Develop(1)
The third round of the competition was a self-produced mission.
Using the demo tracks submitted by the contestants’ composers as a foundation, each team had to finish the song, handle the recording, and solve everything else on their own right through to the stage performance.
Before the preparation for the third round began, Jeong Ondo gave an explanation.
“From today on, each team will be given one studio. In the studio, you’ll complete your song and finish recording, then return to the practice room to work out the choreography and prepare for the stage.”
The contestants listened with sharpened attention. This seemed harder than any mission they had faced so far.
“There are engineers waiting in the room next to each studio. Once your recording setup is ready, call them over and you can begin recording at any time.”
Neeee!
“Also, the six current demo tracks don’t have lyrics yet. This time, you’ll draw lots to receive a random theme for your song. You’ll need to write lyrics to match the theme, complete the song, and prepare your stage from there.”
The production staff brought over a box with a hole just big enough to fit a hand through and set it in front of them. As Jeong Ondo slipped his hand inside, he said, “The themes for this round are all made up of words related to the sea.”
His hand came back out holding a small ball. On it, written in two characters, was Wave.
“Then one person from each team, please come up and draw a ball.”
“Who will draw it?”
At Neoul’s question, Woo Cheong shot up his hand.
“Me! Me!”
“Very well. Cheong, you may draw.”
“Bring back something good!”
The older members, worn out from the aftermath of Random Play Dance, shoved the energetic teenager forward. Logan was young too, but his condition was nowhere near as lively.
Woo Cheong stepped forward and lined up, then rummaged carefully through the box and drew a ball. Before showing it to anyone else, he checked the word written on it first.
“Uh….”
The expression on Woo Cheong’s face, which had been brimming with excitement only moments before, turned blank.
What had he pulled to make that face?
Neoul stretched his neck out to peer at the ball in Woo Cheong’s hand.
Woo Cheong looked at his teammates once, then at the production crew, then at MC Jeong Ondo, and back again to his teammates. Then, carefully, he showed them the writing on the ball.
“It says… breakwater….”
His eyes seemed to ask, Is this right? Why is a breakwater coming up here…?
“…?”
The rest of the team blinked in confusion too.
“B-Breakwater? What was that again…? I feel like I’ve heard of it….”
“Breakwa? Isn’t that short pants, haha. You don’t even know that, man?”
And in the middle of it all, a conversation between Korean-Australian Yeo Do-bin and the Texas boy Logan only made things even more absurd.
While the team was still mulling over the three-word theme they had never expected, the other teams also finished drawing their lots.
[Wave] [Breakwater]
[Sand] [Seashell]
[Lighthouse] [Tube]
The six keywords that would become the songs’ themes were as follows. Jeong Ondo offered no further explanation, only smiling as he said, “Then please set out immediately.”
Uh, go where?
The contestants got to their feet in a flurry of confusion. But time was brutally short, so there was no more explanation.
The production staff loaded the contestants onto buses by team and transported them to the studios they had rented in advance, then herded them inside.
* * *
Team 1, the team Neoul was on, was left standing alone in one studio. Only the bare minimum of camera staff remained with them.
The first thing that caught their eye when they opened the dark studio door was a launch pad glowing like a light in a riot of vivid colors. After that came a large speaker, a computer, and a synthesizer.
“Wow…. Can we really just use all this however we want? What if something suddenly breaks while we’re using it? Aren’t we supposed to pay for it?”
Ha On-ha muttered something ominous as he scanned the expensive-looking equipment with his eyes. Yeo Do-bin immediately headed for the synthesizer, ran his fingers over the keys, and tried to reassure the others.
“Ah, it’s not that high-end. This is probably around 1.2 million won…?”
“Whoa! That’s expensive!”
Ha On-ha clearly couldn’t understand how 1.2 million won could possibly be considered not that expensive. Then he spotted Neoul poking at the glowing launch pad and rushed over in alarm to haul him away from the equipment.
“Neoul, do you have money? I don’t! What sort of money does a trainee even have!”
“I don’t have any either, but I do know Representative Won Hasin’s card payment password, so it is fine.”
“…?!”
How do you even know that…? Are you really sure this is fine…?
Thrown into chaos, Ha On-ha grabbed both of Neoul’s arms the way one might restrain a cousin who had come over for the holidays and started raiding the toy store. Only after he had firmly pleaded with Neoul not to touch a single thing did he let him go.
Logan promptly flopped down onto the sofa by the wall.
“Okay! I am ready! So what do we do first?”
At his words, everyone turned their heads. The whole team looked at their composer, Yeo Do-bin.
Most of them had spent their time only in practice rooms or lesson rooms, so this was the first time they had ever had to do anything in a studio like this.
Even Baek Yuri, who had already debuted once, had only ever gone into a recording booth to get chewed out and then spend more than six hours recording until his throat was destroyed. A situation like this was new to him too.
Neoul went without saying.
“There are chocolates here. May I eat them?”
“No…! Those are the keys…!”
“No!”
The keyboard had been customized with chocolate-colored keycaps. Neoul, thinking they were the same color as the chocolate bars he used to snatch from Baek Yuri, had already moved to put them in his mouth when Yeo Do-bin and Baek Yuri stopped him. Ha On-ha cracked up at the sight.
And standing somewhat apart from them, one person with a different air altogether.
This is bad……! We’re doomed!
Yeo Do-bin felt a deep, dire sense of crisis. They were supposed to do a self-produced mission with team members who knew nothing at all.
It felt as if he had boarded a ship meant to sail the open sea, only to discover there was neither navigator nor helmsman aboard. With no one at the wheel, the ship seemed liable to drift, helplessly bobbing away on the waves toward some absurd destination.
If we hit a reef, we’ll just sink…!
Until now, he had only gone along with whatever the other team members said and did, but….
Yeo Do-bin picked up a pad from one corner of the desk.
This time, I have to do it.
He realized he would have to take hold of the wheel that kept swaying wildly on its own.
“F-First, before deciding what to do… I have something to say….”
The team looked at Yeo Do-bin.
“I… um….”
Yeo Do-bin’s lips moved, but he found it hard to say what he had done, and the words would not come easily. Now that all eyes were on him, the pressure made it even harder to speak.
“Speak, then.”
Unable to watch any longer, Neoul pressed down on Yeo Do-bin’s crown and made him lower his head.
With the floor filling Yeo Do-bin’s vision instead of everyone’s eyes, he felt a little better and opened his mouth. But because he had a habit of looking at people’s eyes when he talked, his head rose again almost on its own.
“...The demo I sent you wasn’t actually made for the competition. It was an unfinished song I was just messing around with on my own.”
“Hmm?”
“Huh…?”
“What?!”
Ha On-ha, Woo Cheong, and Logan were shocked in domino sequence. Yeo Do-bin’s words made so little sense that their brains couldn’t process them at once; their surprise arrived one beat late, one after another.
Watching their reactions, Yeo Do-bin continued.
“Actually, there was another file I meant to submit, but I sent the wrong one. I’m sorry….”
“You… sent the wrong file?”
Could that happen? Was that even possible? At an audition this important? Cross-checking should be basic, shouldn’t it? How could such a mistake happen?
Baek Yuri stared at him as though he could not quite believe his own ears, as if asking silently whether he had heard wrong. Yeo Do-bin shrank in on himself, and his voice sank lower and lower.
“B-But then the notice came out saying we’d passed the preliminaries, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell you I’d sent the wrong file…. This song was something I made while experimenting with all sorts of things for fun, and just fooling around…. So I thought, naturally, no one would pick it….”
“…….”
“If it’s all right for me to ask… could I ask why… you chose my song…?”
Yeo Do-bin wanted to confirm the reason before they began work. He was uneasy because he could not imagine what had made his teammates choose his song. He had wanted to know all along; now, at last, he had the chance to ask.
Since he had just explained that it was not a carefully crafted track but an unfinished one he had written as a bit of fun, the team’s expressions turned uncertain.
Ha On-ha answered first.
“I followed Neoul.”
“…? Why did you follow me?”
Neoul, who had shown no particular reaction even after Yeo Do-bin’s confession that he had submitted the wrong song, blinked in confusion.
“You should make your own choice. You’re awfully lacking in backbone.”
“No, I mean, you looked so incredibly confident when you chose it…? I figured you must have some reason for it.”
Ha On-ha explained that he had been deeply impressed by Neoul’s first stage, with its changwi concept, and his second stage, with its artist concept, as well.
“So I just had this feeling! He’s going to do something interesting again this time~”
Logan and Woo Cheong, on the other hand, had much simpler answers.
“I like it. This song is fun.”
“Me too! Me too! I didn’t know it was Devin hyung’s song, but it just felt kind of challenging and unique, so it drew me in!”
“I-I see…. Thank you.”
They had chosen it simply because it was fun and interesting. Yeo Do-bin felt embarrassed by the answer he had never expected and scratched his cheek. Neoul, who spoke next, had a more specific reason for picking the song.
“I knew at once.”
“Knew what…?”
“That song number 1 was the song you made.”
“Ah, I was wondering how you figured it out earlier…. How did you know…?”
“Yeo Do-bin. You remember the accompaniment you added to my song, yes? The instrument sound I heard there was the same as the one in this song.”
“…!”
Yeo Do-bin nodded in astonishment.
“R-Right…! It’s a guitar sample I made…! The ones that are recorded well, I save them and use them in multiple songs, or alter them and use them again….”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Wow…. I didn’t think you’d be able to recognize it from hearing it once.”
Yeo Do-bin’s eyes shone with admiration. But his face quickly went pale, and before anyone had even said a word to him, he hurriedly started apologizing.
“N-No…! I wasn’t thinking that you’d never recognize it, or that I was looking down on you… I just thought it was amazing and impressive, um…. I sometimes even forget what I used in my own songs, so I’m grateful too…!”
But Neoul cut him off as though there was nothing at all for him to worry about.
“I know. I never misunderstood you, so do not fret.”
“Y-Yeah….”
Thank goodness…!
Yeo Do-bin let out a huge sigh of relief inside. Neoul went on.
“And after I realized it was your song, the reason I chose this one was….”
Yeo Do-bin looked up at him with a lack of confidence.
Neoul grinned. Then he said with complete assurance, “To piggyback on your talent.”
“H-Huh…?”