pairing: ChenLay
length: 1538 words

Lay turned around, hearing a knock on the door of the practice room he was sitting in. “Come in!”

The door opened slightly as Chen poked his small head through the opening. “Hey. D.O told me you were in here. Is it okay if I ask for some help?”

Lay motioned for the younger male to walk in, so Chen lightly stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “What do you need help with?”

Chen was clutching several sheets of paper, which he placed in front of his Chinese group member. “This.”

Lay glanced over them and noticed that they were lyric sheets for the songs that were to be recorded for their group’s first full length album that was going to be released in a few months. “What about it?”

“I need some help with pronouncing my verses. There have been a lot of comments saying my Mandarin is terrible, so I was hoping I could improve for this album,” Chen explained, slightly looking down in embarrassment.

“Your Mandarin is great for someone who’s only been learning for as long as you have,” Lay reassured him swiftly, seeing how affected the younger male was. And he could understand how difficult it was to learn a new language and have people expect you to be perfect at it. The Chinese male had struggled for a long time to master Korean and sometimes, he felt like tearing out his hair in exasperation when he couldn’t translate others’ words quickly enough in his head or when he forgot a certain word that he needed to use in the moment. It was frustrating, to say the least, and he knew Chen was undergoing a similar predicament after being placed in the Chinese sub-group.

“Thanks for the compliment, but I still need a lot of work before I’m good enough. So before we start recording next week, I was hoping you could help me go over some songs that I’m having extra trouble with.”

Lay had never heard Chen speak in such a sad, pleading voice before. It broke his heart a little, seeing how defeated the usually confident boy was by online Internet comments. Even if he hadn’t become the sub-group’s leader in the end, Lay still felt obligated to aid and protect his group members whenever he could, especially the younger ones. So he brought over an extra chair to the table and pointed for Chen to sit down. The younger male immediately obeyed. “Is there any song in particular you want to start with?”

Chen riffled through the stack of papers before fishing out the lyric sheet for XOXO. “I don’t know why, but this one is really difficult. I just can’t get some of the words to sound right.”

“Okay. Let’s go over your lines slowly then,” Lay proposed as he placed the page on a music stand so the two of them could easily read it together.

“By the way, what were you doing before I came over?” Chen asked curiously as he noted the mess of papers and eraser shavings that covered the table they were sitting at.

“Oh, these. I was just doing some composing,” Lay said, quickly shoving the papers aside and deftly sweeping the eraser shavings off of the table. “It relaxes me and after hearing Chanyeol say he wanted to ask the company if some of his songs could be part of our future albums, I was motivated to write more.”

“Are you going to ask the company to use your songs as well?”

“Probably not,” Lay answered, shaking his head vigorously. “I’m just doing this for fun and the company would never take an amateur’s songs.”

“Don’t think like that, Lay! You never know. Maybe you’ll write our next big hit!” Chen grinned widely and Lay couldn’t help but admire how pretty the Korean male’s lips were.

“Let’s not get off-track. You’re here to practice, so let’s start,” Lay said, hastily diverting the conversation away from his compositions. He wasn’t yet comfortable showing his work to others, even if he knew Chen would be the last person to judge him. The older male knew Chen would only shower him with praise, but Lay was still too hesitant to talk about song-writing with anyone other than Chanyeol. It was weird to have people read the words he had penned and hear the melodies he had crafted from his heart, so Lay kept his creations to himself.

Chen looked a little disappointed, but the expression vanished after a brief moment and he said, “Fine. But you have to promise to show me some of your songs in the future. I have to be the first one you show them to, got it? No one else can see them before I do.”

“Okay, I promise you’ll be the first, Chen. Now let’s get to work.”

--

♪ One day, in a letter, I wrote my sincere feelings
The love hidden in that last sentence
But I’m unable to send it to the distance of your heart Ah~ ♪

“Not bad,” Lay critiqued after Chen sang his first verse again. They had been practicing non-stop for the past hour. “You just need to enunciate more when you say feelings. It’s supposed to have a sharper sound. Yours isn’t pronounced enough.”

Chen nodded before taking a deep breath and singing the verse once more. “Is that better?” he asked once he finished his lines.

“Perfect.” Lay clapped loudly before passing over a water bottle to the younger male. “Rest your throat for a moment before we go through our verses together.”

Chen gulped down several mouthfuls of the colorless liquid and wiped his mouth before asking, “You’re going to practice your lines too?”

“Yeah, it’ll help you since we both have the same line in the chorus. You can hear how I say it and then try to replicate it,” Lay explained. He stood up and adjusted the music stand to a new height. “Let’s sing as if we’re recording.”

♪ One day, in a letter, I wrote my sincere feelings
The love hidden in that last sentence
But I’m unable to send it to the distance of your heart Ah~ ♪

♪ Even when I’m deep in a dream (in a dream)
Gently opening my arms (in my embrace) ♪

♪ Breathing that becomes quicker and quicker (quivering XO)
As though it is at arm’s length (kissing you) ♪

♪ Baby, XOXO in all of my dreams XOXO ♪

♪ By my side, happiness like a static shock
Moving you, the warmth of blissfulness
Just you smiling can make me faint Ah~ ♪

♪ An easy yes-no question, yes or no
Just want you to tell me X or O
Don’t wait anymore, meaninglessly passing the days Yeah ♪

♪ Even when I’m deep in a dream (in a dream)
Gently opening my arms (in my embrace) ♪

♪ Breathing that becomes quicker and quicker (quivering XO)
As though it is at arm’s length (kissing you)
Baby, XOXO in all of my dreams XOXO ♪

♪ Baby every night
Even when I’m deep in a dream (in a dream)
Gently opening my arms (in my embrace) ♪

♪ Breathing that becomes quicker and quicker (quivering XO)
As though it is at arm’s length (kissing you)
Baby, XOXO in all of my dreams XOXO ♪

♪ Yeah baby, oh~ XOXO! Oh~
You and me oh yeah~ ♪

The two boys didn’t realize until Chen finished his adlibs that they had been staring deeply into each other’s eyes as they sang the song, their bodies just centimeters apart. Chen was the first to react, jumping away while apologizing with a faint pink blush coloring the apples of his cheeks. “Sorry. I, uh, don’t know how we ended up like that.”

Lay turned his head slightly and let out a few coughs, also self-conscious of how close they had been just moments ago. “Let’s take a break. We’ve been working for awhile. And it’s kind of hot in here,” he commented clumsily, fanning himself.

They sat in awkward silence for several minutes before Chen’s voice finally pierced the tense atmosphere. “You sang with a lot of feeling earlier, Lay.”

“You too, Chen. Your adlibs were amazing that time.”

The silence returned and Lay felt like he was suffocating. It had felt so right singing like that earlier with the younger male. Every word he had sung earlier had been the truth. Even though he hadn’t meant for his feelings to spill into the song like that, it honestly felt like this song was written especially for the two of them. So Lay made up his mind.

“I like you, Chen.”
“I like you, Lay.”

Both males stared at each other after simultaneously confessing. Neither had expected the other person to utter such words.

Chen let out a soft laugh as he scooted closer to his Chinese group member. “You’re right. This is an easy yes-no question,” he said with a grin, referring to Lay’s verse. “I guess I need to tell you X or O now, right?”

“Not this time.” And before Chen could respond, Lay planted his lips on the younger male’s, having already chosen X.

♈♈♈