Joel Hokka / Blind Channel - ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS (English)

1 - a lonely night

The streets of Oulu were crowded this evening. It was a cold, rainy friday night, yet that didn't keep anyone from going out and having a good time. For most people on these streets the weekend was the time where they could drown their sorrows and forget their stressful lives revolving around nothing but work and other annoying responsibilities for just a few hours. I was like all these people that passed me in a way. I wanted to drown my sorrows and distract myself from all the worries that were torturing my conscience. But other than them I was out here alone and not in a group.

The past month had been an emotional roller coaster. After weeks and weeks of consideration I decided to leave Germany for good. Nothing was holding me there.

I had lived abroad for a few years before but the Netherlands were not that far away from Germany as Finland was. It took me and my Mom three whole days until we arrived in Oulu with the rented van that almost crashed into a tree on the last few miles.

That's where the trouble began. From that moment on everything got worse since my Mom left because she had to drive back to Germany. I can't even count the amount of power failures in my apartment during the last few weeks, my fridge was always empty, the walls of the building complex I was living in were as thin as paper and the area i lived in was very unpleasant to say the least.

This was not what I had imagined when I decided to give up my life in Germany and move to Finland.

I usually stayed at home during this time of the day. I never went out, only when necessary because I didn't know a single soul here. But today I forced myself to get dressed up and go out on my own, otherwise I would sooner or later wither away in that dump of an apartment. The whole situation was just depressing. I had already searched for a new apartment a dozen times online but until now nothing happened and I was still trapped.

"Mitä haluaisit?" And there was another problem. The language barrier. Although I could already speak a couple words and phrases in Finnish I was far away from being able to hold a conversation. "Hi, could I get one Tequila shot please?" I leaned my body over the counter and nearly had to scream through the loud upbeat music. "Tequila, yes." At least everyone I encountered with in Finland so far could speak English, otherwise I would have felt even more lost by now. "Here you go."

I picked up the shotglass and threw my head back, downing the bitter liquor. In the corner of my eye I could see a group of three men eyeing me. But what had I expected being out in a pub alone on a friday night. "Mikä on?" That was one of the few phrases I had remembered from my last unit of Finnish. The three guys immediately looked away and acted like they hadn't stared at me for the past couple minutes and made me feel extremely uncomfortable, how funny.

"Voinko kysyä sinulta jotakin?" That was probably the next guy I had to scare away if I wanted to sit at this bar and enjoy a few drinks alone. But this guy seemed rather lost than anything else so I decided to be polite this time. "I'm sorry my Finnish is not that good." He looked at me in surprise like he had not expected me to not speak his native language. Was that really so uncommon?

"Sorry. I just wanted to ask you if you have seen five guys that look like they belong to me in the past couple minutes." If he was trying to flirt that was one of the best tactics I had observed up until now. "No. I am afraid I can't help you out, sorry." The guy with the tousled blonde hair looked a little defeated. "Great. I lost them again. And no one is picking up." He sighed and signalised the bartender he wanted to place an order. "Do you want another shot or anything else? Would be rude for me to not ask you, especially when you're out here on your own."

Normally I would have scared away the blonde guy as I had absolutely no interest in getting chatted up, but he seemed genuine. "Maybe one more shot of tequila if you don't mind, thanks." The guy with the tousled hair ordered two tequila shots and leaned himself against the counter.

"I'm Joonas by the way." He gave me a friendly smile and handed one of the shotglasses that the bartender slammed onto the counter over to me. "Naomi." We had both downed the alcohol in a matter of seconds. "Since you're obviously not from here, where are you from and what brings you to Oulu?" Joonas asked curiosly. Just now I noticed that the blonde haired guy was wearing a silver nosering. He most definitely had taste based on what I could see of him so far.

"It's a little bit complicated. I am from Germany but moved to the Netherlands to visit College. Then I moved back to Germany for a few months but got bored extremely quickly. So I needed a new adventure. Finland seemed like my best option at the time, that's how I ended up here." Telling the story I felt somehow detached from my own actions like I wasn't describing my own experiences but someone elses.

"That's impressive. What did you study?" And now we got to the part where he would either totally dig my answer, laugh about it or wouldn't understand it. "I did my major in music production and sound engineering." I could see how his blue eyes were lightening up. Apparently it was option number one, he digged my answer.

"Oh nice, someone with a musical background. I am actually a full time guitar player in a band so I think we will get along on that note." He winked and I couldn't keep myself back from laughing. I had to admit that pun was a little hilarious. "Pretty cool. What kind of music do you make?" I honestly wouldn't have thought that I would have such an interesting conversation with a stranger that was additionally totally sympathetic. "Rock, a little bit of pop here and there. We like to describe our music as violent pop, I think that term gives you a pretty good idea of our stuff."

I had actually never heard that term before in the music industry, however I knew exactly which kind of music fell under that term. "Sounds exactly like the stuff I like to listen to." I was still baffled how well we got along, we immediately clicked right from the first words we exchanged.

"You could come with me to the studio right now if you're up to it. It's really not far from here. Meeting the guys there in a bit anyways." He suggested and I immediately agreed. "Yeah, sure. Let's do it." Apparently I had made the right decision to force myself to go out on that lonely friday night. As it seemed, now I wouldn't be so lonely anymore.

authors note:
So this is my first chapter of this story about Blind Channel and Joel Hokka. I finally sat down and wrote it. I still have to work on the outline of this story but I already figured out most parts. I will try to update as much as I can thank you for reading!