If Music be the Food of Love [Chapter 9]
Title: If Music be the Food of Love
Chapter: 9/13
Genre: romance, humour, AU
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Henber (main), minor QMi, LunBer, other ninja pairings
Summary: When Donghae decides to skip his first two weeks at SM High, his twin sister Amber impersonates him and joins the prestigious performing arts school to meet her idol, Cho Kyuhyun. Hijinks ensue as she tries to keep from being found out by her roommate Henry, dealing with romantic mix-ups along the way.
A/N: Based on the movie She’s the Man, a take on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The title is a quote from the opening lines of the play.
“Kibum-ah, I was actually going to wait for you to go back to our dorm.” Jinki explained over dinner. “But Donghae wanted someone to accompany him, so I went along.”
Kibum stabbed the noodles in his bowl with his chopsticks. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me. It’s not like you abandoned me or anything.”
Jinki sensed that something was amiss with the dancer. “Are you sure? You look a little…upset.”
“Why should I be upset?” Kibum countered immediately. “Just because we usually go together after dance practice to buy food back for dinner doesn’t mean that you can’t go have dinner with someone else.”
“Well, I’m sorry, in any case.” Jinki ventured carefully, knowing that Kibum was the kind of person who could flare up very easily when provoked, even if it was unintentional.
Kibum gritted his teeth. “I said, there’s no need to apologise. Do I look like your boyfriend?”
“What?” Jinki blinked. “No? What does that have to do with anything?”
--
Amber made it to their room before Henry did, her chest heaving as she tried to regain her breath. She had just about calmed her heart down when Henry returned. “Yo, how did the date go?”
Henry sighed and dove headfirst onto the bed with an ‘oomph’.
Amber winced. “That bad?”
“It could have been worse, I suppose.” He replied glumly. “She tried to laugh at my jokes.”
“Oh no, you mean those terrible Korean puns?” Amber shook her head in dismay. “I told you, only people who aren’t native Koreans find those funny!”
“I had to say something - the silence was driving me mad!” He sat up and retorted. “Anyway, we didn’t really have much to talk about, and she said she couldn’t do the duet with me.”
“Oh.” Now she felt really bad for him, because he’d really been looking forward to it. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault.” Henry smiled wanly. “You tried to help me as much as you could.”
“Aw, come here.” She went over and gave him a hug.
It felt nice at first, until he realised how gay it was. “Ahem.” He cleared his throat and forcibly extracted himself. “Uh, you stink, man. Shouldn’t you have showered after dance practice?”
“Hey!” She punched him and he fell back onto his bed in pain. “Fine, I’ll go and shower.”
But before she left the room she turned back to look at him. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Yeah.” He reassured her. “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
She sighed and left for the bathroom.
--
Jinki opened the door to see an annoyed Kim Jonghyun standing there, arms akimbo as he entered Jinki’s room without so much as a ‘hello, how are you’.
“Please come in.” Jinki murmured ironically, shutting the door behind him.
“What did you do to make Kibummie all mad?” Jonghyun demanded immediately, and Jinki found himself at a loss for words - not for the first time that evening.
“I don’t know.” He finally replied, looking rather bewildered as he sat down on his bed. “I thought it might be because I went to have dinner with Donghae, though technically it wasn’t so much dinner as it was spying on someone else’s date, and then Kibum came and Donghae left and-”
Jonghyun levelled him with a look that told Jinki that he was rambling, and he stopped talking. “So you think he came back to our room all irritable and in a hissy fit because you ditched him for dinner?”
“I didn’t ditch him.” Jinki protested. “Anyway, he started getting all upset when I apologised for not eating with him, and he said some weird stuff about how it wasn’t like we’re dating, so I shouldn’t be apologising.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know why he’s being like this.”
He really doesn’t have a clue, Jonghyun mused. “Perhaps you hurt his feelings somehow.” He suggested meaningfully, willing the other boy to come to the conclusion himself.
“I would never- that is, if I did, I certainly didn’t mean to.” Jinki amended sadly. “I wish he’d just tell me what’s going on. Sometimes I feel like he’s holding a lot inside that he doesn’t feel he can share with me, though obviously he’s okay with telling you.” He sounded a little jealous about that, Jonghyun noted, to his pleasure.
“Maybe that’s because that stuff is related to you personally.” Jonghyun dropped another hint, and decided to leave it at that.
--
Amber returned to find Henry nodding off while still half-seated on his chair. Rolling her eyes, she went over and tried to rouse him by shaking his shoulder. “Dude, wake up. Go and sleep on your bed like a normal person.”
Henry woke up with a sudden jerk, startling Amber into lurching back and falling onto the floor, unintentionally dragging him down with her. He toppled and fell on top of her, bracing his fall with his arms on the ground, wincing as her knee collided dangerously close to his groin.
He found himself face to face with his roommate, who was blinking up at him with large, expressive eyes. He could feel the other’s chest heaving with shock against his own, and found that his lips were dangerously near hers.
Amber’s heart was pounding as she saw just how cute Henry was up close, before realising that he might be able to feel her less-than-male chest in this position. “Get off me!”
“S-sorry!” Henry stuttered and picked himself up off her.
Amber got up and dusted herself off. “I was just trying to wake you up so you could sleep properly on your bed.”
“Oh, thanks.” He replied. “Though I’m not actually sleepy now.”
Amber shrugged and went about keeping her things. The silence felt a little awkward, and she cast her thoughts around for a conversation topic. “So, what song are you going to sing for the carnival?”
“Someday at Christmas. It’s by Ste-”
“-Stevie Wonder, I know.” Amber finished for him and smiled. “I love that song.”
Henry shifted his chair over to his keyboard and turned it on, experimentally playing on the black and white keys before deciding on a particular chord. He played a sweet intro which had Amber swaying from side to side with the rhythm, and then began singing. “Someday at Christmas, men won’t be boys, playing with bombs like kids play with toys. One warm December, our hearts will see a world where men are free…”
He pointed at Amber to sing the next verse, and she happily complied. “Someday at Christmas, there’ll be no wars when we have learned what Christmas is for. When we have found what life’s really worth, there’ll be peace on earth.”
Henry smiled to himself as he played, enjoying the high tenor of his roommate’s voice. “Someday all our dreams will come to be…” Amber found herself harmonizing to Henry’s melody, which was a little tricky because he’d made some improvisations to the original chords, but it sounded good all the same.
They were both grinning like idiots at the end of the song, as Henry finished the accompaniment with a flourish. “I’m surprised you knew all the words.” He commented.
“That’s because we used to sing it every Christmas when I was younger.” Amber explained, and then her expression darkened slightly. “We stopped after my parents got divorced.”
Henry’s eyes widened at this new piece of information. “Your parents are divorced?” He repeated sympathetically.
“Yeah, some years ago.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling him all this, but found herself doing so anyway. “So I live with mu- my dad, and my sister lives with our mum, and we take turns visiting each other in the holidays.”
“Do you miss them?”
“It’s not so bad now, I suppose, with Skype and Facebook and unlimited text messaging. But it’s not the same as living under one roof together.” Amber mused. “When they first divorced, my mum moved to LA for work, and I barely got to see my sister except in the holidays. Then they moved back to Korea some years ago and it got better, even though we still live pretty far apart.”
Henry felt a little uneasy at the sober atmosphere, and tried to lighten it. “Is your sister like you?”
Amber pondered this question. “She’s quite similar - we both love music and the same kind of movies and food. She doesn’t dance as well as I do, of course.” She winked, and Henry rolled his eyes, secretly glad that his roommate was back to making jokes. “She’s quite a tomboy, actually.”
“Are you going to invite her to the carnival?” Henry asked, thinking it might be interesting to meet this mysterious sister of Donghae’s.
How was she going to answer that one?
**
A/N: sorry for the shortness and generally poor writing for this chapter. I didn't really know how to fix it, and was too lazy to change anything. I recognise that the Onkey is kind of random here, please forgive me!
And if anyone hasn't seen Henry and Amber singing the first bit of Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder, please go to the SMTown Youtube channel and watch it!
Chapter: 9/13
Genre: romance, humour, AU
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Henber (main), minor QMi, LunBer, other ninja pairings
Summary: When Donghae decides to skip his first two weeks at SM High, his twin sister Amber impersonates him and joins the prestigious performing arts school to meet her idol, Cho Kyuhyun. Hijinks ensue as she tries to keep from being found out by her roommate Henry, dealing with romantic mix-ups along the way.
A/N: Based on the movie She’s the Man, a take on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The title is a quote from the opening lines of the play.
“Kibum-ah, I was actually going to wait for you to go back to our dorm.” Jinki explained over dinner. “But Donghae wanted someone to accompany him, so I went along.”
Kibum stabbed the noodles in his bowl with his chopsticks. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me. It’s not like you abandoned me or anything.”
Jinki sensed that something was amiss with the dancer. “Are you sure? You look a little…upset.”
“Why should I be upset?” Kibum countered immediately. “Just because we usually go together after dance practice to buy food back for dinner doesn’t mean that you can’t go have dinner with someone else.”
“Well, I’m sorry, in any case.” Jinki ventured carefully, knowing that Kibum was the kind of person who could flare up very easily when provoked, even if it was unintentional.
Kibum gritted his teeth. “I said, there’s no need to apologise. Do I look like your boyfriend?”
“What?” Jinki blinked. “No? What does that have to do with anything?”
--
Amber made it to their room before Henry did, her chest heaving as she tried to regain her breath. She had just about calmed her heart down when Henry returned. “Yo, how did the date go?”
Henry sighed and dove headfirst onto the bed with an ‘oomph’.
Amber winced. “That bad?”
“It could have been worse, I suppose.” He replied glumly. “She tried to laugh at my jokes.”
“Oh no, you mean those terrible Korean puns?” Amber shook her head in dismay. “I told you, only people who aren’t native Koreans find those funny!”
“I had to say something - the silence was driving me mad!” He sat up and retorted. “Anyway, we didn’t really have much to talk about, and she said she couldn’t do the duet with me.”
“Oh.” Now she felt really bad for him, because he’d really been looking forward to it. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault.” Henry smiled wanly. “You tried to help me as much as you could.”
“Aw, come here.” She went over and gave him a hug.
It felt nice at first, until he realised how gay it was. “Ahem.” He cleared his throat and forcibly extracted himself. “Uh, you stink, man. Shouldn’t you have showered after dance practice?”
“Hey!” She punched him and he fell back onto his bed in pain. “Fine, I’ll go and shower.”
But before she left the room she turned back to look at him. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Yeah.” He reassured her. “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
She sighed and left for the bathroom.
--
Jinki opened the door to see an annoyed Kim Jonghyun standing there, arms akimbo as he entered Jinki’s room without so much as a ‘hello, how are you’.
“Please come in.” Jinki murmured ironically, shutting the door behind him.
“What did you do to make Kibummie all mad?” Jonghyun demanded immediately, and Jinki found himself at a loss for words - not for the first time that evening.
“I don’t know.” He finally replied, looking rather bewildered as he sat down on his bed. “I thought it might be because I went to have dinner with Donghae, though technically it wasn’t so much dinner as it was spying on someone else’s date, and then Kibum came and Donghae left and-”
Jonghyun levelled him with a look that told Jinki that he was rambling, and he stopped talking. “So you think he came back to our room all irritable and in a hissy fit because you ditched him for dinner?”
“I didn’t ditch him.” Jinki protested. “Anyway, he started getting all upset when I apologised for not eating with him, and he said some weird stuff about how it wasn’t like we’re dating, so I shouldn’t be apologising.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know why he’s being like this.”
He really doesn’t have a clue, Jonghyun mused. “Perhaps you hurt his feelings somehow.” He suggested meaningfully, willing the other boy to come to the conclusion himself.
“I would never- that is, if I did, I certainly didn’t mean to.” Jinki amended sadly. “I wish he’d just tell me what’s going on. Sometimes I feel like he’s holding a lot inside that he doesn’t feel he can share with me, though obviously he’s okay with telling you.” He sounded a little jealous about that, Jonghyun noted, to his pleasure.
“Maybe that’s because that stuff is related to you personally.” Jonghyun dropped another hint, and decided to leave it at that.
--
Amber returned to find Henry nodding off while still half-seated on his chair. Rolling her eyes, she went over and tried to rouse him by shaking his shoulder. “Dude, wake up. Go and sleep on your bed like a normal person.”
Henry woke up with a sudden jerk, startling Amber into lurching back and falling onto the floor, unintentionally dragging him down with her. He toppled and fell on top of her, bracing his fall with his arms on the ground, wincing as her knee collided dangerously close to his groin.
He found himself face to face with his roommate, who was blinking up at him with large, expressive eyes. He could feel the other’s chest heaving with shock against his own, and found that his lips were dangerously near hers.
Amber’s heart was pounding as she saw just how cute Henry was up close, before realising that he might be able to feel her less-than-male chest in this position. “Get off me!”
“S-sorry!” Henry stuttered and picked himself up off her.
Amber got up and dusted herself off. “I was just trying to wake you up so you could sleep properly on your bed.”
“Oh, thanks.” He replied. “Though I’m not actually sleepy now.”
Amber shrugged and went about keeping her things. The silence felt a little awkward, and she cast her thoughts around for a conversation topic. “So, what song are you going to sing for the carnival?”
“Someday at Christmas. It’s by Ste-”
“-Stevie Wonder, I know.” Amber finished for him and smiled. “I love that song.”
Henry shifted his chair over to his keyboard and turned it on, experimentally playing on the black and white keys before deciding on a particular chord. He played a sweet intro which had Amber swaying from side to side with the rhythm, and then began singing. “Someday at Christmas, men won’t be boys, playing with bombs like kids play with toys. One warm December, our hearts will see a world where men are free…”
He pointed at Amber to sing the next verse, and she happily complied. “Someday at Christmas, there’ll be no wars when we have learned what Christmas is for. When we have found what life’s really worth, there’ll be peace on earth.”
Henry smiled to himself as he played, enjoying the high tenor of his roommate’s voice. “Someday all our dreams will come to be…” Amber found herself harmonizing to Henry’s melody, which was a little tricky because he’d made some improvisations to the original chords, but it sounded good all the same.
They were both grinning like idiots at the end of the song, as Henry finished the accompaniment with a flourish. “I’m surprised you knew all the words.” He commented.
“That’s because we used to sing it every Christmas when I was younger.” Amber explained, and then her expression darkened slightly. “We stopped after my parents got divorced.”
Henry’s eyes widened at this new piece of information. “Your parents are divorced?” He repeated sympathetically.
“Yeah, some years ago.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling him all this, but found herself doing so anyway. “So I live with mu- my dad, and my sister lives with our mum, and we take turns visiting each other in the holidays.”
“Do you miss them?”
“It’s not so bad now, I suppose, with Skype and Facebook and unlimited text messaging. But it’s not the same as living under one roof together.” Amber mused. “When they first divorced, my mum moved to LA for work, and I barely got to see my sister except in the holidays. Then they moved back to Korea some years ago and it got better, even though we still live pretty far apart.”
Henry felt a little uneasy at the sober atmosphere, and tried to lighten it. “Is your sister like you?”
Amber pondered this question. “She’s quite similar - we both love music and the same kind of movies and food. She doesn’t dance as well as I do, of course.” She winked, and Henry rolled his eyes, secretly glad that his roommate was back to making jokes. “She’s quite a tomboy, actually.”
“Are you going to invite her to the carnival?” Henry asked, thinking it might be interesting to meet this mysterious sister of Donghae’s.
How was she going to answer that one?
**
A/N: sorry for the shortness and generally poor writing for this chapter. I didn't really know how to fix it, and was too lazy to change anything. I recognise that the Onkey is kind of random here, please forgive me!
And if anyone hasn't seen Henry and Amber singing the first bit of Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder, please go to the SMTown Youtube channel and watch it!