WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ My Fired Uncle Is a Genius Guitarist? ◈
Chapter 21: You Just Jumped, Didn't You?
──────
There was no applause. When the performance by Noise Line, who had gone right before us, ended, brief applause had broken out from the judges’ table. But all we got was the dry rustle of papers being turned.
For the moment, it was impossible to tell whether that silence was a good sign or a bad one. Then the microphone in front of the judge at the end of the table turned on.
“The guitarist.”
The only person who had not smiled during the pre-performance questions.
“You’re very different from the Preliminary Round video.”
“...”
“Back then, the guitar led the band.”
It was a strange tone. Depending on how I took it, it sounded like praise. Depending on how I took it, it sounded like suspicion. I took a short breath behind my mask and answered calmly into the microphone.
“There was no need for that today.”
There was nothing more to add. No reason to pile on excuses or explanations.
The judge at the end of the table gave no particular reaction. They only lowered their gaze and scribbled something on the paper. A moment later, the judge in the middle pulled over the microphone and addressed the room.
“Yes, good work. We’ll announce the results in the waiting hall after all today’s performances are over. Please go down and wait.”
That was all.
No applause came in the end. Instead, the quiet voice of a staff member calling the next team echoed through the venue.
As I unplugged the guitar jack and closed the case, Yun Taerin stepped down from her stool and whispered behind me.
“Uncle, is that it?”
“That’s it.”
“They didn’t even clap.”
“Judges don’t normally clap.”
“But they clapped for those guys earlier.”
“Did they? Maybe we were so moving that they forgot to clap.”
“Ah-ha.”
Did she actually believe that?
As we walked down the stage steps, I glanced at the others. Yun Taerin still looked excited, while Cha Sion walked ahead with her guitar over her shoulder, her expression blank. Bae Somi, with none of the charisma she had shown onstage left, had returned to her usual self and was following behind with a dazed expression.
‘That ended ambiguously.’
But ambiguous did not necessarily mean bad. It could mean they held back what they wanted to say, or that they had nothing to say.
Either way, only those three judges knew the answer.
#
While the next team set up their instruments, there was a brief break at the judges’ table.
The producer spun a pen and spoke.
“Noise Line pushed through with their playing, while these kids...”
“They came at us with the song.”
Jeong Sehyuk finished for the producer.
“If we’re talking technique alone, Noise Line is better.”
No one objected to the department head’s addition. Noise Line’s level of polish was far beyond the bounds of a school band. Naturally, their technique and playing ability were superior.
Jeong Sehyuk nodded as he spoke.
“Did you see the guitar of the person in the red lightweight puffer?”
“The guitar? The black one covered in stickers?”
“It’s a beginner model. It’s not even something they’d use in a music academy practice room.”
“...Is it really that bad?”
“They got that tone out of it without effects. Just with volume and picking.”
“Is that even possible?”
Jeong Sehyuk did not answer. Instead, the indifferent reply he had just heard lingered in his ears.
‘There was no need for that today.’
The producer tilted his head.
“What did that mean, what they said earlier?”
“...Who knows.”
Instead of answering, Jeong Sehyuk looked again at the stage name written on the document.
One Dragon.
It was a name he had never heard before. Someone who could control tone like that with their hands should have already been well known in this industry. But no face came to mind.
The eyes above the mask under the low-pulled cap, the belly that clothing could not hide, the answer that the company must not find out. None of it fit together.
‘...I don’t know.’
Jeong Sehyuk cut off the thoughts that were beginning to tangle. Noise Line clearly had the edge in technique. But the song...
“The next team is ready.”
At the staff member’s signal, all three judges turned toward the stage.
#
The moment we returned to the waiting hall on the second floor, the surrounding teams’ gazes swept over us.
Bae Somi flinched and instinctively stepped half a pace behind Yun Taerin. The charisma of someone who had stood firmly on both feet onstage was nowhere to be found. She hugged her bass to her chest as if it were a life jacket, her shoulders curling in again.
‘The switch turned off.’
Only her attitude onstage had changed, not her personality itself. Still, I had confirmed that something lit up in her onstage. For now, that alone was enough.
“Um... Uncle.”
Bae Somi cautiously asked in a tiny voice.
“Was I okay earlier?”
She looked like she had not even realized what she had done onstage just moments ago.
Unable to hold it in, Yun Taerin burst out.
“Somi! That part earlier!”
“Huh?”
“Your sound didn’t fade at all, unlike during practice!”
“...D-Did it?”
“Yeah! I dropped out and you were left on your own, but your sound kept pushing through so strongly! I got goosebumps while I was playing behind you!”
“...Really? I honestly don’t remember much.”
“You don’t remember?”
“Yeah. It felt like I was possessed or something. Like I wasn’t myself...”
“Isn’t that possession?”
“Hey, why would you say something scary like that!”
At Cha Sion’s casual remark, Yun Taerin rubbed her arms as if she had gotten chills. I glanced at them and added shortly.
“Play like that next time too.”
Long-winded praise would only make it harder for her to fix her habits. One clear instruction was enough.
Cha Sion took a bottle of water out of her bag and dropped it into Bae Somi’s hand. She said nothing. Bae Somi accepted it with both hands, her eyes wide.
“Aren’t you drinking, Sion?”
“I did.”
I nodded toward the water bottle.
“Take another sip. You’ll need it for screaming.”
“Screaming for what?”
“You’ll have to scream if we make it.”
“...I’m not going to scream.”
Cha Sion turned her head away as if it were nothing. But she could not hide the tips of her reddened ears.
Then the phone in my pocket vibrated briefly.
Lee Suyeon> Are you done?
< Yeah.
Lee Suyeon> How was it?
< I don’t know. Waiting for the results.
Lee Suyeon> Message me right away when they come out.
< Yeah.
There was no monitor in the waiting hall showing the stage. We could not even hear the remaining teams perform. All we could tell was that teams who had finished their stages were returning one by one and sitting down beside their equipment.
The team in college jackets sat on the floor looking at their phones, while a couple of bands that looked like office workers passed around canned coffee in their own areas. Bands that appeared to be in their twenties and thirties filled the spaces between them.
Every one of them waited for the results with tense faces.
Noise Line had claimed an area on the other side of the hall.
Kwon Jaemin glanced this way briefly, while Park Taegeon leaned against the wall and looked only at his phone. His expression was even more arrogant than before the performance, as if he did not need to see the results to know them.
‘They didn’t see our stage.’
Teams who came down from the stage had nowhere to watch the next team perform. All they knew were the Preliminary Round video and what they had seen of us in the waiting hall. They had no idea what we had just shown onstage.
“Excuse me, just a moment.”
A member of another office-worker band that had just finished approached us. He was a man who looked several years older than me, with his shirt sleeves rolled up.
“I enjoyed your song. It was good. I think Black Rabbit will make it through.”
“Ah... Thank you.”
“We were the team right after you. We watched while waiting.”
“I see.”
“I think we’ll be eliminated. We made a mistake in the middle.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Well, it’s fine. Work gets busy starting next week anyway, so I probably won’t have time to practice.”
Work. Without thinking, I asked again.
“Did you tell your company you were coming here?”
“No? Some people close to me know, but there’s no reason to tell the company.”
Apparently, that company did not have strict rules against outside work.
“Then good luck, Black Rabbit.”
The man raised a fist lightly and returned to his seat. Yun Taerin gave a little bow toward his back.
“Uncle, how many teams are left?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t count.”
“More than ten went before us, and after us too...”
“Why bother counting?”
“What if we get eliminated...?”
It was Bae Somi. Holding the water bottle tightly in both hands, she asked in a small voice. Yun Taerin immediately snapped back.
“Why would we get eliminated?”
“But still...”
“If we get eliminated, we get eliminated.”
Cha Sion put in her earbuds and tossed out the words.
“Then there’s something wrong with the judges’ ears. Nothing we can do.”
Bae Somi fiddled with the bottle cap, then nodded faintly. Yun Taerin seemed unable to find a response and began shaking her leg.
“Stop shaking your leg.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m practicing drums.”
#
Not long after the last team returned to the hall, the three judges appeared at the front. When a staff member handed the middle judge a microphone, the buzzing hall fell silent at once.
“Yes, everyone worked hard.”
The judge in the middle raised the microphone.
“I’ll call the ten teams advancing to the Finals. The order has nothing to do with rankings. Please check the Finals information email if your team is called.”
A single sheet of paper in the judge’s hand. The results of the entire day were written on that one page.
“The first advancing team...”
The judge glanced at the paper, then began calling team names one by one into the microphone. The successful teams were announced one at a time, and the fourth team was about to be called.
“Noise Line.”
A brief cheer broke out on the other side of the hall. Kwon Jaemin lightly bumped fists with his teammates, while Park Taegeon only nodded as if it were obvious, never taking his eyes off his phone.
“...Of course they made it.”
Yun Taerin murmured. I did not respond. Them making it through had been a given. The issue was us.
The announcements continued without stopping. The team in college jackets was called, along with one name that seemed to belong to an office-worker band.
When the sixth team was called, Yun Taerin’s leg started shaking again. This time, I did not bother stopping her. Bae Somi gripped her water bottle tightly in both hands, and Cha Sion quietly pulled away from the wall she had been leaning on.
Seven. Eight.
Only two spots remained.
‘If we didn’t make it, then we didn’t make it.’
I was trying to mutter that calmly to myself when...
“Black Rabbit.”
A scream that seemed ready to rupture my eardrums exploded right beside me.
“Eeeeeek!”
Yun Taerin sprang up from her chair and jumped up and down. Bae Somi, who had been staring blankly ahead, was grabbed by Yun Taerin and bounced up and down with her without knowing what else to do.
And Cha Sion. Even she, who had pretended to be indifferent until the end, suddenly leaped into the air and let out a short, animal-like cry.
The moment she landed, Cha Sion flinched and swallowed a cough. As if nothing had happened, she hurriedly folded her arms again.
“Ahem.”
“Cha Sion. You just jumped, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did! Somi, you saw it, right?”
“Y-Yeah... I saw.”
“...Be quiet.”
“You said you weren’t going to scream.”
“I didn’t scream.”
“You did.”
“...Why are you joining in too, mister?”
“Uncle! If it’s the Finals, there’ll be an audience, right? They said they’re selling tickets!”
“That’s what I heard.”
“I have to tell Auntie. Tell her to bring a banner. Somi, tell your parents to come too.”
“Uh, yeah... I’ll ask them.”
“And we should call everyone in class, no, everyone at school!”
“Calm down.”
I did not jump. Instead, I stood still and turned that word over in my mind.
Finals.
A stage with an audience. The stage I had put off thinking about until we made it through was now truly right in front of us.
Before I could continue that thought, the final name was called. All ten spots had been filled. The man who said his team would be eliminated was not called in the end.
On the other side of the hall, Kwon Jaemin was looking this way. His gaze met Cha Sion’s in the air.
It was a brief exchange without a word.
#
“The Finals information will be sent by email.”
After the announcements ended, a staff member took the microphone.
“Also, today’s footage will be edited and released on the Plugged channel in order. Please check the channel.”
Footage.
During the Preliminary Round, I had let those words go in one ear and out the other. A red sleeve had only crossed the corner of the screen a few times. Today, I had stood in front of a camera, but my face was hidden by a cap and mask. That much was not a problem. My face would not appear.
Beside me, Yun Taerin packed her things and spoke without thinking.
“Ah, Uncle, your interview will be in it too. That dark-red rabbit thing.”
My hand stopped.
Yun Taerin had already moved on to the next topic. The Finals, tickets, Auntie. I could not hear any of it.
In front of the camera. The microphone. The middle judge’s question. And the answer that had come from my mouth.
‘The company can’t find out.’
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