"What took you so fudging long noona? I'm dead here!"

"Oooh, not even dying, just dead. Guess that means you don't have to eat now doesn't it?"

"No, it means I'm a zombie and I'm going to eat your brains. Braaainnnss~" Yuki yelped as Travis suddenly took hold of her scalp, flailing and giving the taller male a swift kick to the shin. The younger winced and whined, jumping up and down while holding his leg up to his chest, looking at Yuki with hurt in his eyes.

"Noona that was mean! How am I supposed to practice my dancing tonight with this?!"

"That's what you get for being an idiot!" Yuki huffed and glared at her saeng, giving him another punch to the arm, which induced that much more whining. "Help! A crazy Japanese lady is hurting meee!!"

"Yah yah people are going to think weird things about us if you keep shouting like that! Shut up! Aren't you hungry?!" Travis' eyes practically lit up. "Indeed I am. To the Chinese food! I want me some lo mein!" As if it were a practiced motion, Travis hooked his arm around Yuki's and practically pranced toward the cool Chinese place that Yuki had found a few months back. It'd been awhile since they came together; normally they'd have one or the other order take out and bring it back to the dorms, but since the restaurant itself was closer to their workplaces than the hostel, they both decided to dine in for a change.

It was a small restaurant at best; just a few booths and tables, tiled floors and a kitchen area in the back. The only staff were the family who owned it, and two delivery boys who worked part-time ever since their full-time guy got into an accident and took leave. Even so though, according to Travis, they had the best lo mein noodles in Seoul, so it was the go-to for Chinese. They also apparently had random open-mic times, which were pretty popular with regulars. Even Yuki had participated twice, showing off her creative improvs with her electric guitar and her powerful singing.

"Good afternoon!" Travis chirped, waving at the kindly ahjumma hostess who smiled. "Ah, Yuki, it's good to see you again. Is this your boyfriend?"

"B-b-boyfriend?! No way! This kid's just my idiot co-worker is all." The hostess laughed lightly, harmonising with Travis who nearly busted a gut as they were seated toward the back near the small stage that was reserved for open mic. Yuki huffed softly, but glared in Travis' direction as he continued to snicker, and promptly gave him another kick to the shin.

As Travis whimpered and held his leg, the waitress came around with glasses of water, and took their orders quickly. They were both simple after all; fried rice and lo mein, and an order of pork dumplings to go with it all. As the waitress left, the front door swung open, and a young teen boy with much too skinny legs and skinny jeans strolled in, his patchwork backpack tossed over one shoulder. Instantly, the brown eyed plastic fake glasses wonder noticed the dyed hair of a familiar young girl.

"Yuki-sshi! Annyeong!!" Ellington laughed, waving both his hands at the female who turned, and smacked her palm to her forehead.

"Great, two idiots."

"Ah, hey who's this Yu? A friend? Since when did you have those?" Travis ended up whimpering again, hugging his legs to his chest in his chair, pouting at Yuki who huffed, and then gave a wave to the bouncing delivery boy that ran over.

"Well, no need to be formal considering it's you two. Ellington, Travis, Travis, Ellington. Travis is older." She gestured between the whining older male and the laughing younger, and then rubbed her forehead again. "Aish, seriously someone tell me what I did to deserve this?"

"Nice to meet you Travis-hyung!" Travis' eyes almost lit up.

"He called me hyung. I like you!" And the two boys exchanged hands, sharing a silent moment of understanding and broship. Yuki almost slapped her face again, but decided two idiots weren't worth a red hand print on her forehead.

"Travis-hyung, is it that you happen to sing too? With the song of the birds and the harmony of the winds?"

Travis' expression fell a bit, slightly confused and trying to untangle Ellington's words. Once he understood about forty percent of what Ellington was trying to ask, he grinned and thumped his chest with his fist proudly. "Hell yea, you frickin' bet I do! One helluva singer right he--" And then he got punched in the arm for his foul mouth. A whine and whimper later, the two boys had situated themselves beside one another and went off on several tangents, basically exposing their lives to one another with dramatic hand gestures and loud words and Yuki stared in exasperation at the loudmouths. Why was it always the loudmouths she befriended. She almost cried in relief as their dumplings arrived and promptly shoved one in Travis' mouth to get him to shut it for two seconds, nibbling her own.

"Oh no no no you both should've order vegetable dumplings! Steamed! They're much better, and taste of the purity that is nature at it's best, nurturing our well-beings. Oh, and I also graciously welcome hyung to try our perfect soy dish! Menu item D5, it's the best we have to offer indeedly." Ellington continued his sudden praise on the dish while Travis blinked and laughed, still eating his dumplings so he couldn't exactly answer. Not that Ellington wasn't doing a perfectly fine job carrying the conversation by himself.

"Wait! Hyung, noona, I must part ways with you both for the barest of seconds, someone precious and beloved of mine will be arriving today! Destiny has given me my chance!" Both Yuki and Travis blinked in surprise at the declaration, but Travis grinned and gave the excited male a pat on the back before letting him run off to the stage.

Their food arrived soon after Elli had left, and Travis began picking out all the carrots from Yuki's fried rice. "Oh yea, your stupidity made me almost forget." Yuki grinned, taking a spoon full of the rice. "I found someone who might be willing to rap in our group!"

Travis almost dropped his carrots in surprise. "No way! Yuki that's fantastic! Whoo noona is awesome! Ya-sha, we're on a roll!" The older female laughed as Travis nearly jumped out of his chair and even more feverishly retrieved all the carrots from her fried rice. He went on, excitedly rambling about his new lyrics and ideas he had for their possible debut song. It was too early to be thinking about things like that in Yuki's opinion, but she let him go on. She was guilty of it too -- she'd already built a pretty good composition she was just itching to put words to.

The two ate together for a few minutes, Travis halfway through his noodles before a familiar song suddenly started playing in acoustics. "I know this song." As Ellington began to rap the beginning, Travis practically jumped over the table, running to stage and grabbing the mic as the restaurant go-ers clapped and cheered him on for his confidence. Ellington grinned as Travis joined in, singing in his powerful way and dancing along to the lyrics he knew by heart.

Yuki stared, blinking at the display, but she grinned and clapped along with the rest of the diners, captured by the two boys on stage. They both had quite the presence after all. Ellington playing acoustics with the backtrack, Travis singing as if he owned the song itself. Some of the crowd had even joined Travis in singing, after he egged them on with grand hand gestures and his dancing.

Ellington on the other hand, had turned his eyes toward the door. Two minutes into the song, a young girl with a dog had walked in, and backed out, and walked in again, eyes wide and clearly nervous in her big pink sweater and leggings. The large white dog looked excited at the musical display, and had begun to howl, inciting attention from the owner who had stepped out to observe the scene.

"Come on in! Bring your pooch too!" He called. The girl at the door almost froze, but her timid nature made her quite subservient. Plus Ellington had turned his attention to her, and she flushed at the familiar delivery boy flashing all his pearly whites at her. Quickly she ran in to order the same soy dish that Ellington was spouting on about earlier, before trying to take a seat. Unfortunately though, the attention she had caught wasn't going away.

In a heartbeat, Ellington changed the riff of the song, and Travis grinned, having also noticed the girl. He too, recognised this song, and backed off, jumping back after finishing on improv, and then running back to his noodles and Yuki. He sat down and stuffed a wad of noodle into his lips, and then yammered to Yuki. "Hey, should we invite Ellington?"

"We already might have a rapper, and you rap too."

"But he's pretty good."

"He's also totally into the little girl. Aish look at her, she's practically dying. I think he's trying to get her on stage. Can that shy thing sing?" Yuki observed the meek teen, spooning more rice into as the girl was handed the mic by rowdy diners, who clapped and egged her on.

In the end, it seemed like she had no other choice about it. She started out quiet, and Yuki sighed, a little disappointed. Until about forty seconds in that is. And then suddenly the pink sweater was waving her hips and her voice had risen in volume, and suddenly it was like a switch had been flipped, because she was a Wonder Girl and singing to capture.

Yuki stood quickly as the song finished, and Ellington exchanged a few words with the smaller girl. Travis blinked, looking up at his noona who was rushing out the door, following the younger female who had just picked up her food. It slowly came to him that Yuki was after that girl's talent. To Travis, he still thought she was too meek, but he supposed his noona was better at seeing potential than he was. He was the more critical type; no one could survive on stage with the frail nature that the pink sweater girl had exhibited. As the stage was cleared though, he grinned and ran to grab the mic again, challenging the diners to a karaoke sing off, and laughing at the cheers he got. Yup, this was definitely the life he wanted to live.

Outside, Yuki had stopped the pink sweater girl, and gave yet another rushed explanation of her and Travis' project. "So that's it. You know, big project, and you've got an amazing voice, you should totally join us." She beamed at the shy girl who stared at her, holding onto her dog's leash tightly.

"Oh, I'm Yuki by the way. Hanasawa Yuki."

"Oh. My name's.. Mabel Madigan." Mabel took a deep breath, looking much too nervous, even though she was facing another female. "I-I'm really not sure. I don't think.. well. I.."

"Just give it some time. Here, I'll give you my number, and you can call me with your answer later." Mabel couldn't refuse that grin. More or less she was frightened to, so the girls exchanged numbers and waved goodbye. As soon as Mabel was out of sight, Yuki let her shoulders slump and sighed. "Aish, this recruiting business is tough.."

As she walked back into the restaurant, her eyes met with one of the most startling, peculiar, choke-worthy scenes. Her jaw fell open, and her face contorted into an expression very similar to all the other diners.

Ellington had dropped to one knee, taken Travis' free hand, on the stage, and was looking up at the orange-headed male with the most serious expression ever. The music had stopped, and hushed whispers went around the restaurant.

"What is that kid doing? Is he proposing?"

"He can't, they're both way too young for marriage, and they're boys!"

"What's wrong with that? Woah look he's about to say something!" Yuki's eyes had never left the pair, and for once even Travis looked weirded out. The moment Ellington spoke though, Yuki let out the breath she didn't realise she'd been holding.

"Please please please let me be in your group too!! I can rap and I can dance and I'll work twice as hard on being able to sing like you hyung and I'm amazing and I'm a tortured soul!" Yuki slapped her hand to her forehead. So he had eavesdropped on her and Mabel. She shook her head, looking up and groaning at the expression on Travis' face.

"Great.. two idiots in the project."

Travis took Ellington by the shoulders, a wide grin on his face. "Yes!! You're in! You are so totally frickin' in!"

"Bae Taekryong you watch your mouth!!"

The night ended there, with an exchange of numbers between Ellington and Yuki, since Travis was kind of busy nursing his precious shins.

a/n :: Hello thar Ellington~ This be -hatchin's character. And yes, I finally got this done. FINALLY. /diesalittleinside. So sorry to everyone who's been waiting! ; ^; I will put up no excuses, I should've written this much sooner. I really liked how it turned out though, I think I got a hold for the characters pretty well. I also really enjoyed writing it, and I honestly think the dynamics were really amusing. Hopefully I can update sooner with the next chapter. I'm striving for at least one per week from now on. Anyway, the songs they sang are linked in the story, because I didn't want to interrupt the flow with lyrics and videos, it's just my personal preference. It'll probably change later in the story. I hope you all enjoyed though! Next up is.. Ha, bet you actually thought I'd tell. Yea I'm still mean, even if I feel guilty for making y'all wait haha. There's only a few people left though, so I guess it'll be a lot easier to predict.

The hint from the last chapter was Travis mentioning the Chinese restaurant in his text. One of the teasers was Yuki and Elli meeting for the first time in the restaurant he worked at! Was it too subtle? Tell me your thoughts in the comments please! I want to know what you all think ; u; Keep Kae company! Another note is that the next chapter will be an omake, but a pretty important one, so I'll put it out there to read it, otherwise you might be confused later haha. Most of the omakes might actually be like that haha, but some might just be for fun. Anyway, Kae out! Enjoy Ellington, and some of the updated story formatting haha.