Chapter 97 - The Conditions for Becoming a Gentle Idol Leader - Episode 97
"At least it worked out. If it had failed, I couldn’t be saying this with a smile."
Go Young-in quietly agreed with Baek Geon’s words. What on earth had his past self been thinking, just standing by and watching that happen?
"Anyway, things are settled now, right? You’re taking on a new challenge this time. I was serious when I said it sounded fun earlier."
"BLUE WAVE turned out well. You know that song had just been sleeping in that brat Pyo Jae-ho’s computer folder as a rough draft all this time? I happened to find it, and bam!"
"Oh? Really?"
"Don’t even get me started. Actually, I found another song instead of that one at first, but he said he’d rather die than release it. What was the title again? From something? Anyway, that one was really good, but he kept insisting it was unfinished. Said he had no intention of finishing it either. The punk was fierce for a kid, of all things..."
This was the first time he’d heard the backstory. So it hadn’t been Pyo Jae-ho showing it willingly after all, but Baek Geon who had stumbled across it and begged him to release it?
And on top of that, he’d originally wanted to put out a different song? Fierce, unlike Pyo Jae-ho, was difficult to picture. At that point, Go Young-in found himself thinking that maybe it really was a song Pyo Jae-ho treasured.
"Setting aside how serious he is about composing, he’s not the kind of guy who gets attached to his own songs. I know that, which is why it’s funny. I told him to just hand over something else, and what he gave me was the BLUE WAVE demo."
He probably did have attachment; it just didn’t show on the surface. In any case, did that brat Pyo Jae-ho really not mention something this important? If this had been before...
Baek Geon kept going.
"Jae-ho’s music folder is a gold mine, I’m telling you. A gold mine."
"That good?"
"I’m serious. He’s got so many unreleased tracks that he’s sorted them all by year and date."
"Ah, the more I hear, the more I regret it. I’d already gotten the feeling his working style matched ours, and I was looking forward to making something interesting together."
"Jae-ho should’ve heard this."
Baek Geon clicked his tongue, still unable to let it go.
"Young-in, after that, did Jae-ho say anything else? You guys really not going to change your minds?"
"Haha..."
With the person doing the refusing sitting right there in front of him, it was awkward to answer that outright.
Baek Geon wore a disappointed expression as though he could already guess what had gone unsaid.
"Honestly, that kid’s got his head jammed full front and back. No matter how I think about it, it’s a waste... I was trying to let the brat get some collaboration experience, too."
If he felt that sorry, maybe he shouldn’t have brought in a composer the artist had already opposed in the first place.
There were plenty of capable people out there besides someone who might be a good musical fit for Pyo Jae-ho.
"Anyway, sorry I called first about a collaboration for once only to make things awkward."
Cha Sung-hwan had also heard that Pyo Jae-ho had said he wouldn’t take part in the album production because of him, so he didn’t seem particularly surprised.
"If he doesn’t want to, then there’s nothing to do about it. I wasn’t planning to force my way in either. It’s fine if I just offer some advice, and I won’t get in Jae-ho’s way either, so tell him to go ahead."
He said it lightly, as if it was only natural that the artist’s opinion came first.
But just as Cha Sung-hwan was trying to let it slide, Baek Geon kept lamenting how regrettable it was. Then Cha Sung-hwan abruptly turned to Go Young-in and asked,
"Then what about you, Young-in?"
"Pardon?"
Go Young-in, who had been sitting quietly like a sack of barley left in a corner while listening to the two of them talk, frowned at the sudden question.
They’d said they were only going to have him make a brief introduction, but the conversation had gone on and on, and now he was wondering what exactly they were trying to do.
"Jae-ho’s already refused, but I’m curious about your opinion. Are you sure you really don’t need me to help? I’d be pretty useful."
"Yeah, Young-in. This guy’s going to start his own agency before long, believe it or not. Doesn’t hurt to know that, right?"
The excessive confidence only made him suspect there was some ulterior motive instead. Go Young-in couldn’t answer right away, and Cha Sung-hwan gave a small smile.
"Got it. So it’s because you’re in the same group?"
"Haha..."
"I’ll really stop bringing this up. Oh, right! Young-in, have you done any solo work lately? Or anything you’ve been working on in the meantime. I’d like to know your style too. Since Jae-ho doesn’t want to, there’s nothing we can do about that... Even if I’m not joining the track, we can still exchange ideas musician to musician, right?"
Both Baek Geon and this man were stubborn in their own way. He’d thought the matter would end there, but apparently not. He didn’t understand why Cha Sung-hwan was trying so hard to force some kind of connection.
"I figured it might be good for the younger guys to learn from someone else before our heads get rigid anyway. That’s reasonable, isn’t it?"
"It’s a win for us, of course! Right, Young-in?"
No, it was absolutely not a win for him.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Even with the year drawing to a close, there was no sign of a meaningful wrap-up. Not that he expected one anymore.
Zero One was still creaking in several places. Outwardly, of course, everything was running without a visible hitch.
They were still making the rounds at the remaining year-end award shows, rehearsing stages for the ceremonies, handling the other schedules that kept coming in, and squeezing in composition practice whenever they had time left.
From the perspective of the group’s musical activity, there was nothing all that different from usual.
And the outline of the next song and concept was coming together faster than expected.
Producer Cha Sung-hwan was also the type to keep useless promises.
The activity concept still hadn’t been fully finalized, and composition hadn’t even properly begun yet, but just as he’d said during that bizarre attempt at socializing, he was diligently drifting in and out of the company studio as if it were his own place, under the pretext of giving advice.
"Oh, so this is how you work here."
Wasn’t there a security problem with this? Even if he was only advising, was it really normal for someone who’d already decided not to participate to come and go from the studio as he pleased?
Baek Geon had definitely handed him a door lock card key.
Go Young-in had tried to phrase, as gently as possible, that he should please turn himself off before the status window started acting up, but this was Baek Geon’s answer to having him around.
"I don’t have any plans to release a song for a while anyway. I’m not desperate for money, and nothing’s coming to me either. The reason I said I wanted to work with you all was partly for a refresh."
"I see."
"If you’re really worried, should Zero One take a break until this next album is out? Or come visit Gangnam sometime. My studio’s there. Young-in, you should come by and look around as much as you want."
He probably wasn’t rolling in royalties the way he implied. Was he sitting on some kind of base capital?
Cha Sung-hwan, who had only been hovering in the back, was now leaning his face toward the monitor and repeatedly replaying sections to check the sound.
Go Young-in, whose mouse had been stolen from him in the confusion, blinked.
"Composer-nim?"
"Ah, don’t mind me. I’m just looking around."
Having said that, Cha Sung-hwan kept shambling around behind him.
"The moombahton rhythm is good. The drums are solid here. This is the title track for the album, right? You really nailed that laid-back, luxurious feel to match the theme."
"Thank you."
"You didn’t use a separate reference track?"
"The A&R team sent me a rough batch of image materials that fit the comeback concept, so I’m just going off those for practice and seeing what comes to mind."
Especially this time, he absolutely did not want even a trace of plagiarism to surface, so he was paying even closer attention to references.
Though the moment Cha Sung-hwan started walking around, it already felt like half a disaster.
"Amazing! Then suppose you hadn’t been given any images like this right now; where do you usually get your ideas?"
At this point, wasn’t he just coming over because he was bored? What was his purpose?
The hand that had been wandering awkwardly over the MIDI keyboard lowered to his knee. Instead of sighing, Go Young-in lightly rubbed one cheek and turned around.
He met Cha Sung-hwan’s eyes as the man craned his neck from behind him, looking around like a meerkat.
"Why? Did I get in the way?"
"... "
"I told you not to mind me."
Watching Cha Sung-hwan make excuses that he hadn’t realized he’d be a bother, Go Young-in hesitated before speaking.
"No. It’s not that..."
Give me the mouse, you bastard.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Before comeback preparations had even fully started, Cha Sung-hwan, who had been persistently butting in, widened the scope of his interference as soon as real work began.
"Could you step outside for a minute?"
Even Pyo Jae-ho, who usually only came by for his own work or not at all, was present this time.
Keeping his gaze fixed on the laptop screen the whole time, Pyo Jae-ho shifted only his eyes to look at Cha Sung-hwan.
Cha Sung-hwan lifted a shoulder and smiled.
"I noticed something I wanted to revise. It’s faster to show you directly than explain it in words."
Pyo Jae-ho, whose thoughts were impossible to read, stared at Cha Sung-hwan without saying a word, then, astonishingly, quietly leaned back.
Instead of answering, Pyo Jae-ho silently kept looking at the laptop screen.
Cha Sung-hwan turned the laptop toward himself and started clicking through the files scattered across the desktop.
And they were letting him touch the laptop like that when he was already the kind of person who got prickly even about people entering his own studio?
"Just like you said, there’s a lot here. Why don’t you have a password? Set one for the folders too. With a treasure chest like this, your security is way too weak."
Cha Sung-hwan began nagging Pyo Jae-ho from every angle. Most of it was about paying attention to security, split roughly half and half between criticizing the lack of a laptop password and lecturing from his own experience.
"You know my studio in Gangnam? I went to a nearby cafe to buy coffee, and a thief got in and almost cleaned the place out. Luckily I got back sooner than expected and caught him on the spot. Haha... The funny thing is, in that short time he went for the computer first. Don’t people usually grab the tower first?"
Pyo Jae-ho sat there with his arms folded, listening quietly. No, from his expression alone it wasn’t even clear whether he was listening at all.
Go Young-in had expected him to start lecturing them about music, but suddenly it was a story about a petty thief. If Cha Sung-hwan hadn’t said it, he wouldn’t even have realized Pyo Jae-ho’s laptop didn’t have a password.
It was odd. Normally the guy would probably use a password, OTP, and then stack the password with English, Korean, numbers, and special characters until it hit twenty characters long.
Cha Sung-hwan seemed to have run out of things to say since Pyo Jae-ho gave him no reaction. Clicking his tongue, he turned the laptop back toward him.
Instead of answering, Pyo Jae-ho reopened the MIDI program. Seeing him get back to work, Cha Sung-hwan sat down on the resting sofa and started messing with his phone.
And then, without caring about either of them while he was deep in work, a blue window rose before Go Young-in.
[Clause 10 | A gentle idol leader must help members not stray from the path.]
'Stray?'
Go Young-in snapped his head to the side. Pyo Jae-ho was still working. Glancing behind him, he saw that Cha Sung-hwan was lying half-sprawled on the sofa, phone in hand, apparently bored to death.
Nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, had it?
For now... since the status window wanted it, he supposed he had no choice but to say something. He opened his mouth.
"Jae-ho, how’s the work going? Anything coming to mind?"
"No."
'What the hell. Then what exactly are you producing right now?'
It was a wonderfully sharp answer for the first one he’d heard in hours.
"Hmm, then should we do a listening check with each other? We’re all going to pool everything together later anyway, but it’d probably be good to hear roughly how each part is being shaped and make sure they fit."
"... "
"Can I listen?"
Pyo Jae-ho said nothing, connected the speaker to the laptop, and played the music.
After the silence, Pyo Jae-ho spoke again first.
"This seemed like the best fit."
...Good. Even from this brief bit alone, Go Young-in could tell Pyo Jae-ho’s grasp of music was excellent.
The strange dissonance of pipe organ and violin blended together, creating an oddly refined atmosphere.
It was strange. He wrote pop songs better than anyone, yet he could also handle obscure minor-genre tracks that most people wouldn’t even know...
And somehow, the song felt familiar. Why? Just as he was beginning to wonder why it gave him such a strange sense of welcome, something came to mind.
Hmm... now that he thought about it.
He’d heard this somewhere before, hadn’t he?
"Are you going for a genre similar to our debut song?"
The rhythm and harmony were similar. So were the instruments and the beat. But wait, wasn’t that a pretty niche genre...? And right now, the direction of Zero One’s first full album would decide where the group went from here...
"No."
So that wasn’t it. He must have jumped to conclusions.
Slightly embarrassed, Go Young-in decided to focus on the practice work instead.