"wake up already, sungie! you're late for the rehearsals!"
jisung groaned as he opened his eyes, his ears tuning to listen to his roommate, jaemin's sweet voice. he felt the older's warm hand poking at his sides to wake him up as jaemin was slowly getting even more and more annoyed, but he was reluctant to wake up anyways.
there were pretty much two reasons why, and jisung would rather delay waking himself up to get himself into a sicheng situation. one, he clearly was unmotivated to wake up and start the day.
what was the point of trying when you could not succeed in the one pursuit everyone was yearning for you to succeed in flying colours? he was not fit for being passed down the strad that his gifted senior handed over to him, hell, he was not fit to play for a whole orchestra with hundreds of strings, let alone be part of the second row.
the slowly growing feeling of hopelessness consumed jisung completely, caving down on his mind as he just wanted to flop back to his head and never wake up.
the second reason was...he was in love.
in love with his roommate.
the boy had fallen hard for jaemin ever since he moved in with the older a year ago, and even though it was painfully obvious to anyone watching them, jaemin merely considered it platonic as they usually share a lot of skinship together.
that might sound alright with no context whatsoever, but jisung was way too late to confess as he found out that jaemin was in a relationship with a young jazz pianist named chenle.
it was a hard pill to swallow for jisung as he went with a few sleepless nights as he became even more reserved with his feelings, in a hopeless effort to pull his feelings together and never show it out ever again.
unfortunately enough, that brick wall of stoicism he built up over the course of a year materialized into dust the instant he listened to that saxophonist talk shit about him. the saxophonist was not wrong, what he said was quite true, but what was worse was that his friend decided to join in to defend him.
jisung pulled back his feelings as he listened to renjun's small but direct apology, but he couldn't help but melt at that. no one really complimented him on his playing, and even if it was just an endeavour to make him feel better after breaking his heart, unbound happiness still bubbled up inside him.
"wake up you little sleepyhead— wait, are you smiling?! oh god, just wake the fuck up already!" jaemin snapped as he hit a pillow on jisung numerous times until the younger gave up and pretended to wake up from a long slumber.
jisung let out a small yawn as he rubbed his eyes like a little toddler, his baby face showing a pout as he glanced at jaemin innocuously, yet his deep morning voice says otherwise. "n-nana...don't want to..." he groaned and sighed, not ready to start the day.
"for goodness' sake, sungie, you're almost about to be late! do you really want to get even more scoldings from that wretched fucker?" jaemin clicked his tongue, pulling his blankets off to fold them neatly. "aish, you're still a little baby when it comes to stuff like this..."
jisung let out a heavy sigh as he buried his face on to jaemin's neck. it was way too early in the morning to get yelled at today. "nana...why does everyone...hate me...?" jisung spoke out, his voice muffled yet had a tone of annoyance.
"who told you that, sungie? no one hates you, okay? those assholes who hate you are just stupid. don't let their words get to you, please..." jaemin ruffled his hair as he beamed, and almost immediately, jisung pulled away reluctantly, sighing in annoyance. jaemin knew his words would affect the younger almost immediately.
"now wake up already—" jaemin was cut off as he heard distant laughs in the background, slowly increasing in volume and clarity as muffled footsteps clattered on the wooden floor, merely making him smile as he glanced at the door.
almost immediately, the door opened, revealing a very happy chenle, running to jaemin as he launched himself in his arms, pressing his lips to jaemin's passionately. jaemin was startled at first, but slowly enough, he led the kiss, which led to the younger letting out small gasps and moans, while grinding on his lap simultaneously.
immediately realizing what chenle was cooking up in his mind, jaemin immediately pulled away, which led to his boyfriend pouting and whining at him. the youngest looked at the two in disgust, envy bubbling up inside him as he did not want to thirdwheel this early in the morning. "baby...not now," jaemin spoke out, which only made chenle say a small 'alright'.
"you both really can't keep your hands to yourself, god, just do your stuff in your room!" jisung spoke out, his lips tightening to a straight line as he frowned at the two.
jaemin chuckled at his roommate as he headed out to leave, while chenle stayed on the bed, waiting for his boyfriend to leave so that he was left alone with jisung. "ji..." he started as he tilted his head, a cute smile appearing on his face. "are you perhaps...jealous?" he queried.
"of course, not! i just don't want you both to eat your faces out in my room for fuck's sake!" jisung retorted at the older, his fists clenching in anger.
"i know it's not just that, ji..." chenle grinned, pinching jisung's cheek as he let out a dolphin laugh. "i know your obvious crush on nana, it's not that hard to see, you know..."
"you got me, now what? you're going to tell that to your boyfriend?" jisung spoke out harshly, trying to put up a harsh façade to protect his own fragile feelings. "go ahead, i don't fucking care."
"of course not! i just wanted to tell that you have to move on..." chenle started to speak, his tone changing from carefree to serious. "we're getting engaged in a while, and seeing you always dote on nana makes me feel a bit bad inside. i know your crush on nana had been there for a long time...but please, i know you'll find someone else—"
"just shut up already, i don't need your words," jisung cut him off as he pulled himself out of his bed. this was definitely not the way he wanted to start his day.
"geez, emo much? kids these days..." chenle waved it off as he walked out the door.
"i'm not emo!" jisung yelled, but chenle was already out of the room. groaning in frustration, he decided to reluctantly start his day.
🌪
unlike jisung, renjun's morning did not go that bad. he woke up early, made himself coffee, making sure to not overdo it unlike his cousin's fiance who was absolutely addicted to the beverage, took all of his sheet music and walked out of his home, with 15 minutes more for their rehearsal.
and now he was walking to the practice centre with a clinging yangyang walking with him.
"you sound awfully happy today...any reasons?" yangyang broke the ice, beaming wholesomely at renjun.
"nothing much, i'm just happy for my cousin..." renjun started to explain as he glanced at yangyang with a subtle smile on his face. "i've been begging his fiance to have the guts to propose and he finally did it, with chenle obviously accepting it. they'll be marrying in a month. you're coming, right?"
"of course, anything for you bae..." yangyang spoke out teasingly, winking at a very disgusted renjun. the older's expression immediately changed to condescending as he threatened yangyang. "call me that again, and you won't wake up the next day."
yangyang merely chuckled as renjun hit his hand in frustration, cooing at the older's cute antics. obviously, yangyang still had a crush on renjun and was quite a bit heartbroken realizing that he won't reciprocate his feelings. yet, he stood silent yet strong, his mind deadset on making renjun fall in love with him one day.
"don't kill me! i still have to master the saxophone!" yangyang defended amusingly, raising his hands up as he chuckled.
"dumbass, you don't even go for classes, you literally ditch them when you have time! 'mastering saxophone' my ass..." renjun retorted, knowing yangyang clearly that he won't even make an attempt to learn anything. "if anything, that second violinist whose heart you broke yesterday is miles better than you!"
renjun's mind suddenly clung to the visual image of the second violinist, his voice suddenly felt like being taken away. renjun clearly knew that was a fallacy— yangyang was way better when it comes to playing, although he never wanted to admit it for the sake of motivating him to complete his lessons.
but something tells him that he must have hope in the poor boy, he was trying his level best after all.
"i see someone got a little crush..." yangyang teased, jolting renjun out of his thoughts. "you're suddenly so in your thoughts when you mentioned him, what happened, hmm?"
"i-it's not that, you dumb fuck!" renjun screamed, catching the attention of everyone around him momentarily. sighing, he decided to explain. "i'm just...worried for his playing. he could bring the whole orchestra down if he makes so many mistakes like that. and speaking of violinists, i really do need a violinist for doing a duet..."
yangyang ignored what renjun was about to explain as he smirked at him, slight envy coursing through his body. "you're so worried for that hoe and his playing. if anything, that sounds like a big fat crush, junnie. you should ask him to duet with your piano, and maybe your love life as well...~"
"oh for fuck's sake, duetting with him will put my own piano playing in danger! i don't want to fucking take that risk, the violin is the main part after all..." renjun explained, withholding the urge to strangle yangyang any moment now. "a-and i'd never fucking date him! i'd rather date your insufferable dumbass than him."
"i see..." yangyang celebrated himself on the inside hearing that coming from renjun. before the older would realize anything about his inner feelings, yangyang decided to clear his throat and change the topic. "a-anyways, you should maybe ask him to duet with you. from what i know, most of the violinists are boomers and really don't want to work with young pianists. just a suggestion, that's all..."
renjun fell into thought at that sentence. maybe he should ask jisungfor the duet, after all, he's the only violinist he made friends with. maybe jisung could work on his skills and ace the performance with the older's routine-sticking self, and maybe they could be best friends as they become a powerful superduo, and maybe become more than friends—
renjun let out a small yelp as he clenched his fists, trying to put a stop to his weird thought train. yangyang queried to him whether everything is alright and he nodded vigorously, before taking a deep breath to calm himself down.
"wait, isn't that the fucker we just talked about!" yangyang beckoned to a tall young man with black hair, wandering hopelessly as his head drooped down, sighing. one could say he was almost in tears as he walked to the place.
before yangyang could say a single word more, renjun squirmed himself out of his grip and ran to the violinist, leaving him dumbfounded.
"uh, h-hey! excuse me please..." renjun ran to jisung, almost crashing into the younger. he was startled as he looked at the pianist, his fingers fidgetting as he was really confused on why renjun had approached him.
"c-can i ask for a favour...?" renjun knew he had to break the ice or else their conversation would not go anywhere. the introversion energy was strong between the two. "s-sure hyung, what is it...?" jisung spoke out, anxiety bubbling up inside of him.
"can you duet with me for the orchestra?"
a/n: i'm feeling pathetic af lmao. being sick and uncomfortable yet having the urge to complete one chapter is killing me. at least it's over lmao
i'll try not to procrastinate next time, keyword, "try" 😭