Episode 15
Thud-. Thud-thud-.
The melody rang out from the program I had open.
‘Not bad.’
A practice room at Seoun Arts High School. Specifically, one used by the composition majors.
Sitting there, I stared intently at the monitor.
I could have rented the mister’s basement studio, but the time spent commuting back and forth was a waste.
More than anything, when I looked at all that covetable equipment….
‘It makes me want to rap instead of compose.’
As if I could leave those shiny babies alone.
“…Hoo.”
There was still plenty of time until the concert, but I was busily working the program.
Because this time, I had to tackle something a bit more demanding.
A song worthy of being performed on that concert stage….
‘Definitely a medley.’
The two original songs I’d done so far.
I was thinking of mixing them together.
It wasn’t easy. The foundational genres were completely different.
I was trying to clear my head for a moment from the difficulty when—
‘Who is it?’
A presence from outside.
Normally I would have ignored it, but after the Lee Hyeonsang incident, I’d been a bit more cautious.
-Creak.
Wondering if it might be that bastard again, I opened the door and stepped out.
“Huh?”
I couldn’t help but be slightly flustered at the sight.
Because someone who shouldn’t have been here right now was looking at me.
‘Park Yunseok!’
The genius of Seoun Arts High, the guy I’d considered my rival, had come to find me personally.
“…The song’s good?”
The guy spouted an impromptu review out of nowhere.
I quietly stared at that Park Yunseok.
After listening to the song briefly and spotting me, he walked over and opened his mouth.
“Nice to meet you. Rebound, and even First Martini… They’re your originals, right? I listened to them.”
“Yeah, good to see you. Park Yunseok.”
“Hm?”
When I naturally reached out my hand to greet him, he sounded puzzled and took it.
“Have we greeted each other before?”
When Park Yunseok asked back, seemingly puzzled, I lightly pointed my chin at his name tag and answered.
“I’d heard the name; I only realized it was you because I saw the name tag. I’m Park Jahun.”
“Ah, right. Park Jahun. I have something I want to ask about Rebound, if that’s okay?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
The guy got straight to the point without any pleasantries right after meeting me.
Depending on how you looked at it, it could be considered rude, but that was just his style.
I didn’t bother adding unnecessary formalities either.
“The chords were fascinating. It wasn’t a chord commonly used in the hip-hop we usually know. What are they? What part created that refreshing feeling?”
An interpretation of First Martini.
Park Yunseok’s question pierced straight to the core.
Pure emotion toward music is pure emotion, untainted by pride or pretension.
With that emotion, Park Yunseok was asking me.
“Ah, that? It’s a classical chord progression, different from the jazz sampling commonly used.”
“Am… E7… A7… Dm7?”
As if recalling the chords instantly, Park Yunseok muttered.
“As expected… so that’s what it was.”
As expected…?
Hearing that mutter, a hollow laugh burst out of me.
‘Judging by what he’s saying, he wasn’t in the waiting room when I talked to Lee Hyeonsang about the chords….’
He was figuring all that out by ear alone?
I nodded.
A genius is a genius.
“That’s right. The general feel is European-style classical. You know it well.”
“I always memorize chords. With that progression, you can make a beat that sophisticated?”
“Ah, that’s exactly why it was easier. It would’ve been even better if there’d been a drum beat too. As you know, I only had Seonji as a session musician.”
“…The beginning part.”
“Huh?”
All of a sudden, Park Yunseok was deep in thought.
“If you create an off-beat there, take the drum line, and then deliberately put the lyrics on the straight beat….”
So that’s what it was—he was quickly coming up with ideas for my song.
“Over a comfortable beat, an unfamiliar rhythm is formed. So…”
“Polyrhythm?”
Polyrhythm, referring to rhythm lines progressing in two separate beats.
His eyes sparkled as he said it.
‘I can’t talk about this twice.’
In one conversation, he’d swept away the very foundations of my song, and on top of that, added something of his own.
I couldn’t help but click my tongue again at the innate sense the genius before my eyes was displaying.
“Can’t we listen to it right now?”
“Why, does it keep popping into your head?”
“It does.”
“Then you should check it out. The notes will keep ringing in your head until you listen.”
Since he looked like his head was about to burst, I tossed the remark off with a laugh.
“You’re a similar type to me, I see.”
All of a sudden, the guy said something strange.
“What do you mean?”
“First, the song you made. I don’t think it’s a song you can make while just calculating or being crafty. It’s a song with a solid, three-dimensional structure.”
Then he looked at me again.
“Moreover, the fact that you mention me visualizing music… so nonchalantly. Can’t you see music too, just like me?”
“What…?”
Only then did I realize what kind of guy he was.
‘So the word genius falls short for this guy.’
A genius among geniuses.
Park Yunseok was a guy with absurd stats, capable of composing and writing lyrics simultaneously as if a virtual score were spread out before his eyes.
And such a guy was thinking of me as the same kind as himself.
That was a somewhat embarrassing thing to say.
“I’m not the visual type, you know. I’m the auditory type. If you had to call me something, could you call me that? A hard worker.”
Unlike him, I don’t live seeing music with my eyes.
It’s just that I have a bit more experience….
A hard worker.
Yeah, wouldn’t ‘hard worker’ be the nickname that suits me, who has returned?
At that, Park Yunseok chuckled as if amused.
“Ah, interesting. You’re the first person I’ve clicked with like this. Anyway, I want to listen to it. Can you help me for a bit?”
After speaking, the guy suddenly plopped down in front of my computer.
-Click, click.
He fiddled with the program as if possessed.
I’d already saved the project I was working on and had it closed for the moment.
I looked at the track he’d laid down in an instant, wondering what he was trying to do.
“What… the First Martini chords?”
“Yeah, the song you made. But if I lay the drum beat I just thought of over it….”
He finished the work in an instant and pressed play.
Not stopping there, he spat out lyrics.
“-Re, called, color, music, guilt, and flow….”
Lyrics with good rhymes but lacking cohesion.
‘Freestyle?’
Of course, since they were words spat out on the spot, they didn’t connect, but that wasn’t the point.
“What is this?”
“I told you earlier. Polyrhythm.”
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he looked at me.
“This rhythm came to mind while we were talking. If you make it into a track, this is the best way to go.”
Goosebumps rose all over my body.
A brief conversation, and using someone else’s music, he’d thought this concretely to this extent?
“Polyrhythm is often used in jazz solos, but well, the beat sounds good, so it fits well—”
He tried to add an explanation, perhaps thinking I didn’t understand.
‘…Wait, could this be?’
I snatched at something flashing through my mind and pushed Park Yunseok aside.
“Move over, it’s my turn.”
“Hm?”
“You already used it plenty just now.”
It was somehow a line brothers engrossed in a game might say, but I had no time to care.
Having reclaimed the computer, I immediately pulled up the medley track I’d been working on.
‘A rhythm often used in jazz, and one that suits First Martini incredibly well…’
I was too busy unraveling it in my own way.
* * *
-Click, click.
Park Yunseok crossed his arms and looked ahead.
Ahead of him was Park Jahun working on the track with inspired hand gestures.
‘At first, I was just going to ask a few things and leave.’
But talking turned out to be more enjoyable than expected.
Because he brought up perspectives I’d never considered, many ideas had sprung up as well.
To give what came to mind a listen, I’d even ended up laying down a beat for a moment.
‘What will he show me this time?’
An uncommon experience.
Through the conversation with Park Jahun, Park Yunseok was feeling a fresh thrill.
“Whew, want to give it a listen?”
Already in a state of high excitement from anticipation.
Park Yunseok nodded without hesitation.
“…No way, is this?”
And music that exactly doubled that expectation began to play.
“The song I’m using this time. I was trying to combine the first song, which has a jazz structure, with First Martini, which has a classical structure.”
“…You connected the bridge, which could easily sound awkward, with the polyrhythm I used just now.”
“Yeah, the chord repetition in the middle is…”
“G pedal. And you connect it with a rhythm that matches First Martini well?”
“…You know your stuff.”
Park Jahun, who had been about to explain, looked back at the monitor as if deflated.
Seeing that, Park Yunseok unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth.
“Didn’t you say you were a hard worker?”
“Yeah, I’m someone who bets on experience.”
“…Hmm.”
Park Yunseok, who had thought he worked hard enough at music to not envy others.
Such a he felt an emotion for the first time in his life.
‘Could what I’ve done not even be considered effort?’
Anxiety that perhaps he had wasted his time.
And a bit of… jealousy.
“Good. Today was fun.”
He opened the practice room door to go outside.
He had a lot to sort out.
“See you at the concert.”
This time, I’ll prove that I’m above even that thing you call effort.
Burning with passion, Park Yunseok headed to his own practice room.
* * *
‘It’s finally over.’
She collapsed onto the bed in the corner of the room like a sheet of staff paper falling over.
Fatigue from the performance, added to days of continuous practice.
Those things rushed in all at once, making her eyelids heavy.
She felt like she could just fall asleep and sleep soundly like this.
But she couldn’t sleep right now.
‘…I really made it into the concert.’
The situation after the main performance kept replaying in her mind, tickling a corner of her heart.
She had made it into the concert where only three teams per grade could advance.
And not by the skin of her teeth, but as the winning team no less.
That sense of accomplishment and thrill kept making her forget the fatigue in her body.
Of course, there was another reason she was putting off sleep.
‘…Jahun’s help was huge.’
Seonji picked up her phone and checked her messages.
[Did you get home safely? Good work today.]
It was the messenger window with Park Jahun.
After sending the message when school ended, she had been checking it unconsciously.
‘No reply yet.’
She had planned to check the reply and then fall asleep.
Seeing the silent messenger, her strength drained away.
Of course, it had only been an hour since she sent the message, but the waiting time somehow felt long.
‘We’ve talked a lot, haven’t we?’
She thought unconsciously as she scrolled up.
While waiting for a response, Seonji skimmed through the exchanged messages with Jahun.
First, the process of preparing for the concert flew past her eyes.
Park Jahun had pointed out even the details she hadn’t realized herself.
‘Your rap was good today too.’
Seeing those messages, the events from today’s performance came to mind as well.
The students whispering right after the first-place announcement, asking how she could be so good.
Seonji smiled slightly.
How could she be so good?
‘No one knows how hard I’ve worked.’
Park Jahun was meticulous in preparation more than anyone.
With such effort backing her, wasn’t it natural to shine on stage?
Next, what caught her eye was the contents of the first open stage.
As expected, he had informed her in advance of the parts O Seonji would worry about, and had constructed almost the entire stage progression by himself.
‘Was it from this time?’
Finally, the conversation from the performance and critique was visible.
The day she had almost completely ruined the stage because of trauma.
But the very day she had successfully finished thanks to Jahun’s lead.
‘As expected, it was from this time that we could talk a lot.’
Before that, they had been somewhat close, but after that day, they interacted much more.
Because Seonji had suggested they do the open stage together, they had become a team.
Finishing the journey as the winning team and looking back at that time, the feelings were somewhat new.
It was a time she had learned a lot.
She knew the concert still remained, and after that, tests and performances continued to await.
But those facts no longer pressured her like before.
Rather, her heart was at ease.
The tension of standing on stage, overcoming it and achieving something….
Was slowly becoming fun.
‘I didn’t know it would turn out like this.’
She had been so nervous, saying it was her first time playing an instrument, and on stage she had tried to give up because of trauma.
But in that short time, it was amazing that she was changing noticeably even to herself.
It wasn’t difficult to infer what had made her that way.
O Seonji still stared blankly down at the quiet phone.
Even while exchanging song contents, Park Jahun had occasionally offered her words of comfort.
‘I’m glad I asked you to do it together.’
Because otherwise, she would have regretted it for a long, long time.
Just as she was thinking that, a new notification popped up at the bottom of the messenger window.
[Jahun: You worked hard too.]
‘It’s a reply!’
As she calmed her pounding heart and opened the messenger—
[Jahun: Seonji, if you have time, want to give this a listen?]
‘Was he working?’
Having just finished the preliminaries today, and he was making another song already.
Park Jahun’s appearance of constantly moving forward ahead of her was a bit stimulating.
And that thought…
-Tick.
The medley track Jahun sent, ‘Second Bound’—when she listened to it, her composure completely shattered.
‘…What is this song?’
To the point of jealousy, not just a little.
Music that made her heart pound was flowing from there.
The Regressor on the Beat