italics are lyrics from the chapter songs! ^^

chapter songs: 

Simple

When I Grow Up

It’s still dark outside as Jihoon wakes up too early, annoyed by the strains of pansori Soonyoung’s playing from his room next door. Of course, Jihoon would’ve liked to sleep for a couple more hours, but the thought of seeing Seungcheol later for another surf lesson and Soonyoung’s strained falsettos singing along to pansori, awakens him, so he drags himself out of bed and peers out the windows, yawning. The sun hasn’t risen yet - the sky is still an inky dark blue, with hints of purple.

Another new day – has it been a week since he first landed in LA? Jihoon’s not keeping track. The waves are gently lapping up against the shore in the distance, and Soonyoung’s pansori is probably waking up half of the neighbourhood.

“Soonie, shut up; it’s too early!” Jihoon screams in his hoarse morning voice.

The music stops, and Jihoon’s relieved. Maybe he could go back to sleep. Sleep is always good. His bed’s already calling him back; though the absence of a certain blue blanket makes him slightly on edge.

Soonyoung barges into his room without knocking, a bright smile on his face. “Good morning, Hoonie!”

Jihoon dives under the covers in an effort to protect himself from whatever Soonyoung’s going to say. “The sun’s not even up yet. Why are you working on Eastern time?”

Soonyoung perches on the edge of the bed, looking thoughtful. “I left my heart in New York.”

“Stop being cheesy.” Jihoon tries to kick his best friend from underneath the covers, but his legs are too short.

“Can’t, I ate too much of it last night.” Soonyoung had found a can of string cheese last night, and finished the whole thing in an hour, much to Jihoon’s horror. “Anyway, Wonwoo said that he’s going to help me with the video editing today.”

“You’re not skipping surfing, are you?” Jihoon’s tone is menacing as he peeks at Soonyoung from under the duvet. His social (business?) call with Wonwoo must’ve gone well last night; and Jihoon’s thankful that the video editor’s sparing some time off to help Soonyoung with his monster amount of raw footage.

“Nah. I still wanna talk to Cheol-hyung.” Soonyoung grins. “Hey, did you realise that Wonwoo sounds like Morgan Freeman?”

Jihoon rolls his eyes and easily tunes out, knowing that Soonyoung’s going to ramble on for the next half hour. Sure enough, his best friend starts speculating about how Wonwoo might look, judging from his baritone – maybe a huge, buff guy like Seungcheol? Jihoon stifles a laugh, knowing how Wonwoo actually looks like, but he doesn’t offer an opinion.

Wonwoo’s supposed to come over at noon, but the guy doesn’t appear until after lunchtime. Soonyoung traps Jihoon with him, spending the whole morning knitting – because apparently, it keeps Soonyoung calm and focused. Jihoon would rather run down to Jerry’s, steal his board and practice surfing, since he’s not getting the hang of knitting: it’s just a muddle of colourful yarn for him, but Soonyoung’s handiwork is almost professionally made, which surprises Jihoon.

Soonyoung tells him the story of how he learnt to knit in the high mountains of Bhutan, the happiest place on Earth. It’s an interesting story at least, and the only time Jihoon would pay proper attention to his best friend – when he recounts his travels. Jihoon loves Soonyoung’s stories about walking along the streets of Rome, or shaving sheep in New Zealand. Of course, he’d read them on Soonyoung’s travel blog, but it’s endearing to hear it from Soonyoung’s own mouth, though his stories tend to end poorly.

The doorbell rings and Soonyoung discards his knitting, skipping over to open the door, expecting a pizza guy with the pizzas that Jihoon hasn’t ordered yet.

Instead, there’s a lanky bespectacled guy with a classically handsome face – angled jaws and serious eyes; holding a couple of pizza boxes and some video equipment. Soonyoung’s ears automatically turn red, though he doesn’t realise it – and for once, he’s speechless.

What do you do when a random hot guy who’s not a delivery boy turns up at your doorstep, with some pizza?

“Hello, I’m Jeon Wonwoo.” The guy says, and Soonyoung recognizes the deep baritone he’d spoken to over the phone last night. Flustered, Soonyoung invites him inside, pointing to the living room as he tries to collect himself. Hearing Wonwoo’s voice in person was even more overwhelming than it did on the phone last night. Soonyoung wipes his sweaty palms onto his shorts, takes a deep breath, then returns to the living room, where he’d directed Wonwoo to go.

“Hello, Hot-shot from Seoul.” Wonwoo nods at Jihoon as he wanders into the living room.

“Hey, Hoodie Guy.” Jihoon rebuts.

Wonwoo blinks, slightly taken aback. He’s not wearing a hoodie, but a light jacket, which he takes off since he’s indoors. He quickly dismisses Jihoon’s off-putting greeting, turning to Soonyoung. “You must be Soonyoung.”

“Yep. That’s me. Hi. Hello. Kwon Soonyoung. Soonyoung Kwon. Travel vlogger. Nice to finally meet you.” Soonyoung stutters, still slightly shaken, since he’s not how he envisioned him to be. “Thanks for bringing pizza.”

Jihoon raises an eyebrow, because Soonyoung never stutters.

“I haven’t had lunch yet. Been working all morning, and since I was coming over, I brought pizza.” Wonwoo sets the pizza boxes onto the coffee table. The three of them stand awkwardly in the middle of the living room until Soonyoung makes Wonwoo sit on the couch next to his knitting, at which the lanky man raises an eyebrow at.

“I’m going to grab my stuff, then we can get started!” Soonyoung rushes upstairs to get his laptop and camera.

Wonwoo simply leans forward and grabs a pizza slice. “Pizza?”

Jihoon nods, copying the bespectacled guy. “Thanks, man.”

The two of the don’t say anything for a while, munching on pizza, as Soonyoung fumbles into about a million things upstairs, judging from the thuds and crashes.

“I hope he’s not destroying the top floor.” Wonwoo says dryly. “Maybe he turned into the Hulk.”

Jihoon simply shrugs, biting into another mouthful of cheese and pepperoni. Soonyoung must be nervous for some reason to be really clumsy, but Jihoon brushes it off. He’ll just sit back and see what happens. 

“Oh, yeah. He has like a week’s worth of footage.”