Chapter Text
What a fucked life! And even fucked up start to a day in his already fucked life! Brilliant! Kim scowled. First he woke up late because he couldnt get an iota of sleep past night, then his maid ended up breaking the front lock, his manager Phet had been continuously getting on his nerves, his freaking father had called, he got stuck in traffic and now his motherfucking guitar strings decided to get snapped two hours before the event kickstarts.. lovely! Absolutely miraculous!
Kim's bloody sure that somebody's up there and is purposely fucking his life and even having fun!
Now, first problems first... Guitar strings.. he needs to get them himself because these morons around won't get the correct ones just like always.
He prays that there are musical instruments stores nearby or he'll surely get on a killing spree!
He takes out his phone and types Musical instruments store near me, suggestions pop up. The closest one, 37 mins away from the venue - "K's Cadenza" , what a shitty attempt at an aesthetically pleasing name of a music shop, he thinks. Well, he'll judge shit later, he needs to get the strings right now. He asks his manager for half an hour extension if in case they don't have the strings and he needs to go further to get them, before he can start with his regular whining Kim makes a beeline towards the backdoor exit and leaves.
The songs on the radio are classics, not exactly Kim's liking but he can tolerate them , moreso when he can't concentrate on anything else other than the shop he's heading to and the strings he needs. His phone is continuously buzzing, Phet, Kinn and event manager have called so far, he feels a strong urge to kill them with the exception of Kinn, well , maybe not.
He chose to answer Phet's call.
K~ Can't you get simple things, stop calling me, I'll be back in time.
P~ the event manager is getting on my nerves, Kim please be on time or else you are getting cancelled.
K ~ oh I'm not! Cause one, I'll be back and two, if not , one shirtless WIK photoshoot will cover more than the loss.
P~ yeah, yeah.. please try to be quick, there's a warning for thunderstorm and heavy rainfall and I can't afford to get cancelled sir, I'm not wik the great.
K~ yeah , whatever.
Kim hangs up. Phet mutters "Cheeky bastard" under his breath as he plasters a smile to calm down the event manager and tell him that wik will be back on time.
===
It's just 2 pm but the sky has already turned grey. Kim reaches the shop. Thankfully the place around is quite deprived of life. He parks his car ,wears his mask as he gets down and heads towards the shop.
The shop seemed like a simple one, various guitars , ukuleles and instruments on walls, some CDs, tapes and records neatly arranged in the display, golden lightings to enhance the overall rustic and classy look completed by mahogany flooring. Better than expected. It is empty except for the soft strumming noise coming from somewhere at the back.
"Excuse me? Is anyone here?" Kim doesn't go further than the counter.
He hears the sound of footsteps approaching, a slender boy seemingly in his late teens comes apologizing, an acoustic Taylor guitar still in his hands as he awkwardly welcomes him.
" I'm sorry sir, it's just that we seldom have customers at this time. Welcome, how may I help you?" The boy greets as he puts the guitar on stand.
"Um, no problem, I'm looking for guitar strings. Do you have optimal gold plated ones or maybe elixir ?"
" A man a of good taste I see, I think we have them. Can you give me a minute to find them, it's not daily that people come looking for those."
"Thank god." Kim muttered under his breath.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing, yeah.. take your time, it's okay." Said Kim as he sat on one of the high chairs.
The boy hurried to find the strings, Kim took out his phone to check the twitter trends. A minute later, a loud thunderclap was heard and it started raining cats and dogs. Kim groaned, the boy who had just come with strings in his hands, gasped.
"Shit, my concert!" Said two voices in the room.
"Wait." They synchronised again.
Boy giggled and Kim rolled his eyes.
" Are you too going for Wik's concert?" Asked the younger excitedly as he looked at Kim. "Wait.. are you.. are you 'Wik' as in 'the Wik'...?? I'm so sorry I didn't recognise you in the mask. Oh my god, this can't be true! I'm Porchay.. Chay, big fan."
Shit, that caught Kim off-guard. He surely didn't need a fanboy to deal with ,especially when his last brink of patience is held together by very fragile threads.
"Yes. I'm Kim.. wik is my stage name." He said taking off his suffocating mask. It came out harsher than he intended.
He had read the singer was an introvert and didn't like socialising but the tone hurt anyway.
"Aow, I guess you're having a bad day." Porchay smiled.
"Worse than your nightmares Porchay, now if you could please do the billing, i need to be somewhere else."
" Oh.. sorry.. um yeah, in a jiffy." Said an embarrassed Chay. Maybe he scared the singer or troubled him when the guy was already not in a good mood, he thought
He took the money , returned the change and the strings with a sweet smile.
Annoying. Kim thought as he left the store and ran towards the car, parked right in front of the store.
He gets in , throws the strings on passenger seat , straps the seatbelt cause he can't afford dying in an accident. And starts the car.. well.. tries to start the car.
Once, twice... Thrice. The car won't budge. Kim banged his head on the steering wheel. Not now! Please not now! The universe has decided that not a single freaking thing would go right for him today.
There are soft knocks on his window. He rolls down the car window to reveal the guy from shop standing with an umbrella.
"Yes? "
"Your car broke down?"
"What else does it look like?"
" Chill man, I get that you're having a particularly bad day but you don't need to be that rude. I just wanted to say you can come wait at the stop till rain subsides or you find another way to go back, it's dangerous being here like this."
"Uh.. sorry.. " said Kim as he got down to join the guy in umbrella, "it's just that things are shitty and I need to be at the concert right now."
"It's okay, I've dealt with people having even worse attitude and etiquettes. Come on you'll get wet."
The umbrella wasn't capable enough to hold two grown up men , both of them were soaked when they entered the shop again.
"God, you're all drenched in rain, let me get you something or else you'll catch a cold
" kim wanted to protest but Chay was right and he can't afford a sore throat when he has two other gigs lined up soon.
The guy came out with a towel and a plain black tshirt with tiny guitar designs.cute. He took a better look at the guy, fair skin messed up hair covering most of his forehead , the flannel shirt dripping and the white t-shirt underneath had now become see through due to courtesy of rain clinging to his body. His gaze returned to the guy's face, doe eyes looked at him amused.
Kim ducked his head to see his own t-shirt sticking to his body with his abs and chest on display. The only thing covering his dignity being his leather jacket.
"If you're done checking me out Chay, the towel please" kim chuckled.
Chay was startled, " well, in my defence, you did it first, also I was just a bit surprised that you actually have defined abs and chest, i thought they were edited in the pictures."
Kim started laughing. He felt the tension and stress from all day dissipate away from his body.
"you're cute"
Okay, this was unexpected, Kim had been told he was hot, sexy, dazzling, a walking wet dream but cute? All these leather jackets, rings ,necklaces and the ice prince look he carried only to be called 'cute' by a freakin' teenager? That's offensive!
"Huh?"
"You look cute when you smile Wik"
Kim was about to give the sassiest reply ever heard in history of mankind to shut the guy infront of him but his phone dinged. Phet .
P~ hey, the concert stands cancelled due to the weather conditions. I'm in talks for rescheduling. Where are you? Is everything well?
K~ I'm okay, at a music store nearby. My car broke down [location] , send me a car when the rain subsides.
P~is it safe?
K~ yup, and you very well know I can defend myself. Bye.
The sound of a sneeze made Kim look up to the boy still standing infront of him.
"Bless you."
"I'm sorry" said a startled Chay "if you're okay, there's a bathroom on the left, you can get changed there. I think I too should change in the meantime." He continued.
"Um, yeah, thanks." He said as he walked towards the bathroom.
He came out to the sight of Chay wearing a white hoodie with sunflower design. Well suited for a bubbly extroverted person like him kim thought.
They sat in an awkward silence till porchay spoke, "So..um.. won't it be problematic for you because you've a concert like right now and you're stuck here?"
"Well, it's cancelled for today due to weather conditions, my manager is rescheduling it."
"Oh."
"Oh.. yeah.. so you also play any instruments."
Chay chuckled, "it would be ironic to own a musical instrument shop and be able to play none.. I play drums and flute ,mostly self learnt. I started learning guitar ,a couple of months back."
"I see. So that guitar was yours?"
"Yeah, Porsche gifted it to me on my birthday, well, it was an order for somebody else but they cancelled last minute and I had been eyeing it and hia knew so he customized it for me and I got my present, isn't he the best?"
"That he sounds like, but aren't you too young to be a shop owner?"
"Hey! I'm an adult, I turned nineteen last month and the shop belonged to my parents, hia and I started to look after it when they died in a plane crash few years ago. It's mostly my elder brother here, I'm still in college, studying music so I help him in the management whenever possible."
Kim hated listening to people and unnecessary talks but right now, he didn't feel any annoyance. It felt pleasant seeing Porchay rumble about himself using a lot of hand gestures as if he was telling some fable to a kid. It gave rise to a good feeling inside him. He listened to Porchay with concentration, occasionally humming and watching his eyes sparkle as he describes about his experience with the instruments he plays , his relatable college melodrama and his funny encounters with customers. He laughs whole heartedly recalling that once a customer thought Chay was a lost kid who accidentally found his way to the shop and took him to police station to find his parents.
"Aow am I boring you, I'm sorry, Porsche tells me I'm a chatterbox at times" Chay said apologizing when he realised Kim was just listening to him without contributing anything to the on going conversation.
"No, it's good, it's been a long time that I've talked to someone and actually enjoyed the conversation." Said Kim.
"But you were just listening to me."
"Well you're a pretty sight to behold when you talk." Shit! Shit! What are you doing kim. Kim mentally facepalmed himself.
Chay's eyes widened in utter disbelief, did his idol just flirt with him??
"I meant.. uh.. you're fun to talk to." Yeah very believable excuse kim.. dumbass.
They both fell quiet and flushed, due to lack of words, awkwardness crept in.
"Um if you don't mind, i mean i don't wanna make you uncomfortable...and I'm not fanboy-ing either..but.."
"Okay porchay, just say it, the build up is scaring me."
"Uh.. no, no.. i just wanted to ask, can I click a picture with you, I mean, it's not daily that you meet your idol like this.."
"Yeah, sure" Kim smiled as he stood up for a picture.
Chay stood besides Kim, he pulled him a bit closer and they clicked a couple of selfies, smiling and pouting to the camera. He showed the pictures to kim.
"Hey, they're nice, can you send them to me...I.."
His sentence was cut off by a foreign noise in the background.
"Hey Kim! Are you in here?" They both turned around to see in the direction of voice, Phet was walking towards them. They didn't realise that rain has stopped and the weather cleared.
"Here!" Kim spoke in a loud voice.
"Oh man! The event manager here must have been a bed bug in his last birth, he's so annoying!" Phet started complaining even before he reached them properly.
He looked at Chay and then at kim. "Oh.. he's Chay, the shop owner, he helped me out with the strings and rain." He looked at Chay "he's my manager Phet." Chay give a small smile and did a wai. Phet smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.
Phet started talking to Kim again " He talked my ear off kim, that guy has a masters in killing people by irritating them."
"True that, so what happened?"
" It got rescheduled to eight days later same time ,same venue."
"Uh.. okay" Kim sighed.
"Let's go then" Phet offered.
"Yeah" he turned to look at Chay " thankyou so much for helping me out Chay, I.. will see you." Kim smiled.
Chay looked at him with warm eyes as he adorned a smile and said " pleasure's mine p'kim, I'll DM you the pictures."
"P'kim?"
"You're elder, so i thought... I'm sorry."
" No! It's nice, i like it. And it's just four years, I'm not old!" Kim joked "Just don't tell anyone my real name okay? Bye."
"Sure p'kim. Bye, have a great day ahead. "
With this Kim left with Phet.
"You like the shopkeeper right? He's cute." Phet asked when they were in the car on their way back.
"Huh?"
"Don't huh me Kim, you don't tolerate close proximity of people but when I came in you were standing too close to him for your own liking, one more step and you'd have been in his lap, also you freaking made a dad joke which was cringey at best but the boy still laughed, he likes you as well."
"Oh shut up with your over analysing mr. Manager. He helped me out and he's a ... Nice guy.. I don't like him or anything..." (Yet)
"Nice guy..." Phet imitated.
"You wanna be unemployed phet?"
"Sorry boss, I was kidding". He laughed.
Kim looked out of the window. The day didn't seem as bad now. Did something change?
Maybe someone did.