||The first attempt||
Every artist needed a benefactor right? It's the reason he got up early, on his day off, and instead of locking himself in the shared bathroom and running over his practice songs repeatedly. It's why he'd dressed up in a nice pair of dress pants a freshly pressed button up shirt. It was time to charm his Great Aunt.
His parents, while doing fine financially couldn't solely support him. It's why he'd gotten the job in the first place. He would have been fine had he lived in his own hometown, but in Seoul, it seemed everything was twice as expensive. Hence the trip, visiting his Grandmother's sister, a distant relative, whom he knew to have more money than his immediate family. If he could convince her to finance his goal, he might be able to drop the job and singularly focus of training. A far fetched goal, but one he found he was needing more every single day.
Walking towards his Aunt's apartment building in the midst of Gangnam, Hakyeon realized something was a little odd. As soon as he saw the second familiar face, Hakyeaon knew, there was a scout. Scouts had a tendency to draw a crowd of a particular type. Maybe they weren't signed yet, but there were names that he now knew, these were people all fighting for the same thing he was. Underground rappers, talented dancers, experienced actors, hey all came like flies as soon as the word got out.
Could Hakyeon attempt to pull off an impromptu street performance? He'd heard of these types of castings happening, but it really wasn't his forte'. He always figured he'd have to go through traditional casting, or some sort of talent competition. It's easier to show off training in formal settings. the streets were for more charismatic people.
He crossed the threshold of his Aunt's apartment building while checking his cellphone, planning on turning it off during his visit, after all the woman as around eighty years old, she probably didn't want it interrupting them. The young singer did notice the twitter notification repeatedly showing up, even when he cleared out all of the little pop ups. Click on it to sign out fully, the first thing he saw flash across the screen
TRC AGENT IN GANGNAM
His heart skipped a beat. Triple Crown? That was his dream company. Maybe it was time to re-think his plans for the evening. But he knew he couldn't skip out on his Aunt. Not if he wanted to continue pursuing this dream for any length of time. It was the first hard choice Hakyeon came to in his life, everything else had been sort of decided either on a whim, like coming up with a reason for skipping his entrance exams, or chosen for him, like his mother's decision that he'd continue to receive piano lessons for the duration of him living in their house. But it was up to him now. Either road was a slim chance of success.
Spinning on his heel, Hakyeon sped down the street, while scrolling through his twitter feed, trying to figure out exactly where the scout would be. Managing to circle in on the approximate location, he quickly typed the street into the map application on his phone, jogging as soon as he got turn by turn instructions, arriving on a busy street. On one sides businesses and shops were conducting their daily routines. Workers and patrons moved in and out in a crowd. It was right about time for people to be getting off work, so the sidewalk seemed almost overflowing with people.
It might not have been the formal situation he'd grown used to in lessons, but it was almost comforting. More reminiscent he'd good off with his friends. Hakyeon took his place on a street corner. People would get backed up as traffic made it impossible to cross the streets, but when he got there, both sides of the corner were allowing people to cross, leaving it pretty empty, which is what he needed for the beginning of this. Taking a moment to pull up a different application on his phone, singularly titled "The Looper" he punched the screen a few times and took a steadying breath before beginning.
Record It all starts with the beat. The kickdrum has to be replaced with his fist, pounding against the metal pole of the corner's streetlight, toe tapping in time. Play He only waits 4 beats before pressing the button to stop the recording. Immediately the new back beat starts to play without dropping a beat. Carefully, he sets his phone on top of a sign built out of the poll, propping it up. Record Without a guitar, Hakyeon must improvise, brushing the backs of his nails against one another quickly, mimicking the strum pattern. When he'd learned this song it was the first time it was all about ingenuity. The original singer was using her guitar as a percussion instrument, and now he didn't even had that. Play A few more swipes on the phones screen allowed him to bring up the volume of his muted-guitar-string-replacement. Record "Chisch...Chisch...Chisch." He nodded along to try and keep to the time. By the third layer it was all or nothing. If he stopped now, he'd look like an idiot, so there was no screwing up. Play Now people were noticing something was happening. Even with a clear road, a few people stopped to stare at the musician. Record "Woohoo...." he sang to his, clapping, intermixing 3 of with tom-tom-replacement noises with established beat. It was weird, because at this point he stood, half way facing the road. Play More people gathered as he quickly refined the mixture of volumes. "Just pretend you're in you're own neighborhood, screwing around with your phone. This isn't a big deal..." Hakyeon is trying to force himself to think, but the thoughts, both negative and positive disappear entirely as he's swept up in the song Record He picks up his phone again, turning to a crowd of ten people circling him. The light on the road switches, starting to trap otherwise passerby's on the corner again. Harmonizing with his own voice, he realizes that this could possibly not be a disaster. Play Again he has to improvise for the guitar he doesn't has on him, except the back of his nails won't cut it. Hakyeon never considered himself a particularly great beat boxer, but he understood rhythm and he could copy sounds. The less complicated chords he was was mimicking helped to hide his flaws as well. Record Settling on how he wanted it to sound, he hit the button a final time, recording the last of the background noise. Play
Well my heart knows me better than I know myself So I'm going to let it do all the talkin'
His English pronunciation was flawed, only being good enough get good grades in his English class, Hakyeon had practically learned this song phonetically.
Came across a place in the middle of nowhere With a big black horse in a cherry tree
He put on hand in his pocket, the other holding his phone out to be heard, he moved along to the music, going so far as to close his eyes. This just wasn't the type of music you tried to push on to people. It had a groove to it. The small crowd started to follow the sound of his claps while he sang a 3rd harmony over the looping "woohoos"
Felt a little fear upon my back 'said don't look back just keep on walkin' Woohoo Woohoo Big black horse said look this way He said hey little baby won't you marry me.
Hakyeon lost himself in the song, the noise of the crowd surprisingly not falling into blackness, but mixing with music, making it fuller and beautiful to his ears. For a brief space in time, he wasn't thinking about everything he lacked as a potential trainee, only enjoying everything he could do.
[The arrangement he preformed.]