The Second Chance of A Suicidal Idol

The Truth (3)

Joon-woo hummed along to their assigned song as it played off his phone. He sat on the practice room floor crisscrossing with a guitar in hand. The song they were assigned, based on the required original guitar segment, was 'Strawberry Cake' by Xdinary Villains.

The song happened to be dance-less, and it more or less would be a performance similar to that of the vocal challenge, except Joon-woo would act as both a vocalist and a guitarist.

Mi Yong and Ryeo Hyun were leading Sa Jung-Soo and Cha Ji-Hyuk in basic vocal exercises. They had left Joon-woo to his own devices, though Joon-wo hadn't asked for such. He figured that Mi Yong had assumed Joon-woo's guitar prowess was best developed when it was just Joon-woo and his thoughts.

And though they weren't totally wrong, Joon-woo felt as if a heavyweight was placed on his shoulders. He was hoping to lead Team One for this reason. Everyone knew Joon-woo was good at the guitar. Clips of his playing while busking went mega viral on applications like Tick Tock and Witter. Though he was named "Pretty Korean Guitar Guy" for the first couple days, he was eventually named as a Producer10 contestant and garnered some support.

That's why he hoped to lead Team One. They had to do a piano excerpt for their song for UI's 'Love wins all'. Joon-woo wanted to show his versatility of instruments. No one would be too expecting with the piano as they are the guitar. The ex-experienced idol Ha-rin felt a little stressed under such expectations.

Still, sulking around was something idols never had time for. He couldn't sit and stress about doing well. He strummed at the strings to the guitar in a melody after a certain beat from the song.

He played notes of similar sound to the ones that played in the beat of the song. His strums were quiet at first, and only came in second-long intervals. Joon-woo blocked out the failure and hit high notes of his teammates in the back. He blocked it out and it felt natural. It felt as if he was Ha-rin again, busking again.

The guitar was his escape. As Ha-rin, he would play it and practice on their rare free days. And as Joon-woo, his playing made him money to live. Ha-rin played the guitar on variety shows and got praised left and right. The guitar was one of the only things she took good care of when her depression got really bad. The guitar was his life.

The large mirrors that had been giving him anxiety, their existence was forgotten within moments, and Joon-woo felt at peace.

It was him and the music and the guitar. He played a string of notes, a notebook of scribbled notes. After every interval he erased or wrote something he thought fit. It was if he was disconnected from the floor, from the walls, from the world.

And after about ten minutes of this process, Joon-woo took a particularly harsh breath. Suddenly, the walls and the floors he had drifted from, returned. The sound of his teammates doing vocal exercises, returned. Joon-woo, returned. And in front of him was a half-full page of notes that melded into a quarter of an original guitar segment for the song. 

Joon-woo dropped the pic from his hands with a heavy sigh. He hadn't gotten that entranced in guitar playing in a long time. He made an accomplished fist and small-y smiled.

"Determined, aren't we?" A sly voice spoke.

Joon-woo looked around, trying to find the source of the sudden voice. His teammates were still doing their vocal exercises without faltar. And Joon-woo gulped. Supernatural? He suddenly had another reason to jump Kite.

Eventually his eyes landed on a siamese with its face coated in dried blood. It sat about three yards away and looked at Joon-woo with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Joon-woo looked at his teammates. They didn't notice the cat, meaning this was more supernatural bullshit.