A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 51

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

Chapter 51. Married Life (2)

 

“It’s a secret.”

 

“Huh? But I told you mine?”

 

“Mine is also a drawing of grandpa, so let’s look at them together later.”

 

“Okay! I have to draw mine even cooler!”

 

Garam answered with a bright smile.

 

It was a sight that made me smile for no reason just watching.

 

‘I should draw a picture too, right?’

 

Playing piano or learning music is fun, but drawing like this is quite enjoyable too.

 

I drew a line down the middle of the sketchbook with my pencil.

 

A long line.

 

I couldn’t say my drawing skills were good, but I could draw well enough that what I wanted to express would be recognizable.

 

‘Let me draw that moment when the atmosphere completely changed.’

 

I’m thinking of drawing that hospital room scene that suddenly turned dark.

 

I grabbed a sky-blue crayon and a light yellow colored pencil.

 

My right hand holding the crayon moved toward the left side of the sketchbook split in half.

 

Then I drew an endlessly clear sky and a cradle.

 

I also delicately drew the face of a woman smiling brightly.

 

I started getting a little hot from concentrating.

 

‘Phew, drawing isn’t easy either.’

 

Though not satisfying, the woman’s face was somewhat complete.

 

I was quite satisfied with how she was smiling clearly.

 

Now it was time to draw a picture on the opposite side.

 

This time I grabbed a dark brown in my hand.

 

I drew a rough sketch with pencil and started coloring over it.

 

This time the woman’s expression wasn’t visible.

 

Instead, the crumpled face of the man behind her added to the sadness.

 

‘Hmm, thinking about it, the song playing in the background slowed down at this point too.’

 

The song before the atmosphere changed was bright.

 

It was gentle and made you feel good just listening quietly, but not when the atmosphere reversed.

 

As the beat slowed down, it felt like my shoulders were drooping.

 

The depressing atmosphere combined with the dark mood and the characters’ expressions amplified the sadness.

 

I thought this was the power of music.

 

Even though it was a video without a single line of dialogue or voice, those emotions were conveyed.

 

‘I want to try making movie music someday too.’

 

I put strength into my hand while recalling the music lingering in my ears.

 

But maybe I put too much strength in, because my hand hurt a little.

 

I decided to take a breather and look at the other children’s drawings a bit.

 

‘Aeyeon must have thought the puppy was cute. Oh, Ajin was impressed by the waterfall? Garam is…’

 

Garam was still drawing his grandpa picture.

 

It was a drawing of a grandpa with a somewhat lonely expression.

 

A grandpa with a sullen expression.

 

That kept catching my eye.

 

“Everyone, are you done with your drawings?”

 

While drawing frantically, time was already approaching the end.

 

I wanted to draw a little more, which was disappointing.

 

Now, as always, presentation time had arrived.

 

Of course, I had no intention of doing it.

 

‘The reason I chose this scene is… it would be better not to say.’

 

It wouldn’t be a very good story for the children.

 

But even if I didn’t do it, the children around me seemed to want to present.

 

Positive children who wanted to tell their stories.

 

Among them, Garam, who could make others smile, raised his hand high.

 

“Good. Shall Garam come out and present?”

 

Garam ran to the front of the blackboard with quick steps.

 

He cleared his throat and started presenting.

 

“Ahem! Um… this is grandpa getting up from bed.”

 

“Can you tell us why you chose that scene?”

 

“He looks exactly like my grandpa.”

 

Garam’s sketchbook, excited about his grandpa story, was a bit gloomy unlike the child.

 

It didn’t matter since the movie scene was gloomy to begin with.

 

I thought Garam’s reason for drawing that scene wasn’t simply that reason.

 

“Grandpa talks in a difficult way!”

 

Garam began continuing his explanation about his grandpa.

 

His complaints about how scary he looked and how he scolded him every day were quite cute.

 

Telling him to eat side dishes evenly, to sleep early, to clean up.

 

It was quite cute, like a 5-year-old’s whining.

 

But the child’s last words were something I couldn’t laugh at.

 

At least that’s how I felt.

 

“When I get up early in the morning and go to grandpa, he rubs his eyes in bed. His eyes are really red.”

 

Looking now, the grandpa in Garam’s drawing also had slightly reddened eyes.

 

“And he breathes like this, huff! He sits for a really long time before coming out.”

 

Unlike Garam’s explanation, it sounded like sad words.

 

The sight of rubbing eyes and gasping for breath didn’t seem normal.

 

Normal people wouldn’t rub their eyes until they turned red.

 

I became curious about what kind of person he might be.

 

“Good. Garam presented well! You drew the picture because he looked exactly like your grandpa.”

 

“Yes, hehe.”

 

“Well done. Now, next friend?”

 

While other children were raising their hands enthusiastically, Garam returned to his seat.

 

Aeyeon and Ajin, who didn’t seem to want to present, showed interest in Garam’s drawing.

 

“Garam’s grandpa looks really scary…”

 

“Right. Really, really scary. And he has a scar on his cheek too?”

 

Garam wrapped his arms around himself and shivered as if scared.

 

The children started talking about their own grandpas.

 

I began looking at Garam’s drawing with more focus.

 

‘Isn’t he just an ordinary grandpa?’

 

What I had felt was somehow unusual seemed to be simply my mistake.

 

Calling him grandpa while watching the movie also seemed to be simply because they looked similar.

 

So I turned my gaze away from the drawing.

 

***

 

Preschool was over and I came out of the preschool with Father.

 

But Father’s behavior of searching through his pockets seemed unusual.

 

“Ah, right! My phone!”

 

Father, who had left his phone behind when he went to the bathroom, told me to wait a moment and quickly went back into the preschool.

 

Thanks to that, left alone, I figured I had nothing to do and decided to sit on a nearby bench.

 

‘Hm?’

 

When I turned my head toward the bench next to the preschool entrance, some old man was sitting there.

 

It was an old man sitting comfortably and looking up at the sky.

 

It was quite interesting to see someone who looked bigger than a bear sitting there prominently.

 

‘His eyes… they look sad somehow.’

 

Perhaps because they held the blue of the sky, his pupils looked a little moist.

 

Curious, I approached the old man a bit closer.

 

Crack.

 

I heard the sound of a tree branch breaking under my feet.

 

It wasn’t a quiet sound, so the old man turned to look at me, and only then could I see.

 

‘A scar…? No way’

 

It was Garam’s grandfather, with a scar on his left cheek.

 

Our eyes met and his gruff voice struck my ears.

 

“What.”

 

It wasn’t simply a mistake.

 

Garam’s grandfather was truly scary.

 

The scar on his face made his atmosphere rough.

 

Moreover, his skin was dark and his expression was fierce.

 

“Ah, hello…?”

 

I found myself trembling without realizing it.

 

I didn’t even tremble this much when performing in front of people.

 

At my reaction, the old man stared at me blankly then chuckled.

 

“You gonna sit?”

 

“Ah, yes…!”

 

“Alright. Sit next to me.”

 

The old man said this and moved slightly to the side so I could sit.

 

At his action, I flinched a little.

 

‘Garam, so this was what you were scared of.’

 

I carefully sat down next to him.

 

The old man seemed bored as he asked me various things.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

“My name? I’m Yoon Hee-seong…”

 

“Hee-seong? I feel like I’ve heard that name a lot somewhere… Do you know a kid named Garam?”

 

“Garam? Of course I know him. Then, you must be Garam’s grandfather?”

 

“Smart kid. That’s right, I’m Garam’s grandpa. My name is Choi Manbok.”

 

Choi Manbok…

 

Grandfather Manbok said this and grinned.

 

Now that I looked, he didn’t seem like such a bad person.

 

I felt ashamed of myself for thinking he was scary just based on his appearance.

 

“But did you come to pick up Garam, Grandfather?”

 

“That’s right. I came to pick up Garam.”

 

“What about Garam’s mom and dad?”

 

“Garam’s mom and dad are working in the countryside.”

 

Grandfather said this while stretching his shoulders wide.

 

He must have been sitting for quite a while as his body seemed stiff.

 

‘Huh? His hands…?’

 

That’s when I noticed.

 

His left hand with incredibly thick calluses.

 

In comparison, his right hand was relatively clean.

 

That’s how I could tell.

 

That Grandfather Manbok was someone who played string instruments.

 

Having seen violin players several times in the past, I could tell immediately.

 

Unable to contain my excitement at the fact that Garam’s grandfather played instruments, I asked.

 

“Do you play violin, Grandfather? Or viola? Oh, is it guitar?”

 

“Ah? Y-yes. I do play violin… How did you know?”

 

“I could tell from your hands! Then what songs do you play? Do you play classical music?”

 

At my barrage of questions, Grandfather Manbok became flustered.

 

Realizing this, I calmed down a bit and asked again.

 

“Sorry. That was a lot of questions, wasn’t it?”

 

“No. That’s understandable. Hee-seong, you’re really mature.”

 

“Heh, thank you. How long have you been playing violin?”

 

“Heh heh…”

 

Instead of answering, he just laughed helplessly.

 

Then he silently looked up at the sky.

 

That posture somehow looked sad.

 

“For a very long time.”

 

“How long?”

 

“I don’t know. I never counted. But I do know the day I quit.”

 

“…You quit?”

 

The old man didn’t answer my question.

 

As if it wasn’t something to tell a child, he looked troubled.

 

His eyes were lost in melancholy as if looking somewhere beyond the sky.

 

It was a gaze that seemed to long for memories.

 

I could tell.

 

That was the same look I had often shown in the past.

 

‘What kind of story did you have that makes you so sad?’

 

I wanted to ask.

 

If it were the past me, I would have asked that.

 

But I couldn’t.

 

Those words just wouldn’t come out of my mouth.

 

I couldn’t understand the reason myself.

 

“Hee-seong!”

 

While I was pondering, Father, who had found his phone, called for me.

 

And he discovered Grandfather Manbok sitting next to me.

 

Grandfather also looked at Father.

 

Father naturally bowed his head in greeting.

 

“What a well-behaved child. Nice to meet you. I’m Garam’s grandfather, Choi Manbok.”

 

“Nice to meet you. I’m Yoon Young-hoon. I’m Hee-seong’s father.”

 

The two men began exchanging conversation.

 

Meanwhile, I got down from the chair and took Father’s hand.

 

Even so, my gaze was directed toward his hands.

 

His hands with countless calluses embedded in them.

 

“Well, I should go pick up my granddaughter too.”

 

“I’ll see you next time. Hee-seong, let’s say goodbye.”

 

“See you next time!”

 

“Alright, take care.”

 

Grandfather waved his hand and went inside the kindergarten.

 

Was it because he was bored, or was there another reason.

 

I wanted to know why he kept sitting on that bench.

 

Besides that, I also wanted to know why he lied about quitting playing when he had such vivid calluses on his hands.

 

‘Next time I see him, I’ll ask properly.’

 

Thinking this, I got into Father’s car.

 

The sun was slowly setting.

 

***

 

“Huff, huff…!”

 

The old man gripped the violin.

 

He gripped it tightly.

 

So tightly that clear marks would remain, tightly enough to leave scars.

 

Pain spread through him and sweat poured down his body.

 

“Hah… I couldn’t do it again today.”

 

The old man put the violin back in its case.

 

Then he lay down on the bed.

 

Even though the sturdy old man was lying down, there was far too much space remaining.

 

As if someone else should be lying there too.

 

Step.

 

He came out to the living room.

 

And slightly opened the door to the small room.

 

Garam was sleeping soundly.

 

The old man looked at his granddaughter and smiled a little.

 

After taking in the sight of his granddaughter, whom he didn’t know how to treat, for a long time, he quietly closed the door again.

 

Moonlight was streaming into the living room.

 

But the old man only watched that light from the darkness.

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