I blame the moon | nct mark lee ff

☽ 21: holy vocals ☾

ONCE WE GOT to the art shop, he asked what I wanted to get and we walked around the shop getting various things such as paint, paintbrushes, canvases, oil pastels and more.

Once I had a whole basketfull, we headed to the front desk to pay. As the cashier scanned it I saw Mark take out his wallet.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "what are you doing?" I asked him.

"paying for the stuff" he said, pulling out his card.

"it's my stuff" I said, taking out my card and holding it out to the cashier. "I should pay for it."

He moved my card out of the way and gave her his.

"Markkk~" I whined at him, "why do you wanna pay for my stuff? One: I don't like being in debt and two: it's expensive!" I said, giving the lady my card again.

He took my card and hid it behind his back while giving the lady his.
"debit, please" he said, smiling at her.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "give it back!" I said while trying to reach behind him to get it. This time he put it above his head.

"not until all the things are paid for." I huffed and stood in front of him with my arms crossed.

"you're so stubborn" I said, as the receipt got printed. The stuff ended up filling 3 shopping bags and Mark was about to carry all when I stopped him. "can I at least carry one of the bags?" I said.

He smiled smugly, giving my one of them "mhm."

I rolled my eyes as we walked out of the shop and back towards his car. "you really didn't have to pay for my stuff. I hate being in dept." I said as we loaded the bags into his car.

"i wanted to" he said, shrugging as he opened the door for me first then went around to his side of the car and got in. "and you're not 'in dept,' you don't owe me for it"

I sighed and gave up. "thanks, I really do appreciate it" I said, smiling at him. Honestly speaking, I don't have a job and my scholarship only covers living expenses to a certain extent; if I'd really paid for all those art supplies I low-key would've broke the bank, but I didn't want him to know that because I didn't want him to feel sorry for me or something.

"no problem" he said, and started driving.

"so where are we going now?" I asked.

"the studio"

"oh yeah, you never told me what studio. Is it like, a recording studio or something?"

"yup"

I nodded, remembering he majored in music production. "you make music right? You're a recording artist?"

"um, you could say that." he said as we parked outside of an afgice building and I followed Mark as he walked into the the building. "the recording studios are on the 3rd floor, this way" he said, turning towards the elevator.

We walked onto a floor that had many soundproof rooms on either side of the corridor, Mark stopping at the last one on the left and me following him going inside.

The room was at least twice as big as I expected it to be, and there were LED lights lighting the room  purple. On the far back wall there was a medium-sized leather couch, and 2 stacked keyboards on the other wall. The remaining wall having the recording booth and the synthesizers, computers, and keyboards.

Mark walked over to the solitary man sitting on a chair in front of a computer, looking to be making a beat. "Hey, hyung."

He turned around and looked really tired. I greeted him and walked over to the desk he was working at.

"you can go home, I got it from here." he said, gesturing for the man to leave.

"thanks, Mark" he said, before grabbing his stuff and heading out the door. Mark then sat down at the big chair in front of the computer and I leaned over, looking at what he was doing.

"so what're you doing?"

"I'm looking for this one song we've been working on for a while, for some reason it just doesn't sound complete, no matter what we do." he said, finally clicking on the song and playing it for me to hear.

He watched me, gaging my reactions as I nodded my heat to it, listening to the the rap and vocals.

"yo this is a good song?" I said, confused as to what he meant by 'something was missing'.

"yeah, I just feel like it could be better." he said. I bent over and played it again, this time singing along.

He was looking at me like he just had an epiphany and I stopped the song, waiting to see what he had to say. "yo, can you get in the booth and sing this song?"

"huh?"

"yeah, a female voice could just be what's missing here." he said.

"but— I don't even know the lyrics, i—" I said, my eyes wide at his suggestion.

"it's okay, you can read them off my phone. Just try it. For me, please?" he said, his eyes drilling holes into me.

I rolled my eyes. "fine. But if it's terrible know I warned you. I can't sing, and I've never even recorded anything before."

"it's cool, just get in the booth and I'll tell you what to do."

I sighed and got into the booth. I held up the headphones, "am I supposed to put the on?" I asked Mark through the glass.

"you can if you want to."

I decided to put then on ontop of my hair and read the lyrics from the notes app on Mark's phone.

"just let me know when you're ready."

I nodded and did the thumbs up sign to let him know I'm ready. Whatever, I might as well just try this out.

I took a deep breath as the beat rang in my headphones and I sang the first verse. When I was done, I walked out of the booth to ask Mark how I did. "how was i—" I asked, getting interrupted by Mark wrapping me in a hug.

"fuuuck, you were PERFECT!" he said, pulling me away.

I looked at him with wide eyes in surprise and giggled, getting shy from his compliment. "thanks"

He went back to sit in the chair and gestured for me to sit next to him. He clicked something and the song came on, me hearing my own.

I shrugged, "it's okay, I guess"

He looked at me like I'd just spoke another language, "okay? Nayoung, this isn't just okay it's literally what what the song's been missing" he laughed. "I can't wait to send this to the rest of the members, they're literally gonna flip out." he said, ecstaticly.

My eyes widened, "wait, you're gonna send this to other people? I thought I was just recording for fun." I said, worried people were actually gonna hear my terrible voice.

"yeah, we might even release the song. You don't have anything to worry about though. You killed it. Seriously."

I smiled, gaining confidence at his words. "okay. I guess I'll just go with it then."

He suddenly looked at me really intensely "thanks, Nayoung."

"for what?" I asked.

"just for being in my life. Im just really thankful for you. That's all"

I felt like crying at his sincere words and lunged forward to hug him. "same." I said.

We pulled away and he spoke first. "I'm hungry. You wanna go eat something?" he asked.

"sure." I said as we both stood up to leave.

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