Mateo had been poking around here and there day and night lately, trying to obtain information about HS.
Even when his daughter had left home, he had not gone this far in asking around.
You could call it cold but she had already been an adult, and he was sure she had declared she was leaving only after setting aside plenty of extra money from the allowance he had given her.
And he had a firm belief that once her spare money ran out or enough time passed, she would contact him again. She was his daughter, after all, not someone else.
Rustle, rustle.
Shaking off his thoughts, Mateo began writing down, one by one in his notebook, the information he had collected.
- HS is Korean.
- HS is a contracted composer at LS Entertainment.
- HS is a successful composer in Korea.
- HS has a perfectionist tendency.
- HS goes around wearing a weird helmet.
- HS is handsome.
Once he wrote it out like this, somehow they all sounded like good things.
But the more that was the case, the less Mateo liked HS.
He wanted to get in touch immediately, either through the press or through LS Entertainment, but for the moment, he had no “pretext” to do so.
His daughter was the only link connecting him to HS, and the world still did not know that fact.
HS would not know either, if his daughter had not told him.
More than anything, his daughter’s words stuck in his mind.
“And I am warning you, just try contacting HS.”
Just who did that brat think he was…
“Really, I do not like him.”
Soon Mateo began to write down, one by one, “Reasons I dislike HS” over the notes.
- HS is Korean.
↳ If Sarah marries him, she might end up going to live in Korea, so that is a no.
- HS is a contracted composer at LS Entertainment.
↳ A composer who is attached somewhere has to produce a set number of songs, so he may have time constraints.
- HS is a successful composer in Korea.
↳ The more successful he is, the easier it is for him to be at the center of controversy, so absolutely not.
- HS has a perfectionist tendency.
↳ There is a very high possibility that, crazed with music, he will leave Sarah on her own.
- HS goes around wearing a weird helmet.
↳ Makes one doubt his mental state.
- HS is handsome.
↳ Handsome, handsome, handsome. . . . .
For a moment he only stabbed the page with his pen, dot after dot, as if to punch a hole through the notebook.
“Seriously, what is so good about that foppish1 pretty boy!”
He suddenly slammed the table with a bang and shouted. On the phone screen lying next to his hand, HS’s face was displayed.
It was probably a photo taken at the fan meeting his daughter had gone to even at the cost of blowing off her schedule, and the more he looked at it, the less he liked it.
The good looks, the shirt opened at the collar.
“What kind of composer holds a fan meeting!”
Right now, nothing about him sat right with Mateo. People say a father can never truly be satisfied with the man his daughter brings home, but even considering that, this was the worst.
If he was at the level of holding fan meetings…
That meant he was not just some moderately successful composer in Korea, but someone with an established fandom.
You could tell just from the visuals.
When he checked through a Korean media outlet, it turned out that even though he had not even been debuted three years yet and was still a chick, he had already been the subject of several issues.
He had bet with a senior composer on digital performance, and although it had later been revealed to be a setup, there had also been trashy rumors that he was gay or that he did drugs.
‘No.’
Whatever he might be to other people, to Mateo, HS was a man with the worst possible conditions.
In a way, maybe it was because he resembled Mateo’s own circumstances that he disliked him even more.
The daughter who was as precious as his own life…
He only hoped she would not walk the same path as his wife.
Mateo shifted his gaze to the family photo on the table. In it, his wife, himself, and their daughter were all smiling, warmly holding one another in their arms.
Back then, they would never have known that their family would end up shattered like this.
‘If I could turn back time…’
Mateo was just sinking into a deep reverie when—
Ding!
—a sudden notification sound snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Huh?”
Checking the text message, Mateo’s pupils shook helplessly, like a lone thorn bush standing in a strong wind.
“W-what is this?”
It was because the content of the message was enough to jolt him awake.
Given the nature of the department called Public Relations, there was no such thing as a fixed lunch hour. You just ate in turns or caught a brief nap whenever you had a bit of free time.
And yet today.
They had all skipped lunch and sleep, huddling around Team Leader Kwak’s desk.
“Are we really allowed to do this?”
“I know, right….”
“But it is seriously huge.”
Half of them wore worried expressions, while the other half looked excited, as if they found it entertaining.
What they were all looking at was a translated version of an article that had gone up on CNC, an American news channel.
[ Composer HS causes a stir after challenging composer “Mateo” to a digital performance showdown via his personal SNS. ]
And in another window….
○ G_HS: There can’t be two suns in the sky.
♥
Liked by rmftmddl and 86,579 others.
○ G_HS: Shall we settle this with digital performance? @mateo
It was a post on HS’s new SNS account, belonging to none other than LS Entertainment’s sore spot, Hyunseung.
“Sir.”
Looking worried, Team Leader Kwak called out to Kim Woohyun.
“Hmm…”
Instead of answering, Woohyun leaned his thigh against the desk and only let out a low hum, his expression very serious.
Even so, this much he had to say.
“I heard from a reporter friend at one of the outlets that lately Mateo has been going around stirring up Korean media, asking questions about ‘HS’.”
“Mateo has?”
“Yes. No one knows why, but apparently he told them to tell him even the most trivial things.”
“What does he want with Hyunseung….”
“And in the middle of all this, now Hyunseung posts something like this. What if this blows up on us?”
Kim Woohyun pressed his lips back into a line. In any case, for the moment, Hyunseung was away dealing with the move, so there was no way to ask him about this situation.
‘He must be swamped already…’
Woohyun scratched his jaw for a moment.
“Let’s just leave it alone.”
As if it were nothing, he closed all the news windows open on his monitors.
“Director, wait. Still, we should check the situation and then take action….”
“Now that it has come to this, we should make use of the situation ourselves. The response to HS from the American side is good right now anyway, is it not?”
“That is true, but…”
“Let us keep feeding the story from our side too and set up a dueling ground just for the two of them.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Since it has come to this, would it not be good if they could face off on a big scale?”
Kwak looked at Kim as if he found him puzzling.
The Kim Woohyeon he knew had always been the type to resolve problems calmly and carefully.
But now, for some reason, he was suggesting a solution that was not only bold but bordering on tough.
“Hmmm….”
Just as Kwak hesitated, unable to readily say they should do that—
Thump!
Kim Woohyun set his broad palm down on the desk, adding with emphasis.
“Set the stage properly. The bigger the stage is, the more widely the name HS will spread.”
Overwhelmed for a moment by his voice, which seemed to dominate the whole room, the people in PR all nodded at once.
At that moment, it felt like they would have to obey even if Kim told them to play dead.
Suddenly, an odd tension filled the PR office, but only for a moment.
“Oh?!”
One of the employees standing next to Team Leader Kwak cried out in a flustered voice.
“A-according to CNC, an interview article from Mateo’s side just went up!”
“What? Already?”
“Yes! I will send you the link right now, Team Leader!”
Soon after.
Receiving the link, Kwak immediately opened the article window in a large view.
[ Mateo responds to the controversy: “HS? Who is that?” ]
Seeing the headline, they all thought the same thing.
Ah.
Mateo had taken the bait.
The world-famous composer Mateo spoke up right away about the recent buzz.
On the morning of that day, composer HS uploaded a post on his newly opened SNS account with a photo bearing the meaningful phrase “There can’t be two suns in the sky,” tagging Mateo and suggesting they “settle it through a digital performance showdown.”
HS’s post became a tremendous topic on SNS, and in response, Mateo stated that “this is the first time I have heard of a composer named HS,” saying he simply viewed it as “youthful bravado”…
Even without Kim Woohyun goading them, the stage was going to grow on its own.
Among all the people whose fates were becoming tangled in ever more complicated ways, who had been hurt the most?
HS? Sarah Stewart? Mateo?
No.
It was Vincent Mah.
“Ah….”
Looking at the Billboard chart, Vincent let out a small sigh.
Number one had been his.
Naturally.
He had been number one, and he should have been number one.
But then suddenly, the dating rumor between Sarah Stewart and HS broke, and his song had been pushed down to third place.
And that was not all.
Once HS, who had begun attracting attention due to the dating rumor, sent a “challenge letter” to Mateo, people started paying even more attention to “HS.”
And when it became known that “Villain daddy,” which had previously gone viral as a challenge song, was also a track by HS, it began to overtake his songs at a frightening pace.
As a result….
The chart now looked like this.
[ Billboard Hot 100 ]
1 Look at me – Sarah Stewart
2 Black angel – Sarah Stewart
3 Villain daddy – Moon Beomjae (prod. HS)
4 fuckkkkkk – Sarah Stewart
5 Black angel – Vincent Mah
6 More than just music – Vincent Mah
This could not be happening.
On top of that, “More than just music” now ranked lower than his own remake of Sarah Stewart’s song “Black angel.”
Clearly, this had to be all because of HS.
‘HS…’
Right now, Vincent even found himself thinking something stupid like, ‘If I had released my song under the name HS, would the result have been different?’
It was an excuse Vincent would normally never make.
It was true that he had worked with renowned composers and producers all this time.
But that did not mean he had succeeded thanks to them.
No, it was purely thanks to Vincent’s own astounding vocal ability and voice.
On that point, everyone in the world had no choice but to admit it.
And yet, right now, Vincent was thinking that his charting had dropped because he had not received the “HS” boost.
To be honest, that was partly true.
Staring at HS’s photo, Vincent let out a quiet hum.
“Hmm….”
It was a picture that had been retweeted endlessly on Switter under the title “Sarah Stewart’s man.”
Whether because of the photo or not….
HS already had fans springing up all over the United States.
“That is it.”
As if something had occurred to him, Vincent snapped his fingers, then a sly smile spread across his face.
Soon after, Vincent immediately called HS.
Riiing, riiiing.
As the dial tone went on,
“Hi.”
He heard the familiar voice, and Vincent pressed the receiver close as if he were about to jump through it, throwing out his proposal at once.
“HS, how about joining hands with me?”
“Creepy. Why would I join hands with you?”
“No, I am not saying we should literally hold hands.”
“Then what is it?”
A brief silence passed.
“Let us start a label together.”
Vincent answered, the corners of his mouth curling in a sly grin.
“You become producer and CEO. I will be the signed artist. Of course, I will put up all the startup capital.”
“You are going to leave Unice Music Group?”
“If we start a label together, of course I am leaving.”
“I am not leaving though.”
“Why not? I said I would fund everything. Even if it fails, you do not lose anything.”
“I have a lot of money too, so having you put up capital is not a big merit.”
In that moment, Vincent thought, “Ah, right.”
Of course.
Now that guy’s name had begun ringing out on the Billboard chart as well, he was surely raking in unimaginable royalties.
In other words, when it came to money, he was not someone who lacked anything.
“Fine, set the money aside then!”
Vincent instantly came up with another angle and continued.
“If you start a one-man label in America with me, you will be able to sit on a pile of money without putting in that much effort and gain the title of CEO too. Is that not a huge merit in itself?”
But HS, who had seemed to be listening quietly, refused as soon as Vincent finished speaking, as if he had been waiting for the chance.
“If it is that great, do it with your friend.”
Vincent felt as if he had taken a blow to the back of the head; his mind went hazy.
‘Why on earth…?’
If Vincent had grabbed some random composers and made exactly the same proposal, they would have accepted on the spot.
Why?
Think about it.
He was not only putting up all the capital, he was even offering the CEO seat, which was already amazing.
On top of that, whatever song it was, if Vincent sang it, it went to Billboard.
Which meant, the income that label could earn would be incalculable.
What was more,
‘It would be a chance to have me all to yourself!’
That he could refuse such an offer without even a moment’s hesitation was something Vincent simply could not understand.
“W-wait… why are you turning this down?”
“You said it is a one-man label, right? That means I would only have you as my instrument.”
Vincent let out a short sigh.
“Ha, that again….”
The fact that he was still going on about “instruments” made it clear that even if they did start a label together, HS would go on calling him an instrument.
But he had no intention of giving up over that. He had already done the math and concluded that the “benefits” he would gain by working with HS far outweighed the shame of being called an instrument.
And since it would be a one-man label, it was not like anyone else would be around to watch.
“In that case it is no fun. I will pretend I never heard this.”
“Wait a second, at this point do you not need to think less about fun and more about a bigger pond….”
“If it is a one-man label, you can just do everything by yourself. Good luck.”
Even as Vincent cried, “W-wait a minute!” to stop him—
Click.
The call had already been mercilessly cut off on the other end.
Ah, really…
He was truly a pro at making people crave him…
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