Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 70
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 70
”Take care! Don’t ever come back!”
Everyone bursts into laughter at the Booth Owner’s shout from behind.
Each of them is holding dolls or toys.
The male brothers have expressions wondering if this is right, and the male adults whose pride was hurt try to go back to the booth only to get smacked on the back by their wives.
“Johann, you’re good at throwing anything….”
“I told you it was survival.”
The forest where nothing is standardized like in the city, from trees to stones.
No matter what manipulation is done, the sensation at the fingertips cannot be deceived.
“Oh? Mason!”
“…Johann!”
Mason Moon, a classmate who was looking around with sparkling eyes, approaches.
“Are you here to play too?”
“Yeah! My dad came! Dad! This is my friend!”
Mason Moon’s father who makes money in a country called Korea.
“Hello, I’m Johann Jefferson, a classmate.”
“I’m Emily Sherman.”
“Haha. Oh, hello? I’m Jaehyun, no, Mason’s dad Seho Moon.”
‘He’s not used to English.’
His pronunciation is a bit awkward.
Johann looked at Mason Moon while watching him exchange greetings with the adults.
“Is your dad an office worker?”
“Huh, how did you know?!”
The hunched shoulders and turtle neck, dark circles and weakly taken steps were exactly like those of an office worker.
This was proof that he had worked hard for his family.
“Wow, that’s right! That’s why dad is my hero!”
A father who sacrifices for his family yet smiles every day.
Father, who was bigger than anyone in the world, was Mason’s hero.
‘He’s much brighter because his dad is here.’
It’s hard to think this is the usual Mason.
“We’re going over there now, what about you guys?”
“Oh, we were heading there too.”
“Really? Then, shall we go together?”
“Sure.”
Beyond the game booths, about 150 meters back, a large stage is set up.
That’s right. That place was their destination today, where the park concert would be held.
‘Why did Marta invite us here?’
He was quite curious.
As the sun began to set, people started gathering one by one on the wide lawn in front of the stage.
People spreading picnic mats or toasting.
Right in front of the stage, sitting in the seating zone that only ticket holders could enter, Johann looked around the stage with curious eyes and saw Larry.
“Larry, can I go buy some food?”
“Shall we?”
According to the ticket, the park concert would end at 10 PM.
While adults would be fine with beer and nachos as snacks, children needed food and drinks.
Larry gathered people to go with him and headed to the Food Truck Zone next to the stage.
“And ice cream too.”
“Oh, Johann. Are you buying for the other children too?”
“No, I just bought what I’m going to eat?”
“My goodness.”
The adults look with tired eyes at the bags containing every menu from the Food Truck Zone in Johann’s both hands, then pat Larry on the back.
Larry awkwardly smiles and pays.
It was the moment Johann turned around holding ice cream with three flavors: strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate.
“Really, why come to a place like this….”
Thud!
“Ow!”
The child who bumped into Johann and fell opens his eyes wide with anger.
“How do you walk with your eyes open…! Jo, Johann?”
“…Fifth grader?”
These are faces he’s seen at Fairmont School.
“Oh, hello. Are, are you okay?”
“No.”
Johann pointed to the three-colored ice cream that had fallen to the ground after hitting the boy’s chest, and the boy and his friends turned pale.
The wolf king Johann Jefferson, who defeated the tyrant Flash who had beaten even fifth graders without hesitation and instantly claimed Fairmont’s throne.
Johann said he couldn’t do anything about sixth graders either.
“So, sorry! Buy another one with this!”
“Okay.”
“Then, we’ll be going!”
As the three boys hurriedly moved away, Johann tilted his head.
‘But where are their parents?’
“…Well, they must be somewhere.”
It would be illegal for them to come here alone.
Johann handed the $10 he just received to the ice cream truck owner.
“Three flavors. The largest size please.”
* * *
“Oh, it seems to be starting.”
The lawn now filled with people.
All the lights on the stage with a piano and three-tiered stepped platform turned on, and performers with classical instruments came up.
“…Wow.”
Jeans and shirts, skirts and sleeveless shirts.
Even the conductor is wearing a dress shirt with two buttons undone.
Free-spirited attire unthinkable for classical performers.
Johann touches his tingling back of the head.
Pam. Paaam.
The conductor who was tuning suddenly glares at the side of the stage.
“Jenny!”
“I know! Just 5 minutes!”
“Shut up and get up here now!”
“Tch!”
“…Puhahahahahaha!”
Like the people, Johann also bursts into laughter.
A violinist coming up chewing a hot dog with an annoyed face.
The back of Johann’s head tingles again.
‘What is this freedom?’
This is classical music.
Classical music, which tolerates no deviation whatsoever, including slight pitch variations, sometimes even unifying hairstyles.
Johann’s common sense begins to crack.
“Oh, quite a crowd again today! Since you’ve waited this long, just 2 more minutes…”
“Jenny-!”
“Tsk. I’ll have to eat this later.”
The female violinist puts down her half-eaten hot dog on the ground and picks up her violin as laughter erupts again.
The conductor sighs and raises both hands, causing the noise to begin subsiding.
People’s eyes begin to fill with anticipation.
The park concert that delights them several times each year.
A concert they keep coming back to because there’s no need to bother with formalities.
Shortly after, the conductor’s hands strike down forcefully.
Boom!
A bombardment of sound that reaches even those at the very back of the lawn.
‘These aren’t amateurs!’
They’re professionals.
Even the flute interjections mesh together precisely like clockwork gears, creating harmony.
“So this is why they invited me…”
To show that classical music is never boring.
To show that classical music can be free.
To show that classical music is just as entertaining as popular songs.
“Hmm.”
It was the moment Johann’s eyes narrowed.
“J-Johann?!”
A girl in her late teens who seemed to know him well.
“Who? Do you know me?”
“Oh my God! To meet you on a day like today…!”
This must surely be God’s grace.
Perhaps it was even fate.
“W-wait a moment!”
The girl urgently turns and runs somewhere, then returns with a middle-aged man in a wheelchair.
“…Rafe?”
“It’s been a while, Larry.”
“My God!”
“You know him, Larry?”
“Of course I know him! Everyone say hello!”
This is Rafe Joel, who was once a singer under Rocky Management.
An early member of Rocky Management.
But then he became paralyzed from the waist down and had to quit singing.
Johann’s eyes widen as he extends his hand.
“Hello, I’m Johann Jefferson.”
“Jefferson?”
Larry, meeting his eyes, smiles awkwardly.
“Haha. How are your legs? Is there still a possibility of walking…?”
“It’s been over 5 years already.”
Both Larry and Rafe smile bitterly.
“But how did you come here? Don’t tell me you’ve started singing again?”
And looking again, he definitely remembers.
Who the girl with shining eyes is.
“That little girl has grown up so much!”
The little girl who used to grab onto Rafe Joel’s clothes and occasionally visit Rocky Management, Robin Joel.
“Haha!”
Rafe suddenly bursts into laughter and looks at Johann with warm eyes.
“It’s all thanks to your son. You see…”
“I want to tell him!”
“…You want to?”
“Yes…!”
Johann, who had saved her.
If she was going to tell the story, she wanted to tell it herself.
Rafe Joel’s daughter, Robin Joel, opened her mouth.
* * *
To Robin, her father Rafe was a star.
He was her idol.
Her father standing on stage with an acoustic guitar, singing.
The audience responding with cheers and enthusiasm.
To young Robin, her father seemed like a twinkling star in the sky.
But her friends didn’t think so.
“What, he was just a third-rate singer.”
“She bragged so much I thought he was some great singer…”
“Is a festival country singer even a real singer?”
“No wonder she dresses so shabbily.”
Robin, who had bragged about her father every day, was instantly ostracized.
She became bullied and harassed.
Her heart gradually died.
Then that incident happened.
Screech! Crash!
The day she was locked in the locker.
The day that made her father and mother wait to pick her up.
The day they had planned to dine out for her parents’ wedding anniversary.
“A-are you okay, sweetheart…?”
“…Daddy! Mommy-!”
Heaven took away not only her mother but also her father’s legs.
And Robin’s heart as well.
Whir! Whir!
In the dark room where only the laptop monitor’s light serves as illumination, the sound of wheels dragging can be heard outside the door.
‘It’s Dad.’
Robin holds her breath and looks toward the door.
Clatter! Thud!
“This morning it’s toast with bacon. Eat well.”
Whir! Whir!
As the sound of wheels fades away, Robin throws off her blanket and stands in front of the door.
She creaks open the door and quickly pulls in the plate of food and the gossip magazines her father bought.
Thump!
“Gasp! Huff!”
Just from opening the door briefly, her breathing becomes blocked.
Her heart pounds rapidly.
Robin collapses and sits down, tearing off a piece of warm toast to put in her mouth.
“Sob!”
Today too, I shed tears feeling Father’s overflowing love.
‘I want to go out.’
I want to hold Father’s hand, eat with Father, and have conversations.
It’s already been 1,950 days. 5 years and 125 days.
But I don’t have the courage to leave this room.
People are scary.
I’m scared Father might get angry.
Father, whose lower body is paralyzed because of me.
Mother, who died because of me.
‘How can someone like me face Father.’
I am a sinner.
I want to die.
But I don’t even have the courage to die.
Robin roughly wipes away today’s flowing tears, quickly puts the plate outside, and heads to the bed.
She turns on the lighting and opens a gossip magazine.
The gossip magazines and local newspapers that occasionally featured news about Father and his singer friends, bringing her joy.
Though these ultimately became the catalyst for her being bullied, she couldn’t give up even this.
Though Father quit being a singer after that accident, there might still be news about him. That’s why she can’t give up.
“There’s news about Wolf Boy too.”
Wolf Boy rescued from the Rocky Mountains, Johann Jefferson.
A boy more unfortunate than herself.
Unlike others rescued and raised in the wilderness so far, he was said to be remarkably clever and intelligent.
Johann Jefferson’s recent updates were introduced, ending with his enrollment at Fairmont School in Orange County where news had stopped.
“Huh? An event in Long Beach?”
What could this be.
Robin pulls over her laptop and searches for the event.
‘He could sing too…’
She didn’t know that.
He even made it onto the Billboard mainstream rock chart.
Just an 11-year-old kid.
“Ah.”
Robin’s eyes widen at the sight of Johann singing and laughing with countless people at the beach.
‘He seems to be glowing.’
Why is that.
How can he smile like that in just a few months after going through such hardships. How can he get along with people.
As if enchanted, she begins searching about Johann.
Then she discovers his SNS.
His diary-like SNS, recorded from the moment he arrived in LA.
Every day I looked at the moon and thought.
What kind of place is the Outside World.
The place Father said was scary.
But I wanted to see it.
So I made this song.
Earth as seen by the moon rabbit.
Zing!
“Ah.”
Piercing loneliness and anguish, longing for the outside, and fear.
The rabbit shown from behind looks so desolate and lonely.
‘It’s like my story.’
People are scary, but I want to meet people.
Father’s reaction is scary, but I want to see Father.
I want to smile and embrace him like in the old days.
But I’m still trapped in this small room.
‘I want to go out too.’
Tears poured from her eyes.
* * *
Thud!
At the sound of the closing door, Rafe turns down the TV volume.
The TV he turned on hoping she’d take the food before it got cold.
The TV that he wanted to watch every moment when his wife nagged, but now holds no interest no matter how much he watches.
“Phew.”
Still, this is much better.
Before, she wouldn’t even put out the plate.
Then when he gave her plastic bags, his daughter Robin would wrap all the trash and throw it out the window.
Zing! Zing!
“Hello. Ah, I didn’t forget. But the time is… Yeah, thanks. I’ll take care of my daughter’s meal and come, so let’s meet by 8. What do you mean pick me up. Never mind.”
Rafe hangs up the confirmation call for tonight’s drinking appointment and smiles bitterly.
“Grateful guys.”
Grateful friends who keep inviting him to drink even though it must be uncomfortable.
Today he feels like he needs to drink until just before he can’t control his body.
“That’s okay, right, Marsha?”
He endlessly gazes at his wife’s photo placed on the TV and rubs his cheek.
“Ah, damn.”
He cried again.
He should forget now, his friends tell him to forget, but he can’t forget his wife.
He deliberately scatters his memories with his wife and thinks of other things.
“Should I try singing starting tomorrow?”
His daughter who’s been holed up in her room for over 5 years already.
He tried many attempts to draw her outside, but all failed.
What that daughter liked most was watching him sing.
His number 2 fan who always sat in the front row with his wife and cheered the loudest. The sight of her cheering with his wife, the number 1 fan, is a memory he can’t forget even in death.
“Ah, for that I’d need to tune the guitar first…”
Click!
At the sound hitting his ears, Rafe’s head turns.
-I have a ship. A ship that can go anywhere in the world.
His eyes widen at the sight of his daughter Robin hesitantly coming out.
“F-Father…”
“…Oh, God!”
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Robin freezes.
She realizes from the tears pouring from Rafe’s eyes.
‘Father didn’t hate me.’
“I’m sorry! *sob* I’m sorry!”
“No.”
Thank you for coming out of your room.
He’s more grateful.
Rafe ran to her in quick strides and hugged Robin tightly, and Robin burst into tears in his embrace.
* * *
Johann is such a benefactor to Robin and Rafe.
“That’s how it came out though….”
Father is no longer scary, but people are still frightening.
She’s scared of what they might say, scared of being bullied again like before.
But she couldn’t stay home forever.
Father lost his retirement pension due to the subprime mortgage crisis.
Now she had to help Father.
“That’s why I came here.”
As a duet singer and manager.
To help Father.
She decided to be strong even though she was scared.
“Sniff!”
“Oh….”
Johann stares at Robin in a daze.
‘Because of my song… because of me….’
One person, one family was saved.
His heart burning hot signals his next action.
Johann rises and embraces Robin.
“Thank you.”
For loving him this much.
For having courage.
He doesn’t know how difficult misanthropy and social phobia are.
But he knows what fear is.
The pain of someone squeezing your heart, tearing your throat, grabbing your ankles and pressing you down. Your head becomes foggy, your vision blurs.
Robin overcame that pain for Johann himself.
So he felt sorry.
For only being able to say this much.
His heart is so full that only the word “thank you” comes to mind.
“…Sob!”
Tears flow from her wide-open eyes.
Her actions, her courage were acknowledged.
He doesn’t curse it as useless.
I was useful too.
Something that had been blocking her chest was melting away.
“No, it’s not.”
Her clouded mind clears.
The darkness slowly lifts.
Her eyes, now clear and bright, gaze at Johann.
“Please watch over me. Me, who gained the courage to walk again thanks to you!”
Her eyes began to shine with determination.
* * *
Martha Argerich comes up on stage.
She makes eye contact with Johann sitting in the audience seats.
Johann’s narrowed eyes.
‘Smart child.’
He properly understood what she wanted to say through the concert performance. Then he’ll understand what she’s about to say now too.
‘This is classical music.’
She places her hands on the keyboard without any comment.
Silent power, some kind of will emanates from her body.
The murmuring noise subsides.
Soon, in the quiet silence, her fingers began to move.
‘Nocturne….’
Chopin’s Nocturne.
The sound of dewdrops laden with sorrow tapping the keys penetrated everyone’s hearts.
Even Johann’s heart.
Clap clap clap clap clap!
“Waaaah!”
People who were whispering of love, recalling painful old farewells, all stand up and applaud.
Martha Argerich, who had guided them to a brief but fantastic moment.
“Hah! Ha!”
“It’s strange. My heart hurts, Mother.”
Classical music is music that makes you sleepy when you listen to it.
But not now.
They can’t take their eyes off it. Their hearts resonate so much they can’t come to their senses.
“Is, is this classical music?”
Meanwhile, Johann grits his teeth.
“Ha!”
‘Such coercion!’
Josef II sheds tears.
‘Steel Touch, Emil Grigoryevich Gilels’ sticks out his tongue.
Her performance that so violently forced the idea that this is what classical music is.
But he can’t refute it.
He can’t say it’s wrong.
It’s that beautiful. That enchanting.
He falls for the melody she poured out.
So he ends up acknowledging it.
That classical music is great.
‘Tsk.’
Johann turns his head away, feeling uncomfortable seeing Martha Argerich’s triumphant face.
Then he looks back at the stage.
Because Robin was appearing, pushing the wheelchair Rafe was sitting in.
-You must be bored from listening only to classical music!
No-!
-Oh! Then shall we call her back?
Hahaha!
-Then let’s really have fun from now on! LA’s own star! Rafe Joel!
Waaaah!
‘Fighting.’
Robin, clenching her fists and glaring this way.
Johann smiled at her, and when Rafe, who patted Robin’s back, lightly strummed the guitar strings, the musicians sitting on the platform began to play.
And….
“—-!”
Her voice strikes the thousands of audience members who still haven’t escaped from the lingering effects.
“My God.”
Johann hurriedly takes out his mobile phone.
“Listen to this, Joe.”
I think I found it.
The vocalist to sing ‘For Victory’ that was sold to Joe Walsh and Jimmy Page. The voice like the golden eyes of a black panther that Martha Argerich created.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————