Beethoven Virus: Episode 14

by Sevenses

Hai guyz! I’ve had my butt pretty thoroughly kicked by school this past week, and you have no idea how glad I am to write to all of you. If any of you suffered permanent damage from the suspense of waiting, err, I do apologize. *bows*

I totally take back what I said about there being children involved in the future. Kang is so totally inept with them. 😀

SONG OF THE DAY

Jang Geun-seok – “들리나요 Part 2” (Do You Hear It) [This is the second version of the song originally recorded by Tae Yeon (here), which was recently released as a digital single. Jang Geun-seok sounds much, much better in this song than he has previously, doesn’t he? —javabeans] [ Download ]

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Episode 14

We open with essentially a summary of all that’s happened so far.

As Gun Woo puts down the baton Kang’s given him, he thanks the older man for his guidance, and walks away. Kang is devastated, but it’s right before the concert, so he goes in to conduct as usual. Afterwards, both Hee Yun and Bae remark that he looked really pale, and his conducting was unusually sombre (even for him). When Junior hears this, he looks a bit guilty, but now it’s his turn to conduct.

Kang Mae is accosted by a swarm of journalists, but he only tells them to go and listen to the outdoor concert. However, they’re all a step behind the main reporter dude, who’s already there, taking notes as Mouse Orchestra warms up. The organizer walks up, having lost Kang Mae somewhere along the way, but we can see that the conductor’s standing all alone on the other side of the wall.

Down on the raised platform, Hee Yun pokes everyone and tells them that their maestro is watching. People look up to see Kang rearranging his features into a displeased face. As the members assemble, the reporter remarks that it’s really quite lucky for Mouse that they’ve got such a capable piano soloist on their side – and the organizer replies that Kang was the one who asked her to play with them.

Onstage, Gun Woo steadfastly avoids looking up at Kang as he tells the anecdote associated with Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No.1: The composer had wanted his good friend and accomplished pianist Nikolai Rubenstein to perform it, but his friend had dismissed it as trash after listening to it. Rubenstein also said that if Tchaikovsky did not revise it to his liking, then he would not perform it. However, Tchaikovsky did not revise it, kept the piece the way it was and achieved great success with it.

The underlying parallels are clear. Just as Gun Woo feel disdained and dismissed by Kang’s treatment, Kang is also hurt by Gun Woo’s rejection of what he considers perfectly good advice.

The performance erred on the dramatic side, but it was well executed. I quite loved the glimpses of the audience interspersed with everyone’s faces as they were performing. Now the suits in the audience get to put on their musical exposition hats and explain just why they feel Gun Woo’s conducting to be superior to Kang Mae. Ironically for Kang, who listens on the other side of the wall, they praise Junior’s complete honesty and straightforwardness. The student has managed to do what the master hasn’t. (There is even the suggestion that Junior is much better than Kang, which raises interesting issues.)

In the midst of the piece, construction workers come in, clanging and crashing, and chase most of the spectators away. Oho. Both Kang and the event organizer are annoyed, and the maestro phones the mayor right away. Kang orders the mayor to stop, though the damage is done.

In the mayor’s office, Kang gives Mr. Mayor the I-think-I’m-going-to-throw-up-on-you look throughout the entire discussion. The scumbag lies through his teeth about not knowing that there was a concert where he ordered construction, and spreads his hands in that universal gesture of regret at not being able to reabsorb the Irregulars into the city orchestra.

Unfortunately for the mayor, Kang Mae is good and angry now, so he only mentions that in fact, he is now planning to write an article on how the mayor attempted to sabotage the concert. And if the mayor’s not happy, he’ll even add his own name to the list of people responsible.

Meanwhile, Gun Woo is trying to get rid of his demons by tossing a tennis ball at a water tower. The Irregulars, in the nearby warehouse, are similarly downcast. Park opens the big, ugly can of wriggling worms and grumbles that if they had Kang Mae, the concert would have been a success. Of course, drama causality dictates that Gun Woo come to the warehouse at the same moment, and he listens to Park rant at length about how experience and connections can’t be obtain in just one day. (The inner bitch wants to say, “And you, with your experience and years, where are your connections? How were you able to help?”)

As the argument goes back and forth, Junior slumps against the door outside. But all is not lost, or at least it doesn’t seem that way, as a company phones Gun Woo to tell him about their intention to invest in Mouse Orchestra (after recommendations by the reporter dude). They have to participate in another music festival in a month’s time and this time the participants have to undergo an audition process.

When they hear the news, everyone is cheerful and optimistic, except for Park, eternal pessimist, and Gun Woo himself, who is very subdued still. Park calls for a vote, to see if they want to change conductors (he doesn’t want to either, he’s just trying to cheer Gun Woo up), and indeed, when Junior looks up to see everyone’s hands in the air, he manages a smile. (Bae has two hands up.)

It’s just so cute, to see them all trying really hard to make Gun Woo happy. And then he ends up crying and smiling too.

Damage control time! The undersecretary is sent specially to Kang Mae to beg him to be nice during the election time next week. Which means, basically, that he isn’t going to be allowed to start up a second orchestra (composed of – I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two tries don’t count).

At home, Gun Woo politely but firmly tells him that they have other plans. Kang has been sampling the deep end of the wine, and um, is not in the most stable mood when he persists in believing that Gun Woo is refusing because Senior is the one offering. In fact, Kang is angry enough to fling a wineglass at the wall and demand the truth.

Well, he asked for it. Gun Woo feels like he’s Kang Mae’s puppet. He almost feels that Kang Mae is blocking him somehow, which he immediately realizes is the wrong way of vocalizing it, because Kang goes off the deep end and announces that he is indeed trying to clip Junior’s wings. He also goes on to say that Junior is no longer his student – he’s letting Gun Woo go. (Me: You’ll regret it in the morning! Just like that bottle of wine you had!)

This is the most disheveled and uneven I’ve seen of Kang, ever. He’s usually very well coiffed, and ramrod straight with pride, but I think we’ve just seen him hit rock bottom. (Quick, someone bring in Beethoven! Or Ru Mi!)

Gun Woo follows Kang down the hallway, apologizing and insisting that he didn’t mean to say it. However, Kang’s really, deeply hurt, and renounces their mentor-student relationship with a smile, which totally hurts more than shouting. (Wait, so now we have two brooding males on set? Also, when Junior followed Kang, I totally expected a hug from behind. Oh well…)

Junior doesn’t know what to do either. Thus the night passes in agony and angst, while Sevenses tries different ways of tearing out her hair.

In the middle of her class on composing, Ru Mi gets a text from Kang Mae, requesting that she come see him. She replies with a, “I’m busy”, very much like the way he did last episode, incurring lots of shock on the other side. Fortunately she follows up with a jokey explanation. Ru Mi apologizes and tells Kang Mae that she’s picking up a new project, which means she won’t be able to see him until very late. He gets angry and tells her to not come at all.

During practice, Gun Woo stops the orchestra and puzzles over a piece that doesn’t feel right. Luckily for him, Ru Mi’s been working on the same thing, applying knowledge from her composition class, and fixes the problem by extending the main melody in Yi Deun’s part. And what do you know? It works.

I’m glad they settled in the last loose bit of their post break-up relationship. All is well on this front.

Coming home from what was presumably another bad day, Kang Mae is greeted at the door by Park’s wife and their daughter Bora. The little girl abuses every rule being a of good guest, but fortunately for her misbehaving ways, Mrs. Park goes into labour early.

Kang Mae tries to reach Park, but the latter is having a spat with Bae at the warehouse. Park is in a supremely bad mood, so he insults Bae for working at a cabaret, and things get very ugly (as in physical) from there. In the end, Kang resorts to calling Ru Mi and having her relay the message. Park runs off, abandoning his double bass and some very shocked musicians.

In the hospital, the conductor is carefully standing aloof, trying not to interfere because he doesn’t know what to do. The nurses wheel a screaming Mrs. Park into the operating room, while a crying Bora tugs on Kang’s suit. (Me: So. Socially. Inept.)

By the time Park gets to the hospital, the kid’s already been delivered. The room is much nicer than the standard hospital room, which Park obsesses about, until his wife drags him off to see the baby. The other people at the orchestra come, bearing gifts and playing the lullaby.

While they’re cooing over the newborn, Kang makes his way down the stairs, Bora still tugging at his jacket. He pre-emptorily tells Park to come back to work, and leaves.

While leaving, he catches Ru Mi at the elevator. He calls out, but she doesn’t hear him. Kang Mae doesn’t freak out right away, however, and asks her to explain what’s going on. At least now he knows, officially, that she needs a hearing aid to get things done.

It’s nice that they’re able to listen to each other without having started shouting first. He belittles her for assuming to think she can compose after losing her hearing, while Ru Mi is determined not to let music go. In that roundabout way, he gives her tips on what classes to take. (Ahh, have succumbed to the cute that is LJA.)

Just to add to the angst Kang Mae’s feeling, Ru Mi tells him that she’d like to play in an orchestra he conducts one more time before she loses her hearing. Kang looks stunned, and even more so when she asks him to confirm that she must have some special talent, something that sets her apart from the rest of the people in the world. But he manages a nod. (Must resist urge to snark…)

The next day is a big day for Yi Deun, as she (and the others) have to pass their audition for the company. However, grandpa Kim is really out of it, and can’t even manage to lift his head as he sits.

Junior is also up, and has a conversation with Kang’s door while his ex-teacher listens in the living room. Gun Woo is apologizing for saying unreasonable things, which makes Kang Mae madder, for some reason. (And he was in such a good mood after calling about treatments for Ru Mi…)

Everyone gathers at the audition hall, mostly excited and nervous. Hee Yun dashes to the bank, remembering that she has yet to pay the bills, and bumps into two neighbours. They assume she’d been just coming from a lunch out with her husband, but that’s obviously not the case – Hee Yun’s been cloistered in practice all day. (They actually knew it wasn’t her but said it the other way on purpose. I knew there was a reason I despised high school.)

Naturally, this upsets Hee Yun, who then proceeds to call her husband until right before the audition, but he never picks up. The others, who would have usually noticed, are all freaking out because the auditioners coming out of the music hall grumble in a united voice about how insanely harsh one of their judges is. (What’s to bet that the insanely harsh judge is Kang Mae?)

At least Gun Woo manages to cheer them up with a nicely placed pep talk, and they enter the music hall.

Well, it is Kang Mae. The other two judges are the reporter dude and a director of the company. The dismay of the orchestra, it blooms like frost on my window.

End episode.

Commentary/Rambling:

– There’s only so much misunderstanding people make before it becomes ridiculous – and I wonder that the Irregulars don’t realize how Kang is trying so hard to help them, because hello, obvious as the nose on your face. (Or in some cases, I suppose, obvious as the nose job on their faces.) I hate manufactured conflict.

– Yunno, Kang Mae’s a bit like a father to the Irregulars in general (except not Ru Mi, because that would just be… yeah, not going there). He makes mistakes, they make mistakes, they argue and throw things at each other. But in the end he tries his damnedest to give them what he thinks they need. Gun Woo needs to rethink his adolescent rebellion thing, and … I really wish they’d stop angsting, it is killing my buzz.

Sevenses

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