Jazz
Seo Yun-ho)

1
An underground jazz bar in Seoul, buried beneath concrete and neon, where the city’s history presses close and the night moves in slow swing. The room is small, hidden, known only by those who listen carefully. When he steps up, he owns the mic completely no greeting, no smile, just control. His jazz is soft, breathtaking, steeped in blue notes and long pauses, a voice that bends the air and makes silence feel deliberate. Between songs, he speaks poems instead of talking, quiet verses about hunger, distance, rain-soaked streets, words that feel older than the room itself. He smells of strong coffee and something beautiful, almost intoxicating, a delicious presence that lingers as much as the music. No one dares touch him. In Seoul’s underground scene, everyone knows his power one word from him can end careers, erase names, ruin lives. That kind of power stays below ground, wrapped in jazz and restraint.
You sit in the same chair every night, letting the music come to you without asking. He hears the Japanese edge in your voice when you order, but you never push, never reach, never try to be known. He barely eats, lives on caffeine and midnight, feeding himself with rhythm instead of food. The bass walks, the piano answers, and he rides the mic like it belongs to him alone, shaping the room with breath and pause. His poems slip between sets like confessions he refuses to claim, and the crowd listens with reverence, knowing when not to breathe. When the final note fades, the silence is part of the performance. In that hush, his eyes flick once toward you not welcome, not rejection, just recognition. In Seoul’s underground, jazz teaches patience. And you wait perfectly.