Part 5

The ovation wasn’t as loud as in some stadium during a worldwide sports event, but the few applauses whose sound resounded in the bar were more than enough for Jinki’s smile to enlighten his features. He was rarely performing more than two new songs every time he was to be the artist of the night at the Blue Night, yet he always recognized some regular customers who showed no boredom in listening to the same pieces over again.

Respectfully, he bowed for as long as he was celebrated and when he straightened up while approaching his mic from his lips, all hands ceased their clapping. It was like everyone was already prepared to hang on his every word even before a first sound escaped his mouth.

“Thank you for listening to me, I hope you enjoyed the new song.” The singer said, smiling and his eyes travelling to meet every face in the audience. “You will have the opportunity to hear it again and as much as you wish to, in a few weeks when my next work will be released.”

As he was speaking a bit more about the aforesaid song, the lyrics and their thematic, rhythm, meaning… Kibum got his attention drew to his left, where Jonghyun was sitting and staring at the artist on stage. His eyes were literally shining and his lips half open as he focused on the explanations, sometimes mouthing a wow and nodding when he felt some words. The event planner couldn’t help but smile with pride as he realized what a good idea he had to make the blonde man come that evening.

“Unfortunately, I have been asked to keep my other songs secret until the release.” Jinki ended up confessing, earning a few whines. “I’m just as disappointed as you are, obviously, but although I don’t have anything left to sing for tonight… I would like to offer you a surprise. Actually, I’m not offering, more proposing an alternative that I think will impress you.”

“And before our artist’s clumsiness spoils everything, let’s take a short break to get ourselves prepared.” Minho suddenly climbed the stage to stand up by his boyfriend’s side, a second mic in hands. “I see some glasses are empty, please allow me to come take your next orders and feel free to use this pause to use the smoking room.”

Once he finished his speech, the bartender switched both mics off and went to pull the curtain himself to hide the stage for the time of break. Customers started chatting or stood up to go take a smoke or just breathe some fresh air in the back street of the bar. Minho was quick to come back and before he went back to work with clearing and new orders, he waved towards his best friend and showed the small, hidden backstage, mouthing something.

Kibum had always been good at reading on one’s lips despite his work mostly consisting in phone calls ; he got the information right away and stood up, gently tapping the subway singer’s shoulder to quietly tell him to follow. The latter didn’t wait to be asked twice and wove in and out between the tables and standing people, his eyes never leaving the silhouette leading him. In his chest, his heart was beating faster with each step he took until he found himself behind the stage’s wall.

It was long and narrow, certainly the entire length of the bar’s wall, but a couple of lamps lit a comfortable double sofa, a tea table and all electric boxes and cables. Eyeing everything, Jonghyun eventually noticed Jinki who stood up from his seat and walked towards him with a reassuring smile.

“So, tell me.” He said, crossing his arms above his chest. “Did you choose your songs since the break ?”

“I think I have a lot that can fit tonight’s atmosphere, yes.” The blonde singer nodded but his nervousness was noticeable in the way he scratched his nape while talking. “Though I don’t want to steal your spotlight or something.”

“Man, my part is done tonight, so take the damn spotlight. Will you sing covers or…?”

“One cover, but actually I compose songs so I thought I might give a try to two of them. If I can ?”

“Of course you can, you can do whatever you want on stage. We gotta work on that self confidence of yours, huh ?”

“I’m on it.” Kibum spoke in, winking at Jonghyun when the latter looked at him and smiled in return. “Do you think Ming will like him enough to hire him ?”

“He’s clearly going to pretend thinking, considering, all that business man’s stuff… but trust me, he already got the papers ready.”

“Really ?” The subway singer raised his eyebrows, honestly surprised. “You’re kidding, he didn’t hear me sing yet !”

“You will learn that Minho is someone who hides his thoughts and emotions, even the positive ones.” The event planner smiled. “But first of all, he watched those videos of you I sent to him and allowed me to find you. He drove me to your subway station himself, on last Sunday, but he couldn’t make it to Yongsan with me.”

“He entrusted you with finding me and bringing me here ?”

“Second thing to know about him.” The eldest man snorted. “He can’t refuse anything if it comes either from me or Kibum. And we both stood up for you so he got defeated.”

“That totally sounds like a scheme.”

“Yeah right ? Now it’s your part, I’ll take your seat !”

With one last wink and thumb up, Jinki wished the other singer good luck and disappeared in the audience, leaving both Kibum and him alone and quiet. The younger man’s eyes shifted as soon as they locked gazes and he pretended to check something on the electric box — though he didn’t understand a single connection in this thing. But the silence quickly went awkward and when Jonghyun cleared his throat, he had no choice but look up and talk.

“So… you’re ready ?” He asked. “It’s not completely like a station but it shouldn’t feel that different, right ?”

“Every place conveys a different feeling, I can sense these things.” The blonde singer smiled. “But I like it here, though I feel on the nerves, you know…”

“Stage fright ?”

“I guess so, I mean, they’re here to listen. In a station, I’m mostly a background noise except for the few people who stop for a minute to focus a bit more on me. They don’t come to listen to me but to take their train, while here…”

“Maybe you feel like you’re a background noise, but people remember you. I wouldn’t have been able to find you if it hadn’t been for this little girl to know your name and her mother to know where you sing. I’m sure they’re not the only ones who know about the white haired guy who sings at Sindang. You were being noticed, now you will be listened to.”

“Can I ask you something ?”

“Sure.”

“The other time, you told me I moved you. Among all my songs you’ve heard, could it be at the stations or in these videos… is there one that moved you more than others ?”

Kibum cocked an eyebrow, he hadn’t expected this question and hadn’t really thought of ranking the songs he had heard. He didn’t even know the titles and was unable to humming them even if he wanted to — he was too scared of ruining it in front of its creator. Instead, he grabbed his phone and opened his favourite app, tapping the screen until it opened a folder of saved posts with a musical note emoji as its title.

He scrolled a bit and his thumb stopped, seemed to hesitate between two videos, and Jonghyun noticed his trouble. As he approached, the other man turned his phone towards him and eventually showed him both. 

“This one was the one you were singing when I saw you the first time and it’s stuck in my mind since then.” The brown haired man said, his voice surprisingly low and his eyes still on the screen. “But I like this one too. Do they have titles ?”

“Of course, the first one is MONO-Drama, it’s a particular one.” Jonghyun answered before the tip of his finger selected the second video. “And this one is Beautiful Tonight, you can hear me sing it.”

“Yeah, that’s true. I like Beautiful Tonight more, it has something special that speaks to me, I couldn’t say why.”

“I see. You saved a lot of videos, I didn’t know I got filmed so much.”

“You never looked for yourself on social media ?”

“I don’t really use social media.”

“You wh—”

“Sorry to interrupt you, but the show will resume soon.” A voice caught their attention and they met with Minho who had his head coming out from behind the wall. “Time to get on stage.”

The bartender disappeared as fast as he had shown up and both men left their conversation on hold as Kibum led Jonghyun to the stage, even joining him there to adjust the mike for him. Within the few minute