"I could help you with that."

Chan (1)

"Okay Jisung one more time. Start after the chorus but when you come in make it punchy!" I played the instrumental of our song and then hit the record button, nodding my head along to the beat. A pre-recorded verse from myself came to its end as Jisung started to rap, coming in just as punchy as I requested. I grinned as I turned the volume up on my headphones, monitoring the recording on my laptop.

Me and the guys were working on another song to add into our album we were going to present to the company director. Jisung was currently in the recording booth while I sat on the outside giving him instruction as I ensured his voice meshed well with the instrumental I created many months ago on the many sleepless nights I had. I didn't know where Changbin was though.

I heard him finish his verse and I stopped the recording and paused the music. I gave him a thumbs up and spoke to him through the mic, "Good job Jisungie, come on out now and I'll let you listen to it." I took my headphones off and let them rest around my neck, unplugging them and turning the volume up on the speaker as Jisung came out of the recording booth and sat in the chair next to me.

"My voice didn't crack did it? I heard something strange in the audio while I was rapping." I looked at him, frowning slightly and shaking my head. "No... you sounded very good. May have been a loose cord, your voice was steady in the recording." I looked back at my screen, grabbing the voice recording of Jisung's and dragging it to the row underneath of the songs drum line. I dragged the starting line to left and clicked play on the song. The rap we just recorded started to play but sounded buried under the music. I could see Jisung nodding his head along out of the corner of my eye as I heightened the volume of his verse in the recording. I then clicked loop and sat back to listen to it.

His voice was crisp and clear, the tone unwavering and pronunciation unmistakeable. I let a big smile sit on my face as his verse filled the room. It sounded amazing.

I paused the loop and looked at him, still smiling as I scooted closer to him. "What about it Jisung? The best rapper in this room right now? Hmm?" I tilted my head back and forth as I spoke to him, making him laugh as he tried to push me away.

"Yeah ok, it sounds good. But should we auto tune it? My voice just sounds so... raw." I exclaimed loudly as I threw my arms around his shoulders, "That's the whole point Jisung! Your voice doesn't need any auto tune, don't worry about it!" I playfully held on and shook him around.

I knew he was insecure about his rapping sometimes. This was the fifth time I recorded his verse, as he kept asking to re-do it again and again. Hopefully I could shake those bad thoughts out of him.

I stopped holding him when the room door opened and in came Changbin with two black plastic bags in each hand. "Wow look at you two. I guess this means I can eat all the food then huh?" Jisung immediately shot up to grab a bag from him. "Hey, don't you dare! I haven't eaten for three hours!"

I looked on as they both started to bicker and dig around in the bags. Changbin and Jisung. Two people who have been in my life for only a few years but I'd call them my brothers. I met them both when I had came to the company to inquire about being a producer. As I got to know them better, I realized that the both of them had a passion for singing and songwriting. So I started to collaborate with them, brainstorm ideas for future songs and projects. One night turned in three nights in a row, goofing around in the booth turned into serious recordings. I learned that they both were trainees under JYP, and they were just kind of drifting about. I myself was still attending university, but I was in the middle of my degree program. Now that I was a semester away and had almost finished a full album with the guys, my hopes and dreams were finally starting to come to fruition.

Changbin had actually invited me to dorm with him while we were coming up with songs to write, explaining that we could coordinate meeting up much easier than we had been doing up till that point. Jisung had lived somewhere different at the time as well, so fixing that issue would've been on top of the list. However according to company policy, only trainees could use the dorms. So me and Changbin came up with a plan; tell the company that I was interested in being a trainee for their upcoming boy group. Then when I got in good with the company, I'd show them my degree and repertoire of producing to sway them into letting me be solely a songwriter.