(disclaimer i love stray kids)

The car lights flash when Woohyun unlocks it, the boot popping open at another click of the button. He sighs as he filters through the random things in the back, half a newspaper from 2016, library books that are long overdue at this point. He looks at the cover of one of the books.

“’10 tips to overcome singleness’,” he mumbles reading the title of the tacky designed book cover, opening the back cover and snorting when he realises who last borrowed it, “of course it was Sungyeol. God that kid.” He tosses it to the side next to three similar titled and covered books who Woohyun had a suspicion were all borrowed by the same man, reaching in further towards the back of the compartment and pulling at the handle of his gym bag. He s it, taking the long sleeve shirt and zipup jacket out.

He zips up the front of the sweatshirt after he puts it on, the thin material helping ease the cold air eating away at his bare chest. He zips up the gym bag again after taking his shoes out. He drops them to the ground and shoves his feet in, he slams the boot door shut while reaching down and untucking the heel of his right shoe that got caught under his foot.

Rubbing his eyes he gets into the driver’s side, he puts his keys into the ignition and turns them, engine successfully starting after a few attempts.

“-And that was our last song of the night. I was glad to keep you night dwellers company and I’ll see you tomorrow night, same time. LSJ signing off.” the radio presenter’s calm voice finishes, Woohyun only catching the end of the broadcast before it changes. He was slightly disappointed, there have been many a night where Woohyun had been unable to sleep and stayed up all night in result of it, LSJ’s broadcast keeping him company.

A funky tune begins to play, Woohyun thinks it could be something from out of Crocodile Dundee and soon the voices of two new presenters begin to speak over the now quieter music, “G’day mates, you’re listening to Felix and Chan, the boys from down under.”

Woohyun scrunches his nose up in distaste, ‘the boys from down under’ had replaced ‘Leo and Ravi’s Beautiful Lie’ broadcast and he was not pleased.

“We’re going to start straight off the bat with a ripper of a song, aren’t we Felix?”

“That’s right Channie hyung, this is ‘My Pace’ by the amazingly awesome blokes known as Stray Kids.”

Chan scoots closer to the mic and whispers, “This song’s a total bop guys. Buy the album.”

“Shameless self-promotion!” Felix yells from a distance away from his own mic. Some humming accompanied by a backing track starts playing.

Woohyun already doesn’t like the new radio presenters. He quickly turns the radio off before a single word gets said. He had a feeling it was going to be rap, Woohyun doesn’t particularly like rap.

“How can they be so energetic at four am? My god.” The composer mutters, opting for reaching into his glove box and picking a CD from his collection. He flips through the pages of the CD folder and stopping at an old blank CD.

“I forgot I had this.” He whispers, a small smile on his face. He clicks eject on the disk drive built into the car, he takes the newly revealed CD out and back in its place in the SHINee CD folder, sometimes Woohyun questions his friendship with Kibum. The new CD starts playing instantly after Woohyun inserts it into the drive. The slow sound of piano starts flowing through the speakers of his car.

He hums along to the quiet music while reversing out of his reserved resident spot and out of the underground carpark. He melds effortlessly into the quiet morning traffic, he was thankful he woke before peak hour.

He takes turns and swaps lanes randomly and in no hurry, having no destination in mind and in no rush to be anywhere. He had taken the week and some off to prepare for Sungyeol and Myungsoo’s wedding, best man duties called. He was happy for them, really he was, but he couldn’t help imagine what his own wedding day will look like. It was something he liked to do. But he could never imagine it without the man who had left him years before.

Don’t get him wrong, over the years since his break up with Sunggyu he had been on dates, really he had, blind dates, speed dating and many other things, he’d tried it all, everything Sungyeol had set up for him, in all honesty Sungyeol made him feel like a child, he felt like a child being sent out of the house by their mother. But he never clicked with anyone like he clicked with Sunggyu.

The dates would go nowhere, he’