Jamie did, in fact, have a car.
He had a very fancy white pickup truck that he used to drive them to his recording studio, which was located in an entertainment company's building in downtown LA.
"This is a nice setup."
Jamie beamed with a happy smile at the sincere compliment, "Thank ya! I decorated it maself. Feel free to look around."
Ari wandered around the studio, curiously examining everything since it was his first time in this kind of space.
To one side, there was an electronic keyboard, along with guitars, basses, fiddles, a banjo, and a small drum kit.
The opposite wall was split by a glass recording space with the electronic equipment outside, while the middle of the studio had a small couch, a coffee table, and a mini fridge with snacks and bottles scattered all over it.
"Sorry, I wasn't expecting guests," Jamie mumbled as he rushed around to clean the space up, his large form surprisingly agile in the small room.
"I've seen and lived by worse, so don't worry about it. Instead of wasting time, give me a quick rundown of what to use and how to use it, and we can split the books in half for now. Also, do you mind if I use a guitar or bass to test some things?"
"I can do that! Then, let's start over here. This is the MIDI controller. It's used for…"
For over two hours, Jamie excitedly explained the things he had in the record studio. When asked for more details, he proudly demonstrated using examples of his own work, going into the nitty-gritty details of each part of a song.
While chatting, Ari found out that Jamie was a pretty good composer who had been doing it since childhood, although his focus was only on country songs.
He had written several songs for country artists that had done pretty well.
Apparently, he came from a well-known historical family of country singers in Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music.
Since he was clearly talented, and Jamie didn't want to share why he was desperately looking for beginner pop composition books so much that he would give up his studio space, Ari figured he had his own issues and didn't bother digging into it.
He wasn't interested in someone else's life drama when he had enough of his own to deal with.
Instead, after his recording studio tour, he made himself comfortable on the sofa, with the laptop on his lap and Jamie's spare headphones on his ears, while reading through a chords book and testing them on the online piano to accompany his car horn melody.
Every once in a while, he would walk over and record his voice to test some lyrics to the little melody that was growing, or ask Jamie a question before noting the answer down and continuing his own process.
When he got hungry, he ate the kimbap Granny Choi packed him for lunch while continuing to work on the laptop, shifting things around, listening, and making notes until it sounded 'good' to his ears.
He wouldn't really call it a song, or say that everything worked together, but he had created some pieces together that he was trying to put over a very basic beat.
On the other hand, Jamie had dragged the keyboard close to where Ari sat and was flipping through the books while occasionally playing some things on the keyboard or tapping away on his laptop.
He was utterly focused and in his own world, but occasionally, he would look up and stare at Ari, his lips quivering, as if he wanted to say something, but then he would chicken out at the last minute and look away.
Ari considered asking him what was wrong, but then shook his head.
Jamie was 19 years old, which was basically an adult.
If he wanted to ask something, he should have opened his mouth and asked.
Harmoniously just like that, the two passed the time until-
Rrrrring. Rrrrrrring.
Ari's phone alarm went off.
Upon hearing it, he quickly packed his things and reached for the books James was using.
"Are you leaving?" Jamie glanced up with a shocked expression.
Jamie was used to living at the studio when there was a short deadline like now, so it was shocking that someone was leaving so early in the day, especially when they were preparing for the same event that could change their lives.
For some reason, he had assumed that they would have more time together before he could ask Ari what he wanted to ask.
He thought it was a joke since the younger boy liked to tease him, but Ari looked completely serious.
"Yep."
"Already? It's so early."
"I have stuff to do, so hand the books over. Let's regroup tomorrow."
"Can't you stay a bit longer? Just an extra hour or two?"
As the puppy dog face came out again on Jamie's face, Ari shrugged.
"I gotta go to work, and by the time I'm done, it's too late to take the city bus to come back here. I'll see you tomorrow."
"What if I come to pick you up after work tonight? And drop you off? That way, you don't have to take the bus." Jamie made a desperate plea, hoping that Ari would change his mind.
Ari thought over the issue once more before shaking his head.
"I can't."
As much as he would love to come back, the rest of his night was booked.
He planned to do his repeat missions, work at the bathhouse, clean the church, and spend a couple of hours practicing singing and dancing to earn stat points before going to sleep.
Seeing Jamie looking down, Ari sighed again.
"If you need to, take a picture of what you need in the books, or message me and I can do it for you. I can come early tomorrow if it's that serious."
"How early?" Jamie immediately perked up, the hair he had thrown into a messy bun getting loose.
"…how early do you want me to come?"
"3 am?"
"Try again."
As he met Ari's angrily narrowed green eyes through the snail mask's small eye holes, Jamie gulped before changing his words.
"Then 4 am?"
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
"...7 am?"
"Fine. Anything else?"
"Uh... And can you stay all day? I can buy the food and stuff; there's no need to worry about it, and I can pick you up and drop you off, so don't worry about the buses."
Ari stared at Jamie's anxious face before nodding, "I'll be here at 7 a.m. There's no need to pick me up or drop me off, traffic is bad right now."
"Right! You're right! Uh…" Jamie stopped speaking.
"Anything else? You seemed like you wanted to ask me something earlier." Ari put his hands on the door knob and James lips began quivering like he wanted to say something.
"Uh…"
"Speak now or forever hold your peace for the next two weeks. It's awkward getting stared at constantly."
At Ari's blunt words, Jamie's expression became shy, and he grabbed his laptop and held it out.
"Uh, do you mind listening to something and giving me your honest opinion about it?"
"You do know I know nothing about composing music, right? Hence, all the beginner books."
"Yes! That's fine! That means your feedback would be honest and unbiased. It's short! I promise!"
"…okay. Cue it up."
Although he was a bit confused, Ari listened to the song in its entirety while Jamie stared at him with expectant eyes.
The song started off with guitar strumming before picking up with a quick drum beat, and then added piano sounds with a catchy violin melody intertwined inside of it.
To him, it sounded like a country song with a pop vibe. The guitar, strings, and drums made him feel like he was line dancing in a country bar somewhere, even though he had never line danced or been to a bar.
It was a good song, fun, had a catchy little tune, and sounded similar to some of the songs Jamie had told him he composed.
"What did you think?" Jamie asked quietly.
"First impression? It's pretty good and quite catchy. It's like a country pop song. I like the vibe and can imagine hearing it at a party somewhere."
As Ari spoke, he could see Jamie's face fall in real-time and his body begin to hunch in a way that he had learned meant the other boy was really upset.
"Jamie?"
Slam!
The laptop was closed aggressively, and Jamie tossed it onto the couch before sighing and messing up his long hair.
"Country, huh? Ah…right…of course…. Thanks for your honest feedback. You said you had work, right? And there's traffic too. I'll see you tomorrow."
"...sure. I'll be here at 7 am."
"Sounds good." Jamie gave him a wan smile.
Unsure of what he had said to make Jamie sad this time, Ari waved at the blonde boy before heading back to the church.
As he sat on the public bus staring out the window, Ari couldn't help but murmur, "I wonder why he's so upset. The song was pretty good."
Even now, he couldn't get the sound of the violin and guitar playing in the background out of his head, and he really wanted to hear the lyrics to the song.
But it seemed that Jamie hated it for some reason.
He wondered what the issue was.
Clearly, Jamie was talented, but here he was fighting to read beginner pop composing books with Ari.
Since his family came from a country background, was he trying to move away from that and into the pop genre, and getting pushback or could he not make country songs anymore?
Or was it something else?
[Are you planning on digging into it and helping him out?]
Ari thought it over for a moment before shaking his head.
He had no plans on digging into anybody else's situation.
And as for helping?
What could he teach somebody who produced an amazing song in the time it took Ari to struggle stitching some chords together with a melody?
He would just wish Jamie the best in figuring out his own issues, and for himself not to get involved with his problems.
[How cold hearted.]
Ari couldn't find it in him to disagree with the system.