The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 226

[Side Story] 28. The Meaning of the Mural

In the future, viewers might think this:

That people are gradually becoming influenced by Halo.

And for good reason.

“Then, please take good care of the children.”

On a day when the teacher had urgent business and entrusted the kids to them in the afternoon.

As they waved goodbye to the teacher, Halo and the children started to wiggle as soon as the teacher disappeared.

“Is she gone?”

Halo asked.

“Yeah, I think she’s gone.”

Winter, who had become the second Halo, replied, scanning the hallway with sharp eyes.

“Then shall we go out now?”

The other children’s eyes also lit up.

However, among the usual children, there are always some timid friends.

A child asked worriedly.

“Don’t we have to study?”

“Studying isn’t everything in life.”

“…Is it okay not to study these days?”

Said the Grammy Award winner and top star from a prestigious university.

“Then shall we go?”

“But is it really okay to go out?”

Lee So-ra, who was sitting in her chair, smiled gently.

“Go ahead, Jung-min. You at least need to be there.”

As Lee Jung-min seemed worried, Lee So-ra shrugged as if to say it was okay.

“I can’t just send those kids alone.”

“That’s true.”

The children were looking at Lee Jung-min, earnestly hoping.

Lee Jung-min couldn’t refuse them; it seemed like a matter of responsibility.

“It’s okay, I’ll explain it well.”

“Then… I’ll leave it to you.”

“Okay.”

Lee So-ra watched Lee Jung-min slowly approach the children.

With each step he took, Lee Jung-min’s face gradually brightened as he shed his burden.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“We mustn’t get caught by the teacher.”

“What if we get caught?”

“Let’s just say Hyung [older brother or male friend] told us to.”

As the boy spoke shamelessly as if he didn’t know, Lee Jung-min laughed heartily.

“You look like you’re having fun. Yeah, kids should grow up playing.”

Lee So-ra decided not to mention the ‘truth about afternoon classes at Baekun Elementary School’ to them.

Does everyone remember?

Originally, lower grades in elementary school don’t have afternoon classes.

Higher grades have 5th and 6th period, but lower grades would have gone home after lunch or even before.

So, their afternoon class is just an optional extra class. An arbitrary class where they take care of the children during the time when adults are away from home.

Therefore, this isn’t truancy, but closer to a legitimate outdoor class.

Lee So-ra, who was well-versed in the school’s situation, didn’t explain it to them.

Even if it’s the same truancy, isn’t it more exciting and fun to do it secretly?

And if there’s one more reason, Lee So-ra wanted Lee Jung-min to let go of his tension or compulsion.

To feel freedom by sometimes breaking the rules.

Well, it’s not like this is a problem, and it doesn’t seem like he dislikes it. Rather, he’s expressing ‘I’m having fun and I’m so happy right now’ with his whole body. It’s a pity that the person himself doesn’t notice it, but it’s also amusing.

“Teacher! We’re going to go treasure hunting!”

“Have a good time, kids.”

Thus, today’s class content is treasure hunting without the teacher knowing.

The children were holding papers from who knows where and burying their heads in them.

[It holds the sea. Listen to it. Find a sound that resembles it. You will know the way]

“What does this mean?”

Lee Jung-min, who looked at it with them, tilted his head at the more difficult hint than he thought. Elementary school.

It didn’t seem like a problem for elementary school lower grades.

“Halo-ssi- [Mr. Halo, a polite address]-.”

Lee Jung-min, who turned around to ask Halo for his opinion, tilted his head as the boy and Winter were stuck together.

“How about putting a sol here? La la la la- like this?”

“Hmm. Like this?”

The boy and Winter didn’t seem interested in treasure hunting at all.

They had followed, but they were in their own world.

When Halo strummed the guitar, the children watched with interest.

But as similar sounds were repeated, they soon lost interest.

“Isn’t it the same?”

“Wow!”

Only Winter knew the difference.

Winter looked at the guitar with wonder.

“Do you want to try?”

“Can I do it too?”

“Yeah. Try it.”

“But how do you play this?”

“Just go with the flow.”

Halo took off the guitar and handed it to Winter.

Winter’s eyes sparkled, thinking she would do well too, but she soon staggered at the unexpected weight.

“It’s heavy.”

“Hahaha.”

Halo laughed, knowing this would happen.

Belatedly, Winter realized she was being teased and puffed out her cheeks.

He said he would help, but he was half teasing her.

“I’ll hold it for a second.”

Halo supported the weight of the guitar from the front. Only then could Winter touch the strings of the guitar.

“Teacher, Teacher, what are you doing?”

“Ah. I have to solve the problem.”

Lee Jung-min, who had been blankly watching them, came to his senses and looked at the problem again.

[It holds the sea. Listen to it]

Thinking about it again, he seemed to know.

Lee Jung-min bent down and said kindly to the children.

“Teacher doesn’t really know either. But since it says it holds the sea, shall we go to the sea?”

“Let’s go to the sea!”

“Woo-ah!”

“Kids, you have to go slowly.”

The children, who had been outdoors for the first time in a while, ran off in a group, treasure hunting or whatever, and played well on their own.

While playing with the children, Lee Jung-min glanced at the boy and Winter.

They were sitting on the beach, playing the guitar.

To be exact, the boy was teaching Winter how to play the guitar one by one.

He said he didn’t have the confidence to teach and didn’t want to, but he looked no different from any other teacher.

Winter, who saw Halo’s sketchbook, asked at one point.

“But do the notes have to be straight lines?”

“Huh?”

“They said sheet music is for marking so that other people can read it. Then, can’t it be any shape as long as everyone can see it?”

Halo stopped answering at the unexpected question.

To him, sheet music was just a tool to mark and store music, nothing more and nothing less.

So he had never thought about the form of sheet music.

Suddenly, Winter’s sketchbook with randomly drawn sheet music came to mind.

“Then how do you want to do it?”

Winter’s face brightened at Halo’s question.

Other adults would say ‘Don’t ask useless questions’ or give difficult answers such as ‘It’s a social agreement like language’.

Winter, who had never agreed with anyone to make sheet music in straight lines, was always curious.

“Really like the sound!”

Winter spread her arms wide.

“For example, a sound like the wind is drawn like this.”

Winter flapped her wings and spun around as if following the shape of the wind.

“And music that is fluffy like clouds is done like this. Isn’t the reason why the sound of waves is prettier because the waves come like waves?”

If you follow Winter’s words, the sheet music will flow as if dancing.

It would flow here and there, randomly, like parchment dropped on the floor.

That would be harder to recognize than straight sheet music.

But.

It was interesting because it was a thought he had never had before.

Sheet music with the sound of waves in the shape of waves, and the sound of wind drawn like the wind.

Listening to other people’s opinions might be more enjoyable because of this.

Because everyone has different thoughts.

And Halo enjoys new challenges.

“Then shall we try it once?”

“How?”

“Somehow.”

Can’t we do it somehow?

He doesn’t have anything in mind yet, but it doesn’t seem that difficult to do.

#

The village mural work is progressing steadily.

First, they applied gesso [a white paint mixture] to the wall to be painted, and those who finished sketching picked up the paint. Painting is a difficult task to undo, so the villagers also decided to help on the weekends, pairing up one by one.

“Halo and Winter are on the same team?”

“Yes!”

“…Hmm, should they really be on the same team?”

Lee So-ra looked with half worry and half jest.

The production team also agreed, and the people involved also wanted it, and even she liked the combination of Halo and Winter, but she enjoyed Halo’s sullen expression every time she did this.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Unnie [older sister or female friend] will trust only Winter, aja aja fighting! [a Korean phrase of encouragement]”

“Fighting!”

“Unnie?”

Isn’t it supposed to be Nuna [term used by males to address older sister or female friend] instead of Unnie?

Halo tilted his head for a moment, then soon ignored it.

He thought it didn’t matter how they referred to him.

“Everyone, just paint. Just carefully apply the paint along the sketch. Just the color, nothing more and nothing less.”

“Yes.”

The teacher who said that glanced at Halo.

Halo couldn’t understand why he made eye contact with him after that statement.

In front of them were sketches of houses, clouds, and trees.

There was nothing that difficult.

The clouds are transparent sky blue.

The house has a red roof.

The tree is green and brown.

Halo wanted to finish this simple task and conceive the dynamic sheet music that Winter had mentioned.

How can he create dynamic sheet music that everyone can see and read well? He felt the need to do it on a larger piece of paper because there wasn’t enough space in his sketchbook.

A very large piece of paper.

Halo paused as he picked up the paintbrush.

A large piece of paper that continues for a long time…?”

“What is this, Nuna?”

“Huh? I’m adding flowers because the painting seems boring. How is it? Isn’t it prettier?”

Halo, who glanced at Lee So-ra’s additional mural work, who majored in fashion and was good at drawing, took a step away and looked at his wall.

And slowly raised the corners of his lips.

And secretly approached Winter and said.

“Let’s do it here.”

“What?”

“Drawing our sheet music.”

“!”

“We don’t have to draw it in a sketchbook.”

Halo turned around.

Besides the cameras installed at Lee So-ra’s command to the production team to work, there was nothing watching them.

After raising his hand to his nose with a playful face towards the camera, blocking the viewers’ mouths as well.

He raised his hand.

Sheet music in the shape of a caterpillar that Winter wanted.

Fluffy staves like clouds.

“The music isn’t finished yet.”

“We can just draw the staves so we can recognize them later, and then do additional work. Are you confident?”

“…Yes!”

Winter’s eyes sparkled and nodded resolutely.

Soon the two began to giggle and strengthen their will.

“Halo and Winter are too quiet, I’m worried.”

“They were doing well?”

“Really? You’re not hiding them, are you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, Jung-min, you’re weak against Halo.”

He has a good sense, but he tends to give in to Halo.

Sometimes it seems like he enjoys the boy’s pranks and lets them go, but more than half of it is just mixed with gratitude and fan sentiment.

“I wonder?”

Lee Jung-min smiled as if he didn’t know.

Are they really just working hard? Lee So-ra couldn’t read any further and moved on.

Lee Jung-min casts his gaze towards Winter and the boy again.

He actually knew they were doing something, but he had no intention of saying it.

Honestly, he enjoyed what they were doing, and it just looked good.

He wanted to resemble that freedom,

And he was envious because he couldn’t have it.

He wanted to watch from afar, even if he just stayed one step away as an audience.

Lee Jung-min, who only harmoniously trimmed the parts where the colors splashed when Halo and Winter rested, took another step away.

#

It’s another night.

Halo, who had finished all the Mozart play sketchbook work, was lying on the porch, and Lee Jung-min was blankly looking at the camping LED light next to him.

“Eusha.”

At that time, Kwon Jae-ik, who came out of the room with a rattle, put something down with a thud.

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], aren’t you asleep?”

“I woke up for a moment because I was thirsty, and then I woke up completely after seeing that kid’s hair and thinking it was a ghost.”

“What is that?”

“I’m going to prepare in advance for tomorrow, since I’m already awake.”

Halo was also curious, so Kwon Jae-ik brought it to the door and put it down with a thud.

“This is-.”

“Are you going fishing?”

“The captain is taking us sea fishing tomorrow, so I have to go.”

Kwon Jae-ik’s love for fishing was famous, so everyone nodded.

“Do you guys want to go too?”

At that, Lee Jung-min smiled gently and shook his head.

“Ah, that’s right. Jung-min also has motion sickness.”

“You have motion sickness?”

He didn’t do it last time, so I didn’t know.

“He always has to take motion sickness medicine and put patches behind his ears.”

I guess he did that.

Kwon Jae-ik checked the fishing gear and asked.

“Then Halo, how about you? Going sea fishing.”

Sea fishing, huh.

He had been to many places, but he had never been fishing.

Halo felt anew that he hadn’t experienced as much as he thought.

As he always says, he doesn’t avoid challenges.

“I like it.”

And so, woong- [onomatopoeia for a horn sound].

The ship’s horn guides them to the sea.

Clothes fluttering in the rough sea breeze and seagulls crying.

A dawn with moderate clouds.

“It’s a good day for fishing.”