The Road to Glory Chapter 223 - [Side Story] Chapter 25. Mozart's Game

Chirp chirp.

On a quiet night where grasshopper sounds occasionally echo.

Rustle. Someone who couldn’t sleep tossed and turned in their blanket before slowly getting up.

Getting up to drink some water, they glanced at the boy sleeping quietly without a single movement and thought.

How nice it is to be young.

When I was young, I used to sleep so well, but as I got older, I became sensitive to small sounds and seemed to go to the bathroom more often.

Despite the camera, he scratched his belly and then noticed the absence of another person.

Did they go to the bathroom?

I think I didn’t see them around this time yesterday either.

He didn’t think much of it until then.

Coming out to the hallway slowly so as not to wake the soundly sleeping boy, he was startled by a white foot caught on the doorstep.

At first, he thought it was a severed foot.

But when he heard a snoring sound, he soon realized what it was.

“…”

He looked at her with a disgruntled face.

Snooore-

She was supposed to be sleeping inside the room, but her pillow was by the closet, her blanket was stuffed in the corner, and Lee Sora was sleeping with one foot stretched out into the hallway.

“She said she couldn’t sleep without a bed.”

Snooore.

She was sleeping while snoring.

Kwon Jaeik clicked his tongue.

He thought the door had been closed when they went to sleep, but he wasn’t sure why it was open.

Is this how actresses sleep?

Lee Sora’s fans used to say she would sleep like Snow White, but if Snow White had sleeping habits like this, the prince probably wouldn’t have found her.

“Her face is going to get twisted.”

Kwon Jaeik lifted her foot and put it back inside the room, then picked up the blanket and pillow to cover her.

As she continued snoring without waking up, Kwon Jaeik snorted and turned away. He glanced at the camera near the refrigerator and took out some water.

Kwon Jaeik, who was about to go back to sleep without much thought, paused.

Just now outside…

Kwon Jaeik doubted his eyes and put on the slippers placed on the stepping stone.

“Jeongmin, what are you doing?”

“Ah. Senior. You’re not sleeping?”

“Just woke up briefly to drink some water. What are you doing here? Not sleeping?”

Kwon Jaeik, with his hands in his loose pants, approached Lee Jeongmin who was sitting on the wooden bench. Why was someone who usually lived such a proper lifestyle sitting alone on a bench in the dim dawn?

“I just woke up for a bit too.”

“You must be the type who’s sensitive to sleeping environments?”

Unlike someone else.

Lee Jeongmin laughed quietly at those words that slipped out.

“Is Sora-noona out again?”

“Did she do this yesterday too?”

“…No, just today.”

He tried to keep the secret belatedly, but it didn’t work.

Kwon Jaeik soon yawned.

“Go inside and sleep.”

“Aren’t you going in?”

“I’ll go in after staying here a bit longer.”

Kwon Jaeik looked at Lee Jeongmin for a moment.

Saying that he saw Lee Sora’s sleeping habits yesterday meant that he was awake at the same time, but.

Kwon Jaeik recalled how everyone had been cleaning and walking around various parts of the village all day. While everyone else had fallen asleep from exhaustion, the fact that he alone was awake made him think it might not just be about sleeping conditions.

He also simultaneously thought that it wasn’t his place to dig into this.

It wasn’t his business, and whatever it was, it was someone else’s matter.

Kwon Jaeik was about to just let it go and head inside when he stopped, roughly ran his hand through his hair, and plopped down on the wooden bench.

“?”

“I can’t sleep either.”

When innocent eyes landed on him, Kwon Jaeik made an excuse.

Silence descended.

Kwon Jaeik glanced at Lee Jeongmin and opened his mouth.

“Heetae.”

“…!”

“What are you thinking about so much?”

With that one line, it felt like they were back to filming ‘From Today On’.

Lee Jeongmin, who was startled at first, smiled faintly when he realized his senior was joking.

“Just.”

“Just-?”

He caught the end of the word like a delinquent.

Lee Jeongmin, taking on the role of Heetae, said,

“Just thinking about what I did today.”

“What did you do today?”

“…Teacher Kwon, you’ve really become a teacher now.”

“Have I? Well, I’m doing pretty well at this point, right? Built up a lot of patience too.”

Kwon Jaeik wiggled his fingers.

It was like he was fiddling with a Zippo lighter.

“So what did you do today?”

“I was thinking about Haeil’s class.”

“Ah.”

“That dice game.”

Kwon Jaeik, instantly dropping out of character, sighed.

When the dice game was mentioned, Kwon Jaeik naturally thought of Monopoly or Yacht Dice. But the dice game that Halo showed…

“I’m still not sure if that can be called a dice game.”

Lee Jeongmin laughed at those words.

Halo’s first class as the music teacher at Baegun Elementary School.

They recalled Halo’s music class from twelve hours ago.

:

“Today, we’re going to try Mozart’s Musical Dice Game.”

The only teacher at Baegun Elementary School, who had entered the class together, spoke up amid the chaotic classroom. Six bright-eyed children and the rest of the adults looked back and forth between the teacher and the boy.

“Teacher Roh Haeil will help with the class.”

Halo, who had been having a staring contest with the children, nodded.

“The great musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was famous as a musical genius, and you’ve probably heard some music that Teacher Mozart made. How do you think he made his music?”

Today’s lesson topic was Mozart and the history of music,

And to capture the children’s attention, they brought Mozart’s dice game.

The children’s eyes lit up at the word ‘game’.

The children started paying attention, occasionally glancing at the adults and cameras observing from behind.

“Dice game?”

“Are we going to play?”

“You’ve all played with dice before, right? Mozart did too. They say he composed music while playing(?) with dice.”

When they met on the first day and discussed the lesson topic, Halo found ‘Mozart’s Musical Dice Game’ interesting.

-Composing with dice…

-Couldn’t you do it too, Halo-ssi?

The teacher joked with Halo, who was famous as a musical genius.

Of course, they knew this was impossible.

When there was no response and he seemed to be thinking seriously, the teacher quickly added.

-I’m kidding.

-Let’s use this for the class. I think the children will like it too. Then, I’ll prepare the dice and the lesson, could you prepare Mozart’s dice game, Halo-ssi?

-Yes. I’ll do that.

Halo soon smiled and readily agreed.

Since Mozart’s dice game is available on the internet and anyone can find it with a search, it shouldn’t be too difficult a request.

“Shall we try it then?”

Mozart’s dice game is literally set up to play minuets and trios of 16 bars with only numbers according to the dice numbers.

The 16-bar minuet has 11 musical patterns per bar,

And the 16-bar trio has 6 musical patterns per bar.

Accordingly, you create a minuet table with 16 rows and 11 columns, totaling 176 bars, throw two dice simultaneously and use their sum to select one bar at a time to choose 16 bars for the minuet, then throw one die to select 16 bars for the trio, and play it in 3/4 time – this is Mozart’s dice game, or ‘aleatorik’.

Besides Mozart, various musicians like Joseph Haydn composed using aleatorik. However, Mozart’s dice game is the most famous.

The teacher gathered the desks and placed the number table in the middle, and the children and adults gathered around.

“Let me show you an example.”

The teacher rolled the dice.

The first sum of dice was 10.

And rolled again, the next was 4.

“So according to this table, it’s numbers 98, 95, 37… Halo-ssi, could you play it?”

“Ah, I didn’t write down the numbers.”

“?”

Why would there be numbers to write down? You just input the numbers and it should create itself.

While the teacher was puzzled, Halo thought for a moment and soon picked up the guitar.

Music was created where his hands passed.

“Wow!”

The children exclaimed in amazement.

“Then if we use this and this?”

“Kids, you need to roll the dice first.”

While saying that, the teacher also marveled together.

He prepared by listening to it all to play it directly.

“Try it yourselves.”

Halo put down the sketchbook he had brought along with his guitar case.

Since stationery, sports equipment like soccer balls, and essential instruments like pianos had all been brought to Baegun Island before filming, everyone could participate.

“I stopped writing because it was troublesome, but there are still 100 bars.”

“How do you read this?”

“You can’t read this? Why?”

Halo, who was trying to slip away by letting the children play directly, asked in shock.

“Oh my, did you write all this?”

The teacher exclaimed while flipping through the sketchbook.

Each page had neat staff lines with nine bars each drawn on it.

The camera approached to film it.

“So that’s what you were doing staying in your room all day yesterday.”

“You worked hard.”

Everyone marveled at the effort put into copying Mozart’s score.

That’s when Writer Do Minhee tilted her head.

‘Something’s different? Was it originally like this?’

She had looked up Mozart’s dice game the day before when she heard they would be doing it.

She was sure she had picked the same numbers, but somehow a different sound came out.

The melody was good, but it was hard to see it as a ‘minuet’, a 17th-century dance piece, and instead felt more like contemporary pop.

‘Mozart’s music sounds just like pop.’

Was Mozart’s music originally like pop?

Classical master and pop seemed quite mismatched.

“Who wants to roll the dice?”

“Me! Me!”

“Everyone can do it. Shall we make a song together?”

The children who had seen one example got excited and threw the dice.

Since they had to decide 32 bars in total, they could throw the dice 32 times.

“Teachers should join too.”

Those who were flipping through the sketchbook in amazement also threw the dice.

And those numbers came out.

The children transferred the bars from the sketchbook to the blackboard with expectant faces.

Of course, the 100 bars and the bars left unwritten due to arm fatigue were left blank.

Halo looked at the numbers transferred to the blackboard and picked up his guitar.

And began playing the music he had diligently created yesterday.

Actually, he hadn’t completed the dice game board.

He didn’t even write after 100 bars because his arm hurt, and left some blank. This was because today’s me would do better than yesterday’s me.

Leaving spaces for his favorite improvisation, a somewhat satisfying piece of music was completed.

A cheerful melody with a fast tempo preserved to give the feeling of a minuet – a dance piece for dance of the same name.

And when he added techniques and humming here and there, everyone was busy marveling.

The dice game was good for playing multiple times.

Everyone suggested making it the school bell sound, and some called it someone’s theme song.

When this was repeated several times, Writer Do Minhee finally realized something was odd.

Finding it strange, she had input the same numbers into the app, but a different song came out.

Then what was this song?

Writer Do Minhee looked at the sheet music written in Halo’s handwriting in the sketchbook and suddenly got goosebumps.

No way?

It can’t be.

Could this be made in just one day?

Come to think of it, there’s no way he would have inefficiently copied over sheet music available on the internet.

Then-.

“Halo-ssi, did you make this yourself?”

Well, if he wrote it himself, would someone else have written it?

While everyone wondered why the writer was asking such a question, Halo answered.

“It’s a bit crude, isn’t it? I think I need to fix some parts.”

Looks like some parts I didn’t make properly are showing.

Actually, there are some rough parts I can see now too.

Halo thought he could still make and polish it enough during filming.

Halo, who already wanted to fix some of the sheet music written in the sketchbook, smiled faintly without noticing the gazes gradually turning to shock.

“But. It’s fun trying it for the first time.”

“Mozart’s game.”

“!”

#

It wasn’t Mozart’s dice game, but Halo’s dice game.

After that, everyone backed away from the sketchbook with rustling sounds.

They looked at it as if handling a relic, afraid they might damage it.

Would this sketchbook with its childish cover be preserved in a glass case in the distant future?

As a dice game made by a great musician.

Such a great sketchbook, Halo was roughly correcting with a pen because he wasn’t satisfied with it.

“Let’s play more dice game, teacher!”

“Play by yourselves.”

“Let’s play the dice game!”

The children didn’t know the value of this performance, but they enjoyed the music that kept coming out like a story pouch.

“Go away.”

“Don’t wanna!”

“Then teacher, teach us!”

And a peer who originally seems uninterested but does everything while acting annoyed is usually the best.

Despite playing soccer together and playing hard with them,

Kwon Jaeik tasted the bitterness of society.

While others marveled at Halo’s performance,

He was just envious of the boy who was popular with children.

“I can, I can sing my songs too.”

“Stop it. You’ll give the kids seizures. And we’ll get complaints from parents.”

“Why?”

“Do you know how many F’s are in your songs?”

“I didn’t use English though.”

“That’s even more problematic.”

They tell him to come back with hip-hop that he can play for his nephew next time.

Kwon Jaeik, who had made his own music regardless of what fans said, seriously considered it.

And coming back.

On the wooden bench at 3 AM when everyone was asleep.

“Haeil-ssi is really amazing.”

“It’s not my style anyway.”

While Lee Jeongmin marveled at Halo’s performance, Kwon Jaeik thought he couldn’t do it even if he had such talent. The number table alone made him dizzy, and it was just bothersome.

He didn’t plan to put that much energy into filming.

“So are you still not sleepy, Heetae? You should sleep soon to help with village work tomorrow.”

“…Are we still acting?”

“Yep.”

Though he noticed the sleep disorder, he didn’t mention it.

Lee Jeongmin smiled softly at that kindness.

“You go in and sleep first, senior.”

“I guess I should. I’m sleepy.”

Kwon Jaeik stretched and got up from his seat sluggishly.

He paused as he was about to go inside.

And turned briefly to say.

“Jeongmin.”

“Yes, senior.”

“You can relax a bit.”

“!”

Kwon Jaeik casually raised his finger.

Then pointed at himself.

“I’m saying it’s okay to live more carelessly like me.”

“…”

“Well, I’m not forcing you, but you seem too tense. I’m really going in now.”

“Yes, sleep well, senior.”

Kwon Jaeik didn’t mind much.

He understood why Lee Jeongmin, who had lived as a minor role actor for a long time, lived with tension, and as he always said, it was someone else’s business anyway.

But, for something like this, you need someone who really lives carelessly beside you.

Or someone who will shake you up until you have no choice but to relax.

Someone who plays around moderately, goes on trips moderately,

A friend who makes you realize, “Ah, it’s okay to live freely like that.”

Fortunately, there are many grasshoppers here.

He tends to live like a grasshopper too, but there’s an even bigger grasshopper here.

So it should be fine.

Kwon Jaeik went inside thinking it would be alright.

Again, there was a foot sticking out into the hallway and the snoring sound.

And in one corner of the room, the boy sleeping quietly.

Kwon Jaeik lay down and fell asleep.

And the next afternoon.

The grasshopper Kwon Jaeik shouted.

“Kids, shall we work? Let’s do some work.”