On the set of the drama Red Thread.
During a brief break before the final shoot, people gathered in little groups, chattering about what ratings tonight’s episode would get.
Amid all that—
— There’s so much left unsaid, but please, don’t even choke up.
From a quiet pavilion, the drama’s main OST, “Only After the Flowers Have Faded” was flowing gently.
— Aren’t flowers, of course, meant to fade?
The one who had put the song on and was savoring it with his ears was none other than Ahn Jiho.
“Phew…”
Before emotional scenes he always made sure to listen to this track, and thanks to it he’d made it through filming without getting swept into any “bad acting” controversy, keeping everything steady.
“Ahh.”
Listening to the song, Jiho let out one little exclamation after another.
— Let’s not say this isn’t fate between us.
He didn’t know the composer’s exact age, but at a glance HS seemed around his own.
How could he capture this kind of feeling?
“I respect that.”
Someone answered his mutter.
“I do respect it.”
Startled by the sudden voice, Jiho flinched and glanced around to find where it had come from.
“Over here, here.”
With another cute voice and a light tap on his shoulder, he whipped his head around to see a petite woman standing there.
She had a cute look that made “girl” seem more fitting than “woman.”
Who is she?
With a cautious gaze, Jiho swept his eyes over her.
He’d made a point of memorizing the faces of most staff and contacts, but he’d never seen this one before.
A fan who slipped in?
But even if you try To Memorize everyone, there are day-of support staff, so he couldn’t conclude she was an outsider.
“Excuse me, who might you be? I think this is my first time seeing you…”
“Ah, of course! It’s my first time on set, too.”
Smiling brightly, she hurried to hand him a business card.
“I’m Jo Narae, music direction for this drama. Please take good care of me. You know Director Ahn Sojeong, right? I’m assisting her.”
“Ah, someone with a big role in our show… I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. Please take good care of me as well.”
Jiho immediately returned the smile and offered a handshake.
“Goodness, look at me. Actually shaking an idol’s hand.”
Her smooth, almost middle-aged-man banter didn’t match her cute image and caught him off guard for a moment…
Still. Since she’d handled one of the biggest factors in the drama’s success which is the OST, Jiho could only be glad To Meet her.
Well, okay.
More than the drama’s success, he liked that a song by HS had been used as the OST.
No need to say that out loud, though.
“You must really like HS.”
At Jo Narae’s remark, Jiho faltered and said, “Huh?”
Pretty sure he’d only thought that to himself. Did he accidentally say it?
“Uh…”
He floundered for a bit and then, “Well, he is my benefactor.”
He answered simply, averting his eyes. For some reason it felt like he’d been found out. He was embarrassed.
Then Narae declared in a plucky voice,
“He’s a benefactor to our music-direction team too! So I really like HS as well!”
Fair enough.
Word had it that Hidden was supposed to do the work, but kept putting it off, delaying production.
HS had suddenly shown up like a savior, solved the problem, and even generated buzz, so he was a benefactor to everyone involved with Red Thread.
“Mm, maybe the right way to put it is: I love the music he makes.”
“Ahh…”
“And they say he’s very handsome, right? Is that true? Gosh, then I guess there’s just no way anyone could dislike him—”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, come on. What woman dislikes a handsome man?”
The stream of words left Jiho dizzy.
The gap between her cute, pure face and that chattery, faintly dialect-tinged, hearty way of talking was probably why he felt dizzy.
“But the composer never once shows up. Today’s the last day of filming, so I begged the director to let me tag along, thinking maybe he’d come cheer you on.”
Jiho wanted to say, That guy would never come.
As far as he knew, HS was not the sort to visit a set just to cheer him on.
But saying that outright might hurt Hyunseung’s image, so he’d need to soften it.
“He’s just extremely busy.”
“Well, true enough. Do you and the composer keep in touch personally?”
At that, Jiho planted a hand on his hip like he’d been waiting for it and answered right away.
“Of course.”
He looked so self-assured that Narae snorted a laugh.
Then, she took a careful step closer and continued,
“The truth is, I told HS I really wanted to buy him a meal, but since then he’s… totally ignored all my messages.”
“Oh, really? He usually reaches out To Me first.”
Well, to pull a prank or ask for a favor… but still, it’s not technically a lie, right?
“Wow, seriously? You must be super close with him.”
“Eh, sort of…”
“In that case, could you pass along a message for me?”
“What is it?”
“Please tell him I’m so grateful and I really, really want to treat him to a meal just once. I know he’s busy, but ask him to please take my call.”
Jiho couldn’t immediately say sure.
Because if he followed her request and asked, he might be the one who gets blocked.
“W-would that be hard?”
Still, Jiho couldn’t easily turn down a lady’s request.
“I’ll… ”
He hesitated, then,
“I’ll at least pass it on.” he said, keeping his face neutral as he pulled out his phone and gave it a little wave.
“Thank you!”
Narae smiled broadly, like a lotus blossom opening on the pond in front of the pavilion.
Meanwhile…
— Because someday, we’ll meet again.
Hyunseung’s “Only After the Flowers Have Faded” kept playing.
Lee Hyoeun’s “To Me” was released.
The reaction…as expected, was good. You couldn’t call it explosive, but it was definitely a solid start.
[Is Lee Hyoeun the perfect case of “that kid is that kid”? When I heard her on the Red Thread OST I kinda thought she was a gugak singer, so I didn’t even look her up lol. But when I listened to this release, To Me, the vibe is completely different. As expected, people that LS picks up and Etches chooses—there’s always a difference, of some kind.]
They’d pushed aggressive promo using every channel available, but the fact that Red Thread was still airing and her song was an OST certainly helped.
Honestly speaking… the single best promo was probably that one line: “Composed by HS.”
[I just hit play because it said HS composed it, didn’t even check the title? But somehow it made me weirdly sad; it’s not like the vibe is blatantly sad or the lyrics are trying to make you cry… Then I checked the title and started ugly-crying. I don’t even know why. Anyone else like me?]
↳ 222 I burned through a whole box of tissues before the first verse even ended
↳ Feels more like you’re comforting and soothing yourself—that’s why it hits harder
↳ I heard HS is taciturn—how does he make songs like this?
↳ Well.
↳ Who doesn’t know it has to be well-made; are you Mr. T-val or something?
Because she was nervous, Hyoeun clutched her phone in Hyunseung’s studio and downed bottle after bottle of water.
“Hey, you a hippo?”
“N-no.”
“You’re going to drain the studio’s whole water supply.”
Even at his scolding, she couldn’t tear her eyes off her phone.
For the first time in her life… the rush of attention aimed at her made it hard to keep her head straight.
Above all, it was especially gratifying to see the public seeming to grasp exactly what she’d meant by titling the song “To Me”.
Deciding to just leave her be, Hyunseung picked up his own phone.
He was checking the cafeteria menu for today.
“Oh.”
Seeing that sweet-and-sour pork was on for dinner, he let out a small exclamation.
“The reaction’s good, right?”
Hyoeun, misunderstanding, thought he was responding to netizen reactions to “To Me”.
“Yeah, it’s good.”
He’d only heard the “It’s good, right?” at the end. Thinking the day’s menu looked pretty good overall, he nodded.
While they were having this little “same bed, different dreams” moment, a notification flashed on Hyunseung’s screen.
It was a KaTalk from Ahn Jiho.
[ Foal-Jiho: Thanks to the awesome OST you made, I wrapped the final shoot today really well. ]
What did his own drama shoot have to do with the OST anyway? OSTs get laid in during post.
What’s with this kid’s concept lately?
As he shook his head, another message popped in.
[ Foal-Jiho: Also, the music director asked me to tell you she’s so grateful and really wants to treat you to a meal. ]
By “music director,” he meant that woman?
Since he was ignoring her, she’d apparently gone so far as to ask Jiho to deliver the plea.
Should I block Jiho for a bit, too?
For a moment, a cleanly furrowed frown crumpled his smooth brow.
It was because the woman’s voice rang in his ears like a phantom echo.
Slide—
Judging it best for his mental health to just lightly ignore it, Hyunseung was about to slip his phone back into his pocket when—
Bzzz—!
The phone buzzed again. This time, actually thinking he should block Jiho, he checked the alert.
“Ah.”
His face rapidly cooled.
Because—
[ D-3 ]
This time it wasn’t from Jiho but a text from Moon Beomjae.
Three days remained until the day he had to fulfill the condition he’d exchanged for recording “Villain daddy”.
Like receiving a draft notice, Hyunseung’s face went chalk-white, and Hyoeun asked, worried,
“You okay? Something wrong?”
Without answering, he shoved the phone deep into his pocket.
I completely forgot.
They say a person’s mood going into the bathroom and coming out are two different things.
“Sigh…”
He was no different from anyone else.
When it was time to record “Villain daddy,” everything had been so urgent and there was no one else to fill in that he’d shouted “Deal!” no matter what condition Moon Beomjae named.
But when his turn actually came, the dread arrived hand-in-hand.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Face clouded with concern, Hyoeun spoke up again.
“If it’s something I can do, I’ll do anything.”
“Really? Anything?”
Something seemed to occur to him; color returned to his face.
“Yeah! Anything!”
“For real?”
“Mm, what is it?”
Then Hyunseung picked up his trademark helmet from where it sat neatly on a shelf in the corner of the studio and handed it to her.
“You just need to be me… for exactly five minutes.”
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