Chapter 118
I’m translating the chapter as a full HTML-formatted excerpt, keeping narration in flowing paragraphs and converting the news/comment-style inserts into styled blocks where needed.CHAPTER_TITLE: Photo Zone
The K-Singer-Songwriter live broadcast was twenty minutes away.
Our performance slot was near the end, but if you counted the greeting on stage, this would be the last chance to see Ga-eul before the show began.
Leaving the crowd’s roaring cheers behind, I headed for the waiting room.
The hallway, empty not long ago, was now crowded with dozens of staff members hustling through live-broadcast preparations.
I pushed through the swarm and stepped into the waiting room, where I found Park Ga-eul with her makeup finished.
The weather was still too cold for a dress, but her makeup and styling gave off a vivid springtime feeling.
A faint smile touched my lips.
"Ga-eul."
At my call, Park Ga-eul slowly turned around.
Her face looked both tense and composed, and fortunately, she didn’t seem to be in bad condition.
Then she spotted me and sprang to her feet, coming quickly over.
"Team Leader, when did you get here?"
"Just now. How do you feel?"
Dimpless deepened in Park Ga-eul’s cheeks.
What was that makeup style called again? The blush on both cheeks made her pure white face look as if two roses had bloomed there.
"I’m not bad. No, I think I’m the best I’ve ever felt."
At her answer, I nodded.
"Looking at your mood, I guess we should already be preparing the victory party for after you win the competition?"
Lee Ye-ji, who had appeared out of nowhere, immediately tried to shut that down.
"H-hey! No jinxing it, Team Leader!"
"How is that jinxing it?"
"It’s a jinx, a jinx! You can’t say things like that these days!"
Honestly.
To call something like that a jinx...
But looking at Lee Ye-ji’s tightly strung expression, she seemed genuinely worried.
Was this competition really that nerve-racking?
After thinking it over, I gave a small nod.
I could be this confident because I knew the full story; if you didn’t know the details, the contest was shaping up to be fiercely competitive.
Voyeurism. Sexual assault.
Even after those ridiculous scandals blew up, K-One’s fandom still believed in him with astonishing stubbornness.
Unless the victims stepped forward publicly, that loyalty wasn’t going to crack easily.
Because of that, the showdown between K-One and Park Ga-eul was drifting into a situation where either one winning would make sense, and either one losing would also make sense.
But I was certain.
The winner of this round would be the singer standing in front of me right now.
I gave Park Ga-eul’s shoulder a light pat and said, "Don’t get nervous."
"Yes."
"Don’t shake. Just do what you always do. You know what I mean, right?"
Right. All she had to do was sing as she always did.
Then there would be no variables in this competition.
Maybe she sensed what I was feeling.
Park Ga-eul, who had looked a little tense, visibly relaxed.
A faint smile was still at my lips when the waiting room door opened and Producer Jo appeared.
"Everyone, please move to the stage!"
Park Ga-eul rose from her seat.
Lee Ye-ji followed her out to look after her.
"Fighting!"
"You can do it!"
"Come back with a win!"
The managers called out encouragement to the performers leaving the waiting room.
I shouted a beat later.
"Park Ga-eul, fighting!"
At that, Park Ga-eul, already heading toward the stage, turned her head and moved her lips slightly.
Reading her mouth, it looked like she was murmuring, “Fighting.”
After that, I stood there watching until her figure disappeared down the corridor, and then the waiting room door flew open again.
Slowly turning my head, I saw a man in a dazzling stage outfit scanning the room with anxious eyes.
Gone was the angelic smile that had once been his trademark. In its place was a face trembling with unease and impatience.
I stared at him for a moment, then started walking.
"K-One."
He jumped and snapped his head around at my call.
He must have been under a great deal of stress, because the dark circles under his eyes had sunk nearly to his jaw.
It was so ridiculous that I almost laughed out loud.
"The performers have moved to the stage."
At my words, K-One’s expression changed.
Shock. Confusion.
Then his face twisted into anger and grievance as he glared at me.
He looked like he had a lot to say.
I wondered what kind of nonsense would come out of that sour mouth of his.
"You leaked it, didn’t you?"
Well.
Straight to the point, huh?
I answered lightly, "Leaked what?"
"You did leak it. That ridiculous rumor, just to push Park Ga-eul up in the competition. You were the one who exposed it!"
The cry sounded like a cornered wildcat’s yowl, and I stroked my chin.
Right. I exposed it.
No, had I only exposed it?
I had built this whole flow myself.
So what?
"And if I did?"
K-One, what exactly can you do about it?
"If I was the one who blew it up, what can you possibly do?"
At my answer, K-One’s mouth clamped shut into a hard line.
Apparently he hadn’t expected me to react like that, because the skin around his eyes twitched.
"Ha. Fuck."
Only then did he spit out the curse, raking a hand through his carefully styled hair and glaring at me with open hostility.
"You think you’ve already won, don’t you? Huh? Just watch, you son of a bitch."
A slick smile curled at the corners of K-One’s mouth.
"Let’s see how the public flips after the performance. You know Park Ga-eul stole my song, right? Plagiarism. Pure plagiarism. How do you think the public’s going to take that? A singer who stole someone else’s song on a singer-songwriter survival show."
K-One leaned his face toward mine.
"An idol’s mistakes are the manager’s mistakes, right? You’re done, asshole!"
K-One let out a snickering laugh.
The sound, a little deranged around the edges, made my expression turn strange.
Is this self-hypnosis now?
Watching this trash in front of me, I felt like I was learning exactly how shameless a person could become.
His ugly flailing dulled my appetite for needling him.
At this point...
He just looked genuinely pathetic.
Maybe that showed on my face.
K-One, who had been bristling with venom, suddenly stiffened.
I looked at him for a moment longer, then gave his shoulder a casual pat.
"I just saw the audience seats. Looks like a lot of your fans came to support you."
"..."
"You can be ugly in front of me, but not in front of them. Imagine how heartbroken they’d be?"
With that, I passed him by.
His rough curses tickled at my ears, but I didn’t bother looking back.
It was all over anyway.
Whatever that guy did, he couldn’t turn this around now.
So I walked back down the corridor and headed toward the stage.
Glittering lights. Thousands of fans.
And K-Singer-Songwriter singers standing beneath that spotlight.
Watching that scene, I folded my arms and settled in.
"K-Singer-Songwriter Round Two! The dazzling stage begins now!"
All right, then. It started now.
Fans, singers, rumor.
The best stage, built from all of it together.
***
At the same time.
While the other performers were greeting the audience, K-One sat alone in the waiting room preparing for the first stage, muttering in a shaky voice.
"...Yeah, fuck it. I’ve come this far. What the hell else am I supposed to do?"
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Live or die.
That was all that remained: a choice he couldn’t escape.
With a long breath, K-One rose from his seat.
"A musician just has to play music well. Yeah. Let’s just show the music."
In the entertainment industry, even celebrities saddled with scandals could still make a good living if their skills were recognized in the end.
There was no law saying that couldn’t apply to him too.
Like a singer should, all he had to do was sing well.
Then everything would be forgiven.
With that resolve, K-One stepped beneath the platform.
Assistant staff approached and fitted the microphone on him.
"As soon as the performers finish greeting the audience, you’ll go up."
The first stage. The first order.
It was the best possible slot for flipping public opinion.
K-One closed his eyes and began to meditate.
-Waaaaaaah!
The sound of the audience’s cheers carried from far away.
The unique tension that came before stepping onto a stage.
Those things slowly began to wipe away the anxiety and unease inside him.
With another long breath, K-One opened his eyes and strode onto the stage without hesitation.
The fans waiting for him screamed.
"K-Oneeeeee!"
As though answering their call, K-One flashed a bright smile and waved.
The cheers from the fans who had come to see him grew even louder.
At that feverish roar, K-One felt as if he might cry.
Yes.
This was him. This was K-One.
It felt as though the suffering of the last few days was being repaid by the cheers of the fans.
Give it back.
This roaring crowd, I’ll repay them with my music.
With that promise to himself, K-One’s song finally began.
-Love, love, love. I’ll confess this love.
With the strange feeling of having gone back to being a rookie, K-One sang with everything he had.
He watched his pitch. He watched his rhythm.
He even paid attention to his breathing, working hard to show the best performance possible.
Maybe because of that.
The fans who had been shouting only moments ago gradually fell silent and began listening intently.
Sensing the change in the atmosphere, K-One rode the flow and poured himself even more deeply into the song.
My only way to survive now is through singing, so I have to repay them with my song.
Inside that self-brainwashing, the moment K-One reached the final lyric...
-Waaaaaaah!
An enormous cheer skimmed across his skin.
K-One, who had been concentrating so hard on the song that he was breaking into a cold sweat, felt his body go limp and muttered,
It worked!
He had convinced them with his song!
The hot atmosphere in the hall lifted K-One’s self-esteem again.
An indescribable rush of dopamine and happiness spread across his face in a bright smile.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
Sexual assault. Hidden cameras.
The scandals that had tormented him for days were no longer on his mind.
In their place was a happiness and self-worth he couldn’t explain in words.
Yes.
This is me.
This stage, this roar.
These are what suit me.
At that moment, the fallen star rose again.
Just when K-One’s expression had settled into a natural angelic smile instead of a fake one, his eyes met those of a man in the audience.
Kwon Chan.
Park Ga-eul’s manager.
At the man’s icy gaze, the smile on K-One’s lips wavered, then faltered.
The happiness and dopamine he had been feeling only a moment ago vanished, and an unidentified unease crawled up his spine.
............
Stage, crowd, atmosphere.
Everything had lined up perfectly for the best performance he could give.
So why was that bastard smiling with such absolute confidence?
A bleak chill wrapped around his entire body.
His heart thudded hard, and the nameless dread pounding through him brought on a headache.
Then a strange voice rang out.
"No, Ga-eul. There are still four months left before K-Singer-Songwriter even starts filming, and you’re already preparing a song?"
K-One froze in place, unable to even step down from the stage.
"Hey, how good does a song have to be for you to make such a fuss? Let me hear it."
Like an idiot, he stood there with his mouth open and slowly turned his head.
A giant LED screen.
There, a familiar girl was holding a guitar and thinking something over with a serious expression.
K-One’s frozen legs started shaking like leaves in the wind.
At the same time, a familiar melody rang through the concert hall from the speakers.
Watching that scene from beneath the platform, Kwon Chan’s mouth curved upward.
"Oh, that sounds good."
The genius singer-songwriter K-One.
His final mask came off.
"You’re going to submit this as your competition song, right? Ga-eul, this looks like it’s definitely going to be a huge hit."
K-One collapsed heavily into his seat and muttered,
"Fuck."
Was this a dream?
***
The audience fell into silence.
Puzzlement, excitement, anger, curiosity.
Just as the flood of emotions from five thousand people shook the concert hall, a singer stepped onto the stage.
She was a girl who, since the beginning of this competition program, had never once drawn anyone’s attention.
Standing below the platform and watching her, I slowly closed my eyes.
The guitar in the girl’s hands began to play a tender melody.
-Autumn, when the leaves fall.
On top of that melody, a charming voice bounced lightly and laid itself over the tune.
I focused a little harder and began to listen.
-I walk the road, and I see you.
First love, or a love just beginning.
The lyrics carrying that theme sounded less like a song and more like a story.
Someone once said...
that singers who truly know how to sing sing as though they’re speaking.
For the first time, I understood what that meant.
What the girl on stage was singing felt less like a song than a tale being told.
Her calm, steady voice erased the heat that was unique to a competition show.
Instead, it created a strange sense of immersion and focus, seizing the audience’s attention.
I became just another listener and enjoyed the song.
-You’re there, so I’ll keep walking toward you.
Her gentle, measured voice stretched out beautifully when it reached the highlight.
At that moment, a low murmur rose from the audience.
I opened my eyes, which I’d had closed, and looked between the crowd and the stage.
The girl was looking at her fans, and the fans were looking back at her.
Watching that scene, visible only from beneath the platform, I let a faint smile touch my lips.
"She’s good."
As I always felt, Park Ga-eul was made for the stage.
How did she do even better on the live stage than in rehearsal?
But thinking about it another way, maybe it was because she had that kind of talent that I had felt, the moment I first saw her, that she was going to become a star.
"A star."
A brilliant, shining star.
People who become the object of someone’s admiration.
From the moment I first laid eyes on Park Ga-eul, I had expected her to become a star.
And now that prediction was coming true.
-I love you, my dear.
A girl who had overcome countless controversies and delivered a flawless stage.
From the audience, rough cheers and applause poured toward that little star.
The girl standing on stage couldn’t hide the moved expression on her face as the cheers and applause washed over her.
At that moment, I felt a sharp thrill run through me.
Yes.
This is why I can’t quit this job.
But not yet.
The spotlight that would turn toward Park Ga-eul was not ending here, at this moment.
Standing where the lights didn’t reach and watching her, I turned around and headed into the dark corridor.
I powered on the smartphone I’d turned off to concentrate on the performance and made a call at once.
"Yes, Reporter Seo."
The old star had fallen.
"Please drop the article all at once, with the victim testimony we prepared."
Then a new star had to be born.
I planned to drag K-One down and fill the vacancy with Park Ga-eul.
And while I was at it, I’d shake K-Singer-Songwriter’s fixed pecking order right down to its foundation.
After ending the call with Reporter Seo, I called the head of the PR team right away.
"Head of PR, Ga-eul has just finished her competition."
The corners of my mouth lifted.
"As planned, we’re taking the Genius Singer-Songwriter title."
Right now.
I was making a new star with my own hands.
***
The next day.
Every community and every social media platform turned upside down.
The comments ran wild.
The victim testimonies that had been hidden away and tightly sealed.
K-One’s plagiarism.
And, along with it, the ugly lies of a so-called genius singer-songwriter, one after another, came spilling out.
The explosives that had been stacked neatly in place went off all at once, setting off a chain reaction.
It looked like I no longer needed to do anything else.
The enraged public had started tearing K-One apart piece by piece.
How far would that fury go?
I had no way of guessing.
But well...
Wasn’t the ending obvious enough?
If you’ve committed a crime, you have to go to prison, don’t you?
The prosecution photo line, where no star can stand easily.
K-One had proudly shown up at that photo zone.