My Disciple Is Embarrassing. I Want to Die.
My disciple is so embarrassing. I want to die. How could I get so immersed even though I knew it was all an act!
Suhyun despaired. Talking about a man’s pride felt pointless given his usual behavior, yet the fact that he had cried in front of Hana filled him with shame. Waves of humiliation and self-loathing crashed over him. Suhyun writhed in agony, as if his hands and feet were twisting themselves into knots.
“Hey. You okay now?”
Hana took one step back and studied his condition.
“...Yeah. You can go now, Hana.”
“Go where? I’m not going anywhere.”
“Ah… I’m… I’m really fine now, so it’s okay for you to leave. Thank you for teaching me how to scold people today, too…”
Suhyun kept his head down, babbling incoherently. Hana looked at him and let out a small, disbelieving laugh.
“That face of yours is going to spark some debate if you call it ‘fine.’”
She squatted down again to get a better look at him. Through the shaggy bangs hanging over his eyes, she spotted Suhyun’s swollen, puffy gaze. Her eyes curved into a smile as she asked playfully.
In truth, if she was being completely honest, a tiny sliver of selfish motive—no bigger than a fingernail—had slipped in. The moment Suhyun had pulled her into his arms, she had felt a strange flutter in her chest. Lee Suhyun is hugging me. Lee Suhyun is relying on me. Lee Suhyun is wanting me…? The more she turned those thoughts over, the more her brain seemed to tingle.
As the perpetrator who had hurled harsh words at him until he cried, feeling pleased about comforting him with a hug was hardly admirable. It was a completely warped sequence of events. Yet that guilt felt strangely, sweetly addictive to Hana.
“No… I’m fine…”
Suhyun sniffled and regretfully turned down the offer. The emotions had run high a moment ago, but he thought it would be rude to keep hugging her when she wasn’t even his girlfriend. What would people think if they saw?
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make things weird.”
“Hey. Why are you apologizing? I’m the one who cursed at you.”
“Still, if you actually do that tomorrow, the juniors will all end up crying for real.”
Suhyun forced a smile and tossed out a joke to lighten the mood.
“I’m still a girl, so it’s a little less intense. When you look at what Jino oppa and the other seniors did last year, people would foam at the mouth and straight-up faint.”
“Jino?”
“Twenty-second generation. The president from the class right above us. He’s the one I was imitating earlier. You probably never saw him. He’s in the military now.”
The Spirit 22nd generation had a completely different atmosphere from the 23rd. Unusually, the 22nd gen had a wildly skewed gender ratio. Drums, two guitarists, bass—every position was male. The only woman was the vocalist, Heejin. As a result, they were rough and untamed. If the current club led by Seoeun felt warm and harmonious, back then it had been a literal jungle. Cruder language flew around, and feedback was raw, unfiltered, and brutal. The current 23rd generation were like flowers that had somehow bloomed in that wild thicket.
“Anyway. Last year is last year.”
Hana turned away and gestured that it was time to head back. Suhyun, whose eyes were still swollen, gathered his bangs and pulled them down as far as they would go. He looked like a shaggy dog in desperate need of a groomer.
Hana made a silent promise to herself. She would definitely do something about that hair before the performance.
“Anyway! You’ll be able to give Taeho the same surprise the day after tomorrow, right?”
“...Yeah.”
“Good~ As a senior, you should show your dignity at least once. I’m counting on you, okay?”
Of course, she doubted this would actually change how people saw Suhyun, but she still patted his back in encouragement.
“Yeah. I’ll do my best.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Hana spun on her heel and walked off. The confusion lingering in Suhyun’s heart only grew heavier.
Juyeon had taken a lot of damage back then. She had been waiting for this day with gritted teeth. Just how brutally had she been beaten down? When the seniors, after building up the perfect atmosphere, had laughed and said ‘It was all a lie!’ she had genuinely felt murderous rage. Her reaction had been almost identical to Suhyun’s after Hana’s treatment. The painful memory of those younger days when she could only cry silently without saying a word. Now it was time to repay that humiliation.
In the thin, tall full-length mirror, a girl stood jabbing her finger with an angry expression.
“N-no! That’s not how you sing it!”
“...Your vocal technique is completely messed up from the start.”
This should be scary enough, right? She felt secretly proud of herself, but if Seoeun or Hana had seen it, they would have immediately told her to stop. There was zero self-awareness in the performance. It looked exactly like a sulky child throwing a tantrum.
"Hello?"
"...Juyeon."
"Yeah. Why? Is something wrong?"
"Well..."
"So you want me to teach you how to scold the juniors?"
"Right?"
"...You came to the right person."
"I'm a pro, you know."
Suhyun, holding the phone to his ear, let out a small chuckle.
The conversation continued. After the special training with Hana, Suhyun had returned home and fallen into deep thought. He had watched her demonstration, but replicating it felt impossible. He had never spoken in such a loud voice before. To scold someone while acting it out on top of that? Still, he didn’t want to betray Hana’s trust. If he couldn’t even pull off a proper hidden-camera prank and ended up ruining the mood… Even though she had said it was all acting, Hana’s sharp, thorny words still echoed vividly in his head.
At the very least, you shouldn’t cause any trouble for the others!
The word “trouble” stabbed deep into Suhyun’s chest. He hated it. He would rather die than be that person. While everyone worked together to prepare something, he absolutely refused to be the one dragging them down.
After long deliberation, he had decided to open up to Juyeon. She had a similar personality, and since she hadn’t gone through the special training herself, she probably had her own plan.
Juyeon, who had practiced in front of the mirror until the call came, was brimming with confidence.
It was a rare sight—Park Juyeon trying to act cool. Suhyun couldn’t help laughing again.
Eventually they agreed he would come over. It was only a three-minute walk, but Suhyun still felt a little uneasy about the late hour. After confirming it was really okay, he put on slippers, threw a hoodie over his shoulders, and left the house.
When he rang the doorbell at Juyeon’s front door, he heard hurried footsteps rushing toward him from inside.
“Hi.”
Tonight Juyeon was wearing pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt. Unusually, she had glasses on. Her already youthful face looked positively like a high-schooler with the round frames.
“The glasses… weren’t you wearing contacts before?”
“No? These are blue-light blocking glasses.”
“I see…”
“D-don’t I look like a teacher?”
Her eyes sparkled with eager expectation. Suhyun swallowed the honest impression that had risen to his throat and forced it back down.
“So. What’s the scariest way to scold Taeho?”
Suhyun sat on the edge of Juyeon’s bed and asked seriously.
“F-first, the way you address them has to carry force.”
Juyeon puffed out her chest and began passing on her secret technique.
“Address?”
“Yeah. You say ‘Hey’ in a scary way.”
“Hey.”
Suhyun tried it exactly as instructed. The effectiveness was questionable.
“No, no. That’s not it at all.”
“Then?”
Juyeon crossed her arms and demonstrated in what she clearly believed was an imposing stance.
“Hey.”
“Pfft.”
This time Suhyun couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. He had sensed the clumsiness earlier, but Juyeon’s acting just now sounded exactly like a children’s anime character calling out to a friend.
“Ah. Why are you laughing! Am I not good?”
“Sorry… but it really feels like… you’re even worse than me…?”
Juyeon looked shocked. To insult the teacher after coming to ask for help—this was unacceptable.
“T-then you do it, Suhyun!”
“Me?”
“Yeah! Try scolding me. H-honestly, since you came to me, I doubt you’ll be any different.”
Juyeon was ready to bombard him with cold facts if he failed.
“So… I just need to scold you, Juyeon?”
“Yeah! Since you know it’s acting, go ahead and say some harsh stuff!”
The result…
Juyeon sobbed uncontrollably in Suhyun’s arms. He patted her back in a daze.
Unexpectedly, it seemed Suhyun was Hana’s star pupil.