#113; sing for me
Title: sing for me
Artists: shinee, f(x), exo, red velvet
Pairings: none
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3.777
Warnings: none
Prompt: #113 - College AU. Jonghyun, Amber, Chanyeol and Lay are in a band, and they put up signs in search for a female vocalist. Wendy is the only one to show up for auditions.
Notes: this is different to what i usually write, so i hope it’s okay anon ;w;
title from the song by yellowcard
Amber had the look of a stunned animal. Jonghyun didn’t look much different.
“You what,” she deadpanned.
“I’m moving to the U.S.,” Luna said brightly, cheerily, like everything she did.
Chanyeol’s dumbstruck expression finally changed when he dropped his drumstick, falling to the ground with a clatter before he bent over to pick it up. “But - but - but - ” he spluttered but never actually found the words.
“I leave at the end of the month,” she said, and this time her smile was wry, a twist on her face. “I’m sorry, I know we were going to do this band thing. We hadn’t even properly started or anything,”
“Yeah, I just got approval from the student union to use one of the smaller music rooms for practice,” Jonghyun muttered.
“End of the month,” Lay murmured, “that’s less than two weeks away,”
Luna nodded. “They only told Dad two days ago he was being transferred. We have to move everything,”
Amber inhaled a deep breath and reached over to pat her shoulder stiffly. “It’s not your fault. We’ll… we’ll miss you,” she said, staring at the ground because she was never good with this whole ‘talk about feelings’ thing. Luna beamed.
“I’ll come back to visit! And we’ll talk online, right?” she gushed, hugging Amber tightly. The tomboy flapped her arms awkwardly, her eyes giving Jonghyun pleading looks for help. The guitarist just chuckled.
Chanyeol and Lay reassured her they would, with Jonghyun and (eventually) Amber piping up that they would too. Their last afternoon together was spent with smiles and bright laughter and belting out random pop songs off key.
“So what do we do?” Lay asked as he set up his keyboard for practice at the end of the week. They had agreed to come practice, even without Luna. Even without a vocalist.
“We find a new vocalist,” Jonghyun said. Amber scoffed.
“In case you haven’t noticed, not many people are that keen to spend their weekends in a room with a bunch of misfits,” she rolled her eyes.
“Hey, we’re not misfits!” Jonghyun protested, emphasised by Chanyeol tripping over one of his cymbals and falling to the floor in a mess of limbs. Jonghyun groaned and Amber snickered. Lay leaned over to pull him to his feet.
“Well, we should try anyway,” he said, “We can’t be a band without a vocalist,”
“We’ll have auditions,”
“Oh, because we know how to judge vocalists,” Amber drawled, sarcasm dripping from her voice. She laughed as she dodged a guitar pick that Jonghyun threw at her.
SM THE BAND IS LOOKING FOR A VOCALIST
Do you love music? Do you want to join the campus band? Then come audition for SM The Band this Saturday! Room MA238 at 2pm!
Serious applicants only!
“We sound like a pathetic gym pamphlet,”
This time Lay is the one who does the honours, plastering a flyer to Amber’s face as her protests became muffled beneath the paper.
When the band arrived at the room at two in the afternoon on Saturday, there was only one girl in an oversized sweater sitting cross-legged outside the room. She had long black haired that was dipdyed blue and she was listening to an iPod.
She looked up when they stopped outside the room, Chanyeol fiddling with the lock and Jonghyun looking a little stunned at the lack of attendance.
“You put up flyers everywhere, right?” he turned to Lay and the keyboard player nodded.
“I put it outside every room in the music school, and the leftovers - ”
“Only the music school?!” Jonghyun cried. Lay nodded meekly and Amber pushed them both into the practice room.
“Shut up before you scare away our only applicant,” she muttered. Chanyeol beckoned the girl with the blue dipdye inside.
“So what’s your name?” Jonghyun asked with a sigh as he sat down in one of the chairs. Chanyeol took his place behind the drums while Lay sat in front of his keyboard. Amber took the chair beside Jonghyun, turning it around to sit on it backwards.
“Wendy,” the girl said brightly.
“And you sing?” Jonghyun continued. Amber shoved his shoulder.
“Of course she sings. She’s here. Stop being patronizing,” she scolded. Jonghyun glared at her, and Amber glared back.
“Can you sing something for us?” Lay asked pleasantly and she nodded, not looking weirded out by Jonghyun and Amber’s banter or by the fact that Chanyeol was scrutinizing his drumsticks like they were suddenly incredibly fascinating.
Wendy cleared her throat, as if preparing to sing, before she stopped and glanced at Lay meekly.
“Could you accompany me?” she asked and he looked surprised, but nodded and she told him the song before taking a deep breath again. This time, with Lay's soft notes in the background, she opened her mouth and sang.
She wasn’t like Luna, her voice was totally different, but it was clear and smooth and carried over Lay’s keyboard accompaniment easily.
“Wow,” Jonghyun said dumbly when she finished and she smiled bashfully. Chanyeol started clapping enthusiastically like a seal, Lay joining in, though less manic looking. Amber was the only one who didn’t join in.
“Just one thing, Wendy. Can you tell me, is there a specific reason why you sing with accompaniment?” Amber asked calmly.
Wendy bit her lip, looking hesitant. “I used to be part of an acapella group, but…. it ended badly, so I dislike singing acapella.”
Amber eyed her for another moment before nodding, as if satisfied. “Okay. Good job,”
“Well, it looks like you’re the only one auditioning,” Jonghyun said, looking at the time. It was quarter past two. “So, unless someone turns up in the next ten minutes and absolutely blows you out of the water, then I guess you’re in,”
Chanyeol cheered and Wendy smiled brightly.
The first band practice was, to put it mildly, a disaster.
They could all play their parts, but when it all came together, it was a mess. Jonghyun rubbed his temples and stared at the floor.
“What about some team building?” Lay suggested. They all turned to him. “Like, bonding time, but through it, we like… learn more about each other and become more of a team. Maybe we’ll be more in sync then,”
Amber glanced at Jonghyun and shrugged. “I don’t have any better ideas,”
“It sounds fun!” Chanyeol piped up, grinning. Wendy looked enthusiastic too.
Jonghyun shrugged too. “Why not?”
‘Team building’ ending up going to the beach and playing games. Volleyball and soccer and working together to build a sandcastle and fort, before the waves consumed it. With the rising tide, they were fighting a losing battle, but it was satisfying watching the fort withstand a few extra waves.
Then Chanyeol picked up Amber and threw her into the water, and the team building became a free-for-all water fight.
After getting drenched at the beach, they returned to the dorms to change and shower, before meeting at the Chinese restaurant down the street for dinner.
Chanyeol and Amber engaged in a food battle to see who could eat more dumplings and Lay seemed obsessed with the restaurant's cheese sticks.
They talked and laughed and actually got to know each other better. Even if it didn't help band practice, they all went home happy, because nothing compared with gaining new friends.
The next time they practiced, they were still a mess, but better than before. Wendy listened out for Chanyeol’s beat and Lay’s melody more, even though they weren’t quite in time with each other. Amber still had trouble with her bass line, sounding mismatched, and Jonghyun kept missing a note in the fourth bar, but it was better.
Wendy gave them all a bright smile and they started the songs again.
“Where’s Chanyeol?” Amber sighed for the third time, glancing at the clock behind Jonghyun.
Lay was about to volunteer to go look for him when the doors burst open and their drummer stumbled in, flapping about, a flyer in his hand.
“Band…. competition,” he wheezed out, shoving the piece of paper into Amber’s hands.
“A band competition?” Amber unfolded the crumpled paper, reading it. Jonghyun and Wendy peered over her shoulder. “It’s for the colleges in this area,”
“We should join!” Chanyeol said brightly, finally catching some of his breath as Lay leaned over Jonghyun’s shoulder to look at it too.
“Uhm, Chanyeol, in case you forgot, just yesterday we still couldn’t even play in time together,” Amber said, sombre.
Chanyeol grabbed the flyer from her hands and held it up, gesturing to it excitedly. “It’d be good for us! Even if we don’t win or get very far, it’ll give us something to work towards, and we’ll get feedback, so it’s a win/win!”
“There’s no entry requirements or fees or anything, either,” Lay commented, peering at the bottom of the flyer.
Jonghyun glanced at Wendy and Amber. The bassist shrugged while the other girl looked open to anything. He looked at Chanyeol’s excited face again before sighing.
“It will give us something to work towards, and we can always pull out if we don’t want to perform,” he said slowly and Chanyeol started jumping up and down excitedly, though staying silent. It was a strange but amusing sight.
“So let’s sign up,”
Chanyeol let out a loud whoop and Wendy laughed.
The competition was in two months time, so they practiced three times a week from then on; and even when one of them had to miss a practice for assignments or studying for mid semester tests, the others still met up to practice. After the first week, they were all in time with each other, and after that they worked on staying in time and on tune, not missing notes.
One band practice, when it was just Jonghyun and Wendy, because the others were studying for their last exams, Jonghyun turned to her and said, “Sing for me,”
Wendy had stared at him, not understanding, before Jonghyun clarified. “Acapella, try to sing acapella,”
Wendy flinched, face crumpling as she shook her head.
“I can’t, I - ” she tried and Jonghyun smiled at her softly.
“I know you have bad memories associated with it, and I don’t expect you to get over it so quickly, but you have to face your fears some day,” he said quietly. “Try it, just a couple of lines,”
Wendy swallowed nervously and Jonghyun tried to give her an encouraging smile.
“I’m the only one here, it’s okay,” he murmured and she nodded, though she still looked uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to the next.
Parting her lips, Wendy opened her mouth, softly singing the first line of one of the songs they had been practicing, but when she stopped to take a breath for the next line, she choked up and clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to push back the nausea of the memories.
Jonghyun had an arm around her almost immediately, rubbing her back and trying to soothe her.
“It’s okay, you did well, you did well,”
The next band practice, Chanyeol and Lay were there too and neither Jonghyun nor Wendy brought up what happened in the previous practice. In fact, they never mentioned it again.
But Jonghyun did hear Wendy softly trying to sing to herself as she headed back to her dorms a few times. She rarely got past a line or two, but he still smiled to himself, because she was trying, and that was a start.
At their last band practice, they went through the whole set twice, pointing out to each other when they missed notes or were out of time.
They were all worried about Wendy going out of tune because of nerves, but with accompaniment she seemed at ease, hitting all the notes.
“Great work, guys,” Jonghyun said, beaming at them all, “We’ve improved heaps in the last two months, and we might actually stand a chance tomorrow,”
“Stand a chance?” Amber chuckled, leaning back comfortably on her chair, “We’re going to smash through it,”
Chanyeol cheered. Lay smiled, “I heard a couple of the other bands when I went to visit a friend on his campus, and they sounded terrible,”
They all laughed, except for Wendy. Jonghyun turned to her. “Everything okay?” he asked and she opened her mouth, about to hurriedly wave it off, but then she closed her mouth, looking unsure and hesitant.
“Wendy?” Amber stepped forward.
“I can sing,” Wendy blurted out and they all stared at her. She was looking at Jonghyun. “Acapella. A bit. I can do it,”
Jonghyun’s eyes went wide as a smile spread across his face. “Really?!”
“I…. I’ve managed one verse and a chorus,” she mumbled, flushing a little.
“That’s so great!” Jonghyun cried, embracing her tightly. Wendy laughed against his shoulder as Amber ruffled her hair and Chanyeol pulled Lay and Amber in to make it a group hug.
“I’m so proud of us,” he hummed above them all.
Amber pushed his face away, grumbling about height advantage, and they all laughed.
They were to perform sixth, out of eight. Chanyeol was air drumming with his earphones in while Lay was on his phone. Jonghyun paced back and forth in between them and Amber periodically snapped at him to stay still.
“SM The Band?” one of the backstage guys came up to them, “You’re next. Start preparing please,”
That only seemed to make Jonghyun more anxious and his pacing became quicker as Amber grabbed their guitars and checked they were still in tune.
Wendy grabbed his arm. “Oppa, relax,” she said and he gave her a weary smile.
“Guys, listen,” she said, getting to her feet and they all turned to her. Lay nudged Chanyeol and he pulled out his earphones.
Wendy took a deep breath, meeting all their eyes. “No matter what happens, remember that... we’re in this together, and we worked hard and even if we get booed off stage and the judges say we’re terrible, at least we did it, okay? We’ve still accomplished something just by making it here,”
Jonghyun smiled at her, finally stopping his pacing. “You’re right,” he said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks,”
Amber touched the badge that was pinned to the hip of her jeans. “SM The Band,” she murmured, and gave them all a smile. “This is us, and we should be proud of it,”
They all touched their own badges, as if finding reassurance from the cheap $2 badges that Chanyeol had gotten made at the local print shop.
“Let’s do this,”
On stage, Wendy resisted the urge to fix her braids that were pinned like a crown around her head, focussing instead on the judges at their table in the middle of the room and the crowd in front of her. She hadn’t performed in front of a crowd since…
She shook the thought away and glanced at Chanyeol and Lay. They nodded at her, indicating they were ready, and Amber and Jonghyun indicated the same.
“Good evening everyone,” Wendy said brightly, channelling her nervousness into enthusiasm. “How are we all doing tonight?!”
The crowd roared and she felt some of the anxiety dissipate as she grinned under the lights.
“We’re SM The Band from SM University,” she said, “and here’s our first song,”
Chanyeol counted out three beats and then he and Amber began.
The crowd had clearly liked them, cheering loudly for each of the three songs they performed. They all stood at the front of the stage in a row as they waited for the judges to speak. Wendy waved and smiled at some of the people in the front row of the dim bar, trying to not look so nervous and stop her heart from thrumming from the adrenaline.
After a while, the judges spoke. The comments were, for the most part, quite similar. Good energy and definitely a lot of potential, a little rough around the edges. One judge praised Wendy’s clear vocals, while another criticised her, saying she missed notes.
Overall, they were very good. Out of the possible 50 points, they received 41. Wendy shrieked and threw her arms around Amber, the person beside her, almost crying with happiness. Jonghyun looked like he was going to tear up too.
They all thanked the judges and the crowd, waving, before jumping off the stage and bundling together for a group hug. Wendy’s squeal, from the middle of the group, was muffled, but they all heard it and laughed, feeling much the same.
“Oh don’t be so pathetic,” a voice drawled and they broke apart to see a small girl with badly dyed blonde hair chewing gum and looking at them balefully.
“You didn’t even get the highest score, stop looking like you won the Olympics,” she muttered. Jonghyun and Lay exchanged looks.
“Happiness is about being satisfied with what you have,” Amber said pleasantly, sounding like a preschool teacher. The girl scowled and stormed off and they all withheld their snickers. Chanyeol was the first to crack, almost falling to the ground, out of breath from laughter.
Amber hauled him up and they all shared more smiles.
In the end, they had tied with one of the other bands, from another college. Both bands were brought up onto the stage. Wendy noted, with some amusement, that the small girl with badly dyed blonde hair was part of it. It looked like she was the vocalist.
“As you can see, both bands scored well, achieving 41 points in the competition,” the judge in the middle said, “and without a clear winner, we only thought it fair to have you both play again,”
Amber glanced at Jonghyun and grinned, because they had heard the other band, and in terms of cohesiveness, the other band was nowhere near as in sync.
“But since you’ve both played your sets, we thought another competition would be fairer,” another judge said, “So, the vocalists will sing one song again, without accompaniment,”
“Wait,” Jonghyun stepped forward, glancing back at Wendy who was staring at everything with wide eyes, hands clasped in front of her. Amber had moved to stand beside her, arm around her shoulders, face grim. Lay and Chanyeol stood behind, like bodyguards. They were all protecting her. “This is a band competition, not a vocal competition, it should be the whole band - ”
“The vocalist is a part of the band, isn’t that correct?” the judge said coldly and Jonghyun pursed his lips. “If your vocalist won’t participate, then you will be conceding.”
Jonghyun squeezed his eyes shut tightly before letting out a deep breath and turning to the other band, hand stretched out. “We’ll concede. Congratula - “
“Hold on, oppa,” Wendy stepped forward, hand on Jonghyun’s outstretched arm. “You didn’t actually ask me,”
“Wendy, you know you can’t - ” he began but she gave him a tight smile.
“I have to face my fears. You were the one who told me to keep trying, right?” Jonghyun looked at her, studying her face before nodding. Wendy smiled before turning to the other band.
“Sorry, we’re not conceding,” she said, a charming smile on her lips, “I’m not letting something so prestigious go to a group of wannabes,”
“Did you see the look on that guy’s face?” Chanyeol cried, big eyes wide, practically jumping up and down, hands flapping excitedly beside his lithe body. “He looked like an angry purple grape that was going to explode,” he roared with laughter and Lay had to grab him before he knocked over some poor staff member.
Jonghyun threw an arm around her neck, pulling her into a tight headlock and Wendy cried out, eyes scrunching shut as she protested.
“I’m proud of you, kid,” he said, and even in the dim light, Wendy could see his eyes were shining.
“Oh get off, oppa,” Amber’s cool hands pried his arm away, “You’re going to ruin her hair,”
“My hair’s fine - ” Wendy began, but then Amber was tucking in stray hairs from her two braids that had fallen out, pinning them back with the bobby pins already in her hair.
“I didn’t know you were a hair stylist,” Wendy joked weakly and Amber scowled at her.
“Just because I have short hair doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do hair,” she said, checking the braids. She nodded and patted Wendy on the shoulder. “You’re going to be great, Wendy, just breathe and remember we’re here,”
Wendy offered her a smile and Amber returned it, in her cool, calm way. Wendy took a deep breath and they nodded at each other before she stepped forward.
“Ah, you forgot something,”
Wendy turned to see Lay, with the other three behind him, holding something in his palm, offering it out to her.
“Your badge,” Lay said, a soft smile on his face. It must have fallen off when Jonghyun grabbed her. “We might be small, but we’re family. Don’t forget that you’re a part of it.”
Wendy bit her lip, trying not to get overwhelmed by emotion and taking it, fingers trembling. She fasted the badge to the collar of her shirt and gave them all a wobbly smile.
“Together,” she said and they echoed her before she stepped onto the stage. The lights dimmed and Wendy felt like her breathing was so loud, it was echoing. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and waited for the lights to turn on. When they did, she opened her eyes, lifted her head, and sang.
Two months later
“Wendy-yah, you’re going to be late,” Seulgi drawled from atop her bunk, where she was reading through her molecular chemistry textbook.
“No I’m not, bye!” she yelled, dark brown hair flying out behind her as she ran out the door. She fixed her shoulder strap as she ran, backpack bouncing against her back, badge pin shining in the sunlight.
“Late!” Chanyeol barked as Wendy slipped through the doors.
“You can’t talk,” Amber said, “You only got here ten seconds ago.”
Wendy snickered as Chanyeol protested that she was still late, before Jonghyun threw an arm around her shoulders.
“How’s our baby?” he asked and Wendy raised an eyebrow at him. She was the youngest of the group but….
“She’s fine,” she said, the slightest hint of a smile on her lips.
Jonghyun squinted at her. “You know I mean the trophy, right?”
Wendy grinned. “Yeah, I know,”
“So where’s Lay?”
“Probably forgot,”
“Probably still asleep,”
They shared looks before exchanging grins and running back out towards the boys dorm, ready to wake up their last band member; in the nicest way possible, of course.
Artists: shinee, f(x), exo, red velvet
Pairings: none
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3.777
Warnings: none
Prompt: #113 - College AU. Jonghyun, Amber, Chanyeol and Lay are in a band, and they put up signs in search for a female vocalist. Wendy is the only one to show up for auditions.
Notes: this is different to what i usually write, so i hope it’s okay anon ;w;
title from the song by yellowcard
Amber had the look of a stunned animal. Jonghyun didn’t look much different.
“You what,” she deadpanned.
“I’m moving to the U.S.,” Luna said brightly, cheerily, like everything she did.
Chanyeol’s dumbstruck expression finally changed when he dropped his drumstick, falling to the ground with a clatter before he bent over to pick it up. “But - but - but - ” he spluttered but never actually found the words.
“I leave at the end of the month,” she said, and this time her smile was wry, a twist on her face. “I’m sorry, I know we were going to do this band thing. We hadn’t even properly started or anything,”
“Yeah, I just got approval from the student union to use one of the smaller music rooms for practice,” Jonghyun muttered.
“End of the month,” Lay murmured, “that’s less than two weeks away,”
Luna nodded. “They only told Dad two days ago he was being transferred. We have to move everything,”
Amber inhaled a deep breath and reached over to pat her shoulder stiffly. “It’s not your fault. We’ll… we’ll miss you,” she said, staring at the ground because she was never good with this whole ‘talk about feelings’ thing. Luna beamed.
“I’ll come back to visit! And we’ll talk online, right?” she gushed, hugging Amber tightly. The tomboy flapped her arms awkwardly, her eyes giving Jonghyun pleading looks for help. The guitarist just chuckled.
Chanyeol and Lay reassured her they would, with Jonghyun and (eventually) Amber piping up that they would too. Their last afternoon together was spent with smiles and bright laughter and belting out random pop songs off key.
“So what do we do?” Lay asked as he set up his keyboard for practice at the end of the week. They had agreed to come practice, even without Luna. Even without a vocalist.
“We find a new vocalist,” Jonghyun said. Amber scoffed.
“In case you haven’t noticed, not many people are that keen to spend their weekends in a room with a bunch of misfits,” she rolled her eyes.
“Hey, we’re not misfits!” Jonghyun protested, emphasised by Chanyeol tripping over one of his cymbals and falling to the floor in a mess of limbs. Jonghyun groaned and Amber snickered. Lay leaned over to pull him to his feet.
“Well, we should try anyway,” he said, “We can’t be a band without a vocalist,”
“We’ll have auditions,”
“Oh, because we know how to judge vocalists,” Amber drawled, sarcasm dripping from her voice. She laughed as she dodged a guitar pick that Jonghyun threw at her.
SM THE BAND IS LOOKING FOR A VOCALIST
Do you love music? Do you want to join the campus band? Then come audition for SM The Band this Saturday! Room MA238 at 2pm!
Serious applicants only!
“We sound like a pathetic gym pamphlet,”
This time Lay is the one who does the honours, plastering a flyer to Amber’s face as her protests became muffled beneath the paper.
When the band arrived at the room at two in the afternoon on Saturday, there was only one girl in an oversized sweater sitting cross-legged outside the room. She had long black haired that was dipdyed blue and she was listening to an iPod.
She looked up when they stopped outside the room, Chanyeol fiddling with the lock and Jonghyun looking a little stunned at the lack of attendance.
“You put up flyers everywhere, right?” he turned to Lay and the keyboard player nodded.
“I put it outside every room in the music school, and the leftovers - ”
“Only the music school?!” Jonghyun cried. Lay nodded meekly and Amber pushed them both into the practice room.
“Shut up before you scare away our only applicant,” she muttered. Chanyeol beckoned the girl with the blue dipdye inside.
“So what’s your name?” Jonghyun asked with a sigh as he sat down in one of the chairs. Chanyeol took his place behind the drums while Lay sat in front of his keyboard. Amber took the chair beside Jonghyun, turning it around to sit on it backwards.
“Wendy,” the girl said brightly.
“And you sing?” Jonghyun continued. Amber shoved his shoulder.
“Of course she sings. She’s here. Stop being patronizing,” she scolded. Jonghyun glared at her, and Amber glared back.
“Can you sing something for us?” Lay asked pleasantly and she nodded, not looking weirded out by Jonghyun and Amber’s banter or by the fact that Chanyeol was scrutinizing his drumsticks like they were suddenly incredibly fascinating.
Wendy cleared her throat, as if preparing to sing, before she stopped and glanced at Lay meekly.
“Could you accompany me?” she asked and he looked surprised, but nodded and she told him the song before taking a deep breath again. This time, with Lay's soft notes in the background, she opened her mouth and sang.
She wasn’t like Luna, her voice was totally different, but it was clear and smooth and carried over Lay’s keyboard accompaniment easily.
“Wow,” Jonghyun said dumbly when she finished and she smiled bashfully. Chanyeol started clapping enthusiastically like a seal, Lay joining in, though less manic looking. Amber was the only one who didn’t join in.
“Just one thing, Wendy. Can you tell me, is there a specific reason why you sing with accompaniment?” Amber asked calmly.
Wendy bit her lip, looking hesitant. “I used to be part of an acapella group, but…. it ended badly, so I dislike singing acapella.”
Amber eyed her for another moment before nodding, as if satisfied. “Okay. Good job,”
“Well, it looks like you’re the only one auditioning,” Jonghyun said, looking at the time. It was quarter past two. “So, unless someone turns up in the next ten minutes and absolutely blows you out of the water, then I guess you’re in,”
Chanyeol cheered and Wendy smiled brightly.
The first band practice was, to put it mildly, a disaster.
They could all play their parts, but when it all came together, it was a mess. Jonghyun rubbed his temples and stared at the floor.
“What about some team building?” Lay suggested. They all turned to him. “Like, bonding time, but through it, we like… learn more about each other and become more of a team. Maybe we’ll be more in sync then,”
Amber glanced at Jonghyun and shrugged. “I don’t have any better ideas,”
“It sounds fun!” Chanyeol piped up, grinning. Wendy looked enthusiastic too.
Jonghyun shrugged too. “Why not?”
‘Team building’ ending up going to the beach and playing games. Volleyball and soccer and working together to build a sandcastle and fort, before the waves consumed it. With the rising tide, they were fighting a losing battle, but it was satisfying watching the fort withstand a few extra waves.
Then Chanyeol picked up Amber and threw her into the water, and the team building became a free-for-all water fight.
After getting drenched at the beach, they returned to the dorms to change and shower, before meeting at the Chinese restaurant down the street for dinner.
Chanyeol and Amber engaged in a food battle to see who could eat more dumplings and Lay seemed obsessed with the restaurant's cheese sticks.
They talked and laughed and actually got to know each other better. Even if it didn't help band practice, they all went home happy, because nothing compared with gaining new friends.
The next time they practiced, they were still a mess, but better than before. Wendy listened out for Chanyeol’s beat and Lay’s melody more, even though they weren’t quite in time with each other. Amber still had trouble with her bass line, sounding mismatched, and Jonghyun kept missing a note in the fourth bar, but it was better.
Wendy gave them all a bright smile and they started the songs again.
“Where’s Chanyeol?” Amber sighed for the third time, glancing at the clock behind Jonghyun.
Lay was about to volunteer to go look for him when the doors burst open and their drummer stumbled in, flapping about, a flyer in his hand.
“Band…. competition,” he wheezed out, shoving the piece of paper into Amber’s hands.
“A band competition?” Amber unfolded the crumpled paper, reading it. Jonghyun and Wendy peered over her shoulder. “It’s for the colleges in this area,”
“We should join!” Chanyeol said brightly, finally catching some of his breath as Lay leaned over Jonghyun’s shoulder to look at it too.
“Uhm, Chanyeol, in case you forgot, just yesterday we still couldn’t even play in time together,” Amber said, sombre.
Chanyeol grabbed the flyer from her hands and held it up, gesturing to it excitedly. “It’d be good for us! Even if we don’t win or get very far, it’ll give us something to work towards, and we’ll get feedback, so it’s a win/win!”
“There’s no entry requirements or fees or anything, either,” Lay commented, peering at the bottom of the flyer.
Jonghyun glanced at Wendy and Amber. The bassist shrugged while the other girl looked open to anything. He looked at Chanyeol’s excited face again before sighing.
“It will give us something to work towards, and we can always pull out if we don’t want to perform,” he said slowly and Chanyeol started jumping up and down excitedly, though staying silent. It was a strange but amusing sight.
“So let’s sign up,”
Chanyeol let out a loud whoop and Wendy laughed.
The competition was in two months time, so they practiced three times a week from then on; and even when one of them had to miss a practice for assignments or studying for mid semester tests, the others still met up to practice. After the first week, they were all in time with each other, and after that they worked on staying in time and on tune, not missing notes.
One band practice, when it was just Jonghyun and Wendy, because the others were studying for their last exams, Jonghyun turned to her and said, “Sing for me,”
Wendy had stared at him, not understanding, before Jonghyun clarified. “Acapella, try to sing acapella,”
Wendy flinched, face crumpling as she shook her head.
“I can’t, I - ” she tried and Jonghyun smiled at her softly.
“I know you have bad memories associated with it, and I don’t expect you to get over it so quickly, but you have to face your fears some day,” he said quietly. “Try it, just a couple of lines,”
Wendy swallowed nervously and Jonghyun tried to give her an encouraging smile.
“I’m the only one here, it’s okay,” he murmured and she nodded, though she still looked uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to the next.
Parting her lips, Wendy opened her mouth, softly singing the first line of one of the songs they had been practicing, but when she stopped to take a breath for the next line, she choked up and clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to push back the nausea of the memories.
Jonghyun had an arm around her almost immediately, rubbing her back and trying to soothe her.
“It’s okay, you did well, you did well,”
The next band practice, Chanyeol and Lay were there too and neither Jonghyun nor Wendy brought up what happened in the previous practice. In fact, they never mentioned it again.
But Jonghyun did hear Wendy softly trying to sing to herself as she headed back to her dorms a few times. She rarely got past a line or two, but he still smiled to himself, because she was trying, and that was a start.
At their last band practice, they went through the whole set twice, pointing out to each other when they missed notes or were out of time.
They were all worried about Wendy going out of tune because of nerves, but with accompaniment she seemed at ease, hitting all the notes.
“Great work, guys,” Jonghyun said, beaming at them all, “We’ve improved heaps in the last two months, and we might actually stand a chance tomorrow,”
“Stand a chance?” Amber chuckled, leaning back comfortably on her chair, “We’re going to smash through it,”
Chanyeol cheered. Lay smiled, “I heard a couple of the other bands when I went to visit a friend on his campus, and they sounded terrible,”
They all laughed, except for Wendy. Jonghyun turned to her. “Everything okay?” he asked and she opened her mouth, about to hurriedly wave it off, but then she closed her mouth, looking unsure and hesitant.
“Wendy?” Amber stepped forward.
“I can sing,” Wendy blurted out and they all stared at her. She was looking at Jonghyun. “Acapella. A bit. I can do it,”
Jonghyun’s eyes went wide as a smile spread across his face. “Really?!”
“I…. I’ve managed one verse and a chorus,” she mumbled, flushing a little.
“That’s so great!” Jonghyun cried, embracing her tightly. Wendy laughed against his shoulder as Amber ruffled her hair and Chanyeol pulled Lay and Amber in to make it a group hug.
“I’m so proud of us,” he hummed above them all.
Amber pushed his face away, grumbling about height advantage, and they all laughed.
They were to perform sixth, out of eight. Chanyeol was air drumming with his earphones in while Lay was on his phone. Jonghyun paced back and forth in between them and Amber periodically snapped at him to stay still.
“SM The Band?” one of the backstage guys came up to them, “You’re next. Start preparing please,”
That only seemed to make Jonghyun more anxious and his pacing became quicker as Amber grabbed their guitars and checked they were still in tune.
Wendy grabbed his arm. “Oppa, relax,” she said and he gave her a weary smile.
“Guys, listen,” she said, getting to her feet and they all turned to her. Lay nudged Chanyeol and he pulled out his earphones.
Wendy took a deep breath, meeting all their eyes. “No matter what happens, remember that... we’re in this together, and we worked hard and even if we get booed off stage and the judges say we’re terrible, at least we did it, okay? We’ve still accomplished something just by making it here,”
Jonghyun smiled at her, finally stopping his pacing. “You’re right,” he said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks,”
Amber touched the badge that was pinned to the hip of her jeans. “SM The Band,” she murmured, and gave them all a smile. “This is us, and we should be proud of it,”
They all touched their own badges, as if finding reassurance from the cheap $2 badges that Chanyeol had gotten made at the local print shop.
“Let’s do this,”
On stage, Wendy resisted the urge to fix her braids that were pinned like a crown around her head, focussing instead on the judges at their table in the middle of the room and the crowd in front of her. She hadn’t performed in front of a crowd since…
She shook the thought away and glanced at Chanyeol and Lay. They nodded at her, indicating they were ready, and Amber and Jonghyun indicated the same.
“Good evening everyone,” Wendy said brightly, channelling her nervousness into enthusiasm. “How are we all doing tonight?!”
The crowd roared and she felt some of the anxiety dissipate as she grinned under the lights.
“We’re SM The Band from SM University,” she said, “and here’s our first song,”
Chanyeol counted out three beats and then he and Amber began.
The crowd had clearly liked them, cheering loudly for each of the three songs they performed. They all stood at the front of the stage in a row as they waited for the judges to speak. Wendy waved and smiled at some of the people in the front row of the dim bar, trying to not look so nervous and stop her heart from thrumming from the adrenaline.
After a while, the judges spoke. The comments were, for the most part, quite similar. Good energy and definitely a lot of potential, a little rough around the edges. One judge praised Wendy’s clear vocals, while another criticised her, saying she missed notes.
Overall, they were very good. Out of the possible 50 points, they received 41. Wendy shrieked and threw her arms around Amber, the person beside her, almost crying with happiness. Jonghyun looked like he was going to tear up too.
They all thanked the judges and the crowd, waving, before jumping off the stage and bundling together for a group hug. Wendy’s squeal, from the middle of the group, was muffled, but they all heard it and laughed, feeling much the same.
“Oh don’t be so pathetic,” a voice drawled and they broke apart to see a small girl with badly dyed blonde hair chewing gum and looking at them balefully.
“You didn’t even get the highest score, stop looking like you won the Olympics,” she muttered. Jonghyun and Lay exchanged looks.
“Happiness is about being satisfied with what you have,” Amber said pleasantly, sounding like a preschool teacher. The girl scowled and stormed off and they all withheld their snickers. Chanyeol was the first to crack, almost falling to the ground, out of breath from laughter.
Amber hauled him up and they all shared more smiles.
In the end, they had tied with one of the other bands, from another college. Both bands were brought up onto the stage. Wendy noted, with some amusement, that the small girl with badly dyed blonde hair was part of it. It looked like she was the vocalist.
“As you can see, both bands scored well, achieving 41 points in the competition,” the judge in the middle said, “and without a clear winner, we only thought it fair to have you both play again,”
Amber glanced at Jonghyun and grinned, because they had heard the other band, and in terms of cohesiveness, the other band was nowhere near as in sync.
“But since you’ve both played your sets, we thought another competition would be fairer,” another judge said, “So, the vocalists will sing one song again, without accompaniment,”
“Wait,” Jonghyun stepped forward, glancing back at Wendy who was staring at everything with wide eyes, hands clasped in front of her. Amber had moved to stand beside her, arm around her shoulders, face grim. Lay and Chanyeol stood behind, like bodyguards. They were all protecting her. “This is a band competition, not a vocal competition, it should be the whole band - ”
“The vocalist is a part of the band, isn’t that correct?” the judge said coldly and Jonghyun pursed his lips. “If your vocalist won’t participate, then you will be conceding.”
Jonghyun squeezed his eyes shut tightly before letting out a deep breath and turning to the other band, hand stretched out. “We’ll concede. Congratula - “
“Hold on, oppa,” Wendy stepped forward, hand on Jonghyun’s outstretched arm. “You didn’t actually ask me,”
“Wendy, you know you can’t - ” he began but she gave him a tight smile.
“I have to face my fears. You were the one who told me to keep trying, right?” Jonghyun looked at her, studying her face before nodding. Wendy smiled before turning to the other band.
“Sorry, we’re not conceding,” she said, a charming smile on her lips, “I’m not letting something so prestigious go to a group of wannabes,”
“Did you see the look on that guy’s face?” Chanyeol cried, big eyes wide, practically jumping up and down, hands flapping excitedly beside his lithe body. “He looked like an angry purple grape that was going to explode,” he roared with laughter and Lay had to grab him before he knocked over some poor staff member.
Jonghyun threw an arm around her neck, pulling her into a tight headlock and Wendy cried out, eyes scrunching shut as she protested.
“I’m proud of you, kid,” he said, and even in the dim light, Wendy could see his eyes were shining.
“Oh get off, oppa,” Amber’s cool hands pried his arm away, “You’re going to ruin her hair,”
“My hair’s fine - ” Wendy began, but then Amber was tucking in stray hairs from her two braids that had fallen out, pinning them back with the bobby pins already in her hair.
“I didn’t know you were a hair stylist,” Wendy joked weakly and Amber scowled at her.
“Just because I have short hair doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do hair,” she said, checking the braids. She nodded and patted Wendy on the shoulder. “You’re going to be great, Wendy, just breathe and remember we’re here,”
Wendy offered her a smile and Amber returned it, in her cool, calm way. Wendy took a deep breath and they nodded at each other before she stepped forward.
“Ah, you forgot something,”
Wendy turned to see Lay, with the other three behind him, holding something in his palm, offering it out to her.
“Your badge,” Lay said, a soft smile on his face. It must have fallen off when Jonghyun grabbed her. “We might be small, but we’re family. Don’t forget that you’re a part of it.”
Wendy bit her lip, trying not to get overwhelmed by emotion and taking it, fingers trembling. She fasted the badge to the collar of her shirt and gave them all a wobbly smile.
“Together,” she said and they echoed her before she stepped onto the stage. The lights dimmed and Wendy felt like her breathing was so loud, it was echoing. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and waited for the lights to turn on. When they did, she opened her eyes, lifted her head, and sang.
Two months later
“Wendy-yah, you’re going to be late,” Seulgi drawled from atop her bunk, where she was reading through her molecular chemistry textbook.
“No I’m not, bye!” she yelled, dark brown hair flying out behind her as she ran out the door. She fixed her shoulder strap as she ran, backpack bouncing against her back, badge pin shining in the sunlight.
“Late!” Chanyeol barked as Wendy slipped through the doors.
“You can’t talk,” Amber said, “You only got here ten seconds ago.”
Wendy snickered as Chanyeol protested that she was still late, before Jonghyun threw an arm around her shoulders.
“How’s our baby?” he asked and Wendy raised an eyebrow at him. She was the youngest of the group but….
“She’s fine,” she said, the slightest hint of a smile on her lips.
Jonghyun squinted at her. “You know I mean the trophy, right?”
Wendy grinned. “Yeah, I know,”
“So where’s Lay?”
“Probably forgot,”
“Probably still asleep,”
They shared looks before exchanging grins and running back out towards the boys dorm, ready to wake up their last band member; in the nicest way possible, of course.