Jaime scratches his scalp, he’s so frustrated, so fucked up.

He can’t believe he acted so impulsively while he could talk to Skylar nicely. That guy just fucking broke up, of course, he wasn’t in the best mood oh fuck – he even cried before the meeting and Jaime rubbed the salt on his wound – In front of his bandmates. What a climax.

And now he should talk to him, otherwise, it’ll make the band feel uncomfortable. And he can’t let that happen, he just almost makes new friends with them. It is finally nice to have a group where he can finally belong, Jaime doesn’t want to disappoint them, he is determined to help them with the competition.

Skylar is right, he can find another job, simpler than that goddamn competition.

But it’s more than that...

It’s everyone else’s dream...

His dream…

“Jaime? I think we left something in the café” Mikey nudges him when they walk into the busiest district at night, even getting more crowded since it’s a Saturday night.

“Seriously? What?” Jaime checks his pocket until he feels his handphone and his wallet in the place they should be.

“You left your thought there,” he jokes while avoiding bumping with other people, barely having space for Mikey just to halt and laugh. Some drunk, some sane. The different EDM music blaring from different clubs, the neon lamp from different restaurants and bars billboards illuminate the street. Street foods lined up with colourful tents on the side of the street. The part of the city that never sleeps.

“Ah sorry” Jaime grimaces as he realises what his roommate meant “Just have a lot of thought…”

“No worries, hey that ramen tent looks legit! let’s go” Mikey drags his wrist to the nearby Ramen tent, he makes the order even without asking Jaime. Jaime lets him since his roommate insists to pay.

“Mike we just ate dinner a few minutes ago, my belly is going to explode~” Jaime whines as Mikey shoves him one portion of noodles with fish cake.

“Nah, shut up and just eat. So…. Tell me about the band members. They’re crazy cool, ain’t they?” Mikey asks as still busy shoving the noodle inside his mouth.

Jaime raises his eyebrows with amusement and Mikey lifts his face to find Jaime’s shit-eating grins “Is this a bribe so you can interrogate me?”

“Nope, I’m being a good friend who would lend my ear to listen to your worries and maybe can grace you with my wise advice so for now just tell me about them. I can’t believe my roommate is the new hottest member of the most famous group at our Uni and he never talks about it, not even once. You’re so mean, you know that?” Mikey nags as he points his chopstick at Jaime’s face viciously as if he is about to jab his eyes out.

Jaime can’t help but laughs “You can just ask dude! you don’t have to shove food to my throat like this, well not I’m ungrateful but you sure have tact in digging information from people”

“Can you blame me, man? You don’t look happy when you told me you got accepted, I thought it’ll bother you if I keep asks about it. Besides, I know there’s something wrong. You were home with that shitty gloomy face like there’s an actual stormy cloud above your head that will strike right into you and wipe all the happiness inside you. I don’t know, there’s something wrong with you”

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah, like you always left your thought somewhere else,” he shrugs

Jaime groans “We just being roommates for how long? 6 months? And you already can read my mind like some psychic. You seriously got me chill, Don’t tell me you can actually read my mind or some shit like that?”

“Took no genius to judge the weird behaviour of yours dude. I was true then? So, Spill the tea is that cool kids didn’t treat you nice?” Then Mikey is about to jump on his table “They didn’t bully you, are they??? Because I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind if they did!”

Jaime rolls his eyes. "First they’re not as cool as you thought they're just the same kids like us just…just more popular, okay?” then he can’t hold his snort. “And are you going to do what? You won’t even stand a chance against one of them, so how you would give a lesson for 6 of them?”

Mikey shrugs “I can sneak to their practice room and destroy everything. Took a semester off and hides somewhere for a while”

 Jaime rolls his eyes with a smirk “yeah, what a brave move, sounds like you. And no, they treat me nicely, everyone being friendly with me except..”

“Except?”

“It's just this Skylar guy, he kept acting bitchy toward me and I do not understand why, we’re bickering a few times and recently, we..were fighting and everything becomes more complicated and yeah…” Jaime says while stabbing his innocent rice cake with his chopstick.

“Not really surprised,” Mikey says nonchalantly.

“what do you mean?”

“He has that kind of reputation”

“What reputation?” it doesn’t surprise him if Minyhun knows about that kind of shit. His weird obsession with cool kids causes him to follow anything about them. Rumours, gossip, anything. He literally reads campus clickbait articles every morning as he eats his breakfast. Jaime can't be more impressed by his dedication, really.

Mikey hums lost in thought “People said he’s the flaw of the group”

“Elaborate please?” Jaime rolls his eyes.

“Rumour says he skips practices pretty often, they say he doesn’t deserve to be part of the band, he’s the reason why they never win. Did you know? They even made a petition so Skylar leaves the band ” Mikey gulps his soju in one shot as he wants to clear the taste that left after he said that. He grimaces at the aftermath. “people also talked about his relationship with his girlfriend – who? Ah, Stella.”

And strangely, Jaime is more interested in Skylar’s relationship rumours than anything else. He remembers what Jass said about his girlfriend who always makes him busy whenever he spent his time with his band, and if the rumours about him skipping his practices was true then he can’t help to think that Stella is the reason behind it “What do they say?”

“a lot. They said he likes to fuck around”

“What??”

“he likes to hook up with different people while he is still with Stella. You know, playing with them and forgetting about it the next morning. A lot of people said they’ve slept with him and whoosh... gone in the morning, ”

“No way is his girlfriend is-“

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. She is his first girlfriend and they’ve been dating for 2 fucking years. Damn – but people said they saw Stella do the same thing. She fucks around with different guys while they’re still together. I guess it was pretty legit since they spread her picture kissing a different dude at the party. So people start assuming Skylar and Stella have an open relationship, I mean who the fuck let his girlfriend go wild like that if he’s not doing the same thing”

Jaime can feel his face twisted into disgust. If that’s true, why the hell is Skylar still with her, fuck – he even feels his stomach churns madly.

“So they don’t have evidence about Skylar?”

“Nope,” Mikey dips his egg into the broth before he eats them "All was just an assumption. I mean you know how fucked up some people could be right? Since Skylar gave them a bad impression from the start, people like to add more spice to every publicity about him, spewing shit based on their wild imagination, writing them on social media, getting likes and retweets, the last thing we know it is already spread fast like a plaque"

“That’s…unfair” Jaime mutters quietly

“Well yeah, that was. But no one cared. I mean that how gossip work right? it doesn’t matter you’ve proof or not, is that fact or not as long as it is interesting to be talked about” 

“Do you believe them, Mike?”

Mikey stops munching and lifts his head with a flat expression “Do you believe lady gaga actually has a penis? Or Kim Kardashian got the implant on her butt?”

“wha-“

“People only believe what they want to believe, Jaime, but the actual truth? Nobody knows except themselves” Mikey sighs exasperatedly as he shakes his head "With Skylar not giving a damn about all the rumours about him and his hot tampered in handling things, it's make everything even worse"