Chapter 272: French Karaoke
In a 24-hour karaoke establishment in Seoul, South Korea, 3 handsome boys occupied a regular-sized room.
One of them was standing on the chair with an oversized fur hat falling over his face, singing his heart out in French to a sad song as the piano accompaniment rang out in the background.
"Je te laisserai des mots,
I will leave my words
Beneath your door
Against your walls
Right at your floor
So when you’re alone
Pick them up one at a time
Kiss them whenever you like
Pick them up and hold them close
Smell my perfume and remember
Just as the ink permanently stains the paper
Your presence permanently stains my mind
And all I can do
Je te laisserai des mots"
The slightly husky tone that was expressed in the despondent longing of the song filled the room decorated with brightly flashing LED lights.
The second boy was strumming along with his guitar as tears streamed down his face while he sniffled sadly.
And the third boy?
The third boy regretted his impulsive decision to tag along with the other two boys.
Levi glanced from the teary Jamie, who had stopped sniffling and was now openly sobbing while Ari, who was still standing on the sofa for some strange reason, put on another heart-wrenching French song and began singing it in his sweet yet husky voice that made you want to listen even more despite the depressing lyrics.
While the singing sounded great, Levi was quite confused and could only stare blankly as his brain tried to process things.
What the heck was going on?
Wasn’t karaoke supposed to be fun, with each person taking turns to sing?
Instead, it had turned into a crying fest with one person hogging the microphone and the other person weeping into his guitar or his laptop.
And why was this person constantly climbing on some type of furniture?
Was he allergic to standing on the floor?
Finally tired of the nonsense happening to him, Levi got up, unplugged the microphone, and stared at the two people blinking stupidly at him.
"...what are the two of you doing?"
"Understanding the emotions of the song and writing down my feelings sniff. It’s so sad and so beautiful. I understand why they call it a romance language sniff."
"Setting the mood to make Jamie sad, obviously. Plug the microphone back in. I’m not done."
"...this is what you had planned for Karaoke? Singing sad songs while he cries?"
"Yep, we need to write a sad French song, so I’m just making sure Jamie understands the concept we’re going for. Speaking of which, Mr. Rapper, you’re next. I queued up some French rap songs for you to perform."
"I don’t speak French?"
"Isn’t that the point of karaoke? Read the lyrics and do your best. Don’t worry, I’ll correct the pronunciation."
What happened to my ability to choose the songs I want to rap?
And why are you assuming I’ll pronounce things wrong?
Levi: ಠ_ಠ
Ari: ^_^
"If you don’t want to, feel free to leave." Jamie shot Levi a little glare before looking away.
"Be nice. He’s our roommate."
"We should have just brought Benjammmph."
Ari stuffed a snack into Jamie’s mouth with a sigh before turning back to Levi. "I said be nice. If you really don’t want to, you don’t have to. Just put in whatever song you want to rap to. I’m just using you as a live reference to get a feel for things since I can’t rap."
Levi blinked slowly before answering in his usual sharp tone.
"You can rap. You’re just not good at it."
"Wow. Amazing. Thank you for saying that. I didn’t know."
Clap clap clap
At Ari’s sarcastic words, Levi just changed the subject.
"...What vibe are you going for? What’s the story for the show, or can you not share?"
"No, they sent a generic plot idea for the song that can be shared, and basically, they want it to be a sad song. It’s told from the perspective of a guy about a girl, and the characters go from childhood friends to enemies to lovers to enemies once more, all with a sad kind of reflective and longing vibe. Here. You can read it. Tell me what you think?"
Ari handed over his laptop with the translated message, and Levi quickly glanced through it before quickly summarizing his thoughts.
"So star-crossed lovers? Romeo and Juliet?"
"Romeo and Juliet, if they grew up together, then went through puberty and tried to kill each other repeatedly, had a brief moment of reflection, and then went back to killing each other. But they still secretly like each other or something. It’s a rambling story, especially since they didn’t want to share the whole storyline."
"It sounds like they want something about frenemies? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer? In a lot of literature, the person who is closest and knows the protagonist the best is often the antagonist and vice versa. Even the concept of enemies-to-lovers has that trope embedded in it." Levi added quietly as he called upon his years of reading scripts to decode the concept that was vaguely stated in a roundabout manner.
"Hmmm, so it would be ma meilleure ennemie instead of ma meilleure amie or ma meilleure amoureuse? My dearest enemy, instead of my dearest friend or my dearest lover? That kind of makes sense. I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks."
"...I don’t think I did anything?"
"Every thought matters and is very helpful, and naturally, your contributions will get credited. But you know what else would be even more helpful while you’re here?"
"What?"
Levi had a strange feeling that he knew what was coming next from this person who liked to overwork everyone around him with a smile.
"If you started rapping. Please and thank you. Unless you don’t think you can rap in another language? If that’s the case, I completely understand. We’ll just get Benjamin to do it next time we come."
With a cheeky smile, Ari held the unplugged microphone to Levi while pointing to the bright screen, which displayed the lyrics of a French rap song.
It was as if he were daring him to say no or come up with another excuse.
And despite knowing it was a childish dare said to prod him to work, Levi obediently grabbed the microphone and began fighting through French lyrics that skipped half the letters and conjoined the other half in a slurred pronunciation that made no sense to the English-speaking eye.
Just as they were all getting into the groove of things, due to Ari, who was a minor and needed to be back early, they had to leave.
With sad eyes, Jamie reluctantly packed his belongings, while Levi awkwardly stood at the door, waiting for Ari to return from the bathroom.
The two of them refused to interact with each other unless there was a middleman, which Ari found both funny and very childish, especially on Jamie’s part, considering he was usually friendly with everyone.
When he came back from the bathroom, the two of them were standing 6 feet apart, headphones on both their heads, and not looking at each other.
"It was fun, right? Let’s take a picture to commemorate our first session. Un deux trois cheese!"
Dragging Levi back by his jacket and holding a peace sign next to Jamie, Ari took a quick selfie before nodding approvingly.
He would save this for later.
"Ohh, that looks nice. Send it to me!" Jamie smiled happily while staring at the photo and cropping Levi out in his mind.
"Yep. Let’s go."
As the three of them walked out in the street back to the building that they were staying at, Levi, who was walking slightly ahead, slowed his steps and muttered in a low voice.
"...if you guys go again, you should record the session like a bts. Even if it’s a random French show, I’m sure people would be curious to see your working process. You could upload it to WeTube or whatever."
"Huh. That’s actually a good idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have a camera. I only have my cell phone, and it doesn’t have that much memory space. Jamie?"
"Same. I guess I could just buy one? But I’d have to do research, and that sounds like a lot."
"....I brought a couple of cameras that I can lend you."
"Oh? Are you sure? Since you’re a film student, I know they have to be fancy cameras. You trust me, or are you going to come again if I invite you?"
"...maybe."
"So that’s a yes? Don’t be shy, we’re getting close, right? You even offered your stuff. How nice."
"...shut up."
As Levi increased his walking speed, Ari laughed loudly as he spotted his slightly red ears reflecting the city lights.
Despite Levi’s constant sharp tone, his shyness was really very funny, especially as he was basically running away to a room that all three of them shared.
And as expected, even though Levi reached their dorm room first, when Jamie and Ari got in, he was still in the process of putting his things away and avoided eye contact.
Still laughing, Ari ate a quick dinner, showered, and went to sleep with a peaceful mind.
His hope was that the variety show he and Jamie filed for would air soon, so he could finish a mission and unlock the new stat.