Seo Jini was living a hectic life these days, shuttling back and forth between Japan and Korea.
Her most important daily routine was to sit at her computer the moment she opened her eyes and check entertainment news and the streaming charts.
[“The new wind in K-pop, songwriter Choi Jihyun!”]
On the 30th, rookie composer Choi Jihyun released the solo album “out to sea,” and its numbers have been nothing short of astounding. The album, which contains five tracks including the double-title “out to sea”…
Scroll, scroll…
The title track “Blue Spring,” featuring the legendary Kim Kwang-jin’s first vocal in decades, is drawing even more attention for its music video. Uploaded to YouTube, the MV is…
Scroll, scroll…
That a rookie composer’s album sales are skyrocketing like this is due not only to outstanding musicality and a star-studded feature/session lineup, but also to the LS Entertainment label…
Seo Jini’s hand drifted up toward her mouth.
Yet the biggest buzz among netizens is this single sentence printed in the album booklet: “I just want a lot of people to hear it and be as sad as they wish.”
Gnawing her nails, she rolled her anxious eyes.
Literally translated in Korean: “I simply hope many people will listen and grieve to their hearts’ content.” Rather than offering bland comfort, it invites listeners to share sorrow, and that message has captivated the public…
Tap, tap…
Choi Jihyun, now an in-house composer at LS Entertainment, is emerging as a rising powerhouse after the era-defining composer HS. With nothing else known about him, public curiosity is…
Tap, tap…
Many critics and artists unanimously praise “out to sea” as a once-in-a-generation masterpiece capable of turning the K-pop scene upside down…
“Ow!”
Only when a bead of blood welled at her fingertip did she stop reading. She wiped it off roughly, then pulled up the real-time chart.
TOP 100
1 To You, Who Had Only Me– Yun Jaeyi
…
4 Yunseul – Kang Ha-jun
5 cute babe – Aphrody
6 le seul – The Moon
…
8 Dear my Beethoven – HS (feat. Moon Beom-jae)
So far, mostly HS songs.
Scroll, scroll… Suddenly another name had begun taking over.
15 Blue Spring – Choi Jihyun (feat. Kim Kwang-jin)
…
18 out to sea – Choi Jihyun (with NY Phil & Lee Ga-hee)
…
25 I Wish – Choi Jihyun (feat. Moon Beom-jae)
…
28 Sound Sleep – Choi Jihyun (feat. Kang Ha-jun)
…
32 Polaroid – Choi Jihyun (feat. Lee Young-ah)
The more “Choi Jihyun” she saw, the more her forehead crumpled. Her own name required a long scroll downward…
89 A.N.P – Seo Jini (original ver.)
Barely clinging to the bottom.
“Haa…”
She let out a sigh deep enough to sink the floor. A.N.P’s numbers weren’t actually bad, yet she was furious. Not that she was losing. Rather, it was that HS seemed to be losing to Choi Jihyun.
She decided it was her own incompetence. Whatever tricks Choi Jihyun had used, every featured artist was a star.
Even junior Kang Hajun now seemed more popular than she was in Japan.
Though HS’s song had ushered in a new heyday for her, staying so long overseas made her feel obsolete at home.
It was if she were yesterday’s singer again.
A thoroughly unpleasant feeling.
Ignoring the blood beading on her fingertip, she bit down on the nail once more.
Tap, tap.
She felt utterly useless for achieving only this much with an HS song.
Right. This single couldn’t be allowed to sink so easily.
I have to do something.
Without hesitation she dialed a number.
Ring, ring. After a long tone…
Click.
“What’s up?” her manager asked. Seo Jini inhaled deeply, as if steeling herself.
“Could you find Kang Hajun’s number for me?”
If her own power wasn’t enough, she would borrow someone else’s.
At the same time, Jayble was also reading the articles.
“Choi Jihyun…”
He had been tracking every piece on the new composer. Once he had accepted HS as his rival, Jayble had changed. He was driving himself endlessly, determined to push past his own limits and someday challenge HS again with music.
Then came this sudden storm named Choi Jihyun, giving him a second jolt of urgency.
“Out to sea, out to sea…” he muttered, looping the song in the background and sketching chords in his head.
The structure was absurd. Beginning with those gloom-laden sub-bass notes was shocking enough, but the way disparate instruments wove irregular patterns and still converged into a single piece made him laugh under his breath.
The unexpected key-change that flipped the mood and the open-ended close—no lyrics, pure new-age, yet never for a moment dull.
Each time he finished listening, a strange aftertaste lingered.
Yet the more he dissected it, the more one suspicion nagged him.
“This is weird…”
When he broke down the chord progressions, something… some shadow resembled “Dear my Beethoven,” the track that had beaten him. The meter, the form… Everything was different, yet there was an echo.
Could it be the final modulation? Or was it really plausible that two such geniuses had debuted back-to-back under LS? If they were the same person, why release songs simultaneously under both names?
What on earth…
Chewing a filter to pulp, he scrolled through analysts’ blogs; some sharp critics were already speculating that HS was behind a playful stunt, claiming the two were one and the same. But no one could pin down hard evidence. There was no shared habitual chord, no solid link.
With a curse he lit another cigarette, smoke blurring the monitor like his stalled work.
This won’t do.
He deleted the half-finished track. Something at that level would beat no one. Not HS nor Choi Jihyun, same or not.
He had once planned to retire by this age and live a life of leisure.
“Damn.”
Retirement forgotten, he was working harder than ever.
Meanwhile, charts flickered across Manager Kim’s face, delight and frustration crossing like waves.
“Good job, Goldie!” He beamed at HS’s still-strong songs then clenched his fists. “Atta, New Goldie!” as Choi Jihyun’s numbers climbed ever higher.
Then came the sight of HS’s newest track A.N.P clinging low on the list.
Sigh.
He reminded himself: HS and Choi Jihyun were both Hyunseung. Still, seeing HS titles slipping beneath the other alias irritated him.
Netizens were already insisting HS had been dethroned. Knowing the truth didn’t comfort him.
Fine. If HS songs also rocketed back up, the chatter would stop.
“Hey, Chief Gwak!” He hustled to PR for an extra push.
Coffee in both hands, he found Gwak buried in proofs. “PR needs a caffeine transfusion, right?”
The team-leader eyed him warily. “When your voice gets that sweet, I get nervous.”
They bantered; Kim tried to request heavier promo for Seo Jini’s single. Gwak promised they were on it, but netizen focus was stuck on Choi Jihyun.
Just then an email pinged. Kang Hajun was asking PR to post a video on official accounts. Kim knew nothing of it.
They opened the attachment.
“What’s he up to?”
“Is this paused?”
In a practice room Kang Hajun stood stiffly. He raised his head…
“Yes, A.N.P—etchis!”
…and launched into the same awkward arm-flapping dance Seo Jini had uploaded.
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