The Road to Glory – Chapter 208 – [Side Story] Chapter 10. I Think I’m in a Slump

Author: Dawn

[EP 01. Welcome to my home]

Label H, often referred to as a ‘temple’ by fans.

The camera showed the label’s lobby, which had never been revealed to anyone except staff.

The high-ceilinged first floor was a duplex, with one side made entirely of windows, giving it an incredibly open feeling.

The elegant curves of the centrally located elevator and pillars.

Warm-colored tiles and colorful furniture.

The gentle jazz music playing in the background, the scent of coffee, and Nordic-style planetary orbital lighting fixtures set the first impression of this label.

[Wow, this is insane]

[Can’t even compare to our company]

[So if I get a job here, I can work while seeing Halo every day in an office like this?]

Even Sin Joohyeok, who had said there was no need to put effort into the label’s headquarters, left impressed.

When they showed the label with a few clean shots and music,

Suddenly, Halo’s voice was heard.

“Hello, Mr. Halo.”

It was the first part of the teaser.

And the scene immediately changed.

The black-haired boy looked straight at the camera in response to the PD’s prompt to ‘please introduce yourself.’

“Hello, I’m Roh Haeil.”

… A moment of silence passed.

The PD looked at him as if to ask if that was all, while the boy’s expression suggested he didn’t understand what more was needed.

[LOL]

[Ah, that’s so Halo lol]

The PD wrote the caption with a resigned expression and moved on to the next question.

At first, the questions were simple. Things people had been curious about in comments and elsewhere.

For example, ‘How have you been lately?’ ‘What music are you listening to these days?’ ‘When did you return to Korea?’

When asked about his return, it was revealed that Halo had secretly come back right after the Grammy Awards without telling the staff. When the PD asked if he regretted it now, Halo smiled.

“But wasn’t it fun?”

It wasn’t at all the attitude of someone who was sorry.

[Hey LOL The staff must have been in tears]

[He really lives life to the fullest lol]

And finally, the content everyone had been waiting for appeared.

“You want me to introduce my daily life?”

It was a direct request for Halo to show his routine.

The boy tilted his head with an uncomprehending expression.

“I can show you, but don’t we all live similarly?”

The PD didn’t respond.

The viewers would be the ones to answer that.

The camera switched to show a dark room at 5:30 AM.

Daily reality. The part viewers wanted most.

The blackout curtains and large bed, and the figure sleeping like the dead on that bed wasn’t different from any other home.

Maybe he’ll wake up around 10?

Office workers who knew Halo didn’t need to go to school or work were startled when the figure suddenly rose smoothly.

Without an alarm or warning, he got up and came down from the bed without any signs of sleep inertia.

It was surprisingly diligent behavior.

The boy calmly entered the bathroom and came out wearing a bathrobe.

Yawning, he came out to the living room.

As sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, things that had been hidden in darkness became visible.

“Oh!”

[Wow, this is crazy]

[Haha, yeah, we really do live similarly]

[If you add one more zero to my apartment’s square footage, it might be similar^^]

The Seoul skyline and penthouse view through the floor-to-ceiling windows was what people expected from a star.

And the turntable and audio system taking up one side of the living room. Piles of vinyl.

The boy turned on some music and went to the window to drink espresso.

[But…]

Someone finally said what everyone had been avoiding.

[Looks like he doesn’t clean]

In one corner of the wall, near the veranda, paper balls had rolled around and touched the boy’s feet. The boy looked at them briefly before kicking them away. He showed no intention of picking them up to throw away.

[Such humanity LOL]

[My mom would smack me if she saw this]

[But what if your son is Halo?]

[Mom would clean it up for her son^^ Want any fruit?]

Meanwhile, the camera busily introduced the whole house.

The large bedroom used only for sleeping and the walk-in closet.

The spacious kitchen that housewives dream of and the study.

[Awards LOL]

[At least he’s like me with my perfect attendance awards]

[Perfect attendance = Grammy Awards]

People marveled at seeing not just albums, but trophies and awards randomly placed on the shelves.

[But Halo’s only twenty and he has as many awards as a veteran singer in their 40s]

[Who said Halo wasn’t lucky with awards?]

[Wasn’t that just Hellygan exaggerating because he didn’t get rookie awards overseas?]

[Why didn’t they give him the rookie award dammit]

And when the camera showed another corner, the chat speed suddenly doubled.

[The merchandise please!!!]

[I left everything I had there]

[Plz bargain I wanna buy]

[I’ll pay whatever amount, why won’t you sell it when I’m willing to be a sucker?]

[I’m the only one without merch T_T]

[No, none of us have it…]

This was because of the neatly arranged concert merchandise that couldn’t be obtained even with money.

As if trying to annoy viewers, even the music box was playing.

While the value of the watch seemed to decrease slightly with the release of the budget version of the Halo watch,

Due to the completely different design between the budget and original versions, and the fact that the original watches were numbered, Halo watches still never appeared for sale anywhere.

While the penthouse layout was being introduced, the boy, having finished his espresso, was rolling a pen in his hand while leaning on the sofa with a notebook on his knee.

Though it seemed ordinary, people who knew the boy’s true nature watched with bated breath.

While the turntable still spun playing old pop music, the boy touched the guitar on the floor with a concentrated expression as if he couldn’t hear anything.

How much time had passed?

The turntable clicked and stopped.

At that moment, the boy started humming.

Just like in the old ‘Rendezvous’ program. Bathed in sunlight, the boy seemed to shine with his song.

“Wow…”

Something comes out of nothing, huh.

The office worker put down his pig feet and watched the boy. The boy’s humming continued, soft but long.

Though he didn’t know much about music, the syncopated rhythm was pleasant to listen to while being sweet without getting boring. The chat was already going crazy with positive reactions.

‘Is this the concept for the next album?’

Just as he thought that.

The boy muttered,

“This is terrible.”

Then he roughly tore the paper, rolled it up, and threw it into the corner.

Pfft-

The office worker snorted beer through his nose, and incomprehensible reactions followed.

[What?]

[Why throw it away?]

[Terrible?]

[Did he just throw away that song?]

And this wasn’t just a one-time thing.

[Wow this one’s really amazing]

[????]

[Why? It’s good though?]

Soon people could understand.

Those things gathered in the corner, what they thought was trash.

They were all practice pieces that they had thought were good. The people who had initially complained about him not cleaning and being messy suddenly changed their tune and started spamming chat begging for just one piece.

[So those were practice songs?]

[There’s gold rolling around in that house.]

Their words would never reach the boy.

[No]

[Please don’t throw them away]

[Please make an album with all the practice songs T_T]

[Someone please tell him they’re good]

As fans continued to wail,

Someone left a comment.

[You know what’s really amazing? He just threw away like five songs in thirty minutes damn this must be what talent gap means the melodies just keep flowing endlessly that’s not supposed to be so easy…]

“Professor.”

Professor Ma pressed his tired eyes.

Then pressed the play button once more.

“…I think you should listen to this.”

Professor Ma looked up.

A graduate student was calling him with somewhat of a crazed expression.

“What is it?”

“Um… There’s a sound that seems too good to throw away. But I’m not sure what to do with it…”

Despite knowing Professor Ma’s preference for direct, precise speech.

The graduate student was unusually rambling.

Professor Ma checked the time.

Night, well past dinner time.

He thought they must be tired.

Then he looked around.

Everyone had worn-out expressions, blinking their eyes at this momentary incident.

“Let’s end here for today.”

Professor Ma Taeho made a reasonable decision.

“You’ve all worked hard, and since I used your weekend, you can rest from this project until Wednesday.”

“Professor, then what about the project-“

“School starts soon, so let’s say you’re preparing for classes.”

“! Yes, understood.”

The graduate students looked at each other wondering ‘What’s gotten into him?’ ‘Don’t know.’ but dutifully nodded their heads.

“Professor, then this-“

Other graduate students gave looks saying ‘What’s wrong with that person!’ The graduate student insisting on listening to the recording file until the end must have gone crazy. Why risk the professor changing his mind.

“Play it once.”

Seeing the attitude that wouldn’t leave until he listened, the professor nodded.

Not wanting to reenact a famous scene from La Boum with the professor, the graduate student connected the bluetooth to the speaker.

“I-I’ll play it.”

No one listened to his words meaningfully. They were tired, and the desire to go home and throw themselves on their cozy beds was strong.

Besides, no matter how well it was recorded, it was all familiar sounds.

So, Assistant Ahn didn’t think much of it when he first heard the wind sound.

He was just curious how long they would have to listen to this.

So when water drops followed with a pitter-patter, he wondered if someone had stupidly failed to cut the sound.

This isn’t bad either.

The wind sound came back, and other sounds started mixing in.

Assistant Ahn started spacing out around this point.

“Ah…!”

That’s when it happened. One person next to him tried to shout but covered their mouth, and the person on the other side widened their eyes. Then the two started whispering.

Why are they acting like this?

Assistant Ahn whispered “Why?”

Not wanting to disturb Professor Ma who had his eyes closed by now.

“Hyung, can’t you hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“The music, can’t you hear it?”

Assistant Ahn tilted his head at first.

He wondered what music they were talking about. We’re listening to collected sounds.

However, he too soon heard it.

Natural sounds became like instruments, and they interlocked to become music.

Cold winter.

The wind boomed like a drum shaking the earth, and the rustling sounds were like someone’s whispers, or perhaps the wind. Whoosh.

And finally.

Everything in the world rose up and sang together.

Truly, music was there.

“What is this…”

A shiver ran through him, raising goosebumps on his arms.

“Who made this?”

Assistant Ahn asked the graduate student.

“Isn’t this a wrong file?”

He wondered if it was a file composed with natural sounds instead of digital sounds.

“It’s a file recorded today.”

“What?”

“Today?”

“By whom?”

Questions followed the graduate student’s answer. But before the next answer came, they realized who had accompanied them today.

“Ah… No way.”

There were two new companions added today.

One was Professor Ma’s favorite student, and the other was a celebrity known to most of the world.

They knew there could only be one person who could record like this. After all, there was only one person who moved busily to capture so many sounds.

“This is what a genius really is.”

Someone’s voice echoed bitterly.

While everyone here had been called a ‘genius’ before, no one had ever shown what a ‘genius’ really was until now.

While some marveled, some felt bitter, and some didn’t believe, Assistant Ahn was watching the professor’s expression.

The professor, with his eyes closed without saying anything, wore an expression Assistant Ahn had never seen before. He couldn’t help but understand what that meant.

Again, everyone here had been called a ‘genius’, and even if not real ‘geniuses’, they were talented students chosen by Professor Ma.

These elites, equipped with effort, talent, and perception, felt they could finally understand what the professor had been saying all along.

‘I want to capture the sounds we’re missing while our eyes are open.’

On the same day.

In the same place, but hearing different sounds.

Sounds that everyone had their eyes open to but couldn’t hear.

This is the sound of a stream.

This is the sound of wind.

He couldn’t feel more foolish for not understanding the intention at all, checking what he had recorded and telling the professor this and that.

“Professor…”

Assistant Ahn couldn’t continue and lowered his head.

That’s when Professor Ma slowly opened his eyes.

For some reason, his students were hanging their heads like criminals.

Finally realizing that the ‘them’ the professor spoke of wasn’t simply referring to disabled children or underprivileged children, thinking of themselves as fools.

“You weren’t wrong.”

The students raised their heads at Professor Ma’s words.

“You did your best to collect materials for making ‘auditory teaching materials.'”

“Certainly, the sounds you collected will become nourishment for auditory teaching materials.”

The students before him had accurately grasped the examiner’s intention and gave the best answer they could. They weren’t wrong, and

“If this were an exam question, you would have received an A.”

After sending his students home, Professor Ma opened the window. The cold air pushed away his fatigue.

He could see the students heading home through the window.

Whether his words had encouraged them, or they were just happy to go home, their steps didn’t look heavy. That was enough.

Not that Professor Ma had lied to them. He wasn’t the type to tell white lies for someone’s sake, rather he was closer to being harsh with capable children.

So his words to them were certainly true.

They weren’t wrong, and they tried to understand the examiner’s intention.

They had focused on the ‘category needing auditory teaching materials’ as ‘underprivileged children with limited auditory experience.’

Actually, the government project was heading in the same direction, and the statement ‘there’s no need to focus only on such children’ hadn’t played a significant role.

They certainly weren’t wrong.

They were just different.

Their categories.

The impressive boy simply didn’t need to focus only on ‘underprivileged children with limited auditory experience.’

Because it wasn’t only ‘underprivileged children with limited auditory experience’ who couldn’t hear the sounds he heard.

He alone heard sounds that no one else could hear.

Someone who could see what no one else could see.

People called such things genius.

The professor pondered while listening again to the ‘sound’ the boy had brought in.

This, which seemed too precious to use just as auditory teaching material,

This, which he didn’t know how to define to include in auditory teaching materials, how could it be used.

The night deepened.