going hardcore

chapter 14 | going hardcore

His eyes meet Woohyun’s and he can feel himself melt inside. Time seems to stop as they stare into each other’s eyes. Woohyun looks at him with an unreadable expression, his eyes dark. The world starts to spin again and everything goes into action. Myungsoo is winking when he passes and in the next few seconds, they’re one stage.

A moment passes and they plug in their instruments. Sunggyu’s eyes are fixated on Woohyun’s who taking his place at the microphone stand. Woohyun nods to his band mates and holds the mic with one hand, waiting. The drummer counts to four and then the music is starting.

Sunggyu is instantly mesmerized once they start. Myungsoo is playing the guitar with expert ease and Woohyun is effortlessly singing out into the crowd as if he wasn’t nervous at all. Sunggyu never knew Woohyun was that good, either. Sunggyu can feel the charisma and confidence that oozes off the stage and Woohyun is expert in the art of getting the crowd going. Sunggyu adds this to the list of reasons why Woohyun is the definition of perfection.

Wow, is all Sunggyu can coherently think. Sunggyu gapes at the stage; he’s just so speechless it’s hard to do anything but stare like an idiot. Dongwoo notcies Sunggyu’s dazed state and he taps his jaw, though not even this fazes Sunggyu.

When their performance is finished, the crowd is cheering loudly and Woohyun is saying thank you before leaving the stage. The announcer gets on stage and thanks Woohyun’s band for a great performance. “Alright, time for our final band. Give it up for Coma Beat!”

Hoya pushes Sunggyu forward and they walk on stage. Sunggyu is blinded by lights and admits that he can barely see the crowd. The audience is relatively quiet, waiting expectantly for the last performance of the night. Sunggyu freezes up; how is he supposed to do this? His legs start to shake and his hands tremble as he reaches up to grasp the microphone.

Yongguk senses Sunggyu’s nervousness and steps up to him, whispering in his ear, “This is our time to shine. Show ’em how amazing you are. I know you can do it. We’re right here behind you.”

Sunggyu gulps and Yongguk makes his way to the drums again. He relaxes at the sound of his voice. Yongguk is right – this is their moment to prove how cool they can be. He closes his eyes and pretends that they’re just in the practice room. He calms his breathing and refuses to think about the silent crowd. They don’t matter right now. He just wants to sing like he’s never sung before.

Sunggyu looks back at his band members who are all smiling at him. “Let’s do this, yeah?” Hoya says.

Sunggyu nods, returning their smiles. He nods once at Yongguk and Yongguk takes this as his signal to start counting. He counts up to four and then Dongwoo is starting the song off with his bass. Sunggyu takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. And then he opens his mouth and starts to sing.

“I think I’m drowning

Asphyxiated

I wanna break this spell

That you’ve created.”

He doesn’t think about the crowd. He doesn’t think about the stage. He thinks about singing because he loves to sing and it’s his passion. He thinks about how much fun he’s having. He thinks about his friends and how great it is that they’re doing this together.

“You’re something beautiful

A contradiction

I wanna play the game

I want the friction

You will be the death of me

Bury it

I won’t let you bury it

I won’t let you smother it

I won’t let you murder it

Our time is running out

You can’t push it underground

You can’t stop it screaming out.”

Sunggyu’s lost himself now. He loses himself to the drums, the bass, the guitar, the lights and his own voice. He loses himself in the pounding roar of the crowd.

“I wanted freedom

Bound and restricted

I tried to give you up

But I’m addicted.

Now that you know I’m trapped

Sense of elation

You’d never dreamed of

Picking a fixation.

You will squeeze the life out of me.”

And then he’s going at the bridge and the chorus again. He belts out the notes with all his heart, as if his life depends on it. He’s starting to wonder why he even had stage fright in this first place. He suddenly doesn’t feel so painfully shy anymore. Maybe all it took was support?

The crowd is going wild now, totally surprised by the kid who came onstage with his shoulders slightly hunched and his eyes fixated on the ground with a band no one had ever heard of. Sunggyu feels happy, so god damned happy. Seriously, he didn’t think he’d enjoy this so much. Ecstatic is an understatement.

The song comes to a finish with a high note and a final strum of the guitar. The audience erupts into roars and applause. The crowd is so blindingly loud that Sunggyu can’t hear his own thoughts. Had he seriously just done that? Was he really the same Sunggyu that performed that song only a moment ago?

His shyness inevitably starts to surface again and he wants the world to swallow him up into a hole. The band unplugs their instruments and as they exit the stage, the three jump on Sunggyu, ruffling his hair and hugging him tightly.

“That was so ing awesome!” Hoya says, breathless.

Sunggyu can’t even find his voice. He supposes he left it out on the stage. “Wow, that’s the best I’ve ever seen you sing!” Dongwoo clings onto Sunggyu like a child and their blanket.

“It was almost like you never had stage fright at all,” Yongguk observes, winking at Sunggyu.

When Sunggyu finds his voice, he just kind of says, “Asdfghjkl?”

Dongwoo, Hoya, and Yongguk laugh and they push Sunggyu along, joining to other bands in wait. Sunggyu catches sight of Myungsoo who is looking at Sunggyu appreciatively. Sunggyu’s eyes involuntarily travel to the boy who stands beside Myungsoo. Woohyun is visibly gaping at Sunggyu. Woohyun had not expected that from Sunggyu and considering he didn’t even know Sunggyu could sing it was quite the shock.

Sunggyu thinks it’s all worth it to see the expression on Woohyun’s face.

Well then.

Not proofread. Sue me.

Also short. Sue me.

WOW, WOOHYUN ALL YOU CAN DO IS GAPE AT SUNGGYU? GET YO O'ER DUR AND KISS THAT BOY.

*suddenly starts singing "Kiss The Girl" from The Little Mermaid*

If you're wondering what song they sang, here it is. This song is Time is Running Out by Muse, personally my favourite band of all time. And I hear Sunggyu likes them, too. I was maybe going to do a song called Hysteria by Muse because I also heard that Sunggyu even performed that song with his band in high school, but this is one of my all time favourite Muse songs and just imagining Sunggyu singing it is heaven.