Chapter 132
Myeongjeon had not refused the girls’ request to perform at their festival out of any malice. Though his mental age was supposedly far older than theirs, he was still human, and he did care for these girls and hold them dear.
Even so, he had several reasons for refusing the proposal. The biggest one was…
“Because of Hyeona?”
“That’s right.”
Having apparently heard about it from the students in her own class as well, Iseo burst into the practice room, excitedly shouting, “Hey, let’s perform at our festival!” Myeongjeon caught hold of her and began explaining.
“In the end, unless I perform alone, we’ll have to appear as a band. Like we did at Hyeona’s school before.”
“Right.”
“But are you going to bring Hyeona here to practice? It’s a busy time for her with the entrance exams coming up.”
Regardless of the fact that Myeongjeon himself did not consider college or entrance exams particularly important, he did not want to ruin an important opportunity for his friend. As soon as he said that, Iseo’s expression changed to one of sudden realization.
“Still, wouldn’t one day be okay?”
“One day won’t be enough. I saw Seoha practicing the drums a little while ago, and she was getting every beat wrong. If the four of us got together and had to coordinate everything again, it would take ages. Hyeona wouldn’t be able to do anything during that time.”
If they simply adjusted things enough to put on a performance that was at least listenable, it would not take all that long. Three hours? Five hours? At any rate, it would not take an entire day.
But back when Myeongjeon had been a session musician, he had been the sort of person who threw down his instrument and shouted at clients or juniors, “If that’s how you’re going to do it, fucking quit!” No matter how much he was paid, a professional was a professional. His creed was that anyone who stopped without trying to give the best performance possible could never improve.
And given Myeongjeon’s personality, if he started rehearsing with the girls in their current state, they would probably need at least three days of two or three hours a day to get everything in sync. Could it really be justified to take three days away from a girl for whom every single day mattered?
“Then we can do it with the three of us without Hyeona.”
Myeongjeon looked at Iseo with contempt for the first time in a long while. When Iseo flinched at that expression, he muttered quietly,
“If you had to go somewhere or something and couldn’t participate in the band, would you be happy if the other three went onstage without you?”
While Iseo fell silent at those words, Myeongjeon lightly twisted a lock of hair. No matter how much he led these girls, they were still high school students. He had to make sure their mental state was under control beforehand. Bands that had spent decades together still had conflicts; what would happen if a group of high school girls who had only recently met started fighting? They would explode immediately.
‘If that happened…’
In the end, if he wanted to continue having a band, he would have to recruit members all over again. But finding a band made up entirely of girls would be difficult, and that would lead to a coed band. And what would happen after that… He rubbed away the goosebumps that had risen along his arm. It was something he did not even want to think about.
“Then how about a duo? Seoha is from another school, so we’ll leave her out and just have you and me. That should work, right?”
What had she been listening to all this time? Leaving someone else behind and having fun without them was exactly how the seeds of conflict were planted. But Myeongjeon could not rashly refuse the proposal. Seoha was from another school, so bringing her along while leaving Hyeona out would be strange. But Iseo went to the same school as him, didn’t she?
“Do you really have to do it with me?”
“You don’t want to do it together?”
Seeing Iseo open her eyes like an abandoned puppy, Myeongjeon let out a deep sigh.
“Fine, let’s do it together. We will. But we’ll have to tell the others in advance…”
“Super easy, girl.”
“Did you eat something bad?”
After answering that, he looked at the schedule the teacher in charge of the festival had given him. The time allotted to him was about thirty minutes, including setup. It was neither too much nor too little.
* * *
“Save me.”
“Just die.”
Leaving Iseo sprawled on the practice room floor, Myeongjeon said that. He had assumed she had practiced at least a little after hearing that she had promoted herself on TikTok by cosplaying and playing bass, but apparently not. How had her timing and rhythm completely fallen apart?
“Have you even picked up your bass since your hiatus? I mean, aside from that video you said you were uploading.”
“Uh…”
Iseo could not answer, and Myeongjeon let out a deep sigh. This was why nothing ever came of her.
“Did I tell you to take a break, or did I tell you to lie around and fool around? Practicing for two hours at home every day is the bare minimum. Anyone can see that you’ve just been playing whatever you felt like playing and forgotten about practice altogether.”
“No, when you’re taking a break, you’re supposed to rest…”
“That’s for people with several years of experience whose fundamentals are already solid. You’ve been at this for a year and a half at most. Huh? It’s true that your skills improved quickly, but it’s also true that they’ll fall apart just as quickly if you don’t keep them in shape. If you just sit around flopped over and fool around, you’ll end up accomplishing nothing. Do you know how many people like you there are in this world? They puff their chests out because they play guitar or bass well, going around saying, ‘I’m a genius! Nobody plays as well as I do!’ Then a few years later, they’re still stuck in the same place, saying, ‘I’m a genius, so why doesn’t anyone recognize me?’ There are countless people like that in this world.”
“Hey, you sound like you’re about fifty. Oh dear, our Ms. Suyeon has gotten so old. Huh? This crazy old-fogey cosplay…”
Myeongjeon flinched at Iseo’s words. It seemed that the things he used to say whenever he encountered talented juniors back in the old days had come tumbling out as a habit. He normally kept such thoughts to himself, but perhaps he had let his guard down because he felt so comfortable around her.
“Anyway, that’s all I meant. You see plenty of cases like that if you look through rock history, too.”
“Ah, yes, yes. I unnerstan’.”
After answering, Iseo lay down again. Myeongjeon clicked his tongue. What was he supposed to do with her? She had followed him extremely well whenever he pushed her, but after getting a taste of rest, she had completely gone off the rails. He needed to pick a day and make her practice with nothing but a metronome for twelve hours…
* * *
The day of the festival.
Unlike the high school festivals commonly depicted in Japanese anime (though even festivals in Japan are not actually held on such a grand scale), Korean high school festivals are very simple. The students make a few booths that would be better left unmade, hole up somewhere at school and play around, then go to the auditorium to watch a half-hearted talent show. That is all.
Hanseung High School’s festival was the same. The classes did make booths and the like, but just like at other schools, they failed to attract the students’ interest.
“I wish they’d just send us home already.”
He muttered that to himself. A first-year student who had entered Hanseung High that year, he wanted to give up on everything and go home to play games.
‘Don’t we have any upperclassmen who wear short skirts and dance or something?’
He thought there could be absolutely nothing worth watching besides that. It was only natural, as far as he was concerned. What was there to see at a high school festival? At most, some kids who thought they were hot stuff would dance wildly, or a band or something would put on a talent show. That was about it.
Those thoughts reached their peak when he looked at the schedule posted in the auditorium. There were the names of the ‘Hanseung High School Girls’ Dance Club,’ who clearly looked like the sort of girls who went around acting like school toughs, along with the names of some boys who seemed to be popular. Beneath them were the names ‘Ha Suyeon/Choi Iseo.’
‘Ha Suyeon?’
He snorted incredulously. Ha Suyeon… Was she a second-year student? She was famous for school bullying and turning over a new leaf, but as far as he was concerned, that was all ridiculous.
‘I heard she’s pretty, though…’
Thinking that, he entered the auditorium without any expectations.
“We will now begin Hanseung High School’s festival!”
The festival began with the student council president’s announcement. Onstage, one performance after another followed—performances that had clearly involved some effort, but were equally clearly rather clumsy.
There was a student who came up claiming to do stand-up comedy, only to leave after receiving a response devoid of even a single laugh. There was the ‘Hanseung High School Girls’ Dance Club,’ which received an enthusiastic response. And there were the boys calling themselves ‘Kim Wooseok and the Kids,’ who tried to imitate male idol choreography but produced movements closer to twitching than dancing.
“They suck so fucking bad.”
The words came from a second-year girl with a rather fierce-looking face. Spoken quietly in the silent auditorium, they sounded surprisingly loud, expressing what all the students were thinking. In this situation, there was not a single thing worth watching except the ‘Girls’ Dance Club.’
He silently agreed with her and looked at the schedule again. He wanted to know when this talent show would finally end.
‘Why is this one thirty minutes?’
Next were ‘Ha Suyeon/Choi Iseo.’ But something seemed strange. The amount of time assigned to them was far too long. Even the shoddy band that had performed earlier had been given less than fifteen minutes, including setup. Why had these two been given thirty minutes?
“Ha Suyeon’s performing?”
“Looks like it. Didn’t she say she was in a band?”
“I think I heard she did music.”
“Why are they giving her thirty minutes? That’ll be boring.”
“Suyeon’s in a band, you know.”
“Really?”
‘I heard she did music, but I’ve never seen her perform,’ and ‘You’re her friend—how can you not listen to it?’ could be heard, along with shouts like, ‘No, she was on television! How do you not know that?!’ and questions such as, ‘Ha Suyeon was on TV? How?’ and ‘Do you not watch the news?’ from nearby.
Compared to Ha Suyeon’s notoriety, which had set the internet ablaze over the school-bullying scandal, it seemed that very few people had actually heard her music.
'Isn't that understandable?'
That was what he thought. He himself had never listened to Ha Suyeon’s music. He might have heard it in passing somewhere, but he had never specifically looked up what kind of music ‘Ha Suyeon’ made. He had not wanted to, either.
The negative murmurs about Suyeon’s musical ability were silenced by two figures who appeared beside the stage carrying a guitar and a bass.
“Hello. Setup won’t take long, so please wait a moment.”
A quiet voice came through the microphone. It was followed by a cheerful tone: “We’ve been allotted thirty minutes, but once you listen, you’ll feel that it’s short~!”
He found that ridiculous. Even Killing Voice would get tiring if you listened to it for thirty minutes. They were not some incredible professionals or anything… It felt like they were saying, ‘Go ahead and see what we can do.’