My Muse

Chapter 2: Kang...Jaehyung

  It was past midnight when Young K arrived home. He twisted the knob of his front door as quietly as possible hoping that he would be able to escape an onslaught of questions from any members who were still awake. This soon proved to be useless because upon entering the living room, he found Jae and Sungjin who had been excitedly awaiting his return. 

  "Looks like someone had a blast tonight!" teased Jae the minute he saw Young K approaching. Knowing that there was no avoiding the thorough interrogation he was about to receive, Young K sat himself down on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table. 

  "Where did you go? You were gone for like 4 hours and you didn't answer any of our texts," asked Sungjin who was really just there to assess if any damage had been done.

  "I just walked around for about an hour and decided to grab dinner at this nice cafe," said Young K dismissively while removing his mask and cap.

   "Oh, please! You can't expect us to think that that's the whole story, right? I mean, sure you can eat like a crapload of food in one sitting but, even then, you don't take 4 hours just to do that," Jae shot back.

  Young K sighed heavily and closed his eyes momentarily. I'm too tired to deal with this.

  "There was this girl," he started. Before he could say much, Jae had already interjected.

  "YOU MET A GIRL? Wow, we let you out of the house and the first thing you do is fall in love with a complete stranger? I mean, that's such a mood, but you haven't taken interest in someone since-"

  "Look, if you're going to act like you're twelve, I'm not telling you the whole story," Young K added, visibly irritated. Jae carried out the motion of zipping up his mouth and throwing away the key, but Young K knew it would only buy him the next 20 minutes. Getting Jae to be serious for any period of time longer than that was basically impossible. 

  "The cafe that I went to was hosting a Karaoke Night," Young K continued. "I went inside and ordered some food because I thought it would be fun to watch. While waiting for my food to arrive, one of waitresses went up on stage and you wouldn't believe how hard her hands were shaking. She hid it well, though. Anyway, she started singing 'Fly Me to the Moon' and her voice was ... lovely, for lack of a better word. Actually, I'm pretty sure she wasn't prepared to sing more than one song, but the regulars enjoyed it so much that they asked her to sing another. It's hard for me to explain, but it's like you could see the nervousness slowly melt away and she was just up there having a blast."

  Young K paused from telling his story.  A small smirk had formed on his face as he fondly recalled the memory. 

  "Okay, but that still doesn't explain why you're back home so late," Sungjin said.

  A splash of red coloured Young K's cheek as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Jae and Sungjin exchanged a puzzled glance. Finding it hard to look anywhere else except for his fiddling thumbs, Young K reluctantly began telling the remaining of the story.

  "Okay, this next part is a little embarrassing..."

xxx

  "Is he dead?"

  "Don't be dumb, Joonhyung. He's still breathing."

  "Well, wake him up. Do you think he's homeless?"

  "A homeless person wouldn't have ordered poached salmon worth $10."

  "Then poke him or something."

  Young K felt a sharp jab to the side of his neck. With a groan, he opened his eyes and raised his head which was previously resting on the table. As he straightened his aching back, he gathered that he must have been hunched over for a significant amount of time. As he massaged the area of his neck that had been so painfully attacked, his eyesight slowly focused and he could make out that an average sized woman with chestnut hair was standing next to his table and not far behind her, sitting at a nearby table, was a dark-haired man.