Chapter Text
“No.”
Rumi huffs. “Mira, I haven’t even started–”
“I don’t even need to know what you’re about to pitch to us, my answer is a no.”
Rumi looks over to Zoey for help. Zoey is still sitting behind her drumset, tucked in the back corner of the HUNTR/X practice space, absolutely chugging the boba that Rumi handed to her after practice. She makes eye contact with Rumi, fully understanding that Rumi is basically begging her to intervene, and then turns towards Mira.
“Come on Mira, let’s hear her out,” Zoey says. “She bought us boba!”
“It’s bribery boba.”
“Bribery boba is still boba.” Zoey smiles wide, and Mira rolls her eyes before looking at Rumi.
“Fine. Tell us what you’re thinking.”
Rumi recomposes herself, as if she’s giving a business meeting instead of just talking to her two best friends. “So, what I was thinking is that our live sets don’t quite have the musical complexity of our recordings, especially considering that I’m not that good at singing and playing guitar at the same time–”
“I think you’re great at guitar!”
Rumi’s smile slips past her businesswoman persona. “Thanks Zoey, but it’s still true that I can’t play the more complex guitar parts while I sing. We still sound really good live, but I think that we can be better.” She looks over to Mira, who looks stoic but not uninterested. The small victories still count. “Which is why I think that we should add another guitarist to the band.”
“Who?”
Rumi stutters. This was not how this presentation was supposed to go. Mira stares at her, sitting on top of her bass amp. “Rumi, I know you, and I also know that you wouldn’t suggest this if you didn’t already have somebody in mind. Who do you want to add to the band?”
“Uhhhh…” Mira can see the gears turning in Rumi’s head as she tries to figure out how to answer a very simple question, and it only takes her two seconds to figure out Rumi’s answer before she’s even said it out loud. She slumps, hand over her face, and Rumi’s non-answer gets higher and higher in pitch.
“Rumi.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t tell me that you were about to suggest that we add Jinu-”
“Jinu?” Zoey erupts. “We can’t add Jinu to the band!”
“Zoey’s right. He’s awful.”
“And he’s like, 400 years old. And he smells bad.”
Rumi holds her hands up. “Firstly, he-“ She pauses for a moment as she fully processes what Zoey and Mira have just said, and then chooses to rebut the most egregious of their statements. “Zoey, he’s only twenty-five. He’s not that old.”
“That’s basically 400 years old. I can’t be in a band with somebody who’s ancient history.”
“Zoey, you’re literally twenty! You two could have gone to high school together!”
“That doesn’t matter. He’s still old.”
Rumi turns to Mira to try to get help with Zoey, but Mira’s just looking at her, amused with her floundering. Rumi decides to drop it. “And Mira, I know that the two of you didn’t have a good introduction, but I promise he’s not literally the devil.”
“He could’ve fooled me.”
Rumi sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Just… give him a chance. He’s really good at guitar, and it’s going to make our songs better.”
Mira really doesn’t want to do this, and she makes no effort to hide her disdain for Jinu from her face. She looks at Zoey, chewing on tapioca pearls as she weighs the pros and cons of adding another member. She can tell that Zoey is probably going to say yes, because Zoey very clearly has a soft spot for Rumi and rarely tells her no. On cue, Zoey looks at her and shrugs. What’s the worst that could happen? Mira looks back at Rumi. Her face probably brightened at the sight of Zoey acquiescing. Her fingers are gripped tightly around the sleeve of her hoodie. It’s a tell: Rumi is very stressed out about this. Zoey’s right. Jinu is her friend, and much as she doesn’t like him, Rumi just wants her friends to be friends with her friend. So, as much as she despises the idea of Jinu as a member of the band, Mira relents anyways.
“...fine. He gets one practice.”
“Thank you, Mira. I owe you one.” A small voice in Mira’s head notes that the sight of the tension leaving Rumi’s body was reward enough, but Mira is very good at ignoring that voice, incessantly suggesting things about her band mates.
Zoey chokes on a boba pearl.
“This was a bad idea.”
Rumi looks over at Jinu as they drive towards the practice space on the edge of the Guro district. Mira’s job is to pick up Zoey, and Rumi’s job is to open up the space so that the three members can start practicing as soon as everybody is there. Theoretically. But today, Rumi is extra early, having to bring Jinu and his rig while also figuring out how to add another amplifier to the already cramped space without Mira throwing more of a fit about this arrangement than she already has.
“Jinu, it’ll be fine. You’re going to do great.”
“At guitar? Obviously.” Rumi can’t help but laugh at how easily Jinu flips into his braggadocious persona. “But being a band member isn’t just about playing guitar well, it’s about the vibe. I vibe well with you, but what happens when it’s three lesbians and Jinu?”
“Jinu, I’m not a lesbian.” She can feel Jinu staring at her with that look.
“Of course not. You talk about your bandmates in a purely heterosexual way.” His smirk burns against her ears. She refuses to even look back at him; she rolls her eyes and focuses extra hard on her driving.
“I’m pretty sure Mira’s the only lesbian in the group. Plus, if you’re so sure that I’m a lesbian, which I’m not, why would you be worried about the three of us?”
Jinu reclines slightly in his seat. “It’s all about balance. Each member of a band brings their own flavor to the group, and if my flavor isn’t lesbian enough–”
“Not a lesbian!”
“–if my flavor isn’t right, then it won’t work.”
There was an air of playfulness in Jinu’s quips, but the unspoken implication of his statement hangs heavily in the silence. Jinu’s previous band, SAJA, had just been signed to Sunlight Entertainment, when, at their own album release party, the band broke up suddenly and very loudly, with several broken guitars left on the stage in the ballroom rented out by Sunlight. Rumi glances over at him, seeing a slight frown on his face.
“It’s not going to be like before,” Rumi states. “Mira and Zoey are different.”
Jinu stares out the window, the buildings of downtown flying past.
In the middle of a song, Mira stops playing and holds a hand up. Everyone else stops on a dime, turning towards her.
“I just… I need a minute.” Mira puts down her bass guitar on top of the amplifier, clicks on her tuning pedal to mute the amp, and steps outside the practice space, quietly closing the door behind her.
The sound of the door closing still booms down the empty hallway, rows of unused industrial units lining the walls. She walks briskly to the end of the hall, opening the door to outside. The sun has dipped past the horizon, painting the skies with reds and blues. She sits down on the concrete stairs near the door and takes a few deep breaths. The twilight air dries the sweat on her skin, and the quiet in the air is briefly interrupted by the hum of cars driving down the street. The door opens behind her. She knows it’s Rumi because Zoey swings the door wide open while singing Mira’s name and Jinu knows that if he ever sneaks up behind ever again she will gut him like a fish. She doesn’t turn to look, but her suspicion is confirmed when Rumi asks “How are you feeling?”
“Just needed some fresh air.”
“I meant about Jinu.”
There’s a lot that Mira could say. He’s good, but HUNTR/X is our thing. You, me, and Zoey. What happens when you realize that I’m not good enough? Are you going to replace me next?
“…he is good at guitar.”
Rumi sits down to her left. The breeze picks up for just a second, almost as if the wind was speaking everything else left unsaid. Mira looks down to see the familiar tug of Rumi’s hands gripping her sleeves.
“Mira, I… thank you. I know this was… selfish. I really owe you one. You and Zoey, I owe both of you one.”
Mira shoulder bumps Rumi and finally looks at her. Whenever Rumi looks at her like that, it’s impossible for her to say no.
“Okay, I’m good now. Let’s go make sure Zoey and Jinu haven’t broken anything.”
“So, what do you think?”
Rumi and Jinu stepped out to get post-practice boba for Mira and Zoey. Mira is fully aware that this is yet another bribe, but also a way for her and Zoey to talk about adding a new member without Jinu around. Zoey’s in her own world, scribbling something in one of her notebooks. Usually Zoey would indulge in their other post-practice ritual of switching around instruments and playing awful music, and while her writing in a notebook isn’t a sign that this practice went poorly, it could be a sign of something.
“Zoey?” Mira asks again, a little bit louder this time. Her back was turned to Zoey the first time she had asked, putting her pedal board into its case and re-wrapping the guitar cables. She gets closer to Zoey, waving until Zoey finally looks up from her notebook. Zoey takes a pair of headphones out of her ears.
“Yes?”
“I was asking you what you thought about practice.”
“It was fine.”
Mira narrows her eyes as Zoey looks back down at her notebook.
“...and Jinu?”
“What about him?”
“How do you feel about him in the band?”
Zoey pauses, chewing on the pen in her hand. “It’s fine. Honestly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to what he was doing.” She starts writing something in her notebook. “I trust you and Rumi to make that kind of choice about what sounds best.” She pauses, and then turns towards Mira. “How do you feel about it?” she says, measured and deliberately.
Mira immediately picks up on the hint of self-deprecation in Zoey’s comments. It’s reminiscent of conversations they had the first night that Zoey stayed over at her place, anxious about her lack of what she called “proper Koreanness” and apologies for getting too excited. She wants nothing more than to redirect the conversation back onto Zoey, to try to remove the weight of the words of everybody she had known before meeting her. But to do that, she has to be honest first.
“He’s good, but… I don’t know. I’m just worried that he’ll steal the show. HUNTR/X is you, me, and Rumi. What happens if he overshadows us? What happens if everybody starts calling Rumi and Jinu a thing?” The words tumble out before she even thinks about the implication, the blood rushing to her face. Zoey seems unfazed, at least, waiting for Mira to finish before she returns to scribbling in her notebook.
“That makes sense.” She looks up to the ceiling for a second, before returning to her notebook. “What if you just flirt with Rumi during the shows?”
Mira’s phone rings before she even has a chance to react. It’s Rumi. Mira gives Zoey a glare — don’t you dare say that when I’m on the phone with her — before answering the call.
“Hey, Rumi. You’re on speaker. What’s up?”
“Hi, Rumi!”
“Hey girls! I was just at the boba place and they let me know that their machine is down. Do you want me to go somewhere else?”
Mira looks to Zoey for an answer. She never really cared about the boba. She only cares that Zoey is happy.
“It’s okay. We can just make boba at Mira’s place.”
“…at Mira’s place?”
“It’s girls night, remember?”
“…right. Hey, I’m going to call you right back, okay?”
“Rumi-“ Mira starts, but before she can even say her name the line is dead.
“Rumi, what happened?”
Rumi exhales loudly. “Zoey’s had this idea about doing a girls’ night with me and Mira for months now, as a team bonding thing.”
“...okay?”
“I completely forgot about it, which would be fine if I didn’t have to drop you off tonight.”
Jinu pauses, weighing his words carefully. “Rumi, don’t worry about it. I can figure out a way to get home.”
“I’m not about to make you pay your way back home because of a mistake that I made.”
“I’d rather pay sixty dollars than give your bandmates another reason to hate me.”
“Jinu, they don’t hate you.”
“The very first thing that Zoey said to me was that she thinks that I smell bad!”
“That’s just Zoey. Jinu, it’s–”
Rumi’s phone starts buzzing again. Mira’s face fills the screen. Before Rumi can react, Jinu swipes the phone from the center console, picks up the call and puts it on speaker.
“Rumi, what the fuck-”
“Hey Mira, it’s Jinu. Rumi filled me in, and she is not–” Jinu glares at Rumi, who has been half-heartedly trying to grab her phone back–“going to be missing girls night on account of me.”
There’s a voice, presumably Zoey, barely audible on the phone line. “It’s Jinu,” Mira says into the room. More mumbling, the sound of a drum falling in the background, and then heavy footsteps before Zoey’s voice takes over.
“Jinu, are you coming to girls' night?”
“What?” Mira and Rumi say in near unison.
“Zoey, hold on–” Mira says, and then the line goes silent. Rumi looks at Jinu inquisitively, and Jinu merely shrugs back at her. “How bad could it be, really? I can be one of the girls.”
The line picks up again. “Hello?”
“Hi Zoey, we’re still here,” Rumi says.
“Okay good. If Jinu wants to, he can come to girls’ night.”
“Zoey,” Jinu says dramatically, “consider me one of the girls for the rest of the night.”
Zoey squeals. “Oh my god, I’m so excited! I’ll see you two there! Okay, bye! See you soon!”
It’s only when the call drops that Jinu actually considers what he just signed up for. There’s a strange feeling in his gut that he can’t quite place– it’s not a new feeling, but it’s one that he’s kept quiet for a long time now, that he’s tamped down for years. But there’s no use in thinking about those feelings, now is the time to perform.
He’s going to be the girl that this band needs.