Ripples of a New Song
"...And now for our next story."
On the television screen in the living room, a neatly dressed female anchor sat poised, speaking in a calm, measured tone.
Kenta let the slightly loud audio drift in through one ear and out the other as he picked up a piece of rolled omelet with his chopsticks.
"*Yaaawn*... Morning..."
His older sister shuffled out of her room, letting out a massive yawn. Her oversized, sloppy pajamas practically dragged along the floor.
"Did you sleep well?" a voice called out from the kitchen.
"Where's Dad?"
"Oh, honestly. You know your father's already left for work by now."
"I could've sworn he was here yesterday."
"Yesterday was Sunday, dear."
"Ah, right."
Listening to their ridiculous exchange, Kenta let out a smirk as he popped the omelet into his mouth. Instantly, a sharp question flew his way.
"What are you smirking at?"
"How could I not?" Kenta replied.
Ignoring his sister's glaring eyes, he went back to eating his rice.
"...And now for our next story. The Chiyoda Music Festival, which began on the... has successfully concluded this past Sunday. The Chiyoda Music Festival is a free, open-admission music festival held in Tokyo..."
After that brief exchange, silence settled over the dining table. His sister ate while staring at her phone with one hand, and Kenta silently shoveled food into his mouth without a thought. The dam of silence was finally broken by their mother's voice from the kitchen.
"I went there yesterday, and it was actually really fun. There were so many musicians I'd never seen before."
"Really? Oh! Wait, those girls... where have I seen them?"
His sister's sudden outburst was loud enough to make even someone completely indifferent to the TV wonder what was going on. Intrigued by her reaction, Kenta looked up at the screen.
The broadcast was showing a clip of four young women holding guitars.
"...Additionally, bands like 'Group Sound', who recently entered the Japanese music scene from Korea, also participated. Regarding the visitor count for this year's Chiyoda Music Festival, the organizers..."
After lingering on the band for a few seconds, the screen transitioned to the next segment. His sister stared at the TV, her brow furrowed, before shouting as if she had just solved a puzzle.
"Ah, right, right! Group Sound! Yes, now I remember!"
"Do you know them?" their mother asked.
"Mom, they are insanely famous in Korea."
"Is that so?"
"You know that one song you said you really liked? Ah, what was it... right! *Meteor*! You said you loved that song."
"Oh, was that them?"
"Well, not them singing it... but they composed it! Our girls sang it. Anyway, they're incredibly famous."
"So they're just K-pop?" Kenta said, making no effort to hide his disdain.
That damn K-pop. It wasn't that he disliked Korea, but he absolutely detested K-pop. It was always the same—taking songs written by someone else, just singing and dancing to them... How did that count as real music, and how did that make them real musicians?
"No, I told you, they're a band. Were you even listening?"
His sister shot him a look of pure exasperation. Kenta met her gaze head-on. Just as his sister's hand began to rise threateningly, their mother wiped her hands on a towel and walked out of the kitchen into the living room.
"Izumi, stop it. Kenta, don't talk to your sister like that. Besides, I listened to them yesterday, and they didn't sound like an idol group at all."
"Right? I've heard their music too, and they play stuff that sounds a lot like our own domestic bands, don't they?"
"Really? That's not what it sounded like to me. Hmm... it felt more like... authentic, classic rock? That kind of vibe."
"Huh? No way," his sister said, looking thoroughly confused.
As if explaining it to her, their mother continued.
"It reminded me of... back when I was in college? Even back then, those songs were already decades old. But anyway, it brought back memories of the music I used to listen to. The 70s? 80s? That kind of feel. Of course, it wasn't completely outdated—it felt very sophisticated and modern, but..."
"Really? That's weird. Their music is usually..."
Muttering to herself, his sister pulled out her phone and played one of their songs. The track flowing from the speaker was, as she said, very typical of modern J-Rock. But their mother shook her head.
"No, they might have one or two songs like that, but the main songs they played had a completely different feel."
Leaving the two of them to debate, Kenta pulled out his own phone, opened Twitter, and searched.
Group Sound. Chiyoda Music Festival.
A flood of search results instantly filled his screen.
As if possessed, Kenta tapped on the video link.
Despite the poor recording quality, a heavy, tense silence could be felt through the screen. And then, the sound of a guitar echoing from the distant stage captured Kenta, pulling him completely into the music within seconds.
"This is huge."
After the Chiyoda Music Festival, life had returned to its usual routine. Suyun was working in the office, following her standard schedule: composing in the morning, band practice in the afternoon, and private practice at night.
What broke her concentration was a quiet mutter from Manager Jeong.
"Suddenly? What's huge?"
"Um... take a look at this!"
Holding a cup of Maxim White Gold coffee—imported straight from Korea and brewed with a double shot—Suyun walked over to Manager Jeong. After a moment of hesitation, Jeong turned her monitor to show the screen.
"Japan doesn't really have massive online communities like Korea, so things tend to be a bit fragmented. Because of that, we mostly use Twitter for our analysis..."
"And?"
"Look here. This is before we came to Japan. And this is after we crossed over."
Jeong pointed to the screen, explaining, "It's a Twitter trend analysis tool." The graph was indeed higher after their arrival, but both lines were still relatively low.
"And this spike here is from when you appeared on Super Guitarist. It definitely shot up."
"True. Though it dropped right back down."
"Well, yes, but we still maintained a decent baseline increase. And this part right here is right after the Expo."
While it hadn't spiked as high as the Super Guitarist incident, the graph had risen significantly. Furthermore, unlike before, it hadn't plummeted back down, maintaining a steady volume of online buzz.
"And this... is right now, after the Chiyoda Music Festival. See?"
As she spoke, Jeong dragged the scrollbar to the right to show the present. The vertical scale of the graph had suddenly expanded, showing a massive, vertical spike in buzz. It was data that clearly proved their popularity had grown exponentially.
"Wow, it really shot up."
Suyun murmured, scanning the screen. No matter how she looked at it, the data clearly showed a massive surge in mentions.
"Plus, Japan is a country where legacy media still holds incredible power! And this morning—you probably missed it..."
"I don't really watch TV."
"Well, I didn't catch it live either! But anyway, on terrestrial TV... NHK briefly mentioned our name!"
"On NHK?"
"It was only for a few seconds, but still!"
With an excited grin, Jeong played a video clip.
"...Additionally, bands like 'Group Sound', who recently entered the Japanese music scene from Korea, also participated..."
It was short, but their name was clearly and unmistakably spoken.
"I think they filmed the encore stage! We weren't originally scheduled for an encore, right?"
"Yeah. The organizer guy asked if we wanted to play, so we just said sure. Guess we got lucky."
Suyun twirled a lock of her hair. Though it wasn't something they had planned, the result was incredibly favorable. As she wondered if they should bring some drinks to the organizer to express their gratitude, Manager Jeong continued, interrupting her thoughts.
"But what's even more important than the raw volume of buzz..."
Jeong clicked her mouse to bring up a series of tweets.
"We're getting a lot of feedback on the new song. And almost all of it is positive. A few say it's boring, or they prefer the old songs, or it smells like old people... but those are a tiny minority."
"So looking at this..."
"Yes. The direction we're heading in right now is highly likely to yield positive results."
Manager Jeong took a sip of her lukewarm Americano. While her analysis was fueled by a healthy dose of hope, she believed the probability of success was very high. Data didn't lie, even if it could be misinterpreted.
"And we aren't even running any active promotions right now. It's just your public appearances. It might be wishful thinking, but if we're getting this much buzz naturally, once we actually start promoting..."
"We can expect real results?"
"Exactly! Of course, we're still analyzing which direction to push. Since this is Japan and not Korea, we need to research more to see which channels will be most effective."
Suyun twirled her hair again. The rising buzz, the praise for the new song... It was the moment when the tide starts coming in, just like they had experienced in Korea.
"Manager Jeong."
"Yes?"
"What if we release one of the new songs we played at the festival right now? As a single, as fast as possible."
Jeong nodded instantly. "If we can pull that off, that would be amazing!"
Suyun began to run through their repertoire in her head. The songs were already written, and the girls knew how to play them. They just needed to pick the one that would ride the wave best.
As Suyun pondered, her eyes caught that last tweet from a Japanese user.
It was break time. After posting her tweet, Eri stared at the replies for a moment before leaning her elbow on the window sill and looking outside. The curtains fluttered in the breeze. Kids ran around the schoolyard. It was a peaceful, boring day, just like any other.
"Hurry, hurry! Hey, move out of the way."
The noise inside the classroom was as loud as ever. When she turned her head, she saw a group of classmates making a fuss, trying to film some stupid video for TikTok.
"No~! Macchan, you messed up again!"
"Sorry, sorry~ I'll get it right next time."
What was even stupider than their attempts to film a video was the music they were playing. She wondered where they had dug up this latest viral challenge. They didn't even listen to the whole song—they just took a tiny snippet of it and squealed, "This is so good!"
Where had actual "music appreciation" gone?
What made her boring school life even more tedious was how painfully average her classmates were. If something was trending, they all rushed to follow it. If something else trended, they immediately jumped ship. She knew teenagers were generally like this, but she felt it had gotten much worse lately. Of course, like a typical teenager, she believed she was the sole exception to this rule.
I wish there was some actual good music to listen to.
Sighing, she swept her long hair back and tied it up. The strands that had slipped through her fingers were now secured tightly. She slipped her headphones over her ears and opened Spotify on her phone.
But instead of her usual recommendations, a massive promotional banner popped up on her screen.
She frowned. What was this?
Gurupu... Saundo? (Group Sound).
It was a name she had never heard before. Curious, she opened TikTok to see if there was some viral challenge associated with them. She searched through everything, from the bizarre trends to the dances her classmates had been doing just moments ago. But the name "Group Sound" was nowhere to be found. It was the same on Instagram and YouTube Shorts. There were no challenges.
The only search results that came up were related to an event called the "Chiyoda Music Festival."
It felt like a quiet confidence, as if the band was saying *we don't need those cheap tricks.*
Intrigued, she put on her headphones and clicked play.
A soft, clear sound, like a single droplet of water falling, echoed in her ears—and in an instant, she was pulled deep into the music.