T/N: A chapter owed due to missed schedule! xD
Hyunseung arrived at the gate together with Kim Woohyun.
“Hey, I said let me in for a second!”
The moment he heard the voice from inside the group of security guards, he immediately knew who it was.
“I am really close with HS. I am telling you!”
Hyunseung suddenly felt a throbbing pain in his forehead.
“Please step out for a moment.”
He pushed aside the security guards and squeezed his way into the gap.
“What a sight.”
She might have covered herself with a hat and a mask, but just from the sharp eyes and the messy blond hair sticking out beneath the hat…
“What are you doing here?”
It was Sarah Stewart. He had felt this last time too, but does she seriously think people will not recognize her like that?
“What do you mean? I came to see you, but they will not let me in.”
“Use your head a bit. Do you think Unice is some place where you can just say ‘I am going in’ and they will say ‘Oh, please come in’ and open the door for anyone?”
At his words, Sarah Stewart pressed her lips together into a sulky line.
Then she rummaged in her pocket and took something out.
“And what is that supposed to be?”
A phone so smashed up you could not even make out its original shape.
“I accidentally dropped it while I was on the phone with you and it broke, so I could not contact you in advance before coming.”
Ah, so that loud crash he heard for a moment back then was the sound of it falling.
Then did she not hear what he said about her maybe ending up singing Matteo’s song?
He had taken the complete lack of contact afterward as her way of saying no.
It seemed that was not it.
“Then you could have gotten the phone fixed or bought a new one and contacted me. What are you doing just barging in like this?”
Sarah Stewart lifted her chin stiffly and said,
“There was something I wanted to ask you right away.”
“What?”
“Are we going to talk about it out here?”
“Yeah, talk.”
At that moment, Kim Woohyun, who had stepped back, came closer and cleared his throat.
“Khmm, ahem….”
He whispered quietly in Hyunseung’s ear.
“There are eyes watching. How about you go in and talk?”
Only then did Hyunseung realize there were a lot of eyes on them, and he sharply turned on his heel.
“Anyway, follow me.”
“Th–that is….”
“If you do not come, I am leaving you here.”
“Hey, wait up!”
Sarah trailed after him through the gate.
Then, all of a sudden, she whipped her head around, pulled down the mask she was wearing and—
“Bleh.”
She stuck her tongue out at the security guards in a bratty way.
Watching her, Hyunseung thought,
Seriously. She really is a lunatic.
Once inside the studio, Hyunseung and Sarah Stewart spent ten minutes locked in a tense staring contest.
“Misut Sarah.”
“What?”
“You say you had something you were curious about, you came all the way here, so why are you staging a silent protest?”
Sarah Stewart clearly had something to say, but she just would not open her mouth.
You could say she looked cautious, or you could say she looked like she was sulking about something with him—he could not tell which.
It had to be connected to their last phone call.
“Ah, Director, are you not busy?”
“I am fine for now….”
“I thought maybe you should get going.”
At those words, Kim Woohyun glanced back and forth between Hyunseung and Sarah Stewart for a moment.
“This is the part where I am supposed to leave, right?”
He chuckled awkwardly and grabbed his coat.
“I am going. Talk comfortably, and if anything happens, call me right away.”
Then he hurried out of the studio. His back was dripping with regret, but from here on out, this was a conversation that could only be had with just the two of them, so there was no helping it.
Sorry, Mom.
Click.
Once he confirmed the door was closed, Hyunseung finally began in earnest.
“You heard it that time, right?”
“Heard what?”
“What I said about whether you would sing Mateo’s song.”
At his straightforward words, Sarah looked flustered.
“T–that is why I came.”
“Yeah? If you went as far as to come all the way here, that means you are at least open to singing it, right?”
At his gently tossed question, Sarah responded with a firm, clean cut “No.”
“I have absolutely no intention of singing it. I just came because I was curious why you suddenly asked if I would sing one of Matteo’s songs.”
“You could have just asked that over the phone.”
“You know I absolutely cannot stand it when I am curious about something.”
Hyunseung shrugged and answered shamelessly,
“I didn’t know that.”
“Anyway, answer me quickly.”
“Before that, let me ask you one thing first.”
“What is it?”
“Why did you really come here?”
“I just told you.”
“You really came because you were curious about that?”
Sarah was about to yell “I said yes!” in frustration when…
“Not because you wanted to know if I knew about what is between you and Mateo?”
At the suddenly thrown, loaded question, she bit her tongue.
“Ow!”
“What are you doing?”
“I–I am bleeding!”
“You’re really extreme.”
Clicking his tongue, Hyunseung said,
“Here, bite on this.”
He took some gauze out of the first-aid kit and held it out.
Honestly, she is so bad at hiding what is going on inside that it is a wonder there were never any rumors in his previous life about the two of them being father and daughter.
“Why did you lie like that?”
He took the gauze out of Sarah’s mouth and continued,
“Saying you do not know him, that I can kind of understand, but turning your dad into a gay man is going a bit far, is it not?”
Sarah hurried to protest, shouting, “N–no, that is…!” but her words were cut off by his.
“First, do the thing you are good at.”
“The thing I am good at?”
“Stick your tongue out like you did earlier.”
“W–why all of a sudden?”
Then Hyunseung gently dabbed ointment on her tongue with a cotton swab.
“W–what are you do–doing!”
Granted, he was clumsy enough that he had one hand clamped rough around her jaw, but still….
“The instrument is hurt, so I have to fix it.”
Anyway, for a singer who sings with her mouth, having a wound inside it was like a marathon runner getting a bruise on their knee, so he had to get it treated quickly.
Interrogation could come after.
“Well then….”
No, actually, that was the thing he had to do right now.
“Now that we have put medicine on it, how about you talk. About why you had to turn your dad into a gay man.”
…
…
…
Hyunseung quietly listened to Sarah’s long story.
Sarah Stewart…
As she talked, she would sometimes get lost in her memories by herself, sometimes soak in happiness, sometimes show tears of surging sorrow, sometimes pound her chest in regret, and sometimes erupt in fierce anger.
Looking at her like this…
She was really very honest with her emotions.
Of course, up to now she had probably been bearing all of these feelings by herself.
She probably had nowhere to say them, and no one who would listen.
Even so, she was still better than the pushovers and bleeding hearts he knew (*Yoon Jaeyi and Lee Hyoeun). She did not just keep insisting she was fine and tricking herself.
To keep living, she most likely had decided to leave her father’s arms and cut ties.
Staying by his side while resenting him would have been harder to endure.
But there was something she did not know.
Your father did not hide you for his own advantage.
However, this was not something he had any right to judge.
If Executive Director Park’s kids had heard their father’s real feelings and the truth from other people’s mouths….
They might not be all together now, laughing happily.
That is how it is with sincerity.
When you hear it through someone else, it cannot exert its proper power.
At that moment, Sarah grabbed his wrist with an angry face and asked,
“He threatened you too, right? Told you not to tell anyone about us?”
She looked almost certain.
“No.”
Hyunseung shook his head, then suddenly remembered something and let out an “Ah.”
“So he did threaten you? Right?”
“I said no.”
He answered her second round of pressing firmly.
“It was not like that.”
To be exact, he had gotten something like a half-threat.
“Let me warn you. The moment my relationship with Sarah Stewart is revealed to the world, your life is over too, that is all you need to know.”
Well, it had not felt particularly threatening, so he had not taken it as a threat.
Instead…
“In the end, my daughter left the oppressive arms of her father and became a singer.”
“If things go wrong, my relationship with my daughter might become even more strained….”
He had heard very clearly the regrets and worried words of a father toward his daughter.
“Make a wise choice.”
Hyunseung met Sarah Stewart’s eyes straight on and continued,
“If it were me, since the song itself has no sin, I would at least listen to it and see if it is really a good song before I decide.”
“What?”
“I am not forcing you. I am saying, like when you chose my song, if it is good, do not miss it.”
“Forget it.”
“I am telling you clearly, I gave you the chance to make a wise choice, all right?”
Then, as if remembering something, he gazed off into space and spoke in a sly tone,
“What was it you said on the phone last time?”
Sarah looked at him, visibly uneasy, and shouted,
“W–what!”
Honestly.
People whose emotions show are easier to deal with.
“You said you had lyrics but no melody, did you not? I had a song with only a melody and no lyrics….”
“Y–you…!”
Sarah’s face flushed red like a perfectly ripe tomato because he was putting a kind of blackmail-like deal in front of her.
In her ears, it must have sounded something like, “If you agree to sing Mateo’s song, I will also give you a song that fits those lyrics.”
Even so, it was a fairly reasonable proposal.
“In that sense, let me see the lyrics you said you wrote. I just want to see if they go with my melody.”
“If they do go with it, you are really going to give me the song?”
“Of course. I am a fairly wise person. I judge based on musical value, not relationships.”
Hyunseung gave a roguish smile. He had said that on purpose so Sarah could hear. So come on, let us do this the easy, smooth way, all right?
Still, if she truly hated it, it was not something he could force. Clearing up a misunderstanding, asking for forgiveness, and giving it—all of that.
He only wanted Sarah Stewart to understand just a little.
Things like her father’s sincere feelings.
“Here.”
Hyunseung opened the notebook Sarah handed over and slowly took in the words with his eyes. The letters, pressed down hard into the paper, felt less like lyrics and more like something from a secret diary.
“Hmm….”
The moment he opened that secret diary, his head sparked.
“D–do they fit?”
This is it. Yes, this is it.
“Yeah. In that sense, I will be taking this.”
He tore out the page covered in lyrics.
“You said you would give me a song, you did not say anything about taking my lyrics!”
“Well, is that not basically the same thing? You will obviously get the lyricist royalties, so what does it matter.”
“That is not what I meant!”
“This song is going to be used for an instrument that suits it better than you.”
Sarah seemed more bothered by the fact that there was an instrument that fit it better than her, than by the fact that the lyrics she had carefully written were going into someone else’s hands.
“Better than me? Who is that supposed to be?”
She stared sharply and asked again.
“Do not tell me it is Vincent.”
“No.”
“It is going to be used for someone who is as much of a mama’s kid as you.”
At that, Sarah snorted,
“Give me a break.”
She did not argue with the “mama’s kid” part.
To be honest, she still fell asleep every night holding her mother’s photo to her chest, so yes, she was a mama’s kid.
“Anyway, I will send the songs over once they are done. Go home, listen to them, and make a wise decision.”
Sarah, apparently too tired for more back-and-forth, waved her hand in the air, cutting him off.
“Can we please stop talking about that?”
However, if Sarah was a lunatic, then Hyunseung was a golden brat.
“Among those songs, there will probably be one I wrote.”
Right. The LS golden brat, even more notorious than problematic kids.
“Still want me to stop?”
Sarah, who had not even considered that she might be a big catch on his line, gulped down the bait.
“You wrote one of them? Then can I listen to it right now?”
“Listen when I send the files later. I am not going to tell you which song it is though.”
“How is that fair?”
“Use your instincts and find it. Wisely.”
Then with a mischievous smile twisting his lips, Hyunseung added,
“You came all the way to Korea to find me without a phone. There is no way you cannot pick my one song out of a few tracks.”
Silence fell for a moment.
“Fuck!”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Sarah Stewart’s sharp curse rang through the room.
Important Note:
I saw RCGC was recently registered in M*np*a (the one that sent me d/m/c/@ for 2 titles), so this is a heads up before we get our hearts broken as it is a matter of when, not if. I will do my best to update for as long as I can. No need to comment, just enjoy the journey with me.
Thank you <3
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