Chapter 405: Style Change (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 405: Style Change (1)
The sound of wheels rolling over asphalt filled the air.
『No need for a map』
Someone appeared on the screen, gliding in on a black skateboard. A broad back cut across the road.
『Meeting by chance
Becoming friends
That was our beginning』
As the man on the black board passed by, a red-haired boy sitting by the roadside came into view. His white socks pulled up to his ankles and his flashy, thick-soled sneakers were particularly eye-catching.
『Believe in the fate
That you proved』
Another person skated along a tree-lined path in a sprawling park. At first, only his legs in shorts were visible, but soon his entire body was revealed, topped with light green hair that looked as soft as a plush doll. The board slid along the rails of a wooden deck.
『Whatever you want
To you who dove in
I’ll give you everything』
The background shifted to cement walls and floors covered in graffiti. All six members finally appeared together.
Lee Su-hun was able to spot Lee Cheong-hyeon immediately. Cheong-hyeon had a unique look, with green streaks mixed into his vaguely blue hair.
His clothes looked like rags. He dressed exactly like Su-hun’s university friend who insisted on buying everything from vintage shops. A T-shirt printed with a chaotic mix of things—including cats and pies—paired with faded gray jeans left Su-hun with a lot of thoughts.
The red-haired boy came out in a new outfit. Instead of the shorts, the yellow belt that was longer than the pants, and the neon sneakers, he was now wearing a white hoodie and long, wide-legged trousers.
Cheong-hyeon must have other outfits too. Lee Su-hun took comfort in that thought.
The sound of wheels scraping the ground echoed again. The camera caught Lee Cheong-hyeon tilting his board and performing a flashy 360-degree spin. There were smudges of paint on his face.
As expected, his clothes had changed. He was wearing a pair of well-fitted denim overalls. Su-hun wasn't a fan of the splatters of multicolored paint all over them, but it was still better than the previous outfit that looked like he was wearing arm sleeves over a short-sleeved T-shirt. The rap was too fast for Su-hun to fully grasp.
Do people really grow their hair that long?
Whenever Lee Cheong-hyeon danced, the hair covering the nape of his neck fluttered in the wind. A refreshing, bright smile filled the screen.
『The memories are here』
Next came a pale-skinned man.
Su-hun almost didn't recognize him because of his deep pink hair. Wearing black latex gloves, he was busily spraying paint onto a board.
『The scent of winter
The warmth of the sunlight
I know you gave them to me』
Lee Su-hun finally figured out the name of this man who kept catching his eye. According to the search results, this person was "I-wol."
As if preparing to paint a new design on the board, I-wol applied masking tape to the areas that needed to stay clean. The long strip of yellow masking tape he pulled away transitioned into the rail markings in the next scene.
『Believe in the heart
That I will gift to you』
In an urban skate park, a blonde man skated with pure excitement. His oversized shirt billowed every time he caught the wind.
Starting with the blonde man standing in the center of the park, the members gathered in the plaza one by one.
『Whatever you want
Not anyone else
I’ll only look at you』
The music had grown louder than at the beginning.
Su-hun wasn't sure exactly when the volume had increased. It wasn't distracting, though.
As Lee Su-hun nodded his head to the beat, a man entered his field of vision. It was the orange-haired one who had been the first to show his face.
The man on the board kicked off a wall with his wheels, descended, and then leaped into the air. The board rose with him, spinning several times at a unique angle in mid-air.
『I will become
Your place to breathe』
The video ended with a final shot of someone’s shoe landing back on the wheels of the spinning board. Lee Su-hun plugged his phone into the charger and headed for his bed.
"What's the occasion? You're not going straight to sleep?"
His roommate, who was lying on the opposite bed watching videos on a tablet, asked.
"There was something I wanted to see."
"Did the school notice go up?"
"No, a music video."
"Whose?"
"Spark."
Su-hun expected the usual "Why are you watching stuff like that?" but his roommate didn't add any unnecessary commentary.
Su-hun suddenly realized he had never really asked his roommate anything before.
"What about you?"
"Huh?"
"What are you watching?"
"The LoM World Championship broadcast. Last year's. Do you even know what LoM is?"
"I know."
He had heard the term several times.
"Did you ask because you thought I wouldn't know?"
"I doubt many people would expect you to."
Su-hun had asked just in case, but the response was unexpected. He felt a bit of a shock.
"Haven't I been consuming a lot of pop culture content lately?"
Seeing Su-hun looking genuinely bewildered, the roommate spoke up.
"This is the first time in my life I've heard someone use the phrase 'consuming pop culture content.' It just means your interests... are a bit far removed from Muggles like us."
"Muggles?"
"Oh, Su-hun."
The roommate shook his head.
"You didn't watch that music video because you're interested in it, did you?"
"I wouldn't watch it if I wasn't interested."
"Didn't you watch it because your brother is in it?"
For the first time in his life, Lee Su-hun felt his eyes widen in surprise. Furthermore, he hadn't realized that family members of celebrities often hid their relationship for various reasons. Su-hun asked back naively.
"How did you know?"
"I think anyone who knows what you look like would know."
"People said my brother doesn't look like me, though."
Lee Cheong-hyeon took after their mother, while Lee Su-hun took after their father. That was what all their relatives said in unison.
"Your vibes are different, sure. Just looking at your face, you seem like you'd have a soft personality, while Lee Cheong-hyeon looks cold."
"You even know his name?"
"You'd have to be a spy not to know Lee Cheong-hyeon. If you meet someone who doesn't know him, make sure to report them, okay?"
Had Lee Cheong-hyeon become that famous? Even while wearing those tattered clothes?
"The guys didn't know for sure, but the girls were certain."
"Why?"
"They said that, aesthetically and statistically speaking, you're the only one who could possibly be his brother."
It was a difficult statement to parse. Yet, the roommate seemed to have grasped the entire cause-and-effect relationship.
It was too late to continue the conversation. Lee Su-hun quietly pulled up his blanket and lay down.
Whatever you want...
The part of the song he just heard, with its unique accent on the repeated lyrics, kept echoing in his mind. It took twenty minutes for Lee Su-hun to fall asleep as he replayed the song over and over in his head.
Before and after the release of the title track, Spark worked themselves to the bone.
The results were proven through broadcasts. Rather than once a day, it felt like every few hours, one of them was appearing on TV.
Choi Je-ho had gone from a dance survival contestant to a judge in just one year, and Jeong Seong-bin, recognized for his ballads, landed a new drama OST. Kang Gi-yeon went to the countryside alone to do farm work and earned the nickname "Nature Boy" (it’s suspected the influence of the uninhabited island was significant). Park Ju-woo appeared on a radio show hosted by a music critic and talked to his heart's content about his deep musical tastes.
However, Lee Cheong-hyeon, who usually soared while filming commercials, had almost been bedridden with worry until recently. It was because the new song felt different from Spark's previous tracks.
"What exactly is the problem?"
"I admit the vibe is different, but the song is good, so isn't that enough?"
"It can't not feel like a Spark song! Why? Where did it go wrong?"
I gently took hold of Lee Cheong-hyeon's wrists as he tried to tear his hair out. I kindly told him there was nothing to worry about.
Lee Cheong-hyeon's music contains what he sees and hears. Starlight and Night, which he arranged for Seasons 1 and 2 of Idol Dynasty Annals respectively, were based on classical music, while End was based on the imagery of the sea he saw during his vacation.
He wrote half of Hideout inside a car. After working on the In-My-Office OST, he developed a habit of not listening to music when he was alone in a car, focusing instead on external sounds.
As a result, what Lee Cheong-hyeon heard most while writing the song was outside noise and...
"Music playing on the streets."
Music heard through earphones or personal devices sounds different from background music played loudly outdoors, even if it's the same song. While someone wearing headphones focuses on the details of the track and each individual instrument, the ears of someone passing by a shop are grabbed by the hook, the vocals, and a strong drum beat. It was common for a song that sounded noisy through headphones to sound exciting outside, or for a song that felt a bit plain in a cafe to reveal delicate emotional lines when listened to again.
In fact, after getting permission from the company to play Hideout only on the floor where the dedicated team was located...
"Oh?"
...I was able to confirm that the explosive parts, which were their existing strengths, stood out well, and the interludes he had disliked for being "crude" transitioned smoothly into the melody parts. It meant it was a perfect song to be played everywhere once it hit the charts.
Lee Cheong-hyeon thought he had lost the "Spark spirit," but everything was still there, just with a different emphasis. He had leaned more toward simplicity than sophistication, and there were definitely positive effects that followed such a choice.
"Hideout charted immediately!"
"The performance of Speaker is rising along with it...!"
Songs played on the street have public appeal. And songs with public appeal are fundamentally addictive.
Speaker, which shared a similar sentiment to Hideout but belonged to a different genre, also rode the wave of the new release's success and promotion.
The song was good to begin with, so it was bound to be mentioned whenever there was an opportunity. This time, the digital single release just happened to be that opportunity. Considering the album and music video were meant to be a "breather," it was an absolutely perfect choice.
"Did you know it would turn out like this, Hyung?"
Lee Cheong-hyeon asked while looking at the charts.
"I just believed in your genius learning ability."
Lee Cheong-hyeon was the type to win through a vast amount of knowledge rather than animalistic instinct. It was just that his reaction speed from reaching a conclusion to creating a finished product was monstrous. If you were to ask "Why did you make this decision?" and break down the process step by step, you'd realize that every choice he made had a reason inferred from big data.
"Thanks to you, I have nothing to do."
Even at the silly joke, Lee Cheong-hyeon beamed with a wide smile.