Final Puzzle Piece || SKZ 9th Member

"My playlist or yours?"

The first person Seungmin went to when he arrived at the basement parking lot was their manager who stood near the vans, making sure all the nine members got in and no stray kid was missed out.

"Hyungnim," Seungmin called, scooping the manager's attention from the phone in his hand, probably checking their next schedule. "Which car is Kala in?"

"First car," the manager replied, pointing to one of the black vans that was a little further away from where they were standing. "She and Jeongin were arguing earlier because she has saved a seat for you but he wanted to take it."

Seungmin let out a small chuckle knowing the youngest two antics. He could easily picture the squabble between the two even when he wasn't there to witness it. "I'll go and make sure there's no murder scene in the car."

The manager nodded quickly, waving his hand. "Yeah, yeah, you better. I heard she would do something menace to Jeongin if he didn't move."

Kala and menace? Those two words didn't sit on the same table at lunch. More like she trying to hit Jeongin's upper arm with the bare minimum impact that hardly made him wince. The attempt turned out too pathetic to be called a menace. The only time she could appear menacing was when she was in her beast mode which needed somewhat of a trigger. But that side of her was not recommended to step on.

Huffing a laugh at the thought, Seungmin made his way to the first van. The door was still open widely when he got to the side, putting Hyunjin and Changbin on the view. They both had claimed their seat in the middle section, leaving him to sit in the back that already had Kala to be his seatmate.

"Seungmin Oppa, here, here, sit with me," Kala instructed the moment she saw Seungmin outside the van, patting the empty space next to her.

He had a smile at the corner of his lips and entered the car, carefully passing between Changbin and Hyunjin's seats. "So you won to I.N," he concluded when he finally sat beside the younger girl.

"He should've known better he can't win from me," she boasted, flipping her ponytail.

Seungmin snorted. "What made him give up?"

"Hyungnim threatened us." Kala nodded to Changbin in the front. "He said he would sell us in the black market on a low price so he could get rid of us fast if we didn't shut up."

"I was just trying to sleep!" Changbin shouted his defense, making Hyunjin who took the initiative to close the door of their van stop his action to protect his ears in reflex with his hands.

"Oh my god, my ears..." Hyunjin grimaced with a look of utter misery, then moved to close the door again as they were about to drive off.

Seungmin shook his head to get rid of the buzzing caused by Changbin's powerful, booming voice. He was suddenly in need of something to block his ears from any noise.

His wish was granted shortly without a delay when Kala handed him one of her earphones that plugged into her MP3 player. That small, rectangular thing was a crucial item she carried with her anywhere she went. Seungmin remembered Jisung gave it to her on her birthday last year because the squirrel boy was fed up with this girl barely picking up any calls or replying to messages when she was listening to music on her phone.

However, it didn't lead to the expected change and only made it worse in Seungmin's opinion. Kala would not even bother to check her phone anymore now that she had the player. The phone was buried deep in her backpack and would only be remembered when she wanted to order a food delivery.

"You're in charge now." Kala passed the player to Seungmin and placed her head on his shoulder while watching his thumb tracing through the songs she had.

"My playlist or yours?" he asked, putting the earphone in his ear.

"Why don't we make our playlist that has all the songs we both like?" Kala suggested, peering up at him.

"Sure. You choose first."

The two spent the early minutes of the ride choosing the songs for their playlist and named it with the most creative one they could come up with, 'KimRyu's Car Jams'. While listening to their new shuffled playlist for the rest of the ride, a comfortable silence fell between them, accompanied by Changbin's snore and Hyunjin's low humming to the songs in his own headphones.