An uncomfortable silence bellowed in the studio, hesitant gazes shifting amongst the boys as they were huddled in front of the elevated condenser microphone.
"You guys ready?" Heejung asked.
"Y-yes." The boys replied, not meeting Heejung's eyes that were leaning up to look to them through the glass that parted the technical bit from the inside of the recording box.
She easily read the awkwardness they were feeling, and so she cleared her throat, craned her neck behind and raised a brow at the man standing quite intimidatingly behind her, boring his languid orbs on the boys, as if about to pounce on them.
"You could sit down, you know?" Heejung suggested, eyeing the couch waving right beside him.
The room was packed, and everyone—Dream's manager, some A&R staff, and other producers—was very much distracted by Oh Sehun's additional presence with them.
"I want to watch them," he nonchalantly replied.
"What are you, their trainer or something?" She countered.
"Noona, did the music already start? We can't hear anything," Mark suddenly spoke, catching both the elders attention.
"Tsk tsk, did the music already begin, Ms Producer?" Sehun pressed, making her hiss in vexation, secretly slapping him behind, to which he easily dodged whilst amusingly laughing.
"Sorry," Heejung said to the mic, ignoring Sehun's great job in vexing her. "Let's start!"
"Ne!" The boys collectively said.
As Dream was singing in chorus, Heejung could also hear the bubbling whispers at her back from the other people with them. She could only let out a sigh and internally hope that those whispers didn't involve any malicious accusations against her and the man sticking right next to her so unbothered.
Nevertheless, the boys were able to finish the recording smoothly despite feeling small next to Sehun, who quite surprisingly, complimented them a lot when they got out of the recording box.
The staff clapped as they were finally done with the recording of the rest of the song—and for the day.
There are still a few polishing recordings for the following days under the discretion of the producers but, at least they are more than halfway to completion.
Some of the Dream members like Chenle, Jisung and Haechan stayed behind to hangout around the producers whilst they are editing.
The younger males were very active and curious of the life Heejung lived, especially her educational background coming from London. As the young artists they are, they were impotent of unmarveling its product.
"What's some of your old works, Noona?" Haechan asked.
She looked over him, past him, and at Sehun sat on the corner of the couch, dangling his foot with his right leg placed on top of the other, intently boring his gaze on her as if demanding for her to answer.
The question caught her flustered. She has written hundreds of songs yet that one particularly singled out. Maybe there wasn't much of a selection as more than half of it centered a particular person.
She couldn't just share the song just like that, oh no.
It would expose her and the muse of every one of them—who is patently right there. Right in front of her.
"Is it a secret project?" Chenle poked, mischievous. "We'll keep it a secret, I promise!"
"I-It's boring," Heejung forced a chuckle, shaking her hand off as she turned her swivel chair back to the desktop. "Ooh, trust me. You wouldn't like it."
"Oh, come on!" Haechan whined, slightly displeased. "I didn't peg you to be fond of all the false modesty, Noona."
Heejung scoffed. "Oh no, it's not false modesty, Hyuck. I'm telling you frankly that the song sucks."
"That's... not possible," Sehun said.
She snorted, shaking her head. "What do you know about my works, Sehun?" She rolled her eyes.
"I know that they're incapable of being boring or... imperfection."
The three boys exchanged looks, cocking their brows with a playful grin etched on their lips unbeknownst to Heejung who felt her cheeks inflame. I think we're missing something here, the boys thought.
Jisung picked up the acoustic guitar from the recording box which had plenty of musical instruments displayed, and returned inside, sat on the couch, and strummed the strings without a chord.
This made Heejung turn to him. "Yeah?" He smiled, wooing her to get the guitar from him.
Finally, a grin cracked from the corner of her lips, and Jisung slowly handed the guitar to her, as the boys encouraged her with teasing side remarks.
"If you weren't cute, I wouldn't even think about taking this guitar," Heejung reached Jisung's soft cheeks and squished it hard to shed her cuteness agression.
Jisung only let her and chuckled, as she quickly let go and tried to tune the guitar before placing the capo on the fourth fret.
"Okay, here goes..." she said, then a slow, melancholic progression resounded.
You make such a fine man in tuxedo
I trade you with a fine lass in red dress
Pushing through the crowd proud like we don't care
Aren't we, aren't we such a fine pair?
There goes the flashing lights, pretentious smiles
Flying past the brown sad eyes of our truth
Once the flashing lights and pretentious smiles go by
Do we still hold unto our truth?
Tell me
When we shared a laugh in the april breeze
When you held my hand with a gentle squeeze
When McDonalds were the only thing that could comfort me
When their cold menace melt in your embrace
When I couldn't take a single step so you take them for me
When your dark brown eyes said more than what you said
Tell me, love
Do you call it love?
Were we inlove?
I'm no mind-reader, but I so wish I am
Had I been more honest, would you crack us open
'Cause I wish a lot of things, and they come true
If I wish for you, will you be, too?
Tell me, love
Do you call it love?
Were we inlove?
The last strum of the minor chord reverbed through the silence that sat until the next minute.
"Wow. That was..." Chenle trailed, genuinely complimenting Heejung with his approving gaze.
"That was incredible, Noona," Haechan said, whilst Jisung couldn't utter a word with his amazed, agape lips.
All the praises, yet Heejung could not dare look at the one man silent in one corner. She could sense the burning eyes resting on her—her heart picked up its already fast pace.
"Hyung, why are you all quiet?" Haechan chuckled as he sensed some awkwardness in the atmosphere, patting Sehun by the arm.
"I—"
The door flew open, halting Sehun midway, and revealed another known presence.
"God, it's so traffic!"
a lil short chapter
what do u want to see nextt (tho i kinda have something in mind already)
let's keep those ideas coming