Borderline | Jeongchan

seven

The next days are busy for Jeongin. Between meetings about his comeback and arranging his schedule for after, Jeongin barely has any time to think about anything else. If he's not hopping from one meeting to the next, he's either in the vocal room or in the recording studio, practicing his new songs over and over again until the melodies are carved in his mind.

Nothing is supposed to be out of place. He knows the drill, but somehow this comeback is different from the rest. This album is a little trickier, there's slightly more pressure for him to outdo himself and he knows why.

It's because of CB97's song: Memory of Your Scent.

It shouldn't be a problem. Jeongin's voice shouldn't be cracking every two rounds of the song. He shouldn't be losing breath one word early. He shouldn't be losing his momentum between verses. But he is and not being able to do the song justice is gnawing at Jeongin's insides until he feels like his lungs are about to give up on him.

It's been two weeks and this song is the one he's most excited about, so why can't he get it right?

"Let's go again." Jeongin says immediately when he feels his voice waver at the end of the chorus.

He runs his palm over his face as the music stops and Seungmin rewinds it from the beginning, an impatient sigh leaving his balmed lips. Well, the layer of lip balm that he had coated over his lower lip had been licked clean as Jeongin had bitten on it enough times to irritate the skin.

"Do you want to take a break? You've been at it for two hours." Seungmin suggests.

Jeongin simply waves his hand in dismissal. He's not leaving this recording booth until he's managed to record an adequate version of the song or figure out a way to. But right now he's beyond frustrated because he can't understand what he's doing wrong. He's already recorded his other songs and whilst not all of them are final version perfect, they're all near enough that Jeongin doesn't feel the overwhelming need to pull his hair out when he listens to the recording.

Seungmin had tried helping Jeongin but it's still not it and Minho also feels the frustration Jeongin is feeling when the singer can't deliver the song the way he wants to. Minho can practically see the way that the back of Jeongin's mind is whispering at him that he won't ever perfect the song and it hurts Minho to know that Jeongin is doubting himself when he knows that Jeongin is more than good enough to get it right.

Seeing as how I'm not over you yet makes me feel like a fool
Some day, you will scatter awayㅡ

Jeongin steps away from the mic with an irritated frown. "Fucking hell."

Minho stops the music and Jeongin takes it as his cue to groan, foot stamping against the floor in an attempt to expel the frustration that had built up inside of him. "What's wrong? I can'tㅡ ugh."

"I don't think there's something wrong with the notes." Seungmin says from outside of the recording booth. "The melody suits your voice well, Jeongin."

Jeongin's shoulders sag as he lets the headphones hang on his neck. "I know that, but there's something missing."

He's starting to feel frustrated with himself. He knows he isn't perfect and there's no way he'd perfect a song on the first or second try, but it's never taken him two weeks to be comfortable with singing a song.

"Should we call Chan? Maybe he'd know how to help you, it's his song after all." this time it's Minho's voice coming from the speakers inside the booth.

Jeongin rolls his eyes, something he'd only do with teasing intentions if he wasn't so damn frustrated about the song he can't get the hang of. "Yeah, sure, that'd be great. 'Hey, there's something wrong with the amazing song you wrote but I can't figure out what it is, maybe you do.' I'd love to have that conversation."