Dark to Baby: A Changjin Story

Chapter 6

His pants and shoes were normal, but it was hard to ignore the rest. Especially when he pushed his sleeves up and bent down to get a better view of the screen.

Wasn't this a clear violation of dress code? If Hyunjin was incredibly distracted by Chan's biceps, he could only imagine how distracted the whole class was.

"Uh...here goes..." was all Hyunjin heard before he was broken from his trance by a beautiful piano melody. He closed his eyes and leaned back to appreciate the art as it gradually added drums and a bass guitar.

The smooth jazz style of the piece soothed Hyunjin's nerves even as the vocals entered. There was one voice, but he could tell it was meant for many. The one voice built on top of itself, adding harmonies and some improvised exclamations.

As the song continued, it grew louder with more vocal parts and the addition of a trumpet only for everything to drop out at the end as the one voice ended a cappella.

It was beautiful.

Hyunjin smiled with his eyes still closed, contemplating what he just heard.

"Yo, dude!" He flinched dramatically and nearly fell off his chair. Blinking a few times to adjust his eyes to the light again, Hyunjin saw Seungmin laughing hysterically at his reaction.

"What was that for?" Seungmin shrugged.

"You looked lost in love, had to help you find your way out." Hyunjin glared at him, but soon noticed that they were the center of attention and shyly looked at his lap. The director chuckled.

"Looks like you have a fan, Chan." Hyunjin looked up enough to see Chan sending him finger guns, but quickly looked down again.

"Anyway, I definitely approve of this being on the fall concert. You guys agree?" A chorus of excited yes's echoed through the room.

"Great! Then Chan, you get the music printed, and I'll talk to the band teacher to make sure we have live instruments for that night!" Chan grinned at the director and nodded before unplugging his computer and walking back to his seat.

"Great job, man!" Seungmin did some sort of handshake with Chan as he sat down.

"Thanks. It's not my best, but-"

"You say that every time! I don't want to hear it!" Chan chuckled.

"Well it's true, I'm still not satis-"

"La, La, La, did you say something?" Seungmin teased. Chan pushed his shoulder lightly.

"Shut up."

"But really, it was awesome. You should feel good about it. I mean, pretty boy here looked like he was gonna melt from pure bliss." Seungmin smirked as he pointed his thumb in Hyunjin's direction.

Chan leaned forward to catch a glimpse of Hyunjin's pink cheeks. He was definitely listening to their conversation, even if his eyes were trained on the teacher. Chan felt an urge to further tease the boy, but he was new and looked pretty innocent despite his face, so Chan resisted and returned his attention to Seungmin.

"That's cute-" SMACK!

"Haha, sorry!" Hyunjin bent down and picked up his music while mumbling something like: 'dang, Jeongin is rubbing off on me.'

Chan covered his mouth to hide the growing smile on his face. This class just got ten times more fun.

"Hey, Minnie, I haven't slept in three days-"

"Again!?!" Chan winced at Seungmin's loud whisper.

"You know how it is before a project's due."

"Well, yeah, but you should take care of yourself!" Chan waved him off.

"I was literally going to say let's skip next period and take a nap on the roof, but if you're gonna yell at me, maybe not."

"Hey!" Seungmin looked offended for a couple of seconds when his face morphed into an expression of concern. "Oh no, I'm sorry, Chan, but I have a test next period!" Chan gave him a thin smile and a pat on the back.

"It's cool. English here we go!" He punched the air as a sigh escaped his lips.

"Yes, Chan?" Chan's eyes widened as he quickly put his hand back down.

"Uh, it's nothing, sorry!" The director nodded and continued to address the basses.

"Why are you so dumb?" Seungmin was back to his regular expressionless face, since they were close to being caught.

"I'm sleep deprived, not dumb!"

"Uh huh, tell that to Friday night Chan." Chan laughed lightly.

"I blame Minho, but it was fun anyway!" Seungmin rolled his eyes and went back to paying attention.

Chan mimicked him before finally getting out the piece of music they were currently singing.

Hyunjin sighed in relief. Now he could concentrate.

Or so he thought...

Who knew someone's singing voice could be more distracting than their speaking voice.

Like, why was his voice so pretty?

Hyunjin glanced at Seungmin like that was going to help him figure it out. Literally his voice floated out of him and made everyone around sound inferior. Hyunjin didn't understand.

He almost closed his eyes again to relish in the sound, but stopped himself since that might be weird when they're all singing together.

However, he couldn't stop his mind from thinking that Seungmin seemed literally perfect except when he talked to him. Kinda like Changbin.

Was everyone here like that? No, Jisung was friendly, and so was Minho, and don't get him started on Felix.

He guessed he would just have to work a little harder on these two to make them his friends. But Seungmin was not helping him at all. Especially now that he was an ultimate distraction in this class.

Please go back to talking! I can ignore you better that way! Hyunjin's mind ranted as he did everything in his power to pay attention to the director for the rest of class.

Thankfully, after what seemed to be an excruciatingly long time, the bell rang.

Hyunjin packed up quickly and carried his chair to the stacks at the back of the room.

"Is something wrong?" Hyunjin jumped at the sudden voice and dropped his chair loudly on the stack.

"Wow, you really do get scared easily. Almost as bad as Jisung!" Chan chuckled at the startled boy.

"You know Jisung?"

"Yeah, he helps me write lyrics." Hyunjin nodded as they walked out of the classroom.

"You sure are quiet. There's really nothing wrong, right?" Hyunjin sighed, trying to find a way to share his worries without scaring Chan off.

"It's nothing. It's just hard being new. I want friends, but everyone I talk to seems to focus on my appearance."

"Mm, I get what you mean. It's hard to make friends when people see you more as an item than a person." Hyunjin nodded weakly. "Hey! Don't give up! I'm sure you'll find lots of people who will see you for you! And that starts with me!" Chan clapped him on the back as they walked through the outside corridor towards the gym.

Hyunjin smiled and thanked him while simultaneously thinking that he wished he had known about this shortcut yesterday. It would have saved a lot of time and kept him away from all the noisy people in the hallway.

As they got close to the locker room, Chan stopped and gave Hyunjin a smile.

"Well, I have to get going! English class won't wait! I'll probably see you at lunch!"

"Okay, see you!"

Well at least there was one normal human here.