Chapter Text
The music studio always smelled faintly of cedar and old vinyl. Warm, lived-in, like the chime of a melody long finished but not forgotten. Keeho liked to leave the front door cracked open in the mornings, just enough to let in the breeze and the occasional city noise. Jiung said it made the place feel alive.
They had built Harmony Sound from scratch, a dream pieced together with long nights, shared songs, and more coffee than was probably healthy. Over time, the studio became more than a business. It became a second home. And for some, it became a first.
Taeyang arrived on a rainy afternoon with oversized headphones and a too small backpack. He was a phoenix, quiet, eager, and surprisingly good at reading a room. Sixteen going on forty, Jiung once joked. Keeho had smiled but not laughed. There was something in Taeyang’s eyes that didn’t quite belong to a kid his age, something old and exhausted, like a song played too many times.
Still, they adored him. He swept the floors, tuned guitars, and asked thoughtful questions. He showed up early and stayed late. Always polite, always smiling.
Until he didn’t.
It was subtle at first. A missed lunch here. A shadow under his eyes there. Then came the day he nearly collapsed in the mixing room, his hands trembling over the soundboard like leaves in the wind. That’s when Keeho looked at Jiung, and Jiung looked back. Neither of them said it out loud, but they both knew.
Something was wrong.
And they would find out what.
Because Taeyang wasn’t just an intern anymore.
He was family.