MELODY

MELODY 21

┏ 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 ┐

Sometimes, you fall for the most unexpected person and you just have to learn to deal with it.

That was what Adam had said to him and Bryan couldn't help but to ponder on it for the whole day. Even when the sun had greeted him for another day, Adam's face and his words buried deep inside his mind, as if to let him know that he wasn't the only one going through this.

Was Adam going through this as well?

Tay's face flashed into his mind and what he had witnessed. Bryan shook his head the very next second, erasing the budding thought. Because there was no way. It was Adam. His best friend since high school who was neither interested in love or serious relationships. But the look on his face, it was hard to ignore.

Taking in a deep breath, he leaned into his chair in his office, staring at the darkened screen of the desktop computer. He had a few emails to get to, mainly due to the music festival that was going to happen in a few weeks, but his mind was neither here nor there. He sunk into his seat when his thoughts jumped from Adam to Jackson. Without meaning to, his lips stretched into a brief smile before he stopped it, face heating up at the way he was acting.

While he... liked Jackson Star that way, it didn't mean he could show it.

He was unattainable.

But he couldn't help but to let hope bud over the fact that Jackson had asked for his opinion over his new song two days ago. He didn't know why it was him that the lead guitarist chose but the incident had left him breathless, his heart thumping fast.

Touching his chest, he allowed another smile before his phone rang, startling him out of his reverie. Grabbing the noisy device from his desk, he held his breath when he realised it was Sasha. The vice president of the Events & Festivals Team rarely called him in person, preferring to text. In fact, they rarely talked unless it was for official business since he had become a temporary secretary. A little alarmed, he answered it with a brief greeting.

"Are you still on campus?" Sasha asked, her voice pitchy as if she was panicking.

"Yeah? What's up?" Bryan stood up, his gut telling him that he might need to leave his office for this.

Sasha sighed. "There's a few cables in the Instruments Room that we need for the stage later. Can you go get them?"

"Cables?" Bryan reached to place his computer on sleep before grabbing the 'headquarter's' keys. "What's it for?"

"For the bands," Sasha said, horns honking from the background. "There's two other bands coming by today that I need to check on but I forgot that their cables are in the Instruments Room. If you can get them and have them placed at the stage by the time I get there, that'll be great. I'm kind of stuck in traffic."

Bryan had wanted to ask how their cables ended up in the Instruments Room but he decided that wasn't important right now. He glanced at the wall clock, noting that it was almost four in the evening. Guessing that the bands would be here in a half an hour to an hour, he agreed to help her out. Sasha thanked him before the line cut off. Shoving his phone in his hoodie pockets, he exited his office, making sure to lock the place before he head to the Instruments Room.

Thankfully, the room was located on the second floor of the Music building. Not too far from the campus hall or the 'headquarters'. It was mostly a place where music and art students came to play with the instruments. He was surprised to find there were people inside the room however, judging by the lights switched on from the glass of the door. Knocking on it, his surprise doubled when Tay opened the door for him, a grin on his face.

He peeked over his shoulders, his heart skipping a beat when he realised that the entire MELODY band was here including Jackson Star.

"Hey," Tay said. "Sorry, we're practising for our performance for your festival. Do you need something?"

"Yeah," Bryan said, his fluster meshed with slight confusion as he walked into the room when Tay moved away from the entrance. "How're you guys able to rehearse here? You're not a student here."

"Jackson reserved the room for us," Francis said, plucking one of his bass strings.

Said person didn't look up from his phone, hunched over with his guitar trapped against his body. Bryan couldn't help but to keep glancing at him, noting that the taller man had looked even more indifferent than he usually did. A hand touching his shoulder had jolted his thoughts back to reality, looking at Tay, praying that his face wasn't red.

"What're you here for?" Tay said, searching his face before his smile widened on his face.

"Cables," Bryan blurted out, almost resisting the urge to slap his own face. "Sasha said something about cables..." And he realised that he didn't know how these cables looked like.

Almost as if Tay had wanted to save him from his stupidity, he said, "Ah, Starstriker's turn for the soundcheck, I think. They came by this morning to stash their equipments here. It's not just the cables."

The lead singer gestured to the guitar cases and drumsticks lying on it at the far corner of the room. Bryan pointed at them, a frown crossing his face. If he had to bring all of those to the stage, he had to make a few trips.

Tay slapped his shoulder before he said, "Jackson, help Bryan out with those stuff."

Jackson raised his dark eyes from his phone then, his sharp gaze landing on Bryan. The whole world seemed to stop spinning as the shorter man's surroundings blurred a little, white noise washed into his head— his heart skipped a beat.

Brian held his breath when Jackson broke eye-contact after a few seconds of silence and said, "Sure." 

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