The Taste of First Place
I mentioned it before, but after working as a composer for so long, I can barely remember when I last found music itself fun. It had been ages since I truly enjoyed it for its own sake.
Of course, things changed a lot after I entered this life and started performing on stage myself… but anyway.
Back then, because music wasn’t fun anymore, what I became obsessed with was how successful the songs I wrote were.
In other words, their charts. Album sales, digital performance numbers, that sort of thing.
Naturally, since I didn’t find the music enjoyable, I didn’t pay the slightest attention to what critics said. That’s why critics hated my songs, but the public ate them up like crazy during that era.
The reason was simple.
‘I removed my own ego and wrote exactly what people wanted.’
Even now, I still like worldly success just fine.
Out of all the songs I’ve written in this life, the one I cherish most is glassy sky. Someone might ask why I love glassy sky—the one I performed with Blooming in the finals—more than Hello, My Four Seasons, but…
‘Because it performed the best, obviously.’
At this point, glassy sky is the overwhelming frontrunner for Song of the Year at the year-end awards ceremony coming up next week.
For reference, second place is Jelly Pop. Even though it’s a song from my previous life, it’s the second highest-performing track among the ones I’ve released in this life.
In short, the affection I feel for a song I composed is directly proportional to the results it achieves.
In that sense, the song I gave Blooming this time—To My Youth.
“Wait, why is it number one?”
It seemed like a track that could earn quite a bit of my affection.
1. To My Youth — Blooming
2. Jelly Pop — Seo Siyeon
3. Next to You — starlight
4. Hello, My Four Seasons — Seo Siyeon
5. glassy sky — Blooming, Seo Siyeon
“What the—why are there so many of my songs here?”
“Hehe. First place… first place!!”
Yoo Seolha shot up from her seat like she’d just discovered the secret of gold and silver’s volume displacement. Her body literally bounced upward, and I couldn’t help flinching.
“Hmph.”
“You like it that much? We already hit number one with glassy sky.”
“First place feels thrilling no matter how many times it happens.”
I gave a small nod in agreement with Yoo Seolha’s words. Yeah, first place always feels good.
“Today’s on me! I’ll take you to the fancy Korean restaurant my family always goes to!”
“…Really?”
“Ooh. That place is seriously delicious.”
“We have to go then.”
The rest of Blooming seemed to know exactly which restaurant she meant. Since they’d been friends for a long time, they must have visited it often.
I didn’t feel left out at all. Because I was already looking forward to it.
I was curious just how good a Korean restaurant had to be to satisfy the tastes of these rich young ladies.
What I didn’t know was that, despite growing up as ordinary citizens, Blooming’s members didn’t actually have refined palates. They were the type who could happily devour rice soup with extra chili paste at a neighborhood diner.
“Let’s go right now!”
And I also didn’t know that the Korean restaurant in question charged close to a million won per person.
“Now that I think about it…”
“Hm?”
“Jelly Pop was originally in first place. Thanks to you, it got pushed down to second.”
“…You wrote that one too.”
“Well, I was just saying. It’s been over two months, so it was about time for it to start dropping. Still, it feels weird that my song is getting overtaken by another song I wrote.”
At my lame joke, Jo Naeun, who was sitting beside me, let out a soft laugh.
“Honestly, you’re probably the only person who can pull something like this off.”
“It’s also only possible because Singer Star ended less than six months ago.”
From the end of the year into the new year, several top-tier idols were scheduled to make comebacks.
Considering that, it was only natural that my songs would gradually start slipping down the charts.
‘Wait a second. With the epidemic going around, those comebacks might not even happen.’
The sudden thought made me quickly pull up the news section and search for information about the epidemic.
It looked like it still hadn’t reached Korea.
If this epidemic entered the country, everything—music shows, events, everything—would be canceled. Schools, academies, companies… society as a whole would grind to a halt and turn gray. Promoting an album during a time like that could get you absolutely shredded by the entire nation… A terrifying period was approaching.
‘Still, I managed to time my album release perfectly.’
I hadn’t been thinking about it at all, yet somehow I’d narrowly slipped past the deadline by pure coincidence. Could that count as skill?
I chewed on a perfectly grilled piece of meat and pondered.
For reference, the taste was heavenly. I finally understood why chaebols frequented this place.
If I kept eating food like this, I wouldn’t be able to stomach the orphanage’s cafeteria meals anymore…
Since we were all from the same company, the conversation naturally turned to the WMA happening next week.
WMA. Watermelon Music Awards.
One of the most prestigious popular music award ceremonies in the country, and a dream stage for idols.
Of course, they also held performances during the ceremony. The venue was the KSPO Dome. For once, they’d chosen a reasonably sized venue instead of going overboard with their ambitions.
There, Blooming and I had each been assigned one solo stage and one joint performance.
Considering the impact we’d made this year, I thought they should have given us at least two songs each, but of course adult circumstances always came into play with these things.
“…I’m really sorry…!”
It was the usual power struggle between agencies.
The big three entertainment companies had already divided up the performance slots among themselves and only left scraps of time for everyone else.
Thankfully they still had some conscience and yielded the opening performance to our joint stage, but it was still an incredibly unpleasant move.
Separate from whatever personal feelings I had toward the CEOs from Singer Star, from the perspective of mid-tier and small agencies like ours, it was hard not to see them as total scumbags.
“It’s not our CEO’s fault! They’re the ones who are trash!”
“Yeah, exactly!”
“T-to be honest, I think it’s weird for a group with zero monthly chart wins to close the show…”
“This is exactly what I’m saying!”
I agreed with that too. No matter how well they performed on Billboard and led K-pop’s overseas expansion…
“They don’t even have any weekly chart wins either…”
Was it really appropriate for a group like that to close the show?
Well, if it had been Starlight, I would have understood.
They had a strong fandom, weekly wins, and monthly wins.
But the male idol group RPS who were closing this time had zero wins across the board. The only thing they’d achieved was hitting number 25 on Billboard’s HOT 100.
‘Wait, isn’t that actually pretty impressive?’
When I thought about it that way, maybe closing the show wasn’t so unreasonable.
Whatever. Not my problem.
There were so many awards I could realistically aim for at this WMA that it was hard to list them all.
Still, let’s go through them.
First, since I was a rookie, I could obviously aim for Best New Female Artist. It would honestly be weirder if I didn’t win it.
I could also aim for Composer of the Year, which was given to songwriters.
On top of that, the genre-specific awards—Best Female Dance, Best Band, and Best Ballad—were all within reach.
The Top Ten, which was awarded based on digital performance, was basically guaranteed.
And finally, the three grand prizes.
Artist of the Year.
Album of the Year.
Song of the Year.
I hadn’t released a full album yet, so Album of the Year was out of reach, but the other two should naturally come to me.
Because I had completely dominated both in digital performance and overall impact.
However, since the WMA was quite idol-friendly, I was also considering the possibility that they might not give them to me.
Well, if they did that, the WMA organizers would get absolutely roasted.
“……This place looks way too expensive?”
“It’s fine. I’m just going to put it on Dad’s card anyway.”
“…Ah.”
When I looked around, it seemed like we were the only customers in the entire place.
The luxurious room appeared to be about fifteen pyeong in size, and every surface was decorated with expensive furniture and ornaments.
A large screen faced us, displaying catalogs of all kinds of clothing.
Yoo Seolha casually fiddled with the panel buttons like she was used to it.
“Ooh.”
The screen filled with dresses that looked insanely expensive at first glance.
“It’s our first awards show, so we have to dress up nicely! Here! Pick whatever you like, Siyeon. Which one catches your eye?”
“The money’s coming from her dad… but she’s the one acting all generous.”
“Sorry, but do you have anything in junior sizes?”
“…Probably?”
I could only let out a deep sigh at her carelessness.