Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 158
Chapter Title: Mark Miller's Final Stage
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Eric Miller, grandson of Mark Miller, watched his grandfather singing to Yeonwoo's performance and fell into indescribable emotions.
Grandfather—Mark Miller—was a good grandfather.
Unlike the stars of that era who committed all sorts of dirty deeds behind the scenes despite their flashy appearances, Mark Miller was a man who was the same inside and out.
Just as he gave warm smiles to the audience on stage, he never forgot to give warm smiles to his family even when no one was watching.
He only had eyes for his wife, and he was a respectable father to his son.
The same went for his grandson.
He respected his grandfather more than anyone else in the world.
He had dreamed of becoming a singer like his grandfather, but realizing he had no talent, he focused on his studies and became a successful businessman running a proper company—yet that respect didn't go anywhere.
Even now, while working in California, he visited this place where his grandfather lived several times a month.
Unfortunately, his grandfather no longer remembered him.
He just stared blankly at the fireplace like a living corpse.
Then one day.
His grandfather reacted while watching the Today Morning Show that happened to be on.
‘Piano……. Piano…….’
Hearing his grandfather's voice after more than a decade, Eric looked at him in surprise.
‘Oh, it's Eric.’
‘Grandpa! Do you recognize me?’
‘Yes, my grandson played good music for me. Thank you.’
‘You're talking about that kid playing the piano, right?’
‘Yes……. Very, very wonderful piano. Ah…… the stage…… I want to share the stage with that child. My last…….’
With those words, his grandfather, who had only watched the child's performance ignoring Olivia Snow standing in front, lost his speech again.
And now.
His grandfather reacted once more to the boy's performance unfolding before his eyes.
“Midnight in blue, I find you again…….”
His submerged voice returned somewhat, gaining strength, and the song gained vitality, continuing to the chorus.
Eric Miller shed tears hearing his grandfather's song after more than a decade.
“[Eric…… Did you turn on the TV? I can hear that child's piano.]”
As the piano performance concluded and Mark Miller stopped singing, he asked the question, and Eric replied in a choked voice.
“[No, Grandpa. I came in person to see you.]”
As he said that, Eric called Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo rose from the piano and approached Mark Miller.
“Oh……!”
Mark Miller's eyes turned to Yeonwoo.
Mark Miller's hazy eyes lit up for a moment upon seeing Yeonwoo in person.
“[Hello? I'm Yuin.]”
“YUIN…….”
Mark Miller reached out his hand.
Yeonwoo quietly looked at Mark Miller's hand before extending his own. Mark Miller firmly grasped Yeonwoo's hand.
“[The child who plays…… beautiful piano.]”
“[Thank you.]”
“[Will you play the piano…… one more time?]”
Yeonwoo nodded readily.
What to play this time?
After thinking quietly, Yeonwoo decided on one of his hit songs, ‘Velvet Afternoon.’
It was smooth swing jazz, and this song too had dominated the Melboard charts for a long time.
Mark Miller closed his eyes gently amid the piano performance resonating softly.
His head felt heavy.
He, who had regained his senses through Yeonwoo's playing, let go of the spirit he had been holding onto so arduously once more.
‘No, that can't be…….’
Just as his consciousness was about to close again, he forced his eyes wide open.
‘Where…… is this?’
He looked around.
A chandelier reflecting light and sparkling like jewels caught his eye.
‘What are you doing, Miller? Everyone's waiting for you!’
The voice he heard belonged to his manager, Albert.
“Oh, Albert! Got it.”
He rose from his seat.
Before he knew it, he was back to his forties, at the peak of his popularity.
His body felt heavy and his head weighed down, but it was fine.
He was a pro, after all.
Matching the piano accompaniment he heard, he began to sing.
This was his favorite song.
Because it was a song he made thinking of his beloved wife.
“Let the sun stay a little longer in our room.”
He sang to the very end with all his might.
Clap clap clap clap!
At that moment, everyone looked at him and applauded.
He closed his eyes along with the sound of applause.
For some reason, his consciousness grew hazy.
“[……He's fallen asleep, right?]”
“[Yes.]”
Eric Miller couldn't hold back his flowing tears, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping them continuously as he nodded.
“[Incredible…… Even with dementia, he remembered his own song without missing a single lyric.]”
Olivia Snow stuck out her tongue in amazement. Olivia Snow volunteered at a nursing home every year (even if it was for image management, it was sincere in its own way), so she knew to some extent how desperate the situation was for those suffering from dementia.
Yet how could Mark Miller sing like that in his state of dementia?
Was this what they called a miracle?
“[His music is still great as ever.]”
Amid that, Heo Ok wiped away her barely emerged tears, deeply moved.
“[Yeah. I don't think I've ever been this moved listening to music.]”
Jihoon, who hardly listened to anything but his son's music, spoke with an impressed expression.
Meanwhile, Yeonwoo silently watched Mark Miller.
No, precisely, he watched his alter ego wandering around him.
The fairy of Mark Miller, who had been dying in gray, had regained some energy and was now slowly drifting through the air with the other fairies originally here, gazing at Yeonwoo.
Yeonwoo looked at them and asked.
‘Can Mark Miller take the stage?’
Mark Miller's alter ego heard that, pointed at Yeonwoo, then at the piano. Then it pointed back at Mark Miller's main body.
It seemed to say that with just the piano performance, he could sing again.
‘Right?’
Mark Miller's alter ego nodded.
Yeonwoo turned his gaze to Eric Miller.
“[Uncle, so how are you planning to prepare Grandpa Mark Miller's final stage?]”
“[All the copyrights related to Grandpa are with me now. The moment he realized he had dementia, he transferred them to me.]”
Mark Miller had his son around age 25, and ironically, that son passed away before Mark Miller did.
Shocked by that, his wife soon followed.
Devastated, Mark Miller came to this house where he planned to spend his remaining years with his wife, secluded himself, and effectively retired without calling it retirement.
Living almost alone in this large house, he eventually fell to dementia, the cruelest disease in the world.
Anyway, worried about his grandson left alone in the midst of that, he first handed over his copyrights to him.
Eric Miller's business eventually succeeded, but its foundation was the royalties from his grandfather.
In any case, because of that, he could create this stage for Mark Miller anytime.
“[I don't want Grandpa to just disappear without anyone knowing. Some might call it pathetic, and others might curse me for making money off a demented grandfather, but I want to create Grandpa's final stage just as he wished.]”
At those words, Yeonwoo looked at his family.
“[I want to do this.]”
At Yeonwoo's words, Jihoon nodded.
“Yeah, if our son wants to do it, he should.”
Heo Ok nodded too.
Watching the two, Olivia Snow chuckled and said.
“[Who would stop you if you say you want to do it?]”
“[Still, I need permission from Grandma and Dad.]”
Yeonwoo was a good child.
“[Then I'll do it. I want to share the stage with Grandpa Mark Miller too. It's an honorable spot.]”
“[Yuin…… Thank you.]”
Eric Miller bowed his head with a moved expression.
And so, the final stage of the great singer was decided.
* * *
Yeonwoo's family ended up staying in the building for guests within Mark Miller's large mansion.
Initially, they planned to go to California and stay at Olivia Snow's house as she suggested, but considering the distance and Yeonwoo's desire to stay with Mark Miller, they stayed here.
Yeonwoo practically lived by Mark Miller's side.
Mark Miller wasn't medically classified this way, but he fell into the category of what people commonly called mild dementia.
He could occasionally get up on his own, but sitting or walking alone was practically impossible.
And he hardly spoke at all.
He might utter one word on a normal day, but even that wasn't real conversation—it was just talking to something from the past in his hallucinations.
He just sat blankly in the rocking chair staring at the fireplace—that was it.
The strange thing was that his daily routine was consistent.
They suspected it was instinctive after nearly 90 years of the pattern from age 10, but he woke at 7 a.m., ate breakfast with the helper's assistance, went out to the lakeside for a short walk, sat in the rocking chair, had lunch, spent time in the rocking chair again, ate dinner, and slept around 10 p.m.
However, if this pattern was disrupted, he rarely showed intense reactions like screaming or wailing.
Fortunately, it never happened in front of Yeonwoo.
On the contrary, while with Yeonwoo, he showed reactions that surprised the family, helpers, and staff working in the house.
When Yeonwoo played the piano, he hummed or sang passionately, and even without it, he would suddenly stand, clap, or smile.
Only in front of Yeonwoo's piano.
As he reacted that way and Yeonwoo's performances lengthened, his alter ego from the log cabin and the old fairies gradually returned to blue and their light brightened.
Like that, a week passed.
One day, while relentlessly playing the piano, Mark Miller's fairy shared its blue light with Yeonwoo.
The power held by Mark Miller's fairy was nothing else.
It was the experience he had accumulated over more than 60 years, from his unknown twenties until just before secluding himself and getting dementia.
Precisely, every time Yeonwoo played, Mark Miller fell into hallucinations and returned to his past self, and now Yeonwoo could witness the scenes he saw.
He could take in the sight of him leisurely singing, performing, and composing in front of countless people.
In composition and performance, which he had already reached a profound level, it might seem like there was nothing to learn from Mark Miller, but that wasn't true at all.
The hallucinations he showed became moments for Yeonwoo, who had learned and awakened on his own, to study the orthodox way systematically.
He learned systematically what he had simply absorbed by listening.
And he could learn how to sing, stage manners, gestures, and such.
He received experience through hallucinations.
“[Grandpa, someday I want to sing in front of people like you do.]”
Yeonwoo said, watching Mark Miller always singing so coolly on stage.
“[Thank you, young audience. I hope someday when you grow up, you'll become an even greater singer than me.]”
Mark Miller mistook Yeonwoo for the young fan who once came to his stage and got an autograph, and spoke.
It might be scary, but Yeonwoo smiled brightly instead.
Because his words to the child with dreams, delivered with a bright smile, were more sincere than anyone's.