Episode 6
'I need to figure out what connection there is between the system and Seonji’s song.'
"It’s still unfinished, but do you want to listen?"
"Yeah."
When I nodded, Seonji searched for the file on her phone.
When she pressed play, music flowed through the earphones she had plugged in for me.
The beginning was a piano solo.
After an intense intro that hooked the ears, the melody kicked in.
'Huh?'
Without realizing it, I looked at Seonji with a surprised expression.
"…This is good?"
First of all, the song was good.
But what surprised me wasn’t just that.
The guide notes resonating over the accompaniment.
They tickled my memories.
An old melody, but one clearly lingering in a corner of my mind.
The music Seonji played for me was awakening those memories.
"Seonji, don’t tell me this is…"
"That’s right. I made it using the melody you were humming the other day as the motif."
"Hah…."
It was exactly the melody I’d had in mind.
It was one of the vague ideas I’d had when I transferred in.
That tone I had long forgotten returned to me as a song.
"The melody I heard then left a deep impression on me, so I really wanted to create it."
It was when I’d just transferred to the school and become close with Seonji.
"Can I try making that into a song?"
A tune I had hummed thoughtlessly, just as it came to mind.
Those were the words Seonji had spoken after hearing it.
'And she actually made it.'
To Seonji, it was merely a few months ago, but to me, it was over ten years ago. The emotions were unique.
But there was something a bit strange.
Why hadn’t I heard this song before the regression?
It was a good song—good enough that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to show it anywhere.
I quickly ran through the self-composed songs future Seonji had sung.
No matter how much I thought about it, this song wasn’t on that list.
'No, even if she hadn’t released it separately, she’d never played it for me like this before.'
Harboring that question, I asked Seonji.
"…When did you finish this, by any chance?"
"Actually, it’s been quite a while since I finished it."
After a brief pause, Seonji added.
"But I wanted to play it myself, so it took a long time to practice."
"You wanted to perform it yourself?"
'Could it be?'
I briefly recalled a story I’d heard in the future.
It was something Seonji had said to me at an after-party, with a bitter expression.
"Jahun, I’m sorry."
"For what?"
"There’s a song I made to give to you someday, but when I looked for the file, it was gone. If I’d known, I would have given it to you sooner."
"…Why didn’t you give it to me sooner?"
"I had severe performance anxiety back then. I was going to wait until I got better and then do it together."
Only then did it make sense.
This song was one that had disappeared in my previous life.
The performance phobia that had gradually worsened because of Yeonbi.
Because of that, I kept putting it off and eventually had to lose it by mistake.
'But this time, the stage has changed.'
I stared at Seonji, who was smiling brightly, saying she could finally try it.
It seemed the last Yeonbi stage had had quite a positive effect.
'So this was what she meant by "Jahun’s demo track"…'
I recalled the melody I’d just heard and nodded.
It was more than enough to serve as a reward.
Setting aside how good the song was, I had essentially recovered a song that had nearly vanished from my history.
"It’ll be hard to find other team members, right?"
"Hmm, probably. Most of them probably already have teams, don’t you think?"
Seonji made a disappointed expression.
"It’s fine. Two is enough."
I said, handing over the completed application form.
When I flashed a smile to tell her not to worry, Seonji hurriedly checked her watch.
"We can’t be late for the submission deadline. I’ll go submit it quickly…!"
'I think we still had two days left.'
She must have misread the date.
'…That takes one worry off my mind.'
After listening today, Seonji’s accompaniment was fine.
And this song was the same.
Song selection was a very important factor for participating in the Open Stage.
But with an original song of this quality…
'No matter when we slot it in, it’ll be a factor that draws in the audience.'
It was the moment I held a card that could be utilized in any number of ways.
* * *
Friday, 7 PM.
The sky was gradually darkening, but the night of Sewoon Arts High was still far off.
'Already full.'
The ensemble rooms and practice rooms were all occupied without a single empty spot.
The lights the students filling the place had turned on were pushing back the darkness.
It was a common sight around this time.
Everyone was pouring their heart and soul into achieving good results at the Open Stage.
"There’s seriously not a single spot left. What are we going to do about practice?"
On the way into the building, students coming out into the hallway muttered grumpily.
"I went in the moment the empty room sign showed earlier, but did you see how someone took it right away? Everyone is seriously something else."
A friend beside them chimed in.
'Students who couldn’t snag a practice room, huh.'
This, too, was one of the common sights.
Because students flocked to the school practice rooms excessively, a sort of competition had broken out.
The so-called Practice Room Wars.
Sewoon Arts High allowed students to reserve practice rooms through the school website.
Unfortunately, students who were even slightly late were reduced to drifting around like that.
'Fortunately, I’m not one of them.'
Passing them, I leisurely headed upstairs.
The grumbling students looked at me with envious gazes.
Because my gait clearly belonged to someone who had reserved a practice room.
'It’s all thanks to Seonji.'
I turned on my phone and checked the message I’d received earlier.
[Seonji — Come to Annex Private Practice Room 202!]
Oh Seonji, who had been called the strongest champion of the Practice Room Wars, was on my side.
'Because even when she wasn’t participating in competitions, Seonji had never once missed her own practice time.'
With competition preparations added this time, her skills were being demonstrated to their fullest.
As expected, she was a talent worthy of being called the Queen of Concert Ticketing in the future.
When tickets to her own concerts sold out the moment they opened, competing with fans to snatch up tickets was even a hobby of hers.
'Of course, she released those snatched-up tickets to fans through events.'
Anyway, she seemed to possess a talent in this field that no one could dare rival.
"You’re here?"
When I entered the practice room, Seonji took off her headset and welcomed me.
"Were you composing?"
I pointed at the MIDI program on the computer.
"Yeah, I was fixing some lacking parts."
"The version I heard earlier was good too."
"The band is confirmed as just you and me, two people. I was changing it to fit that."
Looking at the program with the song in progress, I could see traces of intense effort.
Reviving existing instruments with piano or boldly removing them.
It was a skill so proficient it was hard to believe she was still a student.
'Well, no wonder her solo concerts sold out so quickly.'
I once again felt the reality that this kid was fated to become a solo singer who would cause a syndrome in the future.
'By the way, how strange…'
The MIDI program.
It was extremely similar to my system after all.
'It might be influenced by the fact that I did music.'
But embarrassingly, I wasn’t particularly well-versed in this program or composition.
It would be better to know it now. After all, whatever it was, it was related to my life.
"Can you teach me the program sometime next time?"
"Jahun, are you going to try composing too?"
I quickly nodded.
I couldn’t exactly say it was to get a better grasp of the system.
"Hmm, you basically seem good at coming up with melodies, so it’d be good for you to learn."
"R-right?"
"Listen during composition class, and if there’s anything you don’t understand, ask me anytime."
'There was a composition class, wasn’t there.'
Recalling the class schedule, I felt a bit of anticipation.
It was a moment I had wanted to avoid when I was younger because I didn’t know any better, but now I wanted to learn it as soon as possible.
"It’s all done. Listen again."
In the meantime, Seonji, who had finished the revisions, played the music.
The melody input into the MIDI spread through the practice room via the speakers.
This time, it was arranged as a piano version.
'Nice arrangement.'
There were sounds that felt like blanks as instruments were removed, but it didn’t feel bad.
Rather, my head spun quickly at the thought of filling those empty spaces with my rap.
Simply put, it felt more like drawing lines on paper with margins rather than trying to layer paint on an already full canvas.
'My mouth is itching.'
My lyrics that would slot in between kept popping into my head.
"…I can’t help it. I have to write it down."
"Seonji, do you have a spare notebook or anything?"
"Huh? I do, but."
The moment I received a sheet of notebook paper, I sat at the desk and started moving my hand.
-Scritch-scratch.
The practice room was silent since the playback had ended, but my head wasn’t.
The melody of the music I’d heard earlier rang in my ears as if rewinding.
And over it…
The rap I would spit was being drawn clearly.
'The days I foolishly let opportunities slip away, but not anymore.'
The story that came to mind from listening to the beat became lyrics, and lyrics dressed in flow became rap.
I wrote down the answer to this song in lyrics.
"Whew…."
I hadn’t been slow at working to begin with, but this time it was even faster.
Lyrics completed before even 20 minutes had passed.
[Rebound]
"Is this the song title?"
Seonji asked, looking at the words written at the top of the notebook.
"…Yeah."
After writing it all, it was too blatantly my story. Though it wasn’t intentional.
'Since this is rap, after all.'
Honestly unraveling one’s own emotions and narrative rather than a fabricated story.
That is the charm and original function of rap.
"Seonji, play the song one more time."
"Huh? You’re going to try it right away?"
Leaving the surprised Seonji behind, I stood up and spread out the lyrics I’d just written.
-!
The flow that had been in my head leaped into reality through my mouth.
'Not bad.'
In that short span of four minutes, the music was being completed without gaps.
* * *
—Click.
Music playing inside the practice room.
Oh Seonji rested her arms and listened to the song she had made.
To be exact, it was a song she composed, and her friend Park Jahun rapped on.
'I didn’t know we’d already finish recording too.'
I thought we’d need more time, but practice flowed differently than expected.
She briefly replayed the earlier situation.
Park Jahun, who listened to the song just once and wrote lyrics as if possessed.
The moment he said it was done after a few minutes and spat his rap. The music was complete.
'At first I thought he was rushing and doing it sloppily, but no.'
When four minutes passed and the music stopped, Seonji pressed the play button again.
—Click.
She had listened to it many times already, but her thoughts remained the same.
That the rap fit the song perfectly.
'When did he improve this much.'
It was a skill that contrasted starkly with when she first met him.
Even back then, the groove was quite impressive for someone rapping for the first time…
'Now there don’t seem to be any awkward parts.'
She wondered if it was because she wasn’t a hip-hop major, but either way, it sounded good to her.
"Whew, let’s start practice."
Seonji, who had been lost in blank thought for a moment, tapped her own cheek.
After that, she looked at the song they had written out by hand.
'Rebound…. I have to play it well.'
She recalled how she had nearly made a big mistake during Yeonbi.
Still, when it came to music, she had more experience than Jahun.
She couldn’t be a burden at the very least.
Seonji resolved inwardly and practiced the accompaniment.
'If we get good grades, we might get to perform together at a concert.'
She had never been fixated on competitions before, but this time she kept feeling greedy for some reason.
It was a time when she still didn’t know it was because of her trust in Park Jahun.
The Regressor on the Beat