This Isn't a Band!
This wasn’t a band at all. A vocalist with zero interest in rock. A bassist who always half-assed everything, claiming she had to protect her GPA. A drummer who never missed a chance to hit them up for cash with some lame excuse. Were these people really here for the music? Yeah. That was exactly what he was saying. They couldn’t keep doing this forever.
Lee Suhyun gripped the practice room doorknob and swallowed hard. Just like always, the room beyond the door was dead silent. Not a single note of music could be heard.
With a long creak, he pushed the door open. The familiar scolding started before he even stepped fully inside.
“Lee Suhyun! Didn’t I tell you to knock first!”
The shrill, out-of-tune voice scraped against his eardrums.
“Ugh! Come on! How many times do I have to say it? Don’t interrupt me when I’m working on assignments! Seriously!”
“Uh… sorry—”
No. He wasn’t apologizing. Not today.
“No! I’m not sorry at all!”
The two people already in the room actually flinched at his outburst. Suhyun had shouted with his eyes squeezed shut.
“Whoa~ Suhyun. What’s up with you? Eat something bad today?”
“Jiseon, you’re getting ignored by Suhyun now too?”
Jiseon clearly hadn’t expected any pushback. She set her pen down and frowned deeply.
“What’s your problem, Lee Suhyun? Is knocking on a door that hard?”
Knocking wasn’t hard. Enduring them was.
“This is the band club practice room. Asking for quiet isn’t weird—you are!”
“I’m studying right now. Suhyun. Hello? You see this? This?”
Jiseon flapped her thick textbook at him. She rose from her chair and walked over slowly.
“Why are you acting like this? Did something happen to put you in a bad mood?”
Thank god for the long bangs that covered his eyes. Not having to meet anyone’s gaze made it easier to find his courage.
“I’m quitting.”
The decision he had wrestled with through so many sleepless nights finally left his lips.
“What?”
The response was a disbelieving scoff. The other members in the back were already giggling like they thought the whole thing was a joke.
“Suhyun~ You like us, don’t you~ Weren’t you having fun playing in a band with us?”
Park Seonho’s fake, nasal baby-talk only made Suhyun more certain he was doing the right thing.
“Park Seonho. You’re paying me back every single won by tomorrow.”
The moment money was mentioned, the playful attitude vanished. Seonho’s face went cold.
“I said I’d pay you back. And anyway, that money’s all for running the band. You’re really going to be stingy about it?”
“Yeah. I am.”
Kim Nayong, the vocalist who had been quietly watching from the back, finally spoke.
“Why do you want to leave in the first place?”
Suhyun chewed his lip. He wasn’t speechless because he lacked a reason. He had too many. But if he had to boil it down to one line, this was it.
“Because this isn’t a band.”
That was as far as watering a withered flower could go.