NuTube.

The world's largest video platform where anyone can freely upload or watch videos.

The name NuTube came from combining 'Nu', originating from New, and 'Tube', a nickname for television, meaning 'always a new television'.

For the first time, Halo thought to look up NuTube. He had only regarded NuTube as an archive of music, a futuristic library, but it had greater functions than he expected.

"Simply put, it's like a personal broadcasting station."

And it could be seen as an almost zero capital, free broadcasting station. That was why anyone could make money off of it. He roughly grasped how to generate revenue. He didn't want to know the intricate technical principles. He wouldn't understand even if he heard it anyway.

What was important to him was something else.

How to use it now.

He peered into the blank screen after entering his channel. It couldn't be helped for him to be clumsy with unfamiliar technology.

'So first...'

Halo fumblingly put on the headphones.

He checked the file that was emailed over.

It was a video file of No Haeil's original song recording.

[...The moment we've awaited the most will soon arrive]

The vocals sounded strangely unfamiliar.

After all, it was a completely different voice than what he had heard his whole life. His husky, rough voice weathered by time and frequent smoking and drinking had become an unbroken boyish one. He didn't know what would happen when puberty hit, but the boy choir-like voice didn't sound bad.

The voice wasn't the only thing unfamiliar.

Even more unfamiliar than the voice was the face.

A face with delicate features came into view between the gentle impressions. No Haeil seemed to resemble his mother.

'Did I smile like this?'

Unconsciously, Halo brushed his lips.

The video ended with the smiling boy's face.

'Not bad.'

The overall video quality and music were fine.

The melody he thought was awkward blended naturally with the video. Just right to call it innocent.

-By the way, what are your plans for that song we recorded on Wednesday? Would be a waste not to release it, no?

Engineer Kang Yeongmin had subtly urged to upload it on NuTube.

'Uploading should be fine.'

With arms crossed, Halo nodded.

He was originally the type to like others' attention, so he had no qualms.

Since the video and music were satisfactory, he figured quite a few would enjoy it.

'But there's an issue.'

Halo knitted his brows.

'This isn't my song.'

Even though he had polished it up, this song squarely belonged to No Haeil. He couldn't upload it to 'his' channel, even if he sang it in No Haeil's body.

After glowering at NuTube for a while, Halo came to a simple conclusion.

'Just separate it.'

There was already a channel called [wave_r] on NuTube. It was probably the broadcasting station No Haeil made himself. At first, he only wanted to change the channel name, but his mind changed. (TLN: Fun fact, Haeil (해일) can be translated as a tidal wave, tsunami, or seismic sea wave.)

He found you could make endless stations. Halo decided to make one called [HALO] instead. More bothersome but it felt more correct.

[upload]

"Don't know if this is what you wanted."

Halo hovered the mouse cursor over the upload button. The attached file was the mp4 he had downloaded.

Title: 'Confession'

Why he hesitated for a bit was because he didn't know if this was truly what No Haeil wanted.

"You made this song wanting to let someone hear it too."

It was a sweet love song, so there must have been a target. He didn't know who. He was curious but had no intention of prying into the kid's private life.

"Just in case. Who knows, what if the person you wanted to let hear this song happens upon it by chance."

In reality, it was highly unlikely the person No Haeil wanted to let hear this song would discover it.

Since he wouldn't use this account from now on, and it would be forgotten in memory.

Unless No Haeil came back, this channel would be buried among countless videos.

Halo hit enter.

It seemed uploading the video would take some time.

While leisurely waiting for it to finish, Halo recalled the name of his new account.

[HALO official]

A new name, a new channel. Empty for now but soon it would be filled with his colors.

The corners of Halo's lips turned up.

"Now it begins."

#

Time passed by.

Aside from going to school, Halo's days consisted almost solely of learning MIDI and training.

Naturally, the days were tremendously busy.

No Haeil's body was practically a blank slate. He had to recreate everything from scratch. When simply playing the guitar it wasn't noticeable, but after long sessions, his fingers hurt.

A hand not yet calloused.

The pain he hadn't felt in a while stimulated Halo's competitive spirit. Eagerly wondering when it would get better, he played on until his fingers bled in several spots.

It was only obvious the hyungs and Jang Jinsoo were startled seeing his maddened appearance, smiling despite bleeding.

Practicing until afternoon and night, then reviewing what he learned at night.

At school of course he dozed off.

Since he was studying diligently, no one woke Halo up. There was also no leeway to be concerned about him with the approaching final exams.

Surprisingly, even No Haeil's mother stopped nagging him at some point. She no longer said anything even when he didn't attend academies.

'Did she really give up?'

Halo tilted his head, recalling the past. Halo’s parents had tried not to give up on him until the end.

'Well, better for me.'

Halo shrugged and left the house.

He had his bag but the habitual problem-solving books and textbooks were absent.

It meagerly contained only sheet music. All handwritten by him.

"Finally the day."

With headphones wrapped around his neck, Halo walked briskly.

In the distance, nervous-looking kids appeared one by one.

Unlike them, he wasn't nervous at all. Rather, his heart thumped with anticipation.

The music he gradually created while learning MIDI was finally complete.

His 1st album [Struggle]'s four songs were finished.

From the title track [Struggle] to the remaining three songs.

But he was happy not merely because they were complete. After school ended today, he would go to Hongdae. Today, he would take the first step toward a new life.

As soon as-

“It’s finally today, kids.”

Knock knock.

The homeroom teacher also knocked the podium with an unusual expression.

The same action as always but the students' reactions were different today. Booo—They booed and thrashed around. Unfazed, the teacher swiftly wrote something on the board.

"Starting today, the three-day final exams."

No! Ahh! Screams were heard.

'Final exams?'

Halo grasped his chin, peering around perplexedly. He usually didn't comprehend what the teacher said when tuning it out.

"The moment your grades come out next week, entrance exams will begin, and your high schools will be decided."

'Grades?'

"That concludes what I have to say. I wish you all luck."

The teacher left the classroom. The ethics teacher entered after the bell rang.

From the thick envelope, she brought emerged papers dizzyingly thick. The instant Halo discovered that his eyes snapped wide open.

'Come to think of it, No Haeil was in 9th grade.'

He had forgotten.

What did it matter that No Haeil was a student?

He hadn't realized the oft-heard exam would arrive today.

It wasn't tremendously important but exams inherently caused stress by themselves.

'No, this is good, it'll end quickly.'

Glancing at the time written on the board, it was early.

No way they would hold class on an exam day.

'If I had known today was the test I could have moved the reservation up earlier.'

It would probably be difficult to pull the reservation forward now.

Moderately regretful, Halo accepted the test paper passed upfront.

'Is this an art exam?'

Why were numbers written inside the shapes?

Halo looked at the test paper for about 3 seconds.

Triangles and circles were geometrically drawn. Questions to calculate some kind of value didn't register in his eyes.

Pythagoras. He heard that somewhere a lot.

Felt like some artist-type guy.

'...I'll just randomly fill it in and sleep.'

Who cares about high school?

Halo marked crosses down the middle and slumped over his desk.

#

Around this time, No Haeil and Jang Jinsoo were done with the math exam and had received the second foreign language exam papers.

"He actually made it."

In the Hongdae basement workspace, Han Jinyoung, sitting in front of the computer with bloodshot eyes, turned his head at the sudden voice. At some point, Bae Gonghak had entered the hangout, staring at the computer as if it was fascinating.

"What?"

"Haeil. He learned MIDI and then apparently whipped up a song right away. Is he really a genius?"

"...I guess so."

Bae Gonghak innocently marveled.

Han Jinyoung wished he had simply marveled genuinely like Bae Gonghak.

With Han Jinyoung silent, Bae Gonghak pointed to No Haeil's song captured on the screen and asked:

"How's the music?"

"You haven't heard it yet?"

"No. He said he'd let us hear it when it was done so I didn't listen. Is it good?"

"It’s..."

He was at a loss for words.

While teaching MIDI to No Haeil, Han Jinyoung was the first to hear his music. He had said he would upload it as an album on NuTube or something.

At the time, Han Jinyoung just thought nothing special.

No Haeil was immediately applying what he learned. He simply regarded it as great execution.

After all, since it was his first time learning MIDI, he didn't expect anything special to come out.

He was prepared to compliment it even if he only used one session to make it.

However.

"As long as it's decent, that's fortunate."

"Why, is it bad? Well, MIDI isn't easy to pick up."

Ha.

Han Jinyoung unconsciously mocked Bae Gonghak's words.

Rather than getting angry, Bae Gonghak looked at Han Jinyoung quizzically.

"Hey, Gonghak."

"Yeah, talk."

"How long did Sin Joohyeok usually take to compose?"

Bae Gonghak was briefly confused at the name he hadn't heard in a while but soon spoke casually.

"It varied each time but,"

"Including recording it all."

"Considering his hysteria fits too, it took at least a few months. He kept making it until he was satisfied, I think? There were also times he made it right away of course."

"That's why, it takes months normally for an alright song to come out right?"

"Inspiration would strike and come out right away at times too."

"That was really rare. It took months to properly make enough to release a mini-album."

"That's true."

"So, how did he do it?"

Just a few days had passed.

Just a mere few days.

Han Jinyoung's pupils wouldn't stay still.

"What bullshit. You drunk?"

"Inspiration doesn't just sporadically come and go."

"Yeah."

"No matter how well you think you made it, issues to revise always pop up."

"So what are you trying to say."

Bae Gonghak asked as if it was frustrating.

"Did Haeil already make it beforehand?"

"Are you saying Haeil's song is good?"

"..."

"That good?"

Han Jinyoung slowly nodded.

"I ran melody identification programs all night just in case."

In case it might be an existing song.

Sometimes you recall a song you heard somewhere and mistake it for inspiration.

"The apps told about songs but,"

Programs didn't exist to comprehensively compare and analyze the chord progressions, harmonies, lyrics, etc. of copyrighted music. Copyright disputes might be avoidable if such things existed.

But similar technology did exist. Apps to listen to audio and provide the song title were common after all.

Utilizing those, he searched all night but,

"Not a single hit."

"That's fortunate."

"Right."

Bae Gonghak had a what's-the-problem face.

"That's the issue."

"What is? What have you been talking about all this time? Hey, move. I'll just listen to it once."

"Gonghak."

"Yeah?"

"I don't know what kind of monster I created."

Han Jinyoung closed his eyes.

The completed music floats in his head, refusing to easily leave.

Like the OST of some old movie that became an immortal masterpiece.

The blazing flames didn't die out.

"What's the title?"

"Struggle."

"Oh. Sounds like it has substance."

He said that but his expression didn't fully comprehend.

The title probably wouldn't suit it normally.

There was no need to specially explain this.

"Just listen to it."

Seeing is believing.

In this case, hearing it once could be more powerful than saying it a hundred times.

Han Jinyoung clicked the space bar.