Chapter 30
Myeongjeon scratched his head. Had something like that really happened? He looked at Dain’s face as though wondering whether she was joking, but she didn’t look like she was joking at all. There was a hint of a smile, but more than a joke, her expression held pity.
“Seriously?”
“You really don’t remember, huh? I wasn’t there then, so I don’t know the details. I think Chaerin was there… but she wouldn’t really answer when I asked.”
At Dain’s suggestion that she call Chaerin over, Myeongjeon nodded.
“Oh, Chaerin! What are you doing right now? Can you come out? There’s something I want to talk to you about. Oh, it’s not serious—no, it is serious, but it has nothing to do with you~”
After chatting about this and that, Dain ended the call. When she said, “She lives nearby, so she’ll be here soon,” Myeongjeon felt extremely grateful. This girl had clearly been one of the targets of the bullying too, so why was she treating him so well?
“…Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll buy it all.”
“Ooh~ Did you come into some money, Suyeon?”
“I did make some… No, it’s something that happened to me recently…”
“I’m here!”
The girl who came running into the café almost rolling on the ground dashed toward Suyeon and Dain with a bright smile. She rubbed against them like a golden retriever to show how happy she was, then headed off to order coffee. Suyeon stopped her.
“I’ll buy it. What do you want?”
“Crazy! Suyeon’s buying! I’ll have a salted Einspänner~”
“…You put salt in coffee? And what the heck is an Einspänner?”
Muttering as though she couldn’t understand, Suyeon walked toward the counter. Watching her back, Chaerin whispered to Dain.
“But why did you ask us to meet?”
“Suyeon will tell you in a bit.”
“Oh… Is it something serious?”
And so the small talk began. While they exchanged words about what they had been doing lately and where they had bought their clothes, Suyeon appeared with three coffees, financiers, and cheesecake.
“Chaerin, eat this.”
“Oh!! How did you know I was hungry? Thanks, thankyouthankyou~”
Dain threw out a question while Chaerin was stuffing herself with bread and gulping down her coffee.
“Chaerin. Do you remember what happened that day?”
“Mmm?”
“The day Suyeon slapped Senior Joohee.”
At those words, Chaerin spat out a mixture of coffee and bread with a “Puhk!” She began looking back and forth between Dain and Suyeon with her eyes wide open.
“Um… Am I allowed to tell you that? No, Suyeon, you told me never to tell anyone else.”
“Suyeon said that what happened back then…”
“Actually, you know, I’ve been thinking about it lately…”
After hearing the explanation, Chaerin nodded. She more or less understood the situation.
“I mean, Suyeon, after the huge mess you made… there’s no way you could go on television as-is. If you’d gone on without doing anything, don’t you think the kids at our school would’ve issued some kind of statement? Like, ‘She’s a total psycho.’”
“No, it wasn’t quite that bad… Hmm, I can’t deny it.”
While the two of them convinced themselves that they were right, Myeongjeon didn’t know how to react and merely twisted a strand of hair.
“But I think Dain’s right, anyway. The problems with the other kids can probably be resolved somehow if we do as she said. Maybe take them some fairly nice gifts or something. So I don’t think that part will be a big problem…”
Chaerin said that and crossed her arms. The way her large breasts shifted and pressed together made Myeongjeon feel slightly awkward, so he turned his head away.
“The problem is what happened that day… Actually, this is the first time I’ve told anyone else. Suyeon was so strict about keeping everyone quiet.”
“I did that?”
“If you hadn’t, the whole story would’ve spread already. What other story is there this entertaining? But Suyeon—and the seniors too—were so strict about keeping everyone quiet that all people heard was, ‘Oh, something like that happened~,’ and then everyone moved on. Anyway, if I tell you what happened…”
When Myeongjeon summarized Chaerin’s disjointed account, it went like this. At the end of the school year, there had been a drinking party that brought seniors and juniors together, partly to scout out kids who seemed promising—though he had no idea in what way—and partly to see off the third-year seniors before they graduated.
And there was a girl named Joohee who had the female students of Jongno under her thumb. She was a second-year high school student at the time, and among the kids who liked to party, she had the widest connections and the fiercest personality.
“So Senior Joohee was saying things like, ‘Even after your seniors graduate, you’d better greet them properly when you see them,’ and lecturing the first-years and third-year middle schoolers. She was also saying, ‘If you’ve got any sense, you should prepare graduation gifts and bring them to us in advance,’ and stuff like that.”
“Wasn’t that extortion?”
“Exactly! I was there too, so I was one of the people getting shaken down. It all got swept under the rug after what happened, but back then Senior Joohee even told Dain and Kaisugeo to collect money later.”
“She told them to collect money from Suyeon too?”
Dain stared at Chaerin with an incredulous expression. Regardless, Chaerin continued talking.
“I don’t know where Suyeon had gone off to, but then she came strolling in alone with a cigarette in her mouth. She was probably really drunk then, because when Senior Joohee saw her, she started going, ‘You fucking bitch,’ and told her to come over.”
What followed was Chaerin’s vivid reenactment. She acted out the gestures and expressions of the senior berating her junior, then lowered her voice and mimicked the senior’s way of speaking.
“‘Hey, fucking hell, you think school life is easy? Looks like a third-year middle schooler wants to get drunk, huh, you crazy bitch~’ She shoved Suyeon’s shoulder once or twice. That senior was probably drunk too, right? So when Suyeon lowered her head and let out a huge sigh, she went, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake~,’ but then…”
“Suddenly Suyeon slapped Senior Joohee—smack!! Her jaw went flying, and the senior fell to the ground. She couldn’t figure out what had happened, and then she went, ‘You fucking bitch,’ too. But Suyeon just put her cigarette in her mouth and went, ‘Inhale… exhale~’ I swear, it looked like she thought she was filming a movie.”
“Then everything turned into a complete mess, and Senior Joohee slapped Suyeon too, yelling, ‘You fucking bitch! You wanna die?’ But Suyeon just waited for the senior to hit her, and the moment she was struck, she punched Senior Joohee right in the jaw. Senior Joohee passed out immediately.”
While Chaerin passionately described what had happened, Dain let out an “Eeeek—.” Unlike Dain’s muttered question, “Is there any way we can actually clean this up?”, Myeongjeon felt as though an answer was beginning to take shape.
“Senior Joohee? She was extorting money?”
“Yeah. Senior Joohee was famous for shaking people down. The kids probably had a few hundred thousand won extorted from them by her around then.”
“Did I ever extort money?”
“Uh… Probably not.”
While Chaerin muttered, “I’m not sure…,” Myeongjeon began to work out his plan in detail.
Whatever had actually happened couldn’t be changed. After all, it was impossible to make something that had happened not happen. Even people in power had trouble doing that, so how could it be possible for Ha Suyeon, the daughter of nothing more than a startup CEO?
But it was entirely possible to distort the truth of what had happened. Most people didn’t want the truth—they wanted something entertaining to enjoy.
“For now, I think you should apologize to the other kids just as you were planning to. As for that senior… Chaerin, do you remember who was there that day?”
“Yeah, I remember them. Why?”
“Among those people, I think we need to persuade anyone with a decent reputation who can be persuaded.”
“What are you planning to do?”
Looking at the two of them, their faces filled with curiosity, Myeongjeon said,
“If we can’t change what happened… then we’ll have to fabricate a little.”
* * *
As for how to deal with the events of the past, Myeongjeon decided to take his time and work things out step by step. It wasn’t a problem that could be solved in a day or two, nor was it a problem that had to be solved within a day or two.
That was because the solution Myeongjeon had thought of could only be used once the incident broke. There was nothing he could do immediately. He could lay the groundwork to make things flow in the direction he wanted after the incident occurred, though.
Therefore, he left that matter alone for the time being and gathered the band members to take the next step. It was the first time he had called them together since vacation began.
At the ding-dong of the doorbell, Myeongjeon glanced at the intercom. As expected, three high school girls were standing outside.
“Just a moment.”
When he opened the door, the three of them came inside. The way they entered hesitantly looked strangely awkward. Why was that? It was probably nothing.
“Is it okay for us to come here empty-handed? Weren’t we supposed to bring something?”
“What are you talking about bringing? Come in and sit down.”
So that was why. At Iseo’s fussing, Myeongjeon simply pointed to the dining table. The three girls sat down obediently. He brewed coffee with the machine, poured it for them, and sat down at the table himself.
“Where did you learn how to make coffee?”
“I learned while working part-time at Mom’s company café. I’m so tired I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.”
Besides giving lessons to the company employees, he had apparently been given other work to do as well. A few days ago, Myeongjeon had tagged along to Ms. Lee Hyein’s company, and before he knew it, he had ended up working part-time at the company café every few days. It didn’t pay much, but because of ‘Mom’s’ insistence, he was reluctantly doing it anyway.
“My café part-time job… Well, whatever, that’s fine. The reason I called you all here today is… I have things to tell you and things for us to decide.”
“Have you decided on our next performance?”
Iseo jumped in the moment he said that. Myeongjeon shook his head and continued.
“We haven’t decided on the next performance yet… but we should discuss that too. Looking at the repertoire of ensemble songs we currently have, it’s not that they’re terribly limiting, but they aren’t exactly songs we can use broadly at a variety of performances.”
“That’s true.”
Seoha nodded. The other two, however, seemed slightly less convinced.
“It wouldn’t matter if we were going to stick with our original direction… but I don’t think we’re going to keep doing the ‘otaku music’ you two are always talking about.”
“Why not? Isn’t it fine?”
“I think it’s fine too…”
As anime fans, the two of them insisted that heading in that direction was the right thing to do. Rather than answer them, Myeongjeon simply looked at Seoha.
“I thought it was fun because it was a different direction. But if we were going to do it again, I do wonder whether there’s any point in going out of our way to do it.”
“What about you, Suyeon?”
Iseo’s question was filled with expectations for a particular answer.
“I don’t really think there’s any need to go out of our way to do that either.”
“…No! We did great at our performance. What’s wrong with being otaku?! Everyone had fun at the show. I can even get us more performance gigs! Though there might be only men in the audience…”
Hyeona looked slightly appalled at Iseo. Despite Iseo’s forceful appeal, Myeongjeon shook his head.
“It’s fine if we do the next performance in that style. Performances are experience, after all. If we can do it with the songs we already have, it might be worth trying once more.
“But I think it would be better to choose a different direction for our band’s next step.”
Just as Iseo was about to speak again, Myeongjeon raised a hand slightly to stop her.
“Listen. Since we’ve gone to the trouble of forming a band… I think we could try going on a band audition program or something.”
“A band audition program?”
“Ah, I think I’ve heard of that… The kind where bands go on, perform, and compete against each other, right?”
At Seoha’s words, he nodded.
“Exactly. There are programs with other formats too, but regardless, wouldn’t it be good to try appearing on some program or other? Since we’ve gone to the trouble of forming a band.”
The three of them fell into thought at Myeongjeon’s words. Seeing them like that, he continued.
“Well, we can think about that part. It’s not something we can decide just because I brought it up. Since it means appearing on ‘television,’ it isn’t something we can decide on lightly.”
“But before that, I think there’s something worth participating in once. It would be a sort of rehearsal, and it’s also a good opportunity…”
Myeongjeon pulled out a pamphlet. It was for a government-supported project, with a strikingly clean design. The material described a program that offered performance opportunities and support for producing an album.
The prize was three million won, with two million won toward album production costs. It also offered a collaboration with an established musician and the chance to participate in an indie festival.
Even by Myeongjeon’s standards, it was a project with remarkably good terms. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to use as a starting point for the band.
“How about we try participating in something like this?”