Chapter 66
“Enjoy your meal.”
“Yeah, you too. Enjoy.”
After exchanging the customary greetings, Myeongjeon scooped up a spoonful of rice and put it in his mouth. The meal proceeded with little conversation, but unlike at first, when he had felt as uncomfortable as if he were sitting on a bed of nails, he was now fairly used to it.
“Is the concert this weekend?”
“Yes.”
“Can Mom go too?”
“I’ll ask whether there are any invitation tickets.”
At Myeongjeon’s answer, Hyein replied, “Thanks~” She smiled sheepishly and began eating again. A spoonful of rice, a bite of vegetables and kimchi.
‘For some reason, I keep craving food these days.’
He was definitely eating more. But his weight hadn’t increased much. Was it puberty? That could happen to a high school student.
Myeongjeon lived without caring about his appearance at all, but… if there was one thing he was quite interested in, it was physique and stamina. The guitars and equipment he had used in the body of ‘Seo Myeongjeon,’ who had been over 180 centimeters tall. They were things he couldn’t easily use as ‘Ha Suyeon,’ no matter what.
‘I hope I can get past 170 centimeters, no more and no less.’
He did run 5 kilometers every day, do grip-strength exercises, and perform simple bodyweight workouts… but that wouldn’t be enough to overcome the limits of his build.
So he often found himself asking Iseo, “Can you lift this for me?” when carrying instruments or other things, and every time, he felt envious watching Iseo effortlessly hoist them.
‘Does she work out separately?’
Thinking about it that way, Iseo’s physique was baffling. Given her schedule—and Myeongjeon had a rough idea of it because he had to coach her—she should hardly have any time to exercise. Yet she had a good build, plenty of strength, and a good… figure? Anyway, she had that going for her too. Was it genetics? Hyein wasn’t particularly tall, so maybe ‘Ha Suyeon’ was the same way…
“Come to think of it, don’t you guys make something like that?”
“Like what?”
“An album or something. I heard you’ve composed a lot of songs, but your mother has never actually heard one of Suyeon’s songs.”
Album. Myeongjeon rolled the word around in his mind. An album, huh? Unless they had passed the support-program selection, he hadn’t really thought about an album after being rejected.
‘But it would definitely be necessary.’
The songs Myeongjeon had made so far were only available as early versions on YouTube… and even those songs had changed a lot. They had changed so much that people on Paradox would listen to the same song and ask, “Why don’t you play that song?”
It would be worthwhile to organize all that at some point. For the fans’ convenience, publicity, and various other reasons… To take a proper first step as a band.
‘At the very least, wouldn’t it save face to have an EP or something when we audition somewhere later?’
“We’re planning to make one.”
Thinking that, Myeongjeon gave Hyein his answer. Hyein looked quite pleased.
“Tell Mom when you have a plan. I have plans of my own, you see.”
“…Yes?”
At the ominous-sounding remark, Myeongjeon lightly scratched his chin. What kind of plan did she have…? She wasn’t planning something like a solo concert for publicity, was she?
* * *
“Today is the last day.”
After the performance, everyone waited for the familiar ‘feedback, then start playing again’ routine that had continued for several weeks. But Suyeon’s first words as she stood up and took the microphone were a little different.
“You’ve all worked hard. String section! Mr. Park Jihwan. Mr. Kim Hyeoksu. Ms. Lee Jiyeon…”
Suyeon called each person by name, prompting applause. Applause poured out for each one. Some were a little choked up, some delighted, and some relieved.
It was only natural. Suyeon had handled the concert session the same way she handled her own band.
“String section! There were so many flubs in that last performance. I told you it wasn’t supposed to feel like that.”
“We’re supposed to hit this part and charge forward. This isn’t the time for the rhythm guitar to go ding-ding-ding-ding~. You have to come in like this—chug-chug-chug-chug!—and race ahead at full throttle.”
“Juhyeon just let loose with a high-note ad-lib here, right? So what do we do? The background has to create an atmosphere like it’s exploding too. But everything else is working fine right now, and the keyboard section still isn’t bringing that out properly.”
“No, people are ad-libbing right now to bring out the point of a session band. Some of you are matching them. Some are playing as usual, as if to say, ‘I have no idea what’s going on.’ Some are trying to match them, but not properly, wobbling along with an ‘uh, uh, uh.’ That’s why everything’s falling apart right now.
“We’re a band. More than that, this is the first session-band concert Mr. Juhyeon has ever attempted in his life. If we want to show how different we are, we absolutely have to be able to follow ad-libs like these. Start by trying to match them. I’ll cover all the parts that fall apart.”
Feedback came crashing down on them, backed by overwhelming skill. Some people pushed back, but skill and logic sank every objection. What remained were vacant stares.
But it didn’t take long for their eyes to come back to life.
“A little more from there. Okay. Your fingers are too stiff right now. Like this… like this. Straighten them out. Relax your elbows.”
“If you want to ad-lib, don’t do it like that. Rather than just plunking away like this… add a little swing. Got it? This song is jazz, remember. If you bring in the swing here, we’ll all follow you. Go in boldly.”
No one knew how it was possible, but her feedback reached every instrument and every section. And when they followed that feedback, their skills somehow improved.
It didn’t take long for the session musicians to respect Suyeon… no, to half-worship her.
“And our band’s drummer, Yoo Seoha; keyboardist, Jeong Hyeona; and bassist, Choi Iseo—you’ve all worked hard too… We could just part ways neatly after practice, but I hate making a whole thing of it by bowing our heads and creating an atmosphere just to go out for a team dinner, so I’m saying my goodbyes now. Once practice is over, you can head straight out.”
Laughter erupted among the people.
“I don’t think there’s anything else to add. You’ve all really worked hard until now. Let’s finish the remaining practice cleanly and see each other on rehearsal day. Finally, we’ll run through it with Mr. Juhyeon and call it a day…”
Contrary to Suyeon’s hopes, the session musicians didn’t all scatter the moment practice ended. They all gathered around Suyeon right away, asking her this and that.
“Teacher, we’ll definitely keep in touch.”
“I’m working on a project these days…”
“I’ll definitely recommend you.”
“My daughter wants to learn guitar. Would you happen to offer lessons??”
“Do you also do sessions as a band??”
Suyeon dealt with them while handing out business cards, looking a little flustered. Iseo watched the scene with fascination. At first, she had clearly said, “We should just do an adequate job.” But at some point, she had sincerely started teaching the others, and this was where it had led.
After waiting another ten minutes or so, the people finally dispersed. Iseo approached Suyeon with a smile.
“You’re insanely popular.”
“I’m dying.”
Usually, she should have been happy that more work was coming in, but Suyeon looked thoroughly surly. Was it because she already had too much work?
“I’m busy these days. It’d be fine if I had some time. I have to attend school, and I have to take work that comes in through other channels too. I’ll accept it all since it’s all work and money… But the good thing is—”
Suyeon held up one of the business cards. It was an ordinary session musician’s card. But on the back, which Suyeon showed her, it read: [Specialized Wholesale/Retailer of Rare Instruments and Effects].
“At least I managed to get one thing out of it.”
“What’s that?”
“I was going to ask them to find an effects unit for me… no, for Mr. Myeongjeon. I thought they might be able to find at least one?”
* * *
Seyoon and Sehyeon were Juhyeon fans. More precisely… Seyoon was the die-hard fan, while Sehyeon had more or less been dragged along because his older sister was anxious—or bored—on her own.
But the two siblings were very uneasy today. Seyoon was worried whether Juhyeon’s first-ever attempt at a ‘session-band concert’ would go well, while Sehyeon was worried the concert would end in a disaster and his sister would make a scene at home.
“It’ll go well, right?”
“Of course it will. Why do you keep saying that? They’re professionals too.”
“No, but whenever Juhyeon oppa goes live, he falls for a lot of really weird things. What if he got tricked by some weird people again and is doing this band thing?”
The retort that it wasn’t some neighborhood school talent show and how could that possibly happen was swallowed by Sehyeon. If he said something like that, he would obviously just get smacked on the back.
“Why worry about that? How many years has he been a singer? It’d be hard for him to get scammed.”
“You know scams are easiest to fall for when you let your guard down. Maybe that’s what happened to oppa too…”
Seyoon chattered on about pointless worries as she walked with Sehyeon to the concert hall. A long line stretched out because IDs and tickets were being cross-checked to prevent scalping. As they waited in the tedious admission line, Seyoon looked up the information one more time.
[I came to today’s concert, and apparently this Seoul concert has a band instead of MR]
Is that even doable? I’m worried the concert might be ruined ㅠ
- Singers these days do concerts with bands too
- Bands are good because they bring out the live feel
- With MR, it feels too tightly arranged. You have to prepare ad-libs and things like that in advance, so you can’t just go with the feeling of the moment
- It can be disappointing when a band that isn’t very good is brought in for a concert, though ㅠ
ㄴ Will things like that really bother you once you’re at the concert venue?
ㄴ They surprisingly do ㅠ The other singer I used to stan changed bands, and the vibe changed a little too. That kind of thing happens.
- It looked like the band doing the session this time was an entirely separate band of its own http://x.com/Gro~
Since everyone seemed to be worrying about the same things she was, Seyoon simply turned off her phone.
‘Well, no matter how badly the band screws up, Juhyeon oppa will cover for them, right?’
Seyoon wasn’t sure, but they said the advantage of a band was that you could freely let loose with things like ad-libs. If so, Juhyeon had been perfect even with MR, but what would Juhyeon be like with the reins off his ad-libs?? Just imagining it…
“Can you do something about that unpleasant look on your face?”
At Sehyeon’s scolding, Seyoon returned to her senses. The line had already shortened considerably. Once they passed through the entrance, a wide-open concert hall came into view.
“They could book a bigger concert hall by now.”
“That’s part of the strategy, I’m telling you. Deliberately creating scarcity to generate buzz…”
“Shut up!”
After putting down the shameless rumor-spreader, Seyoon went to her seat and sat down. It was in the first row, though slightly off to one side. Because of that, it was a good spot to see the ‘session band’ people had been talking about.
The MC came out and began the show. “Hello, everyone!! Welcome, proud fans of Juhyeon, the greatest singer this era has produced!!” A cringe-worthy line meant to rile up the fans.
But Seyoon was thinking, ‘Just bring Juhyeon oppa out already.’ As she thought that, the members of the session band began to appear one by one.
“Hey, people are coming out over there. I guess they’re the band.”
“Huh, I guess so. They aren’t super old, are they? Aren’t most people in bands old… Huh?”
Sehyeon pointed to one side of the stage. Four girls who clearly didn’t look like adults were coming in. At first, Seyoon thought maybe they were staff temps, but they kept walking straight in and took the front seats of the session band.
“What?”
“Maybe they’re just short?”
Seyoon thought so. But even if she didn’t know much about tall people, the other girls’ faces unmistakably looked young.
“Using teenage girls as a band is… a little questionable, isn’t it? Did he really get tricked by someone?”
“Right? There’s no way oppa Juhyeon would suddenly change the concert setup that had been working so well. He must have been tricked by someone.”
There are many geniuses in the world. Juhyeon, too, had apparently been famous as a genius from a young age (or so she had heard from anecdotes on the fan café). But even if there were many geniuses, that didn’t mean everyone you saw was one.
From that perspective, Seyoon found it hard to believe that the kids who had come out as the band would put on a performance good enough to overcome their age.
‘Please, just don’t ruin the concert.’
With that wish in mind, Seyoon clasped her hands and waited. It was their first solo concert in a long time, and she hoped they wouldn’t cause some accident bad enough to break her immersion.
Only a few hours later… she had no idea that a new object of her fandom was about to be born.