[Extra Story] 17. If You Cry and Laugh
Score (樂譜): A record of a musical tune using specific symbols.
Historically, various types of musical scores have existed, but currently, the staff notation is commonly used.
Of course, lead sheets consisting of chords and lyrics are also highly utilized in modern times.
Nevertheless, what people encounter first is still the staff notation consisting of five lines and symbols.
The staff notation consists of various elements such as key signatures, time signatures, clefs, and measures that indicate the tonality of the music.
These go beyond being a simple collection of musical symbols and supplementally and visually convey the content of the music to others.
Much like a book that visually conveys someone’s experiences or imagination.
Musical scores have a lot in common with books.
They are not just chunks of text written in a different language but also allow for implicitly formed rules.
For example, horizontal writing (left-to-right).
The rule, whose origin is unknown, is now used unconsciously, like breathing through the nose or blinking.
Initially, Halo also read from left to right when looking at Winter’s sketchbook.
The absence of staff lines wasn’t much of a problem; the spacing between the staff lines in a musical score is generally consistent, so it could be read as if there were staff lines.
But there was something strange, something like.
The music wasn’t properly connected and was 끊어지고 있었다 [being disconnected].
I knew that the measure was expressed by skipping the space, but the problem was not that there was no measure line, but the order was strange.
Yes, it was like a puzzle piece made up of one measure that had not yet been put together.
As if telling you to put it together yourself.
‘Look at this.’
Halo chuckled and put each puzzle piece in his head to fit it together.
There were ambiguous bars, so even if it didn’t turn out as intended, I could tell what the intention was.
This was a musical score and a picture.
In other words, it was his own musical score that did not apply the rules made by adults, and it was more like a picture than a book.
Think about it.
People commonly write horizontally on lined notebooks or staff paper, but how do people draw when they receive a sketchbook or drawing paper?
When drawing a hut, they usually draw the hut in the very center.
That’s the difference.
The child wrote the music from the very center, as if drawing a picture on a blank white sketchbook, and gradually spread it around.
Like other people’s paintings, the bars drawn on the side are a mess, as if they were drawing without thinking about the size, and the paintings became smaller or overlapped as they went back.
According to the rules made by adults, this would be a very strange score. It would be very bad music. Some people might think it was a joke.
Only a very few people would be able to recognize it.
Halo handed the sketchbook back to Winter and said.
“You should have drawn the staff lines properly. No one will recognize it like this.”
If he had only indicated the order properly, he would have conveyed what he wanted better.
Halo scolded, then smiled faintly.
“Still, you did a good job.”
He hummed the music with the puzzle pieces put together.
The humming reached him along with the sound of waves crashing in his ears.
The child’s eyes widened.
It seemed like the crying had stopped.
“I can connect it well.”
There was no object, but Winter knew what it meant right away.
– You said you wanted to connect the sounds. What sound do you want to connect?
-I want to connect the sound of my mom humming.
– Can you connect it?
– Uh? I don’t know about that. I have a lot of thoughts, but it’s complicated-.
It was an extension of that conversation.
‘He acknowledged it.’
The person who is very famous in Seoul.
The PD [Production Director] who came from the broadcasting station, the person who praised him like a hymn.
Winter read sincerity in his expression and attitude. The writer, who had been quietly in the back, nodded repeatedly and agreed. It couldn’t just be a polite remark. Didn’t he subtly avoid answering whether he was more famous than the teacher?
‘He said I did a good job.’
I felt better and better.
The teacher’s words had long flown out of my head, and I just felt like I was floating in the sea.
I liked the sketchbook that I was going to throw away again, and I just wanted to show this person more.
Then he’ll praise me again, right?
I still want to beat this person, but I don’t think I have to beat him.
Winter covered her face with her sketchbook and giggled behind it.
“If you cry and laugh-.”
Seo Moon-yeon poked Nam Gyu-hwan in the side.
“Be quiet. Are you going to make the kid cry again?”
Nam Gyu-hwan, who had never made a child cry, felt wronged.
One person stood in front of them.
“Excuse me, can I talk to you for a moment?”
It was PD Na Hye-joo.
“With us?”
“Yes, and Winter too.”
“?”
#
“This is next. ···yo.”
“Really? Like this?”
“Yes. No, yes.”
Winter told me the order of the ambiguous bars.
Halo nodded and played the guitar, and Winter smiled politely and giggled.
I’m trying not to show it, but adults can see everything.
If Winter was a puppy, she might have been wagging her tail like crazy. That’s how much her eyes sparkled, and she couldn’t take her eyes off the guitar and Halo.
That’s how the music is completed.
There were still many clumsy aspects, but considering that Winter was only 10 years old and that she had not received professional education, it seemed like an outstanding talent.
PD Na Hye-joo listened to the interpretation that the sheet music started in the middle of the sketchbook and listened to the music being completed, and felt her mind go blank.
At first, surprise.
Admiration and recognition for Halo who interpreted this.
After that, dizziness came.
There was something I realized at this moment.
The purpose of the program was to connect talented mentees and mentors and develop the mentees’ talents.
I now realized that the intention of simply putting talented people together was short-sighted and hasty.
Education is not that simple. Life is not that simple.
Just as a good teacher can be a bad teacher to someone,
It was a hasty act to just put the mentor and mentee together without looking at their harmony.
What would have happened if Winter had been placed with Kim Seon-cheol as originally intended? That person doesn’t see Winter properly like Halo. Would it have been okay even if he said okay?
I should have looked at the important issue of a child’s life more carefully.
At least like that-.
“Is this next?”
“Wow-! That’s right, that’s right···yo!”
I had to find someone who could properly look at the sketchbook the child drew.
PD Na Hye-joo watched Halo comforting the child and approached them, listening to the humming flowing in the wind.
Blaming herself for telling herself in the past that she would not go near them and would let them rest comfortably.
I became a person who says one thing and does another, but I think I learned a lot.
“Huh. No, who said Winter doesn’t have talent?”
“Who? No, where are you looking?”
When they heard the story of why Winter cried, they were horrified.
PD Na Hye-joo did not specifically mention who that person was, what tone of voice they used, or what they said, but she conveyed the negative reaction, and naturally, only questions about talent remained.
“Simultaneous 3-note test?”
Halo questioned the audibility.
When the story of the audibility test, which PD Na Hye-joo also found strange, came up, she said she would show it and looked for the video.
Of course, Halo’s question had a different meaning.
He wondered why they were doing a 3-note test for a music prodigy test.
It is very important to know what sound an instrument makes and what notes it consists of, but anyone would be able to match the simultaneous 3 notes while blocking out all other sounds.
Wouldn’t it be better to play a song and have them play it?
Or have them compose it themselves.
“Ah, here it is.”
Anyway, PD Na Hye-joo, who found the recorded video, only played the sound, and Halo tilted his head and looked at Winter.
As if asking why she didn’t get it right.
Winter pouted as she listened to the sound of the video that she couldn’t get right. She had a very wronged look on her face.
“The sound···doesn’t the sound sound strange?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
PD Na Hye-joo asked back, not understanding.
However, Winter waited for Halo’s answer, and soon he opened his mouth.
“You couldn’t get it right because it wasn’t tuned properly?”
“Because the sound is different.”
“Still, you have to get this right. It shouldn’t be that noticeable.”
“···Is that so? Yo?”
Halo easily put the answer in his mouth and nodded.
“That’s right. It’s like no one stops the music in the middle because it’s not tuned.”
Of course, that would never happen, but strange things happen when performing. The guitar string breaks, or the sound sounds different due to the weather. I understand that she has sensitive ears, but I didn’t like the attitude of giving up in the middle because the sound wasn’t good.
“I understand···.”
Winter nodded sullenly.
“?”
PD Na Hye-joo, who was not much different from the general public when it came to music theory, looked back and forth between the two with a bewildered expression.
Neither the child who couldn’t get it right because it wasn’t tuned nor the child who said she had to get it right were people in the realm that she could understand.
Seo Moon-yeon smiled as if she understood her.
PD Na Hye-joo was relieved that she wasn’t the only one who was strange, but she didn’t know that Seo Moon-yeon was once a beloved talent at Hanejong [a prestigious Korean arts university].
“But is tuning? Is it originally difficult? ···Yo?”
“No.”
Halo shook his head firmly, saying that wasn’t the case.
“Tuning is not difficult. It’s just basic. Well, I guess they used something in the broadcasting station’s prop room. They usually don’t manage those.”
“···!”
Ah.
PD Na Hye-joo closed her mouth at the blunt words.
I didn’t think I should say who it was.
It wasn’t for that person, but because PD Na Hye-joo herself, who brought that person, felt ashamed.
Fortunately, Winter did not say that the person who gave her the prodigy test was her mentor. It seems like she has already completely forgotten about it, but I wanted her to forget it completely as if it never happened.
This is because I was thinking of going back to the beginning and finding a better mentor.
“I think we should go now.”
The ship’s horn sounded.
The captain sounded the horn to signal that they were about to leave.
Since the story was not completely finished, the members glanced at her.
‘A better mentor···’
PD Na Hye-joo stole glances at Halo and Winter.
In her eyes, there is no better combination than this, but Halo is not the type to do a lot of entertainment shows, and she hesitated to say more because she met them during her vacation.
She didn’t even tell them the personal circumstances that she had lost the program to them. I thought that was a bit too much.
“Then what will happen to Winter?”
Seo Moon-yeon asked one last time, and PD Na Hye-joo strengthened her will.
The reason why she didn’t reveal her personal circumstances was not only for their vacation but also for her own will.
I will never give up and lose it.
I will find a way to get it back.
“I’m sure of it, and Winter said she wants to do it, so I’m going to find a good mentor.”
It might be helpful to tell them the situation and appeal to their emotions that it is for Winter in order to not lose the program, but PD Na Hye-joo continued to 고민했고 [agonize]-.
In the end, I decided not to say it.
Since when has she been lucky?
Since when has she been so emotional?
Melodrama has been out of fashion for a long time. If a movie is like this these days, it gets criticized by the audience.
However, she decided to be a little greedy.
“When I return to Seoul, I plan to submit a formal proposal to H Label as well. Then-.”
I’m not unconditionally hoping for approval.
It’s beyond my means. All she wants is-.
“I’m not saying you have to accept it. I just hope you’ll read it and think, ‘Oh, there’s a program like this,’ and ‘This person is doing a program like this.’”
I know how lucky it is to meet a star by chance and ask them to read a casting proposal. Most casting offers are sent without being read.
She decided to be greedy to this extent. It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t read it when she goes to Seoul. She will find a way to get the program back and wanted to find Winter’s real mentor.
I’m not trying to be a righteous person, I just didn’t want to be remembered as a scammer to the child.
Boo-.
The ship was moving through the rough waves.
Soon, the ship carrying Halo and his members disappeared beyond the horizon.
PD Na Hye-joo found Winter at the end of the harbor, looking for the ship that was no longer visible.
Winter, who enjoyed the short time she spent with Halo but couldn’t hold on because of the memory of being rejected once, was just sitting at the end of the harbor like a dog waiting for its owner.
Humming music.
PD Na Hye-joo covered her head belatedly as she looked at the child.
I wanted to pretend to be a cool and responsible PD to my favorite star, but reality came to me belatedly.
How will I find a mentor that suits Winter and how can I find the program again?
It is absolutely impossible to broadcast the same two programs, and they have already finished the meeting.
“What should I do now?”
PD Na Hye-joo spun around in place.
Now that I’ve said this, they might look for her planning proposal in Seoul, but what kind of face will I have if it’s not there?
“Did you comfort the child well?”
Writer Do Min-hee’s voice was heard from behind.
“That was a long time ago. You’ll probably be surprised.”
She didn’t comfort her, Halo comforted her himself.
“Why? Did you meet Halo or something?”
“Did you see him?”
“From a distance. The town is so small that there’s no privacy in this town.”
I only knew that the music was old, but writer Do Min-hee said that there was nothing there.
“When I looked at it, the piano at Baekun Elementary School has been broken for a long time. It’s going to be difficult to do anything in this town, whether it’s a mentor or anything else.”
“Uh-huh.”
“What, don’t tell me you gave up on the program? You have to find a way. I’m so angry because of that bastard Kim Seon-cheol that I have to do better.”
Writer Do Min-hee exhaled.
“Let’s cast a big star and go for a blockbuster content. Let’s get a lot of investment and completely revamp it, not just mentoring the child.”
“···.”
PD Na Hye-joo stopped thinking for a moment.
“What did you say just now?”
“I said let’s get the program back.”
“No, after that.”
“Cast a big star and···.”
“Yeah.”
“With a blockbuster···”
Instead of just teaching prodigies, let’s revamp everything.
PD Na Hye-joo said ‘again,’ and writer Do Min-hee kindly repeated it.
Let’s revamp everything. Everything.
PD Na Hye-joo took in everything from Winter at the end of the harbor to the entire village at a glance. A village with nothing, and even what it has is old. The villagers who live there and the musically gifted child.
At that moment, a bell rang in my head.
A clear sound like ‘Ding-!’
“This is it!”
PD Na Hye-joo shouted.
Not only that, but she was filled with joy and grabbed writer Do Min-hee’s shoulder.
“This is it!”
Ding-!
The sound of the bell rang out.
They say that when someone falls in love, the sound of bells and angels’ trumpets are heard from behind, and it seems to be true.
PD Na Hye-joo fell in love with a program that she hadn’t even created yet.