From the day Lee Hyo-eun swore to Hyunseung that she would become his “singing potato,” she volunteered to do the closing clean-up by herself every single day.
Once everyone got off work, she threw herself into vocal practice in the empty shop.
Scritch, scritch.
Of course, she didn’t forget to keep scrubbing hard with her hands.
If anything, doing it like this felt like it was training her lung capacity too, which was nice?
— I never even dreamed that with my own hands I was binding the two of you together.
Using the mop as a stand mic, Lee Hyo-eun hummed over and over.
— If I’d known it would turn out that way, I would’ve passed by pretending not to see.
Singing along to the MR through her earbuds, she felt like she was singing awfully well, and her confidence soared.
— I should’ve spent my whole life not knowing, veering off.
Just as she finished the final note perfectly and lifted her chin,
“Ah, ah….”
She saw her mom pounding on the shop door, panting.
It’s probably because she’d been ghosting her mom’s calls for the past few days, slipping in when her mom was drunk asleep and then dashing out before sunrise. Her mom must have gotten angry.
But how did she even find this place? I deliberately didn’t tell her where I worked….
— ♬ ♬ ♬
That wasn’t the problem now. The thunderous banging clashed with the lyrical melody flowing from the earbuds in her ears.
Bang, bang, bang!
If she left it like this, not only her mother’s hand but the shop door itself looked ready to be smashed.
“Phew….”
With a sudden wave of headache, Lee Hyo-eun pressed her forehead and slowly walked toward the door.
Judging by her mom’s face, mottled red and blue with rage, and the faintly heard shouting, she could predict what would happen next….
“Open the door, you f***ing bitch!”
Even if she obediently opened it, it was clear things would never be settled quietly with a conversation.
Still, what could she do.
‘My mom is a sick person.’
Her heart, worn down to the quick, bent easily. Also, if the door got damaged when it wasn’t even her own business, who would be responsible?
‘The rent’s behind, too….
In the end, Lee Hyo-eun had no choice but to unlock the door.
Smack!
At the same time, a hand shot out and slapped her cheek mercilessly.
Before she even felt the pain, a ringing filled her ears and her face twisted up.
“Ah…”
For a moment she let out a small groan as the pain belatedly washed over her.
“Mom, let’s talk outside first.”
She grabbed her mother by the shoulders as she tried to barge in and dragged her out.
“Did you just push me? Now you don’t even see me as your mother?”
“N-no, that’s not…”
“Aigoo, people of the neighborhood! She’s throwing a person around here!”
“Mom, please….”
Clutching her mom’s forearm tight, Lee Hyo-eun pleaded.
“Please don’t do this, please….”
But what came back was only curses tangled with a foul reek of alcohol.
“Don’t do what? If you’d just picked up your phone properly and regularly, it would’ve been fine! Why make me come all the way here! You thought I couldn’t find you if you kept avoiding me?”
“No, I’ve just been too busy with work…”
“What? Busy with work? Big talk. How busy can you be? Did I or did I not tell you nicely to pay the rent when I said it!”
“I’ll… within this week I’ll…”
“I came home in a good mood from drinking, and the landlady grabbed me, asking if I didn’t even pity my poor daughter and to pay the rent! Honestly, do I have to hear that kind of thing because of the likes of you?”
“The likes of… me?”
“What are you, catching me on a technicality now! Then what? Raising you alone without a husband—am I the pitiful one, or are you the pitiful one?”
In an instant, her mother’s voice receded to a far distance.
A “whir-whir” sound buzzed in her ears.
“Huff, huff….”
Like someone was gripping her throat tight, it became hard to breathe.
“M-mom…”
Strength drained from the hand gripping her forearm, and it fell helplessly toward the ground.
At the same time—
From the earbuds hanging around her neck, she could faintly hear a song leaking out.
— ♬ ♬ ♬
It was the MR Hyunseung had sent.
For some reason.
She felt ashamed, like she’d gotten caught showing him a pitiful sight again, like on graduation day.
That day, her dream had been trampled…
The dream of entering a college of arts was shattered, and she thought, I’ll never get away from my mom my whole life.
That’s what she’d thought.
But now I want to get away. I want to live and breathe. I want, please, to live like a human being too.
I want to be loved.
“Mom.”
Steadfastly, Lee Hyo-eun called her mother to a halt.
“What! So what if you open your eyes like that?”
In a tone that had grown all the calmer.
“I’ll deposit the rent first thing tomorrow morning. I haven’t finished closing yet, so I’m sorry but please go now.”
“You should’ve done that in the first place! So, you don’t have a single won on you right now?”
She didn’t even balk at her mother’s greedy hands rummaging her pockets; she took her wallet from her back pocket and handed over all the cash she had:120,000 won.
“This is all I’ve got right now.”
“You’re carrying only a measly 120,000 won? Honestly, acting high and mighty because you make money, and it’s nothing much.”
Wetting her finger, her mother counted the bills several times and added,
“Hey, and tomorrow, clean the house before you go to work.”
With a faint smile, Lee Hyo-eun nodded. Did her face look like her mother’s right now?
No.
She hoped not. She prayed it would resemble the kind face of her father that remained in hazy memory.
“Mom, get home safe.”
And so, Lee Hyo-eun stood there until her mother’s back, turning away without even a goodbye, was out of sight.
Mom…
Please, get home safe.
“Out of my life.”
From that day, Lee Hyo-eun quit her café job and used the settlement to take care of the back rent.
Then her mom wouldn’t come looking for her for a while either.
“Ha…”
She slept at a public bath house, went out at the crack of dawn to a factory for short-term shifts. And when work ended, she always went to a karaoke room.
Repeating that life for about a week….
Her voice was as hoarse as it could get, and it felt like she hadn’t even slept.
Even so… at least her heart was at peace. Once she made up her mind to set it down, she wondered why this had been so hard until now.
[ Tomorrow 10 a.m. ]
[ Contact me when you’re out front ]
Confirming the brusque text from Hyunseung, Lee Hyo-eun grinned and sent a reply.
[ Yup, see you tomorrow! ]
These were the happiest moments. Lying in the quiet sleeping room, just listening through her earbuds to the songs Hyunseung had made seemed to wash away the day’s fatigue.
Maybe if she told Hyunseung about all this, he might be able to help. But she didn’t want to be a burden any further.
As someone who wasn’t even a singer or anything… just getting an OST vocal offer was something to be deeply grateful for….
Hadn’t she spouted the ridiculous line that she wanted to become a singer?
Of course.
Hyunseung had readily said he’d make it happen, but she worried. What if he got put in a bind because of her.
“I told you to do it because it’s within my power.”
But honestly, wasn’t that too cool?
Really. Hadn’t he grown up way too well?
“Ah, seriously—!”
Forgetting she was in a sleeping room, Lee Hyo-eun let out an exclamation out loud, then immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.
‘I’m being so silly.’
Quietly steadying her breathing, she patted her pounding heart. At this rate she’d wake up everyone sleeping in the room.
‘I really need to sleep soon….’
Truly, she felt like she wanted to get hit with a tranquilizer and pass out.
— ♬ ♬ ♬
Listening to Hyunseung’s voice from her earbuds, Lee Hyo-eun drifted off.
That night, Lee Hyo-eun dreamed that she became a new-harvest potato.
The next day.
In front of the massive LS Entertainment building, then once in the lobby, and again in the elevator, Lee Hyo-eun took selfies.
From now on.
Since she’d decided to live for herself, she’d record her happiness day by day.
And so, just as she launched her camera app to capture her fluttering face in front of Hyunseung’s studio…
Creak.
The studio door opened, and she bumped into some man.
“Ow.”
The man only bobbed his head and hurried away. His complexion was so dark and hollowed, like he’d collapse any moment, that she didn’t say anything more.
No, wait a sec….
Wasn’t that man just now the singer Park Shin-hu?
“Oh my, oh my!”
Making a fuss, Lee Hyo-eun stared after Park Shin-hu’s receding back when—
“What are you doing?”
Standing inside the doorway, Hyunseung asked, weight on one leg.
“W-wasn’t that guy who just left the singer Park Shin-hu?”
“Don’t make such a country fuss. Just get in here.”
At Hyunseung’s snip, Lee Hyo-eun pursed her lips regretfully and stepped into the studio.
‘If only I’d come a little earlier.’
To think she’d blown a chance to at least say hello to Park Shin-hu, called Korea’s top male balladeer.
‘But why did he look so pale?’
Pushing the question aside for the moment, she bent at the waist like she was about to head-butt the floor.
“H-hello! I’m Lee Hyo-eun!”
And with reason.
“Ah, so this is the last instrument.”
“But it’s a face I’ve never seen?”
“Right, it’s a name I’ve never heard either.”
Men with hollowed eyes were slumped around the room at various spots, and no matter how she looked they seemed like staff.
Isn’t it standard that to carry out a recording like this, you gather everyone from the composer to the producer, the director, and the engineer?
‘They’ve all been working so hard…’
Anyway, since she’d set foot in LS Entertainment following Hyunseung to become a singer, she’d better make a good impression.
“I don’t know much and I’m very lacking, but I look forwar—”
Just then.
“Wait, greet us again.”
Settling himself in the dead center of the control console, Hyunseung spoke up.
“Why are you Lee Hyo-eun.”
“Huh?”
“What did I say you are from now on?”
Only then did Lee Hyo-eun get his meaning; she clapped and bobbed her head with an “Ah!”
“Hello, I’m the singing potato. I look forward to working with you!”
Then she bowed her head deeply again.
“…”
A silence of unknown flavor settled; when she peeked up, the men were covering their mouths, holding back laughter.
Somehow, the faint smiles on their faces felt… strange.
‘Is the phrase “singing potato” funny?’
In the end, unable to hold it in, they burst into laughter and began tossing out jokes laced with mischief.
“Hyunseung, come on. How can you call a person a singing potato, a potato!”
Well… half joke, half dead serious?
“Khk, exactly! Better to be an instrument that just plays. Right?”
There was some real talk mixed in too.
“Aigoo, Miss Potato… no, really, we should be the ones asking you to take care of us. Do well, and let’s all make it through this together!”
But having no way to know any of that, Lee Hyo-eun gave them an awkward smile.
She figured it was just the kind of cheeky prank men pulled to try and scare you.
“Did you practice a lot?”
“Mm, in my way!”
“You think ‘in your way’ cuts it for a civilian?”
At those words, the men who’d been joking just moments ago suddenly went pale.
“W-what? She’s a civilian?”
“Yes.”
“Not even a trainee?”
“Yes.”
“Then what did she do?”
“A café part-timer.”
At that, one man, face crumpling, squeezed his words out with difficulty.
“At this rate, we’re all dead….”
But Hyunseung mercilessly ignored it.
“Hey, singing potato.”
“Hm?”
“Singing potato. Give us a threefold shout.”
“R-right now?”
“You’ve gotta warm up your voice, don’t you.”
And then, squeezing her eyes shut, Lee Hyo-eun raised both hands high to the sky and began the triple chant.
“Singing potato! Singing potato! Singing potato!”
He was truly merciless and fiendishly ruthless, even to a civilian.
“That brute.”
“Pervert.”
“Lunatic.”
To the engineers, the sight of Lee Hyo-eun just looked pitiable.
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