Pen and Paper Translations

Mateo was currently extremely angry.

No wonder.

It was because he had learned the news of his daughter’s romance through an article.

On top of that, he had mustered up the courage to contact his daughter, only to be ruthlessly ignored.

“Are you telling me it is true that my daughter is dating some guy called HS?!”

To think she was dating a foreign composer whose name he had never even heard!

He had opposed it so strongly because he did not want his daughter to ever step into this industry.

In the end, she had become a singer, and now she had even ended up meeting a composer like her mother.

“Wait a moment, are you saying that Sarah Stewart is your daughter?”

“…”

“I thought you might not have told me, but so you really were hiding it.”

Yes. Sarah Stewart was Mateo’s one and only daughter.

Now that even his wife had passed away from illness…

In a way, she was the only family Mateo had left.

“Wait, I need some time to sort out my thoughts. I will contact you later.”

“Why do we not just meet and talk in person? There are things I want to ask, and I am sure you do as well.”

“Yes, that would be better.”

Austin seemed quite flustered, as if he had had no idea about this which was understandable enough.

“I will come to the Unice building. I think I am the one in more of a hurry.”

After they promised to meet and talk first, he ended the call.

“Ha…”

Mateo covered his eyes with his arm and let out a sigh.

I should not have let her go like that back then.

With that deep regret, Mateo sank into his thoughts.

---

 “I just want to quit everything…”

It was the one line that had made him resolve to marry the wife he later lost.

She had always been someone who radiated bright, positive energy.

At the beginning of their relationship, Mateo liked talking with her. Not so much because their conversations flowed particularly well, but because her voice was so good.

Already well on track to success as a composer, Mateo wrote a song for her and gave it as a present. A song that suited her voice perfectly.

“Is this really a song just for me?”

She liked it more than he had expected. Rather than making a formal debut as a singer, she said she wanted to at least sing the song he had written for her, so she recorded it and released it digitally.

But the problem started when it did far better than he had expected.

At first, she too was bewildered by all the attention and love pouring in from so many people, yet she liked it.

That popularity was probably thanks to the name “Mateo,” but still, a success was a success, so she began full-fledged activities as a singer.

However, by nature she was a free-spirited person. He himself had fallen for that very side of her.

Like a butterfly, like the wind.

She had always led herself wherever her heart reached and hummed whatever she felt like.

At some point, she began to close her mouth and grew reluctant to go outside.

“People are scary now…”

Once it became known that she was dating him, people started making up utterly ridiculous tabloid rumors that she had used him.

They nitpicked what she ate, what she wore, and every place she went.

Even in the midst of that, she kept watching his expression.

Afraid he might be disappointed if she said she wanted to quit.

It was truly foolish.

In the end, unable to endure any longer, she confessed to him that she wanted to quit not only being a singer, but their relationship as well.

Mateo could not allow that.

“You can quit everything else, just do not let go of my hand. I will protect you for the rest of my life.”

From that day, Mateo resolved to marry her. He felt that she had ended up like this because of him, and he wanted to take responsibility and protect her to the very end.

So they held a quiet wedding and secretly had a daughter.

The three of them lived holding their breath, trying as much as possible not to be exposed to the media so that his wife would not become afraid of people again, and so that no bad influence would reach their daughter.

Whenever tabloid articles or paparazzi photos surfaced, Mateo burned inside alone while blocking them with money.

Thanks to that, she gradually faded from people’s memories, and his wife regained her old self.

Mateo threw himself even more into his work.

He had decided to take responsibility for her, and he thought he had to accumulate even more wealth if he was going to protect their daughter.

Then one day…

His little girl said she wanted to become “a singer.”

“That is not allowed!”

To Mateo, those words were like a bolt out of the blue. He had watched his wife crumble, and he could not stand by and watch that a second time.

Moreover, having been entrenched in this field as a composer for so long, he had seen far too many dirty things. He did not want his child to enter this world no matter what.

He wanted her to grow up bright and free, like her mother, without a speck of stain.

Like a butterfly, like the wind.

However, when her mother passed away from illness, his daughter also left his side all at once, like a butterfly, like the wind.

Back then, he had thought that as a last resort he would at least threaten her if he had to in order to stop her.

Perhaps that had been the problem.

After leaving home, she did not contact him again through several changes of season outside the window.

Even so, he did not reach out first. She was a child as free as her mother had been, and he had realized that the more he tried to constrain her, the more she would go astray.

He lived each day thinking that surely the day would come when she needed his help and would contact him.

Then…

The news he suddenly heard was that his daughter had debuted as a singer.

And the very next news he heard was that his daughter was, of all things, dating a composer.

On top of that, for the sake of going to what was apparently that composer’s fan meeting or whatever, she had blown off a scheduled engagement and was being criticized by the public.

Bang!

Mateo slammed his fist down on the table and sprang to his feet.

I have to go see Austin.

Then he made a call to somewhere.

“Tell all the media outlets to take down every single article related to Sarah Stewart immediately.”

He ground his teeth and added in a high-handed tone,

“If they do not want to shut down for good as of today, they had better take them down right now.”

He had not been able to protect his wife, but he would at least protect his daughter.

---

“Why are you so late?”

It was only after thirty minutes had passed in the empty CEO’s office that Austin finally appeared.

“I had a rather important meeting.”

Austin asked his secretary to bring in some tea, then casually took the top seat on the sofa and sat down.

It was clear.

When they had spoken on the phone earlier, he had sounded thoroughly flustered, but now his face was calm, as if nothing had happened.

As expected, a businessman is still a businessman.

Mateo looked at Austin and opened his mouth.

“Then let us get straight to the point.”

“Good. I was busy anyway.”

Then he bluntly stated the reason he had come.

“Make Sarah retire. Right now.”

“I feel like I must have misheard that.”

“No, you heard me correctly.”

“That is not something you get to decide.”

“I came today as her father.”

“Even so, it is not something I can grant.”

Without even pausing to catch their breath, the two of them exchanged words, like watching a battle between spear and shield.

“Legally, Sarah is an adult, and this is something she chose. Ending it is also something only Sarah can do.”

“But…!”

Mateo broke off in the middle of his words and bit his lips hard. It was because he could not very well grab hold of Austin and pour out his entire family story in detail.

“Hm?”

Austin watched him and tactfully shifted the topic.

“Setting that aside, what is it you wanted to ask?”

“Ah, it is not about Sarah. There is a composer named Choi Jihyun that I wanted to ask about.”

At the unexpected words, Austin was startled and repeated, “Choi Jihyun?” Why was that name suddenly coming up?

“Recently I became interested in some songs he distributed through Unice Group, so I was going to ask for his contact information.”

Just as Austin, relieved by those words, lifted his teacup.

“But now I would like to know HS’s number, not his…”

At what came out of Mateo’s mouth, he nearly spilled his tea.

“This is something I should be allowed to ask as Sarah’s father, right?”

“They are not a couple anyway. Sarah said so herself.”

“You never know about that. I need to talk to him myself.”

“I am sorry, but I cannot give you his number.”

“Why can you not give it to me? In that case I will find it by my own means.”

Just as Austin was about to stop Mateo, who looked ready to go out and hunt down HS immediately.

“Stop it!”

At the sudden shout, they turned their heads to see Sarah standing by the office door, breathing hard.

“Sarah!”

Mateo, seeing her, rushed toward her in a hurry, but…

“Do not come near me!”

His steps halted after only a short distance.

“And I am warning you. Just try contacting HS.”

“Do you really have something going on with that guy? I mean, of all people, why does it have to be a composer!”

“Stop it already! It is my life! Whoever I meet, whatever I do, from now on I do not want you involved!”

As if spitting out all her pent-up resentment, Sarah screamed and then fled the office.

“Sarah…”

Mateo’s hand, which had been reaching toward her, dropped helplessly to his side.

Because Austin had no children, he could not fully grasp what was in his heart.

However, he could at least tell that there was some unspoken circumstance between the two of them.

“The more you try to hold on tight, the more things slip away.”

“Stop picking up these so-called wise sayings from somewhere.”

Mateo roughly brushed off Austin’s hand, which was patting his shoulder, and sat back down on the sofa.

Then, as if his throat were parched, he drained the steaming tea in one gulp.

Watching him, Austin asked quietly,

“But why are you so angry about the fact that he is a composer?”

It was because Mateo’s words about “why of all things a composer” were stuck in his mind.

Mateo was also a composer. Not just any composer, but a top composer to the point that people nicknamed him “Billboard” whenever he touched something. His income was on par with Austin’s, who led Unice Music Group, and he understood better than anyone that a successful composer lived a life where royalties guaranteed he would never starve.

More than anything, HS, too, not only in his own country but already on the Billboard charts, had seized first place and was on the road to success as a composer.

There was no way Mateo had come without looking at least that much up.

So why was it that a composer was no good?

Yet the only answer that came out of his mouth was the flimsy line, “Because I am a composer.”

Finding that frustrating, Austin took out some disinfectant alcohol and scrubbed his hands hard as he asked again,

“So what I am asking is, why are you so worked up when he is a fellow composer?”

“…”

“Hm? Say something.”

Just when Austin was about to run out of patience.

“Composers are the kind of people who always live obsessed with music. Myself included, of course. When that happens, you end up not taking good care of the people around you.”

Mateo’s tightly closed mouth slowly opened.

“Just like I did.”

He added those last words and gave a bitter smile.

“Ah…”

With a faint sigh, Austin closed his mouth. It was a smile containing feelings he knew he could never understand, no matter what.

He could not dare say anything.

Yes.

It was the smile of a father who had lost his daughter.