Chapter 14: Drums

A 17-year-old writing a suicide note, a second-year high school student.

She’s short, but her face is passable.

She doesn’t think much of her own personality and believes it’s not good.

She doesn’t have many friends, and her relationships with others aren’t great.

She also has no interest in her studies.

Her social circle, aside from a few childhood friends, is mostly in the music scene.

She plays in a band, practices with others.

They evaluate what music is good or bad, stay up all night singing about youth, and reflect on the harshness of reality.

And she’s a drummer writing a suicide note.

She defined herself like that. I am a drummer. I am someone trying to make music.

She hasn’t thought much beyond that.

It’s a kind of hedonistic mindset, thinking that things will work out somehow as she goes through life.

But there’s no one to make music with.

Those who could match her level are already in bands, or they’re not up to par.

The rest are either too unskilled or just not good enough.

Anyway, their hearing’s bad, or their eyes aren’t good, or something about them doesn’t sit right.

[jeong Hyun-ah: You should come.]
[Horang: Why should I?]
[Horang: What’s the point of gathering high school kids to form a band?]
[Horang: In the end, it’s just a hobby.]
[Horang: Their skills are all mediocre.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: No, that’s not it.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: The guitarist is really good though.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: Seriously, it’s amazing.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: Want me to send you a link?]
[Horang: If they were that good, they’d be a professional.]
[Horang: Didn’t you say they didn’t even want to form a band?]
[Horang: If it’s not a live performance, you can always use auto-tuning, and then anyone will sound good.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: You jerk.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: How can you not understand when I’m making music?]
[Horang: What?]
[Horang: Go play the piano or something.]

Reading the open KakaoTalk messages, jeong Hyun-ah sighed.

Childhood friend?

Anyway, they’ve been friends since they were young (online), but these days, the person is just holed up in their room watching anime and comics.

They had been in contact, but recently, they hadn’t talked much, and now suddenly, this is what they had to say.

[jeong Hyun-ah: Didn’t you say you wanted to form a band?]
[Horang: That was a long time ago.]

jeong Hyun-ah sighed again. Should she slowly sever ties with this person too? In the end, they were just someone who valued relationships based on personal gain.

Was that it?

[Horang: When can I come?]
[jeong Hyun-ah: Oh.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: When are you free? We’ll try to match up.]
[Horang: I’m free on the weekend.]
[Horang: But other than that, I have work.]
[Horang: I’ll check my schedule and let you know.]
[jeong Hyun-ah: Thank you so much.]

jeong Hyun-ah decided to go along with it. After all, they had been friends for a long time. But that was the end of it.

From now on, there would be nothing more. Once you start calculating what you can gain from a friendship, it all becomes meaningless.

It’s time to put an end to trivial relationships.

In the end, whether or not someone is a friend isn’t determined by how long you’ve known each other.

It’s determined by how much you understand each other, how much you can truly connect.

In that sense, jeong Hyun-ah thought there were few people who could truly understand her.

Few people played music as well as she did or had a serious mindset about it.

Those are the kinds of people she needed to bring along. Only true understanding people.
That would be enough.

In this age of social media, jeong Hyun-ah bitterly laughed, thinking that even middle schoolers wouldn’t think about these things anymore.

The weekend.

For the impossible band practice, they rented a practice room near Hongdae.

It had basic keyboards and drums, so they just needed to bring the guitar and bass.

The problem was the story she had heard from jeong Hyun-ah.

The condition of the drums was a bit odd.

[Seibin (u_u): Something feels off.]
[Seibin (u_u): It feels like they’re subtly leaking negative vibes.]
[Seibin (v_u): You know what I mean.]
[Seibin (v_u): Are they trying to back out?]

The practice song had already been decided.

What was it? Some Japanese anime band song?

She played it a few times, learned it roughly, and then forgot it.

If she played it again, she’d vaguely remember.

[Seibin (v_u): They were really insistent about wanting to form a band before.]
[Seibin (u_u): Now they’re saying they’ll decide after seeing the skill level, but that’s a bit… It’s awkward.]
[Seibin (u_u): It seems like they’re nitpicking now.]

From what Myeong-jeon remembered, they had originally boasted about being able to bring the person in confidently, but now it seemed they were being negative.

[Sword Flavor Star: Did they ever suggest practicing together before?]
[Seibin (v_u): No.]
[Seibin (v_u): They were always saying that such things should be based on pure skill, and they couldn’t even decide on the practice song. I ended up deciding everything myself.]

“Such is the mindset of a high school student…”

Myeong-jeon laughed in disbelief.

There’s no such thing as “pure skill.”

Even the most talented classical musicians don’t just sight-read music and suddenly perform it flawlessly.

They practice to get there.

Nothing in life works without practice.

If even those who are considered geniuses are like this—just like the ‘genius’ named Myeong-jeon—how about the ordinary people who just play instruments normally?

From Myeong-jeon’s perspective, it seemed like they were making excuses to reject the idea because something about the situation simply didn’t sit right with them.

Well, if it doesn’t feel right, there’s nothing that can be done. They’d have to find a new drummer. Or they could bring in some inexperienced person and train them.

Actually, Myeong-jeon thought that might be a better direction in the long run.

Someone who could play drums for the band’s sound, without any awkward habits or style. If they trained for about 6 to 8 months, it would be enough to make it work.

…If it came to that point, there would be no need to stick with these kids. Myeong-jeon could form the band on their own.

“Such a fundamental question…” Myeong-jeon shook their head to get rid of that thought. Anyway, let’s see. Would this person really be qualified to reject my kids, talking about ‘pure skill’ and all that?

Even if they were pushed into starting a band with these kids, it would ultimately be a band formed by Myeong-jeon’s own decision.

Let’s see if they have the nerve to reject my kids while throwing around such words.

“Suyeon!”

Then, a voice called out. Choi Iseo and Jeong Hyun-ah were standing behind them. As usual, Iseo had slightly dark makeup, and Jeong Hyun-ah was sulking and standing behind.

“When did you get here?”
“Just now. Hello.”
“Oh, hello…”
“Let’s go in quickly. The drummer said they would be a bit late, right?”
“They said they’d be about 30 minutes late…”
“That’s a long time. Should we start warming up?”

They chatted nonsense as they entered the practice room. It was just an average room. There was a drum set and a keyboard. The amp was a Marshall stack. But since Myeong-jeon brought their own amp head, it wasn’t really needed.

They casually hit the drums a few times and played around with the cymbals. The drums weren’t bad.

“But… are we going to do the rehearsal as soon as we meet today? I’ve practiced a bit…”
“Not sure…”
“It’s tough.”

At Myeong-jeon’s words, everyone turned to look at them. Myeong-jeon tapped the drum once, making a loud sound, and continued speaking.

“In order to rehearse, you have to first know your part in the song. After that, you match the tempo, and then you work on the overall precision.

In that sense, it will work for a rehearsal, but if you’re looking for a good performance, it’ll be difficult. Originally, the rhythm guitar part was rearranged for the keyboard, after all.”

Iseo looked thoughtful at that. Jeong Hyun-ah, fumbling with her words, looked at Myeong-jeon and said,
“Then…”

“Then? Hmm, I think you were planning to reject it from the start.”
“Really??”

“He said he would judge by skill.