“what song was that, Jaime? I thought I never heard that before, ” Hobi asks as soon as the innocence–looking boy in front of him closes his mouth. Leaves the silence fills the air. Skylar blinks, he just realises he never knew his name.

Jaime…

“uh... I …wrote this in high school. I was afraid to forget the lyrics if I sing someone else’s song”

Everyone freezes for a second. Maybe they’re amazed or even maybe slightly concerned because the lyric was so sad and heartbreaking at the point Skylar is wondering what could happen to this boy.

“okay Jaime excuse us for a moment,” Yannick says as he drags everyone to the corner

“so? Does everyone agree? Okay?” Yannick stares at everyone’s faces one by one. Sticks his index finger to his thumb to make an ‘okay’ gesture.

As he realises what his oldest means, Skylar rolls his eyes “seriously? Easy as that?”

“what else? You want him to solve calculus first?” Jasperjokes with his boxy eating-shit grin followed by everyone screeching laughs, he even can hear Jaime’s snort in the back.

“Jass is right, he can be a lyricist as well, his song is mesmerising let’s be honest” Galan adds, and Skylar doesn’t doubt that he’s a kid who likes to read Murakami after all. But Skylar is nothing but persistent.

“I’m quite satisfied with Adam’s poetic lyric” Skylar shrugs

“Thanks,  but the more brains the more references,” Adam remarks, his thick glasses lopsided and he looks tired already

“yeah but too much chef will spoil the broth”

“ Please..” Hobi pleas as he looks desperate

Call him stubborn or uncompromising but Skylar doesn’t want to make reckless decisions, especially for the band he built from the scratch. He doesn’t know this kid, his background, his personality, his intentions. Somehow, he feels Jaime hiding something from them, but he can’t pinpoint what it is.

“I mean, he just wants money. What if he won’t commit to the band? What if he thinks he doesn’t earn much from this and leaves the band? ” Skylar insists

Yannick rolls his eyes “stop being dramatic Sky. We need a vocalist, not a loyal company employee. Be damned with his intentions as long as he can sing, what’s the problem?”

“but we have an image to protect, we have a reputation” deep in him, he knows Yannick is right but he can’t bring himself to agree easily. This band is just not a joke for him, he pours his life and his soul into this. He cherishes his band as much as he cherishes his music. He wants to bring a piece of sincere music, music to heal people. And how he can establish it if his member is nothing more than a money-oriented person?.

Adam lets out a deep sigh “…just because he needs money doesn’t mean he won’t work hard enough. Let’s give him a chance yeah?”

Skylar closes his eyes and inhales deeply. He knows he can’t beat the majority voices. Their team always uphold democracy for decision making. Sometimes, he doesn’t know whether he should be grateful or regret that. “All right, let’s give him a chance” As soon as Adam told him he’s officially a new member of the Band-Aid band, Jaime isn’t sure how he feels is. He feels relieved and grateful – something he wasn’t expected at first since he didn’t expect much from this audition, especially after his beef with this goddamn Skylar Anderson, he was almost given up. He got recognition for the first time for his singing. It’s not like he got a lot of praises because he knows he still needs practice but the fact he got an opportunity to be a Band-Aid band member makes him feel giddy.

There’s the satisfaction of doing something that his parents always told him to not to do. Like a child who’s banned from eating sweets as soon as they got their first bite, they’ll forever carve of it. And Jaime thinks this is the first step to the liberty he always carves for years. Should he start dating a bad guy? He chuckles with his own fantasy.

“Don’t get excited too quickly parker, you still prove your skill we have a reputation to protect” Skylar chides with his flat expression. If patience isn’t free probably Jaime already broke now – This pale guy literally can’t stand to see him look happy for a second.

“of course, I’ll show you!” Jaime gritted his teeth. He imagines he would jump to the table in front of that pale guy, kick all the papers until they’ll be scattered everywhere and scream ‘fuck you' to his face. But Jaime just gulps thickly all grudge he holds, he makes a mental note that he needs the money. With the money from the competition prize he can pay his dorm rents until he graduates no – he even can be living from that, he doesn’t need to work and focus on his college. Just by imagining that moment, he thinks he can sustain his patience with this mother fucking Skylar Anderson.

Only until he gets the money…

Yeah, only until then…

“SKYLAR BABE!” A familiar screeching voice deafening ruins all the serene atmosphere and snaps Jaime back from his reverie. Apparently, Harley Quinn has arrived. “why you didn’t reply to my text? I came to your apartment and you’re not there!” She stomps her feet, crossing her arms in front of her after flicking her long hair a couple of times. Her lips jutted like freshly shaved pencils.

Jaime swears he could see all Band-Aid Band member rolls their eyes “What is it? I thought we’re searching for vocalist, not cable porter” Jasper sneering as everyone bites their lips to resist a sudden burst of laughter. The girl’s eyes widen like they almost popped out, genuinely annoyed, whereas Jasper only sticks his tongue to her.

“it’s okay Jaime, you can laugh. Just say this is some real-life sitcom..pfft..” Jasper adds obviously to give fuel to the girl’s anger, who seems going to turn to be a dragon with those flaring nostrils. Jaime only looks at them, amused. What a funny dynamic.

Before the girl could spit her fire at Jasper, Skylar grabs her wrist and drags her out of the room. The show has ended.

~~~

“why your friends are such a dick?” Stella complains whilst keeps stomping her feet while she walks to show she is throwing tantrum right now

This is not the first time Skylar heard this particular complaint. The reason is only one, their friends don’t like his girlfriend and vice versa. Skylar never convinced them to like her either. Everyone has the right to like or unlike someone, right? besides, he can’t deny Stella can be really annoying sometimes “since when you care?”

She rolls her eyes and makes her long lashes flutter like some insect’s wings “I don’t!! Jasper just being jealous, what an asshole”

Skylar tries to resist his scoff, why the fuck Jasper should be jealous?. Actually, it’s quite fun to see Jasper and Stella barking at each other like two puppies in a fight. But he’s too tired to pick a fight with her so he just shut his mouth and let Stella nag now and then.

“where are we going, Babe?”

“I need to pick something from the locker” Skylar opens his locker lock before takes his Murakami and putting it in his bag. Suddenly he wants to finish it immediately so he can move to the other chapter.

“since when did you read?” She raises her eyebrows, amused.

“I always like read,” Skylar says lazily without looking at her

She grabs his hands as they walk, leaving the locker room. Skylar doesn’t pull away even though he’s not a big fan of public affection, but he quite likes holding her hands, the result of dating Stella for this whole time.

“you want to read this one after I finish? It’s quite fun, ” Skylar suggests as fixing her hair gently.

“Nah, boring” she’s trying to sound cute, Skylar just nods understanding. Such a shame tho, he hopes he can talk about the book he reads with her.

Stella is the type of person who enjoys partying until dawn, going to the beach for summer or renting a cottage on the mountain for spring break. She likes adventure and does everything without plans. She’s everything Skylar, is not a big fan of, whereas Skylar prefers reading a book on Han riverside, writing his new song on the rooftop until midnight with a cup of hot Americano, spent his holiday laying on his bed all day long. He doesn’t know what makes their relationship can last for two years. Sometimes, he can’t help but feel what a pity they can’t share the same interest, yet still, he loves her.

He loves her

Right?

“Anyway, why did you go to my place? You said you want to back to your home?” Skylar asks when they’re walking to the parking lot.

“change my plan” she answers nonchalantly checking her new painted nails, it’s burgundy. He doesn’t know why she is so obsessed with burgundy. He always thought he prefers baby pink or soft violet tho. But since he isn’t a controlling type of boyfriend, he never mentions it.

“why is it now?” There are always tons of reasons why she suddenly changes her plans, she basically changes her plan as easy as the weather changes. So random an anomaly. It's just her thing.

“I don’t want to face my parent’s wrath” she huffs on the passenger’s seat crossing her arms. Skylar leans in to put on her seat belt.

 Skylar wants to disagree and tells her to go home. She had stayed at his place for a week after all. Her parents will be fucking outraged and not let her see him for a week or whatever bullshit they’ll come up with this time, but he quickly realises that she wouldn’t listen to him anyway, so he just starts the engine. Whether he makes her go home or not, her parent already hates him, mostly because he’s a musician aspiring as they called him so he doesn’t care anymore.

“so that guy is your new vocalist?” She asks and starts the conversation.

Skylar hums, still focusing on the road “everyone agreed so apparently yes”

“well finally, I saw the line this morning, and it was crazy also everyone goes fucking insane after your band announced the new guy. All the fuse is for nothing, I thought it was about something important”

“It is...actually a big deal, we applied for the competition, remember?”

“oh, you never told me that?” She gasps. He had told her. Multiple times, even.

“I did, it’s okay. Anyway, have you listened to the demo I send you? What do you think?” Skylar usually will let Stella hears first every music he made to ask about her opinion.

“oh I like it, it sounds fun and um..catchy?” she sounds unconvincing, her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“do you think I have to fix the chorus? It’s quite monotonous, don’t you think?”

She laughs awkwardly “I don’t know Babe you’re the musician, not me. I just like it, that’s all”

Skylar sighs defeated, Stella just being Stella.