Ch.31031. Small Business Owner

Hana only returned to the club room when it was exactly time for practice.

“Hana, hi!”

Seo-eun hugged Hana’s waist with her characteristically bright smile. Was she in a good mood after seeing her boyfriend?

“Hi.”

Meanwhile, Hana still couldn’t control her emotions.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen today?”

“No. Nothing really.”

“That’s strange… That’s definitely your ‘something happened’ face.”

Seo-eun unnie was annoyingly perceptive.

Even when Hana wished she would pretend not to notice, Seo-eun could read her state of mind with uncanny accuracy.

“Just tell me~ I’ll solve everything for you~”

“No. Let’s just practice. Everyone must be busy.”

Hana plopped down on a chair and looked across at Suhyeok, who was sitting by the amplifier.

Suhyeok was fiddling with his guitar as if nothing had happened.

The person who had disturbed her peace of mind seemed perfectly calm, unlike her.

A moment later, Juyeon approached him, bent down, and whispered something for quite a while before walking away.

Inside Hana’s heart, a sudden impulse surged to take back the solo part she had generously agreed to give him.

“Alright, everyone! Today, let’s try to complete the entire song~”

It was really time to finish it now.

They had already delayed practice waiting for the second guitar to join.

At this pace, they might face the disaster of having to reduce the number of songs.

“One. Two. Three. Four.”

The practice flowed smoothly, as if everyone had become quite familiar with it.

Today’s key checkpoint was the guitar solo in the latter part.

In truth, for sections like this, only the session player performing the solo needed to concentrate.

The other session players providing backup typically didn’t need to demonstrate such flashy techniques.

Seo-eun didn’t even need to practice since she was simply playing the same part she had played in the chorus.

Suhyeok, who was in charge of this section, successfully reproduced what he had practiced.

If even Hana thought it was decent, it meant the other session players would find it more than satisfactory.

“Ooh~ You’re doing well! Let’s just do one final run-through of ‘Standing Luxury’ so we don’t forget it, and we can discuss the remaining song selections in the group chat?”

Seo-eun’s voice was filled with hope.

She thought they might narrowly avoid having to cram practice sessions if things went well.

“Okay, okay!”

“I’m heading out?”

Everyone was about to leave the club room after practice.

Suhyeok and Juyeon had immediately huddled together again, conspiring in their own little world.

Unable to bear the sight, Hana barged in between them and thrust her face forward.

“What are you two whispering about so secretively?”

The two of them turned pale, apparently not expecting Hana to interrupt.

“Ah. Nothing.”

“Well…”

Their dumbfounded expressions made her even more annoyed.

What is it! Tell me already!

“We were just planning to go somewhere for a bit.”

“Where are you going?”

“That’s…”

Suhyeok and Juyeon exchanged glances.

Juyeon shook her head slightly, as if telling him not to say anything.

Understanding the context, Suhyeok solemnly told Hana that he couldn’t tell her.

Disliking the whole situation, Hana grabbed her bag.

“Fine! Have fun by yourselves!”

She turned around sharply, making it obvious she was upset.

However, her inner thoughts pointed in the opposite direction.

‘Aren’t you going to stop me…? Hey. I’m making it this obvious and you’re not going to stop me…?’

If it had been Seo-eun or someone else with a bit of social awareness, they would have immediately tried to cheer her up.

Isn’t that obvious?

How could they not try to make things right when she was showing such clear signs of feeling left out?

But her counterparts were the ultimate social outcasts.

They seemed relieved and continued whispering among themselves even more comfortably.

“Damn it.”

Hana left the club room, unable to bring herself to go back and beg them to tell her.

“Seriously… Park Juyeon. Lee Suhyeok. Just wait and see if I ever do anything nice for you two again.”

Even as she muttered to herself, Hana couldn’t stop wondering what the two of them were up to.

* * *

Before practice had started.

Taking advantage of when Hana went to the bathroom, Suhyeok had asked Juyeon to help him choose a gift for Hana.

During the MT, Seo-eun had told Suhyeok to be considerate of Hana.

Following the club president’s advice, he thought about preparing a small gift, but he was well aware of his lack of sense in such matters.

Since Seo-eun had already given him advice, it felt awkward to ask her for help again.

Among the girls his age, Juyeon was the only remaining candidate.

Feeling that they had grown a bit closer during the MT, Suhyeok gathered his courage and asked her to help him pick out a gift.

After all, they had been in the band together for a year, so wouldn’t she know Hana well?

Suhyeok thought she would at least know what Hana liked.

So they had arranged to meet secretly, keeping it from Hana…

“…Juyeon.”

“Yes?”

“…What are you doing?”

The two of them had gone downtown together to choose a gift.

Seeing her constantly looking at her phone, Suhyeok glanced at her screen and couldn’t hide his surprise.

[Gifts for women in their 20s]

[Recommended gifts for female college students]

He had brought Juyeon along thinking real advice would be better than internet recommendations.

“…Well, these seem more reliable.”

Juyeon discreetly hid her phone behind her back.

“But then why… did you agree to come?”

When he thought about it, that was true.

If she had told him from the beginning that she didn’t know what Hana liked, he wouldn’t have brought her here!

“That… well… because you…!”

Juyeon still couldn’t let her guard down around Suhyeok.

What if he got upset that she didn’t accept his request and spread rumors about her streaming?

Paranoia was an inevitable process for social outcasts.

They naturally had a habit of assuming the worst possible scenarios that could happen to them.

“I was afraid you might spread rumors about my streaming…”

She answered in a small voice, but Suhyeok’s response was unexpectedly cold.

“Ah. About that.”

Suhyeok’s face showed a hint of disdain.

“Can I just say one thing?”

“Huh? What?”

“About… your stream.”

No way.

I told him not to watch it! To forget about it! And he went and looked it up?

Juyeon was initially shocked, but she was also curious about what he had to say.

“Okay.”

Did he see her acting cute?

Or her singing?

Or maybe… those sad moments when she tried to tell funny stories but no one laughed…

“You should really change your banner.”

“…Huh?”

“Your top banner. I think you need to redesign it.”

He seemed to have over 500 things he wanted to say, but if he had to fix one thing first, the banner was it.

Suhyeok wasn’t one to say harsh things, but this was something he couldn’t hold back.

“What’s wrong with the banner?”

Seeing Juyeon’s uncomprehending tone, Suhyeok put his hand to his forehead.

“That… I think my 13-year-old cousin could make a better one.”

“No way…? That can’t be… Isn’t it fine? I… I… I stayed up all night thinking about it…”

There was an unmistakable tremor in Juyeon’s voice.

Her small hands had somehow clenched into fists.

“Then that’s even worse, isn’t it?”

Suhyeok thought it would have been better if she had said she made it without much effort.

“Is it really that bad…?”

Juyeon covered her mouth in shock.

But… none of the people who came to watch her stream had criticized the banner…

Some even said it was cute!

“Yes.”

“Oh no! What should I do!”

Juyeon, who had come to help choose a gift for Hana, was now in a state of panic.

In truth, she had far too few viewers to receive much feedback.

She had a total of 86 subscribers.

Fewer than 10 people regularly watched her live streams.

About half of her viewers just left the stream on without any reaction.

In reality, she was basically chatting with just three or four viewers.

Some days, she had even fewer viewers than there were Spirit members.

“Hmm… But can’t you just look at popular streamers’ banners and make something similar?”

“L-like who?”

Suhyeok scratched his head and mentioned the name of a streamer that came to mind.

The VTuber Luka, whom he had ended up watching because of Choikang.

He thought her channel was quite sophisticated and cute.

“Luka? Do you know Luka, Juyeon?”

At Suhyeok’s response, Juyeon’s head drooped down to the right.

Puzzled by her unexpected reaction, Suhyeok tilted his head.

“You can find her right away if you search.”

Just as Suhyeok was about to reach into his pocket for reference material…

“I… I think it’s disrespectful to compare me to such a capitalist-corrupted major VTuber…!”

Suhyeok wondered if this was what it felt like to be a small business owner antagonizing a large corporation.