He Bangs The Drums

Nieljoe One Shot Collection
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-----Casual Warning. Not particularly ual or erted, just a lot of swearings-----

 

"I think that's Ursa Minor right there", I pointed a random star constellation in South.

A wind of silence welcomed me. I looked to Byunghun-hyung beside me, already passed out with a bottle of soju on his hand. The soju bottle was bigger than himself. I sighed and picked it up, then drank what's left from it.

We spent a lot of time on this roof together after gigs. It was Chanhee-hyung's flat rooftop. He was the son of powerful Itaewon mob and also happened to be our lead guitarist. The laughing dumbface beside him was Minsoo-hyung, he was a pro gamer on his own, he played the bass. They were happily light up some fireworks with some chicks. We're just small band playing at clubs in Hongdae but somehow we managed to get some groupies. We're not ugly compared to other bands, I should admit that. Though for me I guess because I was the vocalist who appeared in the front so girls noticed me and charmed by it.

Byunghun-hyung on the other hand... I think girls saw him as cute or something, so even when his small figure hid behind the big set of drums, they still went gaga over him. Tsk, for me he was just a clumsy hyung like I always knew. Nothing changes since we met for the first time in highschool. He was all mighty and snob, asked me if I can play the guitar for school graduation ceremony. He played piano at that time, wrote a song that wasn't good at all. But his mother was the head of parents council so yeah, he got it.

Spoiled brat he is. When I met Chanhee-hyung in college I finally met someone that play guitar real good. I asked him to teach me more about guitar, we made some demos and after awhile we were thinking that beats on Garageband won't cut it so we approached Minsoo-hyung that was on another band before to joined us, and he agreed. We then realized we need a drummer, and as weird as that... Byunghun-hyung raised his hand one night at a friend's house party saying "Oh I can play drums, I'm really good at it". He was not.

But well... since he was a stubborn guy anyway, he practiced a lot and finally it gets better every time. Gonna give kudos for that. Though the way he bragged about it is still annoying... Damn. Why am I even friends with him in highschool? I looked at that sleeping face, his hand was swaying right and left looking for his soju bottle. He then grabbed me and tried to kiss me while mumbled; "Soojoo Soojoo".

"Jesus, get a grip, you retard!", I tossed him away while I heard the girls behind were laughing at us. Soojoo was a model that went to our gig a lot, by the way. All four of us have thirst over her. But of course her boyfriend was the guy who owns all Hongdae clubs where we're playing and partying so yeah, she was beyond our reach.

"Hey, Nielie, did you know...", one girl approached me.
"What? I'm tired today I don't want anything", I welcomed her to light up my cig though.
"Nah... I'm Chanhee's girl! I don't like you kekeke", she laughed exactly like she texted.

"Do you know that everyone ships you with Byunghun", she continued.
"Ship? What the hell is that mean?", I my cig and blew the smoke to the open air.
"The fangirls, they love the idea of you and Byunghun together", she giggled.
"Haaa? like, ro... man... ti cally?", I said.
"Yeah, don't act stupid, it was a well known commodity to market your music!", she slapped my head.
"Ouch!", I yelled while she was forcing a smile.

"That's actually right", Chanhee-hyung suddenly rounded his arms on my shoulder.
"Yeah, do something with Byunghun", Minsoo-hyung added the gasoline to the fire.
" off... he was in the back playing drums anyway, I was in the very front. How that... why do I even think about it?", I opened my mouth in disbelief.
"You're both highschool friends aren't you?", asked Chanhee-hyung.
"Yeah?"
"Then we could work around that story", Chanhee-hyung giggled. He was drunk for sure.

I cringed at the possibility of doing those things. And yet, I still took him home, not only because he was indeed drunk, but that was just what I do since the dawn of time. I'm always driving him home. The kid was 22 and he still can't drive. Why did I even friend him, I asked myself once again. I giggled when I looked at his peaceful sleeping face.

He probably was annoying as but I know I just can't hate him. Maybe I like the fact that he was dependent on me anyway. .

I rang the bell of his mansion-y house, his mom then went outside to pick her favorite son inside.
"You bring him here drunk again next time, I swear I'll call the police!", she yelled at me. With white aloe mask on her face it was kinda hard not to laugh.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Lee... I tried my hard not to let Byunghun-hyung overdrink but I guess your son likes soju so much", I chuckled.
"You!", she yelled and pointed her finger on me. She then breathed in so deeply I could see her wrinkles sunk down to her skin. Cracking all the aloe mask she put on.
"What a bad influence you are", she hissed and slammed the door on me.

Typical Saturday night, I sighed.

In the next day, Byunghun-hyung forced me to take him went around town. He wanted to buy a Halloween costume he said. I didn't know why but I said yes, the Sunday mass was boring anyway, so I found an excuse to exclude myself out.

"What do you wanna be anyway?", I asked him that still looked drowsy from all the hangover.
"A cat!", he cheered.
"Cat? ew... you're too old for that", I ruffled his hair.
"Aaah! But girls will like it, don't you think?", he chuckled.
"I thought you hate it when people say you're cute. You always want to be this badass guy that everyone respects, huh?! be a doberman or something!"
"Yah! why couldn't you be supportive just once! Aren't we friends?", he sulked.

"I'm just sort of stuck with you, you don't have any friend in highschool so I took a pity", I teased and watched his reaction. 1... 2... I counted on my head.
"Watch your mouth!", he slapped me. I knew he would slap me. I just giggled and said sorry to him, not forgetting the "hyung-nim" to address him. Oh.. I knew it annoyed him the most. After went around Seoul for three hours or so, finally Byunghun-hyung decided to bought the white cat suit he saw in Itaewon two hours earlier. So I had to drove him back to get the in' suit.

"Nyaaaan!", he wore the suit and tried to bite me in the car.
", hyung! what you're doing!", I looked at him and secretly think that he was cu~ nope. Not cute. Not cute at all. It's embarrassing.
"It doesn't look good on me? but I think it's good enough... hahaha", he awkwardly laughed, probably regret his own action but Snapchatted it anyway.

"Ugh, I hate Coldplay", I changed the radio.

"Hey, have you listen to Radiohead's new album?", asked Byunghun-hyung quite seriously, still with his cat suit, though.
"Ah yes, A Moon Lamp Pole, right?", I said.
"Pff! It's A Moon Shaped Pool, you . Don't try to act like you know everything!", he was angry for no reason.
"Yeah, whatever that is. I haven't, you have?", I asked.
"Yeap. Order an LP yesterday", he said.
"You're into vinyls and listen to weird Radiohead's albums...", I chuckled.

"What?! you don't even listen to it, how do you know it was weird?!", he said half yelling.
"Radiohead didn't make anything normal after OK Computer. I'm The Bends kind of person but I'm not a fake like you", I said.
"What?!!!"
"Just because you're a drummer from a "rock band" now you don't have to force yourself to... become edgy and , you listen to Red Velvet the other day, don't you?!", I sighed.
"Yeah? what's wrong with that, I listen to Radiohead and Red Velvet... I don't see a problem here!", he ped the cat suit and threw it to the backseat. But the cat ears remained.

"Before this, you only listen to KPop", I continued.
"I like KPop. It's our nation's pride anyway", he answered.
"How embarrassing to be Koreans then", I giggled.
"God, Niel, if you want to be British or American then get the off from this country, stop playing in Hongdae because ! no one gets us, right?! we are just bunch of kinda-cute looking pretty faces, that's why we have tons of fangirls behind us... you know they don't listen to our music. It's just happen that other bands are ugly as ", he blurted.

"Hahahahaha", I laughed so hard.
"Right? now what makes us different from those KPop boys?!", he chuckled.
", we're KPop Hongdae boys", I said.
"Yeah... do you know that they're making fanfics about us?", he said so suddenly.
"About you and me?. I heard that from Chanhee-hyung's birds last night. And I actually looked out for some of them. They have this message board..."
"Honey and Dani?", he replied unsurely.

"YEAH! that one. God, our fans, our less than 1000 fans... they have very vivid imagination", I giggled and cringed at the same time.
"They're quite good you know, and somehow I always this weak and shy, clumsy passive type...", Byunghun-hyung bit his lips and looked to the outside window.
"Because you're short", I replied casually.
"Tsk!", he slapped my head again.

"You're frail though, momma boy! better drink those vitamins before you get sick! look look it's about to rain", I kept teasing him.
He sighed and sneered as always. I guess he was too tired to respond and just giving me the middle finger. It was true though, his mom always tell him to take supplements, I don't know because she's paranoid or what, but when he was in highschool he was so thin, I mean, I was sticky thin too, but I'm jumping around looking healthy while he walked around avoiding people and looked exhausted all the time. Come to think of it, that was when I started to get stuck on this kid. One time he rebelled against his mother because he didn't want his mom to take him home anymore, he said he wanted to ride the subway, because he never did in his life... He said he had a friend to accompany him, which was me. Of course after that I always take him home, afraid that he would collapse or something. We sat on the train's floor a lot though, despite everyone's eyes looking at us uncomfortably. I couldn't say no to a kid who was so thin and taking supplements when he said he was tired, could I?.

Thank God he was putting on some weight now. I shouldn't be worry anymore but I think it became a habit; taking care of him.
"Take off those cat ears, you're not Ariana Grande", I said.
"Ah... I still have it, nyaan", he acted cute to annoy me.
"Aish", I grabbed his cat ears and threw it above his cat suit.
He looked pissed as usual. I don't know why even with leather jacket, ripped jeans and sharp Chelsea boots I couldn't take him seriously. Ins

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chunjixbyungie
#1
Chapter 6: ಥ_ಥ When i heard the news part of me wanted to vent through a fic inspired by it . But I couldn't imagine anything , such tough situation i couldn't imagine the other members' reactions . That's why im here to say you have -once again - done a brilliant job writing it . the closure especially the last part where Niel said he would attend the movie premiere and then they will stare at each other thinking " we made it "

their bittersweet moments and chemistry going from yelling to comforting each other ..
Reading this made me tear up again just like when i first heard the news . It has also reminded me of the change i was forced to adapt to when something similar happened with my three best friends .. So it was overwhelming .. Thank you for this , it has given me a bit of courage to let it go , to try and focus on the happy memories .
hyangsu #2
Chapter 5: Loved this band AU so much! Really well-written and easy to picture the scenes!
strafield #3
Chapter 5: /speechless/
i.. this is... omg god bless you, please do write more- i- :' )
i reallyyy love thissss ♡
mamdalida #4
Chapter 5: love it so much.... i so miss nieljoe...
AHNDANlEL
#5
Chapter 5: Aruuummmm!!! I love u so much omg
I was really shaking when i saw u update and the title give it all. Its like 5 in the morning and im awake instantly when i saw the notif!
Im preparing my heart and mentality and tissue to read this but... But oh my god its fluff! I can't believe i witness this moment in my life before i die lol!
I said about how your writing style gonna be awesome for rockband!au, and im not wrong! Im fruiting right! But then again u always do awesome job with your stories, senpai *insert love emoji* The fluff even so Arum, i love this!
As always i love your characterisation for niel, its always unique. This is really cute, give me so much feels in the morning. Really made my day~
Thank you so much for writing this to me;;;; i love u so much to moon and back <3

P.s i just realised i haven't subscribe you with this acc of mine yaampun maaf ><
chunjixbyungie
#6
Chapter 4: It takes some sense of maturity to enjoy this kind of angst. Most people prefer happy endings but I find this just fine! Because this is how it is in life after all.
We get attached and attracted to people we are not meant to be with and it can't be helped.
Damage is already done.

Thank you for sharing ~


chunjixbyungie
#7
Chapter 3: Im really in love with your writing i knew it from the moment i read journal of ardency.

I like how it's all well planned and done, every detail.
I like the slice of life and characterisation.
There were certain deep messages in this and I just like how you manage to put everything in its place.

Like.. the fact Niel is mostly giving people false impressions since he usually does things to please others like the painting, the tea, jonghyun's recommendation .
The smal details about his ex amd the flow of the conversation ~

maeuki
#8
Chapter 4: ; ~ ; why cant nieljoe be hap for once