Sehun slips into the apartment well into midday. The television is on, commercials flash across the screen with eye-catching colors, and the volume so low it's nothing more than an intelligible hum in the apartment's silence. He toes off his converse sneakers with languid steps, using his foot to lazily kick them against the wall, and takes in the sight of his roommate.

Kyungsoo being home is not too abnormal a sight for Sehun. Kyungsoo has late classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and prefers studying at home now that finals are approaching. Today, he is not studying. He sits at their tiny table placed underneath the window and across from their kitchenette. Kyungsoo holds his eyeglasses in one hand, using the fingers of his free hand to massage the bridge of his nose. Their cordless phone lays on the table before him.

"What's up, man," Sehun asks, cocking his head to the side as he steps further into the apartment, dropping his backpack on the sofa so he can take the seat across from Kyungsoo. He's used to Kyungsoo looking stressed around this time of year, but it's usually when there are tons of books and notebooks placed before him, not a phone.

Kyungsoo places his glasses beside the phone, a deep groan leaving his lips as he rests his head in the palms of his now free hands. "I have to go to Korea this summer."

"," Sehun says, in a deep breath as he leans back in his seat. "That... ." Despite being an English major. Despite working as a reporter for the university's newspaper and just making editor, Sehun is a little less than elegant when it comes to spoken word.

For the last month, if not longer, Kyungsoo has been glowing like a man in love. After weeks of asking and a few less than furtive glances on Sehun's part, Kyungsoo had finally disclosed what had him on cloud nine. Through months of hard work, he had gotten himself a Golden Ticket as he put it. This ticket would elevate Lucid Zine-ing, Kyungsoo's indie music zine, into something formidable. Something beyond the limits of the university's alternative crowd and, more importantly, it would bring him one foot in the door of Rolling Stone.

Kyungsoo divulged that this priceless opportunity was an exclusive piece on the latest indie darlings hailing from Seattle, land of grey and grunge, TACTIX. TACTIX was new and making waves in the alternative music scene, but they had only done a few interviews here and there so far. What Kyungsoo had planned, what he somehow managed to achieve, would get him noticed by nearly every pop culture magazine in existence. Kyungsoo would be guaranteed a job after school with this opportunity.

Sehun's honestly a little impressed that Kyungsoo isn't crying at the loss of opportunity.

"Is there anything you can-," he begins before clamping his mouth shut and swallowing his words. He may be ineloquent with his words, but he knows when he starts to sound like an idiot, and Kyungsoo, the prime picture of despair directly across from him, doesn't need him asking stupid questions.

"I need this exclusive for Lucid," Kyungsoo says, lifting his head up and heaving a listless sigh. "I can't let that go away or have some big-name step in." Sehun gives a slight nod in agreement. He knows that Lucid Zine-ing is a one-man show for the most part, but Kyungsoo does have people that help out here and there and the occasional guest writer or two. He thinks that maybe one of them can take over the exclusive, but he does not voice that thought. Kyungsoo is not stupid, and he wouldn't be showing such gloom over the prospect of losing the opportunity if he hadn't already explored those options.

Instead, Sehun volunteers to grab them both a drink, grimacing once more when he opens his fridge and finds nothing but a cheap six-pack that Kyungsoo loathes. Sehun doesn't entirely disagree with Kyungsoo's assessment that it tastes like hot piss, but Kyungsoo drinks wine and expensive liquors like he's a forty-year-old trapped in a twenty-one-year-old broke college kid's body.

Kyungsoo still pops the tab of the can when Sehun sits one in front of him, even as he reminds Sehun of his late classes as if Kyungsoo could even get a buzz from the sorry excuse of alcohol in his hand.

As they sit together drinking their crappy beer, Kyungsoo goes into greater detail regarding the state of his exclusive. Kyungsoo has called every person that knows how to put pen to paper and turn on a recorder. Each person that he has called has, in turn, given him a flimsy excuse for why they can't do the exclusive in place of him. It's last-minute, the semester is weeks away from being over, and most people have already decided on their summer plans. An impromptu tour with a group of young rock stars isn't every person's dream come true.

Kyungsoo decides to skip class as trashy daytime TV turns into late afternoon news and then more trashy TV. They eventually relocate to the living room. 

Kyungsoo lays strewn across the sofa, the cordless phone still on his person, and Sehun sits on the floor, knees drawn to his chest and clutching a second beer.

Sehun's flipping through television channels when Kyungsoo sits up with a start, nearly dropping the phone on Sehun's head.

"Sehun," he calls out, looking down and meeting his eyes. "Can't you do it?"

Sehun freezes at the question, almost squeezing the can of beer just from tensing. "I'm supposed to go to Florida with Sooyoung this summer."

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and leans back in his seat while Sehun tries not to sigh at the reaction. It's apparent to everyone that has ever seen Kyungsoo in the same room as Sooyoung that he does not like her. Sooyoung says he doesn't understand multi-dimensional women and hates when they don't fit into the boxes they should. Sehun thinks she might be right since he's her boyfriend, and he just barely gets her himself. Sooyoung's music knowledge is extensive, from pop and R&B to rock and classical. She even knows some of the same songs Kyungsoo's grandmother in Korea knows. She's intelligent. Sehun met her in Introduction to Psychology 101 last year and fell in love over the course of her helping him turn his C- to an A. She's also just extremely attractive, and although Sehun knows that he's not the ugliest man alive, he still can't stop himself from wondering how someone like her can date someone like him. Sooyoung oozes confidence, and Sehun is awkward on the best of days and is still struggling to figure himself out on the worst.

Sooyoung is his first adult relationship. His first relationship, if he doesn't count the spin-the-bottle games and seven minutes in heaven that dominated his time in high school, which he does. And, after a year of dating, he had agreed to go to Florida with her to meet her parents. He's going to play golf and discuss the market with her commercial real estate agent father and do whatever it is one does with your girlfriend's rich mother, probably drive her to a Spin class. It wasn't something he could just skip out on.

"This is for your future," Kyungsoo stresses, a glare crossing his features. "I'm giving up my chance of getting into Rolling Stone, and what better a replacement than another person that actually wants to be a journalist. Sooyoung will understand. Sooyoung would take it if she was in your place."

Kyungsoo is not wrong; Sooyoung would understand. She is ambitious. Whatever goals she has she meets, she even has a five-year plan and an alternative one just in case.

"Look," Kyungsoo presses, "you can do the whole meet-the-family thing during Christmas, and then you'll have much more interesting things to talk about other than being made editor on your university's newspaper."

"That's another thing," Sehun presses. "The team usually comes back to school a week early so that we can work on the paper. I'm an editor now. I can't skip that to play part-time interviewer/part-time roadie to some alternative rock band halfway across the country."

"They'll understand," Kyungsoo replies, sitting up again and staring into Sehun's eyes with a look of understated desperation. "Come on, Sehun."

"Not if I'm giving the interview to a different publication," Sehun retorts. "Or, did you forget I'm supposed to be the arts' editor?"

"Please, Sehun," Kyungsoo asks, presses his hands together, the look of desperation on his face clearer now.

"I'll see if I can move some things around," Sehun says with a sigh. "No promises, though."

"That's all I ask," Kyungsoo says, grinning for the first time that evening.

←------------------------→

Sehun's not really sure how he ends up handing the keys to his silver Honda Civic to a valet two weeks later. No, that's a lie. Kyungsoo hardly ever asks anything of Sehun, and the one time he does, it's something that will benefit Sehun. Yes was inevitable. So only two days after kissing Sooyoung goodbye at the airport, Sehun finds himself suffering from what feels like a bad case of whiplash. One second he's planning out summer in Florida, and the next, he's walking into the fanciest building he's ever been to.

A group of men exit as Sehun enters, wearing pressed suits, one talking on his cell phone and another glancing at his expensive watch. It makes Sehun pull his sports jacket a little tighter, fiddling with the buttons and feeling even more like a sore thumb in his polo shirt as the waiter leads him to his table.

The three men he's supposed to meet are wearing suits in black, gray with pinstripes, and navy. Kyungsoo is already there as well, dressed in a white button-up with black slacks. Introductions are swiftly made. The man in the black suit is the label's lawyer, pinstripes is the label's PR person, and navy is TACTIX'S manager. Kyungsoo, the PR rep, and the lawyer do most of the talking. Sehun lets him, only speaking up when he's asked something directly and drinking expensive sparkling water poured from a crystal container.

By the end of the meeting, a contract is passed to Sehun. Most of the stipulations laid out to him. It isn't as strict as he expects. However, he internally frowns when he reads that he must give them a copy of his article before it can be published in Lucid Zine-ing, the thought of censure weighing heavy on his mind. It doesn't say anything about publishing anywhere else, not that he would without Kyungsoo's explicit permission, but Kyungsoo had mentioned something about a chapter in his memoir when he was still trying to convince Sehun to accept the job. At the end of the meeting, the manager, Junmyeon, hands him a laminated paper of tour rules that has him quirking a brow as he goes over it.

"This will be interesting, I guess," Sehun mutters, passing the rule set over to Kyungsoo.