Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: This Life is Space Star 18
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It felt like a factory was operating inside my head.
Monotonous notes entered the factory.
As the notes on the conveyor belt passed through various machines, they were processed and emerged transformed.
In that way, arrangements to support the main theme began to come to mind.
My eyebrows twitched.
This had never happened before.
My brain, stimulated by the familiar yet unique melody, was automatically coloring the colorless notes.
Notes dancing gracefully.
I was lost in the beautiful dance of the shimmering lights when—
“...Ajusshi, hey. Ajusshi.”
“Hm?”
When had I closed my eyes?
When I opened them, Ri-hyuk was poking me.
What?
Why was everyone staring at me?
What was going on?
Jang Sowon blinked before bursting into laughter.
“Were you sleeping or something?”
“Huh?”
As I tilted my head, about to add, ‘Me?’, Ri-hyuk beside me continued.
“You’ve been like that for almost five minutes.”
“Me?”
“If you don’t believe me, ask the others.”
“No, that’s not it.”
I muttered.
“It was like ten seconds.”
“Well, if you’re tired, you might doze off.”
It was a situation that might have annoyed someone else, but Jang Sowon laughed cheerfully.
Feeling somehow wronged, I spoke up.
“Sunbaenim, that’s not what happened.”
I waved my hand as I explained what had just occurred.
Well, edited as much as possible.
To make it sound normal: ‘The melody was so good that I was mentally sketching out an arrangement for a moment.’
It was true, but why did it sound like an excuse?
“Hmm. Really?”
Jang Sowon narrowed her eyes.
“An arrangement just pops into your head when you hear it?”
“No, it’s just that...”
She chuckled and teased.
“Our leader’s a music genius, huh? I can’t believe I didn’t notice a genius like you all this time. Did you guys know?”
“Yes, sunbaenim.”
“We call him a maestro among ourselves.”
The members were relentlessly teasing me.
Yeah.
You’ve got me good now, haven’t you.
“The melody I just played is why I called you here.”
Jang Sowon dropped the smile and got to the point.
“You know I’m releasing a new single album, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m including about three tracks. The title track and one other are already mixed and basically done. The problem is this one.”
Jang Sowon tapped on her laptop as she spoke.
“I barely managed to create the main theme, but I can’t make any more progress.”
She continued explaining.
“The melody itself... when did I make it? Mid-November last year? Around exam day when it snowed.”
I knew it well.
That’s what brought me here.
Jang Sowon smiled, reminiscing about that time.
“I was looking at the snow from my apartment balcony, and it was so pretty. It was daytime, but the sky was dim, and white flakes were piling up softly. I was humming absentmindedly while watching, and suddenly it hit me. You know that feeling? Like electricity zapping through you, a shiver.”
I nodded in agreement.
That was exactly the feeling I got when I heard the melody.
We connected on some level.
“So I didn’t look back and decided this would be a track for my next album. I wrote the main theme right away... but it’s not easy.”
“You’re stuck, huh.”
“Exactly. So why am I stuck?”
I answered her question.
“Because this melody suits a fresh, somewhat clumsy feel.”
“Oh, you felt it too?”
Jang Sowon’s eyes widened, something dawning on her.
She had taken my earlier words as a joke, but now realized they were sincere.
The others, meanwhile, looked confused.
Junghyun asked.
“What does that mean, sunbaenim?”
“Leader, explain.”
Feeling all eyes on me, I explained.
“The melody you sang suits a fresh, vibrant atmosphere more than something polished.”
“And that’s what’s hard?”
“Yeah. Professional producers and engineers touch it, so how easy is it to keep that unpolished feel? The moment they work on it, it becomes super sleek.”
In simple terms, it needed a slightly clumsy, youthful vibe, but pros make it hard to preserve that.
Because they’re too good.
As the dongsaengs nodded with ‘Ah’s at my explanation, Jang Sowon said.
“Leader’s right.”
She smiled.
“I first gave it to producer and engineer friends I know, but it didn’t come out how I wanted. That’s why I called you guys.”
What she meant was this.
Jang Sowon couldn’t let go of the melody she’d created because she loved it so much, so she started looking for a solution.
She asked around other singers, scoured Hongdae checking out every indie band performance, even dug through the internet, but couldn’t find anyone who fit the melody.
Until the year-end evaluation, when the CEO ordered me—‘You look like you’ve got nothing to do, so go as a judge.’
“When I heard your arrangement, it clicked perfectly. I liked each of your voice colors and your interpretation skills.”
“Um, sunbaenim.”
Ri-hyuk asked.
“How did you know this guy did the arrangement?”
“You can tell when you hear it.”
“Huh?”
“What pros professionally tweak and what kids do sounds different.”
She added.
“Not to downplay it, but there’s a difference between pro and amateur vibes. Amateurs have that edge—they can boldly try things that paid pros won’t.”
We roughly understood what she meant.
We’d heard similar things before, but in summary: stuck on the new song’s melody, she discovered us.
The mystery of why she gave us her business card that day was solved.
“Anyway, enough intro.”
Jang Sowon clapped her hands and asked.
“How was the melody?”
“It was good.”
“No, not that. What thoughts or feelings did it spark for each of you? Say anything, one each.”
We glanced at each other, and Bijoo spoke first.
“Two lines came to mind for me.”
“Lines?”
“Yeah, two lines that are parallel, never meeting? Like they’re about to meet but don’t.”
“I get that feeling.”
Jang Sowon nodded and started noting it on her phone.
As her long nails tapped the screen, Junghyun spoke.
“The beat seems hard to rap over.”
“Rap?”
“Because I’m a rapper.”
“You mean it’d be good with rap?”
“Uh... no?”
Junghyun thought for a moment, then changed his answer.
“Yes, I think it’d be good with rap.”
It could sound cocky, but his honest, country-boy tone made Jang Sowon laugh.
“Alright, let’s consider rap. How was the song?”
“You said you wrote it watching snow, but I got a different vibe. Like cherry blossoms falling on a spring day.”
“Cherry blossoms?”
“Yeah. You know how sometimes you’re at a bus stop and cherry blossom petals scatter.”
Junghyun had a surprisingly poetic side.
As I gave him a surprised look, our eyes met, and he shrugged smugly.
No.
Why are you so proud after saying it yourself.
“And next, our Ri-yeongie?”
“Ri-hyuk.”
“Right, Ri-hyeonie.”
We snickered as Ri-hyuk’s ears turned red.
Jang Sowon, blinking, asked.
“Oh, right, what’s your name again?”
“Um, Ri-hyuk, sunbaenim. Seo Ri-hyuk.”
“Sorry, sorry. I got mixed up. You’re the one who sang best at the year-end evaluation, right?”
He looked expressionless, but his lips twitched up quickly. Quick to brighten up.
Ri-hyuk pulled out his notebook.
He’d jotted down notes densely while listening earlier, and now read them off.
Several points, but the conclusion was simple.
“...Overall, I felt similar to Junghyun hyung. Suits late March or early April.”
“You all got similar vibes.”
Jang Sowon said, amazed.
She wrote it thinking of pretty winter snow, but already three members said, ‘This feels like a spring song.’ No wonder she was surprised.
Tapping her phone screen thoughtfully, Jang Sowon called the maknae.
“How about our handsome baby?”
“I’m not a baby...”
The middle-schooler entering high school this year muttered, and we all found it cute.
Ji-ho thought deeply, then said.
“If it were me.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d want to play it for someone I like.”
Someone I like?
Wondering if there was something I didn’t know, I stared, but Ji-ho quickly added.
“If one appears.”
“I see. A spring song... to play for someone you like when they appear.”
Muttering as she noted it, Jang Sowon finally looked at me.
I didn’t have anything special either.
The feelings we all got from the song were similar.
But I wanted to find the common thread.
We each said different things, but they all connected somehow.
Imagine a tree.
We’re each describing the branch we’re touching, but not naming the tree.
I wanted to name that tree.
My mouth itched.
A bit more thinking, and I’d grasp it.
If I knew the tree’s name, working on it would be so much easier.
Ah!
Suddenly, an image flashed in my head.
One word encompassing everyone’s impressions.
-Parallel lines, like they’re about to meet but don’t.
-Cherry blossoms falling at a bus stop.
-Suits late March or early April.
-I’d play it for someone I like if one appears.
My thoughts, climbing down the branches the kids mentioned, finally reached the tree’s name.
“I agree with the others too.”
“Really?”
Jang Sowon looked a bit disappointed.
“But I think I know what we’re all talking about.”
“Huh?”
“You’re all saying slightly different things, but putting it together leads to the same theme.”
“What is it?”
I told the curious her.
“You see it online a lot these days. So-and-so is ‘something’ with so-and-so. Riding the ‘something’ wave.”
“Go on.”
“Putting it together: springtime, bus stop, want to play for someone you like, but that person is close yet not quite...”
That was my conclusion.
“Maybe that ‘something’—like a crush—is the melody’s theme.”
“Ah, that’s it!”
Whoa. Sunbaenim’s eyes are gonna pop out.
Like someone who’d waited forever for an answer, Jang Sowon clapped excitedly.
The dongsaengs went ‘Ah...’ with amazed faces.
“I’ve been trying to figure out the melody’s theme this whole time, and now I get it.”
“You like it?”
“Like it? It’s perfect.”
Thrilled, Jang Sowon said.
“Let’s name it that. What? Riding the Something? Between Us? Between? Hmm...”
Sunbaenim, can we slow down?
It felt like flooring the accelerator at light speed after waiting eons at a red light.
As ideas poured out for a while, Ri-hyuk raised his hand.
“Yes, sunbaenim.”
“Yeah, Ri-hyeonie.”
“Ri-hyuk.”
“Ah, Ri-hyuk. Sorry.”
“Since ‘something’ is originally English, how about Something?”
Everyone tacitly agreed with Ri-hyuk.
Perfect.
And so, the title of the song we’d sing together became Something, meaning a crush.
With the title set, the work meeting gained momentum.
The original creator Jang Sowon was proactive, but so were we, throwing out ideas.
We were trainees, but singers at heart.
With Ri-hyuk and Junghyun—who could arrange besides me—we had varied input on lyrics and composition.
A shared understanding underlay it.
That thrilling vibe when music lovers connect emotionally.
We were deep in discussion when—
Grrrrowl—
Turning at the loud stomach rumble, Junghyun scratched his head sheepishly.
We all checked the time.
So absorbed in the song work, it was already 2 p.m., lunchtime ending.
“Look at me. You guys must be starving.”
“No, we’re fine.”
“I’m hungry. Any plans for food?”
I answered.
“Just in case, I got a card from Manager-nim. We can grab something simple from the convenience store.”
“A convenience store meal?”
Jang Sowon chuckled and stood.
Where to?
Her wine-red coat draped over her slender frame rose. She stood elegantly like a model and looked at us.
“What are you waiting for?”
We cheered at her words.
“Let’s go. Noona’s treating you to samgyeopsal.