Peperoncino Americano
“I do have one class...” “What time does it end?” “Around noon?” “Then can you come by the club room after that?”
Several possibilities flashed through Suhyun’s mind. The fact that someone like her was calling him out separately surely meant... ‘Q-quit suggestion!’
Suhyun considered himself fairly good at self-objectification. A development where a girl like Yoon Hana confessed because she had fallen for him at first sight only happened in manga. It had to be because he failed to nail the F chord earlier. If that wasn’t it, what possible reason could she have for needing to speak with him alone in an empty club room?
“...We can just talk now.”
His long bangs fell forward, covering his eyes. Rather than spending an entire night trembling in fear, it was better to hear the answer right away. Suhyun lowered his voice.
“Huh?”
Yoon Hana tilted her head, unable to follow the sudden shift.
“You wanted me to leave the room or something... right...?”
“What?”
Her eyes widened like saucers. She had only meant to kindly teach him guitar.
“No! Why would I tell you to leave? Don’t leave!”
No. She had simply asked if he had time, yet here he was trying to quit. What was she supposed to do with that?
“It’s not?”
“Of course not! I was going to teach you the parts you’ll need for ensemble practice.”
“Uh...?”
Suhyun blinked in surprise while Yoon Hana looked up at him. The dazed expression on her face melted into a small laugh.
“Hey, Lee Suhyun. Be reasonable. You’re the one who recommended the song, said it was good, and even locked it into the setlist for the performance. Why on earth would I kick you out? Hmm?”
There was something dazzling about Yoon Hana’s playful smile—something that gently tickled the heart.
“Ahaha. Right~”
An exaggerated laugh unlike anything Suhyun would normally make slipped out of his embarrassed mouth.
“Tomorrow you can use the guitar that’s already here, or you can bring your own. How about two o’clock? Does that work?”
“Yeah. It’s fine.”
“Then see you then? I’ll head out first.”
Yoon Hana spun around and strode briskly toward the door. Suhyun simply watched her retreating figure from afar. Once the door clicked shut behind her...
“I... I want to quit...”
More than his crude guitar skills, Suhyun couldn’t stand the sight of himself after that misunderstanding.
A technique that was hard to consider within the realm of ordinary humans. After watching the original artist’s video for the song Suhyun had played, Yoon Hana let out a deep sigh.
No way! How could he not know the F chord while playing this? The learning order was completely backward. It was like saying you could play Mozart without knowing do-re-mi. Her head throbbed. She pulled out the guitar textbooks lined up on her shelf one by one. Every book she had collected and studied since middle school was filled with memories; she still couldn’t bring herself to throw any of them away.
“Should I go with this one...?”
The book Yoon Hana chose contained the examples she had practiced most frequently. It covered enough basic theory, and the exercises weren’t too simple, so it seemed perfect for Suhyun.
She could teach it well, right? Having only ever been the student and never the teacher, Yoon Hana noticed she felt slightly nervous. Even when she occasionally helped her juniors, she always worried about how much to explain. Now she had to teach a classmate on top of that...
Still, she had no intention of half-assing this. After all, this was the band she had fought so hard to join. In both middle school and high school her parents had told her it would interfere with her studies and to do it later, so she had never even dared. For the happiness she had finally seized, she could put in a little more effort.
Yeah. It would have been perfect if today weren’t a free day, though. Yoon Hana reluctantly tugged up her jeans as she prepared to teach Suhyun.
She put on a t-shirt printed with her favorite band’s logo, layered an appropriate shirt over it, grabbed her bag, and headed for school. The walk took about fifteen minutes. Arriving fifteen minutes early, she pushed the door open and stepped inside...
Ziiiiing.
The guitar sound rang in her ears. It was a chord she knew well—naturally, because it was the F chord she had told Suhyun to practice yesterday.
“Huh?”
Suhyun finally noticed her, stopped playing, and awkwardly raised his hand.
“Hi...?”
What was this? Had he actually practiced because of what she said yesterday? A twinge of guilt hit her, but she didn’t dislike that side of him.
“F chord. You can play it today?”
Yoon Hana set her bag down and gave him a bright smile.
“I memorized everything from A to G.”
“Ooh~ Then what about minors?”
“Minors… not yet...”
It wasn’t said with any malice, and it wasn’t even many words, yet Suhyun’s expression changed in real time. It was almost funny. Yoon Hana was finally starting to understand what Lee Seoeun meant when she called him Lead Actor #2.
“No, no. You can memorize them slowly. And honestly, for covers, if you can read the sheet music you don’t necessarily need to memorize every single chord.”
Knowing the shapes and names was convenient, but it wasn’t required to play together.
“More importantly, how about we practice strumming today?”
“Strumming?”
“Yeah.”
Strumming—playing rhythm with the right hand—was the absolute foundation of guitar. Yoon Hana took out her phone and opened the metronome app.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
The slow, repeating tone for beginners. She took the guitar from the stand, gripped the pick, and sat down beside Suhyun.
“You know what strumming is, right?”
“It’s hitting the strings with your right hand.”
“You know it well. Hitting downward like this is a downstroke. Upward is an upstroke.”
Suhyun nodded like an obedient child. Though his bangs hid them, his eyes seemed to sparkle.
“Today we’re going to combine the chords you memorized with strumming technique. The goal is to play with both hands together. For example, if you hold a C chord—”
Yoon Hana formed the C chord and moved her right hand up and down steadily in time with the metronome.
Zing zing zing zing zing zing zing zing.
“Easy, right? Not hard?”
Even when she was a beginner, she hadn’t found this part particularly difficult.
“Want to try?”
Suhyun, who had been watching her demonstration closely, copied her movements. Many beginners struggled just to hold chords, but for Suhyun it was no problem at all. It was the result of two years of brutal training: no matter how bizarre the chord, he could grip it cleanly.
“Ooh! You’re good!”
Yoon Hana felt both relieved and a little proud.
“Then shall we try it with other chords? F or D would be good too.”
The chords he had desperately memorized from the internet yesterday combined with the technique she taught him, producing all kinds of sounds. Unlike the rocking tone he usually played, these bright chords moved slowly, and Suhyun felt a tickling sensation rising from somewhere deep in his chest.
“Does it look okay?”
It seemed similar to what Yoon Hana had shown.
“Yeah! You learn fast because you came prepared! I was thinking it’d be good if we could get this far today, but since you’re doing well, let’s try this too.”
Yoon Hana pulled out the textbook, opened the folded page, and held it out to him.
Yoon Hana demonstrating, Suhyun struggling to follow. Both of them were so focused that the clock had already passed three.
“Lee Suhyun.”
After setting the guitar back on the stand, Yoon Hana plopped down beside him.
Thinking the day’s lesson was over, Suhyun felt a faint sense of regret creep in without realizing it.
“Yeah?”
“Got any plans after this?”
If the lesson ended, Suhyun had planned to go home and practice the songs chosen for ensemble.
“No? Not really.”
“Then want to go get coffee?”
“Coffee?”
“Yeah. My throat got so dry from talking so much while teaching you.”
At her bright smile, the answer popped out of Suhyun on reflex.
“I’ll buy the coffee!”
“Ooh~ Really?”
“You taught me guitar and everything...”
“Great! Then is the café in front of the main gate okay?”
He had been thinking of the convenience store or the one inside school. But a café was a café, so it didn’t really matter.
“Yeah. It’s fine.”
“Then let’s head out as soon as you grab your stuff!”
The two left the club room together and stepped out of the student welfare building. A pleasant spring breeze brushed past, tickling the tip of Suhyun’s nose.
It was his first time going to drink coffee alone with a girl. Even though he knew it wasn’t for that kind of reason, he could feel his heart pounding.
He felt like he should say something. Yoon Hana walked ahead, looking straight forward. Suhyun followed a few steps behind. Noticing the lack of presence, she whipped her head around and waved him forward as if asking what he was doing.
“Hey. What are you doing back there? Hurry up!”
This was his chance to start a conversation! Since she had spoken to him first, he should say something refreshing that girls would like...!
“Do you like Peperoncino Americano?”
“...Pe. What?”
It was Suhyun, whose brain had mixed up the peperoncino he sprinkled on pizza yesterday with the beverage he would order at the café.