Ch.9090. Understanding

Eyes slowly opening.

Juyeon clutched her aching head and slowly raised herself up.

Last night comes back to her.

She got drunk alone and was singing loudly.

Without a soju glass, she poured alcohol into a water cup and drank.

And then… Suhyeok called…

After that…

Juyeon stared blankly at the floor.

Indeed, yesterday wasn’t a dream; Suhyeok’s warmth still lingered in the room.

The empty bottles neatly lined up were traces he had left behind.

She couldn’t remember everything.

What her body remembered was that Suhyeok’s hands were warm.

And that in the end, she never told him why she had been drinking alone.

Thinking about it now, it was a bit embarrassing.

After primly declaring she would be streaming diligently, she’d been caught drinking alone.

He must have been so worried to come all the way to her place…

Thinking she should at least thank Suhyeok, Juyeon picked up her phone.

Her eyes widened.

[Juyeon! Where are you?]

[Aren’t you coming! Park Juyeon!]

[Wow… you’re abandoning me?]

[Wake uuuuup!!!]

It was Hana.

Wednesday morning.

Today was the day she was supposed to go morning exercising with Hana.

Oh. What should I do?

Juyeon was someone who valued punctuality.

Whenever she went to gatherings, she always made sure to arrive at least five minutes early.

With her mental state completely shattered, she trembled as she made the call.

[H-hello?]

Juyeon asked with a shrunken voice.

[…You were sleeping.]

The trembling in her voice was clearly conveyed to Hana, who was running on a treadmill, making her chuckle.

[Ah… I went to bed late yesterday…]

[What were you doing yesterday? I think you said you couldn’t come to the club because something came up.]

Juyeon’s lips formed a straight line.

[I-I had to drink with an old classmate.]

She invented a non-existent classmate.

If she revealed she was alone, Hana would surely feel hurt.

[Oh, really? Well, even if you had woken up, you probably couldn’t have come to exercise anyway.]

[I’m sorry…]

[It’s okay. Heh. You can still come to practice later, right?]

[Yeah.]

[I heard drinking too much makes your throat hoarse and you lose your voice. Make sure to recover well!]

[Yeah…]

[See you later! I’m getting out of breath running.]

Hana hurriedly pressed a button to reduce the treadmill’s speed.

[I’m sorry, Hana.]

[It’s fine, it’s fine. Shall we hang up?]

[Yeah.]

After putting down her phone, Juyeon flopped back onto the bed.

Come to think of it, Hana went exercising even after yesterday’s party.

She thought that was impressive.

To be able to do that when she wasn’t even particularly good with alcohol.

Or maybe not.

Maybe that’s how she got those abs?

Juyeon absentmindedly poked at her own soft belly.

As for Suhyeok… she’d just thank him in person later.

She thought it would be too shameful to gloss over her behavior with just a phone call.

After resting a bit more, Juyeon gathered herself and sat down in front of her computer chair.

She had something to do.

Since she had asked Suhyeok not to watch her streams, she needed to find a new manager.

Currently, Juyeon’s stream had grown to an average of about 300 viewers.

It was true that having at least one moderator would make things easier.

“…Who should I pick?”

Since it wasn’t such a massive operation that required formal recruitment like a major corporation, Juyeon planned to select someone from among the viewers who had been watching her streams regularly since the beginning.

She had narrowed it down to two candidates.

‘YeoniWorld’ and ‘YeoniYeoniya.’

They were always there whenever she started streaming, and YeoniWorld in particular had made quite a few donations.

“If they’re willing to spend money too…”

The amount Juyeon earned from donations wasn’t large.

About 50,000 won per day on average.

Over 100,000 won if she was lucky.

Just about minimum wage or slightly more.

Having finished deliberating, Juyeon’s hands moved toward the keyboard.

[Hello, YeoniWorld. This is Yeoni. I was wondering…]

And so she took steps to return to a daily life without Suhyeok.

* * *

One hour before practice.

Suhyeok went to the club room to plug in an amplifier and test his original composition.

Music isn’t completed simply by playing well.

The equipment used and how that equipment is set up greatly affects the final result.

For covers or copies of other people’s songs, there’s not much need to worry about this.

It’s an area with an answer key.

If you can figure out the equipment and settings used by the original artist, you’ll likely get a similar sound.

But original compositions are creative territory.

No one gives you the answers.

How much to distort the sound.

How much to cut the bass.

Each element had to be recorded and repeated to find the optimal position.

-Beep beep beep beep

He entered the passcode, but the door was already open.

As he stepped inside, a cheerful greeting welcomed him.

“Oh! Suhyeok, what’s up! Practice isn’t until 7 today~”

It was Seo-eun who greeted him.

Sitting on the sofa looking at her phone, she was wearing a flowy blue dress that could have come straight out of an air conditioner commercial.

“I know, but I wanted to plug in this amp and listen to the sound.”

“Ooh~ I like the dedication!”

“…Noona, do you want to work on the bass sound together?”

“Sure! But wouldn’t it be better if I added mine after yours is fixed?”

“I guess so.”

The bass in this song was quite plain.

Its role was to maintain a solid foundation with root notes.

Some might even find it boring with no standout parts.

“Noona, don’t you find this song a bit… boring?”

Having already heard such opinions from Choegang, Suhyeok wanted to hear Seo-eun’s honest thoughts as well.

“Hmm? No?”

“That’s a relief then.”

“Why?”

“You might have wanted to do something cooler and flashier.”

Perhaps Seo-eun was giving up her chance to shine for the sake of the other members, like a parent giving up the chicken leg.

“Ahaha. No, Suhyeok. I don’t really care about that.”

In everything, there’s a balance between process and result.

Some value the process.

Others value the result.

Seo-eun, typically results-oriented, prioritized the process when it came to Spirit’s activities.

She enjoyed getting together and having fun with everyone; she had no desire to be the band’s star.

In fact, she felt joy seeing other members happy when they got the spotlight.

“…Really?”

“Yeah. If it was too difficult, I might have cried. Can you imagine me spending the entire vacation doing nothing but plucking the bass and resenting you?”

It was true that Seo-eun’s individual instrument proficiency was on the lower end, given her lesser interest.

“Then I guess that’s good…”

“By the way, Suhyeok.”

“Yeah?”

“This song… is it…”

Seo-eun’s eyes glinted like a snake’s.

“Did you write it thinking about Hana?”

“…Huh?”

The direct question came too suddenly.

He wasn’t given time to smoothly deflect.

“Ahahahaha. I guess it’s true?”

“N-no! Why would I write a song like this about Hana?”

Feeling like he’d been forcibly stripped naked, Suhyeok flailed his arms, desperately trying to deny it.

“Okay~ okay~ I won’t tell Hana.”

“I’m telling you it’s not like that!”

“Ssshhh~ Lying to this noona is a bad idea.”

Though she was smiling, Seo-eun felt considerable unease.

According to the data she had been collecting, there seemed to be one mismatched arrow.

Juyeon.

If Suhyeok was the person Juyeon liked, many things would become complicated.

It wasn’t confirmed yet that Suhyeok was the subject of Juyeon’s confidences, but Seo-eun considered him a strong candidate.

“But if you like her enough to write something like this, I would have just confessed if I were you.”

“…I wrote it thinking about someone I liked in the past.”

Like a child making excuses, Suhyeok tried to recycle the method he had used with Hana.

He was underestimating the president too much.

While the simple-minded Hana might have let it slide, such shallow tactics didn’t work at all with Seo-eun.

“Really? Then should I tell Hana that you don’t like her?”

“Huh?”

“Why? Wasn’t that what you’ve been wanting to say all along—that you don’t see Hana as a woman?”

Giggling as if to say “you’re in the palm of my hand,” Seo-eun had cornered him.

Suhyeok hit a wall.

Playing word games with this person was a losing battle.

No matter what he said, it seemed impossible to deceive Seo-eun.

“…It’s not like that.”

On the verge of confession, Suhyeok surrendered.

Seo-eun smiled gently and placed her hand on his back.

“Suhyeok.”

“Yeah?”

“If you don’t do anything, nothing will happen.”

Though she generally avoided interfering, Seo-eun offered advice in what seemed like a frustratingly stagnant situation.

“I know that too.”

“So you’re going to confess?”

After hesitating, Suhyeok decided to be honest since he’d been found out anyway.

“After this competition ends well.”

If the song he created achieved brilliant results, he felt he would surely find more courage.

“Hmm. That’s a good approach. But Suhyeok, there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

“Yeah?”

“Did something happen between you and Juyeon recently?”