A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 94

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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 94. Story (1)

14 views.

That was the maximum number of views in one hour.

This was something I hadn’t expected.

Argo Music Works had few subscribers.

It was a very small channel with about a thousand subscribers, but the music uploaded was absolutely amazing.

Simply put, few people knew about it, but that small number dug very deeply into the channel.

In other words, you could say the fanbase was solid.

But for some reason, few people were watching this video.

‘Right, it just went up, so that could be it.’

I was just playing the role of waiting quietly.

But I couldn’t control the rising anxiety myself.

I just had to endure it.

“Phew…”

I took a small deep breath and began to gradually calm my anxiety.

There was nothing I could do.

So let’s just play the piano.

As always, I sat in front of the piano.

And slowly began to think.

The tens of thousands of sheet music pieces floating in my mind right now.

Among them, I thought of a piece that could perfectly represent my current situation.

‘There’s a good one.’

Various composers from the past flashed through my mind.

Among them, one figure caught my attention perfectly.

Chopin’s Prelude Op.28 No.4.

You might not know what piece it is just from hearing the name, but when you listen to it, you naturally go “Oh?”

I quite liked this piece.

This piece had various characteristics.

The biggest characteristic among them was its simple yet not simple composition.

When I first heard this piece, I thought “How can such a piece exist?”

Ding-♩

I took a deep breath and tapped the piano.

It was a continuous anxious trembling.

The left hand’s beat moved powerlessly.

Like the heart of someone panting, it was beating ambiguously.

‘It’s crying anxiously.’

If the left hand represented the heartbeat, the right hand was breathing.

Human breathing.

The breath of someone trying to calm down by taking deep breaths.

But no matter how much they tried to calm down, they couldn’t.

‘It’s a piece that makes people anxious. Is that why?’

Rather, it was comfortable.

I always thought about it.

Why does anxiety arise?

I thought it arose from the gap between the situation in one’s heart and reality.

In my heart, in my head, bad things kept happening.

Music being taken away, sometimes precious friends leaving far away.

Unstoppable natural disasters continuously occurring was what was happening in my inner world.

But reality was nothing like that at all.

“Rather, it’s peaceful.”

It was a continuous series of too much peace.

Ding-♪

I breathed a little stronger breath into the piano.

Even with the same piece, the tone always changed depending on who played it.

My body was small.

Small and weak, so there was no strength in the piano.

I used that.

Anxiety became a reed swaying here and there.

‘In the past, would there have been a little more strength?’

The sound also changed according to physique.

In the past, I was on the small side.

Honestly, I didn’t think it would be much different from my current young self.

“Phew…”

I closed my eyes and focused on my playing hands.

The structure wasn’t complex.

But the melody of notes that seemed to end but never ended made people anxious.

No flashy techniques or dynamic changes.

Monotonous, but because of that, it sounded more cruel.

Because it seemed like human anxiety could be expressed so easily.

‘But that’s not right.’

Human anxiety wasn’t something that could be expressed easily.

But there was exactly one element that allowed me to speak so confidently.

Anxiety is contagious.

If someone is trembling with anxiety, the person next to them will be trembling too.

That’s why the more anxious the situation, the more I played pieces like this.

Ding-aaan- Ding!♬

The reason was simple.

Because all music has an ending.

No matter how much I suffered alone, reality didn’t change.

So I played pieces and projected emotions into them.

I painted my anxious self.

Sketching with the left hand’s heartbeat and coloring with the right hand’s breathing.

That was my way of resolving anxiety.

Music was something magical that moved people’s emotions.

That’s why listening to music made you cry and, like now, gave you comfort.

Ding-♪

The performance ended.

A performance that always made me feel good.

Having shaken off my anxiety, I smiled gently.

Knock knock.

Then I heard someone knocking on the door.

When I turned my head, Mother was standing there.

“Hee-seong, let’s eat.”

The person who always took my side.

I ran to Mother.

“What’s the side dish today?”

“Today it’s stir-fried pork.”

“That sounds delicious! Huh? But where’s Father?”

“Dad’s running a bit late. Let’s eat together, just you and Mom today.”

“Great!”

Father seemed to be quite busy today.

Well, that was understandable.

***

Hee-seong’s prediction was indeed correct.

“Uh….”

“Hmm….”

“This wasn’t what we expected, right, hyung…?”

An hour had passed since the video was uploaded to NewTube.

Hwang Su-yeol nodded slightly at Yoon Young-hoon’s words.

For the past six months, aside from their main work, they had been preparing the content Hee-seong had mentioned.

Deep down, he thought they had prepared well.

They had promoted by commenting on all past videos and breathed life into the frozen channel.

They had made videos of songs they hadn’t shown before and released them to the public.

And they hadn’t forgotten to promote in the description section either.

But surprisingly, no one showed any interest.

It felt embarrassing, like playing both the drum and the janggu alone.

“But the comment reactions weren’t bad, were they?”

“They weren’t bad, I think…. But there weren’t many comments.”

“Comments?”

“Yeah. It’s been like that from before. Our company’s channel strangely has many viewers, but no one leaves comments.”

Yoon Young-hoon thought carefully.

High view counts but no comments.

That meant there were only many listeners.

It was highly likely that viewers heard it by chance rather than actively searching for it.

“I think people are listening to noona’s songs because of autoplay?”

“Is that so?”

“Look. The channel only has songs. There aren’t even lyrics showing.”

“I knew that…. But I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

“It’s not easy….”

The three people began to worry, putting their heads together.

No matter how much they pondered about how to get people interested, no answer came.

“No!”

“Why, why! What is it!”

“In the meantime, our subscribers decreased….”

“Ah….”

At Hwang Su-yeol’s dejected cry, Yoon Young-hoon could only gently pat his back.

Bad news piled on top of bad news.

This situation seemed to approach them as quite a big adversity.

“Ah, forget it!”

Then Hwang Su-jin stood up from her seat and spoke.

Everyone was startled by the sudden loud voice.

Yoon Young-hoon and Hwang Su-yeol stared blankly at Hwang Su-jin.

“Let’s eat first. We haven’t even eaten.”

“I am hungry, but still, this….”

“Let’s do as noona says. I’m hungry too. Let’s eat first.”

“Hmm….”

Hwang Su-yeol thought for a moment and then answered that he understood.

Whatever it was, it seemed better to do it after eating.

So the three people left Argo.

Ding!

A very small sound rang out in the empty music studio.

And it disappeared like the wind.

***

Inside a pojangmacha long after work hours.

Jeong Yeong-ho muttered quietly.

“Nothing’s working out.”

There was nothing he could do.

He was so powerless that he had collapsed.

He had been unjustly framed and kicked out of his workplace.

Even when betrayed by a friend, he hadn’t cried.

Even when his lover was stolen and he heard harsh insults, he endured steadfastly.

It was really hard, but he somehow endured it.

“Father…. I can’t do it.”

Jeong Yeong-ho chuckled as he recalled his father who told him to go to work even when it was hard.

His father had burned his whole body for the family.

However, the price was death from overwork.

There was no compensation from the company to begin with.

“I won’t die like father.”

There was nothing he could do.

He had only worked at companies his whole life, so he didn’t know how to do anything.

He tried to get a part-time job, but no one would hire him.

He knew it too.

“Young people are much better than me.”

It was too clear a fact.

His body had aged.

Though he could still move, he was at an age where even a small mistake could cause serious injury.

He might have work sense.

“It’s hopeless, hopeless.”

He poured alcohol into his mouth once more.

It felt like hot oil was going down his throat.

Since he was gulping down alcohol that he normally wouldn’t even touch, his mind felt dizzy.

“Stop drinking.”

Then someone appeared to stop Jeong Yeong-ho from pouring more alcohol.

A man in a neat suit.

“Oh, Eonseung came.”

“Why are you pushing yourself like this when you don’t even drink?”

“What can I do when I want to drink?”

Jeong Yeong-ho giggled like that and drank alcohol once more.

Perhaps because he was happy to see his college classmate after a long time, the alcohol tasted particularly sweet.

But Kim Eonseung took away his friend’s drink.

“Stop drinking. You’re very drunk.”

“No, I’m fine. I can drink more.”

“Your liver isn’t fine. I’ll call a taxi for you later.”

“Haha….”

Jeong Yeong-ho laughed weakly.

He didn’t know how reliable and grateful his friend who always helped him was.

Though it was a company he got a job at thanks to his friend, he felt sorry for being fired from that company due to his own incompetence.

Jeong Yeong-ho’s head dropped powerlessly from shame.

Kim Eonseung, who was watching such a friend, spoke first.

“I would recommend employment…. But I don’t want to tell you to come to Lagos.”

“That’s a music company to begin with. I’m an accountant, not someone who makes music.”

“I could introduce you to the accounting department.”

“No. I feel like I’m always just receiving help from you…”

Jeong Yeong-ho trailed off.

As he said, Jeong Yeong-ho always felt sorry toward Kim Eon-seung.

He felt terrible that he seemed to always be on the receiving end.

That’s why Jeong Yeong-ho didn’t ask Kim Eon-seung for anything.

‘Stupid fool.’

Kim Eon-seung thought as he looked at Jeong Yeong-ho.

It pained him to see his friend struggling alone when someone who would help if asked was right in front of him.

Because they were friends, he didn’t want to hurt that pride.

Jeong Yeong-ho never asked anyone for help.

He always overcame things alone and held his chest high with dignity.

That was the image of Jeong Yeong-ho that Kim Eon-seung saw, but not now.

Now he was just one exhausted human being.

‘At times like this, it’s best to open up to someone…’

But Jeong Yeong-ho didn’t seem to have any intention of doing so.

Having watched him from the side all this time, he could be certain of it.

Kim Eon-seung quietly let out a sigh.

“What’s this?”

Just then, voices from customers at the next table could be heard.

It seemed like college students had come to drink.

Seeing them, memories of the past gently surfaced, and Kim Eon-seung unconsciously smiled faintly.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, there’s some channel I’m subscribed to that I don’t recognize.”

“Channel? NewTube?”

“Yeah, the name is… Argo? What is this, I should unsubscribe.”

Kim Eon-seung, who had been quietly listening, felt his eyes shake.

Argo.

Those three syllables were a channel Kim Eon-seung frequently watched.

No, to be precise, it was the name of a company he often heard about.

Because it was a company created by Hwang Su-jin, his former colleague and someone dear to him, together with her older brother.

To listen to Hwang Su-jin’s music, going into the channel almost daily to listen to music had become his routine.

‘Come to think of it, I haven’t been on lately.’

A few months ago, strange winds began blowing at the company.

Kim Eon-seung got swept up in those winds and was in a state of chaos.

Even when he asked what was going on, his boss only repeated that he didn’t know.

He wouldn’t give any concrete answers.

Kim Eon-seung was going to work carrying a resignation letter in his heart.

‘Should I check it out after a long time?’

Hwang Su-jin’s songs had been a great comfort to him.

So he thought it would be nice if his precious friend could also find comfort.

And so he entered the NewTube channel.

“Huh?”

Kim Eon-seung found himself looking at an incomprehensible video.

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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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