In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe - Chapter 192:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 192

Rihyuk narrowed his eyes.

‘Hmm…’

A chessboard with black and white squares.

The second hand of the chess clock ticked away, signaling the time limit.

‘Where should I move?’

Every time his eyes moved, the old man sitting across from him smiled.

 

“Can’t you think of anything?”

 

“Just a moment.”

“Take your time. Ha ha ha! Not that it will make any difference.”

He was annoying.

He was a distant senior, but he was teasing him in front of his eyes.

Of course, he was not in a position to talk.

-Pfft, sir. Is that the best you can do? Putting it there?

-Junghyun Hyung. You landed on my Seoul. Pay me two million won in tolls. …What? No way. I can’t agree to a Seed Bank loan.

-Hahaha! Hey, Jiho. Even a middle schooler would do better than you.

He coughed as he remembered how he had bullied the members every time he played a brain game.

He looked back at his past self for a moment, but he quickly moved on to another thought because of the time limit.

‘How can I make him not notice?’

The reason he was racking his brain was not because he had no confidence in winning.

It was rather to lose.

30 minutes ago.

Teacher Noh Jaehyun, who was excitedly talking about reading, casually asked.

-Do you play chess?

-Yes. I know how to.

At that, the veteran singer smiled brightly and brought out a chessboard.

-Ms. Kang has no interest in this kind of thing. Neither do the people in the neighborhood. I have no one to play chess with.

That was why Rihyuk decided to lose.

He didn’t want to give this excited person a memory of defeat.

Of course, he hated losing to others more than dying, but he hated it more when the other person was gloomy.

It wasn’t out of courtesy for the elder or the senior in the industry, but because he genuinely liked the other person.

‘Let’s see.’

Winning was easy.

If he moved the knight and the bishop a few more times, he could easily win.

But he deliberately tried to lose without the other person noticing, and that made him worry.

“Hmm…”

Rihyuk raised his finger and moved a piece.

He made it look like a slight mistake due to the time pressure.

“Ho ho.”

The old man’s lips twitched.

Sure enough.

Soon, his stiff finger moved a piece.

“Checkmate.”

“Uh…”

“Ha ha, ouch. I won again this time. You need to study chess more, kid.”

“I lost.”

Rihyuk stretched and sighed.

Meanwhile, the old man in the wheelchair moved his stiff body.

“Oh dear, I need a break.”

He called the cameraman who was standing nearby.

“Can I have some rest time?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you.”

The crew left with a gentle applause.

The only ones left were the idol singer sitting at the table and the old man who was nearing eighty.

“Ugh…”

Teacher Noh Jaehyun blinked and groaned.

Rihyuk got up in surprise.

“Are you okay?”

“…I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

The old man’s skin, which had been fairly bright when they met in the morning, was pale and dry.

He waved his hand.

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“But…”

“Don’t bother me. I hate it when others fuss over me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Bring me a glass of water.”

He ran to the kitchen and got a glass of water from the lady and handed it to him.

The old man gulped down the water and made a face as if he was alive.

“I must have overdone it by using my brain for a while. I wanted to beat a young one so I strained all my nerves. Sigh.”

Rihyuk thought that wasn’t it.

It wasn’t because of chess. He just looked sick.

‘What should I do?’

He didn’t know what to do.

He wanted to do something for him, but there was nothing he could do.

He felt like he understood why the team leader always prayed to the moon when it was full. ‘Moon, please keep Kim Deoksoon healthy.’

“Hey.”

The old man chuckled.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“…Huh?”

“Don’t look at me with those affectionate eyes. You can’t use your feelings for others.”

“That’s not it.”

He avoided his gaze when he saw his own face reflected in the window.

Teacher Noh Jaehyun smiled silently and looked at the lawn outside the window. And beyond that, the village view.

“It’s still a long way to spring, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“I mean the season. How long do we have to wait to see spring here?”

Rihyuk was lost in thought at the sudden question.

“Do you think spring will come soon? Jeju Island is about five degrees higher in latitude than Seoul, and this winter has been mild too…”

“I suppose so.”

He tilted his head at the sight of the old man in a wheelchair smiling.

“Why do you ask?”

“It’s nothing much. There’s a canola flower field nearby. I want to see it soon, but it only blooms in spring.”

The wrinkled finger pointed at a spot.

“When spring comes, the canola flowers bloom along the road from there. It’s so beautiful that I can’t take my eyes off it. When the wind blows, the yellow petals sway and rise. It’s a magnificent sight.”

“…”

“Maybe it’s because I grew up watching canola flowers since I was young, but when I stand there and smell that unique fragrance, I remember the old days.”

“You said your hometown was in Hwanghae Province, right?”

“That’s right. It’s a place I can’t go to anymore.”

The veteran singer nodded and looked into the distance as if recalling his old memories.

“I remember how the flowers bloomed all over the village in spring. Do you like flowers?”

“No. Everyone else does, but not me…”

He had a brother who loved to crouch down and smell the wildflowers whenever he saw them.

He had another brother whose profile picture was a sunflower with the status message ‘Happiness and joy every day’.

He had one who would pick flowers and put them in his ears and take selfies, and one who was obsessed with floral-patterned clothes.

But he was not like them.

Teacher Noh Jaehyun seemed to agree and nodded.

“I don’t like flowers either. They’re only pretty to look at, but useless, aren’t they?”

“I think so too.”

“Oh, we agree on that again.”

The two old men exchanged their complaints about the impractical things and smiled contentedly.

The old man looked out the window and said, “Anyway, I think of the old days when I see the canola flowers. Maybe it’s because I’m old, but these days I keep thinking of the past.”

“Um, I don’t really know about that.”

“That’s normal. You shouldn’t feel this way so soon.”

With that, the old man fell silent and stared at the window.

He tapped his finger on the windowsill, lost in thought.

But it trembled.

It looked hard for him to move his finger.

“…”

Rihyuk picked up his smartphone and fiddled with his finger for a while.

For five minutes.

He was so focused that he didn’t even notice that the other person was looking at him.

“What are you looking at?”

“Uh, well.”

Rihyuk showed him his smartphone and said cautiously, “I searched and found that there are places where you can take pictures of canola flowers in January. It’s near Seongsan Sunrise Peak. If you want to see the flowers, maybe we could…”

The teacher’s eyes widened as he listened to his rambling story.

Then he burst into laughter.

“Ha ha! Ha ha ha!”

“……?”

“Cough! Oh my, ha ha!”

Rihyuk blinked as he handed him a tissue.

Not knowing what was going on, he asked when the laughter stopped, “Why did you suddenly……?”

“I laughed because you’re cute.”

The old man clenched the tissue in his hand, as if the thought alone made him laugh.

“You’re a good person. You even let others win at chess out of consideration.”

“Huh……”

“Don’t worry about it. I had a good time thanks to you. I’m just telling you that you’re a good person.”

“Thank you. You’re the first person to say that I’m nice.”

“Hmm? Don’t the other members say that?”

“They always say I’m awful.”

“That’s strange. Our Ms. Kang also always says I’m awful. I guess the people in this world have no eyes.”

The two old men sighed and talked about the cold-heartedness of the people these days, when a commotion was heard outside.

A cloud of dust rose as a rear car came speeding from afar.

The New Black members landed coolly from the rear car, along with the stunned faces of the TV crew filming them.

Rihyuk blinked his eyes.

‘Why are they landing so coolly from the rear car……?’

Jiho was making a V sign in the meantime.

Soon, the four of them started doing the rest of the chores outside.

It was not audible because of the soundproofing, but their mouth movements and actions were loud enough to burst the eardrums.

At one point, Woojoo stood on a rock and played the ukulele like a rocker, making everyone laugh.

Not long after, they spotted Rihyuk and Teacher Noh Jaehyun and waved their hands vigorously.

‘Wait a minute?’

Woojoo said something with his mouth, then quickly wrote something big on several A4 papers around him.

Then he got up.

He held up the paper in his hand, which had large letters written on it, as if he was confessing with A4 paper.

[Rihyuk]

As he opened his eyes wide, another paper was flipped over.

[Are you happy there?]

“……”

[What about us? We’re here like this]

[Sweating and cold and all that]

It went back to the original and repeated.

[Rihyuk]

[Are you happy there?]

Kim Bijoo almost fell backwards laughing.

In the meantime, Jiho intervened and added a line, making ‘Rihyuk’ into ‘Ri-hate’.

[Ri-hate]

He muttered.

“No, those people are really…”

“Hahaha.”

But he didn’t know what was so funny. Seeing Noh Jaehyun-ssi smile, Rihyuk just pursed his lips.

“Good people next to good people. How nice to see.”

“I don’t like it. Teacher.”

“Still, it’s a good thing to have such people by your side.”

Rihyuk only stuck out his lips at the old man’s chuckle.

“Ah, my goodness.”

They finally came inside after finishing the housework.

“Home is the best.”

“Right. No matter how I think about it, I don’t suit labor.”

“Nod nod.”

While he was cooling off in the living room, Rihyuk came out pushing Noh Jaehyun-ssi’s wheelchair.

“Ah, you’ve worked hard.”

“No, Teacher.”

“Well, then shall we go make a song as promised?”

He told them to go upstairs.

Rihyuk and Noh Jaehyun-ssi got on the home elevator together, but something was strange.

Woojoo asked as he climbed the stairs, “Is something wrong with Rihyuk?”

“Yeah. His expression is a bit weird.”

Bijoo agreed with Woojoo.

The other two didn’t seem to know anything, but somehow their kid felt stiff.

Did something happen while they were gone?

“Hey, what are you doing! Hurry up!”

“Let’s go! Teacher!”

They hurried upstairs at the teacher’s shout. He took them to the living room on the second floor.

There was a sofa and various instruments scattered around.

And.

“…A piano?”

“It’s something I play when I have time.”

“Wow.”

Woojoo quickly sat down and pressed the keys.

He felt the passage of time, but it sounded pretty as a good instrument.

However.

“Hmm…”

“What don’t you like?”

“There are some parts where the sound is slightly off, like this, this key sounds a bit different.”

“You’re sharp. You’re right.”

Some of the keys sounded slightly higher or lower than they should have.

The production crew and the siblings holding the camera didn’t seem to understand.

It was when he lightly played the keyboard after everyone gathered.

“So, did you think of a melody?”

“Yes.” Woojoo said as he played a few lightly, “I thought of it when I played the ukulele earlier, but I didn’t like anything. I guess it’s because it’s a song that you made, so I couldn’t feel it with what I made.”

The problem was that the styles were different in terms of painting.

If Teacher Noh Jaehyun painted with broad and blurry colors, he was the type who colored everything carefully.

So it was obvious that he wouldn’t fit in and stand out if he tried to draw something new there.

“So I decided to use your song from a different perspective.”

“That’s interesting. What’s the plan?”

“First of all, you released songs by period, right? I searched for the representative songs that match ‘Life’ among them.”

His fingers started to press the white and black keys of the piano.

He played the representative songs of Singer Noh Jaehyun.

Teacher Noh Jaehyun looked interested.

“That’s good. But… your playing sounds familiar.”

“Really?”

Did he know his dad?

Woojoo suddenly wondered, but he went back to the main point because of the camera that was filming him.

“Life is, in a way, the sum of time. So I thought it would be nice to mix your representative songs according to the time order with the original melody. I’m sorry if you feel a bit rude without asking for permission first…”

“No. Don’t worry about that.”

The other person put his hand down.

He seemed to not care about that and only had interest in music.

“Let me hear it.”

“Yes, I’m going to try it like this.”

Woojoo immediately played. Teacher Noh Jaehyun’s representative songs flowed from his youth to his retirement.

The production team stared blankly.

A camera that was filming people’s reactions as if they wanted to capture them in detail was added to him.

“So if you put them all together…”

The complete ‘Life’ started to flow.

“…”

The production team murmured to each other with a ‘what is this?’ face, and their kids smiled contentedly.

Rihyuk had a slightly serious expression.

Teacher Noh Jaehyun nodded his head and appreciated it. It was hard to interpret what he was saying, so Woojoo was a little nervous.

‘Is it okay?’

Woojoo was worried that he might get angry and say, ‘How dare you arrange my song like this!’

Or he might click his tongue.

When he pursed his lips and Woojoo’s siblings looked at Teacher Noh Jaehyun with anxious eyes because of his slightly stiff expression.

“…Good.”

When they blinked, Teacher Noh Jaehyun nodded.

“I like it.”

Then Woojoo felt relieved.

As he took a deep breath and smiled, Noh Jaehyun-ssi spoke.

“I have a few things I want to advise you on. There are some parts that feel a bit rough.”

“Oh, yes. Please tell me, sir.”

“First of all, the harmony of the notes in the chorus part…”

Woojoo wrote down the feedback that Teacher Noh gave him on a note.

He was truly impressive with his experience.

He pointed out things that he had never thought of, and he was so sharp that it reminded Woojoo of the time when he was a TJ trainee and learned how to compose songs in front of the producer.

After he said about a hundred things.

“There’s nothing else to say. You’re brilliant.”

“Oh, thank you…”

“Do you guys have any opinions?”

Since Teacher Noh had said everything, his siblings also said a few words, but there was not much to add.

Only Rihyuk seemed to be passionately giving advice on the song for some reason.

How strange.

Why was he acting like that today?

Woojoo thought he should ask him after the recording was over and put his hands back on the keyboard.

“Then, let me adjust the parts that Teacher Noh mentioned…”

Woojoo played again.

There were some flaws, but it was much better than before, and he looked satisfied with Woojoo’s performance.

He seemed to be slightly excited by his playing.

His wrinkled lips opened.

Your sunshine

Becomes my memory

On a quiet night

It will comfort me

It was the same verse that Rihyuk had sung, but it felt different.

‘He’s crazy.’

He was too good even if he did well.

He sang amazingly without caring about the penalty of sitting uncomfortably in a wheelchair.

When Woojoo admired his skill that was infused with his long experience.

When the production team turned the camera with excited faces as if they had captured a great scene.

When their kids clapped and marveled.

“Ugh!”

The voice that was singing started to lose its pitch, and his breathing became rough. Then Teacher Noh started to cough.

“Cough! Cough!”

He suddenly coughed violently and closed his eyes tightly. His whole body started to shake.

“…Sir?”

Rihyuk shook him in surprise.

Now everyone was frozen in their places, looking at the singer who was barely holding his body.