Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 185



Only Noblemtl

185. Parallel

Parallel world.

There is a world and people who are exactly like the world I live in.

A familiar yet unfamiliar concept that has been dealt with in various cultural contents such as recent movies, dramas, and novels.

When asked if he was a player, the concept that Bobby brought up was exactly that vague one.

“It seems I was a player in some parallel universe, not this one. A game called ‘Singer-Songwriter Saga.’”

Is it because it’s a parallel world?

Or maybe it’s because the game was released in the United States and not Korea.

The game ‘Singer-Songwriter Saga’, which Barbie abbreviated as ‘SSS’, had a different name from ‘Raising an Idle Singer-Songwriter’.

“It was just another day like any other. I was a normal kid, playing catch in the yard with my friends.

Then, all of a sudden, something started to flow into my head like a flood. Memories of someone who was just as handsome as me, but who looked a little older.”

“Barbie spoke in a wistful voice, as if reminiscing about old times.

“At the time, I didn’t know what that memory was. I thought it was a dream or a delusion. When I told my friends that strange scenes suddenly came to mind even though I hadn’t been hit in the head by a ball while playing catch, they all laughed.”

It is said that after about a month, Bobby naturally came to know the identity of what had eaten away at his head.

The scenes unfolding vividly before his eyes were memories of another self, Justin Bobby from a parallel world.

And among them, what particularly filled Bobby’s head was melody.

Another one of those composed by Justin Bobby as a player.

“I had a melody and music flowing in my head, and I filmed it for fun and uploaded it to YouTube. Then someone contacted me because they really wanted to meet me. They said I was a genius. That someone, as you know, was George Brown.”

Seongjun couldn’t react for a moment after hearing what Bobby had said.

Because the twist was beyond my expectations, my head was in a state of total confusion.

I thought you were a beta tester, but what? A parallel universe?

“···Are you asking me to believe that right now?”

“Why don’t you believe me? You’re a player in this ridiculous game too.”

Doubts were immediately turned into conviction at Bobby’s one word.

Only then did the puzzle pieces fall into place one by one.

Bobby was discovered by George Brown and began to appear in the world when he was around 7 years old.

At the time, what drew attention to him was his mature vocals and his songwriting and composing skills that were beyond his years.

There were also suspicions that producer George had composed and written the song on his behalf for genius marketing purposes.

But what if it was actually from another world, from someone who had been granted Orpheus’ musical talent?

‘Surprisingly, a very plausible possibility is established.’

Well, okay. I can accept it.

As Barbie said, while I was playing the game called ‘Bangsinki’, I found myself in a parallel universe?

Of course it could exist.

“So you used the expression ‘half-and-half’ because you were recalling another memory of you who is not a player, but is a player?”

“That’s right. So unfortunately I can’t level up. It would have been really fun if I could enjoy the game too.”

Bobby continued, his lips licking with regret.

“But since about a year ago, I think. Lately, my memories from that world have been completely disappearing. It’s like a memory switch turning on and off.

When the switch is on, all memories are vivid, but when the switch is off, I can’t remember anything about the player or the game.

Then how do you recognize the things you’ve accomplished through games and abilities? It’s just that my memories are naturally replaced with the results I achieved from the beginning. Isn’t that amazing?”

Then, when the memories of the parallel world come back, everything keeps coming back to Bobby.

“I had been living well for over ten years, but then I suddenly realized why this phenomenon occurred recently.”

Bobby raised his finger and pointed at Sungjun.

“Ah, a ‘real’ player has appeared in this world.”

I can’t explain it in detail, but I could intuitively feel that this happened because Orpheus did not allow two players to exist in one world.

Based on that instinctive basis, I started looking for players who might have appeared somewhere.

“Anyway, thanks to that, the cycle of my memory switch turning off is getting shorter these days. If this continues, it won’t be long before my memories completely disappear.

So when I found you, I was crazy happy and wanted to meet you as soon as possible. After all, we are two lonely secrets that we can’t tell anyone but each other.”

At the same time, the words, “a lonely secret that you want to share but cannot,” deeply touched my heart.

It was only later that I realized that there was a certain desperation hidden behind Barbie’s smile.

Even though it was a memory that came to mind by chance, I don’t know when that memory will disappear…

It’s no different from living with a fear that’s on a whole other level than being drunk and blacking out every day.

But the cause of this is the player, Sungjun himself.

“···Aren’t you scared?”

I didn’t do anything wrong, but I felt a little sorry, so I asked cautiously.

“You mean, the memories are fading away? It’s more of a regret than a fear. I mean, I can never recall these interesting memories again. But still, I’ve enjoyed them enough for over 20 years, so it’s time to let them go.”

Barbie chuckled.

And looking at such a Bobby, Sangjun felt a sense of kinship between himself and him once again.

Although it may be a little different for Barbie, she too soon finds herself at a crossroads where she must either lose all her abilities or not, depending on the answer to the monk’s suggestion by Orpheus.

And, facing that inevitable choice, I had decided to do my best with the remaining time.

Oh, now that I think about it, I should ask.

“Do you know about the Bisungmun?”

“know.”

“So what choice did you make?”

Seongjun’s heart began to pound as he asked the question.

You can vaguely predict your own future based on the choices and experiences Barbie had in the other world.

Every second I wait for an answer feels like a minute.

After a moment that felt like eternity.

Finally, Barbie’s lips slowly opened.

“I am-”

Gulp-

The moment the saliva went down my throat.

“I didn’t choose.”

“…what?”

You didn’t choose.

Is that possible?

Orpheus had clearly been forced to make a merciless choice.

But is it true that the other world showed such generosity?

why···!

It was a time when I gritted my teeth at the unfairness.

“No, I misspoke. It would be more accurate to say that I couldn’t, rather than that I didn’t choose.”

Barbie shrugged and laughed.

“I over there couldn’t open the secret gate.”

Looking at Sungjun’s blank expression, Bobby added his explanation.

“I over there failed to fully embrace Orpheus’ talents, and that caused a very fatal problem.”

“···If it’s a fatal problem···.”

“Instead of being musically inspired, I was morally screwed.”

“I’m sorry,” replied Bobby, smiling self-deprecatingly and twirling his finger around my temple.

“I, who quickly became a star by taking Orpheus’ talent, lived a life of alcohol, women, and drugs.

Then, while he was drunk and in a state of extreme depression, he put a gun to my head.

bread-

Bobby bent his finger and made a pulling motion as if he was pulling the trigger, while making a firing sound with his mouth.

These were the words of one who had not fully absorbed his talent, as Orpheus had said.

That Barbie over there was crazy.

“So when I first recalled those memories, I was scared. Could it be that I too would be ruined like that?

Fortunately, my personality wasn’t covered up. Still, I lived as carefully as possible. I couldn’t reproduce that terrible ending exactly.”

So, Barbie said she tried to keep moderation so as not to indulge in hedonism.

Drink moderately.

Date moderately.

However, I never touched drugs.

Even weed, which is treated like tobacco in the United States.

“If it’s with us···”

“You’re right, hemp.”

Seeing Barbie so naturally using words that are taboo in our country, Sungjun felt that the class of the Celestial Empire was indeed different.

After that, Sungjun asked a few more questions and Bobby answered them.

Skills or items he obtained from the other world.

It was about systems and missions, etc.

Although it was subtly different from Bangsinki, it essentially had the structural identity of Orpheus injecting his abilities.

How much time has passed like that?

Suddenly, a red light flashes through the window, dazzling my eyes.

As we were talking, dawn was already breaking.

‘I really stayed up all night.’

I’ve gotten most of the information I wanted, so I should start getting ready to head back before it’s completely dark.

“Thanks, Bobby. That was helpful.”

“Nice to meet you. But that’s unexpected. I didn’t expect you to ask about ‘that’.”

“Granny?”

“Orpheus, the creator of the game.”

Seongjun vaguely thought that Bobby also only understood Orpheus to the extent that he knew.

But is there something more?

“Orpheus is always around you.”

“If you’re watching me with the eyes of a transcendent being, then I-”

“No. What I mean is, he is physically present around you.”

?!

Seongjun’s eyes widen.

“In my memory, the Orpheus of the other world was a blonde American TV show producer. He seemed to have followed the same nationality and appearance in order to closely observe the users playing his game.

And this time I saw Orpheus around you. Although his appearance had changed, I remember the unique feeling he gave off when I met him in person. That’s why I knew. That man was Orpheus.”

In other words.

Orpheus currently appears as a Korean, meaning he is someone in the same industry or someone closer to it.

‘So Orpheus is really by my side?!’

“So who is it?”

“Well, is it okay if I tell you? He’s-”

Bobby, who was opening his mouth to respond to the urgent question, suddenly stopped all his movements as if buffering had occurred.

And about 3 seconds later.

“Oh, what was I going to say just now?”

Bobby suddenly blinks his eyes.

“Oh, right. Devoice. When do we do a collaboration? Like we did with Ariel!”

Then, out of the blue, he brought up another topic.

“Why are you suddenly talking about collaboration? More importantly, Orpheus is by my side.”

“Or… what? What is that?”

Barbie raised her eyebrows and asked back.

At first I suspected he was joking, but he kept responding the same way as I questioned him further.

‘no way…!’

Is the memory switch turned off?

Why now of all times?!

I asked him a few questions to confirm.

Basically, the question is why we met at this hotel today, and why we made the bet at Sound Sky.

The answer he got back was unbelievable.

“It was because of the secret collaboration. The bet at Sound Sky was to decide whose name would be put in front of the collaboration song.”

As Barbie said.

His memories, with the parallel world memory switch turned off, were cleverly and naturally changed.

Afterwards, he tried to trigger Barbie’s memories by subtly mentioning the words ‘game’ or ‘player’, but failed.

There was no sign of the boy’s memory returning.

‘I said there was no set timing for the memory switch to turn back on···.’

There was nothing we could do about it now that it had come to this.

When the guy’s memories return, we have no choice but to continue the conversation.

So Seongjun made a promise to meet again, even though he didn’t know when that would be.

*

The two songs that Sungjun and Bobby uploaded anonymously on Sound Sky naturally created a huge buzz.

– So why did those two upload the song there?

There is a possibility that Sound Sky requested the advertisement fee.

ㄴ I think it’s the new song noise marketing side. Seeing that the two of them released songs called ‘Game Over’ and ‘Continue’ under the same name ‘Player’, is it some kind of game-related duet?

Wow, I feel excited just hearing it

– Aren’t you going to release it officially? Both songs are really good.

N It’s a Barbie-style love song, and the familiar taste was as expected, but Sungjun’s continuation somehow touched my heart. I’ve been feeling a bit tired of life lately, so I guess it gave me strength.

N I admit. Sungjun seems to be able to pick out a touching song like this.

Amidst all kinds of speculations.

Despite demands from netizens and the media, Sungjun and Bobby did not provide a clear explanation.

The same goes for MXM Entertainment and New Era, the two people’s agencies.

– We cannot confirm anything about the artist’s personal life. However, this is neither a Sound Sky advertisement nor a new song noise marketing.

All they could give was a stereotypical answer.

In the end, the story of the two people’s adventures remains an eternal mystery with no known cause.

Anyway, Sungjun, who finished his bet with Bobby, was able to return to preparing for the concert.

Now that we’ve somewhat resolved our questions about the players and Bangsinki, we can just focus on preparing for the year-end concert.

A shocking incident occurred that shook Sungjun’s mentality even though he had made such a pledge.

“What… you said…? Is, is that… really…?”

Seongjun asked hesitantly, his pupils dilated.

And to her younger brother, who seemed to have poor hearing, older sister Cha Seong-i spoke again with precise pronunciation.

“I decided to date CEO Choi.”

……. (continue)