant fantasy, but please roll with it.
P.P.S.: I love character charts.