God of Music

Chapter 72. 3 Years Already?(1)

Translator: Synopsis

“Ah, you’re here?”

Gye HyoMin stood up from her piano as soon as she saw KangYoon.

“Hello.”

“Fu…. Looks like I showed you something unsightly.”

Perhaps due to screwing up her playing, KangYoon didn’t feel like this wasn’t the first time she did this. Her expression was filled with fatigue.

Gye HyoMin told the janitor to bring some tea. Soon, light snacks and tea were prepared.

“The other songs are fine but it’s just this one song that I screw up.”

“Is this the barcarole?”

“Yes. It’s the one by Chopin. This isn’t such a fast song but it’s quite a tricky piece to play. It’s a piece I’m challenging for the first time… but it sure isn’t easy.”

She sipped her tea and shook her head. In KangYoon’s view, she looked much more fatigued than the meeting they had 3 days ago.

‘I did hear that classical musicians practiced day and night….’

She probably practiced all day and all night in order to perfect that piece. However, the sudden change in tempo was definitely not easy. It didn’t work out after all that practice? KangYoon was flabbergasted at the difficulty of classical music.

“If we went without it or something….”

“That must absolutely not happen.”

Before KangYoon could even finish his words, Gye HyoMin denied his proposal. KangYoon had to take a step back.

“Understood.”

“It won’t happen. Please refrain from speaking that way.”

This seemed to be a sensitive topic as she was momentarily on edge. KangYoon thought for a moment.

‘Is this really fine? Look like I’ll have to prepare two different scenarios.’

Although there were times where being stubborn led to good results, more often than not it leads to worse situations. KangYoon decided to prepare for both scenarios.

After the tea time, KangYoon requested to observe her practice. She accepted it without much hassle. She did joke about how he was about to become her manager, but KangYoon also lightly accepted it by saying that he once worked as a manager. Thanks to that, the heavy atmosphere was lifted somewhat.

Gye HyoMin sat in front of the piano again and started practicing. Her hand movements were beautiful. Musical notes flowed out endlessly and created light. The suitable softness variation and tempo changes were praiseworthy in anyone’s eyes.

However, she slipped up in a part where it descended and ascended again, and eventually, she stopped her practice.

“Ah…..”

She made the same mistake, and she lowered her head.

“It’s definitely not an easy piece.”

“I will be fine after practice.”

“Yes, of course.”

However, KangYoon started off by consoling her as if nothing had happened. He tried his best to not show a change in emotions on the surface.

Gye HyoMin turned around to the piano again and started playing. However, she slipped up in the same part and stopped playing at the same part.

“Again….”

She tried again, but it was the same again. She tried again and again like some madman, but she repeated the same mistake as though she was an animal getting trapped by the same trap repeatedly. There was no need to mention the musical note and the light.

KangYoon observed wordlessly for one hour before eventually grabbing her hand.(E/N: I feel bad for her, as a pianist myself)

“Please rest a moment.”

“Not yet, Not yet!”

“Look in the mirror.”

“Ah….”

She could finally see herself drenched in sweat through the mirror, the dark bags under her eyes also told her that her body was physically tired.

‘This is dangerous….’

KangYoon sternly watched as Gye HyoMin said she was going to wash her face. He didn’t feel like he should leave her be. At this rate, it was obvious that there would be problems with her performance on the actual day.

When she came back, KangYoon started speaking again.

“It looks like we need someone to manage you.”

“…I don’t have the time to look for one.”

“For the meantime, I’ll fill in that job, Miss HyoMin. Like I said before, I started off as a manager. You don’t need to worry.”

“…….”

“Consider it a service. This is for the recital after all.”

The janitor was also a man, so the problem of ‘a man and a woman under one roof’ didn’t really matter. He couldn’t let it be after seeing her fatigued expression and the grey light from her practice.

“…….”

Gye HyoMin was silent. She was also desperately feeling the need for management. After thinking about it for a while, she accepted KangYoon’s offer.

After that, KangYoon sat down near the piano. He checked her practice on top of going over the documents he had brought. Gye HyoMin got stuck on the same part every single time. She kept practicing in order to overcome that, but once she got upset or overboard, KangYoon always stopped her.

KangYoon also had a hard time enduring grey light, but he endured through the day.

“Don’t practice anymore today.”

After the practice was over, KangYoon told her again and again as he stepped out the front door. He was worried that she may sit in front of the piano again.

“I get it already.”

“I’ll ask the janitor later.”

“Ah, sheesh. You’re so picky.”

“You’ll keep practicing if I don’t go this far.”

“…….”

Bullseye. Gye HyoMin acted nonchalantly since she was found out. KangYoon gave her the final blow.

“You won’t get better just by recklessly practicing. Rather than practicing repeatedly, I think it will be better for you to rest and think about why you slip up.”(E/N: So true, any aspiring pianist’s take this line to heart)

“…Fine. So, I just need to rest for today?”

“Yes. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“…….”

The nitpicker repeated the same lines repeatedly before leaving. When KangYoon left, the janitor asked her.

“Miss, should I turn on the light in the practice room?”

“It’s fine. I’m going to sleep today.”

Perhaps thanks to KangYoon’s words, Gye HyoMin headed to her bedroom.

***

Recently, a group of hot topic idols appeared from Yoonseul entertainment.

DiaTeen – Teen girls that shone like diamonds.

This group of five girls was compared with Eddios and became a hot topic. DiaTeen’s theme was cute dances and relatively easier songs while Eddios went with a relatively more difficult skill set.

“President Choo ManJi used his head.”

Looking at the internet article, Director Lee HanSeo shook his head. That article compared the leader of Eddios, Jung MinAh, and the leader of DiaTeen, Kang SeGyung, saying that the two possessed different charm points. It also ended with the line that it was the fight between senior and junior.

“PR team, did you request the newspaper agencies to stop putting DiaTeen and Eddios into one article?”

“Yes. However, they aren’t easily accepting it since their views go up if they compare the two together.”

“That’s a pain. Keep asking them anyway. Don’t let them ever go to cable TV. Also, don’t ever let our girls appear in the same program as DiaTeen.”

“Yes.”

Director Lee HanSeo gave the strict order to the various teams. He couldn’t possibly let DiaTeen use Eddios’s popularity to rise. He even told Chairman Won JinMoon for this. However, it was unknown if that President Choo ManJi would listen.

“I miss a cup of tea….”

Director Lee HanSeo sighed deeply at the rival’s strategy.

***

KangYoon was at Gye HyoMin’s house to watch her practice for the past few days now, but her practice had no progress. However, it did seem effective as she no longer flipped out in anger or pushed herself until she sweated cold sweat.

‘Ugh….’

It’s been several days now. KangYoon was also having a hard time enduring the effects of grey light. He was even considering working himself through various piano-related books and videos in an attempt to help her.

“Ah…. Just why doesn’t it work?”

Gye HyoMin, after an hour of practice, told KangYoon. She seemed attached to him now and was now able to exchange light words as well.

“This is hard. You’re getting stuck in the same spot every time….”

She had repeated the same part for several days, but there was no progress.

KangYoon had thought up of many methods over the past few days. Today was the day they were going to monitor her. He even brought three high-quality cameras from his company.

“You’ve even brought cameras today?”

“The musicians actually can’t objectively listen to their playing while they are playing. We’ll observe the sound and your posture since we’re doing it.”

“It’s slightly embarrassing….”

Gye HyoMin had never monitored herself other than at recitals so she felt slightly awkward with KangYoon’s approach. However, this wasn’t time to rule out anything, so she accepted his proposal.

The light went on the camera and her practice began again. Gye HyoMin postured herself properly once again and started playing. Musical notes started playing in front of KangYoon’s eyes as well. Of course, the grey light did not change.

“Ah….”

However, her hands always slipped up in the part she always did. It was the part just after 4 minutes where the song heightened before becoming calm again. Just as she lowered her head and shook her head, KangYoon spoke.

“Try again.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s fine if you get it wrong so continue until the end. Like how grade schoolers practice.”

At his words, she slowly tapped on each note one by one. Of course, the tempo was all over the place. However, she didn’t get the notes wrong. It was slightly funny to do it slowly, but she could go past it.

Like that, she went past the difficult part and came back to the fast tempo part. This part was something she was confident in. Her hands started dancing on the piano again. KangYoon shot her through the camera without missing anything. The sound became louder and she stepped on the pedal to expand the sound. Her entire body danced along with the rhythm.

The song eventually reached its climax. After her faulty 4-minute mark, there were no problems until the end. No, in fact, the grey light eventually turned white. However, the remnant effects of the grey light couldn’t be satiated with the white light.

Her fingers danced on the notes and the sound eventually died down. Then, the sound became louder and the barcarole came to an end.

“Well done.”

KangYoon applauded.

“It was awful. Not something worthy of applause.”

“Shall we go through the monitoring then?”

KangYoon headed to the living room along with Gye HyoMin. Then, he connected the camera to the wall-mounted TV and played the footage. Then, her piano practice played.

“Ah, that part there. The hands.”

She watched her footage closely. She especially focused on her hands. However, she seemed to have found something strange as her expression twisted slightly.

“Why do the hands keep dropping down?”

Just as it went over the 2-minute mark and into 3 minutes, her wrists dropped downwards in the part where the piece became quieter.

“Aren’t the hands supposed to be parallel to the keys?”

“Yes, they are. That’s strange. Why do my hands keep dropping down?”

She clapped her hands as though she had finally realized something. With her wrists lowered, the supposedly arched fingers also lost their strength. She always thought that she was putting her mind to it, but it turned out she had the most fundamental problem. However, she played the footage again and again in order to engrave it in her mind.

After the two replayed the footage ten times, the two finally turned off the video.

“Let’s do it again.”

Along with KangYoon’s words, she sat down in front of the piano and took a deep breath. This time, she resolved herself to put her mind into her hand postures and started practicing again.

‘Oho?’

KangYoon was surprised after the start of the practice. A constant stream of notes started making white light. Unlike before where it slowly turned grey, it didn’t happen this time. It looks like her posture was indeed the problem.

‘Classical music sure is delicate.’

He didn’t know that a change in posture would change the sound as well. Unfortunately, it was quite hard to distinguish with his ears. However, with the light, he could realize at a glance. He felt very good not seeing the murky grey color anymore. However, the real obstacle had yet to come.

The problematic 4-minute mark. Her hand movements started getting faster. This was the part where the mood became higher before calming down again.

‘Hand, hand!’

Gye HyoMin put her mind into her hands. There was no need to look at the score since she had memorized them all. She made her hands into an arch as though it was the first time she had learned piano and focused her mind on constantly lifting her wrists.

????–??–??——–…

‘It worked!’

KangYoon inwardly shouted out after seeing Gye HyoMin smoothly going past the problematic part. Her hands naturally slid down the keys like a lie. It was a fantastical movement. Even she herself was filled with unexpected joy.

“Let’s keep going until the end.”

Gye HyoMin didn’t stop her practice after hearing KangYoon’s words. Completing the piece until the end came first. After she overcame her problems, there were no obstacles for her at all. She freely danced on top of the keys and perfectly digested the 8-minute long piece.

“Yeah~!”

As soon as she finished her practice, she stood up and ran towards KangYoon. She put her hand up and hi-fived KangYoon. Pianists rarely did something that would give their hands a shock, but they sometimes did that to their closest friends. She was that happy right now.

“I did it. I actually did it!”

“Congratulations!”

KangYoon felt emotional as well. three days. It was three long days. He also felt like he had just climbed over a large mountain.

“Thank you for everything. I’m confident now.”

“That’s good. Phew. Looks like I can rest easy.”

“Now leave it all to me!”

Unlike before, Gye HyoMin was filled with confidence. And just as she said, the remainder of her practice was filled with leisure and power.

‘Good. This should be fine.’

Observing her practice, KangYoon finally felt like this performance was going to be a success.

***

In a practice room filled with rhythmical music, men with muscles all over their bodies were dancing intensely. A one-handed handstand was basic, their legs being flung all over the place was a piece of art itself.

As a finish, they completed the dance with several ‘swipes’, where they spun around a few times with their hands on the ground.

“Fuah! Good work!”

In the middle, a man with long hair tied behind his back just congratulated his teammates that he just practiced with. Everyone was steaming due to the intense practice. After a serious round of practice, everyone had a round of rest.

At that time, the vice-leader of the team, Kim DoMin, entered.

“Hyung.”

“DoMin, you’re here.”

“Hello?”

The man with the tied hair delightfully greeted Kim DoMin who turned up late for practice. This was the guy who replaced him going around busily for the soon-to-be concert. He was having a hard time in this pre-spring cold weather.

“How did it turn out?”

“I looked around everywhere, but MG was the best.”

“MG? Isn’t that where Eddios belongs? Wasn’t that place an idol company?”

The tied-hair man shook his head in confusion. However, Kim DoMin continued speaking saying that it was nothing like that at all.

“I heard that MG Concert team is so famous nowadays. Apparently, their team leader is someone really good.”

“Isn’t it expensive?”

“I think we’ll have to spend all the money from our prize.”

“Hey.”

The main with his haired tied up drew the line saying that that was no good.

“Are you insane? We worked so hard to get that prize and you’re going to spend it all? Are you trying to starve us here?”

“It’s impossible with that money if we go anywhere else. If we go anywhere else, we’d have to look for the venue, machines and other props all by ourselves. But MG told me that they’ll do everything for us.”

“So we’re going to use all that money?”

The tied-hair man kept complaining. However, Kim DoMin said that this was the way to go to save money.

‘Hey, there they go again.’

‘They’re so frugal…. They always get into a fight over money.’

The team members were about to get some popcorn.

“So, did you sign the contract?”

“No, I said that I’ll talk it over with you.”

“That’s good. And hey, is that on the cheaper side?”

“Considering how our prize money can get a concert at all, it’s very cheap. Instead….”

“Instead?”

“They said they’ll take a portion of the profits.”

Along with those words, the two fought for over an hour.

But the result was that they would go to MG.

‘Sheesh, they should have arrived here earlier….’

The team members shook their heads in resignation after seeing the two fight for over an hour.

***