Ch.32032. Ice Cream

Juyeon had started streaming quite recently.

It was on January 1st of this year.

After successfully making it through a year in the band club, Juyeon decided to take on a new challenge.

That challenge was to start singing livestreams on the internet!

Both the band club and streaming—all of these were projects she had started to try to fix her introverted personality.

Having been excessively passive since childhood, Juyeon felt a considerable sense of crisis as she grew older.

She might somehow get through school life, but she had an ominous feeling that social life would be absolutely impossible.

In that context, the band she had ended up joining with Soeun had been a great help to her.

She became able to express her opinions about songs.

She even gained classmates she could text first.

But that change was limited to within the small group called Spirit.

Juyeon was still like a trembling sheep once she stepped outside that safe boundary.

Still, she thought she might be able to speak more confidently if people couldn’t see her face…

That’s why she chose internet streaming, and singing, which she was most confident in, became her main content.

Surprisingly, for a New Year’s resolution, it seemed to be lasting quite long…

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The first real-life person to discover the truth about her stream. Lee Soohyuk.

He looked at Juyeon with an expression of incomprehension.

“Being from a big company has nothing to do with banners.”

“L-Luka probably didn’t make hers herself either, right?”

As far as streamers go, wasn’t she like a third-generation chaebol heir receiving full support in a privileged environment?

She probably didn’t make things like banners herself!

The company must make everything for her!

Comparing someone like that to herself seemed unfair.

“Well… that might be true, but anyway, I just thought it would be good to make something similar using this as a reference.”

Soohyuk held out his phone screen, displaying a window with Luka’s character.

“…This kind of thing probably needs to be commissioned from a professional, right?”

The sparkling, fancy pink effects.

Juyeon had no ability to create something like this right now.

“It doesn’t have to be that elaborate, but I think it would be better to just take down what you have now.”

Juyeon’s eyes looked up at Soohyuk, who was staring at his phone.

Her drooping bangs made it difficult to see her eyes properly.

Even so, this was too much.

Couldn’t he say something nice between people in similar situations?

Why was he being so strict?

“…Anything else?”

Since things had come to this, Juyeon thought she might as well ask directly.

“Hm?”

“Besides that, was there anything else strange or concerning?”

“Yeah… there’s actually a lot…”

The small glimmer of hope that he might say something nice vanished like smoke.

Juyeon’s soul seemed to leave her body at Soohyuk’s answer.

She grabbed the nearby streetlight with one hand as if feeling dizzy.

“…I see.”

Juyeon felt the urge to quit streaming right then and there.

Meanwhile, Soohyuk was relieved that he hadn’t immediately brought up the problematic content.

He had only mentioned that there were issues, but seeing her reaction, it seemed better not to elaborate.

“Um… well. That aside, your singing was really good though?”

“No… you don’t have to force yourself to say that…”

Juyeon’s mental state was already shattered like a crushed cookie.

“I mean it.”

Soohyuk firmly grabbed Juyeon’s wrist.

At the same time, Juyeon’s eyes widened.

“Our band members always say it too. That you sing well.”

This wasn’t just empty flattery—he genuinely hoped Juyeon would gain some confidence.

“…Really?”

“Yeah. At least among the people I know in real life, you’re the best singer.”

It stung a bit that his sample size wasn’t very large, but this wasn’t a lie.

“I see…”

Praise can make even a whale dance.

And a loner who rarely received compliments was doubly delighted by such words.

As if she had never been upset, the corners of Juyeon’s mouth began to twitch upward.

“So, Juyeon.”

“Yes?”

“Do you really not know what Hana likes?”

The chat about streaming was nice, but they had come here to buy a gift, after all.

“Hmm…”

What Hana likes…

Scratching her cheek, Juyeon tried to recall what she had given Hana for her birthday last year.

“…Cake?”

A cake with strawberries on top of white cream.

Hana had said it was really pretty and even took pictures of it.

“Cake won’t work.”

Soohyuk’s expression darkened rapidly.

“Why?”

“I already gave her one.”

“…Really?”

Soohyuk had already ruined a cake the first time he went to Hana’s place to watch a movie.

“So something else besides that.”

“Hmm… I think we should go inside and look around first.”

Standing outside and pondering wouldn’t lead to any ideas.

The two entered the shopping complex and walked side by side.

Stores selling cosmetics and accessories lined up before their eyes, but they just looked from the corridor without entering.

They were afraid of being pressured by salespeople if they went in.

After circling around and returning to the entrance, Soohyuk asked with a tense face:

“Didn’t you see anything that looked good?”

“Well… cosmetics and accessories are very taste-dependent.”

Who didn’t know that!

He had brought this specialist along precisely to understand those tastes!

Giving up on relying on Juyeon, Soohyuk let out a deep sigh.

This wasn’t a helper but a Lee Soohyuk #2.

Ah, I should have just gone to Soeun noona.

“Let’s go up to the second floor. There are other stores there too.”

The two got on the escalator.

They stopped at a chain store selling all sorts of knick-knacks.

So far, Soohyuk had been considering a mug or a Yankee candle.

They were reasonably priced and somewhat useful.

He thought he would probably settle on one of these two, but…

“…Soohyuk.”

A thin fingernail poked his back.

“Yeah?”

“Come here.”

Having discovered something, Juyeon pulled Soohyuk toward a display.

“This is…”

“Isn’t it cute?”

Nano blocks, with an even more diabolical assembly difficulty than Lego.

Honestly, if it had been any other form, Hana wouldn’t have liked it, but this was different.

“Here.”

Juyeon picked up the box and placed it in Soohyuk’s hands.

Drawn on the cover was an adorably tiny SG guitar.

The same model as Hana’s guitar.

“I think she’ll really like it.”

“Yeah, I think she will.”

Soohyuk and Juyeon smiled at each other.

From a distance, the two gave off the unmistakable atmosphere of a couple.

“Then I’ll go with this.”

“You don’t want to look at anything else…?”

“No, I think this will be perfect.”

After paying, Soohyuk left the store with a small bag.

He felt refreshed, as if a great burden had been lifted.

After taking the escalator down, Soohyuk stopped in his tracks.

“Juyeon.”

“Yes?”

“Want some ice cream?”

Soohyuk pointed to a soft-serve ice cream shop.

Juyeon, who couldn’t resist sweets, nodded up and down.

“This one’s on me.”

After all, regardless of the reason, she had come all this way to help him.

Soohyuk readily pulled out his card from his wallet.

As Juyeon took a big bite of ice cream, a milky white smudge remained on the corner of her mouth.

She devoured the ice cream without saying a word.

Come to think of it, today was quite a special day.

It was the first time she had talked with a boy for so long.

It was also the first time she had discussed her streaming offline.

She had wondered if such a day would ever come for her, but it had arrived with surprising naturalness.

Juyeon glanced sideways at Soohyuk.

Why was it?

The ice cream she ate today seemed unusually sweet.

* * *

A blessed free period.

Tuesday.

Hana was having a staring contest with the pedal board bag on her room floor.

She had packed it up to show Soohyuk, but today she didn’t feel like showing it.

She didn’t even want to go to school.

Right?

I asked him, but he didn’t even answer.

And he went out with just Juyeon, leaving me out.

Why should I carry this heavy thing up to the fifth floor on my free day?

Hana, who was contemplating just canceling today’s lesson, hugged a pillow that had been rolling around on her bed.

“Ah… what am I doing?”

Somehow, she felt petty for having these thoughts.

It’s not like there’s a law saying he can’t go somewhere without answering me.

She understood that her attitude was ugly, but she couldn’t figure out why she felt this way.

The more she thought about it, the more stifling her chest felt.

“Ugh.”

Hana put on a hoodie and crammed her feet into her sneakers.

It seemed like she was feeling this way because staying at home was making her restless.

Of course, the handle of the pedal board bag was still clutched in her hand.