The color of your voice

1

Kim Jong In is one of the tallest members in Exo, one of the best dancers in the whole K-Pop industry and one of the sexiest men alive.
Known for his kind heart, his soft and shy behavior off stage and his fierce and precisely done movements onstage.

But there was a thing he was barely acknowledged for and that was his voice.

Jongins voice is soft and gentle. And yet still not fully trained. But that was another sign of his unique way of singing.

Untrained. Jongin didn't want to hear that anymore. He wanted to hear someone say, "I love your voice!" Or, "I fell for your singing."
Oh how much he admired Baekhyun and Jongdae for their voices. For their knowledge of singing. And yet he had not asked one of them for help. It wasn't because he was too shy to ask. It was because he was scared that they saw him fail.
And failure is something that Jongin hates to admit. It was okay as long as he was alone. But he didn't want anyone else to see.
Especially not him. Not Kyungsoo. God knew, if Kyungsoo came in to see him fail, that would be the worst scenario ever.
Not that him dating Chanyeol was any better, but it would be much worse if Kyungsoo knew about him failing.
Jongin didn't know what kept him up enough to keep trying his best for Kyungsoo. And he didn't know anymore if it was to impress Kyungsoo or to simply improve for his fans.

And that kept him at one of the vocal training rooms until the middle of the night.
After another try that went miserable, Jongin decided that it was time for a break.
He looked out of the window, eyeing the silver moon that spread a weak light on the street. Barely enough to see anything without the lamps that lightened the way. Clouds crossed it's way, sometimes revealing, sometimes hiding it.
For a blink second, Jongin was hypnotized by the movement of the sky, captured by the shades of grey and black that made the pale moon stand out.
Then he focussed on his voice again. He tried different things that his vocal trainer taught him. But this night he couldn't get anything right.
After another hour of training, Jongins eyes got heavy and it was harder to concentrate. Without care, he continued, looking almost deflated because of the lack of success.
His tired eyes did not notice the slim silhouette that was standing in the door frame.
Nor did he hear the door close. He was too focused, and too lost in what he was doing.
So as a soft hand, with long slim fingers laid down on his shoulder, he turned in surprise, experiencing the shock of his life.

"Baekhyun?"

By all means, Baekhyun was the last member he expected to meet here.
Not because Baekhyun was lazy, but because Baekhyun and he weren't that close and he simply would have thought of EVERYONE else before even having the idea of Baekhyun barking in.

Said member looked at him with a worried face. His hand was still resting on Jongins shoulder.
It was weird to see his carefree friend worry like that, but Jongin assumed it was normal since he wasn't worried about himself, but about the well-being of a friend.

"What are you doing here?"

Jongin asked now and Baekhyuns hand slipped off his shoulder.

"I could ask you the same. I saw you here quite often lately, always late at night, like you wanted to hide something."

"I am not hiding anything. I am just training."

Jongin said, sitting down on a chair.

"Sure thing but why does it have to be that late? That's not good for your health."

Baekhyun approached him with his worried puppy eyes. Jongin just sighed, looking outside again. The moon was now beginning to free itself from the clouds that blocked the sight. Its light seemed stronger now.

"Jongin?"

Baekhyun asked once again and Jongin mildly bit his lip before he looked up.
And Baekhyun knew Jongin well enough to know that he wasn't feeling good.

"Mind telling me?"

Baekhyun asked again, actually already knowing what could be in the youngers mind these days.
But Baekhyun didn't know everything. He knew about the feelings for Kyungsoo, not about the lack of self confidence Jongin had about his voice.
Jongin took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

"I just want to train my voice. That's all."

"I can smell when you are being a liar."

Baekhyun lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms in front of his body.

"What do you mean?"

Jongin asked back, standing up and making himself tall, hoping it would intimidate Baekhyun. But Baekhyun was left unimpressed.

"I know about your feelings for Kyungsoo."

Silence. Jongin looked away, facing the wall as he spoke.

"Who else knows?"

He asked with a serious voice.

"No one Jongin. No one knows. I know because I see how you look at him. I see how much you long for his attention, his touch, and how it bothers you to see Chanyeol close to him. But no, no one else knows. Everyone else is too busy to notice your pain."

Jongin was left speechless. For a while, the vocal room was silent.

"And why do you notice something like this? You out of all members...?"

Jongin turned to face him and Baekhyun looked straight into his eyes, shooting him a glance.

"Because I care about you, I care about all of my members."

He admitted and Jongin felt bad for speaking to his hyung like this.

"I'm sorry."

He said, falling into the chair once again, hiding his face in his hands. Baekhyun took the chair beside him, placing his hand on the taller mans shoulder once again.

"It's fine."

He whispered and Jongin bit his lip. He couldn't cry now. Not in front of Baekhyun. Keep yourself together, he told himself and swallowed the urge to just give in to his feelings.

"Listen, I know how it is to see everyone around you being happy. Anyways. You want to improve your vocal skills?"

Jongin looked up, wondering what it was, that made Baekhyun unhappy and what it was that gave him the strength to keep smiling through it.
But he didn't ask and just nodded.

"Then let's start."