Chapter 115. Rock’n’roll, Hotter Than the Sun (4)

In a lecture room at HeeYoon’s university of music in America.

The infamously difficult Instrumental Theory class was over. The 10 or so students packed up their materials with liberation on their faces. They left as soon as the professor left.

[Ugh, today’s class was the worst.]

Leaving the other students aside, one of HeeYoon’s friends, Helena, packed her materials with leisure. Unlike others, she was more dignified.

[Well done.]

[Today’s instrument was so difficult as well. What was it again? Shami.. what?

[The Shamisen.]

[Urgh, it’s so hard to pronounce as well.]

Today’s lecture was about a traditional Japanese instrument, the Shamisen. Just thinking about it freaked Helena out. Although old instruments from the eastern world sounded very clear, they were extremely hard to play. Some instruments didn’t produce any sound. Though, fortunately, the instrument they learned about this time wasn’t that kind.

HeeYoon consoled her friend who had a bomb load of homework to do.

[Work hard. It still sounds nice and relaxing though, isn’t it?]

[Yeah, that’s right. It’s a really good instrument if we aren’t taking exams about it! I don’t know why we have to learn such an instrument in a digital age like ours. Wouldn’t it suffice to just have a good musical sense?]

[There must be a reason we’re learning this.]

[That’s our honor student.]

Helena’s praise made HeeYoon smile awkwardly.

[Haha….]

[Hey, full score honor student. Wait, didn’t you get a full score for this class as well? Is it because you’re good with your hands? Tell me your secret.]

[Well, I just try hard.]

[Don’t give me that.]

HeeYoon was practically saying the honor student’s favorite line. “I studied mainly textbooks”. She then left after saying goodbye to Helena. She had an appointment today.

Not far from uni, her guest was waiting in a cafe.

“HeeYoon!”

“JooAh!”

The person she appointed to meet stood up as soon as she saw HeeYoon and hugged her. It was JooAh, who was one of HeeYoon’s best friends now. She always pinched on HeeYoon’s cheeks. HeeYoon didn’t lose out and did the same.

The two were very close to each other.

Today, though, she wasn’t alone here. There was another guest.

“JooAh, a friend of yours…, wait?”

HeeYoon approached the new person to greet her, but it was a familiar face. No, it wasn’t just a familiar face.

“Hello? I heard a lot about you from JooAh-unni. Christie An.”

“Oh, hello.”

HeeYoon was very surprised by the turn of events and greeted her in surprise.

She was the girl with a sharp jawline, feline eyes, and slightly cold expression, Christie An. Although she was wearing sneakers, her body figure couldn’t be hidden with the shorts she was wearing. She looked like a dignified lady from the city.

JooAh giggled seeing HeeYoon getting surprised.

“What? Don’t you know Eddios?”

“It’s not that….”

HeeYoon expressed her awkwardness at the unexpected turn of events. As KangYoon’s sister, she naturally knew about the fact that KangYoon was behind Eddios’s debut. As such, the girls did not feel like strangers. Although she did get the feeling that they might meet each other in America, she did not know that it would be today.

“Let’s order something first.”

JooAh relieved the awkward atmosphere between the two and sat down. She waved at the cafe waitress some distance away while the two sat down without saying a word. JooAh also sat down.

As JooAh was between the two, HeeYoon and Christie slowly got to know each other.

“You’re team leader’s sister?”

“Your mouth is wide open.”

“B, but….”

After Christie heard that HeeYoon was KangYoon’s sister, Christie started screaming.

“Unni, you didn’t tell me this before.”

“I didn’t not tell you either.”

“Tha… what does that mean?”

Christie wished to have heard about this beforehand, but it was very unlikely that JooAh would do something like that.

In the end, Christie became teary faced. It was impossible for her to win against JooAh with words.

She pouted before muttering.

“She doesn’t look like him….”

“We get that a lot.”

“Oh….”

Christie became awkward as she was just talking to herself but her words were heard. However, HeeYoon continued without worrying much.

“Well, the impressions of me and my brother are quite different. So I’m used to hearing things like that.”

“Uuu….I’m sorry.”

Christie An lowered her head in sheepishness. However, HeeYoon waved her hands saying that it was okay.

‘Now then… what should I do to make them friendly?’

JooAh started pondering about how to make them become close.

***

“Everyone’s here, right?”

6 in the morning.

Lee HyunJi checked on the members of White Moonlight as well as Kim JiMin. Everyone had gathered in front of the company 5 minutes ago.

As Lee HyunJi told all of them not to be late, everyone had tense faces.

“Manager DaeHyun, is all the luggage ready?”

“Yes. I’ve loaded them in the car as you instructed yesterday.”

Manager Kim DaeHyun was also very tense.

Although Lee HyunJi was a woman, she had a strong charisma that made it difficult to not obey her words.

“Let’s check on our equipment one last time.”

“Okay.”

“Hyung, I’ll help out.”

Kim JinDae and Jung ChanGyu stepped up to help Kim DaeHyun. Lee HyunAh and Kim JiMin headed towards the convenience store to get food and drink to have on the way.

After they finished their preparations, the company started heading towards Goyang.

As it was early morning, members of White Moonlight were feeling quite low.

“HyunAh, did you get any sleep?”

“3 hours. How about you?”

“2 hours, I guess. I’m getting more nervous than my first ever stage.”

Lee HyunAh and Kim JinDae were the same in regards to the fact that they got very little sleep.

“ChanGyu, looks like you had a good sleep.”

“Sleeping pills.”

“…I’m surprised you got up on time.”

Kim JinDae admired Jung ChanGyu for waking up on time after taking pills.

“JiMin is sleeping.”

“I’m envious….”

Lee ChaHee muttered while seeing Kim JiMin sleeping with her head leaning against the window, and Lee HyunAh also added.

Lee HyunJi, who was in the passenger seat, also had her own worries.

‘From what I heard, the team that performed yesterday had more than half of the audience leave. Are we going to be okay?’

The time slot was disadvantageous for them.

The sun was scorching.

Although they ordered some more water, she wondered if that would be enough. However, she couldn’t think of any other solutions than preparing more water. If they put up canopies, that would restrict the sight of the audience, while parasols had the disadvantage that it would make it harder for more people to come in and, although the heat was the biggest issue, those two solutions weren’t realistically possible.

Lee HyunJi pondered the issue while they rode the car, but she wasn’t able to think of a proper solution.

Without a proper solution, the van arrived at K-pop Complex.

Lee HyunJi and the others arrived at the concert venue with their respective instruments and KangYoon was waiting for them there.

“You’re here.”

KangYoon greeted the company and headed off towards the organizers. Then, he talked about a lot of things with the staff, and the staff had awkward faces.

“KangYoon-oppa is so….”

“What? What is?”

“No, nothing.”

Lee ChaHee asked Lee HyunAh when she mumbled something to herself, but she did not answer.

The members of White Moonlight set up their instruments to get ready for the stage. Lee HyunJi also watched the whole process from below. Kim JiMin was next to her.

Kim JinDae set up the snare that they brought and adjusted the position between it and the foot base. The deep sound from the foot base and the crisp sound from the snare drum harmonized well.

‘Is it because of the humidity? It feels a little dampened.’

KangYoon tilted his head while looking at the notes coming out of the drums. Although he had to wait until the tuning was done, the notes didn’t sound as crisp as he wanted it to be.

Meanwhile, Lee ChaHee connected her bass to the amp and started tuning. Jung ChanGyu also connected the electric guitar to the effector pedals and started going through the sounds. Various sounds created notes in front of KangYoon’s eyes.

As the sounds became more finely tuned, the fuzzy notes started becoming clearer. The electric guitar and the bass definitely became better, but the notes from the drums were fuzzy as it didn’t sound quite right.

“Dammit, it’s not working.”

Kim JinDae kept tightening and loosening the snare drums as though something didn’t feel right. However, the crisp sound he wanted did not happen and only a dampened sound could be heard.

‘It’s not right for me to interfere with their tuning.’

KangYoon was about to say something, but he decided not to. It wasn’t right to damage their pride as musicians. It’s not like they were running out of time either.

After around 30 minutes, he started to see clearer notes from the drums. As the drums had microphones put against them, the sounds went to the speakers and KangYoon was satisfied to see that the notes were clear.

After the instruments were tuned properly and the band started jamming, the sun started getting hotter.

“Looks like today will be hotter than yesterday.”

Lee HyunJi, who was next to KangYoon, watched the stage with a worried expression. Kim JiMin’s face had also become red due to the heat.

“Let’s get some shade.”

KangYoon led everyone to the shade. Although the sunlight poked through between the leaves, the slight wind was enough to cool them down.

“We did prepare some more water as you’ve said… but will that be enough?”

KangYoon started pondering after hearing Lee HyunJi’s words. Even if they sprayed water all over their body, it might not be enough. Thinking about it… it might even be a futile effort.

“Do you know how hot it will go up to today?”

“34.4 degrees.”

“34 degrees?”

KangYoon widened his eyes when Kim JiMin confirmed it for him on her phone. 34 degrees at the end of August? This was to the North of Seoul as well!

KangYoon abruptly stood up.

“Where are you going?”

Lee HyunJi asked.

“We should cool off the heat. I’ll be back before it’s too late.”

Lee HyunJi and Kim JiMin looked at each other, puzzled.

.

.

.

After the rehearsal, Lee HyunAh redid her makeup in the waiting booth.

“Urgh, it’s so hot!”

Lee HyunAh became irritated due to the heat. Although she had used makeup that was resistant to water, a portion of it was erased due to the onslaught of sweat. High humidity and heat were that fatal.

Lee ChaHee wasn’t that different from her and she quietly fixed her makeup.

Their stage time was rapidly approaching.

In a shade that’s not too far from the venue, Kim JiMin mouth gaped while looking at the people entering.

“Look at that! Those people are so….”

As she had said, people were gathering at the venue without consideration for the heat. Even though the sun was scorching, people entered in streams without end.

“You’re right.”

“Wow… the team must be quite amazing.”

Kim JiMin exclaimed. People had gathered to listen to the band despite the heat. This surprised her.

‘I’ll also….’

While Kim JiMin resolved to herself, the audience received the bottles of water and got ready to enjoy the music. Some of them had already opened the water and started drinking.

Meanwhile, Lee HyunJi was very nervous as she watched them.

‘This will be even more difficult than what the president said it would be. I wonder if the water is enough.’

Lee HyunJi headed towards where they were handing out the water. Fortunately, there was enough water for now. This was mostly thanks to the fact that they had prepared more water. It seemed that it would be fine even if people took more bottles of water. However, if more people streamed in, and people at the front came back to take more water, she couldn’t guarantee that they would have enough water for all of them.

Lee HyunJi called KangYoon to discuss the water.

However….

‘Why isn’t he answering at a time like this?’

The most important member was not answering her calls. It shouldn’t be that his phone was broken, but she never got a call back either. She became more and more desperate, with repeated calls, but no answer.

“Haa….”

In the end, she texted him with a sigh. She messaged him to call her back.

She then had a look at the concrete floor. It felt as though the heat was rising from it. It was no wonder that more than half the people left in the previous show, considering that they were jumping on this concrete floor.

‘We should at least spray some water.’

Lee HyunJi thought that they should stave off the heat using whatever methods available. It spraying water on the floor would cool off the surface. When that thought flashed in her mind, she started looking for a long hose attached to a tap. When she looked around, she was able to find a tap, but no hose.

‘Toilet, toilet…’

If there were any cleaning supplies, it should contain a long hose – was her thinking when she searched all the public toilets around. However, she wasn’t able to find any. She looked around a long while for the hose, but she only found some short ones, and they weren’t enough to reach the concert venue.

Eventually, Lee HyunJi returned to the venue before the stage started, exhausted.

“Director….”

“Thanks, haa….”

Kim JiMin handed her a bottle of water in consolation. Lee HyunJi emptied an entire bottle in one shot. Her suit had already been drenched with sweat as well.

As the allocated time slot arrived, the sun became hotter and hotter. the floor was getting more heated up as well. It was like an inferno.

‘This won’t do.’

Lee HyunJi became depressed as she could practically imagine more than half the people here leaving midway. She had to look for a way and stood up again to find something.

At that time, two large trucks suddenly approached the venue with loud engine noises. Lee HyunJi’s brows creased as it annoyed her, even more, when the trucks were approaching the venue. If it ever came near the concert venue, she decided to vent her frustration on the driver.

And just as she had worried, the truck was headed straight towards the venue and stopped right next to the audience seats.

‘You just came at just the right time.’

Lee HyunJi grit her teeth and approached the first truck which stopped at the right of the audience. She had her eyes wide open in extreme anger.

Just as Lee HyunJi was about to yell at the driver that just got off, she heard a voice behind her.

“Director, over here.”

It was a familiar voice. Lee HyunJi turned around to the voice.

“President?”

“Yes. Fortunately, I’m not late.”

The one that got off the left truck was KangYoon. Lee HyunJi approached and asked KangYoon in surprise.

“What happened? You didn’t show up right until the beginning of the stage. What are these oil truck-looking things?”

KangYoon chuckled hearing the word ‘oil tank’.

“Oil trucks? These are specialized vehicles. They spray water.”

“What? They are sprinkler trucks?”

Sprinkler trucks?

Lee HyunJi was unable to hide her surprise since sprinkler trucks were mostly found in construction sites.

“Yes. This will be our trump card.”

KangYoon’s gaze alternated between the audience and the trucks with a smirk.

Lee HyunJi only looked at whatever KangYoon was looking at, dumbfounded.