The Composer Who Was Too Good to Pass Up
Baek Seowu, the superhuman who retired after twelve years on the job. Having spent nearly half his life in the Special Task Force, he had almost no connections in the entertainment industry. Or rather, it was more accurate to say he couldn’t reveal the ones he did have. The only thing people knew him as was Heracles, and Baek Seowu couldn’t exactly announce that he was the man behind that name. Revealing a former Special Task Force codename was flat-out illegal, after all.
So he moved on his own to find a debut track, starting with Music Crowd. It was a platform where unknown or rookie composers uploaded their work, and he hoped to dig up a proper songwriter there. And that was exactly where he caught a massive fish.
The reason it was even possible was thanks to Baek Seowu’s surprising ability to read the latest trends. Honestly, it didn’t make much sense. How could a guy who’d spent his entire career in the Special Task Force brawling have a knack for that? But the author insisted that after listening to K-pop nonstop for twelve years, he’d grown sensitive to trends. Yeah… sure, buddy. I had plenty to say about that, but I kept my mouth shut. After all, the protagonist of the original novel having overpowered abilities was basically a given. So I decided to just sit back and enjoy the sweet, sweet honey on the side.
The two composers Baek Seowu discovered while combing through the crowd were F.A. and Sunshine. Of the two, Sunshine later signed with him and continued producing high-quality music for the protagonists. She became a reliable helper who supported the main character’s success from the shadows.
I wasn’t particularly interested in her. Not because she was the protagonist’s ally, but because her style just didn’t match us. The woman had a few screws loose and specialized exclusively in bright, cheerful, and relentlessly positive tracks. Our concept was villain. There was no way we could sing something like that.
What I had my eye on was the other composer who had made it to the final two by perfectly hitting Baek Seowu’s tastes—F.A. This composer had a talent for creating somewhat melancholic yet deeply moving, sensual melodies that tugged at the heartstrings. Since Baek Seowu had refused to give up on them until the very end, it was safe to assume they also had a strong sense of trendiness.
Of course, this one wasn’t without problems either… but I’d worry about that once I decided they were worth taking on as our composer.
“Why the hell do I even know all this?”
Reading this novel had been a lifetime ago. Normally I shouldn’t remember such minor details. And yet here I was, recalling everything as vividly as if I’d read it yesterday. When I first regressed after completing the first round, I hadn’t remembered any of this. The fact that I could now meant something significant had changed inside me.
“It must be this.”
No matter how I thought about it, there was only one thing that had changed. My narrative had expanded through the achievement window, and my role’s importance had increased. I had no idea what kind of trick this was, but it seemed that the more achievements I stacked, the more of the original story I could recall.
It wasn’t exactly a loss. Even though I’d lived through the first round, there was still so much about this world I didn’t know. Especially when it came to the entertainment industry—I knew almost nothing. In the era I originally lived in, the entertainment world hadn’t exactly carried much meaning.
So if I could gather information and use it wisely, that was good enough. Of course, once I started working in the industry, a lot of the novel’s events would change anyway, so this knowledge would eventually become useless. Still, having it was better than not.
“Listen to this.”
After logging into Music Crowd, I downloaded the demo track from F.A. that had apparently caught Baek Seowu’s ear. Then I called over the only two members who seemed to know anything about music—Yu Hana and Seong Jiyeong—and played it for them.
To be honest, even if I listened I wouldn’t know what was good or bad, so I figured I’d ask the people who might actually have an opinion first. Just because Baek Seowu liked it didn’t mean our members would.
From what I could tell, trends mattered, but the members’ opinions seemed pretty important too.
“Huh? This is… really good.”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s got serious sense. What is this?”
“I don’t even know why it’s good, which somehow makes it even better.”
I didn’t quite understand what they meant, but it seemed both Seong Jiyeong and Yu Hana liked the composer’s track. In that case, it was probably worth reaching out.
“Music Crowd… so they’re still an unknown composer? Shouldn’t we tell the company about them?”
“I agree~ YeriYeri~ Let’s tell the CEO quickly~”
If the song was good, the normal procedure would be to contact the composer through the company. But I couldn’t nod so easily. Because… there was a bit of a problem with this person.
“There’s an issue.”
“What kind of issue?”
“This person… is a drug addict.”
“…Drugs?”
“For real? The composer was on drugs~?”
Yes. A drug addict.
In the original novel, Baek Seowu had actually met this composer in person. The melody was a little dark, but he judged that could be adjusted through discussion. In the end, however, he gave up on signing them. His instincts—honed from twelve years of dealing exclusively with criminals—had screamed that something was off.
Five months after Baek Seowu walked away, a massive drug scandal broke out in Incheon, and this composer was arrested. If the protagonist’s group had received songs from them and debuted, the scandal would have exploded right after their debut. No matter how much of a protagonist they were, they would’ve been utterly destroyed.
In fact, there had been an idol group that actually did receive this composer’s tracks for a comeback and got completely wrecked. They were a second-year rookie boy group, I think. It wasn’t supposed to go that far, but the scandal’s aftermath was so brutal that they were ruined beyond recovery.
Honestly, I didn’t get it. The composer was the one who took the drugs—why did the idol group have to get dragged through the mud with them? If you thought about it, the idols were victims too. As expected, this industry was full of things my common sense simply couldn’t comprehend.
But since that was reality, we had to be careful.
“I won’t ask how Yeri knew about this. It doesn’t really matter anyway. But isn’t this too risky? The potential fallout is huge.”
That was the sensible response. It was exactly why Baek Seowu had given up on the composer. Still, it felt strangely refreshing to hear Seong Jiyeong giving sensible advice. After all, she was one of the most unreasonable people I knew. Wasn’t she the one who suggested we just detonate the bomb the moment the problem was discovered? She wasn’t necessarily wrong, but she was definitely not normal.
That was Seong Jiyeong’s opinion. After listening to her, I turned to look at Yu Hana. She seemed to be thinking deeply about something. Then she smiled with her eyes, as if she’d just had an idea. As expected from our squinty-eyed villain—she clearly had something else in mind.
“Drugs, drugs, huh…”
“Why? Got another idea?”
“Now that I think about it~ maybe it doesn’t really matter~”
“What are you talking about? Of course it matters. It’s obviously going to be a problem.”
“So what if we just make sure it isn’t a problem?”
“What are you planning?”
“It’s nothing much~ I’m just saying we should remake the person~”
Yu Hana hummed a little tune as she checked the composer’s ID. She suggested we contact them first and set up a meeting. Yeah, that was Yu Hana for you. Definitely not normal.
Actually, I agreed with her on this one. Since Baek Seowu’s trend-analysis ability was reliable, it felt like too much of a waste to let this composer’s talent slip away. Getting good songs was much harder than it looked.
If I’d been planning to give up on them from the start, I wouldn’t have played the track for the members in the first place. I had been a little conflicted about the method, but if Yu Hana was going to take the lead so aggressively, it would save me a lot of work. So for now, I’d go along with her and decide after we met this composer with the weird ID, F.A.
Meeting the composer turned out to be easier than expected. We set up an appointment using the contact info left on Music Crowd and simply went to see them after practice ended. The fact that it was so easy to arrange suggested they weren’t tied down by any contracts and had plenty of free time.
The ‘F.A.’ we met for the first time was, in many ways, a shocking individual.
“You’re a woman?”
She was a woman in her early to mid-twenties. And quite beautiful, at that. The only flaw was her rather sharp, irritable eyes, but that was forgivable. If she looked decent even to my standards—which had been inflated by living with the other members—she was definitely a beauty.
“What? You disappointed?”
“No, of course not.”
But her attitude was excessively prickly. Was that also a side effect of the drugs? Her condition seemed… pretty bad.
“Idols? And girl idols at that? Ugh, gross. What the hell do idols even…”
Plus, she fundamentally looked down on idols. (Minus one point.)
“Cha Entertainment? Does that company even exist? These days every dog and cat is starting an agency.”
She had zero consideration for others. (Minus one point.)
“What does F.A. stand for? ‘Fxxking Asshole.’ Heh heh, not funny?”
And she was clearly a little unhinged. (Minus one point.)
After confirming all that, we left. There was nothing more we needed to know.
From this point on, it was Yu Hana’s turn.
“Yeah, yeah, Uncle. You checked, right? Please handle it quietly.”
Yu Hana’s Kakdugi uncles silently kidnapped F.A. just as she was about to head home and dragged her off somewhere.
“This won’t cause any problems, right?”
“Of course not~ Don’t worry~ Our uncles are professionals~”
All we could do was trust them to rehabilitate her on their own. Apparently they were experts at rehabilitating people in this particular way. Honestly, if the composer had been a decent person despite the drug addiction, we wouldn’t have gone this far. But after meeting her, it was clear she needed extreme measures. Getting minus three points the moment we met basically meant she was subhuman.
That was why I agreed with Yu Hana’s suggestion to call in the uncles, and things ended up like this.
In this regard, being a villain was definitely convenient. The work got done quickly and simply.
Well then, dear composer. Let’s meet again after you’ve been reborn as a proper human being.