1968 Conqueror of American Rock - Chapter 161



Only Noblemtl

161. Share Your Heart (11)

The oriental girl’s eyes were filled with confidence.

“Uh······Are you by any chance the Korean who interviewed Jack?”

“That’s right, sis!”

The girl ran to Annie, who recognized her, and hugged her tightly. It was no ordinary courage.

“I come here every day during vacation. I don’t have money to see performances, but there are many musicians busking on the streets. I also kept wandering around, hoping that there would be a one in a hundred, no, one in a thousand chance that I could meet you. But then, something miraculous happened.”

“Why did I say that, haha. But do you know how to play the piano?”

“Yes! The black key that Angela played just now is the one I like to play when I’m warming up.”

“Are you saying you’ll let this go?”

Instead of answering, the girl sat down at the piano and started tapping the keys without any preparation. The confidence she showed was not empty boasting. It was as if she had copied Angela’s performance exactly.

As she played the difficult part, a smile bloomed on her face, and her fingers flew over the keyboard like raindrops. Angela, who played the same part, also applauded the girl’s performance.

I got curious. I casually asked if he knew the second song from the piano battle that appeared in the movie.

“Do you know how to play Chopin’s Waltz No. 7, Op. 64, No. 2?”

Instead of answering, the girl smiled brightly and nodded. With a serious expression, she straightened her back and began to play the keyboard. Her beautiful performance instantly turned the square into a classical concert hall.

But in the middle, the performance slowed down a little and soon the hands stopped.

Angela quickly noticed and continued the song. It was clearly the same song, but the strangely different atmosphere made people’s expressions change.

Angela’s curiosity was aroused.

Angela pursued free-spirited performance. It is said that she played according to the score during mass at the cathedral, and when she was alone, she let her imagination run wild.

Chopin’s elegant and noble waltz suddenly changed into a bouncy and cute song, and then started to play at a frightening speed that instantly devastated the 88 keys.

This was Angela’s most powerful weapon, her state of emptiness.

The girl’s eyes, watching this, grew as big as lanterns. Eventually, she got up from her chair and went over to Angela to closely watch the absurd performance. Her mouth fell open.

After finishing her splendid performance that no one could imitate, Angela came to her senses. She stood up and greeted the audience politely as the plaza erupted in cheers and applause.

“Wow······ Angela, I’m your fan from today.”

“What is that guy?”

She was an adolescent girl who would laugh even at the mere sight of a falling leaf, and whose mind would change several times a day. Even though Annie spoke like that, she smiled and thought the girl was cute.

“Annie likes singing, Angela likes playing the piano, hehe. My name is Christine Park, and my Korean name is Siyoon.”

The girl spoke to Annie in Korean. Her accent was a little awkward, but her pronunciation was fine.

“Oh, you speak Korean well?”

“Yes, I speak Korean when I talk to my parents. And there are many adults in Koreatown who don’t speak English.”

“But you play the piano really well.”

“No, actually, I was about to quit classical piano because I didn’t enjoy it. But after watching Angela play today, I realized that I definitely have no talent.”

Angela wondered what he meant. The girl repeated in English what she had just said.

“No, Christine. You are definitely not untalented. You shouldn’t compare me to her. I have never been formally trained. You should listen to your teacher.”

Well, I think a little differently. Angela is just too kind.

“My piano teacher just tells me to play along with the metronome exactly as it’s written on the sheet music… but I find that so boring and uninteresting. It’s the same old thing over and over again every day.”

At first glance, Christine has similar qualities to Annie and Angela. So it’s only natural that playing classical music would be boring.

“Christine, did you plan on majoring in classical piano?”

“Yes, that was my mother’s intention. But I don’t think it will work out. I want to be someone who sings while playing the piano like Elton John.”

Christine’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.

“Singing? Do you sing?”

Annie reacted to the word song.

“I’m not good at singing, but I enjoy playing the piano while singing.”

“Want to try it here?”

“yes.”

First of all, I like the guts.

The girl started playing the bass line with her left hand and the chords with her right. It was a simple and clear progression.

– When I was 16 years old,

(When I was sixteen,)

– I went on the road recklessly.

(I just set off on my journey.)

It was our new song ‘Sk8er Girl’. The clean performance, where we hit the beats with force only once per beat in 4/4 time, actually allowed us to focus on the song.

It was one of the few low-key songs Annie sang. Christine sang plainly to a bouncy accompaniment.

But then, suddenly, he borrowed the melody of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ and drove it into a dramatic mood. Unlike the original, he used a darker scale.

While playing the chords with my left hand, I continued to play the Flight of the Bumblebee at a fast pace with my right hand.

– But the reality was different from the novel.

(But reality was different from the novel.)

– There was fear instead of romance,

(Instead of romance, there was fear,)

Oh my gosh, singing while playing this fast······.

It’s like asking me to sing while playing the third movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

It was a unique performance that only an unfortunate classical pianist who loved pop and rock could do.

– I took a train to the west.

(I boarded the train going west.)

– To my hometown, California.

(Heading to my hometown of California.)

After singing the last verse, he continued to play softly while whistling. When I closed my eyes and listened, I could imagine a train heading west under a red sky.

After the song ended, there was a brief silence before the audience erupted in cheers.

“Wow, that’s crazy. Christine, you’re amazing!”

“Was it okay? While listening to this new song that my sister sang, I started singing it while playing the piano at home, and I started to habitually play classical music, hehe.”

“You’re really good. How do you play the piano like that while singing?”

Christine smiled broadly at Annie and Angela’s rave reviews.

Actually, his singing skills are a bit lacking. However, he is unique. In addition, he has the courage to not be nervous in front of people at all.

I’m a little greedy······.

“Christine, does your father’s supermarket sell ramen?”

* * *

West Olympic Boulevard.

About 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the Sunset Strip is a neighborhood where many Korean immigrants live.

Lee Deok-ho, who is the chairman of the shopping mall prosperity association here, went to Germany as a miner at the age of 24 after graduating from college and worked there for over 3 years. Although his contract as a miner ended, he wanted to study, so he dropped out of the hotel management department at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

Lee Deok-ho married Kim Gil-ja, who was a nurse at the time, and moved to the United States. He was passing by downtown LA when he saw Chinatown, and was so shocked that he couldn’t tell if it was America or China. And he began to have a big dream of creating a Koreatown.

While working as a welder, he obtained permanent residency and, with the money he earned in Germany and a bank loan, he purchased a one-story building on Olympic Boulevard and opened the ‘Olympic Market’.

He put up a sign in both Korean and English, and wrote on the wall in Korean about things like rice, ramen, cold noodles, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Then, Korean immigrants began to visit this place more and more.

Lee Deok-ho created a ‘love room’ inside the store with the idea that Koreans should come together in a foreign country. There was a bulletin board on the wall of the room. More and more notes looking for people began to be posted.

That’s how he started the first ‘Korea Town’ by running a supermarket on Olympic Boulevard.

Lee Deok-ho, who had diligently saved money, purchased a fairly large two-story commercial building. He organized a commercial prosperity association by gathering other Korean immigrants and operating various stores, restaurants, and grocery markets.

A man opened the door to Lee Deok-ho’s office and came in. He was holding two bags of Samyoung Ramen in his hand.

“Chairman Lee, how about having ramen with me for lunch today?”

“Oh my, you’re here, hyung. Ramen is delicious. My wife just wrapped up some well-fermented bachelor kimchi for me today, haha.”

Park Cheon-deuk came to America with his wife at the invitation of his older sister, who had married an American soldier and gone to America. They didn’t speak the language and didn’t have much money, so there wasn’t much they could do.

Park Cheon-deuk, who had welding skills, met Lee Deok-ho, who was younger and smarter than him, while working as a welder. And thanks to that connection, he was able to open this small shop.

The savory smell of ramen cooking along with the bubbling sound filled the office.

“Whoever developed this ramen is really amazing. It’s cheap and delicious. They say this is the best-selling item at the store right now, haha.”

“Besides, it goes well with any kind of kimchi. I’m so happy that your store has taken off.”

Slurp.

The two of them started eating ramen together. They grabbed the well-fermented bachelor kimchi with their bare hands and took a bite.

“But, bro. Why did you come to the office on Sunday? Isn’t Sunday supposed to be a day for families to get together and cook ramen?”

“It’s festival time on Sunset Strip these days. My kids are on vacation so we go there almost every day.”

“Oh, hyung, you were on TV, right? Hahaha. It was fun to watch.”

“When I was young, being a singer was such a lowly job, so I didn’t like it when kids liked music. But here in America, I heard that you can become famous as a singer.”

“Yes. You know those five black brothers in a group, right? How much money did they make? They made a ridiculous amount of money, like building a few of these.”

Lee Deok-ho was an elite who was highly educated, had experience working overseas, and was fluent in foreign languages. Every time he met Park Cheon-deuk, he told him various news about the United States.

“Deok-ho, you’ve seen the movie too, right? I’ve seen the singer who started out as a singer for the US 8th Army and came to the US a few times, but the fact that he set up a company in the middle of LA and even held a charity festival is truly the pride of the Republic of Korea.”

“Yes, they are big stars now. In fact, this street festival is small in scale compared to their name value.”

It was when two people were eating cold rice in ramen soup.

“Dad! You locked the store door again and came here?”

“Is my daughter here? She came to eat with Uncle Deok-ho.”

Dang-grang.

Park Cheon-deuk dropped his spoon when he saw the group with his daughter.