This Time Around (1/3)
Title: This Time Around (1/3)
Pairing: Teddy/Taeyang
Rating: R
Word Count: 28,889
A/N: Despite the three parts, this is a very long one-shot meant to be read in one sitting (if you have the stamina, heh). I divided it only because of LJ.
It all started with Boss.
Young Bae walked into the studio with the small dog trailing behind him, straining against his leash to sniff at the doorframe. Teddy watched amusedly as Young Bae gave him a minute to nose around, then clearly lost his patience and bent down to scoop him up into his arms. "Do you mind if he stays here?"
"Nah, it's fine." Teddy replied, spinning his chair to face the console again. "Got your lyrics?"
"Yes." There were two dull thumps, and when Teddy glanced back, the dog and Young Bae's bag were side by side on the sofa. "Get some sleep," he murmured to Boss, then kissed him on the top of the head before rifling through his bag. He retrieved a wrinkled sheet and pulled another computer chair over.
Teddy rolled himself closer to the console and made sure everything was ready for recording. They'd talked everything out and recorded a couple of working versions already - the final version wouldn't take too long. Not that Teddy really minded either way. Young Bae was easy to work with.
"I'm ready," Teddy said, smiling as he nodded toward the booth. "Get in there." He put his headphones on and Young Bae stepped into the booth. He put his lyrics on the music stand, stared at them, then leaned forward to speak into the microphone.
Teddy flicked it on a second too late. "--again."
He frowned and waited for Young Bae to get his headphones on before speaking into his own microphone. "What?"
"Say it again. The intro."
Teddy nodded and recited the short English intro. They'd been over it enough times that he'd learned it by heart long ago. Young Bae watched him intently, one hand pressed against his headphones, then nodded. "Okay. I'm ready."
Teddy started the music. It kept surprising him to hear Young Bae parrot his tone of voice, inflection and pronunciation, and he found himself grinning as he listened to him. It was always easy to tell who he'd been hanging out with just from the way he spoke English - he sounded like Perry after vocal training sessions with him, and he sounded like Shaun after asking him to help out with his lines for Big Bang's Japanese albums. The way he sang changed depending on which artists he was currently interested in, too. He'd make a pretty good mimic if he ever got tired of the pop music thing.
They worked for an hour or so, until Boss jumped to the floor, shook himself, and started sniffing around in a way Teddy recognized instantly. "I think your dog needs a walk," he said into the mic.
Young Bae blinked, then stood on tiptoe, trying to see him from the booth. He gave up after a second and walked out, smiling at Teddy sheepishly. "Sorry. Can we stop for ten minutes?"
"Yeah, sure." Teddy stretched out slowly as he watched him clip the leash back onto Boss's collar. "Gonna go get a coffee while you're gone."
"You should come with me instead," Young Bae said. "... I don't like the coffee from the machines here."
He had a point. "Me neither. Starbucks?" he suggested, standing up. The walk would do him some good, if the creaking noise from his knees was any indication.
"Okay. But you order," Young Bae said, then opened the door, letting Boss trot out first.
***
They walked slowly in the direction of the nearest Starbucks, stopping frequently to let Boss investigate bushes and bits of grass. Young Bae had pulled up his hood before stepping outside, but there weren't that many people around. Still, Teddy appreciated the precaution - he wasn't used to swarms of fans anymore. Being on hiatus for a few years would do that to any entertainer.
Although he tried not to spend too much time dwelling on it, he was starting to think he preferred the quiet life of a producer. He'd have to have that talk with the other members of 1TYM one of these days, but they'd been avoiding the subject for a while. They were all doing their own thing, at least for now.
He stopped again while Young Bae bagged Boss's poo and tossed it into the nearest trash can. "How many times a day d'you walk him?"
"Twice," he replied. "When I can. Sometimes my mother takes care of him." He stopped, but looked like he wanted to say something more. Teddy shot him an inquisitive look. "... I was wondering if you could take care of him when I'm too busy. Your apartment is closer to the studios than my parents' house. You like dogs, right?"
"Yeah, I do. Still miss Tyson sometimes." He'd had to give the tiny dog to his mother when he'd gotten too busy promoting and moving back and forth between Korea and the US to take proper care of him. He'd gotten sick and died a couple of years ago - the typical fate of the tiny little inbred dogs that were so popular here. At least Young Bae and Ji Yong had been smart enough to get healthy, normal-sized pups.
"Did he die?"
"Yeah. I'll take care of him, no problem. He's a good dog, yeah?"
Young Bae nodded, looking down at him. "Boss! You're a good dog, aren't you?"
Boss looked up, tail wagging, but quickly got distracted by a piece of trash on the sidewalk. Young Bae pulled him away from it and they walked on until they were standing under the familiar green sign. "A'ight, what do you wanna drink?"
Young Bae chewed on his lip and stared into the coffee shop for a few seconds. "... Green tea latte, please."
"Got it. I'll be back in a sec," Teddy said before heading inside. The smell of coffee and pastries hit him and he found himself eyeing the assortment of scones and muffins in front of him as he tried to decide what he wanted to drink.
He walked back out with Young Bae's latte, a caramel macchiato for himself and a couple of muffins in a paper bag. The odds that Young Bae would join him in his sugar binge were slim, but there was always someone in the studios who'd appreciate an unexpected snack if he wasn't interested. "Here ya go."
"Thank you." He smiled and cradled the cup in his hands, Boss's leash looped around his wrist. He gave the bag a curious glance but didn't ask. Hwang-honed discipline, no doubt. "We should go back and finish the song."
"Yeah. Couple more hours should do it."
Young Bae started walking again at the same slow pace, though, sipping his latte and letting Boss sniff around to his heart's content. Teddy followed, enjoying the cool evening air. He did need to get out of the studios more often - taking care of the dog wasn't a bad idea.
***
Young Bae had stared at the muffins for too long before finally breaking off a small piece of the blueberry one and pushing the rest toward Teddy. Teddy had pointedly left it right there on the desk, and Young Bae was making slow, steady progress on it, sneaking a piece or two whenever they took a break or had to stop and discuss something.
Teddy broke into a grin when Young Bae finally peeled the remnants of the muffin from its paper cup and popped them into his mouth. "Hey, you finished it," he said mockingly, clapping his hands a few times. He'd polished off his own double-chocolate muffin over an hour ago.
Young Bae laughed and licked a few crumbs off his thumb. "I was trying not to."
"You're a teenager, man, you need the calories."
"I'm not a teenager." He picked up a tiny crumb from the bottom of the paper cup, then leaned down, holding his hand at Boss's level. And he did have a point - Teddy found it difficult to notice how much people changed when he saw them almost every day, but the changes in Young Bae were obvious once he'd thought about it for a second. His newfound confidence suited him nicely.
"Yeah... Yeah, I know. Sorry. Guess I've known you for too long."
"It's okay," he said, straightening up once Boss was done licking every muffin molecule from his finger. "Jinu and Perry still call me 'kid', too." He wiped his hand on his jeans and leaned over the desk to peek into the empty paper bag.
"You still hungry? We could call for take-out," Teddy suggested.
Young Bae shook his head, as he'd expected. "We're almost done. I'll just wait for breakfast."
"A'ight. Let's finish up, then. I just wanna go over the bridge one last time."
He paused with his hand on the door that led to the booth. "Teddy? Is it okay if I take Boss to your place tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sure. Bring a couple of toys or a blanket or something, I don't want him to freak out 'cause he's in a weird place."
He smiled and nodded. "Thanks."
***
Teddy, as usual, got distracted by his work and the Internet once he got home. He alternated between working on a couple of tracks (for himself) and reading his favorite blogs, and the sun was up when he looked up from his monitor again. He sighed to himself and stretched his arms over his head, wincing at the assortment of pops and cracks that ensued.
He saved his work, took off his headphones, and checked his e-mail account one last time before bed. Nothing interesting there - he'd received a message from Kush a couple of hours ago, but it'd have to wait until he was feeling more motivated.
He stood up, rubbing his stinging eyes, and made his way to the bedroom. He'd stayed up long enough that he was asleep in minutes.
He woke up in a confused panic to the sounds of the doorbell and his cell phone ringing simultaneously. He grabbed his phone first, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes, and checked the text message. Young Bae was here with his dog.
He got out of bed, his heart still pounding, and buzzed Young Bae in. He didn't manage to do much besides stand there in a stupor before Young Bae knocked on his door. He was smiling, very awake, and carrying a bunch of crap in addition to Boss on his leash. "Good morning. Sorry for waking you up, but we're in a hurry."
"'S okay," Teddy managed to say, then cleared his throat. "You didn't have to bring all of that, I could've bought dog food and stuff at a pet shop."
"It's all right, our manager paid for it," Young Bae replied. He peered into the apartment and let out a quiet laugh. "Wow, your place is messy."
Teddy looked over his shoulder. He didn't really notice the clutter anymore, and he wasn't sure why he should care about it - it wasn't like he ever had guests over. Except Danny, who didn't really count as a guest and was responsible for a considerable part of the mess, anyway. He looked back at Young Bae and shrugged helplessly, then held out his arms.
There was a small bag of dog food, then two bowls, a couple of toys, and a small blanket that was already covered in black and white fur. Once his hands were free, Young Bae bent down and unclipped the leash from Boss's collar, then nudged him into the apartment. "Don't forget to walk him," he said as he draped the leash over Teddy's armload of dog stuff.
"I won't."
"Thanks! See you."
Another smile and he was gone. Teddy pushed the door closed with his hip and carried everything to the living room. After a moment of consideration, he dumped it all onto the couch, then filled one bowl with food and put it in a corner. The water bowl followed. He stashed the bag of food high enough for the dog not to reach it, spread out the blanket in a nice spot close to the bowls, and stepped back to admire his work.
Boss trotted past him, sniffed around, and went for the bowls. Teddy watched him gobble down his kibble for a moment, but his eyes were still burning and he felt too exhausted to care about cute animals. A glance at the VCR indicated he'd slept only for an hour or so. That explained it.
"Don't chew on anything," he muttered, then went back to bed.
***
Teddy greeted the new day by putting his foot down in a puddle of cold dog pee. He swore, loudly, then checked his alarm clock and realized he'd overslept - it was almost dinner time. The clicking noise of tiny claws against the floor announced Boss's arrival. Teddy thought he looked vaguely disapproving.
"Sorry, lil' guy," he said, then did his best to hobble to the bathroom without spreading pee everywhere. He was only mildly successful. A few paper towels took care of it, though - at least Boss was still pretty small.
He tried to remember where he'd put the cleaning products, tried to remember whether he even owned any, then gave up on the idea. It could wait until he'd eaten something. Or rather walked the dog and eaten something, because he wasn't interested in a repeat performance.
The walk jump-started his brain, and by the time he got back home (with a cup of coffee and a sandwich), he already had a few lines floating in his mind. He jotted them down, then decided, after taking a good look at his apartment, that taking Boss with him to the studios would be a better idea than leaving him there, at least until he'd dog-proofed the place.
Kush was already waiting for him when he finally got to his studio in YG's headquarters, with Boss in tow and the kibble, toys and blanket stuffed into a bag. "Are you babysitting?" he asked, clearly amused, as Teddy spread the blanket out on the sofa and plopped Boss down onto it.
"Yeah. Young Bae's too busy these days. You know how it is." He ruffled the short fur on top of Boss's head, then flopped down in his usual chair.
"I should've brought Macho along, I bet they miss each other."
"Bring him tomorrow, I think Boss is still gonna be here." Young Bae hadn't specified how long he wanted Teddy to keep him. It didn't really matter, since they saw each other in the studios nearly every day - he could just walk in and grab the dog whenever he wanted. Teddy kind of hoped he'd get to keep him for a couple more days, though. "Anyway, what was that track you wanted to work on?"
***
Dog-proofing his place took more time than he'd expected. It involved moving piles of things around, picking up all of the age-old fast-food containers that lay on the floor, a thorough search for sharp beer bottle caps, and more cable ties than he cared to think about.
Still, he'd gotten it all done, and the apartment looked a little better now. More of the floor was visible, anyway, and the area where he did most of his work (when he wasn't in the studios) looked less like a giant knot of dusty cables and more like a workstation.
Boss seemed impressed. Young Bae, when he dropped by to pick him up the following evening, didn't. "Oh, so it's always like this?" he said after another curious look over Teddy's shoulder, a smile spreading on his face. "I thought you'd just had a party or something..."
"Hey, I cleaned up just for Boss." He opened the door wider and nodded for Young Bae to come in. "You can leave the bowls and stuff here for next time."
"Okay. Can I use your bathroom?"
"Yeah, of course. It's that door." He wanted to add that Young Bae shouldn't bother taking off his shoes, but they were off already. He shook his head to himself and sat down at his somewhat-neater workplace again. He'd been working on a pretty good beat, if he said so himself, and he only needed to add a few finishing touches.
It was only much later, when he felt Boss plop down right by his feet next to the warm computer, that he realized Young Bae was still there. He pulled off his headphones, blinking, and looked around. Water was running in the kitchen. "... Young Bae?"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
"The dishes."
Teddy stood up and walked over to the kitchen. Young Bae had both sleeves pulled up and was scrubbing determinedly at a pan Teddy had been refusing to even look at for a while. "You don't have to pay me back or anything, man. I like dogs."
"I know... I don't mind. I'm free tonight." He kept on scrubbing, and after a moment Teddy felt awkward enough about just standing there that he moved closer and picked up a dishtowel to dry the plates and glasses Young Bae had already washed. Young Bae smiled at him and lowered his head again, frowning as he continued his battle against whatever the hell was on the bottom of that pan.
"I found that stuck under a plate," he said eventually, one hand emerging from the soapy water to point to a still-wet plastic pick on the counter. "Do you play guitar?"
"Yeah. Bass, too."
"Really? I didn't know."
"I'm full of surprises."
He'd expected a laugh, but Young Bae only nodded. "We should hang out like this more often. We only ever talk about work."
"Sure," Teddy replied automatically. They got along well since they'd started working on Young Bae's solo songs together, and with the other 1TYM guys busy having lives, Teddy could use someone to chill with.
Someone to chill with who wasn't Kush, he mentally amended as he set a clean glass down on the counter. He was a nice guy, but his constant enthusiasm got kind of tiring after a while.
"So, what else is there?" Young Bae asked, taking Teddy off guard.
"What, dishes?"
"Surprises." He grinned. "You said you're full of them."
Teddy actually considered answering the question - there were a few things he could tell him, probably, but... "I can't just tell you all at once, man, that'd be pretty boring."
That got a quiet laugh out of him. "Okay." He dumped a handful of dirty utensils into the sink and went back to work.
***
It took only a couple of days before he saw Boss again. He'd fully expected to see Danny at the door, since he was prone to dropping by when he was bored late at night, but it was Young Bae standing there, holding the dog awkwardly in his arms. He was getting too big for that.
"I knew you'd be awake," he said, then set Boss down after a particularly determined wriggle on his part. "Do you want to walk Boss with me?"
Teddy blinked, watching Boss as he sniffed at his socks, tail wagging. "... Yeah, okay. Did you walk all the way here?" he asked, then turned around to hunt for his keys and a clean-ish hoodie.
"Yes. It's not that far," Young Bae replied, sounding a little defensive.
Teddy stepped into the nearest sneakers and shooed Boss out of the way before closing the door and locking it. "Guess not. Whaddya do today?"
"I had a photo shoot and... well, nothing special. You?"
"Same old. I worked on Wedding Dress."
Young Bae nodded but didn't say anything. No work talk, Teddy remembered, so he stayed silent on the way out of the building. Young Bae picked a seemingly random direction once they were outside and Teddy fell into step next to him, hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
"When did you start playing guitar? Were you in a band?"
"Nah. I started in junior high. I was kind of a loner, so I just played by myself." Boss stopped to investigate the base of a lamp post; they stopped too. "Your turn. Tell me something I don't know."
Young Bae thought for a long moment - Boss had finished his business and they'd started walking again by the time he spoke. "I kissed someone the other day."
Teddy had guessed, from the internal debate that had been visible on Young Bae's face, that he'd been about to say something like that. It had been his first real kiss, unless Teddy had missed a memo. "Attaboy," he said jokingly, punching him in the shoulder. Young Bae understood the intent, if not the exact meaning, and grinned at him. "She pretty?"
The strangest questions could elicit a long, thoughtful pause from Young Bae - that had apparently been another one of them. "Yes," he finally said. "It was nice."
One of the 2NE1 girls, Teddy thought. He knew some kind of no-boyfriend pact had been established, but that couldn't last with a bunch of attractive people that age forced to work together so often. "You gonna go out with her?"
He didn't hesitate on that one. "I don't think so. It was just for fun."
Definitely 2NE1. A damn sight better than Teddy had managed for his first kiss. "You're lucky, man. My first kiss kinda sucked."
Young Bae gave him an interrogative look, so he told him the whole sorry tale - how they'd bumped noses and clinked teeth and laughed awkwardly and gotten interrupted before even really getting anywhere. School had sucked, but at least the story had entertained Young Bae, although he was too nice to laugh at him.
Once they'd walked back to Teddy's apartment building, Young Bae stopped and held out Boss's leash. "Just for another couple of days," he said. "Do you mind?"
"Nah. ... You know, if you're that busy you should probably be in bed."
"I know. I'll head back now."
"What, you're gonna walk all the way back? C'mon, I'll call you a taxi." He reached into his pocket, then remembered he hadn't grabbed his cell phone on his way out.
"It's okay, I like walking," Young Bae replied as he pulled his iPod out of his bag. He shouldered it again and bent down to give Boss a goodbye pet. "Don't make any trouble, you," he said in a low voice, then straightened up again. "Thanks."
Teddy itched to ask Young Bae if he at least had his phone with him in case something happened, but realizing how much that would make him sound like someone's mother stopped him just in time. "No problem. See you in the studios."
***
He stared at the studios' empty coffee maker before digging into his pockets for some change for the vending machine. As vile as the stuff was, he couldn't be bothered to wait more than thirty seconds for a quick hit of caffeine.
He backtracked to the hallway that contained said vending machine and grinned when he saw Jinu standing in front of it. "Didn't think you drank that stuff, man."
Jinu laughed and shook his head. "No fucking way. It's for Perry."
"You guys working together?"
"Yeah, with Sean." The machine stopped whirring and Jinu picked up the small paper cup gingerly. "We're gonna start recording the new single soon."
The mythical Jinusean comeback single. Teddy was a little surprised that he hadn't heard about the recent progress, but then it wasn't like he'd have time to contribute much to it while working on Young Bae's second album and on songs for 2NE1. "Damn. Finally, huh?"
"Yeah..." He didn't sound so enthusiastic, but his smile stayed in place. "What are you up to? Been working on 1TYM tracks?"
Teddy made a face as he stepped closer to the machine. "Trying not to think about that too much." He felt adventurous enough to try the hazelnut coffee. Someone kept having cups of it - Min Ji, he thought - and it seemed pretty good, judging from the aroma that usually wafted through the hallways and to his studio.
"I know what you mean." Jinu leaned against the whirring machine. "It's kinda weird after all this time."
"Yeah. I'm not even sure..." he trailed off. Voicing that thought wasn't a particularly good idea. He knew he'd do it in the end, anyway - for the fans, if nothing else. He cleared his throat to break the awkward silence and retrieved his cup from the vending machine.
"Me neither. Don't know what else I could be doing, though."
And that was Teddy's problem. He knew exactly what else he could be doing, because he was doing it already. Producing and hanging out in the studios and helping out the other artists. It was too easy to see, now, why Perry didn't show his face on camera anymore. "Yeah, same here."
He took a small sip of coffee and Jinu unconsciously mirrored him, but caught himself before the cup reached his lips. He lowered the cup and straightened up, laughing. "Okay, I'm gonna go give this crap to Perry and make some real coffee."
"Yeah, I'd better get back to work, too."
It should've been reassuring to know he wasn't the only one who was a little freaked out about an eventual comeback, but now he only wondered whether any of the other 1TYM guys felt the same way. He sighed to himself and took another sip of coffee. It tasted like ass. Ass and hazelnut. His studio would smell nice for a while, though.
***
Teddy woke up to Boss stamping on his face as he climbed over him on his way off the bed. Better than pee, but not by much. His enthusiastic barks faded as he left the bedroom, and Teddy figured out, after a few seconds, that someone must've rung the doorbell.
He got up to buzz in whoever it was, then somehow found the motivation to pull on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers. Danny wouldn't give a damn, but he'd rather spare Young Bae the eyesore.
And it was him, as it turned out. "Hey. You here to pick up Boss?"
He nodded, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry I woke you up again."
"Don't worry about it." Teddy glanced down as something brushed against his legs, then placed one foot in front of Boss to prevent him from slipping out. "Hey, sit! Hold on, I'll get his leash."
"Um-- we could walk him together. If you're not going back to bed, I mean."
Teddy rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"
"Nine thirty."
Young Bae was going to warp his sleeping patterns into something resembling a normal human being's if he kept that up. "Yeah, all right." Teddy stepped back to let him in, keeping an eye on Boss, then closed the door. "I gotta take a shower first, though." He couldn't immediately remember the last time he'd taken one. That was usually a bad sign.
"Okay. I'll make breakfast."
Young Bae was halfway to the kitchen by the time what he'd said had fully sunk in. "What? Nah, don't bother. There's nothing in the fridge, anyway."
"There must be something," he said, looking over his shoulder. Teddy simply laughed and walked over to the bathroom. No use arguing - Young Bae would see the state of his fridge and give up on the idea.
He was more determined than Teddy had thought, though, and he was surprised to see the table set when he came back out. Granted, it was just bowls and spoons to go with the cereal and milk Young Bae had taken out, but...
It suddenly hit him that the kitchen table was usually in no state to be used for its intended purpose. "Where'd you put all the--"
Young Bae pointed to the magazines, notebooks, opened envelopes and random papers now stacked up neatly against the wall. Part of the table was still covered in odds and ends - he had no idea how the hell he'd ended up with that many pens and pencils - but it was an improvement. "... Huh. Thanks," he said, for lack of a better thing to say, and sat down at the table.
They served themselves in silence and shared a smile when Boss trotted over at the sound of the cereal hitting their bowls. Teddy stood back up. "Gonna feed him."
"Is that your girlfriend in the pictures?"
The question came while he was tipping kibble into Boss's bowl. He straightened up, frowning, and put the bag of dog food away before walking back to the table. "What pictures?" He spotted them on the corner of the table as soon as the words were out of his mouth. "Oh... That was years ago. She's my ex-fiancee."
Young Bae didn't ask. He poured milk onto his cereal, stuffed a spoonful into his mouth, and the look that crossed his face had Teddy reaching for the milk to check the label even though the problem was pretty obvious. It had expired five days ago.
"I warned you, you know."
Young Bae swallowed with obvious difficulty, his eyes narrowed to tiny slits, then set his spoon down, staring at the cereal as if it had punched him in the face. His first brush with spoiled milk, apparently.
"Starbucks," Teddy said. Young Bae nodded and stood up, taking both the milk and his bowl to the sink.
***
"YB got me thinking about Min Hee again the other day."
"What'd he do?" Danny asked distractedly, his eyes fixed on a girl across the street. They were walking to the theatre to catch a movie. Teddy didn't know which one yet - they usually stood looking at the posters and bickering for a few minutes instead of choosing in advance.
"Nothing. He just found some pictures of us under a bunch of old crap in my place."
Danny blinked and looked away from the girl. "What's he doing going through your crap?"
"He's been coming over pretty often 'cause I'm taking care of his dog." Teddy realized that didn't really answer the question, but he wasn't sure exactly why he didn't mind Young Bae poking through his stuff. Or why Young Bae was doing it in the first place.
"Well, don't think about her, dude. You should toss the pictures."
Teddy sighed. "Yeah. I don't even know why I kept them." He'd flipped through them after he'd come back from his walk with Young Bae. He'd felt like shit afterwards, spent much too long thinking about her, and had ended up digging up a pack of cigarettes and breaking his three-month no-smoking streak. The small pile of pictures was still on his kitchen table, though.
"She was a bitch, anyway," Danny said as if that settled the subject. It probably did, for him - he'd never had much trouble moving on from failed relationships. "Hey, think there's any good horror films out yet?"
***
Teddy ran his hand over the dusty dark red body of his guitar, then wiped it on his jeans, snorting to himself at the dark grey streaks he'd left behind as he started to tune the instrument. It'd been a while - it was badly out of tune, and the strings felt different with no callous on his fingers.
"What do you like to play?" Young Bae asked from his perch on his bed, one hand petting Boss absently. The little bugger had appropriated Teddy's pillow again.
"I dunno, lots of stuff." He wiped the neck down with the sleeve of his hoodie, which took care of most of the remaining dust. He tried to think of a song Young Bae would know, then, on a whim, started playing Smoke On The Water.
He got the reaction he was expecting - Young Bae's face lit up in recognition. "Oh! It's... What's it called? I've heard it before."
"Smoke On The Water."
"Like... like smoking on a boat?"
Teddy snickered and translated the title. It hadn't been a bad guess, though - whoever had been hammering English into the trainees' heads was doing decent job. "It's by Deep Purple. Do you know them?"
They discussed rock music for a few minutes (that was all it took for Young Bae to run out of things to say) as Teddy played random songs from memory, his fingers stumbling over the strings a lot more than he would've liked. Maybe he'd start practicing again. He couldn't even remember why he'd stopped. It hadn't been a conscious decision, really...
"Why did you stop playing?"
Teddy smiled. "I was just thinking about that. I got too busy writing stuff for 1TYM, I guess."
He didn't say anything in reply, but Teddy knew he understood. They'd all had to make sacrifices.
Several more minutes passed with only the random snatches of songs breaking the silence. Teddy had nearly forgotten Young Bae was even there when he spoke, shifting on the bed. "When I said I kissed someone," he started as if continuing an earlier conversation, "it wasn't a girl."
To Teddy's credit, he managed to transition smoothly from one song to another. He did look up, briefly, but Young Bae was inspecting his own fingernails. Better try not to embarrass him further. "Wanna say who it was?"
"Yanggaeng."
"Guess he is kinda pretty, huh." He switched to pretending to tune his guitar again, because that left him more time to think. It was a little surprising coming from a kid who seemed so conservative, but... well, Teddy ought to know better by now. And he had seen Yanggaeng hovering near Young Bae a couple of times in the studios. "It's not a big deal, you know."
"I know... I just felt like telling someone."
"You never talked about it to anyone before?"
"I wasn't sure."
Teddy nodded in understanding and kept on tuning until they both happened to glance up at the same time. Their eyes met, and the corners of Young Bae's mouth quirked up slightly. "It sounds fine, you know."
It took a second for Teddy to realize he was talking about the guitar. Not the right tactic to use around a singer. "Yeah." He stopped. "Uh, you wanna talk about it some more? 'Cause you're not gonna gross me out or anything, man."
He shook his head, playing gently with one of Boss's front paws. "It's okay. ... Maybe later," he amended, looking up. Teddy nodded and placed his fingers on neck of his guitar again.
***
The next time Young Bae showed up at his door, Teddy simply stepped aside and nodded for him to come in, since he'd probably been about to ask, anyway.
"You started smoking again, right?" he said as he unclipped the leash from Boss's collar. "It didn't smell that much before."
Teddy really wanted to say he hadn't, but he'd made a pretty big dent in that pack of cigarettes. He'd decided he might as well enjoy the rest of it (and maybe a couple more) before launching his seventh attempt to stop smoking. "Yeah. I'm gonna stop, though."
"Ji Yong does it too. He thinks we can't smell it if he closes the door."
Young Bae wasn't the type to roll his eyes, but the quiet disapproval emanating from him did the job just as well. Teddy sighed. "I'll open a window."
"No, it's okay. But you should stop." Young Bae lined up his sneakers neatly next to his and unzipped his jacket. "You have English books, right? Over there," he clarified, pointing.
Teddy glanced over his shoulder. He was pointing to the overstuffed bookshelf in the living room, which did contain a lot of novels he'd bought for his university classes, and some he'd been lugging around since high school. "Yeah. You wanna borrow one?"
He nodded. "We're going to Japan for a few days." He draped his jacket over the back of the couch, next to a couple of Teddy's hoodies, on his way to the bookshelf. "Are they hard to understand?"
"Some of them, yeah." Teddy joined him, looking over his shoulder at the various books on the shelves. Most of them seemed kind of long for Young Bae, considering how many words he'd have to look up. "What kind of..." He trailed off when he spotted The Catcher In The Rye, tucked between two larger books. It'd do. "Try this one," he said as he grabbed it from the shelf.
Young Bae took the book from him and stood staring at the back of it for a while before finally nodding. He flipped through it, pausing when he saw the highlighted parts and the notes Teddy had left in the margins, then looked up at him. "Can I stay?"
"Sure. I gotta get some work done, though."
Young Bae nodded again and headed for the couch, nose already buried in the book. Teddy smiled to himself and went back to his computer. When he glanced back, several minutes later, Young Bae was curled up with the book in one hand and his electronic dictionary on his lap. Looked like he'd manage, although it'd probably take forever for him to finish it.
Teddy went back to work. He called it quits at half past midnight - he'd been waking up earlier and earlier, thanks to Young Bae's impromptu visits and Boss's need for regular walks, and he was already feeling sleepy enough to go to bed.
Young Bae had given up on reading at some point. He was sleeping soundly with Boss curled up against his chest, the book and dictionary stacked on the arm of the couch. Teddy stood next to him for a moment, considering just tossing a blanket over him and going to bed, but Big Bang's flight was probably early in the morning. Their manager would blow a gasket if he was late.
He leaned down and shook his shoulder. That didn't wake him up, but Boss looked up, then clambered to his paws and stepped on his arm in the process, which did the job. Young Bae squinted at Boss, then blinked as he noticed Teddy. "... I fell asleep," he muttered. "Sorry."
"It's okay. You should go, though. You're leaving tomorrow, right?"
"Yes." He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, which wasn't really enough to make his mohawk straight again. "We'll be back on Monday night." He yawned, then pulled his jacket from the back of the couch and put it on, his movements a little sluggish.
"Want me to walk you home?" Teddy asked.
Young Bae shook his head and stood up. He looked a little more awake once he'd stretched his arms over his head and rubbed his eyes. Boss barked up at him, probably expecting a walk, and Young Bae smiled and ruffled his fur. "Bye bye," he said quietly, then picked up the book and his dictionary.
***
"Didja know Young Bae's gay?"
Danny looked at him, blinked, and picked up the TV remote to lower the volume. Teddy couldn't care less - it wasn't like they didn't know Pulp Fiction by heart already, anyway, and the Korean dub was pretty horrible. "You mean Ji Yong?"
"I mean Young Bae," Teddy replied. The question wouldn't have been necessary as far as Ji Yong was concerned. He didn't try too hard to hide what he liked when the cameras were out of his face, and even Danny wasn't that blind.
"Did he hit on you?"
"No, asshole, he just told me."
"Huh." There was a long pause, interrupted only by Danny cramming a handful of Doritos into his mouth and Uma Thurman's faint screams. "He's spending a lot of time at your place, though."
"Yeah, well..." He wanted to say it was because of the dog, because he lived close to the studios. But so did everyone else. "Whatever, man. Wouldn't be the first time some guy gets a crush on me. I can handle it."
Danny shrugged. "Just don't encourage him or anything."
Teddy couldn't remember why he'd thought sharing the news with Danny would lead to something interesting. He sighed. "Never mind. Don't fucking tease him about it." He was pretty sure Danny had learned his lesson after saying "fag" in front of Perry a few years ago, but a little extra caution couldn't hurt.
Danny shrugged again, chewing another mouthful of Doritos. "Wasn't gonna, man." He wiped his fingers on his pants and grabbed the remote, raising the volume again.
***
It was a good thing he'd remembered to put his phone on the night stand before bed the previous evening - all he had to do was to stretch his arm out and grab it. Mornings were getting chilly, and he had no desire to get up just yet. "Hello?" he muttered, holding the phone to his ear without bothering to lift his head off the pillow. Or open his eyes.
"Hi. I'm not sure I understand the book."
"Mm. Lots of tough words in there. You can borrow another one when you come back."
"No, I mean... I don't get why he's so angry."
Teddy rolled onto his back and tried to remember the details of the story. It'd been a while. "Something bad happened to him. It's gonna come up later on. And he's a teenager."
He could hear the smile in Young Bae's voice when he spoke. "I never got that angry."
As far as he knew, Young Bae's teenaged rebellion had been limited to getting an eyebrow piercing and dressing like Ji Yong for a while. Teddy hadn't been around all that much back then, but he couldn't imagine Young Bae sullen and angry. "I did."
"Really? What did you do?"
"I got into fights. And, y'know, I drank too much and partied with my friends when my parents weren't looking. Maybe that's more of an American thing."
"I guess so. ... Were you asleep? Your voice sounds rough."
"Yeah. And I know you're sorry," he added, smiling. "Don't bother saying it."
He laughed. "Fine. Can I call you back later?"
"Who says you gotta call back? I'm awake, man. What's on your mind?"
"Well," he started, and it took moment before he continued. "Ah, it's kind of silly. I don't know if I should tell the others."
"That you're gay?" He wasn't quite awake enough to think of sugar-coating it, but it didn't seem to matter.
"Yes. What do you think?"
Five Korean guys in their early twenties living together. Teddy would've advised him against it just to avoid the potential awkwardness, but he was pretty sure the other members of Big Bang had already been there, done that, and gotten the t-shirt. "Do they mind that Ji Yong's gay?"
"No. Seung Hyun teases him about it sometimes, but..." There was a short pause. "I guess it's Ji Yong I'm kind of worried about."
Teddy tried to figure out Young Bae's train of thought before asking, but no matter how he looked at it, that didn't make any fucking sense. "Why?"
"It'll be weird if he likes me. I think he does, maybe."
"You don't?"
"Not like that. He's my best friend."
"He'll get over it," Teddy said with confidence he didn't really have. He was a little out of his depth, and he'd stopped trying to anticipate Ji Yong's behavior around the time he'd gone from Timberland to high fashion and from eyeing Swi.T members to French-kissing their back dancers in dark corners of the studios. The new YG generation, he thought, was one big scandal waiting to happen. Good thing at least one of them was mature enough to think about what he was doing.
"Don't stress out about it," he added once he'd realized Young Bae still hadn't said anything. "Just tell 'em when you're ready."
"Yeah... How's Boss? He's still with you, right?"
"Yep. He's fine. I think he misses ya, though." Teddy raised his head, whistled, and heard Boss scramble into the room a moment later. "Wanna talk to him?"
Young Bae tried to sound like he found the idea silly, but soon enough Teddy was holding the phone down to Boss's level, grinning at the faint cooing that filtered through it. Although Boss seemed confused at first, his tail was wagging by the time Teddy put the phone back to his ear. "See, he recognized ya. You still coming back on Monday night?"
"Yes. I'll pick him up when I get back."
Teddy said goodbye after confirming the time of his flight. He put his phone down, curled up comfortably under the covers, and tried to go back to sleep.
***
He opted, after shifting around in bed for a while, to get up and try to enjoy the day, since sleep obviously wasn't going to happen. Looking for a particularly warm hoodie he'd misplaced somehow led to picking up the clothes that littered his apartment, Boss on his heels as he carried them all to the washing machine.
It'd take more than one load, but he got the first one going, at least, and the apartment looked a little better - Young Bae's efforts wouldn't be in vain.
"You wanna go for a walk?" he asked Boss, grinning when he barked up at him. "All right, all right."
The first thing that struck him, when he came back from the walk, was how cluttered that bookshelf in the living room was. It hadn't been that noticeable when the rest of the room had been a cluttered mess, too, but now...
He tackled it after feeding the dog. He had no idea how the hell so many things that weren't books had ended up on that bookshelf - a couple of Christmas ornaments he had no memory of buying, some old notebooks, more pens he didn't need... He finally just grabbed a garbage bag and dumped all the crap he didn't want into it.
Then he dragged the bag over to his desk and threw out yet more crap - mostly ancient drafts of song lyrics for 2NE1 and Big Bang, and post-its covered with scribbles Teddy couldn't even puzzle out anymore. By the time he'd gone through all of his stuff, the bag was almost full and it was already past noon. It'd been years since his desk had been so organized, though, and he'd even managed to set aside a couple of novels for Young Bae. The Catcher In The Rye might be a little too difficult, but there was no way in hell Young Bae couldn't handle something like The Pearl. And it wasn't like Teddy intended on ever reading those books again.
It was strange to feel accomplished at such an early hour. Teddy surveyed the living room, briefly considered vacuuming the floor, then settled on taking a nap instead. Baby steps. It was probably better to wait until Boss was gone to vacuum, anyway. Tyson had been terrified of the damn thing on the two or three occasions Teddy had actually used it.
***
Young Bae was about an hour late, by Teddy's estimation, when he finally rang the doorbell on Monday night. Boss charged him as soon as Teddy opened the door, barking excitedly. Young Bae crouched down, then fell back onto his ass, laughing, as Boss tackled him.
"Hi," he said, looking up at Teddy and petting Boss with both hands. "Did you have a good weekend?"
"Yeah. How was your flight?" Teddy offered him a hand and hoisted him up. "Got delayed?" That was muffled by Young Bae's shoulder - he'd moved in for a hug. Teddy gave him a squeeze and patted him on the back before pulling away.
"No, I just stopped by our apartment to unpack before I came here. Oh, and I got you something." He slid his bag off his shoulder and propped it on his knee as he opened it. The rumpled Starbucks paper bag he retrieved from it made Teddy laugh.
"Tell me that ain't a souvenir from Tokyo, man."
Young Bae blinked, then held out the bag, the repressed smile visible in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. "It is. I bought it on Saturday, so it might be a little dry."
Teddy grinned and cuffed him on the side of the head as he took the bag. Young Bae laughed and pushed his arm away, then turned to close the door. "Can I stay for a while?"
The question was clearly an afterthought, but Teddy had never objected to having friends invite themselves in. "Sure, anytime. You don't need to ask." He unrolled the top of the bag and peered into it. Double chocolate muffin. "I'm gonna have some milk. You want anything?"
"Is there anything else to drink?"
Teddy snorted and glanced over his shoulder as he headed to the kitchen. "I bought it yesterday."
Young Bae joined him, now with no shoes and with Boss trotting after him, while he was pouring milk into a glass. He eyed the pint of milk with clear distrust, so Teddy peered into the fridge again. "Beer?" he suggested, not really expecting Young Bae to take him up on that offer. "... Or, uh, water. That's all there is."
"Beer's fine."
He hesitated for a second before grabbing a Guinness from the fridge. The Hite in there was for Danny, and it wouldn't hurt to expand Young Bae's horizons a little. "You ever had dark beer?"
"I tried it once," Young Bae replied. Teddy was about to offer him the Hite instead, since that hadn't exactly sounded like a glowing endorsement, but he took the can from him and cracked it open. "Thanks."
They sat at the kitchen table (still half-covered in odds and ends - Teddy wasn't a miracle worker) and Young Bae sipped his beer silently, reaching down to pet Boss when he wandered over. He looked tired.
"You're up past your bedtime again, huh?" Teddy asked around a mouthful of muffin. "You should drop by in the afternoon instead."
"I'm always busy in the afternoon." His eyes wandered around and settled on his desk. Teddy caught the obvious double-take and smiled to himself as Young Bae leaned forward slightly to take a better look at the living room. "... You did some cleaning, didn't you?"
"Yeah. Guess I'm kinda tired of the mess."
Young Bae reached over and tore off a small chunk of his muffin. "I could help you out when I'm around."
"You barely have any free time, man. You should find something relaxing to do."
"Cleaning is relaxing," Young Bae replied, his slightly confused tone implying that he really shouldn't need to be explaining this.
After a second, it occurred to Teddy that cleaning probably was relaxing compared to the rest of his routine. That was just... sad. At least he'd be able to talk Young Bae into doing things that were actually fun if he came to his place once in a while.
***
Two cans of Guinness, as it turned out, was enough to color Young Bae's cheeks and make his eyes go slightly unfocused. He was still walking straight, though, one arm stretched forward to let Boss trot ahead of them.
"Why did you break up with your fiancee?" he blurted out, watching Boss as he peed against a small bush.
"She lived in LA," Teddy started, "so it was hard to stay together 'cause I kept traveling back and forth, y'know."
"Oh... That's too bad."
"Not really. She cheated on me when I was here." It had taken forever for him to realize it, too, and he still saw red whenever he let himself dwell on it. The thought of sending her letters, of buying her a ring in Seoul, of thinking about her every day while she was sleeping around behind his back...
He sighed and grabbed his cigarettes and lighter from his pocket. He'd bought another pack while walking Boss a few days ago, about four hours after the first one had run out - his last pack for real this time, he kept telling himself, although every delicious lungful of smoke made him less and less likely to keep that promise.
"Well, at least you broke up with her before you got married."
As far as silver linings went, that one wasn't too impressive, but Young Bae clearly had no idea what else to say. Teddy shrugged and slapped him on the back once he'd lit his cigarette. "It's fine, man. It's been years."
They watched Boss walk ahead of them for a while, his nose almost touching the sidewalk as he sniffed around. He stopped again and Teddy nudged Young Bae. "Hey, how's it going with Yanggaeng? Didja fool around with him again?"
Young Bae blinked at him, then looked down at Boss, a small smile curling his lips. "No... He's already with someone, anyway."
"Oh. Ji Yong?"
He laughed and looked up again. "What? No. And I can't really tell you... I mean, they don't tell a lot of people, so..."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I ain't part of the special gay club." He took a drag from his cigarette and shook his head in mock-frustration as he exhaled the smoke slowly. "You guys get all the good gossip."
It took a few seconds for Young Bae to register the fact that he was joking. "I guess so," he eventually said, then glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, I told Ji Yong yesterday."
"What'd he say?"
"He said he was happy I told him first. And we're still best friends."
Teddy caught the implied lie in that first sentence - he'd known about the whole thing well before Ji Yong had - but understood why Young Bae wanted him to keep quiet about it. "Good. You gonna tell the others too?"
"Yes. I don't think they're going to mind."
"Nah, they won't. We still recording tomorrow?" Teddy asked as they approached Big Bang's apartment building.
"Yes." They stopped in front of the door and Young Bae grabbed onto the sleeve of his hoodie as if to hold him still. He only had time to blink before Young Bae leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. They stood like that for a few seconds, inches from each other, with Young Bae looking searchingly at him and his fingers still curled against his arm, and all Teddy could manage was a small smile.
Young Bae returned it, then reached up, took the cigarette from his lips, and kissed him. It lasted all of two seconds, but the shaky, quiet little laugh he let out as he took a step back, still looking at him uncertainly, made it clear how nervous he was. Teddy found himself grinning without really knowing why. "... So uh, see you tomorrow."
Young Bae looked at him for a little too long before finally nodding. "See you," he said, then turned around, took a few steps and stopped again. He looked down at the lit cigarette still in his hand, glanced back at Teddy, and dropped it to the ground before stepping on it. "You're supposed to stop, anyway," he muttered, then headed inside.
Next part
Pairing: Teddy/Taeyang
Rating: R
Word Count: 28,889
A/N: Despite the three parts, this is a very long one-shot meant to be read in one sitting (if you have the stamina, heh). I divided it only because of LJ.
It all started with Boss.
Young Bae walked into the studio with the small dog trailing behind him, straining against his leash to sniff at the doorframe. Teddy watched amusedly as Young Bae gave him a minute to nose around, then clearly lost his patience and bent down to scoop him up into his arms. "Do you mind if he stays here?"
"Nah, it's fine." Teddy replied, spinning his chair to face the console again. "Got your lyrics?"
"Yes." There were two dull thumps, and when Teddy glanced back, the dog and Young Bae's bag were side by side on the sofa. "Get some sleep," he murmured to Boss, then kissed him on the top of the head before rifling through his bag. He retrieved a wrinkled sheet and pulled another computer chair over.
Teddy rolled himself closer to the console and made sure everything was ready for recording. They'd talked everything out and recorded a couple of working versions already - the final version wouldn't take too long. Not that Teddy really minded either way. Young Bae was easy to work with.
"I'm ready," Teddy said, smiling as he nodded toward the booth. "Get in there." He put his headphones on and Young Bae stepped into the booth. He put his lyrics on the music stand, stared at them, then leaned forward to speak into the microphone.
Teddy flicked it on a second too late. "--again."
He frowned and waited for Young Bae to get his headphones on before speaking into his own microphone. "What?"
"Say it again. The intro."
Teddy nodded and recited the short English intro. They'd been over it enough times that he'd learned it by heart long ago. Young Bae watched him intently, one hand pressed against his headphones, then nodded. "Okay. I'm ready."
Teddy started the music. It kept surprising him to hear Young Bae parrot his tone of voice, inflection and pronunciation, and he found himself grinning as he listened to him. It was always easy to tell who he'd been hanging out with just from the way he spoke English - he sounded like Perry after vocal training sessions with him, and he sounded like Shaun after asking him to help out with his lines for Big Bang's Japanese albums. The way he sang changed depending on which artists he was currently interested in, too. He'd make a pretty good mimic if he ever got tired of the pop music thing.
They worked for an hour or so, until Boss jumped to the floor, shook himself, and started sniffing around in a way Teddy recognized instantly. "I think your dog needs a walk," he said into the mic.
Young Bae blinked, then stood on tiptoe, trying to see him from the booth. He gave up after a second and walked out, smiling at Teddy sheepishly. "Sorry. Can we stop for ten minutes?"
"Yeah, sure." Teddy stretched out slowly as he watched him clip the leash back onto Boss's collar. "Gonna go get a coffee while you're gone."
"You should come with me instead," Young Bae said. "... I don't like the coffee from the machines here."
He had a point. "Me neither. Starbucks?" he suggested, standing up. The walk would do him some good, if the creaking noise from his knees was any indication.
"Okay. But you order," Young Bae said, then opened the door, letting Boss trot out first.
***
They walked slowly in the direction of the nearest Starbucks, stopping frequently to let Boss investigate bushes and bits of grass. Young Bae had pulled up his hood before stepping outside, but there weren't that many people around. Still, Teddy appreciated the precaution - he wasn't used to swarms of fans anymore. Being on hiatus for a few years would do that to any entertainer.
Although he tried not to spend too much time dwelling on it, he was starting to think he preferred the quiet life of a producer. He'd have to have that talk with the other members of 1TYM one of these days, but they'd been avoiding the subject for a while. They were all doing their own thing, at least for now.
He stopped again while Young Bae bagged Boss's poo and tossed it into the nearest trash can. "How many times a day d'you walk him?"
"Twice," he replied. "When I can. Sometimes my mother takes care of him." He stopped, but looked like he wanted to say something more. Teddy shot him an inquisitive look. "... I was wondering if you could take care of him when I'm too busy. Your apartment is closer to the studios than my parents' house. You like dogs, right?"
"Yeah, I do. Still miss Tyson sometimes." He'd had to give the tiny dog to his mother when he'd gotten too busy promoting and moving back and forth between Korea and the US to take proper care of him. He'd gotten sick and died a couple of years ago - the typical fate of the tiny little inbred dogs that were so popular here. At least Young Bae and Ji Yong had been smart enough to get healthy, normal-sized pups.
"Did he die?"
"Yeah. I'll take care of him, no problem. He's a good dog, yeah?"
Young Bae nodded, looking down at him. "Boss! You're a good dog, aren't you?"
Boss looked up, tail wagging, but quickly got distracted by a piece of trash on the sidewalk. Young Bae pulled him away from it and they walked on until they were standing under the familiar green sign. "A'ight, what do you wanna drink?"
Young Bae chewed on his lip and stared into the coffee shop for a few seconds. "... Green tea latte, please."
"Got it. I'll be back in a sec," Teddy said before heading inside. The smell of coffee and pastries hit him and he found himself eyeing the assortment of scones and muffins in front of him as he tried to decide what he wanted to drink.
He walked back out with Young Bae's latte, a caramel macchiato for himself and a couple of muffins in a paper bag. The odds that Young Bae would join him in his sugar binge were slim, but there was always someone in the studios who'd appreciate an unexpected snack if he wasn't interested. "Here ya go."
"Thank you." He smiled and cradled the cup in his hands, Boss's leash looped around his wrist. He gave the bag a curious glance but didn't ask. Hwang-honed discipline, no doubt. "We should go back and finish the song."
"Yeah. Couple more hours should do it."
Young Bae started walking again at the same slow pace, though, sipping his latte and letting Boss sniff around to his heart's content. Teddy followed, enjoying the cool evening air. He did need to get out of the studios more often - taking care of the dog wasn't a bad idea.
***
Young Bae had stared at the muffins for too long before finally breaking off a small piece of the blueberry one and pushing the rest toward Teddy. Teddy had pointedly left it right there on the desk, and Young Bae was making slow, steady progress on it, sneaking a piece or two whenever they took a break or had to stop and discuss something.
Teddy broke into a grin when Young Bae finally peeled the remnants of the muffin from its paper cup and popped them into his mouth. "Hey, you finished it," he said mockingly, clapping his hands a few times. He'd polished off his own double-chocolate muffin over an hour ago.
Young Bae laughed and licked a few crumbs off his thumb. "I was trying not to."
"You're a teenager, man, you need the calories."
"I'm not a teenager." He picked up a tiny crumb from the bottom of the paper cup, then leaned down, holding his hand at Boss's level. And he did have a point - Teddy found it difficult to notice how much people changed when he saw them almost every day, but the changes in Young Bae were obvious once he'd thought about it for a second. His newfound confidence suited him nicely.
"Yeah... Yeah, I know. Sorry. Guess I've known you for too long."
"It's okay," he said, straightening up once Boss was done licking every muffin molecule from his finger. "Jinu and Perry still call me 'kid', too." He wiped his hand on his jeans and leaned over the desk to peek into the empty paper bag.
"You still hungry? We could call for take-out," Teddy suggested.
Young Bae shook his head, as he'd expected. "We're almost done. I'll just wait for breakfast."
"A'ight. Let's finish up, then. I just wanna go over the bridge one last time."
He paused with his hand on the door that led to the booth. "Teddy? Is it okay if I take Boss to your place tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sure. Bring a couple of toys or a blanket or something, I don't want him to freak out 'cause he's in a weird place."
He smiled and nodded. "Thanks."
***
Teddy, as usual, got distracted by his work and the Internet once he got home. He alternated between working on a couple of tracks (for himself) and reading his favorite blogs, and the sun was up when he looked up from his monitor again. He sighed to himself and stretched his arms over his head, wincing at the assortment of pops and cracks that ensued.
He saved his work, took off his headphones, and checked his e-mail account one last time before bed. Nothing interesting there - he'd received a message from Kush a couple of hours ago, but it'd have to wait until he was feeling more motivated.
He stood up, rubbing his stinging eyes, and made his way to the bedroom. He'd stayed up long enough that he was asleep in minutes.
He woke up in a confused panic to the sounds of the doorbell and his cell phone ringing simultaneously. He grabbed his phone first, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes, and checked the text message. Young Bae was here with his dog.
He got out of bed, his heart still pounding, and buzzed Young Bae in. He didn't manage to do much besides stand there in a stupor before Young Bae knocked on his door. He was smiling, very awake, and carrying a bunch of crap in addition to Boss on his leash. "Good morning. Sorry for waking you up, but we're in a hurry."
"'S okay," Teddy managed to say, then cleared his throat. "You didn't have to bring all of that, I could've bought dog food and stuff at a pet shop."
"It's all right, our manager paid for it," Young Bae replied. He peered into the apartment and let out a quiet laugh. "Wow, your place is messy."
Teddy looked over his shoulder. He didn't really notice the clutter anymore, and he wasn't sure why he should care about it - it wasn't like he ever had guests over. Except Danny, who didn't really count as a guest and was responsible for a considerable part of the mess, anyway. He looked back at Young Bae and shrugged helplessly, then held out his arms.
There was a small bag of dog food, then two bowls, a couple of toys, and a small blanket that was already covered in black and white fur. Once his hands were free, Young Bae bent down and unclipped the leash from Boss's collar, then nudged him into the apartment. "Don't forget to walk him," he said as he draped the leash over Teddy's armload of dog stuff.
"I won't."
"Thanks! See you."
Another smile and he was gone. Teddy pushed the door closed with his hip and carried everything to the living room. After a moment of consideration, he dumped it all onto the couch, then filled one bowl with food and put it in a corner. The water bowl followed. He stashed the bag of food high enough for the dog not to reach it, spread out the blanket in a nice spot close to the bowls, and stepped back to admire his work.
Boss trotted past him, sniffed around, and went for the bowls. Teddy watched him gobble down his kibble for a moment, but his eyes were still burning and he felt too exhausted to care about cute animals. A glance at the VCR indicated he'd slept only for an hour or so. That explained it.
"Don't chew on anything," he muttered, then went back to bed.
***
Teddy greeted the new day by putting his foot down in a puddle of cold dog pee. He swore, loudly, then checked his alarm clock and realized he'd overslept - it was almost dinner time. The clicking noise of tiny claws against the floor announced Boss's arrival. Teddy thought he looked vaguely disapproving.
"Sorry, lil' guy," he said, then did his best to hobble to the bathroom without spreading pee everywhere. He was only mildly successful. A few paper towels took care of it, though - at least Boss was still pretty small.
He tried to remember where he'd put the cleaning products, tried to remember whether he even owned any, then gave up on the idea. It could wait until he'd eaten something. Or rather walked the dog and eaten something, because he wasn't interested in a repeat performance.
The walk jump-started his brain, and by the time he got back home (with a cup of coffee and a sandwich), he already had a few lines floating in his mind. He jotted them down, then decided, after taking a good look at his apartment, that taking Boss with him to the studios would be a better idea than leaving him there, at least until he'd dog-proofed the place.
Kush was already waiting for him when he finally got to his studio in YG's headquarters, with Boss in tow and the kibble, toys and blanket stuffed into a bag. "Are you babysitting?" he asked, clearly amused, as Teddy spread the blanket out on the sofa and plopped Boss down onto it.
"Yeah. Young Bae's too busy these days. You know how it is." He ruffled the short fur on top of Boss's head, then flopped down in his usual chair.
"I should've brought Macho along, I bet they miss each other."
"Bring him tomorrow, I think Boss is still gonna be here." Young Bae hadn't specified how long he wanted Teddy to keep him. It didn't really matter, since they saw each other in the studios nearly every day - he could just walk in and grab the dog whenever he wanted. Teddy kind of hoped he'd get to keep him for a couple more days, though. "Anyway, what was that track you wanted to work on?"
***
Dog-proofing his place took more time than he'd expected. It involved moving piles of things around, picking up all of the age-old fast-food containers that lay on the floor, a thorough search for sharp beer bottle caps, and more cable ties than he cared to think about.
Still, he'd gotten it all done, and the apartment looked a little better now. More of the floor was visible, anyway, and the area where he did most of his work (when he wasn't in the studios) looked less like a giant knot of dusty cables and more like a workstation.
Boss seemed impressed. Young Bae, when he dropped by to pick him up the following evening, didn't. "Oh, so it's always like this?" he said after another curious look over Teddy's shoulder, a smile spreading on his face. "I thought you'd just had a party or something..."
"Hey, I cleaned up just for Boss." He opened the door wider and nodded for Young Bae to come in. "You can leave the bowls and stuff here for next time."
"Okay. Can I use your bathroom?"
"Yeah, of course. It's that door." He wanted to add that Young Bae shouldn't bother taking off his shoes, but they were off already. He shook his head to himself and sat down at his somewhat-neater workplace again. He'd been working on a pretty good beat, if he said so himself, and he only needed to add a few finishing touches.
It was only much later, when he felt Boss plop down right by his feet next to the warm computer, that he realized Young Bae was still there. He pulled off his headphones, blinking, and looked around. Water was running in the kitchen. "... Young Bae?"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
"The dishes."
Teddy stood up and walked over to the kitchen. Young Bae had both sleeves pulled up and was scrubbing determinedly at a pan Teddy had been refusing to even look at for a while. "You don't have to pay me back or anything, man. I like dogs."
"I know... I don't mind. I'm free tonight." He kept on scrubbing, and after a moment Teddy felt awkward enough about just standing there that he moved closer and picked up a dishtowel to dry the plates and glasses Young Bae had already washed. Young Bae smiled at him and lowered his head again, frowning as he continued his battle against whatever the hell was on the bottom of that pan.
"I found that stuck under a plate," he said eventually, one hand emerging from the soapy water to point to a still-wet plastic pick on the counter. "Do you play guitar?"
"Yeah. Bass, too."
"Really? I didn't know."
"I'm full of surprises."
He'd expected a laugh, but Young Bae only nodded. "We should hang out like this more often. We only ever talk about work."
"Sure," Teddy replied automatically. They got along well since they'd started working on Young Bae's solo songs together, and with the other 1TYM guys busy having lives, Teddy could use someone to chill with.
Someone to chill with who wasn't Kush, he mentally amended as he set a clean glass down on the counter. He was a nice guy, but his constant enthusiasm got kind of tiring after a while.
"So, what else is there?" Young Bae asked, taking Teddy off guard.
"What, dishes?"
"Surprises." He grinned. "You said you're full of them."
Teddy actually considered answering the question - there were a few things he could tell him, probably, but... "I can't just tell you all at once, man, that'd be pretty boring."
That got a quiet laugh out of him. "Okay." He dumped a handful of dirty utensils into the sink and went back to work.
***
It took only a couple of days before he saw Boss again. He'd fully expected to see Danny at the door, since he was prone to dropping by when he was bored late at night, but it was Young Bae standing there, holding the dog awkwardly in his arms. He was getting too big for that.
"I knew you'd be awake," he said, then set Boss down after a particularly determined wriggle on his part. "Do you want to walk Boss with me?"
Teddy blinked, watching Boss as he sniffed at his socks, tail wagging. "... Yeah, okay. Did you walk all the way here?" he asked, then turned around to hunt for his keys and a clean-ish hoodie.
"Yes. It's not that far," Young Bae replied, sounding a little defensive.
Teddy stepped into the nearest sneakers and shooed Boss out of the way before closing the door and locking it. "Guess not. Whaddya do today?"
"I had a photo shoot and... well, nothing special. You?"
"Same old. I worked on Wedding Dress."
Young Bae nodded but didn't say anything. No work talk, Teddy remembered, so he stayed silent on the way out of the building. Young Bae picked a seemingly random direction once they were outside and Teddy fell into step next to him, hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
"When did you start playing guitar? Were you in a band?"
"Nah. I started in junior high. I was kind of a loner, so I just played by myself." Boss stopped to investigate the base of a lamp post; they stopped too. "Your turn. Tell me something I don't know."
Young Bae thought for a long moment - Boss had finished his business and they'd started walking again by the time he spoke. "I kissed someone the other day."
Teddy had guessed, from the internal debate that had been visible on Young Bae's face, that he'd been about to say something like that. It had been his first real kiss, unless Teddy had missed a memo. "Attaboy," he said jokingly, punching him in the shoulder. Young Bae understood the intent, if not the exact meaning, and grinned at him. "She pretty?"
The strangest questions could elicit a long, thoughtful pause from Young Bae - that had apparently been another one of them. "Yes," he finally said. "It was nice."
One of the 2NE1 girls, Teddy thought. He knew some kind of no-boyfriend pact had been established, but that couldn't last with a bunch of attractive people that age forced to work together so often. "You gonna go out with her?"
He didn't hesitate on that one. "I don't think so. It was just for fun."
Definitely 2NE1. A damn sight better than Teddy had managed for his first kiss. "You're lucky, man. My first kiss kinda sucked."
Young Bae gave him an interrogative look, so he told him the whole sorry tale - how they'd bumped noses and clinked teeth and laughed awkwardly and gotten interrupted before even really getting anywhere. School had sucked, but at least the story had entertained Young Bae, although he was too nice to laugh at him.
Once they'd walked back to Teddy's apartment building, Young Bae stopped and held out Boss's leash. "Just for another couple of days," he said. "Do you mind?"
"Nah. ... You know, if you're that busy you should probably be in bed."
"I know. I'll head back now."
"What, you're gonna walk all the way back? C'mon, I'll call you a taxi." He reached into his pocket, then remembered he hadn't grabbed his cell phone on his way out.
"It's okay, I like walking," Young Bae replied as he pulled his iPod out of his bag. He shouldered it again and bent down to give Boss a goodbye pet. "Don't make any trouble, you," he said in a low voice, then straightened up again. "Thanks."
Teddy itched to ask Young Bae if he at least had his phone with him in case something happened, but realizing how much that would make him sound like someone's mother stopped him just in time. "No problem. See you in the studios."
***
He stared at the studios' empty coffee maker before digging into his pockets for some change for the vending machine. As vile as the stuff was, he couldn't be bothered to wait more than thirty seconds for a quick hit of caffeine.
He backtracked to the hallway that contained said vending machine and grinned when he saw Jinu standing in front of it. "Didn't think you drank that stuff, man."
Jinu laughed and shook his head. "No fucking way. It's for Perry."
"You guys working together?"
"Yeah, with Sean." The machine stopped whirring and Jinu picked up the small paper cup gingerly. "We're gonna start recording the new single soon."
The mythical Jinusean comeback single. Teddy was a little surprised that he hadn't heard about the recent progress, but then it wasn't like he'd have time to contribute much to it while working on Young Bae's second album and on songs for 2NE1. "Damn. Finally, huh?"
"Yeah..." He didn't sound so enthusiastic, but his smile stayed in place. "What are you up to? Been working on 1TYM tracks?"
Teddy made a face as he stepped closer to the machine. "Trying not to think about that too much." He felt adventurous enough to try the hazelnut coffee. Someone kept having cups of it - Min Ji, he thought - and it seemed pretty good, judging from the aroma that usually wafted through the hallways and to his studio.
"I know what you mean." Jinu leaned against the whirring machine. "It's kinda weird after all this time."
"Yeah. I'm not even sure..." he trailed off. Voicing that thought wasn't a particularly good idea. He knew he'd do it in the end, anyway - for the fans, if nothing else. He cleared his throat to break the awkward silence and retrieved his cup from the vending machine.
"Me neither. Don't know what else I could be doing, though."
And that was Teddy's problem. He knew exactly what else he could be doing, because he was doing it already. Producing and hanging out in the studios and helping out the other artists. It was too easy to see, now, why Perry didn't show his face on camera anymore. "Yeah, same here."
He took a small sip of coffee and Jinu unconsciously mirrored him, but caught himself before the cup reached his lips. He lowered the cup and straightened up, laughing. "Okay, I'm gonna go give this crap to Perry and make some real coffee."
"Yeah, I'd better get back to work, too."
It should've been reassuring to know he wasn't the only one who was a little freaked out about an eventual comeback, but now he only wondered whether any of the other 1TYM guys felt the same way. He sighed to himself and took another sip of coffee. It tasted like ass. Ass and hazelnut. His studio would smell nice for a while, though.
***
Teddy woke up to Boss stamping on his face as he climbed over him on his way off the bed. Better than pee, but not by much. His enthusiastic barks faded as he left the bedroom, and Teddy figured out, after a few seconds, that someone must've rung the doorbell.
He got up to buzz in whoever it was, then somehow found the motivation to pull on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers. Danny wouldn't give a damn, but he'd rather spare Young Bae the eyesore.
And it was him, as it turned out. "Hey. You here to pick up Boss?"
He nodded, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry I woke you up again."
"Don't worry about it." Teddy glanced down as something brushed against his legs, then placed one foot in front of Boss to prevent him from slipping out. "Hey, sit! Hold on, I'll get his leash."
"Um-- we could walk him together. If you're not going back to bed, I mean."
Teddy rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"
"Nine thirty."
Young Bae was going to warp his sleeping patterns into something resembling a normal human being's if he kept that up. "Yeah, all right." Teddy stepped back to let him in, keeping an eye on Boss, then closed the door. "I gotta take a shower first, though." He couldn't immediately remember the last time he'd taken one. That was usually a bad sign.
"Okay. I'll make breakfast."
Young Bae was halfway to the kitchen by the time what he'd said had fully sunk in. "What? Nah, don't bother. There's nothing in the fridge, anyway."
"There must be something," he said, looking over his shoulder. Teddy simply laughed and walked over to the bathroom. No use arguing - Young Bae would see the state of his fridge and give up on the idea.
He was more determined than Teddy had thought, though, and he was surprised to see the table set when he came back out. Granted, it was just bowls and spoons to go with the cereal and milk Young Bae had taken out, but...
It suddenly hit him that the kitchen table was usually in no state to be used for its intended purpose. "Where'd you put all the--"
Young Bae pointed to the magazines, notebooks, opened envelopes and random papers now stacked up neatly against the wall. Part of the table was still covered in odds and ends - he had no idea how the hell he'd ended up with that many pens and pencils - but it was an improvement. "... Huh. Thanks," he said, for lack of a better thing to say, and sat down at the table.
They served themselves in silence and shared a smile when Boss trotted over at the sound of the cereal hitting their bowls. Teddy stood back up. "Gonna feed him."
"Is that your girlfriend in the pictures?"
The question came while he was tipping kibble into Boss's bowl. He straightened up, frowning, and put the bag of dog food away before walking back to the table. "What pictures?" He spotted them on the corner of the table as soon as the words were out of his mouth. "Oh... That was years ago. She's my ex-fiancee."
Young Bae didn't ask. He poured milk onto his cereal, stuffed a spoonful into his mouth, and the look that crossed his face had Teddy reaching for the milk to check the label even though the problem was pretty obvious. It had expired five days ago.
"I warned you, you know."
Young Bae swallowed with obvious difficulty, his eyes narrowed to tiny slits, then set his spoon down, staring at the cereal as if it had punched him in the face. His first brush with spoiled milk, apparently.
"Starbucks," Teddy said. Young Bae nodded and stood up, taking both the milk and his bowl to the sink.
***
"YB got me thinking about Min Hee again the other day."
"What'd he do?" Danny asked distractedly, his eyes fixed on a girl across the street. They were walking to the theatre to catch a movie. Teddy didn't know which one yet - they usually stood looking at the posters and bickering for a few minutes instead of choosing in advance.
"Nothing. He just found some pictures of us under a bunch of old crap in my place."
Danny blinked and looked away from the girl. "What's he doing going through your crap?"
"He's been coming over pretty often 'cause I'm taking care of his dog." Teddy realized that didn't really answer the question, but he wasn't sure exactly why he didn't mind Young Bae poking through his stuff. Or why Young Bae was doing it in the first place.
"Well, don't think about her, dude. You should toss the pictures."
Teddy sighed. "Yeah. I don't even know why I kept them." He'd flipped through them after he'd come back from his walk with Young Bae. He'd felt like shit afterwards, spent much too long thinking about her, and had ended up digging up a pack of cigarettes and breaking his three-month no-smoking streak. The small pile of pictures was still on his kitchen table, though.
"She was a bitch, anyway," Danny said as if that settled the subject. It probably did, for him - he'd never had much trouble moving on from failed relationships. "Hey, think there's any good horror films out yet?"
***
Teddy ran his hand over the dusty dark red body of his guitar, then wiped it on his jeans, snorting to himself at the dark grey streaks he'd left behind as he started to tune the instrument. It'd been a while - it was badly out of tune, and the strings felt different with no callous on his fingers.
"What do you like to play?" Young Bae asked from his perch on his bed, one hand petting Boss absently. The little bugger had appropriated Teddy's pillow again.
"I dunno, lots of stuff." He wiped the neck down with the sleeve of his hoodie, which took care of most of the remaining dust. He tried to think of a song Young Bae would know, then, on a whim, started playing Smoke On The Water.
He got the reaction he was expecting - Young Bae's face lit up in recognition. "Oh! It's... What's it called? I've heard it before."
"Smoke On The Water."
"Like... like smoking on a boat?"
Teddy snickered and translated the title. It hadn't been a bad guess, though - whoever had been hammering English into the trainees' heads was doing decent job. "It's by Deep Purple. Do you know them?"
They discussed rock music for a few minutes (that was all it took for Young Bae to run out of things to say) as Teddy played random songs from memory, his fingers stumbling over the strings a lot more than he would've liked. Maybe he'd start practicing again. He couldn't even remember why he'd stopped. It hadn't been a conscious decision, really...
"Why did you stop playing?"
Teddy smiled. "I was just thinking about that. I got too busy writing stuff for 1TYM, I guess."
He didn't say anything in reply, but Teddy knew he understood. They'd all had to make sacrifices.
Several more minutes passed with only the random snatches of songs breaking the silence. Teddy had nearly forgotten Young Bae was even there when he spoke, shifting on the bed. "When I said I kissed someone," he started as if continuing an earlier conversation, "it wasn't a girl."
To Teddy's credit, he managed to transition smoothly from one song to another. He did look up, briefly, but Young Bae was inspecting his own fingernails. Better try not to embarrass him further. "Wanna say who it was?"
"Yanggaeng."
"Guess he is kinda pretty, huh." He switched to pretending to tune his guitar again, because that left him more time to think. It was a little surprising coming from a kid who seemed so conservative, but... well, Teddy ought to know better by now. And he had seen Yanggaeng hovering near Young Bae a couple of times in the studios. "It's not a big deal, you know."
"I know... I just felt like telling someone."
"You never talked about it to anyone before?"
"I wasn't sure."
Teddy nodded in understanding and kept on tuning until they both happened to glance up at the same time. Their eyes met, and the corners of Young Bae's mouth quirked up slightly. "It sounds fine, you know."
It took a second for Teddy to realize he was talking about the guitar. Not the right tactic to use around a singer. "Yeah." He stopped. "Uh, you wanna talk about it some more? 'Cause you're not gonna gross me out or anything, man."
He shook his head, playing gently with one of Boss's front paws. "It's okay. ... Maybe later," he amended, looking up. Teddy nodded and placed his fingers on neck of his guitar again.
***
The next time Young Bae showed up at his door, Teddy simply stepped aside and nodded for him to come in, since he'd probably been about to ask, anyway.
"You started smoking again, right?" he said as he unclipped the leash from Boss's collar. "It didn't smell that much before."
Teddy really wanted to say he hadn't, but he'd made a pretty big dent in that pack of cigarettes. He'd decided he might as well enjoy the rest of it (and maybe a couple more) before launching his seventh attempt to stop smoking. "Yeah. I'm gonna stop, though."
"Ji Yong does it too. He thinks we can't smell it if he closes the door."
Young Bae wasn't the type to roll his eyes, but the quiet disapproval emanating from him did the job just as well. Teddy sighed. "I'll open a window."
"No, it's okay. But you should stop." Young Bae lined up his sneakers neatly next to his and unzipped his jacket. "You have English books, right? Over there," he clarified, pointing.
Teddy glanced over his shoulder. He was pointing to the overstuffed bookshelf in the living room, which did contain a lot of novels he'd bought for his university classes, and some he'd been lugging around since high school. "Yeah. You wanna borrow one?"
He nodded. "We're going to Japan for a few days." He draped his jacket over the back of the couch, next to a couple of Teddy's hoodies, on his way to the bookshelf. "Are they hard to understand?"
"Some of them, yeah." Teddy joined him, looking over his shoulder at the various books on the shelves. Most of them seemed kind of long for Young Bae, considering how many words he'd have to look up. "What kind of..." He trailed off when he spotted The Catcher In The Rye, tucked between two larger books. It'd do. "Try this one," he said as he grabbed it from the shelf.
Young Bae took the book from him and stood staring at the back of it for a while before finally nodding. He flipped through it, pausing when he saw the highlighted parts and the notes Teddy had left in the margins, then looked up at him. "Can I stay?"
"Sure. I gotta get some work done, though."
Young Bae nodded again and headed for the couch, nose already buried in the book. Teddy smiled to himself and went back to his computer. When he glanced back, several minutes later, Young Bae was curled up with the book in one hand and his electronic dictionary on his lap. Looked like he'd manage, although it'd probably take forever for him to finish it.
Teddy went back to work. He called it quits at half past midnight - he'd been waking up earlier and earlier, thanks to Young Bae's impromptu visits and Boss's need for regular walks, and he was already feeling sleepy enough to go to bed.
Young Bae had given up on reading at some point. He was sleeping soundly with Boss curled up against his chest, the book and dictionary stacked on the arm of the couch. Teddy stood next to him for a moment, considering just tossing a blanket over him and going to bed, but Big Bang's flight was probably early in the morning. Their manager would blow a gasket if he was late.
He leaned down and shook his shoulder. That didn't wake him up, but Boss looked up, then clambered to his paws and stepped on his arm in the process, which did the job. Young Bae squinted at Boss, then blinked as he noticed Teddy. "... I fell asleep," he muttered. "Sorry."
"It's okay. You should go, though. You're leaving tomorrow, right?"
"Yes." He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, which wasn't really enough to make his mohawk straight again. "We'll be back on Monday night." He yawned, then pulled his jacket from the back of the couch and put it on, his movements a little sluggish.
"Want me to walk you home?" Teddy asked.
Young Bae shook his head and stood up. He looked a little more awake once he'd stretched his arms over his head and rubbed his eyes. Boss barked up at him, probably expecting a walk, and Young Bae smiled and ruffled his fur. "Bye bye," he said quietly, then picked up the book and his dictionary.
***
"Didja know Young Bae's gay?"
Danny looked at him, blinked, and picked up the TV remote to lower the volume. Teddy couldn't care less - it wasn't like they didn't know Pulp Fiction by heart already, anyway, and the Korean dub was pretty horrible. "You mean Ji Yong?"
"I mean Young Bae," Teddy replied. The question wouldn't have been necessary as far as Ji Yong was concerned. He didn't try too hard to hide what he liked when the cameras were out of his face, and even Danny wasn't that blind.
"Did he hit on you?"
"No, asshole, he just told me."
"Huh." There was a long pause, interrupted only by Danny cramming a handful of Doritos into his mouth and Uma Thurman's faint screams. "He's spending a lot of time at your place, though."
"Yeah, well..." He wanted to say it was because of the dog, because he lived close to the studios. But so did everyone else. "Whatever, man. Wouldn't be the first time some guy gets a crush on me. I can handle it."
Danny shrugged. "Just don't encourage him or anything."
Teddy couldn't remember why he'd thought sharing the news with Danny would lead to something interesting. He sighed. "Never mind. Don't fucking tease him about it." He was pretty sure Danny had learned his lesson after saying "fag" in front of Perry a few years ago, but a little extra caution couldn't hurt.
Danny shrugged again, chewing another mouthful of Doritos. "Wasn't gonna, man." He wiped his fingers on his pants and grabbed the remote, raising the volume again.
***
It was a good thing he'd remembered to put his phone on the night stand before bed the previous evening - all he had to do was to stretch his arm out and grab it. Mornings were getting chilly, and he had no desire to get up just yet. "Hello?" he muttered, holding the phone to his ear without bothering to lift his head off the pillow. Or open his eyes.
"Hi. I'm not sure I understand the book."
"Mm. Lots of tough words in there. You can borrow another one when you come back."
"No, I mean... I don't get why he's so angry."
Teddy rolled onto his back and tried to remember the details of the story. It'd been a while. "Something bad happened to him. It's gonna come up later on. And he's a teenager."
He could hear the smile in Young Bae's voice when he spoke. "I never got that angry."
As far as he knew, Young Bae's teenaged rebellion had been limited to getting an eyebrow piercing and dressing like Ji Yong for a while. Teddy hadn't been around all that much back then, but he couldn't imagine Young Bae sullen and angry. "I did."
"Really? What did you do?"
"I got into fights. And, y'know, I drank too much and partied with my friends when my parents weren't looking. Maybe that's more of an American thing."
"I guess so. ... Were you asleep? Your voice sounds rough."
"Yeah. And I know you're sorry," he added, smiling. "Don't bother saying it."
He laughed. "Fine. Can I call you back later?"
"Who says you gotta call back? I'm awake, man. What's on your mind?"
"Well," he started, and it took moment before he continued. "Ah, it's kind of silly. I don't know if I should tell the others."
"That you're gay?" He wasn't quite awake enough to think of sugar-coating it, but it didn't seem to matter.
"Yes. What do you think?"
Five Korean guys in their early twenties living together. Teddy would've advised him against it just to avoid the potential awkwardness, but he was pretty sure the other members of Big Bang had already been there, done that, and gotten the t-shirt. "Do they mind that Ji Yong's gay?"
"No. Seung Hyun teases him about it sometimes, but..." There was a short pause. "I guess it's Ji Yong I'm kind of worried about."
Teddy tried to figure out Young Bae's train of thought before asking, but no matter how he looked at it, that didn't make any fucking sense. "Why?"
"It'll be weird if he likes me. I think he does, maybe."
"You don't?"
"Not like that. He's my best friend."
"He'll get over it," Teddy said with confidence he didn't really have. He was a little out of his depth, and he'd stopped trying to anticipate Ji Yong's behavior around the time he'd gone from Timberland to high fashion and from eyeing Swi.T members to French-kissing their back dancers in dark corners of the studios. The new YG generation, he thought, was one big scandal waiting to happen. Good thing at least one of them was mature enough to think about what he was doing.
"Don't stress out about it," he added once he'd realized Young Bae still hadn't said anything. "Just tell 'em when you're ready."
"Yeah... How's Boss? He's still with you, right?"
"Yep. He's fine. I think he misses ya, though." Teddy raised his head, whistled, and heard Boss scramble into the room a moment later. "Wanna talk to him?"
Young Bae tried to sound like he found the idea silly, but soon enough Teddy was holding the phone down to Boss's level, grinning at the faint cooing that filtered through it. Although Boss seemed confused at first, his tail was wagging by the time Teddy put the phone back to his ear. "See, he recognized ya. You still coming back on Monday night?"
"Yes. I'll pick him up when I get back."
Teddy said goodbye after confirming the time of his flight. He put his phone down, curled up comfortably under the covers, and tried to go back to sleep.
***
He opted, after shifting around in bed for a while, to get up and try to enjoy the day, since sleep obviously wasn't going to happen. Looking for a particularly warm hoodie he'd misplaced somehow led to picking up the clothes that littered his apartment, Boss on his heels as he carried them all to the washing machine.
It'd take more than one load, but he got the first one going, at least, and the apartment looked a little better - Young Bae's efforts wouldn't be in vain.
"You wanna go for a walk?" he asked Boss, grinning when he barked up at him. "All right, all right."
The first thing that struck him, when he came back from the walk, was how cluttered that bookshelf in the living room was. It hadn't been that noticeable when the rest of the room had been a cluttered mess, too, but now...
He tackled it after feeding the dog. He had no idea how the hell so many things that weren't books had ended up on that bookshelf - a couple of Christmas ornaments he had no memory of buying, some old notebooks, more pens he didn't need... He finally just grabbed a garbage bag and dumped all the crap he didn't want into it.
Then he dragged the bag over to his desk and threw out yet more crap - mostly ancient drafts of song lyrics for 2NE1 and Big Bang, and post-its covered with scribbles Teddy couldn't even puzzle out anymore. By the time he'd gone through all of his stuff, the bag was almost full and it was already past noon. It'd been years since his desk had been so organized, though, and he'd even managed to set aside a couple of novels for Young Bae. The Catcher In The Rye might be a little too difficult, but there was no way in hell Young Bae couldn't handle something like The Pearl. And it wasn't like Teddy intended on ever reading those books again.
It was strange to feel accomplished at such an early hour. Teddy surveyed the living room, briefly considered vacuuming the floor, then settled on taking a nap instead. Baby steps. It was probably better to wait until Boss was gone to vacuum, anyway. Tyson had been terrified of the damn thing on the two or three occasions Teddy had actually used it.
***
Young Bae was about an hour late, by Teddy's estimation, when he finally rang the doorbell on Monday night. Boss charged him as soon as Teddy opened the door, barking excitedly. Young Bae crouched down, then fell back onto his ass, laughing, as Boss tackled him.
"Hi," he said, looking up at Teddy and petting Boss with both hands. "Did you have a good weekend?"
"Yeah. How was your flight?" Teddy offered him a hand and hoisted him up. "Got delayed?" That was muffled by Young Bae's shoulder - he'd moved in for a hug. Teddy gave him a squeeze and patted him on the back before pulling away.
"No, I just stopped by our apartment to unpack before I came here. Oh, and I got you something." He slid his bag off his shoulder and propped it on his knee as he opened it. The rumpled Starbucks paper bag he retrieved from it made Teddy laugh.
"Tell me that ain't a souvenir from Tokyo, man."
Young Bae blinked, then held out the bag, the repressed smile visible in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. "It is. I bought it on Saturday, so it might be a little dry."
Teddy grinned and cuffed him on the side of the head as he took the bag. Young Bae laughed and pushed his arm away, then turned to close the door. "Can I stay for a while?"
The question was clearly an afterthought, but Teddy had never objected to having friends invite themselves in. "Sure, anytime. You don't need to ask." He unrolled the top of the bag and peered into it. Double chocolate muffin. "I'm gonna have some milk. You want anything?"
"Is there anything else to drink?"
Teddy snorted and glanced over his shoulder as he headed to the kitchen. "I bought it yesterday."
Young Bae joined him, now with no shoes and with Boss trotting after him, while he was pouring milk into a glass. He eyed the pint of milk with clear distrust, so Teddy peered into the fridge again. "Beer?" he suggested, not really expecting Young Bae to take him up on that offer. "... Or, uh, water. That's all there is."
"Beer's fine."
He hesitated for a second before grabbing a Guinness from the fridge. The Hite in there was for Danny, and it wouldn't hurt to expand Young Bae's horizons a little. "You ever had dark beer?"
"I tried it once," Young Bae replied. Teddy was about to offer him the Hite instead, since that hadn't exactly sounded like a glowing endorsement, but he took the can from him and cracked it open. "Thanks."
They sat at the kitchen table (still half-covered in odds and ends - Teddy wasn't a miracle worker) and Young Bae sipped his beer silently, reaching down to pet Boss when he wandered over. He looked tired.
"You're up past your bedtime again, huh?" Teddy asked around a mouthful of muffin. "You should drop by in the afternoon instead."
"I'm always busy in the afternoon." His eyes wandered around and settled on his desk. Teddy caught the obvious double-take and smiled to himself as Young Bae leaned forward slightly to take a better look at the living room. "... You did some cleaning, didn't you?"
"Yeah. Guess I'm kinda tired of the mess."
Young Bae reached over and tore off a small chunk of his muffin. "I could help you out when I'm around."
"You barely have any free time, man. You should find something relaxing to do."
"Cleaning is relaxing," Young Bae replied, his slightly confused tone implying that he really shouldn't need to be explaining this.
After a second, it occurred to Teddy that cleaning probably was relaxing compared to the rest of his routine. That was just... sad. At least he'd be able to talk Young Bae into doing things that were actually fun if he came to his place once in a while.
***
Two cans of Guinness, as it turned out, was enough to color Young Bae's cheeks and make his eyes go slightly unfocused. He was still walking straight, though, one arm stretched forward to let Boss trot ahead of them.
"Why did you break up with your fiancee?" he blurted out, watching Boss as he peed against a small bush.
"She lived in LA," Teddy started, "so it was hard to stay together 'cause I kept traveling back and forth, y'know."
"Oh... That's too bad."
"Not really. She cheated on me when I was here." It had taken forever for him to realize it, too, and he still saw red whenever he let himself dwell on it. The thought of sending her letters, of buying her a ring in Seoul, of thinking about her every day while she was sleeping around behind his back...
He sighed and grabbed his cigarettes and lighter from his pocket. He'd bought another pack while walking Boss a few days ago, about four hours after the first one had run out - his last pack for real this time, he kept telling himself, although every delicious lungful of smoke made him less and less likely to keep that promise.
"Well, at least you broke up with her before you got married."
As far as silver linings went, that one wasn't too impressive, but Young Bae clearly had no idea what else to say. Teddy shrugged and slapped him on the back once he'd lit his cigarette. "It's fine, man. It's been years."
They watched Boss walk ahead of them for a while, his nose almost touching the sidewalk as he sniffed around. He stopped again and Teddy nudged Young Bae. "Hey, how's it going with Yanggaeng? Didja fool around with him again?"
Young Bae blinked at him, then looked down at Boss, a small smile curling his lips. "No... He's already with someone, anyway."
"Oh. Ji Yong?"
He laughed and looked up again. "What? No. And I can't really tell you... I mean, they don't tell a lot of people, so..."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I ain't part of the special gay club." He took a drag from his cigarette and shook his head in mock-frustration as he exhaled the smoke slowly. "You guys get all the good gossip."
It took a few seconds for Young Bae to register the fact that he was joking. "I guess so," he eventually said, then glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, I told Ji Yong yesterday."
"What'd he say?"
"He said he was happy I told him first. And we're still best friends."
Teddy caught the implied lie in that first sentence - he'd known about the whole thing well before Ji Yong had - but understood why Young Bae wanted him to keep quiet about it. "Good. You gonna tell the others too?"
"Yes. I don't think they're going to mind."
"Nah, they won't. We still recording tomorrow?" Teddy asked as they approached Big Bang's apartment building.
"Yes." They stopped in front of the door and Young Bae grabbed onto the sleeve of his hoodie as if to hold him still. He only had time to blink before Young Bae leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. They stood like that for a few seconds, inches from each other, with Young Bae looking searchingly at him and his fingers still curled against his arm, and all Teddy could manage was a small smile.
Young Bae returned it, then reached up, took the cigarette from his lips, and kissed him. It lasted all of two seconds, but the shaky, quiet little laugh he let out as he took a step back, still looking at him uncertainly, made it clear how nervous he was. Teddy found himself grinning without really knowing why. "... So uh, see you tomorrow."
Young Bae looked at him for a little too long before finally nodding. "See you," he said, then turned around, took a few steps and stopped again. He looked down at the lit cigarette still in his hand, glanced back at Teddy, and dropped it to the ground before stepping on it. "You're supposed to stop, anyway," he muttered, then headed inside.
Next part