Solo
Notice
April 9th Behavioral Economics class has been canceled due to the professor's personal circumstances.
Living life, you need days like this every once in a while. The kind of lucky event that only rolls around once a semester, if that: a canceled class. Lee Suhyun, who had crawled back into bed, let a satisfied smile spread across his face. It was because the mere thought of seeing Nayong's face had been giving him a headache. With midterms coming up the following week anyway, this meant he was getting two whole weeks off without lifting a finger. A Friday morning this refreshing was rare, Suhyun thought. He spent it happily catching up on all the videos that had piled up on his phone. After killing some time, he could research another song for his solo practice and then head over to see the Spirit members...
“Hello?”
“S-Suhyun...!”
Her voice was trembling as if something awful had happened.
“Yeah?”
“The c-classroom is empty...! Where are you right now?”
“Huh? Didn’t you see the notice?”
“...The notice?”
There was a brief silence, followed by the sound of her kicking something in frustration.
“Ah. I had the alarm turned off for this beforehand...”
“...Dummy.”
It was rare for a loner like him to tease anyone. But today—for Juyeon, at least—Suhyun felt like it was okay.
“Ugh... brrrr...”
Juyeon’s self-loathing only deepened at his words. Having rushed all the way there out of fear of being late, she couldn’t stop lamenting her own stupidity.
“Make sure to turn your notifications on from now on.”
Suhyun chuckled awkwardly and was about to hang up when—
“Hey.”
“...Yeah?”
The call had already ended, the screen glowing red. It seemed like she had been trying to say something, but he had already pressed the button. He waited quietly for her to call back, but the phone stayed silent. He considered sending a message first, but the fact that she didn’t call again suggested it wasn’t urgent. Besides, they would see each other that evening anyway.
“...She hung up.”
Feeling a little sheepish, Juyeon fiddled with her hair for no reason.
...She had been about to ask if they could eat lunch together. But she didn’t have the courage to call him back.
“Hey, everyone~~”
Today’s club bonding session was being held in the club room itself. They weren’t going anywhere; the get-together was taking place right there in the room. The reason was...
“The original song we decided to make! Hana’s almost finished it! Everyone, applause!”
“Unnie. Please calm down.”
Hana tried to stop Lee Seoeun from making a fuss, but it was hopeless.
“Applause!”
At the president’s command, the two loners sitting side by side on the sofa clapped timidly. Choi Kang, seated at the drum kit, scooped up another spoonful and slammed his stick down hard on the snare.
“So, as planned, Juyeon will be writing the lyrics...”
Lee Seoeun’s gaze turned to Suhyun.
“Suhyun! You write them with her!”
“Huh?”
A sudden boulder had been hurled at the quietly sitting young man.
“It feels wrong if everyone else participates and you’re the only one doing nothing. We’ll work on composition together next time, but for now, let’s write the lyrics as a team!”
It was the president’s considerate way of making sure no one felt left out. Of course, how people accepted that kindness varied.
“Shall we listen first?”
At Lee Seoeun’s suggestion, Hana took out her phone and connected it to the speaker. With a cheerful ding, the speaker turned on, and Hana smoothly turned to look at Suhyun. There was a hint of sharpness in her eyes.
“Ah... but before you all listen, I should mention something first.”
“What is it?”
“The guitar solo was called disappointing by none other than Lee Suhyun here.”
At Hana’s petty revenge, Suhyun’s breath caught in his throat.
“Oh...”
A short gasp escaped Lee Seoeun. She knew how much pride Hana had. And it wasn’t just any part—it was the guitar solo. Had he not stepped on her reverse scale completely?
“I just said it was nothing special because it felt that way,” Choi Kang laughed heartily, clearly finding the whole situation hilarious.
“Shut up. You guys should just drop it. This song.”
Hana pouted and spat out words she clearly didn’t mean.
“You really... said that...?”
Juyeon, sitting beside Suhyun, whispered into his ear.
“No, that’s not what I—”
“Hey! You two, stop whispering over there!”
Hana was already upset about the scratch to her pride; seeing the two of them murmuring together only fueled her irritation further.
“If you’re going to badmouth me, do it to my face!”
“I-I didn’t badmouth you.”
Hana walked over to Juyeon and stretched out her soft cheeks with both hands.
“Park Juyeon. Are you really going to act like this? Is being good at singing all that matters? Is it?”
“Unnie... I didn’t badmouth you...”
“Lee Suhyun.”
Hana released Juyeon’s cheeks and now stood directly in front of him.
“Did you bring a new one?”
“It’s not... completely finished yet, but...”
“Just try bringing some half-baked trash.”
She spun around and returned to the desk, then played the track. It was exactly the one Suhyun had heard on the bench yesterday. The members all stayed silent as they listened to the demo file to the end. Once again, Hana chewed her lip, visibly tense.
“Wow~”
Lee Seoeun wrapped both arms around Hana’s waist from behind.
“Yoon Hana. What is this? Are you a genius?”
“It’s pretty damn good, right?!”
Choi Kang’s reaction was equally enthusiastic. Juyeon tended not to show much on her face no matter what she heard, so it was hard to tell, but the other members’ responses were more than enough to restore Hana’s pride.
“Hmm... hm...! Is it decent?”
“It’s good! It has that feeling like it could play at the start of a movie, you know?”
Lee Seoeun, who had been giving her honest impressions, suddenly grew curious. The solo had sounded fine to her. Just why had Suhyun reacted that way?
“Suhyun.”
“Yeah?”
“Hana’s solo. It’s okay as it is, right?”
“It’s not that it’s bad, but...”
“Yeah! I think it’s plenty good too!”
Maybe Hana’s solo was already good just the way it was. The other members had reacted positively, and perhaps it only looked off to Suhyun’s eyes. The moment he wondered if he had interfered unnecessarily when he barely knew anything—
“B-But... the one Suhyun made... is really good too...”
Juyeon raised her voice from beside him. It was obvious that if things continued this way, Suhyun wouldn’t be able to speak his mind. And honestly, she thought the solo Suhyun had created was far more polished than Hana’s. The solo Juyeon had heard yesterday didn’t feel loose like this one. It was tighter, heavier. A few phrases filled with brilliant technique.
“...You said it wasn’t finished.”
Hana’s voice had gone cold. She couldn’t hide the displeasure rising inside her. He gave the feedback to her, but went to Park Juyeon for advice? They played the same instrument. If he was going to ask for an opinion, wasn’t it normal to go to someone in the same section? More than the fact that Suhyun might have created a cooler solo, what bothered Hana was that Juyeon had been the first to hear it.
“It really isn’t finished.”
Suhyun had wanted to bring something that would satisfy even Hana. His honest feeling was that he still hadn’t reached that point.
“Show us. You let Juyeon hear it, right?”
Hana had no intention of backing down.
“That’s right! I’m curious too!”
“Lee Suhyun! Let us hear it!”
With the rest of the members joining in, a bead of sweat trickled down Suhyun’s back. Noticing he looked troubled, Juyeon turned her head slightly and brought her hand to his ear once more.
“...It’s fine. It was really good.”
She wanted to give him courage. She thought it would be good if he showed the others without shrinking back.
“...Really?”
When Suhyun turned to look at her, Juyeon nodded vigorously as if to say he could do it. Hana, who had been watching the entire scene, made up her mind. If Suhyun’s solo was nothing special, she would give him an even harsher scolding than she would a freshman.
Suhyun rose from the sofa with a solemn expression and stood in front of the stand. He took out the shared guitar from the club room and plugged the cable into the amp.
“Hoo.”
When he lowered his head, his curtain-like bangs once again blocked his vision.
“Then I’ll play it?”
The one he had chosen to perform was naturally the second option Juyeon had picked yesterday.
The melodic opening was followed by surprisingly fast lines. Hana, who had been thinking let’s see how good he is, didn’t know what kind of expression to make. Because Suhyun’s solo was truly... truly... much better than her own.
After the roughly ten-second performance ended, a strange atmosphere flowed through the club room. Suhyun had openly outperformed Hana. If they praised him outright here, Hana’s embarrassment would reach its peak. Lee Seoeun was hesitating over what to do when, unexpectedly, Hana spoke first.
“Lee Suhyun.”
“Yeah?”
“Play this solo on stage too.”
“Huh?”
“This is better, so let’s go with this one.”
Her cheeks, flushed pink, spoke for her embarrassment. Forget pride or Park Juyeon—Hana was so taken with the incredible thing Suhyun had created that she didn’t know what to do with herself.
“A-Are you serious?”
“What the—! Lee Suhyun! If you could make something like this, you should’ve just composed the whole thing from the start!”
“Kang~ Please stop talking nonsense~ But Suhyun’s solo really is good! Have you made things like this often?”
The club room grew noisy with overlapping voices.
“...It turned out well.”
Juyeon, sitting in the back, smiled softly with genuine happiness.