Chapter 76
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Rain
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Swish
Han Yuhyeon slipped off the goggles and slowly looked around.
Its already dawn.
He was sure hed logged in this morning, but now that he was out, it was already two in the morning.
Outside, rain was drizzling, and a cool morning breeze drifted in through the slightly open window.
Hoo.
But despite the chilly wind, the inside of the capsule was still filled with heat.
It wasn't because the room was hot, nor was it because Yuhyeon was prone to sweating.
I walked on the sky.
Tremble.
Yuhyeon slowly clenched his trembling hand.
An indescribable sense of exhilaration washed over his entire body.
I thought that was only possible in dreams.
Walking on the sky.
An idea anyone might have imagined at least once in their childhood.
This was the moment it became reality.
Walking through the air, stepping on invisible ground, felt like being in a dream.
If just walking felt this good
How much more thrilling would it be to fly?
Hed heard you could get flight-related skills if you became an archmage or a dragon knight.
It must be amazing, right? So good it's hard to put into words.
Yuhyeon smiled unknowingly as he pictured himself gliding through the sky.
He couldn't quite grasp what it would feel like if such a moment actually came.
I'll just check this and go straight to bed.
Yuhyeon grabbed his phone from the desk and went straight to bed.
He wanted to check if he had received any messages while he was in the game.
Hmm?
Soon, a look of bewilderment crossed Yuhyeon's face as he checked his text messages.
His expression was one of disbelief, as if questioning whether what he was seeing was real.
(Web Message) Receive your H Card Exclusive Package!
To our valued customer, Mr. Hanhyeon, we have prepared this package as a token of our gratitude.
Link: https:www.hyuncard.comcpc
Huh.
It was a promotional text from his credit card company for valued customers.
He was used to only getting overdue payment notices, struggling to pay his card bill every month
Ive lived long enough to get texts like this.
Just a month or two ago, this was something he couldn't have even imagined.
It felt like he'd been experiencing all sorts of new things since starting Wonderland.
Anyway, no word from Sam Entertainment.
But there was no contact from the one place that mattered.
He'd heard they were starting the mixing process, but he hadn't received any updates on their progress.
Hmm.
Usually, this meant one of two things: the work was either completely stuck or going exceptionally well.
He had already confirmed through their conversations that the arranger, Yuna, had a wide musical spectrum.
I wonder if they're doing okay. I should probably give them a call.
He assumed it was the latter, so Yuhyeon wasn't too worried.
If he didn't hear from them, he could always reach out first.
The next text was from Sangcheol.
Sangcheol: Yuhyeon, what are you up to tomorrow? Thinking of stopping by your place.
Sangcheol: Soojins meeting up with her friends lol. If you're free, I'll buy lunch.
My place?
It was unusual for Sangcheol to say he was coming over.
It seemed he thought it was the perfect time to make plans, since his wife would be out.
Perfect timing, I was free anyway.
He'd been meaning to invite Sangcheol over sometime anyway, so this worked out well.
He wanted to show him the new studio and play him the music he'd been working on.
So he casually texted back OK and placed his phone on the nightstand.
Hoo
Yuhyeon lay on the bed and gently closed his eyes.
But sleep wouldn't come, so he ended up opening them again.
I'm not sleepy at all.
His mind was wide awake, making it hard to fall asleep even if he tried to force it.
Perhaps it was the dopamine rush from Wonderland that kept him from sleeping.
Ugh.
Yuhyeon finally gave up on sleeping and sat down at his desktop.
He figured it was better to compose than to try and force himself to sleep.
Come to think of it, wasn't this the first time he was composing since setting up his studio?
I bought all these virtual instruments I wanted, and I'm only just now touching them.
To have set up state-of-the-art sound equipment and only now be opening his composition software.
For someone who called himself a musician, it felt rather shameful.
Games and music. I need to establish a good routine if I want to handle both.
Yuhyeon tightened his slackened resolve and opened a new project file.
For now, I'll call it Untitled.
Since it didn't have a title yet, he named it something like 'Untitled'.
Soon, a screen like a blank canvas appeared on the monitor.
.
Yuhyeon's eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at the monitor.
How should I start this song?
Should I try turning my encounter with the troll into a song?
He had recently received a lot of inspiration from Wonderland, some of it so vivid it was seared into his memory.
From meeting the troll in the forest to creating an a cappella harmony with it, and so on.
Hmm, let's save that for when I'm writing the cajon score.
After a brief thought, Yuhyeon decided to find inspiration elsewhere.
With that thought, he calmly looked around his surroundings.
The drizzling rain, the dampness seeping in through the window crack, the cold morning air
It was raining outside the window.
It wasn't a heavy downpour, but a persistent drizzle that gave it a certain atmosphere.
The kind of atmosphere you'd find sipping warm sake at an izakaya in the early morning.
Should I try making music with the sound of rain?
Yuhyeon suddenly felt the urge to create a piece of music that would suit the sound of rain.
Vivaldi expressed the sound of rain in The Four Seasons, and Chopin played the quietly falling raindrops.
Moreover, Rossini's William Tell Overture contains a depiction of a storm.
The fierce rainstorm was a metaphor for the sudden invasion of the Austrian army.
As such, rain was an indispensable theme for musicians.
It's a good idea, right? The sound of rain makes people sentimental.
Yuhyeon liked the sound of rain, too.
Not the fiercely pouring rain, but a persistent drizzle like this.
When it rained like this, the comfort of hiding under the covers and reading a book was beyond words.
I can't hear the sound, but
Yuhyeon placed his fingers in the gap of the slightly open window.
Soon, plink, plop! Raindrops landed on his fingers.
I can feel it like this.
It was the rhythm of the rain, so to speak.
Just because he couldn't hear didn't mean he couldn't compose.
If you can't hear, you just have to feel the rhythm with your whole body, like this.
Hmm, hmm.
Having found the rhythm, Yuhyeon began to hum.
It was to create a melody to lay over the rhythm.
Hm, hmmm.
The still-incomplete melody slowly spread through the small room.
But it felt as though his mind was being calmed, like the quietly falling raindrops.
This should be enough.
Now that he had the rhythm and melody, it was time to build the song.
Yuhyeon moved his hands, aiming to pour his current feelings into the song.
Click, clack!
With the light clicks of the mouse, MIDI notes began to fill the screen.
A picture began to be painted on the once-blank canvas of the project file.
A picture called Rain Sound, containing Yuhyeon's current emotions.
Should I add a flute sound here? To come in with the snare hits.
The bright sound of a flute goes very well with the sound of rain.
It's lighthearted yet solemn, gentle yet not heavya feeling where both coexist.
Of course, he couldn't use the sound as it was; it needed a little tweaking.
Let's play around with the presets in the new instrument I bought.
As it happened, the virtual instrument he'd just bought had a preset that could make a flute sound like rain.
He could use this to shape and refine the sound in the direction he wanted.
He cut the highs and boosted the lows, changing the texture of the sound.
This should produce the sound he wanted.
I've got the basic framework down.
Having created the overall structure of the song, Yuhyeon stared intently at the monitor.
Keyboard and bass, snare and drums, and even the 'flute' that would serve as the melody and the kick.
Looking at the composition alone, all the elements were there, but it felt like something was missing.
Hmm.
Did I miss something during the process?
Although he'd made it simply, he'd added all the necessary sources and effects.
Staring intently at the screen, Yuhyeon's eyes suddenly flashed with realization.
Ah! I forgot to do that.
The problem wasn't with the composition.
It was more about the song's tone.
When he decided to make a song out of the sound of rain, he had wanted to express it with a vintage sound.
Using the RC-20 I just bought
A vintage sound meant lo-fithat is, low fidelity and with a lot of noise.
It was easy to imagine if you thought of recent old-pop-style or retro songs.
It was close to the feeling of listening to music on an LP record.
It's a shame I can't actually hear the sound.
The problem, however, was that it was a new instrument, so he didn't know what it sounded like.
Yuhyeon had no choice but to visually check the frequencies on the screen and adjust the presets one by one.
This was the best he could do in a situation where he couldn't hear.
Done.
Now that he'd adjusted the tone, it was really finished.
It was a little disappointing that he couldn't hear the result himself, but it was okay.
No matter what, the fact that he had captured his current feelings in the sound of rain remained unchanged.
I'll have to leave the detailed evaluation to Sangcheol.
Yuhyeon murmured this to himself and glanced up at the clock.
Hmm?
He looked at the clock and saw it was already six in the morning.
It had been 2 AM when he opened the project file.
Since the sun was rising later these days, he hadn't even realized morning was coming.
Okay, time for bed. I'm going to collapse if I keep this up.
Having been awake for nearly 24 hours, Yuhyeon finally closed his eyes.
Perhaps because he had even managed to compose, he felt proud of himself, and his heart felt much lighter.
Maybe I'll title the song 'Rain'
Yuhyeon mumbled like a baby with his eyes closed before finally succumbing to sleep.
It was the end of a pleasant day, for a change.
Oh, this is good.
The next day, Sangcheol, who was visiting, said while wearing the headphones.
This is the best song you've made so far. To be honest, it's even better than when I heard 'Hymn'.
Really? It's that good?
Sangcheol took off the headphones and looked at Yuhyeon.
Have you ever seen me lie?
He would occasionally say harsh things for a friend's sake, but he was the type to avoid even white lies if possible.
Because Sangcheol's creed was to live truthfully in all things.
The vintage feel is perfect. I don't know if it was intentional, but the scratchesis that what you call them?that pop up here and there? They sound really interesting.
...Is that so?
I'm telling you! You could submit this somewhere. Like a contest, or maybe let the producer at Sam Entertainment hear it!
Yuhyeon's eyes widened at Sangcheol's repeated praise.
He wasn't even this enthusiastic when I played him 'Hymn'.
If Sangcheol was praising it this much, it meant it really had potential.
Wasn't he known among their acquaintances as the king of popular taste?
By the way, was there some dissonance?
To be honest, the 'scratch' Sangcheol mentioned wasn't intentional.
It seemed to be some kind of dissonance he'd created without realizing, and the fact that it sounded interesting was a happy accident.
As they say, all roads lead to Rome. He never thought creating a vintage tone would turn out like this
You're talking about the scratch sound at 0:22 and 0:41, right?
Yup, that one.
Yuhyeon noted the scratchy parts Sangcheol had mentioned and then spoke to him.
So, why'd you come over in the middle of the day? And with pizza, no less.
Even if his wife was out, meeting up at his place like this was a rare occasion.
They usually met outside when they had time.
He usually only comes over when there's something going on
Usually, there was a reason for him to come to the house.
Like when they needed to have an important conversation.
Let's eat the pizza first. I have a lot to talk about anyway.
A lot to talk about? Could something really serious have happened to him?
What is it? You're being so serious, it's scaring me. Nothing bad happened, right?
Yuhyeon asked cautiously, just in case.
Yuhyeon, have you ever seen the details of a quest change?
Sangcheol said abruptly as he opened the pizza box.
He looked at him with uncharacteristically serious eyes.