Ch.7676. Starting Point

“…Unrequited love?”

Inside Hana’s eyes, waves of confusion silently surged.

Why?

She never imagined such a topic would come from Suhyeok’s mouth.

“Yeah. Ah. Maybe it’s weird for a band competition song?”

“No, not at all. Being in a band doesn’t mean we have to scream and rebel against the world in every song.”

There was no reason they needed to convey messages like “We’re awesome! Look at us!” as if they were some girl crush idol group just because it was a competition.

Still, Seo-eun wondered why Suhyeok had brought up such a theme.

She thought unrequited love wasn’t a topic that would easily come from a boy’s mouth.

“But why unrequited love, Suhyeok? Did you start liking some girl?”

The only one here who knew Suhyeok’s circumstances was Juyeon.

Juyeon silently stared at Suhyeok.

Would he confess the truth here?

Given his personality, it seemed unlikely…

“No, that’s not it… Um… I just listened to some songs like that recently…”

“Songs about unrequited love?”

“Yeah. I thought that kind of yearning, lonely emotion might be good…”

Disappointed by his underwhelming answer, Seo-eun jeered that it was boring.

Choi Gang also criticized Suhyeok for listening to such pathetic “nice guy” songs.

“Alright, then Suhyeok, you write about that too. We’ll do a blind vote when you bring it. That’s it.”

Hana kept her thoughts to herself.

It seemed better to check what he would write first and then have a conversation.

Perhaps looking at his lyrics would provide hints about what Suhyeok was thinking.

With that, the first lyrics meeting ended.

The members decided to go have dinner together.

“…Lee Suhyeok.”

As they left the school building, Hana grabbed Suhyeok’s wrist.

“Yeah?”

“When are we going to the Han River?”

Suhyeok’s eyebrows arched upward.

“…So you remember?”

“What? Do you think I have some condition where I forget everything when I drink?”

Honestly, Suhyeok thought Hana was just saying that while drunk and wouldn’t remember.

He thought it was just a casual Korean way of saying “let’s hang out sometime,” but she actually remembered…

Contradictory emotions mixed within him—happiness, yet an inability to simply smile.

Of course, the conclusion was already decided.

“…Whenever you’re free.”

When he thought about it, he had no good reason to refuse.

Rejecting Hana here would only mean he disliked her.

“Really? How about this weekend?”

“I probably don’t have any plans.”

“Saturday afternoon.”

“…Sounds good.”

A smile bloomed on Hana’s face after getting his answer.

How long had it been since they spent time alone together?

“Hey! Why aren’t you coming?”

In the distance ahead, Seo-eun and Juyeon had turned around and were gesturing toward the two.

“Coming now!”

Hana waved her hand.

Her arm contained more energetic vigor than before.

Watching Hana’s back as she walked ahead, Suhyeok thought.

Lyrics for an unrequited love song.

He had a feeling they would flow out incredibly easily.

* * *

“All I can give you~ is this song.”

“…That’s plagiarism, Suhyeok.”

Suhyeok had come over.

This time, his reason was wanting to write lyrics together.

Juyeon was having another unofficial meeting with Suhyeok at her apartment.

“Is it?”

“Yeah. And I think Gang will hate it and strongly oppose it.”

Given Choi Gang’s personality of hating pathetic, frustrating things, he might foam at the mouth seeing lyrics like that.

He’d probably say something like, “Instead of wallowing like this, just go confess!”

“…That’s too bad.”

Suhyeok clicked his tongue.

He thought it was a good melody, but apparently he had mistaken something he’d heard before for his own creation.

“But are you really going to stick with unrequited love as your theme until the end?”

Even if things weren’t going well with the girl he liked, bringing that directly into a song seemed unusual to her.

“…I feel like that’s the only song I can make right now.”

He thought creating music meant making stories you wanted to tell.

Trying to fabricate emotions you don’t really understand just to impress others wouldn’t produce quality work.

If someone asked Suhyeok to write about the heat of a bustling Friday night downtown, what could he possibly come up with?

He would probably research what popular kids do for fun and write based on that.

“I guess I’m the same.”

Juyeon, scribbling lyrics in her diary, nodded in agreement.

A song about ego.

As she wrote, Juyeon’s lyrics took on a distinctly J-POP feel.

[Cursing myself for not being able to grow]

[I desperately prayed for a miracle]

[The desire to be loved]

[The desire to be needed by someone]

[Living as someone who isn’t me]

[Covering my blue bruises with makeup]

Hmm… quite…

This also seemed like something Gang wouldn’t like.

Seo-eun unnie would probably accept it, but Juyeon wasn’t sure how Hana would react.

Would she dislike it for being too gloomy…

“What did you write, Juyeon?”

With little progress being made, Suhyeok moved closer to her side.

“Want to see?”

Suhyeok would probably be able to relate to the content.

When Juyeon slightly showed her diary, Suhyeok read through her neat handwriting.

What followed was a brief exclamation.

“…You’re good. Really good.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. I think you’re better than me.”

Regardless of the subject, Suhyeok thought her expressiveness was excellent.

“Then should I help with yours?”

“But Juyeon, you said you’ve never experienced unrequited love.”

Juyeon gazed into Suhyeok’s eyes.

“…I think I have a general idea about it.”

And so began Suhyeok’s lyrics renovation project.

Juyeon suggested that Suhyeok slowly talk about the emotions he’d been feeling recently.

“When I’m alone, I think a lot and imagine a lot. And I make resolutions.”

“I tell myself to just stop liking her since it won’t work out anyway.”

“But… as soon as I stand in front of her, my heart starts racing like crazy as if I never felt that way.”

“It’s like losing control over myself? That’s the only way I can explain it.”

“It doesn’t feel particularly happy or pleasant. Maybe a more desperate feeling would make for a better song?”

Juyeon, listening quietly to Suhyeok’s story, jotted down notes.

“Hmm… then…”

[Starting Point]

“I think this might be your keyword.”

“Starting point?”

“…Yeah.”

Juyeon explained what she felt from his story.

“No matter what you do, no matter what methods you try to forget that person, you return to your original state as soon as you stand in front of them, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I think it would be good to focus on the message that despite your efforts, you’re back at square one when faced with love.”

Starting point… repetition…

Suhyeok mulled over these words.

“Then… if there was a song called ‘Starting Point,’ how do you think it should end?”

“Should I just write about continuing to repeat the same process and suffering?”

Since he thought Juyeon’s solution was quite plausible, Suhyeok wanted to seek her opinion one step further.

“Hmm… I don’t think that’s something I can tell you.”

Deciding where that hamster-wheel of emotions would lead was up to Suhyeok himself.

He could choose to stay forever in that loop, or he could conclude that he wants to leave it behind and distance himself from that person completely.

“…This is difficult.”

“But we did well last time. I-I’m sure we can do better this time…!”

“True. It’s not like my idea will definitely be chosen just because I write it.”

Perhaps this song might end up being Seo-eun’s, the master of writing, rather than belonging to the two of them bickering here.

“You’re streaming tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah. Just a short singing stream tomorrow.”

Juyeon’s streams were gradually gaining viewers.

At this rate, it seemed she could easily reach three digits.

“What song are you going to sing?”

“I haven’t decided yet… want to choose together now?”

Taking a break from their unrequited love lament, Suhyeok and Juyeon went song shopping for inspiration.

There were mainly two methods for selecting songs for Juyeon to sing.

First, songs that had recently gained popularity.

These included idol songs or OSTs from movies, dramas, and animations.

Second, songs discovered by browsing through playlists created by others.

There were already so many curated setlists in the world made by people who claimed they contained good music.

Juyeon tended to pick the ones she enjoyed the most.

Last week, she had filled her stream with R&B style songs.

“Oh… how about this? I thought this was really good.”

As Suhyeok moved the mouse, an animation labeled as a game OST started playing.

A thick electronic sound played, accompanied by English lyrics heavily processed with autotune.

Juyeon, sitting next to him, stared blankly at the screen.

Honestly, the song wasn’t really her style.

If she were to sing this live on stream, it would sound flat without post-processing.

But the lyrics.

The translated lyrics appearing at the bottom captured her heart.

So what do u wanna do

(그래서 하고 싶은 게 뭐야?)

Whats your point of view

(어떤 생각을 하고 있어?)

Especially the end of the chorus.

Cause I really wanna stay at your house

(왜냐하면 나는 정말로 너희 집에 머무르고 싶거든.)

And I hope this works out

(그리고 이게 잘 됐으면 좋겠다.)

“Cause I really wanna stay at your house…”

“What do you think? Isn’t it good?”

Suhyeok asked for her reaction.

“…Yeah. I like it.”

Words that somehow resembled their situation.

Juyeon decided she definitely needed to sing this tomorrow.