14
## Chapter 14 — The Whole World Is creep
I planned my route by going from Suncheon to Yeosu first, then taking a ferry to Haenam afterward.
The reason I didn’t head straight to Haenam and deliberately stopped by Yeosu midway—
was food.
For someone like me who loved eating, Yeosu—the city of flavor—was basically heaven.
“Alrighty, here’s two servings of soy sauce marinated crab set meal.”
“Waaah, thank you!”
And since I especially loved crab, the very first thing I did was go eat soy sauce marinated crab.
Now that I had money to spare, I boldly ordered *two* servings of the set meal and immediately began devouring the food
without pause.
Chomp.
The sweet, tender crab meat melted the instant it touched my tongue.
And when paired with the salty, rich crab innards over rice…
“Waaah… seriously…”
It tasted unbelievable.
Art moved people emotionally.
And this soy sauce marinated crab had moved me through flavor alone, so didn’t it deserve to be called art too?
‘Even though crab season’s over, it still tastes this good.’
Just as I was happily emptying bowl after bowl in awe of the crab—
“How’s the crab suitin’ your taste, young man?”
The elderly grandmother who ran the quiet little restaurant alone approached me with a warm smile.
“Yes, Grandma! It’s absolutely delicious!”
“Oh my, you already finished all that? You really *love* crab, don’t ya? Here then, try some spicy marinated crab too.”
I had only ordered soy sauce marinated crab, but Grandma brought out a dish of spicy marinated crab as a free side for
me to sample.
“Wah! Thank you!”
Spicy marinated crab was something I loved just as much as soy sauce marinated crab.
To order one and get the other for free—
I was genuinely touched by the warm countryside generosity you could never experience in Seoul—
“Just write me one little Instagram review in return.”
“…Excuse me?”
…I *almost* was touched. Wait, Instagram review?
The grandmother running the restaurant looked older than even my real grandmother—
yet somehow she was more MZ than me.
Feeling bewildered, I answered awkwardly:
“…Actually, I don’t use Instagram.”
“What? You don’t use Instagram? Then maybe something else? Like running a YouTube channel?”
“I barely even watch YouTube…”
“Goodness me…”
Hearing that I used neither Instagram nor YouTube, the grandmother—who looked at least eighty years old—stared at me as
if I were some bizarre creature.
“If you don’t mind me askin’… did you perhaps defect from North Korea?”
“…I’ve lived in Seoul for twenty-six years.”
“Whew, and you’re even from Seoul? Heavens, what a rare young person nowadays.”
So society had finally reached the point where not using Instagram or YouTube made you seem like a North Korean
defector.
Feeling like some primitive caveman, I asked her:
“Grandma… since when did *you* start using Instagram?”
“Oh, just since last year. These days, if you don’t promote yourself through Instagram and YouTube, running a business
is impossible. The sashimi place down the alley blew up because the algorithm picked them up too~”
Instagram.
YouTube.
And even *algorithms.*
Was I the one falling behind society—or was this grandmother simply adapting way too fast?
“Young man, you should try Instagram or YouTube too. There’s nothin’ more fun in this world these days.”
“Ah… yes…”
Just what exactly had happened to the world during the fifteen years I hid inside my room?
Looking at the grandmother whose outward appearance completely contradicted her ultra-modern mindset, I laughed and
asked:
“But Grandma, if I can’t write an Instagram review, are you taking back the spicy marinated crab?”
“That’d be heartless. I brought it out for you, so don’t worry and enjoy.”
“Wah, thank you!”
Thankfully, I still got the spicy marinated crab.
Humming happily, I picked up a piece and popped it into my mouth.
Crunch.
The sweet and spicy seasoning exploded across my tongue, completely different from the soy sauce version yet equally
delicious.
“Wah…! Grandma, the spicy crab’s amazing too! I don’t use Instagram, but if anyone asks me for Yeosu food
recommendations, I’ll definitely tell them to come here!”
“Hehe, thank you, Seoul boy. Eat plenty.”
And so, I happily scraped every last bit of spicy marinated crab over my remaining rice until the bowl was spotless.
Maybe because the crab tasted so good—
or because the grandmother herself was so unique—
‘Hmm… Instagram and YouTube, huh.’
Even though I had no plans to use them, those two platforms lingered in my head afterward.
---
“Ah, the sea breeze feels incredible.”
Tomorrow, I planned to take a ferry to Haenam, meaning tonight was my final night in Yeosu.
After enjoying soy sauce crab, sashimi, bread, and all sorts of local food, I grabbed a can of beer and my guitar late
at night and stepped outside my lodging.
My destination was the beach located ten minutes away on foot.
It was too dark to really do anything, but there was a bench beneath a streetlight where I could rest.
“Oof.”
Ever since working at the Live Pub in Gwangju, I had awakened to the taste of alcohol.
The moment I sat down, I immediately took a sip of beer.
Even though beer had low alcohol content, chugging down a large mouthful still brought a pleasant buzz.
My stomach was full.
The sea breeze felt cool.
Swaaaash—
And hearing the sound of waves crashing against the dark ocean stirred something emotional inside me.
A mood and atmosphere I could never experience while trapped inside my room in Seoul.
It felt as though the cracks left in my heart by childhood trauma were slowly healing.
“This is nice…”
Thanks to this nationwide trip, I had visited many beautiful places, eaten incredible food, and met wonderful people.
Most importantly—
I had started painting and playing piano again.
I had learned to love the things I abandoned and avoided for over a decade.
And also—
‘How about seriously trying to become a singer?’
—I had discovered a new dream.
Painting.
Piano.
And singing.
Thinking about it now, this trip had truly given me so much.
“This is fun… I’m happy…”
Wanting to express that emotion somehow, I slung the acoustic guitar over my shoulder and slipped a pick between my
fingers.
But—
“Hmm…”
There wasn’t any specific song I wanted to play.
More accurately, none of the songs I knew fit the emotions I felt right now.
Crash. Crash.
So instead, I let my hands move instinctively along with the sound of the waves and began humming softly.
—♪♪ ♬
And then—
“…Hm? That melody just now sounded pretty good.”
Tilting my head at the beautiful guitar melody echoing in my ears, I tried it again.
“How did I play that just now? Ah, like this.”
Afraid I might forget the chords later, I propped up my phone to record my hands while playing.
—♪♪ ♬
For an improvised melody, it flowed surprisingly naturally beneath my fingers.
After finishing the short performance, I checked the recorded video on my phone.
“…This is actually pretty decent?”
It was only a short guitar riff lasting a few bars, but it sounded far better than expected.
“If I added a few more chords here and wrote lyrics…”
…it might actually become a full song.
……
Then I burst into laughter and lifted my beer can.
“Come on, who am I kidding.”
Songwriting wasn’t something just anyone could do.
Mozart started composing at age five and wrote symphonies by age nine.
Paul McCartney, often called the greatest melody maker in popular music history, had already developed his own composing
style before The Beatles even formed.
There was no way I possessed talent like those geniuses.
This short guitar riff I made was probably just a lucky coincidence.
Still—
Gulp. Gulp.
The fact that someone like me—who had spent his whole life only listening to and playing music created by others—had
finally created something original for the first time…
made me unbelievably happy.
Maybe that was why—
‘Young man, you should try Instagram or YouTube too. There’s nothin’ more fun in this world these days.’
—Grandma’s earlier words resurfaced in my head as I drank my beer.
“Hmm… maybe I should upload it to Instagram or YouTube.”
The old me would *never* have made that choice.
But thanks to the alcohol, courage had filled me more than usual.
“I don’t even have an Instagram account, so forget that… I guess I’ll upload it to YouTube.”
I barely watched YouTube, but years ago I had created an account just to watch music videos of songs I liked.
“Nobody’s actually going to search for this anyway. I’ll just use it to preserve the memory.”
I uploaded the short freestyle guitar riff video to my personal account.
And just in case someone recognized me, I casually changed the channel name from my real name, Baek Hangyeol, to
something random.
[Untitled — 0 seconds ago]
[Channel Name: creep1234]
[Video uploaded.]
Maybe because I was drunk.
Even though it was such a small thing, my heart raced as though I had committed some grand act of rebellion.
The moment the upload finished, I put my phone down and grabbed my guitar again.
“This feels soooo gooood!”
That night, I kept drinking beer endlessly while using the ocean itself as my companion and playing guitar beneath the
stars.
And the next morning—
the moment the alcohol wore off, I completely forgot I had ever uploaded the guitar riff to YouTube at all.
---
“Wow… the mural’s seriously so pretty.”
A female university student enjoying her vacation lay sprawled across her bed scrolling through Instagram posts.
Her latest obsession was murals.
More specifically—
the works of the faceless painter creep, whose emotional murals had become wildly popular on Instagram lately.
“Who *is* this creep person? Korea had a painter like this?”
After admiring the village mural in Dalsol-ri, Jangseong County and the White Goose mural in Suncheon, she searched to
see whether creep had an Instagram account.
Nothing came up.
Instead—
“Huh? What’s this? Faceless pianist creep?”
—the search results flooded with reels about a faceless pianist named creep who had appeared in Gwangju.
“This person’s called creep too? No way they’re the same person… right?”
The reels about the faceless pianist creep had accumulated view counts just as massive as the faceless painter creep’s
murals.
Even though she normally had zero interest in piano, curiosity got the better of her and she clicked one.
“Wah… holy shit…”
And soon, a reaction just as intense as when she first saw creep’s murals escaped her lips.
Not understanding piano didn’t mean she lacked ears.
The performance played by a man wearing a rabbit mascot costume in the reel sounded breathtakingly beautiful even to
someone completely ignorant about music.
“La Campanella? Improvised arrangement? I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds insanely impressive.”
The comments were likewise filled entirely with praise and worship for the faceless pianist creep.
Now that she looked closer, both the art world and piano world were going crazy over this mysterious genius named creep
who appeared like a comet.
“…Wait, but this happened in Gwangju? And all the creep murals were also in Jeolla Province, right?”
There was no way multiple faceless geniuses with the exact same name appeared simultaneously by coincidence.
But there was also no way they were actually the same person…
‘Could creep maybe be the name of a team made up of several artists?’
Growing even more curious about creep, she searched YouTube too.
But again, nothing appeared.
Except—
videos about the legendary British rock band Radiohead and their song Creep.
As she absentmindedly scrolled through those videos—
[Untitled — 12 hours ago]
“…Hm? What’s this?”
A video titled simply *Untitled* with no explanation whatsoever caught her eye.
Unlike every other video desperately trying to attract attention with flashy thumbnails, this one looked completely
careless—
which ironically made it stand out even more.
The video length was only around twenty seconds.
And it had zero views.
Used to consuming short-form content like Reels and Shorts, she clicked it without much thought.
And then—
—♪♪ ♬
“…Huh?”
The moment the guitar melody tickled her ears, her eyes flew open wide.
“…What is this? Why’s it so good?”
The addictive guitar riff instantly drenched her in emotion.
It felt as though she had suddenly stepped out from her cramped bedroom and onto a starlit beach beside the night sea.
But the beautiful guitar performance ended after only twenty seconds.
“Ah, why’s it already over?! Where’s the rest?!”
Frustrated, she immediately entered the comment section.
She planned to beg the uploader to continue the rest of the song.
And then—
[Channel Name: creep1234]
“Kyaaah! W-What?!”
The moment she saw the channel name behind the mesmerizing guitar performance, she dropped her phone in shock.
“T-This person’s creep too…?”
A strange chill ran down her spine as her hands trembled.
First the faceless painter.
Then the faceless pianist.
And now even this faceless guitar performance was also by someone called creep?
Statistically, how did that even make sense? It felt like being haunted by ghosts.
“Did some kind of creep challenge become trendy while I wasn’t looking? What even is this…?!”
Yet even while panicking, the beautiful guitar melody from moments ago continued echoing in her ears.
—Guys ㅠㅠ Look at this video! I just got chills! The guitar playing’s insane and this person’s also called creep!
She immediately began sharing the guitar performance uploaded by creep1234 with her close friends first.