Exactly As It Sounds • Young K • Day6

xii.

"It is people that give and take each other's scars."

A whirlwind finish to the tour and things don't get any calmer once you return to Seoul. Now that you're an official employee there's more paperwork and training, getting to know the other makeup artists and concept engineers, and endless new tasks.

You'd never realized how much goes into planning a concept, an album, or even a music video. It was enough to make your head spin. And it was always changing. Not only did you have to have everything down for what the band was currently doing, you were always planning for months ahead.

With everything being so busy, you'd barely seen the members of Day6 other than in passing.

On a particularly hectic day, when you're dead tired and you try to remind yourself for the millionth time why you ever wanted to do this job, you look up to catch Young K's familiar grin as he watches you, casually leaning against the door frame. You can feel the exhaustion in every inch of your body as he scrutinizes your face.

"You look like you could use a break," he says, smiling slightly.

"Break? What's that?" you joke half-heartedly.

Glancing at you for another short moment, he flashes you a mysterious smile.

"C'mon, I know the perfect place," he says, before abruptly turning to lead the way down the hallway.

Following after him you realize the two of you are heading towards the practice rooms. Brows knit in confusion, you hope his idea of relaxing doesn't involve dancing, because that is definitely the last thing you feel like doing.

As Young K flips on the light to the empty studio, you glance around. It's funny how alive and full of energy the studios seem during practices, but without anyone inside it feels hollow and forlorn.

Young K walks to the center of the studio before turning to face you, gesturing for you to come join him. Once you reach him, he gives you another grin.

"Want to know my secret cure for a bad day?"

You shrug, smiling in spite of your strong suspicion that this still can only end in dancing, which he seems to take as encouragement to tell you anyway. 

"Okay. On days like this you just have to do three things:

One. Take off your shoes," he demonstrates, balancing on one leg as he positions his foot on his opposite knee and wrestles off his tennis shoe.

You stand there watching this whole process in confusion, still not completely sold.

"C'mon, you have to do it too," he says, as he repeats with the other shoe. Laughing self-consciously you bend down and slip off both of your shoes, happy you remembered to wear socks.

"Now throw them away!" he says, tossing them across the room.

Gingerly you toss both of your shoes off to the side, then raise your eyebrows at him waiting for his next set of instructions.

"Okay, now close your eyes."

For a second you give him a skeptical look, sizing him up, before obediently following his instructions.

Eyes tight shut, you say, "This isn't the part where you steal my shoes and run off with them, right?"

"You got me," he jokes wryly.

Your eyes still closed, you sense him moving closer to you, then feel his hands fold around yours. His palms are pleasantly warm, his skin soft.

"Now what?" you ask quietly.