The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 751

< Episode 75 Butterfly Effect >

[See you at 4:30 PM]

The message from Shin Ju-hyuk included the time and place, with a postscript telling me to clear the whole day.

Looking at the familiar location, Halo murmured.

“Hongdae.”

A live cafe in Hongdae.

After looking it up, it turned out to be a mecca for famous indie live performances—a place where you can enjoy underground music.

The reason he suddenly called me must be because of the promise we made at the wrap-up party four days ago.

I remembered the casual conversation we had about him introducing me to a bassist.

I thought it was unexpected because it was such a casual remark.

“You’re right on time.”

Shin Ju-hyuk, wearing a rider jacket and a large hat, waved his hand in front of the tightly closed live cafe. Although he covered his face, his tall height and unique aura drew attention.

“I found this place a while ago, but do you know how much I suffered because you’re too young to even enter a pub?”

“I could just go to a pub.”

“This kid hasn’t tasted controversy yet.”

Halo, who was once an icon of controversy, scoffed.

#

Pushing the door marked [Closed], it slid open.

Hazy smoke lingered in the highlight lighting, illuminating a stage connected to a chessboard-like floor.

Halo looked around at the equipment on the stage and the long cables.

The live cafe was in the middle of rehearsal.

Someone noticed the boy and approached.

It was hard to tell if he was the owner or an employee, but he was an older man.

He was about to send the boy away but stopped when he saw the young man behind him.

“Sir, the performance starts at five, and admission is possible from forty-five minutes past… Wait a minute, who is this?”

“It’s been a while, boss.”

Shin Ju-hyuk slightly lowered his sunglasses and greeted him.

The boss’s eyes widened and soon turned into a beaming smile.

“Our Ju-hyuk…”

The boss recognized the attention focused on them.

Since an outsider had entered, the band rehearsing stopped tuning and turned their attention to them.

“Let’s move to a different spot. This person is, I assume, a friend you brought with you?”

“Yes.”

“If you’re bringing him, he must be no ordinary friend.”

A cap and a mask.

The boss’s eyes soon sparkled at the sight of the eyes visible between them.

He seemed to recognize who it was.

The boss soon took them to a ‘No Entry Except for Staff’ room.

As soon as he entered, he grabbed Halo’s hand.

“You’re Noh Halo, right? I’m enjoying your songs these days. I watched the broadcast well too. I couldn’t go to the music festival because I was working, but I watched the video. Can you sign an autograph for me?”

“Of course.”

He was a very friendly person.

“Noh Halo is welcome anytime. This is my business card.”

I received a business card that said Hongdae Live House.

His business mindset was clear.

“This place is quite old.”

“Do you think it would be the same as it was ten years ago?”

The boss tossed the words out and took out a vitamin water from the refrigerator, handing it to the boy.

Shin Ju-hyuk had to take it out himself.

“Stay here quietly. If your fans flock here… I’m already scared, man.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to work.”

Just as he spat out the words, his actions were quick.

As the boss left, Shin Ju-hyuk shrugged his shoulders as if he was dumbfounded.

“He’s still the same.”

Halo didn’t bother to ask what kind of relationship they had.

Just the fact that Shin Ju-hyuk had been in a band for a long time was enough to infer without asking.

What I’m curious about is the bassist that Shin Ju-hyuk is introducing.

A friend he used to be in a band with a long time ago.

I’m not very interested in the reason why they’re not on good terms.

How often does discord happen and bands break up?

‘The Ajit hyungs [older male friends or brothers] are probably like that too.’

At 4:45, people started pouring in.

There weren’t that many. I heard it gets crowded after work hours.

The performance, which will run until 11 PM, will feature a total of seven teams.

Halo closed his eyes, savoring the indie band atmosphere he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Halo liked indie music.

Not leaning towards commercialism and making their own music might seem immature to some, but Halo liked their unique colors. No matter how much he tried to imitate them, he could never be exactly the same, which was the charm of indie music.

‘So, who is the bassist?’

Halo glanced at Shin Ju-hyuk, who had been silent since the performance started, and focused on the performance again.

Since the first performance, the indie band’s music and characteristics were all to his liking, but there wasn’t really a standout bass.

There were many bands with impressive vocals or guitarists, but the bassist, well…

Some might think that.

Isn’t the bass originally an instrument that blends in?

Many people know about guitars, vocals, drums, and keyboards, but not about bass.

However, that’s what they say because they don’t know what sound the bass makes.

The bass leads the flow and atmosphere of the song.

It prevents the drums from playing separately, and the bass is the backbone of the song.

Often, a song can completely collapse due to the bass, like someone suffering from a herniated disc or a poorly constructed building.

Yes, like now.

“Hmm.”

For the first time, Shin Ju-hyuk groaned.

The bassist missed a note, and at the same time, the drums collapsed, and gradually the other instruments began to lose their balance. Although they were far away, I could imagine what their faces would look like, similar to the audience watching their performance.

There was no encore.

The band also quickly packed up, and there was a brief lull in time.

Audiences leaving like a receding tide and audiences entering like an incoming tide.

The red lighting turned purple.

Around the time a single exchange occurred, a new band entered.

Thump, thump-.

Ttan, ttan, ttan.

Dissonance arising from tuning instruments.

Ordinary people often find this tuning boring, but Halo liked this tuning time. It was the only time he could see the dissonance gradually creating harmony, and above all, the performer’s skills were well revealed during this time.

Halo stared intently at the bassist who started tuning.

‘Not bad.’

It wasn’t flashy, but it was comfortable and solid to listen to.

The stage was dark, and the bassist was wearing a hat, so it was hard to see what kind of person he was.

Only the tattoo on his arm was visible.

Of course, even that was too far away to see what the letters were.

The performance soon began.

Compared to the decent tuning time, the vocal skills of the band he saw today were the most disappointing.

The bass and drums firmly held the song together, and the flashy synth sounds could be heard. The electric guitar also blended in. The song, which could have been loose, was filled with diverse sounds.

However, the vocalist, who couldn’t match the harmonious session’s performance, was dragged along by the song.

Halo raised the corners of his lips.

The vocalist glares at the bassist as if to kill him.

Judging by his expression, it seems like he’s going to throw a punch when he gets back.

He’s the one who’s not doing well, but why is he glaring at the other members?

“It’s turning out interestingly.”

It seemed to be turning out interestingly.

#

“You bastard! Did you do that on purpose!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You, you deliberately tried to ruin my song.”

“You should have sung properly.”

“How can I sing properly when you suddenly start messing around?”

Loud voices are rampant in the waiting room.

The vocalist, realizing that he had ruined the performance, glared at the bassist with a flushed face.

The man with dreadlocks chuckled at the strong smell of alcohol emanating from him.

“You guys, are you in on it with him too?”

“No, I just followed the bass…”

“What are you going to do if the drums are swayed by the bass! That’s your role! Do your job as a metronome properly! Should I keep using you when you can’t even do that one thing?”

“Th-.”

The drummer had a lot to say, but he kept his mouth shut.

The leader of the band is the vocalist.

“Stop blaming others.”

The rocker, who was venting his anger on other session members, took a deep breath and turned around at the bassist’s voice.

“At least no one is worse than you, who came to the performance drunk.”

“Don’t act like it’s your band when you’re just a guest member.”

“Ah, guest members aren’t even members?”

“Who accepted you despite your terrible skills…!”

The bassist scoffed.

He wouldn’t have tried to show it if the vocalist hadn’t kept ignoring the other band members.

The arrangement that the vocalist called ‘messing around.’ In fact, it wasn’t a big change to even call it an arrangement.

“Well, wasn’t the reaction good?”

“Are you kidding me? What do you know about composing? My song was originally good, so it would have been good no matter what. Don’t mistake that the audience’s reaction is good because you’re good.”

The voice was so loud that it could be heard outside the waiting room.

Halo and Shin Ju-hyuk looked at each other.

Before they could open the door, the door burst open, and the fuming vocalist came out.

“I’m telling you again, do as I say. Don’t think about ruining my song. If I hear it one more time, you-.”

The vocalist pointed his finger and yelled in front of everyone.

“I thought it was fine.”

At that time, a voice was heard.

The vocalist slowly turned his body and found the young man and the boy.

“Who are you guys?”

“Audience?”

Halo spoke and then nodded.

Well, they are the audience.

The faces of the other band members were not visible through the door.

But the tattoo on one person’s arm was visible.

A sentence in Latin.

[Dum spiro spero – While I breathe, I hope.]

Halo thought it was a phrase he had seen somewhere.

“What do you know to be nosy!”

The vocalist looked him up and down.

Halo shrugged his shoulders without paying attention.

His purpose was not to meet this vocalist.

“By any chance, can you play it again?”

Halo poked his head into the door.

Band members, a large man and woman, and finally, the dreadlocked…

“!”

Halo was startled when his eyes met.

He thought it was a familiar phrase, but above it was a familiar face.

Words come to mind.

However, Halo continued without greeting him first.

“Just like you played it before.”

Of course, he would have to lower the volume since it was a waiting room, but the waiting room and studio were also equipped for practice. It meant that he could play enough even if it wasn’t on stage.

The band members looked at the vocalist.

The vocalist closed his lips tightly and said.

“Try it.”

At those words, the members picked up their instruments again.

The same song is heard.

A solid bass and drums supporting it.

Flashy synths and electric guitar blending together.

It’s not difficult because it’s a song he’s heard once.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to sing it in their colors. But wouldn’t this be okay too?

Halo opened his mouth.

From then on, a different song is heard.

A rock song with quite a lot of English lyrics mixed in.

Starting as if whispering.

Shin Ju-hyuk, who had been watching with his arms crossed, his face slowly changed strangely.

“!”

At some point, his eyes widened.

He looked at the boy as if he couldn’t believe it and unconsciously looked around.

Fortunately, there was no one paying close attention to them as the main stage began.

The vocalist is listening to the music with his mouth wide open, and the band members are playing happily. Everyone knows that their music is being completed.

And when the performance ended, the drummer jumped up from his seat, and the keyboard player put his hand over his mouth.

The vocalist pointed to the boy and recognized him as ‘Noh Halo?’

He recalled his past mistakes of shouting ‘What do you know!’ at the boy and didn’t know what to do.

‘Wh-what am I saying…’

The alcohol had worn off a long time ago.

People stare at the boy with blank faces.

In that scene of surprise and shock.

Halo opened his mouth towards the bassist, Han Jin-young, with a nonchalant face.

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], will you be my bassist?”

“!”

“I think we’ll be a good band.”

#

Han Jin-young didn’t quite realize what he had heard.

It felt like he had been slapped hard on the cheek.

At some point, when he came to his senses, he was running down the streets of Hongdae.

The wind blowing in the opposite direction pushed him back, but he couldn’t stop.

Hyung, will you be my bassist?

It felt like something was bursting out of his chest at that one voice.

A familiar melody he had heard somewhere came to his ear on the spring breeze.

Realizing that he couldn’t play the bass properly,

The beautiful voice of a boy he heard wandering the streets.

I wake up to the sound of music

-Let it be

Looking back, the boy was always at the inflection point.

The day he started playing the bass again.

His favorite music changed from Hwang Ryong-pil’s ‘Soar’ to the Beatles’ ‘Let It Be.’

He thanked the boy for giving him the opportunity by gifting him ‘Soar.’

Since then, he has been wandering around live cafes and pubs, trying to find his bass skills.

Hoping to run towards the passion of his youth and the dreams of that time someday.

Perhaps now is the moment he has been most hoping for.

Han Jin-young opened the tightly closed door and entered.

The club where he works. He burst into the door of the president’s office, and the president, whom he is most grateful to, turns to him. Bae Gong-hak was next to him.

He hadn’t even spoken to Halo properly yet. But the words coming out of his mouth were arbitrary.

“President! I quit!”