Chapter Text
[...]
Minho meets Chan's eyes and suddenly the air gets so heavy Chan thinks it's going to crush them both. He just stares, as if there was nothing weird at all with what he just said, as if meeting his rock band leader in the shady massage parlor he works at was something Minho experiences everyday.
If Chan looked closer and hard enough he could see the cracks in Minho's aloof facade: how rigid he's standing, how pink his ears have turned, how he looks ready to escape any second and he's holding himself down out of sheer will. However Chan is just as nervous, his brain is thinking everything and nothing all at once and his body is sending signals to all the wrong places.
The only noise in the room - tiny but so clean and pristine it almost puts Chan off- is the soft buzzing of the cooler in a corner. It seems to fit in the whole vibe of the massage parlor. The mat-like futon elevated on a small wooden structure, the mysterious but quite obvious massage oil bottles next to it. It’s exactly what the coupon had promised, except for Minho. The more Chan looks at him, the more it feels like he’s going to blink and Minho will turn into dust before his eyes.
So he does, he blinks, but nothing really happens.
Instead, Minho tilts his head, waiting for Chan to reply and as he does that the collar of his robe opens up just enough to show his shoulder and neck. His skin looks soft, and judging from slight goosebumps he must be cold or terrified.
Chan swallows, then lowers his head to drag his palm down his face. He can't do this, he just can't. “Look, no, maybe it’s best if I…”
“Come on, take that shirt off, I said” Minho repeats once more at Chan's hesitation. “We have a lot of time left.”
Chan sighs.
Maybe had it been anyone else he would've left for real, coupon or not. Maybe, in reality he doesn't care about the coupon at all. But Chan has always been weak when it comes to pretty things, so he exhales and his hand reaches for the hem of his own top.
《《 rewind
Track 01 - play
In retrospect, it all starts with Jisung’s stupid steamed buns, after the fiasco at Club Steel Face and Woojin leaving Marineford for good. Chan had felt responsible for what had happened at first, and if it hadn’t been for Changbin and Felix’s extensive intervention sessions, Chan would have canceled all their remaining gigs and put an end to the life of Marineford altogether.
Instead, three months and a few gigs after without a lead singer Chan’s band, the Marineford, are ready to welcome a temporary lead singer so that they can fulfill the contracts with the gigs they already planned for the following six months. Then, Chan thinks he'll be ready to say goodbye to the band he started with Jisung when he was only twenty, and start a new chapter.
Or that’s what he likes to tell himself anyway.
“So, what do we know about this guy?” Jisung asks halfway through his meat and veggies steamed bun. He speaks with his cheeks full and crinkled up eyes, which never fails to remind Chan that Jisung could ask him anything, and Chan would just do it.
They, that is Chan and Jisung, are sitting under a canopy structure in the main plaza of the university where Jisung is majoring in software engineering. Chan kinda got himself dragged there on the promise of getting a steamed bun together from the stall near the main gate of Jisung’s university and Chan’s alma mater, but of course they ended up chatting like they do sometimes, when Jisung has time in between classes.
It’s the start of a new semester, which means the school is crowded—lots of students rushing from one building, carrying books in their bags despite the warm summer-like weather. It’s supposed to be the start of autumn, but the last dregs of summer burn hot on the back of Chan’s neck, still darkened from the usual summer tan.
“I’m not sure I know much at all,” Chan responds, unsure.
After Woojin left the band (or well, was gently invited to leave) Chan had been adamant about him, Jisung and Seungmin handling the main singing for the majority of Marineford’s music, which so far worked great for their genre. However, just a couple of weeks prior, Seungmin had successfully convinced Chan to find a sub at least temporarily, and when asked if he had someone in mind, that had turned out to be the case.
“I just know he’s a guy from Seungmin’s academy, and apparently they have the same teacher. I looked him up, but he doesn’t seem to have a presence on social media” he explains.
The only picture he’d been able to find on Lee Minho’s social media was a close up of a fat orange cat. Nothing else. The profile barely had the guy’s name on it, and Chan had only been sure it was the right account because Seungmin told him so.
“I don’t think Seungmin would recommend someone he isn’t sure about, don’t you think?”
Chan hums, and just looks as Jisung eats up the last piece of steamed bun.
In reality, he’s the one who’s not sure: about Marineford, about letting some unknown guy join the band he cherished for the past five years, about the future of the band, about his.
“Are you not gonna eat yours, Hyung?” Jisung asks, and Chan lets go of the gloomy thoughts threatening to fill up his head like it usually happens when he’s anxious about something.
He shakes his head, lifting the paper bag a little. “Nah. Hopefully the newcomer likes steamed buns”.
Jisung shrugs, then he stretches in his white tee and sweatpants until everyone can see his belly button. After he’s satisfied, he curls up like a bug with the weirdest noise. “We should head out to the Garage soon, shouldn’t we?”
Chan just stares, then he lets out a little huff. “You’re such a weirdo, Jisung-ah.”
Jisung’s eyes go wide, but Chan doesn’t give him the time to whine about it.
“Assuming our new sub is not late, I guess we should be going now” Chan suggests, throwing his phone a glance. Considering Changbin is usually early to rehearsals, chances are he’s already waiting for them.
Chan stands up, then offers Jisung a hand a pulls him towards himself. They start walking towards Chan’s studio or “the garage” as they call it, going towards the university back gate, and Chan hopes very intensely that by the time they get there they’re not gonna smell like sweat and disgust.
“Hyung you know what?” Jisung starts, as casual and as intentional as he can be. “You’re calling this guy our new sub already, but we haven’t even met him yet.”
Chan pauses, scolding himself internally. “Right, I hadn’t even noticed.”
And he hadn’t, just like he hadn’t noticed he didn’t really want his band to be done for good.
-
The Garage is not really a garage, but a studio Chan’s parents rented for him when he started university and he’s kept paying to use it with the band. Chan started to call it the garage as a joke in reference to the garage rock genre, but he’d never actually thought it would stick as the nickname for his band’s hideout. The garage wasn’t sound proofed at first, but Changbin, Jisung and Chan’s dad who’d come all the way from Sydney for vacation contributed to tailor the little studio to the needs of Marineford. Or well, to the needs of whatever their little group was before Marineford became a thing, really.
The studio with all their equipment along with the trash Jisung leaves around and the comfy sofa Changbin brought to the studio with his parents has seen them all grow in the past few years and of course, has seen the birth of Marineford itself.
Chan was always a bit wary when inviting people to the Garage, which is why only a handful of his friends outside of the band have seen it. It’s for this reason that opening the door to a stranger sitting on their sofa throws Chan off for a very brief instant. Of course, theoretically he knows the stranger is supposed to be their new sub, but he’s taken aback nonetheless.
The stranger looks back at him, then raises a hand in greeting.
He’s pretty, with honey blond hair and a black leather jacket over a white tee and jeans. Chan is not sure what to make of him yet, but before his brain can even try to form an opinion Seungmin emerges from the bathroom to save the situation.
“Hi hyung, this is Lee Minho hyung that I told you about. He’s come for his… I guess audition? Although I told him he’s in already”.
Chan snorts at Seungmin’s introduction and he keeps smiling as he walks inside the studio and offers a little bow to the stranger, Lee Minho.
“Well, I mean we’re desperate for a singer, that’s true, but he does have to know how to hold a tune before we let him in, don’t we Seungmin-ah?”
Lee Minho bows back, and he’s smiling but he looks just slightly offended when he speaks again. “I’m pretty sure I know how to hold a tune. But feel free to test me first, of course”. When he straightens up again, he looks Chan straight in the eyes as if he’s waiting for him to doubt his abilities again.
Chan, however, doesn’t. He really wants this to work, and he trusts Seungmin enough to believe he wouldn’t bring someone without a speck of talent into their group, knowing how much of a perfectionist Chan is. So when Minho meets his eyes, Chan just crinkles his in a welcoming smile and offers him the bag with the two steamed buns Jisung and him had bought near the university gate.
“This is test number one. Do you like steamed buns, Lee Minho?”
Minho stares at the bag, then he raises his eyes to meet Chan’s again, as if waiting for something else to happen. It doesn’t, so Chan can physically see him relax as he takes the bag with both hands.
“Yeah, I do. You didn’t have to”.
Jisung opens the door to the studio right that moment, bumping the doorframe with his backpack while he holds one of those papico ice creams in his mouth. “Hello” he says, though it sounds more like a weird alien sound than an actual greeting. Behind him, Changbin holds the door open and lets himself in. He’s on the phone talking to someone (and Chan can easily guess who that someone is), so he only greets them all with a quick nod of his head before he goes back to humming into the phone.
“Everyone is here it seems,” Seungmin comments, stopping next to Minho and snooping into the bag as he opens it to fish out one of the buns. “Hyung, should you snack before rehearsing?”
“I’m sure it’ll be-” Chan starts rebuking, already feeling bad for not thinking about that detail. Maybe a singer wouldn’t want to eat steamed buns before a rehearsal, but Minho speaks before he can finish.
“Are you doubting my abilities, Seungmin-ah? Or is it just that you’d rather eat these?”
Chan has rarely seen someone aside from Changbin making Seungmin do that ick face, but somehow Minho managed in less than ten minutes. He’s teasing in a way that lets some playfulness mixed with a defiance completely dominate his features. Chan finds it amusing, and he lets his eyes linger a little more than he should.
“Seungmin-ah, don’t you dare eat those buns. Channie hyung especially bought them to bribe him. Then in a few months from now we’ll ask him if the buns worked!” Jisung says, sitting on the sofa with his ice cream.
The atmosphere is very relaxed, and Chan can tell that both Jisung and Seungmin are trying their best to make Minho feel at ease. Judging by the way the boy is laughing, Chan would say it’s probably effective.
Changbin hangs up the phone, turns around and finally greets Minho properly. “Sorry for not doing that when I arrived, but someone had decided to have a lover quarrel about imaginary people just before rehearsal”.
Minho seems confused, but he simply nods and goes along with it.
“It’s fine” he reassures. “I’ve heard a lot about the amazing bassist, so I’m looking forward to seeing you perform actually”.
It takes Changbin exactly three seconds to register what’s being told to him being a compliment and blush, while chortling and almost choking on his own laughter.
“Thank you, I…Eheh I guess I’m looking forward to the performance as well”.
Chan observes the two interact, and wonders if Hyunjin was really only jealous of imaginary people, or whether these people were real and living. He lets that thought go fast, then he clears his throat to get Minho’s attention.
“We’re missing just one person now and then I think we can try a couple of songs and see how you feel about … us, I guess”.
Minho nods, and suddenly Chan can see him go a little rigid.
He meets Chan’s eyes very briefly before avoiding them again. Whether he’s just shy or uncomfortable, Chan can’t tell but he hopes Minho can open up more when performing.
-
Minho definitely opens up more when performing.
After Felix arrives a few minutes later and he and Minho realize they know each other from the coffee shop where Minho used to work, they take their positions and they start rehearsing.
Chan is not sure what he expected exactly from this guy who had never sang with them before, but for sure it wasn’t that Minho would seamlessly blend in with the band. He expected some clash to happen, especially thinking back to the amount of time he and Woojin had fought about the way they wanted to interpret their songs.
Instead, Minho easily adapts.
The first song they perform is Grand Line, one of the earliest songs 3racha, as in Chan, Changbin and Jisung made together. Not all their song titles were supposed to be One Piece themed like the name they chose for their band, of course, but they kinda wanted the first one to be.
Chan doesn’t know if Minho has even read the manga the three of them were obsessed with as teenagers and still in love with as adults, he doesn’t know if Minho’s aware of the meaning behind their band’s name and some of their songs lyrics, but if he doesn’t, he’s very damn good.
His voice explodes in the Garage in a way that is both pleasant to hear and incredibly hyping. It’s very different from Woojin’s voice and it gives Grand Line a whole different color. Minho doesn’t try to imitate their previous singer, instead it’s like he’s making the song his. Along with Changbin’s steady bass and Seungmin’s guidance at the drums, the song takes shape around Minho’s voice and Chan’s guitar. Jisung’s keyboard and Felix’s synthesizer just wrap it up in a pretty bow.
Even in the parts where Chan had the hardest time with Woojin in the past, Minho hesitates just enough for everyone to know that he’s trying to figure out a way around his inexperience, but he quickly manages to finds his way back into harmony with the rest of the band.
Chan is speechless. He’s pretty sure he’s gotten a couple of notes wrong, too busy staring at this guy basically shattering whatever Marineford had done with their previous singer, and resurrecting the band with a whole new sound. And if being good at what he does wasn’t enough, Minho looks dazzling as he does it.
At some point, by the end of the song, he must feel Chan’s gaze on himself because he searches for Chan’s eyes. He doesn’t smile, too immersed into the song, but Chan swears he’s never been more captivated in his life.
-
“What the hell was that?!” Hyunjin comments upon entering with takeout in one hand and the other holding the door. He buzzed his hair a while before, and while it somehow sharpened his appearance, he still looks like his usual sweet self to Chan.
“Who was that?” Hyunjin asks again, this time closing the door behind him.
He’s met with silence, mostly because Chan and the rest of Marineford are speechless just as Minho is smiling both smug and amused at their reaction. The smugness disappears after he turns around and sees Jisung ready to drop his jaw to the floor.
“Come on, it wasn’t even that good!”
“No, you don’t get it Hyung. Smooth rehearsals isn’t something that happens often to us. Or used to,” Seungmin cuts in before the rest can speak.
Minho waves a hand in dismissal, his ears getting slightly red, but Hyunjin insists.
“That was you? Aren’t you supposed to be new to the group? Are you a fanboy or something? That was insane!”
Minho murmurs something Chan can’t hear, but sounds something akin to ‘nonsense’. Chan doesn’t know what to make of it: whether Lee Minho was a Marineford fanboy or not, he definitely prepared for this first encounter and that’s very admirable. Another thing that is obvious, is that Lee Minho doesn’t do very well with praise.
Ultimately the boy turns to meet Chan’s eyes, and Chan has to hope his surprise and complete amazement don’t show too directly onto his face. Considering Minho’s ears get even redder, Chan has to assume he failed to conceal.
“That was great” Chan says immediately, still holding onto his guitar. “Welcome to Marineford, if you’ll have us.” He wonders for a moment if he’s sounding too enthusiastic, but everyone else erupts in a common cheer immediately.
Minho tries really hard to keep this pouty almost-smile in response to everyone’s enthusiasm, his eyes crinkle a little and despite what he replies immediately after, he sounds so very happy it’s endearing. “Well, if I really have to…”
“Thank god. Our songs just sound better with the parts shared with a lead vocalist” Changbin offers immediately, leaving his bass on the holder and getting closer to Hyunjin. “Not that we can’t sing, but you know I feel like we were missing something.” A small pause, and his attention is fully on Hyunjin.
“Hi baby”, he greets, which is when Chan gets distracted by the new addition to his band.
Minho has removed his leather jacket and he’s wearing a white t-shirt with a silly print of a black cat playing the drums.
“Is he the person who was mad about imaginary people?” Minho asks Chan as he moves a couple of steps closer.
Chan nods, “Yeah, but that happens often and they usually make up quite quickly. You’d think Changbinnie is the doormat of the couple but we all think they’re equally like that.”
Minho hums in understanding, which has Chan panic for a moment because they’re still Koreans in Korea and you never know how people react to sudden gay. However Minho doesn’t comment any more, and if anything he steals a couple of glances from the couple every now and then.
They rehearse a few more songs, Hyunjin sprawled on the sofa just looking at them. The songs are less known than Grand Line. Which means Marineford has performed a lot less than the first they went for, but Minho sings those pretty well too considering it should be his first time even listening to them. By the time they’re done performing, Chan really starts to wonder if Minho isn’t a secret fan or something like Hyunjin had suggested.
Still, finally after months of not being sure where to go with his band, Chan finally feels relieved and hopeful for the future. As he closes the studio and they all go their separate ways, he shares some small talk with Minho. Nothing extreme, but it’s pleasant anyway.
The university area is bustling with life being the start of the semester and a weekend, so the restaurants are full and students walk in pairs in the streets with their ever present ice americano.
“Is there anything specific you’d like me to adjust, for the performance I mean?” Minho asks with just a shadow of concern in his voice. It’s barely there, but Chan can sense it anyway, just like he can sense Minho is asking because he has all the intention to adjust.
Chan thinks about it, then shakes his head. “I have no complaints so far, but I’m sure something will come up. Also, the same goes for you. If you think we should change something about our performances, we’ll do our best to talk through it.”
Minho stops in his tracks for a moment, just looking at Chan with the corner of his eyes. “You know, the way the others described you I expected you to be a lot more scary.”
Chan chortles in the high collar of his zip up jacket at that. “Yeah…I’ve been like that. But also I like to do my best for them. They do have to call me hyung though. No Chris for them.”
Minho snorts, “Yeah that’s exactly what they were talking about, and your unhealthy overworking habits.”
Around them, the rest of the band is split in two more groups and each of them seem to be carrying out a different conversation. That’s Chan’s cue to stop for a moment and look at Minho in a mixture of surprise and apology.
“Wait, so that’s why you knew all the songs? It’s not because you’re a fan but because you were afraid I would say no if you didn’t know them?”
Minho hums, as if thinking about it, then puts his hands in his pockets and looks up at the evening sky as he walks. “Sort of? Yes and no. I have heard about the band before. I actually saw you guys perform once, a long time ago.”
“You did?”
“I did…” A small pause follows, as if Minho is not sure he should talk about it, but then he gives in. “It was at Paradise Dust, ages ago. I wasn’t even that much into singing back then. But yeah, I guess I wanted to do well and Seungmin made you sound kinda strict.”
Chan sighs, “Well, you probably didn’t have to do all of that but you made our songs sound great, so I’m grateful you did”.
“Whatever you say” Minho smiles, and then adds with the tiniest voice “..Bang Chan.”
Chan doesn’t ask Minho to call him hyung, especially not in the middle of the street. Plus, the guy made his name sound so silly he ends up kinda liking it. So he just chuckles as they walk in silence, side by side.
Minho says goodbye to the group at the subway stop. He lives a couple of stops from university with his grandma, but apparently tonight he’s working. He still has his small steamed bun paper bag, and Chan wonders if they’re not too cold now. About the job, instead, Chan doesn’t think much of it, because he works too, not too far from the university, in a small import company. In retrospect, he should’ve probably thought about it twice. Instead he doesn’t, his eyes fixed on the small paper bag and Minho’s hand curled around it.
-
It’s always hard for Chan to turn down offers for hoesik, aka when your boss invites everyone for a meal after working hours. It’s hard because while the boss is generally accommodating, he’s also older than Chan and so are all of his colleagues, and while Chan could play the foreigner card and has done so multiple times, he can’t do it for every single hoesik of the year.
It’s for this reason that he finds himself sitting in a small barbecue place with three of his colleagues and his already tipsy boss. It’s a Friday evening, so the place is packed with people who are in a similar situation to Chan and are awkwardly interacting with their half drunk bosses or sunbaes.
“I’ve heard you’re in a band, Chris?”
It’s Hanbin sunbae who asks, leaning closer to Chan like they’ve been friends forever. His breath stinks of soju and cigarettes, but Chan smiles like he always does because that’s what you do when you need a job. He doesn’t like him much. Hanbin Sunbae asks uncomfortable questions and he’s one of those who think companies are discriminating against men over feminist women.
Right now, of course he’s not asking Chan about the band out of curiosity. He’s trying to pry.
“Yeah, I’ve been in one for a while. We’re not big or anything, of course”.
They are, kinda big. They have their own channel on music streaming platforms and quite a lot of views, but he won’t be telling that to Hanbin sunbae.
“Must be hard work, isn’t it? I mean, you also work for us. Is it a cover band?”
Chan shrugs, moving the grilled meat with his chopsticks in his rice bowl. The other two colleagues, Miho and Sarah tune in, waiting for Chan’s response.
“It’s fine, really. Everyone works hard, after all. No, we’re not a cover band. We make our own songs, some of them I’ve made myself. Some, my bandmates produced them. Sometimes we all work together”.
“Actually, I’ve been to one of their gigs! They’re super good. It was a while ago, though. When’s your next live show, Chris?” Sarah asks enthusiastically.
Chan remembers inviting her to one of Marineford’s shows, but he never knew she’d actually showed up. He smiles, genuinely this time, because Sarah is nice and she bakes for the whole company sometimes.
“We’ve recently changed singer, so it’ll be a little while but I’m sure we won’t disappoint”.
“Wow man, isn’t it hard when bands change singers? I’ve heard recently with Linkin Park it was a mess because they called a woman to replace that dead singer…”
Chan tries really hard to hold back a sigh here, but in the end he must sound a bit annoyed when he speaks again.
“I’ve heard about Linkin Park, but we’re fine. Our new lead singer is very good and matches with the band’s vibe very well.”
“And you’re all guys, aren’t you?” Miho asks. “Handsome?”
“Careful Chris, or she’ll ask you to introduce her to someone!” This time Chan’s boss intrudes into the conversation and Chan notices Miho blush clearly before she sits back in her stool.
“It was just a question…” She says, looking away.
Chan laughs awkwardly at that, downing the shot of soju the boss pours him so that they can forget about the conversation about the band and move onto something else. However, Hanbin clearly doesn’t have the same idea.
“By the way, Chan-ah…”.
He lowers his voice, this time really leaning closer to Chan as if to reveal top secret info. Chan just knows in his gut it won’t be anything interesting, but he pretends to listen and hopes that it’s quick and painless.
“You know, my sister has opened this new establishment. It’s a spa kinda thing, they’re very good.”
He searches for Chan’s eyes, as if to make sure he’s listening, then he takes something out of his pocket. They look like tickets, or coupons like the ones the ladies outside the subway try to give passersby.
“Your sister?” Chan didn’t even know Hanbin had a sister, he never mentioned her. “What kind of spa?”
“Just the regular massage thing. She’s been asking me to promote them since they’re quite new, and since I know how stressed you are with the band and work and everything I thought…”
He hands Chan a couple of the coupon slips, and not knowing exactly how to reject him, Chan takes them. He can probably just trash them when he’s home, if he feels like it.
“I’ll be waiting for your review later. So I can tell my sister, of course.”
This time, when Hanbin smiles, Chan doubts once again this sister even exists. The coupons say Periwinkle Land, which by itself is kinda shady, but Chan finds even more suspicious considering it’s Hanbin sunbae who so gently offered them.
After the coupons are securely in Chan’s pocket, Hanbin seems to look around as if to make sure the rest of the team didn’t see their interaction. Chan doesn’t think much of it, which in retrospect is a bad habit of his. He should think much of things, especially when it comes to people giving him free tickets for newly opened establishments, but this time he doesn’t, and he forgets about the tickets until two weeks later.
-
It’s a few days after that first rehearsal that Chan sees Minho again.
It’s a weird encounter because it’s not planned, and has Chan seeing Minho kicking one of the washing machines in the laundromat as he enters it.
He startles and so does Minho, who goes into an automatic 90 degrees bow of shame as soon as he sees someone enter. Then he slowly looks up, red like a chilli pepper, and if possible he looks even more embarrassed when he zeroes on the person who just entered the laundromat: it’s Chan.
“Hi, Minho?” Chan tries, tentative. He’s holding his bag of laundry in one hand and slightly waving the other.
Minho’s greeting is a very small “hi”. It’s only after that he adds “I didn’t know it was you.”
He looks like he just came back from the gym or rolled to do his laundry directly from the comfort of his couch because Chan is pretty sure his t-shirt is vaguely dirty and looks a little frayed. He’s also wearing flip flops with socks, which Chan also finds very amusing because there are little crayon shin chan on the tips of his toes. There’s a small pin keeping Minho’s fringe away from his eyes and he’s wearing a pair of glasses he hadn’t used during rehearsals.
He’d love to comment on Minho’s appearance, but Chan also looks like he just rolled out of bed right now, so he keeps it to himself. Minho looks pretty cute anyway, like, objectively speaking of course.
“Why are you kicking the washing machine?”
Yeah, that seems like an important mystery to solve. Minho sighs, then opens the washing machine door and drags his still drenched laundry from inside the basket to drop it onto a little cart.
“The spin cycle was stuck.”
“What? For real?” Chan asks wide eyed , getting closer and throwing his own laundry on the table nearby. Minho’s laundry— clothes, underwear and socks included looks like a lump of worms, all tangled in the little cart.
“This sucks, I don’t even have cash for a whole other cycle”.
Chan thinks about it for a second, alternating a couple of glances from Minho to the laundry and vice versa. “I guess you could wash it with my stuff, if it doesn’t disgust you? That way you don’t have to pay for another cycle.”
Minho blinks once, twice “Uhh… yeah. Maybe it would bother me a little.” A pause, and goes goes to snoop into Chan’s bag on the table. “Is your laundry very disgusting?”
Chan right out laughs this time. “Maybe? I don’t think it stinks though?”
“Mmh… I think we can do that”. Minho concludes with a small nod. “Why are you doing your laundry here? I thought you lived further away.”
Chan throws his laundry inside another of the big washing machines, then helps Minho throw his own into the basket. Minho closes the door, spins the handle and Chan starts the new cycle. The machine beeps a couple of times, then it starts drawing water.
“No, I live quite close to here with my younger sister Hannah. It was my own apartment originally, but she kinda intruded.”
“Oh..” Minho comments flatly. He looks at his phone for a couple of seconds, then he meets Chan’s eyes again. “Wanna get ice cream?”
“Ice cream?”
“Yeah, we have to wait here anyway. And you helped me, so..” He pushes his glasses up his nose and without even waiting for Chan’s reply, he opens the door to the laundromat. “Come on” he encourages, sounding intentionally casual.
Chan stares at Minho’s back for a couple of seconds, but he’s just as amused now as he was when he first met him during rehearsals. He’s interesting, to say the least, and Chan finds himself looking at his features longer than necessary as he finally matches his pace to Minho’s as they walk to the closest convenience store.
They end up eating the ice cream sitting side by side inside the laundromat. The silence is unexpectedly comfortable, and both of them throw little comments every now and then as they wait for the laundry to be done.
Minho mentions having two cats, and Chan briefly talks about Berry, then they end up talking about Australia, and finally about the last anime series Minho watched. Then, by the time they’re done with their ice creams, Minho asks about the band.
It’s the first time he actually turns to look at Chan directly, and Chan feels himself getting a bit self conscious. Minho’s very pretty, despite the funky slippers and the pinned back hair, so he gets a bit distracted before he actually registered what he’s being asked.
“Seungmin said you want to disband after you’re done with the current gigs. Why? It doesn’t feel like you guys are getting less popular…”
Chan smiles a little bitterly, lowering his gaze to stare at his hands. “Our former vocalist leaving was a slap back to reality, I think. I realized we probably can’t do this forever, and it’s best to end it while it’s still good, you know?”
Only after he raises his eyes to look back at Minho and finds him already staring. He hums quietly, then sits back, kicking his flip-flops on the floor with the tip of his toes.
“And that’s really what you want, Bang Chan?”
“I don’t know,” Chan replies honestly, following with a lazy stretch. “But it seems like it’s for the best. Growing up, I mean.”
“You seem pretty attached to the band, and the guys.” Minho comments, throwing Chan a glance every now and then as he distractedly crumples the ice cream wrapper. “But I guess if you really want to disband, you will figure it out with the other guys when the time comes.”
Minho’s voice is neutral when he speaks, as if he’s talking about the weather. But somehow, it puts Chan at ease because it doesn’t feel like Minho is judging him or trying to force him to come to an immediate conclusion.
The washing machine finally beeps, and they both get up to move their laundry to the drier. Chan has to admit it’s a bit weird to sort out the laundry with someone he’s barely met once, but Minho’s very red ears as he fishes out a pair of Chan’s Star Wars underwear from the pile makes it a valuable experience.
Before they leave, Minho saves Chan’s number on his phone.
-
Chan completely forgets about the spa tickets he’d gotten from his colleague until the following week. With work driving him insane and the last two rehearsals not going exactly as planned, by Thursday Chan feels like he could explode.
He’s seriously thinking about buying cigarettes at some point, before he finds the two tickets, folded in half in the back pocket of his sweatpants. He stares at them. The name Periwinkle Land SPA written in a swirly font is like calling to him.
Of course, Chan wouldn’t trust Hanbin with anything, even less with giving him free coupons for a real SPA, so he figures the place probably doesn’t even exist. However, a quick search on the internet reveals it does indeed exist and it’s not even very far from where Chan works.
Suspiciously, there are no reviews.
He figures it wouldn’t hurt to get a massage, given that his back and neck are so taut from stress he can barely walk straight. In the end, the worst that can happen is that the coupons are a scam and he ends up paying a huge amount for a massage. Or maybe that there is no SPA at all.
To his surprise, however, when he drives nearby he finds out the place exists indeed. The sign above the shines lilac, and while the other activities surrounding the establishment look a bit run down, the neighborhood doesn’t feel unsafe or shady.
Even the entrance to the building is clean, with a couple of plants.
When Chan opens the door to the spa parlor, a man in a white uniform greets him from behind a white desk. A cat meows from a sofa on the right as soon as Chan enters, but it doesn’t move.
“Hello sir, do you have a reservation?”
“No, I’ve been given these coupons… I wonder if they’re still usable?” He hands one of the coupons to the man behind the counter and he quickly inspects them. Then he smiles, professional.
“It seems that they are. You have coupons for our special course. Do you have any specific preference for style or you’d like me to give you my recommendation?”
Chan is not sure how to interpret the question, so he stalls for a moment. He’s not really sure what he should ask for, as it’s his first time getting a massage at all.
“I’ll go for your recommendation then.”
The man smiles politely, then asks Chan to wait a moment as he disappears behind a curtain. Chan sits down on the sofa and swallows. He’s not even sure what he’s so nervous about, but his instincts tell him he should probably leave. The only positive part so far is the cat promptly rubs itself against Chan’s legs, meowing.
The man is back after what feels like ages but it’s probably just a couple of minutes, then he tells Chan to enter room number five after taking his shoes off.
Chan follows his instructions. Entering the corridor beyond the yellow curtain he’s met with white doors on both sides. On most of them, the light is out except for two. Number five is one of them.
“Excuse me?” He greets entering, though he’s totally expecting the room to be empty and the masseuse to join later. What he doesn’t expect is to find Lee Minho wearing only a white robe sitting on a white chair next to a wooden-like structure with a futon.
“Minho?”
His eyes widen in surprise and he’s standing there like an idiot, the door half open. Minho looks equally surprised when he meets Chan’s eyes, but beyond the immediate surprise Chan sees something akin to fear.
“Did you come here on purpose?” Minho asks, standing up and closing the door behind Chan with a sigh. “I knew I should’ve checked the cctv. Do you even know what kind of place this is?”
The tips of his ears are red, he’s barefoot and his legs are bare too. Chan imagines he’s wearing very little under that robe, and that is doing weird things to his brain. Because Minho’s not only pretty, he’s also hot.
“A massage parlor?” Chan tries, for the first time feeling like a horny teenager caught red handed.
“Yeah, the special massage type! Sexual massages!” Minho snaps, whisper-screaming.
Chan is speechless. Of course he knew something was up with the whole spa thing the moment that Hanbin sunbae had given him the coupons, but he hadn’t expected for it to be one of those massage parlors.
Minho looks at him, helpless, for a few seconds before he’s ready to open the door and tell the manager about the misunderstanding… or well, the unfortunate encounter. His ears are so red it almost reaches the back of his neck, his hand isn’t steady as it reaches for the door knob.
At that moment, Chan does something he hadn’t expected to do at all. He really should’ve let Minho call the manager, but instead he grabs his wrist and stops him.
“Wait.”
“What? Didn’t you pay to be here? The manager will just reassign you to a colleague and you’ll get the service you need.”
“Let’s just…talk, come on. You’ll get pay for this hour and I won’t have to explain to your manager that I didn’t know this was … fuck this is embarrassing.”
Minho hesitates, but then he lets go of the handle and moves back a couple of steps. He sits on the futon on the floor, and Chan follows him in silence.
Now that he’s managed to make Minho sit, they can spend the following hour chatting, he guesses. But what will happen after, outside the massage parlor, he has no idea. He feels like he suddenly intruded into a secret world he wasn’t supposed to see, that Minho didn’t want him to see.
“How did you even end up here? I thought you’d followed me…” Minho asks, his voice low.
Chan opens his mouth to speak, but the second he looks at Minho keeps getting distracted from the amount of skin the other is showing, despite his attempts to keep the robe tight to his chest.
Minho must notice, but he doesn’t react to Chan’s lingering gaze.
“A sunbae from work gave me some coupons. He told me this was his sister’s new parlor, and that he was trying to promote her…”
“Well, it could be. The owner is a woman, and this is mostly a normal massage parlor during the day, except for special service hours. Which are what the coupons are for. Does that colleague think you’re…you know…”
“Gay?” Chan asks. He wonders, for a moment, if in the end it was Hanbin’s way to humiliate him or out him. “Well, I am. Not that my colleague knows… but that must have been his way to play a prank on me”.
“Shithead…” Minho says under his breath, closing his hand in a fist.
“I didn’t know you worked here, I swear. I just… I thought it was a regular place. Have you worked here for long?”
Minho had mentioned a job the first time they met, but of course Chan couldn’t have imagined something like this. In retrospect, there was a reason why Minho didn’t explain exactly what he did.
“A year or so. And I’m gay, so I only get male customers. The manager must’ve thought you looked safe, otherwise he would have recommended a more senior colleague.”
“I see…” Chan offers flatly.
He doesn’t really know what to say, but the more they sit side by side in silence, the more he figures this was a bad idea. Maybe Minho was right and he should just leave. He’s still in time after all. He can just leave, and they can pretend this never happened.
When he’s about to say something, Minho stands up.
“You know, I think we should just use your coupon,” he says, as indifferent as he can manage to be. “Take that shirt off.”
He meets Chan's eyes and suddenly the air gets so heavy Chan thinks it's going to crush them both. He just stares, as if there was nothing weird at all with what he just said, as if meeting his rock band leader in the shady massage parlor he works at was something Minho experiences everyday.
If Chan looked closer and hard enough he could see the cracks in Minho's aloof facade: how rigid he's standing, how pink his ears have turned, how he looks ready to escape any second and he's holding himself down out of sheer will. However Chan is just as nervous, his brain is thinking everything and nothing all at once and his body is sending signals to all the wrong places.
The only noise in the room - tiny but so clean and pristine it almost puts Chan off- is the soft buzzing of the cooler in a corner. It seems to fit in the whole vibe of the massage parlor. The mat-like futon elevated on a small wooden structure, the mysterious but quite obvious massage oil bottles next to it. It’s exactly what the coupon had promised, except for Minho. The more Chan looks at him, the more it feels like he’s going to blink and Minho will turn into dust before his eyes.
So he does, he blinks, but nothing really happens.
Instead, Minho tilts his head, waiting for Chan to reply and as he does that the collar of his robe opens up just enough to show his shoulder and neck. His skin looks soft, and judging from slight goosebumps he must be cold or terrified.
Chan swallows, then lowers his head to drag his palm down his face. He can't do this, he just can't. “Look, no, maybe it’s best if I…”
“Come on, take that shirt off, I said” Minho repeats once more at Chan's hesitation. “We have a lot of time left.”
Chan sighs.
Maybe had it been anyone else he would've left for real, coupon or not. Maybe, in reality he doesn't care about the coupon at all. But Chan has always been weak when it comes to pretty things, so he exhales and his hand reaches for the hem of his own top.