A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 65

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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 65. Rewrite (2)

 

No matter how I thought about it, it was strange.

 

I knew well that writing wasn’t something that just came out however you wrote it.

 

But why was it that…

 

‘It’s writing so well?’

 

I wasn’t talking about first-class, sentence-level lyrics.

 

Even with simple words, I could write down whatever I was thinking.

 

River.

 

Blue night.

 

Streetlight glow.

 

These were the words that came to mind first.

 

As I slowly wrote them down, forgotten scenes began to emerge.

 

That lonely streetlight I saw in the alley and the blue river of Cheonggyecheon.

 

And even the blue night alleyways of the past.

 

Music truly had the power to make you remember something you’d forgotten.

 

Once again, I wrote down other words.

 

Car horns.

 

Phone ringing.

 

Green light of traffic signals.

 

This time I went further.

 

I broke away from the river and plunged into the cityscape.

 

I saw the billboards on buildings, and the glinting of airplanes flying across the sky.

 

Things I hadn’t seen back then began to become visible again.

 

As I carved them out word by word, the paper was becoming half-filled.

 

‘Now I have nothing left to write. Should I try combining them?’

 

I began staring intently at the paper embroidered with words.

 

I was looking for words that caught my eye.

 

My intuition was telling me so.

 

‘Actually, there’s nothing to think about.’

 

It was easy when I thought about the song’s title.

 

Blue night.

 

Just as the title was like that, and the theme was like that.

 

In the lyrics too, ‘blue night’ would be an important element.

 

I immediately tried writing a sentence.

 

– To me, night is always blue

 

I wrote it like that for now.

 

After writing one line of lyrics, I stopped again.

 

There was a lot to think about.

 

Among them, the thought that came up most was this:

 

‘Isn’t city pop usually love songs…? Urban ones.’

 

So it was like this.

 

I should think of the lyrics Mother had sung at the underground performance hall.

 

They were lyrics that contained the meaning of asking to stay with me.

 

Seasons you wished wouldn’t return came back, and strange feelings arose too.

 

They were somehow empty lyrics that were ambiguous to call love.

 

In contrast, the song had an exciting melody that made you want to move your shoulders wildly.

 

‘What should I do…’

 

I couldn’t help but have many thoughts.

 

“Heeseong, what’s troubling you?”

 

Then Hwang Su-yeol spoke.

 

At his voice, I lifted my head that had been buried in the paper and looked straight at him.

 

With eyes that seemed to find me admirable, he was speaking to me.

 

“Will you tell uncle?”

 

After worrying, I spoke carefully.

 

“This song’s genre is city pop, right…?”

 

“Right?”

 

“Somehow, I feel like I should write it to fit city pop…”

 

“What? Ahahaha!!”

 

What, why are you laughing!

 

At my words, Hwang Su-yeol clutched his stomach and laughed.

 

That behavior seemed like he was mocking me, so my eyebrows began to furrow.

 

After laughing a bit, Hwang Su-yeol apologized to me and told me why he laughed.

 

“When writing lyrics, you don’t think about genre.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Good lyrics move people.”

 

It was a clear answer.

 

Good music and good lyrics.

 

The standards for judging these vary tremendously from person to person.

 

Some would value the harmony of instruments, others would value the deeper meaning of lyrics.

 

But good music and good lyrics were similar in a way.

 

I don’t know about others, but that’s what I thought.

 

‘Music and lyrics that share my memories are good ones.’

 

At least that’s what I thought.

 

Music had the power to move people.

 

When you heard it, it could make you recall memories you’d felt somewhere before.

 

And lyrics were the foundation for approaching that.

 

“Aha! Thank you!”

 

After thanking Hwang Su-yeol, I concentrated once again.

 

I began frantically writing down the blue night I thought of and the cityscape in my memories.

 

-A single streetlight stands lonely

 

The streetlight showed people the way, but no one approached it.

 

-What’s heard in the emptiness is the river’s lament

 

I also thought of words that weren’t already written on the paper.

 

The blue night was playing on infinite repeat.

 

Every time I listened to the music, I could recall what I had been thinking.

 

As I quietly wrote down sentences, I suddenly realized something.

 

‘Hmm…?’

 

That the surroundings were too quiet.

 

When I lifted my head, there was Aunt Sujin looking at me warmly and Hwang Su-yeol looking shocked.

 

I said in confusion.

 

“Uh… is something wrong…?”

 

“No! Heeseong. Don’t mind aunt and uncle, keep writing, okay?”

 

“Ah, yes!”

 

I followed Aunt’s words.

 

I buried my head in the paper again.

 

‘Good, let’s keep writing.’

 

I thought about the night.

 

I thought about the blue night.

 

It was a cold night, but it was warm under the streetlights.

 

Even though my breath showed and I shivered.

 

Somehow, standing under the warm streetlight made me want to puff out my chest.

 

I wanted to stand proudly.

 

‘I’m not ashamed.’

 

I thought that maybe I had puffed out my chest while thinking such thoughts.

 

The blue night was expressing the present, not the past.

 

Genre aside, the main memory that came to mind while composing was the stream of Cheonggyecheon.

 

-My ears have gone deaf from the noise above the road

 

I gradually wrote down the lyrics.

 

I vividly wrote about the experience I felt at that time.

 

I recalled the feast of lights and sounds that had beautifully moistened my ears and eyes.

 

The countless sparkles were so vivid that I could write them down so easily.

 

-I turned my head to look at the billboard, but it was empty

 

It sparkled.

 

The world, the city.

 

But at the same time, it was dark.

 

The space under the bridge with broken lights was dark.

 

It was dark like the alleyways of the past.

 

I was still afraid of that path I had walked tensely, not knowing what might be there.

 

It was the same now.

 

The memories of the past gradually faded, but the memories that had formed me didn’t disappear and instead became clearer.

 

As if telling me to let go of useless things and focus only on what mattered.

 

The memories were holding onto me tightly.

 

Like a child who didn’t want to let go.

 

-The blue night only grows darker and darker

 

Like moonlight covered by clouds, the city’s night was always dark.

 

But there were beings that illuminated the night.

 

-Even so, the city’s lights are still shining

 

It didn’t grow dark.

 

It was just burning bright.

 

No matter how dark the night became, I wanted to speak of the world’s lights that illuminated it.

 

Because Blue Night was that kind of song.

 

I felt like I finally understood what kind of music I had composed.

 

‘This is where it becomes clearer.’

 

-Shining without being extinguished

 

I continued writing the lyrics.

 

The vivid cityscape kept coming to mind.

 

I wrote without missing any of it.

 

I wanted to figure out what I really wanted to say.

 

-The lights scatter gently like cherry blossoms

 

I took a brief rest.

 

I looked over the lyrics I had written so far once more.

 

It was dark.

 

Up until now, I had been talking only about darkness.

 

Right.

 

That was the past me.

 

The me who feared the darkness.

 

But now I’m not scared anymore.

 

I was still alive and breathing, and I didn’t need to fear the night.

 

So it was time to write the final lyrics.

 

-I leaned my heart against the light

 

Like puffing out my chest while looking at the streetlight.

 

I proudly entrusted my body to that warm light.

 

“Kkeueuungcha!!”

 

I had been hunched over for a long time, so I felt a bit stiff.

 

I stretched and organized my thoughts.

 

There were probably still parts to fix, but looking at what I had written, I was quite satisfied.

 

“I’m, I’m done…!”

 

Huh…?

 

Why are they both looking at me like that?

 

***

 

Just three lines of lyrics.

 

Those sentences were enough to instantly recognize the child’s ability.

 

And that he was different from other children.

 

‘He’s not ordinary…’

 

It was closer to poetry than lyrics.

 

Like a single phrase, it touched deeply in the heart.

 

The child was just blinking his sparkling eyes as if he knew nothing.

 

“Heeseong, don’t mind Aunt and Uncle, just keep writing, okay?”

 

“Oh, yes!”

 

After answering, the child buried his head in the paper again.

 

All that was visible was his round back of the head and the moving pen.

 

Hwang Su-yeol watched that sight and thought.

 

‘If raised well…’

 

Like Hwang Su-jin, he too was a music producer.

 

Of course, now he was paying more attention to running the company instead of composing.

 

The place Hwang Su-jin belonged to was also Hwang Su-yeol’s company ‘Arco Music Works’.

 

And among the work he did was recruiting and nurturing talented composers.

 

‘No. Rather than nurturing, supporting would be more accurate.’

 

He immediately changed his mind.

 

Because he remembered the conversation he had with Hwang Su-jin last night.

 

-Heeseong can do it alone. So don’t talk about nurturing him.

 

He thought while continuing to listen to the song Heeseong had composed.

 

This child is a genius.

 

That’s why he had told Hwang Su-jin.

 

Let’s nurture Heeseong.

 

But she didn’t agree.

 

‘I didn’t really expect her to.’

 

Previously, Hwang Su-yeol had collaborated with another company along with his sister.

 

One of the projects that company was working on was a business of raising young children as idols.

 

Seeing children who should be attending school struggling to endure, Hwang Su-jin immediately ran out of the company.

 

He didn’t understand at the time, but now he thought he knew.

 

No, he had known even back then.

 

‘Hah… Father is always an obstacle.’

 

Because he remembered the old man who had given them nightmares.

 

Hwang Su-jin and Hwang Su-yeol had grown up in nightmares they never spoke of to anyone.

 

They had completely escaped from it now, but sometimes they reflected on it again.

 

-I won’t use Heeseong. However…

 

Last night’s Hwang Su-jin had been resolute.

 

She didn’t seem to have any intention of bending her will.

 

Hwang Su-yeol just watched Heeseong.

 

The more he looked at the child, the more such thoughts kept arising.

 

‘Could there be another child like this?’

 

He could be certain there probably wouldn’t be.

 

That’s why his gaze changed.

 

He began to look at Heeseong’s lyrics very carefully and thoroughly.

 

He planned to analyze them as best he could and speak somewhat sharply.

 

Speaking with the heart of an industry senior rather than an uncle would probably have a better influence on Heeseong.

 

‘Why, why does it keep getting better?!’

 

He was flustered.

 

Hwang Su-yeol could be certain that a 5-year-old could never write such lyrics.

 

But Heeseong was writing exactly those kinds of lyrics.

 

Emptiness.

 

Lamentation.

 

Noise.

 

Such was the cityscape the child had written.

 

He probably felt it was a desolate and frightening place.

 

That’s why he seemed to be saying they should run away.

 

That was possible.

 

There were many such songs.

 

It was just surprising that Heeseong was writing it.

 

‘Where will you go?’

 

Hwang Su-yeol wanted to ask.

 

He wanted to ask where he wanted to go after escaping from the city.

 

But he couldn’t speak.

 

He was worried that his words might break the child’s concentration.

 

Hwang Su-yeol suppressed his greed and held a time of patience.

 

-The blue night only grows darker

 

The child’s night was growing dark.

 

– Yet the city’s lights still shine on

 

But he didn’t run away.

 

Even if the night grew darker, he told them that lights were shining.

 

Traffic lights, cars, billboards, street lamps.

 

There were so many.

 

The child was speaking of those shining things instead of the darkness.

 

-The lights scatter gently like cherry blossoms

 

To the child, light was flowers.

 

He was speaking of beauty.

 

Hwang Su-yeol’s eyes and mouth were gradually opening wider.

 

He couldn’t believe it.

 

As a lyricist, he couldn’t help but admire it.

 

And he could tell.

 

That the child was about to write the final lyrics.

 

-I leaned my heart against the lights

 

Hwang Su-yeol could tell.

 

That Heeseong was not ordinary.

 

Having finished writing the lyrics, Heeseong stretched and looked at Hwang Su-jin and Hwang Su-yeol.

 

Seeing their expressions, Heeseong showed signs of bewilderment.

 

Leaving such a Heeseong behind.

 

“Heeseong, you…!”

 

Hwang Su-yeol said what he wanted to say.

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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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