The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 411

# 41 Between Boy and Man

When the guitar stopped, Halo looked at the man, a silent question in his eyes. But the man was speechless.

“Awesome!”

The audience, on the other hand, erupted in applause. They hadn’t expected much and were delighted and amazed, as if they’d received an unexpected Christmas gift.

“What was that!”

“Best performance of my life, kid. Way better than that slick dude.”

“Want a drink?”

Several people offered him pints of ale.

Like many countries, the UK prohibits the sale of alcohol to those under 18, but control over drinking itself is less strict. In fact, 16-year-olds can enter pubs under the supervision of a guardian, and statistics show that one in six 11-year-olds drinks at home every week.

“Unfortunately, ale isn’t really my thing.”

England may be famous for ale, but Halo preferred stronger stuff like whiskey, gin, and rum.

“Right, you’re still at the age where orange juice tastes best.”

That wasn’t it at all.

Halo’s expression turned sour, and the joking man chuckled, stuffing several rolled-up banknotes into the empty glass. A generous tip in bright red pounds [the British currency].

“Can’t listen to such a great performance for free.”

Inspired by his generosity, others began to fill the glass with money. They offered words of praise, promising to buy his album when he debuted and attend his concerts, urging him to become a superstar. Some even suggested auditioning for TV programs.

No one thought of him as an established musician. How could they? He looked like a teenager—younger than his actual age.

‘What am I going to do with all this?’

Halo gave high-fives, staring blankly at the money that the glass couldn’t hold.

Just then, the man behind him grabbed his shoulder.

What’s this? Halo’s eyebrows twitched.

The man’s eyes gleamed ominously.

“You.”

At first, he thought it was a challenge.

“Join my band.”

“!”

“I’ll treat you well. You have to join.”

The man wasn’t embarrassed or angry.

He was staring at him intensely, in a way that made him uncomfortable.

“You’re not already in a band, are you?”

Halo was about to say he was, but shook his head. He hadn’t signed anything yet, so he wasn’t under contract with Vale.

“Not yet.”

“Good.”

The man continued, barely containing his excitement and joy.

“You are a genius, kid. You need to be a guitarist. I’m saying you shouldn’t just keep it as a hobby.”

While the crowd simply thought he was cute and good, the man recognized the boy’s talent.

‘Struggle’ was a more complex song than he had thought, not something anyone could play.

To see him pull it off so effortlessly…

The man swallowed hard.

He was envious. Envious of the talent, and the image of the band that this kid could complete was so beautiful that it was hard to be patient.

“Let’s start a band together. Our team has the best guitarist, you know? He’ll teach you a lot. Don’t you want to be famous? You can have money, fame, everything.”

Halo listened quietly, which the man took as a positive sign. He spoke, practically spitting with excitement.

“We’ll create the best band in the world. Kid, you play the guitar, and I’ll sing. What do you say?”

Halo grinned.

The man grinned back.

He seemed to think Halo would definitely say yes.

What teenager wouldn’t want to be famous?

“No.”

There was one.

The man, who hadn’t expected a refusal, stammered. Then, in an excited state, he blurted out.

“You don’t understand, I’m a really big deal, you know? This isn’t an opportunity that comes along every day.”

And, as if to show off, he subtly revealed his face from under his beanie. It was a face Halo had never seen before.

“…”

“You don’t know me?! How could you not know me? Look again.”

The man raised his beanie slightly higher, this time revealing his forehead. Then he pulled the beanie back down, the scorpion emblem reappearing.

“Still don’t know? Ha!”

When Halo looked at him calmly, the man seemed to lose his composure. He pondered for a moment, spinning around in place, then pulled down his hood and took off his beanie.

A lip piercing and green hair popped out, along with a small scorpion tattoo on one cheek and a tattoo on his neck. Large Roman letters encircled his neck.

SCORPION

“Scorpion.”

“That’s right!”

Halo had simply read the letters, but the man clapped his hands.

“Yes, that’s me. There’s no way you wouldn’t know. Now do you realize what a great opportunity you’re missing?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I think there’s something more important.”

Halo nodded, and the man followed his gaze. He discovered the crowd staring at him as if they were about to devour him.

“!”

“Scorpion?”

“Isn’t that Scorpion?”

The murmurs grew louder and louder, swelling like a wave.

Oh, crap!

The man belatedly pulled up his hood, but everyone who was going to see him had already seen him. He hurriedly grabbed his guitar and shouted as he was about to run away.

“Tomorrow! Let’s meet here again!”

Halo snorted and put his guitar in its case.

Tomorrow, he had a meeting with Vale.

Even if he didn’t have an appointment, he wouldn’t come out.

He probably wouldn’t meet him again forever.

‘But what am I going to do with this?’

Halo lifted the glass filled with banknotes instead of alcohol. He shrugged, figuring he’d use it somehow, and slung his guitar over his shoulder.

Little did he imagine that he would meet that scorpion again.

#

It was when he was heading to Vale around dinner time.

“Oh! You’re…! That kid?!”

Why is this guy here?

Halo frowned slightly.

The man who should have been wandering around Trafalgar Square was loudly chatting with his friends (bandmates) in the Vale lobby.

If he had been dressed like a bum yesterday, today he was wearing a leather jacket and had his green hair neatly combed back.

“Kid! I’ve been desperately looking for you all day! Why didn’t you come!”

“I never promised to.”

“Th-that’s right.”

The man was speechless, then turned to his friends.

“Guys, this is the kid I was telling you about. A genius kid! Good enough to be our new member!”

A friend behind him glanced at Halo. When he saw Halo’s sullen expression, he raised both hands.

“Sorry, kid. This guy’s a bit like this,” He twirled a finger next to his head, indicating he was crazy.

“Please don’t report him to the police. I haven’t paid off my loan yet. It’ll only take about five years.”

He threw out a dark joke that was hard to tell if it was serious or not, and then apologized politely like a gentleman.

“Forgive the rudeness, Mrs., Mr. Our leader heard your son’s guitar performance yesterday and fell in love, wanting to bring him into our band.”

“Leader as in…?”

“Oh, I’m late with introductions, aren’t I? I’m Scorpion. This is a member, and I’m the manager in charge.”

The manager explained to Halo’s parents that he wasn’t a strange person. Anyone at Vale was either a musician or an employee, so Halo’s parents weren’t too worried.

Meanwhile, Scorpion’s leader popped out in front of Halo.

“So, the fact that we’ve reunited means it’s your destiny to become our member, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

Halo chuckled.

When he refused again, the leader shouted, “Why!” More than anything, he seemed to genuinely want Halo to become a member. In some ways, he was unbiased, asking him to join a group made up of 30-year-olds.

“I came here for a different purpose.”

At Halo’s words, the leader tilted his head.

He was about to express his question when a familiar voice cut in.

“That’s right. Scor, unfortunately, it seems impossible to recruit a member.”

“President?”

“He’s going to sign a contract with me today.”

“!”

August Vale, who had come with Caroline, observing the situation, glanced at Halo.

As if he wasn’t called ‘Sun’ for nothing, he stood out everywhere and attracted people everywhere.

He just didn’t know it would be Lil, Scorpion’s leader.

Anyway, August Vale, who had asked Halo to wait a moment, scolded Lil.

“By the way, I told you to go back. Why are you still here?”

“…I thought the company was empty today, so I wondered if there was some kind of event.”

“What event? How can I make people work at a Christmas festival? Everyone would go on strike.”

“Well, it’s not like some great person is coming, is it?”

August looked at Lil for a moment.

Sometimes, this guy had a crazy intuition. His musical talent came from there, and there were times when his intuition was sharp.

Fortunately, Lil didn’t think any further.

Well, who could imagine that ‘Sun’ would come here? Within this company, he and Caroline were the only ones who knew that he was signing a contract with ‘Sun’.

The fewer people who knew the secret, the better.

Lil’s interest in the boy was solely for the purpose of recruiting a member.

“If a great person comes, we have to welcome them warmly. Can we leave it empty like this?”

“That’s true. And a great person will go that way, not this way.”

The leader looked at Halo with his last bit of attachment.

“If you ever want to develop your talent as a guitarist, come find us. We’ll accept you anytime.”

Halo was about to refuse but suddenly had a question.

“I know I’m good, but why do you want to recruit me so badly?”

Halo was curious as to why the leader wanted to recruit him so badly.

Of course, he understood being amazed by his performance, but he wondered why he would bother bringing him into a band that already had a guitarist.

“I have a goal.”

Then, the leader said out of the blue.

“It happened recently.”

Did he want to build the band like an orchestra?

Then, the leader opened his mouth.

“Recently, I met an amazing person. That person’s music is hard to describe, but it was delicate, melancholic, intense, and overwhelming.

Delicate and intense, how does that make sense?

But that person’s song was like that. It was a really ridiculous song.

He even uploaded such songs like practice pieces anywhere. If it were me, I would never do that. Casually. As if he could make it anytime.”

The leader, who laughed in vain, stared into the air. What should he say, he felt a sense of reality and looked like a fool in love.

“Yeah, if it’s someone who can make such a song. He can make it again anytime. Still, I thought he would show a similar genre. It wouldn’t be strange if self-replication occurred.”

Then, the leader suddenly knelt down. The sun was engraved on his finger raised in the air. It seemed like a new tattoo he had recently gotten.

Halo’s parents were startled, but August and the other members of Scorpion looked at him familiarly. It seemed like this wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Yeah, they said he was crazy.

“Ha. But. The next album… The new album he uploaded in just a month… Was completely different. Contrary to my expectations, and I didn’t think that person would make such a song. As if he had become a different person. How could he make such a beautiful song? If Mendelssohn [a famous German composer and musician] came back to life and did pop, would that kind of music come out?”

At this point, there would be no one who didn’t know who the leader was talking about.

Because of the situation, August Vale smiled slyly and looked at Halo, as if asking how he felt about meeting his first fanatic.

“I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. I want to make the same music as him, I want to talk to him about music, and maybe I can become friends with him. For him, I have to become someone who can be compared to him, or at least follow in his footsteps.”

The leader stood up in front of Halo.

“Genius kid, let’s go to the top of the world together. And let’s make amazing music.”

Halo, who was staring at the leader with a sullen expression, answered.

“Nope.”

#

“Hahaha, how does it feel to meet a passionate fan?”

“Is there anything different?”

Halo answered nonchalantly. August Vale started laughing again at the answer.

He seemed to be expecting Halo’s fresh reaction. Unfortunately, Halo had already experienced many such fanatics.

‘Still, there’s something a little different.’

In the past, there were many fanatics who praised him with his appearance and everything known, but now they are praising him without knowing anything about him.

The critics who said that he would have become a bum if he wasn’t handsome briefly came to mind.

Looking back, not many of their words were correct.

The contract began as August Vale realized the relationship between the name ‘HALO’ and Nohaeil’s English name and became interested.

Halo signed a distribution contract with Vale. August said that the music would be released on global streaming platforms around the time they left England.

In fact, when they arrived in France, the official digital music was released. Halo’s first and second albums were uploaded to music streaming platforms around the world, including Spotify.

The album cover was a black and white photo of a place in England. It seemed that Halo had made the place he mentioned as the background of the album as a service.

The album cover without his face was fresh and not bad.

After the contract ended, they did not return home immediately.

In line with the purpose of ‘travel’, they traveled through England, France, and Italy.

As it was January, festivals were held in various parts of Europe.

Also, there were attractions that you must see in Europe: football, musicals, operas, etc. Gastronomy cannot be left out.

Halo occasionally slipped out without his parents’ knowledge to enjoy his own time. Eating new food and making new friends in new places was actually the real trip.

Halo, who became friends with people of all ages, played the guitar but did not sing separately. If he was going to make a third album and think about a single album when he returned to Korea, it seemed like it would be good to save his voice.

The planned two-week trip was extended to three weeks, and the flight schedule was pushed back. It was mid-January when they boarded a plane to Incheon Airport.

[Ladies and gentlemen, our plane has arrived at Incheon International Airport. Please fasten your seat belts and open the window curtains.]

Halo pulled his carrier and came out to the entrance.

He was wearing new clothes he had bought in Europe, and he had an exotic feel.

Occasionally, someone would glance at him.

Halo, who had walked with larger strides than before, looked at the large mirror attached to the wall.

Nohaeil, who was between a boy and a man, was looking at him.