Kai had Cole to thank, or blame depending on how you looked at it, for the majority of his musical interests.
He'd thought it was dumb for most of his life.
Of course he'd listen to music from time to time, and was a self-proclaimed master at Guitar Hero, but that wasn't the dumb part. The dumb part was the actual making of music. The singing, the songwriting, the playing of instruments. It was, for lack of a better word, completely stupid and gay.
He'd playfully teased Cole about his intention of joining the school's orchestra and choir programs when the two were choosing their electives for their sixth grade year, only to find out that he was completely serious. And then he'd teased him even harder because seriously? Cole wanted to be one of those kids? Out of all of the possible classes to choose from?
Cole didn't take it as well as Kai expected him to. They were best friends, they teased each other about everything they possibly could, but it seemed that this one specific interest had crossed a line.
So he stopped, reluctantly, as Cole desperately tried to convince him to join the music classes with him. He refused, of course, opting for quite literally any other class he could get into.
That was the routine for the next several years. Around the time of the school year that they made their class schedules, Cole would always find a way to bring up how fun and totally not gay his music classes were. And Kai would listen, happy his best friend had something he was so passionate about, but would always respond with the same dismissive 'absolutely not.'
That was, until Sophomore year.
Cole had come to him abruptly after school one day, looking like he'd just gotten hit by a bus. It turned out that the choir program was losing members to the point that if they couldn't recruit enough people by next year, it would shut down in its entirety. Cole begged him to join, even harder than he had all the years prior. And, as reluctant as he was to do so, Kai couldn't bear to see his super best friend so downtrodden. So he joined.
And now, Kai really only had one person to blame for his current setup.
An acoustic guitar in his hands, his laptop opened to the camera app, and embarrassingly cheesy song lyrics typed out in his phone's notes app.
Turns out, he'd been right all along. Choir was totally fucking gay. And it had infected him, plaguing him with the incurable disease of being completely head over heels for his best friend. His somehow totally straight despite being in choir for five years best friend. And it was driving him insane.
Everything was different now. Every time he brought up a crush on a girl, Kai was filled with a burning jealousy that didn't go away no matter how much he willed it to. Every sleepover and hangout session was a contest to see how long he could go without accidentally staring into Cole's stupidly pretty Brown eyes and getting made fun of for it.
Every damn time Kai saw him was a nightmare, his internal dialogues in constant debate over whether or not just to spill his feelings out and get it all over with.
But the worst part? He had no one to tell. Cole was always the person he went to with everything. From petty arguments with his sister to things of a much higher caliber, Cole was always there for him whenever he needed to let off steam.
But now that support system was gone, because it wasn't exactly like he could tell him what was bothering him without confessing feelings he wasn't ready to.
So, in an act he never thought he would do in a million years, Kai found another way to cope.
"Fuck you, Cole. This is all your fault." Kai mumbled to himself as he adjusted his laptop camera. He didn't know why he bothered to make it look nice in the first place— it wasn't like this song was going to leave his hard drive. It would rightfully rot in his downloads folder where it belonged, with him being the only person in the world to be aware of its existence.
