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Joonas and Olli have known each other for years. They consider each other to be closer than brothers. So it was only natural for the father-to-be to ask his best friend his most important question.
Olli came down to Helsinki for the week leading up to the release of their first single after Eurovision and their busy weekend at Allas Sea Pool. He joined Joonas and Aleksi at the apartment Joonas shares with Kirsten, who at the time was six months pregnant with their daughter. She enjoyed the company of having Joonas’s friends over; after all, they would be Sohvi’s uncles someday soon and she was still grateful that they accepted their news as quickly as they did.
Joonas has a strong and unique bond with all of the members, but none of his bonds are as strong as the one he has with Olli. Despite Olli being two years younger than him, they’ve always been close and they know everything about each other - their fears, their happiness, their struggles, and the work they’ve put into making their current dream come true. Joonas considers Olli to be a lot like his younger brother. They’ve dragged each other from band to band and watched each other grow up and become the men they are today.
And, by accident, Olli was the first of the group to learn that his best friend would become a father to a baby due just a couple weeks after his own birthday. Olli held no judgment against Joonas because he knew that Joonas is an adult who can make any decision about his own life that he wants. He was curious and eager to see how Joonas would grow in his new role. If Joonas was happy, then he was too.
Fans took notice of their dynamic, both on-stage and in the stories the band shares on their Instagram. Everything the people see about them is all their authentic selves because they believe they couldn’t live this life without each other.
On the balcony of his apartment, while Aleksi was inside taking a shower, Joonas and Olli shared a smoke break and a deep conversation about how far they’ve come. The August night air was brisk but comfortable and the only sound in the space came from their shared laughs. They would have invited Joel to join them on his balcony next door, but he had gone out for the evening with some other friends. But for now, it was nice that it was just the two of them.
“Fucking Tommi,” Olli muttered, in relation to a story they’d just finished about the three of them getting caught climbing a tree in a park when they were in middle school. “We used to be stupid, huh?”
“‘Used to be’? Pffft,” Joonas replied, making both of them crack up again. Nothing’s changed after all this time except a few years and their facial hair that their younger selves would envy.
“Hey, you’re the one that’s gonna have a kid before the end of this year, you probably have your shit together better than the rest of us.”
Joonas put out the cigarette that was almost about to die out anyway. “I like to think I do,” he answered wistfully.
There was a question nagging at the back of Olli’s mind that he needed to ask Joonas. “So, be honest with me. How do you feel about this whole thing? You haven’t really talked about your feelings on it.”
Joonas stared out into space as he thought of his answer. He loves Kirsten and he already loves the baby they’ll be sharing in a few months. But he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t confess that this whole thing still makes him anxious and a little scared. He wants to be a good father but so many voices around him are convincing him otherwise. He’ll be raising a girl and he wants her to grow up with a healthy sense of her own self, not the version of her that the world expects her to be. He wants his relationship with Kirsten to stay as strong as it is now because he wants to set an example of the kind of love his daughter deserves, if she chooses to find love in adulthood. He doesn’t want his current life - the one in the band - to change, but if he needs to change it for his daughter’s happiness, he hopes he can let it go easily. He doesn’t want his fame or lifestyle to hurt her. But he trusts that he can keep the parts of his life that he loves now with his daughter joining them when she’s ready.
Before the silence could grow suspicious, he looked at Olli with a reaffirming smile. “There’s… a lot of emotions involved. But I don’t think I’ll regret a thing.”
Olli didn’t push him on it further. In those two sentences, combined with the tears growing in his eyes and the genuine smile on his face, Joonas said everything he needed to say.
“We’re all excited for you, bud,” Olli whispered, taking one last drag before putting out his own cigarette in the ashtray. “We know you’ll be a good one, and we’ll be here if you ever need a hand.”
“Thanks…” Joonas’s voice trailed off as if he had another thought he wasn’t ready yet to share. “Hey, Olli. I have a question for you, and you’re more than free to say no.”
Olli gave him his full attention. “Go on.”
Joonas took a deep breath and smiled. “Kirsten and I have been talking about this lately and weighing our choices. Naturally, we’ve thought about who would take Sohvi if, you know” - he knocked on the wood of the patio table - “something happened to us and we needed someone to raise her for us. We wanted someone we both knew well enough and trusted to raise her the way she should be. And, well…” He paused and let out a short laugh.
Olli smiled knowingly. He had a hunch where this was going, but he didn’t want to spoil the ending before Joonas had the chance to finish his thought. “Mmhm?”
Joonas hyped himself up and looked Olli in the eye. “Olli, will you be Sohvi’s godfather?”
A single tear slid down Olli’s cheek as he nodded with a smile. “I would be honored.”
Olli was touched by the sentiment. Now, there was no doubt in his mind that Joonas thought the world of him if he trusted his daughter’s future in his hands. He’s had moments recently where he hasn’t been the most cautious person on earth - he has a bad habit of losing things and occasionally not thinking before he speaks. But if he ever lost his best friend to a tragic fate, he would honor his memory by bringing up Sohvi in a way that would make her parents proud of her. But that was not something he wanted on his mind right now. All he wanted to think of was the present and what he could do to help them now.
“Who else were you thinking before you picked me?”
“Just one of Kirsten’s friends back in Copenhagen and Niko. Of course, our parents tried to convince us to let one of them take her, but we don’t want to make them responsible for raising another kid after they already dealt with us.”
They laughed at the thought of what Sohvi would be like if she was a mixture of Joonas and Kirsten, polar opposites who manage to make their relationship work despite their differences. But Olli couldn’t help but let his curiosity get the better of him. “You rejected Niko? You know he’s got experience with kids, he would’ve been perfect.”
Joonas shrugged. “I thought Niko would have fit too, and I’m sure he would have said yes, but you’re like a brother to me. Besides, we’re a family, right? So Niko can at least be her uncle.”
Olli nodded. “That’s true. But hey, Alex might be out of the shower, wanna head back inside?”
Without another word, Joonas cleaned up the mess around them and opened the door, letting Olli in first. They told Aleksi about their decision, for which the youngest of the group congratulated Olli on his “promotion,” as he jokingly called it.
And months later, when it was finally Olli’s turn to hold newborn Sohvi, he was in awe of the infant in his arms. He looked forward to having his own someday, but at this moment, he felt a duty to do all he could for this little girl. It was his job as her godfather to give her everything she needed, and if Joonas needed him, he would be by their side in a heartbeat.