What if I ain't no violinist?

93. Twoset Singers IV

Brett and Eddy met up for the first time after knowing each other through a karaoke singing app.  They really liked each other's singing.  They first met up in a cafe and they decided to sing together in real life by going to karaoke.

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The young man at the reception desk welcomed Brett and Eddy with a friendly smile.

"Good afternoon gentlemen. How many hours would you like to sing today?"

Brett returned an awkward smile to the receptionist and turned to Eddy with a confused look.

"Hmm.. how many hours do we want Eddy?"

Eddy looked back at Brett, appearing just as confused.

"Um... I don't have any idea... I've never been to one of these karaoke places before."

Brett grinned.

"Me neither."

"So, would you gentlemen just like to have an hour for now ?"

Eddy and Brett answered in unison.

"Is that enough?"

The reception guy at the karaoke shop raised an eyebrow.

"Look, we're not that busy at the moment. If you guys enjoy yourselves so much you can always get an extension."

"Okay, we'll just take an hour for now then, thank you."

"Alright, here are your microphones, they've been sterilised. Your karaoke room is number 5."

"Okay, thank you."

"And please note, that we do have security cameras installed in each room."

The receptionist pointed at the monitors on the wall, each labelled with a number. All monitors showed an image of the interior of the room, a few of them had occupants who were singing.

Once they entered their karaoke room, Brett said as he handed Eddy one of the microphones;

"...So Eddy, do ya think the receptionist said what he said to warn us from using the karaoke room as a place to do inappropriate things ?"

"OMG Brett, what do you mean???"

Brett grinned.

"Y'know."

Eddy looked confused.

"....Brett, I honestly have no idea."

"Oh, y'know, like people doing drugs or smoke or making out."

Oh sh*t

The second Brett let the last bit escape his lips, he regretted it.  He stammered.

"Um, not that we'd do any of those things.  I'm just talking about other people who may potentially get up to no good."

Eddy also raised his eyebrow as he heard the first two things, then blushed on the third.

"OMG. Yeah, no of course not, heck no.  Definitely."

Brett was very aware what he said made things very awkward and quickly rephrased.

"Um.. sorry, you know what, it's probably just protocol because of privacy issues... y'know, if you're filming someone you have to disclose the fact that you are doing so... but also just making sure that we.. I mean people don't get too comfortable thinking they are alone... y'know just to make sure we behave ourselves.. I mean, they behave themselves...  in general, y'know."

Brett knew he completely butchered his rephrasing.  Eddy tried to follow up.

"Um.. yeah. Of course.  Sure, definitely.  Not that, you know, we need such warning."

Brett jumped on the opportunity to redeem himself, at least he tried.

"Oh no, absolutely not. That's so ridiculous."

"Yeah, yeah, really, really stupid."

"Good."

"Great."

They went silent for a good 10 seconds.

They then cast their eyes on the tablet looking thing on the table which looked like what they were supposed to use to choose their songs to sing.

"....So.. how does this thing work...?"

Once one of their favourite duets started its intro, the boys were able to switch off the awkwardness and focus on the singing.  Brett was relieved.  So was Eddy.  

During one of the interludes, Brett called out;

"...Eddy, what's with the hand?"

"What hand ?"

"Your right hand. What are you pointing at ?"

"Um... the high note I'm trying to hit with my falsetto???"

Brett raised an eyebrow.

"How iNtErEsTiNg."

During another one of the interludes, this time Eddy called out;

"Brett, what's with your hand ?"

"What hand ?"

"Your left hand. Looks like you're pushing something down."

'Um.. I think I'm doing this to hit my low notes."

"OMG and you don't think that's just as iNtErEsTiNg as me pointing at my high notes?"

They looked at each other and burst out laughing at exactly the same time.

"Gosh, that's funny."

"You're funnier, what were you doing trying to point at a bloody note?"

"Oh, you can't talk, look who's trying to push one down. That doesn't even make sense."

"Da hell? Like what you do does ??"

There was a knock on the door.  It was the young man from the reception desk.

"Hi. You guys have 10 minutes left till your hour is over."

They answered in unison.

"Oh, no way!!"

Eddy felt like it's only been 15 minutes.

"Having too much fun, are we? Would you guys like an extension ?"

"Yes please."

Two more hours later, Brett and Eddy left the karaoke place and decided to have dinner together. Eddy breathed in the crisp evening air.  It was already starting to get dark.

"I can't believe we just sang 3 hours of karaoke."

"Likewise. I was having so much fun I could have easily kept on going for another couple of hours if I wasn't starving."

They decided on a Taiwanese restaurant and ordered some of their favourite dishes, they seemed to like similar things.

"...So Brett, you don't think pointing at a high note helps you hit it? It felt like it did."

"Well Eddy... I suppose a lot of us interpret notes with height.. it's an interesting interpretation of sound.. though it's terribly inaccurate from a scientific perspective."

"Oh? Is it?"

"Yeah, when you think the pitch of sound wave is determined by its frequency.. how quickly they are oscillating per second... it's not something you can push down, it's actually something you change by controlling how quickly you make your voicebox vibrate... it's pretty complex body control.. which is why I admire how you do your falsetto, Eddy."

"OMG Brett, you definitely ain't no musician, what do you do for a living ?"

"Oh.. um, I'm a science engineer consultant with a physics major."