Writing for Someone Else
"Do you guys get your songs from somewhere?"
"Yeah. Or, you know... write them yourselves."
Suyun, who was busy stuffing beef into her mouth, swept her hair back dramatically at those words. A cascade of black silk fell over her shoulders. Resting her hand against the back of her neck, she thought,
'Where do I even begin to explain this?'
In the band world, writing your own music was the default. Bands that didn't write their own songs were usually looked down upon. Asking a band, "Do you get your songs from somewhere?" was practically an insult... The explanation rose to the tip of her tongue, but she decided to keep it to herself. What was the point of explaining all that?
"We write all our own songs."
"Oh! Who writes them?"
"Me."
"...You do? Seriously?"
"Oh my god, no way. You actually compose them, Suyun?"
"You guys really have zero interest in what I do, don't you?"
"Don't be like that~ Come on, cheer up. Have some more beef."
"I'm the one paying for this anyway..."
While Suyun chewed on the piece of beef shoved in front of her face, Dain suppressed her surprise and spoke up again.
"Anyway, that's why I wanted to ask if we could get a song, or if you knew any good composers... I think all of your band's songs are amazing, Suyun."
"But how did you not know who wrote those amazing songs?"
"I mean, normal people don't usually look up composers, do they? Who actually searches for that?"
"They don't," one of the other girls chimed in.
"They don't?"
Suyun scratched her head. 'Doesn't everyone look them up?' She had done it her entire life, for decades... But then she realized she was a music industry professional. She was hardly a standard for "normal people."
"You've only been doing music for a little while, stop acting like you've been a veteran since the dawn of time."
"No, it's... never mind. Anyway, the point is, we were wondering if we could get a song from you."
"Yeah. If you can't, no big deal. It's not like my cousin asked me to do this anyway. I just wanted to ask on my own, as a gift to cheer her up."
"Ooh~ look at Park Dain~" "The absolute baddest girl in Jongno-gu, this is insane!" Amidst the playful teasing of her friends, Suyun rested her chin on her hand and spoke.
"I have written songs for idols before."
"You wrote idol songs too? Which ones?"
"Aurora's. 'August Night' and 'Meteor'."
"What?!"
The girls' eyes went wide, and they immediately began making a huge fuss. Chaerin even pulled out her phone and waved it right in front of Suyun's face.
"You wrote 'August Night'? Oh my god, that's insane! I literally have that on my playlist right now!" she squealed.
"But none of my band's songs are on your playlist?"
"Uh... well, I'll add them now... No, but you know, it's a bit... weird. It feels kind of embarrassing to listen to music your friend made... You know what I mean? It just feels a little awkward when you know the person who wrote it."
"I guess I get what you mean. But that's not the point. Since I've written idol songs before, it's not like I can't do it..."
Suyun trailed off, looking at Dain's face. Come to think of it, Dain had just said she wanted to give it to her cousin as a "gift." But looking at her...
"Dain, are you working lately?"
"No, I'm unemployed. Why would a college freshman work? I need to enjoy my life a bit."
"Right..."
When Suyun wrote songs for Aurora, she had received about forty million won for two tracks, which included producing and post-production. And even that was considered a discount. But the girl sitting in front of her would struggle to scrape together forty thousand won, let alone forty million.
"Well, I can do that much for you. It's not like you haven't helped me out before."
"Really? Wow, Suyun, you are the absolute queen of kindness! I'm seriously going to buy you dinner!"
"Are you going to buy me Byeokje Galbi too?"
"Uh, that's... a bit out of my budget's league."
The other two girls giggled, chanting, "All hail the great Ha Suyun!" while Kwon Jihye silently stuffed her face with meat. Dain squeezed Suyun in a tight hug before sheepishly pulling away. Suyun watched them before adding one last thing.
"But I still need to know their concept. What they look like, what their vibe is, and what direction the production is heading. Find out and let me know. As soon as possible."
"Got it! I'll ask my cousin and get back to you super fast!"
"Sure, you do that."
A few days later.
"Anyway, and that's how we wrapped it up! The Japan gigs were seriously so much fun. Right?"
"Y-yeah... You should definitely try going to a live show in Japan at least once..."
"You really have to go. I'm not trying to put down Korea or anything, but Japanese venues are just... the musical environment itself is on a completely different level."
"Come on~ It's not that extreme~"
"No, it really is. You performed there too, so you must have felt it."
Seoha passionately ranted about the poor state of the Korean music market, bordering on slightly risky territory. Perhaps her experience scraping by in the Hongdae indie scene made the contrast feel even more stark. Just as comments like "Whoa, careful there" and "Uh oh" started flooding the live chat, the staff stepped in to wrap things up and ended the stream.
"Great job, everyone!" the staff called out.
"We'll take about a thirty-minute break and then shoot some of our own content. Please be back by 2:30!"
At those words, the other three immediately slumped into their chairs. Suyun looked down at her phone, wondering if she should go for a quick walk. How long would it take to get to the park down the street?
"Maybe I'll go grab some coffee."
"Coffee... We have some right over there."
"No, I meant I wanted to go for a walk."
"You're going out in this freezing weather?"
As they chatted, Suyun felt her phone buzz in her hand. The screen lit up with the name Park Dain. Standing up, she said, "I'll be right back, need to take this." She grabbed her long padded coat, stepped out of the studio, and walked into the stairwell.
Unlike in Japan, the biting Korean cold instantly pierced through her, making her shiver slightly.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"Hey, Suyun! Can you talk right now?"
"I picked up, didn't I?"
"Hey, you could've picked up just to tell me you can't talk."
"Anyway, I can talk. What is it?"
"Well, about that song thing we talked about. I asked my cousin about it, and..."
Dain went on to explain what had happened. She hadn't let on that she was planning to gift her a song, but because she kept prying under the guise of simple curiosity, her cousin had gotten a bit annoyed.
"She was like, 'Unni, you shouldn't go around asking about things like this.' Like, obviously I know that!"
"Well, she probably thought you didn't know, which is why she said it."
"Hey, whose side are you on?"
"Is there a side I'm supposed to be on here?"
"Whatever!"
"But why are you suddenly asking about this?"
"Oh, just curious~ Since you're going to be an idol, Hye-eun, I just got curious. Especially since you're finally debuting."
A faint sigh came from the other end of the line. Dain could feel the weight behind it. Hye-eun had mentioned before that their debut preparations weren't going smoothly, so asking about these things in such a stressful situation must have been uncomfortable for her.
"...We don't really know for sure yet either. From what I remember, the producer said... something slightly cute, but not super pink and bubbly like old-school idols. It has a retro vibe, but also a bit of subculture... like '80s or '90s anime? City pop? He was throwing around words like that."
"So nothing is set in stone?"
"Since nothing's finalized, we don't know for sure. They did let us listen to some candidate tracks, but... Unni, you can absolutely never tell anyone about this, okay?"
With that, Hye-eun hummed a melody over the phone. It sounded decent, but even to Dain's untrained ears, it felt a bit lacking.
"Anyway, it's that kind of vibe. Seriously, Unni, don't tell a soul. If this leaks, I'm telling the agency you did it."
"You don't trust your own sister?"
"So yeah, she let me hear a bit of it."
"You ask if she trusts you, and then you immediately turn around and betray her. The world is truly coming to an end."
"Hey, I'm doing this for her own good!"
At Dain's defense, Suyun replied that she got the gist of it and would call her back once the songs were finished, then hung up. She pondered the keywords. Cute, retro, anime-esque, subculture-oriented...
'Quite a complicated mix.'
But hearing the hummed melody gave her a rough idea. She could picture the concept... She knew what direction to take, but she still needed to actually sit down and write the tracks.
When she returned to the studio lost in thought, Iseor was staring at her with intense curiosity.
"Who were you on the phone with for so long?"
"Oh, just a friend."
"A friend... A boy... friend! Is it...?"
"What?!"
At Hyun-ah's wild suggestion, Iseor jumped up, thrilled to have found something to tease Suyun about. "I absolutely forbid this! Not until my eyes step on dirt!! ...Wait, is that how the saying goes?" she shouted.
"Stop talking nonsense."
"You said not long ago that you're going to stay single forever. But from what I hear, people who say that are always the first to date and get married."
"Why are you chiming in too?"
Suyun shot a glare at Seoha, who had joined in on the teasing, and twirled a strand of her hair. Should she tell the members, or perhaps the agency?
Would it be better to say something like, "I decided to write an idol song for free... though there's no contract yet"?
'No, there's no need.'
Suyun sat back down, deciding to keep quiet. Telling them would only invite unnecessary headaches. Besides, she had heard that Cream Entertainment was currently begging her for another song. If Harin found out she was writing a song for free, she might literally sprint all the way here from the Cream Entertainment building...
After hearing the rough concept from Dain, Suyun worked on the gift tracks in her spare time while producing Group Sound's next album. Whenever she hit a wall with the album, she would switch to the gift tracks to clear her head, and once her creative juices were flowing again, she would jump back to the album.
She pulled out some suitable tracks from her personal song vault and polished them, looking up references to match the vibe and even analyzing her own past works.
She consulted Harin, who was at the very forefront of the idol industry, and also gathered opinions from Lee Yuna, whom she had previously done a broadcast with. While she didn't pour her entire soul into it to the point of nosebleeds like she did for her own band's album, she still put a respectable amount of effort into the two tracks.
Suyun personally recorded the guitar (keeping the technique relatively simple) and the bass (she had never mentioned it to her bandmates, but she was actually a highly skilled bassist—good enough to work as a session musician). The drums, keyboards, sound effects, and beats were all programmed using virtual instruments.
"Did you listen to the tracks?"
"They are seriously so good. Wow... Why aren't you a full-time composer? Couldn't you make a fortune just selling these?"
"Being in a band makes more."
Dain was utterly blown away the moment she heard the two songs. It felt as though she was only now truly grasping the sheer scale of her friend's talent. At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder: 'With this kind of talent, why on earth was she drinking and riding electric kickboards...' Well, best not to go there.
"You can't tell anyone I wrote these."
"Why?"
"If people find out I wrote them, things will get incredibly annoying. I'll have people begging me for songs left and right."
"Mmh... Alright, alright, I got it~"
With that promise secured, Dain kept the tracks safe. A few days later, she met up with her cousin, who had been granted a brief break from her debut team training. Dain wore a highly excited expression.
"Hye-eun."
"Yeah?"
Hye-eun was lying down reading a comic book at her relative's house, which she hadn't visited in ages. Since her agency had confiscated her phone, there wasn't much else to do. She could have sneaked one, but she didn't want to risk it with her parents watching her like hawks.
The one nudging her was her cousin, Dain. She was three years older than Hye-eun and had always looked after her with warm affection.
"You mentioned something about your songs the other day. What was it again? That you guys were struggling to get a good title track?"
"Uh... did I? Did I really complain about that to you, Unni?"
"You definitely did. Look at you, you don't even remember."
Hye-eun scratched her head. Had she really vented to her cousin, who was a complete outsider to the industry? She must have been incredibly stressed out back then to let that slip.
"Well... I guess I did. But you don't need to worry about it, Unni. Our producer will handle it. He's been super busy lately."
"Hey, I remembered what you said, so I actually brought two songs for you. Want to take a listen?"
Hye-eun furrowed her brow slightly and looked at Dain. 'She brought songs? What does that mean? Ah... did she find some good music she wants to recommend? To help me clear my head?'
"Did you find a cool artist or something?"
"No, not like that. I mean songs for you guys! New tracks! Just listen."
"...What? Songs for us? Our... wait, our debut song? You brought songs for us to use as our debut track?"
"Yeah. Just give them a listen."
Dain held out her AirPods. Hye-eun stared at them, then looked up.
"Who did you get them from?"
Hye-eun looked completely skeptical. Dain felt a surge of indignation. 'This girl has no idea her Unni just got songs from an ultra-professional band leader and composer...' She was about to blurt it out, but quickly clamped her mouth shut. 'Ah, right. She told me not to say anything.'
"A friend of mine. Just a friend."
"Your friend? Who? Chaerin-unni? Suhyeon-unni?"
"I have friends, okay? Well, not a friend, more like an acquaintance. Anyway! Stop asking questions and just listen."
Hye-eun's eyes were filled with pure doubt. Dain kept pushing the AirPods forward until she practically shoved them into Hye-eun's ears. Wondering what had gotten into her cousin, Hye-eun sighed, sat up, and crossed her legs. If she was going to listen, she might as well focus.
"I'm pressing play, okay?"
Hye-eun nodded. She closed her eyes and focused entirely on the sound. A crisp, tight beat kicked in, layered with a captivating guitar riff. A few seconds later, a groovy, sensual bassline joined the mix. Before she knew it, she was humming along, tapping her fingers to the rhythm, completely lost in the unfamiliar music. Her skeptical attitude from moments ago had vanished without a trace.