Chapter 03:

The things we don't notice.

He was a tall boy who called himself Zelo. He talked to them first at a time they were singing on the streets, and proposed to form a band. Daehyun and Youngjae only chuckled and left – because neither of them could get involved in things like that. They didn’t have the money and they didn’t have the time. But the boy insisted. Daehyun and Youngjae made friends with him fairly as he sat down next to them each time they performed on the streets. Once he brought along a harmonica and Daehyun must admit; he was beyond impressed. The kid had talent.

Few weeks later; he came running to the benches Daehyun and Youngjae sat in the evening playing the guitar, and singing with a flyer fluttering against the wind. The crowd passed them by.

Zelo breathed in as he made his legs stop; panting. “Hyung! God – hyung! Look at this!” He pointed at the crumpled flyer. “Let’s do it.” He said, bending over to breathe more evenly. “Right? Hyung?”

Daehyun snatched the paper from Zelo and looked at it; showing it to Youngjae as well. A contest for local bands, it was. Daehyun shook his head when he saw that the competition was only three weeks away. “We don’t even have a band.” He said; but Youngjae had his eyes fixed on the price. “Daehyun, two hundered thousand won.” He pointed at the first price. It was a hundered thousand for the second, and fifty thousand for the third place. Daehyun bit his lip. “That’s a lot.” He managed, and Zelo popped into their view from the bottom. “We can do it. You can do it. I know a guy who plays the drums and we’re set; right? Let’s do it. You two can sing, I can rap, Youngjae-hyung can play the guitar, Jongup can do the drums, and I can manage a bit of piano. Just a bit; but I can anyway! Let’s do it, right?”

Youngjae started to chuckle at the massive amount of blabbering by the youngest, and turned his head to face Daehyun. He was still contemplating, biting his lip and side-eyeing the prize. Youngjae caught his hand and gave it a little squeeze. “Sounds fun. Don’t want to?” He asked; and Daehyun took a full minute, debating everything in his mind.

“If they ask for a lot paper-work we can’t do it.” Daehyun sighed; and Zelo shook his head. “No, don’t worry about those stuff. Jongup and I can still sign up with the application. I’ll squeeze you two in.”

“You sure that’s gonna work?” Daehyun asked; and Zelo nodded. “Yes, yes a thousand times yes, now tell me, can we please perform for this?”

Youngjae started to think, a finger on his chin. “Two hundred thousandby four is… fifty thousand won.” He calculated aloud, and gave a one big smile. “Isn’t that plenty?”

“I’m still worried about all the exposure… in case we win.” Daehyun grumbled, and Zelo pouted, getting himself seated next to the duo. He too grumbled.

“Then how about we settle for the second prize?” He asked, and Daehyun and Youngjae arched their brows. “How can we do that?” Youngjae asked; and Zelo shrugged. “If we apply last moment, our performance number will do down and we can watch the performances so far and take it down a notch to fit second place.” He explained.

Daehyun started to laugh. “You’re talking as if we’re already in first place.”

“Hyung doesn’t know because you don’t know.” Zelo said. “But I do. I know every single band in this district and you two alone are a thousand times better than all of it combined.”

“You’re exaggerating.” Daehyun pushed Zelo from his shoulder a bit; and the tall boy pouted.

“And you two are being painfully modest.” He said. Daehyun laughed.

Youngjae shook his head, giving it a bit of thought. “I don’t want second place; though.” He said. “It feels like cheating.”

Zelo rolled his eyes before he helped himself to a smile.

He’s not very sure if they really ran away from an orphanage or fell down from the sky.

-

Zelo and Jongup did most of the composing of their new song, as Daehyun and Youngjae barely knew the first thing about a lyrics sheet. Daehyun and Youngjae helped with the beat and the melody; and Zelo was making himself extremely useful with lyrics that nearly moved Youngjae to tears.

The next three weeks passed with a lot of laughter and company; and Daehyun had grown fond of his new friends. They came over to the subway sometimes – taken that the people who slept there only came there to sleep; and that the subway was otherwise empty.

Jongup had a drum set in his house; and that’s where everything happened. They had composed a song by the end of the second week; and they spent their last practicing to oblivion. Zelo had purchased a quality microphone to record everything; and Daehyun and Youngjae couldn’t dare to ask how much it costed. Zelo said it was on him with the brightest smile; and none of them could turn it down.

As he said; Zelo really was a part of the local music trend. A lot of people had been keeping up with him on the internet and he introduced three thousand followers on twitter to Daehyun and Youngjae. When he released the song online; the number of views kept increasing as Daehyun watched. Even if he had gripped Youngjaes hand as hard as he could; excitement still sparked through