Chapter 115
In a lecture room at HeeYoon’s university of music in America .
The infamously difficult Instrumental Theory class was over . The 10 or so students packed up their materials with liberation on their faces . They left as soon as the professor left .
[Ugh, today’s class was the worst . ]
Leaving the other students aside, one of HeeYoon’s friends, Helena, packed her materials with leisure . Unlike others, she was more dignified .
[Well done . ]
[Today’s instrument was so difficult as well . What was it again? Shami . . what?
[The Shamisen . ]
[Urgh, it’s so hard to pronounce as well . ]
Today’s lecture was about a traditional Japanese instrument, the Shamisen . Just thinking about it freaked Helena out . Although old instruments from the eastern world sounded very clear, they were extremely hard to play . Some instruments didn’t produce any sound . Though, fortunately, the instrument they learned about this time wasn’t that kind .
HeeYoon consoled her friend who had a bomb load of homework to do .
[Work hard . It still sounds nice and relaxing though, isn’t it?]
[Yeah, that’s right . It’s a really good instrument if we aren’t taking exams about it! I don’t know why we have to learn such an instrument in a digital age like ours . Wouldn’t it suffice to just have a good musical sense?]
[There must be a reason we’re learning this . ]
[That’s our honor student . ]
Helena’s praise made HeeYoon smile awkwardly .
[Haha… . ]
[Hey, full score honor student . Wait, didn’t you get a full score for this class as well? Is it because you’re good with your hands? Tell me your secret . ]
[Well, I just try hard . ]
[Don’t give me that . ]
HeeYoon was practically saying the honor student’s favorite line . “I studied mainly textbooks” . She then left after saying goodbye to Helena . She had an appointment today .
Not far from uni, her guest was waiting in a cafe .
“HeeYoon!”
“JooAh!”
The person she appointed to meet stood up as soon as she saw HeeYoon and hugged her . It was JooAh, who was one of HeeYoon’s best friends now . She always pinched on HeeYoon’s cheeks . HeeYoon didn’t lose out and did the same .
The two were very close to each other .
Today, though, she wasn’t alone here . There was another guest .
“JooAh, a friend of yours…, wait?”
HeeYoon approached the new person to greet her, but it was a familiar face . No, it wasn’t just a familiar face .
“Hello? I heard a lot about you from JooAh-unni . Christie An . ”
“Oh, hello . ”
HeeYoon was very surprised by the turn of events and greeted her in surprise .
She was the girl with a sharp jawline, feline eyes, and slightly cold expression, Christie An . Although she was wearing sneakers, her body figure couldn’t be hidden with the shorts she was wearing . She looked like a dignified lady from the city .
JooAh giggled seeing HeeYoon getting surprised .
“What? Don’t you know Eddios?”
“It’s not that… . ”
HeeYoon expressed her awkwardness at the unexpected turn of events . As KangYoon’s sister, she naturally knew about the fact that KangYoon was behind Eddios’s debut . As such, the girls did not feel like strangers . Although she did get the feeling that they might meet each other in America, she did not know that it would be today .
“Let’s order something first . ”
JooAh relieved the awkward atmosphere between the two and sat down . She waved at the cafe waitress some distance away while the two sat down without saying a word . JooAh also sat down .
As JooAh was between the two, HeeYoon and Christie slowly got to know each other .
“You’re team leader’s sister?”
“Your mouth is wide open . ”
“B, but… . ”
After Christie heard that HeeYoon was KangYoon’s sister, Christie started screaming .
“Unni, you didn’t tell me this before . ”
“I didn’t not tell you either . ”
“Tha… what does that mean?”
Christie wished to have heard about this beforehand, but it was very unlikely that JooAh would do something like that .
In the end, Christie became teary faced . It was impossible for her to win against JooAh with words .
She pouted before muttering .
“She doesn’t look like him… . ”
“We get that a lot . ”
“Oh… . ”
Christie became awkward as she was just talking to herself but her words were heard . However, HeeYoon continued without worrying much .
“Well, the impressions of me and my brother are quite different . So I’m used to hearing things like that . ”
“Uuu… . I’m sorry . ”
Christie An lowered her head in sheepishness . However, HeeYoon waved her hands saying that it was okay .
‘Now then… what should I do to make them friendly?’
JooAh started pondering about how to make them bee close .
***
“Everyone’s here, right?”
6 in the morning .
Lee HyunJi checked on the members of White Moonlight as well as Kim JiMin . Everyone had gathered in front of the pany 5 minutes ago .
As Lee HyunJi told all of them not to be late, everyone had tense faces .
“Manager DaeHyun, is all the luggage ready?”
“Yes . I’ve loaded them in the car as you instructed yesterday . ”
Manager Kim DaeHyun was also very tense .
Although Lee HyunJi was a woman, she had a strong charisma that made it difficult to not obey her words .
“Let’s check on our equipment one last time . ”
“Okay . ”
“Hyung, I’ll help out . ”
Kim JinDae and Jung ChanGyu stepped up to help Kim DaeHyun . Lee HyunAh and Kim JiMin headed towards the convenience store to get food and drink to have on the way .
After they finished their preparations, the pany started heading towards Goyang .
As it was early morning, members of White Moonlight were feeling quite low .
“HyunAh, did you get any sleep?”
“3 hours . How about you?”
“2 hours, I guess . I’m getting more nervous than my first ever stage . ”
Lee HyunAh and Kim JinDae were the same in regards to the fact that they got very little sleep .
“ChanGyu, looks like you had a good sleep . ”
“Sleeping pills . ”
“…I’m surprised you got up on time . ”
Kim JinDae admired Jung ChanGyu for waking up on time after taking pills .
“JiMin is sleeping . ”
“I’m envious… . ”
Lee ChaHee muttered while seeing Kim JiMin sleeping with her head leaning against the window, and Lee HyunAh also added .
Lee HyunJi, who was in the passenger seat, also had her own worries .
‘From what I heard, the team that performed yesterday had more than half of the audience leave . Are we going to be okay?’
The time slot was disadvantageous for them .
The sun was scorching .
Although they ordered some more water, she wondered if that would be enough . However, she couldn’t think of any other solutions than preparing more water . If they put up canopies, that would restrict the sight of the audience, while parasols had the disadvantage that it would make it harder for more people to e in and, although the heat was the biggest issue, those two solutions weren’t realistically possible .
Lee HyunJi pondered the issue while they rode the car, but she wasn’t able to think of a proper solution .
Without a proper solution, the van arrived at K-pop plex .
Lee HyunJi and the others arrived at the concert venue with their respective instruments and KangYoon was waiting for them there .
“You’re here . ”
KangYoon greeted the pany and headed off towards the organizers . Then, he talked about a lot of things with the staff, and the staff had awkward faces .
“KangYoon-oppa is so… . ”
“What? What is?”
“No, nothing . ”
Lee ChaHee asked Lee HyunAh when she mumbled something to herself, but she did not answer .
The members of White Moonlight set up their instruments to get ready for the stage . Lee HyunJi also watched the whole process from below . Kim JiMin was next to her .
Kim JinDae set up the snare that they brought and adjusted the position between it and the foot base . The deep sound from the foot base and the crisp sound from the snare drum harmonized well .
‘Is it because of the humidity? It feels a little dampened . ’
KangYoon tilted his head while looking at the notes ing out of the drums . Although he had to wait until the tuning was done, the notes didn’t sound as crisp as he wanted it to be .
Meanwhile, Lee ChaHee connected her bass to the amp and started tuning . Jung ChanGyu also connected the electric guitar to the effector pedals and started going through the sounds . Various sounds created notes in front of KangYoon’s eyes .
As the sounds became more finely tuned, the fuzzy notes started being clearer . The electric guitar and the bass definitely became better, but the notes from the drums were fuzzy as it didn’t sound quite right .
“Dammit, it’s not working . ”
Kim JinDae kept tightening and loosening the snare drums as though something didn’t feel right . However, the crisp sound he wanted did not happen and only a dampened sound could be heard .
‘It’s not right for me to interfere with their tuning . ’
KangYoon was about to say something, but he decided not to . It wasn’t right to damage their pride as musicians . It’s not like they were running out of time either .
After around 30 minutes, he started to see clearer notes from the drums . As the drums had microphones put against them, the sounds went to the speakers and KangYoon was satisfied to see that the notes were clear .
After the instruments were tuned properly and the band started jamming, the sun started getting hotter .
“Looks like today will be hotter than yesterday . ”
Lee HyunJi, who was next to KangYoon, watched the stage with a worried expression . Kim JiMin’s face had also bee red due to the heat .
“Let’s get some shade . ”
KangYoon led everyone to the shade . Although the sunlight poked through between the leaves, the slight wind was enough to cool them down .
“We did prepare some more water as you’ve said… but will that be enough?”
KangYoon started pondering after hearing Lee HyunJi’s words . Even if they sprayed water all over their body, it might not be enough . Thinking about it… it might even be a futile effort .
“Do you know how hot it will go up to today?”
“34 . 4 degrees . ”
“34 degrees?”
KangYoon widened his eyes when Kim JiMin confirmed it for him on her phone . 34 degrees at the end of August? This was to the North of Seoul as well!
KangYoon abruptly stood up .
“Where are you going?”
Lee HyunJi asked .
“We should cool off the heat . I’ll be back before it’s too late . ”
Lee HyunJi and Kim JiMin looked at each other, puzzled .
.
.
.
After the rehearsal, Lee HyunAh redid her makeup in the waiting booth .
“Urgh, it’s so hot!”
Lee HyunAh became irritated due to the heat . Although she had used makeup that was resistant to water, a portion of it was erased due to the onslaught of sweat . High humidity and heat were that fatal .
Lee ChaHee wasn’t that different from her and she quietly fixed her makeup .
Their stage time was rapidly approaching .
In a shade that’s not too far from the venue, Kim JiMin mouth gaped while looking at the people entering .
“Look at that! Those people are so… . ”
As she had said, people were gathering at the venue without consideration for the heat . Even though the sun was scorching, people entered in streams without end .
“You’re right . ”
“Wow… the team must be quite amazing . ”
Kim JiMin exclaimed . People had gathered to listen to the band despite the heat . This surprised her .
‘I’ll also… . ’
While Kim JiMin resolved to herself, the audience received the bottles of water and got ready to enjoy the music . Some of them had already opened the water and started drinking .
Meanwhile, Lee HyunJi was very nervous as she watched them .
‘This will be even more difficult than what the president said it would be . I wonder if the water is enough . ’
Lee HyunJi headed towards where they were handing out the water . Fortunately, there was enough water for now . This was mostly thanks to the fact that they had prepared more water . It seemed that it would be fine even if people took more bottles of water . However, if more people streamed in, and people at the front came back to take more water, she couldn’t guarantee that they would have enough water for all of them .
Lee HyunJi called KangYoon to discuss the water .
However… .
‘Why isn’t he answering at a time like this?’
The most important member was not answering her calls . It shouldn’t be that his phone was broken, but she never got a call back either . She became more and more desperate, with repeated calls, but no answer .
“Haa… . ”
In the end, she texted him with a sigh . She messaged him to call her back .
She then had a look at the concrete floor . It felt as though the heat was rising from it . It was no wonder that more than half the people left in the previous show, considering that they were jumping on this concrete floor .
‘We should at least spray some water . ’
Lee HyunJi thought that they should stave off the heat using whatever methods available . It spraying water on the floor would cool off the surface . When that thought flashed in her mind, she started looking for a long hose attached to a tap . When she looked around, she was able to find a tap, but no hose .
‘Toilet, toilet…’
If there were any cleaning supplies, it should contain a long hose – was her thinking when she searched all the public toilets around . However, she wasn’t able to find any . She looked around a long while for the hose, but she only found some short ones, and they weren’t enough to reach the concert venue .
Eventually, Lee HyunJi returned to the venue before the stage started, exhausted .
“Director… . ”
“Thanks, haa… . ”
Kim JiMin handed her a bottle of water in consolation . Lee HyunJi emptied an entire bottle in one shot . Her suit had already been drenched with sweat as well .
As the allocated time slot arrived, the sun became hotter and hotter . the floor was getting more heated up as well . It was like an inferno .
‘This won’t do . ’
Lee HyunJi became depressed as she could practically imagine more than half the people here leaving midway . She had to look for a way and stood up again to find something .
At that time, two large trucks suddenly approached the venue with loud engine noises . Lee HyunJi’s brows creased as it annoyed her, even more, when the trucks were approaching the venue . If it ever came near the concert venue, she decided to vent her frustration on the driver .
And just as she had worried, the truck was headed straight towards the venue and stopped right next to the audience seats .
‘You just came at just the right time . ’
Lee HyunJi grit her teeth and approached the first truck which stopped at the right of the audience . She had her eyes wide open in extreme anger .
Just as Lee HyunJi was about to yell at the driver that just got off, she heard a voice behind her .
“Director, over here . ”
It was a familiar voice . Lee HyunJi turned around to the voice .
“President?”
“Yes . Fortunately, I’m not late . ”
The one that got off the left truck was KangYoon . Lee HyunJi approached and asked KangYoon in surprise .
“What happened? You didn’t show up right until the beginning of the stage . What are these oil truck-looking things?”
KangYoon chuckled hearing the word ‘oil tank’ .
“Oil trucks? These are specialized vehicles . They spray water . ”
“What? They are sprinkler trucks?”
Sprinkler trucks?
Lee HyunJi was unable to hide her surprise since sprinkler trucks were mostly found in construction sites .
“Yes . This will be our trump card . ”
KangYoon’s gaze alternated between the audience and the trucks with a smirk .
Lee HyunJi only looked at whatever KangYoon was looking at, dumbfounded .
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