God's Song

[TN: And here is your regular chapter. Thank you guys for the support as always.]

Jun Hyuk remembered something he had been forgetting,

“Oh right. Didn’t you say that your band has 3 people? You still don’t have enough people when it’s been almost a year?”

“Oh, no. Guitar, drum, bass. I’m the bass. I do guitar and vocals as well.”

“Then it’s all full. Why are you asking me when you have everything – guitar, bass, drums, vocals?”

“We don’t have a keyboardist. I’m a major in classical too. I need the grandiosity that comes from a keyboardist instead of a simple configuration.”

“Hey! You should have said that earlier. Then I don’t have any interest. I play the piano so much in the quintet but to play the keyboard in the band? Forget it.”

Jun Hyuk found the perfect excuse to refuse the offer. He was not just turning Coline down, but also his own self who wanted to be in the band.

“Hey! Don’t just say you don’t want to do it and talk after you listen to our music.”

“What famous band’s songs do you guys normally practice?”

“Are you crazy? You think we’re doing the band for fun right now? Our goal is to release a record. We’re professionals.”

Coline was miffed at Jun Hyuk who thought that he would just be copying others’ songs.

“I see. But is it easy to release a record?”

“Other than the marketing, what’s so hard? Do you know how many recording studios there are in New York? If we don’t record by instrument and track and record all together, we could finish it in a day. $500 is enough.”

Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ was produced in Detroit’s Sound City studio for $600. With that, they sold 16 million copies.

Because of this legend, there are still amateur musicians who try to record their music in small studios. And they are in a better environment than Nirvana was. They have Apple.

“We’ll sell the track on the Apple store first and if it becomes a hit, producers are going to come to us. Then it’s all over.”

The smiling Coline looked like he was dreaming that he had already become a star.

“Jun, you really won’t do it with us?”

“Sorry, I’m not interested. It’s hard even keeping up with my assignments.”

He had thought that all he would have to do at a university of music was write songs and perform. However, more than half of the assignments asked him to write his thoughts on various topics that were thrown at him.”

“Then Jun, let me hear you play the guitar once. And the drums.”

“Let’s do it next time. I’m really tired right now. You’re banned from my room if you keep bothering me.”

Coline who had already heard Jun Hyuk’s album did not give up. It was okay even if he did not come in as a keyboardist. What the band needed most were the skills Jun Hyuk showed in the quintet with his talent in arranging and directing while correcting each member’s music.

With this, there was one more person following Jun Hyuk around.

***

Something caught Jun Hyuk’s attention at once, more than the two people following him around. The harmonica.

Jun Hyuk was running to make it on time to his special class when the sound of a harmonica stopped him in his tracks. To think that he was hearing Bachs’ Cantata played on a harmonica. He had only heard the harmonica played in folk or country music.

When he looked toward the sound of the harmonica, he saw the back of someone sitting comfortably with her legs propped up on a chair in front of the cafeteria. Jun Hyuk waited where he stood until she was done playing.

In the middle of his performance, Jun Hyuk’s heart started beating when the part with the mashup of two cantatas came up.

The performance became more and more bold. It gradually increased from two cantatas to three, four, and five. The end had such a complicated configuration that it seemed the five cantatas were used randomly, and he thought it was as though classical music had been reconstructed as avant-garde music.

To bring out this kind of configuration with a harmonica. Jun Hyuk could not hold back his curiosity of who was playing the harmonica in such a way that he had not imagined before.

The person who had played the harmonica lit the cigarette laying on the table.

Jun Hyuk approached her carefully and slightly tapped her on the shoulder.

“Excuse me, but can I ask you a question?”

He could be sure that the performer who turned around was a bold beauty from South America. Her dark skin and swinging black hair showed that she is from a hot country.

The girl looked at Jun Hyuk.

“The song you just played... How did you come to think of something like that?”

“How?”

The South American girl looked at him. She had not understood Jun Hyuk’s question. Jun Hyuk repeated his question again slowly.

“I’m curious as to how you thought of configuring that kind of music.”

“I just did. It just came to my mind while I was playing the harmonica.”

If he had not interpreted ‘just’ incorrectly, it meant she had thought of it on the spot. Jun Hyuk thought about how he had said the same thing hundreds of times. The others’ expressions at his words. That must be his expression right now.

“I see. I asked something useless. Sorry.”

The South American made Jun Hyuk stop as he was walking away,

“Wait. Are you Jun by chance?”

“I am. You know me?”

“An unbelievable genius from Asia. Skinny and tall. I could tell just by looking at you.”

A curious guy who says something unexpected in every class and is not well-versed in the basic theories but is able to explain everything with music. Though it had not been long since school started, Jun Hyuk had become the subject of such rumors.

“And who are you?”

When Jun Hyuk frowned as he asked, the girl hit her own head.

“Oh right... It was true that our genius isn’t interested in others. Ha ha.”

This South American beauty in her twenties laughed and got up from her chair.

“I’m Amelia. Piano major.”

Jun Hyuk shook the hand Amelia had put out. She stared at Jun Hyuk, but he could not take his eyes off of the harmonica.

Amelia Lamarque is a genius pianist who is already recognized as the 2nd Martha Argerich in Argentina. She had shown this first at the New York Bernstein Music Festival and famous professor and professor Reny Greenfield had recommended her to enroll in the school.

Professor Greenfield was so confident in her talent that he never failed to invite her as a guest pianist for his performances and went around telling people that she would become the queen of concerts.

The ability to capture South America’s passion in her piano. She was critically acclaimed because she could use that passion and even show simplicity.

Last year however, she was eliminated in the 2nd round of the Poland Warsaw Chopin Competition and was not included in the final list. There could have been talk that she had not been able to advance because she is not European, but the organizers dismissed these rumors because a Japanese person came in 1st place.

An important fact is that the Japanese person who won spent 10 years in France’s Paris School of Music, and that played a large part in the win.

“Amelia, piano, okay.”

Jun Hyuk mumbled each word as though he were saving them in his memory.

“I guess you liked the harmonica just now.”

Amelia kept making Jun Hyuk stop.

“Yeah. It was a really cool variation. The configuration was really impressive. I’m saying this as a pianist, but try arranging that song on two pianos. I think it’ll come out really great. Alright then, I have to get to class.”

As Jun Hyuk turned around, Amelia grabbed his wrist.

“Hey. Whew – What do you mean 2 pianos? I’m not a genius like someone. Shouldn’t you at least give me a hint for how to configure it?”

Amelia scratched her head.

“What? You performed it yourself.”

“Ah, I honestly don’t really remember it. Ha ha.”

Just as the students of this school saw Jun Hyuk as strange, he also thought they were strange.

Danny who plays the violin so well is an dumb, and Coline who is a member of the quintet is an idiot who wants to become a rock star.

Now this pianist suffers from short-term memory. How could she not remember what she just played?

“Cantata A Major, E Flat Major, Gm. This is for the 1st piano. And the 2nd piano can play D, C, Majors. I’m sure you’ll have to change it a bit since the range of the piano and harmonica are different.”

“Oh!”

Amelia moved her fingers in the air a few times and snapped her fingers.

“Okay. Thanks.”

She put out the cigarette she was holding and ran.

Jun Hyuk’s felt good as he watched her run. There was no need to explain multiple times in this school. Everyone could understand what he meant with few words. They also gave results that were up to and at times beyond his expectations.

Jun Hyuk started running again as well. He was already late because of that forgetful girl. He would get a tardy.