Wardington Fine Arts College
Entry #11:
"Hello people of Wardington Fine Arts University! This is your host Joe Brown. For those of you running late for your classes, better bring an umbrella with you since those dark clouds keep coming one after the other! Have a lovely morning everyone and for now I'll leave you with some upbeat music to start off your day!" The similar tune of 'Pompeii' by Bastille rang through Joe Brown's headphones, bringing a smile to his lips.
The radio station control room of Wardington Fine Arts University was somewhere located between the Art Room and the Modeling Workshop at the Art Building; aka. The most cramped room Joe has ever been in his entire life. Even his dorm room was bigger than it. It was a room for only one person only. A desk was at the middle of the room, filled to the brim with cables, a set of headphones, a computer along with its touchscreen. The microphone was hanged from the left wall, taking up most of the space, along with a speaker. A window was placed over the ceiling, to filter any kind of light from the outside, aside from the computer. And to the right side there was another speaker, a cd player, a keyboard, the 'Mic Live' indicator and a shelf full with Cd's.
Being a Writing Major and the official Radio Newscaster for Wardington Fine Arts University was definitely a pain in the neck, but he would often think of it as more than an opportunity rather than a problem. Sure being stuck between his classroom and the radio station most of the time wasn't his cup of tea, but somehow he would always find solace in both places.
Rubbing his tired eyes, he focused his eyes on the watch in his right wrist. '6:03' it read and he honestly felt like taking a nap between the songs wouldn't be such a bad idea. The day before he had been going insane with an essay analyzing the novel 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelly, that he honestly felt like giving up on the world with just that. Most of his night had been consumed by trying to portray his ideas clearly and if he remembered correctly he had an hour or two of sleep. Something he was not proud of.
Letting out a big yawn, Joe stretched in his chair, and adjusting his orange hoodie over his body, getting quite chilly from the harsh winds from the outside. As the song came to an end, he instantly played 'Love Me Like You Do' by Ellie Goulding. He placed the Cd over the counter, quickly finding the next song for the morning.
That was the usual routine for the morning shift, greeting the students of the university as the first classes rolled around the facilities, while changing from song to song that would bring up their moods for the day. Joe hoped that method worked for the rest of the students, because for him he was getting sleepier by the second. The only bright side of the shift in the morning was the 'Request's Section'. Students or professors from the school would ring him up, and request any type of song that they would like to hear for the rest of the morning. It made his day a bit brighter in terms of the jokes, comments or requests he would often get.
He pushed his light brown hair back a bit, tying it up in a small bun as he focused on the next set of songs for the rest of the hour. The rain was pouring down harder against the windows but for him that was music to his ears. Being in his own safe place, while hearing the rain outside made him peaceful like no other being in this planet. With a giddy smile, he changed the song once again and continued to listen to the rhythm the melody and rain made together.
A couple of more songs passed by until the first part of 'Request's Section' rolled around. It was 7 o'clock sharp and with a toothy grin, Joe placed on his headphones once more, directed the microphone towards his lips and lowered the music volume for a moment. Switching on the 'Mic Live' he took in a deep breath and started.
"Good morning people of Wardington Fine Arts University! Hope you brought your umbrellas with you because it looks like this rain might not stop for quite some time" He chuckled a bit "It's 7'o clock sharp and looks like requests are already filling in for the morning! Let's greet our first visitor!" Tapping a few clicks on his touchscreen it went onto the dial phone, until the line picked up "Hello, to whom do I have this pleasure?"
"Hey Joe!" The voice of his friend Dan Kuso reached his ears and he had to keep himself from laughing "Thanks for the head's up about the rain, I was about to leave the house without my umbrella!"
"If I remember correctly you have class in around fifteen minutes, what's up with that?" Joe joked and from the other line he could only hear a scoff, a door closing and the splashing of the rain "What can I do for you Dan?"
"None of your concern if I'm running late or not" Dan commented back angrily "Could you play 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Dolls? It would make my morning thank you very much" Joe heard more huffing from the other end of the line, along with a stream of curses and splashes.
"Oh are you in love my dear client?" A deafening 'WHAT?!' could be heard from Dan's part and now Joe couldn't help but to laugh out loud "My, my who's the lucky lady? Fear not my dear friend it'll be the first one on the list! Goodbye!" And before the brunette could even get another word in, he cut off the line. Joe really needed to meet up with Dan and talk he was getting left behind with this situation "Next client!"
"Hello Joe!" It was now Baron Letloy on the line "Wow aren't you sleepy in this kind of weather? It's kind of making me drowsy with all the fog and rain!" Joe chuckled at this before continuing.
"Hey Baron, nice to hear you around" Baron on the other line laughed quite loudly "I usually just take a shot of coffee in the morning and that does it, what can I do for you purple head monster?"
"Nice nickname!" The boy chuckled vigorously "Hmm can you play for me 'Moonwalk' by Monobright? Oh wait no! What about 'Counting Stars' by One Republic? No, no, no better 'Shake it Off' by Taylor Swift!" Joe had a tight smile over his lips. That was Baron for you, having the most diverse taste in music. Raging from Japanese songs to lullabies in Portuguese.
"Baron if you would please pick one, since there are other people who would like to request a song as well" He tried to remind the purple hared boy, hearing a whine coming from the other end.
"Well all right, since you asked nicely" Baron exclaimed loudly "Play 'Shake it Off' by Taylor Swift then my man! Oh better go, Professor Nemus will give me a scolding if I don't hurry up, good day to you man!" And with that the line went dead. Joe had to laugh at his antics.
"All right people, next client please!" Joe started arranging the sets of Cd's that he would use for the requests as the next line connected. The clients kept coming one after the other, leaving a bright smile over his lips as they requested songs and commented on their activities. Nothing brought him more happiness than to be able to chat with other people in a very carefree way. It was really something. The line started and without looking he exclaimed "What can I do for you in this lovely morning?"
"Hello Joe" There she was. Joe's grin widened slightly as he recognized the lovely voice of the young lady. She was a frequent client of his, requesting songs in both the morning and the afternoon shift. If he dared to say, he felt kind of drawn to her. She had never revealed her name so far, but she always ended her call with a 'You have a lovely voice' and of course he couldn't help but to smile whenever she called. The voice sounded quite familiar to him, as if he knew the owner of such voice.
"There you are! I was wondering when you would pop around!" He heard a giggle from the other side and he had to chuckle as well "How has been your morning so far my lovely lady?" Whenever she came around he had to act like an idiot. Honestly he felt ashamed of that last comment.
"It's been good so far, my jeans are already stained with paint and oil but that's life I suppose" She commented a sigh escaping her lips. That was another thing he knew about her she was an Art Major. The girl would make comments like that way too often that he ended up connecting the dots. Damn he hoped he would see her around at the faculty.
"Well that's a good sign if I say so myself!" The girl giggled once more "So what song do you want to hear my lady? I have the usuals with me, 'Babel' by Mumford and Sons, 'Cleopatra' by The Lumineers, 'Skinny Love' by Birdy, you tell me" He chuckled a bit, taking out the respective Cd's for the songs, already expecting one of the three.
"I'll pick 'Skinny Love' by Birdy, though it's way too early to be this sappy" He had to laugh at that one. He took the respective Cd and placed it with the rest. The girl had a tendency to always pick one of those three that he memorized them as time went by. And true to her word she always picked one of those.
"It's never too early for sappy love songs my lady, just ask the first client" Dan was going to kill him for the comment "Already on the stack, expect it to ring in around a half an hour or so" He dreaded the end of the call, but he knew there were more people waiting in the phone line "Anything else for you my lady?"
"No thank you, that'll be all" She said, "You have a lovely voice Joe, see you around!" That was usually the end of their call until another voice broke through the phone startling the both of them.
"Hey Chan Lee! Did you finish Professor Drago's project? Wait who are you talking to?" A string of curses was heard from the other side of the phone.
"Wait a minute, Chan Lee?" Joe asked quite perplexed, his mind doing a 360º at the new information "Chan Lee Ming?" A squeal was heard from the girl along with a string of curses from the other line. His eyes were big as plates as he know recognized the owner of the voice "I knew I've heard your voice from somewhere!"
Chan Lee Ming was an abroad student from China that attended his high school. It was way too long ago to remember correctly how they came to know each other but from what he vividly remembered was that she would often tease him claiming he had an annoying voice. He didn't pay it much attention back then, but whenever she had the opportunity she would remind him, making their friendship quite difficult.
Joe at first couldn't stand her usual bantering, but as time passed he had grown used to her comments and would only shrug them off with a smile. She was quite the girl if he dared to say. Back at high school she had beautiful almond eyes, long dark blue hair up in a neat braid and a sharp face with a little bit of make-up. If it weren't for the constant comments he would've asked her out eventually.
"Wait no! Jenny god you're messing it up! Now he knows who I am!" Chan Lee squealed from the other line, quite the agitation coming from her voice as she scolded her friend "He was never supposed to find out! He probably hates me now! Dammit, it's still on!" Before Joe could even stop her, the line went dead and his heart was left as a beating mess.
He passed a hand through his light brown hair, messing up his bun as he tried to think, but with flushed cheeks it was quite impossible. What in God's name had just happened? He didn't know and he was quite tempted to run out of the radio station control room to confront her, but he had to keep the clients going.
"Well um…" He was left speechless, hoping for the best "Next client please!"
"Hello Joe eh, I'm Jenny Kimura!" A high pitched voice said from the other end "Listen I was the one who interrupted your call with Chan Lee-" A squealing was heard from the other end and suddenly running "I'm calling you to tell you that Chan Lee has changed from high school-"
"JENNY DON'T YOU DARE, HANG UP RIGHT NOW!"
"- Maybe if you give her time you can eventually go out or who knows! She gushes about you all the time-"
"I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!"
"- Anyways play 'Love Drunk' by Boys Like Girls and give Chan Lee a call all right? Good luck!"
"YOU'RE DEAD TO ME!"
And with that the line went dead. Joe was left speechless at the sudden turn of events and could only look at the screen of the computer. His heart was beating loudly and surely he had an enormous blush over his cheeks as he tried to calm down. The boy could only pick up the desired Cd of the song and place it among the stack, still perplexed at it all.
The boy slumped back in his chair and tried to get back to work, but his thoughts were stuck in Chan Lee. The list of clients ceased after that call and he had to play all of the requested songs for them, before collapsing. Joe took in a deep breath and spoke into the microphone.
"Well that was a turn of events" He could hear his own nervousness over the phone, a tight smile over his lips "For now let's play the requested songs and we'll continue in our afternoon shift. Hope you have a good day!" And with that the call ended and the first notes of 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Dolls could be heard.
Then the biggest smile could be seen on his lips as he looked up at the window. The rain was still pouring down but it felt as if his heart beat and the droplets of water were in synch. Taking out his cell phone he didn't hesitate one bit as he looked through the contact list at the radio station and found Chan Lee's number. With a hopeful smile he dialed the phone and waited for the girl to pick up.
Prompt #11: - I work in a radio station as a host and I received a particular message saying that I have a lovely voice and I was flustered so I decided to call you but alas! I recognized that voice and it's you who said that I have the most annoying voice in high school like what?
HEY GUYS! IM SUPER SORRY FOR THE LONG DELAY! Like I've said before I was caught in projects and exams, so I couldn't do much about it, but now I'm finally free! I already finished my school course here in Spain, so in two weeks I'll go back to Mexico haha I will try to update as soon as I can but I can't promise anything guys haha
So the next chapter is one prompts that ANON sent me, so hold on to your sweetheart for that one hahaha and the prompt involves Joe Brown hahaha we'll finally know what's going on with that boy, so hope you're looking forward to it!
So this is the chapter for one of the prompts from ANON haha I hope you enjoyed it! I actually really liked writing this one out, it felt very carefree and fun that it really put me at ease. The next chapter finally involves our dear Shun and Alice once again, so for those of you waiting for this couple, don't worry it's coming! haha Anyways hope you liked the new prompt and leave a review or PM with a request or any kind of comment! Have a nice week!
PS. All of the prompts I found were on Tumblr and I don't own any of them, neither any of the characters in the story! Also if you want to send me a prompt, feel free to do so! Also the songs listed are one of my favorites so you can go and check them out if you'd like!
PS#2. I recently got an AO3 account (Archive of Our Own) so if you'd like to check it out, it's: fearlesswind
EXTRA.
AwakeningFates. Hey, well this chapter is about Joe and Chan Lee, so if you'd like you can check it out!
InnocentDiamond. Okay, I'll answer all of your reviews in one paragraph if you don't mind me hahaha okay first of all thank you for all of your reviews! They really made my entire week to read each and one of them, so thank you! hahaha I'm glad you've liked the story so far ahaha I know very little things about Art schools in all honesty haha like my major is in 3D Animation and Design, so I've taken art classes and such, and m university has a department of Architecture, Industrial Design and Animation, but other than that I'm pretty lost haha so what I don't know I usually end p googling it or taking it from my experience with things haha once again thank you for all of your comments!
.Hey! FF still can't let me type your name but well haha you got it right, Joe and Chan Lee are for this chapter!
NairaMisaki1234. Yeah! it's been a long time for sure haha oh don't worry about it, I've been piled up with projects and homework as well haha in all honesty so far the chapter with Dan calling Runo instead of Shun has been my favorite so far as well haha there are times when I re-read it and I still feel giddy inside haha
VeraRaimond. Hey, I'm glad you liked it so far! hahaha about translating the fic, I actually don't feel quite comfortable with it? Nothing against you really, but I prefer just having the story on this platform haha thank you for the suggestion though!
Rebel Tea-Time. Marucho is such a sweetheart and I love him for it tbh hahaha his insecurities got the best of him in this episode, but Jewls was having none of it in the end haha I really like the dynamic between the two as a couple though haha anyways the end was very uplifting for our little guy haha
