A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 48

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 48. Blue Night (6)

 

“So you’re telling me to play guitar?”

 

Aunt Sujin said as she sat sideways in her chair.

 

How this came about was quite simple.

 

‘I can’t believe Aunt was an incredibly skilled guitar player…!’

 

When I said I needed guitar sounds, Father showed me a YouTube video.

 

On screen was a woman whose face wasn’t visible, showing only her upper body as she displayed incredible fast playing.

 

And it was a very familiar guitar.

 

‘Black body with gold trim. According to Father, it was a type of electric guitar called a Les Paul.’

 

What else did he call it, a loner guitar?

 

Anyway, that’s how he put it.

 

I knew Aunt played guitar since many guitars hung on one wall of the spacious studio, but I didn’t know she was that good.

 

The next day, we came to Aunt’s studio right after kindergarten ended.

 

So when the weekend came and we visited Aunt’s studio to make this request, Aunt was being a bit prickly about Father’s favor.

 

“Is this too much to ask? Then maybe we should…”

 

“No, no. I can play guitar anytime. I promised to do this with Heeseong.”

 

“Then?”

 

“Heh.”

 

Why are you smiling so ominously, Aunt?

 

Her gaze was sinister.

 

My heart was telling me to run away in real time.

 

“If Heeseong acts cute for me, Aunt will do it!”

 

“…Huh?”

 

“I saw some kid acting cute to their mom on the street recently, you know?”

 

“So?”

 

“But wouldn’t our Heeseong be sooo adorable if he acted cute?”

 

“Heeseong isn’t really the type to act cute. But he’s always pretty, right? Mature and cool, isn’t he?”

 

Father, why are you going along with this?

 

But the two people, unable to read my mind, continued their conversation.

 

Aunt waved her finger at Father’s words.

 

“No, no! Cute is different from cool and pretty! Imagine Heeseong acting cute!”

 

“Oh… that sounds good? Deal!”

 

“Okay! Thank you!”

 

The two clapped hands together in delight.

 

As if they’d made some dramatic contract, both their faces were filled with satisfaction.

 

‘Where did my opinion go!’

 

The adults’ determination to see cuteness was far too firm.

 

How could I stop those expressions like wild beasts snorting and eyes gleaming?

 

I had no choice but to give up.

 

Still, I had to try resisting.

 

“I don’t want to!”

 

“Hmph! Then Aunt won’t play guitar.”

 

“We could ask someone else…!”

 

“Heeseong, remember Mom’s colleague we saw last time? That person went on a trip for a while.”

 

“Ah, ah…! Dad, isn’t there anyone else who plays guitar…?”

 

My last plea was.

 

“No, there isn’t.”

 

Unfortunately not granted.

 

I had no escape route.

 

Like a cat cornered in a dead-end alley, I became someone who had to shed tears and snot.

 

‘Why doesn’t Father have any friends anyway!’

 

It felt like looking at my past self, tears blurring my vision.

 

Right, this is for Father.

 

For Father who has no friends.

 

I hypnotized myself with that thought.

 

“A-Aunt… p-please play guitar just once for meeee…”

 

Now my head had become strangely peaceful.

 

In my cleared mind, this thought was rising:

 

‘Why was I reincarnated?’

 

Wasn’t I reincarnated because I wanted to do music?

 

Why am I acting cute?

 

But no matter how much I thought about it, the dilemma wasn’t solved.

 

So it was rather easier to think this way:

 

‘Let’s do whatever it takes to make music.’

 

Of course, human dignity might crumble.

 

As a 40-year-old man rather than 5-year-old Yoon Hee-seong, it was extremely painful.

 

But I am Yoon Hee-seong.

 

Right, I am Yoon Hee-seong.

 

It’s fine.

 

“Wahhh! So cute!! So cute I could die!!”

 

“Ugh! My heart… it hur…ts…!”

 

At my brief display of cuteness, the two were dying.

 

Hmm, since they’re that happy, should I do it occasionally?

 

Thinking about it again, that didn’t seem right.

 

The excited two were able to calm down after some time passed.

 

“Whew, let’s see Heeseong’s cuteness occasionally. It’s too lethal.”

 

“Right, we need to show some restraint.”

 

“Well then, shall we listen first? Where’s the composition file?”

 

“I brought it here.”

 

Aunt Sujin, with excitement subsided and only seriousness remaining, took the USB Father handed her.

 

As soon as she plugged it into the computer, she immediately opened the file and launched the music program.

 

Then she played the song right away.

 

‘I’m nervous.’

 

I felt a bit tense as skilled Aunt listened to my music.

 

I had to swallow nervously while waiting to see what words would come flying.

 

“Hmm.”

 

The scene I had envisioned wasn’t complete yet.

 

There was only the piano melody and synthesizer bass.

 

Empty spaces continued where other instruments should be.

 

There was only the fast-flowing river and cars running on the road.

 

I needed to express what was contained in that river, but I couldn’t do it.

 

The short song ended quickly.

 

“Did Heeseong make all of this?”

 

Her question came flying heavily.

 

But I didn’t tremble.

 

I was confident in the song I had created.

 

There was definitely nervousness, but it couldn’t shake me.

 

“Yes, I made it.”

 

“Very good. Is it city pop?”

 

“That’s right. I decided after seeing Mother sing.”

 

“Oh really? There’s melody and bass too.”

 

Aunt said this while turning off the sounds of the instruments in the program.

 

Piano.

 

Synthesizer.

 

And one instrument remained.

 

“Is this what I should play?”

 

There was another piano.

 

There was another melody that would become guitar.

 

“Yes!”

 

It was the guitar melody I had created after listening to Aunt’s performance.

 

***

 

“Isn’t it time for Hee-seong to eat now?”

 

After watching Aunt’s performance video, I immediately tried to play the piano.

 

I wanted to express it right away that much.

 

Aunt’s guitar performance was beautiful.

 

The incredible fast playing was good, but that wasn’t what was good about it.

 

Aunt’s second performance video that Father showed me wasn’t fast.

 

She played slowly but surely, pressing the fretboard with certainty.

 

“Let me try just a little more!”

 

I acted a bit stubborn.

 

It was definitely time to eat.

 

The time in the bottom right of the monitor had passed 6 o’clock.

 

But just a little.

 

If I had just a little more time, I felt I could make it good.

 

I felt like I knew what to do, and what I needed to express was clearly visible.

 

“Just a little, okay?”

 

“Yes!”

 

I asked Father and brought out a new instrument.

 

It was called a new instrument, but it was no different from a regular grand piano.

 

But all I was going to play was the right hand melody.

 

Thinking of the guitar that freely walked between keyboard and synthesizer.

 

Ting-

 

I pressed the key.

 

The key’s sound was certainly clear.

 

But that wasn’t the sound I wanted.

 

I wanted the clear sound of guitar, not the clear sound of piano.

 

Because the current note was clashing with the existing melody.

 

‘But it’s okay. I just need to think that what I’m playing now is guitar.’

 

I pressed the key once more.

 

The stream of water and cars.

 

Behind them, tall buildings rose up.

 

There was also a billboard advertising cosmetics.

 

The scenery I was looking at was gradually being created.

 

It was still far from completion, but this much was satisfying.

 

‘The city pop I heard had a clean, stretching feeling. Like a string of sausages, I guess.’

 

The guitar’s presence was definitely there.

 

It was buried among the sounds of other instruments, but still didn’t disappear.

 

It quietly and softly resonated, saying it was here.

 

‘It definitely appears in the solo. But I want to leave the solo to Aunt.’

 

I was curious too.

 

What kind of solo she would create.

 

Right now I was definitely creating this song, but I wasn’t doing it alone.

 

Even now I was receiving a lot of help from Father.

 

In the past, I had played in solitude.

 

But there was no law saying I had to do that now too.

 

There was no solitude in the music I wanted.

 

‘Right now a bright city is better.’

 

The piano melody continued as if it was cut off piece by piece.

 

It only gave that feeling, but the actual piano sound continued flowing.

 

The existing melody’s sound was strong, so the sound I was playing now was just buried.

 

That was what I wanted.

 

In the Cheonggyecheon I had seen, the tall buildings were just background.

 

But those lights were definitely clear and captured together in my eyes.

 

Because the sparkling lights of the buildings were reflected in the stream.

 

‘Let’s do this while thinking about the role the guitar should play.’

 

Tall buildings were always a series of wonders.

 

The fear of wondering if it wouldn’t be scary to be on top of a building.

 

Respect for the people who built such things.

 

And among the instinctive awe, the thought that came most often was.

 

‘If lights are on until late hours, doesn’t that mean there are people working?’

 

That was the current cityscape.

 

Buildings where no one was there or people were asleep had their lights off.

 

But most of the buildings I saw had their lights on.

 

Very bright and brilliant.

 

Like those working without anyone knowing, the electric guitar I was thinking of also moved slowly.

 

“Hmm…”

 

But I got a bit stuck.

 

I had expressed everything that could be expressed with piano, but I couldn’t hear the sound I wanted.

 

Now it seemed like it was time when I needed Aunt’s help.

 

“Are you done?”

 

“Hmm, it’s still lacking…”

 

“I see. Could you look outside the door for a moment?”

 

At Father’s words, I tilted my head and turned around.

 

I could see Mother with her arms crossed and her neck bent.

 

She looked like a man just before getting into a fight.

 

“…I guess I should sleep now?”

 

Father said quietly.

 

I nodded slightly without saying anything.

 

I thought I should stop playing piano.

 

Because children should sleep early.

 

But Aunt was different.

 

She asked me a question.

 

“What does our nephew want to express?”

 

“I want to express Cheonggyecheon!”

 

“Cheonggyecheon?”

 

“Yes! I went to Cheonggyecheon at night and it was so bright!”

 

“I see, I understand… Cheonggyecheon.”

 

She said this while touching her chin.

 

As if something was troubling her, she stared intently at the monitor for a long time.

 

She was as serious as a detective solving a case.

 

A few minutes passed and Aunt came up with an answer.

 

“It’s water, isn’t it? You were expressing light touching flowing water.”

 

“Yes! That’s right!”

 

She understood what I was trying to express in one go.

 

There were many things at Cheonggyecheon.

 

There were people, street trees, cars and buildings.

 

Those were the background.

 

They were the light.

 

Aunt had noticed this just by listening to the music.

 

I was amazed once again by her ability.

 

“But I don’t know the details, so could you tell me?”

 

I gladly explained.

 

I told her that the piano expressed the flowing river.

 

I explained one by one that the synthesizer represented the headlights of speeding cars and the traffic lights that stopped those cars.

 

For now, that was enough.

 

“The guitar that Aunt plays is the buildings!”

 

The lights of tall skyscrapers and billboard advertisements.

 

But that wasn’t the important part.

 

There were people.

 

I wanted to express that people working inside the buildings were hidden within this city.

 

That’s why I wanted a performance that could barely be heard, and I expressed that to Aunt.

 

I began explaining excitedly.

 

My words got tangled here and there, but saying what I wanted to say always made me excited.

 

Aunt was looking at me silently.

 

A few more minutes passed and my explanation ended.

 

“Huh.”

 

Aunt let out a bewildered laugh.

 

What?

 

Did I do something wrong?

 

***

 

No matter how much Hwang Su-jin thought about it, she couldn’t believe it.

 

‘Is he really a genius? How can he express this?’

 

Even though the form was incomplete and off, he had created this song in just one day.

 

Of course, if inspiration keeps flowing, you can create something quickly.

 

But Hee-seong was only 5 years old now.

 

For such a young child who gets bored with anything quickly to create this.

 

Hwang Su-jin wasn’t even surprised anymore.

 

‘And to express light like this.’

 

The more she listened to what Hee-seong said, the more she could understand.

 

Piano was the river.

 

Synthesizer was the passing cars.

 

And guitar was the city buildings.

 

All of these were things found in City Pop.

 

No, rather they were things that couldn’t be missing.

 

Hee-seong was expressing them in his own way.

 

‘But it’s too perfect. Even before hearing the explanation, I felt like I knew what it was. No, hearing the explanation makes me see it more clearly. The identity of this song.’

 

All lights weren’t eternal.

 

City lights were especially so.

 

Traffic lights and street lamps always shone, but building lights didn’t.

 

That’s why he expressed those lights that disappeared and turned on with the guitar.

 

At the same time, Hwang Su-jin felt like she knew what would work well.

 

“Hee-seong always surprises Aunt. No matter how many times I say it, it’s not enough.

 

“Noona, I feel the same way. I think everyone else would too?”

 

“Hehe.”

 

Hwang Su-jin agreed with Yoon Young-hoon’s words.

 

But whether Hee-seong knew their feelings or not, he was just laughing “hehe.”

 

The more time they delayed, the slower the song’s completion would become.

 

So all that remained was to hurry up and start.

 

“Then shall we try it quickly?”

 

“Good!”

 

“A Les Paul would be good.”

 

She took the black guitar that Hee-seong had seen in the video from the stand.

 

Then she very naturally put the strap over her shoulder and began tuning.

 

Dororing-♪

 

The sound of the guitar was heard, and Hee-seong’s eyes sparkled.

 

The song was gradually being created.

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