Episode 4
—So, like I said, I only did it because I like the stage, okay?
The past flashes through my mind.
'That excuse the guy on camera duty made was really famous.'
I looked at I Hyeonsang, who had stubbornly climbed onto the stage.
Where had the boredom from filming Team A’s performance gone? He was filming with all his might.
'He should’ve just filmed from down below the stage like everyone else....'
Nothing is more distracting than someone wandering around on stage.
That’s why it was an unwritten rule that the camera duty student wouldn’t come up on stage....
'Of all people, it had to be this guy on duty.'
The first to start was a male student playing the electric guitar.
I Hyeonsang pressed in close to the electric guitar and shoved his camera forward.
—!
The guitarist was startled for a moment, but naturally continued playing.
"Is it okay to film that close?"
Murmuring voices were heard.
They were the students watching the stage.
"Well, it's not a problem, right?"
No.
The electric guitarist just luckily hadn't lost the flow.
But luck can't last forever.
After capturing the electric guitar in full, I Hyeonsang set out to find his next target.
It was Seonji, diligently continuing the accompaniment.
'He knocked over the music stand.'
The scene I saw in the past replays in my mind.
—Crash!
The music stand, colliding with the guy who was excessively close, fell over helplessly.
And Seonji, who looked at me while trembling.
Recalling the scenes that came to mind, I nodded.
'This is the reason the stage stopped.'
Catch the sheet music before it falls, and prevent the accompaniment from stopping.
Reviewing my plan, I slowly shifted my steps.
My target was I Hyeonsang, who was approaching Seonji.
"I guess he's trying to film Seonji this time?"
"Damn, why do I feel uneasy?"
As the guy approached Seonji, the students' murmuring grew louder.
Their voices were quite loud enough to hear, but the guy didn't care in the slightest.
He must be completely lost in his own world, even deaf to everything else.
I Hyeonsang gradually approached Seonji.
The distance between the guy and the music stand was barely the width of a finger.
......Now!
I reached out. The timing was perfect.
—Grab.
I caught the tilting music stand and steadied it back upright.
A sigh of relief naturally escaped me.
What remained now was to continue the stage.
I grabbed the mic and confidently spat out the lyrics. It was the start of the second verse.
—Time drifts achingly far away—.
The heat haze of regret....
"Uh...."
But I couldn't continue into the second verse.
Because the band's accompaniment, excluding me, had already cut out.
"......"
The session players were all looking in the same direction.
Seonji.
She was hunched over, her body trembling.
* * *
My head rings with a ding.
Bewilderment climbed up my heart and spread throughout my body.
I had prevented the sheet music from falling over, so why did it lead to the same result?
I couldn't understand. What could there possibly be here to scare her....
At that moment, a memory from the past flashed through my mind.
—When I was young, sometimes when I was walking alone, people would shove cameras in my face.
It was something Seonji would tell me in the not-too-distant future from now.
A hollow laugh burst out.
I had been completely barking up the wrong tree.
'It was the camera.'
Come to think of it, no matter how close we were, she never took photos with me.
It was a fact I had known from spending a long time with her, but I had momentarily forgotten because I was preoccupied with thoughts about the crack.
'To waste a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this.'
The urge to throw down the mic welled up to my chin.
...No, this is my mistake for failing to stop it even though I knew.
I should have approached it more carefully.
The trembling Seonji was in no state whatsoever to continue playing.
'...Let's give up.'
I was thinking of saying that today's stage would end here.
How could I resolve this situation...
—We will stop today's stage here.
At that moment, the same line surfaced in my mind.
It was what I had said ten years ago, right here in this place.
'I came back through all that time, only to give up just the same?'
The reason I couldn't bring myself to say those words was a kind of stubbornness and pride.
Thoughts like "ten years of experience" and whatnot now felt shameful.
To think that all that grew over that long time was the ability to give up faster.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
If I thought the time I gained through Cubase was like a reel of fleeting images, an opportunity to set my regrets right...
'I have to fix my actions.'
[Bak Jahun's Life Remix begins!]
That system window I saw just before escaping the darkness.
If it's a remix of my life, then of course I should be the one holding the key needed for a proper recording, shouldn't I?
'It's not a remix of Seonji's life.'
The fact that she stopped the stage was actually something I couldn't help.
On stage, unexpected situations can happen at any time.
And I can't control all of them.
'I stopped the music stand, but in the end, the camera was the problem... just like right now.'
I looked around and nodded.
'If something has to change here today....'
It wasn't someone else. It was me.
I saw Seonji moving her hand as if trying to press the piano keys.
Without seeing that, I had decided to give up.
There's a famous saying in jazz piano.
There are no wrong notes. Only notes you gave up on.
The stage is the same.
There are no wrong stages. Only stages you gave up on.
Then let's not give up this time.
I opened my mouth toward Seonji, who had frozen blankly before I knew it.
"G chord."
Seonji looked at me with puzzled eyes.
"It's okay. Let's try again, Seonji. If I point out the chords, can you keep the accompaniment going?"
I pointed at the keyboard keys with my hand and looked at her.
A message that I would lead her.
Only then did Seonji nod, understanding my meaning.
"The root note of the chord... okay."
What I recited was the most fundamental note of the chord she had to play.
"Whew...."
Seonji's hands rose over the keyboard. Of course, they were still trembling.
'Seonji hasn't given up yet.'
Seeing that, I continued.
She probably hadn't forgotten the song's progression, but doing this together itself would help.
"E."
She hadn't calmed down yet, so the leap wasn't natural, but still: "F."
Seonji tried moving her hand according to my words.
"B."
I called out the chords, matching the breathing so that her hand could follow.
'This is all the loop is... Now let me show her first.'
I needed a bit more time.
Time for Seonji and the other sessions to match the beat again and play accompaniment.
Without hesitation, I picked up the mic.
'Verse 2. I'll sing it a cappella first.'
In a situation with no accompaniment, yet I spat out the rap without hesitation.
—Time drifts achingly far away—.
The heat haze of regret has bloomed—.
I let out the part I hadn't been able to finish earlier, all alone.
Hoping that the performers would hear this sound and fill in their own sounds.
I continued my stage that no one could stop.
It was the moment I grasped the key to my life's remix myself.
* * *
I can't breathe.
Is this what it feels like to be thrown alone into a crowd?
Everyone was saying this.
'You ruined the stage. It's all your fault.'
O Seonji cried silently.
Gradually, her mind went blank white.
"G chord."
—!
That was when Bak Jahun's voice was heard.
He calmly held the chord for her.
Then, amazingly, her frozen hand began to move little by little.
Color returned to her ashen field of vision.
Only then could she see Bak Jahun's figure.
"Ah......"
His rap was desperate.
To the extent that she, who had been standing frozen still, felt pathetic.
...I can't give up.
Her hands regained their vitality once more.
Her anxiety very slowly, bit by bit, faded away.
* * *
'So what if there's no accompaniment.'
The music room where only my voice resonated.
There was no drum to catch the beat, no piano to lay down the melody, but it was fine.
Rap doesn't necessarily have to have music playing in the background.
'There are cases where you rap using only your own sense of rhythm and vocals in an accompaniment-free situation.'
Rap was developed in the first place to shout out one's thoughts.
Accompaniment was merely something to help with that.
An act akin to the very origin of such rap.
I continued the 'a cappella rap' without stopping.
—We came to a halt, but I wasn't afraid at all. I had no choice but to admit it.
The gazes of others that I once feared were now just white noise before falling asleep.
"Whoa...."
The students filled the empty space of the missing accompaniment with exclamations.
Judging by the reaction, it might not be bad to end it like this.
But an even better scenario was already prepared.
That brief moment of time I had bought alone.
—Nod.
Because during that time, the session members had exchanged glances and finished preparing to continue playing.
—!
The accompaniment matching the rap began again.
The sessions showing off their skills to match the third verse.
Seonji too continued playing with focus, as if she had never been trembling.
'...I succeeded.'
It was a stage proving that my remix hadn't stopped.
Glancing over, Seonji's expression was incomparably brighter than before.
'My expression is probably the same.'
The crack that had formed like a shattered windowpane began to become whole and transparent, as if time were rewinding.
* * *
"Fundamentally, what's important in a cover is that you must be able to perfectly recognize and copy even the habits of the performer in question."
When all the performances had ended, Sim Yujin's feedback continued.
It wasn't yet our team's turn for feedback; it was the evaluation for the preceding Team A.
"Now then, shall we talk about Team B?"
After waiting a moment, Sim Yujin's gaze turned toward our team.
I swallowed dryly without realizing it.
'Teacher Sim Yujin looks closely at the completeness when doing a cover song stage.'
The preceding feedback was the same.
But our stage was no different from a completely impromptu performance.
'I'm confident performance-wise, but in terms of cover completeness, it fell short.'
My heart was still pounding. As if the beat had gone off.
"You must know that unexpected situations can happen to a performer at any time. Overcoming them is also the performer's job."
The same words she had said in the past popped out.
'Right after this, I think she definitely said she was disappointed that we couldn't do that.'
In that tense moment, Sim Yujin slowly continued.
To others, it might just be a practical exam score, but to me, it was the final verdict on the remix.
"Today's stage score for Team B is an A-. Good job. I hope you overcome future crises as well as you did today."
...It was a declaration of survival.
And as if to prove it, a system window floated before my eyes.
[Cubase - Crack No. 1 resolved.]
Content - The first crack in 'Bak Jahun's' life at playback time 18:20:28 has been resolved.
Success Reward - Remix extension.
"Ha......."
When the fact that I had survived was confirmed before my eyes, a deep exclamation escaped my lips.
Even as that happened, the system didn't stop appearing.
[Cubase - Trial version ended.]
The remix of my life.
It was the moment the full-fledged recording of life began.
The Regressor on the Beat