Resonance | Bboing AU

Prologue - SIG

SIG

They say that life is a song in progress. Every person you meet influences its overall composition, from the way it is written to the way it is sung. SIG had always believed in this since he had learned how to play the piano and write music. He would look at people and read them like musical sheets. Every person he had met, he had placed under one of three categories:

One: Melody. He believed that some people could be likened to musical notes. You must pick out which ones are in harmony and remove the ones that are out of tune.

Two: Rhythm. Some could be disruptive to the cadence. You must maintain which ones could keep up with the beat.

Three: Lyrics. Some people are like words. Some may not make sense but may sound good. While some words may be beautiful, but may be out of rhyme. SIG, being a lyricist, knew very well that sometimes, it's a worthy compromise to choose the latter. Nevertheless, the choice is always yours.

This was how he dealt with people in his life. He needed a way to sort them out to keep the opportunistic ones at bay.
Having two successful business owners for parents who always sent him around to learn new sports and engage in extracurricular activities to keep him occupied, was a sure way for SIG to meet all sorts of people from all walks of life.

The exposure was more beneficial to him than he cared to admit. Because he chose to dwell on the fact that his social status gave him an advantage in a world that favored the affluent. He had learned at an early age what money could do to people. How it could influence and change people's character, if it meant a deeper pocket. How the less fortunate got shoved to the sides, when he got his way with almost zero effort, just because his parents were loaded.

Maybe that was why he aimed to excel in everything. He didn't want his achievements to be reduced to a byproduct of his parents' influence. So he played by the rules, and diligently played his part. It made his clueless parents happy and proud, while their precious son grew up to be a crowd pleaser, who secretly despised all the attention.

Well, ALL might be an overstatement. Because at the back of it all, like any child he still craved his parents' attention more than anything else. It gave him a sense of pride whenever they took their invaluable time off of their busy schedules to celebrate his victories. It was all the reason he needed to keep a straight line rather than resort to juvenile delinquency to get the attention he wanted.

It would've been a great undertaking if he didn't meet some good people, too. It was all thanks to that day when he wandered outside his highschool without a bodyguard, for the first time, and came across a rice cake stall where he met his best friend in the world, Kang Tae Oh, and his doting mom who was every bit the mother his mom wasn't.

SIG's random visit to the rice cake stall easily became a daily routine when he and Tae Oh discovered their common love for music.

They started bonding over guitar chords, jamming at the back of the food truck, and singing their hearts out to entertain the rice cake patrons. Tae Oh's mom was so delighted, to say the least.

Sometimes, SIG would sneak out to sleepover at Tae Oh's  small house. It was cramped and there was only one room for all of them to sleep in. But he always felt at home and welcome. He also quite enjoyed Mrs. Kang's breakfast meals which she always prepared with love. But when SIG's mom discovered his shenanigans, they arranged for Tae Oh to sleepover at their mansion every weekend, instead.

SIG eventually fell in love with the piano, while Tae Oh developed a liking for cooking. But even though their interests had grown apart, they remained inseparable like true brothers.

When SIG went to college in Seoul to take up Conservatory of Music, Tae Oh stayed behind in their small town to study culinary arts. But the unexpected happened when Tae Oh's mom suddenly died of cancer.  It was a secret his mom kept for years and never got treated until it was too late. So Tae and SIG became real brothers on paper when SIG's family took Tae Oh in.

Both of them pursued their own individual careers as adults. Now SIG had succeeded in capturing the hearts of the public through his jazzy ballads, while Tae Oh had successfully put up a fine dining restaurant in Seoul, where SIG still played the piano from time to time to entertain the patrons, like they used to do at the rice cake stall.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly as far as their chosen paths were concerned. Except SIG had grown up to be a notorious commitment phobe. He did not buy the notion of true love as he was convinced that every person had an ulterior motive for getting into a relationship. Just like his parents. He had every reason to believe that they only stayed together to keep their assets intact.

Thankfully, Tae Oh was a total romantic. Their opposing views on love and relationships somehow gave SIG's career a springboard as he consulted Tae Oh when writing songs. He greatly depended on his acumen and in return, the adoring public was convinced that SIG was indeed a hopeless romantic musician. All thanks to Tae Oh's views on love, which SIG continued to repudiate.

He had resolved to be the world's most inconspicuously pragmatic pseudo romanticist, crooning to the unsuspecting fans with his songs of eternal love and devotion, while evading every possibility of a romantic relationship.

Until he met the only person who had vanquished his methods in dodging commitments.