Fighting for concert tickets had always felt like going to war and knowing that there are a seventy five percent you'll die as a martyr. Which means that you have to come prepared. Therefore, having another pair of hands were always a nicely added weapon. Two is better than one. Three actually, having to add San.
There really was no other choice when I drag him back into the living room once his headache had gotten better. I tell him to stay put on the foot of the couch while I get my laptop and my tablet and Yeosang's laptop he had brought yesterday.
Organising them neatly on top of the coffee table, I can feel San's curious eyes on my neck.
"So what's the deal with this again?" he asks after a few moments of silent questioning.
"B-TEEZ, darling," I mumble, sparing him a glance before continuing to set the devices up.
Next to me, San tilts his head. "You mean the one that Seonghwa hyung's been trying to get tickets to?"
"Yeah," I simply reply, "did you know about him and that thirteen year-old or something at the internet cafe?"
The boy shrugs. "Hyung's never really told me about these things... B-TEEZ is kind of a guilty pleasure for him," San snickers at the thought, "I only just found out like a couple of months ago."
"But Wooyoung knows?"
San snorts. "Seonghwa hyung never trusts me with anything — it doesn't really surprise me if Woo knows first."
"That's just..."
"I know," but San shoots me a dimpled smile, looking down at the iPad I gave him. He turns it around, observing it the device quietly and hums.
"Ooohh nice... I like the case."
Of course he does, purple is his favourite colour.
I grin at him, unlocking it with my fingerprint. "Open safari and type in the ticketing web," I tell him before shuffling further to log on to Yeosang's laptop.
San doesn't say anything. I take his silence as a yes, that's why I pay no mind. So I move on to actually getting Yeosang awake by stuffing a cookie from the jar in his mouth. At first, he doesn't budge, but slowly, his jaw moves and starts chewing. That's when he sits up slowly, gulping down on the food and giving me dagger eyes.
"How do you know I was dreaming about cookies?" he squints at me suspiciously.
I giggle, "you always dream about food, Sang, now come on! I need to brief you guys in on what's going to happen."
My hands pull Yeosang to sit on the floor with us. He wiggles in his seat, slumping against the foot of the couch lazily and slides his finger over the mouse-pad on his laptop. "Okay. What now?"
"Alright so, you two already know that B-TEEZ concert tickets are going to be on sale this afternoon," I glance at the clock, "half an hour, more like. You two are going to be little angels and help me out because from what I heard, tickets sell out really, really quickly."
"Who knows, maybe one of you two might actually get through and we can watch together!"
Yeosang makes a face. "I'm not going to see B-TEEZ with you."
I stick my tongue out at him. "Whatever," I turn slightly to drape my arm around San's shoulders, "if you do get it and you don't come Sanie will be glad to take it because he's my best friend."
"Right, San?"
Yeosang and I make a curious hum when San stays silent. Which is pretty weird, if you'd ask any of us. San is never quiet. He's the spitting image of loud and bright and the perfect definition of not being able to sit still. Instead, it's as if he didn't hear us at all.
"San?" Yeosang tries calling him.
We both turn to look at him.
San finally feels our gazes on him by the way he tears his eyes from the screen of my iPad and quickly presses on the safari app. "Yes?"
But I saw what he'd been staring at.
I didn't realise my music app was open. I don't remember opening it, but Yeosang must've played around with it and didn't close it when we headed out yesterday. It was the second track — Hi, Are You Alone? — and it stopped playing near the middle.
San's face frowns, avoiding each of our eyes. Yeosang must've caught something he did as he backs away a little, keeping to himself by the couch and searches up the ticketing website by himself.
"Seonghwa hyung made you a song?" his voice comes out quiet.
"Yes? Is there something wrong?"
San shakes his head, "no, no, nothing. I'm just saying — that's nice. He made one for me too, back when I was in like, tenth grade or something. About how I was a little brat and that I annoyed him a lot."
Oh, I thought it's something else.
I bring myself to chuckle at what he mentioned, amused.
The corners of San's lips twitch up a little. "I remember him recording it in the corner of the room one time we were at our grandma's house," he continues, "I pissed him off a lot that day. He took our aunt's audio recorder and ukulele. The next thing I knew, the song the recorder played was of how I was annoying and that when he gets rich and famous, I need to be his personal assistant or something so he can boss me around."
"You need to watch out then, looks like he's already on his way," I comment to which San twists his face mockingly at.
His facial expression changes immediately, now back to his bright and bubbly self.
"So, about that concert ticket...? What seat do you have in mind?"
Yeosang heads home first. His mum called him over the phone ealier, saying that he hasn't fed Alfred the fish in over a day and that she wont be responsible if he died. Now, Yeosang takes goldfishes very, very seriously. That's why he had a face of horror when his mum (in her motherly lying tone) told him that Alfred is already almost floating on its side.
After he's left, I can cry. Of happiness. And finally let what happened sink in.
I come back into the living room almost jumping up and down. The screen of my laptop is still shining in full brightness and with all its glory, the words 'Thank You for Your Purchase' written in big blocky letters in the center.
"Aaaah!!!! Saniee!!!!" I let myself flop on the couch, still high in ecstasy.
"I still can't believe I'm going to see them... live!"
San looks overwhelmed. Which is highly understandable — I was almost screaming into San's and Yeosang's ears to hurry up and pick whichever seat is available before the blues all turn to greys (while also trying to concentrate on getting the best seats as well).
He had his head rested on his arm, tilted to shoot me a glare. His blonde hair is a tiny bit tousled. San pulled them in distress earlier when I yelled a little too loud (it's not like he's never made me near deaf before). San rolls his wrist, groaning and sits up properly.
My mind goes back to what happened hardly half an hour earlier. Yeosang on my right, San on my left and when the clock stroke 3 in the afternoon, my finger pressed on the refresh button and the war started. "San, press harder!" I had yelled, looking at him through the corners of my eyes.
"OKAY OKAY OKAY!!" he yelled back, almost jabbing his fingers on to the screen and the clear blue dots on the screen quickly and very rapidly turned into grey.
"This is too fast!" Yeosang complained next to me, giving up.
"Hold on, hold on, I think I got it!" San muttered under his breath, and as I lost all the seats on my screen, San managed to click on one and I swear, I almost hugged him right then and there.
The blonde cocks his head. "Yeah, all thanks to me," he pouts, shoving his right hand in my face. "Look at it, it's lifeless."
I wrap my fingers around his wrist, bringing his hand down from my face. "What do you want me to do with it? Kiss it better?" I snort, "you're so childish."
For a second there, San almost choked on air. I feel him retracting his hand back (that of which is unsuccessful) and I rub little circles on his wrist instead. To be fair, my hands are hurting too and my eyes were a bit crossed by the time it was over but San did me a favour already so I ignore the soreness on my wrist.
"Thanks."
"It's about time you finally say thanks anyways," San huffs. "You're welcome."
"Who will you go there with, now that you got your ticket?"
"Dunno," I tell him honestly, my thumb tracing the heels of his palm. My fingers play around with the thin black bracelet he has on mindlessly. I feel his eyes on his wrist, watching my fingers. "I'll probably go with some of my moots from Twitter?"
The blonde nods carefully, as if processing what I've said into his head. Then he bites the inside of his cheek, tilting his head a little as his brows furrow — he's restraining himself from saying anything.
"What?"
"What what?" he questions, playing innocent.
I squint my eyes at him. "You were about to say something."
San blinks, bright eyes showing that he's been caught. I know him, San was easy to read. Everything San thinks of is almost projected on to his forehead. You can tell what he's feeling by looking at his eyebrows, his eyes and the way his nose scrunches. He was an open book, really. It was easier since he almost always speaks his mind and when he doesn't, you know he's holding back.
"Fucking psychic," he mumbles under his breath.
My right brow raises expectantly.
"What about Seonghwa hyung?" San finally asks.
His hand tenses in my grasp, so I uncurl his fingers, smoothing them out flat against my hand. "Huh, what about that old grandpa?" I question, turning to lie on my back and hold his hand above my face, spreading his fingers apart under the living room lights.
"He's supposed to go there too, right?" San chortles a laugh, "unless another thirteen year-old stole his ticket again."
"Oh he was determined to get it this year."
"Perfect, why don't you go with him, then? You guys are practically dating now, right? Now that you kissed and everything?"
At that, I throw his hand to his face, making him screech in pain as he slaps his own face. I give him a look, you sound ridiculous, my eyes say. The heat creeping up my neck doesn't stop, though. It's either San chooses to ignore it or I'm just too good at hiding my blushes as he doesn't push about the rosy colour of my ears.
"What are you saying, he's in a different section," is all I say after a while.
But like I said, Choi San was an open book, a Powerpoint slide on a projector, a cheat sheet on the palm of your hand. I find myself staring at his eyes often. Choi San was an emotional person — you can see every bit of his feelings rush through the swirls of his irises. Although they're sometimes hard to understand, anyone could tell he was feeling a lot.
One of them was, of course, the look of mischief he has whenever he teases me.
"You didn't deny that you two are 'practically dating'," San wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.
"I—"
I stop my sentence as San smirks mockingly.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love San, I really do. He's a sweetheart most of the time; soft, baby-like, extremely loud and full of ear-splitting screeches and squeals. He and I got close easily, Hyekyung likes him almost as much as she does like Seonghwa... all in all, Choi San could easily pass as one of my closest friends.
However, San also comes with his incredibly annoying, mischievous nature and the face he's making me down makes me want to shove his head down a toilet.
"AHA!" he jumps up, pointing his finger at me. "Ooooh is that a flustered blush?"
San giggles in glee, enjoying whatever face I had on right now. Honestly, I don't even know what expression I'm wearing but what I do know is that all I wish is to throw a pillow at San, wishing it would land on his face.
So I do.
He squeals, running away from me as I pick the pillow back up and chase him down the hallway. Something else flashes when his laughs didn't reach his eyes for a split second, but he's already turned around before I could take a closer look.
"Hyeshin and Seonghwa hyung, sitting on a tree," he sing-songs, leaping over a book on the floor as he turns to the kitchen, "k-i-s-s-i-n— oW!!!"
San bumps his left shoulder on the corner and I stop in my tracks, wincing at the second-hand pain he feels. Honeslty, that would hurt.
"Ooh," I say lowly. I swear, I can almost feel it jabbing my shoulder joints.
When San waddles back in to the living room, I burst into a fit of laughter, hugging him tightly from behind and say that he needs to be careful the next time.
"It's what you get — instant karma," it's my turn to tease him now.
He blows a fallen strand of hair out of his face, "yeah but at least you didn't deny it!"
San's eyes glint a bright gold under the light, glimmering almost, and I brace myself for more teasing from him. Thoughts of the upcoming concert is the least of my concern now, I'm too busy formulating Choi San's slow and agonising death (insert creepy colon and close bracket smile emoji, ":)").
There's a bright side to everything though. I guess this one's is at least he wasn't as quiet as earlier.
+
san is chaos, chaos is san:)
i hope you enjoyed this (filler) chapter oHO after this, things will start to happen yEET and so uhhhh tell ur friends to stay safe, stay at home, be responsible, don't get sick, wash your hands and like plsplspls stay hydrated❣ oh and eat noodles:)