Ch.122122. I played the guitar.

In college life, there’s quite a temperature difference between the first and second semesters.

What creates this distinction most significantly is probably the element of “firsts.”

New students arrive in the first semester.

Major events like festivals also happen in the first semester.

Most new relationships tend to form during the first semester rather than the second.

The second semester seemed more like a process where already established relationships deepen.

“Wow! Suhyeok hyung! It’s been forever!”

Upon entering the club room, Geonwoo, the male vocalist from the 24th batch, waved enthusiastically at Suhyeok.

“It’s been a while, Geonwoo.”

“Hyung! Why haven’t you been playing games with us lately?”

“Ahaha…”

Honestly, Suhyeok still couldn’t enjoy gaming with his juniors.

Because it wasn’t entertainment, but labor.

“Oppa! I’ve actually improved my skills a bit!”

Sohye was sitting in the drum chair.

Suhyeok hadn’t even noticed she was there.

“Really? What tier are you now?”

“Silver!”

Suhyeok didn’t want to disappoint his hopeful junior.

He couldn’t bring himself to tell her that Bronze and Silver were practically the same thing.

Since Monday had quite a long break between classes, Suhyeok found himself meeting various classmates and seniors and juniors passing by, almost like some kind of host.

“What’s this? Why are there so many kids here?”

Jaejun, now accustomed to his title as a “fossil,” shuffled in wearing slippers.

“Hello, senior!”

Taeho, still polite even after the break, gave Jaejun a formal bow.

“Hey, hey. I’m not some gang boss, stop doing that.”

“But what brings you here…”

“What, do I need a special reason to come here?”

Jaejun smirked as he approached the guitar stand.

There were two practice guitars in the club room that didn’t belong to anyone.

One acoustic.

One electric.

According to the members, these instruments had been there since long before the 23rd batch existed.

Jaejun connected the cable to the amp and plucked the strings.

Watching him tune without a tuner, Suhyeok thought Jaejun was quite cool.

“Hey, Suhyeok.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have your guitar with you?”

“Ah, yes.”

Since practice was scheduled for the evening, Suhyeok had brought his guitar.

“Take it out. Let’s jam a bit.”

“Jam?”

“Improvisation. Let’s exchange some ad-libs, one phrase at a time.”

Improvisation.

Though he had done plenty of covers and even composed songs, this was an area where Suhyeok had almost no experience.

“But… I don’t know how to do that.”

“Really? If you just know the pentatonic scale, that’s the basics.”

“Well… if you teach me, I’ll give it a try.”

Jaejun thought highly of Suhyeok’s talent.

As something of a mentor, he had reached quite a high level for an amateur.

He had already taught five or six juniors.

Among them, Suhyeok was the one who executed techniques with the most finesse.

“Alright, you do the backing first.”

“Just anything?”

“Yeah. Whatever you know.”

Following Jaejun’s instructions, Suhyeok played a mix of four familiar chords.

“Hey, what was your name again?”

Jaejun called out to Sohye, who was looking at her phone on the sofa.

“Me? Me?”

“Yeah, you play drums, right?”

“Yes…”

“Come join us for a session.”

Junior #2 suddenly drafted: Ji Sohye.

Until Soeun arrived, they became sacrificial lambs to their senior’s enjoyment, forced to take an impromptu lesson.

“Okay, Suhyeok will cycle through those chords. Sohye, can you play drums to match this?”

“Um… would this work?”

Sohye’s drumming skills were far below Kang-i’s.

That was inevitable since she had only been playing drums for about 6 months.

Comparing her to Kang-i, a three-year veteran, would be disrespectful.

“Yeah, just do that. If that’s your best. And Suhyeok, try to remember the hand position I’m showing you.”

Jaejun taught just one scale form for improvisation.

And thus, an impromptu three-piece band was born.

“One. Two. Three. Four.”

Sohye and Suhyeok began playing to Jaejun’s count.

This was the first time the two had played together.

Seeing that the accompaniment was proceeding properly, Jaejun nodded and turned the volume knob up.

-Ziiiiing

A rocking overdrive sound.

Chewy, bluesy playing filled the club room.

Suhyeok couldn’t count how many times he gasped in amazement watching Jaejun play.

Even though he had seen him play several times before and had heard countless times that Jaejun was a master, he never knew it was to this extent…

The fact that this wasn’t even a cover but a line he was creating on the spot made it worthy of reverence.

“So, Suhyeok. Did you see?”

“Huh?”

The backing continued, but Jaejun’s solo had ended.

“Now I’ll do the backing, and you try.”

Jaejun took over the accompaniment Suhyeok had been playing.

Sohye also looked at Suhyeok with excitement.

Ah… this is pressuring…

In reality, there was no reason to feel pressured since there wasn’t even an audience, but just the idea of showing off in front of a senior was a bit overwhelming.

His left hand rose gently.

Suhyeok slowly began to create a melody.

Based on the hand position, he carefully navigated the fretboard.

Occasionally, he mixed in lines from songs he had covered before.

Suhyeok gradually got the hang of it.

A smile of achievement began to form at the corners of his mouth.

“Ooh, that was good just now!”

When he added a bit of fast playing, Jaejun nodded approvingly.

Suhyeok felt embarrassed but craved more praise.

He tried to twist his fingers too ambitiously and made a mistake.

“Hey, faster isn’t always better. You need to control the pace too.”

The roughly three-minute performance came to an end.

“How was it?”

“Boring!”

The question was for Suhyeok, but Sohye was the one who answered.

“You could have done a drum solo too.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Sorry, but drums aren’t my specialty.”

“I…”

Suhyeok felt overwhelmed to receive such teaching on the first day of the semester.

“It was fun.”

“Yeah?”

“I feel like I could do better if I study a bit more…”

“Right. With this, the more you dig into it, the more your skills grow.”

Jaejun stroked his chin with satisfaction.

“Ask Yoon Hana to do it with you. She loves this kind of thing too.”

“Hana?”

“Yeah. She used to whine so much asking me to teach her, but now she’s gotten too big for her britches.”

“What?”

Just then, Hana walked in.

She had a black guitar gig bag on her back.

“She used to be nice in her freshman year.”

“Jaejun oppa, don’t make things up. I’m still nice, aren’t I?”

“Sigh… where’s Soeun? She said she’d go to the café with me.”

“Unni is in the bathroom right now.”

Not long after, when Soeun also came in, the club room was completely packed.

“This old man should make way.”

Jaejun, having seen his girlfriend’s face, said he was leaving.

The juniors also vacated the space, saying the 23rd batch would be practicing soon.

As people left, new faces filled in.

Choigang and Juyeon entered the club room together.

“Ahhh…! I hate the new semester!”

Now that the semester had started and they were all gathered here, Hana already missed the vacation.

She wanted to sleep in again.

She wanted to go to her uncle’s place and watch performances for free.

Even dating Suhyeok had been easier during the break.

“I know, right? But we still need to practice.”

Soeun patted Hana’s back as if to comfort her.

“Song selection meeting! Let’s start right away!”

Three on the sofa.

Two at the desk.

The members began throwing out opinions in their own relaxed postures.

“Should we listen to the confirmed songs first?”

Soeun connected the speaker to her phone.

The confirmed selections were Choigang’s wish to cover Luca’s song and a hard rock piece Hana had brought.

The original track by VTuber Luca featured a crisp, funky rhythm as its highlight.

Though Hana wasn’t initially fond of the concept, she soon became captivated by the session’s quality.

It seemed like it would be incredibly fun to play.

“So this is one, should we start with this?”

“No, no. Let’s start with mine first.”

Hana cut off Soeun’s words sharply.

But it was a perfectly reasonable point.

It made sense to start with the most difficult song first.

After all, the more you put off difficult things, the lower the quality might be, or in the worst case, the song might be replaced altogether.

“Okay. Then we’ll start with Hana’s.”

Today’s meeting had selected a total of four songs.

One K-pop song chosen by Soeun for mass appeal was adopted, and one foreign band song brought by Suhyeok was selected.

Soeun, Choigang, Suhyeok, Hana.

Each had one song filling a slot.

It seemed appropriate to fill one more with Juyeon’s pick.

“Juyeon, do you have any suggestions yet?”

Soeun was creating an announcement with the confirmed songs on her phone.

“I… came up with a title for my original song.”

“What is it?”

In the wrapping-up atmosphere.

All the members’ eyes lit up.

Especially Hana and Suhyeok, who would likely be directly involved in the production, perked up their ears to hear her explanation.

“The title of this song is.”

Juyeon’s gaze fixed on Suhyeok.

Her eyes seemed to declare something, as if telling him to listen.

“‘So I Played the Guitar.'”