Ch.6006. The Guitar Gives a Slight Flutter.

Suhyuk was a soft-hearted person.

He wasn’t someone who insisted things had to be done a certain way.

Nor was he the type who would never compromise or back down when things got complicated.

He wasn’t sure how others evaluated him, but Suhyuk didn’t particularly like this aspect of himself.

Still, shouldn’t there be at least one thing?

At least one thing that even I can’t let go of?

For this boy who gave up easily, the one thing he decided not to compromise on was the guitar.

Since playing was something done alone, he thought it was perfectly achievable because there was no room for others to interfere.

No one could forcefully give advice or evaluate him.

There was no need to rush to meet deadlines or complete things in a hurry.

So on the day he first decided to try playing the guitar,

He made a promise while watching videos of Nick Brandon, his most beloved guitarist.

“I won’t even look at another song until I master this ultimate piece.”

He believed that challenges were more valuable when the goals were high, and he was confident that by the time he could play this piece, he would have the confidence to easily tackle other difficult songs as well.

The result was, surprisingly…

“F… chord, you mean…?”

Suhyuk’s fingers wandered aimlessly across the fretboard.

“Yeah. Can you play an F chord?”

When Hana’s eyes fixed steadily on him, he felt his mouth go dry.

What should I do…

I don’t know how…

Admitting ignorance was easy, but the thought of Hana showing disappointment from the start was terrifying.

“Do you not know it?”

Still, he couldn’t pretend to know something he didn’t.

Suhyuk gave a slight nod.

Scratching her head, Hana quickly offered an alternative to hide her embarrassment.

“Um… then could you just show me your strumming? In a band, backing is more important than soloing anyway.”

There weren’t many instances where the guitar played melody lines solo in a band.

In most cases, backing through chords was overwhelmingly predominant.

Since this was an essential basic skill for band activities, Hana, who had asked for a demonstration, began to feel a headache coming on.

-Takatakatakata tak ka ta… ka…?

Irregular rhythm.

Noise that was close to static.

Clumsy right-hand movements that were unbelievably crude compared to the brilliant performance he had shown just moments ago.

Suhyuk, knowing he had failed, glanced nervously at Hana, who couldn’t hide her bewilderment and failed to maintain her composure.

The silence between them was broken by the sound of a door swinging open.

-Creeeeak

Seo-eun and Choi Gang entered the club room.

Discovering the two facing each other, Seo-eun greeted them cheerfully.

“Hey! Our guitarists! Already introduced yourselves?”

“Ah. Yeah. Since Lee Suhyuk was already here, I watched him play guitar and we exchanged greetings.”

Choi Gang, paying no attention to the two, tossed his bag onto the sofa and walked straight to the back, grabbing a pair of drumsticks.

“Phew… Here I go!!!”

Though the weather was still too chilly to be called summer, he was wearing short sleeves and without warning, launched into a flashy drum solo to warm up.

-Tududududu dududududung tadadadadadak

It was truly impressive dexterity.

The resonance made even the onlookers’ hearts tremble.

Suhyuk, seeing a drummer perform this close for the first time, watched in a daze.

But Hana, who was used to Choi Gang’s drumming, had more pressing matters to attend to.

“Um… unnie. Can I talk to you privately for a moment?”

A conversation with Seo-eun was urgent.

She had already felt cold when Seo-eun recruited a member without her permission as the guitar section leader…

But to bring in someone who didn’t know any chords and couldn’t even strum!

“Hm? Why?”

Hana pulled the clueless, smiling Seo-eun outside and stood in front of the stairwell to get to the point.

“Unnie. About Lee Suhyuk.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you know he can’t do backing?”

“Huh? He can’t do backing?”

At Seo-eun’s question, Hana smacked her own forehead.

“Haah… That’s why I said we should audition together…”

It made no sense that her opinion as a guitarist had zero influence when recruiting another guitarist, not even a bassist.

“But didn’t you see him play that song?”

“You mean the instrumental piece?”

“Yeah! That was seriously incredible, wasn’t it?”

That was true.

The mechanical performance Suhyuk showed demonstrated techniques that were almost acrobatic.

“That’s true, but…”

“As soon as I saw that, I thought, ‘This guy’s perfect!’ Don’t you agree?”

Not all running is the same.

Just as there are marathon runners and sprinters, each genre of guitar playing required different skills.

“…That’s one thing, but in his current state, he might not be able to join our jam sessions right away.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. He won’t be able to join immediately.”

“Then what should we do?”

Hana could only feel annoyed at Seo-eun, who was looking at her with a somewhat clueless expression.

However, there were too many issues with revoking Suhyuk’s acceptance and recruiting someone new.

First, they didn’t have much time until the festival.

And it was difficult to properly evaluate Suhyuk’s guitar skills.

“…We’ll just have to pray he learns quickly if I teach him.”

That’s right.

This was Lee Suhyuk, who had mastered incredible techniques that even she couldn’t do.

Memorizing chords and learning basic backing shouldn’t be too difficult.

Since he had accomplished something much harder, there was a possibility he could learn quickly.

Of course, the fact that she now had to teach all this herself was what bothered her.

“That’s my Hana~ Thank you~ And I’m sure Suhyuk will do well! He’s been playing guitar for two years after all~”

Whether playing just one song for two years should be considered impressive or stubborn…

Hana couldn’t quite decide.

With mixed feelings, she returned to the club room.

Choi Gang was already holding Suhyuk captive, saying something strange.

“Our Spirit has a long-standing tradition.”

“What is it?”

“Give me your phone.”

“Here.”

“Accessing YouTube now.”

Could they possibly be running a band-specific channel?

With a nervous heart, Suhyuk quickly took out his phone and handed the screen to him.

“Take it!”

As Suhyuk received his phone back, a large question mark appeared above his head.

“…What’s this?”

“Ahem… This is a channel that all Spirit members must subscribe to.”

The character in the profile picture had pink hair tied back, winking and making a V-sign with her hand.

[Ruka – RUKA OFFICIAL]

“What… is this…?”

“It’s the channel of Ruka, a VTuber from the idol group Closer.”

Suhyuk, who knew VTubers existed but had no particular interest in them, looked at the screen with a lukewarm expression.

“You want me to watch this…?”

“Yes. We talk about Ruka’s cuteness every Friday, so if you want to join the conversation, make sure to watch it.”

There were quite a few suspicious points, but if it was to get along with the other members, gladly…!

Just as Suhyuk was clenching his fist with determination—

“Suhyuk~ Just learn to filter out what Gang says~”

It was Seo-eun, who found it laborious to constantly stop his antics.

“Ah. Hello.”

Finally, Juyeon arrived at the club room.

With everyone gathered, Seo-eun seated all the members together.

“Alright! Let’s begin the first song selection meeting for the 23rd generation this year~ Woohoo~”

Seo-eun clapped her hands.

Honestly, she didn’t need to force such enthusiasm last year, but this year was different.

Two out of five members—

Suhyuk and Juyeon were extremely introverted.

“Hmm~ Since Hana and Suhyuk have already greeted each other, let’s skip that and listen to the songs each of you prepared?”

The first to proactively recommend a song was Seo-eun, who brought a song that was closest to mainstream popularity that everyone would know.

The songs Choi Gang brought were metal tracks that Juyeon could never sing, so they were passed over.

The song Hana prepared was from a not-so-famous foreign band, but it was close to sophisticated rock with quite an impressive sound.

“Ooh. This is good.”

“Yoon Hana. Not bad?”

“I like it too.”

Suhyuk was anxious about whether he could play this, but he really liked the song itself.

Generally, once the instrumental session members gave their approval, the final decision would go to the vocalist.

As everyone’s eyes turned to Juyeon, she nodded her head a couple of times.

“…I’ll give it a try.”

“Great! Then this one’s confirmed!”

Seo-eun immediately posted the link in the chat room’s announcement list.

Finally, it was Suhyuk’s turn.

“What I brought is.”

As he pressed play, music flowed out.

Suhyuk nervously observed the members’ faces in real-time.

Choi Gang nodded his head to the rhythm, though his hair didn’t move.

Juyeon had an unreadable, almost expressionless face.

Seo-eun just kept smiling.

Thinking he’d shown enough, he stopped the music after the first verse, and Hana, sitting next to him, applauded approvingly.

“I like it! I definitely want to do this one.”

“Me too.”

“Let’s go!”

“Then I’ll mark Suhyuk’s song as our second confirmed track, okay?”

They listened to a few more songs after that, but Suhyuk’s was the last to be confirmed.

“Let’s leave it at this for today, and we’ll decide on the remaining three songs gradually.”

I’m glad everyone liked it…

Suhyuk breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

As the meeting ended, Choi Gang said he had to go exercise and left immediately, and Juyeon also bowed her head slightly and left the room, saying she needed to go.

Suhyuk was putting his guitar back into its case.

Hana, after confirming that even Seo-eun had left, quietly approached him.

“Hey. Lee Suhyuk.”

“Ah. Yeah.”

Cheeks slightly flushed with embarrassment.

Scratching her cheek, Hana was full of thoughts about how to offer to teach him guitar without making him feel uncomfortable.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

At her words, which sounded almost like asking for a date, Suhyuk’s heart began to pound.