Chapter Four: The Guitar Man

          “What! How dare he?! After all that we’ve done for him?” Gette was becoming an overprotective friend again. “What direction did he go? Don’t worry, I’ll beat him up for you!”

          “Shh! Gette, calm down will you?” I said. As if beating him up will change anything. “I already have a new plan.”

---o0o---

          If I could laugh out loud, I definitely would have done it when the store manager introduced me to Jun-hyung as his new co-worker. Jun-hyung’s initial reaction was unbearably uncharacteristic to him. His mouth hung open along with his small eyes that widened in disbelief, but it was abruptly changed back to his usual serious face.

          “I see, you’re only bright and friendly to the customers,” I told him while fixing the CD’s on the shelf.

          “Why are you here?” he said seriously, without giving any comment to my earlier statement.

          “Fine, I’ll be telling this to you, straight,” I said, “I want to enroll as your student.” He stared at me, and by the looks of it, he’s weighing up my offer. “I’m working here to gain money for my studies under your tutelage. Don’t worry, you don’t have to spend more time outside the school. You can teach me during breaks, and I’ll manage practicing alone. If I have –”

          “Can you give me some time to think?” Jun-hyung said. “Let’s just talk about it tomorrow afternoon.” I gave him a small nod, and after that we didn’t really speak to each other anymore, even during closing time.

          “Do you think he has jobs other than the one in the record store?” Gette asked me the next morning, at school. “Because if he has, I’m really starting to admire that guy.”

          “Why?” I asked. I wasn’t really 100% paying attention to her since I was waiting for Jun-hyung to arrive while I steal glances to L and his friends just a few seats behind us.

          “Why? Because if that’s the case, then I have a feeling that he’s a mature guy already,” Gette said. “Just think about this, what could have happened to his life that left working as his only choice?” That caught my attention. She has a point. Not only that, whatever happened in his life might be a reason why he acts cold around everyone.

          Jun-hyung never came to all his classes that day. That information, I learned from L. As much as I wanted to jump up and down because of the fact that L initiated that short chat, I couldn’t stop thinking about Jun-hyung. Why? Of course, because he was the only hope I had that time.

          I practiced piano for an hour, and then went to work after that. Still no sign of Jun-hyung.

          “Manager sshi,” I approached the manager, who was also the store owner, before closing time. “Did Jun-hyung tell you he’ll be absent today?”

          “Ah, yes,” the manager said. “I think he has this sister who is sick?” A sister? “Can I have their address, sir?”

          I tightly clutched my bag and the plastic of some goods I bought in front of me as I struggled walking at a normal pace through a dimly, almost close to pitch dark street to the address that our store manager gave me. Jun-hyung, you better be living here.

          As I approach the last lot, I could already hear the faint playing of a guitar. After a few more steps, I could also hear a faint singing, of a girl. Could it be his sister? I went closer to the lot, hiding behind a few shrubs.

          “Oppa, you have a gig to catch,” the girl said, “You can go now, I’m already okay.”

          “Are you sure? You know I will never forgive myself if something happens to you,” Jun-hyung said after he stopped playing.

          “Oppa, I can take care of myself,” the girl said, “besides, grandfather is also here.” The girl stood up and went inside. After that, she returned with a small pouch on her hand. She sat beside Jun-hyung, opened the pouch and took out something that looked like a pencil. An eyeliner?

          “Now close your eyes,” the girl said.

          “Min-jee ah! Why do I have to wear that?” Jun-hyung said while trying to avoid Min-jee’s eye liner attacks. “Oppa! Trust me, girls will like it!” she said, and Jun-hyung didn’t argue anymore after that, although he was still uncomfortable about it.

          Min-jee then took a small bottle and pour some on her hand before putting it on his brother’s hair. “Oppa, remember that for a band, image is always important,” she said. “There! You look great.”

          “Min-jee, oppa will be back late, so don’t wait for me anymore,” Jun-hyung said while putting his guitar on its case, “sleep early, and don’t forget to lock all doors before you sleep.”

          “Yes oppa,” Min-jee said. Jun-hyung stood up and placed a kiss over his sister’s head. That time, I realized why he was acting so tough all the time. It is because he has someone important to protect. I stayed still when he was passing behind me. Because it was dark, he didn’t even notice me sitting beside low shrubs.

          I followed him, and to tell you the truth, it was a really tiring trip to wherever he was heading to. He just walked, and walked, until we got to a really bright and loud place where there were a lot of people wearing fancy and sparkly clothes waiting outside. He walked past the entrance, through an alley, and went inside a door at the back of the same building. What is he doing here? I followed him inside, past the kitchen, past the rest room, through a door with a post saying “Performers only.”

I followed him still and went inside, but suddenly, someone spoke, “Hey, are you a performer?” I looked around to find a baby-faced guy, his head was noticeably smaller than the average size. “We’re performing today, didn’t you read the note?” He then pointed to the wall beside me, where a note was posted: “B2ST performing at 9.” B2ST?

          “Are you a spy? Or you just forgot that tonight is not your band’s night?” he said.

          “Ah, actually, I’m here for someone,” I said, but suddenly someone called out the person I was talking to and surprisingly, it was the person I needed. “What are you doing here?” Jun-hyung said.

          “I-I… y-you…” I wasn’t able to say anything back, so instead I handed him the bag I was holding and said, “Jun-hyung sshi! Please take me as your student, please!”

          Six members all in all, including Yong Jun-hyung. They were seated in a circle a few meters away from where I sat. They were talking to each other, and every now and then one of them would partially glance at me before averting back to the group. Suddenly a small, chubby guy went in and said “doors will open in 5 minutes!” The group then dispersed and went to their instruments to warm up.

          “Hey Mae-sshi, follow me,” so I followed Jun-hyung and he took me to a seat upstairs. “You’ll have a good view of everything here. About being my student, I’ll tell you my answer after work. If you want to, wait for me until we finish our performance. If you cannot, go home.” He left me after that, and went back to stage.

          It didn’t take long until the bar was filled with people. B2ST started performing lively rock songs, to which people jumped along with every beat. It was an awesome sight. People were there to appreciate music, quite similar to duels, but very different in the sense that people there were more… energetic?

          After a few songs, the leader of their band went to the microphone and called everyone’s attention. “Good evening, I’m Doo-joon, leader of B2ST. We’ve been playing here for a few years now, and we wanted to thank all of you for that. You heard us play cover songs, mostly rock songs, but starting today, we want to take you to a whole new level of party music,” then on his cue, music started playing on the back ground. “This is a mix that our group made for all of you, so we wish you’d enjoy it.”

          The music turned up and the members left their instruments to go to the front of the stage. Jun-hyung and Yo-seob took the microphone stands to the side while the other four… are they dancing? It was my first time in that kind of place, but was starting to like it. It felt like a place where real personalities unfold.

          People started dancing as well. The place darkened, with the stage lights as the only light sources. Of course that excluded the red and green lasers moving to different directions. People cheered for them, until one of them started singing. Every now and then they will change singers and continue dancing at the same time. Suddenly, it was already Jun-hyung’s turn with the microphone, and what he did really amazed me.

          The words were fast, but the emotion and energy were there which makes it really heartfelt even if the background song was fast. Rap? Really? I couldn’t stop but be surprised at how I was able to see many sides of Jun-hyung in a very short period of time.

          “Hello, you’re Mae sshi, right?” the small-headed guy said after they packed up for the night. It was already past twelve, and it was a good thing that I told people at home that I’ll be out until really late.

          “Yeah,” I said.

          “I’m Yang Yo-seob,” he said while holding out his hand. I took it of course, and shook it a bit before taking back my hand. “So, what do you think about our performance?” he said.

          “You were great,” I said, “the people really liked it, especially the whole… dance thing.”

          “Really? We were a bit worried about it, but I guess group dancing is so much popular right now.” Yo-seob said. “We’ve been practicing for it before. If we knew that it will be a huge hit, we should have done it before.”

          “You’re still here?”

          “Oh, Jun-hyung! I was asking Mae sshi about our performance earlier,” Yo-seob said, “I guess we can fight neck to neck with the bar’s new band.”

          “Of course we can,” Jun-hyung said. Then he looked at me as if telling me to go away, so I stood there, and gave him the cutest puppy eye that I could give. My prospective teacher told me to wait, so there I was, waiting.

          “Jun-hyung sshi,” I said, but he suddenly turned to Yo-seob and said, “I’ll be heading home, Min-jee’s not in a good condition right now.”

          “Sure! Take care!” Yo-seob said before turning to me, “I guess you’ll be heading home too, take care!” I gave him a courteous bow and followed Jun-hyung who went ahead and left the room.

          “Uh… Jun-hyung sshi,” I said while following him out of the building, “You know… I would really appreciate a response now.” Jun-hyung then stopped and looked at me.

          “How did you find me?” he said. I took out the piece of paper from the manager and gave it to him. “So you went to my house?”

          “Yes, but I saw you leaving, so…”

          “You said you’ll pay me as much as I gain from the record store,” he said, cutting me in mid-sentence.

          “Uh, well… yeah, I think that’s what I said,” He sighed before telling me to follow him, so I did follow him, until we reached a shed. He stopped, and so I waited for him to say anything, but nothing came. Suddenly he called out a taxi. “Get in,” he said.

          “B-but,” I was about to ask him about his decision, but again, he cut me off.

          “Starting tomorrow, before class, during recess, lunch break and after class before work,” he said, “meet me at the roof top. If you failed to come even just one meeting, the deal is off.” Touched my head and gently pushed me inside the cab before going to the side of the driver. “Make sure this girl makes it home, safe,” he said.

          “Yes sir,” the driver said. Then Jun-hyung took cash from his wallet and gave it to the driver. “Wait! I can pay the fare!”

          “Then just return it to me tomorrow,” Jun-hyung said before turning away. The driver started the engine and drove me back to the city.