Work Text:
I.N was proud of himself. Or more like of his work. He had been sitting in the vocal practice room and accompanying himself on the keyboard while singing when suddenly inspiration had struck.
It was more of an accident than anything. In fact, it all had happened when he had pressed a wrong note on accident. Once he had gotten past the cringe and frustration of making a mistake mid-song, while playing and singing passionately, he had realized that the change in the harmony actually sounded good.
In fact, it sounded magnificent. And that was how he had forgotten all about his vocal practice. Instead, he had spent two hours making up a melody, trying out harmonies and gushing over how fantastic this combination sounded.
It wasn't that unusual for him. Although Jeongin had been playing the piano for what felt like his whole life and practiced more pieces and songs than he could count, sometimes a single harmony or a particular rhythm just stood out to him and had him thinking about it for weeks. If asked, he could never explain the sensation. Maybe because it couldn't be explained. It simply had to be experienced.
And it was the same in this case. Two hours later, the maknae had built a whole melody around a random chord he had pressed by mistake.
Now I.N was standing in the middle of their living room, looking down at the music sheets he had written and his phone that he had used to record his piece.
It sounded beautiful to him. It was short but impactful, the fruits of a frenzied and experimental composing session. This piece was better than anything he had ever composed.
And he didn't have the slightest clue what to do with it.
Just putting it away felt like a waste. Keeping it as a private project felt like a waste. Something stopped him from presenting it as it was, too. And although the piece was beautiful even in its shortness, it felt incomplete. Not terribly so. It hadn't felt incomplete when he had worked on it. Maybe he should add some length after all? No, that felt wrong. So what was bugging him?
Then he understood. This piece was great by itself, sure, but it would be even better as a part of something more.
Jeongin sighed, realizing he had spent the past five minutes staring at his phone screen that had turned off after one.
A few more instruments to accompany it, some adlibs for that little extra spice, maybe some lyrics to go with it- I.N realized that, for the first time in his life, he had written a piece that was made to be expanded, meant to be something more than it already was. He had drawn a sketch that needed to become a painting.
Usually, when he composed a piece, it was either meant to be purely instrumental or the music for a song he already had in mind. When the latter was the case, he always had a clear idea of what he wanted the piece to sound like and what he was working towards. It meant he knew this would become a song when he started. More often than not, it was just a matter of writing down the melody that had come to him when he had written down the lyrics.
This time, however, he knew he was going somewhere, laying the ground for something, but he had no idea where and for what. And he had no inspiration left. His earlier writing session had sucked up all his creative energy of the day like a sponge.
Groaning, I.N dropped on the couch. Why couldn't he just be content with what he already had? Why did he have to think about the piece again? It had felt so perfect to him before. He blew some air through his lips to remove his bangs from his eyes and sighed.
Maybe working as an idol had pushed him to think on a bigger scale when it came to music. Maybe writing a simple melody or an instrumental piece wasn't enough for him anymore.
But no, this wasn't the case. He knew because he had written another instrumental just last week and he saw no way to make it even better than it was. The full potential of that piece was reached. But the potential of the piece he was holding now was yet to be explored.
Suddenly, it clicked in his brain. It wasn't that the piece itself felt incomplete. It was perfectly fine as it was. But not as a stand-alone. The context surrounding it was missing. It was a bit like listening to only the bridge of a song- great on its own, sure, but so much better in the context of the whole song, everything that leads up to it and comes after.
He didn't know why, but this realization was important to him. His work felt greater again.
Except he still had no idea what to do now. His arm dropped to the side, taking the music sheets out of his view. I.N rolled his head to the side and looked at the doors to their rooms.
He was home alone. The other members were either out running errands or practicing or writing music. Though he could see Chan's laptop from where he was lying. It was standing on the table in his room, visible through the small slit that came from closing the door only 3/4 of the way for 'air circulation purposes and simultaneous hiding of the mess inside'. Either way, Chan's laptop being home told him that 3racha were either having a whole new composing session or not working at all.
I.N sat up, an idea sparking in his mind. Chan's laptop.
He got up and walked to his room, pushing the door open all the way. The laptop had a password I.N knew. He was pretty sure everyone in the group did. Technically, the maknae could use it right then and there. Alas, he hadn't been raised that way.
So he shot Chan a quick text, waiting for his hyung to answer.
Hyung, can I use your laptop for a bit?
A few seconds later, the reply came.
Sure, go ahead. Charger's under the pillow.
Yeah, he definitely wasn't working on a new song if he managed to reply that fast.
I.N turned on the laptop and went to his room to retrieve his phone charger. He connected his phone with the laptop. A look at Chan's desktop made him shake his head. His folders that were inside folders had folders of their own, yet the desktop still was clustered with them.
He almost turned the laptop back off again, fearing he might delete something by accident. Then he remembered Chan had three different back-up hard disks he updated on a very regular basis laying around somewhere and started looking through the folders.
I.N spotted one that said original samples. It seemed to contain all kinds of samples and short compositions 3racha were yet to use. Bingo. He created a new folder inside this one and titled it by I.N just so Chan wouldn't get confused about its origins. Then he copied his recording into it and put pictures of the sheet music in the folder.
He did not know where to go from here. But his hyungs surely would. And if his little contribution helped them create another masterpiece, he was perfectly happy with handing over his creation.
I.N listened to a few of the rough demos he found in another folder before shutting down the laptop and ordering takeout for the group.
______________________________
A few days later, Jeongin was on a walk with Felix when Chan called him.
"Yes, hyung?"
"Innie, I found a folder on my laptop with a recording and music sheets inside. Are you okay with 3racha using them?"
"Yes. That's kinda what I was going for. I didn't really know where to go from there, but I figured you guys would."
Chan hummed at the other end of the line.
"Oh, we do. Thank you, Innie. And great work on the track! I really like the progression of chords you used..."
He kept rambling for a while before thanking I.N once again and saying hello to Felix before ending the call.
Felix grinned at I.N. "You put a song on Channie-hyung's laptop? Sneaky."
The youngest shrugged. "Not exactly a song, but yeah. I didn't know what to do with it but I felt like something had to be done to it."
"Understandable. Next time, though, do show me your creations too, please."
"Sure, if I don't forget."
Felix grinned and linked his arm with I.N's to drag him towards their favorite coffee shop.
_______________________________
Inspiration struck again a few weeks later, when Jeongin was chilling in his room with Jisung. He glanced over at the rapper, who was busy typing something into his phone.
Jeongin was basically fluent in everything Jisung, he could tell by his facial expressions and typing speed that his roommate was working on lyrics. The rapper scrunched his nose, his fingers hovering over the screen. Jisung lowered his phone and let out a huff. He caught I.N's gaze and shook his head.
"I am stuck."
Han held up his phone for I.N to see. The maknae leaned a bit closer.
"I don't see a problem with this. In fact, this is... very deep and relatable as well as poetically written."
Jisung gave a small thankful smile but shook his head.
"Yes, this part I am satisfied with, but what comes after? I still need about just as many lines and I don't know what to add on here. These lyrics are great and they fit to the music perfectly but they already feel complete to me. I cannot come up with anything else that wouldn't feel as if I'm destroying what I already have."
Jeongin grimaced. Yeah, he knew that feeling. It was the worst. It was also the reason why he had a bunch of very short compositions sitting in his notes.
"Can I hear the track you're using?", he asked.
Jisung nodded and looked for it on his phone while Jeongin looked for his headphones.
He knew that most of the time 3racha worked on lyrics, they listened to the track the lyrics were for to get the timing and flow and progression and what not right.
He had discovered at some early point in their career that this actually helped a lot when writing lyrics. Yet, he tended to do it the other way around and regret it the moment he found some lyric drafts but failed remember the melody he had had in his head.
A few minutes later, I.N was typing away on Han's phone. Han's lyrics were telling a story and adding anything more to it would make it less impactful, but what if he told another story instead of continuing this one? One that was different in some points but similar in many others?
Jisung recognized that I.N was in a productive frenzy and let him be, laying back on his bed to maybe nap a little since he didn't have his phone to watch videos.
He had almost fallen asleep when he heard that Jeongin suddenly got up and walked over to him. Jisung opened an eye to look up at him and found his phone almost shoved into his face.
"How about this?"
Jisung skimmed the lyrics, then read through them again. Some were full lines, others were pointers for where it could go from there. His eyebrows shot up.
"Innie, you're a lifesaver!"
He tugged at I.N's wrist slightly and the youngest, clumsy and easy to throw off-balance as he tended to be, tumbled down. His fall was broken by Jisung, who let out a dramatic wail but seemed to be in no real pain. He trapped the maknae in his arms and began to annoy him.
"Ah, hyung, whyyy.", I.N whined, trying to escape Jisung's trap half-heartedly.
"Can't I show affection to my younger brother?"
"Absolutely not."
Jisung pouted. "Good thing no one's gonna stop me from doing so anyway."
I.N squealed as Jisung started tickling him and grabbed the nearest pillow to smack it against the older's face. A pillow fight that soon included three more members was the consequence.
________________________________
I.N looked at the updated KOMCA credits of Stray Kids proudly. He was still ways off from being anywhere near 3racha's count, but the growing number made him happy nevertheless.
Over the past few months, the maknae had added a bunch of stuff onto Chan's laptop and he was excited to see what his hyungs would do with it. Judging from the calls he sometimes got and the hints that 3racha dropped from time to time, they were making good use of his ideas.
And the other members'. They had picked up I.N's habit of handing ideas over to 3racha to work with and started doing the same. The producers were more than happy every time they received some input from the members and always encouraged them to keep doing.
A lot of times the members also struggled with writing down and properly conveying their ideas, which, 3racha assured them, was completely normal, even for experienced song writers, though practice did make it easier for them over time.
So for now, there weren't many songs out in the world that the other members had contributed to with their own lyrical and musical ideas. Also, 3racha tended to keep finished projects hidden in the deepest depths of Chan's folders for years.
Well, that wasn't much of a problem for I.N since he could listen to them anyway but the could see the appeal of stealing Chan's laptop that STAYs always talked about.
I.N loved being an artist. He loved being part of Stray Kids. And he loved seeing the happiness that their work created.
His phone announced an incoming message and he opened his chat. The maknae had sent Chan a message (or a bunch of them) earlier that contained the music he had composed and the lyrics he had come up with, asking for the leader's opinion.
Jeongin smiled when he saw the selfie of 3racha that the leader had sent back. Jisung was making an impressed face in the background while Changbin looked straight-up hyped and and Chan smiled proudly.
Two messages followed the selfie. Jeongin felt flooded with warmth and approval, a shy but proud smile tugging at his lips.
SKZ Channie-hyung
We are in unanimous agreement about this one.
What's your take on releasing a SKZ-Record by I.N?