BAE SUZY thinks she's got everything figured out. But then a visit from a family friend turn her life upside down and throws all her beliefs into question.
NAM JOOHYUK is still reeling from a breakup that shattered his heart and his startup business...
"Mr. Nam - you jamming today too?" Subin and Jisoo had come in the side door of the garage. Subin's face was lit up, huge grin framed by the dad cap he insisted on wearing when he developing or producing. He placed his case down.
"Not today, Bin," Abeoji said, laughing. He held out his hand. "You must be Jisoo."
Jisoo shook abeoji's hand. "Is it okay that I'm parked in the driveway? I just wanted to unload -"
"Yep. Need help?"
"Nah, Abeoji, we're cool," I said. I felt bad for answering so quickly, but I just wanted to get started, of forming a cohesive, yet fragile team.
"I'll leave you to it, then."
It took us a good ten minutes to set up. As Jisoo was assembling the final part of his computer set, I grabbed a fresh shirt from the laundry room and changed from the sweat-soaked one I'd been wearing.
"Hey guys, we might -"
The news about Jasper and Sandbox Corp came close to spilling out of my mouth but the words caught in my throat. Letting Subin and Jisoo know before we practiced seemed like a setup for failure - after, when we were warmed up, would be better.
"We might what?" Subin asked, stomping along with the keyboard he warmed up with.
"We might want to start with the Javascript coding before we get to producing new tunes."
"Sounds cool," Jisoo said.
Samsan Tech take two was officially official.
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The streets of Gangnam were crazy busy for a Wednesday afternoon. I had exactly two hours between school and work and was pushing it, but Wednesday was the only day Jasper had an opening to see me. Subin had wanted to come but I was more relaxed knowing at least one of us would be on time for the Soop evening shift. And Subin . . . he was over-enthusiastic about the whole thing, and when he was that way, he tended to speak before thinking. Then there was the hat, which he was convinced bought him luck when he coded. Not ready to fly that freak flag quite yet.
I finally found a spot about four blocks away. We weren't anywhere near ready to play out, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized abeoji was right - a date looming would be great incentive for us to get our shit together. Practice hadn't sucked. Completely. The first time we went through our set, we'd each been doing our own thing; Jisoo was too loud with the drumming part, Subin was rushing the guitar sound, and I even missed coming in on the right beat a few times, but by the end of practice, we at least sounded like a band. Not a great one, but on our way. Jasper didn't need to know that.
Walking through the front door of Sandbox Corp was like walking into a different realm. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. The building was an old firehouse, complete with a brass pole and high ceilings. Along the one wall were venue posters from every band imaginable, with spotlights on some of the more prominent ones like LG and The Beatles. The front area looked like someone's living room. There were couches and chairs, and a few low tables between them. The bar took up the rest of the front, while in the far back was a smaller room with a stage. One guy sat hunched over a beer mug at the end. The bartender had his elbows on the bar, tip of a pen in his teeth, working on a newspaper crossword. I cleared my throat. He dropped the pen and looked up.
