Chan closed the door to the studio behind him, walking over to one of two office chairs in the room. He threw himself onto the chair, spinning around in a circle before pulling himself towards the table.
"Let's hear it." Chan said, gesturing to Changbin's phone.
Changbin opened his phone, searching through his downloads for the song.
"Just a fair warning; I put a generic backtrack on it so it sounds like trash. Just pay attention to the lyrics and the flow to get a feel of the song. I have some ideas for the backtrack but we can discuss that after listening." Changbin said, pressing the play button on the file.
The strum of a guitar sounded through the phone's speaker.
"Fuck, wrong one." Changbin said, rapidly spamming the back button on his phone.
Chan quirked an eyebrow at Changbin but didn't question it.
"Here's the one." Changbin let out a sigh of relief as the song he was looking for started playing.
Chan bopped his head, listening to the flow of the rap, absorbing the lyrics, the style and the overall meaning of the song, ideas already blooming in his head.
Changbin spit his last verse and a light fade out followed.
"Woah, that was.... I have no words. Words can't express how beautiful that was. The backtrack definitely needs work, but the lyrics were meaningful and the flow was solid." Chan said.
"Thanks." Changbin said, rubbing the nape of his neck as a blush crept onto his face.
"Are you okay though?" Chan asked, as listened to the track again, this time paying more attention to the lyrics.
"I wrote this when I was thinking about life, you know? There are endless possibilities as to what could happen to anyone at any time. I started thinking about the 'what if?' scenarios and the things I imagined really scared me." Changbin answered.
"Who's it about, if you don't mind me asking?" Chan questioned.
"The three Fs." Changbin responded, turning his head towards the door to avoid Chan's gaze.
"Friends, Family and...." Chan said, not understanding what the last 'F' was.
"Felix." Changbin muttered, shifting his gaze to the ground.
"Doesn't Felix fall in the 'friend' category?" Chan asked, looking at the boy quizzically. "Wait-"
"Don't make a big deal out of it!" Changbin said, waving his hands in front of his face as the blush on his face deepened.
"You like him!" Chan teased in a singsong voice.
"I told you not to make a big deal about it!" Changbin whined, slumping into the other office chair with a sigh of defeat.
"How could I not? My little Binnie's growing up." Chan said, wiping a fake tear from his eye.
"Can we just start working on the track now?" Changbin grumbled, plugging his phone into the computer to transfer the song.
"Fine. What ideas did you have?" Chan asked, rolling over to the computer Changbin was working at.
"Well I was thinking that we could start off with a serene intro and then have a sudden drop, maybe crunching the sound a bit to enhance the tone." Changbin started off.
"I'll mess around with it for a bit. You can stay and watch or go to Ji's room. I'll text you if I need you to listen to my progress so far." Chan said, plugging his studio headphones into the computer, opening the mixing software.
"I'll go check up on him. He should be recording by now and if he's not, I'll make sure he gets on track." Changbin said, walking towards the door.
"Knowing him, he's probably not on task." Chan commented.
Changbin chuckled at Chan's words before closing the door and heading to the studio Jisung was in.
Once the door closed, Chan got to work, first putting a slight reverb over Changbin's voice to enhance the enunciation of certain syllables.
He then got to work on the intro, adding a few presets to the empty space before the first verse.
Chan wishes that he had his computer with him, since he has a bunch of presets he created in the past saved on there. He made a mental note to save the file to a flash drive and take it home with him so that he could work on it.
Chan was excited to work on this piece since Changbin's unique voice fit perfectly with the mixing style he has been developing over the years.
He was eager to finally produce a song with the knowledge he had acquired from the mastering class he is currently taking for an elective credit. Sure, he had learned a lot on his own in his years of tinkering with the software, but it was nice to learn from people with more experience in the field.
Chan lost track of time as he fiddled with the presets he added, creating new ones as he worked. He had removed most of the presets he had at the beginning, experimentally filling the space with various sounds.
Chan was lost in his own world until he was startled by a hand touching his shoulder. He jumped in his seat, making his headphones slide off his ears, leaving the headband to loop around the nape of his neck.
"Sorry, did I scare you?" Woojin asked, removing his hand from the younger's shoulder.
"A bit." Chan answered, looking away shyly. "It's my fault though. I was too absorbed in my work to notice that I wasn't the only one in the room."
"You should take a break. You've been at it for almost two hours." Woojin said with a shake of his head.
"When does the class period end?" Chan asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.
"In fifteen minutes. It's a double block class since Professor Jinyoung joined the classes, remember?" Woojin answered.
Chan nodded.
"Professor Jinyoung sent me down the hall to tell everyone in the studios to come back to the classroom. You're the last one I have to deliver the message to so I'll wait for you." Woojin said, leaning against the door frame as Chan hurriedly packed up his stuff. Woojin made sure that Chan's room was the last one he visited so that the two could walk back to class together, but no one needed to know that.
Chan saved the song on the computer, saving the file on his flash drive before shutting down the computer.
Chan then grabbed his black pen and notebook, putting the pen behind his ear and holding the notebook in his left hand.
Woojin grabbed Chan's right hand and lead him out the door, slowing his pace once they entered the hallway so that the two could walk side by side.
"What were you working on?" Woojin asked, swinging their hands back and forth.
"Changbin finished the track guide for his solo so I was working on mixing the song. I feel like the track guide is good enough to be the final cut, but I have to check with Changbin to see if he's okay with that." Chan said.
Woojin hummed in response.
"Do you guys know what songs you'll be performing yet? Professor said he wants each group to perform at least three songs." Woojin said.
"No clue." Chan answered. "I mean, I've got some ideas for a title track, but we haven't started working on any of the group tracks. Jisung was recording the track guide for his solo today, Changbin was with him for most of the class period; i think, and I was mixing Changbin's track."
"I can assure you that Changbin was not with Jisung. He was over by Jeongin and Ryujin the whole class period." Woojin informed Chan.
Chan groaned. Of course the short boy was hanging out with the other Aussie.
"What about Jisung?" Chan asked, hoping that at least one of his teammates was being productive. Although, this was Jisung they were talking about so Chan didn't want to get his hopes up.
"He was in Studio A with Minho, but it seemed like they were both working. Jisung was in the recording booth and Minho was watching him while writing down lyrics."
"Watch, that song's gonna be about Jisung since Jisung was acting as his muse." Chan said with a snort.
"What do you mean, acting? Jisung is his muse. Vice versa." Woojin tittered.
"Valid point." Chan admitted.
"They were bickering for while though. Minho wanted to listen through the headphones linked to the sound booth but Jisung wasn't having it. He said wanted Minho to wait until the final product was finished to listen." Woojin explained.
"Ah." Chan said, looking up as they neared the classroom.
Woojin opened the door, walking in the room, not noticing that their hands were still linked.
Chan noticed though. He immediately let go of Woojin's hand the moment he felt his classmates eyes on them.
One girl near the front scoffed at the sight.
"Can you believe that? Why is someone as hot as Woojin wasting his time on that?" She said, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
Chan ignored her comment, making his way to his seat which was unfortunately two desks away from the rude girl and her friends.
"I know right? Chan's so needy; it's like he always has to have Woojin by his side." One of her friends answered.
"Ew, you know his name? Why would you learn the name of someone so talentless?" The first girl said snobbily.
Unbeknownst to the group of girls, Woojin had been listening the whole time. Each one of their comments made him angrier by the second, but the last comment was what pushed him over the edge.
He stormed over to their desks, fixing the four of them with an icy glare.
"As your TA, I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in a class setting. I will be filing a report on the three of you, so expect to have detention for the next four months."
The ringleader scoffed.
"You can't do that. My father's rich so he can just pay the school to get me out of detention." She said with a smug smile painted on her face.
"So you're saying that your father will condone your behavior? Do you really think that your father would be okay with you telling a fellow student that he is talentless and undeserving of acknowledgment from his classmates?" Woojin asked the girl, hardening his glare.
"My father doesn't care what I do, as long as I don't go against his morals." The girl said, already looking uninterested in this conversation.
"Why don't you call your father right now and see what he says." Woojin said, daring the girl to do so.
She rolled her eyes, taking out her phone and dialing his number.
"Hi daddy, there's someone who wants to talk to you." The girl said (in a fake ass voice might I add), holding her phone up to her ear.
"Of course daddy, I love you mwah." She said in response to something her father had said before handing the phone over to Woojin.
"Hello, Sir. My name is Kim Woojin, I am Professor Jinyoung's student aid."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kim. I'm Mr. Choi. What seems to be the problem?" The girl's father, Mr. Choi, asked.
"Yes, I'd like to inform you that your daughter seems to be picking on one of my students. I hope you know that this behavior is completely unacceptable in this classroom. I'm not sure what has brought her to say rude comments such as 'why does the TA waste his time on that' and 'no one should know the name of such a talentless person' but I am quite certain that you did not raise her to say such things. Am I wrong?" Woojin explained.
"Can you hand the phone back to my daughter for a minute?" Mr. Choi asked in a strained voice.
"Sure Mr. Choi." Woojin said, holding out the phone for the girl to take.
The girl and her father exchanged a few words before the girl put the phone on speaker.
"There it's on speaker now." the girl huffed.
"Good. Now, Jeongsuk why in the world would you say suck horrible things to one of your classmates?" Her dad questioned in a stern tone.
"You don't understand, daddy! He's so annoying and ugly. How could I not insult him?" Jeongsuk whined.
Chan had to hold back his tears at that point. He felt Woojin rub his back in a comforting manner and Jeongsuk looked at them in disgust.
"Plus I think he's gay." She continued, saying the word gay as if it was an insult.
Chan couldn't take it anymore. He shot up from his desk running out of the room, trying to conceal the tears trailing down his cheeks.
The girl laughed as she watched Chan run off.
"What a baby!" She cackled, unaware that the receiver was still on.
"Jeongsuk Choi. What the actual hell is wrong with you?" A booming voice came from the receiver.
"What do you mean dad? Everyone knows that it's a sin to be gay." She said mockingly.
"It is not a sin to love someone, no matter what gender they are. If you cannot accept that then you are no longer my daughter." Mr. Choi said, enraged by his daughter's words.
"Fine by me. I never like you anyway." Jeongsuk sneered.
"Guess who doesn't have access to our bank account anymore? Oh! It's you." Her father said in mock surprise.
"Revoke my access. I don't care. I'll just have mom add me back to the family plan." Jeongsuk said.
"I know for a fact that your mother will not approve of this rotten mindset you have. Where did you even get this homophobic attitude from? It's wrong and cruel." Mr. Choi said, questioning where he went wrong.
"Unlike you fucktards I know right from wrong. I never want to speak to you again!" Jeongsuk shrieked, hanging up the phone.
"Ms. Choi! Detention! I will not tolerate loud noises or profanity in my classroom." Professor Jinyoung said, removing his eye mask.
"I'll have Woojin write you a detention slip for the next two weeks." The professor said, looking around for his TA. Woojin was nowhere to be found. He had run after Chan.
Isabella's typo of the day: Instead of office chair I typed oofice chair
Anyways it really hurt to write everything Jeongsuk was saying
I actually feel sick to my stomach