The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 1971

< What I Love Most >

‘Me’ living the life I wanted most?

“Are you okay, CEO?”

“…Yes, I’m fine.”

“You didn’t drink earlier, did you?”

As Seo-yeon Moon looked at him suspiciously, Halo shrugged nonchalantly.

“Maybe I had a drink?”

Seo-yeon Moon knows, and Halo knows, that he didn’t have a single drink.

Seo-yeon Moon brushed off her worries at the playful joke and bickered with him.

After sending the members off, Halo returned to his room.

The wind blew in through the open window.

Halo stood in front of the window to close it.

The dazzling night view of Seoul unfolded there.

It felt quite different from the serene London view.

The night view of Seoul, filled with artificial lights, was brighter and more futuristic. A city of people shining with all their might, living for tomorrow’s self.

Halo looked at the familiar scenery with a fresh perspective.

He reached out and touched the window.

The cold temperature seemed to clear his head.

Then, BB’s voice echoed again.

-At least to you, ‘he’ is an unhappy person and artist. If you are living the life ‘he’ wanted most.

At that time, Halo retorted foolishly.

Grammy, appearance.

Things he wouldn’t normally use.

-Are those so important to you, and to ‘him’?

Yes, BB is right.

The Grammy was what he despised the most.

And appearance, well.

Hadn’t he already proven it?

That Halo, who didn’t reveal his appearance like in the past life, who didn’t reveal anything, could also succeed.

No matter what he looked like, whatever he was, people loved his music and eventually called him glory.

Coming now and talking about appearance was no different from stubbornly clinging to something.

He was ashamed of his foolish behavior.

He wondered why he had made such a retort.

BB brushed it off as if it were nothing, but he must have known that he was acting like a child.

BB’s voice was precisely etched in his eardrums.

But if I had been him,

I would have been envious of you.

His question returned and stabbed him like a dagger.

-Why did you have to create the story of such an unhappy person?

Various voices merged and attacked ‘him’.

-You, living the life he wanted

He had never thought about it even once.

To Halo, the past life and the present life were no different.

Getting popular again with the same album, and
living a glamorous life surrounded by many people, was still the same.

Performing on stage at concerts.

Being cheered by the audience, loved by fans, and hated by some.

Isn’t it not just similar, but exactly the same?

Then, someone asked.

‘Is it really the same?’

It sounded like BB’s voice, and also the voice of ‘Halo from the past life’.

‘Is there really no difference?’

A man is reflected in the window.

He made eye contact with ‘Halo from the past life’.

Unlike when they met on the train, he didn’t look so listless.

Halo stared at him for a moment, then sat on the sofa.

Then, ‘Halo from the past life’ was reflected in the window, sitting on the opposite sofa.

‘Halo from the past life’ was already holding a guitar. Countless people passed behind him.

They each carried a story he had told BB.

Cold-faced parents and
a brother twirling his finger around his head.

The roommate who was horrified when he broke the guitar, and
Eddie and his brothers stroking his shoulder and passing by.

The shabby-looking CEO he first met in the park.

Many guests who visited his party, and even the sessions that didn’t last long, were reflected.

The last one to appear was his manager, who had been with him until the end.

The manager passed by ‘him’ with his wife and children, holding their hands.

‘Halo from the past life’ doesn’t look back at them.

Whether they leave or not, he sits on the sofa, no, on a smooth rock, and sings.

Halo felt like he knew what that song was.

He took the guitar that was leaning against the sofa and started playing.

‘Halo from the past life’ briefly raised his head as if he could hear the sound, smiled, and sang again.

He couldn’t hear the sound, but he knew that he was matching his playing.

It was the songs from his newly created 14th album.

A song for the people echoed in the hotel room.

Clearly, there was only one sound, but Halo heard two sounds.

The lacking sound was filled.

Halo couldn’t find a more ideal sound than that.

‘Halo from the past life’ nodded, saying it was good.

His smiling eyes seemed to be asking, ‘You like it too, right?’

Halo slowly nodded.

“Yeah, I like it.”

A song for his mother and father, who accepted him after listening to .

A song for Jang Jin-soo and the Azit brothers, who took a boy with nothing to their Azit [a safe haven or gathering place] and taught him everything from beginning to end.

Music filled with the joy of friends like Shin Joo-hyuk and Hwang Ryong-pil, and
affection for the members who traveled and spent time together.

August Veil, who said it was good no matter what music he made.

And above all, music for the countless people who loved him passed by. It contained the scenery of that night when they celebrated his birthday.

Halo honestly admitted it.

That this world is a little more favorable to him and his music.

After finishing eight songs, ‘Halo from the past life’ also stopped playing.

As always, ‘Halo from the past life’, who looked like a pictorial, smiled contentedly.

And suddenly, he winked as if telling him to look to the side.

Halo was afraid that ‘he’ would disappear, but he slowly turned his head and soon found it.

Unlike ‘Halo from the past life’, the window reflected countless people surrounding the boy. Smiling faces like a family photo, they were the people who loved the boy, and the people the boy loved.

The boy looked at them, then turned his head.

‘Halo from the past life’ was not visible.

As if he had never been there from the beginning.

Or as if he had gone to a very distant place.

Only the sofa he had been sitting on remained alone.

But strangely, he didn’t feel sad or upset.

Even though he turned his head and found the empty window, he didn’t feel lonely.

The people who loved him would be where they originally were.

Again, the scenery of Seoul unfolds beyond the window.

It’s the scenery he likes the most.

At some point, the scenery blurred.

Halo played the song he had reviewed with ‘Halo from the past life’ again, entrusting himself to the music.

To the song for the people he loves.

Ah, I couldn’t even think of making this kind of song in the past life.

I wonder why I made it now.

I’m so happy.

The music that shakes people’s emotions returned and shook him. Just like when he first created Struggle, a thrill covered him.

He was so happy at this moment of playing this song, and he really loved this moment.

He loved this moment so much that he wanted this moment to last forever.

He wanted Noh Hae-il to never come back.

He said he could give it back anytime if Noh Hae-il returned.

That wasn’t it.

He couldn’t give it.

But because that was Noh Hae-il’s tragedy, he just hoped that Noh Hae-il would never return.

No, rather. He wished he was the real Noh Hae-il.

How nice would it be if he was Noh Hae-il, who had parents, members, friends, business partners, and fans who loved him, everything he wanted.

He liked them so much,
this time made up of them,
He loved this world he lived in with them so much.

The reason he kept saying he would retire was just because he didn’t want to become like this.

He was afraid he would covet everything of Noh Hae-il.

It’s not that he didn’t consider the possibility that he was reborn as Noh Hae-il.

He spoke Korean as naturally as Noh Hae-il,
and everyone thought he was Noh Hae-il.

Even his parents didn’t feel anything strange.

The same birthday as him. Similar name. Noh Hae-il, who had everything he wanted, might be his new life.

‘But.’

But Halo knew it well.

That it was his wish.

No one knew what actually happened.

He may have been reborn as Noh Hae-il,
or he may have killed and stolen Noh Hae-il.

Because he didn’t see it himself,
Halo couldn’t think of himself as Noh Hae-il due to the slightest possibility that he had stolen Noh Hae-il’s body.

Especially since no one knew that Noh Hae-il had disappeared.

He couldn’t abandon the slightest possibility to make himself feel comfortable. Even if no one else did, he shouldn’t forget Noh Hae-il, and he should be grateful and sorry at the same time for the rest of his life.

With a debt in his heart for the rest of his life,
living in anxiety for the rest of his life.

Noh Hae-il might return someday.

He had to cherish, value, and enjoy every day as if it were his last.

Of course, he can’t retire.

How can he think about retiring when every day is the last?

This world is too precious.

Halo realized after playing all eight songs.

What was missing.

[Veil, I think we need to revise the album]

Halo hurriedly left a message to August Veil, who might have already started the album pressing process, and took a deep breath.

His eyes were stinging, and his throat was very hoarse.

But he had to do it.

He had to enjoy this moment.

[Do whatever you want]

August Veil’s reply came right away.

Like someone who would accept it even if he gave it to him right before the release date.

Halo hesitated for a moment, then held the guitar.

In the same posture that ‘Halo from the past life’ played in the park.

Hugging the guitar as if embracing it, he began to let the melody existing in his head be heard in the world.

Maybe this is the closest thing to the love song that Shin Joo-hyuk told him to make.

It was a love song for someone,
and a song about love for this moment.

I hope the world I love is a warm world for you too.

So that you can love this world too.

#

March 21st.

One day when the snow melts.

The song that came out into the world was completely different from Halo’s music so far.

There was no fearlessness that didn’t compromise with the world,
nor was there a whirlwind that dragged others into his depression.

Maybe it’s completely different from the music people expected. Some people might be disappointed.

But still, for some, this itself will be enough music.

[1. Love this world – HALO]

Halo’s full album.

The album, which includes the existing eight songs, a Hwang Ryong-pil dedication song (‘Do Whatever You Want’), and a new title track, has a total of ten songs, making it Halo’s first full album.

Whether we should start counting from Noh Hae-il’s full album or not is a noisy world, but. Isn’t it enough noise to start a year?

Today, too, people go to work or school with moderate noise. Horns honk wildly on the road, and voices are raised.

The smell of bread spreading in the subway and the announcement ‘The train is arriving’.

The bustling day of the city has begun.

And at this time.

The music that topped the Billboard charts as soon as it was released resounds.

“Wait, whose music is this?”

BB raised his head sharply.

“Can’t you tell just by looking? It’s the music of the man you love.”

At Thomas Benson’s answer, BB’s eyes widened and he looked at the computer.

“Wow, I thought it was a slump because he took a year off, but Halo is Halo. This song is really… Ha, life is unfair. Someone is a musical genius and a scenario genius. I’m just a couch potato.”

At that moment, BB slammed the desk.

“I remembered.”

“What?”

“The ending! I remembered what to do.”