Chapter Text
Juhoon and Keohno were both in a cab on their way to the karaoke bar, that Martin send the location to.
The night was quiet. Both boys were softly talking in the back of the car, trying to not disturb the driver.
Once they were there, they headed inside and decided to contact the blonde. But before they could, Martin, Seoghyeon and James walked into the building.
"Hi y'all" James greated them, Seoghyeon gave them a little nod while peeking from behind the giant blonde. Both Juhoon and Keohno greeted them. They were still new to the little squad Martin had gathered.
"Come on, after me" said Martin as he lead the way to a private kareoke room. The confidance he walked there with, could immediately tell you that he's been here countless times. Same as the other two who followed him first.
The room was on the small side compared to their group of five. Half of the room was only a black leather booth couch in the shape of a chunky 'U' pressing on all the walls there. In the middle of it was drink table with some clean glasses, napkins and a box with all the essentials to get the singing machine ready.
Of course, at the front of the room, opposite of the booth was a big screen with the karaoke already ready for them. Beneath it stood medium sized cooler.
All of them filed in taking any free spot left on the couch. James swiftly took the seat in the middle, the machine remote already in his hands.
Keohno sat down on the right side with a respectful distance to James. Seoghyeon awkwardly sat next to him. He was stealing a few glances at the dark haired boy. He kept fiddling with his hoodie string.
To Juhoon he looked like an awkward teenager, with a high level of shyness. He didn't know him well yet. However he doesn't seem even close to how Keohno first described him all those weeks ago. Perhaps Keohno had judged him to fast or had a first bad impression.
Before he knew it, all the seats were taken. The only left seat was next to Martin, who was already looking at him.
Juhoon aproached the left seat and sat down, because Martin is a big guy, he obviously took more space on the couch than any other od the boys would.
Making it impossibly hard to not brush eachothers knee or shoulder when settling in a more comfortable position.
"Soo, who wants to start?" James asked, but was met with dead silence. It was so quiet that he could swear he heard other people singing more clearly in the room behind them.
"No one, okay. Y'all need to loosen up a bit. I'll go first" the short haired blonde wasn't fond of the thick awkwardness in the room. He took three long strides inbetween the booth and the table to get out of his seat to get closer to the screen.
"Martin, make yourself useful and order some' this energy is giving funeral" the youngest two chuckled a little, Juhoon did to as he turned to look at the blonde next to him.
Martin looked baffled and betrayed as the rest giggled. He took a small pamphlet from the box and mumbled something about being ungrateful under his nose as he looked thorugh the menu of drinks and snacks they could get.
Juhoon took a small peek at the pamhlet quickly skimming through the many drink names.
"Can we get a bottle of Casillero del Diablo?" Juhoon asked still looking at the paper.
Martin seemed a little taken aback as he turned to the other. The distance between them was one small lean away from a mouth to cheek collision. The blonde sharply moved back from the smaller boy, suprised and flustered by the previous closeness.
"oh, yeah sure" he grunted a little to hide his very obvious reaction.
"Didn't know you liked wine"
Keohno gasped as he now inserted himself into the exchange. The older pair looked at him at the exclemation.
"Hyung, don't tell me you haven't had any when you moved in together. Martin, there's one thing that you need to know about him is that his either a connoisseur or an alcoholic when it comes to wine"
"Don't say things like that" Juhoon tried to control the situation by trying to die down the other's theatrics with slight scolding.
Martin looked both suprised and intrigued by that fact. Seoghyeon's reaction was the exact same.
"Don't start now, did you or did you not" Keohno pressed.
"Maybe, it's not important either way, just stop" Juhoon looked like a deer caught in head lights. A soft pinkish shadow making it's way to his ears from embarrassment.
He might've had a little to drink from time to time before crashing in his bed after work these past few weeks. But he didn't want to admit all that.
Keohno made another gasp, this time more mocking than the one before.
"And you didn't share? Oh poor Martin, you see how selfish this man is, he won't even let you have sip of his wine. How cruel"
Martin burst into a big fit of laughter, hugging his stomach a little, eyes crinkling into crescent moons. Smile wider than ever and his whole body shaking from the let out giggles.
He looked absolutely precious, the most adorable in the world. For someone his size, his whole image runned on rainbows and shit eating giggles than intimidating scary looks.
Juhoon doesn't think he had ever seen such a beautiful person in his whole career.
He was a bit captivated by the wholesome scene, the previous embarrassment he felt melted away at the sight. In the end he himself started to laugh at the stupidity of the playful argument.
All of them didn't even notice James hovering over them with a disappointed look on his face, but he himself couldn't keep the small smile fighting its way through.
_________________________________________________
The whole atmosphere changed into a silly one fast as James started to sing. He made the rest laugh as he made funny dancing moves and unhinged face expressions.
Somewhere in the middle, a staff member brought them what they ordered. Some chips, takis, soju, sparkling water and the wine Juhoon asked for.
Both Juhoon and Keohno poured themselves the wine. Seoghyeon and James settled on soju. They didn't drink too much to not get drunk quickly.
Martin on the other hand hadn't had anything for the past hour. They constantly changed between eachother, choosing songs to sing.
Keohno classically settled on singing his favourite song Creep by Radiohead. He danced to it like a madman, making Seoghyeon laugh like he wasn't allowed to at home.
He also earned a few chuckles from Juhoon and Martin. Their previous strict distance from beginning of the night gone.
They sat heavily pressed on eachother, talking quietly, enjoying the fun time and making eachother laugh at some stupid jokes.
Juhoon was more eager during their talks, beacuse of the slight buzz from his wine. He wasn't drunk, but he was slightly more confident in his social skills than he usually is.
He had sang before, choosing his favourite, Beatles and Daniel Ceasar songs. Martin has complemented him a lot for his taste and voice. Clearly impressed.
Keohno mentioned outloud a bit how he used Juhoon to be his vocalist in some uni projects, obviously meaning for Martin to hear it.
Thanks to that they didn't have any problems to keep the conversation flowing.
However after all this time Martin hasn't singed even once. Juhoon found it weird since Martin was the one who invited him to this and he doesn't think that whenever the three come here alone he's sitting there and only paying for the drinks.
"I actually never thought that your voice would be deep, you don't really look like it" Martin said jokingly.
"See, small packages come with big suprises. You have a rasp though, I never thought you might have that either" he retorted to the blonde.
Martin chuckled with his whole face.
"Are you not gonna sing? I'm curious what that would sound like"
"Yeah man, I'm already tired, I'm not gonna keep this up much longer" Keohno said a little out of breath after he ended his little performance. He ploped down on couch leaning on the tipsy Seoghyeon behind, who had a deep pink blush running down his ears and neck.
Martin glanced over at James who was taking a peek from behind his phone. He shrugged his shoulders when their eyes met.
"I mean what's stopping you bro" James said as he leaned more on the booth behind him.
" 'K, i guess.." he stood up slowly, taking the remote and microphone from Keohno. He looked over the list of songs.
He paused for a moment before searching a song directly. He finally settled on one.
The room fell into a calm silence. Everyone was eagerly waiting for the blonde to start singing. After a moment the instrumentals started to play from the karaoke speakers.
A calm melody with a distinct guitar as its leading rhythm filled the room with its nostalgic vibe.
Juhoon heard this song before, his parents used to always play it in their living room when he was still a kid. Wonderwall, a song he knew by heart. It's not very common to hear it casually playing somewhere these days.
But definitely made him take a quick look back at the feelings he experianced during these quiet music moments with his parents.
The screen warned the player to get ready to sing as the lyric popped up just a moment later. Martin was turned with his back towards the small group, making it hard to see his face.
One short moment and he started singing.
Juhoon was instantly mesmerized by his voice as it flowed with the words. It was a little raspy, but filled with suprising emotion. His breathing was well maintained, the way he conveyed the lyrics made Juhoon feel a sudden pinch in his heart.
Martin sounded very nostalgic, but very sad. Like he was mourning something that never got chance to live longer.
The older boy felt the unexplainable feeling of pity for the other. The only thing bothering him was, that he couldn't pinpoint why.
Then, at the end of the second vers, he turned halfway towards the couch and Juhoon was actually lost for words in that moment.
Martin looked unearthly. Purple, pink and blue lights from the screen caught in his hair and sharp edges of his face. Showing of his cheek bones and jawline where visiable sweat streamed down slowly.
His collarbone that peeked out from his wide neck shirt, glistened mesmerizingly.
He looked absolutely ethereal in that moment. Juhoon felt his cheeks burn a little as he took in the gorgeous sight. No matter how much he wanted to tear his gaze away and enjoy the music while sipping some of his left wine. He couldn't focus on anything else in that moment.
The pure bliss on Martins face as he sang made him look even more atractive. It was honestly overwhelming for the shorter boy.
When the song finally ended, the screen showed the room the resultes of his singing, a score of 93 showed on the chartboard among many other scores on the ranking, making it one of the top 5 tries.
Everyone clapped, celebrating the great performance.
"Ow man, what happened to the usual 100" James mocked jokingly as the other blonde sat back down in his previous seat.
"Just didn't feel it today" Martin retorted before gulping down a glass of sparkling water.
Juhoon watched him from the moment he finished the song, yet he didn't say anything. Only observed the other's slight change in demeanor.
_________________________________________________
It was very late and their reservation ended. They just left the building, talking softly in the warm summer breeze.
Juhoon was a little bit more intoxicated than he would've liked to admit, but he was still functional when it came to communicating. Only his steps became more drowsy and swayed by the buzz of alcohol in his system.
The rest was in more questionable states. James was the only one that seemed to be able to hold his liqour better than the rest. Keohno was slumped over Seoghyeons shoulder mumbling something about how the night isn't over yet, the other visibly flustered and sobered up by the sudden physical contact with the dark haired boy.
Martin on the other hand was just fine. He didn't have a single drink that night. Not even a sip of soju, Juhoon was quite impressed by the composure the younger carried. Even when his friends insisted for him to have one, he hadn't faltered once and yeilded under peer pressure.
It gave him the impression of strong morals, Juhoon always admired people with traits like that. It reminded him of his mom, she never yeilded to anyone's wish no matter the circumstances.
Maybe except this singular situation. It's not exactly like she wanted for this marriage to happen either. But Juhoon didn't hate it as much anymore. However the thought of it still gave him a bad mood.
His train of thought was quickly cut short when he was mentioned in the rests conversation, while he tapped out.
"I'll take Juhoon with me, Seoghyeon do you need a ride?" Martin stated, taking the shorter boy aback as he wasn't previously listening in on the conversation.
"No hyung, I'll be fine, I'll call an uber" the timid boy said as he balanced the other leaning on his shoulder.
"Juhoon hyung, will you mind if I'll take Keohno with me?" Seoghyeon adressed him as he stared at him with hope in his eyes.
"Sure, take good care of him" the boy happily nodded before saying goodbye and walking down the pathway with Keohno basically attached to his hip explaining something widely with his hands.
After this night, Juhoon could tell that Seoghyeon was a good kid. Maybe just slightly misunderstood. But he felt like he could trust him. Keohno definitely doesn't know yet of how much of a kind person Seoghyeon might be.
"I'll go catch a late night bus, bye" James said waving to them both before going in the other direction. They waved him back and stayed there a little longer.
Juhoon swayed a little from side to side as he stood with arms crossed looking over at the line of street lights.
"Tired?" Martin asked observing the other. Juhoon hummed in response still admiring the night view.
"Come on" only then did the brown haired boy looked at him. He expected for the taller one to be already leading the way, but instead he stood there waiting for him.
He didn't think much of it. It should be expected for someone to wait up if you're both going together. They started to walk towards the nearby parking lot. Martin matched Juhoons walking speed, keeping him company from the side.
However after less than a minute later Martin swiftly changed places with Juhoon. He was now walking from the side of the road, while he himself moved closer to the row of buildings.
Juhoon gave the blonde a confused look, but didn't say anything.
"Safety, you know.. You never know when a car can drive over" Martin explained, obviously feeling the other staring, but he didn't look at him when they walked.
Shortly after they reached the parking lot. It was vacant maybe two more cars were parked at the far corner, it probably belonged to someone working at the nearby seven eleven stores.
With them stood a simple black car he already recognized, Martin's car. The only time he had the opportunity to be in it was when they moved his stuff from his apartment to Martin's loft.
Juhoon just can't call it his home yet. He still feels out of place there, the cement bridge is too fresh to be used yet. That's exactly how he feels about it.
Without a word, both of them entered the car. Juhoon in the passanger seat and Martin behind the wheel.
He found Martin as a good and skilled driver even though they only had a single chance to drive somewhere together.
It was a bit of a distance between the lofty and the kareoke place. The ride was quiet. No one tried to keep an awkawrd conversation going just for the sake of talking.
Juhoon leaned his head on the car window admiring the calm night view of Seoul. He enjoyed nights like these. Where lights adorned empty roads and streets. A refreshing breeze of summer, not to hot, but not cold enough to wear a jacket.
He liked to lose himself in his thoughts, replaying previous situations. Not to overthink them on how he should've acted differently or worded himself better.
He enjoyed embracing them just the way they happened. Like a movie, but for a slight thrill, you're a part of it.
He looked back on his slow morning that day. His turtles, the karaoke bar, Keohno's theatrics.
And of course Martin's performance. Even in his memory it looked beautiful. The sudden urge got the better of him. Alcohol probably fuelling it.
"Do you like that song?"
"huh"
"Wonderwall, you sang it at the bar" he never stopped looking through the window. Only his thoughts slipping out as actual spoken words.
"oh, yeah. It's my favourite song" Martin sounded rather unsure of where the topic was going, but didn't object it.
"hmm, I like it too"
"Really, you knew it already?"
"When I was younger, my parents always played songs made by the Oasis. I guess this one they liked to play the most" he remeniced.
"That's really sweet, are they fans?" Martin seemed to enjoy the topic.
"They used to tell me stories of how they first met at a music shop. They ended up fighting over the last CD copy of some album. I can't remember which one" Juhoon said rolling his head over to rest it on the head rest.
The blonde chuckled a little. "They sound to be very lovely"
"Yeah, they sure do love eachother a lot, me too" that earned another chuckle from Martin. "And you?"
"oh, my dad used to play me a lot of rock music when I was younger, he also introduced me to a lot of different types of music"
"That's cool.. Do you still listen to them together?" the light mood suddenly changed sour in a matter of seconds.
Guess it was a touchy topic. Juhoon thought that he might've just kept that to himself, but it was already to late. He looked over to the blonde.
A small frown showed on his face as he looked in the distance. The look in his eyes looked almost painful. Like an old wound being scraped over by accident.
"..no, he doesn't have time for that anymore.."
Juhoon read the topic as uncomfortable even in his foggy state. He decided that the best option was to keep quiet.
After some time later Juhoon fell asleep, the mood still slightly thick from the previous conversation.