Work Text:
First Verse
Tonight the skies fill with clouds again
Hiding the stars behind them
Tonight the streets fill with voices again
Hiding you among them
There’s nothing else my eyes do
But to look for you
It begins with a phone call.
“Hyung, where are you now?” Changmin presses on the phone stuck between his shoulder and cheek. He’s just finished his bowling practice an hour ago and is now at home preparing a quick dinner when he’d decided to check up on Yunho.
He can hear the bustling streets of late night Seoul from the other line.
“Hm, I’m…” Yunho mutters absentmindedly, then there’s a rustling sound before he continues, “walking to the coffee shop near my flat.”
Changmin runs the tomatoes under the tap, glancing at the clock on top of the fridge. “At this time of the night? Is anything wrong?” He thinks of asking if Yunho wants to come over and have dinner, but honestly Changmin’s quite exhausted himself, and judging from Yunho’s voice it doesn’t seem like company is what he’s looking for tonight either.
“Yeah, it’s still early. Everything’s fine. Just, I kind of have an idea for a song right now. I’m thinking of laying it out before it slips off again.”
Changmin’s hands pause on the chopping board.
Yunho has an idea for a song. Yunho is sober. Yunho is sober and has an idea for a song and is not planning to sleep just for it.
This must be a miracle.
“Want me to write the lyrics,” it slips out from Changmin before his brain even registers what he’s saying. He gives himself a mental kick, because it’s a recipe for disaster, that’s what this is, not what he’s cooking of course but this kind of collaboration between him and Yunho, and damn it he’s going to take it back, he is, “Just—“
It’s too late. Yunho clearly heard him. “Changminnie, that’d be perfect! Only you can put my feelings into words!”
Well.
If he puts it that way, okay.
Changmin stammers a laugh, “Alright then.”
“This, this is gonna be perfect, Changminnie,” Yunho repeats, “You’re perfect for me!”
“Stop it with the sap, yeah? My phone just got sticky.”
“Oh, sticky with what…” Yunho’s voice goes deep with curiosity.
“Your sap.”
“My sap…”
There’s that mischievous tone coming from the other line that Changmin’s all too familiar with.
“Oh, shove it!” The stew is boiling over, messing with Changmin’s granite countertop and shit he has to clean that before it messes with the—
“Shove wha—”
“Shut it, hyung! I’m hanging up now my dinner just spilled all over—noooo my chicken!” Changmin flings the phone to a safer part of the kitchen and shouts, “Don’t have too much caffeine it’s bad for the kidneys! Also no alcohol ‘til you write the entire thing okay? Bye I’ll see you!”
Pre-chorus
All our conversations
Are preciously folded papers
Held close inside me
Where no one else can read them
These are a thousand of my wishes
You’ve made true
(Along with my wish, that is, you)
Two days later Changmin meets with Yunho at the salon for their first round of treatments in preparation for their comeback, and they discuss the song plans over coffee and juice. Yunho lets Changmin listen to the melody written so far, and Changmin was right, it’s pretty good.
They both agree it should be an inspiring love song this time around.
They’re through with all the anger and angst, after all.
Chorus
Girl, piece by piece
We’ve fallen into each other’s arms
Blessed by the northern lights
A quiet embrace under the night sky
“Let’s not put the word ‘girl’. To make it more relatable for those who pine after guys.” Yunho comments after reading the first draft.
“Like us?”
“Girls like guys too, just so you know. More often than other guys do, in fact.”
Just the two of us is perfect
As long as you’re with me
(As long as you’re with me, girl)
“Don’t you think it’ll be better if you write about what you particularly like in a person? Like fingers? Or scent,” Yunho suggests, head tilted in an honestly contemplative manner, “it sounds personal. Observant.”
Changmin stares at him, half-blank and half glaring, trying his best not to roll his eyes, “You mean downright creepy. And disturbed. Just like the sasaeng under your couch.”
Yunho freezes at that, “That’s not funny.”
“You’re frightened. Why are you frightened?”
“I’m not. It’s nothing. Just write the lyrics, okay.”
“Yunho, is there a sasaeng under your couch?”
“No…”
“Then why are you—“
“…she was under the sink the last time.”
“YUNHO!”
Now it’s Changmin who’s frozen in his seat.
“You’re frightened. Why are you frightened?”
There’s that smug look plastered on Yunho’s face.
That does it.
“Fu—Jung Yunho are you kidding me?! That’s not funny at all!”
“It’s not,” Yunho splutters, squirming in his seat in an attempt to hold back his laughter, to no avail.
Changmin grits his teeth. He’s gone and done it, alright.
“You goddamn troll. Just wait and see.”
“Ah, my maknae’s reactions are still the best after all,” Yunho wipes away the tears of mirth from his eyes, “Don’t forget, Changminnie. Fingers and scent. Personal and observant.”
Second Verse
The shape of your nose
Fills the emptiness of my dreams
Yunho throws the paper into Changmin’s face, making sure beforehand that it’s very well crumpled and that it very well lands on his face.
“Are you screwing with me?”
Now there’s a lot of things Changmin can say to that ranging from ‘obviously yes’ to ‘what makes you think it’s your nose we’re talking about’, but he decides to settle for something that won’t earn him an easy punch.
“Were you asleep during all those nights?”
Yunho’s eyes go wide, thoroughly scandalized, “YAH! If there’s a nose to be made fun of in this room it sure as hell isn’t mine!”
Changmin pauses at that statement.
“Did you just insult one of my facial features.”
“Yes,” Yunho definitively answers with a knowing smirk, “What are you gonna do about it.”
“Bastard. Wait until your daughter gets a nose like mine.”
“Are you… are you going to give me a daughter? Changminnie?”
Changmin looks at him, surprised with the warmth and genuine excitement that he sees in Yunho, who has completely forgotten the concept of biological limitations.
He takes the crumpled paper from earlier and throws it back into Yunho’s face with three times more force.
How long has it been?
Since the storm outside ceased pouring
Not once did I think back then
That we’ll be where we are now
Today, your laugh rings with bliss
Surely heaven exists
If I can kiss you like this
“Didn’t know backseat writers actually existed,” Changmin mumbles to himself and goes through the lyric sheets again.
Yunho’s in the kitchen opening a package containing the latest batch of Banchans made by his mother back in the province. He comes out minutes later with a couple of jars in hand.
“Changminnie, want to take home some of these? Mom sent a lot as usual, I think she's completely forgotten I live alone now.”
Changmin narrows his eyes on the jars. Of course he wants to. Yunho’s mom always makes exquisite Banchans, true to their Jeolla roots.
Yunho opens a jar and horrifyingly picks a piece of spicy dried squid from it with his hand. Changmin wants to protest how unsanitary that is but his mouth’s opening by itself waiting for Yunho to give him a piece of food instead.
Yunho eats two more pieces by himself, completely oblivious to Changmin’s gaping
“This is delicious! I think I’m keeping this.”
“What do you want me to do with the song.”
“Huh, just keep on writing it,” Yunho takes the lid and is about to close the container when it’s swiped from him in a flash. In its place are the sheets of scribbled lyrics he’s discarded during the past few hours.
“Write it,” Changmin garbles in between chewing, “All that you want to see,” he pauses to exclaim delight at the taste. Yunho’s right, it’s good, “in the song, write it there.”
Yunho glances at the fingers pointing at the sheets in front of him, all red and dripping with sauce.
“That’s really clean of you, Changminnie.”
“Yeah?” Still chewing. “It was dirty of you not to give me some of this.”
“…I’m still keeping that with me. You can have the scallion kimchi.”
“Nope. I’m spitting on this,” Changmin starts scrunching his mouth to make do of his words when something solid hits his face.
It’s the jar lid.
“Yah! You just hit my nose!”
Yunho laughs loud and content, fingers pointing at Changmin while saying something that suspiciously sounds like your nose must be really huge if your cheeks didn’t even get smudged with sauce.
Changmin tackles him, screaming, and for a few minutes there’s more laughs, more screams, a thud, and the sound of a glass container breaking before the whole place goes silent.
Then there’s moaning.
Chorus
Baby, piece by piece
We’ve fallen into each other’s arms
Blessed by the northern lights
A quiet embrace under the night sky
“You wrote it in your tablet,” Yunho tells him the obvious as Changmin hands him the gadget.
“Couldn’t find a paper at that time.”
“Print it. I’m not good with these things. You know that.”
“I opened the file for you, surely your fingers can do simple scrolling?”
“You know my fingers can do a lot more wondrous things than scrolling. Surely this thing can’t be crumpled. It definitely can’t be thrown into your face.”
“You! Stop trying to mess with my face, I’ll lose my fans’ love!”
“Oh Changminnie, you’re especially beautiful when you’re made a mess of,” there’s that smirk again that Changmin wants to crumple and shred into bits, “I’ll still be here for you even when no one else is. That aside, I was actually talking about breaking this thing rather than your face.”
“You. Will. Not. Do. That.”
“You’re right, because you’ll be a sweet maknae and print it for your beloved hyung!”
“I don’t love you!”
“That’s not what you said last night~ Now go!”
Changmin hisses and stomps out of the room.
Just the two of us is perfect
As long as you’re with me
(As long as you’re with me, baby)
“Now it’s ‘baby’? Changmin, we’re not exactly singing to an infant here.”
“It’s a goddamn term of endearment! My god, have you been living under some rock all this time?”
“I’m kidding. Don’t be such a tightass," Yunho strikesthrough the word with his red pen anyway, "But, really. It just… doesn’t sound right for the song.”
“You,” Changmin huffs, “you’re unbelievable.”
Yunho flashes his megawatt grin.
“So I’ve been told, baby. So I’ve been told.”
Bridge/Dance Break
“I don’t want to write rap.”
Yunho beams at him, “I can do the lyrics for that part.”
“Yeah, let me rephrase that: I don’t want any rap in this song.”
“Do you want me to put in a note with a pitch that will send you to the next galaxy instead?”
Changmin glares daggers at him.
“Do you want to put in a dance break?”
Yunho rolls his eyes, “Who the hell puts a dance break in a slow-tempo ballad?”
“I’m sorry, I thought we were doing the what-you-do-best thing.”
Stay a little longer, a little closer
“Is this a dream?”
It doesn’t matter
Verse
I know, in this moment of forever, and after
It can only get more beautiful from here on
(I can’t leave you)
I can’t I can’t I caaaan’t~
Yunho strums his guitar in frustration.
“Don’t. Don’t do adlibs yet, I’m still not done with the whole thing.”
“It sounded better that way though.”
“No, no. It didn’t sound okay at all.”
Changmin takes a sip of water before very carefully replacing his bottle on the desk.
“I see. It didn’t.”
Yunho gulps.
“Changminnie…”
“No, it’s alright.”
It’s definitely not alright.
“Um,” Yunho flips to the next page of the score, “let’s just, um, start on the next page? Changminnie, let’s follow what’s written first, yeah? So I know what to do for the final adjustments.”
Woooh, wooh, wooh~
“Stop, stop! Stop singing after the third note! It’s a freaking musical rest! See that black hat on the score? It’s supposed to be purely instrumental in this part!”
Changmin swipes the emptied bottle beside him and chucks it into Yunho's head.
"Why you! You're doing this on purpose!"
Chorus
Love, piece by piece
We’ve fallen into each other’s arms
Blessed by the northern lights
A quiet embrace under the night sky
Tonight they’re seated together on Yunho’s couch, having their dessert while watching a re-run of Changmin’s variety show.
Changmin stops nibbling on the sweet rice cakes and turns to look at Yunho.
“Ahaha, I think the last concert wrecked my eardrums. I just heard you say you’re going to Africa,” he tilts his head and lightly knocks on it in an attempt to clear whatever seems to be obstructing his hearing, because. Africa?
“I’m going to Africa,” Yunho repeats with a nod, before taking a sip of warm tea.
“Are you breaking up with me?”
Yunho spits out his drink.
“Are you crazy?” He pulls on the hem of his shirt to wipe his mouth, “where did that even come from?”
The neatfreak inside Changmin is slightly offended with what Yunho's doing, but he pushes it back in, because there are more important questions which need to be raised right now.
“Did I spite you so much the last time we fought that you’re threatening to fly halfway through the globe as revenge? Should we move back to our old apartment again? Because then we could go back to threatening to move out when we’re in a misunderstanding, and then at least we’d still be within a driving distance from—“
“Changminnie, it’s just for a show, okay. I’ll be doing some volunteer work for a couple of weeks or so.”
“Oh.”
“Oh? That’s it?”
“No,” Changmin sets down his plate, “Okay. You just had to choose a place where I can’t even adjust my sched to come with—“
“Will you wait for me?”
“Oh no no no. You don’t get to use that line, you cheese.”
“Wait for me.”
“Of course I –what?” Yunho slides his arm around Changmin’s waist, earning him an immediate protest, “Don’t touch mhmmfph—“ Changmin’s words are muffled with the rice cake Yunho feeds him.
Yunho watches Changmin chew on it with much indignation, eyes fixed on the television and stubbornly refusing to meet his own. He takes Changmin’s hands in his, and he thinks of how much of this man he’ll miss while he’s away for several weeks.
Just the two of us is perfect
As long as you’re with me
(As long as you’re with me, love)
When Changmin finally leans on his shoulder, lips pressed into a tight line, Yunho knows Changmin’s thinking of the same thing too.
“I’ll be back.”
Outro
Even when all the streetlights have dimmed
And the morning dew drops start falling
I’ll still be waiting for you (to meet you)
To come home
(I’ll be home)
Changmin wakes up with a start.
It’s dark and he’s wrapped tightly in an embrace. For a second he panics, thinking that it could be some freak sasaeng who managed to sneak in.
Shouldn’t have joked with Yunho about them. Shit, shit, shi—
But the arms shift a little and he feels the familiar form and there’s breathing on his forehead and he knows who it is, that pattern of breathing, that sweet scent of candies that can’t be removed after all these years. Changmin pulls back to check.
“Yunho…?”
Changmin squints; no, Yunho’s not supposed to be back in Korea yet. The man said he’ll be gone for a couple of weeks and the fansites said his flight got delayed and stuff and Changmin almost ate his own fingers worrying about him and why, Changmin must be dreaming if he’s positive that it’s Yunho.
He moves his hand to pinch himself to awaken when he gets a better idea.
There’s no need to hurt himself.
It’s a dream, after all.
He studies Yunho’s features for awhile before proceeding to pinch where it hurts.
“OW! What the actual f—“
“…hyung?” Changmin’s eyes are wide open and he slaps Yunho for good measure, the sound of it crisp and clear as it reverberates through the room. The hallucination looks at him in genuine surprise.
“What why are you what is this who are you where is my lovely Changminnie?”
Changmin reaches across Yunho to turn on the bedside lamp.
“Yunho!"
"Okay remind me never to surprise you again."
"You’re not supposed to be here! Manager-hyung didn't tell me anything about you coming back today!”
“Yeah,” Yunho scrubs at his cheek, “I kinda wanted to keep it a secret.”
From now on we’ll begin towards our neverend
Hold my hand and we’ll take a chance
Changmin sips his coffee, eyes fixed on the view outside the window. It’s only a little past five in the morning, and the city is barely awake. The sun likely won’t be out for another half an hour.
Across him, Yunho is cradling the warm cup of tea Changmin had brewed minutes earlier.
He’s definitely exhausted from the trip. Even his glowing skin does nothing to fool Changmin. Changmin sighs; Yunho’s flat is closer to the airport than his, but he’s here and why the hell is he here, this stupid, stupid man.
The news on the fansites comes to mind: flight delays, typhoons, terrorist attacks, changes in schedule and what the hell more. Changmin rubs on the circles beneath his eyes.
Thank god he’s here.
“Well then," he coughs out, setting his coffee mug down.
"What is it?"
“Welcome home.”
Then Yunho smiles at him, genuinely pleased, with his eyes crinkling into thin lines.
“I’m home.”
Until our voices become a whisper
We’ll sing together (forever)
Extra.
Kyuhyun reads through the lyrics, humming along with the score like the talented singer that he is.
“Brother, this is sad. You didn’t even try.”
“It's just a draft. Shut up.”
“Wha—you’re the one asking for my opinion! Is the character content or is he still hoping for something else? It's confusing! You think this guy's lover will even come back? No, bro!"
Changmin crushes his feet under the table and for the few seconds he’s wailing for help, Kyuhyun thinks he hears the words but he did, he did.