T/N: Bonus chapter because I didn’t set today’s scheduled post right. I fixed it!
Hyunseung tried hard to ignore the messages that had been flooding in since this morning.
[You know today’s the first broadcast, right? I’ll be looking forward to it.]
Why was that colt Jiho texting me that he was looking forward to it when it was his drama that was airing?
Honestly. I couldn’t understand it.
[Composer-nim! It’s finally today! Thanks to you, I had so much fun working on it, and I think the drama feels even more alive! With that in mind, please, please come to the wrap party at least once! I want to thank you in person! ]
Obviously, the noisy woman contacted me too.
‘In person, huh…’
Her voice had sounded noisy even through the restaurant door last time. How much noisier would it be to face her for real?
I absolutely should make sure that never happens.
‘I can’t stand things that are bothersome and noisy.’
Hyunseung had no interest in whether the drama would be a hit.
He’d already prevented the song he sold outright from being reborn in the hands of some half-baked composer….
After that, whether the drama did well or not was no longer his domain.
‘Of course, at least the song won’t fail.’
He tossed his phone far away and immersed himself in work.
He’d judged it best to release Lee Hyoeun’s debut track before the buzz around the drama OST died down.
He needed to pick up the pace…
But trying to tell the story without being too blatant or provocative made writing the lyrics tough.
Knock, knock, knock.
Just then, a knock broke his flow.
Creak.
When he opened the door, Dad Kim was standing there with a grin, both hands loaded with bags.
“Want to have a snack together?”
Hyunseung nodded and gestured for him to come in.
“Red Thread’s first episode is about to start.”
“I know.”
“How about we eat and watch it together?”
“I’m busy.”
When he answered flatly, Kim Woohyun tried again, as if to persuade him.
“Still, the OST you sang yourself is coming on. It wouldn’t hurt to monitor it at least once.”
“I’m really busy.”
“It’s not like your face looks like things are going smoothly anyway. You could cool your head for a bit and watch some drama first.”
“How did you know it’s not going well?”
At that, Kim Woohyun shrugged and spoke with a showy air.
“If there were such a thing as the ‘Min Hyunseung test,’ I could score a perfect hundred.”
“Why would anyone take that test?”
“Seriously, you T-type punk.”
“Somehow that sounds like an insult….”
Smirking, Hyunseung picked a tuna-mayo sandwich out of the shopping bag and added,
“If there’s a test like ‘guess the thought from your expression,’ I bet I could ace it too.”
Then he took a big bite and nodded minutely as if it were delicious.
Maybe the snack wasn’t his true purpose, because Woohyun immediately pulled out the tablet he’d brought and set it on the table.
Soon after, he switched to a live broadcast channel with a linked live chat.
An ad was still playing on the screen.
Seemingly uninterested, Hyunseung sat a little apart, a sandwich in one hand and a notebook in the other, and sank into thought.
The point of view for the lyrics…
Should he take the perspective of that meddlesome Lee Hyoeun? Or fill it with the things he wanted to say to that busybody?
Scritch, scritch.
Words like meddlesomeness, parents, guilt filled the page.
But only for a moment.
「 It’s not your fault. Of course, it isn’t mine either. 」
After writing down a sentence that came to him naturally, he started circling it again and again.
Rrrip—
He circled so hard the paper tore.
“Damn.”
As he furrowed his brow, the station’s logo jingle sounded from the tablet.
The broadcast must be about to start.
‘Hm?’
When he turned his head, he saw Dad Kim with his eyes gently closed, wearing a solemn expression.
The drama hadn’t even started yet.
Was that something to be so serious about?
Besides, it wasn’t even a drama featuring an LS Entertainment actor.
“What are you doing?”
In the end, curiosity got the better of Hyunseung, and he spoke up.
“Meditating?”
But instead of answering, Kim Woohyun brought his index finger to his lips.
“Shh.”
What kind of bit was this?
Thinking that, Hyunseung shifted his gaze to the tablet screen.
On the opening credits, the face of the drama’s lead, Ahn Jiho, appeared.
“Oh.”
Seen like that, he actually did look like an actor.
Click!
With a mischievous grin, Hyunseung snapped a picture of the screen and sent a text.
Naturally… the recipient was “Colt Jiho.”
[ Solemn Jiho lol ]
He tapped again, a bit regretful, and added:
[ Crown Prince Jiho lol ]
He was just grinning, satisfied that he liked the nickname he’d created—
Clap!
Startled by a sudden slap-like sound beside him, he snapped his head around to see Dad Kim clasping his hands together.
‘What’s with him today?’
Woohyun slowly opened his eyelids and curled up the corners of his mouth.
Then, he suddenly pulled Hyunseung into a tight hug and spoke.
“If someone calls later saying they’ll make you a singer, don’t go with them. I’ll take full responsibility and make you a superstar.”
Hyunseung grabbed his shoulders and pushed him off, replying at once,
“If you ever take a ‘Min Hyunseung test,’ I doubt you’d scrape past fifty, much less get a perfect score.”
A singer offer for him? At a time when he was being called the top composer in Korea, who would send him such an offer…
Moreover, it wasn’t as if he wanted to be a singer.
Honestly, if there were an answer sheet, he’d like to mark it zero.
“I mean, how does this make any sense!”
A woman burst into the neighborhood police box, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“In adult missing-person cases, if the person doesn’t want contact, there’s no information we can give you.”
“Officer, she’s still just a kid in her twenties, a kid!”
“No matter what you say, the policy is the policy, so we can’t tell you….”
The constable tried to calm her and explain again, but—
“I’m her mother, her mother! Her birth mother!”
She shoved the constable roughly and kept making a scene.
“Your daughter doesn’t want to meet you, so….”
“Why would she say she doesn’t want to meet me!”
“That part….”
“As a cop, you should talk sense into a kid who ran away and bring her back!”
She jabbed a finger into the constable’s chest and added in a jeering tone,
“What do you even do, eating up taxpayers’ money like that?”
Just then the station chief came in, took stock of the situation, stepped between them, and spoke in an authoritative tone.
“The police help keep public order. We don’t solve family affairs. If you keep causing a disturbance, it’ll be obstruction of official duties….”
“Oh, sure! The minute someone says a little something, it’s obstruction of duties! You’ve all lined your bellies with our taxes!”
The woman spat “ptooey” on the floor and stormed out of the station.
She’d spoken harshly, but from the chief’s expression it didn’t look like he intended to scare her with charges.
“Damn, where the hell did that brat go?”
Frowning helplessly in front of the station was Eun Miwon.
Lee Hyoeun’s mother.
At some point, seeing the piled-up dishes and laundry made her realize her daughter wasn’t coming home.
She tried to contact her, but it seemed her number and KakaoTalk had both been blocked. Nothing got through.
In the end, she filed a missing-person report right away, but all she got back was that they could tell her life or death, not her location.
“Ha, this won’t do….”
Miwon stamped her feet for a moment.
“F**k….”
Muttering a curse, she started walking. She felt like she needed a drink to soothe her foul mood.
With the cash she had, a bar was out of the question, so she planned to get booze on credit at the neighborhood shop.
Jingle.
The clear bell rang as she opened the shop door.
“Welcome… Oh, Hyoeun’s mom, huh?”
The shop owner spotted her and greeted her with a distinctly unwelcoming look.
‘Running just a corner store and acting so high and mighty…’
Miwon’s mood soured; without answering, she walked over and grabbed as many bottles of soju as she could in both hands.
Thunk.
She plunked the bottles onto the counter and said,
“Hyoeun will come pay.”
“Hyoeun?”
“Yeah, hurry up and bag these.”
But the owner looked her up and down, then shifted his gaze to the TV he was watching.
“What are you doing? Not bagging them?”
She asked again, but the owner kept responding with silence.
“Hey! Are my words a joke to you? I said bag them!”
At that, the shop owner snapped back.
“Hey yourself? You think words alone make it so?”
“Then why are you ignoring me? And isn’t it normal for a shop owner to bag items for a customer buying from the shop?”
“Watch your mouth. When did you ‘buy’ anything? You’re always running a tab under your daughter’s name!”
“I raised her, didn’t I? As her mother, can’t she cover a measly tab? Who are you to run your mouth about someone else’s family?”
“I haven’t seen Hyoeun around lately. Didn’t she run away because she’s sick of her drunk of a mom?”
At that, Miwon lunged for the owner and grabbed a fistful of hair.
“Say that again!”
“Hey, let go of me, will you?”
“I said say it again!”
When the owner reached for the landline and dialed 112, she snatched it away and flung it.
“You f**ing btch! Just because your mouth’s open, you think you can say whatever you want!”
For a moment, the shop turned into a madhouse.
“Argh! I’m not letting this slide! Let go!”
Between the screams and shouts of the two women, the drama’s OST drifted in.
She froze.
For an instant, Miwon’s hand paused mid-twist in the owner’s hair.
— I never dreamed it was my hands tying the two of them together.
Mi-won snapped her head toward the TV behind the counter.
— Had I known it would turn out that way, I would have passed by pretending not to see.
A drama she’d never seen before was airing on the screen, but….
‘Why?’
The singing voice coming from it sounded so familiar.
Miwon loosened her grip on the owner’s hair.
— I would have gone my whole life not knowing, skirting around it.
She wasn’t completely certain.
But the voice in the drama was definitely her daughter’s.
Right.
The kid who’d only ever done part-time jobs had suddenly disappeared, and she’d wondered where she was staying. Was she making money with this?
Ah.
Back in school, there was a time she fussed about doing music that didn’t pay.
“Pffft—”
The corners of her mouth kept curling upward.
Soon after, as if she’d never been angry, Mi-won clutched her stomach and burst into roaring laughter.
“Hahahahaha!”
In the store, the drama OST and her laughter tangled together into a bizarre din.
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