Chapter 15: Miracle drawing (15)

“Hello?”

[Hey, brother! How’d you been? Did you miss me?]

“Ah, Mr. Max.”

The person on the other end of the call was Max, the guitarist Jinho met when Jinho drew him in the subway.

Because Max called whenever he had the chance to, there were times when Jinho got the call two or three times a day. But because of Max’s cheerful and bright personality that never changed, Jinho didn’t disliked the calls.

Truthfully, because Jinho was able to get an inspiration and finish an artwork thanks to Max, Jinho was more than happy to be contacted.

As always, Max’s lively voice was full of uplifting spirit that made anyone who heard him smile.

[Hasn’t it been awhile since we last met? So wanna meet up sometime?]

“We didn’t meet even once after that time at the subway.”

[That’s okay! We’re connected by our hearts! So let’s meet!]

It was always like this.

Saying he believed in having soulmates since he was young, Max pointed Jinho as one of his soulmates and confused Jinho with his strange theories. But it wasn’t unpleasant.

Jinho lightly smiled and nodded.

Since both the contract from the contest and the reservation for the photo shoot was done, there should be plenty of time to meet Max.

‘I want to feel his passion from back then too.’

Jinho took a short glance at his sketchbook and smiled.

“Sure. Then where should we meet?”

[Do you know the Chamber street in downtown Manhattan?]

“Do you mean near the city hall?”

When Jinho mentioned the place near the Brooklyn Bridge that he’d visited several times before, Max merrily laughed.

[Yeah, yeah! You know it! There’s going to be a concert at seven o’clock. Come take a look if you have time! The bar will give you at least a free beer if you mention my name.]

*

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Jinho’s eyes became wide open at the heavy and vibrating sound of a bass guitar when he arrived at the place Max told him.

‘Did they already start even though it’s still early?’

Since it was a Friday night right before the weekend, it was understandable that people wanted to hang out, but the sun was still out in the sky. Jinho slowly opened the club’s door wondering if it isn’t too early…

‘Wo, woah.’

This time, Jinho’s jaw dropped at the sound coming through between the door crack.

Music unbelievably louder than he expected from the outside filled the whole club.

Beneath the dim lights, the crowd energetically shook themselves, and someone who seemed to be the DJ fanatically adjusted his machine in response.

Jinho, who had never been to a club in New York even once, looked around with wide eyes at the sight he’d never seen before.

His eardrums felt like they’ll burst, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Although the gut-retching volume of the music felt like it’ll blow his soul away, it gave him an exotic arousal.

Barely managing to stumble to a bar chair, Jinho wiped his forehead.

Although it hasn’t even been very long since he came in, Jinho’s face was already wet with sweat.

When Jinho sat down, a middle aged man that seemed to be the bartender walked up to him.

“What can I get for you?”

“Ah, maybe later. I’m here to meet someone.”

“Well, most of us here are waiting for a partner, but if you want to meet someone, you should go to the stage.”

The middle aged bartender glanced toward the stage as he took a towel on his shoulder and rubbed a glass cup.

Clearly, he could see various people dancing mindlessly to the music.

“No, I don’t mean it in that way. I really came to see a friend.”

“What? You’re here to see someone?”

Because the music was too loud for the bartender to hear, Jinho became frustrated and strongly articulated what he said again.

“No, I said. I’m, meeting, my, friend! His name is… Ma, x!”

“Your friend is Max?”

“Yes, that’s it! You heard it right this time!”

“Then you really don’t need to be here!”

“Eh?”

When Jinho asked back, the bartender pointed to the top of the stage with an empty hand.

“It’s Max’s turn now. If you’re his friend, don’t you need to go and cheer?”

“Waah! Max, Max!”

“We’ve been waiting! Quickly start playing!”

As soon as the bartender finished his words, the crowd yelled and pushed toward the stage.

Standing in the middle of the stage, Max held the guitar he showed back at the subway, and after a quick hello to the crowd, he began to play.

As if trying to match Max, the DJ changed the tune from the previous screeching tune to a one with a strong bass that easily backed up the guitar sound.

Seeing this, the bartender smirked and talked to Jinho.

“What do you think? He’s pretty good, right? He’s been performing on the stage for years now, so he knows how to excite the crowd.”

“Re, really… you’re right.”

With his hands shaking, Jinho couldn’t hold himself still at the bartender’s words.

‘I, I feel insane!’

Jinho’s head was about to flip from the pouring musical notes of the guitar and artistic urges just like before at the subway. Quickly, Jinho looked for his sketchbook and a pencil.

‘I, I need to put this down on the sketchbook, quick!’

He didn’t know if he could use it for his portfolio or what kind of artwork it’ll turn out to be, but Jinho felt that he’ll forever regret it if he didn’t drew the moment onto a sketchbook.

*

“Oh, brother! Welcome! Did you see my performance?”

Max carried his guitar on his back, and took the bar chair right next to Jinho.

But Jinho didn’t look at Max, and purely focused on drawing the picture with his head almost touching the sketchbook.

As Max quietly stared at the sight, the bartender asked him.

“He isn’t your friend, is he?”

“He is.”

“But he’s not talking to you at all?”

“He’s drawing.”

Max cheerfully smiled and continued to quietly observe Jinho work.

“Sometimes when I’m working on my music, I unconsciously get into it too, but that’s the most important timing. So you absolutely can’t disturb him, and just wait until he comes back up.”

Max exaggeratedly looked around as if to protect Jinho. Seeing this, the bartender smirked and handed him a beer.

“Sure. Good work today too, anyhow.”

“It’s nothing much. But it looks like there’s less customers.”

“Can’t be helped. It’s not like we’re doing a special advertisement or something, but simply place some posters around the club.”

“Then you should advertise more. It’ll close if like this. There won’t be many places to perform if you close.”

“Ha, close. Just look at you talk. If it does close, it’s your fault, your fault.”

“Ah, ack! It, it stings!”

The bartender slapped Max’s back with his towel, and fixed his pose.

In his eyes, he could see a rather small but clean stage and the young folks cheering beneath it.

As if reliving the past, the bartender swept his eyes hazily over them and turned his attention back to the glass in his hand.

“It’s always been like this. It’s been thirty years since I began business here… if the time is telling me to back off, I should slowly do so.”

“…”

“Since I opened the place at twenty six years old, it really has been a long time. I should rest soon, right? It’s a bother to stay while being old.”

Max’s lips frowned as he looked at the bartender.

His slightly raised eyebrows seems to show that Max didn’t like what the bartender said. Max opened his mouth to say something back to the bartender, but then, Jinho stood up right at that moment.

“Done!”

“Uwoah, what the? Brother! What are you doing? You surprised me.”

“Eh? Mr. Max. When did you get here?”

“Quite a while back. Besides that, did brother drew that? Can I take a small peek?”

“Ah, sure. It’s nothing great anyway, so.”

“That’s okay. I don’t know much about drawing either, so I wouldn’t know what’s what even if I take a look.”

“…”

“Joking, joking! Anyhow, I’m taking a peek.”

Handing the sketchbook to Max, Jinho explained with, as if embarrassed, a slightly blushed face.

“It’s something I drew based on the image I got from the performance and the music Mr. Max showed. Although, it’s lacking in color and depth since I used pencil, and the expression is falling short… so please look over those aspects.”

“Of course. Even if our specialities differ, we artists all share the same sentiments!”

Max laughed loudly, and holding the sketchbook in both hands, began to look at Jinho’s picture. At the same time, Jinho continued his explanation.

“Honestly, I wanted to draw the entire stage with Mr. Max in the center. But it felt as if I’m only showing off Mr. Max, so I drew a new picture on another page, and that’s what you’re looking at right now.”

Despite Jinho’s explanations, Max wordlessly stared at Jinho’s drawing.

“Rather than the performance itself, how about drawing the performance from the viewpoint of the audience? I began drawing the picture with that idea. As a result, it couldn’t be helped that Mr. Max looks a bit hazy. The performance is too bright from the audience perspective, after all. I expressed the backlight coming out of Mr. Max during performance, and…”

“Brother, this…”

“Eh?”

Stopping Jinho, Max turned and stuttered to Jinho with a stunned look.

Slightly flushed face and trembling lips, wide open eyes as if greatly shocked; Max’s whole body conveyed his shock to Jinho.

Naturally, Max’s mouth loudly exclaimed.

“It’s amazing! I got a chill from looking at this. My god, you can express my stage like this. No, other than that, so I look like this when I’m on stage! Even though I don’t know much about drawing, but I can say this for sure. It’s amazing! No, it’s not just drawn well. I can feel the passion!”

“… Mr. Max?”

As to calm down the overly excited Max, Jinho calmly called out to him, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. Max then went on to run around here and there shouting while holding the sketchbook, and then grabbed his guitar once again.

The next time Max sat down next to Jinho with a calm face was thirty minutes from then. Of course, it was in a dead exhausted state after going all out performing on the stage.

*

“That picture from before, can I perhaps use it as my album cover?”

“Album cover?”

While drinking beer at the bar, Max suddenly asked.

“Un. However I look, I’d had experience making album out of my guitar. The result was… nah, forget about that! I did it because I wanted to! But the songs weren’t bad at all.”

After loudly complaining by himself, Max poured the leftover beer into his mouth and scrunched his nose at the bubbles coming back up. (t/n: in a long explanation, beer is carbonic, and the carbon bubbles went back up like when you quickly drink coke or soda) Saying ‘kuuuhh ‘ and exhaling the gas, Max slyly smiled and continued to talk.

“Everything was perfect back then! Really! But the album cover was shoddily done and sent out. It might’ve been because of that, the album failed. But perhaps, brother, if we use your drawing as the cover…!”

“No, it probably wouldn’t go as you think.”

“Uugh, ajussi. Don’t suddenly cut in there. You’ll hurt my feelings.”

“But it’s true. I know your songs and performance is good, but you have to think about the popular trends. That is, if you have plans to sell.”

“Ajussi sure is sharp at strange places.”

And the two kept on talking back and forth.

Listening to the two, Jinho lightly smiled.

< Miracle Drawing! 15. > End