Max-w0lf68 - Broken Melodies

Chapter 3 - Important Talks and Cardstock

Word Count: ~2.5k

Please see Masterlist for warnings.

(World view reference, 114 Willow Dr.)

- Jaemin's POV -

After leaving Sweet Venom, the Corner Cafe, I headed back down the street towards Jackson's place.

Making my way back down towards my house, I slow my run to a walk when I hit my driveway, giving myself the chance to catch my breath. As I walk past the house that sits between mine and Jackson's, I look over and mumble to myself. "Yunho huh?" I smile softly at the calm exterior as I pass by, thinking of the stranger from yesterday.

I make my way up Jackson's driveway and ring the front doorbell, to which an unfamiliar face answers.

"Can I help you?" His Australian accent was thick. He smiled as he leaned on the doorframe, a slight cheekiness radiating from him.

He was wearing all black in the form of a ball cap, sleeveless shirt, and sweatpants. No shoes, and a very confident smile.

"Hi. I'm looking for Jackson. Is he home?" I asked politely.

"Ah, he's actually out at the moment." He paused briefly. "Yeah...BUT he should be back any time now! You can come in and wait for him, if you'd like." He steps aside, opening the door the rest of the way and motions inward maintaining the cheeky smile.

The man seemed a little to friendly and it felt strange, but he had a rather comfortable atmosphere around him. Besides, if Jackson trusts this guy then it's probably fine.

Overthinking to myself, I shoot Jackson a text 'Im at your place. The Aussie let me in.' ...just in case.

My phone buzzed. "Cool. Be there soon."

I nodded to myself, feeling a bit more at ease and followed the broad Aussie man into the living room.

"Feel free to make yourself comfortable." He says in a chipper voice as he picks up a few miscellaneous dishes up off the table, taking them to the kitchen.

I take a seat in the corner of the large sectional, looking at party ideas on Pinterest while I wait.

The Aussie comes back into the living room sitting relatively close to me. "You must be Jaemin right? I'm Chan." His smile never wavering.

"Yep, that's me. Nice to meet you, Chan." I return the smile.

"Jaemin? As in the one Jackson always talks about?" A voice sounds from the stairway behind us and I turn to see 2 people. A guy leaning against the door way, and a woman standing slightly in front of him.

"Fawning over may be more accurate.." the guy smirks.

"Oh be nice guys. Come say hello." Chan waves them over. "The sarcastic dude is Hyuk, the shorties is Yeong-Ja." He informs as the 2 make their way to the couch to settle in, both giving a wave in their own ways, Yeong-Ja shooting an annoyed look at Chan who was grinning at his own joke.

As they take their seats the front door opens and Jackson walks in, arms full of bags.

"Jax!" I immediately stand up and run over to him, in turn he drops the bags and meets me with open arms.

"Hey!! It's so nice to see you back babygirl~" Jackson laughs as he catches me in a large bear hug.

"I missed you so much! It's been way to long!!" I reply excitedly as I wrap myself around him.

"Just friends huh?" A sarcastic Hyuk teases, the other two bickering in agreement as Jackson gently sets me back down.

I roll my eyes. "We've been friends since I was able to walk pretty much. And it's been 2 years since we've seen each other, so shut it." I stick my tongue out at them before picking up a few bags and taking them to the kitchen.

"Careful. She can be scary. You don't wanna get on her bad side." Jackson warns the others in a playful tone before gathering the rest of the bags and meeting me in the kitchen.

I take a seat at the bar as he unpacks the groceries. We catch up about things not talked about over call or text, and he updates me about the bar we had left to him and how things are going.

"So when are you wanting to start back?" He asks.

"That's one of the things I came to talk to you about. I may be the owner of that bar but you've been running it these past few years." I start. "I'm not just going to come back and run you out of it, I just figured I'd work there along side you and your other guy."

"Ah. I forget you haven't met Soobin yet." He replies. "But it would definitely be nice to have an extra hand. Plus I wanted to talk with you about making some renovations and updates. I've been putting a percentage of the profits in the bars savings for a while, like you asked. So I feel we have more than enough to make the changes."

"Okay, I'll come check it out with you tomorrow. This will also give me a chance to meet your right hand as well." I agree.

After plans we're made for the bar, I brought up the welcome home party.

"I was thinking we needed to throw one of those too!" Jackson chimes.

"Any idea who would be good to invite and who wouldn't? I was thinking it'd just be a pool party esc barbeque type thing at my place." I respond.

"Sounds like a good idea. Everyone in this neighborhood has pros and cons but none of them are bad people per say. I'd just make an invitation per house and leave it in the mailboxes. Whoever wants to come will." He suggests and I agree.

We continue to go over other small details for planing before it's time for him to head out.

"I gotta get to the bar to help Soobin with the closing shift, but it was so nice catching up! And we'll go get the party supplies and inspect the bar tomorrow." He smiles, wrapping his arms around me for another tight hug.

"Sounds like a plan." I smile back before standing up and walking with him towards the door.

I say goodbye to the other three before bidding farewell to Jackson and heading back home.

From the end of Jackson's driveway I can clearly see Ni-Ki and Yechan standing in the window, staring in my direction. They duck out of the window quickly after realizing they had been spotted.

I shake my head with a large smile on my face as I make my way back to my home.

As I walk in the front door the 3 guys are all in the living room, Ni-Ki and Yechan acting "natural" while BM is laughing histarically at them.

"As soon as these two realized you were gone they have been watching for you to come back like puppies who's owner left without them!" He calls them out.

"I was not!" Yechan protests. "I was just trying to figure out what Ni-Ki was doing!" He attempts to defend himself, his face bright red as he runs up the stairs to his room.

Ni-Ki is hiding his face in his hoodie, embarrassed.

"Matthew be nice! They were just excited to meet me yesterday. The newness hasn't wore off yet." I laugh at the cute reactions of my 3 roomies. "I gotta run to the craft store to pick up invitation supplies. I'll be back." I continue, grabbing my leather jacket and bike keys from the hooks by the door.

Ni-Kis head shoots up at the sound of the keys and he looks as though he wants to say something, but no words leave his mouth.

"Bet! I'm always down for one of your parties!" Matthew says excitedly before getting up from the couch.

"They aren't that impressive." I shake my head and look back at Ni-Ki who's eyes are still trained on me. "You ever been on a bike, Duckling?"

His eyes light up as he shakes his head. "I haven't."

"Would you like to ride with me? I could use the company anyways." I offer.

"Really? That'd be awesome!" He exclaims as he excitedly makes his way over to me.

We wave goodbye to Matthew as we head out the door. I hand Ni-Ki an extra helmet I always keep around and help him adjust it to fit properly. I get on the bike first then motion for Ni-Ki to sit behind me. He follows, looking awkward trying to figure out what to do with his hands.

I roll my eyes playfully before grabbing his hands and wrapping them around me.

"Hold on to me so you don't fall off. And try not to move around to much or lean heavy to either side. Got it?" I instruct and he nods as I start the bike. "Got it!"

"Hold on tight duckling~" I say as I kick off and pull out of the driveway.

As soon as the bike started moving his once loose grip tightens drastically as he clings to me, making me laugh under my breath.

The whole drive to the store Ni-Ki held onto me like if he loosened his grip even slightly he'd fly off, and had his head/helmet pressed firmly against the back of my leather jacket. Not the most comfortable ride I must say.

After parking and turning off the bike, I tapped Ni-Ki's arms. "You can release me now."

He lifted his head and let go, quickly returning his arms back to his sides.

"S-sorry.." he studdered rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's fine. Yeri did the same thing the first time I took her for a ride... except..it took a bit more convincing to get her to let go. I thought I was gunna suffocate she was squeezing so tight." I laugh as I take my helmet off, securing it to the bike, and Ni-Ki follows.

We make our way into the craft store and start looking through cards, envelopes, different types of pens, etcetera. Ya know, the normal invitation making stuff.

Ni-Ki picks up a bright pink floral cardstock and holds it up towards me. "Oh yeah. This is so you." He says in a super 'serious' tone with an expression to match, nodding as he places his pointer finger and thumb to his chin.

I roll my eyes at his jest. "Absolutely not!" I shake my head as his expression drops to a fake pout and he defeatedly puts the cardstock back in its slot.

"Oh what about this set?" I suggest as I pick up a packaged kit. The kit held nice clean beige cardstock and matching envelopes, a stamp seal, a tube of dark copperish gold wax beads, and a set of brown calligraphy pens.

"Simple, but it works. Nice but not to Fancy." Ni-Ki replies with an approving nod.

"Awesome. Now... To the snacks!" I declare as I gently toss the kit into the cart, jumping onto the bar and the bottom. One hand on the handle of the cart and the other pointed straight as the cart rolls slightly forward.

I hear Ni-Ki's scoff of a laugh and can almost feel his head shake before two arms appear on either side of me, firmly on the handlebar and pushes forward.

"Hold on tight, kitten." He laughs almost mockingly as we make our way to the snack isles.

Picking out snacks we realized we had a lot of the same taste so that made things easier.

After checking out we loaded the bags into the compartment under the bike seat and secured our helmets. This time Ni-Ki seemed to need no reminder as he latched onto me as soon as he got on, making me giggle.

Getting back to the house, he had loosened his grip in comparison to the first ride, and had watched over my shoulder as we drove. It was nice to see he come to at least some what trust my driving.

When we walk in the door Yechan was in the living room. His curiosity seemingly peaked by the bags in our hands.

"What's all that?" He asked.

"Jae's throwing a party. We went to get the stuff for invitations." Ni-Ki responds.

"You're going to write them all by hand?" Yechan seems shocked. "You know technology exists right?"

I laughed at the boy's reaction. "I personally enjoy this kind of thing." I sit the bags down on the living room table and start pulling things out. "You can help if you want. We got snacks."

"Well, don't really have anything better to do." He sits up and moves to the floor around the coffee table as Ni-Ki and I also take seats.

"Where's Matthew?" I ask.

"Apparently Soobin and Jackson were having a pretty busy night so they called him to come help." Yechan informs.

As we all work on writing out the invitations, each one stating 'Hello. You are invited to a welcoming party at 113 Willow Drive. Start time is 6pm next Saturday, July 27th. Hope to see you there. ~ Jaemin', and the house numbers written on the envelope signifying that the invitations are for all residents at the stated address.

After writing and sleeving all the cards into the envelopes, I go up to my room to grab a tea light candle, a wax melter, and a lighter. I set it up on the coffee table and pour a few of the wax beads into the top before striking the lighter.

"You with fire? That's scary." Yechan mocks, making both him and Ni-Ki laugh. Letting the flame on the lighter go out i pick up a pillow off the floor next to me and throw it at him.

"I am perfectly capable of handling fire, thank you!" I protest then go back to lighting the candle.

After all invitations were sealed and ready to be delivered, we got the living room cleaned up and sat on the couch with our snacks to watch TV for the rest of the night.

-Matthew's POV-

After a long night at the bar I get home and kick my shoes off right as I walk in the front door, with a sigh of relief. Looking into the living room with the glow of a lamp and the TV still on, I see my three roommates all asleep on the couch.

"These kids.." I shake my head as I get closer, examining the situation. Yechan's arms are stretched out, one on the arm of the couch, the other around Jaemin who was leaned into his side, and Ni-Ki still barely holding onto the big bowl of popcorn was leaned against her.

I gently took the bowl out of his loose grip and sat it on the table before covering them up with one of the throw blankets.

I took this opportunity to take a picture of the 3 sleeping like rocks before turning lights off and heading up to bed myself.