Sarah arrived in Korea and slipped out discreetly with the manager and security provided by LS Entertainment.
Tap.
Once she climbed into the sleek, well-appointed van, the manager asked, before they set off, if anything was uncomfortable and whether she needed a drink or motion-sickness medicine.
“I’m fine.”
With that short answer, Sarah turned her head away.
As they left the airport, unfamiliar sights passed beyond the car window.
Korea, huh.
It was Sarah’s first time visiting. She had thought someday she might come on an overseas tour, but she hadn’t expected to come this soon.
Moreover, she certainly hadn’t expected to come for the sake of meeting a certain songwriter.
“H… S…”
Sarah slowly mouthed the composer’s name, one letter at a time.
So then.
“Could that East Asian young man be HS?”
If not, then what kind of person would he be? Would he be someone capable of arranging her song to her satisfaction?
“I’d better meet him quickly.”
Lost in these and other thoughts, Sarah’s eyes slid shut.
It was because the long flight had left her tired.
They must have nearly reached their destination. With a slight jolt and shake, the car came to a complete stop.
“Ahem.”
Putting on a calm face as if she hadn’t been sleeping, Sarah quietly opened the door and got out.
“Where should I go?”
The manager assigned by LS Entertainment said he would show her the way and took the lead.
Even at a glance, the elevator reeked of meticulous upkeep, and the two of them stepped inside.
Whirr.
A mechanical hum sounded for a moment.
Ding!
With a crisp chime, the elevator doors opened at once. Through the gap, she could see a long corridor that looked like it might never end.
“Just looking at it makes me carsick.”
Shouldn’t they have offered motion-sickness pills now, not back at the airport?
The interior was so big and maze-like that such a thought crossed her mind.
Right.
The LS Entertainment headquarters seemed considerably larger than she had roughly imagined.
As Sarah was looking over the artists’ photos lining the hallway…
“Here we are.”
The manager indicated a massive door and stepped aside.
“If you wait inside for a bit, he’ll be here shortly.”
Sarah faintly knit her brows. She had come all the way to Korea herself, and rather than him waiting inside, she was to wait for him to come?
However, she decided to just let it go. It was likely the usual pointless posturing artists did.
“Very well.”
Composing her expression as if nothing were amiss, Sarah stepped through the door the manager opened.
It must have been a reception room used to receive important guests. The interior was strikingly opulent.
“They pulled out some stops.”
From the chandelier glittering on the ceiling, flaunting its presence, to the luxurious sofa and display cabinets that looked to be made of wood weathered by time, everything said so.
Plop.
She claimed what was clearly the seat of honor, crossed her legs, and sat.
“Whew.”
She then let out a sigh laced with tension. Strange. There was no reason to be this nervous.
“Calm down, calm down.”
Oddly, the more she tried to calm herself, the more her heartbeat intensified in the opposite direction.
Thud, thud, thud!
Her heart seemed to be booming out of her throat, the sound echoing in her own ears.
Come on.
She was just meeting a composer from a small country called Korea, wasn’t she?
Of course, she had come herself because she was eager to confirm quickly whether he was in fact the eccentric young man from the café, but it might also turn out he wasn’t.
More than anything… even if that young man and the composer “HS” were the same person, there was absolutely no reason for her to be trembling.
“I’m Sarah Stewart.”
Despite the words, she had to clutch her trembling legs that were shaking like the leaves of a trembling aspen. She clutched hard with her hands to force herself to hold on when she felt a her phone vibrate.
Bzzz!
At the small vibration, Sarah startled hard and snatched up her phone.
[Austin]
The notification on the screen showed a text from her CEO, Austin. Why send a message at this timing and scare a person like that?
[Oh right, one advance tip: when you meet him, don’t be surprised.]
He’d already startled her and now he was telling her not to be surprised?
Bzzz!
A second text arrived right after.
Creeeeak.
Before she could even check the contents of the message, the reception room door opened.
Through the gap in the door, she lifted her gaze slowly from the long legs stepping in.
“Fuck…”
Instead of a greeting, a curse slipped out of Sarah’s mouth.
“Well now, that’s awfully strong for a first hello.”
The man presumed to be the composer “HS” spoke, but since it wasn’t English and he was wearing a helmet, she couldn’t make out what he’d said.
Yes.
HS came to their first meeting wearing a helmet. A wildly bizarre-looking helmet at that.
“Wh-what is… this…”
Sarah faltered up from her seat for a moment.
Slide.
She checked the phone in her hand.
[The composer HS walks around wearing a flaming helmet you’d expect a villain to wear.]
On the screen was Austin’s message.
[So, absolutely do not be surprised.]
It was a warning that had come far too late.
The first meeting between Hyunseung and Sarah took on an unusual air.
Sarah’s wary gaze.
“Hmmm…”
Looking at her like that, Hyunseung set his hands on his hips.
So then.
How was he to tame that puppy, baring its teeth and growling right from the first meeting?
He hadn’t called her to come; she herself had said she would come find him, hadn’t she?
So then why was she now looking at him with sharpened eyes, as if dealing with some suspicious outsider?
In the end, unable to understand her reaction at all, Hyunseung looked down at the seated Sarah and asked:
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
At his question in English, Sarah narrowed her eyes for a beat.
“What is it?”
Then she lifted her chin stiffly and said in an aggressive tone:
“I didn’t expect you to speak English.”
“If I couldn’t, I would have come with an interpreter.”
“Then why did you start in Korean?”
At that question, Hyunseung retraced what he’d said.
Ah.
Without realizing it, he’d muttered to himself that her opening was a bit too strong for a first greeting.
“You suddenly swore in your language, so I indulged in a little cursing in mine.”
Not really cursing, to be precise.
“What? You cursed?”
“Kidding, kidding.”
Seeing her eyes flare as she got worked up was funny, and he’d simply wanted to tease her more.
“Honestly, dirty jokes at a first meeting, and showing up in a helmet.”
Apparently not at all fond of his mischievous style of greeting, Sarah added with a thoroughly displeased face:
“You have no manners.”
But Hyunseung was not the sort to bat an eye at that.
“Me? That can’t be. How odd.”
With a smirking yet precisely mocking tone, he went on, poking at her:
“Didn’t you yourself set conditions because you don’t want to be exposed to people—no disclosure externally, different exit at the airport, even your lodging? I also very much dislike being exposed.”
Soon he took the seat just to her right and added:
“Especially if the other party is someone I don’t find trustworthy.”
And then…
Clack.
He lifted the front shield of the helmet and looked squarely at Sarah.
“Above all, what you’re wearing right now… are those sunglasses or part of your body?”
By the time Hyunseung finished, Sarah was already out of words.
“Ah…”
Unable to come up with a rebuttal, she bit her hapless lips.
He was insufferable, but every single thing he said was true, so there was no way to press him.
Moreover, meeting his eyes made it certain. The eccentric East Asian young man she’d once encountered in a café… and the composer HS were one and the same.
In that case, she wanted to ask:
If he’d only glanced at her sheet music in passing, how could he instantly see the problems?
Had he really done the arrangement to fit the way her voice spoke?
“Ahem, hmm!”
After a moment of awkward throat-clearing,
“Then let’s skip the petty stuff.”
she regained her swagger, like a snake slipping over a wall, and continued in a brazen tone:
“Since it seems you carefully looked over the conditions I proposed one by one, I’ll be direct.”
Finding such a Sarah amusing, Hyunseung stayed still and lent an ear, as if to say, go ahead.
“I’ve come to ask if you’d consider arranging my new song.”
Yup, this woman really is an oddball.
“Then I’ll be just as direct.”
With a faintly smiling face, Hyunseung answered at once:
“I sent an official letter to ask you to sing my song. Not to arrange someone else’s.”
Though she faltered for a beat at that firm reply, Sarah feigned composure and bobbed her head slightly.
Right.
This too was one of those common turf wars between artists.
Whoever yielded here would end up having to match the other side all the way through the work.
That would not do.
Sarah answered just as hard:
“In that case, it can’t be helped. I absolutely do not sing anything I didn’t compose myself.”
At that, the eyebrows visible through HS’s helmet twitched.
“What kind of stubbornness is that?”
“It’s my conviction.”
“Well, in that case there’s nothing to be done.”
There we go. In the end she’d cave and—
“Nice meeting you.”
Contrary to what she expected, HS said his farewells and rose to his feet.
“Have a safe trip back.”
As if he had not a shred of regret.
“W-wait!”
Sarah sprang up after him and called out urgently.
“Do you have some business?”
At her call, HS turned back.
“If you’ve nothing to say, I’m busy, so I’ll be off.”
There was a playful smile in HS’s eyes.
“Infuriating.”
It felt like even this situation had been calculated, like he was toying with her, and irritation boiled up.
Nothing was going her way.
However, she couldn’t just leave like this.
Right, having come all the way to this far-off Korean land, she had to take something back with her, didn’t she?
If not the arrangement for a new song, then at least a proper arrangement, just once, of the sheet music he’d lightly touched up when they’d met at the café…
Yes.
If she went back with nothing, her memories of Korea would be nothing but “embarrassment” or “humiliation.”
“D-do you have a song already made… to give me right now?”
In the end, she had to say the reluctant words she absolutely didn’t want to say.
“Of course.”
Wearing a winner’s smile, relaxed, Hyunseung nodded.
“Th-then…”
Sarah squeezed her eyes shut and blurted it out:
“S-should I… at least listen to it?”
The outcome had been foreseen from the moment she came to him first.
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