The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 301

Glorious Tides – Episode 30 (30/237)

# 30 The Christmas Miracle

Dynamic Korea.

This slogan embodies the continuous historical development of South Korea and is mainly used to express remarkable economic and cultural growth.

However, it’s not only used in positive situations.

People often exclaim ‘Dynamic Korea’ or ‘Dynamic Seoul’ when they encounter incredibly shocking events.

Unbeknownst to Halo, Line 1 [Seoul’s oldest subway line] was a prime example of Dynamic Seoul.

As the oldest subway line, it would be nice if it were famous for its before-and-after transformations, but sadly, that’s not the case.

Rather, Line 1 is notorious for encountering various human types and villains. So much so that the saying ‘Only the strong survive’ circulates.

The Line 1 villain appears periodically, often enough that people forget about them between incidents.

Among them, the middle-aged man with the melodica was mild compared to the villains of the past—Dark Lord, One-Punch Man, Jarvan LXXXIV, etc.

Someone must have already reported him.

The station staff would be here soon, so there was no need to pay attention to that villain anymore.

However, when the middle-aged man played the melodica, most people were surprised and covered their ears, exclaiming, “Ugh!”

They expected music, but instead, noise came out.

It was surprising that such noise could be produced with a melodica, an instrument known for its soft and beautiful sound.

“What is that?” someone frowned.

“Hey, let’s move seats,” someone said, desperately moving to another section, unable to bear the increasingly loud noise. It was truly Line 1.

“Hmm…”

Halo crossed his arms and watched the melodica performance.

He wasn’t disappointed because busking wasn’t necessarily something only skilled people did.

It would be nice if they were good, but it was okay even if they weren’t.

The courage to engage with the audience, regardless of skill, was worth applauding.

Whether the middle-aged man in shorts, blowing air as if possessed, was really trying to engage with the audience was another matter.

Lost in his music, the middle-aged man walked closer to Halo. To be precise, he was approaching the center where Halo was.

With each step the middle-aged man took, the path opened like the parting of the Red Sea [biblical reference to Moses parting the Red Sea].

It was as if there was an invisible barrier between the middle-aged man and the people.

In a way, it looked like a stage.

The distance between the stage and the audience remained constant.

The noise grew louder and louder.

Whatever else, you couldn’t call the middle-aged man’s lung capacity average.

If they were to have a lung capacity duel right now, Halo felt like he would lose.

He had been doing exercises to improve his lung capacity lately, but it couldn’t match the accumulated years.

Pooh-pooh-pooh.

The performance escalated, and the noise became uncontrollable.

Out of curiosity, the door to the next section opened and then closed.

‘I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before.’

Halo didn’t know many songs yet, but he could vaguely hear something.

He strained his ears, wondering what kind of music it was, and a name popped into his head.

It was hard to be sure.

Still, if you removed the constant, unwavering breath from this performance, this song is—

‘Could it be a carol?’

Thinking that, it seemed like that’s what it sounded like.

It wasn’t strange to sing carols.

Even though there were still ten days left, Christmas always started a week before the actual day.

It wasn’t that the middle-aged man was jumping the gun; the whole world was usually buzzing with Christmas around this time.

Christmas vacation started at school, cities prepared for Christmas festivals, people worried about Christmas presents, and a Christmas tree was always erected in the middle of the square around this time.

Originally, Halo’s schedule was packed with requests to sing carols with his songs around this time.

He was tired of carols, but he liked Christmas itself.

Booze, parties, people.

All the things he liked were always prepared on this day.

Also, he liked the atmosphere that made it feel like something was going to happen.

Even though nothing special had happened until he was over thirty, as much as he had hoped.

Still, Christmas was something he fell for every year.

‘The song choice isn’t bad.’

He was bored, but the middle-aged man’s song choice wasn’t bad.

Because everyone around Halo had moved away, Halo was the only one near the man.

So Halo could observe the middle-aged man more closely, and so could the station staff.

Their eyes met.

“Play it softly.”

It would be better if he took the power out of his breath.

The middle-aged man flinched at Halo’s voice.

He tilted his head slightly as if to ask if he had heard correctly.

Their eyes met briefly through the hat.

The middle-aged man’s breathing weakened slightly.

“A little more.”

When he said it again, the middle-aged man seemed to hesitate, then really took the power out.

The noise was less than before.

There were still some shortcomings, but the music the middle-aged man was trying to convey was fully delivered.

2/4 time, cheerful melody.

It was a carol.

Even if he didn’t know the melody itself, it was familiar because it was a carol.

“It’s a carol, right?”

The middle-aged man, who seemed a little embarrassed, nodded vaguely.

“Nice song.”

It goes perfectly with Christmas.

With that alone, the carol had done its part.

Halo was just complimenting the song, but for some reason, the man’s expression brightened.

As the noise subsided a bit, people with curiosity and concern gradually returned to their seats.

The next station wasn’t far away.

Halo was reminded that the next station was his stop.

At the same time, he jumped up from his seat.

The man’s gaze followed him.

His concentration wavered, and a mistake came out of the melodica.

Instead of going to the door, Halo plopped down in front of the man.

When the clumsy performance ended, Halo applauded.

“It was a good performance.”

The man didn’t say anything.

He didn’t expect to be praised, so he just moved his lips, wordlessly.

Halo looked around and raised the corners of his lips.

It would be a shame to end the carol like this.

“I know a good carol too.”

The subway’s announcement rang.

Maybe 30 seconds left.

The moment he realized that people’s eyes were on him, he got excited.

He couldn’t miss this opportunity.

“Shall I play it for you in return?”

There was no refusal.

A carol made up of repetitive melodies.

Most of the world’s carols are made up of easy chords, but the carol Halo knew was the most popular carol that even elementary school students could play.

Halo pressed the keys in front of him, and the middle-aged man unknowingly blew air into it.

The music is completed.

It was a clumsy but perfect ensemble.

The subway car sped by.

When the repetitive melody completed the carol, Halo opened his mouth.

#

“Did you see Ssoyu on ‘Show Your Show’ this time?” [Ssoyu is likely a Korean celebrity, and ‘Show Your Show’ a popular entertainment program]

“Of course.”

The sudden noise came when she was talking to her friend about the hot entertainment show ‘Show Your Show.’

Pooh!

The girl was startled and shrugged her shoulders at the sound of the train whistle. So was her friend. Her friend, who was obsessed with Gil La-on and was trying to recruit him, bit her tongue.

“What’s that?”

And the source of the noise was a middle-aged man wearing shorts and slippers in the middle of winter. He was playing the melodica like crazy. As if to burst the eardrums of the people in this section.

“Wow, crazy. What do you expect from Line 1?”

“Is it always like this here?”

“I’ve never seen a melodica villain before, but there are a lot of strange people.”

The girl unknowingly agreed with her friend’s sarcasm.

Last time, someone was hanging upside down on the iron bars and exercising, and this time, the villain is a melodica terrorist. She wondered where these villains, who are hard to meet in life, came from.

In this small Korea.

The noise increased.

It was so bad that people frowned and avoided the seats.

In Line 1, where the section itself is narrow.

Fortunately, there were fewer people than usual.

“I reported it. The station staff will come. There are so many strange people in the world.”

“I know.”

“Don’t keep looking at him. What if he picks a fight?”

The girl couldn’t resist her curiosity and glanced at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man had a face that seemed to be absorbed in his music.

Her friend expressed concern for her.

“I don’t think he’ll go that far.”

He seems harmless except for the eardrum terrorism.

Eardrum terrorism is a bit much, though.

“How can that person stand that?”

People are moving one by one.

Some went to empty seats far away from the middle-aged man, and some crossed over to other sections.

As if the middle-aged man had a wider personal space than others, the nearby seats were all empty.

Except for one seat.

The boy wearing a hat was still sitting in the center closest to the middle-aged man.

At first glance, it didn’t seem like he was wearing earphones, and it didn’t seem like he was absorbed in his phone.

He was crossing his arms and listening to the noise.

He’s amazing. If he studied with that patience, he could go to Korea University.

The middle-aged man, who seemed to be absorbed in his music, was also surprised and kept glancing at the boy.

She realized that no one had ever listened to him like that before.

Pity is only for a moment.

Because the noise made it impossible to maintain sympathy.

The girl couldn’t stand it and looked for her earphones.

She was about to turn up the music to reduce the noise.

“Huh?”

The noise decreased.

It wasn’t because of the noise filter function of the earphones.

The noise really decreased.

“Is it over now?”

The girl changed her mind and put her earphones away.

If the middle-aged man was about to end the performance, there was no need to turn up the music.

‘I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before.’

The girl suddenly listened to what had been noise.

After listening for 5 seconds, lightning flashed through her head.

‘Jingle Bells?! Wait, has he been playing Jingle Bells all this time?’

That?

That noise was Jingle Bells?

It was a culture shock in another sense. She had never hated carols this much. Rather, she liked them.

‘He should have played it like this from the beginning.’

The Jingle Bells performance ended at the same time as the middle-aged man came to his senses.

She didn’t hear much of the melody properly because of the noise.

The girl unknowingly thought it was a pity.

The carol she heard after a long time had a corner that made people’s hearts flutter, as always.

The broadcast about the next station on the subway also rang.

[This station is Yongsan Station. The direction to get off is-]

Then she heard the sound again.

The girl sighed inwardly and turned her head.

She thought that villains had a second phase, just like raids had a second phase [referencing video game boss battles].

It wasn’t a second phase, it was a new villain.

The boy, who had been listening to the middle-aged man’s performance quietly, was now sitting in front of him and tapping the keys. The girl watched the boy’s actions like some of the people. Half was curiosity, half was caution.

“What kind of villain is that?”

Her friend raised her head, clicked her tongue, and buried her head in her phone again.

“I guess the world is coming to an end.”

She was about to laugh because of the funny tone.

Tuk, tuk.

A rhythmic beat.

The repetitive accompaniment stuck in her ears.

“Is it another carol?”

She perked up her ears at the familiar atmosphere, even though it was the first time she had heard it.

Her friend, who had been immersed in her phone, was about to click her tongue, but slowly raised her head like a scene in a movie.

She expected noise, but what she heard was not noise.

The timbre of the melodica sounded so soft that she wondered if they were pressing the same instrument.

And her ears were captivated by the boy’s voice that wrapped around it.

Complex thoughts fade away.

And what remains is the excitement of Christmas, which is not far away.

The warmth of Christmas that someone has been waiting for.

The smelly and cramped hell train on Line 1 became a train running towards Christmas.

Someone once said.

The reason why people love music is,

because music makes trivial, insignificant everyday life special.

She didn’t know why she thought of this.

The song fades.

The girl looked at the middle-aged man’s face for the first time.

She wondered if her expression was the same as that person’s now.

The girl unconsciously raised her hand and touched her face.

When the boy completely took his hands off the melodica, she exhaled the breath she had been holding in.

She wanted to go to the boy and tell him that it was good.

But the boy stood up first.

The boy took off his hat and bowed back and forth like a maestro.

In between, she saw a mischievous expression that wasn’t unpleasant.

Silver hair, fluttering like Santa Claus’s beard, poured out of the cap and shone brilliantly.

He certainly has an ordinary impression.

The eyes revealed between the silver hair, the features, the aura that this boy has, become thicker.

The corners of his mouth, which rise coolly, are stuck in the girl’s pupils.

A star on TV.

The boy in front of her seemed more special than anyone living in that glamorous world.

“Merry Christmas! Have a happy Christmas, everyone!”

The boy, who had finished greeting, ran out of the train in an instant before people could catch him.

“Uh…”

He was clearly just a common villain on Line 1.

The girl felt like she had dreamed a midsummer night’s dream.

No, the special miracle of Christmas that someone had been waiting for disappeared arbitrarily before she could grasp it.

“Hey… aren’t you getting off?”

“Oh, oh… I have to get off.”

The girl stood up from her seat with a dazed face.

So did her friend.

#

“Huff, huff.”

Halo let out a rough breath.

I hope no one is chasing me. He looked back, but no one was following him.

Did I cause an accident? A smile popped out with that thought.

After all, staying still didn’t suit his constitution.

His manager might grab him by the collar if he saw him, but Halo was interested in being happy.

This is me, what can I do?

His heart is pounding with excitement.

Like a fish just pulled out of the sea.

Halo pressed his chest. He was out of breath from running to the restaurant at full speed.

“Oh my. What happened?”

His mother was surprised to see Halo panting.

“No. I was just hungry, so I ran here.”

“The food isn’t running away. Wait…! Haeil, your hair?”

His mother was surprised to see the silver hair visible through the cap.

Halo smiled playfully and took off his cap again to show her.

Silver hair poured out.

It was a whim.

The model in the hair dye book was a woman, but the woman with an exotic appearance reminded him of someone from the past.

The best guy he had ever seen among the men he had ever seen.

Originally, his hair was bleached silver like this.

To match the image of the next album to be released.

“Your father might faint.”

It wasn’t his father who looked like he was about to faint after seeing his snow-white bleached hair, but his mother.

“…It looks good on you.”

His features were all revealed with his shortened bangs.

His impression became more refreshing than before, and his eyes, which resembled her, were revealed.

Maybe it’s because of the color silver.

Her son, who was smiling brightly, felt somewhat unfamiliar to her.

At the same time, he looked mysterious and outstanding.

“I heard it’s hard to manage bleached hair.”

“I’ll have to manage it well in the future.”

Halo took his mother’s hand.

His mother felt the warm warmth and held his hand back.

“Okay, let’s go in.”