The Groom's Surprise Performance
Jang Namhun arrived at the academy early in the morning, his tailored suit neatly packed in his bag. He dove straight into practice right away.
Since he'd agreed to take on the wedding song, he couldn't afford to ruin Kang Seokho's big day.
For the past month, he'd lived only for today.
It felt a little new, almost refreshing.
After eight years of focusing solely on raising his siblings and working odd jobs, he'd practically forgotten who Jang Namhun truly was.
“Relax your shoulders,” he muttered to himself, “and focus on the emotion.”
The title track of his first album as Namhun, “Forever Yours,” still felt completely foreign to him.
He hadn't expected Kang Seokho to request this very song as the wedding song.
Back in his teenage years, the song would have jolted him awake in the middle of the night.
Now it was just a distant memory, buried deep after the final stage performance.
Even his voice had changed after his vocal nodules healed and he underwent recovery.
It had grown noticeably lower, more mature.
“Hmph… still pretty good.”
As Elixer from the idol group Evil Spirits, the young Namhun had easily handled high female keys.
In his debut days, he'd even done cross-dressing for variety shows and fooled everyone by singing in women's voices.
It was practically a part of his dark history.
Later, as a ballad singer with the title “Ballad Prince,” his voice had carried an ethereal beauty that could melt hearts.
But in his late twenties, the tone had settled into something richer and deeper.
“I wonder if I'll make it through today.”
A performer's style always evolves with time.
His voice had changed completely.
From light and airy to mid-to-low range.
Replicating the exact same song he'd released at nineteen with this new voice was no easy task.
Kang Seokho had listened to his voice up close for a full year during wedding-song practice.
He should have known this fact well.
Why, then, had he insisted on singing the original song so faithfully?
“Hmm… fans have their reasons. What can I do?”
Kang Seokho's words as a fan rang true in Namhun's ears.
After accepting the wedding-song request, Kang Seokho had brought his Evil Spirits albums and Namhun's first album to get them autographed.
“...I'm starting to feel nervous.”
He didn't want to ruin the fan's precious memories.
At the moment, this song sat a bit high for his current range, but he had no choice but to deliver the original performance on stage.
Namhun spent the next three hours loosening his throat and then climbed back into his car.
* * *
“Is this the place…?”
He had read the invitation and been told it was an outdoor wedding, but a small wedding still felt different from this grand setup.
They had rented an entire luxury house.
‘The director probably gets paid well… but even studio employees don't earn enough to put on such a show.’
‘Did they have money? How else could the busy cameraman take five days off a week?’
It didn't matter whose business it was; he wasn't about to get involved.
What concerned him now was the sound quality inside the venue.
Performing outdoors was worlds apart from singing in a regular wedding hall.
The hardest place to sing was an open-air stage with no walls to bounce the sound back.
Luckily, the weather was perfect.
‘The basics should still be in place, at least.’
He couldn't let a facility issue ruin the wedding song.
As he approached the closed entrance, a young female staff member walked over.
“Hello. May I see your invitation, please?”
“Here it is.”
The staff member checked the name and marked it off in the guest list.
“Mr. Jang Namhun. Confirmed. Please go inside—another staff member will show you to your seat.”
Seat? Namhun blinked in surprise.
“Uh… is this a private wedding?”
The staff member gave him a strange look, then nodded.
“Yes. Only those invited may enter.”
‘So Kang Seokho is actually quite successful…’
If that was the case, he might run into someone he knew.
His neck suddenly felt stiff.
* * *
Inside, another staff member approached him.
“May I have your name, please?”
“Jang Namhun.”
“Ah, the invited singer.”
The term “invited singer” made him feel awkward.
He had retired from the music industry long ago.
It sounded so out of place.
“I’m not really an invited singer… but I am the one providing the wedding song.”
“Yes…”
The staff member's expression turned strange.
He had lived a short life in the entertainment industry, but having tasted both the sweet and bitter sides, Namhun immediately understood what that look meant.
“Who the heck is this guy?”
Seeing the staff's reaction up close made his nerves tighten suddenly.
‘If they're throwing a private wedding, why would they invite famous singers and then have me do the song?’
The forced confidence drained away, and a single thought crossed his mind: “What if I mess up?”
Either way, the staff led the tense Namhun to the very back row of the seating area.
“This is where you'll sit.”
“Oh, yes.”
It looked like a reserved seat.
Even though he was the first to arrive, they gave him the last spot.
‘It must mean the closer you sit, the closer the connection.’
He and Kang Seokho had no real friendship, so he wasn't bothered by the back seat.
Still curious, he asked,
“Is this a reserved seat?”
“No, not exactly. I'll explain the reason soon. For now, let's start rehearsal.”
“Rehearsal?”
“Yes. The singer's rehearsal has to finish before the groom's rehearsal can begin.”
Professional singers often arrived at the last minute, sang once, and left immediately.
‘It’s just a wedding song—do they really need this much preparation?’
After listening closely, it finally made sense.
This wedding song was the surprise stage of the entire event.
The problem was that even the person being asked—the one singing it—had no idea.
Surprisingly, the bride was someone he knew very well.
Even if he hadn't spoken to her in years.
‘If I had known, I would have said something earlier…’
But he could guess why Kang Seokho had kept the secret.
If he had heard the name during the request, he probably would have turned it down.
Because it would have felt too heavy.
‘Yeah… that guy got married already.’
As the name of an old connection from when he was still Elixer flashed through his mind like a slideshow,
the past came rushing back in flashes.
The joy of his very first debut.
Conflicts and clashes between the members.
The unexpected disbandment of the group.
His forced comeback because of a broken contract.
The damage to his voice that almost ruined everything.
His parents' accident.
The endless busy days spent feeding and raising three younger siblings.
‘Not now of all times.’
Namhun shook his head to clear the memories and picked up the microphone.
* * *
While Namhun rehearsed,
a group of staff members huddled together, staring at their tablets and whispering.
“Oh, I found it. It's not Jang Namhun—it's Namhun. Must have been a singer active around ten years ago.”
“It doesn't show up on Treemwiki?”
“Yeah, probably because he's an obscure old artist.”
“Still, he topped the Ga-yo Top 100 for three weeks?”
“Ga-yo Top 100? That program even existed?”
“Back then, Ga-yo Top 100 was the greatest. They said one show had more impact than today's Music Pie Chart and all music broadcasts combined.”
“Wow, that sounds amazing! And he debuted with Lee Seong-hyun.”
“He even beat him in a head-to-head for first place.”
Lee Seong-hyun was still a top male ballad singer, dominating drama OSTs and variety shows to this day.
A twenty-year-old staff member knew the name well.
“But why have I never heard the name Namhun before?”
“Ah… he only did three weeks of first-album activities and then retired?”
“His career was ridiculously short. That explains it.”
The team leader walked over to the chatting staff.
“What are you all doing? There's only an hour and a half until the ceremony starts. You don't know PD Kang's personality, do you? I told you to be extra careful.”
“Ah, team leader.”
The moment the leader appeared, everyone snapped to attention.
“Has the singer's rehearsal ended?”
“Not yet.”
“Still? I don't get it. Why are they making such a fuss? Two hours for a wedding-song rehearsal.”
“She said she's a retired singer, not active. That must be why.”
“Retired?”
The team leader asked the staff.
Today’s groom was the famous music-video director Kang Seokho, whom global idols competed to work with.
The bride, Seong Yujin, was a PD at World TV, a major cable network.
Naturally, their connections in the industry were enormous.
Just the invited singers alone could fill a truck.
Namhun had thought no one would care who performed the song, so he had left the invited-singer side to the staff and focused on the other preparations.
After all, the director of this wedding was the groom himself, Kang Seokho.
“With all these active singers here, why is a retired singer doing the song? Who exactly is the invited singer?”
“Namhun.”
“Namhun…?”
The older team leader, who was older than the rest of the staff, jolted at the name.
“Namhun is doing the song?”
“Yes.”
“Is he rehearsing right now?”
“Yes.”
The team leader rushed over to check the scene himself.
‘No way… Namhun? What was Kang PD thinking?’
He knew the singer well.
A typical tone-based artist, Namhun had always struggled with stage presence and eventually retired because of vocal nodules.
But the team leader, who had just witnessed Namhun's rehearsal, doubted his own ears.
“Is that… Namhun?”
The person singing now was completely different from the one he remembered.
The face, the voice…
‘No, that can't be. Namhun was a classic tone artist—his vocal ability wasn't that strong.’
Could it be a namesake?
If it really was Namhun, he might ruin the carefully planned wedding, so he needed to get to the bottom of it immediately.
But…
The team leader couldn't bring himself to leave.
“Hmph… that song is incredible.”
* * *
Kang Seokho arrived at the venue and immediately looked for Namhun.
“Mr. Namhun, how are you feeling?”
“Isn't that a question the bride should ask the groom?”
“Haha. The main character at a wedding is the bride. The groom is just supporting cast. But today, there's one more main character.”
Kang Seokho's intense gaze made Namhun smile awkwardly.
“I understand it's a surprise… but it feels like you've given me a really important role. You've been resting your voice, right? I’m afraid I might ruin the wedding.”
“Never! There's no way. I've been watching you for a whole year. You'll be fine.”
Why did he trust me so much?
Namhun couldn't figure out the reason for all that faith.
“Anyway, I'll do my best not to make any mistakes and sing the original as faithfully as possible. That said, I never imagined the bride would be Yujin…”
“Haha. So you remember Yujin, huh?”
“Yes. The fans who worked hard in the fan cafe—I remember every single name.”
It had been a shocking realization for young Namhun that fans existed.
Whenever he had time, he would chat with them.
“I still remember how I kept writing requests for more events in Busan.”
Back then, there was no official fan club under the agency yet.
Fans had formed their own clubs and cafés on their own.
Today’s bride, Seong Yujin, had been the Busan branch leader of Evil Spirits' fan club, the Evil Spirit Summoning Squad.
As a middle-schooler at the time, she couldn't make it to Seoul events often, but she had never missed a Busan one, so Namhun still remembered her face perfectly.
‘Has she changed so much that I won't recognize her now?’
Ten years was a long time, and Kangseong had changed a lot, so Yujin probably had too.
In truth, Kang Seokho liked singer Namhun, but he wasn't the type to buy every album.
He just sang along in karaoke and downloaded the tracks.
The albums he brought for the autograph were actually items Yujin had bought for herself as a keepsake.
“You should have told me in advance.”
“That would have been no fun. I heard you were stronger in real situations…”
“Did Yujin say that?”
“Yes. The reason we started dating was because we both liked you. More precisely, we both liked Elixer…”
Seeing Kang Seokho about to drag up old memories again, Namhun cut him off quickly.
“Please stop.”
“Hmph. I learned from Yujin that I was a member of Evil Spirits. Until then, I had no idea Elixer and ballad singer Namhun were the same person.”
“After changing from visual idol to ballad prince…”
They really had been close back then, but a surprising number of people hadn't realized the two were the same.
At the time, Namhun himself hadn't been in a good headspace after the sudden group disbandment, so he hadn't reached out to anyone first.
“...Yeah, it was a growth period. The image change was huge.”
“Haha. Anyway, it's going to be an amazing wedding.”
Seeing Kang Seokho's expectant eyes, Namhun shifted the mood.
“That said, I'm surprised Yujin still remembers me. It's a bit… strange.”
“Please make her cry a lot today.”
“That's the groom's job.”
Kang Seokho's face, which had been smiling, suddenly turned pale.
“Hmph… I guess I do have to sing too. Oh, this is making me nervous all of a sudden.”
“If you make mistakes, it's okay. Singing is just a way to convey feelings. Even if the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, came back to life, the bride would still be more moved by her husband’s song.”
Hearing Namhun's unexpected comfort, Kang Seokho thought to himself.
‘Not as much as Yujin… but I’m your fan too.’
As he had said earlier, the main character of this wedding wasn't only the bride.
In fact, the surprise stage prepared by the renowned music-video director Kang Seokho was for Jang Namhun.