Pen and Paper Translations

Chapter 299

Two days later, Hyunseung went back to his studio.

─ ♬ ♬ ♬

He immediately started dropping chords. It was not that some musical inspiration had suddenly struck.

He was just doing it for fun, like a hobby, because he did not particularly have anything else to do.

This was often how masterpieces ended up being born.

While he was steadily filling up the empty sections,

“Ah, right.”

A memory that had sunk completely below the surface suddenly floated back up.

“Mateo.”

Right, he had called on moving day two days ago.

He had almost completely forgotten.

He had chased after him so hard, and yet the shock had been so strong that day
(*the effectiveness of his little sister’s frame-gift attack had been tremendous)
that he really had forgotten all about it.

─ ♬ ♬ ♬

Was it this number? When he tapped in the number from two days ago, a ringback tune came on. It was the song “of you,” called a legendary masterpiece and the track that had practically made Mateo who he was now.

It had been quite a sensational piece.

As Hyunseung hummed along to it, a low voice came through the receiver.

“Hello.”

There was a faint rumble of anger in it, like a lion, king of the jungle, growling just before it bares its teeth.

“So you finally decided to call.”

He apparently had every intention of repeating their bad connection from the previous life, showing his displeasure without filtering it in the slightest.

“Yes, I have been busy with this and that.”

“Anyone hearing this would think I have been the one chasing you.”

“You have been chasing me though.”

Silence suddenly fell on the other end. He must be embarrassed. Maybe he should have played dumb.

But through Gye Jinseong, he had already heard all about how Mateo had been tearing through various media outlets asking about him, so acting like he did not know was harder.

“Hm?”

Just as he was wondering if the call had been cut because there was no sound at all from the other side,

“Anyway, let me just ask you one thing.”

Mateo spoke again.

“What is it?”

Hyunseung had a lot of things he wanted to ask first, but out of respect for his elder, he decided to yield the floor.

He figured the man would probably ask something meaningless like whether he was serious about a digital showdown, or how a commercial composer dared to think he could really beat him.

He had been like that in the previous life too.

As Hyunseung adjusted his grip on the phone, thinking he would hear him out,

“What are you to Sarah Stewart?”

The question that came out of Mateo’s mouth made him drop his phone.

Not because he was flustered, but because it was so completely out of nowhere.

No way, this guy…

Had he been chasing him around all this time to complain as a fan of Sarah Stewart?

---

Meanwhile, with the phone pressed tight to his ear, Mateo frowned at the loud crash he heard from the other side.

It sounded like HS had dropped his phone after hearing his question.

He must be flustered.

But he had not expected him to show his fluster so blatantly.

‘Did Sarah say something to him?’

No. If she had, he never would have provoked him in the first place, and he would not have bothered to call him back.

Wait a second.

Surely his daughter had not asked him to do this, had she? Because she hated him so much, asking him as a fellow composer to bring that kid down a peg….

No, that was too much of a leap.

His daughter was not foolish enough to waste her time plotting revenge.

Soon a voice full of suspicion came back through the receiver.

“Why are you asking that?”

Judging from his reaction, it seemed clear he still had no idea that Sarah Stewart was Mateo’s daughter.

“Just answer.”

He had no intention of telling him she was his daughter. He did not trust anyone in this world, so how could he tell something like that to a brat who only existed to him through a receiver?

But he had already spit the question out. If he did not at least hear an answer, it would only create pointless misunderstandings.

So.

Mateo pressed again in a high-handed tone.

“What are you two to each other? Answer me.”

But all he heard from the other side was a prolonged “Hmm.” Maybe he would have to bark at him a little and scare him.

“Performer and instrument?”

He heard HS’s playful answer.

Performer and instrument…?

In other words, a relationship that could not be separated even if you wanted to.

A performer needed an instrument to perform, and an instrument could only fulfill its role when it had a performer.

Yes.

It was a very fitting metaphor for two people who had met as composer and singer.

‘This brat…’

Mateo’s clenched fist began to tremble. He was reaching the point where he could no longer hold it in.

“Do not give me vague answers, say it clearly! Since when have you been seeing her? Are you engaged?”

His nostrils flared hotly as his anger boiled over, his breath coming in furious snorts.

“Well? Answer me!”

Everyone has probably been in that situation at least once.

When you yourself are extremely angry, but the other person shows no reaction at all, so it feels like you are talking to a wall.

You feel like you have become that “weird-tempered person” who gets mad over nothing all by yourself.

Right now was exactly like that.

“…”

There was no reply, not even the sound of breathing from the other side.

Mateo’s shoulders, which had been heaving with ragged breaths, gradually settled back into a normal rhythm.

“…”

Only then did his mind snap back into place.

If HS really did not know he was Sarah Stewart’s father….

How must he look in HS’s eyes right now?

‘I am doomed.’

He was probably being seen as some creepy old man secretly in love with Sarah Stewart.

“What I mean is…”

Just as Mateo was racking his brain trying to figure out how to clean up this situation,

“Let us talk in person.”

HS casually tossed out the suggestion in a meaningful tone.

Talk in person? That was exactly what he wanted, this brat!

That was what he wanted to say right away, but he could not bring himself to answer so easily. He was barely managing to control his emotions over the phone. In person, it would be worse.

But HS did not seem like the patient sort.

“I will text you the address and date.”

With that, the call was cut off, just like that.

“Ha…”

He had done the same thing last time too, hanging up first.

---

Right around the time Hyunseung texted Mateo,

Knock, knock, knock.

He heard the knocking that he had grown far too used to by now.

He knew very well that even if he did not answer, the lock would be opened and the person would come in on his own, so why did he knock every time?

“Hyunseung!”

The door opened, and in came Kim Woohyun, swept in like he had been caught by a wave, wearing a rather serious expression.

“What?”

He asked why, but he already knew why Woohyun had come looking for him.

The foreign press material he had had Lee Duseok distribute. His SNS account.

And Mateo, who had been going around domestic media, prying about him.

It would be something along those lines.

His SNS account and the foreign press material had already spread widely in Korea too, to the point that there was no one who did not know.

He had heard about it through Gye Jinseong himself, so it must have reached Kim Woohyun’s ears a hundred times over.

He was probably worried.

Mateo was not an easy opponent.

At least, not in other people’s eyes.

In his previous life, Mateo had called him a commercial composer and spat that such people were quickly forgotten from people’s minds.

And Hyunseung had crushed him on his very first challenge on the Billboard chart.

Not only that.

From then until the moment Mateo retired, he had not yielded first place even once.

Even so, Mateo had always chased him right up to second place, giving him a pleasant sense of tension.

‘He retired after he lost his hearing, if I remember right….’

That was why Hyunseung wanted to face him as soon as possible.

Mateo now would be younger than the Mateo in his previous life.

And the Hyunseung now was not the same as the Hyunseung of his previous life either.

“Are you really going to have a digital showdown with Mateo?”

At that question, Hyunseung simply shrugged. It was true he had challenged him.

But today, the only thing that had come back was a question about Sarah Stewart… nothing had been decided for sure yet.

On top of that, Mateo’s reaction had been so strange that he was more interested in that than in the showdown itself.

Why was he so hung up on “Misut Sarah,” anyway?

Seriously.

Was he some creepy old man secretly in love with Sarah Stewart?

Just then. Grabbing his sleeve, Kim Woohyun asked urgently.

“Why are you not doing it?”

He had thought he was asking out of worry, but apparently not.

“Is he not reacting anymore? No contact?”

“Why are you suddenly not nagging like a mom and instead egging me on?”

“I am not egging you on. I am just saying, now that the stage is set, you should use it.”

“So that is why Korean outlets are working so hard, right? Mom, you set the stage, didn’t you?”

Kim Woohyun scratched the back of his head with an awkward look, mumbling, “Well, I mean…”

“I really need to recoup my principal on this bet this time….”

He muttered his true feelings under his breath.

“You are going to place some weird bet behind my back again, right?”

“We need that to use as motivation to work harder!”

At that, Hyunseung snorted and asked again.

“If you are going to bet, who are you betting on?”

“Rules of the bet say I cannot tell you that!”

Then he turned Kim Woohyun’s body toward the door and added,

“Anyway, nothing has been set in stone yet, so I will let you know later. For now, please leave.”

Caught in Hyunseung’s rough grip, Kim could not really resist.

“I have not even been here five minutes yet.”

“Division Head, you should go back to work.”

“You only call me that when you are drawing a line like this!”

Just as they reached the door.

“Wait, wait!”

Like a child throwing a tantrum when cornered, Kim Woohyun waved his thick arms and shouted.

“I have something I want to ask!”

“What?”

“Let go of me first and then we can talk!”

At that, Hyunseung slowly let go of the shoulder he had been holding.

Standing face to face with him, Kim Woohyun put on an oddly serious expression.

“You…”

What on earth was he about to ask that he had to compose himself like this?

As Hyunseung frowned in impatience, Kim Woohyun’s stiff expression loosened, and his lips opened.

“Why will you not follow me back?”

Mom looked genuinely hurt.

---

In the end, Kim only went back to his office after Hyunseung followed him back.

“Good grief.”

They say the older you get, the more easily you feel hurt, and it seemed to be true.

“Maybe it is menopause…”

Sitting down on the quiet studio sofa, Hyunseung pulled back out the curiosity he had put off for a moment.

The relationship between Mateo and Sarah Stewart.

Sarah Stewart had clearly said she did not know him last time…

But Mateo had acted like someone for whom their relationship was extremely important.

Yes.

It did not feel like they were just acquaintances. It felt like he had a huge attachment.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

He found the contact saved as “Misut Sarah” and pressed call. Soon, “Look at me,” the song he had written for her, flowed out as a ringback tune.

Looking at it, Sarah Stewart seemed to have a pretty high level of self-love too.

─ ♬ ♬ ♬

Just as the long ringback was about to fade away, the call was picked up.

“Is it urgent?”

From the fact that she asked that the moment she answered, it did not sound like she was in a situation to be taking calls.

But it is basic human selfishness to want to resolve your curiosity quickly.

“Yes, it is urgent.”

At his words, Sarah told him to hold on and seemed to move somewhere.

Soon.

The background noise died away completely, and her voice came through clearly.

“What is it?”

“You know Mateo, don’t you?”

“I told you, I do not!”

“But Mateo really seems to care a lot about what kind of relationship you and I have.”

“Well, that is just…”

Sarah trailed off for a moment.

“He is just some old man who is too nosy about other people’s business, that is all!”

She shouted.

“Is that so? Then why are you yelling?”

“Never mind that, did he contact you today?”

“I called him.”

“I told you not to get involved with him!”

“You are acting suspicious. Are you really sure you do not know him?”

“Th-they say he is not a good person. The rumors are all over the place in this business.”

At that, Hyunseung went, “Ah,” and nodded.

To be honest, he had known since his previous life that his personality was not great.

Sensitive, proud, and full of some strange artistic soul.

But those were traits anyone in the arts usually had, so Hyunseung did not think much of it.

After all, if you looked closely, his own personality was not exactly on the “good” side either.

“It is fine. I know his personality is not great.”

“N-no, his personality is not the problem!”

“Then what is?”

“He, that is, he is…”

Sarah did not answer right away and kept stalling. The more she did, the more suspicious it seemed.

“What is he.”

“He is…”

A brief silence.

Then Sarah shouted again at the top of her lungs.

“G-gay! They say he is gay!”

She had not wanted to tell the company, so she had been hoping to meet him alone outside.

No, that would not do.

She would have to change the meeting place to the company’s reception room.

“Ah, that is a bit…”

Right. Since it had come to this, he should do as Mom Kim Woohyun said and get some bodyguards too.