Feature Recording

"Uh..."

I had burned it all away, down to the last white ash. After focusing that hard on a game for the first time in ages, my skull was ringing.

...Still, at least one bit of rehab went well. I'd call my gaming-skill rehabilitation a success, at minimum. That had been the original goal, after all.

Chat scrolled past in a blur — my brain was clearly still overloaded, because the messages barely registered.

"Ending stream... is a bit up in the air."

It would be rough, but I wanted to fill at least two hours before shutting things down. We were... about five minutes short, actually.

Hmm... they were being unusually sweet today.

Then it hit me — why that game was, in its way, exactly that bad.

Why on earth had I brought that thing with me?

"Hah..."

Regretting my disastrous game selection yet again, I cast around for something to fill the time. Click, click, click. Refreshing the cafe board with no particular purpose, a post caught my interest.

...I haven't even recorded my part yet, though?

Knowing exactly how the production was going, I had no idea what this was about, so I clicked on it immediately.

Did the viewers even know who Seyeon was, though?

Watching those reactions was nothing but funny to me — I had the regressor's privilege of knowing exactly who she would become. The moment the new song mentioned in that post actually dropped, every single one of those comments would flip on its head.

Anyway, the post turned out to be a copy-paste of a news article. And the article itself was pure tabloid fodder.

She's releasing a song soon.It was crafted by a famous composer pouring everything he had into it, so it's supposed to be incredible.There's a featured artist.

It was almost certainly something the company had let slip on purpose. Every spoiler had been scrubbed out — the article contained nothing but promotion-ready copy.

"Whew..."

Still, that snapped me back to my senses. I'd kept my composure on the surface, but for a second I'd jolted in a cold sweat, wondering if the news had leaked. If this had leaked, there'd be no guarantee something about my identity hadn't leaked with it.

Ah, right.

"Come to think of it, did I ever mention it on stream?"

Ah, the collab had already been announced, then. But that wasn't what I meant.

"No, not the collab."

"I'm taking tomorrow off. I have to go record a featured vocal."

I was watching the news and thought, wait, did I ever say that out loud?

With the deletion of that message as my final act, I switched off the stream.

"Aaaargh!"

Oof...! That was brutal...! I stretched out the body that had stiffened from sitting so long, shut down the computer, and flung myself straight onto the bed.

"Haaah..."

Exhausted... I need to sleep...

The next day.

"Hello."

"Ah, Yeonwoo, you're here!"

"Yes. How have you been?"

"Haha! Well — now that this song is finally about to see the light of day, I'd say I've been very well!"

How had he been so certain that a song this magnificent was more than a passing trend? Speaking purely as someone who sings and listens to music, I couldn't claim to understand a creator's struggles — and yet I still couldn't quite wrap my head around it.

And then—

"The song's going to do well. Don't worry about it."

For all his bravado, he seemed anxious, so I threw him that one line.

"...You think so?"

"Of course."

Having already lived through it, I knew just how well it would do — so well that it almost pained me not to be able to tell him more.

Ah, right. I should mention it.

"I saw the news about the new single."

"Ah, the tabloid piece?"

"Yes. Well written, wasn't it? They sold your name very effectively."

On my way here, I'd skimmed the comments — people were reading the composer's name and building serious expectations.

I'd say the intention landed beautifully.

"Ahaha... I'm hardly at that level, but the company was kind enough to make it look that way..."

Hmm... confirmed.

I'd noticed it earlier, but the composer seemed unusually deflated today.

"Did something happen?"

Under normal circumstances, asking that would be rude — but if this dragged down the quality of the recording, that was a loss for everyone, so it was in everyone's interest to lance the wound quickly.

Besides, I was curious.

Startled by my bluntness, the composer stroked his beard with one hand.

"Huh?! No, it's, um..."

"I'm listening."

He hesitated a moment, then took a long, deep breath and began.

"The truth is... back when I was studying under my teacher, city pop was the genre I got scolded for."

"Mm... go on."

"He told me: you may love this genre, but the singers take all the fame, and the money goes to the ballads people belt out in karaoke rooms or whatever's trendy — so if you're planning to make a living off music, give it up..."

Watching him trail off mid-sentence, I got the sense there was more he was still holding back, so I prompted him.

"And?"

"And... whenever I offered singers a feature, they'd say the song was nice but 'not what's trending' and turn me down flat. So my confidence took a real beating..."

Hmm.

"Which is probably why I'm feeling so anxious right now..."

I understood well enough. Which meant there was really only one thing I could say to him here.

"I love this song."

I meant it. Sure, there'd been the condition of an original track in return, but I'd decided on the feature in the first place because the song itself was good.

"Other people are going to love it too."

Like I said before — this was already a proven fact. A fact about to be proven all over again.

"So if the song creates a new trend, then you'll simply be the one who made it, Composer-nim."

That, too, was something I'd lived through.

The composer stood frozen for a moment, staggered by words he'd never expected to hear — and then he let out a booming, cathartic laugh.

"Hahaha! If you're willing to say that much, Yeonwoo, then I suppose it must be true!"

Hmm, he looked unburdened.

But to think a man this talented had been made to doubt himself because of other people...

Another lesson learned, as of today. I wouldn't let the things viewers said shake me.

I would hold to my own convictions.

...Was I not already doing exactly that?