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Hwang Minhyun was glad he came in early for rehearsals that day.
Sure, it got cancelled because of the weather and he was now stuck in the studio waiting the heavy rains out. At least, he was stuck in the studio with Kim Jonghyun, his current favorite bassist and maybe-kinda crush colleague. It gave him fewer regrets and more to be happy about.
Jonghyun was already on his electric bass, a Fender Precision that Minhyun knew its owner to be discreetly proud of. The bassist sat on the amplifier that his guitar was plugged in, listening through a pair of headphones. Jonghyun’s lips were pouted, showing that rare pair of dimples he had, and his head bobbed in time with his plucking of the strings. He gave Minhyun an acknowledging nod and smile when he came in.
Minhyun took a seat near Jonghyun, watching him play a few bars before catching on to which part it was. “…are of no importance…” he sang along, earning Jonghyun’s attention who read his lips, understood, and gave him a lopsided grin of appreciation.
“I won't wish for much, so please God… please give me an unchanging tomorrow…” Minhyun went on as he opened his violin case and took out his instrument to casually inspect it before attaching the pickup for band setup later.
Jonghyun then stopped and removed his headphones. “Sing it again,” he said, unplugging the headphones from his amp and adjusting the volume. “I want to hear your voice.”
Minhyun chuckled and then cleared his throat. “It’s nothing like Hikki’s but okay,” he indulged the other guy. They both paused for each other’s cues before Minhyun sang, “you~” and Jonghyun started playing the same bass line.
“I don't need anything other than you… Most problems are of no importance…”
Jonghyun’s expression grew into astonishment the more he heard Minhyun sing. By the end of the verse, the bassist was visibly ready to worship at Minhyun’s feet. “Amazing,” he breathed. “And your Japanese is flawless.”
“Thanks,” Minhyun said, beaming like it was nothing. Yet, “thrilled” couldn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling. Jonghyun was Hikki’s biggest fan among them, a bunch of session musicians hired for the singer’s album and music video shoot. For his vocals to be recognized by her avid fan, Minhyun thought it was the biggest praise he might ever receive his whole life.
“Sing the next part,” Jonghyun almost begged while Minhyun checked his bow. “Your violin comes in the next verse, right?”
Minhyun was still blushing from the earlier compliment. “I’m not sure I can sing it while I play my part but okay,” he said, fiddling with his violin.
“I’ll come in to rescue, don’t worry,” Jonghyun assured him and they laughed at the cheekiness of it.
“At the end of the day—”
“What are you kids still doing here?” Kwak Aaron, finest man-of-the-hour for having bagged the biggest and most high-profile project for their agency, poked his head in through the doorway and interrupted. (Only Aaron would ever refer to twenty-six-year-olds like them as kids, like he wasn’t below thirty himself.)
“Practicing?” Minhyun offered.
“It’s been cancelled — too much rain. Go home,” Aaron ordered.
“Can’t we stay?” Jonghyun asked.
“Why?”
“Too much rain,” the bassist shrugged. “I don’t feel like swimming back home, hyung.”
Aaron shrugged back. “Okay, but don’t break anything!” he warned before leaving.
“Awesome,” Jonghyun mumbled before unstrapping his bass guitar and placing it on the stand.
Minhyun placed his violin back in its case. He watched as Jonghyun went over to the baby grand piano across their seats, where Dongho would usually be perched. He lifted the lid and rolled his fingers across the keys before settling into a clear ‘G.’
“When I've been hurt… I reflect quietly alone… You read too much into that…” Jonghyun sang, startling Minhyun with the fact that he could sing. He was one octave lower than the key, and his voice had a deep and pretty tone.
What startled him even more was the song choice — Play a Love Song was Minhyun’s favorite from the album. He had scrambled to go over to the piano in excitement.
“…and struggle with anxiety~ ooohh… oohh, oh,” Minhyun sang along in Hikki’s key and blended their voices quite nicely. The bassist (now pianist) shot him a look that made his cheeks feel warm.
Jonghyun nodded for Minhyun to continue as he went on playing the chords for the verse. “Hold me tight and don’t let go~ oooh… why we fight I don’t know—” he sang until Jonghyun abruptly stopped to pull Minhyun to sit next to him on the piano bench.
“Can you play the chords?” Jonghyun asked even as he demonstrated — “G–B-minor–E-minor–D? I want to play the drums for this.”
Minhyun pushed Jonghyun playfully off the bench. “Okay, go away, I got this,” he laughingly shooed him off. “Wait, so the pre-chorus is—”
“C–D–E-minor–D,” Jonghyun rattled off as he headed over to the drum set next to his bass guitar amp. “Ready to Play a Love Song, Hwang?”
Minhyun played a D and went straight to the mid-chorus in reply. “Can we play a love song? Can we play a—” then he cackled as Jonghyun drum-rolled and stomped on the kick drum pedal in protest.
“No skipping!” Jonghyun laughed.
They started from the beginning, Minhyun singing the verses that they sang together earlier but, this time, Jonghyun added the drum beats.
“I don't know about how other people are…” Jonghyun took over the pre-chorus, the first half being just his vocals and Minhyun’s piano. Drums entered the next half; Jonghyun’s arms and legs moved again to work on the beat as he sang, “…but there's no ulterior meaning behind my words…” Neither his voice nor breathing bore any sign of strain. Minhyun concluded that Jonghyun had practiced a lot of singing while playing the drums.
There was a bit of a call-and-response on the chorus that Minhyun absolutely looked forward to and a pleasant shiver ran down his spine when Jonghyun took the lead.
“The moment the long winter ends…” Jonghyun called, his eyes never leaving Minhyun.
“I want to greet you with a smile… We act stubborn, but that's just so depressing…” Minhyun answered, and perhaps they greeted each other with a smile while they were at it.
“I've had enough of sad conversations…” Jonghyun returned.
“Please let me say that I love you… Can we play a love song?”
And they sang the latter half of the chorus together.
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
— » — « —
The rain was still pouring half an hour later and after Minhyun and Jonghyun had sang and played to their hearts’ content. Discovering how they both turned into puddles of goo upon their first time hearing the demo of Play a Love Song, the first song in Hikki’s album, the pair of musicians couldn’t stop until they perfected the song, even with only the piano and the drums.
They discovered, too, that not only were Minhyun and Jonghyun a proficient violinist and bassist, respectively, they also had respectable skill in instruments related to their main ones. Minhyun also had classical training for piano along with the violin, while Jonghyun focused first on bass and then the drums from his degree in Music Production. The odd music store job he had had allowed him to dabble in other rhythm section instruments like the piano he just played earlier.
“So you can play the electric guitar, too?”
“Yeah, but just a bit.”
After the first full piano-and-percussion round, Jonghyun wanted to record their session — endless in his praise of Minhyun’s vocals. Minhyun tried to return it, saying how Jonghyun’s tone was unique and pretty and very him. And they had laughed, dismissing the exchange of flattery in favor of doing a full cover of their beloved Hikki song — vocals, instrumentals, and all.
Jonghyun worked the recording equipment like a pro — of course he is, being one of the company’s in-house audio technicians — and soon he and Minhyun were taking turns recording the instruments, probably as seriously as they would once they finally record the song for Hikki.
They did the instruments first: Jonghyun on bass (his actual part) and drums, Minhyun on the strings (his actual part) and piano. Minhyun watched through the glass window, admiring the ease in which the whole of Jonghyun’s body moved.
Each boom of the kick drum every time Jonghyun hit the pedal, and how his arms flew in rhythmic patterns across the snare, toms, and cymbals — Minhyun wanted to regret learning this bit about Jonghyun. He didn’t need a new favorite drummer (and Mingi will certainly kill him for this betrayal), nor did Minhyun need a bigger maybe-kinda crush on a colleague.
And when Jonghyun later played the sustained bass notes on a fretless five-string — the maybe-kinda crush might have completely blossomed into a full-length love song in his heart.
Please let me say that I love you
Can we play a love song?
If only Minhyun knew that he was, at least, not alone in his suffering.
Jonghyun thought that Hikki was the love of his life — an exaggeration, yes, but still — until Minhyun decided that his vocal range could emulate even the beauty and perfection of Hikki’s vocables. Minhyun was known in the company to be that violinist who looked as graceful and elegant as the music he played — although Jonghyun had once been witness to a few of his more… inelegant moments. It was cute and he liked that more about Minhyun.
Maybe he didn’t like him now. Not with the way Minhyun effortlessly carried his voice through the ooh’s of the song, like his vocal chords was just another instrument that he had mastered over the years. Maybe he really did, taking that honey voice and honing it until he could find a place for it to shine. Minhyun was shining now, captivating Jonghyun from the other side of the glass pane.
Hold me tight and don't let go
Why we fight I don't know
“Let's try calming down for now…” Jonghyun sang in the booth later on, and the response that Minhyun was supposed to do (“It does matter… but we're probably thinking too much about it…”) did little to quell his thoughts and feelings on the matter.
I've had enough of sad conversations
Let's eat, laugh, and then sleep
Can we play a love song?
Maybe it would really be nice to do just that — have someone to eat with, laugh with, sleep with… and with whom he could play love songs together. At the same time, he shouldn’t be such a sucker for the intimacy of the current atmosphere. It was just the weather and the nature of the song… nothing more, right?
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
Can we play a —
“Come next to me… Don't go anywhere…” Minhyun was later crooning in Jonghyun’s ear, as they sat next to each other in the lobby outside the studio. Seated by the glass windows where they could watch the sky and streets dimmed by a still steady rainfall, Jonghyun and Minhyun drank tea and shared a pack of gummy jellies.
They were listening to their impromptu work uploaded on Jonghyun's phone, sharing one each of his Bluetooth earbuds and silently smirking to themselves in their satisfaction of a job flawlessly pulled off. It was all a ruse, however, as they were trying to hide how gradually their hearts were being swayed towards each other in the past hour or two.
Hold me tight and don't let…
Don’t let… go…
They may be professionals but they were artists, too. Artists feel more than they think — and that’s exactly what Jonghyun told himself when he took Minhyun’s hand in his, interlocked their fingers together, and thought no more.
Minhyun turned in his direction and stared at their hands. “Oh?”
“Should I let go?” Jonghyun asked softly.
As if saying I'll never leave you again
I wanna hug you close
(Hold me tight… Don’t ever let me go…)
“Don’t,” Minhyun answered, looking up to meet his eyes. “Don’t let go.”
The moment the long winter ends
(Hold me tight… Don’t ever let me go…)
I want to greet you with a smile…
We act stubborn, but that's just so depressing
“Hate to admit it,” Jonghyun then said, “but I think we just played right into a cliche.”
Minhyun’s laughter nearly made him choke on his jelly. “It’s not that bad, isn’t it?”
Jonghyun’s grin was partly self-deprecating but his gaze towards Minhyun held a certain spark in it. “It’s not. We literally make a living off of cliches… and truths.”
Minhyun smiled. “That we do.”
I've had enough of sad conversations
(Everybody needs some time alone)
Please tell me you love me…
As Jonghyun popped the last jelly into his mouth, Minhyun asked, “So you really want to do this?”
“Do what?” Jonghyun asked mid-chew.
Can we play a love song?
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
Can we play a — can we play a love song?
(Hold me tight and don’t let go…)
Minhyun nudged their clasped hands. “Play love songs together… what else?”
“Other than what we just did?” Jonghyun thought it over before swallowing.
“Maybe our own?” Minhyun suggested, his heart thumping not unlike the kick drum that Jonghyun had been working to his advantage in the past hour or two. Jonghyun’s lopsided grin only made it worse.
“Definitely our own.”
— » the end « —