Episode 11
-Beep.
“That’ll be fifty thousand won all together.”
On my way out of the record shop, I bought a few albums I’d be listening to often.
Of course, Bay Code’s album was among them.
“Ah, I made a mistake.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I should’ve charged you a guitar rental fee too….”
The ajusshi put on his signature sly expression.
“Turns out there’s a whole backstory about that being an incredibly expensive guitar and all.”
‘…I know you bought it off your friend for pennies.’
Had I really been a first-time visitor, I might not have known, but the same guy who’d played excitedly with me when there were no customers was spewing nonsense.
“Besides, I treasure it dearly….”
“Haha, for something so treasured, it was a bit dusty.”
“Ahem, well, those factors should be taken into account. I’ll let it slide just this once.”
I’d wondered what he was getting at with all that clowning around; turns out, it was about my original composition.
“I’ll call it even since you played me a good song.”
The ajusshi tossed this out as if doing me a huge favor.
I let out a snort of laughter at the sight.
He must have been a bit embarrassed to keep heaping praise on me.
He was the type to feel close to anyone good at music.
I felt somewhat recognized; it wasn’t a bad feeling.
“Are you going to use that thing you played earlier for the preliminary round, Jahoon?”
“Hmm… I’ve got to record it first.”
“You aren’t skilled with the program yet.”
“That’s true, but I was going to give it a try slowly.”
We were learning the program in school as well. It didn’t seem like it would be that hard.
“I’ll help you.”
“Huh?”
Seonji looked at me with an expression full of enthusiasm.
“To the point where I’d want to make it in a place with proper recording equipment, but….”
Seonji lamented that ours was not an environment where we could do so.
‘Definitely, having good equipment would be nice.’
It was then that the ajusshi’s twitching lip corners caught my eye.
This time, it wasn’t because he was pleased.
Really, he was such an easy-to-read man.
“Is there something you’d like to say?”
“Huh? Uh….”
“You kept staring earlier, so I wondered, but I guess not.”
Suit yourself.
Only then did the ajusshi hurriedly speak up.
“Are you, by any chance, planning to record that song from earlier?”
“Yes. I just finished it.”
“…Do you have all the equipment?”
‘I knew it. So that’s what this was about.’
I snickered and shook my head.
“No, I have to use the school recording studio… Can’t be helped.”
I gave him the most pitiful look I could muster.
Maybe not before the regression, but now that I was nineteen, this strategy should be effective.
“Hmm, hmm… that’s a real problem.”
“It is a huge problem.”
Honestly, the Seoun Arts High School recording studio was well-equipped, but…
After so long, I wanted to use something truly proper.
“Come to think of it, I’ve got a spare room.”
After much deliberation, the ajusshi called us over and opened the door leading to the basement.
To an outsider it might have looked like the opening of a horror film, but it wasn’t at all.
‘If anything, it’s closer to an adventure film.’
A recording studio that looked more like a treasure vault awaited us there.
* * *
For two days over the weekend, we were truly the ghosts of the recording studio.
Except for the time spent sleeping at home, we spent every waking hour here.
On the set-up computer screen, the music we were creating was displayed.
“If you drag the track here like this… when matching the tempo—”
Seonji’s contribution was immense.
She continued the work while explaining each step to me, who still couldn’t handle the program proficiently.
“During the second chorus, the accompaniment rhythm needs to go a bit straighter.”
On top of that, the countless instructions I poured out.
‘Trying to capture exactly what’s in my head, I keep making Seonji do so much.’
However, she didn’t seem particularly dissatisfied.
Seeing how the corners of her mouth still twitched from time to time, she seemed to be enjoying herself instead.
“Shall we listen?”
“…Yeah.”
The fruit of two days’ hard work.
Slightly nervous, I pressed the play button.
-!
The very melody I’d played at the record shop.
Now performed on piano, it echoed through the recording studio.
‘So far so good.’
Calmly listening on, I compared my inspiration with the program’s sound.
From the break section that paused briefly.
To the chorus that burst forth.
As she and I had intended, the program brought the song to its conclusion.
“…How is it? Does it sound complete?”
Seonji turned to me and asked.
The computer mouse was poised to create the “final FINAL” file.
“There’ll be more edits, right?”
When I didn’t answer for a moment, Seonji followed up.
“…Play it one more time.”
I held up one finger and asked her to play it again.
-!
The music I’d just heard played again.
‘…As I thought.’
Re-examining the details by ear, I nodded.
“It’s done.”
“Really!?”
Seonji smiled in relief.
But I wasn’t done yet.
“Seonji, pass me the pen beside you.”
I immediately unfolded a memo pad.
-Scratch scratch.
The summit was in sight. The smile could wait until the lyrics were finished.
Not that I wrote them in a rush.
There was no need to in the first place.
‘Focus on the word “first” that became the motif of the scale. The first verse is a story about a first experience that anyone could have….’
It was simply a matter of translating music back into language.
A few minutes had passed when—
“Whew, let’s finish this up.”
Holding the finished lyric sheet, I entered the recording booth.
‘It’s been a while.’
I greeted them warmly.
It was a greeting to the equipment in the ajusshi’s secret recording studio.
Before the regression, I’d learned far too late that the ajusshi was such an equipment geek.
After learning it, I’d pull all-nighters with him just talking about gear.
‘I think Red Martini recorded here too.’
Smiling, I looked at the high-end microphone before me.
I was borrowing it now, but someday I’d set up my own studio.
“Jahoon, I’m starting it.”
“Yeah, play it.”
While I was making that resolution, Seonji, having finished preparations, played the beat.
‘Focus.’
A recording in an environment like this after so long. Now it was time to concentrate solely on the music.
Counting the beat, I inserted my lyrics precisely where they belonged.
Following the blueprint I’d sketched out moments ago, the song neared completion.
“All done. Now come out and listen.”
After several takes, I listened to the completed song with Seonji.
“What do you think?”
“Hmm….”
After a moment’s thought, I quietly nodded.
“It’s complete.”
A smile I’d been holding back for two days formed on its own.
Though Seonji had helped, this was a song with every note created by my own hands.
“Have you decided on a title?”
The first original composition of my life, a piece of music like—
“First Martini.”
That was the moment “First Martini” was completed.
“Does it mean something?”
It held the meaning of “the first glass.”
Because it was a song made while thinking about the countless firsts in my life.
When I explained, Seonji nodded her head.
“It’s good. I think it’s a well-chosen name.”
“Really?”
Relieved that I’d tied the song together well, I stretched.
“Now I just need to practice for the performance.”
“…Huh?”
At my words, the corners of Seonji’s mouth drooped slightly.
“…Are you going to do it like last time?”
“Not to that extent, but I have to do it properly.”
Of course, “properly” by my standards.
* * *
School, after the weekend ended.
The students gathered in the piano room wore tense expressions.
Today was the day of the sight-singing and ear training test.
*Sigh,* why does Teacher Sim Yujin’s class always make me so nervous?”
I turned to the side and saw Kim Drum taking deep breaths.
“Well, it’s not like it counts toward our grades.”
“She said she’d raise the difficulty starting today to prepare for entrance exams. The tests will be like this from now on, so of course I’m nervous.”
“You’ve got a point there.”
Sight-singing and ear training.
To put it simply, it’s singing sheet music and listening to performances.
It was a class that evaluated the fundamental qualities of a musician.
‘I don’t think my scores were all that great when I was young, either.’
Memories of getting migraines during ear training came back.
It wasn’t simply transcribing a piano melody.
Musical notation, counterpoint… and so on.
Discerning, by ear, harmonically composed sheet music and writing it down.
‘Especially in third year, the difficulty goes up even more for entrance exam prep.’
I could understand why Kim Drum was so nervous.
For a rhythm instrumentalist, accurately discerning pitches wouldn’t be easy.
“Ha, I’m jealous of those with absolute pitch. They can probably hear everything.”
“How many kids like that do you think there are?”
In the Department of Practical Music, absolute pitch can sometimes be a disadvantage too.
“Is everyone gathered?”
Shortly after, Teacher Sim Yujin entered the piano room.
“You all know we have a simple test today, right?”
“Yes….”
The students’ expressions grew gloomy.
Because it clearly wouldn’t be simple at all.
“We’ll start with ear training.”
Having handed out blank sheet music, Sim Yujin sat before the piano.
That meant the ear training test would begin immediately.
-Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
The metronome’s rod, set above it, swayed to mark the tempo.
My ears perked up in response.
‘BPM 113.’
I grasped the song’s tempo. That beat would serve as the guideline for the performance to come.
Then, the moment Sim Yujin’s fingers pressed the keys.
-!
Over the designated beat, the melody rang out.
‘Huh….’
This is a test?
A difficulty level that only classical majors, and among them composition majors, could solve.
Sim Yujin continued the melody with a calm expression.
A combination of melody and chords so difficult it almost seemed excessive.
*Sigh….*
The sound of people around me tearing at their hair began to interject.
‘Well now, it wasn’t because I was lacking.’
I’d heard that students from Seoun Arts High School had solid fundamentals.
This was why.
While I was thinking, the performance began once more.
I shook off my thoughts and focused my ears again.
‘…There’s nothing I can’t do.’
Absolute pitch, which holds an absolute standard for notes.
Even those with relative pitch, unlike them, had nothing to fear.
After all, the know-how for identifying notes is something that can be trained.
And I possessed an ear thoroughly trained through ten years of experience.
-Scratch scratch.
I moved the pen.
‘Before the next measure comes, I’ve got to figure out the structure in advance.’
Recalling recent harmony lessons, I analyzed the song.
By the time Sim Yujin played the fourth measure, notes had already taken their places on my sheet; by the time she played the eighth measure, I was already writing down the central harmony of the following measure.
The real work began then.
There were ambiguous notes that reached my ears and vanished.
‘I densely stack the notes I know over them.’
I unraveled the accumulated data of notes in my mind.
And among those vast notes….
‘Found it.’
Finding the note that resonated perfectly, I completed the notation.
“…That’s all.”
The moment I completed the sheet music, I looked up to see Sim Yujin lifting her hands from the piano.
To raise the difficulty, she seemed to be ending it after playing it only twice.
“Ah….”
The students looked around and sighed.
Half the students hadn’t even managed to put pen to paper.
“Is there anyone who managed to write it all down?”
Reading the atmosphere, Sim Yujin asked.
Her expression suggested she would consider herself fortunate if even one had succeeded.
-Whoosh.
And, truly fortunately, someone had.
“Student Oh Seonji, and…”
And not just one, but two.
-Whoosh.
“Student Park Jahun?”
When I raised my hand, Sim Yujin looked at me with wide eyes.
Then she collected the papers to grade them.
“…There’s a perfect score. The other student missed only one.”
Finally, having graded the papers, Sim Yujin looked at us and clapped lightly.
“Wow…. A perfect score?”
Students who had just experienced the test’s difficulty firsthand tore at their hair even more in surprise.
Everyone’s gaze was fixed on Seonji.
“If even you only missed one, that’s insane?”
“Hmm.”
Kim Drum excitedly tapped my shoulder as if he had been the one to get it right.
I didn’t react, quietly organizing my thoughts.
‘…I got the key right, and the syncopation and everything else.’
Because I was reviewing the submitted answer sheet and the melody in my head.
“It’s understandable if you miss a few since you’re not a composition major. You can be happ—”
“The perfect score belongs to Student Park Jahun. Good work.”
Cutting off Kim Drum, Sim Yujin spoke.
She looked at me with a rare smile, gazing at me for a long moment.
“Wow! Jahoon got a perfect score!?”
“It wasn’t Seonji?”
The piano room erupted in an uproar in an instant.
“Uh….”
Kim Drum quickly withdrew the arm he’d been tapping in surprise.
Again, I didn’t react separately.
Instead, I smiled faintly and thought.
‘As expected, there was no way I was wrong.’
The test paper was proving the long-accumulated experience and know-how regarding music hadn’t failed me.
Regressor on the Beat