The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 1411

< The Delightful Life -141 >

“Okay, I’ll show you one more time.”

“We, we really don’t know.”

“Look closely.”

“Yes, sir.”

This place, which looks like a dark room where people are tied to chairs, weeping and wailing, is actually a very bright café. Many eyes were watching them, but they weren’t bound.

Comforting tea, drinks, and cake were placed in front of them.

However, they were far from at ease. They wouldn’t be more uncomfortable if they were actually kidnapped.

Peter and his friends, who became minor celebrities for supposedly meeting Halo in Venice—almost everyone seemed sure of it—were wilting under the pressure of the constant scrutiny.

The busking video of the boy singing in the rain played again.

“Thank you for listening,” the video ended with a soft greeting, a greeting they’d heard more than a dozen times.

“It, it seems similar.”

“Similar?”

“Ah, or maybe not.”

“Would you like to listen again?”

The reporters who came to interview them clearly had an agenda, but the friends couldn’t commit to a definitive answer.

“Well, in Venice, it was a festival, so it was noisy…”

They tried to make excuses, but the reporters weren’t having it.

“It’s not like the voice of the sun [a common metaphor for a beloved celebrity] is easily mistaken, and we’re not asking you to solve the world’s seven great mysteries. Is it really that hard to say yes or no?”

“…”

There was a good reason why they couldn’t give a definite answer.

Peter, who had been jokingly cursed for making Halo stand guard in the bathroom, and who had been playfully scolded for slapping his back—especially after his parents, who rarely contacted him, called to ask if he dared to hit the sun, which was truly shocking—was mentally exhausted.

“Okay, then we’ll compromise.”

“Can we go now?”

“No, if yes or no is too difficult, express the similarity with a number. Between 0 and 100.”

“Um… 73 points?”

“Are you kidding me?”

*Oh, what do you want from me?*

Peter and his friends, frustrated and unable to even utter a curse word, shook their heads.

They were genuinely scared of those wearing sun necklaces. They were called reporters, but surely some notorious Heligans [die-hard Halo fans, possibly with a negative connotation] were among them.

Last year, Heligans had targeted celebrities who attracted attention by pretending to be Halo or claiming to know him.

[Fucking liar]

[Be careful on the night road]

They left threatening messages with red spray paint reminiscent of blood and wreaked havoc by destroying cars and property.

If Peter and his friends said something wrong, that could be their future. How could they be sure of anything?

“We’re not bad people. Look at our puppy, isn’t it cute?”

“Yes, yes.”

Men who looked like they would strangle you if you said the puppy wasn’t cute…

“So, this is the hand that touched him?”

“P, please save me.”

“Hand.”

After holding their hands one by one, the reporters left them trembling in fear. Everyone knew that Heligans were only gentle to their dogs and to Halo himself.

Even now, two weeks after the boy’s disappearance, this chaos continued.

The world was obsessed with the clue that had emerged after so long, chasing the boy’s traces, desperate to know if he was the real Halo or not.

That’s when the month of February slowly began to wind down.

In a moment that no one expected, HALO’s 12th album was suddenly released.

[Sun, please…?]

[Is a new song already coming out?]

[Why at a time like this?]

[Well, it’s about time for a release]

In Korea, it was the beginning of the year. HALO’s 11th album had been released on December 31st in the UK, so the current time was—considering HALO’s usual working speed—a bit late.

However, no one expected a Halo album to drop, especially given the current situation.

If the boy most suspected of being Halo was indeed him, wasn’t this the worst possible time to release an album?

Everyone was trying to find him, his personal information had been *털린데다* [hacked and leaked], and his surroundings were in complete disarray.

The release of HALO’s 12th album was like throwing a stone into a pond full of fish, stirring up even more frenzy.

[So, Roh isn’t Halo after all?]

[No, considering Halo’s working speed, he might have already finished it]

└ He might have been working on the 12th album since Venice.

[There was a rumor that Halo’s songs were made a long time ago in the first place]

[If he worked on it after Venice, it makes even less sense. Listening to Koreans, Roh went on Vatican tours, went shopping in Paris, and played around. What work could he have been doing?]

[I also vote no. Looking at the title of this song, it seems like the sun doesn’t even know what’s going on]

[He doesn’t know this situation? LOL That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard]

[I think the album title is very meaningful]

It wasn’t just the release itself that was the problem.

At first, people argued about whether work was even possible, but then they focused on the album title.

HALO’s 12th album: *Life is Delight* (즐거운 인생이여).

Even the album cover illustration expressed joy with modern art, and the title song, “Life is Delight,” was a disco-pop track, a genre he hadn’t revisited in a long time.

If the title song “Dancing in the Rain” from HALO’s 6th album, released on May 31st, showed paradoxical sadness and joy, HALO’s 12th album, released on February 27, 2032, was pure joy and cheerfulness.

A cheerful disco-pop song that celebrated a delightful life. While HALO’s 3rd, 4th, or 7th albums had received mixed reviews due to their dark atmosphere and experimental nature, the title song of the 12th album was a song that anyone could enjoy.

Ladies and gentleman

I keep a promise

The music should get on tonight

The drums, guitar, and bass fell in time with the beat, creating an exciting rhythm.

[Just give yourself to the rhythm a little more

Take off what you’re wearing

Even if you use the street as a bed

No one will say anything (Haha)

Like a roller coaster about to fall,

Feel this dizzying beat

You’ve worked hard to get here]

The song topped the music charts at an incredible speed from the moment it was released. In fact, this had always been the case. Terrestrial broadcasters, unable to express any opinions on the current situation, reported on the release of Halo’s music to capitalize on the trending topic, and even people who didn’t usually listen to Halo’s songs gave his music a try.

Looking solely at the music charts and streaming numbers, it was a festival.

However, the cheerful music, released seemingly oblivious to the chaos of the multiverse, confused people even more.

[So, is Roh Halo or not?]

[I’m going crazy, please tell me. Is Roh Halo?]

[We need to know where he is.]

[No, even if it’s not Roh, wouldn’t the people around him know?]

[Who are the people around him?]

The eyes of the people who couldn’t find Roh Hae-il began to turn to his acquaintances, rather than Roh Hae-il himself, who was nowhere to be found.

Beyond just parents, school, and band members…

“Ms. Liv, what do you think about the current rumor that Roh Hae-il is Halo?”

“Mr. Shin Joo-hyuk!”

“Ms. Lee Sung-rim…”

In Korea, they sought out acquaintances and the *Spring Again* singers, who were known to be close to Roh Hae-il.

Liv and Lee Sung-rim replied that they didn’t know. Hwang Ryong-pil was notoriously difficult to reach. Shin Joo-hyuk calmly replied, “Ask the person involved. I don’t know where he is either. Isn’t he in Paris? He’s not a fast replier.”

On the other hand, the *Spring Again* team admitted that their voices were similar, but they weren’t sure, so they remained tight-lipped, like the PD [Production Director].

Meanwhile, overseas, the focus was, of course, on Scorpion.

Scorpion, a world-renowned metal band, was recently known to be closest to the Korean singer Roh.

Lill, the leader of Scorpion, had suddenly appointed Roh as a guest for his Korean concert, showed a polite attitude on stage until the end, and even given him expensive birthday gifts!

Above all, the concert clip featuring Roh’s unreleased song was trending in real-time search terms.

[Did you guys see this? Scorpion seems to think he’s Halo]

-I listened well, Roh. Thank you for listening to my request. But when can I hear that song again?

What did the boy say to that question?

-Around the time the thirteenth album comes out?

-Thirteen? Then there’s not much left.

At the time, the boy was a rookie who had just released his first full-length album. Whether you could call a singer who released twenty songs a year a rookie was debatable, but anyway, he was a rookie who hadn’t even debuted for a year.

Even if you released one full-length album a year, it would take 13 years.

Scorpion said that there was not much time left for a period that no one could call short.

Someone who seriously wrote an essay about this added at the end:

[But what if Roh is Halo? (Halo had released up to 9 albums at the time.)]

[Korean kids said that Roh’s song and atmosphere were different from usual. (link) You can listen to unreleased songs if you go here]

[Then it’s settled. I’ll know when Halo’s 13th album is released]

[Do I have to wait until the 13th album? Why don’t you ask Scorpion what it means now?]

It was a natural conclusion.

Of course, there were people who cautioned against reading too much into Scorpion and Roh’s conversation, as Scorpion was known for being eccentric, but Scorpion seemed to know something.

Then someone brought up a past incident.

[Lill won’t be able to see you for a while]

└ Why? Did he happen to disappear too?

└ ···That would be fortunate

[Scorpion, “Scorpion”]

[It was revealed that Scorpion leader Lill made remarks such as “Get out without buzzing like mosquito bastards,” “Fuck you,” and “You stupid bastards” to reporters after drinking and *휘둘렀다* [brandished] the guitar he had…]

└ He’s an ordinary Heligan

└ What, it’s just Lill, what’s the fuss.

└ But isn’t that reaction positive? He only says stupid bastards to the right words

└ If it’s two positive times, I’ll die?

└ That bastard is just like that in every situation

└ He’s the stupidest, but he calls others stupid

└ But he sometimes says the right thing

└ What words?

└ Uh…

They couldn’t ask the person who couldn’t leave his house after causing an incident.

[By the way, what is Roh Hae-il’s fandom doing?]

└ They’re all collectively insane

└ I went there because I was really curious and everyone’s posts were *도배되어* [plastered] with ㅋㅋㅋㅋ [K equivalent of ‘lol’]

└ It’s the chairman’s order, so I don’t know what’s going on, so I decided to just hit ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ They really didn’t know either?

└ I don’t think they know. But they were praying that he wasn’t Halo

└ Why?

└ Rather than hoping that it’s not completely, they don’t want to imagine what will happen after that

[Hae-il and Halo have similar names and their voices seem similar… What the hell is going on?]

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ We don’t know either, so just hit ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

It was when Roh Hae-il’s fandom was becoming a Joker beyond Jaws [referencing a descent into madness].

Around that time, Halo was asleep, leaning on a recording studio chair. It wasn’t because of working all night for the release of the 12th album, but because he had found music he liked while watching a movie and stayed up late playing it.

As the sun began to rise, he fell asleep in his chair, and next to him, a song from HALO’s 12th album, which Veil had turned on, was playing on shuffle.

Just in time, the title song came on.

When the door opened with a thud, Halo slowly opened his eyes.

“Did you wake up?”

“Yes.”

“Oh dear. I didn’t know you’d be sleeping.”

“It’s okay, I was about to get up.”

He stretched leisurely and got up from his seat.

“Then shall we go now?”

“Good. Everything is ready, so we just need to decide on one thing: our destination.”

“Have you decided?”

When Veil asked, Halo nodded.

“Yes, I’m going to go to Switzerland.”

“Switzerland is a good country.”

There were two reasons for choosing Switzerland.

He had once said that he wanted to make a watch as merchandise. Switzerland was famous for its watches, so he thought he should go there.

But that wasn’t the primary reason for choosing Switzerland.

“There’s something I want to try.”

August Veil, who tilted his head at Halo’s words, soon doubted his ears.

“Yodeling? You’re going to yodel?”

Halo and yodeling.

Despite August Veil’s surprise, Halo shrugged and smiled.

Behind him, the title song continued.

[Oh, delightful life]