“Blaine, is that a guitar?” asks Kurt, surprised as Blaine, back in Lima, sets the instrument on his lap.

“It’s my dad’s,” says Blaine shyly, as he tunes it. “I’ve been learning, Kurt, just for you.”

He strums tentatively at the strings, making sure the guitar is in tune, before looking up at Kurt with a smile.

“I hope you like it,” says Blaine, before beginning to strum out a song.   

The fact that Kurt is on Rachel’s laptop means that he can use its recording software. He clicks ‘record’, predicting that this is something he’d want to listen to again, as Blaine starts to sing.

“Hey there Kurt Hummel, what’s it like in New York City? I’m six hundred miles away but, boy, tonight you look so pretty, yes you do.”

"Oh, Blaine,” sighs Kurt because yes, it’s definitely something he’ll listen to again.

He listens to it on the days he comes home late from work. When Rachel’s already-asleep, and Kurt has so much he needs to talk to someone about, but it's far too late to call Blaine. On those nights, when he’s feeling alone in a city with two-hundred-times the population of his home town, he gazes out at the New York city lights while listening to Blaine’s comforting voice.“Oh, Blaine,” sighs Kurt because yes, it's definitely something he’ll listen to again.

Hey there Kurt Hummel don’t you worry about the distance 
I'm right there if you get lonely
Give this song another listen
Close your eyes
Listen to my voice, it's my disguise
I'm by your side

Kurt closes his eyes, and listens to Blaine, and instantly feels so much better.

He listens to it on the night that he and Rachel are eating fruit for dinner because they have rent due in a couple of days. It's when Rachel still hasn’t found a job but refuses to ask her dads for a larger allowance, and Kurt never got the raise that he expected. They eat in silence for once, before Kurt retreats to his room, and listens to Blaine croon as he works on his sketches.

Hey there Kurt Hummel
I know times are getting hard
But just believe me, boy
Someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar
We'll have it good
We'll have the life we knew we would
My word is good

He listens to it sometimes after he Skypes Blaine. After they’ve retold stories and listened and laughed, only to have their conversation cut short. Because Kurt has to rush out to buy some fabrics for a last-minute errand, or Blaine’s parents are yelling at him to go to sleep already. After they say their goodbyes, Kurt pulls out his iPod and plugs in the headphones, and listens to Blaine’s voice once more as he dashes out of the apartment, or as he lays back on his bed.

Hey there Kurt Hummel
I've got so much left to say
If every simple song I wrote to you
Would take your breath away
I'd write it all
Even more in love with me you'd fall
We'd have it all

When his coworkers are making fun of the fact that he has an ickle high school boyfriend, advising him that he can find someone better, and trying to set him up with Jesse from Editing, Kurt has no trouble defending his relationship. But still, it’s nice to be able to listen to Blaine sing his agreement while Kurt's on the subway home. 

Six hundred miles seems pretty far
But they've got planes and trains and cars
I'd walk to you if I had no other way
Our friends would all make fun of us
And we'll just laugh along because we know
That none of them have felt this way
Kurt Hummel I can promise you
That by the time we get through
The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame

And Kurt doesn’t stop listening to it after Blaine breaks up with him. He spends hours alone in his room, wet tissues bunched up in his hand, thinking about Blaine. Because it’s just one year, one lousy year that they had to get through, and they could have had everything. They could have been together, in New York, like Blaine promised. And it’s in the first few hours after their breakup, when Blaine’s song hurts Kurt the most, like alcohol on a fresh wound.

Hey there Kurt Hummel
You be good and don't you miss me
One more year and I'll be done with school 
And we'll be making history like we do
You'll know it's all because of you
We can do whatever we want to
Hey there Kurt Hummel here's to you
This one's for you

But, just like with the alcohol, a while after Kurt starts listening to Blaine's song, he starts to feel better. Because he realises. One more year and I’ll be done with school. Kurt needs only wait a year – no, less than a year now – until Blaine will be out in New York, pursuing his own dreams. Maybe then they could try again. There was no love lost between them, after all. It was simply a parting of ways; not so much a 'goodbye' as a 'see you soon'. 

And until that day comes, Kurt continues to listen to Blaine's song, for the same reasons that he did before. Because even without their once-every-other-day Skype calls and daily texts, Blaine can still comfort Kurt better than he will ever know.