The Gift
An absurd figure glared up from my bank account.
“……?”
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Same number.
Seventy-three million won.
Something was off. There was an extra zero. I clearly remembered receiving seven million before.
Thinking the company must have made a mistake, I called to inquire and received a polite explanation.
Music streaming revenue. Usage fees for the Yogiyo delivery ad CM song. OST composition fees. Karaoke royalties. Everything miscellaneous thrown in, and this was the total.
“Karaoke?”
“Yes. All of it is registered. Spotlight will go up in two weeks as well, you know?”
“……My songs are in karaoke?”
“You didn’t know, Producer?”
“…….”
“Popular tracks go in as a matter of course.”
Someone was singing my songs at karaoke?
The world felt like it was twisting further out of shape by the day.
“Two months ago Blackout Cat was hovering around the eighties and the rest of your tracks weren’t even charting, so the advance was seven million. Now every one of them is sitting pretty in the upper ranks.”
“What about Spotlight’s streaming revenue?”
“Not included yet. That’ll hit next settlement.”
So next time it would go even higher.
I set the phone down and stared into space with my mouth hanging open.
My hands trembled at the sheer unreality of the number.
Back when I was streaming I’d thought the money I made at that young age was already ridiculous. Now I’d blown past that in two months flat.
The flood of comments on the OST. This monstrous sum. Both of them felt like far too much attention and affection for a worthless human being like me.
People liked me without knowing what a pathetic creature I really was.
The weight of it tipped past burden into outright guilt, and my body automatically crawled into the blankets of its own accord.
I was sliding from happiness straight into a pit of depression when—
Bzzzzzt—clunk—bzzzzzt—clunk—
The phone I’d just set down began vibrating like mad.
I’d left it on the wooden desk, so it rattled even more violently than usual, demanding to be answered right this second.
Hearing her voice might shake off some of this gloom.
The fact that my hand was reaching for a method I never would have chosen before told me I really had changed a little.
I accepted the call and silenced the noise.
“The money came in! I’m rich!”
Her boundless sunshine of a voice pulled a laugh out of me.
Looks like Nari got her settlement on the same day.
“Do-yoon must’ve made way more than me, right?”
“Probably.”
“Congratulations! And since I’m grateful, I’m gonna give you a present.”
“Huh? For me?”
“Yep. You saved my life. Originally I was on track to become a shut-in NEET, you know?”
Nari probably would have eaten well and lived well no matter what she did.
Or would she? When we first met she had zero viewers and was trembling while she sang.
Then again, I wasn’t much different.
Meeting her was what let my songs reach the world in the first place.
“Then I want to give you a present too.”
“If you do, I won’t stop you! Heh.”
“Do you already have something in mind, Nuna?”
“Yep! A phone! I’m getting a new one this time and I want to buy yours too. How about it?”
“Huh?”
A phone? The one I was using right now? It was still perfectly fine.
“Do-yoon-ah. Just because it can make calls and the screen still responds doesn’t mean it’s fine. It’s time to let it go. Can’t you hear your phone screaming? ‘Please kill me~’?”
“Phones don’t have an emotion expression function.”
“The newest model is the Galaxy S28 and you’re still on an S10? Are you insane? Don’t you feel sorry for the smartphone being exploited like that? It acts weird sometimes, doesn’t it? Be honest.”
“…….”
GPS did act up when I tried to catch taxis.
“Still, a phone’s pretty expensive for a gift.”
“What are you even saying? Do you know how much money I made thanks to you? You need to take a good hard look at yourself. You’re more than worthy of it!”
“Uh…… yeah.”
Nari’s stubborn, almost tyrannical insistence on buying me the absolute latest model kept going until I finally gave in.
She wanted to give it to me. What was I supposed to do?
In return, I’d just have to get her something expensive too.
“Oh, me? I’ve got something I want!”
“What is it?”
“I need a tumbler. Get me that.”
“……What?”
The expensive gift flew right out the window.
Having her pick something was convenient since choosing presents was work, but the price difference was way too huge.
Wasn’t there anything else I could give her? Maybe a bunch of little gifts one after another?
“Should I at least buy you a phone case?”
“Absolutely not! I’m picking the case myself!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I backed off immediately at her fierce resistance.
Might as well search for tumblers.
Were there expensive ones?
I opened the browser to look and my eyes landed on a file sitting on my wallpaper. My latest work sprang to mind.
“Ah, right.”
“Hm?”
I already had a gift.
I’d prepared one. It was so obviously for Nari that I’d completely forgotten.
“I wrote a song. This one’s yours, Nuna. Let’s count it as my present.”
“A song? For real? No way! Can I hear it?!”
“Yeah. Hold on.”
I’d gone all the way to the company recording studio and finished it myself.
I’d pushed the BPM from 175 all the way up to 200 and layered effects over Nari’s snoring in between, turning it into an upbeat track.
I sent the file and waited quietly while she listened.
“Whoa, what is this? You can make songs like this too? What even is this? Machine sounds? Some kind of tune?”
“How is it?”
“I’m gonna listen one more time. It’s chaotic. Seriously.”
She listened carefully again before switching her mic back on.
“Do-yoon-ah. Is this…… maybe my story? There’s talk about ears and a tail, and cats.”
“Yeah, you figured it out.”
Sharp as always.
“Hehe. Kinda embarrassing? Did you make this thinking of me again? Like with Black Cat. Hnn.”
No. This one went even further than Black Cat.
Not just the lyrics—the entire melody was Yu Nari.
I’d taken her snoring, shaped it into kick drums and snares, slathered on effects, and scattered it through the whole track.
You could call it the human-instrument Yu Nari edition.
Feeling proud as the creator, I added a little explanation.
“I even put in that part from the stream where you took your ears off and said ‘I’m still me even without ears.’ Pretty much every single element of this song is stuffed full of Lunari. First time I tried something like this, so it was fun. Looking at the finished product, it feels rewarding.”
There’d been plenty of trial and error, but I’d pushed through and finished it. I gave myself a mental pat on the back.
“Gonna listen a few more times~”
Nari played the song several more times.
Compared to how excited she’d been at the start, her behavior started changing the longer it went on.
Her answers grew stuttered. Her reactions turned vague.
“……S-so, wait, this is all my story?”
“Yeah.”
She stammered again.
“There’s all this ‘eummya eummya’ stuff. That’s sleeping, right?”
“Yep. Expressing the way you look when you’re asleep.”
“Hey…… so, um…”
“What?”
“Th-that is…”
Nari’s voice sounded strangely damp.
“At the end of the song there’s this ‘eum…… nya……’ part.”
“?”
“That somehow…… really sounds like my actual voice.”
Ah.
I’d forgotten I’d changed the ending after a lot of agonizing.
The ‘eum…… nya……’ in the outro had the absolute minimum effects applied.
I wanted to close the track with a real voice instead of artificial sound.
I’d changed it at the last minute and completely blanked on it.
Of course stripping the processing would let the original show through.
In other words, that was Yu Nari’s sleep-talking almost completely unfiltered.
“Maybe I’m just imagining it……?”
I couldn’t answer.
“D-did I sleep-talk while we were on the phone?”
Not sleep-talk. She’d snored.
Did little ‘eummya chomp chomp’ noises count as sleep-talking?
What was I supposed to say?
“W-w-wait, is that it? Wh-when was it? Back when I fell asleep……?”
Nari’s voice grew thinner and thinner.
“What did I say back then? I didn’t say anything weird, right?”
“You didn’t say anything weird.”
She’d made sounds, but no actual words.
“W-wait, I need to listen to the whole thing again.”
Hmm.
“Every time I listen my feelings get weirder……”
Uuugh.
“I may not know much about composing, but the sound is somehow…… Ah! Wait a second—don’t tell me that memo!!! Hold on!”
I had no idea what memo she meant, but as expected of an applied music major, Nari’s ears were pretty sharp.
“M-maybe I… I… s-snored…… euk—”
She couldn’t even finish the sentence. Soft little whimpers and groans tickled my ear.
I’d meant to keep it secret.
I’d been so absorbed in making the song that I hadn’t been careful enough.
I’d gotten complacent.
Maybe part of me had thought it wouldn’t matter even if she found out.
“No, wait, there are similar sounds scattered through the middle too…… I’m imagining it, right? Say I’m not. Hurry.”
I kept my mouth shut tight.
I wanted to say no. I just couldn’t.
Because it was true.
“Hurryyyyy euk—”
The sound on the other end of the line suddenly grew distant.
She must have pulled the phone away from her face.
The soft rustle of diving into blankets. Then, from farther away, thrashing fabric noises mixed with a tiny scream of
“Uwaaaaah—”
The phone came close again. Rough breathing, and Nari was back.
“Say it’s nooooooot!!!”
“C-calm d—”
“How am I supposed to calm down?! I snored in front of you……! Euk, and you’re even making me sing it…!”
Her breathing came through in ragged little huffs.
After the full meltdown she seemed to hit a whole new layer of shock. Her voice dropped another tone.
“W-wait a second…… hey. You can’t just create my voice out of nowhere. No matter how well you carve the sound, can you really invent something you heard just from imagination?”
“…….”
“Y-you… d-don’t tell me you have a recording? Ah, no way, right? Do-yoon-ah, right?”
Huk.
Given the flow, there was no way she wouldn’t catch on.
“Do you?”
“…….”
“Do you have one.”
“……That.”
While I kept opening and closing my mouth, the last of Nari’s reason evaporated.
“Y-you crazy bastard!! Delete it right now?!”
“I’ll delete it, Nuna, just a sec—”
“What do you mean ‘just a sec’!! Hand over the original file first!!”
“That’s—”
“I need to check so hand it oooover!!!”
I could hear the thump-thump of her probably punching a pillow on the other end.
Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.
“I don’t mind deleting it, but are you sure?”
“……I have to hear it.”
“Okay. I’ll send it and then delete the original.”
“Thoroughly.”
“Thoroughly.”
“Promise you’ll completely erase it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I’d only recorded it to make the song, so it had already served its purpose.
I found the original file, sent it, and deleted it.
“……I like the song. Thank you.”
The words she finally squeezed out trembled faintly.
“But Do-yoon-ah.”
“Yes.”
“……If I fall asleep again next time.”
“Yes.”
“And you record me again, you’re dead.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her sulky tone painted a perfect picture of her expression, and I answered with perfect politeness.
A brief silence settled.
“Y-you, if I end up getting embarrassed because of this…… you’ll…… me…”
“……?”
“Res… responsibility…… hah…… never mind. I’m gonna go check, so hang up.”
Nari said she would come back, but hours passed after the call ended with no word from her.
The file wasn’t even five minutes long, so it couldn’t have taken that long.
Well. No idea.
Anyway, her instincts were ridiculously sharp.
How did she jump from that final ‘eummya’ sound all the way to snoring?
Putting nearly unprocessed sleep-talk into the outro had been pure self-indulgence on my part.
From a listener’s perspective it should have just landed as “oh, they added that for the detail!” and ended there.
In Nari’s case, since she’d never recorded herself, she could reasonably guess “he must have secretly stuck my sleep-talk in!”
But the snoring sounds had all been chopped up, pitch-shifted, and turned into instruments. No human ear should have been able to identify them.
This went way beyond simply having good ears.
Ah!
Was that it?
Nari must have a habit of sleep-talking and snoring at the same time in her everyday life.
So of course she noticed right away.
Sleep-talk came out, so she must have snored too—something like that.
Guess her sleeping habits weren’t exactly the best.