Chapter Text
Shift. Enter.
Shift. Enter.
ENTER. ENTER. ENTER.
Oh shit. Did he just break Veronica?
The sound of keyboard smash in an empty recording studio is loud, jarring and makes him cringe. It sounds like failure, his failure. Why’s he always alone when things go wrong?
Veronica is the new Pro-Tools digital audio workstation that covers most of the space in the room. He runs his hand over all the shiny buttons and switches that were no longer lighting up and wonders if it’s just his lot in life to break everything the first time he meets it. They only installed her last week, after years of using the pre-historic Logic System, and he was itching to test her out on the new hip-hop tracks his team were assigned. She is the most beautiful, expensive and important thing in the room, machine or human.
He loves her.
But she’s betraying him by not working. This isn’t a good start to the relationship, though it’s still not the worst one he’s been in, machine or human.
He drags a hand through his hair and ties it back with a black elastic band. As a first and last resort, he resets the program, reboots the computer and shuts down everything else in the studio. His dumb hopeful heart soars for all of 2 seconds when the lights flicker on, but then it sinks down heavily, nauseatingly, when everything just fades to black again.
Veronica is dead.
Worst girlfriend ever.
And now he’s sitting alone in a dark recording studio like a chump.
Thursday August 2nd. Timestamp 1215 pm. Mark it as the moment Kim Jiwon gets his ass fired.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
i think i brke veronica, wtf do i do??
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
Firstly, check the email address. Secondly, I don’t know Veronica.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
HYUK! can we not do this rght now!? boss gonna kill me, weres the it guy 2day?
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
You can’t read. Guess this is why Veronica’s broken.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
tff????? if you dont wanna help a brother just say so. dnt need to be a dick abt it
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
What is Veronica.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
She’s our pro tools program! R u having a laugh or smthing? Bc it aint cool, man
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
Oh, you’re a sound tech. We don’t run Pro-Tools down here. We’re still using Logic. Might want to try Ken in IT but he doesn’t get back from lunch until 1. You should call him. But like, check the number so you don’t accidentally inconvenience someone else.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
youre not hyuk
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
So it would seem.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: EMRGENCY
ok thnx for the help tho! and srry 4 callin u a dick haha
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Damn straight you’re sorry. Who goes around calling people dicks in company emails?
Hanbin closed the email with a hiss of irritation and returned to the “work” on his desk before him: a serviette from the cafeteria covered in words that now meant nothing and a notebook full of half-finished sentences.
He was supposed to have written a whole breakup song by now, he promised the writing team he'd had it done by the end of the day. But everything he’d written sounded like flouncy Kafkaesque garbage, it was embarassing. He glanced at the time. Shit, shit, shit. He needed to get something to Jae before 4pm at least or else he was dead.
But wait.
He opened up the last email and read it again. Whoever it was, were they aware that work emails could be audited at any time? Should he warn them the profanities were flagged? Just the other week someone from the editing team had been grilled over something email related. He knew because he’d heard the scolding from all the way down the hall.
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From: [email protected]
Subject: WARNING
Hey just so you know profanities in emails are flagged by head office. Another reason to watch your language.
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Wait.
He hesitated over the send button. What was he doing wasting time emailing god knows who? And what did it matter to him if the semi-illiterate fool got in trouble? He didn't have time for this. He cancelled the email and stared back down at his notebook, willing the words to re-arrange themselves into some semblance of order before Jae came around, judging and peering over his shoulder like he always did.
Wait.
He couldn't help himself, he needed to read over that email he’d almost sent in his draft box. Yikes. He was really glad he hadn’t sent it now, it would have been total overkill. There was nothing he hated more than looking like a clingy over-thinker.
Crisis averted, Hanbin. Now back to work before you find yourself in a new one.