Number One
Ever since becoming a singer, Kim Se-jun had picked up a single habit.
The instant he woke each morning, he would open Music In and check his song's ranking.
The ritual had begun after the release of Lotus, and it had continued without a break even after Simcheongga dropped.
Today marked exactly ten days since Simcheongga had come out. Kim Se-jun rubbed the sleep from his eyes, sat up, and reached for his phone.
"Haaah... huh?"
The drowsiness flooding his gaze vanished in a heartbeat.
"Is this... actually real?"
Unable to believe what he was seeing, he snatched the water from his bedside and drained it in a single gulp. It was lukewarm, but the moment it touched his throat, his mind snapped wide awake.
"Again... I have to check again..."
With trembling eyes, he looked at the chart a second time.
Kang Yu-na and Kim Se-jun
Simcheongga
"YESSS!!!!!!"
Kim Se-jun shot up from the bed and roared into the still-dark morning, a shout so full of life it seemed to shake the room.
Number one. Kang Yu-na and Kim Se-jun — Simcheongga.
The dream he had yearned for all his life was coming true.
The evening after Simcheongga hit number one, Kim Se-jun and the people closest to him gathered in a private party room in Gangnam.
"Congratulations, Se-jun!"
Lee Jin-ah beamed as she smeared cake straight across his face.
"Ack! Noona!"
His voice jumped an octave, but a smile filled Kim Se-jun's face all the same.
"Our little lucky charm! Our adorable lucky charm!"
Lee Hae-jin, his face flushed with drink, clapped a hand onto Se-jun's shoulder. Ha Dong-jun caught that hand and teased him with a grin.
"Se-jun! When are we doing the contract renewal?"
"Anytime you want!"
Kim Se-jun shouted it with gusto. He felt as if he were soaring through the sky.
His first number one on the digital charts. The party was to commemorate it, and they had rented a party room for the occasion. It was a modest gathering, but it was enough. Lee Hae-jin and Ha Dong-jun had wanted to throw something on a massive scale, but Se-jun had adamantly talked them down, so a party room it was. A celebration in his own place would have been out of the question.
I should start thinking about moving soon.
He had been living too hard and too fast to even prepare for a move. It was about time he got ready to leave the one-room apartment he had grown so attached to.
"Hyung-nim! Congratulations."
Lee Joo-sung held out a glass of champagne, and Kim Se-jun gladly clinked his own against it.
"Thanks, Joo-sung. Looking forward to working with you going forward, too."
"It's nothing, really."
He smiled, a little awkward, then drained his glass in one go.
This feels good.
A pleasant buzz was creeping in. But it was not just the alcohol.
Is this real...?
Number one on the digital charts. A goal — a dream — he had yearned for his entire life. He had not achieved it alone, but he had achieved it all the same. An indescribable sense of accomplishment filled every inch of him.
"I wish Yu-na could've come too."
Lee Jin-ah said it with a note of genuine regret. The other star of the day, Kang Yu-na.
"Yeah. It would've been nice if she could make it."
He was quietly disappointed she was not there. She was under a different agency, but she was close with Lee Jin-ah, and even with Lee Hae-jin. It would not have been awkward for her to join them. It was simply a shame her schedule had kept her away.
Kim Se-jun turned to look at Lee Joo-sung. A smile that would not quit — the man was clearly in a wonderful mood.
Should I have invited Ye-eun too?
She was spending her days faithfully as a trainee. She was a trainee, but this was not a place she could not have come to. Lee Joo-sung was here, Se-jun himself was here, and Lee Hae-jin and Ha Dong-jun doted on her. Still, inviting a trainee to a gathering like this felt somehow off. Complaints could easily bubble up among the other trainees.
"CEO, how's Ye-eun doing these days?"
At Kim Se-jun's question, Lee Joo-sung flinched for a fraction of a second.
"Hmm? Ah. That kid Ye-eun is something else."
Lee Hae-jin smiled faintly, as if just thinking about her made him happy.
"She's got talent, and her work ethic is insane. She's absorbing everything at a terrifying rate. If she keeps this up, featuring on your album next year won't be a stretch at all. Joo-sung really lucked out with that little sister of his."
"That's not true, sir."
Lee Joo-sung scratched the back of his head at Lee Hae-jin's praise. He looked embarrassed, but the corners of his mouth were stretched to his ears. His only family. Of course he would be in a good mood hearing her praised like that.
Kim Se-jun smiled with satisfaction at Lee Hae-jin's words as well. Her growth was a huge help to him, too. She had potential on Kang Yu-na's level, after all.
Everything was going smoothly. He had hit number one on the digital charts, and the next album was already fully mapped out in his head. All that was left was to keep charging forward.
What snapped him out of his joy was his phone buzzing in his hand. The screen showed a text from Kang Su-ji.
"Huh?"
The name Lim Tae-hyun made Kim Se-jun tilt his head. The man had been investigating him?
He sent Kang Su-ji a thank-you in reply, then muttered under his breath.
"She was a better reporter than I expected."
She had not uncovered Lim Tae-hyun's motive, but to pin it down this clearly... Kang Su-ji's skill was well beyond what he had hoped for.
What is Lim Tae-hyun scheming?
The man had been showing him a strange, persistent hostility — and now he had gone so far as to dig into Se-jun's background. The feeling went past unease into something closer to disgust, but Kim Se-jun let out a short, dry laugh.
No matter how desperately the man thrashed, he was a wretched criminal already caught in Se-jun's palm.
Kang Yu-na and Kim Se-jun had taken the number one spot on the digital charts — and once they had climbed there, they showed no intention of coming down. A full week after seizing first place, their numbers still held the throne without a tremor.
And today was the day they would perform on a music show once again. A different kind of tension coiled around Kim Se-jun this time, because their song had been nominated for first place.
It was a feeling entirely unlike hitting number one on the digital charts. Back then, he had never seen it coming. This time, the moment was one he could more or less anticipate. Even so, his heart pounded just the same.
"We'll win, right?"
"Of course we will. It's definitely us. Besides, Lim Tae-hyun didn't even show up today."
They had finished every stage and were waiting for the ending when Kim Se-jun asked, and Kang Yu-na answered with absolute conviction.
"Alright! Everyone on stage, please!"
At the staffer's call, the waiting singers poured up onto the stage in a rush. The MCs were already delivering their closing remarks.
"And that's it — text voting is now closed! Today's nominees for first place are Kang Yu-na and Kim Se-jun's Simcheongga, and Lim Tae-hyun and Luna's Your Everything. Unusually, both tracks are duets."
The male MC's words were picked up by his female counterpart.
"That's right! This is the first time duets have taken both first-place nominations, isn't it? Let's find out who took this week's number one — right now!"
She turned a bright, fresh smile toward the cameras as she spoke.
A pounding heart. He had expected this, and still the nerves would not leave him.
A sliver of time passed.
Then a shower of petals rained down over Kim Se-jun and Kang Yu-na's heads.
"A truly distinctive track that arranged Korea's classic tale of Sim Cheong into a pop song — a song that plucked at the heartstrings of fathers and daughters!"
"That's right! Se-jun-ssi! A word, if you would!"
The other singers broke into applause, and the MC held out a microphone and a trophy.
Wow...
The trophy in his hands. A quiet smile slipped across his face. It was not even an awards-show trophy — just a weekly music broadcast first-place trophy — but it was the first music trophy he had ever received in his life. Of course a rush of exaltation wrapped around him. Kim Se-jun opened his mouth in a voice bright with excitement.
"First, I want to thank our fans from the bottom of my heart for loving our song. And the staff who created this song with us. And Yu-na, who was the one who proposed the duet to me — I'm truly grateful to her as well. The weather's getting chilly, so everyone please take care not to catch a cold. Thank you! Thank you so much!"
A long-winded acceptance speech. Lines he had practiced more than a few dozen times.
The moment Kim Se-jun finished, the MCs delivered their closing remarks, and just like that, the broadcast was over.
"Oppa. You're good at this. The first time I won, I just stammered like an idiot."
Kang Yu-na looked at him and giggled, sheepish and bright.
"Took me a week. Memorizing the speech."
At Kim Se-jun's shameless quip, Kang Yu-na gave his shoulder a light shove.
"Nice job. Prepare like that next time, too."
"Obviously."
"Got it. Oppa, I've got another schedule, so I'll head out first."
"Yeah. See you later."
Kang Yu-na crossed to her manager, who was already shooting her impatient looks, and Kim Se-jun headed for his own waiting room.
Lee Joo-sung had been waiting inside. The moment Kim Se-jun walked in, a huge smile broke across his face.
"Congratulations, Hyung-nim."
"Thanks. Anything else today?"
"There's a radio appearance."
"Yeah? Let's go now. Ah — want to head down first? I'll stop by the restroom and catch up."
"Ah, understood. I'll go get things ready."
Lee Joo-sung headed for the parking garage with a light step. Kim Se-jun's meteoric rise was a joy to him as well.
After his parents had passed, the storms of the world had been almost too much to bear. Filthy. Nauseating. A memory too dark to dress up with words like "fierce" or "competitive."
And in the midst of all that, he had met Kim Se-jun. Warm. Vast. A man who showed constant, genuine interest not only in him, but in his little sister as well. There was nothing in Joo-sung's heart but gratitude.
"Huh?"
Walking along with those thoughts, Lee Joo-sung sent a puzzled look toward the wall of the section where he had parked. A man had quietly slipped into view from that wall.
"Lim Tae-hyun?"
It was a face Joo-sung knew well enough. Lim Tae-hyun, one of Korea's top singers. And that man had just appeared, of all places, in a secluded parking garage? On top of that, he had been a first-place nominee today and had not even shown up for the broadcast. At this appearance that made no sense at all, wariness settled into Lee Joo-sung's eyes.
"You're Lee Joo-sung, right? Kim Se-jun's manager."
Lim Tae-hyun came closer as he asked, and Lee Joo-sung nodded.
"That's correct. Is there something you need?"
At Lee Joo-sung's answer, Lim Tae-hyun put on a greasy smile.
"Don't take this the wrong way. Looks like things have been rough at home... I'd like to offer you a little help."
"..."
What fresh bullshit is this?
Lee Joo-sung did not answer, and Lim Tae-hyun took the silence as agreement.
"How about you drop that Kim Se-jun bastard and come work for me? I'll give you at least triple the pay. Could be more, of course."
"..."
Lee Joo-sung's eyebrow twitched. The look in Lim Tae-hyun's eyes as he stared at him was so vile it made nausea surge up his throat. Eyes the complete opposite of Kim Se-jun's pure, clear gaze.
"There's a condition, though. That Kim Se-jun bastard's weakness. Just bring me one. Do that, and I promise you a payday in the tens of millions."
Lim Tae-hyun said it with a mean little laugh. If Joo-sung listened any longer, he felt his ears would rot and melt right off his head.
"That's enough."
Lee Joo-sung, who had been listening in silence, finally opened his mouth. Lim Tae-hyun flinched for a moment, then went on with shameless composure, as if nothing had happened.
"Ah, too little? Fine. I'll throw in at least fifty million won."
"Haa..."
Lee Joo-sung let out a deep sigh at the man's words. Taking that sigh for a sign of hesitation, Lim Tae-hyun prattled on without a pause.
"Opportunities like this don't come often."
A rotten stench seemed to roll off him every time he opened his mouth. That face, grinning away. Joo-sung could not take it anymore.
"Hey."
Lee Joo-sung clenched his fist tight. His eyes blazed, and his voice dropped into a low growl.
"Shut your mouth. Before I rip it off your face."