Thanks to the sudden vacation, Hyunseung was able to make up for all the sleep he had missed.
Anyway, judging by the second hand on the clock on the wall, he must have slept a good fifteen hours.
“Mm.”
He stretched and tried to work the stiffness out of his body, but it was not enough.
Maybe fifteen hours was a bit much.
He rolled his stiff shoulders in circles and stepped into the living room.
“Oppa, did you sleep well? You were out cold, like you’d fainted.”
“Yeah, I slept hard for the first time in a while.”
“You’re such a light sleeper, but you wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I called. It freaked me out.”
“Yeah? I had no idea.”
Giving a perfunctory answer, Hyunseung headed straight for the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge.
He planned to fill the stomach that felt stuck to his back, then think about how to spend the rest of his vacation.
“Oppa, are you hungry?”
His little sister came over and asked.
“Yeah.”
When he nodded, her eyes sparkled and she asked again.
“Then how about beef?”
It was less a question than code for let’s go eat some.
“You want beef.”
“You’ve looked weak lately, so you should recharge with beef. Dad too!”
With that much effort put into excuses, he ought to take her.
“Sure, let’s go eat beef.”
“Yes! Beef! Beef!”
Hyuna basked in getting permission, then only for a moment.
“Oh right, but are you sure you don’t have to go in to work today?”
She watched him and asked carefully.
She was probably worried about taking time from her always-busy brother.
Honestly. She reads the room way too much.
Even now, the melodies bubbling up in Hyunseung’s head, he shoved to the side.
This vacation had to be spent fully with family.
“Yeah, I decided to take about a week off.”
“No way! For real? Awesome!”
Whatever was so great about him resting, Hyuna jumped and clapped fast.
She really looked like a very excited seal.
“Hurry up and bring Dad out. Let’s go eat.”
“Okay!”
They went to the restaurant Hyuna had found.
“How is it? How is it?”
Barely seated, Hyuna grabbed him and asked.
“Isn’t it exactly what I said? So good, right? The best, right?”
What had Hyuna said earlier?
High-quality hanwoo1, neat side dishes, and private rooms where they grill for you, a place the whole family would be satisfied with.
At this level of briefing…
It was like she had researched and prepared for a month just to eat beef.
Even though they had not seen anything but water glasses yet, with this kind of devotion he should just agree.
“Yeah, it’s nice.”
Above all, the interior was to his liking, just as Hyuna had said.
His face was not fully public, but since he had once shown his profile at a fan meeting, a room layout felt much more comfortable.
Also a classmate like Lee Hyoeun might recognize him.
“Whoa! Oppa!”
Then Hyuna looked at her phone, eyes going wide like a rabbit, and asked,
“You’re dropping another new song?”
“How did you know?”
“How would I not know?”
She thrust her phone at him, sounding exasperated.
“The portals are plastered with articles and your fan café is going nuts. You’d have to be an idiot not to know.”
Hyunseung narrowed his eyes and looked over the headlines on the screen.
[[Official] New song bearing HS’s name, ‘Villain daddy,’ to be released on the 11th ]
But more than the list of articles, what drew his eye were the preview pop-ups that kept popping up at the top.
[ Yoonjeong2: Our oppa did it again; ]
[ Yoonjeong2: Infinite streaming gogogo ]
[ Sohyun: Of course. How good is it gonna be this time? ]
[ Yoonjeong2: So I think I’m going to marry Etchis… more ]
[ Sohyun: Etchis probably has no intention of marrying you. ]
[ Yoonjeong2: This is the day I cut you off. ]
They were probably Hyuna’s friends, but were her friends my fandom?
This must be awkward for her, stuck between them. She can’t even call her own brother ‘oppa.’
Realizing a bit late, Hyuna snatched her phone back.
“Huh? Ah! That’s just my friends stanning you. Forget it.”
“Cute. But let your friend Yoonjeong know I’m not into younger girls, sorry.”
“What am I supposed to say? ‘Actually, my brother is HS and you’re not his type!’ Should I say that?”
“You can, but your life is going to get noisy and annoying. You okay with that?”
“Uh, no.”
“Blame your lot in life for having a brilliant brother and accept it humbly.”
“Ugh, seriously…”
Hyuna glared at him, not even very fiercely, and huffed.
“Oh really?”
As he watched, Hyunseung was about to tease her more when his phone in his pocket started vibrating for all it was worth.
Bzzzz!
[ Kim Appa ] = Dad Kim 🥹
Figures. Not even a day goes by before he comes looking, after telling me not to come in.
He probably wanted to brag that the release date was set and the press materials were out, so not to worry.
“Hyuna, order what Dad wants and what you want. I’m going to take this call.”
“Hurry back! If not, I’ll eat your share too.”
“Such a country mouse, that appetite.”
“What?!”
Hyunseung slipped out of the room as if fleeing. The call had already ended. Should he call back?
Just then, the phone rang again.
“Hyunseung, getting some good rest?”
On the receiver came a voice more upbeat than usual.
Huh, that was odd.
Normally it would be a bit clingy.
“I would, if you hadn’t called before I even started resting.”
“Sorry, but this is something you should hear in advance.”
Kim Appa added, not just calm but energized.
“The release date for <Villain daddy> is set. It’s the day your vacation ends and you come back.”
“I saw the article. The timing’s perfect.”
“You already saw it? Good. From here the support is on us, so stop worrying and rest up.”
As expected, his guess was on the money.
“I can rest if you hang up.”
“Geez, such a golden boy. Fine, hanging up, hanging up!”
With a ding, the call really ended.
“Was I too mean?”
Thinking he should text him, Hyunseung pulled out his phone.
Bzz.
A text came in all of a sudden from Moon Beom-jae.
[ You haven’t forgotten our deal, have you? ]
Acting like he had forgotten, Hyunseung went “Ah, right,” and sent back a simple [ Yep yep ].
Apparently, of the six days left in his vacation, two would have to be spent preparing for that deal.
For now, first—
Tap, tap-tap, tap.
Texting Kim Appa took priority.
Right. Whatever else, he always put me first.
“I did go a little too far with the teasing.”
Judging by how aggressive the PR was, Kim Woohyun’s influence was probably in there too.
Tap, tap-tap, tap.
This must have been the healing course he put together for me.
So.
This time I should be the grown-up and reach out to him first.
Tap, tap-tap, tap.
The text sent instantly with not even a hint of delay.
That should be enough.
.
.
[ Are you by any chance sulking? ]
In the LS Entertainment engineers’ room, engineers along with Team Lead Han and Team Lead Kwak had gathered in small groups.
“Okay, okay!”
Gi Yeonseon stood before them and, like a drill instructor, shouted.
“Is everyone ready?”
“Yes!”
“I can’t hear you!”
“Yeees!”
Only then did Gi Yeonseon nod in satisfaction and add,
“The distribution manager said no, but I begged and begged and barely got this, so keep your mouths shut.”
“Of course!”
“Especially, you know this must never reach his ears, right?”
The other engineers bobbed their heads vigorously.
Here, “his” meant Hyunseung.
This had all started when Hyunseung handed in the audio single-handedly without the engineers’ help.
The A&R folks, unable to stand the curiosity, had gone to the distribution team.
“We were told absolutely not to share anything before release.”
They were refused, again and again, against expectations.
But no tree fails to fall after a hundred chops.
“Please, please… are we really going to be like this after all we’ve been through? I’ll buy you really expensive good booze later.”
Thanks to Gi Yeonseon’s pleading, who had a personal connection with the distribution manager, they managed to get the file.
In short, right now, the hero in this room was Gi Yeonseon.
“Then let’s stop dragging this out and listen right away.”
He slammed the space bar.
Tap!
At the same time, the room went so quiet even breathing could not be heard.
“…”
Only eyes shone with anticipation.
Soon, a gentle melody flowed through the speakers.
“Yeah, this is it.”
Maybe because the file had been so hard to get, or maybe because this track was especially good, but Gi Yeonseon felt a rush of pleasure wrap his whole body.
─ ♬ ♬ ♬
Being an engineer, he usually listened with more weight on melody than on lyrics.
This time too.
But at some point a strange sound hovered over the melody.
“Hm?”
Looking around, he saw a few engineers sniffling, looking like they might burst into tears any moment.
“What’s with them?”
To Gi Yeonseon’s ear the musical mood was not that sad. There were calm sections, but the crucial chorus was rather strong, like a rock ballad led by electric guitars.
He scratched his jaw, baffled, and tilted his head.
“I’m only now saying I’m sorry.”
Not sung, but spoken…
No.
Moon Beomjae’s voice, as if forcing back tears, marked the end of the song.
“Because it was my first time.”
Even though he had not fully grasped the song’s message, somehow those words squeezed Gi Yeonseon’s heart.
“Whew…”
He almost cried, how embarrassing that would have been.
─ ♬ ♬ ♬
The scat ad-lib Moon Beomjae added extended the feeling held by the final line.
And then, a voice that was unfamiliar and yet heard somewhere drifted in.
“When I looked at my sleeping daughter, a thought suddenly came to me.”
Very calm and flat.
“I figured I could even die in her place.”
Interwoven with Moon Beomjae’s scat, the voice sounded utterly heartfelt.
“Man, I thought I was holding it together…”
Gi Yeonseon lifted his head and fanned himself, muttering that it was hot.
“I think I held her while she slept and told her I loved her for the first time.”
The room temperature was 24 degrees.
“It wasn’t anything else, that right there was love.”
Not just him, a few others were rubbing at their eyes.
Someone even stepped out, saying he had to call his dad right now.
“Maybe I should call my father too, it’s been a while…”
As he thought that and picked up his phone,
“But. You know…”
Team Lead Han, without a hint of tears, narrowed his dry eyes and spoke with a grave face.
“That voice at the end… doesn’t it sound like the Executive Director?”
Silence lasted a beat.
Then laughter erupted here and there.
“Hahaha!”
“Team Lead, that’s way too big a leap!”
“Laughing right after almost crying is the worst,” he thought.
But that was how impossible Han’s suggestion sounded.
At least, to engineers with common sense, it did.
- The Hanwoo (한우), is a breed of small cattle indigenous to Korea. This breed is raised mainly for meat and is the source of Hanwoo beef, one of the most rare and expensive meats in the world. Coveted for its high marbling, this beef is preferred in Korean cuisine despite its high price, as it is typically fresher and regarded as premium beef thanks to its high palatability and desired chewiness. (Source) ↩︎
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