The Road to Glory

People often call Korea a barren land for rock music.In reality, the rock market in Korea is not very large and is getting smaller. Over time, due to various controversies, rock stars and rock bands have had less exposure on broadcasts. Instead of rock, dance music represented by K-pop has been accepted as mainstream in the Korean popular music scene.However, it cannot be said that rock is completely dead, as outstanding vocalists from Hwang Ryongpil to Sin Joohyeok were still holding onto rock in Korea.They still released albums, and their albums frequently appeared on music charts. In addition, other bands besides them were continuously knocking on the doors of terrestrial TV and NuTube, and there were still many passionate rock bands in the indie scene.That was about the extent of it.This was Korean rock up until now.The established artists existed, but it was their popularity, not rock’s popularity. As the power of the established artists gradually weakened, rock was being accepted as a genre that might disappear someday.At that time, one name became known to the world.An iconic figure who revived the past glory of Britpop and heralded the revival of ‘rock’.Occasionally speculated to be a rock star from the past who was thought to be dead, ‘he’ appeared in the world, and ‘his’ music swept from Europe across the Atlantic to North America, then across the Pacific to Asia.The moment he showed his influence on the Korean music charts, many people recognized the existence of ‘rock’.They realized it had been tenaciously maintaining its vitality somewhere.And right on cue, a musical that had been in development for several years accelerated its production.It was an original musical [Rock] that dealt with the story of a youth and a rock band in the 1960s, known as the dawn of Korean rock.The script had been completed long ago, but as interest in rock died in Korea, the musical [Rock], unable to find investors, might have ended at the planning stage like many other original musical scripts.However, when ‘HALO’ took over the Korean music charts, everything changed.Investors realized that the rock market was still alive and promised production support. But they wanted the musical to be produced as quickly as possible.Right at this time.At this time when ‘HALO’ had revived rock and public interest in rock in Korea had been revived.The basic plans for the scenario, direction of the work, and production scale had already been established, and now the roles of the key figures who would lead the work were important.As it was a ‘musical’ rather than a ‘play’.The roles of the main staff such as composers, lyricists, directors, and further, music directors and choreographers.“This musical is a story about the passion and struggle of a Korean rock band in the 1960s.”Tap tap tap.

Director Park Jeongho carefully composed the sentence while tapping on the keyboard.“Director, who are you writing to so meticulously?”“There is. A friend I cherish.”“Why don’t you just contact them by phone-““I need to show sincerity. Sincerity.”“Well, it’s probably not to Hwang Ryongpil-ssi.”“I’ve already sent it to Teacher Hwang Ryongpil.”“You must have gotten an okay from Sin Joohyeok too, so isn’t it all done now?”Director Park Jeongho ignored the assistant director’s words and continued typing rapidly.He understood the mindset of wanting to get advice from actual rock stars for a musical about a rock band. He also thought that getting songs from them – although they might need to be rearranged to fit the musical – would be quite good marketing. But.“Label H? Isn’t this his agency? Specifically, an independent label.”“You know well.”This didn’t make sense.Especially since he already knew the singer belonging to this label.“Isn’t Roh Haeil a bit lacking in experience? I understand he’s talented, but he’s not even a rocker. Popular music and musical music are quite different…”“…”“Moreover, I wonder if Roh Haeil is of a class that Director needs to care about so much.”They understand that Roh Haeil is trendy now, eating up the current music chart at #1, but still, in terms of years of experience or seniority, they couldn’t understand if he was worth Director Park Jeongho sending such a detailed email.“Moonju.”“Yes, Director.”“You’re saying that because you haven’t seen it.”“What haven’t I seen?”Suddenly, the director’s hands slowed down.An old memory comes to him.Director Park had seen many people called geniuses until now, but among all those people, there was only one who seemed like a real genius.The day when Heetae’s Reprise from the drama ‘From Today On’ first sounded in the world.He spoke honestly in the interview, but people believed he was exaggerating. How could that song have been made in less than 10 minutes, they said.Yeah, he wouldn’t have believed it either if someone else had said that.But he saw it, and confirmed it again at ‘Rendezvous’.That Roh Haeil’s genius, that flashing genius that instantly produces unbelievable melodies, was not edited.How could musical music be that different from popular music?If it were, ABBA’s music would never have become numbers in the musical Mamma Mia.And how much musical music do people know as popular music?Memory from Cats, Defying Gravity from Wicked, and so on.The big grain was the same in any music.Director Park Jeongho resumed his rapid typing. Beside him, he could hear the assistant director grumbling.“I still don’t understand. I don’t know if Roh Haeil can make good rock, or if you need to send such a love call.”“Moonju, I’m saying this for your sake, but make a good impression on that kid.”“What? Suddenly?”“He’ll go higher if he just doesn’t cause trouble.”“Well, he’s seventeen now, so he should do well if he just doesn’t cause trouble.”“And who knows? People might come to see the musical because of this name value.”“Oh, come on, Director.”The assistant director snorted and turned his head.The first performance of the musical is expected to be in December at the earliest, or April at the latest. Not much time left, and name value?It must be just talk, but it was absurd.“Even if he has ticket power, it won’t be when we do our musical. Besides, who’s going to come see a rock band musical that Roh Haeil participated in? They’ll come to see the lead actor.”#After sending away Sin Joohyeok who suddenly came asking for producing, Halo was able to find it among the pile of emails when he opened his mail.“It’s here.”The sender ID had Park Jeongho’s name written on it, and the subject line read ‘Korean Original Musical Rock (tentative title)’.The email included a rough outline of the musical and a polite request for participation as a composer.‘Then. Want to work together one more time?’‘I appreciate your words, but right now I have music I want to do.’‘It was just a suggestion, so don’t feel pressured.’The conversation from the filming set came to mind.At that time, he thought they were only talking about drama music, but he heard that the director was active in various fields including drama, film, and musicals.“This musical is a story about the passion and struggle of a Korean rock band in the 1960s.”The phrase that caught his eye.More than passion, struggle, and the rock genre, what caught his eye was none other than the year.Isn’t it a familiar time period?Of course, it would be different from what he knew.This wasn’t his world, nor his country. Still, it was a familiar time.-I was hoping you could produce it.-I would like you to participate as a composer. The details are…Requests came in from two people at the same time.Broadly speaking, they were the same content, and in detail, one was for producing and one was for composing.“I’ve never made musical music before…”Halo put both hands on the back of his head.It was interesting.However.He understood why one side was asking him to produce, but he wasn’t sure why the other side was requesting him to compose for a musical.“Hmm.”Halo recalled his schedule.HALO’s 7th album still has room, and Roh Haeil’s full-length album is planned to take a long time.What he wants right now is intense stimulation.He was originally thinking of going on a trip somewhere-.The corners of his mouth slowly rise.“I can’t resist curiosity.”Halo checked the number written in the email.It’s the same as the one saved in his phone.He was planning to set up a meeting, although he wasn’t going to do the musical right away.#Meanwhile, the heat of TDS ‘The Midday Show’ HALO special is transmitted across the Atlantic. Unintentionally, to an unexpected person, who originally wasn’t interested in even the ‘H’ of ‘The Midday Show’, but was very interested in another ‘h’.[ROH, HALO’s son, highly praised by Belle Morrison]“Is this woman crazy?”A half-smoked pipe falls to the ground with a thud.A large walker steps on it, extinguishing the ember.A piercing on the lip and a small scorpion tattoo on the cheek, Roman numerals engraved on the neck over a leather jacket.SCORPION.Rill, the leader of the brilliant British metal band Scorpion, chews his tongue as he scrolls down his phone display.“She needs to stop. How many sons of The Sun is this? Even a mafia boss wouldn’t have that many sons.”As the screen scrolls down, a video thumbnail appears. Rill, who was about to curse in the comments as usual, paused when he saw a familiar face.“My goodness… Who is this?”Generally, all Asians looked similar to him, but there was one face he uniquely remembered.It seemed to have grown a bit, but this cheeky expression wasn’t easy to forget.“The genius boy?”He remembered the boy who had accurately pointed out his mistake in Trafalgar Square one winter.The guitar playing that boy had shown.Even the cheekiness of rejecting him, when he had never been rejected on any date with a woman.It wasn’t a member recruitment he offered to just anyone, but the expression that answered ‘nope‘ was superimposed on the boy in the video.Kid, you must be regretting it now.Still, he had no intention of giving another chance.Because the Uber had already left.Rill snorted and clicked on the video.“What kind of unknown talk show is this.”Although it was a talk show with considerable ratings, it was a talk show he hadn’t heard of for now.Why would he watch an American talk show when he doesn’t even watch British talk shows? Unless he appeared on it, which he didn’t.The video had cut out all the talk show parts and only had the stage performance.So Rill’s eyes frosted over.What he had seen was a folk guitar performance, but the boy was standing in front of the microphone.He didn’t expect much, but thought he’d give it a listen.Rill’s face, seeing the video for the first time, showed nothing more or less than interest.But at some point, his eyes flew open, and he let out a short exclamation.Then gradually, his head tilted.Finally, at the end of the video.Rill’s expressionless face is reflected on the black screen.Rill dropped his phone on the floor and picked it up again.“Full video. Where’s the full video.”He heard the boy’s singing voice for the first time.All he knew was a clear voice with a thick posh accent.He already knew the boy spoke English well, but he newly confirmed it again.Roh talking about the host Lucy and HALO.He stared at his phone, frozen.The boy singing HALO’s song kept replaying in his head.The word ‘what if’ appears in his mind.It might be a hasty assumption.No, a hasty assumption? Can this be called a hasty assumption? It seems like a fairly reasonable assumption.He might be ruining his life, but he’s not stupid.The day he met the boy.Veil Company, which was strangely quiet.And that old man said he had already contracted with the boy. At that time, he wasn’t very interested in what kind of contract it was.A few weeks later, HALO’s music distribution company became Veil (VEIL). He casually asked the employees, but no one knew anything.If he had come directly, surely someone would have seen him.Caroline, who was in charge, didn’t say anything, and the old man, a fanatic of The Sun, said he hadn’t met him.Of course, he didn’t believe it.There’s no way that old man wouldn’t have gone to see The Sun.However, since no one knew, he thought they must have had a meeting by email or video call for The Sun, who was extremely reluctant to reveal himself or have external meetings.But what if The Sun had come directly to Veil?Rather than this, he needed certainty.‘I need to meet the old man.’But before that.Rill, wiping his sweaty hands on his joker pants, made a call to someone.To the employee in charge of his world tour.“Hey, Watson. You know my Asia tour.”He clearly remembered that the boy had come from Korea.“Add Korea too.”[Suddenly? Hey, you said you weren’t going because you were scared of nuclear weapons. You didn’t even pretend to listen when I said it’s South Korea, not North Korea, and now suddenly why!]“Dude, when did I say I was scared! Stop talking and add the Korea tour.”[No, Rill, where’s the schedule to add? You have to go straight to Japan after three days in China.]“Well, take three days off before and after that. What, have ticket sales started?”[Not yet. Shit, take three days off before and after? Don’t you ever want to tour in Asia again? Why suddenly? You said you didn’t like Korean kids because they don’t buy albums.]“I originally said that country doesn’t even have money to buy albums.”[Hmm, look at you slickly remembering what I said. I thought you hadn’t listened at all.]“What did you say?”[Okay, I’ll try to touch only this tour schedule specially. I can’t remove what’s already been arranged, so adding one day is okay, right?]“One day? Are you crazy? Are you saying don’t even poop and get on the helicopter?”[Then how many days are you asking to add? It can’t be long. You know that too.]“A week.”[Okay, three days. Hanging up]Clicking his tongue at the arbitrarily cut-off call, Rill thought that three days would be enough for now and headed to the corridor. Then, the band members called him.“Rill, where are you going?”“To see the damn old man.”“Sir Veil? No, Rill!”He didn’t have time to think in detail about the members. He grabbed his car keys. Long bull-like breaths extend from his heaving shoulders.“This old man. Lying to me that they’ve never met?”Hi everyone, I've fully translated this series. If you love the series and wanted to binge read until the end, you can go to my Patreon "Shop" page. Instead of buying the advanced chapters one by one, you can buy them in one bulk (with discounted price too)!