Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 131
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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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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 131
Thud!
They clasp hands and embrace.
There’s no strength felt in the hand patting his back.
“Are you feeling a bit better?”
Bruno Mars, who stopped all activities and went into seclusion after his mother’s death from a brain aneurysm rupture last year.
Bitterness spreads across his gaunt face under the deeply pressed hat.
He comforts Emily who bursts into tears in his arms.
“Still.”
It’s hard.
When he turns around, he thinks of his mother, when he eats, he seems to smell his mother’s scent, and when he watches TV, his mom’s nagging hits his ears. Each time, tears pour out, but there’s nothing he can do except beat his blocked chest and sob.
If only he had taken his mom to the hospital right away when he received his first settlement. If only he hadn’t carelessly just sent money saying it was his first settlement as a singer, but had visited home and taken her to the hospital.
All kinds of regrets hit his chest and crush his mind.
“If Jessica hadn’t brought me out today, I would have just stayed in the hotel.”
A trip that started a few days ago at his girlfriend’s suggestion.
He doesn’t know where they’ll go tomorrow, but he hopes that by the time this trip ends, he can lessen even a little of the regret and longing for his mother.
“Jessica is working so hard.”
Jessica Caban, who put her main job as a model aside and devoted herself to caring for Bruno Mars.
“That’s why I’m grateful and sorry.”
“If you know that, then cheer up. How long are you going to hurt?”
“I hate nagging like this though.”
“Gene?”
“Haha. Filming?”
Bruno Mars hastily changes the subject.
“It’s a program called Trip Road…”
Johann explains about the broadcast.
“Oh, that sounds interesting? Ah, Mr. Wahlberg. We’ve met a few times before, right? Though we never properly greeted each other.”
Mark Wahlberg, whom he had met at celebrity parties or charity events.
“Your mother must have surely gone to heaven.”
“Thank you.”
The production team also turns off the cameras and approaches to offer condolences.
As the filming becomes disrupted, they sit on the nearby lawn.
“My goodness. Only 55 dollars left?”
“We’ll give you a mission in the evening. Probably.”
When he glances over slyly, Walton quickly turns his head away.
“Couldn’t we do busking?”
Johann is someone even the gods of rock acknowledge.
With just one acoustic guitar, he could probably tour the entire country.
“If we make money that way, they’re people who won’t give us money anymore and will still have plenty left.”
“Ohh…”
“Well, I’m joking. We haven’t had the time.”
Visiting representative tourist spots in every city they stopped at left no time.
“What about you, Gene? Where have you been?”
“San Luis Obispo and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.”
“…Oh, what did you do in that remote place?”
Bruno Mars chuckles at the intentional teasing.
“You’re still way too young to know about such things, Little Jefferson.”
“I’m taller than you now though?”
“…Honey, he’s picking on me.”
“Tsk. Johann. You’re in trouble!”
“Emily.”
“Don’t say anything to my boyfriend.”
Flinch!
“…What?”
Bruno Mars and Jessica Caban widen their eyes and look back and forth between Johann and Emily.
Johann takes Emily’s hand and lifts it up.
“My goodness! My goodness! This guy! You finally figured it out! When did you start dating? How did you start dating?!”
“Congratulations! Which one of you asked the other out first?!”
“We haven’t been dating long. Emily made the first move, but I was the one who confessed.”
“Crazy!”
Bruno Mars, who had watched the two of them for the past four years.
He had been frustrated because he couldn’t say anything in case something went wrong between them, but now his chest feels relieved.
Bruno Mars sincerely congratulated their relationship.
And whether by coincidence or heaven’s blessing, a cheerful melody suddenly reaches their ears.
-If you’re lost in the middle of the ocean.
“…Pffft!”
“Hahaha!”
Bruno Mars’s song, Count on me.
Originally a track from his debut album, it’s a song that was only released as a single in Australia in 2010.
At the sight of a young man in his twenties with a palm-sized small amp and acoustic guitar, Johann and Bruno Mars briefly travel back to the past.
Johann to when he first did busking with Bruno Mars.
Bruno Mars to when he did busking to earn living expenses after coming to LA.
‘What did I do with that money? Right. I called my mom.’
After his parents divorced when he was 12, he could only meet his mother once a year, always keeping in touch only by phone. His mother always worried about her son living in unfamiliar LA after leaving his hometown Hawaii.
So when he earned even a little money from busking, he reassured his mother that he was starting to make money so she shouldn’t worry.
‘That’s right…’
“Johann.”
“Yes?”
“Could you… sing me a song?”
The sky gradually darkening with a faint orange tint. Since his mother passed away, he felt even more depressed when evening came.
“Any song is fine.”
“…Alright.”
‘This would be good.’
There are many pop songs about family.
But for some reason, this song comes to mind first.
Tap! Clap!
Johann slowly taps the ground with his foot and snaps his fingers to create rhythm, then slowly opens his mouth.
“Since childhood, our family was poor. We rarely had the dining out that everyone else did.”
It was a song of longing for a mother who had always devoted herself to her children, who had struggled to succeed only to have the most beloved person leave his side.
It echoes.
It spreads far and wide.
Hidden within it, tears flow.
Beating his chest with sobs, pouring out regret and sadness.
‘That’s right. Cry.’
“I loved you. Though I never could say it. I love you. Now rest in peace. Forever in a world without me.”
Living like that, regretting like that, and shedding tears.
That’s how we live.
and keep moving forward with it in your heart.
“Ugh… Ughhh!”
Jessica Caban embraces Gene’s trembling body.
Emily sympathetically strokes his forearm.
Everyone briefly looks away from the tears of this pitiful child pouring down.
“…Phew. What’s the title of this?”
He couldn’t understand a single word.
But listening to the song made him think of Mother, remember the memories they built together, and recall Mother’s sleeping face after she passed away.
So he cried.
But it was different from usual.
Even while crying, his blocked chest felt like it could breathe a little.
“To Mother. It’s a Korean boy group song.”
It’s one of Mason’s mother’s favorite songs.
Bruno Mars grins broadly.
“Do you know Carole King’s Child of Mine?”
“Oh, a response song?”
“I thought this is how a mother would think.”
So I want to sing it.
I want to understand it, even a little.
“Wait a moment. Emily?”
“Yeah. Just a second.”
The moment Emily stands up to get the guitar from the car.
“Um, excuse me, would you like to use this guitar if you need one?”
The young man who was singing nearby just moments ago holds out his guitar.
Eyes full of hope and expectation.
“Ah, was my voice too loud?”
“No, no! It was… so beautiful to listen to!”
A song in a language he’d never heard before, yet it made him choke up.
Intense sadness that penetrated through the small amplifier.
So he came over as if enchanted, and it’s that Bruno Mars and that Johann.
“…Thank you. I’ll use it carefully.”
“You can use it however you want!”
Johann, who smiled gently, gets into position.
He slowly closes and opens his eyes as he plucks the guitar strings.
Ting! Tiing!
A performance like warm comfort.
Bruno Mars’s trembling lips open.
“Even if you see me and the world differently, sometimes I’ll be able to share in the wonder you see.”
A mother’s heart that always watches from behind with faith.
Mother who smiles from that spot when you look back.
Mother who says it’s okay to rest when things get tough.
Mother who believes without reason that you’ll surely succeed.
Mother who loves infinitely just because you’re her child.
Until now, he couldn’t understand.
Why would she love like this.
Why would she only say such kind words.
But that heart seems to be gradually understood.
Singing it seems to make it understandable.
So he misses her.
He wants to see her again.
“Yes. My love. I’m so glad you became my son…”
“…”
The son’s gaze toward his mother stirred quiet admiration.
* * *
“Thank you. I used it well.”
“My goodness. I’m going to keep this as a family heirloom!”
A guitar with signatures from Johann and Bruno Mars.
The young man clutching it tightly turned away with a face about to cry, and Bruno Mars watched that innocent figure before letting out a long sigh.
He looks up at the sky.
“I guess… I need to sing.”
“You’re stating the obvious.”
If Bruno Mars doesn’t sing, who else in the world would sing?
“Haha!”
‘Right. You’re always this kind of kid.’
A kid who always sees him as he truly is.
“What will you do now?”
“I’ll continue traveling.”
Bruno Mars grips Jessica Caban’s hand tightly.
“While enjoying it more now. To shake it off.”
The sadness.
“It was hard because of me all this time, wasn’t it? I’m sorry.”
“…It’s fine now that you know.”
Emotional Jessica looks at Johann and says thank you with her eyes.
“Well, I’m going to go on my dinner date now! You… well, work hard on finding accommodation.”
“Wow. You’re really going to do this?”
“If you appeared on a show, you have to follow the rules.”
“…Jessica. Do you know how Gene acts when he goes to clubs?”
“Wait! Wait! That’s cheating!”
Bruno Mars, who was bantering with Johann, realizes his mistake.
“Ah, I’m sorry for causing trouble.”
“Oh, no! It’s fine!”
“Thank you for saying that. Then… oh, right. William wanted to get in touch with you?”
“William?”
“Black Eyed Peas.”
Everyone looks at them in surprise.
“I think it’s because of the songs you uploaded to SoundCloud this time. Those hot, desperate, sad songs.”
Songs like stories of people struggling in a fire.
“Hmm. The code with them is… ah, are they trying to change it to hip-hop?”
There’s one song that would work for that.
“Besides that, it seems like various people are coveting your songs. Probably offers went to Rocky too.”
“Mm.”
He’d been busy lately and hadn’t checked SoundCloud messages, so this kind of thing happened.
“Got it. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Yeah. Have a good trip and see you in LA.”
“Yes. In LA.”
Bruno Mars bumped fists and turned around holding Jessica Caban’s hand, while Johann tilted his head looking at the people staring blankly.
“What?”
‘Black Eyed Peas? Various singers?’
‘What kind of kid are you?!’
Everyone except Emily, who already knew Johann was an outstanding composer, screamed internally.
* * *
Fortunately, one of the spectators introduced us to accommodation, so we were able to get it cheaply.
It was a small hotel with 4 floors, only 3 rooms per floor.
“Thank you so much for giving it to us at such a low price.”
“Haha, not at all! It’s off-season so we have empty rooms anyway, please rest comfortably!”
Already February. While it was a time when tourist traffic was decreasing, the hotel was squeezed between buildings so it didn’t get many guests originally either.
“Ah! Finally lying down!”
Thud!
“Cough! Cough!”
Emily coughs at the musty blanket smell being sucked into her nose.
‘It’s shabby.’
Yellowish beige wallpaper that looked old and furniture with peeling paint here and there.
When I lifted the mattress slightly to look underneath, there was mold growing.
“For this condition at 25 dollars, it’s really not bad. There don’t seem to be any bugs.”
Emily is horrified at the staff member’s words as he installs cameras in the room.
“Bu, bu, bugs?!”
“There aren’t any. No smell and no sounds either.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah.”
When bugs live in a house, there’s a distinctive smell.
A smell that most humans can’t detect well.
Here, there was no such smell or sounds of bugs crawling around.
It meant they managed pest control even if it was shabby.
Emily, relieved, sits on the bed and stares at Johann.
“But today you didn’t imitate anyone else?”
Johann who occasionally imitated singers with voice mimicry.
But today he didn’t do that.
“Because I wanted to do it that way.”
Since it was comfort for him, I couldn’t imitate anyone.
“How was it?”
“It was good.”
A shock similar to when she first heard the Eagles’ Hotel California.
If Johann’s expression hadn’t been calm, if it had been even slightly distorted, she might have cried.
Smooch!
“Thanks for the compliment.”
The staff member who finished installing cameras and was leaving shuddered, making Emily smile even brighter.
“Hehe. Oh, right! The songs Will.i.am is interested in, those are the ones you composed during location shooting, right?”
“…Want to listen?”
Emily, whose eyes had sparkled, quickly nodded her head.
Knock knock!
“Sorry to interrupt the good atmosphere, but can I listen too?”
Mark leaning against the door, full of anticipation.
“Oh, of course. Just a moment.”
Johann took out his laptop from his luggage and plugged in a USB.
* * *
“No wonder… he’s a Billboard singer.”
The production team was gathered in the hotel’s small lobby.
Bruno Mars was Bruno Mars, but Johann’s desperate vocal tone.
“Right. His appeal could make Little Richard step aside, right?”
“Typical old person… It’s more like Kelly Clarkson or Adele.”
“Those people are old too. How about Justin Bieber? The texture seemed similar.”
“How dare you compare to someone like Bieber… If anything, he’s an upgraded version of Bieber.”
Names of emotional singers flashed through their minds.
A husky yet sexy voice with deep appeal that forced understanding even of Korean, an unknown language.
It stirred the heart and squeezed out tears.
In a foreign language.
Youthful yet never truly youthful emotion.
It could be seen as several levels more advanced than Johann’s performance from 4 years ago that they had heard during production.
‘There’ll be chaos when he returns.’
It seemed like there would be seismic changes in Billboard.
“But it seemed similar to a Tupac song… Kim, you said it was a song from your country?”
Producer Kim Jin-tae from Arirang TV nods his head.
“It’s a song released in ’99 that was popular nationwide.”
It was probably plagiarism.
He thought he heard that the copyright had been transferred to BMG.
“Still, that song isn’t something you can sing so easily…”
The desperation and anguish contained in the high notes.
Definitely not an emotion a teenager could express.
Yet Johann had done it too easily.
Everyone sighs at those words.
“Haah. It’s really regrettable.”
Johann with such tremendous talent.
They had been pushing him to keep singing, but he just wouldn’t listen. Thanks to that, they were getting interesting content from the power struggle with the production team, but the regret was unavoidable.
“Should we… listen?”
“Shall we?”
Just how amazing was it that the Black Eyed Peas were interested?
They quickly turned on their laptop and accessed SoundCloud.
“Ah, this is it. …Wow.”
There were more composed songs than expected.
And all of them had tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of views.
They play the most recent song among them, ‘Hedgehog’.
Then…
Screeech!
A desolate yet lonely violin melody that pierced the heart.
Boom! Boom!
The following drum sounds shook their hearts.
“…”
When all 4 songs ended, silence descended on the lobby.
Breathing heavily, they struggle to open their mouths.
“…My God.”
“Good heavens.”
‘Th, this much?’
‘Crazy! This is crazy!’
Did Johann really compose all these songs by himself?
Maybe someone helped him.
“Bruno Mars is… probably not, right?”
“H-he’s in hiding right now, isn’t he?”
Johann, who collaborated with Bruno Mars during his activities four years ago. Even back then, there were many claims that Johann provided the inspiration while Bruno Mars completed the songs. No, that was the accepted theory.
Johann’s representative songs ‘Dream – Journey on a Ship’, ‘WE GO’, and ‘STAR’ all had Bruno Mars’s name credited alongside, and Johann was only 11 years old at the time.
And he was a Wolf Boy who had only come down from the Forest a few months prior.
But after listening to these songs, doubts arise.
‘Did Bruno Mars really compose them?’
Chills!
Goosebumps rising all over their bodies.
Even while thinking it’s an absurd imagination, they look up toward the Upper Floor.
Thud thud!
“So you were all here.”
“…Huh? Oh oh. Wh-what’s the matter? Sh-should we do the evening mission?”
“Right! We should eat!”
The Production Team reacts like children caught doing something bad.
Johann, who already heard everything, pretends not to know.
“Everyone’s not hungry yet, so we can take our time with that. More importantly, Gene says it’s okay to broadcast what he filmed earlier.”
They had sneakily picked up the Camcorder when Johann started Singing.
They had also secretly filmed Bruno Mars Singing.
“R-really?! For real?!”
“Yes, he says it’s fine.”
He called it Gifts.
Repayment for giving him the strength to stand up.
“Oh, and we’ll be performing in San Diego.”
“Suddenly?!”
“Don’t you like it?”
“Of course not! …But why?”
“Mark says he wants to.”
Mark, who would hear the original songs, had pestered them to perform.
He wanted to sing those songs, wanted to try singing them.
He begged so persistently that Johann agreed to do it.
‘He said various singers are showing interest, right?’
Johann smiled meaningfully.
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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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