My Heart Fluttered
KBB’s Music Save is held in the public hall of the new building.
For audience members, entry begins at 5 p.m., but there are several rules to follow.
Photography and filming are obviously prohibited, and contact with the cast or idols is forbidden in order to observe safety guidelines.
Most important of all: no tardiness. If you aren’t already inside by the cutoff, you won’t be allowed in.
Under normal circumstances I would have been far more than late—I would have mixed up the time entirely and been locked out.
“It’s really convenient having an agency CEO as an acquaintance.”
“He’s the CEO of a brand-new label, though.”
“Those days probably won’t last much longer, will they?”
“Haha. All thanks to a couple of very special middle-schoolers.”
Sitting side by side in the last row of the audience seats, Kang Beom-jun let out a soft chuckle and continued.
“You were thinking that without my help you wouldn’t even be sitting here, weren’t you?”
“Isn’t that obvious? What influence could I possibly have?”
“But you’ve seen the future. You already predicted this situation would happen, so you asked me to come watch Music Save with you, right?”
…….
Shit. How did he figure it out?
I couldn’t stop my face from twisting in embarrassment at Kang Beom-jun’s question.
The truth was, I had more or less expected today’s events to unfold this way. That was exactly why I had suggested we attend the show together.
Because the same thing had happened in my previous life.
After her festival performance video turned her into an overnight SNS star, casting offers flooded in like a monsoon. Baek Yerin chose the agency whose vision matched her own and successfully debuted at sixteen.
Unlike this time, she did it from the very first moment beneath the blinding spotlight of public attention.
Then, only two days after debut, on the day she was scheduled to appear for the first time on KBB’s Music Save, she never stepped onto the stage.
Years later she appeared on a television program and explained it herself.
“I think it was because I felt an overwhelming amount of pressure. Even before debut, everyone gave me so much love and attention that I naturally developed an obsession that I had to do perfectly. In the end, it all exploded that day.”
“I heard you sat on a bench in the park near KBB until evening… and that people reported seeing you there?”
“Yes. Apparently it caused total chaos. When I finally went back to the agency, I got scolded so badly.”
The Baek Yerin who recounted that day wore a faintly bitter smile.
It clearly wasn’t a pleasant memory for her.
Not the pressure, and not the lonely struggle to overcome it.
But this time I’m standing beside her.
So she doesn’t have to face it alone.
“Just imagining the burden Yerin would feel, I knew today’s situation was inevitable. And since my involvement has doubled the interest and love coming her way, I have a duty to help lighten that load.”
“So what exactly did you say to ease it?”
“Well… she asked me something like this.”
If the pressure keeps making you not want to stand on stage… if you eventually say you can’t sing my songs because of it, what would you do?
I had answered without hesitation.
“I told her, with complete sincerity, that I would quit composing.”
“Wha—what?!”
“Wow… that’s exactly how Yerin reacted. Is it really that shocking?”
“How can you even call that an answer!”
Kang Beom-jun’s horrified shout made me tilt my head in confusion.
To me it was the most natural thing in the world.
The composer named Ryu Won only existed because of Baek Yerin.
Even if I possessed talent capable of astonishing the world, even if others begged for my songs… if she said she could no longer sing them, then I should simply disappear from this world.
“Haha. Well, since that hasn’t happened yet, shouldn’t we count ourselves lucky? Let’s try to stay positive!”
“…I don’t usually say this, but Ryu Won, you really are a crazy bastard.”
Kang Beom-jun wore an expression of resigned enlightenment.
I casually ignored him and turned my eyes toward the stage.
No one stood there yet; the final performance was still to come.
They were probably airing a pre-recorded segment from another team on the live broadcast right now.
Pre-recording let agencies invest serious money into spectacular stages and covered any weaknesses that might show in a true live performance. Multiple takes meant they could produce flawless footage, so even weaker live singers could look perfect.
That was exactly why we had refused pre-recording.
The reason was simple.
The singer named Baek Yerin shone even brighter when performing live.
We—no, I—wanted the world to witness that strength.
While I was lost in thought, Kang Beom-jun seemed to remember something and asked,
“Now that I think about it, Ryu Won, have you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“It looks like Yerin has found a new goal. I figured if anyone knew what it was, it’d be you.”
“A goal?”
Baek Yerin’s goal?
I had a pretty good idea.
This, too, was something she had spoken about herself in my previous life.
“Maybe she wants to keep singing for the fans who love her?”
“Hmm… I have a strong feeling it’s not that at all. The two of you share some strangely similar tendencies.”
“Strange tendencies?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m terrified. Handling one of you is already exhausting, but if both of you start causing chaos together like today… ugh, just imagining it is horrifying.”
Kang Beom-jun shivered as if the very idea was too much to bear.
So that’s what he meant by “similar.” Crazy similar.
I could only let out a hollow laugh.
Well… yeah.
I could ask Yerin about it later.
Right now…
Right at this moment, I needed to push every stray thought aside and focus.
And that meant one thing.
“Baek Yerin! Fighting!!!”
Cheering at the top of my lungs.
Even if the roar of the crowd swallowed my voice before it could reach her, it didn’t matter.
That’s what fans do—they give unconditional love and support to the person they cherish.
Meanwhile.
Click—
As Baek Yerin walked toward the center of the stage, a faint, bitter smile touched her lips.
It was because of the words Ryu Won had said to her moments ago.
—Don’t worry about anyone’s expectations or attention. Just sing as comfortably as you can. Like you’re singing only for me in the entire world. You’ve done it plenty of times when we recorded together, right?
When she heard those words, Baek Yerin had thought to herself:
That is the single hardest thing you could ask of me.
Do you even realize?
Why I felt so much pressure?
The massive, almost excessive interest and expectations from the public had certainly played a part, but the largest share belonged to none other than Ryu Won himself.
Honestly, when she learned he would be in the audience for today’s Music Save, her heart had plummeted.
Baek Yerin knew.
Just how special the composer named Ryu Won considered her.
So if he watched her performance today and felt disappointed…
She didn’t think she could bear it.
But then—
—Your song feels like a bright star. The more I follow its light, the deeper I fall.
Baek Yerin decided to trust him.
She chose to believe the person who loved her songs more than anyone else in the world.
She had no other choice.
From the very first moment they met, she had never taken her eyes off him.
The nervous expression he wore while playing the song he had written for her inside CEO Kang’s car.
The warm smile he gave her after their first recording session.
And today, when he appeared like magic, grabbed her hand without hesitation, and pulled her forward—his steady back as he ran ahead.
When she saw that pure, childlike smile on his face as he praised the reason her song was good…
Click—
Before she knew it, she was standing at the center of the stage.
And at that exact moment—
“Baek Yerin! Fighting!!!”
From far away.
Even through the ocean of noise, that familiar voice cheering for her with everything it had reached her clearly.
The moment she heard it, Baek Yerin realized the heavy pressure that had been lodged inside her chest had completely vanished.
Instead…
Her heart fluttered.
The knowledge that in this entire world, only she could move the heart of someone as incredible as him.
So, you see.
Even in this very moment,
and for all the moments still to come,
I want to sing only for you.
If you simply listen to my song and feel satisfied…
If you smile brightly for me, that alone would make me so happy.
With that thought, Baek Yerin slowly lifted the microphone in her hand.
Newly bloomed,
so she could achieve her goal.
A short while after Baek Yerin stepped onto the stage alone, the melody of a certain song began to fill the entire hall.
A sorrowful piano and a wistful violin.
How nice it would have been if it was only a dream.
Your face is still so clear in my mind.
The fact that I can no longer see your light—
it makes even that smile appear faint.
The audience’s expressions changed the instant they heard the first line—shifting from admiration to anticipation.
They knew exactly what song she was singing.
Rewind.
The title track of her first album and the song currently sitting at number one on every chart.
But Ryu Won thought differently.
The more he listened, the more certain he became that the audience’s hopeful faces would soon transform completely.
The first verse of Rewind was an endlessly bitter song.
It carried the emptiness, grief, and regret that followed the death of a precious person.
Ryu Won had poured those raw emotions into the music without any embellishment, and now none other than Baek Yerin was singing it on stage.
Perhaps…
what unfolded here today would surpass even the phenomenal success of the recorded track.