Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Misty Rain
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[RE-V ALRARURA FESTIVAL MANAGER VER.]
RE-V’s official YouTube account uploaded a video from their recent festival in the US.
Countless videos of RE-V’s performances had been uploaded so far, but since they were all filmed by fans enjoying the show, they were often shaky or short, leaving Korean fans wanting more.
↳This is what you call an idol.
↳Wow. RE-V is actually insane. This is the class of a survival show idol.
↳Wow. My national pride is soaring.
↳I came to festival for other artist but my friend ask me to do watch re-v. I'm so glad that i did and i was so smitten by their performance for me. Now I'm a brave.
↳The moment I saw it, I just thought, ah, this is it! No other words are needed.
A flood of comments began to pour in.
There were many in English, not just Korean.
The number of English comments had increased exponentially after their participation in this festival.
Occasionally, there were comments in Japanese as well.
The video of RE-V’s performance was spreading across the globe.
[JR is a really good company. They filmed and uploaded the performance video themselves. A behind-the-scenes will definitely be uploaded too. A manager version, no less. I’ve never seen a manager version before. This company tries a lot of new things. And even better, all of those things are what fans love. Are there a lot of employees who are fans themselves?]
↳They really keep giving us content to enjoy.
↳Is it because you can feel the manager's love? The boys look especially handsome. You can see how much the manager cherishes our boys.
↳The view count on this is insane right now, isn't it?
↳As expected, with a global audience, it’s no joke. Right. South Korea is too small to contain RE-V.
[The way Ho-jun rips off the strap is so thrilling. (Screenshot of Lee Ho-jun tearing off the sleeve strap) So cool. When the strap came loose, he just tore it off without hesitation. It can't have been that easy to tear.]
↳I don’t know how many times I’ve replayed this part.
↳So cool. The sensitivity of a professional.
↳That was insane, but what was even crazier was how Seo Yoon-seul noticed Ho-jun holding the strap and hesitating, then immediately snatched it and threw it away. That part was so cool too. He didn't even look at Lee Ho-jun, just casually swiped it as he passed by.
↳Seriously. This made me realize that these boys are truly one team. Because our boys came from a survival program… They’re close now, but they were rivals back then.
↳Right. The fact that they’re one team really hit me, and it felt so good.
[I want that strap. Desperately.]
↳I’m so jealous of whoever got it. I wish they’d sell it to me, but they probably won’t. Even if they did, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. Especially since America is the land of auctions. The price would surely skyrocket. I wouldn’t even dare to try.
↳Yoon-seul is amazing too. Instead of just tossing it to the corner of the stage, he threw it to the audience. So smart.
↳I hereby declare my envy and jealousy for a foreigner whose name and age I do not know.
[I was suddenly flustered when foreigners started visiting my main account lol. I ran it through a translator and they said they became fans after seeing this performance. I’m so proud. Yeah. Our boys are just that charming. You can never fault their skills.]
↳At this rate, they might come back with a mini-album instead of a full one. JR is the type to strike while the iron is hot, you know? lol. I bet they’ll be back soon.
↳That would be great for us, but I’d feel a bit bad for Creatin. They’re friends with our boys, so I can’t help but worry.
↳Creatin has been on the rise lately, so it would be a shame if they got pushed back. Let’s have Creatin make their comeback right after the survival show ends, and we can take the baton after their promotions are over. We can wait that long. It’s not like they’d come back with another single anyway, a mini-album is the logical next step.
[Everyone. Look at this. Our boys bought us snacks from America. To share. (Photo of a snack bag)]
↳?? Wow. They went to America and bought snacks? For the fans? That’s so touching.
↳What the. That’s so heartwarming.
↳An idol like this exists? I’m relieved because it feels like these guys will never get those dead-fish eyes.
[There’s also a note written by RE-V themselves. They even wrote a note for us. So sweet. (Photo of the note written by RE-V)]
↳I’m so moved.
↳Their love for their fans is insane. Seriously. I wasn’t even the one who got the snacks, but I’m overwhelmed with emotion.
↳They haven’t even been paid yet, so they can’t buy things they want for themselves, but they bought snacks for us. It’s so touching.
↳And Ji-ham was pouting, saying he was sorry that fans of other idols get better things while he couldn’t do that for us. It broke my heart. Why would you even think that?
↳Right? Why is he sorry? We’re grateful enough that he’s even thinking of us.
[I wasn't sure who wrote which part of RE-V's letter, so I compared each one with their self-introduction forms from RED CUBE and the messages from their album. (Photo collage of handwriting)]
BRAVE, thank you always―Haru
I hope you enjoy them―Ji-ham
BRAVE! It’s not much, but it’s our heart―Eun-woo
Thank you for always cheering for us. We’ll be sure to do something better for you next time―Ho-jun
I hope you enjoy them. I’ll buy you more next time I go abroad―Yoon-seul]
↳But who gets to keep the note?
↳We thought it might cause a fight, so we all just took a picture and gave it to the security guard. It seemed like the wisest thing to do. How upset would RE-V be if we fought over it? They might never write us a note again.
↳Wow. You guys are so considerate. Honestly, it’s the kind of thing that would normally cause a fight. A note written by my idol. What fan wouldn't want to have it?
↳Wow. How did you manage to find and compare all that? That’s amazing.
↳Is Haru really a foreigner? How is his handwriting so good? It’s better than most Koreans. He didn’t make any spelling mistakes either.
↳He mentioned before that he hates making spelling mistakes, so he purposely writes short sentences. He said everyone asks him if he's really a foreigner, and he thinks if he makes a spelling mistake, they’ll finally believe him.
↳That reason is so cute.
* * *
“Excuse me.”
After sleeping in, I went to Leon’s studio alone.
At Leon’s request to speak with me privately, my manager left after telling me to call him when I was done.
“Welcome.”
Leon greeted me.
“Sunbae-nim, this is for you.”
I handed him a small potted plant I had bought beforehand.
“What’s this?”
Leon asked, holding the pot in his arms.
“I felt bad for coming empty-handed last time, so I bought one.”
“I heard you haven’t been paid yet…”
“It’s not expensive, just a small gesture. Please accept it.”
As he said, I hadn’t been paid yet, but this was something I could afford.
For some reason, Leon couldn’t take his eyes off the plant.
“Thank you.”
Leon placed the pot on the windowsill.
“Have a seat over here.”
“Okay.”
As I sat down, Leon took a drink out of the fridge for me.
“You don’t drink coffee, right?”
“No, that’s right.”
I was surprised that he knew I didn’t drink coffee.
“I heard from Sang-cheol. So I got you something sweet. Feel free to drink it.”
“Thank you. But Sunbae-nim, you can speak comfortably with me.”
Leon’s eyebrows twitched as he seemed to contemplate it for a moment.
“Should I?”
His reply, after a long pause, was an affirmation.
“You should stop calling me Sunbae-nim and just call me hyung.”
“What? But how could I…”
Leon was a grand senior in the industry.
As I hesitated, Leon spoke again.
“Then I’ll go back to speaking formally, too.”
“I’ll do it. Hyung…”
An awkward feeling made my voice shrink as I said the word ‘hyung’.
“Much better.”
Leon said, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
I couldn’t believe I was here like this with a grand senior artist known for enjoying his time alone and being uncomfortable forming new relationships.
‘In the past, we only ever exchanged greetings. We never even had a single private conversation.’
I had run into Leon a few times at broadcasting stations.
I greeted him every time, but we never even shared simple pleasantries.
“Shall we talk about the song now?”
He stood up and returned with a sheet of music.
“You can read sheet music, right? I saw on RED CUBE that you seemed to have studied music theory.”
Music theory.
It was something I hadn’t known at this age before.
While I was part of GANGSTER-M’s second lineup, I had started learning music seriously, trying to do whatever I could to improve.
Thanks to that, I was putting the knowledge to good use now.
I hadn’t been able to read sheet music properly before, but now I could read it perfectly.
“Yes.”
“Then what about your vocal range? How high can you go? It looked like you could hit a C6.”
“Up to a C6.”
“That’s pretty high, huh? That’s not an easy range. What about your low notes?”
“I haven’t really tested my lower range, so I’m not sure.”
Leon started making some notes on the sheet music.
‘Misty Rain’.
That was the song’s title.
“I heard the drama is a time-slip story. A sad tale about a man who, after his lover dies, pretends not to know her to save her, but they inevitably get entangled.”
The moment I heard the plot, I knew exactly which drama it was.
‘Autumn, Let’s Run.’
It was a drama that had gained explosive popularity from the very first episode.
‘But did Leon sing that song back then?’
The drama’s popularity had been so immense that even its OST had become a huge hit.
But in my memory, a song by Leon wasn’t among them.
‘Is this another thing the future changed? He must have had a reason for accepting the offer this time when he rejected it before.’
I had no idea what was going on.
“I want you to take the highlight here.”
The part Leon pointed to was none other than the chorus.
“Me, the chorus?”
“Yeah.”
It was unbelievable.
“Of course, you should be the one to sing the chorus, hyung.”
“Why should I?”
Leon looked completely unfazed.
“Well, it’s your song, hyung. So it’s only right that you sing the chorus.”