Chanyeol:
Despite his alleged rush, Sehun is the last out the door, as usual. With the ever-vigilant Suho on his tail.
"Bye guys, thanks for coming!" I say, as I swing the door shut behind my last guests. But as soon as the door shuts, I begin shaking nervously. This was not part of the plan, being alone in my apartment with Baekhyun. However... It is exactly the conditions I need in order to make my confession, but now that we're here...
I walk through to the kitchen and see him facing away from me. Singing softly and doing a little dance as he soaps up and scrubs one dish after another, transferring them to the next sink.
I can't help but stare at his lithe body, blond hair, and light blue sweater and jeans as his socked feet slide across the tiled kitchen floor in time with his song.
I close my eyes and listen to the tune that he's singing. Nothing I recognize, but he truly does have the voice of an Angel. I don't want to interrupt his jam session, but I know I should be doing my part of the clean-up. I take two steps forward and try, as naturally as possible, to clear my throat so as not to startle him. Baekhyun turns to smile at me.
"There's Tardy to the Party! Finally come to help me have you?" He giggles and I melt inside. "I've washed all of these." He gestures to the full sink to his right. "You just need to dry them and put them away. The leftover food is in your refrigerator, compliments of Kyungsoo."
I'm frozen, standing there staring at him. He always has a cheerful demeanor, even when he's stuck on Dish Duty.
"Well, come on!" He says, taking the dish towel off his shoulder and holding it out to me.
"Oh, thanks... and, uh, thanks for staying back to help. I could have done it on my own, you know?"
"I know. But... Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about." He says, and my heart jumps into my throat.
Does he know something? How could he? Did he find my note? No, everyone used the hallway bathroom during the party, besides, he wouldn't know what the words meant anyways. Even I had a bit of trouble deciphering the cryptic note. Did the stagehand straight up tell him?! No..., I don't think he would. But he's a stranger to me, how do I know what other things he is capable of, what OTHER mischief he could've gotten up to the night of that concert.
I move forward and take the towel being offered to me and step up to the sink. Damn, he's almost finished with washing the dishes. I try my best to play it cool.
"Oh yeah?" I begin, "what about?" I ask as I begin drying plates and stacking them to my right.
"Well, Chen told me about this amazing voice teacher nearby that does singing lessons. I called him, he has a slot opening up in his schedule for new students and I was wondering if you might want to join me, since he only has the one slot available."
A million thoughts race through my head, why me? Why doesn't he go with Suho or Minseok or... 'No! Stop that!' I scold myself. 'It's just singing lessons; it doesn't mean anything like that.'
"Is my singing really that bad?" I ask jokingly, gently shouldering the smaller man next to me.
"No! That's not the reason! I just think, well no one's perfect! I think any one of us could only get better and better with our singing."
I scrunch my face up, thinking about what this will mean, what it would be like to spend EVEN MORE time than I already do with Baekhyun without breaking down onto my knees and confessing everything to him. He, however, misinterprets my silence as hurt instead of contemplation.
"Hey," he says softly, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder, "I thought you wanted to branch out. To do more singing, you know, composing your own songs. Maybe you could release a solo album!" He says cheerfully with a smile. Its no mystery why I love this man.
I think about my last meeting with the writers and producers of our music, how they would turn down all the ideas I had presented to them. "Maybe next time" became the Mantra that I repeated over and over in my head while I worked on the new stuff. Maybe this isn't a bad idea. Maybe if I can sing the songs that I write better, I can get the record company to actually pay attention to what I bring to the table.
"So," Baekhyun says as he hands me the final plate, "will you come with me?" Filled with hope, he looks up at me with his big doe eyes, and I have to look away before I lose myself in them.
After a beat or two, I smile, "Yeah!" I say enthusiastically giving him a small glance with a big smile on my face "Yeah, I think it's a great idea. I'm in." I dry and stack the last plate onto the pile. "When do we start?"
