I had never been to a concert venue before. I couldn’t enjoy music either. Instead, what flowed from the earphones stuck in my ears were calm English audio files of voice actors. I had never known the pleasure of music even once. I had never even thought it could be pleasurable.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
But the loud music flowing from the speakers resonated in my heart. It was a strange feeling. That drum sound, that guitar, that voice struck not my ears but my heart.
The song they said they composed themselves was the first song, and it was easy to listen to and follow along with, and it was good. David whispered to me that he had submitted the demo tape of this song to several places and received tons of calls.
“I can see why. Really…… it’s incredibly amazing.”
I blankly watched the band’s performance, then stood on tiptoe and whispered in David’s ear. I wanted to somehow share this overwhelming feeling with someone else.
“You look smitten.”
David giggled at me.
“This is my first time coming to a performance like this.”
“Really? We should have come together earlier. These guys practice often even normally.”
Even though the performance had stopped for a moment, David still answered me in a whisper. I figured it was because it was noisy around us.
“Should I introduce you to the band members?”
“Is that okay?”
“What wouldn’t be okay about it?”
David let out a laugh as if he’d heard something funny and shrugged his shoulders. Then he grabbed my wrist and led me toward the band members who were sipping water below the stage.
“Deb.”
“Ah, you came?”
“Acting like you just noticed now. Why are you guys so late? That’s why I had to go up on stage and do clown acts that don’t even suit me.”
When David jerked his chin to call him, Deb, who was the vocalist and David’s friend, waved his hand. David lightly hit his friend’s shoulder with his fist. Even then, David was still firmly holding my wrist.
“What do you mean it doesn’t suit you. You were really good at it. But who’s behind you? Today’s date? Your taste seems to have changed a lot since I last saw you. From women to men.”
Deb giggled toward me standing behind David’s back, and the band members around him also burst out laughing. Until just now, I had looked up to them because the performance was cool, but now that joke was a bit unpleasant and my affection for them decreased.
“This is July, he goes to the same school as me. And he’s Winter’s fiancé’s younger brother. We’ll soon be family.”
David pulled me to his side. As if the statement that we’d soon be family was quite surprising, Deb blinked his wide-open eyes a couple of times.
“Winter is getting married?”
“Yeah. Your first love is getting married.”
“But she promised to marry me!”
Deb grabbed both his cheeks and shouted, just like ‘The Scream’ by Munch. It didn’t seem sincere. It was full of playfulness. After continuing the joke like that and making the people around him laugh for a while, Deb jerked his chin toward me.
“Well then, July who was born in July. I express my condolences that you’ll be family with that mean David Evans.”
“Thanks……?”
Not having anything appropriate to say, I tilted my head while raising the end of my sentence, and pahaha! Everyone except David burst out laughing. David, with the ends of his eyebrows slightly lowered, looked down at me and asked.
“So you’re admitting I have a bad personality?”
“Uh…… um.”
I couldn’t bring myself to lie and say no, so I mumbled. Honestly, you do have a bad personality. Even though you apologized to Natalia and me. Watching me roll my eyes around, Deb slapped his stomach and roared with laughter. So hard that tears formed at the corners of his eyes.
“Ah, pffft, puhahaha, haha! Ah, I like you!”
“I enjoyed your performance. It was cool.”
“Of course it was cool!”
Deb pointed at himself with his thumb and shouted confidently. It was tremendous confidence. I didn’t dislike seeing it.
“Are you going to keep performing?”
“Nope. That bastard playing bass has a curfew like a model student, so we have to go. Well, let the kids who want to go up there and sing like it’s karaoke sing. I need to play now too.”
Deb, who stood up dusting off his knees, was shorter than me. When he was singing coolly on stage, he had seemed much taller. Confidence must make people look bigger.
“You look like a model student too, don’t you have a curfew?”
“Nope. My parents say it’s fine if I come home drunk, and it’s fine if I vomit in the yard. They just want me to play as much as I can while I’m young.”
“Hey, David! Winter made a good choice marrying into this family! I like this family! I’ll send him off cleanly!”
Deb, who arbitrarily put his arm around my shoulder, shouted toward David. And he smiled at me like a mischievous kid, as if plotting a bad prank.
“Then I’ll really make you drink enough to vomit in the yard!”
Deb shouted triumphantly, but unfortunately,
‘Pizza Saver’ is rated for all ages. 🙂 Underage drinking is not right!
The system didn’t help. I hadn’t planned to drink alcohol in the first place, but what Deb offered me was just cola. For some reason, the fizz had gone flat.
“Cherry flavor for you?”
“Yeah.”
Deb, who had come up to the first floor and was rummaging through the refrigerator, asked, and David answered. Deb took out the cherry-flavored cola and shook it vigorously up and down as if to show off, then threw the can toward David.
“Drink up!”
It was such an obvious prank. The question was whether David would fall for it or not. David raised his left eyebrow, then pulled up the corners of his lips.
“Ah, I’m thirsty.”
“Ugh, pffft, puhaha!”
Click! Psssh, pshshshsh! The one getting baptized by the spraying cherry-flavored cola wasn’t David but Deb. David opened the can in Deb’s direction and then sprayed the long stream of cola right at his friend.
And when the carbon dioxide was almost gone and the cola started coming out weakly with fzz, fzz……, he immediately flipped the can upside down over Deb’s head. Crash! After shaking out every last drop of cola and crumpling the can to throw it behind his back, David dusted off his hands.
“If you’re going to pull a prank, you have to do it properly like this.”
“This isn’t a prank, it’s bullying!”
Deb’s hair, which had been stylishly set, became a mess in an instant. Deb staggered to the sink and plunged his head directly into the pouring water.
“That’s what you get for pulling pranks.”
“David Evans, you son of a bitch! You stay and clean up before you go!”
Deb, who had become like a drowned rat soaked with cola and water, shouted, and David laughed puhahaha. At that high-level prank, I just blinked my eyes, unable to decide on an attitude—whether to laugh, worry, or be flustered.
While Deb was going “uhpuh uhpuh” at the sink, David leisurely took out a cola from the refrigerator and knocked it against the cola can I was holding.
“Cheers.”
David grinned at me, then leaned against the kitchen island table and started ridiculing his friend who had gotten completely soaked and messy while sipping his cola.
Deb glared at David occasionally while keeping his head submerged in water, then suddenly threw his head back strongly and straightened his back. Because of that, the liquid mixed with cola and water that had pooled on his hair scattered toward me and David.
“Hey! You’re splashing water!”
“So what! I don’t care! Since it’s come to this, let’s just go swimming!”
Deb, who had also taken off his soaked shoes, pants, and t-shirt and thrown them away, sprinted through the living room. Everyone was startled by his messy state and stepped back, and thanks to that, Deb was able to run very easily all the way to the yard and splash! submerge himself in the pool.
“Ah, now I feel alive!”
Deb shouted toward David, who was sauntering out to the yard. I followed behind and was shocked by Deb’s actions, but watching him swim with excellent skill, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Even though he’d been doused with cola, he looked really carefree and happy.
“That guy used to be a swimmer, believe it or not.”
David said as he fumbled to take off his shoes. Somehow, even wearing only his underwear, he was incredibly good at swimming. Joel had also shown excellent swimming skills in the lake, so I thought American kids were just good at swimming. David was also very good at swimming in that pool where that person wasn’t.
As I was watching Deb’s acrobatic swimming while sipping the remaining cola, I looked away for a moment and discovered David had become naked and pffft! spit out my cola.
“When did you……”
Take everything off…… Of course, he was wearing underwear. But what he happened to be wearing today was a similar color to his skin, so earlier I really thought it was complete nudity. David also splash! jumped into the water.
“July! You get in too!”
David shouted at me while pushing away Deb, who quickly approached and pressed down on his shoulder.
“Uh, no……”
I shook my head from side to side and stepped backward. It was absolutely out of the question. I didn’t want to be compared to David’s sculpture-like body, and I didn’t want to enter the pool without wearing a swimsuit.
If my underwear got soaked, how would I get home? But I also didn’t want to wear clothes without underwear. Especially from the position of having to ride a bicycle, not drive a car. However, as always, the world didn’t work out the way I wanted.
“Urk!”
I must have stepped back too much because I bumped backs with someone who was just opening the door and coming out. The cola I was holding fell to the ground and rolled, and I also fell forward. As if he had been waiting for this opportunity, Deb, who had already pulled half his body out of the pool, pulled me in.
“Ahhh!”
Just like being dragged away by a sea monster from ancient mythology, I had no choice but to splash! submerge myself in the pool. Ah, I’m wearing a suit right now, this is ruined.
