𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝙵𝙴𝙴𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚆𝙷𝙴𝙽 [𝙴𝙽- 𝚁𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴 𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙴𝙼]

Chapter 115

At this moment, holding Niki's hand and walking along the shore, I couldn't have felt more peaceful. The wind whipped through my hair and dress. Even in the afternoon, the air was cold.

I had no worries in my mind about anything. So it was easy to concentrate more on Niki's huge hand engulfing mine. And once again, I was reminded of how small I was as compared to him, to the point that people might think it was ridiculous.

He was singing Car's Outside. His voice was low and deep, but loud enough for me to hear over the sound of waves. It was quite the task to stop myself from humming along. I only wanted to listen.

Oh, darling, all of the city lights
Never shine as bright as your eyes
I would trade them all for a minute more
But the car's outside
And he's called me twice
But he's gonna have to wait tonight...

Niki's vocals needed to be appreciated more. And by appreciated, I mean his actual singing ability rather than his deep voice. I had always seen people talk about his deep voice. But no one mentions his vocal technique. Heeseung was definitely good but on many levels, but Niki had a raw feeling to his voice that even Heeseung didn't.

The rest of boys were playing volleyball on the beach. Their screams were quite drowned out. Originally, we were supposed to be playing there as well until I was about to go change into something better suited. And Niki jumped at the chance of whisking me away, much to others' annoyance. And now he was annoyed as well when he noticed everyone waving at us.

"I think we should go." I suggested.

But he squeezed my hand tighter. "No. Just a bit longer."

"Okayyy." I dragged out. But then I remembered something I had wanting to ask. "What was that song you guys sang last night?"

"Ah that song. XO?" He asked.

I hummed.

"That was an unreleased song for our next album." He said.

I stared at him in shock. "Unreleased song?! I thought it was from another group or something."

He looked at me weirdly. "You expected us to propose you with someone else's song?"

"No, I mean- I just didn't expect that. Did I really get exclusive access to your upcoming release?" I asked.

He laughed seeing my excitement. "You did. And aren't the odds in our favor? It was pitched to us three months ago and the lyrics fit so well."

"Totally. From the English ones at least, I like the prechoruses the best. Both lyrics and melody vice."

"Heeseung Hyung and Jay hyung composed it." He said.

"Really?" I stopped abruptly. Niki stopped along with me and faced me.

"They did. The melody wasn't fully ready yet. So they took up the job of filling in the gaps and creating a slowed version of it to your liking." He explained.

My mouth fell open in shock. They created a slowed version for me? And not to mention all of them must've practiced it several times for them to sing live. This made me even more emotional than knowing I heard their unreleased song.

"Are you crying, Noona?!" Niki asked in alarm.

I shook my head and adjusted my glasses.

"No, I'm not..." I said. And I wasn't crying. I was thanking the gods for bringing us here till this point.

"Aww come on, don't cry..." Niki booped my nose and succeeded in making me smile.

He bent down and lifted me straight. I squealed at the unexpected action and wrapped my arms around his neck for support. How he managed to hold me upright was insane. My legs were dangling in the air but I refused to egg him on by wrapping them around his waist. Once he got into a comfortable hold, he nodded in approval.