The First Recruit
In the original timeline, I didn’t join the band until a year later, in 2018.
And I was the last member to come aboard.
I had already burned out my taekwondo career because of an injury and was drifting aimlessly when Lee Doyeong dragged me in, more or less on a whim.
Looking back, I still had no idea what he’d seen in me that made him think to make that offer.
Back then, even I didn’t know I had any musical talent.
But what interested me even more was how on earth these guys had ended up gathering in the first place.
I knew the rough outline.
Lee Doyeong and Heo Junseong, who went to the same school as me, formed the band first, and later recruited Kim Jihoo and Kang Min as members.
I knew Kim Jihoo had learned instruments at the same practical music academy as Heo Junseong, and as for Kang Min...
No idea.
And finally, I joined as the vocalist.
But that was only the end result.
I didn’t know how they’d gotten close, or how they’d decided to do it together. I had no idea what happened in between.
Besides, they were all high school students, weren’t they?
I was an exception because I was in a sports club, but most kids had the pressure of the college entrance exam hanging over them.
It probably wasn’t easy to band together as one team.
So what was I supposed to do now...?
At this point in time, I knew nothing but taekwondo, so apart from Heo Junseong, I wasn’t even really acquainted with any of them.
At best, I was in the same class as Lee Doyeong?
Come to think of it, I wasn’t even sure if we’d ever properly greeted each other.
Overwhelmed by uncertainty, I decided I’d just have to throw something out there and see what happened, then opened the classroom door.
"Hey, Heo Junseong."
With unusual swagger, I strode right up to Heo Junseong and called his name with no preamble at all.
Heo Junseong, who had been lounging crookedly in his seat with music playing in his ears, pulled out one earbud and looked up.
He looked like a delinquent, so of course his face was vicious.
Of course, in reality, he was a good guy.
"What?"
"Let’s start a band."
He’d obviously turn me down.
I hadn’t exactly shown him anything besides taekwondo.
So I figured I’d hear the easiest refusal first, analyze it, and then think about how to approach him next.
Still, I had some points of contact with Heo Junseong.
We were desk partners, after all, and since he wasn’t shy, he’d sometimes talk to me when he was bored.
Heo Junseong stared at me blankly and said, "You haven’t really woken up since yesterday, have you?"
"Didn’t you know? This is a dream."
"Huh?"
"You play guitar, right?"
"How’d you know that?"
"I saw you."
"What? When?"
"On the street?"
"Ah, busking... I only did it a few times, though. That’s kind of impressive."
I’d just thrown out a guess, but it seemed to have hit the mark.
Come to think of it, was there anyone who could play guitar and had never tried busking at least once?
"So what?"
"I said, let’s do it. A band."
"What about taekwondo?"
"I quit."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because I want to make music too badly."
"Seriously?"
"I’m telling you."
Heo Junseong blinked at me a few times.
I had no idea what he was thinking, but this was exactly why being a high school student was nice.
Out in the adult world, a desperate dream wasn’t reason enough for anything, but right now? It could be.
"Then I’m the guitar, right?"
"Did you think I called you here so you could play the recorder?"
"Fine, let’s do it."
"That’s it?"
"What, do you want a signing bonus or something?"
"No."
I bumped my fist against the one Heo Junseong offered and thought, Is this too easy?
Did they all come together like this?
"But what’s your position, anyway? Wait, let me guess... bass?"
"Wrong."
I raised my brows as if to tell him to keep guessing, and it became kind of entertaining watching him think it over.
"Then drums? From the rhythm you used to split taekwondo kicks?"
What kind of rhythm was that supposed to be?
"I’m going to be the vocalist."
At that, Heo Junseong immediately scrunched up his face.
"What? That does not suit you at all."
"Why not?"
I had years of vocal experience, didn’t I?
"Your voice is good, but... how do I put this? You never change expressions. You always look deadpan."
Suddenly, Heo Junseong folded his arms, leaned back, clamped his lips together, and frowned hard. Then he put on a bored face and lazily let his gaze drift around the room.
That was my face?
I’d been an idol and an actor. I had confidence in my expression work.
"It’s exactly the same, right?"
"No."
I ignored his embarrassingly cute attempt to act it out.
"Hmm. Want to go to a karaoke room after school? Let’s hear how well you really sing."
"Another time."
"Why?"
"Once I’ve gathered the rest of the members, I’ll surprise you all at once. It’s boring if only one person gets surprised at a time."
"What kind of confidence is that?"
Half of it was sincerity, and half of it was an excuse.
My singing wasn’t very good right now.
Ordinary people would probably think it sounded fine, but I hadn’t trained enough to bring back the feel of my previous life yet.
Vocals needed tuning too.
Still, I knew the tricks. Give me about a month, and I’d be more than usable.
In another year or so, I’d be back at roughly the same level I’d had in my previous life.
"But do you already have members in mind besides me?"
"Are you close with Lee Doyeong?"
"Lee Doyeong? The class president?"
Heo Junseong thought for a moment, then widened his eyes as if to ask if I was serious.
Lee Doyeong was definitely playing bass by this point.
I’d assumed he and Heo Junseong were already close because they’d formed a band together, but maybe not yet.
"Lee Doyeong plays bass."
Back when I played with them, this was the lineup.
I was the vocalist.
Heo Junseong on guitar.
Lee Doyeong on bass.
Kim Jihoo on keyboards.
Kang Min on drums.
"I can’t imagine the class president in a band..."
I could understand Heo Junseong’s reaction.
When Lee Doyeong first suggested we start a band together, I’d thought he didn’t seem like someone who fit the image either.
The Lee Doyeong I remembered was quiet and diligent.
He didn’t like standing out. He was the textbook model student, obedient and mild.
When someone like that asked to form a band together, the first thought that crossed my mind was, Is he rebelling late?
Some of the quietest people secretly had a rebellious streak buried inside them. I’d assumed Lee Doyeong might be one of those.
But Lee Doyeong was more sincere about music than anyone I knew.
Even after I quit and the band fell apart, he never gave up on his dream. He taught kids at a practical music academy and worked as a session musician, and kept moving forward anyway.
Most people bent when they ran into the wall of reality, but he never stopped, never backed down, and kept trying to the very end.
Right up until the day he died.
Choosing bass was also one more sign of how seriously he took music.
The bass, which held a band’s center together, fit Lee Doyeong perfectly, because he was always the one probing into the fundamentals of music.
So I honestly thought there was no one more suited to bass than Lee Doyeong.
Well, if he took off his glasses, he looked pretty good too.
At least, that’s what some girl had once said.
She’d said he was the type to look like a second male lead even if you stood him on his head.
It was such a memorable line that I’d committed it to memory, though I still didn’t know why she’d said it.
Was there really a separate face for the male lead and the second male lead?
If you were handsome, wasn’t that enough?
Of course, he could stand to lose a little weight compared to now.
"Lee Doyeong will be good. Anyway, are you close?"
"Just the kind of people who say hi when we pass each other."
At Heo Junseong’s answer, I shrugged.
"Then you’re closer to him than to me."
"If you want to put it that way."
"Don’t put it that way. Go and reel him in. Tell him we should do a band together."
"How?"
"You’re good at talking to strangers, aren’t you? I’m an I."
"An I? What, an infant?"
Come to think of it, MBTI probably wasn’t popular yet at this point.
"Hey, what kind of lunatic would just say yes when some guy asks them to start a band?"
When I kept staring at him without saying anything, Heo Junseong let out a dry laugh.
"Oh? So I was the lunatic."
"If you know that, go on."
"Yeah, well... it kind of feels like they’re already listening to us, though."
At the same time, Lee Doyeong, who was sitting at his desk, was thrown into confusion.
He was looking at his workbook, but nothing was going in.
He’d originally planned to study until homeroom started, but he’d been startled by his own name coming from behind him and was now on edge.
The moment he put in his earphones and tried to play music, the conversation between Cha Seoha and Heo Junseong caught his ear.
Are they talking about me?
How did they know I play bass?
Cha Seoha had few words and a rather blunt impression, and only ever hung out with the taekwondo athletes.
Heo Junseong, despite his rough-looking face, was sociable enough to chat warmly with everyone in the class, and he had a good reputation too.
But he also got along with the kids people called delinquents, so Lee Doyeong had found him a little scary.
They were both strikingly handsome, but because they gave off such hard-to-approach vibes, he’d always thought they were intimidating.
Still, listening in on their conversation made them seem like ordinary boys their age, and that made him feel just a little more comfortable around them than before.
That said, the end of their conversation was kind of terrifying.
"Oh, um... but I think he’s already hearing us talk."
Then a long shadow fell across his desk.
When he looked up, he saw Cha Seoha and Heo Junseong standing there with awkward smiles on their faces.
"Hi."
Heo Junseong looked as if he was trying to make a friendly smile, but for some reason the awkward expression only made him seem even more intimidating.
Scary.
At the back, Cha Seoha looked like he was trying not to laugh at the sight.
Lee Doyeong was so startled he froze, just staring at them, and Heo Junseong scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed, before speaking.
"Class president, can we talk for a second?"
See? Scary!
Maybe it was because they were both big, but their presence was no joke. With the two of them looming over him, the wide space around his desk suddenly felt cramped.
"Huh?"
"We’ve got something to ask you."
Were they really going to ask him to join a band?
They were trying to persuade him, right?
Not corner him, right?
Just as Lee Doyeong feared, the words came out of Heo Junseong’s mouth.
"Do you want to start a band with us? We’d really like it if you played bass."
Cha Seoha. Heo Junseong. A band.
In an instant, a flood of thoughts raced through Lee Doyeong’s mind.
It seemed like an interesting combination.
But his mouth answered on reflex.
"Sorry. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to turn it down."
He didn’t know why he’d said that, and it made him flustered, but for some reason he just felt like he couldn’t do it.
After answering, he bowed his head deeply, and could feel sharp gazes resting on the top of his head.
They were probably offended. They’d gone out of their way to ask someone like him, and he’d turned them down. Too frightened to face them, he couldn’t bring himself to look up.
Then a calm voice drifted down over his head.
"I figured it wouldn’t be that easy."
"...What?"
At the unexpected response, Lee Doyeong lifted his head again before he realized it.
He’d expected them to be annoyed, but Cha Seoha actually looked pleased.
There was something amused in the face that always seemed so impassive.
Seeing that rarely smiling face break into a grin felt strangely cool, but instinctively, Lee Doyeong felt a kind of rejection from it.
He had never met anyone like Cha Seoha in his life.
He’d rejected the offer, and yet Cha Seoha was smiling as if it was entertaining.
Just as the feeling was turning strange, Cha Seoha dropped the expression as if he’d never smiled at all and gave Heo Junseong’s shoulder a light tap.
"Hey. This is all because you look so scary."
"Who’s talking?"
At Cha Seoha’s words, Heo Junseong shot him a baffled look.
The two of them didn’t seem very close aside from being desk partners, but the way they bickered made them look unexpectedly familiar with each other.
Then the bell rang to announce homeroom.
With that still-unreadable smile on his face, Cha Seoha wandered back to the rear seats with Heo Junseong.
Class began right after that, but for some reason, not a single word the teacher said made it into Lee Doyeong’s ears.
He had been the one to turn down the band offer, and yet because Cha Seoha had accepted it so easily, he strangely felt as though he’d been the one rejected instead.