What was he doing when he had his own complex problem?

Halo folded his arms and stared at the notebook.

On top of the notebook were the business cards he had recently received, all wrinkled.

Halo tapped the desk twice. The numbers on the business cards didn't catch his eye. In his head, a strange beat from the notebook kept repeating, like he was trying to solve a puzzle with an intricate, intertwined beat.

'But can rap be popular here when this isn't even New York?'

It was originally from Harlem, New York.

Halo tilted his head and searched it up on his phone.

[Rap]

With 'Move', countless visual materials scrolled down.

Among them, the image above stood out the most.

The highlighted stage.

A gorgeous poster with a musician holding a microphone in the center.

It was written in gold letters:

[Show Your Show 3]

#

"Is it that bad?"

Jang Jinsoo looked seriously at his recorded song. He had never thought his song was perfect, but he wondered if it was so bad that he was told to remake it.

His hyungs said he could make it through the preliminaries.

There were only two days left until the submission deadline.

It made sense to submit it realistically, but No Haeil's scathing criticism kept lingering in his mind.

He was originally going to let good or bad reviews go in one ear and out the other.

But what in the world did that guy say in his review.

He couldn't sleep because he was annoyed.

Does No Haeil only listen to pop songs so he doesn't know much about hip-hop? That was what came to his mind. And music taste was subjective anyway.

No Haeil just didn't like his taste.

"But still..."

Now there was no way to record it again.

He had made two videos under the submission criteria - one within 1 minute and one with the MR removed. (TLN: MR removed: It's when the instrumentals of performance are artificially removed and leave just the vocals.)

If he changed the beat, he'd have to modify the lyrics and reshoot the video too. That was clearly impossible.

Then his passion whispered to him.

'Is that the best?'

It's the best. He did his best on this song.

'What about the feedback that guy gave?'

"Fuck!"

Jang Jinsoo shouted and sprang up from his seat. In the end, he couldn't press the submit button. He hastily put on a padded coat and left the room. He frowned at the soju bottles and cigarette smell swirling around the living room.

I hope that bastard didn't go all in on bitcoin again. He had an ominous feeling.

Eventually, he got on the subway. He sniffed himself to see if he smelled of cigarettes. He couldn’t really tell. His nose was quite numb.

Jang Jinsoo arrived at the hideout used by his brothers.

Only Kim Deoksoo, the hyung living unemployed, was lying on the sofa slash bed reading a comic book.

“Did you submit it?”

“No.”

“Why? Isn’t the submission deadline coming up soon?”

“I’ll submit it soon.”

“...Did something bad happen today?”

Jang Jinsoo stopped at Kim Deoksoo’s words.

He wasn’t sure if it was right to tell him about this.

But he wanted to vent to someone even more.

“No, it’s about my friend, not me.”

“I see.”

Kim Deoksoo lifted the corners of his lips and put down the comic book.

“My friend composed a song for homework. He worked really hard on it, but when someone listened to it, they said it was bad from start to finish. They just told him to remake it.”

“Oh.”

“But the submission deadline for the homework is approaching, plus is it right to just listen to one person’s opinion and remake it again? But I can’t ignore it because it bothers me. What do you think he should do, hyung?”

“So your friend is going on Soyou?”

“No.”

He had already figured it out.

Jang Jinsoo laughed hollowly at Kim Deoksoo's face.

Even if Jang Jinsoo denied it, he wouldn’t believe him with that face.

“It’s a difficult problem. Who gave the scathing criticism is the most important.”

“Just someone.”

“If it was just anyone, I’d think you could ignore it for the most part. Is there a clear reason why you can’t just ignore it?”

Come to think of it, it was strange.

He admitted No Haeil clearly had something special about him. He sings really well, played the guitar well, yeah, he was different. But it was not like he had shown outstanding composing abilities.

But Jang Jinsoo couldn’t ignore him because of.

‘What if? No, he won’t listen.’

He didn't know where that self-confidence came from.

For a moment, he saw an unfamiliar face, some mature composure, so he seemed special.

“It’s kind of ambiguous.”

“Well then, it’s simple.”

Kim Deoksoo spoke simply without knowing my complicated feelings.

“Let me hear it once.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a bit irresponsible to just criticize, isn’t it? Since you lack trust in their words, ask them to showcase their skills once. There's a saying in our world.”

Kim Deoksoo picked up his comic book again.

It was a comic book with nine cute female characters drawn. It said "Love Life! Girl's Sunshine!" in huge letters.

"Show and prove."

#

“Hey, No Haeil.”

Halo got a call.

He wondered what it was because of the yellow screen, but a familiar name appeared. The rude voice was Jang Jinsoo, clearly sulking after hearing objective feedback.

“You said it’s garbage so remake it from the beginning?”

“I didn’t say garbage, but yes.”

It was more like the sloppy sandcastles kids make or drawings scribbled by feet compared to garbage.

“But I can’t.”

Halo could tell.

Jang Jinsoo looked terrified.

He didn't seem to have any intention at all to make another one.

“My song might be bad.”

That’s possible.

It was usually hard to be objective about your own music. Of course, this referred to other people, not Halo.

“I worked really hard on this shitty beat but I have something I want to say, I don’t even know how to convey it well. But do you even know how to make beats?”

After talking emotionally, his tone grew louder as he got pissed.

“Make me believe your words. Prove it once. That you’re right.”

“Prove?”

“Yeah. Prove yourself.”

“Ha.”

Without realizing it, Halo lifted the corners of his lips.

What was he trying to say?

‘This cheeky bastard. He’s telling me to prove myself to him?’

It was the first time he'd been told to prove himself since he was born.

When he had already made a name for himself in the world, even if someone criticized his music, they didn't tell him to prove himself. Who could tell him to prove himself?

His complicated mind cooled down sharply, and his fighting spirit flared up.

As expected, complexity didn’t suit him well.

He accepted the clumsy provocation.

“That, show and prove! There's a saying like that, right?”

Halo hung up without answering and got up from his seat.

Rap form. It was a form of music he had never touched before. One could call it a challenge.

But did he know how to make and do well in anything else?

As Jang Jinsoo said before, Halo had never formally learned music. The black and white televisions, the old bluesman on the street, and the lounge singers and old records only showed him that such things existed too.

He figured rap or whatever wouldn't be that different.

For someone called to have no limits when it comes to music, that is.

#

“Weren’t you angry?”

After riding the subway for over an hour to Hongdae.

When Halo opened the basement hideout, Jang Jinsoo, and Kim Deoksoo were startled.

Halo nonchalantly put down the guitar.

“Sing it once.”

“Suddenly? What?”

It was frustrating that Jang Jinsoo didn’t understand him in one word, but it was nothing new now. There was no reason to be disappointed because he didn’t expect much.

“Let me see your basics.”

"Ah. If that's the case, tell me what to sing."

This guy lacked the basics. Halo clicked his tongue once.

"Try it live."

"Live? You heard the recorded version."

"Can you sing it the same way?"

"No."

Jang Jinsoo said it naturally.

Then he looked around for the MR, casting a glance.

If Jang Jinsoo hadn't let him hear the rap, he wouldn't have even imagined rapping. Considering he knew those who rapped in Harlem, New York. There may have been changes over the years, but still.

"Ah, okay."

Kim Deoksoo quickly played the beat.

Even on a second listen, it was a strange beat.

This time, Halo clenched his fist without saying a word.

Fortunately, the good thing was that Jang Jinsoo didn't show himself rapping while burning with passion.

Not exactly professional, but it was better that he wasn't visibly trembling in tension.

After removing the most bizarre first verse, the second verse followed quickly.

Jang Jinsoo's rap, riding on a forcibly fast beat, made it difficult for the listener and created a sense of unease.

Is there a reason to pour it out so fast that it can't be followed? When he wondered, the pronunciation became distorted.

'At least the rhythm is alright.'

The second problem was that there was no highlight in the music. In rap terms, the punch line? Or a hook.

Although he understood that there were many things he wanted to say, it seemed that they needed to be organized. Listing recent hip-hop songs he heard on the subway, he selected the song that would best suit Jang Jinsoo.

The beat soon ended.

Jang Jinsoo looked foolish again, waiting for Halo's feedback.

"Well, how was it?"

This time, it seemed like he was willing to accept even harsh criticism. He closed his eyes tightly.

Unfortunately, Halo did not meet Jang Jinsoo's expectations this time. He had another thing to say: rapping was not a hobby for him.

Moreover, there were a few things to check before making a song.

"Let's check the pitch."

"Why suddenly check my pitch? Why do I need a vocal range for rapping?"

At that moment Halo’s eyebrows twitched, fortunately, an answer came from somewhere else.

“Jinsoo’s range is average.”

“Ah, hyung.”

“He squeaks when he goes a little high, kukuku”

Jang Jinsoo glared at Kim Deoksoo who had his head in the comic book while dissing him, then shook his head resentfully.

“I’m not that bad. Should we test it out once?”

“It’s fine.”

What mattered at auditions would be fundamentals and individuality. It’d be nice if he sang well too, but from what Halo had heard, his range didn't seem very wide or his skills seemed that great. He could figure it out more later by matching.

Halo focused on the fact that what Jang Jinsoo wanted to showcase was rap. If complex range sounds were added in, it would only make the song disjointed unless the skills were outstanding.

Besides, the hip hop songs he heard coming here with ‘Soyou’ consisted of hooks that sounded good to anyone and were easy to sing along to.

Well, not all difficult songs could become masterpieces.

“By the way, do you even know what hip-hop is?”

“I heard some on the way here. Roughly.”

"'Roughly'?"

Although there was a time constraint so Halo didn’t get to hear much, he listened to all of Show Your Show’s music that Jang Jinsoo would be performing on.

He wasn’t very positive about auditions, but he at least knew the general concept.

“But it’s not just rap there.”

Jang Jinsoo quickly refuted Halo's words.

“The main point is to ‘show your own show’, so it doesn’t matter if it’s ballad, rock, dance.”

After saying that, Jang Jinsoo hurriedly added as if something had come to mind.

“Oh, but you have to use your own songs. Pop songs will be hard.”

Warnings came in though Halo had no intention to participate.

His pure revealing intentions made Jang Jinsoo’s face flush red.

Halo also seemed to know that he was being petty.

“By the way, when are you gonna prove it? You said you’d make me a beat.”

“I already did it all.”

“What... What did you say? What did you do all of?”

“That’s not it."

“You already did it all? Let me see!”

Halo would have to touch it up more after pulling out the song, but that was a story for later.

“But there’s a problem.”

“What problem?”

Halo folded his arms.

Although the song was fully composed, he faced the most realistic problem upon arriving here.

“Now we need to find session men.”

It was all similar problems. Halo needed instruments to perform the song, and he needed session men to play those instruments. He could compose songs, but he didn’t have the ability to conjure up session men.

He struggled to find the session men needed for his music, let alone solve Jang Jinsoo’s problems.

Of course that referred to his current self.

Jang Jinsoo tilted his head at Halo's words.

“Why do we need session men?”

“Because we need a session.”

“I mean, why do we need a session? Can’t we just use MIDI?”

Jang Jinsoo spoke as if it were simple.

Halo wondered if MIDI referred to a recruiting firm that could find session men.

“What’s MIDI?”

Jang Jinsoo spoke as if it were obvious.

“Digital composition program. It has pretty much all virtual instruments there.”