Chapter 332: Summer Vacation (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 332: Summer Vacation (2)
“……Hyung.”
As I drifted in a deep sleep, I heard a faint voice. I felt someone grabbing my shoulder and shaking it gently.
“……?”
I forced my eyes open to see Park Ju-woo’s face.
“Time to eat….”
“Now? What time is it?”
“6:00….”
“6:00?”
I had lain down to sleep at 4:00.
I bolted upright and looked out the window; the sun was indeed setting. To think I’d taken a two-hour nap—is there any more luxurious way to spend time?
“Sorry, I slept too long.”
“It’s good to sleep well. Seong-bin told us not to wake you, too….”
“What about the others? Are they up?”
“Yeah, just a moment ago.”
As I headed down the stairs, a boisterous noise began to drift up. Lee Cheong-hyeon’s decibel level was undoubtedly in first place.
“I, Lee Cheong-hyeon, shall temporarily set aside my idol persona as of today and experience life as a Mukbang MeTuber.”
“You don’t even eat that much.”
“Do too! Since I’ve officially joined the Tall Line, I’m going to aim for the spot of the tallest member!”
It seemed a nap had done wonders for both Lee Cheong-hyeon and Kang Gi-yeon; they both looked full of energy. Truly, sleep is the best medicine.
Everyone gathered at the dining table, including me—the oldest yet most inconsiderate one for showing up last. Dinner was a literal feast.
“I thought we were just going to grill some meat?”
The table was packed with stew, ramen, rice wrapped in slightly wilted lettuce leaves, and perfectly grilled fruit. My pang of guilt grew uncontrollably. Perhaps noticing my trembling pupils, Jeong Seong-bin gave a gentle smile.
“We all did it together, so it didn’t take long. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah, thanks to you guys.”
Jeong Seong-bin looked pleased, saying he was glad.
“You and Ju-woo should just brush your teeth and go to bed after eating. We’ll handle the cleanup.”
“What about Je-ho Hyung?”
“He won’t be tired from just this much, so he’s fine.”
Choi Je-ho, sitting opposite me, didn’t even look up when his name was mentioned, focusing entirely on eating his meat. I said that, but I didn’t actually plan on making Choi Je-ho do the dishes.
“No, I’m not going to sleep.”
Park Ju-woo, who had been eating quietly, chimed in. The expression on his face as he set down his chopsticks was serious.
“We promised to practice together….”
Park Ju-woo’s eyebrows dipped by about three degrees. So it was… because of that. Right, a promise is a promise.
In fact, we had packed the car full of instruments and amps to check our progress so far.
Unlike the rest of us who only needed instruments and amps, the luggage had tripled because of Lee Cheong-hyeon, who used a two-tier synthesizer, and Choi Je-ho, who needed an electronic drum kit. If Choi Je-ho had just bought a drum pad sooner, things wouldn’t have come to this.
“Iwol Hyung practiced really hard. Are we going to see a storming, cool bass solo today?”
“It’s only because my part is so packed. The difficulty level was way too high.”
Park Ju-woo, who has a strange burst of initiative in odd places, had even managed to get the band version sheet music for 『Flowering』 through Lee Cheong-hyeon. He said a composer who frequently works with Lee Cheong-hyeon had gladly arranged it.
The problem was that the composer had exercised an excessive amount of professionalism.
‘It’s a two-guitar setup, so why is the bass so busy? What kind of team has a bass this loud?’
‘I’m in the same boat, Hyung.’
As the experienced ones, Lee Cheong-hyeon and I had to keep our hands moving without rest to fill the gaps left by the band beginners. The notes with three heads on Lee Cheong-hyeon’s sheet music were still vivid in my mind.
Anyway. This vacation was essentially the first step to see if the band version of Spark could be revealed to the public, while also serving as a way to recover from fatigue.
While the session members were setting up their instruments, Park Ju-woo appeared, fully prepared. He emerged wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a checkered shirt, looking like he’d stepped right out of the beginning of a high-teen rock band movie.
“Hyung, did you prepare those clothes in advance?”
Kang Gi-yeon asked while slinging his guitar. Park Ju-woo nodded.
“Seong-jun recommended them to me….”
“Ju-woo, you even have Jeong Seong-jun’s number?”
“We exchanged them at your graduation….”
At Park Ju-woo’s shy confession, Jeong Seong-bin covered his mouth. By the looks of it, he was going to try and convince Park Ju-woo to block Jeong Seong-jun’s number sooner or later.
The Flame Band’s first ensemble practice wasn’t exactly a total success. Even when experts gather, it’s hard to get the harmony right immediately.
A pick flew out of Kang Gi-yeon’s hand, and Jeong Seong-bin missed about two chords. Lee Cheong-hyeon even pressed the wrong button on his synthesizer, letting out a random organ sound.
Choi Je-ho didn’t care about any of this and just kept pounding the drums. Having etched the importance of a steady beat deep into his mind, he had become like a runaway locomotive that wouldn’t stop whether his teammates fell behind or not.
Even so, Park Ju-woo looked happy. If it meant seeing that face, anyone in Spark would be willing to hold a messy ensemble session anytime.
Lee Cheong-hyeon and Kang Gi-yeon did the dishes. Choi Je-ho lay flat on the sofa, scrolling through his phone. Apparently, his family had asked him to send some photos. It was quite a touching sight to see him picking through the 1,000 photos Lee Cheong-hyeon had taken, his face full of annoyance as he chose them at random.
Jeong Seong-bin made some honey pear tea for today’s vocalist, Park Ju-woo. Iwol, the bassist who hadn’t even hummed a tune, ended up getting a cup of tea as well.
“So, do we just rest like this and go to bed?”
“No, we have to do fireworks outside later. It’s on Cheong-hyeon’s wish list.”
“Aren’t you not allowed to set off fireworks at the beach?”
“We’re just going to use small sparklers by the pool. I heard they’re allowed on private property, so I got permission from the pension owner in advance.”
The itinerary was thorough. Above all, I felt relieved that there were no illegal elements. There are always those people who, even after you explain a hundred times that it’s not allowed, say, ‘I’ve done it before and it was fine. If we get caught, we’ll just pay the fine!’
“And Cheong-hyeon says we absolutely have to take photos.”
“To upload somewhere? I thought we weren’t using this for content.”
“He said we need to keep them as souvenirs. He even bought six albums.”
Jeong Seong-bin rustled around and pulled out a plastic bag from beside the sofa. It contained a Polaroid camera, a film camera, and six albums for the photos to go into.
“He bought all of this?”
“Kang Gyeon made him. Kang Gyeon said he’s already racked up 6,000 points at the stationery shop!”
Lee Cheong-hyeon shouted while still doing the dishes. The ears of Kang Gi-yeon, Spark’s equipment procurement officer, turned red.
I didn’t want to rain on their parade, so I didn’t say anything, but they wouldn’t be able to develop the photos from the film camera today. I’ll have to look into a photo printing service soon. I remember all the companies for that kind of thing.
After finishing the fruit Choi Je-ho had sliced and spraying ourselves with bug repellent, we headed outside. A cool night breeze was blowing.
“By the way, do you guys have a lighter? Gi-yeon probably wouldn’t have bought one.”
At my words, Lee Cheong-hyeon and Kang Gi-yeon stared at me blankly. Choi Je-ho just stood there with his hands in his pockets.
It was then. Jeong Seong-bin rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a neon-green disposable lighter. The moment the wheel spun, a flame flickered to life; it wasn’t the skill of someone who had only lit a fire once or twice.
“Here, everyone take one.”
“…….”
“……?”
A suffocating silence fell between Jeong Seong-bin and the rest of us. The sparkler in my hand trembled.
“Seong-bin… do you smoke?”
“Pardon?”
“You’ve only been twenty for five months. Have you smoked enough to get that used to lighting a fire?”
“What are you talking about, Hyung!”
“The most I did behind your back was bounce a ball with Zestral Erectus, but when did you go out and do something so atrocious… and you, of all people, the vanilla ice cream of Spark, the brilliant rookie balladeer carrying the legacy of UA, the one selected as the joint number one best vocalist by Sparklers….”
“It’s not like that! Manager Dae-yeon bought this for me!”
“What?”
Jeong Seong-bin’s explanation barely kept me from fainting.
“Manager Dae-yeon said he used to smoke. He’s quit now, but when we said we wanted to do fireworks, he said we’d need a lighter and bought it for us. He even taught me how to light it.”
“So you didn’t become a heavy smoker in just five months?”
“Of course not! I’ve never even touched a cigarette.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Jeong Seong-bin lit everyone’s sparklers. They crackled and hissed as sparks flew.
“They say if you wave it fast like this while taking a photo, you can leave letters.”
“Really?”
At Kang Gi-yeon’s words, Lee Cheong-hyeon vigorously waved his arm in an ‘L’ shape. It seemed he wanted to trace an ‘L,’ but the Polaroid test result made Lee Cheong-hyeon’s face look like a masterpiece trapped in a frame with half the window sill falling off.
“If we make ‘LOVE,’ what are the other two hyungs going to do?”
“Tell them to make a heart on both sides.”
Lee Cheong-hyeon’s instructions were flawless. Thanks to him, Choi Je-ho and I had to wave our sparklers until our arms felt like they were going to fall off.
The peaceful firework-viewing time you see in the media only arrived after the photo commotion ended.
Park Ju-woo and I sat on the sunbeds, blankly watching the small, firework-like sparks. The sound of waves crashing could be heard in the distance.
“Ju-woo, did you get some good rest?”
“Yeah.”
“This promotion must have been even harder. Since you were going to school, too.”
“It was hard to adjust since it had been a while… but it was fun. There weren’t many classes.”
Compared to middle and high school, university schedules are quite loose. Unless you’re in a highly competitive major or aiming for top grades, you can attend school much more comfortably than during your teenage years.
“How was university life?”
In the past, Park Ju-woo had enrolled in a cyber university, as many male idols did. The name of the major gave the impression that it was just something manageable, and the only university episodes Park Ju-woo ever shared were a few mentions of, ‘I have an assignment….’
Park Ju-woo pondered my question for a moment. When Jeong Seong-bin declared he was going to university, and Park Ju-woo said a few days later that he wanted to try too, his expression had been exactly like this.
“There’s a lot… I don’t really know. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t been to school in a long time, or if it’s because university is special.”
“So. Was it hard?”
Park Ju-woo shook his head. His black hair swayed gently.
“It’s fun.”
“…….”
“I was flustered because there were so many classmates, but Seong-bin helps me a lot, and there are classes where we sing. ……I’m enjoying it, for now.”
It didn’t seem like he was lying. Park Ju-woo had always been incapable of empty talk.
“That’s a relief.”
As soon as I finished speaking, the sparks on the sparkler I was holding went out. As if its duty was done, a small trail of white smoke rose from the sparkler where the gunpowder had been spent.