Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day.

Lee Doyoung stared at his textbook with a haggard face.

Maybe because he hadn’t slept, he was looking with his eyes, but the meaning wouldn’t enter his head.

That was when Heo Junseong and Cha Seoha, the ones who had kept him up all night, entered the classroom side by side, each holding a handful of bread.

It had just been lunchtime, so were they not full? Lee Doyoung glanced at the two while thinking that.

Even if he tried not to care, his gaze went there.

As soon as the two sat down, they tore into the bread.

“Next period is math. Want to skip?”

The voice of Heo Junseong, who so easily abandoned a student’s duty, was shameless beyond measure.

“A student should attend class. Are you a delinquent?”

Cha Seoha, suddenly pretending to be a model student, was even more shameless.

“What are you saying. The guy who sleeps first every class.”

“I’m not sleeping.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“I’m making an effort to understand the book.”

“What?”

“I’m resting my head affectionately against the book with my eyes closed, right?”

“Are you crazy?”

“I love you, book.”

“You really are crazy.”

What kind of conversation is this even.

It was so ridiculous that Lee Doyoung let out a laugh without realizing it.

Realizing belatedly that the laugh had been too loud, he hurriedly put his head down and pretended to sleep.

Ba-dump ba-dump.

His heartbeat started racing. What if they think I was laughing at them? That’s not it.

More than anything, after flatly refusing, wouldn’t they be in a bad mood knowing I eavesdropped.

When he was praying that the two hadn’t heard.

Annoyingly, someone tapped his shoulder.

A voice he had no choice but to get up for even while pretending to sleep came.

“You’re in the middle of understanding the book too, right?”

...Damn it.

“...Why?”

Lifting his head in resignation, Cha Seoha was already standing in front of him with his arms crossed.

“Have you thought about it a bit?”

“Didn’t we talk yesterday?”

“Yesterday was a refusal, but today your mind might have changed, right?”

“In one day?”

“I quit taekwondo in one day too.”

It sounded more serious than expected, so words failed him.

Anyway, he had wondered why he wasn’t going to training and was attending class, but it seemed he really had quit taekwondo.

He was definitely called the school’s ace...

“So, want to do the band?”

“...Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. If that’s what you think, it can’t be helped. I’ll ask again tomorrow too.”

What? He’s going to ask tomorrow too? Why on earth?

The question deepened even more at Cha Seoha’s reaction.

To make a band, bass was naturally needed, but it wasn’t like he was the only person who played bass.

There could be a few if you looked inside this school, and outside school the options were even wider.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t play, but was he an essential existence? That wasn’t it.

There are many geniuses in the world.

And compared to those geniuses, he was nothing.

Lee Doyoung had felt that emotion before too.

Very desperately.

But for some reason, Cha Seoha seemed to like him.

“...”

He didn’t have such special talent, so what was the reason he kept telling him to join the band?

Just as he was about to ask the reason.

-Ding-dong-dang-dong.

With good timing, the class start bell rang.

“Listen to class hard.”

Cha Seoha coolly patted his shoulder and returned to his seat.

He was dying of curiosity, but once he missed the timing once, it wasn’t easy to start talking.

Would he really ask again tomorrow?

With a strange sense of anticipation, the fact that he hadn’t previewed math didn’t feel like a big worry.

* * *

Throughout the entire class time, he thought about ways to persuade Lee Doyoung.

Unlike the simple Heo Junseong, Lee Doyoung wasn’t easy to persuade.

He had confidence that he would join the band, but a suitable method of persuasion didn’t come to mind.

All the memories we shared were after the guy had taken up bass in the band.

To seduce Lee Doyoung who was in model student mode, showing that this proposal wasn’t a momentary impulse seemed best...

It also seemed like some plus alpha would be needed.

After class ended, he was still immersed in thoughts when Heo Junseong put an arm around his shoulder.

“Cha Seoha.”

“What.”

“You busy today?”

“No.”

As if used to my short answers, Heo Junseong shrugged.

“I need to change my guitar strings, want to go together?”

“Where are you going?”

“Nakwon Sangga.”

The word Nakwon Sangga itself was really a long time ago.

If Yongsan is famous for selling electronics, Nakwon Sangga feels famous for selling instruments?

If you’re not careful you can become a sucker who pays double the market price, but if you know well and go, the advantages are big, so many musicians sought the place.

Moreover, since it’s a place where many musicians gather, it was convenient to exchange information while interacting or reserve practice rooms or recording studios.

I need to start working on songs soon too...

“Alright. Let’s go.”

At my words, Heo Junseong nodded as if satisfied and asked.

“But do you play guitar a bit?”

“Just, so-so.”

I hit the highest first-week sales for a male solo singer with a self-composed song at 2.5 million copies, but this life isn’t that.

At the current point, I’ve never handled a guitar so my hands must be stiff.

“Then shall this hyung teach you a bit?”

Heo Junseong’s attitude of speaking while crookedly raising the corner of his mouth looked arrogant as could be.

“You?”

“What, that reaction? Who was it that seduced me after seeing busking?”

Ah, that was the setting.

“I saw potential. Potential.”

“That’s because you only saw me busking. Want me to properly show my skill?”

“Show it and give it to who? You take it.”

“...You sometimes look really like an uncle.”

An uncle.

I was only in my late twenties.

My mood soured.

It seems I need to show Heo Junseong what’s what at Nakwon Sangga.

* * *

The guitar specialty store ‘Hyun’s Resonance’ in Nakwon Sangga was a space Jang Deokcheol had built over 20 years.

A former guitarist, he opened an instrument store after his band disbanded.

There wasn’t a special reason.

Guitar was the specialized field he knew best, and even after retirement he wanted to interact with various musicians and share small conversations.

So when he saw beginners like the male students in front of him, a warm smile naturally formed.

Jang Deokcheol handed over the guitar whose inspection was finished with a friendly smile.

“I replaced the strings and did an inspection too. Check it.”

“Thank you.”

The student who received the guitar carefully checked the condition. Looking during the inspection, there were signs he treated the instrument preciously.

Around high school age, maybe.

‘I had times like that too.’

The tall student wasn’t even wearing his school uniform properly. Who knows where the tie went, and the shirt was also casually unbuttoned.

Others might have thought it looked delinquent, but Jang Deokcheol rather recalled his own youth and looked at the student positively.

Outer appearances don’t represent the inside.

Jang Deokcheol also had times when he lived in outfits that looked terrible to the older generation’s eyes.

Then the student who had been checking the condition while holding the guitar lightly started playing.

‘Oh.’

It’s better than I thought.

The intro of the band ‘Pinch Address’ that was popular in the 80s.

Especially the intro of that song was famous enough that people who had played guitar a bit had definitely tried it at least once.

It was also a one-chord progression of E7, and the play itself wasn’t difficult so some people don’t prefer it, but that’s talk from not knowing.

Imitating the unique groove wasn’t an easy thing at all, so cases where it doesn’t have the same hand feel as the original are many.

It doesn’t look difficult when just listening, but the number of people who realize the feel is completely different once they actually play it is countless.

In other words, it’s a song you have to play while awakening the sense rather than memorizing the score.

As soon as that student brought the pick to the strings, a familiar riff popped out.

A quite leisurely and clean performance that lived up to his own sense.

He had the ability to add flair to a performance that looked like nothing special.

Moreover, even confidence that could never be shown from playing it just once or twice.

It was a very good performance where you could glimpse the proficiency and practice amount.

Jang Deokcheol nodded as if satisfied. This level was quite well done for a high school student.

As expected, the implementation of the unique groove was a bit lacking, but the basics were outstanding so his future as a guitarist was greatly anticipated.

When the performance finished like that, Jang Deokcheol nodded and gave a thumbs up.

“You play well.”

“Thank you for listening.”

As expected, contrary to his impression, he was a polite student.

That was when.

The other male student who had been quietly listening to the guitar performance said with a listless face.

“You play worse than I thought, Heo Junseong. Is it still too early?”

At the unexpected words, Jang Deokcheol’s eyes widened for a moment.

Isn’t that level excellent?

“What?”

What was flustered was Heo Junseong as well.

He didn’t think his performance was perfect, but he also didn’t think it was greatly lacking.

He also had pride that it was outstanding skill among peers.

At first he thought it was talk from not knowing and tried to let it pass, but strangely Cha Seoha’s expression bothered him.

“I played badly?”

“Not that, I said you played worse than I thought.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I thought you would play better.”

“What does someone who can’t even play guitar know.”

“I didn’t say I can’t play. I said so-so.”

“Huh, is that so? Then try it once.”

Unable to hold back his temper, Heo Junseong roughly held out the guitar to Cha Seoha.

“Prove it.”

“...Prove?”

Cha Seoha, who had been staring blankly at the guitar, raised the corner of his mouth in a grin and took the guitar.

At the following melody, Heo Junseong unconsciously flinched.

What, the same song?

How do you know this song?

No, knowing it is secondary, even if it looks easy to listen to, this is by no means a song easy to express.

At that moment, Cha Seoha’s hands began to move slowly.

It’s not a song you can play slowly, but it was slow.

The actual playing speed probably wasn’t slow, but it gave no sense of busyness at all.

Naturally drawing out the melody, naturally forming the rhythm.

Cha Seoha was teaching.

‘This song is a song from an era that cried out for freedom. You have to know how to freely express yourself.’

In some parts, it seemed like he was teaching by sensibly pushing or pulling the rhythm.

‘Why are you only playing as you learned?’

It was clearly the same song, but the expressiveness was different.

‘It’s not about showing the practice amount, you have to express yourself.’

Moreover, Cha Seoha inserted his own riffs in between the set performance, expressing who he himself was.

Moreover, riffs inserted in the middle that weren’t in the original song.

The difficulty was easy, but it was a performance with emotion loaded.

And Heo Junseong realized what Cha Seoha was trying to say.

‘It’s not playing.’

‘It’s letting them hear.’

Empathy, not boasting.

A conveyer, not a technician.

In the end, when the performance ended, Heo Junseong had no choice but to let out a short scream.

“Crazy!”