Episode 29. Busking
The day of her thrilling club performance with Chris Jerry.
She had been surrounded by people on the floor and received passionate cheers and praise.
She thought it was only a dream and she had enjoyed it wildly.
But for some reason, that dream showed no sign of ending.
Even though she had already realized it was reality, she kept repeating, “This is a dream!”
And began escaping from reality.
That was only natural.
The sudden flood of attention was far too overwhelming.
Chris Jerry asked her to come to Australia with him, and the “KOS” club even asked her to work there exclusively.
The club community she had only lurked in was plastered with post titles that included the word “Daun.”
She could not simply be happy about it.
Because that performance that day had not been hers alone.
Later, she had controlled things on her own, but the stage itself had only been possible because “Rabbit Uncle” was there.
After that, she recalled that feeling and DJ’ed solo a few times at clubs in Hongdae. She also began to be recognized purely as a DJ.
What still left her dazed was this:
Even when she mixed however she wanted and went wild, people praised her no matter what.
‘Am I doing well?’
She could not accept how completely people’s reactions had changed in only a few days.
‘Become famous first. Then even if you take a dump, people will go wild for it.’
Wasn’t there a saying like that?
If this was only possible because she was riding on that fame, then this was a false skill.
Thinking she might be able to find Rabbit Uncle, she even met with the security team leader at “KOS,” but he absolutely refused to tell her, saying it was customer privacy.
Grasping at straws, she tried somehow to contact C2K, whom she had shoved away that day, but only rumors spread that he had gone into hiding too.
She gave up and just as she decided to simply accept her current fame.
She never imagined she would meet him like this.
After asking the little kid, it became clear that the owner of this mask was among the people currently meeting her grandfather.
It was information she only managed to get after promising to eat something called “Colpop” (popcorn chicken) together in front of an elementary school later.
Not bad.
The kid knew how to make a deal.
After taking a deep breath, she flung open the chicken shop door.
Daun strode forward energetically toward the adults, but the atmosphere was so heavy that she could not easily speak. She sat beside her grandfather.
“Ah. Let me introduce her again. She’s my granddaughter.”
“Hello.”
“Wow. She doesn’t look like you, mister.”
“Right. That’s a relief.”
“She’s really pretty.”
“Shut up, you brats!”
Daun met the eyes of each of the men sitting in front of her.
Then, without a word, she placed two masks on the table.
When she looked at them again, one man with a bright smile lifted two fingers on each hand, placed them beside his head, and wiggled them.
“Ah…”
That bright smile that did not suit his age.
All the distress she had gone through over the past few days came rushing in at once, and her lips began to tremble first.
There was so much she wanted to say, but her mouth would not open.
The thing she wanted to say most was.
“Th… thank you for teaching me.”
When she lowered her head.
Big, fat tears fell one after another.
“You bastard! What did you do to my granddaughter!”
Her grandfather sprang to his feet as if having a fit.
“Ah… How could there be a connection like this…”
Because her grandfather made such a fuss, a commotion broke out for a while. But Daun explained everything from beginning to end, and things soon calmed down.
“Mister, your temper is still exactly the same.”
“Anyway, it’s a shame. That building is going to disappear…”
“Right… Is there really no way at all?”
“Well, there are some absurd cases, but…”
A brief explanation followed about cases around Hongdae, Hapjeong, and Sangsu, and Daun slammed both hands on the table.
“Then… we just have to make people look for it, right?”
“That’s right. But how could that be easy?”
Daun lifted her chin.
“Grandpa, you don’t know how famous your granddaughter is right now, do you?”
“I told you, I know. The adults are talking right now…”
“Hey! I’m saying there’s a way!”
The adults’ gazes turned toward Daun.
Once everyone’s eyes gathered on her.
Daun crossed her arms and lifted her chin.
“You know ‘Roa,’ who used to practice in that building, right?”
“Mm… That mumbling hip-hop kid?”
“Yeah. I’m going to collaborate with him soon.”
“Uh… cola?”
“I said we’re going to perform together.”
“Yeah. Right. But didn’t that guy become incredibly famous? Why would he… with you…”
“Ah! I’m famous too!”
“Anyway…”
“We’ll do that! In that neighborhood.”
“Huh?”
“We were going to do it guerrilla-style anyway, so if we leak the location roughly, at least a few hundred people will gather.”
Grandpa Ju Seongdol narrowed his eyes.
Even if she was his granddaughter.
That was a bit of an exaggeration.
“Sure, sure.”
Daun lightly ignored him and turned her head toward the middle-aged men she had met again after so long.
“So from now on, they’ll harass the building with things like fire inspections and whatnot. It probably won’t last a few months.”
“Ah! Grandpa!”
Daun hit the table again.
“Mister, I think we can try doing what your granddaughter said. We’re here too.”
“Hm?”
“It won’t be something that works after gathering people once or twice. People will have to keep coming, and to make the neighborhood like that, it needs to become pretty lively.”
“I suppose so.”
“We’ll make it lively for you.”
“Ah…”
They had aged.
But if it was the people sitting in front of him, it felt like they really could do it.
Rabbit Uncle smiled brightly as he looked at Daun.
“But there’s something we need to make sure of first…”
Jinhyeok turned his head and stared straight into Ju Seongdol’s eyes.
“That development, isn’t it good for you, mister? You own a lot of land too, don’t you?”
“Well… if we’re talking monetary value…”
“If your desire to protect it even while giving up that value is sincere, then we’ll move too.”
Grandpa Ju Seongdol understood exactly what those words meant.
“You’re sincere, right?”
Jinhyeok smiled brightly.
As if he would understand no matter what answer came out.
That smile was almost like an absolution.
It made Ju Seongdol hesitate even more.
Until now, he had said he would protect it.
That he could not pretend not to see the people who had to leave.
That even though it was old.
He wanted to stop the neighborhood, where their years had soaked in, from disappearing.
He had continued saying those things.
But perhaps, deep inside, he had already given up, thinking there was nothing to be done.
The process of putting his head together with the lawyer might have been self-justification to confirm that there was nothing he could do.
And he had also calculated.
If they raised a large ten-story commercial building in the center of the apartments, how much of a loan would he need to take out, how much profit would come in, how would the compensation be calculated…
Because he was human, he could not ignore a huge profit that rolled in on its own.
Although, he might have been “pretending” to think of the merchants who would struggle and the friends who had grown old with him.
Because he already knew there was nothing that could be done.
The kid he had met again after so long looked straight at him with a bright smile, as if seeing through what was inside him.
How was he supposed to answer?
Perhaps.
When he thought that his answer now might actually change government policy.
He could not easily open his mouth.
It was pathetic.
But he, too, was an unavoidable materialist.
“No! What do you take my grandfather for!”
His granddaughter’s voice came suddenly.
“My dad and mom don’t care about Grandpa’s property either, okay? He doesn’t have much time left to live… Ah. I take that back. Please live a long, healthy life, Grandpa.”
Daun nodded slightly toward Ju Seongdol and raised the corners of her mouth.
“My grandfather! He already lacks nothing, so he’s not someone who would get greedy for more, okay? I don’t want that neighborhood to be pushed away! Even if everything changes, isn’t it okay for at least one place to stubbornly hold out?”
“Uh… Daun…”
“Right? Grandpa?”
“Hm?”
“You live every day for the joy of looking at Grandma Hong outside the window. If everything around you gets blocked off by apartments, you might get sick and end up lying in bed.”
“Th… that… words can become seeds…”
“Ah. I take back the getting sick part. Anyway! My grandfather loves that neighborhood so much! If even the trees on that hill get bulldozed, where are the old folks supposed to gather?”
At his granddaughter’s unstoppable words.
Grandpa Ju Seongdol’s eyes went blank.
He had only thought of persuading his father and turning their home into profit.
But his granddaughter, one generation removed was trying to protect an old man’s years while giving up a profit that might even have benefited her someday.
Grandpa Ju Seongdol laughed hollowly.
“All right. If there’s something we can do, let’s try it.”
The middle-aged men smiled brightly, and Daun clenched her fist.
The white-haired head shook from side to side.
“Um… when I pushed you off the railing back then, I thought it was a dream…”
“Hm? No, no. If it weren’t for you, miss, I would’ve been too scared to jump.”
“Anyway! I’m sorry!”
“I said it’s fine. Thanks to you, I got over the final wall. If anything, I’m grateful.”
Shaggy hair, dark stubble, a chicken shop vest.
And a clear smile that did not feel out of place at all.
The C2K she met face-to-face looked truly simple and down-to-earth, and he was a good person.
As expected, internet gossip rags were not worth trusting.
“Ah. Rabbit Uncle!”
“Yes.”
“Um… could you watch me DJing these days, just once? I’m trying to keep the feeling from that day alive, but… I don’t know if I’m doing well…”
Jinhyeok smiled brightly.
“Are you having fun?”
“Huh? Ah. I’m having fun.”
“Do the people listening look like they’re having fun too?”
“Yes. They do seem excited, but… I don’t know if that’s because of my mixing or because of my fame…”
Daun trailed off in an unconfident voice.
“Fame is skill too. They were already going to have fun, but they have even more fun because you’re famous.”
“Huh?”
“You can have confidence. That day, I didn’t do much. In the end, because you were on that stage, people got even more excited. The mood came alive more because they saw a pretty goddess instead of a man wearing a rabbit mask.”
“Uh…”
Rabbit Uncle interpreted the “appearance-related part” that Daun had been most wary of in a different way.
“Looks are skill too, and fame is skill too. On top of that, since you were properly radiating heat, they were even more excited.”
Strength entered Daun’s hands.
“Believe in yourself more. When I listened that day, you understood youth better than I did.”
At his brightly smiling face, Daun could no longer object.
“We’re going to perform on the same street anyway.”
Rabbit Uncle raised his fist.
“When that happens, let’s listen to each other.”
Daun raised her fist in response.
“Then! I’ll make the plan!”
“Good. I’m looking forward to it. I wonder what kind of stage will be created.”
“Thank you for today, mister!”
Before Daun got into the passenger seat, she bowed her head. Then the Rolls-Royce door clunked open, and the little kid got out.
“Noona, you know, right? I’ll call you.”
His words were cheeky, but his smile was pretty cute.
Jinhyeok now understood the deep eyes of the white-haired man.
He must have hesitated.
What he truly wanted, and what he had to do.
Neither one could be the correct answer.
The corners of Jinhyeok’s mouth rose.
The stage was set.
He closed his eyes and pictured that neighborhood.
The buildings packed tightly together, and the men and women chatting warmly between them.
The things that made the man hesitate, even in a situation where anyone would have no choice but to choose profit.
If he had decided he had to protect it, Jinhyeok intended to turn it into a place no one could touch.
“Busking.”
When Jinhyeok opened his eyes and spoke, the gazes of the members, who had each been lost in thought, gathered on him.
“We can’t create performance clubs like Hongdae on that street right now, and we can’t suddenly force a culture that wasn’t there before onto it.”
“That’s true.”
“If a famous band starts performing on the street, people will gather.”
“A famous band?”
“Us.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll have to hurry.”
Jinhyeok looked at the animal masks on the table.
In front of Hongdae.
On the Walking Street, artists busking even on weekdays were pouring out their passion.
They had to report to the district office, and each had a designated area.
The original purpose of live performance had already faded quite a bit.
There were people who simply played MR backing tracks and sang, and there were also dance teams covering dances by famous idols.
In the past, people had gone wild for this free culture, and the surrounding businesses had welcomed the atmosphere.
But because it had become so flooded, the quality of the performances varied wildly, and the busking zones were positioned quite close together. Performers raised their volume as if competing with each other, making people frown.
It was no longer a culture that received only cheers.
Even so, for musicians with low recognition, it was the only way to quickly raise their name recognition.
Moreover, ever since the medium called YouTube appeared, if even one live performance video took off properly, people could become famous in an instant.
The band currently surrounded by the most people in the center was also a case that had suddenly risen because a recent performance video had gone viral.
“Thank you to everyone who came today as well…”
The vocalist’s expression stiffened slightly while he was speaking to the audience.
Because the volume of the dance team performing beside them had suddenly gone up.
In truth, when they had just played their song, their side had raised the volume first.
Perhaps as payback.
As soon as the song ended, the other side had turned up their sound.
The team performing beside them and their own team had the most regular fans on this street.
Because of that, though their genres were completely different, they kept each other in check in ways that were hard to notice.
He exchanged glances with the members.
The next number was supposed to be a calm song.
But it would not suit this atmosphere.
The teammate handling the sound nodded and hard rock that began with rough shouting rang out, as if devouring the volume of the dance team beside them.
A complaint was filed.
The police dispatched from the patrol division gathered the performance teams, explained the situation, and showed them the measurement screen saying they had exceeded the appropriate decibel level.
Because this had happened several times before, the procedure moved quickly. The police left after only telling them roughly to be careful.
For a moment.
The center, which should have been the loudest place, fell into a lull.
In the meantime, people had scattered in all directions.
“Hey. Should we call it a day?”
“Whew… We still have about thirty minutes left… Just two more songs…”
The vocalist, who had been talking to his teammate, turned his head.
“Huh? Isn’t that side not a busking zone?”
There were clearly chairs placed there, and people were gathered around a narrow section where equipment could not be set up.
“Well, maybe they’re doing magic or something.”
“No. Wait, that’s singing.”
“Hm?”
His teammate also tilted his head and turned.
“Let’s go see.”
There were too many people gathered for them to simply ignore it.
He became curious about the identity of the people who had gathered an even bigger audience than they had.
He climbed onto a flowerbed and craned his head out.
And confirmed the main characters receiving so much attention.
A snare drum with a single cymbal, two people holding acoustic guitars, and the keyboard was not even connected to an amp. It was being played through its own built-in speakers.
Without even a microphone…
At the raw voice coming out…
His eyes widened without him realizing it.
Queen.
They were songs so familiar that they had even grown tiresome, songs they did not particularly cover anymore.
But the deeply moving voice of the rabbit mask was creating a new song he had never heard anywhere before.
Clearly, it should have been a small sound.
But that resonance reached all the way here.
Goosebumps rose all over his body.
T/N: So MC’s voice has the Freddie Mercury quality?! Oohhhh
Leave a Reply