Cancel That "Good Sense" Comment
The very next day after Baek Yerin and I set out to find inspiration for the song.
“Hmm. Of all days, it had to be a holiday when Yerin popped up at a street karaoke booth...”
“......”
“And all dressed up nicely, too? Don’t tell me she was on a date with someone. Man… who could it be?”
The moment I saw Kang Beom-jun’s face overflowing with mischief, a sigh escaped me before I could stop it.
“Stop teasing me. We simply went around to a few places together. Well… her jumping into the street karaoke wasn’t planned at all, though.”
Since we hadn’t coordinated anything beforehand, we had no choice but to take separate taxis home to avoid drawing attention.
Still, well…
“Thanks to that, another viral video got made, right?”
Baek Yerin suddenly appearing at the street karaoke, singing her own song, then vanishing without a trace.
There were so many spectators that no one could clearly see her face, yet with nothing but her song, Baek Yerin had halted the steps of countless people walking down the street.
Once again, she had proven something to the world.
That no matter how bad the microphone, the location, the sound system, or the audio quality was, none of it mattered to singers called the greatest.
That while many people in the world can sing well, true singers are clearly in a different class.
Thanks to that, the video of Baek Yerin singing on the street spread at an absolutely explosive speed.
“If anyone sees it they’ll mistake it for another RT Entertainment surprise marketing stunt. We had zero intention of doing that, you know.”
“Who could possibly imagine it? That the reason Yerin revealed her identity and sang on the street was to help one particular composer find inspiration.”
“...Exactly.”
“So, did it actually help at all?”
I gave a faint smile and nodded.
“Yes. Thanks to her. Well… I’ve only just gotten inspiration for one track so far.”
“Really? Then you’re not thinking of releasing it right away yet?”
“I’ll have to see the finished product first. But why do you ask?”
“Because I’d really like to take it easy this year-end.”
Kang Beom-jun continued with a slightly forlorn expression.
“Now then, Ryu Won. How many years has it been since we met?”
“It’s not eight years… it’s only been a little over one.”
“Right, one year! It’s only been a single year since you sent me that email asking for feedback on your demo file!”
“Hearing you say it like that suddenly brings back memories. Time really does fly.”
Sending Kang Beom-jun the email requesting a review, meeting him, and watching Baek Yerin’s festival performance together had been the beginning of our connection in this life.
After that came Baek Yerin’s debut album and her first concert.
And finally, my sister joining RT Entertainment.
“Is there any fledgling agency in the world that runs at this pace without ever stopping? This year we delivered peak performance after peak performance. So let’s quietly coast through the year-end while we slowly draw up plans for next year.”
Kang Beom-jun’s words made sense.
RT Entertainment had been sprinting nonstop for the past year.
It really was time for a breather.
But…
“So please don’t stir up anything huge. Whether we get to rest or not depends entirely on you.”
“?”
I couldn’t help tilting my head at his words.
In contrast, Kang Beom-jun looked at my reaction with an expression of pure disbelief and spoke.
“Out of everything we’ve done so far, is there a single thing that didn’t start because of you?”
“Hmm… I guess my sister joining the label is the only one.”
“Exactly. You know it well. So you should understand what I’m saying by now.”
“......?”
What was with this villain treatment?
To be honest, I felt a little wronged.
I had simply ended up doing a lot of things by accident.
I had sincerely planned to just release Baek Yerin’s third album and end the year on a pleasant note!
“CEO, I suddenly had an interesting thought.”
“Oh please no.”
“Don’t freak out and just listen. Since it’s the year-end, how about we hold a winter concert with my sister and Yerin performing together? I think I could quickly make a song for them to sing as a duet.”
“A-are you serious?”
“Of course I’m joking. Let’s comfortably draw up next year’s plans together.”
Kang Beom-jun let out a sigh of relief at my words.
By the way, was this year already coming to an end…?
Suddenly I felt that another moment of choice was approaching me as well.
It was the matter of advancing to high school.
Unlike middle school, high school was not compulsory education.
So wouldn’t it be fine to just compose during the hours I would have spent at school?
In my previous life, that was exactly what I had done.
The moment I decided to become a composer at age seventeen, I dropped out of the high school I was attending and devoted myself solely to composition.
That was what had led to the person I was now, but…
‘Let’s try going a little differently in this life.’
The conclusion was to advance to high school and properly graduate.
For reference, I had two goals.
First, to experience the kind of student youth I had never felt in my previous life.
Second, to discover outstanding talent.
That was roughly it.
Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting much from the first one.
Who entered high school these days dreaming of youth and romance?
In that sense, the second goal was extremely important.
If I stayed with RT Entertainment, would I really be able to handle all the composing work alone?
The number of artists might keep growing.
Hmm. No matter how I looked at it, that didn’t seem easy.
Yet for some reason Kang Beom-jun didn’t feel the necessity of it at all.
So the urgent side would have to make the first move.
Anyway, I planned to find a partner—not a slave—to work with me and build a proper team.
For that purpose, the high school I needed to attend was already decided.
‘Seolhwa Arts High School.’
A place where exceptional talents who would shoulder the future of the music industry gathered.
It wouldn’t be a bad choice.
It also perfectly aligned with RT Entertainment’s philosophy of nurturing young talent, so wouldn’t Kang Beom-jun accept it willingly, just like in my previous life?
But there were a few things that weighed on my mind.
One was that the school my sister currently attended was Seolhwa Arts High School.
The label “younger brother of Ryu Se-a, rookie singer at RT Entertainment” was bound to draw attention.
Still, if I simply avoided acknowledging her as much as possible inside the school, it should be fine…
“Wise little brother of mine. Since you’re so wise, you absolutely have to come to Seolhwa Arts High, right?”
“Why?”
“So we can work together at school too, obviously.”
“No thanks. Even if I go to Seolhwa Arts High, I absolutely will not work with you, sis.”
“Hing…”
I had drawn a firm line, but my sister was truly a walking bundle of variables beyond common sense.
That part worried me a little.
And then—
“Which school am I going to? Obviously Seolhwa Arts High.”
Kim Tae-hwan…
This guy gave off the strong impression that he was heading there too.
No, he would definitely go to Seolhwa Arts High.
“There’s been talk going around lately. For some reason Haon is interested in Seolhwa Arts High, and it just so happens that your sister caught his eye. So if I go there too, won’t I catch Haon’s eye just like your sister? Hehehe.”
“......”
“Besides, there’s nowhere else worth going. It’s the arts high with the best reputation, right? Then of course I have to attend.”
…or so he claimed.
For Kim Tae-hwan, whose goal was to become a famous singer, Seolhwa Arts High would indeed be the perfect stage.
He was probably aiming for the vocal major in the practical music department.
Then Kim Tae-hwan looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“But why are you suddenly asking about this?”
“I’m thinking of going to Seolhwa Arts High too. Preferably the practical music department.”
“Huh? Have you lost your mind all of a sudden? Ah, never mind. You’ve always been crazy.”
At my words, Kim Tae-hwan swept a hand through his hair as if he had a headache.
It was an extremely normal reaction.
From Kim Tae-hwan’s perspective, I was just an ordinary person who didn’t know the first thing about music.
For someone like that to suddenly announce he was going to Seolhwa Arts High?
‘I probably look like a genuine lunatic.’
But then Kim Tae-hwan suddenly asked,
“Wait. You’re not going for vocal major, are you?”
“No, it’ll probably be composition.”
“...Just asking, but you’re not going because of your sister, right?”
“Definitely not.”
“Good. Then I pretty much have my answer.”
Oh?
Kim Tae-hwan had surprisingly sharp instincts.
So the moment he said he had his answer, I couldn’t help wondering what conclusion he had reached.
But what came out of his mouth completely surpassed anything I could have imagined.
“You must really hate the idea of being separated from me even in high school, huh?”
“?”
What kind of nonsense was this guy spouting?
While I was internally cursing, Kim Tae-hwan smirked and declared with confidence,
“Okay! I’m doing you a huge favor. If you get accepted, I’ll specially sing one of the songs you composed as a reward. No matter how trash the track is, once I sing it, it’ll be on another level. Getting accepted to Seolhwa Arts High in the first place already proves you have decent talent.”
He patted my shoulder after speaking.
It seemed to mean the entrance exam for Seolhwa Arts High would be difficult, so I should do my best.
“Fuck… I take back what I said about you having good instincts.”
I could only mutter those words while watching Kim Tae-hwan’s back as he headed up to the classroom first.
Did I really have to go to Seolhwa Arts High?
The thought crossed my mind right then.
But there was still an even bigger problem waiting for me…
At that moment, I still had no idea.