Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The True Talents
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Just because he was young didn't mean he was endlessly indulgent. Yeonwoo was absolutely not that kind of child.
He was as stubborn as could be, and on the flip side, utterly resolute.
“What exactly is so bad about it?”
Yeonwoo, about to answer Shunji's question in Japanese, froze up right from the start and looked to his grandmother.
Heo Ok knew exactly what his glance meant and nodded.
With his request for her to interpret, Yeonwoo opened his mouth again.
“There are tons of people on YouTube singing at that level with that kind of feel. Um... in terms of views, probably not even 400.”
“Huh, 400 views?”
Four hundred views might sound like a lot, but in reality, even elementary school talent show videos on YouTube easily hit that number.
Seeing Shunji's bewilderment, Yeonwoo tilted his head and said,
“But it's JOP, so maybe 4,000?”
“......”
Shunji didn't bother replying. Instead, he picked up the phone to the basement and instructed the next person to come up quickly.
On the screen appeared a girl who looked like she'd just entered high school.
As the backing track started, she began to sing.
At that moment, Kim Beomsin's fairy popped up in front of Yeonwoo, blocking his view, crossing his arms in an X and shaking his head wildly.
'Yeah, I know.'
Yeonwoo understood what Kim Beomsin's fairy was trying to say.
He looked at Shunji and said,
“That big sis doesn't even have the basics down.”
“Ahem.”
Shunji felt the same way, so he grimaced and made another call.
The next one came up.
“Better than the first two, but still a long way from being a singer.”
“Not good.”
“Has she only been a trainee for like a week?”
“She couldn't even run a YouTube channel.”
Yeonwoo was merciless.
Shockingly so, even for Shunji.
“Yeonwoo, aren't you setting the bar a bit too high?”
At that, Yeonwoo paused to think, fiddled with his smartphone, and then showed it to Shunji.
“This is the idol who's about to debut with a new song from me and head to Japan, Grandpa.”
What Yeonwoo showed him was Hadass.
Watching the Hadass members belting out Fly High, Shunji let out a groan.
“I don't follow idols at all, so I had no idea. Is the level of Korean idols really this high?”
“Not all of them are. Right, Grandma?”
Heo Ok nodded and said to Shunji,
“But these girls are different. They're the ones Yeonwoo approved.”
“Indeed.”
Truth be told, Shunji wasn't all that impressed with the trainees either.
Raising those kids wasn't his responsibility anyway—it fell to the young upstarts.
In fact, JOP was in the midst of handing over power.
Shunji, reaching his limits, was thinking of retirement and grooming successors.
However, the hot-blooded youngsters had a habit of not listening to him.
Partly because he'd given them free rein, but also because their pride in being chosen by Shunji had twisted into thinking they were right and he was outdated.
Deep down, Shunji wanted to fix that. Using the child prodigy Yeonwoo, no less.
But he hadn't expected it to be like this.
Sure, he thought the trainees fell short too, but he was more lenient about it than Yeonwoo.
'I thought I wasn't, but turns out I'm a hedgehog parent after all.'
That was why he was considering retirement.
Shunji smacked his lips and called again, asking them to bring out the kid they treasured most.
And soon enough, a boy appeared.
The boy sang along to the backing track with a smug expression.
“Huh?”
Yeonwoo was a little surprised for a moment.
The song he was singing was Cold Night—the one Yeonwoo had given to Kim Beomsin.
But the surprise quickly turned into massive disappointment.
“......You don't just sing Mr. Kim Beomsin's songs lightly.”
That voice and skill were top-tier in Korea. Japan wasn't much different.
“Yeah, I agree.”
Shunji shook his head, called over Kazuhiro for a quiet word, then smiled at Yeonwoo.
“Alright, shall we go meet the real deal?”
“The real deal?”
“The kids so far were the ones the company wanted to show off, not me. I have my own picks.”
Heo Ok nodded vigorously at that.
“I thought your instincts had gone completely dead, but apparently not?”
“What do you take me for? I'm not like I used to be, but I'm not totally done yet.”
As Shunji said that, something occurred to him.
“We're heading out in a few days, so enjoy Tokyo sightseeing for now. It's been a while—why not visit the school where I used to teach?”
“Heading out?”
“The ones I want to show you are two kids. One's in Hokkaido, the other's in Okinawa.”
The northernmost and southernmost tips of the archipelago.
“What, are you doing a full tour of Japan or something?”
At Heo Ok's mocking jab, Shunji replied,
“I already scouted them myself on my rounds. It just happened to be one from the north and one from the south.”
* * *
“They all turned us down?”
“To be precise, we interviewed about five, Yuin refused, and even Kabuto-kun, who we sent last, got rejected.”
“Didn't you tell them we're making idols?”
“The president would never say something like that.”
“Should we have met them ourselves......”
A woman who looked to be in her mid-to-late thirties conversed with her subordinate, then frowned, pressing her temple as she sank into thought.
Her name was Nanase Tatemura.
Just from her uncommon surname, Tatemura, you could tell she was connected to Shunji.
She was Shunji Tatemura's niece, leader of the so-called young guns inside JOP right now.
And seen as the next JOP president.
That made sense—she was the only child of Shunji's late-in-life little brother, the one person the childless, unmarried Shunji had given everything for, liver and gall included.
That was part of why he'd gone soft on grooming successors.
Anyway, the woman called JOP's Chimera had ideas about JOP music that were completely opposite to what her uncle Shunji pursued.
Just look at how she'd recruited a bunch of young kids as trainees—she dreamed of an idol division within JOP.
That was why she hadn't opposed when Shunji, who had basically stepped back from the front lines except for occasionally snatching musicians he liked, suddenly announced JOP Korea.
She planned to produce K-pop idols in-house and absorb the know-how.
And in that context, Yuin—whom Shunji had brought in through a subsidiary label via JOP Korea—was a golden goose.
Not content with cranking out hits across genres for idols, this genius had even gotten the world's Himari to set aside her pride and take a song from him.
Impossible not to covet.
And get this—turns out she's only 7, in first grade of elementary school (Korean standards).
She's already getting attention, but coax her right, reveal her identity, and the Japanese islands would go wild for Yuin.
Better yet, if she blows up in Japan first, Korea would catch on to who she is and rave about their own genius kid too.
For Nanase, who was even more money-hungry than Shunji, it smelled like pure profit just thinking about it.
“What should we do? Set up a separate meeting?”
She was about to say yes to her subordinate but hesitated.
'Who gave her that forehead scar? Does our Nanachan know Jade? Yeah, Great-Uncle told me. It was her. A woman with a vicious heart to match her vicious music.'
Yuin's grandmother was the Jade that Shunji had mentioned.
Nanase knew all about Jade from her great-uncle's stories.
The one pianist he'd acknowledged, the great teacher revered by the world's Himari, a force recognized by America and Japan in her prime.
These days, she'd stepped down from the stage to teach, then fully retired long ago, her presence fading. But she still wielded influence over veterans like Shunji who pulled strings in Japan's music scene from behind.
'Approaching carelessly could provoke Jade—that woman.'
Sorting her thoughts, Nanase said,
“I'll talk to Uncle—no, the president—about it.”
She set it for a few days later. For now, her great-uncle would be with Yuin and her grandmother constantly.
And a few days later.
She ended up chasing chickens like a dog after all.
Because Shunji had left for Okinawa.
* * *
Japan's regions each have their own flair, but Okinawa stands out.
Oppressed by Japan for ages, fully annexed via the Ryukyu Disposition, then under U.S. military rule after Japan's defeat, and finally fully absorbed without independence.
Young folks today might have lost much of their Ryukyu identity, but go up a generation and you'll find those rejecting Japan's Kimigayo anthem, seeing themselves as Ryukyuans—even independence movements still linger.
Blended Ryukyu pride, long Japanese rule, and U.S. influence gave Okinawa a vibe distinct from mainland Japan.
But the biggest thing that screams different from the rest of Japan...
“Tokyo was hot, but Okinawa is way hotter!!”
The heat.
Korea got warm in May too, but nothing compared to this.
Okinawa's May could rival Korea's summer depending on the day.
“Okinawa's so warm you can wear shorts even in winter.”
Yeonwoo's eyes went wide at his grandmother's words.
“Why's that?”
“Because it's further south than our country.”
“Oh......”
Not fully grasping it, Yeonwoo just went with it.
Dazed by the coconut palms, sweltering weather, and exotic scenery unlike Korea or mainland Japan, he blurted out without thinking,
“What's good to eat here......”
Jihoon burst out laughing.
“My boy, you're serious about food, huh?”
“Yeah! Eating's the best!!”
Shunji, listening via the separate interpreter they'd brought, said,
“Then since you're hungry, let's grab something to eat before we head out?”
“That okay?”
“Of course.”
Shunji nodded and got into the car up front.
Yeonwoo, riding with him, asked,
“But the trainee here? Boy or girl?”
“A girl. Hmm, just started high school now.”
“Oh. She any good at singing?”
At that, Shunji said with a face full of pride,
“I can say without a doubt—she's the best talent of my life. I guarantee it. Yeonwoo, you'll be amazed when you see her.”
Yeonwoo nodded half-heartedly.
His expectations for JOP trainees had plummeted thanks to the others.
Reading Yeonwoo's true feelings, Shunji felt a pang but held it in.
It would change once he saw her.