Ch.159EPILOGUE. Already a Year.

“Private First Class Lee Suhyuk! Isn’t she just fucking adorable?”

“She is cute.”

“No! How can you be so indifferent after seeing this! How can you be like that?”

A comment bordering on gaslighting.

Suhyuk, who had always been lenient with his juniors, had a good reputation within the unit.

A peaceful Sunday afternoon.

Sitting next to Suhyuk, who had been in the military for over a year, was Private Park Sungjin, who had only recently been promoted to Private First Class.

“It’s just how I feel. It’s not that strange.”

“Wow… so when you have a gorgeous girlfriend, you become this enlightened?”

“Something like that, I guess.”

“But there’s always a reason why songs climb back up the charts!”

Suhyuk nodded with a smile.

“She deserves it.”

Suhyuk glanced discreetly at Sungjin’s screen.

There was a face that Suhyuk knew all too well.

Light brown bob haircut.

Light green cable-knit sweater.

Juyeon, who seemed slightly embarrassed with her hands resting on her knees, was making awkward eye contact with the camera.

At the bottom of the screen, the production team’s question appeared as a caption.

-Your self-composed song “Calendar” has successfully climbed back up the charts! What do you think captured the public’s heart?

[Um… well… honestly, I didn’t expect people to like it this much…]

Suhyuk could immediately recognize Juyeon’s fidgeting fingers.

It was her characteristic gesture when hesitating.

[I think it helped that I put some genuine feelings into it.]

-By genuine, can we understand that your personal experience is reflected in the song?

[Ahaha. Yes… Oh! But I wasn’t actually in a relationship…]

-We thought “Calendar” was clearly about a breakup story, wasn’t it?

[No, it’s not. I just used to like this guy. I wrote it thinking about him and those difficult times.]

“Wow. That’s totally bullshit, isn’t it?”

Sungjin let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

“Any guy who rejects such an adorable creature must be a total alpha male, don’t you think?”

Suhyuk, who was watching the video intently, scratched his not-even-long hair awkwardly.

“Well… I’m sure they had their reasons.”

“Wow. If it were me, I would have treated her like a princess right away.”

Although he hadn’t deliberately sought out information, Suhyuk had heard news about Juyeon through online media.

It seemed she had accepted the casting offer she received at her last performance, and Juyeon had officially debuted as a solo singer.

It wasn’t a flashy debut like an idol’s.

The music video was clearly produced on a low budget.

On a shabby set, Juyeon was the only one who appeared.

But the video of her singing with a heartfelt voice while holding an acoustic guitar began to spread fiercely across the country.

Juyeon became a beneficiary of the algorithm.

This brought her fame that was incomparable to when she had been active as a streamer.

The time had come for her to make her name known.

Though not on public broadcasting, Juyeon received offers from various YouTube channels, and she began showing herself to the public through interviews and live performances.

-If there’s a man who left someone as lovely and cute as you, would you like to send him a short video message?

Juyeon hesitated for a moment, then looked at the camera with a warm smile.

[…I’m doing well.]

Although it was Sungjin who had turned on the video, at that moment, Suhyuk was concentrating several times more intensely.

Honestly, it would be too difficult for the person involved to ignore this.

[Are you staying healthy?]

-Oh… is that man sick?

[No, no! He’s not sick, he’s in the military!]

As melancholic background music suddenly started playing, Juyeon waved her hands, expressing that it wasn’t like that.

-Ah! Then, while we’re at it, could you say a few words of encouragement to your male fans serving in the military across the country?

The flow of the interview was almost like a ritual!

This was the typical low-budget interview style of a small channel.

[Eh…? All of a sudden? Ah… okay… Um… To all the soldiers working hard in the military. Fighting!]

Juyeon raised her adorable little fist slightly.

Sungjin’s face bloomed with laughter.

“Aaagh! She’s so damn cute! I need to watch this again!”

“…Watch it as much as you want.”

Suhyuk got up from his bunk with an awkward smile.

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“My girlfriend’s coming, so I applied for an outing.”

“Wow… I’m jealous.”

“I’ll be going now.”

“Have a good time, sir.”

Suhyuk, dressed in his outing attire, headed outside.

Suhyuk’s assigned unit was in Paju.

Fortunately, his unit wasn’t that far from Seoul.

Thanks to that, meeting Hana wasn’t too inconvenient.

He could easily travel back and forth during his leave, and on days like this when outings were possible, Hana would sometimes come to visit him.

As he trudged down the shoulder of the road next to the asphalt, signs of civilization gradually began to appear.

“Private First Class Lee Suhyuk~”

A voice sweet to hear anytime.

Wearing a pale pink cardigan, Hana was looking at Suhyuk with both hands deeply tucked in her pockets.

“You’re here?”

As soon as he spotted his girlfriend, Suhyuk started jogging lightly toward her.

“You’ve been walking all this time, and now you decide to run?”

“If I had known you were here, I would have run from the top.”

“Whatever, you.”

Hana buried her face in Suhyuk’s uniform.

It had only been a month since his last leave, but why did it feel so good to see her?

“Ah. I missed you.”

Hana tightly grabbed Suhyuk’s hand.

“I missed you terribly too.”

“But why are you late?”

“You’re the one who came early.”

Suhyuk felt energized just by having this trivial conversation.

Hana was truly doing her best to support Suhyuk during his service period.

Whether it was his completion ceremony or his first leave.

She was the type to cancel all her plans and rush to see Suhyuk at a moment’s notice.

“What do you want to eat?”

“Eh. There’s not much around here anyway.”

“Still, there are a few places. Like Chinese food.”

“Let’s eat whatever the soldier wants.”

“Then I want chicken.”

The two entered a local chicken place with no brand name.

Resting her elbows on a table that looked at least 20 years old, Hana shared various stories from the outside world with Suhyuk.

“Did I tell you about how Seoeun unnie had a big fight with Jaejun oppa?”

“No? But don’t they always bicker?”

“No, no. Jaejun oppa went drinking with his work colleagues and wasn’t answering his phone, but then a female colleague picked up.”

“Whoa. What happened then?”

“Seoeun unnie was so angry she wouldn’t even talk to him. It was a total catastrophe.”

The intersection of their social circles was just Spirit.

But even within that, so many things were happening.

“Oh, and I heard Taeho enlisted recently.”

It had been a full year since Suhyuk left the secular world.

Now it was time for the 24th batch to graduate from Spirit and head to the military.

“He actually contacted me recently. Asked me how to handle it.”

“What’s there to handle? You just go.”

“That’s true.”

“Still, I’m going to write him letters.”

“I should write to him too.”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t like writing to guys?”

Hana giggled.

When the chicken arrived, Hana poked a drumstick with her fork and held it out to Suhyuk.

“Here you go, Private First Class.”

Because Suhyuk had talked so much about the thrill of being promoted to Private First Class, Hana teased him by calling him that every day.

“Thank you.”

The two chatted pleasantly while eating chicken.

Music was playing from an old radio that the restaurant owner had turned on.

[Next up is a song that’s been climbing the charts recently. Here’s Park Juyeon’s “Calendar”!]

When Juyeon’s song started playing, both Suhyuk and Hana fell silent for a moment.

“Juyeon has become really famous.”

It was very rare for the two of them to talk about Juyeon.

When they did, it was usually Hana who brought it up first.

Suhyuk’s role was to respond appropriately.

After all, the protagonist of this song “Calendar” was Suhyuk.

Knowing this well, Suhyuk couldn’t easily bring up her story in front of Hana.

“Yeah. My junior was watching her earlier too.”

“She seems to be doing well.”

“I wonder if she’ll go back to school now that she’s this famous.”

“Why? Want to attend school with Juyeon?”

Hana playfully poked the back of Suhyuk’s hand.

“No way.”

“Should I be nervous? If you like famous people, should I debut as a singer too?”

“But Hana, your singing isn’t quite at Juyeon’s level, so maybe as an idol…”

A feeling of annoyance mixed with amusement.

Hana pinched Suhyuk’s cheek.

After eating, the two headed to a bench in front of the bus stop.

Since it was such a sparsely populated area, the bus intervals were quite long.

Hana rested her head on Suhyuk’s shoulder.

“There’s really not much time left now.”

His promotion to Sergeant was not far off.

“Yeah.”

“Finish quickly and come back.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“You have to put flower shoes on me.”

“I’ll definitely get you the best ones.”

Pleased with Suhyuk’s answer, Hana turned her head and lightly kissed him on the cheek.

“Let’s play in a band again. With me.”

As the sunset was forming, Hana told Suhyuk about her dream.

“Okay. Just wait a little longer.”

As a sign of promise, Suhyuk gently kissed Hana.

“I love you, Lee Suhyuk.”

“I love you too.”

And so, the two made a promise to play music together once again.

-I May Be a Loner, But I Want to Be in a Band! (The End)