crash & burn

1/5

a/n: inspired by "those meddling kids" from ebenroot, a haikyuu fanfiction on ao3.

when jaebeom envisioned having a band, he thought of bright lights, sold out stages and people rocking out to some music he wrote with his friends. instead... he has six and seven year olds asking them to sing 'into the unknown' like sooyoung is elsa or some shit. just because brendon urie did it with panic! at the disco, does not mean def.paradise will do it too. they've just finished a set of kid friendly classics and after applause from bored adults who probably just think of their music as noise since the kids screamed through most of it, he's ready to leave.

he unplugs his guitar, and stalks over to his case. "what a great gig, am i right?" their manager wendy asks, clapping with a smile on her face. on a normal day, jaebeom would hate to make her upset, wendy is like the most caring person on this planet, but he's in a pissy mood.

"yeah great... i love playing for toddlers."

"oh come on, lighten up, jb. this is a lot more exciting than that senior citizen scrabble party." mark, their keyboardist comments. of course he'd think that, he likes kids and he likes wendy. what a win for him. 

"and at least we get free food." chanyeol, their drummer adds on. "even if it is just chicken nuggets and pizza... do you think there will be cake?"

"i'm going to the restroom." he responds, escaping while he can. 

jaebeom knows that he should be thankful that they're playing anywhere besides in chanyeol's stuffy apartment, but he's just tired of the shit gigs. he's tired of birthday parties for kids or scrabble nights for old people and please no more bowling alleys (drunks trying to bowl is scarring enough). he just wants nice bars or lounges, a cafe or two, a local festival. something better than he's been given.

he emerges from the restroom feeling less pissy since he did have to piss, and dries his hand with a paper towel as he ventures through this house looking for his way to the backyard where the party takes place. he spots a trash can, and decides to try his luck, tossing the paper towel like he's at the free throw line during a nba game. it misses, because it bounces against someone's hip instead as they walk by. the person stops, bending down to pick it up and jaebeom's mouth runs dry. "s-seulgi? what are you doing here?" he wonders, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly because he was totally staring at her ass. he's had a crush on seulgi for about a year, too nervous to do anything about it besides tease the shit out of her like they're in grade school.

"this is yerim's best friend's party."

"ah.." jaebeom nods in understanding. yerim is seulgi's little sister and their biggest fan (and main groupie according to chanyeol). "chaperoning."

"yeah, you can say that."

"does that mean you saw our performance?" he's always wanted seulgi to come out to a gig, you know to support him and see how cool he is, hoping that one day the high of the performance would give him enough courage to ask her out... too bad all their gigs have been so terrible he hasn't even had the balls to ask her to come to one.

"unfortunately no... i just got here." she pouts, and he hates that he finds it so cute because he's actually kind of bummed.

"better luck next time then?"