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God’s Song - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

Published at 24th of April 2016 04:08:53 PM


Chapter 1

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The birth of a first child usually brings parents boundless joy. This is especially the case in Korean society where the birth of a son gives the mother reassurance and the father a little more happiness than a daughter does. A son means being able to pass on their lineage, and words are insufficient to express how the grandfather and grandmother feel from a grandchild.

Now if a particularly handsome baby is born – why the parents will jump up and down with joy.

However, there are the few parents who think that their first child’s birth signifies nothing short of a disaster.

This was the case with the immature teen who forgot the gravity of pregnancy and the importance of contraceptives. When she finally found out about her pregnancy, unable to tell anyone, she trembled in fear and lost the chance for an abortion; ultimately becoming a single mother.

 

Of course not all single mothers are fools like this young woman. I am just telling you what happened in this one isolated incident.

The only things Jang Jun Hyuk received from his mother being a paper with his date of birth and his name, he was abandoned at an orphanage in Daegu before even having once tasting his mother’s milk.

A nun of the Catholic foundation behind the orphanage looked after baby Jang Jun Hyuk, who rarely cried and was as cute as a kitten, with more love and care than his biological mother ever did or could.

Though it was unfortunate that he was abandoned by his mother, he was blessed with the orphanage’s excellent facilities and the loving care of its nuns.

While it was impossible to know when he was a newborn baby, as he reached an age when he started to toddle and could manage some sort of expression, it was evident that this endearing child was different from the other children.

 

At an age when he should have been playing with dolls or toys, he spent his days touching the mobile dangling from the ceiling. When he reached the age when he should have been playing with his friends, he spent all day listening to hymns on his CD player or to the sound of wind coming from the big tree standing in the yard of the orphanage.

“Jun Hyuk. Let’s play with your brothers. Why are you always alone?” said the head sister almost as if in reprimand.

“I need to be alone to hear the sounds, mom.”

“Sounds?”

“Yes. The sounds.”

“What sounds? The hymns?”

“The hymns are no longer any fun.”

“So what are fun sounds?”

“The sound of trees, the wind, and of my friends playing. Um… I also like the sound of eating. Ha ha.”

It meant that he knew how to train his ears to sounds. The sister suspected that Jun Hyuk may have received a gift from God and wanted to ask him more questions to test this, but was unable to continue due to his following words.

“The best sound is… the sound of crying while sleeping. When one person cries, the older or younger siblings all start to cry as well. The sound of everyone crying together is better than the songs of the cathedral choir. It’s different every single day.”

The head sister realized what Jun Hyuk’s real problem was. Jun Hyuk had never once cried for the parents whose faces he didn’t know as the other children had. And she left it at that.

One day one of the nuns approached the head sister of the orphanage with a concerned expression.
 

One day one of the nuns approached the head sister of the orphanage with a concerned expression.

 

“Head sister. You know Jun Hyuk.”

“Yes. What about Jun Hyuk?”

“Father said that… he behaved strangely during service.”

“Strange behavior? Jun Hyuk? What kind of strange behavior?”

“Well, apparently he kept changing the hymn as he sang it. At first, he thought Jun Hyuk was imitating the choir… but it was as if he was inserting chords….”

“Chords? Well that’s not so strange. That just means Jun Hyuk is a good singer.”

The young sister was surprised by the smile that started creeping on the head sister’s face.

“No… no. That’s not it. I’m saying he changed the hymn completely. The words were the same and the rest was different.”

“Whew. You almost scared me for a moment. Don’t so silly. That’s how kids are. They have a great imagination. There are a lot of kids who change the lyrics when they sing. How is that any different from changing the tune?”

The young sister could not say more because the head sister spoke so nonchalantly while waving her hand. The father had clearly spoken about it as it if were very important and something to be addressed immediately.

The young sister left the office thinking that if it were really a critical issue, the father would speak to the head sister himself. She wouldn’t bother with it any more.

***

The head sister already knew that Jun Hyuk was very different from the other children. An unusual child cannot help but live an unusual life. It was difficult for Jun Hyuk’s environment to be one that would guide his extraordinary talent in a good direction.

Regardless, it was impossible to give Jun Hyuk special treatment. The head sister’s work ethic was that all children needed to be treated equally and she followed this firmly.

For Jun Hyuk…no, for all of the children, the best solution was for them to be adopted into good families.

Fortunately, there was a middle-aged couple who visited occasionally and they cared very much for Jun Hyuk. It was also said that this middle-aged couple didn’t have a child and were planning for an adoption. Although they weren’t rich, they were an ordinary couple financially stable enough to raise a child.

The head sister made up her mind to make the best choice for Jun Hyuk. That was to personally meet the middle-aged couple, ask what their intentions were, and show them what a good choice Jun Hyuk was be as their adoptive son.

 

“How are you? Have you thought about it a bit?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged couple came to the orphanage a month after the head sister had suggested Jun Hyuk’s adoption and started to speak cautiously.

“We deliberated on the issue very carefully. Though we think that we would become good parents to Jun Hyuk…..”

“Is there a problem?”

The head sister who had been monitoring the couple’s atmosphere felt unsettled by the trailing of their words. Could they be turning the adoption down?

“We get the feeling that Jun Hyuk isn’t opening up to us.”

“When we are speaking or playing, instead of doing it together, should we say it’s as though he is observing us? Strangely, we get that feeling.”

The couple took turns confessing their inner thoughts on Jun Hyuk.

“How are you? Have you thought about it a bit?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged couple came to the orphanage a month after the head sister had suggested Jun Hyuk’s adoption and started to speak cautiously.

“We deliberated on the issue very carefully. Though we think that we would become good parents to Jun Hyuk…..”

“Is there a problem?”

The head sister who had been monitoring the couple’s atmosphere felt unsettled by the trailing of their words. Could they be turning the adoption down?

“We get the feeling that Jun Hyuk isn’t opening up to us.”

“When we are speaking or playing, instead of doing it together, should we say it’s as though he is observing us? Strangely, we get that feeling.”

The couple took turns confessing their inner thoughts on Jun Hyuk.

 

“Could it be that you feel this way because Jun Hyuk by nature does not talk very much? Though he is young, should I say that he is a very deep child? Jun Hyuk is also very quiet and likes to ponder about things than to be wasteful with words.”

The couple faced each other. After a short while, the husband spoke.

“Will you talk to Jun Hyuk for us? If he says that he likes us and is willing to follow us, we do have the intention to adopt him.”

The head sister did not hide her happiness in the couple’s acceptance.

“Thank you. The both of you are really giving a great love.”

“Jun Hyuk, what do you think? That man and woman say that they really like you.”

“I like them too. They are very fast.”

“Fast? Whatever do you mean, child?”

“Their sound. The man and woman make sounds very quickly. They’re very funny sounds. Ha ha.”

Looking at the innocent Jun Hyuk laughing about something as simple as sounds, it seemed necessary to teach him the meaning of adoption.

“Jun Hyuk. What do you think it’ll be like to live with that man and woman? They would like to live with you.”

“Why? That man and woman don’t have fathers and mothers either? Will they be living here with us?

“No, that’s not it. You would go to live in their house. You would have parents.”

He simply blinked at the words mom and dad, so the head sister decided to discuss what would catch Jun Hyuk’s interest first.

“The couple raises animals. The majority are chickens, but there are also ducks and goats…”

“Okay. I’d like that.”

Jun Hyuk smiled widely with his bright eyes and spoke loudly.

“What? You’d like it?”

“Yes. I want to go if there are a lot of animals.”

“Jun Hyuk, you have to like the man and woman in order to go live with them. Not the animals.”

“I like the man and I like the woman too.”

The head sister thought that it would be better for Jun Hyuk to spend more time with the couple before going through with the adoption. She decided to finalize the adoption after they spent more time together and once both parties were sure of their choices.

After that, the couple started visiting the orphanage together or separately at least twice a week to spend the day with Jun Hyuk.

“How are you? Have you thought about it a bit?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged couple came to the orphanage a month after the head sister had suggested Jun Hyuk’s adoption and started to speak cautiously.

“We deliberated on the issue very carefully. Though we think that we would become good parents to Jun Hyuk…..”

“Is there a problem?”

The head sister who had been monitoring the couple’s atmosphere felt unsettled by the trailing of their words. Could they be turning the adoption down?

“We get the feeling that Jun Hyuk isn’t opening up to us.”

“When we are speaking or playing, instead of doing it together, should we say it’s as though he is observing us? Strangely, we get that feeling.”

The couple took turns confessing their inner thoughts on Jun Hyuk.

 

“Could it be that you feel this way because Jun Hyuk by nature does not talk very much? Though he is young, should I say that he is a very deep child? Jun Hyuk is also very quiet and likes to ponder about things than to be wasteful with words.”

The couple faced each other. After a short while, the husband spoke.

“Will you talk to Jun Hyuk for us? If he says that he likes us and is willing to follow us, we do have the intention to adopt him.”

The head sister did not hide her happiness in the couple’s acceptance.

“Thank you. The both of you are really giving a great love.”

“Jun Hyuk, what do you think? That man and woman say that they really like you.”

“I like them too. They are very fast.”

“Fast? Whatever do you mean, child?”

“Their sound. The man and woman make sounds very quickly. They’re very funny sounds. Ha ha.”

Looking at the innocent Jun Hyuk laughing about something as simple as sounds, it seemed necessary to teach him the meaning of adoption.

“Jun Hyuk. What do you think it’ll be like to live with that man and woman? They would like to live with you.”

“Why? That man and woman don’t have fathers and mothers either? Will they be living here with us?

“No, that’s not it. You would go to live in their house. You would have parents.”

He simply blinked at the words mom and dad, so the head sister decided to discuss what would catch Jun Hyuk’s interest first.

“The couple raises animals. The majority are chickens, but there are also ducks and goats…”

“Okay. I’d like that.”

Jun Hyuk smiled widely with his bright eyes and spoke loudly.

“What? You’d like it?”

“Yes. I want to go if there are a lot of animals.”

“Jun Hyuk, you have to like the man and woman in order to go live with them. Not the animals.”

“I like the man and I like the woman too.”

The head sister thought that it would be better for Jun Hyuk to spend more time with the couple before going through with the adoption. She decided to finalize the adoption after they spent more time together and once both parties were sure of their choices.

After that, the couple started visiting the orphanage together or separately at least twice a week to spend the day with Jun Hyuk.

 

Seven to eight months went by like this and once May came when the heat became rampant midday, 5 year old Jang Jun Hyuk was adopted by the couple with a chicken farm on Gyeongbuk Number 7.

The man was awkwardly wearing a suit and the woman an airy dress, having gotten her hair done early in the morning at a salon. They picked Jun Hyuk up in their van and left the orphanage as the other children looked on enviously.

This was especially the case as it was May 5th, Children’s Day. As Jun Hyuk had never been to an amusement park, they took him to one in Daegu to make it a special day.

With the loud music and the activity of Children’s Day, Jun Hyuk acted like a 5 year old for the first time in the bustling noise. He patiently stood in the long line to ride the merry-go-round and ran around yelling excitedly. The couple had to hold his hand tightly and follow him around so as not to lose him.

They never said no to him because it was their first day as a family as well as Children’s Day. The two who became parents that day and gave Jun Hyuk whatever he wanted.

They got in the car and left once it became evident that Jun Hyuk was tired after spending the entire day running around.

Not surprisingly, even before 10 minutes passed, Jun Hyuk was laid out in the back seat of the van sleeping comfortably. Once they got on the highway to Number 7, the man sped up the car.

“Honey. Should we stop at a rest area and eat a bowl of ramen?”

“Ramen? Why suddenly ramen?”

“After eating all of the sweets that Jun Hyuk likes, I feel like I’m going crazy because it’s so greasy. I need to eat some ramen with red chili powder and ease my stomach. Jun Hyuk is asleep, right?”

“Yes. He’s even snoring.”

The sleeping Jun Hyuk was so cute with his shallow snoring that the two smiled broadly.

“The rest area is just up ahead, so I’ll eat quickly and come back.”

“I’ll eat with you. The greasy food is bothering me as well.”

They had eaten things that they would usually only eat when they ate out. They had pasta for lunch, then foods that children like such as grilled squid with butter and sugared churros. To these two middle-aged people who were used to eating kimchi stew and soybean paste stew, the food was difficult to bear.

They parked at a highway rest area and checked again to make sure that he was sleeping. They could still hear his low snoring.

They left the window open slightly and ran to the rest area. When they had come out of the rest area after quickly emptying a bowl of spicy ramen each and buying water and juice at the convenience store, it was raining. They ran through the rain thinking of the rain that may have gone into the car through the small crack in the window. When they got to the car, the door was wide open and Jun Hyuk was gone.

 

To the Jun Hyuk who had only been to the cathedral and nursery, the loud melody of a trot heard out at the highway rest area was a world of new sounds. He woke up to this incredible sound.

A bout of passing showers came down as if it had been planned. The sounds of the trot tune and the raindrops on the car roof drew Jun Hyuk out of the car.

Trot’s bumping rhythm laid out the basic bass and the raindrops pounding the car hood were the elaborate music on top.

It was as if there were dozens of instruments playing at the same time in the parking lot of this highway rest area. Jun Hyuk was able to differentiate between the distinct sounds each raindrop made on every different type of car hood.

Drunk with the elaborate sound that the raindrops and cars made, Jun Hyuk ran around the parking lot forgetting that his clothes were wet. It was in the crisp chords, he heard a fine, thin treble. The sound came from a kitten that had found shelter from the rain under a car.

Jun Hyuk bent down and reached out his arm to get the kitten out and the scared kitten ran out into the rain.

Within moments, the rain-soaked parking lot had become a playground for hide-and-seek. Jun Hyuk chased the kitten laughing gleefully, and while his adoptive parents yelled for him, the shouts didn’t carry far due to the sound of the music of the rain.

The byway next to the rest area building was the passage the employees used to commute to and from work. Jun Hyuk followed the kitten out of the rest area through this byway.

Jun Hyuk’s adoptive parents had no idea that this had happened and lost their first child born from the heart within a day while the rest area speakers blasted the message that they were looking for Jun Hyuk.

44 year old Yoon Kwang Hun was on the phone shouting.

 

“Hey! How can you do this so suddenly? What are we going to do about the customers if you cancel when we’ve been advertising with flyers for a month? Customers are already taking their seats!”

“Boss. Please be considerate of our circumstances. It’s our first broadcast request in 4 years. We came here urgently because the person who was supposed to go on broadcast canceled last minute as well. How can we miss this opportunity?”

“Damn. Isn’t that a program that doesn’t even get high viewer ratings? And… how can Kim Jung Soo go on that program at that age? That’s where trot elders in their 60s go to make petty cash. Are you crazy?”

“Not today. Pop singers from the 70s and 80s were also included today. Anyway, please excuse us just this one day. In exchange, we’ll promise two free shows next month. Okay? Let’s hang up now.”

Yoon Kwang Hun tried calling Kim Jung Soo’s manager again who had hung up, but only got the answering machine. He nervously put the receiver down and pulled out a cigarette.

“How many people are here?”

The waiter standing anxiously next to Yoon Kwang Hun eyed him apprehensively.

“There aren’t very many tables as it’s still early. Boss, what should we do?”

 

“What can we do! Take down all of the flyers outside and post an apology that today’s performance isn’t happening at the entrance. And you.”

“Yes.”

“You stand at the entrance and tell the people coming in that today’s show has been pushed to next week.”

“Okay.”

He took his anger out on his young employees. The young employees stood with their heads hanging as if they had done something wrong.

“Go and inform the people who have already ordered food and don’t charge them for the food.”

“Yes boss.”

The employee left and Yoon Kwang Hun took a drag of his cigarette.

“Damn damn damn, I need to stop doing this crap too. I’m getting too old for this.”

Yoon Kwang Hun graduated from a prestigious Korean university and got his MBA at the reputable Stanley University in California. After, he became a successful fund manager on Manhattan’s Wall Street.

At this time, a financial institution in Korea called Future Asset offered him a hefty salary, a sizable signing bonus, in addition to some generous incentives to scout him – and he accepted it without a second thought.

No matter how successful he was, it was difficult to compete with the white man as a person of color. What was it called again? The white male privilege? Another reason he took the offer was that his level of skill was slightly short to play in the major leagues like Wall Street.

After that, Yoon Kwang Hun’s life was that of every man’s fantasy. He drove a luxury foreign car, lived in a deluxe apartment in Gangnam, and went to the Gangnam room salons every night. The name-brand clothing he wore from head to toe cost almost as much as his car did.

He was the perfect man for gold diggers because he was young and professional, made a fortune, and was single. He had over 100 women’s numbers saved on his phone. From an internet shopping mall fitting model to a TV announcer, an unemployed woman, and a young married woman were also among his to play with. Occasionally, he would have a celebrity’s phone number that he would later delete.

No matter how beautiful a flower is, it cannot live past the summer. No matter how mighty an authority may be, it cannot live past 10 years. As such, since power isn’t held by withstanding it, do not try to use power at your whim and do not fret to obtain it. This proverb can be applied to men in stock exchange. The extravagant days that he thought would be endless disappeared with the subprime mortgage financial crisis in the United States.

While planning a comeback after experiencing a huge loss, Yoon Kwang Hun was diagnosed with depression at a hospital where the Director happened to be his boss’ best friend.

This news was delivered immediately to his workplace, Future Asset, and he received his dismissal papers the same day.

“You **holes. How can you fire me after all of the money that I’ve made for you?”

He made a scene and slammed the company door on his way out. I still have enough. There’s still enough money that I’ve saved and my skills haven’t rusted over yet. I can make an office by myself… No I can jump into the gamble that is the financial market from home. Isn’t it a gamble that not many people in Korea recognize?
He lost two things in exactly 3 years. Money and health.

All he was left with was a bank balance that had been reduced to a measly $1000 from what was once over $10 million and a warning from his doctor that, because he had spent his days watching the HTS program while chain smoking, he would die if he did not quit smoking and start exercising now.

Though Yoon Kwang Hun was not a successful gambler, he was not stupid. He had admitted his defeat and left the table.

After he sold his house worth millions to settle his loans, he had about $1 million left. For someone who survived such a great loss, it wasn’t a bad result. He needed to be careful with his second challenge. He couldn’t waste his remaining $1 million.

At first, he thought of making a cafe in Hongdae or Sinchon. Music, coffee, and wine were Yoon Kwang Hun’s only hobbies and he had wanted to spend the rest of his life surrounded by them.

However, the music that Yoon Kwang Hun liked had long become classics that wouldn’t be popular in Hongdae and Sinchon. This became a reason to give up his tiny store with colossal rent.

Yoon Kwang Hun lost all of his nerve and had to admit that he was an old middle-aged man and needed to be more and more careful with the money he had left. The last place that he contracted was a refined live cafe.

Infested with middle-aged customers and the occasional irrelevant pop singers with one or two hits under their belts, the target customer was the person who wanted to listen to music while giving a farce of elegance with wine.

The practice did well enough for 6 months to make a comfortable living. Once the business slowed down, he was making the bare minimum to live off of. About a year passed like this and, as the contractors kept frequenting his cafe, Yoon Kwang Hun had to change its concept to another live cafe.

As another year passed, he found out that he had been swindled by the contractors. Though the menu prices were increased 5-fold on the days that singers performed, profits didn’t increase. Eventually, his live cafe just became another cafe in Misari where he had to keep listening to the pop music of the 70s and 80s instead of the music that he liked.

 

God’s Song
Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part 8

Whenever a singer cancels last minute like was done today, the number of customers decrease. After Kim Jung Soo’s 50 year old fans ate their free food and left, all that was left were their leftovers.

Yoon Kwang Hun closed the cafe early for the night and sipped on a bottle of wine alone. He should have kept the business going on its original concept. Due to his greed, his body was tired and his mind was uncomfortable. As he was calculating the cost of returning the interior decoration to its prior state, he heard a loud noise from the dumpster. It sounded like the stray cats were going through the garbage again. Every time those cats went through the dumpster, the garbage was left in an unbearable state.

Yoon Kwang Hun set his wine glass down and ran out of the kitchen. Instead of a stray cat, there was a child dripping in water with his head in the dumpster, shoving pieces of leftover steak in his mouth.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

The boy became startled at Yoon Kwang Hun’s yell and ran away like a bullet with pieces of meat in both hands.

“Are there kids like that these days?”

Kids groveling in the street were a vague memory. A long time ago, it used to be common for children to beg in the train stations or on the street, but they had pretty much disappeared since online games became popular. It was said that these kids now spent their time pharming online games in a warehouse somewhere.

Since the child was someone else’s problem, he forgot about him and started cleaning up the garbage. He went back into the cafe and started drinking the wine again to think about redesigning the cafe, but kept thinking of the little boy’s handsome face and couldn’t concentrate.

Yoon Kwang Hun went into the kitchen, took out two tonkatsu cutlets from the freezer, and started frying them.

 

God’s Song
Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part 8

Whenever a singer cancels last minute like was done today, the number of customers decrease. After Kim Jung Soo’s 50 year old fans ate their free food and left, all that was left were their leftovers.

Yoon Kwang Hun closed the cafe early for the night and sipped on a bottle of wine alone. He should have kept the business going on its original concept. Due to his greed, his body was tired and his mind was uncomfortable. As he was calculating the cost of returning the interior decoration to its prior state, he heard a loud noise from the dumpster. It sounded like the stray cats were going through the garbage again. Every time those cats went through the dumpster, the garbage was left in an unbearable state.

Yoon Kwang Hun set his wine glass down and ran out of the kitchen. Instead of a stray cat, there was a child dripping in water with his head in the dumpster, shoving pieces of leftover steak in his mouth.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

The boy became startled at Yoon Kwang Hun’s yell and ran away like a bullet with pieces of meat in both hands.

“Are there kids like that these days?”

Kids groveling in the street were a vague memory. A long time ago, it used to be common for children to beg in the train stations or on the street, but they had pretty much disappeared since online games became popular. It was said that these kids now spent their time pharming online games in a warehouse somewhere.

Since the child was someone else’s problem, he forgot about him and started cleaning up the garbage. He went back into the cafe and started drinking the wine again to think about redesigning the cafe, but kept thinking of the little boy’s handsome face and couldn’t concentrate.

Yoon Kwang Hun went into the kitchen, took out two tonkatsu cutlets from the freezer, and started frying them.

 

“Ugh, my situation isn’t any better so what am I doing thinking of someone else?”

As  he was grumbling like this and thinking about how hungry the child must have been that he had gone through the garbage, he kept cooking.

He put a few tonkatsu cutlets and three or four bananas that were supposed to be used as snacks in a bag and left it by the dumpster.

“Hey! I’m leaving this out for you to eat, so take it before the stray cats do!”

He wasn’t sure if the kid was still in the vicinity, but he called out loudly and went back into the cafe. He thought that with this, the sympathy and remorse he couldn’t help but feel would go away.

After about 10 minutes, there was a rustling sound and then silence. He quietly stepped outside to make sure the stray cats hadn’t taken the food left out for the little boy.

Yoon Kwang Hun saw the little boy running away with the bag of food in his hands and his heart became a little lighter.

He forgot the depressing thoughts he had earlier and turned his favorite CD on loudly. All he wanted to do was have some time to himself with music and wine.

He lost himself in the music and as it was reaching its peak, he saw a face stuck to the cafe window. He was startled by the head floating like a ghost’s, but once he recognized it as the head of the little boy who ran away with the bag of food, he calmed down.

He went out thinking that the boy had come to say thank you for the food, but he remained stuck to the window without realizing that Yoon Kwang Hun was standing next to him. Once Yoon Kwang Hun tapped his shoulder, he finally knew that someone was next to him and ran like lightning.

He just watched the boy in shock, but the boy stopped and came back towards Yoon Kwang Hun.

“Thank you.”

He bowed in greeting and the sight of him holding the paper bag made Yoon Kwang Hun’s heart tremble again.

“Hey. Come in. You didn’t even get to drink water after eating the tonkatsu and bananas, right? Your throat is probably dry… I didn’t think of that earlier. You’re probably thirsty, so come in and have a glass of water.”

The little boy who had been flitting his eyes back and forth followed Yoon Kwang Hun into the cafe. Looking at his messy hair, clothing dripping in dirty water, and face, it seemed like he hadn’t been able to wash himself in at least a year.

The beggar-like little boy sat down cautiously and he drank the whole bottle of water he was given. Watching the boy drink water, he could guess he was still hungry.

“Hey. Are you still hungry? Do you want me to make you more tonkatsu? Will you eat it?”

He went back to the kitchen after the boy’s eyes became big and he nodded his head vigorously. He first fried one cutlet and handed it to the boy in a plate.

Yoon Kwang Soo watched the boy chewing the cutlet in his hand instead of cutting it up and asked,

“Hey. What’s your name?”

“Jang… Jang Jun Hyuk.”

The sight of the child saying his name with a mouth full of tonkatsu was even more pitiful.

“Do you want to eat more?”

Jun Hyuk nodded his head heartily as though he had been waiting for it.

Yoon Kwang Hun went to the kitchen, fried the rest of the tonkatsu, and put it on a plate. From the way he was eating, it seemed like he could eat enough for 10 people.

Jang Jun Hyuk saw the plate with more than 10 tonkatsu cutlets, and he couldn’t speak. He ate and ate until he was nauseous. It was like a bear filling his stomach after a winter of hibernation.

“If you can’t eat anymore, you can stop. I’ll pack up the rest for you so you can eat it later.”

Jun Hyuk put his fork down once he heard that he could take the rest of the food.

“Did you run away?”

“Excuse me?”

“Did you run away from home?”

“Oh, no. I don’t have a home.”

“What? You don’t have a home? What does that mean?”

“I’m an orphan. An orphan without a home or parents.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m not sure. 15? 16?”

“Did you run away from somewhere like a nursery or an orphanage?”

“I lived in an orphanage run by nuns when I was young, but I’ve been living on the streets since I was 5 years old.”

“Why!?”

Yoon Kwang Hun was so surprised that he yelled without realizing it. Goodness! How are there still children like this? And looking at his age, it means that he’s been living in the streets for 10 years… This was something that he could not begin to understand.

“Hey… mister. It just happened. Do I have to tell you everything?”

There was no need to rub salt in the wounds of a child he met today. It was just out of curiosity. Yoon Kwang Hun began to think that he had made a mistake.

“Alright. You don’t have to tell me. I asked something useless.”

Though it was a situation where one person had done a good deed and the other person should be thankful, there was only silence. This awkward situation disappeared because of Jun Hyuk’s words.

“But mister. What is that music you just turned on?”

The speaker was already quiet. Yoon Kwang Hun hadn’t even realized that the CD track had finished.

“Oh, that? That’s Mahler. Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. That was recorded when Georg Schulte used to lead the Chicago Orchestra. It’s my favorite.”

Jun Hyuk only blinked his eyes. There weren’t any words that he could understand in Yoon Kwang Hun’s explanation.

“Yes. Well… Anyway, thank you for the tonkatsu.”

Yoon Kwang Hun saw Jun Hyuk rising from his seat and spoke.

“Hey. Do you want to listen to it again? From here, not from outside. From the beginning.”

“Really?”

Jun Hyuk seemed like a strange boy because he smiled more brightly at that than he did when he ate until he was full as he sat back down on the sofa.

Yoon Kwang Hun put the CD in and turned the volume back up. As the music flowed out, Jang Jun Hyuk closed his eyes and listened closely. He had been sitting on the sofa tensely with a straight back, but he changed his position comfortably so that he was seated back.

When the music ended again, Jun Hyuk burst out in admiration.

“It’s incredible he included that many sounds in 66 minutes and 10 seconds. It sounds much better than when I was listening from outside.”

“What? What did you just say? 66 minutes?”

“No. 66 minutes and 10 seconds.”

“What’s 66 minutes and 10 seconds?”

“The road. The music’s road. You know? How long it was playing.”

Yoon Kwang Hun jumped up from his seat and looked at the CD case that he had thrown next to the CD player. It was clearly printed that the running time was 66 minutes and 8 seconds.

“You… How did you know the running time? Did you measure it on the clock?”

“What time?”

“Running time. The performance time.”

“I just know it.”

“You just knew it? Automatically?”

“Yes. I just knew it.”

Yoon Kwang Hun couldn’t believe this beggar-like teenage boy. When Zubin Mehta was leading the New York Philharmonic, there was a legend that he matched the running times exactly every time he conducted Beethoven’s symphonies.

However, it may be possible because he listened to Beethoven hundreds of thousands of times to interpret it for the orchestra he was conducting. But figuring out the running time just by listening to it? Yoon Kwang Hun shook his head back and forth. It was impossible. Did it mean that there was a stopwatch or metronome embedded in his head?

Jun Hyuk’s feminine face didn’t show any sign that there was something strange. It didn’t seem like he was lying and there was no reason for him to lie.

Yoon Kwang Hun swallowed and asked again,

“Do you by any chance remember the entire song you just heard?”

“Yes. When I was listening from outside, I wasn’t sure because it wasn’t clear, but I just remembered the whole song.”

Yoon Kwang Hun’s sight became fuzzy. Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 isn’t a widely known work like Beethoven’s symphony Fate was. No matter how many times he had heard it, there was no way for him to memorize the whole song unless he had majored in classical music. No, among classical music majors, how many of them could have completely memorized all of the parts to a symphony? Even Yoon Kwang Hun who had listened to the song hundreds of times could only remember the melody. It wasn’t even that he memorized it, but he just remembered it.

Yoon Kwang Hun asked carefully,

“Do you… want to try it? Remembering it?”

“How? There’s just the sound.”

“Exactly. Um… You can make the same sounds. Bam ba bam ba, or turururu… in this way.”

Yoon Kwang Hun’s heart beat faster and his whole body felt weak at the thought that there was an extraordinary person in front of his eyes. Jang Jun Hyuk thought for a while and eventually grimaced.

“I can’t do it.”

Of course not. What a ridiculous lie! Unless he was the reincarnation of Mozart, it was impossible. He didn’t know why, but he relaxed and his mind found comfort.

But Jang Jun Hyuk’s words that he could not do it were not the last.

“There are 106 sounds… Doesn’t that mean there are 106 instruments? How can I personally make each of those sounds?”

He tensed up again at the shock and became uncomfortable again. Even more than he had been before. It felt like all the blood in his body had rushed to his head.

If this child was not lying, the reincarnation of Mozart was standing in front of him. No, he was even more impressive than Mozart. Mozart had memorized Allegri’s ‘Miserere Mei, Deus’ after hearing it for the first time when he was 14 years old.

This song had been sealed by the Pope, so it was only performed at the Sistine Chapel. Revealing the sheet music for this song and singing it outside of the chapel was strictly forbidden, but 14 year old Mozart heard it once and wrote it perfectly.

However, that music lasted just 10 minutes. It didn’t compare to this small child’s ability.

“Are you saying that knowing what it means? Are you saying that you memorized all the parts in an orchestra after hearing a song once?”

“Mister… Say a random time.”

 

“A time? What time?”

“Any time in the 66 minutes.”

Yoon Kwang Hun figured out the kid’s intent.

“Minute 37.”

“At minute 37, there were eight sounds. From minute 33 to 41, eight instruments played. I don’t really know names of instruments…..”

Even classical music enthusiast Yoon Kwang Hun had no way of confirming Jun Hyuk’s response because he did not have the ability to separate the sounds as such. He may be able to check if he were looking at the sheet music.

Looking at Jun Hyuk’s innocent face, it was difficult to think that he was lying. Jun Hyuk bowed his head to Yoon Kwang Hun who could not recover from the shock and stood up.

“Mister. Thank you for the tonkatsu.”

Jun Hyuk did not forget the plastic bag with the tonkatsu and held it tightly in his hand. Yoon Kwang Hun had the thought that he must do something, but he could not think of what it was. In the midst of his reluctance and hesitation, Jang Jun Hyuk was opening the cafe door.

“Hey, kid! What did you say your name was?”

“Jang Jun Hyuk.”

“Right, Jang Jun Hyuk. If you want to eat tonkatsu, come back. I’ll make it deliciously.”

Jun Hyuk bowed his farewell again and left the cafe.

Yoon Kwang Hun stared blankly at the door Jang Jun Hyuk had left through for a few minutes. Once he came to his senses, he started pulling his hair.

“Ah, crap. What are you doing!”

He was cursing at himself. How could he be so stupid? No matter how shocked he was, how could he have sat here blankly while a young Mozart went out into the rain with nowhere to go?

He must find the boy. He couldn’t confirm yet, but he needed to know if the boy was a diamond or a coal. Even if he was not a diamond, their fates had crossed and he could not let leave such a young child alone in this situation.
 

Once Jun Hyuk came out of the cafe, he needed to get out of the neighborhood. If those guys caught him again, there was no way that they would let him live.

The guys he mugged a few days ago had clearly looked like good students. They wore their uniforms neatly and looking at their heavy bags, it seemed like they carried their books with them. He had followed them quietly and called the two into a quiet place. After he hit them a few times, they had obediently given him everything in their wallets. Everything was okay even as he was leaving with a few tickets to the museum and $30.

$30 was enough to suppress hunger for 10 days with two rice rolls a day from Kimbap Heaven. He could make enough to buy cup ramen if he sold the museum tickets to children at the internet cafe.

Before he made it inside the internet cafe, the students appeared with their friends, and Jun Hyuk barely managed to run away from the kids.

He had bothered the wrong people. It seemed like these kids did not even attend school. Jun Hyuk saw them looking for him near the prep schools all morning.

Since he could not go into the area with all of the prep schools, he could not even buy a triangular rice roll. When he was famished, the best place to find food was the area with all of the cafes. Because the cafe area was not downtown and they were not all placed closely next to each other, it was easy to approach them inconspicuously. There were also cafes that did not serve soups and had dry foods. Of the places that dumped all of their leftover food in a separate barrel, the ones with soups mixed with everything else and made it all impossible to eat.

Yoon Kwang Hun was one of the only people who removed liquids while throwing out the food due to his clean nature. Jun Hyuk usually went through the garbage right before the collection trucks came when the cafes were closed for the night but he could not wait this time – he had starved for days. And that was how the two had finally met.

‘Let me get just $50 more and I’ll leave this neighborhood.’

If he had just $50 more, he could hold out long enough to figure out the situation in a new neighborhood. Jang Jun Hyuk started walking towards the area with the prep schools again.

 

Jun Hyuk wandered cautiously around the middle school. There were kids who roamed into the back streets after school to smoke.

Jun Hyuk’s radar caught 4 schoolgirls. Two were smoking cigarettes and two were distracted by their smart phones.

“Where do you girls think you’re smoking?”

Jun Hyuk turned around after he had pretended to be passing by and punched the two girls who were smoking. He then smacked the two girls who had been looking at their phones and took their phones.

He knew that he had succeeded when he saw the girls were recoiling in fear. Even without using force, Jun Hyuk’s long hair, dirty and worn clothing, and odor were enough to scare the young schoolgirls.

“Hurry up and take the money out of your wallets or I’ll break these phones.”

As he raised the phone to smash it to the floor, the owner clumsily took her wallet out and handed it to him. The two girls who had been smoking before Jun Hyuk punched them were standing with their hands to their cheeks, unable to lift their heads.

“Damn. What are you guys doing? Hurry up and take out your money.”

He kicked the two girls slumped on the floor a few times and they took out their wallets. He shoved the money from the four girls’ wallets into his pocket and quickly fled out of the alley, towards the main street.

All he had in his pocket were a few dollar bills and one 5 dollar bill. Maybe it was because they were middle schoolers, but there wasn’t one 10 dollar bill.

 

Jun Hyuk wandered cautiously around the middle school. There were kids who roamed into the back streets after school to smoke.

Jun Hyuk’s radar caught 4 schoolgirls. Two were smoking cigarettes and two were distracted by their smart phones.

“Where do you girls think you’re smoking?”

Jun Hyuk turned around after he had pretended to be passing by and punched the two girls who were smoking. He then smacked the two girls who had been looking at their phones and took their phones.

He knew that he had succeeded when he saw the girls were recoiling in fear. Even without using force, Jun Hyuk’s long hair, dirty and worn clothing, and odor were enough to scare the young schoolgirls.

“Hurry up and take the money out of your wallets or I’ll break these phones.”

As he raised the phone to smash it to the floor, the owner clumsily took her wallet out and handed it to him. The two girls who had been smoking before Jun Hyuk punched them were standing with their hands to their cheeks, unable to lift their heads.

“Damn. What are you guys doing? Hurry up and take out your money.”

He kicked the two girls slumped on the floor a few times and they took out their wallets. He shoved the money from the four girls’ wallets into his pocket and quickly fled out of the alley, towards the main street.

All he had in his pocket were a few dollar bills and one 5 dollar bill. Maybe it was because they were middle schoolers, but there wasn’t one 10 dollar bill.

 

When he came out onto the main street and some boys who weren’t in uniforms walking with some in uniforms looked at Jun Hyuk in surprise.

“That… that bastard… isn’t he that bastard?”

Jun Hyuk recognized them as the guys who had been going around looking for him right away and ran back into the alley.

“Hey! Catch that kid!”

Jun Hyuk’s heart started beating as wildly as the countless footsteps that were chasing him.





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