The OB Appears
Lee Suhyun opened his eyes and checked his phone. [18:24] It was already six in the evening. He had returned home at two, yet the exhaustion from the MT still showed no sign of fading. His phone was buried under another mountain of messages, all from the Spirit group chat. But one notification stood out from the rest.
[Yoon Hana (3)]
More curious about this than the group messages, Suhyun tapped his thumb.
[Hey. I should've told you earlier today.]
[Want to try practicing the standing luxury solo?]
[If you're up for it, let's hear it and decide who'll do it.]
Suhyun blinked slowly. What was she talking about? He had assumed the solo was naturally Hana's part. She was the lead guitarist, after all, and had already hinted that she wanted to play it. Why was she suddenly asking him to try? He had no confidence, but he picked up his guitar anyway and searched YouTube for tutorial videos of the solo.
"...Nothing? Figures. Unpopular songs rarely get covers or lessons." Even after scrolling endlessly, nothing useful appeared. Just as he was about to give up, he scrolled once more and landed on an Indonesian creator's channel. It wasn't a proper tutorial, but the video showed tab notation paired with finger demonstrations. Since Hana had already taught him how to read tabs, Suhyun figured he could manage with this.
After the melody line came a short octave section, followed by the solo. The difficulty didn't seem too bad. The only problem was the bending—it felt flavorless. Bending, the technique of pushing the string upward to raise the pitch, didn't exist in the song Suhyun had practiced for two years. His lack of experience was obvious. Everything else, however, he could handle without much trouble.
Suhyun spent three hours looping the twenty-one-second solo. The more he played, the more his fingers memorized the path across the fretboard. Eventually he could play it without looking at the tabs at all.
"...This should be enough."
He wasn't sure how good it was, but it felt presentable enough to show Hana. Suhyun set the guitar on its stand and collapsed onto the bed. Staring blankly at the ceiling, he suddenly remembered what had happened the day before.
[Yeoni! Looks like tomorrow's a rest dayㅠㅠ]
Yeoni... that had to be Juyeon. He had promised to forget about it, but curiosity refused to die. She seemed to be streaming. What kind of stream was it? Since they had played Zeruda together, maybe it was just an ordinary game stream.
Inside Suhyun's mind, the devil of curiosity extended a tempting hand.
-Just watch. It's not like Juyeon can check your phone.
-Pretending not to know is enough. You're not going to bring it up to her face anyway.
After enough rationalization, Suhyun opened the streaming platform Juyeon used. Fingers hovering over the keyboard, he hesitated, then finally typed [Yeoni]. A slightly goofy SD character appeared. The close-up of a red-haired avatar served as her channel profile picture. Subscriber count: 86. Somehow, that number felt very much like Juyeon. There was no dramatic twist—no "real-life outcast turns out to be a mega-popular VTuber" scenario. If anything, the modest number put Suhyun at ease. He clicked into her stream page.
"Hmm."
There was a reason small streamers stayed small. The first thing Suhyun felt upon entering was... tacky. What in the world was that Paint-level banner at the top? Even if it was just a hobby with no deeper meaning, this was pushing it. Suhyun felt like he could make something better himself if he tried. For someone who rarely criticized others, that thought alone meant Juyeon had reached a truly dire level.
There were only a few clips. Suhyun clicked the one with the highest views. Karaoke accompaniment began to play. No 3D avatar or real footage appeared—just the SD character, or sometimes nothing at all. Then came Juyeon's singing voice, one Suhyun had grown used to hearing. It was steady and full of emotion. She was singing a ballad rarely performed in bands, and her skill was easily on par with most cover creators. After listening to the thirty-second highlight, Suhyun decided he had seen enough. In a way, it felt like peeking into her private diary. Still, if Juyeon ever asked for advice, he knew he could give her plenty. If she was going to stream anyway, she should at least look at how others did it properly. People like Kang, who covered songs on Luca's channel, made everything look polished and beautiful. Suhyun's restless weekend came to an end like that.
Monday. Suhyun arrived at the practice room earlier than usual. He wanted more time to familiarize himself with the solo, and more importantly, he wanted to hear how it sounded through a proper amp. Since he was an hour early, he assumed the room would be empty. But the moment he reached the door, he heard guitar playing—fast, technical playing that demanded serious skill. The difficulty felt comparable to Illegal Legacies, the song Suhyun had practiced for two years. For a second he wondered if it was Hana, but the playing was more delicate and precise than hers. Besides, Hana herself had admitted she couldn't handle this kind of speed. So who was on the other side of the door?
Suhyun's heart began to pound. His hand tightened around the doorknob. The guitar drowned out the sound of the door opening. When he stepped inside, he saw a man dressed in extremely casual clothes: three-stripe slippers, a stretched-out t-shirt, and baggy pants that looked like monk robes. His curly hair was long enough to look messy, though not quite as long as Suhyun's. The man didn't notice Suhyun at first and kept playing, fingers flying across the fretboard with perfect timing. Suhyun stared, entranced. He had thought Hana was good, but the man in front of him was clearly on another level.
When the performance ended, their eyes met. The man looked surprised. Suhyun, feeling awkward, started clapping.
"So... who are you?"
That was the first thing the man said.
"Ah. I, um... the new guy who joined recently..."
"A freshman?"
"No, not a freshman. I'm a second-year who transferred in."
"Ah. So you're Lee Suhyun."
The man set down his guitar, stood up, and walked over.
"Nice to meet you."
He extended his hand for a shake.
"Twenty-first generation guitarist. Han Jaejun."
A smile appeared on his face. Jaejun. Jaejun... Jaejun...? Suhyun understood he was a senior, but the name sounded strangely familiar. Where had he heard it before?
"I'm also Lee Seoeun's boyfriend."
Only then did Suhyun's eyes widen. Of course...! This was Seoeun noona's boyfriend. The image didn't match at all. Suhyun had wondered what kind of guy would date someone as neat and model-student-like as Seoeun noona, but this? He never would have imagined she liked this style.
"Here to practice guitar?"
"Ah. Yes."
"Play whatever you want. I'm done for the day."
Jaejun flopped onto the sofa and watched Suhyun with obvious interest. Cold sweat ran down Suhyun's back. Did he really have to show his pathetic playing in front of a master again?
"Um, excuse me."
"Yeah?"
"Can I play a song I'm good at?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course."
"Never mind!"
Suhyun, stiff with nerves, connected the cable to the amp with shaking hands. Right. Just pretend he's not here and practice. That should work. He tried to calm himself, but the tension refused to leave. After adjusting the amp, he began to play.
"Hmm..."
Jaejun watched closely. To be honest, it wasn't bad. Suhyun's fingerwork was actually better than Yoon Hana's. The real issue was the bizarre imbalance in his fundamentals. How could the level of completion vary so much within a single song? Just from watching once, Jaejun could already tell Suhyun's practice habits were abnormal.
Suhyun finished the song and looked up. He braced himself for feedback, shoulders tense.
"You know—"
Before Jaejun could finish, the door burst open. Hana walked in. She flinched when she saw the two of them, then marched straight toward Jaejun, her delicate features twisted into a scowl.
"Lee Suhyun."
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell me this jerk uncle said something to you?"
Suhyun, with his glass-fragile mentality, was not someone who could withstand Han Jaejun's sharp tongue.