Volume 3 / Chapter 93
TL: LightNovelCafe
While they were going back home, Yoon Kwang Hun told Jun Hyuk the conditions he needed to keep if he wanted to buy the motorcycle.
“You have to wear your safety equipment properly and you can’t ride alone.”
“What? You’re not saying you’ll ride on back, are you?”
“Are you crazy? Enroll in a club and learn how to ride safely. You need to go into a club of old people with a lot of experience. You’ll ride with them. You can’t ride alone until riding safely becomes a habit.”
Jun Hyuk just nodded to everything. He could not really hear what was being said. Whatever the conditions were, he needed to buy the bike first.
From that day on, Jun Hyuk did not care about music, working on his first album, or studying abroad. He was preoccupied with passing the exam to obtain his license in one go.
***
Yoon Kwang Hun did not know what to do with the customers who came pouring in as soon as he opened the cafe doors. They were all Jun Hyuk’s fans.
Yoon Kwang Hun’s cafe is the Holy Land to Jun Hyuk’s fans. They need to make the pilgrimage here, so there were even fans from the countryside who chartered tour buses to come. They already had 3 employees, but it had gotten to the point where they need to hire more.
After dealing with customers all day, he went home exhausted and just slept.
He was currently building a new cafe in a place a little removed from the cafe now. Lawyer Baek Seung Ho made a tremendous amount of money for him and he would be able to build multiple cafes with that.
Yoon Kwang Hun put a spacious studio in the basement and was setting up the third floor as a residence for Jun Hyuk and himself.
He was going to make the 1st and 2nd floors into a cafe and live with music. Yoon Kwang Hun thought that Jun Hyuk’s fans would not come bothering him in hordes if they moved, so he was just counting down the days until they could go in.
Female customers came flooding in as soon as the cafe doors opened again, and they began to chatter after ordering coffee and honey bread. When about half of the seats were taken, a middle-aged woman in plain clothes opened the doors to come in. The middle-aged woman looked familiar like someone he had seen before.
When he had the thought ‘Is she a regular?’ an employee approached and spoke,
“Boss, that woman said she’s here to meet you.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oy, what a bother. What now?”
Yoon Kwang Hun stopped frowning, walked toward the woman, and greeted her politely,
“Hello. I am the owner of this cafe.”
“Mr. Yoon Kwang Hun?”
“Yes.”
“Can we speak for a moment?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s a little busy at the moment as you can see.”
“Hm… I heard that you love music, but I guess you don’t consider domestic music worthy?”
“Excuse me? What are you talking about?”
“Do you know who I am? My name is Jeon Hye Jin.”
“Jeon Hye Jin? Ah, pianist Jeon Hye Jin?”
Professor Jeon Hye Jin laughed at Yoon Kwang Hun’s surprise.
“Yes. What a relief. You know my name.”
“How rude of me… I didn’t think you would come to a shabby cafe like this. My apologies.”
“It’s okay. You’re someone who hasn’t purchased my CD. It’s a relief that you know my name.”
“Excuse me? Oh, CD… I should have one somewhere…”
Yoon Kwang Hun’s face turned red at Jeon Hye Jin’s teasing.
“Ho ho. Relax. I’m not here to pick on you about that. Actually, I met Jun Hyuk not too long ago.”
“Jun Hyuk?”
Yoon Kwang Hun sat on the seat opposite Professor Jeon Hye Jin.
“Yes. Hwang Suk Min brought him to our school. He said that Jun Hyuk is a gem but could not give a concrete evaluation.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Oh right, I heard that Jun Hyuk’s broadcast ended but where is he now?”
“He’s studying hard these days to get his license. Ha ha. He’s at my apartment because of the cafe’s state as you can see. What should we do about this? You probably came to meet Jun Hyuk.”
Even in Jeon Hye Jin’s eyes, this was not just any cafe. It was a spectacle with women of all ages noisily taking pictures in front of the piano and bookcase full of CDs.
“No, it’s better this way. I actually came here because I wanted to speak with you.”
“Me?”
Why would a pianist come looking for him? Is this about lessons? Or? Various thoughts passed through Yoon Kwang Hun’s head.
Jeon Hye Jin took a look around the cafe and saw the CDs on the wall and the grand piano in the middle of the cafe.
“So he listened to all of those CDs filling that wall.”
“Yes.”
“It’s a relief that he met someone like you.”
Jeon Hye Jin sipped the coffee an employee brought over and spoke,
“Then Jun Hyuk just listened to music for 2 years.”
“Yes. Fortunately, I was able to show him how to read music scores and he did the rest on his own.”
Jeon Hye Jin looked at Yoon Kwang Hun and carefully brought up her reason for coming,
“I observed this gem that Jun Hyuk is. Hm… How should I say it? Should I say he’s a gem that’s impossible to judge?”
Thank you for evaluating him so highly.”
“At first, I thought that it would be a joke for me to become involved and that I would be meddling… but I couldn’t stay still. I looked into and heard that you’re already thinking of sending Jun Hyuk to study abroad.”
“No that’s not it.”
“You’re not?”
Jeon Hye Jin had her coffee cup in her hand as her eyes widened. She thought that this man might be having different thoughts. She was even suspicious that he might be thinking of ways to make money by having Jun Hyuk work in Korea.
“I just made one out of many paths that Jun Hyuk can take. He can take that path if he wants to and he can leave it if he doesn’t.”
“What did the schools you looked into say?”
“All except one said that they would give him a full scholarship.”
“Which is the stupid school that rejected him?”
“Ha ha. They’re not stupid. It’s Eastman School of Music. They said that they would give him a full scholarship, a place for him to live alone, and even $2,000 every month in allowance.”
“Are you hesitating because of money?”
“No. We have plenty of money. And Jun Hyuk is already making enough money. Money isn’t the issue.”
There are prestigious schools all over the world waiting for Jun Hyuk with open arms. But to say that he has no intention to force him to go? Jeon Hye Jin wondered what Yoon Kwang Hun was thinking and listened carefully to his next words.
“I wanted Jun Hyuk to focus on classical as well. But… I don’t know if you know, but after we went through a bad situation, my thoughts changed. It’d be great if Jun Hyuk gained fame and became a world-renowned figure, but I just want him to be happy doing what he wants to do. Isn’t he just 17 years old? Even without rushing him, he will show us mature music as he grows up.”
Yoon Kwang Hun thought of Jun Hyuk’s happy face these days.
“Right now, Jun Hyuk is studying at home because he wants to get his license. That image of him looks happier than he did when he was making music.”
“Sir, may I say something that is overstepping my boundaries?”
“Yes, please.”
“We say that Mozart is a genius because he composed a symphony at age 5. It certainly isn’t because he was able to copy a song after hearing it once. The important thing is that in his time from a 5 year old prodigy until he died at 26, his music never stopped developing.”
Jeon Hye Jin was saying that Jun Hyuk’s development would cease if they became satisfied with his talent now.
“Right now, Jun Hyuk is definitely a genius. But I’m more curious about the music Jun Hyuk will make as a 26 year old than I am about the music he’ll make at 17. If he gains popularity and does Korean pop music… it’s a bit worrisome. He could just stop here.”