The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Former Idol’s Indie Band Hard-Carry
Episode 2
In the original timeline, I didn’t join the band until a year later—2018.
And I was the last member to come aboard.
My taekwondo career had ended due to injury, and I was drifting when Lee Doyoung suggested it; I just sort of fell into it.
Looking back, I have no idea what Lee Doyoung saw in me that made him pitch that idea.
At the time, I didn’t even recognize my own musical talent.
But what really puzzled me was how these guys had ever come together in the first place.
I knew the broad strokes.
Lee Doyoung and Heo Junseong, who went to the same school as me, had started the band first, and later brought in Kim Jihoo and Kang Min as members.
I knew Kim Jihoo had learned instruments at the same Practical Music Academy as Heo Junseong, but as for Kang Min…
I had no idea.
And finally, I’d joined as the vocalist.
But that was just the end result.
I had no sense of how they’d grown close, or what process had brought them together.
And besides, they were all high school students.
I was an exception as an athlete, but normally there was the pressure of the College Entrance Examination.
Coming together as one team couldn’t have been easy.
What was I supposed to do?
Back then, I knew nothing except taekwondo, so aside from Heo Junseong, I wasn’t even close to any of them.
If I had to stretch it, all I could say was that I shared a classroom with Lee Doyoung.
I didn’t even know if I’d actually exchanged greetings with him.
Swept up in uncertainty, I finally decided I had to just take a shot at it. I opened the classroom door.
“Hey, Heo Junseong.”
I stepped up to him with an unusual air and called out his name without preamble.
Heo Junseong, who’d been sitting at an angle listening to music, pulled out his earphones and looked up.
He had that thug-like look about him that made an impression.
Though in reality, he was a good guy.
“What?”
“Let’s do a band together.”
He’d obviously turn me down.
I hadn’t shown him anything besides taekwondo ability.
So I figured I’d hear out his rejection first, analyze it, and then decide how to approach the others.
Still, I had a fair bit of connection with Heo Junseong.
We’d been desk partners before, and he was outgoing enough to chat me up whenever he got bored.
Heo Junseong stared at me blankly and then spoke.
“You haven’t slept since yesterday until now, have you?”
“Didn’t you know? This is a dream.”
“Huh?”
“You play guitar?”
“How’d you know that?”
“I saw you playing.”
“When?”
“On the street.”
“Ah, busking… I’ve only done it a few times. That’s surprising.”
I’d just thrown it out there, and it turned out to be right.
After all, what guitarist hasn’t done busking at least once?
“But what?”
“Let’s do it. Form a band.”
“What about taekwondo?”
“Quit it.”
“For real?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I want to do music so badly.”
“For real?”
“I’m telling you, I am.”
Heo Junseong blinked at me repeatedly.
I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but this is what’s great about being in high school.
Out in the world, an earnest dream doesn’t count for a reason. But right now, it can.
“So I’m on guitar?”
“Would I have called you over to play the recorder?”
“Alright, let’s do it.”
“That’s it?”
“You want me to ask for a signing bonus or something?”
“Nah.”
I bumped fists with the fist he held out and thought to myself.
Isn’t this way too easy?
Did everyone else get recruited like this?
“What’s your position, anyway? Oh, wait. Let me guess… Bass?”
“Wrong.”
He seemed to be thinking, so I raised my eyebrow to prompt him again, which was entertaining.
“Then drums? That sense of rhythm from your taekwondo kicks?”
What does “rhythm from taekwondo kicks” even mean.
“I’m going to be the vocalist.”
At my words, Heo Junseong immediately screwed up his face.
“What? That doesn’t suit you at all.”
“Why not?”
How many years of vocal experience do I have?
“Your voice is nice and all… but how do I put this? You have no facial expression. You’re always looking stone-faced.”
Heo Junseong suddenly crossed his arms, leaned back, pressed his lips tight, furrowed his brows heavily, and let his eyes drift blankly across the room with a listless expression.
That’s supposed to be me?
With my experience as an idol and an actress, I was confident in facial expression acting.
“It’s exactly the same, right?”
“No.”
I ignored him as he awkwardly tried to act cute.
“Hmm, want to hit up a noraebang after this? Let’s go hear how well you can actually sing.”
“Later.”
“Why?”
“I’ll blow everyone’s minds all at once once we get more members. Getting surprised one person at a time is getting old.”
“Where’s this confidence coming from?”
Half of it’s genuine, and half of it’s an excuse.
Right now, my vocal ability isn’t that great.
Most people would think I’m good, but I haven’t trained enough yet to reach the level I had in my previous life.
The vocal cords need tuning too.
But with the know-how I have, I’ll be pretty passable in about a month.
In a year, I’ll reach a level close to what I had before.
“But do you have any other members in mind besides me?”
“You close with Lee Doyoung?”
“Lee Doyoung? The class president?”
Heo Junseong thought for a moment, then his eyes went wide and he looked at me like I was serious.
Lee Doyoung was definitely the one playing bass back then too.
I thought that since he and Heo Junseong had formed the band together, they’d be close, but apparently not right now.
“Lee Doyoung plays bass.”
When I’d been in a band with them in the past, the lineup was like this:
Vocals—me.
Guitar—Heo Junseong.
Bass—Lee Doyoung.
Keyboard—Kim Jihoo.
Drums—Kang Min.
“Can’t imagine the class president doing a band…”
I understood where Heo Junseong was coming from.
When Lee Doyoung first suggested forming a band together, I’d also thought it seemed out of character for him.
The Lee Doyoung I remembered was quiet and sincere.
He didn’t care for standing out, and he was a typical model student—well-behaved and conventional.
So when that kind of person suggested starting a band, my first thought was this:
‘Is he rebelling late in life?’
Some of the well-behaved ones harbored hidden rebellious streaks. I wondered if Lee Doyoung was one of them.
But Lee Doyoung was more earnest about music than anyone else.
Even after I quit and the band dissolved, he kept his dream alive—teaching kids at the Practical Music Academy and doing session work.
Most people compromise when they hit reality’s wall, but he never stopped. He kept pushing until the very end.
Until his final breath.
His choice of bass was one of the ways you could see his earnestness about music.
The bass—the instrument that anchors the band—suited Lee Doyoung perfectly, someone who always explored music’s foundations.
So I thought no one could be better suited to bass than Lee Doyoung.
Besides, his features weren’t bad when he took off his glasses.
Some girl had once said so.
Even upside down, he’d qualify as a supporting male lead.
It was such a memorable comment that I’d memorized it, but I still don’t understand why she said it.
Is there such a thing as a main male lead and a supporting male lead?
If you’re handsome, isn’t that enough?
Though he should probably lose a bit of weight from now.
“Lee Doyoung will do fine. Anyway, are you two close?”
“Just exchange greetings when we see each other?”
I shrugged at Heo Junseong’s words.
“Then you’re closer than I am to him.”
“Is that so?”
“So go charm him. Tell him to do a band with us.”
“How?”
“You’re good at it. Talking to people you don’t know. I’m an I.”
“An I? You calling me an idiot?”
Now that I think about it, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator probably wasn’t trendy back then.
“Hey, what kind of madman would say yes right away to forming a band?”
I just looked at him silently, and Heo Junseong let out a helpless laugh.
“Oh, so I was the madman?”
“Now go try.”
“Uh, well… But I think he’s already hearing what we’re talking about?”
* * *
At that very moment, Lee Doyoung, sitting at his desk, was being consumed by confusion.
He was looking at his workbook, but nothing was sinking in.
He’d planned to study before homeroom, but his attention had been seized by hearing his own name from behind, and he couldn’t look away.
Just as he was about to plug in his earphones and play music, what Cha Seoha and Heo Junseong were saying captured his ear.
They’re talking about me right now, aren’t they?
How do they know I play bass?
Cha Seoha spoke little and had a blunt impression—he seemed to fit only with taekwondo athletes.
Heo Junseong, despite his rough appearance, was sociable enough to have warm conversations with everyone in the class and had a good reputation.
But he also mingled with the group known as delinquents, which made him seem scary.
Both were noticeably handsome, but they seemed intimidating and hard to approach.
Yet as Lee Doyoung eavesdropped, they seemed like ordinary people his age, making him feel a bit closer to them than before.
But the end of their conversation was somewhat frightening.
“Uh, well… But I think he’s already hearing what we’re talking about?”
Just then, a long shadow fell across his vision.
When he lifted his head, he saw Cha Seoha and Heo Junseong wearing awkward smiles.
“Hey.”
Heo Junseong seemed to be trying for a friendly smile, but that strained expression came across as sinister instead.
Scary.
Seeing that Lee Doyoung found it amusing, Cha Seoha was trying to suppress his laughter.
As Lee Doyoung froze in shock and just stared at them, Heo Junseong awkwardly scratched the back of his head and opened his mouth.
“Class president, got a minute? We’d like to talk.”
Yeah, this is definitely scary!
With his broad frame, the pressure he gave off was no joke. With two of them surrounding him, what had been spacious suddenly felt cramped.
“Um?”
“There’s something we wanted to talk about.”
They really are going to ask about the band, aren’t they?
They’re trying to convince me, right?
This isn’t coercion, is it?
From Heo Junseong’s mouth came exactly what Lee Doyoung had anticipated.
“Want to do a band with us? We’d really like it if you played bass.”
Cha Seoha, Heo Junseong, and a band.
In that instant, countless thoughts flooded Lee Doyoung’s mind.
It did seem like an interesting combination.
But the words that came out of his mouth were a reflexive refusal.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to decline. Thanks for the offer though.”
He was bewildered by his own answer, but somehow he just felt he couldn’t do it.
After he finished speaking, a sharp gaze pressed down from above his head.
They must be upset, right? They went out of their way to propose to someone like me. Out of fear, he couldn’t bring himself to look at their faces.
Then a calm voice drifted down from above his head.
“I figured it wouldn’t be that simple.”
“…What?”
Surprised by the unexpected response, Lee Doyoung found himself lifting his head again.
He’d thought they’d be upset, but Cha Seoha actually seemed pleased.
There was something like interest in Cha Seoha’s usually blunt face.
A rarely-smiling face made an appealing sight when it smiled, but Lee Doyoung instinctively felt something repugnant in that smile.
He’d never met anyone like Cha Seoha in his life.
To laugh as if amused when his offer had been refused—it was strange.
Just as Lee Doyoung’s mood was becoming complicated, Cha Seoha dropped his smile and restored his expression to normal, then tapped Heo Junseong’s shoulder.
“Hey. This is all because you look so scary.”
“Who’re you to talk?”
At Cha Seoha’s remark, Heo Junseong gave him a skeptical look.
The two, who didn’t seem particularly close aside from being desk partners, bickered in a way that made them look quite close.
Then the bell signaling homeroom rang.
Cha Seoha, still wearing that enigmatic smile, walked back to their seats with Heo Junseong at a leisurely pace.
Class began shortly after, but strangely, Lee Doyoung couldn’t focus on what the teacher was saying.
He’d been the one to refuse the band proposal, yet he felt oddly as if he’d been the one rejected instead.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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