4
4# Salbaram
Several days passed.
During that time, inspiration kept coming to me every single day, and I ended up writing several more songs.
They didn’t have lyrics yet, but I had filled them with instrumentals and humming as guides.
If there was one thing they all had in common, it was that every single one of them was a good song.
At least, they sounded good to me.
I also finished arranging the bridge section of “Salbaram” without a hitch.
It was driving me crazy that songs that had never come out no matter how desperately I tried in my previous life were now flowing out of me so effortlessly.
And the more I experienced it, the greater the pleasure became, and naturally, my desire to create only grew stronger.
“How the hell does this even make sense...?”
Who would have thought composing a song I genuinely liked with my own hands could be this much fun?
It was a kind of enjoyment I could never even have imagined before.
‘Though if there’s one thing I’m disappointed about...’
It was the piano.
For now, I was using the computer keyboard as a substitute for piano keys, but I couldn’t keep doing that forever.
Still, getting proper equipment would have to wait until I had some money to spare.
‘To do that, I need to release a song and make it successful as soon as possible.’
Would I really be able to do that?
It wasn’t that I lacked confidence.
It was just that there was an undeniable difference between what I heard and what the public would hear.
All I could do was hope that everyone would like my songs.
‘Come to think of it.’
But regardless of how good the song itself was, once people heard Seo Arim’s voice, they wouldn’t be able to help falling for it.
A unique voice that might only appear once in a thousand years.
With someone like her right beside me, I almost felt like kneeling down and offering a prayer of gratitude to God.
“It should be about time...”
Inside my room, I spun around in my chair while the DAW screen remained open.
Thanks to all the effort I had put in, Seo Arim had opened up to me quite a bit.
We greeted each other every morning, and we took turns doing the housework.
The fact that she never stopped smiling whenever we talked was proof enough.
“Let’s see.”
Seo Arim was currently taking a shower after finishing her part-time job.
After that, she would probably go into her room to work.
I would call her into my room at exactly that moment, then go, Ta-da! and play my music for her.
Perfect according to plan.
But I couldn’t let my guard down just yet...
Thump.
“Huh?”
A sudden sense of foreboding came over me.
I cautiously poked my head out of the room.
And what I saw was...
“......”
Seo Arim’s firmly closed bedroom door.
Haha, why was that door closed when it had been slightly open just a moment ago?
“Damn it...!”
I’d missed my chance!
This wouldn’t do.
“What should I do...?”
I paced around my room for a long while, racking my brain.
In the end, unable to come up with a suitable solution, I reluctantly crept toward Seo Arim’s bedroom door.
‘Hmm.’
It felt a little awkward to just knock out of nowhere...
Should I try calling her first?
“Um... Arim?”
...
No answer.
Was my voice too quiet?
I tried again.
“A-Arim?”
Still no answer.
Had I missed my timing?
Was this some kind of sign from the heavens telling me that now wasn’t the right time?
Fine. Then I’d make a few more adjustments and let her hear it next time...
Bang!
“Why do you keep calling me?”
At that moment, the door flew open and Seo Arim emerged with an annoyed expression.
I flinched and immediately backed down.
“S-Sorry. Was I disturbing you while you were working...?”
“No, well... not really, but...”
For some reason, the way she scratched her head seemed awkward.
Then I caught sight of the monitor over her shoulder.
I narrowed my eyes.
‘That’s...’
Was that a game?
League of Hero.
Having played that game extensively in my previous life, there was no way I could mistake that screen.
“What? Arim, are you seriously playing a game... Mmph!”
“J-Just come out and talk.”
Seo Arim hurriedly covered my mouth and dragged me into the living room.
She practically dumped me onto the sofa, and I looked up at her with an aggrieved expression.
“...Why are you so violent?”
“I don’t think you’re in any position to say that, Oppa.”
“I’ll give you that.”
“Anyway, what is it? Tell me.”
“Th-That is...”
I just had to stick to the plan.
But the words wouldn’t come out properly.
Maybe it was because Seo Arim was staring straight at me and urging me to speak.
Or perhaps it was because I was nervous about playing my music for her for the first time.
Probably both.
But I couldn’t stay like this forever.
So I had to say it.
I swallowed hard, gathered my courage, and shouted,
“P-Please listen to my song...!”
“Huh?”
Seo Arim’s expression became bewildered.
No, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
I had originally planned to deliver a much cooler line, something like, “I have some music I want you to hear. Would you like to listen to it together?”
But whatever.
As long as she got the message.
After tilting her head for a moment, Seo Arim let out a small laugh.
“Ah, the one you were making last time? You said you were learning composition as a hobby. I guess you’re still doing it?”
“Huh? Ah, y-yeah...”
“Okay. Well, I’ll give you, as your younger sister, a brutally honest evaluation. Let’s see how terribly you made it.”
“......”
Seo Arim looked incredibly excited.
As if she had just been given something fun to tear apart...
“Ahem.”
I didn’t know why she had already assumed that I had made something terrible, but she’d find out once she heard it.
I could guarantee she would be shocked.
I shrugged and led Seo Arim into my room.
“Huh?”
As expected, Seo Arim’s eyes widened when she saw my neatly cleaned room.
“What? You cleaned your room? It was literally a dump before.”
“A dump? You’re being way too generous.”
Calling it a dump was almost an insult to actual dumps.
A wasteland would have been more accurate.
“You used to ignore me every time I told you to clean it. What on earth happened to you...?”
Muttering to herself, Seo Arim brought a chair over and sat down beside me.
Then she looked at the audio waveform displayed in the DAW and asked curiously,
“What? You put vocals in too? Did you sing it yourself?”
“Yeah. I decided to show off my singing skills for the first time in a while. What do you think?”
“...This is ridiculous. What did you record with?”
“This.”
I pointed at my phone, and Seo Arim gave a hollow laugh.
“Ha, you’re more enthusiastic than I expected. Unlike the usual you. Anyway, shall we listen?”
“Okay. Prepare to be shocked.”
I turned up the speaker volume and started playing the music.
At the same time, a gentle chord melody filled the room.
Perhaps it was an intro she hadn’t expected, because Seo Arim’s eyes opened slightly wider.
But so far, there wasn’t much of a reaction.
Let’s see how long she could keep that expression.
Soon, the short intro passed, and the first verse began as the drums came in.
[At first, it might feel a little distant]
My voice flowed out, clumsy but filled with as much emotion as I could put into it.
[That doesn’t mean we hate each other]
I glanced at Seo Arim’s reaction.
Her expression was different from before.
Completely blank.
Had she already lost interest?
Was my song really that bad?
All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind, but the chorus hadn’t even arrived yet.
For now, I decided to wait until the song was over.
[We shared the same space, breathed the same air]
[Isn’t it strange that we ended up so different?]
Then the pre-chorus began, and the arrangement started to change.
A beautiful chord riff floated through the air, making it feel as though I were dreaming, drifting weightlessly through the sky.
A gentle voice wound its way through it.
[The words “I love you” have become so common]
[Maybe that’s why I couldn’t say them, because they felt awkward]
The lyrics I had written with all my heart spread through the room, one line at a time.
[Slowly and warmly, like a gentle spring breeze]
Finally, the heavy bass came in, and the chorus began.
The vocals grew stronger while remaining soft and gentle.
[Can we become close again?]
Before I knew it, the first chorus had passed and the song moved into the second verse.
Even then, Seo Arim maintained her blank expression.
Then, not long afterward, the bridge began.
The part I had put the most effort into.
[If we could become close again, like before, like when we first met]
[Then, at the very last moment, I’ll tell you]
[How grateful I was]
Even the final chorus came to an end, and soon, only silence remained in the room.
I anxiously glanced sideways at Seo Arim to gauge her reaction.
Then I suddenly widened my eyes.
A single transparent tear was rolling down her cheek.
“A-Arim...?”
Confusion overwhelmed me more than happiness.
The girl who had been so cold that I sometimes wondered if she even had emotions was now sitting there looking like nothing more than a helpless child, her eyes filled with tears.
Those tiny tears soon turned into a torrent.
“Arim, are you okay... Uh?”
At that moment, Seo Arim’s gaze turned toward me.
And then—
Hug!
Before I could stop her, she suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
Seo Arim’s shoulders trembled from time to time, and the arms wrapped around me tightened.
All I could do was quietly pat her back as she sobbed.
“Sniff, sob...”
Seo Arim remained in my arms and cried for a long time.
Long enough for the shoulders of my clothes to become damp with her tears.
Only after that did Seo Arim finally calm down enough to raise her head.
“Ahem... S-Sorry...”
Perhaps embarrassed after crying so much, she awkwardly avoided my gaze.
I gave her a faint smile and asked what I had been wondering.
“How was the song?”
“It was so... so good. I mean it.”
“...Really?”
“Yeah. If you don’t believe me, I’ll swear on my pinky. Here.”
Seo Arim suddenly raised her pinky and held it out toward me.
I was momentarily stunned by the unexpected gesture, but I raised my own finger and linked it with hers.
Then, as a finishing touch, we pressed our thumbs together.
After sealing our somewhat childish promise, Seo Arim looked at me and smiled brightly.
She was smiling more radiantly than I had ever seen her before.
I nearly collapsed under the overwhelming wave of emotion.
‘Am I dreaming, or am I awake...?’
The Seo Arim was telling me that she liked my song.
And as if that weren’t enough, she was smiling at me.
I barely managed to suppress the urge to pinch my own cheek.
After the commotion finally settled down,
Seo Arim listened to my song several more times before letting out an admiring exclamation.
“Wow... You really composed this, Oppa? You didn’t plagiarize it or anything, did you?”
“How do you even think of me?”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just that I can’t believe it. Did you write the lyrics too?”
“Yeah. What do you think?”
“I really, really loved them. It just... felt like you were saying those things to me.”
Perhaps her emotions welled up again, because Seo Arim looked like she was about to cry before vigorously shaking her head.
“Haa, I’m not normally someone who cries easily. This is strange.”
I knew that.
I had thought I would never see this girl cry in my entire life, but I guess I had been terribly mistaken.
Maybe that was why I was even happier.
“Anyway, I can start recording tomorrow, right?”
“Uh, what?”
“This was supposed to be a song for me, wasn’t it?”
“It, it was, but...”
I hadn’t expected things to go this smoothly.
“Then it’s settled. Let’s release it as soon as the recording is finished. I want to release it as a single. I’ll contact the distributor, okay?”
“Uh, y-yeah...”
While I was still dazed, Seo Arim gave me a bright smile and returned to her room.
All while humming the song she had just heard.
Even after her bedroom door closed, I could only stand there staring at it for a long while.
“...This is crazy.”
A rather intense exclamation escaped me.
At the same time, what appeared in my mind was a brilliant future.
My song, with Seo Arim’s voice layered over it, being released as a digital single?
There was no way anyone in the world could fail to be happy about that.
My heart began swelling with excitement and emotion.
“Wow... finally.”
Something I had only ever imagined was actually going to happen.
Just in case, I pinched my cheek, and when I felt the pain, I chuckled.
Then I clenched my fists tightly.
“Okay, let’s work hard!”
It hadn’t been possible in my previous life, but things were different now.
I had gained talent.
And I had even received recognition for it.
“Tomorrow is the recording, right?”
For the first time in a while, I felt like I could fall asleep peacefully tonight.