Chapter 114
Most people are born and live on the ground. Almost no one goes underground. As a result, underground spaces instinctively evoke aversion in humans. Their damp, dim atmosphere alone gives off a feeling that forbids approach.
At the same time, perhaps for that very reason, live houses are often located underground. Rent is cheap, sound doesn't leak out easily, and they're free from complaints and the like. This live house was probably underground for the same reasons.
“It feels like we're entering a place straight out of an anime.”
As they descended the short staircase, Iseo muttered that. Myeongjeon grabbed Hyuna, who was chiming in, and put her in front. He couldn't speak Japanese, after all.
“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”
“Ah… iie, iie. On-site… on-site purchase. What was it again…
Can we buy them on-site?
”
“Okay, okay. How many people?”
“Five, five-nin desu.”
While Hyuna communicated with the ticket seller in short, broken Japanese, Myeongjeon took a quick look around the live house. It was slightly smaller than Paradox. However, the interior design, the sound equipment, and even the drink bar visible in the back all showed clear signs of care.
“Here… your tickets. Take these over there and exchange them. For a drink. They say you can't bring them onto the floor…”
The tickets they were given had a rather distinctive design. Rather than exchange his, Myeongjeon decided to keep it as a souvenir. He had just chugged down a bottle of water on the way there.
“The show starts in five minutes~!”
With the staff's announcement in the background, Myeongjeon slowly looked around the live house once more.
It wasn't sold out, but the venue was still fairly crowded. The lineup included bands that even Myeongjeon, who knew the Japanese rock scene quite well, had never heard of. At the drink bar where Iseo was ordering, a rugged, bearded young man with the stereotypical look of a Japanese rock musician was handing out drinks.
“Do you normally perform in places like this?”
“That's right. The Hongdae venue where we perform is, well, a little bigger than this and aboveground… That's all. It's not very different from here.”
In response to Hyein's question, Myeongjeon answered and searched for somewhere the four high school girls and one adult woman could calmly listen to music and watch the rock bands perform.
“Thank you!”
People applauded after the second band's performance ended. Iseo and the others also applauded enthusiastically.
“What do you think? What did you think of the two bands?”
During the brief lull, Suyeon asked that question. Iseo thought about it for a moment.
As far as the songs were concerned, both bands had some questionable aspects. Iseo wondered whether she simply couldn't enjoy them because that was the Japanese sensibility, but when she considered the others' reactions and the songs Suyeon had written, there was definitely something lacking. Or perhaps Suyeon was simply very good at writing songs.
But when it came to skill… Iseo felt as though her eyes had been thrown wide open.
Iseo wasn't well versed in the Hongdae indie-band scene. If anything, she knew very little about it. The indie bands she had seen consisted of the bands in the later time slots that she watched whenever they performed at Paradox, a few bands Seoha had dragged her to see, and the bands that had appeared on the audition show.
If she excluded the bands from the audition, assuming they were handpicked talents, the remaining bands… had been somewhat lacking in terms of fundamentals. They might lose the beat, fail to produce precise pitches, or focus too much on excessively difficult playing.
But the Japanese bands she had just seen were different. Their fundamentals felt like those of the bands that had appeared on Invasion 2024… No, they were at the level of mid-to-upper-tier bands, or even better.
They weren't good enough to sell out a live house. They hadn't even come to a venue that carefully selected performers based on skill. Despite being bands that maintained only a moderately full audience, they possessed objectively solid fundamentals.
“Both bands have really good fundamentals. I don't know much about the music itself, though.”
Hyein had gone outside for a moment, saying that her ears needed a rest, and Hyuna had followed her out. With only the three of them remaining, Seoha spoke up.
“I think I understand why people say Japan is a powerhouse of rock and bands and all that. If they were in Korea, people would say they were incredibly skilled.”
“That's true.”
At Iseo's response, Suyeon nodded and then spoke herself.
“For example, if person A ranked around tenth out of a hundred people in Korea, where would they rank in Japan? Probably around one hundredth or one hundred tenth out of a thousand. The distribution of skill itself is similar in Korea and Japan.”
Iseo thought that was unexpected. She had assumed Japan's overall level would be much higher.
“The difference is that the populations themselves are different. For example, in Korea, a person like A would be the only one recognized as a master in an area about the size of Cheonan or Gwangmyeong. In Japan, an equivalent area might have around ten masters. That's the idea. Even if the distribution is similar, the absolute number of people is simply different because the population is so much larger.”
As she said that, Suyeon pointed to the band that was packing up and heading downstairs.
“That's why saying Japan is a paradise for music is both true and untrue. Look at that band. Even a band with skills like theirs can't fill a live house like this. Take Mystica, for example. In Korea, they'd be considered ‘a highly skilled indie band capable of making a living from performances,’ but in Japan, they're simply one of many.”
“And if we want to succeed in Japan… we'll have to break through all of these people.” Suyeon finished speaking, and the silence that followed cast a slightly solemn mood over the group.
Iseo rubbed the back of her stiff neck. To be honest, it was true that she had become a little conceited after the audition ended. She had been walking such a smooth road that lately, she spent her time under the covers imagining things like, ‘If I'm this good, won't I be well received anywhere?’ or ‘Maybe I'll even go on a world tour soon?’
At the place Suyeon had brought her, Iseo felt as though she had been doused with cold water—in a good way. It was even more effective because lately, all she had heard was how good and talented she was. Thinking that she needed to work much harder and practice much more, she clenched her fist slightly. She resolved to practice the bass until her hands bled once they returned.
“Then we'll begin the third band's performance!”
They heard the staff member's cry after Hyuna and Hyein returned. It seemed the third band's performance was about to begin.
The third band was similar to the previous ones. Their songs were somewhat questionable, but their fundamentals were quite good. The differences were that their sound was more polished than the earlier bands' and that they played several covers rather than only original songs.
And that song also began without any warning, after a few words from the band's vocalist.
“The song we're going to play now is—ah, I like Korean music… specifically, Korean rock. A little while ago, I was looking through the charts and discovered this song. A band song had charted among all the K-pop, which was quite unexpected. I listened to it out of curiosity, and it was so good. So I practiced it to play for all of you…”
“What is he saying?”
“He says they're going to cover a Korean song… Korean rock. It's a song he heard on the charts, and he thought it was really good…”
Hyuna listened to the bandman's words with a deeply furrowed brow and somehow interpreted them. While Iseo wondered, ‘A rock-band song that made it onto the Korean charts?’, the vocalist quietly muttered something again in Japanese.
“Please listen to ‘Gwao.’”
And the melody that flowed out made Iseo's eyes widen.
“Wait, that's our song?!”
The audience, who had been enjoying the music in the live house only moments before, had fallen into complete silence to listen to a song they had never heard. A sharp cry in Korean rang out among them. As everyone's attention turned toward the group, Seoha quickly covered Iseo's mouth and bowed deeply to the audience.
“Keep it down.”
“But this is our song… I should at least let them know I recognize it…”
Iseo made muffled sounds. Suyeon looked at her and let out a deep sigh.
“So what if it's our song? They're the ones performing right now. What are you going to do about it? Go onstage and shout, ‘We're the original creators and singers of this song! Get lost, everyone! We'll perform from here!’? That would be incredibly rude.”
“I know you're excited, but you'd be disrupting their performance. Just think of it as one of those things that happens and let it go.”
Hyein joined in as well. Iseo felt her initial excitement settle down a little and thought about it again. Come to think of it, she was right. If their band covered a song by a Japanese band and someone suddenly shouted from the audience, ‘That's our song!’ while pretending to know them and trying to climb onto the stage, it would be incredibly awkward.
So they hadn't come near the stage of their own accord.
“Excuse me, you girls over there. Could you come this way for a moment?”
It was the band that had been performing.
* * *
A group of women huddled in the corner of the stage, seemingly completely unrelated to this live house. They were a little far away, so it was difficult to see them clearly, but even from a distance, their looks seemed extraordinary… Judging by their ages, they appeared to be high school girls. Their faces seemed strangely familiar, though perhaps that was just his imagination.
‘At last, I have high-school-girl fans too. It's been a long road, this life as an unknown bandman…’
He clenched his fist, feeling as though he had finally received some recognition. Of course, they had been in the live house continuously since the first time slot, but there was no need to recall such a fact, which would do nothing for his mental health. Life was ultimately a process of convincing yourself, and that was all the more true here.
That feeling grew even stronger when Korean suddenly burst from the girls while he was singing ‘Gwao.’ He couldn't understand what they were saying, but since they were speaking Korean, it seemed they had reacted to him and his band.
Anyway, wasn't this a good thing?
“Excuse me, you girls over there. Could you come this way for a moment?”
As he said that, he pointed to the area in front of the stage. With all the audience's eyes focused on them, the girls talked among themselves at his words. “
What is he saying?
” “
He says to come over here…
” “
Why?
” “
I-I don't really know…
” After an exchange of completely incomprehensible Korean, one of them walked toward the stage with a slightly sullen expression.
“Wow…”
With a face that could only be described as pretty—no, incredibly pretty—the band's bassist unconsciously let out that exclamation. He agreed. But she looked familiar… Where had he seen her?
“WHY?”
The girl came to the front of the stage and blurted out the short English word. Looking at her, he desperately searched through his memories. This wasn't about whether she was an acquaintance or anything like that. He had seen her recently in something that should have left a strong impression. It obviously wasn't an AV, so what was it? A gravure shoot? No. A YouTube video? That seemed close. Then what was it…
And then, a thought flashed through his mind.
“Group Sound! Gwao! Guitar! Right? You're that vocalist, right?”
It was a video he'd seen not long ago—the finals stage of the Korean audition program ‘Invasion from seoul 2024,’ where the song they'd just played, ‘Gwao,’ had been unveiled for the first time.
That never-before-released song had moved the audience to tears and drawn a singalong from them… The vocalist of that band, and a guitarist with supernatural skill, ‘Ha Suyeon’ was standing before him.