Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 59

You Made It? (2)

“Wow, Kwon. You’ve really gone crazy.” Lee Juha’s already large mouth dropped open. “Damn. How much did you spend? You kept asking about it last time, but I didn’t think you’d actually buy it.” His eyes darted around the studio. “Steinway? Is that real?” Still shocked by the piano, he continued, “Crazy. You’re crazy. How much did you spend on the speakers? It’s not just two, but two on each side, so what is this….” He gasped. “Don’t tell me that’s a Stradivarius? I heard there aren’t any on the market right now, and all the sellers are holding onto them. There’s no way it’s here, right?” He continued his assessment, “Audio interface, condenser mic, preamp, compressor, controller… Wow… It’s pointless to even list them all. How much is all this? This studio is… You’ve decked it out with all the most expensive stuff. The soundproof booth is insane. It’s like a panic room.”

He examined each item, uttering a series of incomprehensible exclamations of shock and admiration. “Kwon. You said it’s a studio? It’s not just a professional studio you set up, but a real studio? This isn’t just a studio.” Kwon Sunghyun replied, “Yeonwoo uses it, so this much is obvious.”

Lee Juha asked, “Yeonwoo knows how to use all this?”

Kwon Sunghyun simply stated, “That’s why I called you.”

“Damn it. With this, I can’t bring him to our agency. How is it better than our recording studio?” At that moment, the somewhat warm atmosphere suddenly cooled. Kwon Sunghyun’s expression hardened as he said, “If you’re going to say things like that, you might as well leave.”

Lee Juha retorted, “Hey. Let’s get the facts straight. I’m not the one who’s desperate here, am I?”

Kwon Sunghyun challenged him, “Hearing you say that… should we lay it all out on the table and see who’s more desperate?” Yeonwoo realized anew that Kwon Sunghyun’s smiling face could be so scary. Lee Juha seemed to feel it too, as the corners of his smiling mouth stiffened and twitched.

“No… no. Let’s bury our past as the past. Okay?” Lee Juha conceded.

Kwon Sunghyun replied, “Well, I think you’re the one who provoked me first.”

“Haha. Hahaha! We’re the people of humor! Sometimes we joke around like this!” Kwon Sunghyun smiled prettily instead of answering.

“Be grateful you have the talent to grovel,” Kwon Sunghyun said, his smile unwavering.

“Haha….” Lee Juha wiped his forehead with an awkward laugh. Despite the cool indoor temperature, he was covered in cold sweat.

“But why do you need me when you have all this equipment? Did you call me just to show off?” Lee Juha asked, changing the subject.

It was Yeonwoo who answered Lee Juha’s question. “No. Not that. I’m trying to make a song these days.”

“A song? You’re composing, not singing?” Lee Juha clarified.

“Yeah, well….” Yeonwoo trailed off.

Lee Juha asked, surprised, “Yeonwoo, you knew how to compose?”

The additional stat ‘Composition that moves the heart’ received from Salieri. Plus, ‘Improvisational and brilliant performance’ received from Paganini. After testing his abilities with both the piano and violin, he created a melody that he quite liked. Lee Juha blinked in disbelief.

“It just happened, I guess,” Yeonwoo said.

He looked even more puzzled at those words before blurting out, “Can I listen to it? I’m suddenly really curious since you composed it.” Lee Juha urged him, looking impatient.

“It’s not as grand as you might expect,” Yeonwoo warned.

“I know, just play it for me quickly. I’m really curious,” Lee Juha insisted.

Yeonwoo smoothly pulled out his latest smartphone. “Don’t tell me it’s recorded on there?”

“That’s right?”

“……You have all this equipment and you recorded it on that?”

“I don’t know how to use them,” Yeonwoo admitted.

Lee Juha clutched his chest as if he was speechless at Yeonwoo’s confident answer. And for some reason, he muttered like someone who had been hit in the back of the head. “That’s why Kwon said I’d understand when I came… Friend. Let’s listen first. It’s better to think after listening.”

“Sure,” Yeonwoo replied.

Soon, the recorded music began to play from the phone. Lee Juha’s eyes, which had widened greatly from the start of the song, slowly closed at some point.

***

Lee Juha. At the age of 25, he was a well-known composer and singer both domestically and internationally. Born in Korea, he was recognized as a musical prodigy from a young age and went abroad to study at a young age. Due to the foreign sentiment of valuing skill over age, Lee Juha was able to enter a prestigious music school at the age of 17, repeatedly skipping grades. Even in that other world where all sorts of geniuses gathered, Lee Juha was by far the most outstanding figure. Everyone expected a very talented musician to be born. If only Lee Juha hadn’t considered everything trivial because he was too outstanding compared to others.

-You’re quitting music? Why?

-If you don’t sing, who else can? Think again!

-If you quit vocal music, it would be a great loss to the music world!

-You’re the only one who has the talent to become a great maestro following in the footsteps of the masters!

Of course, the people around him were in an uproar, but Lee Juha didn’t care. The young genius was too young and too outstanding. The music school, which had nothing to stimulate him, was simply trivial. He thought that nothing would attract his interest anymore. But.

-What’s all this noise?

Lee Juha, who had skipped a lesson that wasn’t particularly useful and was loitering on campus grounds, encountered a strange rhythm.

-This? This is a really famous musician these days. You really don’t know?

-I don’t know. It’s the first time I’ve heard it.

It was natural. Until now, everything Lee Juha had heard and learned was music belonging to the classical genre.

-……It’s good? Interesting.

Unfamiliar rhythms and stimulating melodies. And even the lyrics that added MSG [monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer] to it. If pure music had a banality that seemed to be laughing with a haha-hoho mask, then popular music, which he had not even been interested in, was raw. Perhaps that was the first time Lee Juha became interested in popular music. After that, Lee Juha quit college and turned to popular music. The faculty and peers who were doing ‘art’ were horrified, but it didn’t matter.

-It’s more fun? Interesting. I don’t need boring interpretations, I can just accept it as my heart and thoughts reach, right?

There was a certain aesthetic in music that was not art. It seemed to be just stimulating and thoroughly aiming for commercial aspects, but on the other hand, it embraced the tastes of the public and was closely connected to the emotions of the times. Like.

-This is living music. It feels like the music is alive and moving?

The shock he felt as he fell more and more into music that was beyond art was indescribably thrilling. And.

“Friend……. Did my friend really make this……?” The shock of that time once again overwhelmed Lee Juha.

***

“Yeah, well… is it a bit strange? I just made it as I felt.” Although the additional stats of the two masters gave him a cheat-like buff, to be honest, it was nothing more than a beginner’s composition. ‘Of course, the problem is that the cheat buff isn’t an ordinary cheat….’ The song Yeonwoo made as his first attempt was simple, if anything. It started with the heavy bass of the piano and continued slowly. And then the faint melody of the violin followed. The two slowly mixed together, creating a strange harmony. The melody of the piano came out, and then the violin pushed it away, replacing it. It felt as if two people were having a conversation through sound. The two sounds, which seemed to blend together, eventually ended separately. Heavy bass. Delicate high notes. Heavy bass. Again, delicate high notes. The latter part, which seemed to be out of sync, was none other than…….

-Yeonwoo! You’re learning now! So you should watch dramas and do some market research?!

It was the influence of Dong Jaryeong. ‘Of all times to make something as I felt, that guy was chattering next to me….’ Perhaps it was the aftermath of a drama he unintentionally watched?

-I think the saddest love in the world is love that goes wrong. It’s not that they hated each other, but they liked each other but the timing didn’t match, it’s really frustrating, you know? After all, life is about timing.

There were some strange words at the end, but that was the gist of it.

-So the female lead originally liked the male lead, right? But her family suddenly became poor. So she transferred schools! But in fact, the male lead also liked the female lead, but she disappeared, so he put his first love away, right?

There are many types of ways to enjoy dramas and movies. Among them, Dong Jaryeong was the type to chatter about every little piece of information to someone.

-But they ran into each other one day when they were all grown up! And it was as the woman his younger brother was going to marry! But it just so happened that the younger brother…… wasn’t really his younger brother! It turned out that his father had an affair with the other party’s child! The family became a mess and the marriage fell through, but now they’re no longer brothers or anything! Besides, the parents of the one who had the affair said they would take the younger brother……!

-……What are you watching?

-You’re unhappy because you don’t know the joy of morning dramas!

-What nonsense are you talking about?

-Anyway, now the men from both families are seriously after the female lead! A woman comes to the male lead and says she’s pregnant……! But it turned out that the human who used to be his younger brother was the one who instigated the person to screw over his older brother and his family, and she was the female lead’s friend!

It was even a 막장 [makjang] drama! ‘Where in that 막jang is there a heartbreaking love story that couldn’t be connected because of bad timing?’ I can’t understand that old ghost’s thinking at all. Anyway, while chattering about it next to me, I kept hearing him lament, ‘Oh, I feel so bad for those two! If they had just gotten together when they were young, they wouldn’t have come to this mess!’ So the result ended up like this.

“Is it bad?” I’m a little worried that Lee Juha isn’t reacting. ‘Was it a problem to make it while listening to 막drama reviews?’ Just as I was thinking that, “Lee Juha. Are you crying now?” It was Kwon Sunghyun who noticed the change first. He stared at Lee Juha, who was shedding tears like beads, with a rarely flustered expression. It was quite visually distressing to see a man as big as a bear hunching his shoulders and shedding tears like chicken droppings.

“Aren’t, sniff, you sad even after listening to this song? You heartless Kwon!” As he wiped away his tears with his thick arm, his bulging biceps rippled.

“You don’t mean it’s so bad that it makes you cry, do you?” Kwon Sunghyun asked, concerned.

“Of course not! How can you say that such a heartbreaking song is bad?!” Lee Juha sniffed and said, “Friend. You’ve really never composed before, have you?”

“No,” Yeonwoo replied.

“No…… how can you write a song like this?” Lee Juha wondered.

“Is it strange?” Yeonwoo asked.

“No, it’s completely the opposite. I was really sucked into it without even realizing it. I have pretty high standards, you know? I’m not satisfied with just anything, but this is really…….” Lee Juha seriously called out to Yeonwoo. “Friend.”

“Yes,” Yeonwoo responded.

“In my opinion, you…… I think you’re a genius,” Lee Juha declared.

***

“Huh? What?” Yeonwoo asked, surprised.

“Genius, genius,” Lee Juha repeated. The moment he heard that word, something ran up his spine. It was goosebumps. ‘No. It’s natural since the stats of two geniuses are being buffed…….’ Still, you can’t create something from nothing. It’s right to see it as amplifying existing abilities, not creating abilities that don’t exist. So Yeonwoo’s talent wasn’t too bad to some extent…….

‘Even so, genius…… my hands and feet…….’ Regardless, Lee Juha was muttering to himself.

“The first song you write is this good, and it even made this Lee Juha cry, so it’s obvious. What else could it be if it’s not genius?” He nodded as if he had convinced himself. “The sound quality is also like that, and at first I just wanted to listen to it, but right after that, I was immediately drawn in.” As Lee Juha said, the sound quality couldn’t be good. ‘It would be nice if the two melodies overlapped…….’ Yeonwoo, who was thinking that, used a very ignorant method, saying, ‘Then I’ll record one first, then play it and record the second one while playing it.’