Chapter 25
[Is This How Good High School Festival Bands in Korea Are These Days?!?! Reaction to a School Band's Skill!!]
(“Hello, this is James. Today, we're going to watch a hot-topic video recommended by one of our subscribers. They sent me this video saying it was from a high school festival…
They apparently played about three songs, and we're told the band's skill is on an absurd level. The guitarist in particular is supposedly better than a professional. Let's take a look?
⋮
Who is this guitarist? Who is she? Her alternate picking is at a professional level. High school? Holy.
⋮
The other members are pretty good too. They can all play. But this guitar girl… is amazing.
⋮
Wow, man. I really want to thank the subscriber who recommended this band. This is incredible! To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first. I don't know the original songs well, but this was really good. I'm looking forward to what comes next!)
- This guitar is seriously insane..;;
- No.. I don't know why my eyes are welling up with tears when it's such a happy song. I was smiling while listening, and then at some point I started crying. An incredible vocal and guitar performance!!! This video is going to become legendary soon...
- The vocals are seriously insane.. and the composure is insane too.. and the gestures are insane... the guitar is insane too… I think I'm going to become a fan.. ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Please upload it
- Look at her expression while she's singing.. she looks like she's really enjoying the stage, and it makes me happy too..
- It just seems like every member of the band is having fun, so I'm happy too ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
- High School Band, like High School Rapper... I wish they'd make something like that
- The instruments are already amazing, but that guitarist in particular is doing the work of four people all by herself.....
Watching countless other videos as well, Iseo unconsciously let out a laugh. Heehee. Heehee. Heehee.
“Choi Iseo! Stop laughing like a lunatic and come eat.”
“Heeheehee… Yes.”
Her mother's shout came from outside the room. Iseo gave a halfhearted answer and came out, yawning languidly. The meal had already been set out.
“Good grief… Now that it's vacation, you just hole up at home. Are you really not going to get any exercise?”
“I will… someday.”
Giving an insincere answer, she sat at the table and picked up her chopsticks. Eating means being on your phone, it’s the golden rule… Thinking that, Iseo picked up her phone again and opened the online community.
She had thought that someone would film the performance, and that if it made its way around the internet, maybe people would praise their skill.
What if someone recognizes me? What if the comments are nothing but praise? Should I come out and say, “Ah~ I’m the person who played bass at this band’s performance”?
But even for Iseo, whose thoughts had approached delusion, the current situation was beyond anything she had anticipated. Who could have known? The school broadcasting club had recorded and uploaded the school festival video, and of all things, their band’s video had been picked up by the algorithm.
Iseo opened the original video again. A band-performance video with several hundred thousand views.
- I wish it would hit a million already ㅠㅠㅠㅠ People not watching a video like this? This is a national lo.ss.
One bite of rice, one check of the views; another bite of rice, another check of the views. For some reason, she felt that with this video alone, she could eat forever.
Iseo opened KakaoTalk and was about to message her friends, but stopped.
‘Come to think of it, they said they’d block me if I bragged about it one more time…’
No, she hadn't even bragged that much, so why were they acting like that? About ten times, maybe? But with a video of them playing this well, how could she not brag about it? Her friends, perhaps because none of them played in bands, apparently didn't understand her feelings.
Then did that leave only the band members?
‘Come to think of it, what is Suyeon doing…’
She hadn't received a single message since vacation began. In the band group chat, Suyeon merely checked the messages and otherwise said nothing.
‘She seems to be alive… She isn't starting another band or anything, is she?’
* * *
“Why are they taking so long…?”
Sehyun stared anxiously at the clock on his phone. Time was money when renting a recording studio. As a poor student at an arts college, Sehyun prioritized saving time above all else… He had even finished setting everything up in advance,
yet the crucial session musician still hadn't arrived.
“I told you we should use Jeongmin.”
“I told you Jeongmin doesn't have the right feel. How many times have I used him?”
After his friend chided him, Sehyun scratched his head once and opened his mouth.
“Huh? Do I have money to burn? I used him because I had to. The other guys just don't have the right feel.”
The album recording Sehyun had begun to commemorate his graduation from the arts college and give his first step a proper send-off. What had started as a joke was gradually becoming serious, and the recording that he had thought his friends would be enough for was turning into a major undertaking that required bringing in session musicians.
As befitted one of Korea's most prestigious arts colleges, the album project as a whole had proceeded smoothly… until a sudden question arose at the final stage of recording.
‘Is it really okay to go on like this?’
Troubled by the feeling that something was missing, he seriously pondered what that something might be. Yet no matter what he did, the lack remained unresolved. Frustrated and unsure what to do, he watched some random YouTube video—and came across a guitar instrumental.
The moment Sehyun heard it, he contacted its creator. It had exactly the feeling he had been looking for.
“No, but does it really make sense to hear one original song on the internet and hire that person as a session musician when you know next to nothing about them?”
At his friend's muttering, which was trying to drag out an issue that had already been settled, Sehyun glared at him. His friend quietly looked elsewhere, watching Sehyun out of the corner of his eye. Sehyun sighed and opened his mouth.
“They'll show up eventually. It's not like they'd pull something. It's the twenty-first century; there's a record of everything…”
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a vibration in his pocket. On the screen of Sehyun's phone, which he pulled out, were the words [Guitar].
“Hello?”
“Yes, this is White Room. I'm in front of the studio now.”
The voice was much younger—and lower—than he had expected. It was the voice he'd heard in the YouTube video, but… had it really sounded like this?
“Ah, yes, I'll come out~”
Sehyun went down to the first floor of the building where the recording studio was. In front of the building stood a tall girl with half her long hair swept back, staring at him with a sullen expression… a sharp-featured, beautiful girl.
“Uh… so…”
“Nice to meet you. I’m White Room.”
“Ah, yes…”
A large guitar case was strapped to her back, and she held a hard case in one hand. With the air of some veteran session musician, she made Sehyun feel overwhelmed.
“You’re Lee Sehyun, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Sehyun realized that his voice was trembling slightly. Why was that?
‘I didn’t expect her to be this pretty…!’
She had the kind of looks that would make anyone turn around at least once if they passed her on the street. And someone with looks like that was also an excellent guitarist. Was the world really that unfair?
“Ah, hello… Would you like to come in right away? We’ve got most of our setup ready…”
“Oh, is that so?”
‘Something about her age and the way she talks doesn’t quite match.’
That was what Sehyun thought.
* * *
As soon as she entered the recording studio, she opened her guitar case. A Fender Stratocaster that was black everywhere except the neck.
‘A Fender?’
Sehyun had never told her not to bring a Fender. Still, a Fender… It wasn't something he had personal experience with, but some friends said that Fenders had an unmistakable “Fender sound” that couldn't be erased from their tone.
But Sehyun soon wiped the expression from his face.
‘A Fender… Does it really matter that much? As long as she plays well, that’s what counts.’
“The songs I’d like you to record this time… are these.”
Cutting straight to the point, Sehyun played the song for her first. It was a smoothly flowing, ballad-like song. Watching Suyeon listen quietly, Sehyun spoke awkwardly.
“But there’s something I’m not quite satisfied with. I’d like to add a guitar line, but I haven’t found anyone I really like. Then I heard the song you played and contacted you.”
“Do you have the chord chart for this song?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Suyeon suddenly asked the question. Sehyun froze for a moment, then held out his hand toward his friend. His friend handed him several sheets of A4 paper.
“Turn the vocals down a bit…”
She looked too young to have ever done a session even once. In fact, when he had asked for a portfolio, she had said she had nothing in particular, so this was probably her first session.
Yet she accepted the job as skillfully as though she had done it dozens of times.
‘Is she some kind of ready-made genius?’
He had felt the same way when he listened to her song. Rather than unpolished talent, it felt like watching a star who had already bloomed to perfection.
Suyeon had been tapping her fingers lightly on the desk, eyes closed as though analyzing the song… then she opened her eyes and picked up the guitar.
“I’ll go in and play it, so let’s record a take. We’ll figure out the line first, then adjust the tone.”
“Ah… yes.”
It was a slightly bewildering proposition. She had only been listening to the song for a few minutes? She hadn't even heard the whole song, yet she had already come up with something?
Sehyun looked at his friend in confusion. His friend, too, shook his head, his eyes full of disbelief.
Even if they weren’t ‘professionals’ yet, they were students at an arts university prestigious enough to rank among Korea’s very best. They had heard the word genius more times than they could count, and possessed the skill to prove it.
Yet this was something even they had never heard of. She could work out a guitar line for a song she was hearing for the first time, on the spot, in just a few minutes? At album quality, no less? Was that even possible?
‘If that were possible, why would guitar session musicians even exist?’
Worried that she might simply go in and start whaling away at it at random, Sehyun watched the recording booth with distrustful eyes.
And from inside the recording booth, the gentle sound of a guitar began to trickle out.