Chapter Text
Three months after MARS left ONER Entertainment, the group was independent. That meant freedom, but it also came with great financial strain. They shared a small apartment, pooled resources, and cut corners wherever possible. One of those corners was a sharing streaming services.
flashback
The group had spent an entire evening debating which streaming service to use for music, with Dylan sitting on the floor holding his phone up, trying to convince them all to agree with him.
"The audio quality is better," Dylan had said. "The interface is cleaner, and the discovery algorithm actually works."
Jun threw a cushion at him. Dylan caught it without looking and set it aside. He had never been more serious about anything in his life.
"Oh, here we go," Jun scoffed. "Dylan's tech report."
"I could make a chart if that helps you understand."
"I'm not using Spotify. End of." Jun crossed his arms. "Basic people use Spotify. I'm not basic."
Thame sighed from the sofa. "Guys, it's not that deep. Just pick one."
"We need to decide," Pepper added. "My trial ends tomorrow."
Nano was lying next to Thame, upside down, his hair spread across the floor. "I don't care which one as long as I can still listen to music."
"Apple Music," Jun announced. "I'm signing up for the Apple Music trial."
Dylan internally face-palmed. "Of course you are."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jun asked, offended.
"Nothing." Dylan went back to his phone, set on ignoring him to the best of his ability. "Enjoy your free trial."
So Jun, purely out of spite, signed up for Apple Music. The other three went with Dylan's choice. Thame, Pepper, Nano and Dylan pooled their money for Spotify Premium together, and Jun insisted he would never use it.
That brought them to the present. Jun's Apple Music free trial had now expired, and his bank account was empty. He had no choice but to ask to join the shared account.
He waited until everyone was in the living room. Thame was at the kitchen counter making coffee. Pepper was curled in the armchair with a book. Nano was on the couch watching something on his phone, his feet kicking against the armrest. And Dylan sat at the small dining table with his laptop open, headphones around his neck.
Jun positioned himself in the centre of the room and clasped his hands together.
"Okay, okay, hear me out," he called out dramatically, hoping that if he did this humourously, the others would take pity. "I've been humbled. I've seen the light. Spotify is... fine."
Dylan rolled his eyes. "I thought Spotify sucked."
"I said that three months ago. People can change."
"People don't change," Dylan snapped. "You just ran out of free trial."
"That's…," Jun began to try and defend himself, before he realised that Dylan was actually right. "Okay, yes, that's technically accurate. But also, I've grown as a person."
Thame sighed and decided an attempt at mediation was in order. Otherwise, this would probably go on for hours, with no solution in sight, and headaches all around. "Just let him on the account, Dylan. It's not worth the fight."
"He said he would never use it," Dylan pointed out. "His words."
Jun huffed and crossed his arms over his chest like a toddler. "I was being dramatic!"
Dylan looked at him in disbelief. "You were being stupid."
Nano finally looked up from his tiktok doomscrolling, now invested in the drama unfolding before him. "Ooh. Fight. Fight. Fight"
Pepper glared at Nano, warning him not to egg them on, and then exhaled as loudly as he could, to show his exasperation. "Can we please just add him? I'll pay the difference if it's that big of a deal."
Jun pointed at Pepper, then clasped his hands in thanks. "Thank you, Pepper." He turned to squint his eyes at Dylan. "See, Pepper loves me."
Dylan rolled his eyes, once again. "Pepper is an enabler."
"I'm tired." Pepper dropped his hands. "I just want to listen to music without mediating a war between you two."
"It's not a war. It's a minor administrative request."
Dylan's eyes narrowed. "You said Spotify was for basic people."
Jun blinked innocently. "Did I say that?"
"You said it twice. Once to Thame and once directly to my face."
"Okay, but in my defence." Jun held up a hand. "Your face was looking very annoyable that day."
Nano giggled. "Annoyable isn't a word."
Dylan shot him a glare. Nano was not helping in this situation, and he really didn't need his input right now, even though he was technically agreeing with him.
"It is now." Jun smiled.
Thame got up and started heading out the room. "I'm going to my room. Someone tell me when this is over."
Pepper stood. He no longer had the patience to deal with these children. "Same."
Nano turned himself the right way up and hopped off the sofa. "Can I come? I want to show you this dance I'm working on-"
"Sure, Nano."
Nano skipped after Thame, then turned back in the doorway. "Jun, just say sorry. Dylan, just say yes. Problem solved!"
And then he was gone.
The room felt bigger with only two people in it, the silence settling heavily between them. Jun looked at Dylan. Dylan looked at his laptop screen.
"Look," Jun said, mocking tone nowhere to be seen now. After all, he was desperate, and being rude to Dylan, seemingly, wasn't getting him anywhere. "I just need music, okay? I can't afford my own account right now. You know that."
Dylan didn't respond; he just stared at the wall behind his laptop, his jaw set. It was like trying to communicate with a wall.
"Fine." Jun sighed. "Forget it. I'll just listen to the radio like a Victorian orphan."
He walked to his room and closed the door.
~
Hours later, Jun was lying on his bed with his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling and thinking about how pathetic that last line had sounded, when his phone buzzed against his thigh. He picked it up to check.
It was a text from Dylan. No greeting, or explanation. Just a username and a password.
Jun sat up so fast he nearly dropped the phone. He'd won. He smirked as he typed his reply.
Jun: thank you, princess
The reply came within seconds.
Dylan: 🖕
Jun laughed at the reply, typical Dylan.
He grabbed his laptop from his bedside table and brought up the Spotify browser to log in.
Once logged in, before he could begin transferring over his own playlists, his curiosity got the better of him. He had always been a little obsessed with understanding people, especially those who don't easily give themselves away. And he was a firm believer that a playlist could reveal a lot about a person.
It was time to learn more about his members.
Thame's playlists were entirely predictable. He had four: 'Workout', 'Focus', 'Chill' and 'Nostalgic'. Everything labelled neatly, everything in its place. How boring. This is exactly what he'd meant when he'd called Spotify users basic.
Pepper's playlists were warm and eclectic. Old Thai pop songs that Jun vaguely recognised from his childhood, acoustic covers of Western hits and random indie finds that Jun had never heard of. He also had a playlist called 'Cooking' and one with instrumental jazz that Jun could only describe as 'fancy elevator music'. This was all exactly what Jun expected from Pepper.
Nano's playlists were chaotic in the most endearing way possible, and Jun found himself smiling before he even clicked on one. TikTok hits that had been popular six months ago sat next to bubblegum pop from five years ago, sad breakup ballads followed immediately by whatever high-energy dance track was trending that week, K-pop songs crammed in between Thai indie songs that he'd probably stolen from Pepper's playlists.
The playlist titles were all in caps with way too many exclamation marks. 'WORKOUT JAMS!!!', 'SAD BOY HOURS :(' and 'SONGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL LIKE THE MAIN CHARACTER' among many others. Each one was a window into whatever mood had seized Nano at that point. There was absolutely no curation. Nano didn't care if something was cool or uncool; he just liked what he liked, and Jun envied that a little. Nano had never had to learn how to perform for other people the way Jun had been performing his whole life.
Then Jun found Dylan's playlists.
The first playlist he came across was exactly what he expected. Hip-hop, underground rap, and moody instrumentals, tracks with heavy bass and sparse lyrics. There was a lot of Western stuff Jun didn't recognise, artists with small followings, and a handful of Thai rappers who seemed to specialise in the kind of aggressive, confrontational delivery that Dylan never used in MARS's music but clearly loved when nobody was watching.
Dylan had named it '.' Just a full stop, nothing else. He was a man of few words; he didn't believe in elaboration when it wasn't needed. He tended to say more in what he didn't say.
Then Jun saw that there was another playlist, and the name caught Jun off guard.
i hate you
All lowercase. Very Dylan.
Jun clicked on it, expecting angry breakup songs or aggressive diss tracks, maybe some screaming. Definitely something with a lot of bass and attitude.
Instead, he found a list of very suspicious songs for someone like Dylan. As he let his eyes scroll down the playlist, each song surprised him more and more.
Complete Mess - 5 Seconds of Summer
Anything 4 U - LANY
War of Hearts - Ruelle
idfc - blackbear
Drunk Text - Henry Moodie
Dandelions - Ruth B
Gorgeous - Taylor Swift
What the hell?
This was not at all what he'd expect coming from Dylan. Especially on a platform where all the other members could see it. Although he supposed he was actually the only member likely to stalk playlists. Dylan had probably thought he was safe from anyone discovering them. Well. Not anymore.
Jun stared at the screen, his thumb frozen over the playlist. Then an unholy grin broke across his face; a grin that Nano would call dangerous and Pepper would call a bad idea.
Dylan, he thought. Oh, Dylan. You romantic disaster.
He understood immediately what he was looking at. This wasn't the typical angry playlist or workout playlist or any of the other functional categories Dylan liked to pretend were the only things he needed from music. This was a secret crush playlist. Songs about wanting and not being able to say it out loud. Dylan had built this shrine of heartache instead of just talking to whoever it was about, which was so painfully, beautifully Dylan that Jun almost laughed. Oh my God, he thought. Dylan's a yearner.
He didn't know who the playlist was about. The songs were vague enough to fit anyone, a mysterious person, an unrequited situation. He turned the possibilities over in his head and came up completely empty. But that didn't matter.
What mattered was that he'd been looking for a way to get under Dylan's skin. Not maliciously, but because their fights had become a strange kind of comfort to him. The back and forth, the sharp words, the way Dylan's attention snapped onto him like a rubber band when he said something especially annoying. If Dylan wouldn't engage with him directly, maybe Jun could engage this way.
He had an idea, and the war was on.
He searched for a song, and added it to 'i hate you'.
'I Wanna Be Yours' by Arctic Monkeys.
First strike. Flirty. Provocative. Just so Dylan knew he had seen everything.
Jun closed the app and set his phone down on his chest, grinning at the ceiling.
Come on, Dylan. Take the bait.