A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 54

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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 54. Warmth (1)

 

“Come, come over here.”

 

Grandfather Manbok gestured for me to come to his side.

 

He laughed heartily, seemingly amused by me struggling to move the heavy chair.

 

Even while laughing, he helped me, and I sat down right next to him.

 

‘Oh, it’s NewTube?’

 

It was the site Father always opened for me when I asked to watch music videos.

 

Grandfather Manbok was preparing to play some video.

 

“Do you know who this is?”

 

“Grandfather…? You look like a young grandfather!”

 

“That’s right, it’s me from about 20 years ago. How about it, was I handsome?”

 

I listened to his words and squinted hard, focusing on the monitor screen.

 

But there was a problem.

 

‘The video quality is really bad…’

 

It was as crude as if someone had drawn a person’s face with a large brush.

 

When Grandfather’s face was enlarged, I could at least recognize it.

 

He was definitely younger 20 years ago.

 

It was a video of him performing on some stage.

 

He wore a neat uniform and had his hair slicked back neatly.

 

It was different from now, but there was exactly one different point.

 

‘There’s no scar on his face?’

 

The scar that now marked Grandfather Manbok’s face wasn’t there.

 

That meant it had appeared within just 10 years.

 

“First, watch this old man play. Oh, want some chocolate?”

 

“I want some!”

 

Grandfather Manbok took out chocolate from his desk drawer and gave it to me.

 

I focused on the monitor while tasting the sweet and slightly bitter flavor spreading in my mouth.

 

Click.

 

The video started with the familiar sound I always heard.

 

His posture was precise.

 

Though I hadn’t learned violin, I could tell just by looking at Grandfather Manbok’s posture.

 

It was a posture crafted not from doing it once or twice, but molded by decades of time.

 

Somehow it had the atmosphere of a master.

 

Wooong-♪

 

The violin’s melody came through the cheap speakers attached to the monitor.

 

The sound quality was definitely not good.

 

There was noise intermittently and it cut out here and there.

 

But that was just the surface sound.

 

What I heard was not that.

 

‘Wow…!’

 

The sound was warm.

 

It was as warm as a campfire.

 

No matter what the current sound was like, the essence of the piece he was playing hadn’t changed at all.

 

He was playing something warm right now.

 

I just felt it like a campfire.

 

‘What piece is this? I’ve never heard it before…’

 

I tried hard to figure out what piece this was.

 

But I couldn’t tell what was what, so I soon gave up.

 

Right now, feeling the piece was more important than figuring out what piece it was.

 

I quietly closed my eyes.

 

Ziiing-♬

 

What was he expressing?

 

The hot sun?

 

Or a warm campfire?

 

It wasn’t clear.

 

I could only tell that it was ‘warm.’

 

Grandfather Manbok’s performance was delicate, so even though there was a lot of noise in the audible performance, I could tell at least a little.

 

That he was playing with a warm heart.

 

It was a piece that made me feel good.

 

I wanted to hear this piece properly.

 

From beginning to end.

 

‘Hm? What’s this now?’

 

The atmosphere of a piece is bound to change, and his performance was the same.

 

The mood had changed.

 

This time it became cold instead.

 

An extremely cold breath was felt nearby.

 

It was as cold as being caught in rain falling in the dead of winter.

 

Yes, it was a familiar coldness.

 

Was it because it was the coldness that always lingered around me?

 

I could immerse myself in the piece so easily.

 

The warmth was vague, but now I could feel the piece clearly.

 

‘Rain, that’s rain.’

 

Cold rain was falling, soaking my entire body.

 

The cold breath of midwinter was shattered by the falling rain.

 

I pressed my body close to the small protruding roof and wall, trying not to let even my face get hit.

 

But.

 

Jang-♩ Ziing♪ Ziing-!

 

The violin’s performance made me feel a little more urgent.

 

I had to run.

 

What was certain was that the performance was becoming urgent.

 

A performance that made me breathe heavily was continuing.

 

‘My chest hurts…!’

 

It didn’t actually hurt.

 

It just felt that way.

 

Grandfather Manbok’s performance was like having a knife stabbed into my chest.

 

It was a performance so painful that I couldn’t breathe.

 

I opened my closed eyes and looked at the monitor.

 

Grandfather Manbok in the video was crying.

 

I probably thought he was crying because he was in pain.

 

Ziiiii- cut

 

“Huh?”

 

The piece was cut off.

 

No, the video itself was cut off.

 

I was confused, not knowing anything.

 

‘What? Did the internet get cut off or something?’

 

“The video ends here.”

 

Sadness was evident in Grandfather Manbok’s eyes as he said that.

 

I became curious about what hurt so much that made him cry like that.

 

“How did you find it?”

 

Grandfather’s question about how I found it made me think a lot.

 

It felt warm and made me happy, but it also hurt my chest like running away on a rainy day.

 

I said exactly what I felt.

 

“At first it was warm. It felt like there was a campfire in front of me. But then it rained in the middle and my chest hurt so much!”

 

“…Is that so?”

 

“And I have something I’m curious about!”

 

“Hmm? What is it?”

 

What I wanted to ask from now on wasn’t about the song.

 

‘I want to know about you.’

 

So the question I was about to ask might give me a deeper meaning than any other question.

 

After taking a brief deep breath, I spoke to him carefully so my pronunciation wouldn’t slip.

 

“Grandfather, what were you thinking when you played?”

 

My question was simple in a way.

 

But Grandfather Manbok, who received the question, just stood there blankly.

 

“…Thoughts.”

 

He looked like a philosopher contemplating something profound.

 

I waited for his answer with inner anticipation.

 

“There was nothing like that from the beginning.”

 

It was a lie as clear and transparent as a mountain spring.

 

***

 

“Hah…”

 

At a time when everyone should be asleep, Choi Man-bok was awake.

 

The reason was none other than the conversation he had with Hee-seong at the academy.

 

“Thoughts, thoughts…”

 

Choi Man-bok kept repeating only those words.

 

Though it was such a quiet and gentle echo, his heart was not the same.

 

Because the stage from 20 years ago was becoming increasingly vivid.

 

It was the biggest stage he could stand on, the greatest glory of his life, and at the same time an indelible guilt.

 

“Hehe, it won’t be forgotten either.”

 

The endless applause and the gazes looking at him.

 

– I watched your performance well. I’d like to invite you to my orchestra.

 

At the age of 41, the greatest opportunity of his life came to him.

 

He couldn’t throw it away.

 

Performing overseas, not domestically, was his lifelong wish.

 

But.

 

– Husband.

 

– Father.

 

His family’s words held him back.

 

His dream was precious too.

 

But his family was several times more precious than that.

 

So he declined his dream.

 

– Go and come back.

 

– I can’t do that. Leaving you behind, where would I go…

 

– You wanted to go, didn’t you? Go.

 

– …

 

Just as Choi Man-bok treasured his wife, his wife felt the same way.

 

She knew Choi Man-bok’s wish well.

 

That small wish she could know so naturally, having watched from beside him since childhood.

 

As a friend, as family, wanting to support him was her heart.

 

Choi Man-bok pondered and pondered again at those words.

 

Would it be okay for him to do so? He felt guilty.

 

– Go and come back, Father.

 

Another family member said so.

 

Those words shook his heart.

 

It’s okay to go.

 

At those words, Choi Man-bok was happy.

 

Surely, he thought he was happy.

 

However, that was a mistake.

 

– Welcome. Now let’s go. You’ll perform the greatest stage of your life overseas.

 

– What? For life?

 

– That’s right. Your skills are far too excellent to stay only in Korea. So let’s live overseas.

 

– I didn’t hear such words! If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have gone!

 

– It’s not forced. However.

 

Choi Man-bok suddenly felt a chilling sensation from the person in front of him.

 

It didn’t feel like the person who had proposed joining the orchestra.

 

He thought it was a cheerful young man with a good impression, but it wasn’t.

 

It was a snake.

 

A talking snake was making a proposal to him.

 

– Will such an opportunity come again?

 

– Excuse me…?

 

– Let’s go together. To create the greatest stage.

 

– …

 

The young man’s words were eerie.

 

At the same time, they were captivating.

 

An opportunity that wouldn’t come again.

 

He thought.

 

‘Right, I just need to earn a lot of money. The whole family can live together in a foreign country.’

 

That’s what he thought.

 

Thinking of it as a time of endurance for his family, he boarded the plane going overseas.

 

Then, three months later.

 

– Mother… has fallen ill.

 

He heard news about his wife.

 

It was a text he received after finishing a big stage performance.

 

The curtain on Choi Man-bok’s first and last stage was also falling.

 

– I didn’t tell you because I was afraid it would be hard for you. It was your dream. I’m sorry…

 

– No, no… it’s all my fault…

 

– I’m truly sorry for not being able to be together…

 

Her last words were pitiful.

 

She held rain at dawn and closed her eyes peacefully.

 

Choi Man-bok could only listen quietly to those words.

 

With a violin in his hands.

 

Holding such a precious violin, he had to quietly listen to those words.

 

“Hah…”

 

Even now, Choi Man-bok held that violin from back then in his hands.

 

He gripped the violin that made no sound again today.

 

It was still painful.

 

Even so, he kept gripping it endlessly.

 

This was atonement for the past.

 

It was an action filled with the regret and guilt of a pathetic husband who couldn’t stay by his wife’s side.

 

“I couldn’t play today either… Will I be able to tomorrow…”

 

His action, which had become the closing routine of each day, was his own small secret that no one knew.

 

‘Grandfather…?’

 

But now it was different.

 

Garam, who had woken up, was watching his actions very quietly.

 

Grandfather lifting the violin heavily looked like he was in pain somehow.

 

It was a posture for playing, but he couldn’t play.

 

He couldn’t understand why he was acting like that.

 

And he was extremely curious.

 

‘Why is Grandfather acting like that?’

 

He wanted to ask someone smart, but there wasn’t anyone suitable to ask.

 

‘Ah! Heeseong!’

 

Garam thought of Heeseong, who was always mature.

 

He thought that Heeseong might answer his question.

 

He had faith that that child would give him a good answer.

 

Before that.

 

‘Grandfather…. I hope he’s not in pain….’

 

The child very quietly watched Grandfather’s awkward appearance through the crack in the door until the very end.

 

Until the deep night arrived.

 

***

 

“Violin. Violin….”

 

I didn’t know much about the violin.

 

Even so, I wanted to compose using the violin.

 

The reason was none other than Grandfather Manbok.

 

I was curious about his unknown story.

 

But I wouldn’t ask with words.

 

‘If you’re a musician, you should ask through music.’

 

I would only express what I felt.

 

That warm bonfire and the cold rain and wind.

 

I would express that in my own way.

 

The only problem was that I didn’t know about the violin.

 

‘Ugh!!’

 

But no matter how much I worried, there was no good method.

 

No matter how much I thought about it.

 

‘I don’t want to get help from Father. I want to try doing it alone this time.’

 

I had quite an enjoyable experience composing with Aunt last time.

 

But this time I wanted to try doing it alone.

 

Both Father and Mother looked busy.

 

This time I was thinking of composing while studying by myself.

 

So let me at least sketch first.

 

If I play something, a decent method will come to mind.

 

‘Grandfather Manbok, Garam…. Wait, Garam?’

 

There was one person around me who knew the violin.

 

She was even Grandfather Manbok’s granddaughter, so she would know about the violin well.

 

‘When I saw her last time, there was a mistake, but still!’

 

The difference between having learned something and not was very big.

 

So I was thinking of learning about the violin from Garam.

 

‘Good. It seems like it’ll be fine.’

 

When I meet her tomorrow, let me ask about the violin.

 

I smiled happily while imagining the song I would complete.

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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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