Concerts were an amazing possibility for a singer or a group of singers to enjoy the presence of their fans, to party with them or share tears together. They proved that no one of them were alone, that they were a huge family.

Cho Kyuhyun hated concerts.

Because if you’re a security member and have to hold back a crowd of hysterically screaming teenagers for two hours, while behind you some guys in too tight pants were jumping around on the stage, trying to make those teenagers scream even louder in your ears… then you hate concerts.

This was why the tall brunet immediately declined as he was asked to cover the New Years shift for his co-worker.

“Come on, just this time okay? It’s only a small concert, it’s a solo singer celebrating new Year and his birthday – poor guy was born the 1^st January – together with his fans. And I promised my girlfriend to visit her parents together with her this year.” his co-worker pleaded.

Kyuhyun sighed. “I have already plans for New Year as well.”

The other man scoffed. “We both know you’ll just drink wine the whole evening until you’re so drunk that you aren’t even able to play your beloved games.”

The brunet didn’t even try to deny this rather sad fact, because it was entirely true. New Year was always quite lonely for him, since the rest of his family lived in China, and he didn’t really felt the desire to visit either them or one of the few friends he had.

Another sigh. “Alright, I’ll cover your shift. But you owe me!”

“Thanks, Kyuhyun!” the other smiled happily and walked away, his cell phone already in his hand, probably to tell his girlfriend the good news.  

Kyuhyun leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

He had to remember to buy more earplugs.

Everyone around him was either running, cursing or yelling at somebody. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes as he opened the pack of earplugs and escaped from the noisiness around him. The last hour until the concert started was always the same. Suddenly nothing worked anymore, and everyone tried to find someone else to blame. It had taken Kyuhyun exactly half an hour during his first job, to realize that security members were seen as easy victims. The guys which had dared to blame him though had only needed five minutes to realize that they had been wrong.

No one messed with Kyuhyun, because the young brunet knew perfectly how to fight back.

One look on his watch told him that he had only half an hour left before he needed to enter the performance hall. He picked up one of the various flyers of one of the tables. You could only see the shadow of a guy with a guitar, and a few snowflakes in the background.

Lee Sungmin

Kyuhyun snorted. He had never heard of this guy before, but if he was honest, he didn’t really know any of the artists nowadays. Most of the singers he listened to were already dead – simply because like this.  he didn’t have to fear to work during one of the concerts.

He looked up from the flyer as he suddenly felt someone tipping on his left shoulder. He winced in surprise before turning around. Kyuhyun’s eyes widened slightly as he took In the sight of the cute guy in front of him. Although the other wore wide, a little bit shabby clothes, he looked as if his body was in great shape. And his wide sparkling eyes made Kyuhyun want to rethink the whole I-don’t-need-anything-besides-Starcraft-and-black-coffee attitude of himself.

The guy in front of him stared at him as if he was waiting for something, before his lips started moving, but without any sound coming from them. Kyuhyun looked at him dumbly, until he suddenly realized that he never took out those earplugs.

He smiled apologetically and pulled said earplugs out. “Sorry, could you repeat what you just said?” he asked as politely as he was able to with the horror lying ahead of him.

“Sure, I just asked if you have by any chance a bottle of water, because someone took mine and it seems as if it was the only one left in the whole building.” The cute guy rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, succeeding in actually making Kyuhyun smile for the first time this evening.

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen a drop of water the whole evening.” He chuckles as the guy in front of him starts to pout. “You should try asking the stylists if they can steal a bottle from this Sungmin guy, you know, the singer? These so called stars always have everything in their private rooms.”

The other guy blinked a few times, looking slightly irritated. Before Kyuhyun could apologize for whatever he had done wrong, the other suddenly smiled brightly.

“You kind of sound annoyed.”

“Yeah well, I kind of am annoyed.” Kyuhyun replied. “No one wants to bear with a hysteric crowd of teenage girls, especially not today.”

“I know what you mean.” An understanding nod. “What’s your name by the way?”

“Kyuhyun, Cho Kyuhyun.” The brunet answered, without even knowing why it was so easy to speak to the stranger. “And yours?”

The other grinned. “Sungjin.” Sungjin sighed. “So you don’t like concerts very much, huh?”

Kyuhyun scoffed, leaning on the wall beside him. He couldn’t figure out why he liked Sungjin, but he didn’t want to fight it either. The other was cute, and seemed really nice, and Kyuhyun was gay enough to appreciate that.

“No, no I can’t say I really like concerts. I really wish there would be at least one concert during which I could just relax and maybe even listen to the music.”

Sungjin smiled. “What kind of music do you like? Have you ever listen to Lee Sungmin?”

Kyuhyun shook his head. “If I did, then I didn’t know it was him. I can’t remember his name at all.” Remembering Sungjin’s first question he shrugged. “I listen to all kinds of music, but I love ballads. They just…” he stopped, unable to think of the right words to express himself.

“I know what you mean.” Sungjin laughed.  “Well, who knows, I’ve heard Lee Sungmin will mainly perform ballads this evening, so maybe his fans won’t be too… hysteric.”

“Well, I hope so.” Kyuhyun grinned. Suddenly he heard someone call his name from behind him, and he turned around to meet the stressed eyes of Jungsoo, his boss.

“You need to go out, Kyuhyun.” the older said, looking back and forth between Kyuhyun and Sungjin curiously.  

“Okay.” Kyuhyun nodded, smiling shortly at Sungjin. “Well, see you around?”

“Oh, definitely.” Sungjin said, winking at him before turning around and heading in the opposite direction.

Kyuhyun smiled to himself, thinking that maybe the new year would be better than the past one.

“I thought you didn’t know Lee Sungmin?” Jungsoo suddenly asked, his brows furrowed as they walked towards a hidden side entrance.

Kyuhyun looked at the other in confusion. “Well, yes… I don’t know him.”

“And who do you think you just talked to?” Jungsoo asked in a disbelieving voice.

“Err… his name is Sungjin. And he’s…” Kyuhyun stopped, realizing that he actually had no idea what the other was doing backstage of the concert. “He’s… nice.”

Jungsoo laughed. “Oh God, for a genius you’re really dumb sometimes, aren’t you?” He smiled at the now completely confused and slightly offended Kyuhyun. “Sungjin is the name of his younger brother. You just talked to the famous singer, dancer and composer, Lee Sungmin.”

Kyuhyun groaned, muttering a few “That can’t be true” as he opened the door to the hall, being welcomed by loud chatting and a few screams.

Did he really just complained about concerts… in front of the performing singer?

And he thought he couldn’t screw up more than back in high school, when he gave his first (and last) girlfriend those peanut cookies. Turned out she had a peanut allergy. She didn’t die, fortunately, but their relationship did.

Kyuhyun stared anxiously at the stage as the lights were finally turned off. One single spotlight , revealing a simple chair and a guitar leaning on it. Kyuhyun could hear some excited squeals behind him, and sighed before turning his back towards the stage. This was another reason why he didn’t like concerts very much. He had to face the audience the whole time, so even though he sometimes could hear the music (through all those screams), he never saw anything of the actual performance.

Suddenly the screams became much louder, and Kyuhyun rolled his eyes as one girl smashed her elbow right into his stomach to get a few centimeters nearer to the stage.

“I’m very happy so many of you are here tonight… celebrating the beginning of a new year, and also my birthday. Let’s not talk about the age though, alright.”

Kyuhyun scoffed as he immediately recognized the soft voice of ‘Sungjin’. No way this guy was older than twenty.

“Actually… before we start I have a little request… do you want to know what it yes?”

“YES!!” a girl somewhere near Kyuhyun screamed.

Kyuhyun groaned in annoyance, though he couldn’t help but be curious as well about the singer’s request. He just wished he could actually turn around to watch Sungmin.

“Well… I just met a really handsome guy backstage…”

Kyuhyun tensed. No way… Sungmin wouldn’t…

“He’s one of the security guys you see standing around here…”

Kyuhyun could feel how dozens of piercing eyes belonging to the girls (and guys) in front of him were suddenly directed on him.

“I think he’s really interesting and I want to spend some time with him after the concert… But if you give him a hard time and scream really loud the whole time he’ll probably just go home and play some games… and I would be really sad… on my birthday… you don’t want that, right?”

“NO!!” the same girl screamed, but she was immediately hushed by everyone around her, and a guy at the right of Kyuhyun even apologized to him.

“So how about we just have a calm but still joyful concert? Let’s show him our best side, because he honestly didn’t even know me when we met half an hour ago.”

Kyuhyun chuckled as surprised gasps could be heard through the whole concert hall.

“Okay, so I hope this will go smoothly, and f it does, I’ll meet said guy after the concert in my private rooms, backstage. Maybe I can show him a better way to forget the world outside than earplugs.”

Sungmin grinned and picked up the guitar. He couldn’t see Kyuhyun in the audience, but he knew the other had heard every word he had said. And he also expected the taller to come.

Kyuhyun just thought about how she shouldn’t have left his laptop tuned on, because obviously he wouldn’t be at home as fast as he had thought.

Hope you liked it^^

Happy New Year

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE SUNGMIN