Human iPod [part III]
>look here for part II<
~*~
Kyungsoo continued to sing Jongin to sleep over the phone every second night of the following week when he wasn't too exhausted from work. When Friday rolled around again, Jongin went straight from the convenience store to EXO café as soon as his afternoon shift ended around seven. Sehun tagged along, claiming he wanted to see the performers again. Of course Jongin knew who his best friend really wanted to see again, but he spared Sehun's dignity by not teasing him and just pretending to buy his excuse.
Jongin had, together with a bit of Sehun's help, dug around in their apartment until he found the little digital camcorder he had inherited from one of his older sisters for his last birthday. She had been too lazy to buy a new present for him, so she had just given him her old camera. Fortunately it worked, even though he had to blow the dust off the lens and it emitted a slightly unnerving whirring sound, so Jongin had put it carefully into his bag this morning.
When he arrived at the café together with Sehun, it was still empty enough for them to find two seats near the stage. Kyungsoo, who had been talking to a round faced waiter behind the counter, came hurried over to their table, as soon as he spotted them sitting down.
“Hey Jongin, hi Sehun,” he greeted them with a smile. “You're here again for the performances tonight?”
“Yes,” Jongin replied while returning the smile. “And you are singing tonight as well?” he added, noticing how Kyungsoo wasn't wearing the usual waiters' uniform. He was dressed in more comfortable, but still fashionable clothes. Kyungsoo grinned happily and nodded.
“They practically begged me to join their regular line-up.” He looked down and sheepishly scratched his cheek. “Though I still have to get used to the spotlights pointing at me.”
“Don't worry,” Jongin reassured him. “In the spotlights is where you belong.”
Kyungsoo's shoulders relaxed a bit. “Thank you.” His head snapped up. “Well, uhm... What do you guys want to drink? Though I'm not exactly a waiter today, I could still try to get some discount for you.”
Jongin and Sehun thanked him for the offer and ordered hot chocolate and vanilla milk.
When Kyungsoo scurried off again to bring their drinks, Jongin reached into his bag to pull out the camera. He was fiddling around with it, trying to adjust the zoom, but the device's feature seemed to be broken. Sehun just let his gaze wander through the café, watching as more and more people filled the room.
Kyungsoo reappeared and carefully placed the mugs in front of them.
“Why did you bring a camera, Jongin?” Kyungsoo asked curiously, when he straightened himself again.
“I will try to record your singing tonight,” Jongin answered lightly.
“So that he can listen to recordings of your voice at least at our PC, when you're too busy to sing for him at night,” Sehun blurted with a smirk. Jongin shot him a glare.
“Oh, that's actually a really nice idea!” Kyungsoo exclaimed while his eyes cutely widened again.
“You think so?” Jongin looked up excitedly.
“Yes. I had actually felt rather bad, when I hadn't been able to sing for you this week. I'm sorry for this, Jongin...” he mumbled with a guilty expression.
“Ah, no! It wasn't that much of a problem, don't feel bad!” Jongin said quickly and waved his hands in dismissal of Kyungsoo's apology.
They smiled at each other again and Sehun made a strange sound between gagging and coughing.
In this moment the waiter Kyungsoo had talked to earlier, stepped up to them. “Kyungsoo, please go to the others behind the stage since we're going to start the programme soon,” he told him.
“Yes, I'll come in a second,” Kyungsoo said. The waiter nodded and walked away.
“That was Minseok, whom I told you about, Jongin,” Kyungsoo explained. “But I guess I really have to prepare to sing now. Look how crowded it became...” he trailed off and slightly blanched when he realised how many people had gathered by now. It seemed like there was an even larger audience since the week before.
Jongin noticed the tension in Kyungsoo's body and reached up to squeeze the shorter male's hand with his own. “Like I said, don't worry! You'll do just fine,” he encouraged him.
Minseok called again and so Kyungsoo only nodded and squeezed back lightly. He let go and hurried over to where Baekhyun and Chanyeol where already waiting beside the stage.
Luhan stepped on the stage and waited until the crowd quieted down a bit before announcing tonight's performances. There was a small applause as Luhan descended the stage again and as Kyungsoo and Chanyeol stepped up, the latter again with his guitar clutched in his hand. Stools were brought and microphones adjusted and Kyungsoo looked very nervous, but fortunately his knees weren't shaking as visibly as last time.
Jongin switched his camera on. With the grainy image quality and the broken zoom he didn't really get a good picture, but he hoped that he was at least able to record a rather decent audio.
Kyungsoo cleared his throat. “Good evening, my dear audience. Thank you for coming tonight to listen to our perfomances at EXO-café. I hope you will enjoy your time here. Let's start with the first song then. Accompanied by Chanyeol on the guitar, I will do an acoustic cover of Sweet Holiday by CN Blue.”
Jongin was again immediately entranced by Kyungsoo's voice and only after the song finished and Kyungsoo bowed and left the stage to be replaced by Baekhyun, Jongin noticed that he had filmed half a metre too far left from Kyungsoo's frame the whole time. He hadn't even noticed it, too occupied with Kyungsoo and the way the lovely lyrics of the song seemed strangely heartfelt. But he guessed it wasn't that bad, since he didn't really care about the visual quality of the recording anyway.
While Baekhyun sang and danced to another Girls' Generation song (apparently they were his speciality), Kyungsoo walked over to Jongin and Sehun's table. “Well? How did you like it?” he asked in a hushed, but excited voice.
“Well done!” Jongin said with a large grin and lightly clapped the shorter male on the shoulder while Sehun nodded appreciatively. “I'm so proud of you,” he told the beaming Kyungsoo in a more quiet voice so only the shorter male could hear him.
Luhan appeared beside their table and Jongin absentmindedly noticed Sehun turning rigid beside him. Kyungsoo opened his mouth but before he could say anthing, Luhan held up his hand to cut the other off. “No, I know you're about to offer to change into your uniform to help out serving but since we kind of owe at least half of our guests tonight to you, Kyungsoo, I insist on you enjoying your evening. Please be our guest as well.” When Kyungsoo started to protest, Luhan added, “Okay, fine, help with the cleaning up later after closing time. Then we have a deal, alright? And please get whatever drink you want for yourself, Kyungsoo. It's on the house of course.” Luhan winked at Kyungsoo and gave a short wave to the other two males before he disappeared into the crowd again.
Kyungsoo just stared after him. Then he turned around to Jongin with a helpless look on his face. Jongin just looked back blankly and shrugged. “You can sit with us, if you like,” he said. The words were already out of his mouth when he noticed that there weren't any chairs left for Kyungsoo to sit on. “Err... I mean,” he mumbled and scratched his head while looking around in search of a vacant seat but to no avail. He apologetically looked up at Kyungsoo again. “Well, if you don't mind, uhm... you can err... sit on my uhm, lap,” he stuttered, faintly gesturing to his thighs. He could feel his face heating up.
Kyungsoo's cheeks were also grazed by a blush, but he nodded timidly and carefully lowered himself on the tip of Jongin's knees. Jongin frowned. “Come closer.” He slung an arm around Kyungsoo's belly, pulled him closer to himself and peeked around Kyungsoo's shoulder to the stage, seemingly suddenly engrossed by happenings on there. His arm stayed around Kyungsoo's waist and he certainly not pressed his cheek against the shorter male's upper arm. Nope.
A few minutes later Kyungsoo remembered the camera which Jongin had put aside on the table. He pointed to it. “Let's record the others as well, so you'll have more musical input at home,” he said.
“Ah? Uhm... no, let's rather save the battery...” Jongin had already recorded the best and for him most important performance of the night anyway. Though there was an even better part, he thought absently as he risked a glance up to Kyungsoo's face, only to quickly look in the direction of the stage again when he met the shorter male's curious gaze on him.
Kyungsoo didn't say anything more after that and they sat there together in peaceful and comfortable silence until the last song of the night's performances ended.
Kyungsoo gingerly got up, and Jongin could feel the blood rushing back into his legs; they had gone to sleep without him noticing, so he didn't stand up right away.
“Are you okay?” Kyungsoo asked worriedly, when Jongin started to rub his thighs to turn them back to life faster. “I hope I wasn't too heavy, was I?”
“No, don't worry, I'm fine,” Jongin assured him quickly and smiled again for emphasis.
Luhan took this moment to approach their table again to remind them of their little deal and Kyungsoo hurriedly bowed to him and waved to Jongin and Sehun with a “Bye, Jongin! Thanks for coming tonight!” before scurrying off after Luhan to help him and Minseok with the clean up.
Jongin and Sehun were nearly the last guests to leave the café and they quickly made their way home, breaths forming faint clouds in the almost icy air.
“You know, Sehun, if you want to impress Luhan next time, you will have to do more than just gaping at him.”
“Shut up, you ignorant lovebird.”
~*~
The new week began and Jongin was giving his girls in the dance school a short break, when he noticed the blinking of his phone, showing that a message had arrived. It was from Kyungsoo and Jongin wondered, since they usually never texted during the day, as they were both too busy most of the time with their jobs until late afternoon.
from: Kyungsoo-ya
Hey Jongin, what's your email address?
Jongin was surprised because he had rather expected the message to tell him that Kyungsoo wouldn't have time that evening, too (it'd be the third night in a row with Kyungsoo being too busy to sing for him over the phone, not that Jongin was counting and not that he was already missing him, except that he was). But he replied nonetheless.
to: Kyungsoo-ya
shadow_walker_kai@hotmail.com, y? o.o
While he kneeled by his stuff on the floor, typing into his phone, Yoona walked up to him. She tried to peek over his shoulder, tiptoeing to get a glance at what he was writing, but Jongin sensed her and quickly turned around, so she couldn't see the phone's display anymore.
“Why so secretive, Jongin-oppa?” she asked him curiously. Then she broke out into a knowing grin. “Ah, I know, you're texting your girlfriend, right?”
“No,” Jongin raised one eyebrow.
Taeyeon hopped over to them in that moment. “Your boyfriend, then, Jongin-oppa?” she chirped cheekily.
“...”
Taeyeon and Yoona gasped and squeaked in delight and the other girls of his class also quickly ran over to them. The two girls told the others the excited news within seconds, and before he knew it, Jongin found himself surrounded by a bunch of giggling and squealing elementary school girls.
“Look, he's even blushing, so it's true!” Hyoyeon exclaimed and a new round of cooing rose up, despite Jongin's indignant squawking. He was about to stand up and chase the snickering girls when his phone vibrated in his hand to indicate Kyungsoo's reply.
from: Kyungsoo-ya
Hahaha are you serious? Is this really your email address?
Jongin huffed and sulkily typed back, glad that Kyungsoo couldn't see his even redder face.
to: Kyungsoo-ya
is today national let's-make-fun-of-jongin-day or what??? the girls from my dance class are also amusing themselves at my expense right now..... -.-°
from: Kyungsoo-ya
Why? Do they also know your ridiculous email address?
Hahaha, oh my, what does it even mean?
to: Kyungsoo-ya
I WAS 12 WHEN I MADE IT OK STAHP JUDGING ME Q_______Q
from: Kyungsoo-ya
Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't want to offend you. ^-^
But I promise I'll make it up to you later...
(Yes I can use emoticons as much as I want! ^^ :P)
Jongin wondered what Kyungsoo might have meant by this promise and desperately tried to not think of anything inappropriate because he knew that Kyungsoo hadn't meant it that way.
Still redfaced though, he put his phone back into his bag and stood up. He clapped his hands twice, hollering over to the playing and still giggling girls to continue his lesson.
~*~
Jongin's limbs were aching and he felt ready to pass out at any moment when he returned home that evening. On top of the dance training, he'd had to haul at least a dozen cartons filled with bottles of mayonaise around the convenience store, each carton weighing at least ten pounds.
Since Sehun's shift had ended earlier than Jongin's, he hoped that his flatmate had maybe been a saint, making some food for Jongin or at least leaving left-overs for him. But no, he should have known, Jongin told himself miserably. In fact, Sehun wasn't home and upon realising that he couldn't even bug his best friend to cook for him now, Jongin let out a quite unmanly whine.
Jongin was busy contemplating if he should take the risk of blowing up the house by trying to turn on the oven for a frozen pizza or rather opt for a safer cup of instant noodles, when he felt his phone vibrating inside his pocket, indicating that a text message had arrived. Jongin pulled out his phone and raised his eyebrows in surprise, as it was from Kyungsoo again.
from: Kyungsoo-ya
Check your email! ^//-//^
Suddenly very glad that Sehun wasn't there to make fun of his cheeks, which were flaring with excitement, Jongin strutted over to Sehun's PC in the living room and switched it on. He snorted momentarily at Sehun's silly user password (“'gonewiththewind'... As if I could never crack that.”) and then proceeded to log into his own email account.
Above all the shady junkmail clustering his inbox waited a new mail from
“d-o-93@gmail.com”, it even had a video-file attached to it. Again trying to ban all inappropriate thoughts from his mind, Jongin clicked on the file with slightly shaking hands. The few minutes it took for the old PC to open and load the video felt like torture for him.
But then the video started and showed the slightly nervous-looking face of Kyungsoo peering into the camera while glancing repeatedly to somewhere next to the lens; probably checking on his own computer screen, whether the angle was right.
After a few seconds of adjusting, Kyungsoo cleared his throat and smiled brightly into the camera. Jongin's heart kind of melted.
“Hey, Jongin,” he began, “how are you? Um, I guess you're asking yourself now why I bought a webcam with an integrated microphone, right? Well, I liked the idea of recording myself singing for you so that you can listen to me at home and whenever you like and I really hope I'm not imposing on you here but you are my biggest fan, aren't you? Gosh, I'm rambling again... What I actually just wanted to tell you with this video was that I-” he stopped abruptly to inhale a big breath as if about to say something really important.
But when he opened his mouth to speak again the breath seemed to be stuck in his throat and Jongin could see a bright blush forming on the other male's cheeks. However, after a pause, Kyungsoo just shook his head while squeezing his eyes shut for a second, then faced the camera again. “That I really, really hope that you'll continue to like my singing and stay my biggest fan,” he finished his broken off sentence with a shy voice.
“Okay, to not make this the 28th failed try of recording because of too much rambling again, I'll better just start now! This cover of You're My Melody by TVXQ is exclusively for you, Jongin...”
Kyungsoo looked to his computer screen again and clicked a few times with his mouse and then an instrumental version of the song started playing.
As always, Jongin found himself mesmerised from the moment that Kyungsoo started to sing. The sweet lyrics of the song seemed to float on a special connection from Kyungsoo's heart directly to Jongin's, where they hit bull's eye. Jongin could just sit there, frozen and with shining eyes and a continuously swelling heart while listening to his precious Kyungsoo singing again for him only.
“Well, that's it for now, I hope you liked it... See you, Jongin-ah!” Kyungsoo half-giggled when the song eventually ended and after a moment of hesitation he swiftly raised his hands to form a heart shape before clicking the video to an end.
Jongin just sat there and stared for a few more seconds until he darted from his stool to do a very embarrassing little jig of glee around the room, venting his feelings of overwhelming joy.
As soon as he plopped down again in front of his screen, he pressed the replay-button again and it was only after he was done rewatching the video for the third time that he remembered that he still had to send Kyungsoo a text message back, thanking him a ton.
Jongin replayed the video over and over and over and over for the rest of the evening, until he knew the song inside out and could tell when Kyungsoo would inhale and when he'd close his eyes and when he'd open them again and basically until he knew every second of the video from A to Z and backwards.
Jongin also took the chance to shamelessly stare at Kyungsoo's cute little face without fear of being noticed and judged by the shorter male. Jongin felt himself falling for this adorable boy all over again.
He was still busy rewatching the video, when he heard the chinking of keys in the hall, indicating Sehun's return. Jongin wanted to close the video's window, but he was too late, Sehun had already entered the living room.
So he had no option but to put on a way too innocent expression and to awkwardly place himself in front of the screen, trying and failing to hide Kyungsoo's video with his own torso from Sehun's view.
Sehun just raised one eyebrow and gave him a look. “What the hell, Jongin. Since when do you feel embarrassed to watch porn in my presence?”
Jongin spluttered, “That's not porn!”
“What's it then?”
“N-none of your business. But not porn!”
“I know.”
Jongin was about to indignantly inquire why Sehun then asked in the first place, when he noticed the sardonic smirk on his flatmate's face. Realising that Sehun had made fun of him, Jongin scowled.
“But I'll let you get away with it this time because I'm in such a good mood tonight,” Sehun said and tousled Jongin's hair good-naturedly before turning to head to the bathroom.
“Finally got the balls to talk to Luhan?” Jongin called after him.
Sehun just slammed the bathroom-door shut extra hard in response.
~*~
A few weeks later, autumn had changed into winter and the first flakes of snow began to fall in the December nights which became continuously colder and colder. Kyungsoo was established as a regular part of the lineup of performers at EXO-café's weekly musical events now and lately, Luhan had to close admission to the café around half past seven, since otherwise the room would have become too packed with people.
The atmosphere was pleasant and an expectant murmur went around the audience, when Kyungsoo - by now upgraded to final act of the evening - walked up to the stage with Chanyeol and his guitar as his usual accompaniment. While Kyungsoo and Chanyeol were setting up, Jongin was already standing at his habitual position right in front of the stage. He was making sure that his camera was ready to record when he noticed two men weaving through the crowd only to come to a sudden halt next to him. He wouldn't have minded them, if it weren't for the conspicuously tall height and blonde hair of one of the two, much to the chagrin of the guests standing right behind him. However, even if he was blocking their view, they didn't protest louder than a few annoyed groans among themselves, which Jongin blamed on the intimidating, constant scowl on the giant's features. His more normal sized companion had, in contrast, a very peaceful looking face with dimples showing on his cheeks as he calmly observed the final arrangements made by the people on stage.
Kyungsoo cleared his throat shyly and the room's buzz lapsed into anticipating silence.
"Good evening, my dear guests," he began. "First of all, I'm very glad that so many of you are here tonight to listen to our performances. Since I am the last one of tonight's programme, I thought it would be nice to top it off with something a bit more special. That's why I would like to present to you my very first selfcomposed song..." An appreciative murmur went through the crowd as reponse. Jongin saw a quick smile flash in spite of the nervousness strained on Kyungsoo's face. "It's called What Is Love and..." His breath hitched but he quickly caught himself again. "Anyway, please enjoy!"
As usual, Kyungsoo's beautiful voice instantly filled the room with raw, heartfelt emotion until it was nearly palpable in the air. It was only after the last note faded and a roaring applause erupted from the audience, that Jongin felt himself snap out of the magic spell cast on him. Seeing Kyungsoo's little chest almost bursting with pride, a feeling as if floating rose up in his own.
Visibly overwhelmed, Kyungsoo kept bowing and stammering thanks into the microphone until several minutes later the last people (with Jongin among them) stopped wildly cheering and applauding. Kyungsoo descended the stage and while the crowd migrated slowly to the café's exit, he walked over to where Jongin was standing. However, before the latter was even able to say a word, the tall, blonde guy next to him suddenly stepped forward.
"Are you Mister Do Kyungsoo?" he asked in a deep voice, which surprisingly didn't sound as unfriendly as his face looked.
"Huh? Uhm, yeah, I am..." Kyungsoo said and turned around to him and a worried frown formed on his forehead. "W-why? Did I do something wrong?" he stuttered as the tall guy's gaze pierced through him.
"No, no, everything's fine," a gentle voice piped up from behind the giant and the bedimpled, shorter guy pushed his companion away. "I'm sorry if my collegue Wu Yifan here scared you. He has a tendency to do that, though he's really just like a harmless little kitten inside," he explained with an apologetic smile while said Wu Yifan spluttered at the comparison. Ignoring him, the shorter guy went on to introduce himself: "My name is Zhang Yixing, pleased to meet you. Yifan and I work as talent scouts for the big music company across the street. We heard about you and your talent for singing from several indie music internet forums and decided to give it a listen tonight for ourselves. And we found that the rumours about you, Kyungsoo-ssi, were not exaggerating. Now, can you already guess what I'm trying to say?" Yixing said and leaned in a bit, wiggling his eyebrows.
Jongin had a sinking feeling but Kyungsoo only shook his head, looking baffled. After waiting for Kyungsoo to catch up for another few seconds in vain, Yifan spoke up.
"We'd like to hire you for our company as a trainee for singing, Kyungsoo-ssi," he said, matter-of-factly.
"Congratulations!" Yixing exclaimed with a beaming smile.
Now Kyungsoo looked nothing short of flabbergasted, and even Jongin couldn't help but let out a quiet gasp. Jongin turned around to Kyungsoo, expecting him to mirror his own excitement, but Kyungsoo seemed to have gone rigid. "Wha-- I," he croaked and, finally catching his breath again, added: "I am floored, honestly... I-- I don't know what to say... But I'm, like, wow! Really happy! And so flattered! But... I err, would like to uhm, take counsel with my pillow first... if that's okay?"
Yixing nodded indulgently. "Of course! Just call this number once you've decided," he pushed a fancy looking business card into Kyungsoo's left hand and grabbed his right for a quick handshake. "Well, obviously we're hoping for a positive response, Kyungsoo-ssi. Your talent really deserves to be famous... Now, I think Yifan and I will take our leave, then. Have a good night!" And with that, they both turned around and walked over to the café's door through which the last guests were exiting. Kyungsoo called a slightly belated "Thank you!" after them and got a small wave of Yixing's hand in return before the bells above the door chimed again. The closing sound of the door and the tinkling of the bells were the only sounds for a few seconds, as the remaining people in the room - Luhan and Sehun near the bar, Minseok behind it, and Jongin and Kyungsoo still in front of the stage - just stood there, frozen and silent. After it had been so packed with people before, the café practically felt deserted now.
Then Jongin couldn't hold it in anymore, so he let out a whooping sound and before he knew it, his friskiness had made him grab Kyungsoo around the waist, spinning him around. The boy in his arms answered with an almost manly squeal which quickly transformed into larksome laughter as he circled his own arms around Jongin's neck and hugged him back. Still spinning, they painfully collided with a couple of chairs and small tables, so Jongin quickly let the other down, before they collected too many bruises or even seriously damaged something or themselves. Still grinning though, he looked down into Kyungsoo's beaming face.
"You made it!" Jongin cried out happily. "I told you, you would make it one day! Your voice is gonna become famous! You are gonna become famous!"
"Oh my god," Kyungsoo laughed. "I can't believe what just happened..."
Now also Luhan, Sehun und Minseok clapped Kyungsoo on the back, congratulating him on unexpectedly winning over the talent scouts. Jongin felt nothing but overwhelming pride and happiness, the latter mainly because Kyungsoo pressed a small peck on his cheek before he kept holding Jongin's hand.
>look here for part IV<