Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 180

“Roar!”

“Eek!”

Perhaps feeling playful at Leon’s reaction, Uncle Kwak Do-hoon suddenly imitated a loud tiger roar from behind, startling Leon, who couldn’t hide his surprise.

Uncle Kwak Do-hoon chuckled, pleased with Leon’s reaction.

“Yes, this is the reaction I wanted.”

“Why are you scaring a kid you just met?”

I grumbled, and Uncle Kwak Do-hoon smirked. Uncle Jang Tae-shik, looking at him with disbelief, apologized instead.

“Sorry. The guy’s losing it.”

“You little punk! Losing it, you say!”

Uncle Kwak Do-hoon’s growl was quite fierce, but as always, Uncle Jang Tae-shik didn’t bat an eye and continued.

“If you’re old, grow old gracefully. Stop playing childish pranks.”

“……This is all affection.”

“Affection, my foot. You don’t know how scary kids are these days……”

“Kids these days can’t be that scary. Back in my day, there were real gangsters……”

“Did I ever tell you? A spy appeared near our neighborhood……”

Before I knew it, the two uncles had started a competition of who had a tougher upbringing, leaving Leon completely bewildered.

Fortunately, Uncle Park Si-young, who had witnessed these two uncles bickering for over 40 years, nonchalantly diffused the situation and moved Leon and himself to another spot.

-Slurp-

The dish I ordered at the company cafeteria, which I hadn’t visited in a while, was none other than *kalguksu* (noodle soup).

I had eaten so much wheat-based food overseas that I was sick of it, but the Korean dish I craved the most was *kalguksu*. It was quite strange.

-Crunch…… Munch, munch-

However, the moment I tasted the *kkakdugi* (radish kimchi) that came with it, I understood why I had wanted *kalguksu*.

“What I really wanted was this radish *kkakdugi*.”

More precisely, I missed a dish that allowed me to fully appreciate the flavor of the radish *kkakdugi*.

“Eat slowly. Anyone would think you haven’t eaten in days.”

“……Ugh. I just couldn’t get used to the food overseas.”

“Isn’t Korean food popular these days with the Korean wave and all?”

“It is, but the Korean food they sell over there is quite different from what we know. It’s like pineapple pizza, if you will.”

Most of the Korean dishes were adapted to American tastes. Kimchi stew with chunks of cheese or stir-fried kimchi cooked in butter were quite astonishing.

To be sure, they had a unique flavor, and when I first tried them, I thought they were fresh and surprisingly delicious.

But that only lasted a day or two; after eating them continuously, I quickly grew tired of them.

Thanks to that, I ended up going on an unplanned diet.

Trying to avoid greasy and spicy foods, I naturally started eating mainly protein and vegetables.

Uncle Park Si-young chuckled at my complaints about the food I had been eating, and only after I finished my meal did he bring up the topic.

“More importantly…… is that Leon guy really your successor?”

“……Successor?”

At the sudden mention of a successor, I looked up, puzzled. Uncle Park Si-young, in turn, seemed surprised and continued.

“Isn’t he? Your managers told me that’s the only explanation for your behavior.”

“My behavior?”

“They said you’ve been taking care of him like he’s your own son. Since Leon can’t possibly be your son, the only logical explanation is that you’re considering him as your successor.”

“Haha…….”

I laughed in disbelief, but then paused, realizing that it wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Well…… it’s not entirely wrong, but he’s not my successor. To be more precise, he’s more like my top disciple.”

Uncle Park Si-young opened his mouth, looking dumbfounded at my response.

“Successor or top disciple, what’s the difference?”

“There is a difference. A successor inherits my entire legacy, but a top disciple is simply the best among the students who have received my teachings.”

“Hmm……. The fact that you’re making such a distinction means there must be something special about him.”

“He is special.”

“Oh?”

I didn’t hesitate to say that Leon was very special, and Uncle Park Si-young seemed very interested.

From his reaction, I could tell that the uncles who had been with Leon while I was busy catching up on company matters hadn’t yet discovered his extraordinary talent.

“He’s still a rough stone, so it will take some time for him to shine.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“Well, he’s the only one who can play a very unique instrument.”

“Instrument? His playing skills were terrible, though?”

“I’m not talking about the guitar……. Just keep that in mind. It’s not something you can understand just by explaining it.”

“Ugh. You’re still as pretentious as ever.”

“It’s not pretentiousness. I’m just good.”

Perhaps it was because I had finally had a proper Korean meal, but I chuckled and made silly jokes. Afterward, I chatted and caught up with the uncles who came to see me one by one over coffee.

On any other day, we might have spent the time drinking late into the night, but neither I nor my uncles were in the mood for alcohol.

Before we could even finish catching up, we finished our tea and immediately got up. Without a word, we headed straight to the practice room.

-Da-da-da-da-!

-Dan-dan-da…… Ta-da-da-da-!

-Ja-ja-ja-jang! Ji-ji-jing-!

The first song we played together in a long time in the practice room was, without a doubt, ‘Old Soldiers Never Die.’

In fact, we could have created even better songs to use as skill benchmarks, and we actually had some among our tracks, but ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ held significance as the first song that gave birth to Black Tiger. It seemed destined to become Black Tiger’s reference song in the future.

In any case, playing ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ together after almost 10 months was so good that I almost teared up.

And it wasn’t just my feeling.

“Ugh~ There’s a big difference when Young-chan is here or not.”

“Wait a minute. Why is there sweat in my eyes…….”

“Yeah! This is it!”

“How about you pick up the guitar from the next song?”

“Yeah. It’d be nice to jam together after a long time.”

“……Gulp.”

The uncles also seemed moved by being on stage together after a long time, and Leon, the only audience member, was speechless and just kept swallowing hard.

I chuckled at the sight of the uncles and Leon, then grabbed my guitar, which was placed in a corner of the practice room.

-Di-di-ding! Di-ding-!

I tuned it faster than usual.

It was hard to endure the uncles’ gazes, who were whining like children in front of candy.

-Ji-ji-ji-jing-!

And I started playing ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ again.

Naturally, the ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ we played again was very different from the previous one.

It was because the quality of the song had clearly improved with the addition of my guitar.

-Du-du-du-du-dung-!

“Ugh! Fucking hell!”

I heard Uncle Kwak Do-hoon cursing as he pounded on the drums, whether he was feeling good or bad. I smiled and tried to get into the mood even more.

I was also curious to see how far the uncles, who were following along better than I had expected, could go.

-Ja-ja-ja-jang-!

I gradually started to raise the quality, and I could feel the uncles gritting their teeth and following along.

‘Hehehe.’

I barely managed to hold back the laughter that was about to burst out as something that I wouldn’t have dared to dream of in the past was finally becoming a reality, and I continued singing.

As we moved towards the latter half, we started to go even more insane.

Thanks to that, I naturally felt a sense of regret.

‘It would have been really nice if this place was a stage and not a practice room.’

As the main practice room for Black Tiger, its size and facilities were incomparably great, but it couldn’t compare to a concert hall.

The limitations of the space itself were clear.

Because of that, I thought it would be a good idea to create a concert hall-like space within the company for practice.

It would be a suitable space for band teams like us, Black Tiger, as well as idols to practice before concerts or events.

Anyway, the uncles followed me so well that I had such thoughts.

‘If the level gets a little higher here, I think it would be okay to unleash my full skills.’

And from that moment on, I felt like I could confidently say that no band would surpass Black Tiger, not in the past, nor in the future.

Of course, at this moment, our music was the best ever.

-Ja-ja-ja-jang-!

Was it because I was too caught up in the excitement?

When I came to my senses, I was already playing a guitar solo.

The uncles had stopped playing for a moment to match my solo, and I, feeling embarrassed at myself for being so immersed in the music during practice after so long, slowly began to finish the guitar solo.

After finishing the song, I looked around with an awkward expression.

The expressions on the uncles’ faces were filled with disbelief and complex emotions.

“Crazy bastard! I knew it, but……. Isn’t this too much?”

“Wow! This is possible? What’s your limit?”

“I thought I could compete a little……. It’ll be hard to expect that in the future.”

“Take it easy. If they were weak-hearted, they’d have nightmares for days.”

“……Ugh. Is he even human?”

Judging by their playful banter, they seemed quite surprised.

Well, even though it had been quite some time since I finished playing, the lingering feeling in my fingers didn’t seem to fade easily, so it was safe to say that it was a solo performance with all my heart and soul.

Feeling embarrassed for overdoing it, I cleared my throat and said.

“Ahem. We will ultimately produce a sound that matches this performance.”

“…….”

It was a half-hearted, half-serious statement, but the uncles didn’t even bother to respond, probably thinking, ‘That crazy bastard is talking nonsense again.’

Thanks to that, I naturally turned my gaze to Leon, who could be said to be the only audience member.

“Hey…… are you okay?”

The moment I saw Leon, I couldn’t help but ask that question. It was because Leon was staring at me with half-crazed eyes.

“……Yes. I, I’m okay.”

“You don’t look okay…….”

Leon’s face, as he replied that he was not okay at all, was somewhat familiar.

Where had I seen that look before? As I thought about it, I remembered who it was.

‘It was Director Ichiro.’

That was the look Ichiro, the director of YC Entertainment in Japan, had when he came to see my performance. It was especially pronounced when I played the piano solo, and Leon’s current appearance was similar to Ichiro’s at that time.

‘Well…… will he be okay?’

Knowing how much of a fan Ichiro was of mine, I was uneasy about Leon, who seemed to have the potential to become the second Ichiro, but I shook my head.

Since we would have to work together later anyway, I thought it wouldn’t be bad for him to get used to such high-quality performances from now on.

Anyway, the jam session with the uncles after a long time was excellent.

We continued with 10 more songs, and only then did we start practicing TOP, which could be said to be the main song of the next album.