TO SHOU WITH LOVE

35 - Illusion

The light drizzle that was present when they arrived has completely stopped, and the slightly humid air feels comfortable to breathe.

Recording finished early today, and they didn’t catch the rush hour traffic when leaving.

Although the road had few cars, Thanapon’s driving speed was noticeably slower than usual.

Compared to the previous residence, Sailub’s new address is much closer to the recording studio.

Even though Thanapon intentionally slowed down, they still reached their destination in about twenty minutes.

Sailub stepped out of the car and handed the guitar on his back to Thanapon. “Heard you chose Urban Collapse as your opponent?”

Thanapon took the guitar. “Yes.”

“Are you determined to choose Urban Collapse?” Sailub asked again.

Looking at Sailub, Thanapon recalled the conversation between Sailub and Ping earlier — was he planning to persuade him not to choose Urban Collapse?

He then thought of the conversation with the members of Urban Collapse in the afternoon, and a sense of annoyance began to surge within him.

In the past, no matter who tried to persuade him, he would disdainfully ignore it.

However, facing Sailub now, he began to hesitate.

After a moment of silence, he countered, “What’s wrong? Do you have any objections to this?”

Thinking that Sailub would continue with his persuasion, Thanapon was surprised when he only said, “Urban Collapse might not be easy to deal with…”

After a brief pause, Sailub added, “Originally, the program team asked me to advise you, but I’m not good at playing peacemaker. Since you’ve decided to go for it, make it splendid. Did you bring the scores you’ll be performing later? Let me take a look.”

Thanapon was somewhat surprised at first and didn’t move.

After a while, he slowly took out the scores from the guitar case and handed them to Sailub.

Taking them, Sailub flipped through the scores.

There were three songs written on the three sheets, each with many traces of modification.

Associating this with the fact that whenever he went to Atsadang Slope Street these days, it seemed like they weren’t practicing the same song, he became more certain that Asperatus’ rehearsals were not going smoothly.

“These three,” Sailub looked at the sheets and asked, “which one is your final choice for the performance?”

“The one at the top. That’s the demo we submitted to the program team. However…” Thanapon didn’t continue.

“Not satisfied?” Sailub picked up where Thanapon left off, looking at him. “Indeed, no matter how dynamic the music is, the creative process always requires tranquility.

Songs composed when the mind is not calm tend to be unsatisfactory.”

Thanapon fell into silence again.

Sailub hit the nail on the head.

Usually, he was sensitive to music, knowing at a glance what kind of performance effect each song could achieve.

However, this time, he was well aware that his state was off — thoughts of Tony occasionally intruded on his thoughts, disrupting his focus on composing.

“Will you be singing at the bar later?” Sailub asked again.

“Yes.”

“Do you mind if I take these three sheets of music back to make copies, see if there’s anything I can help with?”