Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Scat Dreams and Grammy Nominations
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After meeting SSHIN's new recruits and pushing forward with their projects, Yeonwoo turned his attention back to his own album.
More precisely, the song he had planned to hand over to Chae Hayeon, the one he intended to record the guide vocals for himself.
Yeonwoo looked at Kim Beomsin's fairy.
“I want to sing scat with real feeling.”
That’s what Yeonwoo asked of Kim Beomsin's fairy. But the fairy shook her head.
“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.”
Kim Beomsin might seem like a total slacker, and his fairy gave off that same free-spirited vibe, but when it came to singing, she was absolutely uncompromising.
Kim Beomsin's fairy always drilled the basics into Yeonwoo.
Breathing techniques, vocalization methods, and so on.
“Alright, got it. I’ll practice.”
And she wasn’t wrong, so there wasn’t much he could argue.
But nine-year-old Yeonwoo wanted to scat freely.
It was like hating homework but desperately wanting to learn something interesting through any shortcut possible.
Still, Yeonwoo, who was usually a diligent model student, couldn’t resist her insistence and practiced the basics for a good long while.
After that, Yeonwoo pulled out his tablet and watched videos of that one person countless times.
Fairies, being like alter egos of someone, sometimes appeared right away, but other times, you had to search forever before they showed up.
This was one of those times.
“She’s here.”
After days of persistent searching, the alter ego finally appeared.
That alter ego was none other than the Queen of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald's fairy.
The fairy had that distinctive, tough-as-nails look, radiating charisma like nobody’s business.
But the moment she spotted Yeonwoo, her gaze turned syrupy sweet.
And for good reason—Ella Fitzgerald had married three times. Her first and third marriages ended quickly due to her husbands’ criminal activities, and while the second ended amicably in divorce, she was so focused on her work that it naturally drifted into a business relationship.
As a result, she never had children of her own.
She did adopt a niece, but even that was more than she could properly manage.
Whatever the case, it seemed she loved kids.
Her fairy was no different, gazing at the adorable Yeonwoo with eyes brimming with affection.
Whining a little, Yeonwoo said to Ella Fitzgerald's fairy,
“Teach me scat!! I want to scat super cool!”
At Yeonwoo’s plea, Ella Fitzgerald's fairy made an “aww” face and flew over to stroke his head.
But that lasted only a moment.
Ella Fitzgerald's fairy pointed at Kim Beomsin's fairy.
“You’re saying I have to practice the basics to scat too?”
Ella Fitzgerald's fairy nodded.
Yeonwoo had hoped summoning her would unlock some shortcut...
Disappointment washed over him, and he slumped.
But he couldn’t stop there.
In the end, Yeonwoo started practicing singing properly from the ground up in the practice room, in secret with both fairies.
Hoping that someday—however long it took—he’d sing for real, the right way.
But that was that.
What about the guide vocals?
“Teacher, this is a singer named Ella Fitzgerald. She does scat artistically. Practice your scat technique watching her.”
“Mm-hmm.”
In the end, Chae Hayeon would practice and sing it herself.
Scat was a singer’s skill, after all.
Then it hit him—he’d been charging ahead too much.
Elkind Logan, Black Diamond, the three new recruits, Chae Hayeon...
Looking back, November was already almost over.
Which meant his birthday was approaching.
“Time to start preparing.”
Yeonwoo couldn’t just sit around.
He fired up a YouTube Live right away.
-Oh, it’s Yuin!
-Yuin-ah ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-You’ve been so busy lately? ㅠㅠㅠ
-Even if you’re busy, turn on lives more often ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Yuin, YouTube’s all I’ve got to see you ㅠ
-You’re too pretty, Yuin-ah ㅠㅠㅠ
Chats flooded in the second he went live, and viewers piled up fast.
At this point, Yeonwoo—no, SSHIN’s official channel—had 180 million subscribers.
That put it in the global top 10 even if you combined all YouTubers, and the recent Black Diamond signing had added their worldwide fandom, boosting it by about 20 million more.
Anyway, with that massive subscriber base, Yeonwoo’s lives always drew at least 10,000 live viewers.
Today, since it had been a while, 40,000 people were watching in seconds.
“[Hello, this is Yuin.]”
As a result, Yeonwoo often did his streams in English instead of Korean.
It was the world’s lingua franca, most of his viewers were English speakers, and YouTube’s real-time translation subtitles worked best in English.
“[As you all know, my birthday is coming up soon.]”
-Yeah
-Happy birthday Yuin
-Celebrating early!!
-Is there anything Yuin wants for a present?
-Gonna spend this birthday party with family?
-Olivia Snow’s there too, right?
“Yes, I think I’ll spend this birthday with family. Olivia Snow unnie went back to the States. Yes.”
-Great time with family ㅠ
-Yuin-ah, anything you want?
-Can unnie get our Yuin a present?
“Ah, that’s why I turned on the live. Everyone, please don’t send me birthday presents or anything.”
-Why not ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-But it’s our gesture
-Please accept our tribute
-Yeah, we wanna give you gifts too ㅠ
“It’s fine. Hearing my music is the best present for me.”
-How can she say such pretty words ㅠ
-Cute Yuin ㅎㅎ
“But if you really want to give me something, please donate. I’m donating too, and I don’t think there’s a better gift than that.”
-Are you an angel?
-Fr real angel ㄷ
-Donating on her own birthday at 9 ㄷㄷㄷ
-What was I doing on my 9th birthday? ㄷ
-I’ll definitely donate
Yeonwoo chatted and connected with fans for a good while before ending the live.
He’d gone on just to politely decline gifts since they made him uncomfortable, but his words sparked a huge wave.
Yuin’s Korean fandom alone had 400,000 official fan club members and was the most organized of any country. They’d long been preparing a foundation in Yuin’s name to celebrate his birthday.
Seeing the diverse nationalities in the live chat, they shifted plans from a Korea-only foundation to an international one.
Japan and the US jumped on board first.
Then Southeast Asian countries followed, creating a truly global foundation.
Overseas registration would take time, so they prepared donations for children worldwide under the Korea Yuin Scholarship Foundation.
And on Yeonwoo’s birthday...
[Yuin’s International Fan Club Establishes Scholarship Foundation and Donates to Help Underprivileged Children.]
[Yuin’s Global Fandom Donates Tens of Billions for Kids in Korea, Japan, US, Southeast Asia.]
[Yuin Foundation Donates 1 Billion to Fight African Hunger.]
[That Fan, That Artist! Yuin Donates 100 Million Each to Korea, Japan, US, and Other Countries.]
On his own birthday, Yuin donated about 1 billion won to help underprivileged kids, and the Yuin Foundation’s massive tens-of-billions donation left a deep impression.
On top of that, fans refused to compromise: they put up birthday celebration ads for Yeonwoo on major station screens in Korea, Japan, and the US.
Yeonwoo couldn’t refuse that and, to express his thanks, turned on a live video at the exact moment he blew out his birthday cake candles, celebrating with fans.
The whole world celebrated Yeonwoo.
* * *
Yeonwoo’s birthday felt like yesterday, but time flew—November passed, December came and went with Christmas, and the new year arrived.
Around then, on the Melboard chart, Yeonwoo’s Gyorando and Elkind Logan’s album finally dropped after a 15-week reign.
January flowing from December was what you’d call the off-season.
Old carols climbed the charts, paying singers like a pension, and New Year’s shifted focus away from music.
Most musicians worldwide were busy with New Year’s events.
And above all, next month was the Grammys.
Releasing an album now was like saying you didn’t care about this year’s Grammys.
They’re based on the previous year, so year-end carol dominance meant low visibility; January was right before, and it was too far from next year’s to stick in memory.
Plus, Grammy winners would resurge, so most artists skipped early-year promotions.
“Yeonwoo-ya, passport?”
“Got it.”
“Alright, have a safe trip!”
And so Yeonwoo headed to the US for the Grammy Awards.
Yeonwoo was nominated for the Big 4 major categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.
On top of that, his name was on Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album, reigniting the dormant domestic hip-hop scene.
-Best Rap Song and Album noms ㄷ
-Even with this, not K-hip-hop’s top dog?
-First hip-hop artist nominated for Grammys ㅎ
-Y’all saying Yuin ain’t K-hip-hop? = Shut up
-K-hip-hop rapper or poser, hate on Yeonwoo now and you’re just hip-hop illiterate ㅋㅋ
-K-hip-hop top now needs Melboard #1 and Best Rap Album/Song noms minimum
-K-hip-hop top talk is bullshit from idiots
-If Yuin ain’t K-hip-hop top, what is?
-K-hip-hop GOAT
-Oh fr
-Didn’t recognize K-hip-hop GOAT
-ㅋㅋㅋ Fr ㅋㅋㅋ Did what no one in K-hip-hop history could, so GOAT ㅋㅋㅋ
-Elkind Logan coming, wait for it, K-hip-hop GOAT en route
Achieving what no domestic hip-hop artist ever had turned the already struggling scene and its fans into even bigger laughingstocks.
At the same time, people started genuinely calling Yeonwoo K-hip-hop’s top dog or GOAT.
Among them.
“Daddy, daddy, do you like salmon or beef?”
“Daddy’ll go with beef steak.”
“Okay. And don’t forget to ask for ramen tonight. Airplane ramen is super tasty.”
“Haha, sure.”
“If I fall asleep, wake me up—we have to eat together, okay? Jaehoon hyung wakes me or you if we’re asleep. If you two are out, I’ll wake you.”
Yeonwoo boarded first class with his dad and O Jaehoon.
Some might be thrilled for the glamorous awards show.
“Ah, gotta eat that hamburger from last time when we get to the US.”
Yeonwoo was excited about the food waiting in America.