A/N: Just as promised update at the end of the week! Tons of kisses for subscribing and commenting and reading and everything!

Merry Christmas (if you celebrate that). Otherwise Happy Almost 2013, until next time!!!

“I’m done with this story.” Kyungsoo sighed as he slammed his wet dishtowel on the table he was currently cleaning.

“What happened? Did you meet Kai?” Jongdae, who had been running behind the singer while he cleaned around, asked.

“I did.” Kyungsoo hissed under his breath.

“Aaand?” His friend batted his eyelashes cutely, trying to catch his attention.

“He’s the scariest, most hateful person I’ve met in my entire life!” The short guy, with the big eyes, under the name Do Kyungsoo, shouted, causing his colleague to flinch from next to him.

“That bad, huh?” Jongdae frowned.

“Not only did he refuse to help me, because, apparently, I had nothing valuable to give him, he also insulted me, like no one has ever insulted me before.” It had already been a week and yet Kyungsoo could still feel his blood boil at the thought.

“At least he didn’t hurt you in any way.” Jongdae tried to console him.

“He didn’t need to use violence. His words were so strong and hurtful that tied my stomach in a knot and made me wanna cry like a hormonal teenager.”  Kyungsoo felt a sea of curses coming up his mouth but he pushed them back down his esophagus.  He was done caring about that wild, awful guy.

“Kyungsoo-yah!” The owner of the bar called out at him, at that moment.

“Yes, President.” Kyungsoo ran to the man obediently, trying to make his eager smile widen.

“Get ready, people are already gathering, so you can start your program in ten minutes.” The older man motioned at the full tables in front of the small stage.

“I got it!” The singer nodded obediently; more than relieved he could stop the cleaning earlier on a Saturday night.

He loosely put on a soft beige tie over his black shirt and rolled up his sleeves. He fixed his black pants and used some of Jongdae hair gel to shape up his short hair. 

Wearing the clothes the bar owner had given him, Kyungsoo didn’t look all that bad, he thought to himself. Sure he wasn’t ‘siren-like’, as the stupid swindler had called it. He didn’t have the looks that stole people’s hearts and created love at first sight, but he wasn’t the ugly piece of trash that Kai and his pet tiger had accused him of being, either.

He gathered all his confidence and got on stage, noticing the small crowd clapping their hands enthusiastically but forcing his eyes to stare at the floor and not think much about it.

Jongdae was only playing the piano tonight. He had complained about having a sore throat, earlier. Something about running in the rain and catching a cold, Kyungsoo couldn’t remember the details.

‘2AM?’ Jongdae mouthed to him from his seat in front of the piano However, his short friend shook his head. 

“How about 4MEN?” He the microphone and asked the crowd of customers who applauded and agreed enthusiastically.

“The Reason by 4MEN.” He said to Jongdae who nodded, focused on his playing.

(A/N: Listen to the song here)

Kyungsoo cleared his throat and took a deep breath. He needed to focus on the song as well.

But he couldn’t.

He was still feeling frustrated, images of a dark-skinned boy with a look of brutality, passing before his eyes.

That’s why he had picked this ballad in the first place. In order to relax and let it all go. He needed to forget those awful words.

‘Do you even know how people fall in love?

You’re nothing like that, Do Kyungsoo.

He’s out of your league.

Third-rate.

Bastard.’

He swallowed hard, steadying his breathing.

With this song, he was letting it all go.

Kai was just being an immature kid. He didn’t know the first thing about Kyungsoo. He didn’t know the first thing about love. Kim Junmyun was better than this. He wouldn’t just look at his face. He’d notice his heart and be thankful that Kyungsoo had given it to him.

Feeling the words flow nicely from his lips, Kyungsoo, finally, got his confidence back.

It was strange, though.

The anger was leaving him, these words didn’t hurt him anymore, but he was sad. Still sad, over a pair of dark eyes that shone with mischief, as their owner playfully accused Kyungsoo of planning to ‘grab Kim Junmyun and drive him crazy with lust’.

Kai hadn’t been completely bad, the singer thought.

He mentally patted himself in the back.

Yeah. It was better to feel just a little sorry for the little boy, who couldn’t understand love, instead of hating him.

Now, Kyungsoo was really into the song.

He sensed that surge of emotions which put him at the edge of his seat and made everything around him blurry and incomprehensible.

The sound of the piano made him dizzy, like he had just woken up and seen the sun shine though his window, or like he had been dancing and spinning around for along time.

And, to some extent, Kai was suddenly standing before his blurry eyes and Kyungsoo was singing to him. Saying that he forgave him. Because Kai was young and he didn’t know love yet. So Kyungsoo was willing to let it go. Kai must have been through a lot, too.

The singer knew, despite being tangled up in the song that the wild boy wasn’t really in front of him. And he was sure Kai would never hear all those things he had suddenly wanted to say to him.

The two of them were not meant to talk to each other, anyway.

Kyungsoo sang the final verse and closed his eyes, knowing that as soon as he opened them, the image of the swindler would be gone for good.

True enough, all he was met with when the piano stopped playing was the frantic applaud of the customers and the warm feeling in his chest.

Kyungsoo proposed another song to the crowd and after that another one.

It was a good night.

People seemed happy and Jongdae didn’t even protest that his friend was stealing his limelight.

“Good job man!” Chanyeol, their terribly tall and weird bartender, handed Kyungsoo a drink as soon as the smaller guy finished his performance and sat on a stool in front of the bar.

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo mumbled as he quickly gulped down half the drink, letting the sweet burning warm him up.

“Today, your voice was extra good.” Chanyeol spoke as he served another customer.

“My voice has been this way since I was fifteen. How could it be different today?” The singer raised an eyebrow at his friend’s antics. Trust Chanyeol to praise someone for the craziest of reasons...

“Your voice is good by nature, yes.” The tall bartender agreed. “Today, though, it was piercing through the walls and through the people too.”

Kyungsoo grimaced, feeling suddenly tired at how Chanyeol’s explanations always seemed to raise more question than they answered.

“What I’m trying to say,” The barman with the deep voice said slowly, like he was talking to a little kid, “is that, today your singing left a very strong impact on the customers. Usually, they say you are very talented, or that your voice has a nice flow, or something boring like that. But today, they just stared and gaped while you sang. It was like you got them under a spell!”

“Under a spell?” Kyungsoo chuckled a bit. “How do you even come up with these expressions?”

Chanyeol shrugged. “I heard it somewhere.”

“And what about your night? Anything fun happened?” The singer put a hand on the bar to support his head and gave his friend an interested glance.

“Not really. Well… a guy came over, had a drink, listened to your first song and said a couple of things. That was pretty interesting.” Chanyeol replied after a pause.

“That’s what every single person does, when they come to the bar. Usually, it’s not interesting at all.” The short guy finished the drink and rolled his eyes.

Chanyeol nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Usually, serving drinks and talking to customers is boring. But, then again, usually, your singing doesn’t pierce through people.” The tall guy winked playfully at Kyungsoo, for a reason that Kyungsoo still failed to see.

“Is this your weird way of saying that two unusual things have happened today?” The singer didn’t even know how he had managed to reach that conclusion all on his own, but, sure enough, he earned a wide smile from Chanyeol for doing it.

“Ha!” The bartender laughed loudly. “You, Do Kyungsoo, understood exactly what I was talking about. That means three unusual things happened today.”

Honestly, Kyungsoo didn’t know why he put up with Chanyeol’s antics after such a tiring day and a generally frustrating week.

“If I punched you in the face right now, would it count as four unusual things?” He glared at the tall guy.

However, his anger deflated completely, since his oblivious friend simple agreed that, yes, punching him would be the fourth unusual thing of the night.

It was a lost cause; trying to argue with Park Chanyeol.

“Okay!” Kyungsoo said decisively. “I think I’m officially, too tired to put up with you.” He jumped from the tall chair and waved the bartender off.

“Wait!” He hadn’t made it three feet away, when Chanyeol’s deep voice called after him. The tall friend was messing his curly hair awkwardly and Kyungsoo motioned for him to speak.

“I don’t know if I should give you this,” The bartender started, “you know me, I at making important decisions and taking big responsibilities.”

 “I know. That’s why you dropped out of Law School and became a barman.” Kyungsoo teased with a small smile.

“Well, anyway.” Chanyeol nodded, as if trying to persuade himself he was doing the right thing. “The unusually interesting guy, who came by earlier, left this for you.”

He searched his pockets frantically, pulling out on the bar, a bunch of things, including, some coins, a pen and even some chewed gum. Finally, the tall, clumsy guy found what he was looking for.

It was a small white paper and Chanyeol hurried to hand it over to his friend, like it was too big of a burden to keep it with him.

“Here.” He said. “It’s for you. So you decide what to do with it.”

And with that he hid inside some cupboard, pretending to be busy with some thing or another.

Meanwhile, Kyungsoo looked down at the note.

It was a neat handwriting, albeit a little small.

‘Have you heard of the Little Mermaid, Do Kyungsoo?

Come again tomorrow.

Kai.’

Kyungsoo felt a million thought mix up in his head.

Was this really Kai? Had he visited the bar Kyungsoo worked at? Why? And what ‘Little Mermaid’? He wanted him to go back to that scary place in Hongdae? And more importantly, was Kai ordering him around again?

It was all too much for the singer’s simplistic mind to explain.

Besides, it was already late.

He was going to think about it tomorrow.