Chapter 1156: The Warmest Season, Winter (28)

Sound of the Sun shot to number one in advance reservations from the very day it opened in Japan.

When the Japan scenes first began, Japanese audiences were in an excellent mood.

Wooooow....

They could feel the care that had gone into the film.

Unlike other Asian countries, Japanese culture appeared quite frequently in Hollywood productions, but that didn't mean Japanese audiences automatically liked every depiction of Japan in a Hollywood movie.

[Hoho! This is the culture of Japan-!]

What the hell are you talking about? We don't have a culture like that.

[Hohoho! Come this way, honored guest. I shall escort you.]

And what is that nationality-defying outfit supposed to be?

A female ninja with brightly colored streaks in her hair dancing around while shouting, "Hai~!" Or bizarre settings where the backdrop was Tokyo, yet the streets were suddenly full of Westerners gathering for illegal motorcycle races.

Regardless of how often their culture was featured, the distinctly Western way of looking at Asia could often be unpleasant.

Japan was definitely on the screen, but somehow it didn't feel like Japan.

Sound of the Sun was different.

It's real. This is actually real.

The film had recreated Japan during the bubble economy with astonishing accuracy.

The period details were so precise that one could have believed a Japanese person had been in charge of historical research, and the era was portrayed positively as well.

Wow.

In Japan, many things, including entertainment-industry fashion, still retained traces of the golden age of the eighties.

Scenes that stirred nostalgia for that period flowed one after another.

The dazzling streets of Roppongi.

Crowded clubs.

People waving cash in their hands to hail taxis.

And amid all of it, Sun Myungju was experiencing the first golden age of his life.

[Thank you! Thank you!]

Sun Myungju bowed politely amid thunderous applause.

His face was flushed red behind his glasses.

The Japanese audience smiled.

After all, the first performance where Sun Myungju had ever been recognized by the public had taken place in Japan.

[There are finally people who recognize me.]

As Sun Myungju's first success story began to unfold over cheerful jazz music, the Japanese audience smiled brightly.

They munched on popcorn with grins on their faces.

But those smiles didn't last long.

[...What? The performance was canceled?]

The audience lowered their popcorn.

The truly frustrating part had begun.

"Uh...."

The Japanese audience could feel their chests tightening.

And soon, the excellent Japanese period accuracy they had just been praising began to torment them.

Because the negative details were every bit as accurately portrayed as the positive ones.

Is this bullying?

The particular kind of harassment Japanese people dreaded was unfolding on screen.

No one openly interfered with or tormented him, but every scheme contained a chilling malice that could drive the victim insane.

An instrument would be damaged while its owner stepped away for a moment.

A venue that had already been reserved would be pressured into canceling the day before.

Even during interviews, reporters would be deliberately fed questions designed to put someone in an impossible position.

It was almost like a warning letter addressed to Sun Myungju and Lee Myungeun.

-Leave Japan.

Naturally, Sun Myungju didn't yield to such interference.

Instead, as though daring them to stop him, he continued gathering audiences and performing, including at shows even Japanese viewers recognized.

So that was when that happened.

I had no idea....

He performed after fighting through all of that?

But even that didn't last long.

When Sun Myungju remained firm despite their underhanded schemes, they moved on to direct interference.

They made it physically impossible for him to perform at all.

Of course, they hadn't outright forbidden Sun Myungju from performing.

[Accept reality.]

Hashimoto Kenji and the other musicians who had tormented him at the time were telling him to come under their control.

It was an offer Sun Myungju could never accept.

In the end, without even being allowed to hold a farewell performance, he abruptly left for the United States, where he'd already been receiving offers.

"...."

"...."

As the couple arrived in New York and danced to lively jazz music, the Japanese audience remained silent.

No.

They had nothing to say.

Heat-

They hadn't done anything wrong themselves, yet their faces felt hot with embarrassment.

A star who had loved their country had been driven out of Japan by the jealousy of ugly little men who couldn't even reach his feet.

"...."

Perhaps the Japan sequence had simply been that powerful.

They laughed and cried plenty during the rest of the movie, but once they left the theater, those were the scenes that remained most vividly in their memories.

Tap- tap-

Japanese moviegoers pulled out their phones and went online or opened social media as they left the theater.

-Sound of the Sun! I finally saw it today. The film itself and the music were both perfect! But I couldn't help feeling ashamed during the Japan scenes.

-It was a valuable film that showed how Mr. Sun Myungju became the superstar Asia gave birth to. I liked the Japan scenes, but they were sad.

-I had heard about it, but the Japan scenes really were intense. During those twenty minutes, I was happy and cried at the same time.

-I'm embarrassed that people all around the world are going to learn what happened in Japan. (tears)

Everyone's reaction was similar.

They loved the scenes depicting Japan's economic golden age and Sun Myungju's meteoric rise, but the scenes involving Hashimoto Kenji's faction were unbearably shameful.

What are people in other countries going to think of us?!

In reality, Western audiences had simply regarded them as another group of villains in the story, but to Japanese viewers, it mattered.

Their national image was involved.

That made their anger toward Hashimoto Kenji surge.

-I was shocked because I had no idea anything like that happened in Japan. Mr. Sun Myungju didn't leave. He was driven out.

-Eat shit, Hashimoto.

-I bet the old man is trying to figure out the exact angle for his dogeza right about now.

-What the hell gave him so much confidence before the movie came out? www

What especially inflamed people's anger was Hashimoto Kenji's behavior over the years.

[He and I shared a wonderful rivalry.]

[My rival's son has become a superstar. It certainly gives me complicated feelings.]

He had talked about them being rivals in the media so often that people had innocently accepted it as, Oh, they were rivals!

But after watching Sound of the Sun, they realized that had been a complete misunderstanding.

Rivals, my ass....

The moment they saw the career Sun Myungju had built around the world, they could physically feel that Hashimoto, who had enjoyed only a modest degree of recognition within Japan, couldn't even be compared to him.

How many jazz pianists had ever performed in front of a million people?

What infuriated the Japanese public was that Hashimoto had known all of this and still continued pretending to be his rival.

And that he had continued clinging obsessively to the son of the man he'd tormented.

Above all, there was the humiliation of knowing audiences overseas could now see it all laid bare.

-If it were me, I'd have been too ashamed to ever mention Sun Myungju's name again.

-This old bastard. Now that I think about it, every single time NewBlack came up, he kept showing up and talking about that rivalry.

-Leave Japan, Hashimoto.

-The person who should've left stayed, and the person who shouldn't have left was driven away. Life really is ridiculous.

Comments and Twitter mentions exploded one after another in real time.

Of course, it wasn't as though no one objected.

-Guess we have no right to say Koreans are easily manipulated. Japanese people are just as bad. Look at everyone getting brainwashed by a distorted anti-Japanese movie.

-Isn't it obviously an anti-Japanese movie?

-Did anyone actually see Sun Myungju suffer those things back then? Those are just scenes his son inserted however he wanted.

-K-pop must be eradicated.

But such voices weren't gaining much traction.

Because the media wasn't joining them.

Japan's mainstream media had fallen into serious contemplation after seeing the movie.

Hmm....

Honestly, no matter how they looked at it, they couldn't call the movie anti-Japanese.

If anything, it portrayed Japan positively. There wasn't a single part of it that directly criticized the country.

It only indirectly criticized one individual named Hashimoto Kenji.

And so, after weighing various factors on their internal scales, the media quickly chose a clear stance.

-Hashimoto Kenji is not Japanese!

His nationality might technically be Japanese, but weren't Japanese people supposed to be people who didn't cause trouble for others?

Therefore, he wasn't Japanese.

The media was quick with its cost-benefit analysis.

Would they protect a retired and irrelevant Hashimoto Kenji while tearing down Sound of the Sun?

Or would they praise the story of the superstar Japan had discovered and nurtured, along with his son now conquering the world?

"W-what do you mean?"

-This is unfortunate, sir.

"Wait! Listen to me!"

Hashimoto's face went pale as he clutched the phone at home.

Weekly magazines.

Daily newspapers.

No matter which outlet he called and tried to speak with, they all repeated the same answer like parrots.

-I'm sorry.

-Sir, this isn't something I have the power to do anything about. Public opinion is unfavorable.

-I'll do my best to ensure your son isn't affected.

True to their word, Hashimoto Kenta, the promising pianist Japan proudly regarded as one of its rising stars, remained outside the target zone of the media's arrows.

-We cannot hold a son responsible for his father's sins!

...That was the stated principle.

But honestly, attacking Hashimoto and losing a promising pianist along with him would have been a national loss.

And so, the media carefully restricted its criticism to Hashimoto Kenji alone.

"Mr. Hashimoto! Mr. Hashimoto!"

"Could you give us a comment regarding the recently released movie...?"

"You've always described him as your rival...."

The reporters who had always addressed him respectfully as "sir" were now camped outside his home shouting, "Mr. Hashimoto!"

And they weren't the only ones.

Sun Myungju's fans stood holding signs in a silent protest.

[HASHIMOTO, APOLOGIZE]

Hashimoto Kenji climbed into his car without saying a word to the reporters.

"What am I supposed to do about this...?"

His head began to ache.

He desperately searched for some way to escape the situation, but no good answer came to him.

This is hopeless.

Sometimes, there were moments when a person regretted everything.

For him, this was one of those moments.

Naturally, he wasn't regretting what he'd done to Sun Myungju in the past.

I should never have mentioned his son.

He regretted bringing up Sun Wooju and feeding the flames of the media.

The movie was one reason he was being cursed from every direction, but the biggest cause was everything he had said over the years.

Every time NewBlack and Wooju wrote another success story, Hashimoto had increased his own visibility by mentioning their "rivalry."

Many people had discriminated against Sun Myungju back then, but no one else had continued mentioning him for so many years.

Damn it!

Hashimoto Kenji rubbed his temples.

There was never any problem before.

He had successfully used that kind of media play to become a heavyweight in Japan's music world, so he had never hesitated.

But now he realized he had chosen the wrong opponent.

"He wasn't the son of a tiger. He was a dragon...."

All this time, he'd misunderstood Sun Myungju's son.

At first, he'd assumed Wooju was simply the same type of person as Sun Myungju.

Someone who shone as brightly as the sun and possessed the nature of an immortal, unconcerned with the petty affairs of the human world.

But the son was slightly different from the father.

He looked similar to his father, yet like an imugi coiled in a spring, he had been carefully watching every move Hashimoto made.

"...."

Goosebumps prickled across Hashimoto Kenji's back.

He imagined the imugi quietly observing him while waiting for the day it would become a dragon.

Watching in silence until Hashimoto Kenji had nowhere left to retreat.

Then ascending as a dragon and sinking its teeth straight into the back of his neck.

There's no way out.

At first, people had still answered his calls.

Now they no longer picked up.

Political figures and officials he'd maintained friendly relations with.

Prominent cultural figures with whom he'd shared artistic exchanges.

Broadcasting officials who had always exchanged warm pleasantries with him.

With each unanswered call, Hashimoto Kenji came to understand that "Master Hashimoto" no longer existed.

And so...

"Goto."

-Yes, sir.

He called his secretary.

"Prepare a press conference."

And so, standing before dozens of cameras in a suit, he bent ninety degrees at the waist toward the lenses.

Click- click-

"Er... I, Hashimoto...."

Click-

"...wish to express my regret regarding the unfortunate incidents that occurred in the past."

An official apology.

Watching the reporters type with expressionless faces, Hashimoto Kenji continued reading from his prepared statement.

Caught in an unreal haze, Hashimoto Kenji stared blankly into space.

The castle of lies he had spent his entire life building.

He couldn't defeat Sun Myungju through music, so he had borrowed the power of lies to win.

But....

As he watched the sandcastle he'd once thought was solid collapse in an instant, reality finally sank in.

He would never stand before the public again.

In the end, I lost.

Hashimoto Kenji felt as though he'd aged several decades.

Personally, I don't really like revenge.

"Seriously? You get petty revenge all the time."

"When have I ever?"

"Come on~! My sisters do the exact same thing. Whenever I say stuff like this, they go, 'When did I ever~?' Then if I can't remember an example on the spot, they immediately go, 'See~?' I put up with it because I'm the youngest."

Anyway, I didn't like the act of revenge.

To take revenge, didn't you have to pour your energy and time entirely into negative emotions and actions?

Personally, I didn't think that was desirable.

Rather than plotting revenge against people who had treated me badly, sharpening myself and succeeding was the best revenge.

Of course, that didn't mean I truly never paid people back.

Suppose I was living my life diligently, and one day a chance to return the favor happened to come along?

Then I could pay them back.

[I, Hashimoto... wish to express my regret regarding the unfortunate incidents that occurred in the past.]

I watched Hashimoto Kenji's press conference on my phone and nodded.

Biju tilted his head.

"Was that an apology?"

"That's probably the most apology he's capable of. He doesn't want to go as far as actually saying he's sorry."

Ri Hyuk answered and added, "This guy's a coward right to the end."

Just as he said, Hashimoto clearly didn't want to apologize. It was closer to someone being forcibly made to do it.

Junghyun looked at the phone.

"The comments say Japanese people are apologizing themselves. Why are Japanese people apologizing in his place?"

"I don't really know either."

It was clearly the Japanese music industry that had done wrong, yet unrelated Japanese people were going around saying, "We're sorry!"

I didn't entirely understand it, but either way, it was a good thing.

I would never have to see this man again.

"Hmm...."

I closed my eyes and sank into thought. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

The rooms inside my head.

There was the now-vanished publicity-cutting man, Dwight Goodman, Chris Finn, who'd wanted to change Dad's race, and various others.

Among those rooms, I emptied the fairly large one that had belonged to Hashimoto Kenji.

"Not many left now."

"What?"

"Nothing."

I smiled and looked back at my phone.

After opening in Japan, Sound of the Sun had begun an enormous box-office rampage.

"I heard the trend is really good. They say it might even pass a hundred million dollars."

"Wooooow...."

There couldn't have been better news.

The only slightly unfortunate part was ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) that some of the actors were being attacked by Japanese online trolls.

Fortunately, most of the actors who had played Japanese roles were Japanese Americans fluent in Japanese. If they'd been domestic Japanese actors, the film industry and media probably would have harassed them mercilessly.

Why did you take a role like that and embarrass the country?

That kind of atmosphere.

While I was wrapping up the news from Japan, good news arrived in Korea as well.

-Sound of the Sun Finally Passes Ten Million Admissions... "Fastest Korean Film Ever to Reach Ten Million"

"Congratulations, hyung!"

"Congratulations!"

When the happy news reached us during practice, I raised a toast with the younger members using soda.

A ten-million-viewer film.

Sound of the Sun had finally joined the ranks of movies that placed among the top ten highest-attended Korean films in history.

The news was so joyful it didn't even feel real, and I couldn't stop smiling all day.

I shared the joy over the phone with Senior Lee Gyeonwoo and Director Kim Bora, both of whom sounded close to tears, filmed a ten-million-admissions message, and spent all day replying to the endless stream of congratulatory messages.

Maybe it was because the film had finally crossed ten million.

Even while preparing for the rapidly approaching award shows, I felt lighter.

And as we spent our days preparing for Hanbyeol's album release and the award shows, the day we'd been waiting for finally arrived.

-NewBlack's Travel Diary 3 Releases Preview: "Living Together with Moonlight?"

The episode where we'd built civilization together with Moonlight in Alaska was finally about to air.