Fanfiction [MASHIKYU]

3 - 5

Mashiho

It's recording day for our title track - which has been named 'Loud' due to its super fun and boppy sound and catchline "as long as we young, we loud" to capture a cute and youthful vibe - and I'm so excited I can't even stand still. This song feels like my baby, for weeks I've been recording demos and suggesting changes and doing all sorts... we've even made a dent in the choreography. Although I wasn't the one who produced it, it's all my ideas, and I even wrote a lot of the lyrics, which is something I thought I could never do. This project has been so great. Meanwhile, Junkyu's made Curse an absolute masterpiece, but is still insisting it isn't done. Everything feels light and floaty and I'm really starting to get a sense of hope that this comeback will have the effect that we want it to.

Asahi, Hyunsuk, Jihoon and I all came early to record our parts, and then the other dorm started theirs. Junkyu and Jaehyuk are still nowhere to be seen, so I ring Junkyu, stepping out of the studio where I had been watching Haruto record his part. He answers straight away.

"Hi Mashi! How's it going?"

"Good! when will you and Jaehyuk be here?"

"We'll be here as soon as Jaehyuk decides what to wear. He's having a minor fashion crisis."

I laugh. "He knows it's just to come in and record, right?"

"I can't explain him, Mashi, I really can't." Junkyu sighs into the phone. "Oh, hang on, I think he's finally ready. See you soon!"

"Bye!"

I hang up the phone and step back into the studio, and Asahi is looking at me weirdly.

"What?" I ask, then give Haruto a thumbs up as he's just wrapped up his recording.

"Nothing," Asahi says with a smirk. "Are they going to be here soon?"

"As soon as your boyfriend sorts out what he's wearing."

Even just using the word 'boyfriend' used to be enough to make Asahi defensive and embarrassed, but now he just chuckles. I don't know how his conversation with Jaehyuk went that morning after their fight, but whatever it was worked a charm. Jaehyuk seemed a little shaken for a few days afterwards, but gradually he's relaxed and so has Asahi, who has also become more affectionate and now seems much more cheerful and less tense when Jaehyuk is around, and they appear to have become even more infatuated with each other too. Their happiness is contagious.

By the time Junkyu and Jaehyuk do get here, however, a slight disaster has struck. The recording equipment in the studio has stopped working, and the staff have kicked us out as they attempt to get it working again and recover everything they just recorded. I'm a burning ball of white hot anxiety, talking too fast to Asahi and freaking out as we wait outside. I feel a derealisation start to creep up on me as my panic rises, and I nearly cry because that's the last thing I need. I wish Junkyu was here. He'd hold my hand and tell me to be quiet and he would be quiet and everything would be fine, but he's not here and everything is not fine. The other members have either left or have gone to talk to someone else or get something or do something, and it's just me and Asahi in the little waiting room outside the studio we were recording in. I can't stop myself blabbering and I hate it because the words don't feel like they're coming from me and they're so loud that they're piercing my ears but they're too quiet to hear properly. Then Junkyu and Jaehyuk show up, and Junkyu straight away sees what a mess I am.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks, quickly wrapping me up in a hug.

Thankfully, the derealisation gradually fades just like it gradually built as I tell him about what happened and he sits me down on the couch and keeps an arm around me and tells me he's sure it'll all be fine. And then he asks me if there have been any new fanfiction chapters lately.

Asahi and Jaehyuk hear this and look at him like he's absurd, but I start laughing. We check Wattpad and see a new chapter, and read it out loud together despite the other two sitting right there. Junkyu puts on the stupid voices for the other members that he used to do and I'm laughing so hard my stomach and cheeks hurt. By the time we finish the chapter, the white hot anxiety has been replaced by a tiny flicker of it so minuscule I can pretend it isn't there.

"That was... chaotic," Jaehyuk says slowly, then he stands up. "I'll be back soon."

Before he can go, Asahi jumps up and gives him a quick peck on the cheek, making Jaehyuk blush all kinds of red and stumble a little on his way out.

After Jaehyuk leaves, Junkyu yawns so loudly and widely he may as well be sucking in the universe.

"Tired?" I ask unnecessarily.

He nods, shutting his eyes. "I could barely sleep last night because you kept kicking me. I think you were nervous about today."

I feel my cheeks flush. "You should've woken me up! I'm so sorry!"

"No, it's fine. I didn't mind. Being awake meant I could hear all your sleep talk again, too. You kept saying 'sheep'." He keeps his eyes closed and a little smile plays on his lips. I blush even harder.

"You could probably take a nap, they might take ages sorting everything out," Asahi points out.

Junkyu yawns again, so I take matters into my own hands, moving him so that his head is in my lap and he's lying down across the couch, and he doesn't resist. He's asleep within seconds, which Asahi looks genuinely impressed by. He curls up like he often does when he sleeps, his long legs folded and his hands pressed in loose fists against his chest. He looks like a sleeping kitten, and I can't help but stroke his hair a little.

"You don't like phone calls," Asahi says very quietly to not wake Junkyu. "You never even call your parents. When I try to call you, you decline it and text me."

I continue stroking Junkyu's silky, chocolate brown hair, but turn my eyes up to meet Asahi's, unsure why he's stating facts I already know about myself. "I don't like hearing a person and not seeing them. It annoys me."

"I know, you've said." He smirks again. "But you always answer Junkyu's calls. And you called him yourself just then."

"That's because Junkyu doesn't like texting, so I just didn't tell him that I don't like calls."

Asahi pauses, watching me and watching Junkyu, then keeps talking. "Do you sleep in his bed every night now?"

My hand falters in its smooth rhythm. "Yeah. I know that's kinda weird, but I had so much trouble sleeping when I first moved in, and this is what worked. Jaehyuk and Jeongwoo used to sleep in each other's beds all the time, didn't they?"

"Yeah, I guess they did."

But he still has this weird look on his face.

I sigh exasperatedly, no longer stroking Junkyu's hair because I feel irritated again and I don't think I can be gentle anymore. "What is it, Asahi?"

"Nothing," he says. "This is just interesting."

I don't know what he means by 'this', but I don't have time to think about it because now the producers have come out of the studio and are telling us we're good to go. I feel guilty waking up Junkyu so fast, but he still manages to sing absolutely perfectly in that gorgeous voice of his when recording his part.