God's Song

[TN: A millionaire]

“What... What! You already have a lot of money!”

He could hear Lim So Mi’s short shouting over the phone.

“This is from album sales, these are track revenues... So this is what copyrights are. Performance fees? But... What’s this?”

Lim So Mi was murmuring when she spoke again.

“Jun Hyuk, what’s Violon?”

“Violon? Oh, that’s my friend’s band. There’s some music that I arranged for that band.”

“I see. So that band gives you arranging fees.”

Lim So Mi looked through the history for a while and discovered something new.

“Jun Hyuk. There are investments in the U.S. Treasury and stocks with the money that you made... Did Lawyer Baek do this?”

“I don’t know that kind of stuff. Oh, that’s actually probably from my boss.”

“Who? Your boss? Mr. Yoon Kwang Hun?”

“Yes. He said that he used to be quite successful on Wall Street.”

“No wonder... Lawyer Baek doesn’t know about these things. Oh right. All of it comes to a little over $3 million. Hey, so you’re rich.”

Jun Hyuk was speechless when he heard that he had $3 million.

“You earned this much in half a year. You’ll be getting royalties from this new album too... They said that album is going to do even better. This is big. You’ll have to get a tax lawyer first. I’m not on the tax side.”

Jun Hyuk had thought that he had made a couple tens of thousands since jazz is not a genre that sells hundreds of thousands of albums. However, America is taking care of its music distribution.

The more thorough music distribution is, the greater profits there are for the creator and those profits increase taxes. Though there might be measures from the U.S. protecting the creator’s interests, it makes sure to scrape out taxes to the last cent.

In these circumstances, royalties come in to Jun Hyuk every time Stanley Clarke performs the songs, and headquarters of large franchises like Starbucks sign contracts to use the tracks.

Jun Hyuk checked how much money he has, went for a walk in the forest, and thought about matters other than music for the first time.

2 days later, Jun Hyuk revealed his intentions to release the rest of the score for ‘Inferno’ to the 16 maestros. He sent Lim So Mi the information she would give to the press, and he sent messages to Yoon Kwang Hun and Amelia as well.

When he told them that he would get a camping car and travel around Europe for a year, Yoon Kwang Hun started.

“Hey! Won’t it be dangerous? Even though it’s Europe, I’m iffy about you staying on the street.”

“Sir, who am I? I lived on the streets for 10 years since I was young. I’m telling you there’s no problem. Ha ha.”

Yoon Kwang Hun was at a loss for words. He had not even thought of that and felt like he had said something he should not have. He did feel better that Jun Hyuk talked about that period of his life as if it were nothing.

It could be that Jun Hyuk’s wounds from the past have healed and there are now only traces. Yoon Kwang Hun tried to act as if it were nothing and complained,

“Someone is locked up in the cafe, and you’re saying you’ll be having fun all over Europe? I resent it.”

“If you’re jealous, do you want to close the cafe and go with me? I have a lot of money. He he.”

“Forget it. Kid. A man has to make his own means.”

Amelia also started up, but she had to accept it as she is also tied down with touring.

***

Lawyer Lim So Mi faced her first ever press conference with excited tension. Most of the reporters in the conference hall are American. She needed to check the mirror several times to make sure that her makeup had turned out well. She could be appearing on TV.

“Hello. I am Catherine Lim, attorney to Jun or full name Jun Hyuk Jang.”

Her voice kept trembling at the cameras that had been flashing ever since she walked into the conference hall. She needs to look at the cameras, but her eyes kept shifting to the side.

“I will talk about what you are most curious about first. We have decided to release the score for Symphony No. 1 in A Major, ‘Inferno’, which was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic, as soon as possible.”

The cameras flashed again and reporters raised their hands high to ask their questions.

“I will take questions after telling you one more thing.”

Lim So Mi cleared her throat and took the mic again.

“Inferno’s composer, Jun, will be focusing on composing for over a year in a quiet place. He will be taking a year off from Clayton-Hoffman School of Music... and there may be people who already know, but an 80s heavy metal tribute album he produced with LA Sound will be released at the end of this month. Jun composed all of the songs on this album, but he will not be taking part in any of its promotions.”

She had put in a bit of advertising for the album as per LA Sound’s request. As soon as her announcement was over, questions poured in but there was nothing that she could answer to clearly.

“Can you explain the distinction of the song ‘Inferno’?”

“I have never heard Inferno and I have not yet seen the score. Only the Berlin Symphony and a few members of the audience who had been in the Salzburg concert hall on August 1st know the song.”

“To our understanding, Jun only released those 2 albums with LA Sound. Are there plans to release any more?”

“No. As I said, he will be focusing solely on composition for at least 1 year. Ah, I do know that he released a first album in Korea before coming to America.”

“Does he have an exclusive contract with LA Sound?”

“No. Jun has not yet signed on with any record labels or management agencies.”

Lim So Mi ended the press conference with this. She thought that reporters would no longer camp outside her house or ring her phone.”

However, her phone rang incessantly once more. This time, they were professional music publishers asking to meet.

Performers would not be the only people to purchase the score for Inferno, but also people who know how to read scores. No score has ever received such media attention, and tremendous sales were guaranteed. She also received a ton of mail containing similar information.

Lim So Mi had doubted that a score could bring in much money, but was shocked by the amount of advance royalties one publisher offered.

Eventually, she contracted with the publisher that offered the most in advance royalties and people who could not even read music rushed to pre-order the 1st edition. As time passes, the price will increase because of collectors.

***

When one internet media outlet published articles from foreign press, Yoon Kwang Hun grabbed his clothes.

“I won’t be coming in to the cafe for a while, so don’t slack off and take care of business. And reporters might come swarming in today or tomorrow. If they look for me, tell them I went to Africa to buy coffee beans. And tell them it’ll take a few months.”

“Excuse me? Are you really going to Africa?”

The eyes of 2 employees grew large. They are not even coffee importers, but to go to Africa for a cafe?

“Whatever. Just don’t play hooky and work hard.”

Yoon Kwang Hun glared at the employees, left his car, and headed to the bus terminal. He was going to decide on where to go once he was at the ticket box.

Reporters went to the cafe as Yoon Kwang Hun had expected, but it was all for nothing. They released articles on Jun Hyuk as if at war with each other. Most outlets used foreign articles to cover the internet with obvious but provocative headlines like ‘Genius composer recognized by the world’ and ‘A young world-renowned composer from Korea’.

Thanks to this, Jun Hyuk’s album started flying off the shelves again and people gathered to the Taste Room to buy Jun Hyuk’s jazz album. The low stock ran out quickly and the impatient people ordered it themselves on Amazon.

The songs in Jun Hyuk’s first album dominated music charts again.

Jo Hyung Joong smiled from ear to ear with the news on the album sales and looked through the internet to read every single article on Jun Hyuk.

He could also be certain that the work that all of those maestros abroad were calling impressive was the score that he had seen.

Jo Hyung Joong picked up his phone.