Chapter Text
It doesn’t take much convincing for Kihyun to agree to join the band. After their movie Hyungwon suggests that they should have Kihyun audition for them and everyone agrees. It’s not cause they’re worried about whether he can sing or not, Minhyuk had assured him. It’s more about whether his voice will fit the bands sound.
They bring him back to their little garage and he sings for them, accompanying himself on the piano. When he’s done they all applaud him. He even gets some whistles and whoops from Jooheon and Minhyuk. The rest of the band had looked at one another and after coming to some silent telepathic decision Hoseok had gestured to Hyunwoo to make the final call.
“Welcome to the band.” He had said simply and Jooheon and Minhyuk had come up and slapped him on the back in congratulations. Changkyun and Hyungwon smile at him from their places on the couch. Hoseok appears to have tuned out right after Kihyun had stopped singing, brows furrowed once again as if he was thinking deeply about something.
“Well, we should all probably head home.” Minhyuk had said. “It’s a busy day for everyone tomorrow.”
With that everyone began to gather their things. Everyone except Hoseok which, Kihyun noticed, was kind of becoming a theme. Instead, he walked toward a closet in the corner of the room and pulled out an acoustic guitar case. Then he goes over to the piano bench where Kihyun had just been sitting, lifts up the seat and pulls out a massive folder, filled to the brim with papers covered in what looked like musical notation and chord progressions.
Hyungwon walks to his side and stands there until Hoseok looks up at him.
“Are you staying here?” Hyungwon asks.
“Just for a little, I promise. I want to start rearranging everything now while Kihyun’s voice is still fresh in my head.”
Hyungwon shakes his head with a sigh and hands over a keychain with just one key on it.
“Don’t stay too long, okay? I don’t want to come in tomorrow just to find out that you spent all night here again.”
“I promise. I’ll go home right at midnight.” Hoseok answers with a smile.
Hyungwon looks at his watch and sighs again but says nothing. He just turns to make his way up the stairs and out the door. The rest of the band follows him bidding Hoseok good bye and good luck. Kihyun stops at the bottom of the stairs and turns to bow to Hoseok.
“Thank you for doing this. And I’m sorry I’ve caused you so much extra work.”
“Don’t be sorry. You really saved our asses here. I really wouldn’t have known what to do if we hadn’t found a new vocalist this quickly. I should be the one thanking you.” Kihyun just shakes his head at the idea.
“Hey, I don’t suppose you’d be able to meet with me later so we can go over some of the songs that we play at most of our shows? I know you’re starting classes so I don’t want to over whelm you but what about next weekend? If you’re free of course.”
“I’m free. And that sounds like a good plan. When do you guys perform next?”
“We were supposed to be playing at this pub next week but I think that we’re gonna have to cancel. We, as a band will need sometime to adjust to a new voice and I don’t want to rush you with learning the songs. So I guess at the end of the month. That’s when we’ll play our first show.”
Kihyun nods in understanding.
The two of them exchange phone numbers and Kihyun gathers his things and heads out side, leaving Hoseok to stay and work the night away. He’s surprised to find he rest of the group waiting for him outside.
“Do you live on campus” Minhyuk asks when he gets to the bottom of the stairs.
“Nope. I live in an apartment like five minutes from here.” Kihyun answers.
“Which way?”
Kihyun points toward the general direction of his one bedroom apartment.
“Great! Hyunwoo and I live that way too so we can walk with you.” Minhyuk says with a smile and Kihyun smiles back.
The three of them begin their wall together, Minhyuk and Hyunwoo holding hands and Kihyun walking beside them.
“So how exactly does the band work? Like what’s you’re sound and who plays what?” Kihyun finally asks to break the silence that had settled over them.
“Oh, right! I guess that is kind of important.” Minhyuk says sheepishly.
“I play bass.” Hyunwoo chimes in. “Jooheon is our drummer and Changkyun plays keyboard or piano depending on the song and the venue. He is also in charge of any extra percussion stuff that Jooheon doesn’t have enough hands to do. Hoseok is our guitarist. He plays acoustic and electric depending on the venue, like Changkyun, and what kind of equipment is available. He also writes all our songs. I mean the rest of us help too but he’s really the driving force behind it all.”
“What about you?” Kihyun asks nodding toward Minhyuk.
“Oh I’m not actually in the band. Neither is Hyungwon. I guess you could call me the publicist and Hyungwon is the manager? I make all the posters and what not and I’m working on designing a logo for them. Hyungwon is responsible for finding places for them to perform.”
“Huh. You guys have really got your shit together. How long have you been playing?”
“As a group? A little over a year? It’ll be two years this June.” Hyunwoo says with a proud smile.
“That’s impressive. How did you guys find each other anyway? It’s not like you’re all music majors or anything.”
“Well, the two of us went to high school with Hoseok and then Hoseok and Hyungwon were neighbours when they were younger. Hyungwon went to a private school though, with Seokwon, not the same school as us. Then Hoseok met Jooheon cause they’re in the same program and Jooheon had gone to high school with Changkyun who was just added to the band when he got into college in the fall.” Minhyuk recounts, ticking the band members off on his fingers as he goes through how they know each other.
“So you’re really the only one none of us knew as a kid.” He finishes with a chirp. Hyunwoo nudges him gently with his elbow, clearly concerned that Kihyun might begin to feel like an outsider at a remark like that.
“That’s really amazing. It’s not too often that a group of musical people just naturally brings itself together like this. You guys are very lucky.”
“I think that it has more to do with compromise than luck.” Hyunwoo says. “We’ve all given up a lot in order to make this work. It was actually Minhyuk who suggested that we make a band. He knew that it was something that each of us had talked about wanting to do individually but we had never though of it actually becoming a reality.”
“It almost didn’t. Honestly, I think everything would have fallen apart if Hoseok hadn’t quit his job.” Kihyun raised his eyebrows at Minhyuk.
“About six months into trying to do this band thing, meeting twice a week after classes to rehearse, we started to fade out. People would miss practises saying that they had school work or a job or other, more important things to do and the band started to falter. We had played a couple of small shows and had stared getting out name out there but it wasn’t enough. We needed to be making our own music in addition to the covers if we really wanted recognition. One day, we were all gathered together, sitting on that raggedy couch in our practise room talking about whether all this effort was worth it when Hoseok busts through the doors looking like a mad man who hadn’t slept in a week. He’s got these paper in his hand and his guitar on his back and he tells us that he’s spent all week working on this song and that we should give it one last shot and play it at our next show. If people hate it, we walk away with no skin off our back but if people like it then we stay together as a band.” Hyunwoo elaborates.
“I still remember the look on Hyungwon’s face when Hoseok told us that he had quit his job.” Minhyuk laughs. Hyunwoo chuckles as well.
“It was so nonchalant. Hyungwon was looking at the new music and he said, “How on earth did you find time to write this?” And Hoseok just says “Oh, I quit my job.” He just said it like he was reading from a newspaper.” Minhyuk says with a shake of his head. They’re almost at Khihyun’s apartment now.
“God, Hyungwon went so red. I really thought he was gonna explode right there. He was so angry. I’m just glad I didn’t have to be there for the ensuing “think about your future!” rant.”
“So then what happened?” Kihyun asks wanting to know the end of the story before the reach his home. “Hoseok quits his job and puts everything into this band and then?”
“Well, so did everyone else.” Hyunwoo says. “Nobody skipped rehearsal anymore unless it was unavoidable. We started meeting every day instead of just twice a week, even weekends. Hoseok started recording our songs and uploading them to Soundcloud. He sent them in to the campus radio station and soon enough every one in the school knew about us. We started playing more shows and that’s when Hyungwon kind of officially became our manager.”
“I guess with Hoseok quitting his job, it really changed our mentality. Like, if he was willing to risk all of that for this group then we had to at least match the effort he was putting in. Especially because, out of all of us, he was the one who really needed the job.” Minhyuk adds with a note of finality, like that’s all he’s willing to say on the matter. Kihyun doesn’t have time to ask any more questions anyways because they have reached his house. He bids his two new friend goodbye and heads inside to prepare for his first day of classes.
The first week of classes goes very smoothly for Kihyun. His professors all seem nice enough and the classes seem interesting. He even ends up sharing a class with Hoseok. During the first music theory class the give the students an exam to test there knowledge and Kihyun does so well on it the advisers decide to give him the credits for the first and second year theory courses and move him straight into the third year course.
He spends his lunch break with the band in their practise room and he gets to know them all a little better. He learns that the group as a whole is loud and playful and they don’t take themselves too seriously. Hyunwoo is the calmest of the group closely followed by Hyungwon but that certainly didn’t mean that those to wouldn’t get weird if provoked in the right way. Jooheon and Changkyun are often the ones that incite the weirdness but sometimes Hoseok is the one to start the teasing. There was one lunch break where he just sat on the couch, flicking Changkyun in the neck overtime he started talking before springing away like a rabbit when the pianist would get annoyed.
Kihyun finds himself fitting in quite well with them as a group and within the week he’s comfortable enough around them to tease along with the others.
On Saturday morning Kihyun gets a text from Hoseok asking if he’s able to meet in one of the rental studios on the top floor of the Music building. Kihyun agrees and gathers his things in preparation to head over.
The walk to the building is short and uneventful and before he knows it he’s knocking quietly on the door of the studio, not wanting to startle Hoseok. He gets no response so he gently pushes the door open and steps inside.
Hoseok is there but he’s got these huge noise cancelling headphones plugged into his laptop which is running some sort of music program. Kihyun clears his throat in the hopes that it’ll get Hoseok’s attention. He tries again, a little louder this time. When it still doesn’t work he steps toward the blonde with his hand out stretched to tap him on the shoulder.
Just as he’s close enough to reach out and touch him, Hoseok spins his chair around. He’s so startled that he leaps out of his chair and half way across the room, sending his head phones tumbling to the floor, eyes blown wide and hand clutching his chest.
“Jesus Christ, Kihyun. That was terrifying!” He scolds trying to calm his frantically beating heart.
“Sorry.” Kihyun says, although he isn’t really sorry at all. He could admit to himself that Hoseok’s rabbit like tendencies were oddly adorable. He’d never say it out loud though.
Hoseok can sense the insincerity in Kihyun’s voice and he pouts before stalking his way back to the computer and scooping up the fallen headphones. Kihyun snickers a little.
“Anyways…” Hoseok says with a glare. “I thought we could start by listening to some of our music and then I’ll get you to sing through some of the pieces and we can adjust from there?”
Kihyun is just about to agree with Hoseok when another student barges into the recording room.
“Hey, dudes. Sorry, but I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.” He says with this faux nonchalance that immediately rubs Kihyun the wrong way.
“What do you mean?” Hoseok asks, confusion clear on his face.
“Well, I need to use the studio so you have to leave. I heard you talking and you’re not even working on school stuff.”
“But I rented it out for two hours. Which mean I have the right to do whatever I want here until those two hours are up.”
The student gets this patronizing smile on his face and Kihyun really wants to punch this kid.
“That’s great for you. But I need to use the studio for actual school related stuff. You can just wait outside for me to be done and then come back and work on shit for your stupid little band.”
Kihyun hears Hoseok’s sharp inhale and he watches as his lips press together in a firm line before his tongue darts out to wet them nervously.
“You’re not being very fair, Hyungsoo.” Kihyun can see that Hoseok’s resolve is faultering.
“Life’s not fair. Suck it up.” The student, Hyungsoo, apparently, barks back.
Finally Kihyun can’t stand to watch anymore.
“Hey, dickwad. We were here first. We signed out the room. We have the right to work on whatever we want in here. If you don’t like it, take it up with the dean.” Hyungsoo looks at Kihyun and squints his eyes.
“And who are you, exactly?” Kihyun lift his chin and puffs his chest out, matching Hyungsoo glare.
“Why should I tell you?” There’s a tense silence in the room and Hyungsoo tries to come up with a response. Kihyun watches as he concedes and breaks eye contact, turning his glare toward Hoseok, a more familiar target instead.
“You better be out of here in exactly two hours or I will get the dean.” He hisses before turning on his heel and sweeping out of the room.
“We’ll be waiting.” Kihyun singsongs as Hyungsoo makes his way down the stairs and out of sight.
Hoseok lets out a sigh of relief as the door to the studio swings shut. “Asshole.” He mutters under his breath.
“Damn right. Who does he think he is waltzing in here and pushing people around when he’s got no right. I can’t believe that he would think that it’s okay to talk to someone like that.” Kihyun huffs.
“It’s alright. I’m pretty used to it by now.” Hoseok says before turning back to his computer and opening the bands Soundcloud portfolio.
“You mean this has happened before?” Kihyun asks incredulously. When Hoseok nods Kihyun asks, “Why didn’t you ever do anything about it?”
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t listen to reason and I never had anything to say that would convince him. After a while it felt pretty useless to even try and make him leave so usually I’d just let him have the studio.” Hoseok says with a shrug.
Kihyun looks at Hoseok like he’s just told him that there is scientific proof that the moon is made of cheese. He cannot believe that Hoseok would let someone walk all over him like that. Personally he’d never be able to stand for injustice like that.
Hoseok beckons Kihyun over to sit in the chair next to him in front of the computer. He seems intent to get to work so Kihyun just shake off his disbelief at Hoseok’s rather timid response to confrontation and sits down beside him.
The time goes by incredibly quickly once they get into the swing of things. Hoseok is very focused on the music and he leads Kihyun carefully through each of the bands songs, adjusting things here and there to make things a little easier for Kihyun to sing. The music itself is quite good in Kihyun’s opinion. It has this interesting indie rock vibe that isn’t something Kihyun would generally find himself enjoying, being more partial to ballads. Still, the upbeat songs are fun, with interesting and complex chord progressions and the more ballad like songs are smooth and sweet with lyrics that are chalked full of all these intense emotions.
In the two hours they have, they end up getting through about half of the bands repertoire. It probably would have been more but Kihyun kept getting distracted by this scent that lingers in the air. It smells like cinnamon mostly with a hint this dark, rich coffee and something that Kihyun can’t quite place. It’s one of the nicest things Kihyun has ever smelled and he can feel himself getting addicted too the scent. It takes him the better part of an hour to figure out that what he’s smelling isn’t coming form outside the room but it’s actually radiating from Hoseok himself. Once he does figure it out, he flushes such a bright red that Hoseok asks him if he’s coming down with a fever and whether he wants to go home. He shakes his head and tells Hoseok that he’s just feeling a little warm to which Hoseok responds with a concerned look.
Before they know it the timer on Hoseok’s phone goes off, signalling that there two hours are up. A part of Kihyun wants to stay in the studio for just a little while longer, just to see if he can piss that Hyungsoo guy off a little more, but Hoseok is already packing all his things away and holding the door open for Kihyun.
They make their way out of the building out into the Art’s courtyard. Kihyun is a little disappointed that they don’t see Hyungsoo again at all but he supposes that he made his point earlier.
“Have you eaten?” Hoseok asks suddenly turning to Kihyun with hopefull eyes.
“Uh, not since breakfast.” Kihyun answers. Hoseok looks down at his watch and lets out a tiny gasp.
“It’s almost two o’clock. You must be starving!”
Kihyun shrugs but the grumbling of his stomach gives him away.
“You should have said something. We could have stopped earlier if you were hungry.” Hoseok says with just a hint of a pout.
“Well, what about you? When did you last eat.” Kihyun shoots back. It’s not like Hoseok had been stuffing his face in the studio, leaving Kihyun to starve. Hoseok glares a little at Kihyun but his stomach growls too.
“Touche.”
“We should go eat then. Do you know anywhere near?” Kihyun asks.
Hoseok hums in consideration before responding, “Theres a cafe that’s like five minutes from here. They have the most amazing cupcakes ever.”
“Sounds good enough to me. Let’s go.” Kihyun says gesturing for Hoseok to lead the way.