The Insane Prodigy Composer Returns - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Have you ever heard about the ‘Butterfly Dream’ that appears in Zhuangzi’s ‘Qi Wu Lun’?¹

The one where one dreams of being a butterfly.

Or that one cannot tell if the butterfly is dreaming of being oneself.

“What the hell.”

That’s what Hyun-seung was thinking.

“How could this happen….”

It was beyond his common sense.

He knew he was….

Dying alone and lonely, right?

But how did this happen?

When he woke up, he was back to his 21-year-old self.

At first, he panicked at the unknown situation….

After a while, he decided not to worry about it.

‘Worrying won’t solve anything….’

After a few days of wracking his brain and trying to figure out what happened, he decided to stop thinking over it.

It’s not like he could find the answer by worrying about it in the first place.

‘First, let’s not lie around and dawdle. Time to get up.’

Hyun-seung got out of bed and headed straight to his desk.

‘This desk is really small….’

Even when he was younger, he thought his house was small, but after living in a big house and living in luxury, the house felt even smaller and dilapidated.

First he opened a notebook and grabbed a pen.

Scribbling down his current situation on a piece of paper, he slowly took stock of his situation.

1. I was dead.

It was an obvious fact.

‘I definitely died.’

After a long moment of staring at the ground, Hyun-seung crossed out the words he had written and began to write a new one next to it.

1. I returned to the past.

He realized that he had not died but had instead returned to the time when he was 21 years old.

Although he couldn’t understand how it had happened…

Hyun-seung saw this as a ‘chance’ to correct all his mistakes.

‘Yeah, this is an opportunity.’

Isn’t this an opportunity to live happily, doing music and not repeating the mistakes of the past?

If he truly has been given another chance to live, what should he do?

‘What should I do.’

Can he live a life of no regrets?

First.

All he knew how to do was music.

‘I’m confident in music.’

In his past life, he also released hit songs without any formal training.

Contrary to what the world said about him being a one-hit wonder.

Hyun-seung had the unusual reputation of making almost every song he released a hit.

The secret was ‘talent’.

For Hyun-seung, it was the money code in music.

That is….

He had the ability to make music that made money.

It was not an acquired skill, but an innate ability.

Therefore, it was an ability that can be expressed as a talent.

In other words, it was very easy for him to make money from music.

Except.

Unlike his previous life, which was consumed by work, he wanted to take a look around and observe his surroundings in this life.

Because he was aware that there were so many things he had ignored, using being busy as an excuse…

‘This life will be different.’

This time, he wanted to live by paying attention to his surroundings.

Also.

He decided not to create situations that would lead to controversy.

‘Even in my previous life, I didn’t get into any trouble involving drugs, women, or alcohol.’

Having lived with the idea that entitled arrogance was a virtue, he had unintentionally gotten himself into trouble.

The world started pointing fingers at him after the death of a management company representative who committed suicide because he refused to give them a song.

As if everyone had been waiting for it, they’d come up with all sorts of slanderous words to pull him down and tear him apart.

‘Thanks to that, I couldn’t release a song under my own name.’

In this life, he wanted to hide his identity a bit more and be cautious with his music activities.

No.

To be more precise, he wanted to comfortably operate without having to show his face in public.

‘Okay, that’s the answer.’

Since he was not confident about not making enemies, he resolved to do music while completely hiding his identity.

‘Great.’

Hyun-seung felt like he was finally starting to get some sort of outline.

Plan 1. This is an opportunity! I’ll do music again!

Plan 2. But without getting consumed by work!

Plan 3. Keep a low profile and remain hidden!

Plan 4. Make my family happy!

Soon, Hyun-seung wrote down his last plan.

Plan 5: Create a song for my father.

Didn’t he make so much money in his previous life that he couldn’t even spend it all?

‘That’s right.’

Hyun-seung thought of his ‘work’ as a kind of ‘game’.

Create a song, prove his performance, and see the rewards that come back….

He must have been completely intoxicated by the dopamine released during the process.

Work, work, and more work.

As he continued to work, his relationship with his family grew increasingly estranged.

‘I was so focused on work that I didn’t even realize my father’s condition was getting worse….’

Didn’t the relationship with his younger sister also deteriorate to an irreparable extent?

“Haah.”

Hyun-seung let out a deep sigh.

And then.

He wrote the last sentence as if making a vow.

This time, it would be different.

It was a resolution and a promise.

To live happily together.

A resolution that feels like a very firm determination.

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‘I need to make money first.’

That was Hyun-seung’s first thought as he stepped out into the living room after organizing his future plans.

A moldy floor mat, walls and ceilings stained and discolored, a house too small for three people to live in.

‘We need to move out of here.’

As he recalls, things were clearly not going well at home at this point.

In his past life, he could only move after he had his first hit song.

At this stage, he was worrying about paying all the bills and even putting food on the table.

*Flinch*

His father, sensing the attention, hurriedly gathered the bills that were on the table and shoved them into a drawer.

– Hyun-seung, have you eaten?

Hyun-seung shook his head and responded in sign language to his father who was asking him.

– It’s okay.

Then he asked his father again.

– What about you?

Then, his father replied.

– I’ve already eaten.

And then they continued with a smile.

– I think I might be able to get a full-time job this time through the disability job program. It’s a simple assembly job at the factory, but it’ll provide me with a fixed income in the future, so Hyun-seung, don’t worry about anything else.

When Hyun-seung nodded, his father spoke again.

– You’ve just been discharged from the army, you should meet your friends and have fun, chatting and playing. As long as I’m alive, you should be able to play, laugh, and talk without worrying about anything.

His father was such a person.

Living in solitude and restraint.

They never forced him to do anything.

‘That’s right.’

According to his memory, it was clear that after leaving the military, he spent more than half a year unable to find a job and just idled at home.

Hyun-seung didn’t really have any intention of finding a job, nor did he have any studies he wanted to pursue, so it was like he was wasting his youth.

Despite how frustrating it must have been for them, his father never once nagged him about it.

Isn’t it that being able to rest, take on challenges, and fail are all privileges that only young people can enjoy?

It was the same when he surprisingly mentioned wanting to try composing music out of the blue.

– I’ll support you.

After that single comment, they quietly believed in him and supported him, even though he had never once attended any kind of music academy.

– What about Hyun-ah?

In response to Hyun-seung’s question, his father answered.

– These days, she comes home late from the library.

Grabbing a coat, his father added.

– I should probably go pick her up soon.

After his father left the house.

“Hmm.”

Hyun-seung immediately took out the bills his father had hidden in the drawer and calculated the outstanding amount.

A total of 2.2 million won.

Although, to Hyun-seung in the past, this would have seemed like a ridiculously small amount of money.

‘It’s a big problem for my father now.’

In fact, Hyun-seung at this time had turned a blind eye to such circumstances.

Pretending not to know.

He holed himself up in the corner of his room, playing games to pass the time.

‘First, there’s about 1.5 million won in hand.’

He managed to save up from his army salary and a few odd jobs.

Because he was a bit of a loner, he didn’t have any friends, so he didn’t often go out.

‘This should be enough to get me a decent assortment.’²

Hyun-seung muttered in a low voice.

“Lets start making some money.”

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After that, Hyun-seung dedicated himself to second-hand purchases.

“Okay, the amount is correct.”

Soon, Hyun-seung nodded and replied.

“Yeah, I’ll put it to good use.”

Then, he glanced down at the used headset he had bought.

‘Is this everything?’

A master keyboard, an audio interface, a condenser microphone, speakers, and a headset.

All of them were ridiculously inferior to what he had before.

They were low-end, and some were even used products, but they should still be sufficient for getting work done right away.

In fact, he had spent most of his money upgrading the computer specs rather than on the equipment itself.

This was because a certain amount of SSD and RAM capacity was necessary to support music production.

‘Anyway, that’s it.’

Even though Hyun-seung had spent all the money he had, he wasn’t worried.

‘I’ll earn it back.’

Someone might laugh if a musician says this, but his ability to create music that makes money was unparalleled.

‘Money Code.’

In popular music, it commonly refers to chords that make money.

Hyun-seung had established hundreds of those money-making chords…”

If he uses and mixes them in unconventional ways, the number of possibilities increases even more.

Because of that.

Every time he released a song, he was able to make it to the top of the charts.

Making money from music.

For Hyun-seung, it was just something he had always done.

And now.

“Let’s do it.”

He began to do what he always did.

*Tap* *Click* *Tap* *Tap*

His fingers furiously moved as he tried to transfer the notes that were in his mind.

Although the limitations were clear because he could only use the free tools provided within the program.

Hyun-seung’s codes for each track created unique personalized lines.

Electro-pop with an emphasis on electric guitar sounds and percussive rhythms.

Unlike previous tracks, where he blew up the entire track, he took the drum source and recorded it down.

The thought that an entirely unexpected track would be born made him laugh.

Since there couldn’t be lyrics for a hastily created track, I roughly finished the recording with humming as a guide.

Then he finished it with mixing and mastering.³

After finishing about two more tracks, Hyun-seung looked at the clock and saw that it was already eight in the morning.

He’d pulled an all-nighter making music, or in other words, he’d made three songs in one night.

“Now, shall I turn this track into money….”

He started cutting the first 30 seconds of each of the three tracks he’d created in one night.

Hyun-seung then attached samples of the three songs to an email he had already prepared.

*Tap*

Immediately, he sent the email.

‘Now all I have to do is wait for a reply.’

He sipped his coffee with satisfaction.

The email was sent to LS Entertainment.

The plan was to sell the demo tracks made with a quick and rough approach in a song-by-song contract format to raise the funds needed immediately.

Of course, they could instruct an in-house composer to create something similar without paying for a sample of his track, but…

‘I filtered out all those places.’

A company that, for at least the next 12 years, is solid enough not to face significant management issues or go bankrupt, and that has the basic decency not to take and use samples received from talented new composers without permission, but rather considers signing them.

‘If it’s LS…’

Having seen a lot of dirty situations in this industry, he put a lot of effort into creating the selection criteria and chose a place that met those conditions.

“When will I hear from them?”

The email was sent, so it should be coming soon.

So.

Unless the person who read it was an asshole.

“Okay.”

Hyun-seung reviewed the email he had sent and smiled with satisfaction.

「 Three song demo samples. Willing to sell for 3 million won per song, please contact me if you are interested in purchasing. Composer HS, 010-XXXX-XXXX.」

** ** **

TL/N:

1. Zhuang Zhou, commonly known as Zhuangzi, was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States period, a period of great development in Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought.

(Qi Wu Lun) This is the second chapter of Zhuangzi’s book, often translated as “The Equality of Things” or “Discussion on Making All Things Equal.” It discusses the relativity of concepts and the equality of all things.

(Butterfly Dream) – A famous allegory where Zhuangzi dreams he is a butterfly, and upon waking, he wonders if he is a man who dreamt of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he is a man. This story illustrates the fluidity of reality and the transformation of states.

2. used to describe the variety or assortment of music equipment available. This could refer to the range of instruments, audio gear, or other musical tools that are included in a setup.

3. Mixing is the process of combining individual tracks (like vocals, guitars, drums, etc.) into a single stereo track. The goal is to create a balanced and cohesive sound. Here are the key steps involved:

Mastering is the final step in the production process. It involves preparing the mixed track for distribution by ensuring it sounds good on all playback systems.