{panic(king): changki}

12

Jooheon drives Kihyun and I to his studio after school. We sit in the backseat, bouncing melodies and harmonies back and forth. We start to add lyrics, Jooheon looking at us in his rear view mirror to comment his ideas and feedback for what we're working on.

In the midst of Kihyun putting words to our melody, I lean forward and kiss him. He giggles softly and kisses me back. "Was there a reason you interrupted our songwriting process?" he asks once we pull away.

"Do I need a reason to kiss my pretty boyfriend who has the sweetest voice I've ever heard?" I ask him. He blushes and I chuckle slightly. Even embarrassed he's cute.

"I hate to interrupt you two lovebirds, but we're here," Jooheon says, pointing to the building through his windshield.

"Jooheon, this is your studio?" Kihyun asks, a bit shocked.

Jooheon nods. "Kind of. It actually belongs to my friend, Jackson, but he lets me use it when I'm working on projects and stuff. Even though he makes me pay rent." Jooheon scoffs as he opens the car door, slipping out. Kihyun and I follow his lead.

"It's a really nice place, Jooheon," I say, still marveling at how nice it looks on the outside. He'd told me about it so many times, but I'd never actually seen it.

"Just wait until you see the inside," he says with a grin.

"You honestly got so lucky having the convenience of it being 20 minutes from the school," Kihyun adds.

"And being one of the two people in my friend group who actually owns a car," Jooheon tells him.

"Huh. No wonder Minhyuk was always asking Hyunwoo for a ride home during the breaks," I say and Kihyun laughs. His hand slips into mine as we exit the car, following Jooheon up the end of the sloped driveway.

When we enter, I feel so out of place that if I touch anything, I think I might break it. "Changkyun, don't touch anything unless I tell you," Jooheon says, as if he was reading my mind.

"I wasn't going to. I don't have the money to pay for any of this," I say.

"Maybe if you didn't spend all your money on convenience store snacks, pints of ice cream and boba, you would," Kihyun says, elbowing me lightly in the stomach.

"I thought you liked our convenience store and boba runs," I ask, my bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

"That's because you're there, not because you empty out your wallet every time," Kihyun tells me.

"I think you're mixing me up with your roommate, who spends thirty dollars on breakfast when he doesn't have impulse control," I tell him.

"So Hyungwon or Hyunwoo," Jooheon states.

"Exactly," I agree.

"Jooheon, please tell your best friend he has a boba and convenience store snack addiction," Kihyun says. Jooheon chuckles and shakes his head as he opens the door to his booth.

"If you two are done flirting, whose vocals are we recording first?" he asks, setting up the booth.

"I can go first," Kihyun offers. "My part isn't as long as Changkyun's, so we can go ahead and get it over with." Jooheon nods and opens the door to the booth itself.

I grab Kihyun's wrist before he enters the booth. He looks back at me with worry in his eyes for a second before I kiss him softly. "You're going to sound great, babe," I tell him.

He smiles, his cheeks blooming with the same color as his hair. "Thanks, Kyun." He kisses my cheek before enter the booth and putting the headphones on.

"Ready?" Jooheon asks. Kihyun gives him the thumbs up, and I let Jooheon start the instrumental track I came up with in the car.

I'm mesmerized by Kihyun's vocals, which are somehow even better than they were in the car. Jooheon nudges my shoulder once the song ends. I'm still fixated on my boyfriend, who looks ethereal under the studio lights. "I'm trying to compliment you, would you look at me?" he asks.

I finally turn to face him. "Hm?"

"I was trying to tell you that I'm really impressed with the track you mixed in the half hour ride over here," he says.

"Oh, thanks. I learned from the best." Jooheon smiles, his dimples appearing in his soft cheeks. "Cute." I poke his dimples and he blushes. I grin at him and he swats my hand away.

The booth door clicks open and I flash a smile at Kihyun. He smiles back, walking behind me to put his arms around my neck. "Aw, are you a little jealous, Ki?" I ask. I take his hand to my lips.

His head gets pressed to the back of my head. "No," a muffled voice says.

"I love you in a way that's unique to you," I tell him. "And it's a way that's different from Jooheon."

"Mhmm," Kihyun hums, face still pressed to the back of my head. "I love you too."

Jooheon has on the softest expression I've ever seen, with the biggest puppy eyes I've ever seen. "Aww!" he coos, and the both of us blush immediately. "You two are so cute." He pokes my cheeks and taps Kihyun's nose. "Now, I believe it's Changkyun's turn to get in the booth and record our anthem for the rally."

Kihyun lets go of me and pushes me forward, Jooheon nudging me even further. "Okay, okay, I'm going," I say.

"We're not going to be the reason your vocals don't get recorded for the anthem to your rally," Kihyun says. "So get in there."

"Did I not just say I was going?" I ask.

Jooheon pushes my arm and shuts the door behind me. "Quit your couple bickering and let's get this started."

Once I finish recording my vocals, Jooheon and I mix the vocals with the backing track and he produces the rest of the song. When it's done, he plays it for us on his laptop.

"We wrote that," Kihyun says in awe. "We wrote that and mixed the instrumentals during a half hour car ride."

"Yeah, we did," I say. "Thanks, Jooheon. It sounds awesome."

"That was mostly you guys. I just pushed some buttons to make it sound more complete and put it all together," Jooheon says with a shrug. "We should get back to the dorms, though, it's getting late." Kihyun nods.

We follow Jooheon back out to his car. Kihyun lays his head on my shoulder and intertwines our fingers. Besides the thought of Kihyun's warmth against me, I'm contemplating what leftovers from Hyungwon and I's fridge I'm going to eat tonight.

{a/n: This was a bit of a bonus chapter but it's cute so I wanted to add it anyway. :)}