Jihoon- Woozi

Seungcheol- S.Coups

Soonyoung- Hoshi

_________

“Okay, tell me when.” Seungkwan balanced his ice cream sundae in his left hand and held up the can of whipped cream upside down with his right. He pressed the top of the can and it all swirled out at once, his own eyes lit up in delight. Wonwoo held up his ice cream bowl and Mingyu held up his as well, waiting patiently for his own turn. Jihoon observed the scene before him and desperately tried to search for inspiration within their actions but he came up with nothing. How was he supposed to pull inspiration from three boys who were enjoying an ice cream sundae? Inspiration didn’t just slip out of a whipped cream can. The little room he was in drained all of it within the first hour he began to work on his Musical Performance Project anyway.

The three friends enjoyed their ice cream on Seungkwan’s side of the room, they were all curled up on Seungkwan’s blue fluffy bed, all seemingly stress free. It was a friday night after all, the first friday night that Jihoon would experience at the school. One kind of interesting thing that happened on friday nights was either music night or movie night. Movie nights were held in the school theater. The idea seemed amazing but it was really just a movie projected on the back wall of the stage and the sound wasn’t even very good. Jihoon knew because he peeked in on the entertainment and was deeply annoyed when he seen a few students making out right in front of him. Well, if they couldn’t get to a real movie theater, their scraped-together movie night was probably second best. Besides, Seungkwan had kindly informed him that they were playing re-runs of some war movie which had apparently stopped making people cry after the 5th time they had seen it.

Music night, on the other hand, was on a completely different spectrum than movie night. People actually enjoyed going but it wouldn’t be held for another few weeks. Music night had piqued his interest, it’s not like Jihoon had anything to look forward to anyway, and music night didn’t sound half bad.

Jihoon shamelessly thought about the couple in the movie theater and he was so desperate that he tried to draw inspiration from them but it was a lost cause. He just couldn’t get past the physical part, was there anything poetic about people shoving their tongues down each other’s throats? Probably not. At least not in a re-arranged song of ‘Officially Missing You.’

He had no clue why he was having such trouble with the project to begin with. Usually ideas would be flying past him so fast that he could barely grab onto them. This time was different. It was like there was a block right where his ideas should be. Part of it probably had to do with the fact that Seungcheol hadn’t contacted him about the project since it was assigned. He wasn’t expecting him to saunter into his room (wherever it was) and force him to begin their project, was he? If he did expect him to be the first one to ask, he was gravely mistaken. Jihoon sighed as he had just put himself in a bad mood.

He decided to put his thoughts away for a moment and in exchange, played the borrowed keyboard piano over and over as he tried to get a different feel for the song. Okay. It was hopeless.

Jihoon absentmindedly checked his injured arm. He got used to doing that, ‘that’ being the act of pulling his sleeve back to check his injuries for anything new. (There was never anything new.) Aside from all that his injury had lightly scabbed over but Jihoon wanted to scratch at it every few minutes. Sometimes he even began to scratch the area without knowing and Seungkwan would cross the room lightning quick to slap him on the uninjured wrist.

Jihoon listened in quietly to Wonwoo and Mingyu talk to Seungkwan about auditions again. He didn’t mind hearing them talk about it, but if Seungkwan did get accepted into Seventeen Jihoon could probably expect to be around them a lot more often than he already was.

“Hey, Jihoon Hyung.” Mingyu spoke up and Jihoon looked up from where he was working on his project. He stopped playing the piano and listened. “Are you going to audition for Seventeen?”

Jihoon looked away from the three students and especially away from Seungkwan who had looked at him like he was just struck with the best idea ever. Jihoon just smiled and shook his head politely. Although Wonwoo didn’t ask the question, he waited for an answer just like the rest of them but when Jihoon shook his head, Wonwoo quietly went back to eating with a more solemn expression on his face. Mingyu and Wonwoo were supposed to be back in their dorm room by now, but when Jungkook came around with his clipboard he had only given them a slight glare and asked why he wasn’t invited to their ice-cream party.

The whole scene was ridiculous. It was a laughable sight, if Jihoon was being completely honest. Mingyu and Wonwoo wore matching pajamas, complete with purple and blue dotted clouds, which looked like they were purchased straight from the campus store. Jihoon didn’t know exactly where they were bought at because he never stayed for long, but he was sure that they had probably paid for the clothing together. Jihoon even caught Seungkwan throwing envious glances towards the matching pajamas. His roommate would probably ask him to buy matching ones together too.

“That’s too bad.” Mingyu smiled and Jihoon just nodded and continued to play the melody of his project on the piano. Seungkwan quietly whispered something to Wonwoo and Mingyu, probably something that Jihoon wouldn’t have liked to hear. He went back to thinking instead of figuring his mess of a project out.

It had been nearly 3 days since Tuesday night and Jihoon could still faintly taste blood in the back of his throat. It was disgusting. Not to mention, Hansol had been acting a little too nice around him. Even going so far as to do his work for him in the extra course classes that were held yesterday. Jihoon had a suspicion that his kindness was more of a ‘keep your mouth shut about Tuesday night’ kind of thing.

Speaking of. That morning after Tuesday had been the worst one in his 18 years of living, even worse than when he was 14. Seungkwan had to drag him to class and even then, he was scolded the whole time for not finishing his homework the night before. So Seungkwan, (Joshua) and Jihoon sat in the garden as Seungkwan helped Jihoon finish his work. Another favor that Jihoon probably had to pay back.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Seungkwan’s voice pierced through his thoughts and his head snapped up as he watched Wonwoo and Mingyu dispose of their ice cream bowls in a trash bag. Had he really been thinking for so long?

Once Seungkwan’s friends had left Seungkwan jumped on Jihoon’s bed and leaned forward with silent excitement. “It’s friday night, what are you so stressed about?” Seungkwan asked and slid his fingers down the keyboard piano keys to produce a cringe-worthy sound.

“This song is due on Monday.” Jihoon turned the keyboard off and flopped over on his bed next to Seungkwan. “We have to perform it in front of the whole class and I haven’t even started to rearrange it yet.”

“You guys haven’t started yet?” Seungkwan asked, bewildered. His reaction just made Jihoon feel worse about the whole situation.

“No, he didn’t even talk to me about it after the first day it was assigned. I mentioned it...once in class. I think.” Jihoon groaned and pulled his pillow over his head in frustration. Seungkwan sighed but he didn’t say anything more about the subject.

“Jihoon?” He whispered quietly when he noticed his roommate close his eyelids for longer than necessary.

“Hm.” Jihoon grunted as he was fighting a losing battle against sleep. His consciousness struggled to listen to Seungkwan talk.

“If you audition for Seventeen...and get in. Things will be different for you.” Seungkwan talked lightly as if he knew that his words would lull Jihoon to sleep for the second time that week. “Those four won’t be able to bother you anymore. Nobody,“ Seungkwan emphasized, “will be able to bother you. Not when you’re in Seventeen.”

Jihoon struggled to hold onto the words Seungkwan was saying but he just couldn’t make sense of anything at that moment.

Above all that Seungkwan had said, he had declined to mention an important factor. Those four students would not stop going after Jihoon. Not until they got whatever it was that they wanted.

. . .

Jihoon didn’t even notice he had fallen asleep but when he awoke he heard light knocks on the door. He felt around for his phone and turned it on, the clock read: 3:58 AM.

“Seungkwan?” Jihoon whispered and he squinted his eyes as he fought to see through the darkness. The only light that entered the small room was from the window, the moonlight poured in and as Jihoon’s eyes adjusted, he heard the knock again. His eyes drifted to the front door where a sliver of pale light escaped from the bottom of the door. Jihoon threw back his blankets and walked to the front door still dressed in his jeans and sweater. He made sure Seungkwan was fast asleep before he made it to the door. It was probably just Mingyu and Wonwoo. He’d just have to tell them that Seungkwan was fast asleep. He rubbed at his eyes and opened the door slowly, he leant his body up against the door frame and narrowed his eyes at the dim lighting of the hallway.

“Seungcheol?” Jihoon asked and the man in front of him peered into the room behind him.

“Yeah, didn’t think you’d be asleep.” Seungcheol muttered, he held in his hands an acoustic guitar. Jihoon took a moment to take in his appearance. His dark brown hair swept across his forehead, different from his usual look. He didn’t even look the least bit tired but now that he thought about it, Coups was a night owl, just like him. He wasn’t wearing his uniform, obviously, but he had on a dark grey button up jacket paired with blue jeans and lace-up boots. Jihoon took a look at his own clothing. Just a simple black, over-sized sweater that he had probably worn twice that week and his usual torn black jeans.

Jihoon had no clue what to say so he flattened his hair down absentmindedly when he noticed Seungcheol staring at it. He probably looked like a mess, but frankly, he couldn’t care less. “Yeah. What do you want?” Jihoon asked, “Do you need to return something to Seungkwan?” He motioned to the guitar.

“No, I wanted to work on the project.”

Jihoon deadpanned and rolled his eyes at the carelessness of Seungcheol. Had it been any other night he probably would have been grateful that he interrupted his over-thinking process but tonight had not been that night. “Bad timing,” Jihoon mumbled but he turned and walked into the dark room anyway, he reluctantly motioned for Seungcheol to follow him. Jihoon would have been more angry had he been wide-awake but the sleep was still wearing off and would probably still be wearing off an hour from now.

“Are we going to work in here?” Seungcheol asked and set the guitar down on his bed. Jihoon felt his face flare up in half-anger and half-annoyance when Seungcheol had entered so close into his space but he ignored the feeling. The need to work on the project overwhelmed his desire to punch him in the face.

“I don’t see why not. Do you have any other ideas?” Jihoon asked but Seungcheol shrugged, if he did have a better idea he wasn’t going to tell him. Seungcheol probably had access to the whole school but he most-likely wouldn’t want to share that with Jihoon.

“We can go to the recreation rooms, common rooms, practice rooms, dance rooms. Even the library. Your choice.” Jihoon stared at Seungcheol through the darkness of the room. Maybe he was wrong.

“Uh…” Jihoon sputtered quietly as he gathered his laptop and opted to leave the heavy keyboard piano in the room.

“The library is nice in the night time. Let’s go there.” Seungcheol interrupted. He picked his guitar back up and then walked back to the front door to wait on Jihoon. Seungkwan stirred from his sleep and barely registered Seungcheol standing at the door.

“Please accept me into Seventeen…” He mumbled desperately and pulled his pillow close to his face. “Hyung, I admire you!” Seungkwan wailed and Jihoon jumped from the sheer loudness of Seungkwan’s voice. Well he didn’t expect anything less from a vocalist.

“We’ll see.” Seungcheol answered and Seungkwan must have been satisfied because he fell right back to sleep. Jihoon sighed as he shoved a few music notebooks into a bag and shouldered it, he then leaned down and laced up his shoes. When he was finished he slipped his laptop under his arm and wordlessly followed Seungcheol out the door. As they walked down the hallway, Seventeen’s leader slightly ahead of him, he felt an urge to ask why Seungcheol knew how nice the library was at night but he eventually convinced himself that he didn’t want to know.

When they reached the downstairs hallway, Jihoon noticed the sound that the guitar made as Seungcheol’s fingers slid against the neck when he held it. The guitar was horribly out of tune, he didn’t even need to play it to know that.

“I’m guessing you don’t know how to play.” Jihoon observed and Seungcheol glanced back at Jihoon with a smirk on his face.

“I was going to ask you to tune it.” Seungcheol spoke as they exited the dorms and headed outside and towards the library. Jihoon didn’t even want to ask how Seungcheol knew where his dorm room was located.

“Why? I have my own guitar-”

“I noticed.” Seungcheol interrupted. “This one is expensive. It will produce a better sound if we use it to record. Or practice.”

Jihoon wanted to retort that his guitar wasn’t cheap but it was and it didn’t sound like Seungcheol was trying to insult him anyway. “Why do you have a guitar that you can’t play?” Jihoon asked and Seungcheol sighed. Jihoon could barely hear his answer because the wind from outside relentlessly whipped at his face.

“I wanted to learn but never had the time to.”

That was end of that and they stayed quiet as they finally came upon the library. It was the first time that Jihoon was going to be on the inside. He observed as Seungcheol opened the front doors by sliding his student card through. The door made a slight creaking noise as they entered and it sent chills down his spine. Had Seungcheol been here alone before?

“Lights.” Seungcheol muttered and handed Jihoon his guitar and disappeared from sight. Jihoon set down his bag and laptop on the floor by his feet, he didn’t bother to look around. It was pitch black inside anyway. Instead, he focused his attention on the guitar in his hands. It didn’t matter that he left his tuner in the dorms, he had learned long ago to tune by ear anyway. He listened closely as he strummed lightly at the strings. Despite the off sound, Jihoon could tell that the guitar was expensive just by holding it. He silently envied Seungcheol and felt bad that such a nice instrument would never be played properly. He balanced the guitar on his hip as he plucked at the strings to listen. He quickly adjusted and re-adjusted the pegs as he listened to the sounds produced go from cringe-worthy to a sound worth praise. He strummed again and played a small tune to test it out.

Yep.

Definitely a good guitar.

He was suddenly bathed in light, the inside of the library building was instantly lit up in a calm and serene manner. Seungcheol appeared from behind a door and walked back over to Jihoon. He made no move to take his guitar back, instead, he gathered up Jihoon’s stuff and headed over to a lone table in the front of the library. The lights behind the first row of bookshelves and beyond hadn’t been so the eerie feeling had just been intensified. He took a seat at the table with the guitar in his hands.

“How’s your arm?” Seungcheol asked quietly as he set down their stuff on the table in front of him but Jihoon had barely registered the question, his attention was taken by the beauty set in his lap. It may have been Seungcheol’s guitar but he sure as hell didn’t deserve it.

“What?” Jihoon asked as he tested the strings once again.

“Nothing. Have you made any progress since Tuesday?”

Jihoon looked up at Seungcheol with narrowed eyes. “No, have you?” He asked back. Seungcheol sighed and shook his head, he took a seat next to Jihoon.

Jihoon noticed the resignation in Seungcheol’s eyes and he held back any more retaliations that he held inside of him. His first priority was finishing the project that was due on Monday. He took out his laptop and pretended that Seungcheol was Seungkwan, or even Joshua so that it would be easier to talk to him.

“Let’s begin with…” Jihoon checked his laptop for any notes. ‘Lyric change.’

“Lyrics?” Seungcheol read over Jihoon’s shoulder.

“Yes. Do you think you can write the lyrics for the rap section?”

Seungcheol nodded and took his laptop out of his backpack. It was a newer model than Jihoon’s but it was the same brand. Jihoon was lucky that he had won his in a competition otherwise he would have been deeply embarrassed by some off-brand that his mom would have bought him. There was no way he could compete with the kids at Pledis Academy anyway, he realized that after the third day. He at least felt slightly better that he was near Seungcheol’s level on this one. Despite his laptop being a little banged up, it still worked just fine and got the job done.

Jihoon and Seungcheol quietly worked on their project together. Both writing the lyrics for their respective parts of the song.

“We’ll have to make adjustments to the lyrics once we get going but it won’t be too difficult. We’re not going to change the overall feeling too much.” Jihoon spoke evenly as he focused on the laptop in front of him. He moved from notebook to laptop every few minutes. Seungcheol nodded as he looked over to the musical genius. He had to admit that it was cool to see him working so up-close. The whole school knew about Lee Jihoon, although most people did not like him, his talent was undeniable.

/ / /

The sky lightened outside and dim morning clouds filtered in from the windows of the library as Jihoon lightly strummed on the guitar to the tune of ‘Officially Missing You.’ The rain had started around the time that Jihoon finished his lyrics. It pattered against the glass of the library, creating its own beautiful music.

Seungcheol had begun to sing his sections of ‘Officially Missing You’ under his breath, shamelessly, like he wasn’t even embarrassed. Jihoon realized that this talent of his wasn’t supposed to be hidden in the first place.

And it shouldn’t be, he was talented. There was a reason that he was the leader of Seventeen. Jihoon should have recognized that. No matter how badly he wished to ignore Seungcheol for the rest of his life, he knew when to give credit where credit was due.

Jihoon pretended not to listen to Seungcheol sing, but how could he not? The only thing he ever heard Coups sing was a bad rendition of “Dancing Queen.” But this was nothing like that. His voice was, for lack of a better word, beautiful. Jihoon even stopped strumming on the guitar to listen more intently but if he stopped for longer than a few seconds, Seungcheol would look over to see what was up. Since Jihoon was waiting on Seungcheol to finish his lyrics he had some time to think about the situation they were in. Seungcheol had been surprisingly “less annoying” than he had been all week and Jihoon tried to think up reasons why. It most likely had to do with the fact that they were on a tight schedule. They had no room to bicker, and it was mostly Jihoon doing the bickering anyway.

“I think I’m finished.” Seungcheol showed Jihoon his lyrics. Jihoon only scanned the page briefly. He had been watching over Seungcheol’s shoulder the whole time and didn’t see the need to change anything.

“Okay.” Jihoon glanced at the time, it was now nearing 6 AM. Seungcheol had worked on the lyrics for longer than he expected. “We won’t get in trouble if we stay here, will we?” Jihoon asked but Seungcheol just shrugged in response.

“The library opens at 8:30 on weekends. We have time.” He answered. Jihoon didn’t plan on staying for longer anyhow so he hurried and applied the lyrics to the music in his laptop and made adjustments. He had already recorded their acoustic setting while Seungcheol was writing and, reluctantly, set the nice guitar aside.

“Okay…” Jihoon made a few more adjustments and then turned to Seungcheol. “Want to try it?” He asked and motioned to the lyrics that were now placed perfectly in sync with the music. Seungcheol nodded curtly. Not only did they have to submit their recording to Mr. Jung but they had to perform in front of the whole class. There was a reason his course was called ‘Musical Performance.’

Jihoon eagerly picked up the guitar that he set aside and began to play, he focused intently on what he was playing instead of Seungcheol. Jihoon was the first to sing, so he did and Seungcheol watched him closely. The sound of the rain accompanied his voice and Seungcheol was so absorbed with Jihoon’s singing that he nearly missed his turn to come in. Seungcheol began to sing and Jihoon only just began to harmonize with his voice when Seungcheol was caught off guard and messed up the lyrics. Jihoon gave a small smile in amusement but once he figured out what his face was doing he stopped immediately. He then instructed Seungcheol on the best way to go about his singing.

When Seungcheol’s rap segment came up, he flawlessly executed it and Jihoon wasn’t in the least surprised. He had grown accustomed to hearing Coups rap, the only difference being the distance between their two bodies.

With his sleep deprived and over-used mind, Jihoon had to admit. In the early morning, with the rain up against the clear windows, being this close to Seungcheol wasn’t so bad.

. . .

1 missed call from Soon Young

1 unread text message from Soon Young

______

Hey Ji, I really need someone to talk to right now.

Everything is just...messed up.

Call me back when you get this message.

-Hosh