Chanhee hissed as his arm emerged from the warmth of his numerous blankets, grasping blindly for his ringing cellphone. Finding it, he brought it to his ear and mumbled, "It's ten in the morning, Byunghun..."

   "Doesn't matter. You should be up by now anyways. Take a shower, freshen up, wear your best casual-formal outfit, and meet me outside at a quarter to twelve. Understand, or should I repeat?"

   Chanhee blinked blearily, trying to wake up his mind. "What the hell does casual-formal mean?" he asked.

   "Slacks, white button-down shirt, and possibly a tie. No sneakers. Also, before I forget, try to warm up your singing voice. You're going to need it."

   "Whoa, wait, what?" That woke the investigator up. He sat up, flinging the giant mass of blankets to the other side of the bed as he scrambled to get up. "How do you know I can sing? I've never sung around you before!" Chanhee flung open his closet door, beginning to look through it for appropriate 'casual-formal' clothing.

   "Heard you in the bathroom when I had my ear up to the door," Byunghun said all too casually.

   "And why exactly did you have your ear up to—?"

   "There's no time for stupid questions like that! Get ready and I'll tell you everything on the way to our interview. And seriously, warm up your voice."

   With those final words, Byunghun hung up, leaving Chanhee to fume to himself as he searched through his closet.

***

At exactly a quarter to twelve, Chanhee emerged from the door to his apartment building just as a shiny black van pulled up. The passenger side door opened, and Chanhee nervously smoothed down the front of his shirt (freshly ironed and a crisp, bright white) before getting into the car. The psychic sat in the driver's seat, only turning to look at Chanhee once he closed the door.

   "Should've worn a tie," he said with a click of his tongue and a shake of his head. Before Chanhee could defend himself, Byunghun slammed down on the gas pedal and they were off. 

   They zoomed down the street, swerving from lane to lane to avoid slow cars. Luckily driving like this wasn't exactly unheard of in their town, so they didn't attract any unwanted attention. Chanhee sat stiffly, fingers wrapped so tightly around the armrests his knuckles were beginning to turn white. He kept his eyes-- which were slightly widened and had dilated pupils --straight ahead, looking out the window.

   "So, I'm going to explain things now," Byunghun said after a few minutes of silence. "Save your questions until the end, and even then save them unless they're absolutely important."

   Taking Chanhee's silence as his cue to continue speaking, that's exactly what the psychic did.

   "After doing more research on Seohyun, I came across an interview in a recently published magazine. She announced she would be holding a contest to find two new instructors- one to teach her an instrument, any instrument; and one to help her hone her apparently already well developed singing skills. You being quite the singer, and me being quite the violin player myself, I figured if we could somehow manage to both be chosen as her instructors, that'd be our way in.

   "However, we can't exactly guarantee both of us will get in. You, I fully believe, are a shoo-in. It's me I'm worried about, considering I haven't participated in any sort of orchestra since I turned eighteen and became too old for the youth orchestra. Because of this, we need to come up with a plan for if you're the only one of us who makes it. My idea was that you could use your charm to gain her trust, and you need to do that in any way possible. If she asks for romantic relations, you give her that. If she asks for companionship, you give her that. If she asks for more..."

   Byunghun cleared his throat. His cheeks had turned a light red, but he quickly eased it away and continued his speech. "If she asks for more...intimate relations, you give her that if you can. Trust is essential, and if she believes you are trustworthy enough the possibilities of what she may reveal are endless. I'm working on getting the number of her parents' home, but if you can get it before me that would be perfect. We only have two-and-a-half more weeks left to get that big bonus, so you need to be willing to put in the extra effort. Do you understand, or do I need to go over something for you?"

   With no response, Byunghun frowned. "Chanhee? Chanhee, were you even listening?"

   After a twenty minute delay post-car ride that included calming Chanhee down from his anxiety attack and re-explaining the plan, the two walked into the large theater, following the other hopeful teachers. Everyone stopped to sign in and get their name tags, and then took their seats in the auditorium. Nervous, mindless chatter filled the room; Chanhee began to whisper back-and-forth with the woman next to him, while Byunghun had closed his eyes, feigning sleep to avoid speaking to whoever sat next to him.

***

   It took almost an hour for Chanhee and Byunghun to find themselves on stage, in front of a camera and judges and the many other people who were auditioning. They stood side by side, Chanhee's shoulders squared back and Byunghun's slouching, and both of them had their eyes locked onto the sole female sitting behind the judging table. Her eyes, wide and so seemingly innocent, stared right back up at them, her curiosity not even hidden.

   "Lee Byunghun and Lee Chanhee," said Soohyun, her voice as warm as a summer breeze. "Are you two siblings?"

   "No, no, definitely not," Chanhee answered quickly. "We—"

   "So, you're boyfriends?"

   "What?"

   "It's quite alright if you are. I'm not one to judge." The singer tilted her head, a smile forming on her lips. "So are you boyfriends or not?"

   Byunghun clamped a hand on his partner's shoulder, grinning widely. "We are. Of course, we'd hope to be married, but changing our last names to match each other was as close as we could get."

   A look of sympathy quickly overtook the singer's happy expression. "Oh, that's such a shame. I'm really sorry to hear that..." She glanced at one of the men sitting next to her, who nodded slightly, and she then turned back to the two on stage. "If we could hurry and see your auditions, I'd appreciate it. There's a lot of people behind you."

  "Of course," said Byunghun, giving Chanhee's shoulder a squeeze and shooting a pointed look at him. "We'll be performing a duet."

  Soohyun leaned forward in her seat, obviously interested.

A/N: WHOA LOOK IT'S THE FIRST AUTHOR'S NOTE!!!!!! 
     idk what to say actually. uhm. i'd apologize for how short this chapter is, but like,
     the next parts i had written just didn't flow well at all. besides,
     shorter chapters = more suspense = ??? = jackpot
     i will apologize for how long this took to get written though!! i'm not sure why it did,
     but it did. and i blame procrastination for that. :^)