Choking the Air (4)
The General Manager of QQ Entertainment, ENTRA's agency, exploded.
"What the hell is this?!"
His phone was clenched in his hand, a news article filling the screen. Employees froze under the sudden blast of fury, then craned in to see what had set him off.
It was an article raising suspicions of sajaegi—illegal chart rigging—against ENTRA.
"Chart manipulation? ENTRA? What the hell have you people been doing while an article like this gets published?!"
The team leader came scrambling in.
"I-I'm sorry, sir. I'll look into it immediately."
"Handle it. Fast."
"Yes, sir!"
The head of QQ Entertainment's media team nodded and dove into the article. Then he pulled up ENTRA's streaming numbers, and sure enough—
Yeah. You can see why the suspicions dropped.
No—it wasn't suspicion. It was blatant. Anyone in the industry would have known at a glance. Under ordinary circumstances, ENTRA's skill level wouldn't have invited this kind of doubt. Kim Mir's rap, though, had been fatal. The atmosphere around the album was so bleak it was being called the worst release of the year.
They beat a group backed by the greatest composer in Korea.
Of course people were going to question it. Most of them weren't questioning anything—they were already certain.
Upstairs swore ENTRA made the rankings on talent alone.
Then again, those people only ever saw what they wanted to see.
The team leader let out a long, heavy breath. And right then, his phone rang.
He sighed again and picked up.
"Handle the article."
"You can't just call and start barking orders."
"Come on, you already know. The article that dropped."
"The sajaegi?"
"Yeah. Take care of it, fast. Handling that kind of thing is your job, isn't it?"
"You… ha."
The team leader dragged a hand through his hair.
"Did you do this?"
The question came out cold. Kim Mir's answer was shameless.
"Everyone does it. I just went a little overboard this time."
"On your own? Do you have any idea what this could do to the other ENTRA members?"
"It's good for them too."
"Why would you do this? You're going to get yourself in real trouble. There's a line to what I can clean up for you."
"Ah, shit. So what, we're supposed to lose to Neon Heart? Those nobodies nobody's even heard of? Why are you on my case too? I'm already pissed off because of my wife."
"That's exactly why I'm asking. Why run sajaegi. On your own authority."
"I'll take the heat, so just handle it. I'm hanging up."
The line went dead before the team leader could get another word in.
"Ah, fuck…"
It was always like this. Kim Mir caused a disaster, and he was the one who cleaned it up. This time it was still salvageable, but back at debut there had even been allegations of a sexual relationship with an underage idol. That one had forced a stretch of public self-reflection.
I'm so tired of this.
It felt like there was an incident at least once a week. The guy was married, so why did he keep trying to pick up girl idols? He'd gotten turned down again recently, and they'd had to work themselves ragged just to keep that story out of the press.
If they say jump, I jump.
There was no other choice. The people upstairs were convinced ENTRA's results were talent, not sajaegi. The song itself wasn't even bad, honestly. It was just that Kim Mir's rap parts were complete garbage.
How do you beat Neon Heart with rap skills like that?
A group backed by the greatest composer in the country.
"Ha."
The team leader sighed yet again.
He's going to get his nose bloodied one of these days.
And with that thought, he sat down and started drafting a rebuttal article.
The next day.
Even on the weekend, Park Siwoo had no time to rest. He needed to start working on Lunatix's tracks. There was still quite a while before the girls would debut, but there was no harm in getting ahead.
I need to lock in the overall concept first.
He had already decided to shape them as an early-2000s, Y2K-flavored group. And since every member was a teenager, he would write melodies that felt as pure and clean as the girls themselves. The retro warmth of the 2000s, colliding with the wild, uncontainable energy of teenage girls. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing more compelling than that combination.
Just then—
"Siwoo?"
The door opened, and Lee Yena stepped in.
"Are you working on a song?"
She asked it as she took in the sight of him seated at the keyboard. He answered quietly.
"Yes. I've been put in charge of a new idol group that's about to debut."
"Ah."
She nodded, then offered, "Is there anything I can help with? I could cut up some fruit for you."
"I'd love that, actually."
"Okay, then."
She smiled, bright and small, and headed for the kitchen. Siwoo watched her back for a moment before turning again to the computer.
I've got a rough sense of the feeling I want.
A melody had already begun to take shape in his head. He put his hands on the keys and wrote it out—the heart of the song. The rhythm bounced in a vein not unlike Neon Heart's, but he adjusted the effects until the pitch carried a more retro color. Perhaps that was why the melody that emerged called up an image of girls tearing across some early-2000s shoreline, wild and unstoppable. It was still only a melody, but even that alone left him deeply satisfied. All that remained was to layer in the instruments and give the thing flesh.
That popping guitar line is exactly like bubble gum.
He nodded to himself. The title of this track would be Bubble Gum. There couldn't be a more fitting name.
He was still smiling, quietly pleased, when Yena came back in, carrying a bowl of yellow peaches.
"Siwoo, try some."
"Ah—Yena."
She set the bowl on his desk, speared the biggest peach with a fork, and held it out to him. He took it and bit in.
Juice burst across his tongue. Sweet, bright, the kind of flavor that stirred the appetite all by itself.
"How is it?"
"It's really good."
"Right? I ordered the best ones on purpose. There's plenty, so just say if you want more."
"I will. And—would you listen to the song for me?"
"Wait—of course!"
She nodded so hard she looked like an eager little rabbit, and Siwoo laughed under his breath as he pulled the chair beside him closer.
"Sit here."
"Okay~"
The answer came in a cute, nasal little voice. She sat, settled her head against his shoulder, and rested her hand on his thigh.
"Is it okay if I stay like this?"
Instead of answering, he gave a small laugh and closed his hand around hers. Then, with his free hand, he hit play.
A quiet melody spilled from the speakers. Yena listened without moving, then lifted her head from his shoulder. He glanced over. She looked completely absorbed.
The song ended.
Her head whipped around, and their eyes met. She beamed.
"It's incredible."
"You think so?"
"Yes. This is a genuinely new genre. That kind of thing is usually inaccessible, but your songs have this… pull. Completely my taste."
She stuck her thumb up, firm and bright. Siwoo nodded, satisfied. They were in love, but Yena wouldn't offer empty flattery. When it came to music, she was every bit as sincere as he was.
"Then I'd better finish the rest."
"Can I watch from here?"
"Of course."
She settled her head back against his shoulder, and the work resumed.
Some three hours later, Siwoo finished the track. Most composers spent a full day on a single song. His speed was abnormally fast—and it wasn't as if the quality suffered for it. The moment Korea's greatest female singer heard it, her eyes had flown wide.
"I want this song."
She wanted it badly enough to actually say that. Siwoo smiled.
"I'll write one for you."
"Wait, really?"
"Yes."
He nodded, and she burst into a bright, ringing laugh.
"If it's a song you made for me, I think I could sing it so happily."
"I'll work on it soon."
"Okay. Hehe."
She smiled, pretty as anything. Siwoo stroked her hair, then turned back to the computer. He was planning to cut a teaser-style edit and upload it to the Guitar Hero channel.
He trimmed the track down, lifted the highlight on its own, and set the word NEW in white letters against a black field. Then he dropped the song in and played the video back.
It looked like a proper teaser.
Not bad.
Satisfied, he uploaded it to the Guitar Hero account. A short video—thirty seconds, all told.
And then, maybe three minutes after it went up, his phone started going insane. He opened the Guitar Hero channel, and sure enough, the view count was climbing like it had lost its mind.
Come to think of it…
He checked his subscriber count. He had blown past 100,000 a long time ago; now he was closing in on a million.
950,000.
If things kept up, he might cross a million today. Even when he'd uploaded Yena's cover, it hadn't exploded like this. Most likely, once his face had started circulating on TikTacTok, idol fans had flooded in in droves.
From his perspective, that wasn't a bad thing. It meant his music was reaching more people. There would be side effects, of course—but now that he was a CEO, other people's eyes were something he had to live with.
He nodded to himself and opened the comments.
Not just Korean fans—international ones, too. And then even famous overseas celebrities piled on.
Connections befitting the undisputed greatest composer in the business. Not that Siwoo had ever actually met any of them.
I have gotten more than a few offers to write songs for them, though.
In any case, the teaser he'd uploaded climbed at a steep angle, and before long it had reached number one on the trending videos. In just ten minutes, it had hit 150,000 views.
"Huh."
Quietly astonished at the sheer scale of his own name recognition, Siwoo closed his phone.
Right then, Yena—who had gone out to cut more fruit—came back into the room.
"Siwoo, I cut some more peaches."
She sat down beside him, smiling, and set the bowl on the desk. Then, softly:
"Is the work all done?"
He nodded.
"Yes. I just finished, actually."
"Then we have a little time to talk?"
"We do. What's going on?"
"Well…"
She rummaged her phone out and held the screen toward him. It was a text conversation with her older sister.
The important part was this:
"Unni wants to see us first thing tomorrow. Would that work?"
The date of the family introduction had arrived right at their doorstep.
Tightening the Noose (5)
The next day.
Park Siwoo started the car with Lee Yena beside him. Their destination was none other than the apartment where she had been staying until recently. He had been there before. It was where they had spent their first night together.
Well.
What he'd done in a drunken haze had led all the way here. The thought struck him with a strange, fresh sense of wonder.
"Let's go," he said.
"Did your sister say she's ready?"
"Yes. I told her we'd be there soon, and she said that's fine."
"All right."
He nodded and pressed down on the accelerator.