T/N: Previously Da-on -> Daun
Episode 28. A Reunion After 25 Years
“Hey! Kim! You’re here?”
Janis waved to Kim Jongtak, the “Korean lesson teacher,” as he entered the studio.
“Mm… Korea is a country that values manners.”
When Kim Jongtak shook his head, Joan, who had been twirling his drumsticks around, sprang to his feet.
Then he bent at the waist.
“Have you arrived, hyungnim!”
“Oh! Joan, five bonus points!”
Joan lifted the corners of his mouth and looked at Janis.
“Jongtak hyungnim is four whole years older than you, Janis. ‘Hey, Kim!’ is rude.”
“Shut up, Joan!”
“I’m two years older than you too. Call me Joan hyungnim.”
Joan said it in a deep voice and lifted his chin.
Janis grabbed the magazine he was holding and threw it at him.
“Jongtak hyungnim.”
“Yeah.”
“That song… was really unusual.”
“Korea’s tradition… Ah. Not tradition. A folk music with a deep history… Uh. Not folk music either… Anyway, you could say it’s a popular music genre that represents Korea.”
“Mm… Is it like American country pop? Can I touch it up a little?”
Janis said this while tapping the tablet with the sheet music drawn on it.
Jongtak was startled.
‘Huh? Is that okay? Trot? Janis is going to?’
“I’ll keep this feeling alive, but it’s too monotonous.”
“Ah… Well, people do make several versions out of one song.”
His song as a rock version?
Whatever it became, it would be a gain for him.
It was a little forced.
But this was the timing to test the waters.
Right now, Janis’s head would be full of that paper-bag band in Korea.
“Janis, I think this recording needs to be done in Korea…”
“Oh!”
When Janis looked around at the members, they nodded as if they had resigned themselves to it.
For Jongtak.
The part he had thought would be the hardest to get past had been settled far too easily, and a slight greed rose in him.
“Um… about our album collaboration this time. Can I release it to the press?”
“Of course! Hyungnim!”
A hearty, immediate answer.
Jongtak’s heart thumped.
A collaboration between the prince of Korean trot and the world-famous rock band Box-43!
It had felt like some kind of joke.
But now that he had received a definite answer, it finally began to feel real.
“You said you’re definitely famous in Korea, right?”
“Didn’t I show you my YouTube views?”
“Ah. I’ll admit that.”
Janis accepted that.
They were not as high as theirs, but Jongtak’s views and subscriber count were higher than most Billboard artists.
“Anyway, when we go to Korea, you’ll let me meet that paper-bag band, right?”
“Of course!”
Jongtak nodded firmly.
He had heard that the company was searching around the Yeongdeungpo area and among musicians.
They had put up a fairly large reward.
Whoever it was, they should be able to find them.
Well, if they couldn’t, he could just make some excuse…
Janis thrust his burning eyes toward him.
Jongtak flinched.
No.
He absolutely had to find them.
Ju Seongdol looked fondly at his granddaughter as she took the cigarettes out of his drawer and tore them to shreds.
‘I can just buy more.’
His granddaughter, whom he was seeing for the first time in a few weeks, was somehow dressed plainly.
The last time he had seen her, she had worn heavy makeup and a short skirt, but today she had on a long skirt that came down to her ankles and cute work boots.
On top of that, her once-heavy makeup had grown lighter too.
“Mom said Grandpa would be upset, so she told me to have dinner with you today. You don’t have plans, right?”
“Huh? Ah… I do have plans, but they’ll be over quickly.”
Ju Seongdol’s daughter-in-law worked in the district office’s Urban Development Division. She had probably heard the news about this neighborhood that had been decided today and sent his granddaughter out of worry.
He had gained a good daughter-in-law.
“But, you know, that thing you do…”
“DJ?”
He looked over his granddaughter’s outfit.
‘To be a DJ, you’re supposed to stand out a little, you know?’
The last time, when her clothes had been too short and he had gently scolded her, she had gotten so fired up.
But today, she had not put on makeup, and her clothes were plain too.
“Yeah! That… did you quit it?”
Ju Seongdol was worried about his granddaughter, who had changed so much while doing that “DJ” thing.
In truth, there was a lot he wanted to say.
But young people had their own culture.
He did not like it, but she seemed so deeply into it.
So he had been supporting her while frowning.
“No! I’m doing really well right now, okay? If you go to Hongdae at night, people recognize me on the street! Your granddaughter!”
“Is… is that so?”
“It’s true! Hongdae club goddess Ju Daun! That’s me!”
“Hmm…”
It was somehow hard to believe.
But if he asked more questions now as if he did not believe her, she might sulk.
“All right. What do you want to eat today?”
“Mm… Jangteo-gukbap at Grandma Hong’s place!”
“Huh? Why don’t we just go somewhere for beef…”
“What? You still haven’t confessed?”
“What confession? At this age!”
“Ha. This is frustrating. There’s even a song, you know! What Does My Age Matter~”
“That’s something you can say when you’re in your fifties or sixties. If you do that past seventy, you’re just being ridiculous!”
“Anyway! Jangteo-gukbap!”
“Tch.”
Daun smiled brightly as she watched her grandfather turn his body toward the window.
Compared to what her mother had been worried about, he seemed to be accepting reality rather calmly.
She stood beside her grandfather and looked out the window.
It was only a six-story building, but in this neighborhood, it was still a fairly tall one.
Across the two-lane road, a traditional market could be seen, and modest buildings stood pressed up against each other.
Her parents, busy as a double-income couple, had often left young Daun with her grandfather. To her, this neighborhood was like her hometown.
In this neighborhood, she had been absolutely safe.
Even if she got lost, even if she fell and cried, her grandfather’s acquaintances had always been there.
When she stood in front of the stationery store staring at junk snacks, someone would come and pay for them for her.
A street that had remained astonishingly unchanged.
Even her own heart ached so much at the thought of this street disappearing.
How must the grandfathers and grandmothers feel?
Her throat tightened without her realizing it.
Over there was Grandpa Choi’s gold and silver shop. Next to it was Grandpa Gong’s electronics shop. Next to that was Grandma Hong’s gukbap restaurant…
“Huh? Grandpa Gong is poking around the gukbap restaurant.”
“What? That damned…”
Daun smiled brightly and glanced at her grandfather.
Ju Seongdol knew it was his granddaughter’s prank and shook his head.
“I told you to confess.”
“Why would I do that for at my age…”
Her grandfather let out a sigh.
Daun looked at him with pity.
Choi Gwangyeop, the representative of Changjo Real Estate Agency, glared at the list on his desk.
It was a list of musicians in Hongdae who wanted to enter the basement of that building.
Grinding his teeth.
He crumpled it up at random and tore it to shreds.
‘No! Sir! How can you do this?’
‘Hm? I’m the building owner, aren’t I? It’s my choice.’
Hadn’t he gone through all that trouble recruiting musicians for him?
In truth.
Even without him, the musicians would have found some way to make contact.
On top of that, hadn’t he even received a fee from the musicians in exchange for letting them hear the track directly?
Well, none of those facts were in his head right now.
Only.
The sneer that last little brat had shown him.
Just thinking of that face made his blood feel like it was flowing backward.
“Damn it! You think I’ll just sit still?”
He was someone who had a firm grip on the network of Hongdae musicians.
Now that some band no one had ever heard of or seen before was going to enter that basement, the title of “holy site” no longer suited it.
He planned to stir up the musicians who hoped to enter that place.
Perhaps, trusting in their youthful hot blood, they might rise up.
“Just you wait and see!”
Choi Gwangyeop scowled hard.
Leave a Reply