Up Against the Wall Records: Leader of the Pack
Author: Tim
Rating: PG13
Characters: YooSu and slight JaeMin
Genre: Fun-times
Parts: One-Shot
Warnings: Adult situations
Summary: Junsu has already been working at Up Against the Wall Records and has yet to explore NYC. And who is picked as his tour guide but the wonderful Yoochun.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and written without the knowledge or consent of the real people portrayed. This is my story, and my opinion.
Note: From now on, Up Against the Wall Records will be shortened to UAtWR whenever I post, as it appears in the title in brackets. This will let you know that this takes place in the Up Against the Wall Records Universe.
Previous UAtWR stories:
[Pleasantries of Marble]
Up Against the Wall Records:
Leader of the Pack
Living Fantasy
“Those boys are more like brothers, it seems, but for Changmin, that is not necessarily a bad thing,” Minwoo explained, he and Junsu sitting in his office a week or so after Junsu’s start at Up Against the Wall Records.
“I can tell something lays hidden behind those eyes,” Junsu commented rather perceptively.
“All four of them have a shaken past, one that they cannot seem to escape from, Changmin experiencing one so much more painful than one may actually imagine,” Minwoo began.
“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking? I know he isn’t your real brother,” Junsu started.
“Your right, he isn’t. When he was younger, and I was fresh out of high school entering college, I found him crotched down on the streets up state, looking down at what seemed to be a picture of his family. I was hesitant, but asked what happened, and that’s when he began to cry, telling me his family simply moved someplace, leaving him behind. I of course immediately took him to the police to find out what happened, but they could not find his parents. And so without any parents, the younger Changmin would be placed in a foster home until he was adopted, but luckily I convinced my own parents to let us take the scared, lonely boy in. It only took my mother one look at him to say yes. They helped raise Changmin, but I was the one to take him under, the one to care for him and to watch out for him. When I moved to the city he only had to look at me with those eyes and I knew he wanted to follow, and so I brought him with me, making me his legal guardian, opening this record shop, and starting him in high school in the city with those other three,”
“Wow,” was all Junsu could manage. What else could he say? He was beyond shocked at this revelation just spoken to him by his boss.
“Yeah, but it has made Changmin really defensive, especially when it comes to people attempting to care for him, because outside of me, he really never had anyone to care for him; he has had to do so much on his own,” Minwoo explained.
“I can tell, especially with the ways Jaejoong attempts to do things for him,” Junsu pointed out.
“Yes, those two certainly have a complicated relationship to say the least. His story is a bit more straight forward, but still strange. He doesn’t tell anyone, but he feels guilty most of the time for, for things he should never feel guilty about. But no one really knows why,” Minwoo explained.
“What about Yoochun?” Junsu found himself asking.
“I just feel sorry for that boy. His family is loaded, owning half of the Upper East Side, and yet he has no freedom it seems. He can’t pick and choose whom he wants to date or anything. His father makes him work at hi company, even though he has no real experience in doing so. I don’t completely understand it,” Minwoo spat.
“And Yunho? He seems a bit…” Junsu started, attempting to find words to explain the older boy.
“Too much like a whore?” Minwoo asked with a straight face.
“I was going to say popular, but that works too,” Junsu grinned.
“Regardless, these boys, even though they are messed up, go together like pieces of some really sadistic and scary puzzle. So the question is, do you fit in?” Minwoo asked Junsu.
“I grew up with a conservative Christian family and friends, having the same best friend for god only knows how long. I was raised to think a certain way, that I would marry and have children, get a good job and be a good Christian. Yeah, but that all went down hill the moment I realized that instead of liking girls, I liked boys instead. Of course, I never told anyone, not even my best friend, for obvious reasons. But naturally, the fun doesn’t stop there. I fell in love with said best friend, and he himself realized it as well. He never once pushed me away, but rather pulled me closer until there was only one option left: sex. Innocent Christian boy from Virginia was taken by his innocent Christian best friend from Virginia. But everything changed after that, he changed, and I realized that it was all a mistake. I guess some miracles were never meant to exist, and this was certainly one of them. I left home, with much opposition from everyone, including him, but never bothered looking back,” Junsu explained, not making eye contact with Minwoo.
A moment of silence and then finally a chuckle.
“Seems like you will fit in perfectly, then!”
The two walked from the back office to the front where Jaejoong had a magazine in hand and proceeded to slam it against Yunho’s head.
“Why do you open your mouth?” Jaejoong scolded.
“Jeez, stop hitting me with the magazine Jae!” Yunho cried out.
“Then stop saying stupid things,” Jaejoong said back, placing the magazine back down.
Changmin simply shook his head in disbelief as Junsu walked behind the counter, standing next to Changmin’s sitting figure, looking at the magazine he was reading.
“They say this new band is going to revolutionize music,” Changmin said to Junsu, turning towards the older boy.
“They always say that and it turns out to be complete and utter shit,” Junsu said back.
Changmin chuckled a bit to himself at Junsu’s sarcastic words.
“Why don’t one of you make use out of your life and show Junsu around the city today; he has been in this store every day since arriving and could use a nice day out,” Minwoo said nonchalantly, walking towards the beaded door before leaving.
“I-It’s okay, no one has to show me around, I am fine,” Junsu said shyly.
“Nonsense,” Changmin said, placing the magazine down and looking at his three choices in front of him. He had to choose wisely, for he knew that the new boy’s future laid in the hands of one of these.
It was a rather scary thought, especially as Yunho was twirling around in a circle humming rather loudly the melody to ‘What if God was one of Us’ by Joan Osborne.
Junsu’s future was not really in the hands of one of these three, but Changmin knew better than to simply shrug a friend off to one of these three.
“Yoochun, why don’t you take Junsu out today,” Changmin simply suggested, picking up his magazine again.
“What? Me?” Yoochun suddenly said, sounding a bit shocked, but the minute Junsu made eye contact with him, Yoochun’s face reddened and the shy boy inside seemed to surface.
“Yeah, you’ve lived here all your life and I wouldn’t trust a fish to Yunho, let alone a human being,” Changmin said, turning the page of his magazine.
“Hey!” Yunho shouted, still spinning.
“What about Jaejoong?” Yoochun asked lightly.
Was I to be passed on like a burden, the boy thought to himself.
“Jaejoong has work in an hour,” Changmin simply said.
Jaejoong smiled slightly, surprised that the youngest still knew his work schedule.
Even though he would never say it, Changmin knew everything about Jaejoong. They danced a dangerous tango, one Changmin knew not to move into with little defense.
“Fine,” Yoochun said.
“You… don’t have to. Changmin, it doesn’t matter, hyung was only joking,” Junsu said.
“Junsu, regardless of if hyung was joking, I am not. You need a day off and still haven’t really explored the city. Plus who better to do it with than Yoochun?” Changmin asked softly to the boy, smiling gently at him.
Junsu nodded, listening to the more experienced younger boy, and thanked him, following Yoochun back to the surface of the busy New York City streets.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this. You can just go wherever, I’ll look around myself,” Junsu said, beginning to walk away, but his wrist was quickly caught by Yoochun.
“I’ll go with you. Changmin would shoot me if he knew I let you go on your own,” Yoochun said.
“I don’t want to be a burden to you,” Junsu quickly said, solemnly.
“Oh no, that’s not it at all. You are no burden to me at all Junsu. I just… I don’t know my way around the city all that well myself. If I need to get someplace, I know how to get to that place,” Yoochun quickly explained.
“Ah, well then I guess we can get lost together,” Junsu said, smiling.
“Sounds good,” Yoochun replied back, smiling as well.
It brightened Junsu to see the older one smile, as if it were the most natural thing to see him smile.
“You really should smile more often; it’s very nice,” Junsu commented as the two began walking in some unknown direction.
The two had rather normal conversations while walking in every which direction, about what two normal people would talk about.
“So what is your favorite type of music?” Yoochun asked.
Changmin knew all this about him already; they had nothing better to do than talk about one another during work.
“That’s a hard question because I like all types of music, not loyal to just one specific genre. But lately I have been listening to a lot of 90s music, and even late 80s, like early Janet Jackson,” Junsu commented, both of them turning some random corner.
“Rhythm Nation,” Yoochun simply replied.
“Exactly! How did you know?” Junsu asked, sounding very surprised that Yoochun knew something as old as that.
“You only assume that I am ignorant to music, when in fact I love music very much, perhaps even as much as you,” Yoochun said, grinning widely.
“I’m impressed. Try this one then. Janet and Michael Jackson collaboration in 1995,” Junsu challenged.
“Too easy: Scream, not released in any box set of Michael’s, and was nominated for a Grammy for best Pop Collaboration,” Yoochun said easily.
“Original Rolling Stones song covered first by The Sundays, then performed, famously, at a Sheryl Crow concert.”
“Wild Horses,” Yoochun smiled, “One of my favorite songs.”
“Mine too,” Junsu said, a smile forming on his own lips.
Was it fate, or did these two seriously seem so easily linked through something as simple as music?
“What’s your favorite song?” Junsu finally asked.
“That I am a bit embarrassed about,” Yoochun said, blushing a bit.
“Why would you be embarrassed about your favorite song?” Junsu asked.
“It is somewhat of a guilty pleasure,” the other replied.
“So?”
“Damn, I Wish I were your Lover,” Yoochun finally said.
“Sophie B. Hawkins,” Junsu smiled.
A smile crept to Yoochun’s perfectly set lips, his boyish smile appearing for the younger one.
It was really as simple as that, regardless of what people may think, nothing seemed to be closer to reality than the moments these two were sharing this day, in this city.
Inside, Junsu felt this rather massive sigh of relief coming to the surface, pleased that he might have finally began the process of ‘moving on,’ of pushing past the obvious wall in his way to the other side where the grass what metaphorically greener.
And Yoochun? He hadn’t smiled this much in a long time, he realized, and it felt good to no longer care about all those tasks, all those pointless things his family obligated him into feeling, and to simple have time to himself.
But he realized that time to himself included Junsu, and really, he could not think of a better way to spend his time. No one had ever pushed this deep under his skin in such a small amount of time.
And yet for Yoochun, it felt good, it felt right, to have someone push so naturally into his world like this.
“What are you thinking about?” Junsu asked the older one, tugging on his sleeve a bit.
Yoochun’s eyes followed from straight ahead to the boy next to him, a questioning look upon the younger one’s face.
“Nothing in particular, but it is odd how things have been working lately,” Yoochun said rather mysteriously, confusing Junsu.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t really know myself, but it seems that for a while now I have been so confused with things, with what I have been doing, but recently all that has been swept under the rug and I don’t find myself caring as much,” Yoochun explained.
“I know how that feels, what that is like,” Junsu said, speaking from his own current experience.
Little did either of them know that they were experiencing similar, if not the same, feeling for the same reason; each was giving the other that second chance they so desperately needed.
The question simply became, then, when they would realize that it was the other who was having this effect on them.
“Wait, haven’t we already gone this way?” Junsu asked, looking behind him and in front again.
“No, I don’t think so,” Yoochun said, shaking his head.
“I definitely think we have,” Junsu said, nodding his head instead.
“Whose the one from New York?” Yoochun asked.
“Yeah, but you said yourself that you are dumb to the city,” Junsu said rather bluntly.
“But I still live here,” Yoochun argued.
“But you suck at finding your way around. I swear we passed this Prada store twenty minutes ago and I am starving!” Junsu complained.
“You’ll live, we’ll just keep going this way,” Yoochun said, pulling Junsu along.
“But Yoochun I am hungry!” Junsu whined even louder.
The older one shook his head, finally pulling out his cell phone to dial a number.
“Yeah, it’s me. We are the corner of 5th and Broadway. Thanks,” he said, hanging up.
“Who was that?” Junsu asked, looking at him suspiciously.
Before he could answer a black limo pulled up and the driver immediately moved from his position in the front to open the door for the two.
“This entire time you could have simply called your limo driver to pick us up but instead let us roam aimlessly around the city?” Junsu protested.
“You said you wanted to get lost with me,” Yoochun shot back.
“It was a figure of speech; I didn’t think you actually meant we would lose ourselves in this hornets nest of a place!” Junsu shouted louder.
“Just get in,” Yoochun said.
“No! I’ll call my own taxi thank you very much,” Junsu said, beginning to walk away.
“But you don’t know where you are going.”
“Well, neither do you!”
“Junsu, come on…” Yoochun started.
“No!” Junsu said stubbornly.
“If you get in the car I’ll buy you dinner,” Yoochun offered.
“Fine,” Junsu quickly said, changing his mind just as fast as he hurriedly climbed into the car, Yoochun after him before the door was closed.
And maybe they needed just a little longer to warm up to one another.