Chapter 5

Sophie

I open the door of Chris' studio, taking a step in, a smile crossing my face as I notice him working on a project, fully immersed, not even realising I've entered the space.

"Hey," I step in, sitting on Changbin's seat again.

"Hi," he gushes and I swear I notice his cheeks flush, a moment of silence following. "How're you doing Soph?" He mutters quickly, his voice raspy.

"I'm nervous," I quickly confess, placing my laptop on the desk next to his set up.

"Why?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I open the computer screen, widening my eyes at him. "You're like actually good at producing and just... cool?"

"I'm flattered." He smirks, pulling my laptop towards him, giving the touchpad a tap, my demo starting to play. He sat back in his seat, bopping his head to the beat, swaying his head to the music.

If I wasn't actually extremely nervous right now, I would probably be laughing at how he's listening to it so passionately for no reason. The playback comes to a finish, and he leans forward, nodding his head slowly, keeping his eyes glued to the laptop.

"So?" I cringe nervously.

"It's good," he smiles. "I don't know why you're so nervous."

My ears go red and I cover my face with my hands, avoiding making eye contact with him. I hear him begin typing, the clacking of keys being the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

"Do you mind me adding some shit?"

"Oh- no, of course, go for it," I try to hide my excitement, but he can definitely tell.

"Too late, I already added something anyway," he smiles, continuing to tap the mouse around the screen.

"I thought so," I chuckle lightly, watching him drag loops around, noticing one he adds in particular. "Violin?"

"Yep," he nods, turning the volume on the loop down a little.

"Oh," I flash him a judgemental look, nodding my head slowly.

"I thought I was actually good at producing and cool?" He snorts. "I did the same for Red Lights, I think it suits your demo."

"All right," I shrug carelessly. "Someone's defensive." Chris shoots a sarcastic glare back at me in response, before looking back down at the computer and continuing to spam the keyboard. I slowly inch closer and closer, watching his every step as he edits my project.

"Here listen," he smiles, sliding the laptop over to me, tapping play. Damn he's quick. I listen to the intro of the song in anticipation to see what changes he made. As the beat drops into the first verse, I notice the changes and let out a small gasp. I look over at him, a wide smile spread across my face as I move my head to the music. The pre-chorus quickly picks up and I notice the violin sample start building up in the background.

Why is he actually being so nice? He didn't need to do all this, the demo is incredible now, like honestly better than what I expected. What did I do to deserve this friendship, why is he doing this for me?

"You're right, it's good," I shake my head in disbelief, Chris nodding his head back and my eyes begin watering. "I guess you really are such a good and cool producer Chris." I joke, but instead of laughing, I burst into tears.

Holy shit. I know I'm tired and emotional, but really Sophie... really? Man, I'm so stupid... I just... I feel... fuck why is he being so nice to me.

"Oh my god?" Chris exclaims, jumping up from his seat. "You had autosave on, we can just go back to the original," he quickly assures.

"Nononono, I love it," I sob, resting a hand out for him to pull me up.

"What's wrong then?" He slowly shakes his head and it looks like he's racking his brain for any possibilities, gently tugging me up, positioning me directly in front of him.

"Thank you," I bawl, stuffing my face into his shoulder. "Thank you," I repeat, this time muffled, his hands wrapping around my waist, drawing me closer, allowing for all my weight to rest onto him.

"It's ok," he chuckles lightly, rubbing his hand along my back.

"I think I'm just overtired," I take my head off of his shoulder, bringing my hands up to my bloodshot eyes and rubbing them as his arms fall off my back .

"Rest."

"I can't, I still haven't even done any of the research or conclusions for my prac," I sigh, taking a small step back, tears still streaming down my face.

"I know, but you need to rest," he says, close to a whisper. "It's 6:30, you have at least an hour. Go nap on the couch, I'll have your demo sounding incredible by then... ok?"

"Yeah?" I mumble.

"Yeah." He assures, grasping onto my forearm, dragging me over to the back of the small room. I quickly lie down on the couch and he goes back to the desk, beginning to tap on the keyboard again. I watch him work as I try to drift off and even without seeing his face, I know he has that focused look on his face right now.

I've only known him for two days, but he does this one little face when he's focused or interested in something, it's quite a cute habit of his actually. If you had told me yesterday that I would be here thinking about how Chris' mannerisms are cute... I might've just punched myself in the face... but he's actually nice. He's not exactly the fuck boy I was expecting, he just likes to make me nervous on occasion, I can deal with that though.

"Chris?" I utter.

"Mhm?" He pauses his aggressive typing and turns his head to look over at me.

"I can't get to sleep," I groan, brushing a strand of hair out of my mouth.

"I know, I can hear you wrestling around on the couch from here," he scoffs.

"Just come here," I plead, reaching my hand out, eyes barely open. He nods once before getting off his chair and walking over, kneeling down onto the floor next to me.

"Yes?"

"Can you talk to me?" I pouted, my hands covering my weary eyes from the bright lights.

"I am," he smiles, tilting his head in genuine confusion.

"No... like, just talk about anything, just go on and on." I mutter.

"Ok... well," he clears his throat, propping up again as he finds something to talk about. "Um, the day before yesterday me and Felix, one of my members, you might have heard of him actually, he's the one with the deep voice. Anyway, we went to the park and he was telling me about some lyrics that Hyunjin, one of the members who he's... especially close with, wrote. They were actually pretty good, so we might look into making the song..."

**

"Soph."

The sudden voice, even though extremely soft toned, forces me to jolt upright and I let out a gasp.

"It's 7:45," Chris flashes a light smile as I shift my position on the couch, sitting upright.

"Thank you," I give him a genuine smile back, which slowly fades away when I realise what I did an hour or so ago. I have never seen myself like that... so needy?

If I was him I would've left my pick-me-ass the second I stretched my hand out to him and made that stupid looking pouty face.

"You good?" He questions, gazing into my eyes, a concerned look etched across his features.

"Yeah," I answer quickly, sitting up even straighter than before, forcing a smile.

"Look, I was thinking... I know you're really really busy and obviously super tired, and the whole 'you have to do an internship 5 days a week to get signed off' thing isn't making it easier. So, I was thinking, my members and I have to go on a trip out south to shoot a video this weekend, it's just a night and two days nothing much. Point is, I can ask my manager whether you can work on the trip instead of doing a whole 5 days next week." He explains, his cute focused face on full show.

"Shit really?" I exclaim, standing up off the couch.

"Yeah, you'll have the whole week to finish your prac then," he grins, acting extremely content with his own idea.

"Yes! Thank you so much," I beam, jumping up and down like a child.

"Ok, ok, calm down," he laughs, watching me lighten up. "Time to go to work hm?"

"Yeah," I sigh. "Thanks again."

"No problem."

Author's Note 

I lowkey hate this chap sm ),: it's fine lol I'll make up for it soon (the plot goes INSANE I promise)... ANYWAY ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!!! So instead of posting only on Tuesdays... I'LL BE POSTING ON TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS AT 6PM KST!!! I felt updating weekly was too easy lol -> obviously because of schedule I might miss a day but I will post on my conversations tab in advance!! Anyway hope you enjoyed this terrible chap (: