Chapter 95
Kim Eun-joo, sitting across from Soo-hyun, said,
"Joy and delight. How do you say that in English?"
"Joy and pleasure."
"Right? The English expression is also different. In Chinese characters, it is expressed as '喜' for 'happy' and '樂' for 'enjoyable'."
'No matter how many times I hear it, Chinese characters are difficult.'
Eun-joo Kim, who knew that Soo-hyun had difficulty with Chinese characters, quickly explained.
"The Chinese character for joy (喜) is derived from the meaning of singing while playing a drum. Likewise, the Chinese character for enjoyment (樂) means to play an instrument. In English, 'joy' is from the outside in, and 'pleasure' is from the inside out."
'From the outside in and from the inside out? What does that mean? Feelings that come from within and feelings that enter from the outside?'
Eun-joo Kim's explanation was heard by Soo-hyun, who had a questioning expression.
"Joy is the emotion of the process of achieving something, and pleasure is the emotion of consuming something. You can think of it as an emotion that follows an action."
Schubert's words came to Soo-hyun's mind.
"Composing music is a joy for me."'Joy, Mr. Schubert said that composing itself is a joy. Could this be related to Professor Kim Eun-ju's explanation?'
Kim Eun-joo sensed that Soo-hyun was feeling something when she saw his eyes tremble.
"Excessive pleasure is bad for your health. It's like eating chocolate. The first bite is delicious, but you get tired of it quickly. Exercise, sexual desire, smoking, and drinking are like that. But that doesn't mean pleasure is bad. It also helps to get rid of the bad ideas that have accumulated in your head."
Kim Eun-joo said, snapping her fingers,
"Joy doesn't come on its own. At first, there is pain. After unbearable pain, you finally reach it. That's why joy is sweet, but it never falters. It comes from within, not from the outside. Joy enriches our lives more than momentary pleasure."
To Soo-hyun, Eun-joo Kim's words sounded like this:
'It is a pleasure to consume and play an existing song, and it is a joy to feel the unbearable pain of composition and complete it.'
Of course, Kim Eun-joo did not say that. Besides, that definition is incorrect. But that's what Soo-hyun heard.
"Well."
'I don't know how I conveyed my words to the child,' said teacher Kim Eun-ju. "Now, let's experience with our bodies the difference between joy and pleasure."
Professor Kim Eun-joo's class followed. The class on enjoyment was mainly a class on seeing and hearing things. She showed him funny shows, funny cartoons, and good music. But they all had one thing in common. No matter how funny a comedy show was, if you watched different stories in the same format, it became boring quickly. It was the same with cartoons and music. Eun-joo Kim, who saw Soo-hyun gradually losing interest, took out dominoes this time.
"Do you know what this is?"
"I don't know."
"It's called Domino's."
'What is it used for?'
"Okay, set it up like this. Look carefully."
Eun-ju Kim lined up about ten dominoes and knocked them down by pushing them with her finger. Soo-hyun's eyes widened as he watched the dominoes fall one after another.
"Do you want to try it too?" she said with a smile.
Soo-hyun hesitated for a moment. It was because the time it took Eun-joo Kim to line up ten dominoes was too short for them to fit. It seemed fun, but he didn't understand why anyone would bother to build something that was just going to be knocked down. Teacher Kim Eun-ju, who guessed Soo-hyun's thoughts from his expression, spoke as she fiddled with the dominoes.
"It's an educational activity for children younger than Soo-hyun, but there's no game that improves concentration like dominoes. Why don't you give it a try?"
"Can I just count to ten?"
"Well? That's up to you."
Soo-hyun, who was staring at the smiling Eun-ju Kim, slowly placed the dominoes.
'Should I prepare two more than Ms. Kim Eun-ju? Ah, this is nice. Should I try a little more?'
"You can line them up diagonally or in an S-shape. Once you get the hang of it, you can even make the dominoes fall into the air and knock down the next one," Eun-joo Kim instigated.
As I did this, I wanted to try to make it a little longer, a little longer. How spectacular would it be if it fell at once? The dominoes, which were only meant to be placed up to ten, soon filled the room to the point of taking up a whole box that the teacher had brought. Soo-hyun, who had placed the last domino, slowly stood up and said.
"It's all over!"
"Should I finish it now?" Kim Eun-joo sat cross-legged and nodded.
"Yes, sir."
'I'm so excited I'm almost out of breath. How cool would it be to fall!?'
Soo-hyun lightly touched the domino right in front. Watching it fall with a thud gave me the chills. But soon, Soo-hyun frowned. This was because the domino veered off in the middle and couldn't go all the way to the end. Soo-hyun, who was examining the wrong domino, looked at Eun-ju Kim and said.
"I guess I should have placed it a little more to the left."
"One more time?" she asked with a warm smile.
"Yes!"
Soo-hyun pushed aside the fallen dominoes and placed them one by one. His expression was much more focused than before. Eun-joo Kim's smile deepened as she quietly watched the scene. The first time he placed the dominoes, it took about an hour because he placed them roughly, but the second time, he placed them carefully, so much so that it took an hour and a half even though he had to start again from the middle.
As Soo-hyun concentrated until all the prepared dominoes fell, he looked at Kim Eun-joo, and she smiled and nodded as if to say hurry up. As Soo-hyun, with a nervous expression, touched the domino with his fingertips, it fell again with a rattling sound. As the dominoes fell close to the end, Soo-hyun's face brightened.
'Come on, come on! We're almost there!'
As the dominoes fell beautifully, Soo-hyun shouted "Hurray!" because not a single domino was left behind.
"Wow! Do you see that? I'm okay, right?"
"Haha, yes. You did a great job."
"Wow, how interesting! Why did I do something like this?"
"Haha, yes. But do you know what? It's already been two and a half hours."
Soo-hyun looked at his watch in surprise.
"Oh, has it been that long?"
"Haha, time flies when you're concentrating. You've felt it a lot when you're playing, right?"
"Haha… Well, that's true."
"Okay, shall we end the class now? Sit down."
Soo-hyun glanced at the dominoes and sat down. It seemed he wanted to try it one more time. Teacher Kim Eun-joo said, looking at Soo-hyun, who was as innocent as a child and whose emotions were expressed in his expression.
"How was playing dominoes?"
"Well, I didn't think about anything when I was setting it up. It was like my head was empty. I couldn't think of anything."
"Right? And how was your body when you stood up?"
"My knees and elbows hurt a little. My lower back also hurts a little, probably because I was constantly bending over."
"Then when will it end?"
"It was amazing, wasn't it really cool?"
"Haha, that was cool. What I'm feeling right now is joy. When you overcome the pain and achieve something. The feeling you experience at that moment can be defined as joy."
"Ah...."
Soo-hyun made an expression as if he finally understood. But somehow, Eun-ju Kim, who taught him, seemed happier than Soo-hyun, who learned from him. Perhaps this class was the joy of a class that finally allowed her, who had always failed, to succeed despite the pain of preparation. In the end, it was she who got more joy out of this class.
As Eun-joo Kim, who was happily ending the class, and Soo-hyun, who had promised to meet for the next class, left the room, Junwoo, who had been squatting and playing a game on his phone as if he had been waiting outside for a long time, stood up and patted his numb leg.
"Hey, what's taking so long?"
"Why are you here?"
"Why? I waited to go home with you."
Eun-joo Kim followed him out and saw Junwoo.
'That boy is Junwoo, the boy that Professor Lee Chan-ho was talking about. He's a funny boy who became friends with Soo-hyun after feeling jealous of him.'
As Eun-joo Kim, who was smiling at him in an incomprehensible way, waved and disappeared, Junwoo, who had been staring at her, muttered.
"Am I the type that's popular with older women?"
As Soo-hyun, who was shaking his head as he watched Junwoo talking crazy again today, walked on first, Junwoo, who came to his senses late, followed him quickly.
"Hey! I've been waiting for you until now, but you're going alone? Let's go together!"
"I'm going to the practice room."
"Hey, you made me wait for nothing."
"You didn't even promise to wait."
"Is it because I was born with a habit of saying the right things but strangely lacking in luck?"
"Haha."
'I don't hate Junwoo's puns. It's always fun to talk to a comfortable friend.'
"Junwoo."
"Oh?"
"What is joy to you?"
"…"
A sudden question. Junwoo thought for a moment and then said.
"Winning the game?"
"It's fun."
"Well, what if my mom gives me a gift certificate to buy game items?"
"That's also fun."
"Hey, then you begged your mom for a month to buy you a gift certificate, and when she finally bought it for you?"
"Hmm?"
'Is that joy? I still don't know. I'm never going to have a conversation like this with this guy again.'
Finally, I gave up on the conversation and opened the door of the practice room and went in, but Junwoo followed me in.
"Aren't you going home?"
"I don't have to go to school today. I want to see you practice."
For Junwoo, watching Soo-hyun practice was also a good lesson.
"I'm not going to practice the game today."
"Then?"
"Composition."
"Oh-ho. Hey, that will happen all of a sudden… Ah, right. You already composed a song, right? Hey, do you get royalties for that? No? Hehe, it's impossible for a song with no publicity to get royalties. You'd be lucky if you got about 140 won. Hehe."
Soo-hyun sighed and sat down in front of the piano.
'Nothing came to my mind, but I thought that if I sat at the piano anyway, the answer would come.'
I moved the musical idea that came to my mind to the keyboard. I took a blank staff paper, wrote down the musical notation, and created a musical idea of about one A4 paper.
"Is it easier than you thought?"
Transcribe the emerging melody into sheet music. The task of creating sheet music itself was not that difficult, as he had the piano in front of him and knew all the scales. Soo-hyun took control of the bass of the music he himself created and added his left-hand performance to create a rich performance. Finally, the short introduction was completed and after playing the song once, Soo-hyun looked over at Junwoo. Junwoo was still only playing games on his phone.
"Junwoo."
"Just a moment, a little more and we'll break this board."
Junwoo's hands were tapping his phone so fast that it was impossible to see them.
"Oh yeah!!!"
Junwoo raised one arm to show that he had won the game. Then Junwoo put away his phone and winked at Soo-hyun, who was waiting for him.
"What?"
"Listen."
"Oh."
Soo-hyun played the song he had just composed. The first song in the true sense of the word.
'What kind of impression will Junwoo have?'
"I wrote down the notes that came to my mind in a short time, so you can just think of it as the introduction, right? What do you think?" he added.
Junwoo's face, reflected in Soo-hyun's eyes as he turned his head, was filled with a bewildered expression.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh?"
"Are you teasing me?"
"What?"
Junwoo pointed to the score with his eyes.
"Play the entire eighth section again from the beginning of the introduction."
"…?"
Soo-hyun played as Junwoo instructed. After finishing playing and looking at Junwoo again, Junwoo shrugged and said,
"Isn't that Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23? The middle one is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57. I've heard the last one somewhere, but I don't remember exactly what it is. What is that hodgepodge of a song?"
Soo-hyun looked surprised. Soo-hyun took the score and looked at it with trembling eyes. Junwoo was right. The bad thoughts that were coming to his mind were not bad thoughts, but memories.
'It's amazing that the song I spent two hours making turned out to be a horrible hodgepodge of Chopin and Beethoven.'
"Ha… Composing music is hard."
Junwoo muttered as he took out his cell phone again.
"Of course it's hard, it's composition. You have to dip it in poop or soybean paste to find out, right? Miss, the line just now sounded a bit like an old man. It's something my dad often says. Anyway, if you play with dad for a long time, you'll end up talking like an old man. Tsk."
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