#124
The creator’s house, which they visited after a long time, remained unchanged. The police must have ransacked it while searching for additional evidence, but it seemed to have been cleaned up after the case was settled.
“This way.”
Yoo Seong-woo led Yeseon straight to Yoo-hyun’s room. There was no need to show her the creator’s workshop or anything like that.
While Yeseon and Yoo Seong-woo talked in the room, Yeon Tae-soo agreed to wait in the living room. Upon entering the room, Yoo Seong-woo was momentarily lost in thought. He had confidently told Yeon Tae-soo he would be fine, but now that he was actually inside, he felt a bit strange.
Yoo-hyun’s cleaned room still looked like someone lived there. The youngest brother, who was the only one among his numerous siblings to get a room in this mansion, what had he been thinking while living here?
‘Do you know that after that android disappeared into the sea, water appears in the dreams of all androids…?’
The message he had passed on still remained in his memory. Looking back now, Yoo-hyun seemed sad at that time. If he had known that Yoo-hyun was sad when they were exchanging messages and calls, would anything have changed?
If he had known in advance that Yoo-hyun would be sacrificed, would anything have changed?
“What’s this?”
Yeseon’s question ended his brief contemplation. Yoo Seong-woo forced a smile and turned on the equipment she was pointing at. As the equipment, which looked like a supercomputer mixed with a grand piano, lit up, Yeseon gave a short exclamation of admiration.
“It’s a machine used for composing music.”
Yoo-hyun’s room had a lot of MIDI equipment used for composition. Since Yoo-hyun did all the composing and arranging himself, everything bore his touch.
“I’ll show you how to use it.”
Since Yoo Seong-woo’s memory also contained methods for handling MIDI equipment, he easily created and showed her a short piece. Yeseon was impressed again to hear the large machine produce a refreshing sound like a classical piano.
“Is this really what Yoo-hyun used?”
He nodded at her incredulous question. When he let her input notes and create beats herself, Yeseon followed along quite well.
“This is fun…!”
The girl with shining eyes looked like an ordinary girl. Yoo Seong-woo had not yet asked what troubles she had. Nor had he encouraged her to draw what she wanted to draw.
Instead, he showed her other equipment and taught her how to use it. He also took out classical instruments from Yoo-hyun’s room and played them for her.
Since Yeseon was enjoying it so much, he even played one of Yoo-hyun’s songs on the classical acoustic guitar. Yeseon, who sang Yoo-hyun’s songs out loud, looked happy.
He had intended to play just one song, but when Yeseon asked, “Do you know how to play this song too? It’s probably too difficult for you, right?” he felt a bit challenged. As a result, he ended up playing several more particularly difficult songs from Yoo-hyun’s repertoire.
“But is it okay to use Yoo-hyun’s things like this? Even if you’re his brother…”
Though he was a bit taken aback by her belated concern after she had already tried everything, fortunately, he answered well.
“He won’t know anyway, so what does it matter?”
Seeing what looked like bewilderment appear on Yeseon’s face, he quickly averted his gaze before his emotion recognition function could activate.
Yeon Tae-soo, perhaps bored from waiting outside, had been quietly approaching and peering through the open door for a while. Or maybe he wanted to hear his playing.
Trying hard to ignore Yeseon’s praise to Yeon Tae-soo about whether he had heard the recent performance and how well Mr. Yoo played the guitar, Yoo Seong-woo cleaned the guitar he had used and put it back in its case.
“Can I come play again next time?”
“But you just said we shouldn’t use his things freely.”
“But you said Yoo-hyun won’t know anyway.”
Yoo Seong-woo laughed at her bold retort. The equipment and instruments would just sit here unused anyway, so wouldn’t Yoo-hyun be happy if he occasionally used them? Was this thinking merely rationalization?
He crouched in front of Yeseon to meet her gaze. The pretty girl looked so similar to a human that there would be no sense of dissonance unless one looked closely. She wasn’t as delicately made as Yoo Seong-woo, so upon careful observation, there were signs that she was an android.
“Yeseon.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to do it through drawing. Do what you want to do.”
He wished for this android, who was his kind and had the appearance of a young girl, to be happy.
“Think carefully about whether drawing is really the only thing you want to do.”
Because she might be following programmed commands. He didn’t add those words. She would understand.
“Now, go outside first. I’ll turn off the equipment and come out.”
Yoo Seong-woo pushed Yeseon, who was reluctantly leaving with a complicated expression, toward Yeon Tae-soo, then stood in front of the MIDI equipment.
As he was about to shut down the program, something strange caught Yoo Seong-woo’s eye.
‘What is this…?’
He moved his finger to click on the unfamiliar icon. Inside the opened folder was a single music file.
“Hmm?”
All the completed songs were gathered in another folder. Yoo Seong-woo hesitated briefly, unable to guess what this file, sitting alone in a nameless folder, might be. But his hesitation was short-lived.
‘This might be another piece of evidence related to Yacheon Technology.’
If it was evidence hidden in the form of a music file, he needed to check it. With slightly trembling hands, he pressed the play button.
But what flowed from the speakers was neither a secretive conversation nor a mysterious code.
A melody that seemed dedicated to containing nothing but beauty flowed out. It was a scale that made his heart ache just from listening.
A voice that was the same as his own yet different calmly sang the lyrics.
Yoo Seong-woo unconsciously covered his mouth. This was Yoo-hyun’s unreleased original composition.
***
After Old Man Chang took Yeseon away, Yoo Seong-woo and Yeon Tae-soo remained at the mansion and listened to the song several more times.
“No matter how I analyze it, there doesn’t seem to be any code that could be considered encryption.”
Embedding codes in sheet music in a consistent way was a classic form of encryption. However, no matter how Yoo Seong-woo interpreted it with the data he possessed, there was no special method mixed into the code.
“This was ‘just’ composed.”
So this song was simply music.
“…What should we do?”
Feeling somehow drained, Yoo Seong-woo sat down carelessly on the floor. Yeon Tae-soo sat right next to him, their bodies touching. Recently, Yeon Tae-soo had been sitting not across from Yoo Seong-woo but right beside him like this, sharing his line of sight.
“What do you want to do?”
Yoo Seong-woo couldn’t answer Yeon Tae-soo’s question immediately. He didn’t think it was his decision to make.
“You’re the family, so you decide.”
So he was a bit surprised by Yeon Tae-soo’s subsequent words.
After repeatedly opening and closing his mouth needlessly, Yoo Seong-woo firmed his resolve without dragging it out. This time too, his deliberation was brief.
“I want to… release it.”
Though it had no title, it was clearly a completed song. He believed that if Yoo-hyun had lived and continued his activities, he would certainly have released it.
Because it was that beautiful. More so than any other song he had released.
“Is it okay for me to do that?”
But he couldn’t be certain if he had the authority to decide this song’s fate.
Yeon Tae-soo reached out and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. The fingers of his non-prosthetic hand went past his shoulder and playfully poked his cheek.
“Who else but you would decide?”
Yeon Tae-soo’s words had a point. He was Yoo-hyun’s only remaining family member and surviving brother. And he was also someone who could understand his heart to some extent.
“…Wait, I think I need to look into this a bit more.”
Yoo Seong-woo gently removed Yeon Tae-soo’s arm and stood up again. Unlike before, he moved with strength as he stood in front of the MIDI equipment and browsed through various folders.
“Yoo-hyun always kept work records. Because they become data for the creator as well. Even for an unreleased song, there should be work records.”
Yoo Seong-woo muttered as if talking to himself, his gaze fixed on the screen. Moving his hands quickly, he finally found the work records.
The extensive work records for all the songs Yoo-hyun had released spread out before him. Though the volume was large, it was systematically organized and easy to view.
Most of the work records were neatly organized in tables. The tables, which contained well-arranged information such as song concepts, chords, development methods, and lyric meanings, were like music textbooks.
Yoo Seong-woo’s hand accelerated as he went through the list. After searching for a while, he finally discovered an anomalous entry.
“…This looks like it.”
Yeon Tae-soo, who was watching alongside him, also pointed to the entry. Yoo Seong-woo clicked on it.
Unlike the tables he had been skimming through, this time there were lines of text. A date was written at the top.
Tuesday, second week of May.
I like the G chord. I also like chords that are friendly with the G chord.
Music is a kind of play. Like friends teasing each other, grabbing or pushing one another.
Where had the logs gone that were cleanly organized in tables without a single emotion? This looked like something written by a child. Yoo Seong-woo looked at Yeon Tae-soo in astonishment. Yeon Tae-soo just shrugged his shoulders.
Sunday, first week of June.
I think I’ll soon complete the lyrics. I read two poetry collections.
I wanted to repeat the ‘Mi’ note in the bridge, so I did.
“This seems more like a diary than a work log.”
“Well. Let’s read a bit more.”
Yoo Seong-woo read a few more entries. The content was similar. Wondering if it would be okay to put a harmony in this spot, or thinking it would be better to lower this note.
All the content was ’emotional.’ In the tables seen earlier, even a single note was explained with theory, but here Yoo-hyun was creating music the way he ‘liked.’
Yoo Seong-woo could be certain. This unreleased song was the only one Yoo-hyun had composed freely.
“…It seems I definitely need to release it.”
Yeon Tae-soo merely smiled quietly as he watched Yoo Seong-woo muttering with his gaze fixed on the screen.
Yoo Seong-woo played the song again. A voice identical to Yoo Seong-woo’s own sang the lyrics to the untitled music.
On a night when stars fall, if I place a bucket beneath the window, could I receive my share of light?
Would a lost beam of light pierce down to me?
Hoping for such a coincidence
Come to think of it, among Yoo-hyun’s songs, there were many with lyrics about space.
Perhaps Yoo-hyun didn’t dream of water, but of space. Might he have dreamed of that vast freedom of swimming through the enormous sky?
With such thoughts, Yoo Seong-woo repeatedly listened to Yoo-hyun’s song, and Yeon Tae-soo silently kept him company.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
