Mysterious Double Kill
“Huh…?”
Suhyun thought he must have misheard her and asked again.
“Ah. Was my wording a bit off?”
Seoeun smiled gently as she neatly stacked the sheet music one by one with both hands.
“Hmm~ But honestly, they really aren’t that great, right?”
“At this rate, there’s no way I could ever put them on stage.”
“It feels like each of them needs a ton of individual practice~”
Her true feelings were completely different from the reaction she’d shown in front of the underclassmen. It seemed the contents of that notebook really were her honest thoughts.
“But then… shouldn’t you be saying it more harshly…?”
Suhyun didn’t think it was right to clearly see the problems and just let them slide.
“Well… that’s a tricky question.”
Seoeun continued in a calm voice.
“Everyone joins a band for different reasons.”
“Some kids, like Hana, genuinely love music and came for that.”
“Others, like Juyeon, joined because they wanted to change something about themselves.”
“And the guitarist who was here before you — the one who left — said he joined because he thought being in a band would make him popular, remember?”
There were countless clubs at the university. The expectations each band member brought with them were all different. What they wanted to gain, the goals they were aiming for — everything varied. The reason a president existed was precisely to balance those differing standards and purposes.
Seoeun, who understood the weight of that position, wasn’t the type to recklessly push her own values onto others. Still, she had her own clear guiding principles.
“One thing’s for sure — if I just constantly nag them for not being able to play, it’ll definitely stop being fun.”
A club wasn’t the military. It wasn’t an entrance exam site where they tested technique either. The essence of this gathering was to enjoy music together. At the very least, Seoeun didn’t want the underclassmen who were just starting out to feel sick to their stomachs the moment they looked at their instruments.
Suhyun fell into thought at her words. What she said definitely made sense. If Hana or Choi Kang had mercilessly hounded him for not being able to play guitar, he probably would have cried and quit, swearing he was done with the instrument.
So even when giving feedback, you have to think this carefully… He’d thought it was just about analyzing what was good and what was bad and telling them straight.
“How about it? Does that make sense now?”
Seoeun turned to him with a bright, beaming smile.
“Yeah… It’s complicated…”
Even though there was only a one-year difference, Suhyun couldn’t help but feel like Seoeun was incredibly mature.
“Still, you know. If they can’t get it right during those last two weeks before the performance, they’re dead meat~”
She suddenly shot up from her chair and thrust her fist forward.
“You’d better steel yourself too once midterms are over, Suhyun.”
“Huh…?”
“We decided we’re doing original songs this time.”
“Original songs?”
He’d expected brutal practice, but an entirely different word had popped out of Seoeun’s mouth.
“Yep! Hana and I have been secretly working on one since winter.”
No matter how late he had joined, why did this club have so many things he only found out about after the fact? First the MT, and now there were more secrets…
“So is that song finished?”
“Not yet! Ask Hana to play the demo for you next time!”
Remembering that Suhyun and Hana had watched a movie together at her house, Seoeun casually moved closer to him.
“So, was that night good without me there?”
The self-proclaimed number one at reading the room in Spirit. The professional evil romance counselor Seoeun began teasing him like she’d found fresh prey.
“Huh? No, I mean… that…”
“Tsk tsk… That reaction is pretty weak… Hana seemed to like it a lot… So it wasn’t that fun for you, Suhyun?”
That wasn’t it at all. If anything, he had enjoyed it. He definitely didn’t dislike Hana.
“No! It was fun!”
Not realizing it was bait, Suhyun opened his mouth wide and blurted it out.
“Ooh~ Really?”
“Yeah. She even told me to come over again sometime.”
“Hana said that? The movie must have been really good then~”
The president’s eyes narrowed slyly.
“Looks like she’s bothered that I didn’t see it…”
“Ahaha. Really? You planning to watch part two at her place?”
He thought it was just natural conversation. But that was only Suhyun’s misunderstanding. All the information Hana had tried so hard to hide was spilling out of his mouth.
Maybe Hana was…
The corner of Seoeun’s mouth curved up ever so slightly — a change so small that Suhyun didn’t notice.
“Suhyun!”
It was a lively voice, but one he really didn’t want to hear. Because the person calling him was his former clubmate — Kim Nayong, the de facto leader of Purple Storm.
“…Hey.”
This was exactly why he hated Fridays. And he hated the morning Behavioral Economics class even more.
“Do you have a minute after class?”
“Why?”
“I wanted to talk to you about the small club.”
He really didn’t want to hear it. He wasn’t even curious anymore. Life in Spirit wasn’t perfect, but he was living the kind of band life he had always dreamed of. The people were good, and making music was genuinely fun. To him, Purple Storm was like a ghost from the past.
“It’ll only take five minutes, I promise!”
Nayong seemed determined to block any escape route and even pinned down a specific time.
He had been about to say he had practice right after class and was busy, but “I can’t even spare five minutes” would never fly as an excuse.
“…Alright.”
Not very good at refusing people, Suhyun reluctantly nodded.
“Thanks!”
Nayong naturally acted chummy and walked into the lecture hall right beside him. As she scanned the room, she successfully spotted Juyeon sitting tucked away in a corner like she was trying to hide.
Nayong had no reason to dislike Juyeon. But no matter how she looked at it, the fact that she was the vocalist for the central band club felt incredibly out of place. The vocalist was the most front-and-center position in a band. They were the ones who communicated directly with the audience, and they were what regular people who didn’t care much about bands paid the most attention to.
She hadn’t known her long, but Juyeon seemed extremely shy and passive. She really didn’t give off the vibe of someone who would be in a band.
“Juyeon~ Hi~”
Nayong sat down beside her with that signature nasal tone.
“Ah. Hi.”
Unlike the somewhat awkward pair, Juyeon was once again lost in her own little world, carrying her own worries. She still felt bad about forcing Suhyun to eat that cream puff last week. To make up for her mistake, she had bought round, bite-sized glutinous rice donuts from the bakery. The ultimate chewy and sweet snack! Surely no one could hate this level of sweetness! …Or so she hoped.
If Suhyun ate them really deliciously, she was even considering giving him two as a special treat. However, the first obstacle she faced was that Suhyun wasn’t sitting in the seat right next to her. Giving him a donut across an empty seat was extremely difficult. The natural way to do it would be to give one to Nayong and one to Suhyun.
But if she could pull that off smoothly, she wouldn’t be such a loner in the first place. She couldn’t even give one to someone in the same club — how was she supposed to casually hand bread to someone she’d only met twice…!
“Juyeon.”
Nayong turned her body at an angle toward her and whispered.
“…Yes?”
“Can I ask you something real quick?”
“Ah. Sure!”
Juyeon flinched and gave a stiff nod.
“It’s a bit personal though… Would it be better if we stepped outside?”
Anxiety was already creeping in. Did she talk too little during the team project?! S-still, I think I uploaded the most material…!
Juyeon followed Nayong out the door like she was being dragged off by a bully. When they stopped in front of the stairwell, what she heard was somewhat unexpected.
“Is Suhyun doing okay in your club? Is he actually participating properly?”
“Huh…?”
Half truth, half lie. Nayong skillfully edited the events that had happened and began feeding Juyeon distorted information.
There had been a small argument, and when she tried to talk it out, he wouldn’t listen at all. He completely refused to speak with any Purple Storm members, quit, and immediately applied to Spirit. And joining Spirit wasn’t because he liked it — it was a spiteful move meant to get back at them.
The reason she could tell such bold lies was because Nayong knew Suhyun’s personality and relationships inside and out. Suhyun would never… be able to win in this kind of fight.
“So, Juyeon.”
In the tone of a tragic heroine, Nayong gently placed her hand on Juyeon’s shoulder.
“I don’t want you guys to get hurt by that clueless, self-centered, pathetic kid.”
All Nayong had to do was wait until the rumor spread far and wide, until Suhyun became trash and got abandoned, then she could pick him up.
“You know it too, don’t you? That he doesn’t belong in a central club like that.”
It all sounded plausible. But there was one thing Nayong had overlooked. The many things she had said to tear Suhyun down were actually…
“…I’ll go tell the president unnie that I’m withdrawing with him.”
They were also words that stabbed Juyeon herself.