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Win was a deep sleeper, one that moved around a lot. Two people present didn’t know this fact. His friends however knew that all too well thanks to their many sleepovers over the past few years. They have gotten used to Win’s legs or arms finding their way to his band mates faces or legs.
They have even developed techniques to ensure a minimum of casualties caused by Win. Usually his spot will be at a wall and one of the other Chinzillas will be the human shield for the others. They took rounds every sleepover. Tonight Gun took it upon himself to be the shield protecting the School President from his friends limbs.
It was close to midnight and Win was fast asleep pressed in between the bunk bed and Gun, one of his legs already trapped his friend’s own. A few minutes passed and the barricade in form of the band leader has disappeared.
_____
Sound is not a deep sleeper. He actually had trouble sleeping since he was a child. Woken up easily and having a hard time falling asleep. The doctors said it is because of stress. They recommended him to avoid it. He found this incredibly ironic. There was probably no time in his life except his early childhood, that was without stress. It’s not that he subjected himself purposely to overly stressful environments. His parents didn’t either.
His rivalry with Tinn created a lot of stress when he was in middle school. Not only because of the academic race against Tinn, but also because of the unfortunate crush he had on him. This part isn’t stressful anymore.
What is stressful however is having a very high standards in oneself, and wanting to prove oneself. There are so many things Sound wants to achieve in his life. He knows he has the potential. And he has the opportunities. But all those things will wear him down over time. SoundAbout, his acting career, and maybe even Chinzilla. He really wants to do all of these with all of his heart but he has to be careful and find a balance.
The past few days, and even weeks, have already taken a toll on his wrist. The amount of stress that came with it didn’t help either. Today however turned out differently than expected. Now that Win knew, Sound felt more at ease. There was still stress flowing through his system, but it was the good kind of stress that weirdly enough helped him fall asleep tonight. He thought about no other than the guy who triggered these emotions. How Win was concerned for his wellbeing, offered to be his hand, took him back to school, and fed him BBQ pork. With the memories of Win’s caring touch, he fell asleep.
_____
Win is usually a deep sleeper, except he is nervous or worried. It’s already deep into the night of the day the Chinchillas will compete in Hot Wave. Win woke up by shuffling beside him and two whispering voices. “Good Night” he heard Gun whisper as he settles down next to Win, accidentally shoving his back while he made himself comfortable on the mattress. Win kept his eyes shut and soon enough he heard another voice “Sweet dreams. Get some rest. You will be great tomorrow, I believe in you.”
‘Damn the school president really puts a lot of effort in helping them win Hot Wave to regain the schools reputation’, he thinks and waits for their breaths to become quiet again before he considers opening his eyes or move his body.
Win stretches his full body and yawns in the process. He must have moved at night because Gun is now sleeping on his left side. No problem, he just has to get cozy again on the newfound free real estate. He grabs his pillow, forms it into the perfect shape, and turns to his side, moving his legs into a comfortable position. What he didn’t expect was his foot making contact with someone’s leg, so he opened his eyes.
Facing him was Sound. Asleep, brows lightly drawn together and mouth the slightest bit open.
Win thinks about the last time they were this close sleeping at theatre practice. He started to find their newfound proximity comforting. The first few times he was happy to be bound free from Sound again, but after many practices, falling asleep leaning against each other, and the final performance, he felt their final separation to be something entirely else instead of liberating. He didn’t know what the feeling was exactly, but he knows that there is something missing now.
He looks at Sound’s face and takes his time doing so. Sound is a handsome individual. No wonder he’s a star, thought Win and remembers when he saw him for the first time. It was not at the school, but at one of his many YouTube rabbit hole nights. He found SoundAbout in his recommended mashed between many music tutorials, rap MV’s, and capybara videos. Win was captivated, not only by Sound’s excellent guitar skills, but also by his effortless charm, aura, and the smiles that Sound directed at his fans. He proceeded to keep watching whatever auto play presented him next from Sound’s channel until he fell asleep.
It stayed at that one nightly obsession, and he didn’t think more about it as the year went by, until he saw a weirdly familiar face walk into class. He really wanted Sound to join the Chinzillas. When he met Sound, he expected him to act the way he saw him do in the videos. He expected him to be enthusiastic and kind. Maybe a little arrogant as well, but he didn’t expect to be shoved against the bathroom stall and later having Sound insult Chinzilla so badly. So the bubble got burst pretty quickly and Win didn’t care anymore who he supposedly was, he now was an enemy. Win is very protective of his band and bandmates, and whoever dares to badmouth them should better run fast.
As Win is looking at him now sleeping in front of him, he thinks about Sound’s smile. It is a rare opportunity to be looking at him uninterrupted like this. However today he looked more at him than ususal. He literally went looking for him, and when he found him his looks were what Sound made crumble and open up to him. And then he saw him smile. It was brief but he catchend it before it was done. He wants to keep seeing that smile. As the evening went by he saw it more frequently, an more importantly…directed at him. The slight frown has on his face right now bothers Win and he wants to put his thumb in between his brows to smooth out the wrinkle and make Sound relax his face.
He knows that he worries and cares about Sound. And as far as he knows nobody truly cares about himself. Usually nobody pays attention to Win. He was a nobody at school, as were the other Chinzillas. He got no attention from the girls and none for his skills or achievements. After getting into the new round of Hot Wave, he felt seen. He felt like a star.
Sound payed attention to him. In forms of insults, but it was attention and that’s why he liked it and sought out these fights, these arguments, their bickering. But at the Rap Battle he got a different kind of attention from Sound. Encouragement.
And after the MV he felt another form of attention radiating from Sound. A silent caring attention. He only noticed it because it’s such a stark contrast to their constant fighting, and now the times they fight has decrease. Leaving these other moments to fill the rest of their interactions.
Sound took a while to feel part of the Chinzillas. And until recently he always stood at the sideline when the group was discussing something. Standing and silently mustering (or judging) his band mates. Win would glance towards the other from time to time standing separated from the group. And more than not, Sound was looking at him. Usually it’s a frown that is plastered on his face or he quickly changes whatever expression he has beforehand to anger or annoyance and shoots a provoking glare at Win, challenging him to whatever.
But sometimes Sound doesn’t change his expression when Win catches his glance. And Win can only describe it as a somewhat worried face. He doesn’t know for sure what he is worried about at any moment. The club, himself, or Win. Maybe he thinks the band is doomed and they are not good enough for Sounds standards and they will pull him down with them.
Sound moves a little and Win shuts his eyes immediately. He listens for a sew seconds for further movement and slowly opens his eyes again. Sound has moved his body even more towards Win and adjusted his arms while doing so. His hurt wrist close to being trapped under Sound’s own torso.
Win made a decision. Oh so slowly he reaches for Sound’s arm, checking every second if Sound is staying asleep or not, and lifts it up. Win navigates Sounds hand further up to lay between both of their chests, safe from him accidentally rolling on his injured wrist.
Today’s talk in front of the physiotherapy cleared a few things up, and Win was glad that the hunch he had turned out to be correct. Sound was worried and didn’t want his bandmates to worry as well, so he kept his hurt wrist a secret. He must have really thought that Win wouldn’t find out.
The silent looks he gave Win instead of arguing this week were saying more than his his outbursts. The look earlier when he left for his ‘workshop’ even seemed like a message to Win. He couldn’t decode the meaning behind it, but it made him follow Sound.
The looks Sound gives Win go both ways. The way Sound gets attention from Win is through arguing. And Sound loves Wins attention, so he kept pressing Wins buttons. He also only got what he wanted by provoking Win. Like getting the girls Line ID deleted. Or just being present at the entrance of the Rap competition, which gave Win the needed push to sign up. And of course encouraging Win on stage to make him perform. If he wanted to interact with Win or make him do something , he needed to fight with him. But this clearly changed. At Rap of War it was just being there and words of affirmations that did the trick.
Sound got attention from Win when he was struggling with badminton. Seeing a defeated and discouraged Sound was different to his usual mix of anger and frustration. The frustration stayed, but it was not a frustration directed at others, but a frustration directed at himself. He couldn’t do something as simple as badminton and felt incredibly bothered about it.
As Win keeps thinking about their late night badminton training his eyes fall shut and with the thoughts of a medal pressing in between his lips he slowly drifts off to sleep again.
_____
Sound wakes up to the very touch of the person he fell asleep thinking about. He doesn’t know how late it is, but it must be late into the night because for the first few hours he was laying beside his rival the school president. And now in front of him there is his other ‘rival’ who was definitely no rival anymore. Win’s hand rested on his elbow and Sound noticed that his own hand was laying right between them. Sound’s heart tugs when he sees Win’s face. He looks happy.
Sound smiles and his eyes skitter across Win’s face. He can’t get enough of how happy he looks. Hours ago he got a taste of Win’s teasing and genuinely caring smiles and will never look back. Before that it was just snark and anger. It distorted Win’s face and made him look like an entirely different person. Sound much preferred Win’s face when he was teasing, being smug, insecure, and happy.
Now Win’s face is being partially obscured by his hair. As if there us a magnetic pull, Sound reaches out with his other hand and swipes his hair aside. A few strands keep falling back onto Win’s face so he continues what he’s doing. Win’s hair skitters across his face as Sounds repeatedly moves them away and Win’s face starts twitching lightly and he scrunches his nose. Sound retracts his hand back in shock, just in time before Win opens his eyes.
They both blink at each other and Win takes his hand off Sound’s elbow.
“Oh, sorry” he says and pulls his arm to his chest “I move around a lot when I sleep.”
“Over the others all the way over here?” Sound teased him.
“No. Tho something like that happened at one sleepover. Por and Phat were not very amused.”
Win sees Sound smile at that.
“I think the others left the bed and went outside a few hours ago.”
“And now you’re here”
“And now I’m here. Sorry.” Win offers a smile.
“No worries. It’s ok.”
They were quiet for a while.
“So how’s your wrist?” He asks and looks at Sound’s hand laying between them.
“The same I guess” Sound moves it slightly ”What’s your guess, what time it is right now?”
“I don’t know but it’s definitely already the day of the performance” Win says and Sound nods.
“How are you feeling Win?”
“A bit nervous. It’s my first concert in front of so many people. Well except the rap battle. But that’s different. That’s not Chinzilla.”
“Yeah it is different.” Sound whispers as he thinks about their hug at the rap battle.
“Sound.”
“What?”
They look into each others eyes.
“I want us to win”
Sound nods “Yeah, me too.”
Win holds his hand in front of Sound with his pinky out. “Then let’s rock this round and move all the way up to the finals.”
Sound looks back and forth from Win’s eyes to his hand and hesitates before taking a deep breath and smiling “Sounds good, I’m in”. And with that Sound reaches his hand out and hooks his pinky with Win’s. They both have to let out a grin and separate their hands again.
Sound continues speaking “You’ll be great, I know it” and offers a hopefully encouraging smile. Win’s smile fades slowly and he just hums as his final answer.
Eventually they break eye contact and look at in between them to their hands resting on the mattress.
Win clears his throat “You should go back to sleep, we need out Solo Guitarist well rested for the show.”
Sound just nods and looks back up to Win “You too. Good night Winny da Pooh.”
Win scrunches his nose and smiles. “Yeah, yeah. Sleep tight Mr. SoundAbout.”
_____
It’s the morning of the Hot Wave live gig. Gun wakes up, feeling better than before thanks to his talk with Tinn. It was dark when they returned to the music room, so he and the school president tried their best to not trip over the others as they searched for their original sleeping spot.
Gun sat up, stretched his arms over his head and looked around looking for a certain human starfish.
Usually Win would be lying half on top of him in the morning at sleepovers. But instead he is sleeping close to Sound, their legs intertwined. Gun lets out a knowing little grin and grabs his phone.
He opened the group chat called 🎸🥇 and typed out a message for Four and her girlfriend.
„Girls, listen up. There‘s a chance that Four is not loosing your bet YET. There has been development. I‘ll keep an eye on them today and report back to you. Gun over and out 🎙️“