Episode 3
‘To the right here.’
The hallway of Seun Arts High, which I was walking for the first time in ten years.
It had been a while, but finding the ensemble room wasn’t very difficult.
‘Found it.’
After a short sprint, I flung the large door wide open.
‘Please, don’t let me be late.’
The moment I cried out inwardly with all my heart.
Students sitting at their desks, and even the set-up instruments and stage.
That familiar scenery of the ensemble room greeted me.
“Today, as I mentioned before, today we plan to do a practical performance.”
And I heard the teacher’s voice briefly explaining today’s class.
For now… I was safe.
Though the mission to revive the stage that would stop still remained.
“Park Jahun? Are you going to make a habit of being late?”
‘…Was it Teacher Sim Yujin?’
Seeing the teacher’s young face for the first time in ten years, I was filled with fresh emotions.
True to the teacher nicknamed the Witch, she pointed at me with a baton and said,
“Don’t be late next time. For performers, it’s important to arrive early and mentally picture the stage awaiting you today.”
I nodded.
It was different from pretending to listen just to avoid being scolded.
Because I had actual experience, those words resonated with me.
Seonji pulled me toward an empty seat.
“Seriously, try not showing up one more time saying you overslept.”
“This won’t happen again.”
Today was a special case.
Hadn’t I needed time to grasp the situation of having returned to the past?
And there was still more to check.
“Seonji, do you know who I’m standing on stage with today?”
“…What?”
“It’s important. Tell me.”
Seonji looked dumbfounded.
“You’re doing it with me.”
“…Together?”
“What’s with you…? You asked me to. To play accompaniment for you.”
My head rang with a ding.
‘Did Seonji used to perform?’
In the future, she had found performing in front of others burdensome.
From when she majored in composition to when she became famous as a vocalist, it had been the same.
People even said she had a performance phobia.
Yet here she was, taking out a music book and holding it preciously.
“Don’t tell me you’re glancing at it because you don’t remember the song we’re doing?”
“No way, that’s not it.”
I had been rolling my eyes trying to catch even the song title, and I got caught.
“But you seem really nervous?”
I asked Seonji, partly to change the subject.
In truth, Seonji was more nervous than necessary.
“Of course I’m nervous.”
“…Did you not practice much?”
“That’s not it, but it’s my first time playing piano on stage.”
Seonji furrowed her brow playfully and looked at me.
“Thanks to someone.”
“Hmm…”
Honestly, thinking back on myself at this time, there probably hadn’t been any other way.
A student who had transferred in only six months ago.
Seonji had been the only one who approached me without hesitation.
She was the only one I could ask.
‘Let’s make the most of this situation for now.’
I was grateful she was fighting the pressure for my sake, but I needed to get some hints first.
“Can you press the chords properly like this?”
“Hmm… I practiced a lot, so. Won’t it be okay?”
“Let me check once.”
“Check what?”
“Try pressing in the air once.”
I moved my hand in the air, pretending to play the piano.
‘Well, pianists do image training like this.’
Seonji thought for a moment, then followed me and raised her hand in the air.
“Does this actually work?”
“Of course. Ah, and think of this as middle C and move.”
I put on a brazen face.
I nodded shamelessly and let Seonji continue her image training.
Fortunately, the effect was certain.
Though the piano sound couldn’t be heard, the positions her hands pressed and the movements were visible.
Converting those back into sound…
‘It’s a song by Rapper Attention. Well, it was the song I practiced the most when I started rapping.’
One of the songs I had done at that time came to mind.
“Good. You’ve practiced hard.”
“…Th-thanks.”
Seonji thanking me for something like this.
‘Judging by my skill back then, I’m way her junior.’
Indeed, I couldn’t help but maintain a humble mindset.
“Shall we listen to Team A’s performance first?”
Having finished attendance and stage equipment setup, Sim Yujin began the class.
“We’re Team B, right?”
“Yeah.”
When I said ‘we,’ Seonji looked at the students sitting nearby.
Students holding sheet music or sitting with drumsticks.
They were the team members for this stage.
A stage that would earn a B+ or higher from that strict Teacher Sim Yujin’s evaluation.
-Whirrr.
While I was thinking that, Teacher Sim Yujin approached the center and touched something.
It was none other than a recording camera.
“Of all days, it had to be a filming day.”
“If we do well, we get lots of comments, so it’s fine.”
“I’m nervous. So nervous. Back in second year, I didn’t know why the seniors always looked gloomy during Playing and Critique.”
“Right? It feels like we’re college students without even going to university.”
I could hear the muttering of students stepping onto the stage.
‘If it’s Playing and Critique on a filming day, I get it.’
‘Playing and Critique,’ one of the classes students feared most.
You had to perform first, then receive critiques, and the problem was you had to receive them from fellow students too.
It was a university-level class, but thanks to Teacher Sim Yujin running it so that Seun Arts High students could experience it, it was happening.
“Still, I take to the camera well.”
“Hey, last time students from another department commented asking who that squid was.”
“Wasn’t that you who wrote that?”
Thinking about how it would be uploaded to the Seun Arts High website, the students exchanged jokes.
‘So our stage today will be archived on the site too.’
I just hoped we would get many positive comments.
For reference, it wasn’t only the center camera.
A male student was pacing in front of the stage holding a camera.
He was today’s camera duty student.
And the moment I checked his face, a fragment of memory I had forgotten for a long time surfaced.
‘Why is that guy here?’
* * *
The guy who had caused an unpleasant incident and transferred away.
He was holding a camera.
“…Didn’t he transfer?”
“Who? Lee Hyeonsang?”
“Yeah… because of that song incident last time…”
“What are you talking about?”
Seonji had an expression saying she really didn’t know.
Thanks to that, I realized.
That incident hadn’t happened yet.
“We will begin the performance.”
While Team A’s preceding stage was being performed, my head spun quickly.
[Occurring Crack - The Stalled Stage]
Troublemaker Lee Hyeonsang.
The stalled stage.
With this many clues gathered, a rough picture was drawn.
What I had to do today.
“Team A, you did well as prepared. We’ll do the critique together after Team B’s performance.”
Team A’s performance ended while I was thinking.
“Wow, why did you guys do so well today?”
“Was it okay? I think there were one or two mistakes in the middle.”
Subtle pride graced the faces of Team A, waving their hands dismissively.
Though they pretended otherwise, they seemed quite satisfied.
It was a decent performance even to my ears.
“This is going to put pressure on the opposing team.”
“Ah, but the opponent just had to be…”
Several gazes gathered in one place.
Me.
“What is he going to do? It felt like he hasn’t even mastered the basics.”
‘…That was the image, wasn’t it.’
It couldn’t be helped.
Arts high schools are strictly meritocratic.
In such a place, a third-year transfer student who hadn’t even laid the basics couldn’t be viewed favorably.
“Let’s get up there.”
But I ignored the gathered gazes.
To their eyes, I might look like the clumsy transfer student Park Jahun, but right now, I was Bard, a rapper of ten years.
“Then let’s listen to Team B’s performance right away.”
Still, my mindset wasn’t entirely comfortable.
A stage where my life was on the line. I found myself nervous before I knew it.
Thinking about it made a chuckle slip out.
‘Interesting….’
Come to think of it, today was the first stage since becoming a third-year.
I must have made many mistakes back then. Even excluding the intervention of other factors.
‘Remix… in the end, that’s exactly what it is—correcting my past regrets.’
You know what they say? How the moments you regretted flash by like a slideshow when you die.
But I had truly died and entered into that very moment.
Straightening my mind, I called out to Seonji.
“Seonji.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t be nervous. Let’s do it without regrets.”
Though her expression was better than before, she still looked visibly nervous.
Well, in my case, my life was on the line, so it couldn’t be helped.
“…Yeah.”
“And check the music stand so it doesn’t fall over.”
“Music stand?”
“It might fall, you never know.”
I finished speaking meaningfully and thought:
‘Because today could become the trigger for you to develop performance phobia.’
But I had no intention of letting that happen.
As I said before, because I now had ten years of experience.
After finishing the conversation, I grabbed the mic.
“The song we’ve prepared is…”
Looking around at the students on standby, I continued.
“Rapper Attention’s ‘If I Die Next Day.’ We’ll begin right away.”
-!
Simultaneously, the students began the promised performance.
It was the moment the first performance carrying the remix of my life began.
When the synthesizer accompaniment flowed out, I felt an indescribable surge of emotion.
It was indeed a masterpiece that changed the atmosphere with just a few chords.
“Oh-.”
“Attention-! Great song choice.”
As the performance began, the students exclaimed in admiration.
It was only natural, in a way.
Because it was a legendary song that would be talked about not only by the students here now, but also by listeners ten years later.
‘Focus. I’m the one who said I’d make a stage without regrets.’
Even if Cubase and remixing were on the line, nothing was different.
Isn’t the essence of a good stage the same anyway?
I just had to present something that would make people cheer.
Above the flowing beat, I began to bob my head and ride the rhythm.
Twelve bars in total.
It was enough time for my heart to react to the BPM.
-If this morning were given to me
Like a mast, what should do I with this-.
Matching the first beat without hesitation, I spat lyrics toward the mic.
“Uh…”
The expressions of students listening to the accompaniment changed.
Though it was just a single line of rap, the pitch, tone, and above all, the groove.
They must have felt at once that it was different from before.
Of course, I delivered the verse consciously making sure it didn’t differ too much from my skill ten years ago.
‘This is amazing, though.’
A life’s poem written by Attention, who was twenty-four at the time of its release.
He had made it like a will, imagining his own death.
Those lyrics poured from my mouth without rest.
‘Even after ten years, I still remember.’
I must have practiced a lot back then.
I thought of my nineteen-year-old self, who had started later than others and wanted to do even one thing well.
The sight that I had wanted to see back then…
…seeing it now with the soul of a twenty-nine-year-old.
“He’s good!”
“Little Attention!”
The eyes of students who had watched with prejudiced gazes just moments ago had already turned to cheers.
-Suddenly coming to mind.
I escape, the orange streetlight.
As their enthusiastic cheers continued, the song had already entered the highlight ‘hook’ section.
-If I die Next Day--.
If I die Next Day--.
An addictive melody repeated along with the magnificent performance.
‘As expected, this part is so good.’
Rap is rap, but truly, nothing beats a good hook.
The time to breathe that Attention had created.
I also caught my breath and glared at someone.
Lee Hyeonsang, stepping onto the stage holding the camera with one hand.
‘A guy who caused all sorts of accidents before transferring.’
The main culprit of the situation I was thinking of.
He should have been filming from below, but he didn’t stop walking.
Simultaneously, memories became clearer.
‘He knocked over the sheet music.’
Reading it like a prophecy, I looked at him.
-Whirrr.
Soon, he would shove that camera at the performers.
And just as written in the Crack, the stage would come to a halt.
-Clomp, clomp.
He began moving toward this stage’s fate like that.
And I…
began moving my steps to change that fate.
The Regressor on the Beat