It's You Again
My body felt light.
That clean, refreshed feeling after sleeping deeply was something I hadn't known in ages, so I just lay there staring blankly up at the ceiling. Sunlight slipping through the gap in the curtains warmed the back of my hand—this was peace itself.
I got up sluggishly. Washed my face. Brushed my teeth. Grabbed one of the bulk-ordered two-liter bottles of water and sat down at my desk.
Wrap up the remaining arrangement work, then head over to the company studio.
I turned on the computer. Casually flipped over the phone that had been lying next to the keyboard—
“……Pfft—!”
I nearly spat out the water still in my mouth.
[Missed Calls: 23]
[Unread Messages: 99+]
What?
Twenty-three calls. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the number didn't change. A few were from Yu Nari; the rest were all from one person.
Han So-yeong.
Why? A bit much for a simple congratulations.
I didn't even have time to wonder. Her incoming call flashed on the screen again. Only after watching it blink silently did I realize I'd left the phone on mute. I answered.
"Do-yoon-nim!!!"
“Yes?”
Unlike her usual self, she sounded rough and completely scattered. She launched straight into apologies; I lost count of how many times I heard “I'm so sorry!”
“Um… why… why are you like this…?”
This is starting to scare me.
"I'm sorry. You don't know anything, do you… Of course not—you just woke up and answered the phone without even having your bearings… But you haven't picked up since last night and I've been worried sick."
“Breathe. Please breathe while you talk.”
"Yes, yes."
I heard her take several steadying breaths on the other end.
"I'm really, truly sorry!!! I have no right to call myself a manager!!! I never imagined the lyrics of Invisible could be taken that way, and I didn't even think to check the reactions afterward. If I'd known in advance I could have prepared something… And you winning Best Producer—I was so caught up with MAMA that I completely failed to get an acceptance speech from you beforehand, so you couldn't even give one at the once-a-year awards show. I'm sorry. I let my guard down because A-il was only a temporary artist. There's no excuse. It's entirely my mistake."
Ow, my ear.
Her ragged breathing kept coming through the receiver. I understood less of it than I didn't.
“……Please calm down.”
"Ah, I'm sorry. I haven't slept. I don't think I'm in my right mind."
“You really don't seem to be.”
"What?"
“Ah—nothing.”
I kept the conversation going as calmly as I could. Something had blown up. I was usually awake in the early hours, but I hadn't answered a single call from night through the next afternoon, and her mental state had completely shattered.
At first her agitation left me baffled; then, as she explained the reason, cold sweat started beading on my skin.
"—So Mellow's stock price got completely wrecked, you know?"
“……”
Is this serious? I had zero interest in stocks, so I just tilted my head. She kept going.
"Roughly one trillion won wiped out, if you want a number."
“Holy—”
An amount I could never earn in a lifetime of work.
“Wait, hold on.”
And this is somehow my fault? This has to be a lie. Hidden camera? I'm not falling for it.
"If you look at the lyrics of Invisible as a whole, it's about a faceless singer who may never stand on stage but still delivers their sincerity through the song, right?"
“Yes.”
"On its own it would have been fine, but because this idiot—me!—failed to predict the award and never got a proxy acceptance speech from you—"
“Wait, wait, calm down again for a second.”
"Ah… yes. Sorry. To everyone watching, it looked like the entire Muse Family pulled a no-show. And the discrimination was real, so it started looking like a diss track—"
My song of gratitude to the fans had been twisted into a song about a VTuber's injustice at being barred from the awards stage. Uploading it to YouTube because I wanted it out quickly had all but confirmed the suspicion.
Come on, even so…
I still couldn't believe one song had caused this much chaos.
"Um, but Do-yoon-nim…"
“Yes.”
She hesitated, then spoke carefully.
"You… there wasn't any intention behind it, right?"
“....What?”
"It's just… you're always so thorough about everything."
Me?
“Not at all. It was purely a song I wrote for the fans.”
"Hmm… I see. All right, for now."
Doubt still colored her tone, but there was nothing more I could say.
"Mellow has sent apologies to our company, to Lunari, and to Yeong-il. There's compensation too."
My head was spinning. I'd finally gone to bed early and slept in, feeling happy for once—what the hell was this?
Apparently Mellow would feature us as the main brand for three months of advertising, support future album production, and post a public apology.
"In exchange, they have one request."
“What is it?”
"They want Invisible registered on the music platforms."
“I was going to do that eventually anyway.”
"Right, but they don't know that. What matters right now is showing that we've made peace and that appropriate compensation has been paid."
“They want it registered immediately?”
"The exclusive YouTube upload landed as an extremely strong message in the market. Talk about streaming platforms being useless was the biggest driver of the stock drop, so they want to calm things down."
By this point my head was spinning. All I'd done was upload one song to YouTube. How had it become this circus?
Probably thanks to the controversy, Invisible already had six million views.
At this rate it'll hit ten million in no time.
Should I be happy about that or not? On top of everything, Lunari's track had climbed to number two on the charts.
"Mellow also said they wanted to apologize to you directly, the composer, but I put that on hold for now. What should we do?"
“Huh? No, that would be too much. Tell them I'm fine and that I'll register the track right away.”
I hadn't exactly loved how Mellow ran the awards ceremony, but both Nari and I had been too busy celebrating the wins to feel properly offended. Waking up to find compensation being shoved into my mouth was just bewildering.
"I'm sorry, and yet seeing how calm you are is actually a relief…… And we ended up gaining a lot from this……"
“Yeah.”
"There really, truly wasn't any intention…?"
“I already told you no.”
"Haa— Understood. The bigger picture…? Ah, never mind."
“……”
Here we go again……
At this point I figured she wouldn't believe me no matter what I said, so I gave up. Even after the business was finished, Han So-yeong kept apologizing and swore that from now on she would look after me not just as a composer but as a full-fledged artist. I told her I got it and asked her to clear the company recording studio for me today so I could work.
It was the start of a truly stormy day.
Unlike Do-yoon, who had slept in, Yu Nari had gotten up early and gone to the motion-capture studio for dance practice and mocap filming. She fastened the last Velcro strap on the mocap suit and stretched long and hard in front of the mirror.
I'm getting used to this skintight thing.
She loosened up her body this way and that, then pulled out the couple phone she'd secretly matched with Do-yoon. Nari was just as stunned by the chaos unfolding in the world as anyone else. But Mellow's apology and the public reaction weren't her top priority.
Do-yoon still hasn't replied.
He mustn't get hurt. Not everyone in the world was on Muse Family's side. She didn't think Do-yoon would go looking for the comments on purpose, but she couldn't help worrying.
Before practice filming started, she tried calling one last time.
Click—
"Hello."
“Oh! Do-yoon-ah!”
Nari bounced in place. His tone was as flat and dry as ever—he seemed fine.
“Did you see the mess?”
"……Ah, yeah. Live long enough and all kinds of weird stuff happens."
“Pfft. Don't talk like an old man.”
Nari knew better than anyone that Do-yoon had simply written the song he wanted to write and uploaded it the way he wanted to upload it. He wasn't the type to target anyone or paint some grand picture.
This pure kid, launching a diss track? Yeah right.
If he'd had that kind of nerve, she would have marched over and knocked on his door herself long ago.
“Yooou~ So the truth is you got mad because nuna was being treated unfairly, right?!”
"Huh? No, of course I hated that, but I didn't aim for anything, seriously."
“Ehhh~ Really? As expected, you're the only one who thinks of me~ Like, targeting the whole company with a diss—!”
"I said it wasn't……"
“Hehe. Just kidding.”
Ah, this is fun. He's so cute.
After giggling and teasing him for a good while, Nari checked the time and clicked her tongue—she had to go.
“Do-yoon-ah.”
"Yeah?"
“No matter what the intention was.”
She hadn't shown it to anyone, but deep down she'd been sad. She'd received a wonderful song from Do-yoon, worked hard, achieved results—and still hadn't been recognized. She'd tried to shrug it off as just industry gatekeeping, but it still stung. Then, before she knew it, people everywhere were applauding in her place, and Mellow was sending apologies and compensation.
“It's you again, Kim Do-yoon?”
"What is?"
“It's you again… How far are you planning to shake things up?”
"…?"
Nuna's having a hard time holding back.
If she opened her mouth any further, nonsense would spill out, so she clamped it shut.
“Heh, never mind. Thanks to you I'm getting the main Mellow ad. Thank you!”
It was time to leave. Swallowing her reluctance, she ended the call. The moment she set the phone down—
“Nari! Time's up, hurry.”
The waiting-room door burst open and Kurogami Yui appeared.
“Oh, coming now.”
There was no filming scheduled for her today, yet Yui had come to the studio of her own free will. That morning, after running into her, Nari had asked again why she'd bothered to come.
“Thought I'd help out. Get some exercise too.”
“Hmm? Exercise? Unnie?”
“I-I exercise too, yes yes. Help Nari and kill two birds with one stone. Right?”
“Uh… sure, but.”
For someone claiming to be in casual workout clothes, her hair was tied with meticulous care and her makeup was flawless. Who does their hair and makeup to go exercise? Nari let the brief suspicion pass. She didn't feel like pressing. Yui had often shown up out of curiosity during mocap sessions or music-show recordings before. Probably the same thing this time.
Yui called Nari over from the waiting room, sat in the chair beside her, and glanced at the clock.
“Mmm, so tired. Maybe because I didn't sleep enough last night.”
“Already?”
“Ahahaha, I only came to help. Maybe I should head back so-ro-so-ro~”
She rose with stiff, awkward movements of her arms and legs.
“You haven't even been here two hours…?”
“Condition not so good. I'll rest a bit at the company first~”
“Hmm? Be careful. Thanks for helping.”
Yui left the mocap studio and walked down the hallway. While waiting for the elevator she checked her reflection in the mirror once.
Looking good.
As if she would actually exercise. Sweat smells.
The elevator doors opened and she stepped in quickly. Her steps toward the company were just a little faster than usual. Helping with mocap filming had only been an excuse. Lately one new habit had been added to Yui's daily pattern: eating lunch at the company.
If she was lucky, she might run into that handsome man, so she kept coming and going until it became routine. She couldn't just hang around the office with no purpose, right? Every time she came she invented some excuse or other. Today she was loitering at the company under the pretext of resting after helping Lunari's shoot.
Yui sprawled across the sofa in a perfect star shape.
What the hell have I been doing here for days?
Fine. Better just ask Han So-yeong. If she gritted her teeth and swallowed the embarrassment, she might get a lead on the guy.
She made the resolution but didn't get up right away. She decided to enjoy a little more leisure, flopping her arms and legs around. The round sofa made her want to do it for some reason.
Just then—
Ziiing—
The sound of the door opening reached her, and her eyes met those of a masked man who had just appeared at the company entrance.
While she was still lying there completely spread-eagled.