Everyone’s faces were full of question marks, but not a single person was the first to open their mouth.
“Why is no one talking?”
Even when Hyunseung pressed them, there was no answer in return.
“I’m not telling you to choose right this moment. I’m just asking your intentions, so comfortably….”
Hyunseung thought they could not decide easily because they had taken it as him saying to go to America together right away, and he was about to continue when—
“Pfft!”
Seo Jini could not hold it in and burst out laughing.
“Hm?”
And then that laughter spread like a virus.
“Pffft, kekek!”
“Bwahaha!”
“Haha, this is insane.”
Just like that, a whole bloom of laughter flowered, then faded.
Some even wiped away tears that had formed at the corners of their eyes.
“What is it?”
Hyunseung was genuinely curious why they were laughing. No matter how he thought about it, it was not something to laugh so hard their stomachs hurt over.
“Ah, seriously, if you look closely, Composer, you’re kind of a gag character.”
At that moment, Jung Arin spoke as she shook off the lingering giggles.
“Why are you suddenly putting on some businesslike concept!”
So they really did think he was joking. He would need to make it clear. Hyunseung straightened up again and added in a low voice,
“It’s not a concept. I seriously intend to start a label in the U.S. and properly take on the challenge—”
“Ah, I get that! It’s your tone, your tone!”
“My tone?”
“It’s so funny how you’re suddenly talking to us in this business tone!”
At Jung Arin’s words, everyone nodded with faces still full of laughter, saying, “Yeah.”
It seemed they had stayed silent and then suddenly burst out laughing because, separate from his business proposal, they just found it funny that his tone was not like him.
“And what do you mean, an exclusive instrument contract? It’d be an exclusive artist contract! You said it so naturally I almost let it slide.”
Hyunseung let out an “Ah,” of realization at that.
He had tried to be as businesslike as possible and chosen his words carefully, but it seemed he had called them “instruments” out of habit.
“It’s basically the same thing.”
Hyunseung mumbled awkwardly, returning to his usual way of speaking.
“Now you finally sound like our composer.”
Then a soft ripple of laughter spread through the room again.
“But why are you suddenly trying to start a label?”
Soon, Kang Hajun asked with a rather serious face. Not that he did not believe him, but he truly wanted to know the reason.
Instead of answering, Hyunseung slowly walked to the center of the studio.
“Since contract periods and various interests are tangled up, I have no intention of forcing you. But if you say you’ll go with me anytime, I’ll take responsibility for what comes with that, so think it through and decide.”
And then he added in his usual calm, indifferent tone.
But they were words that carried sincerity.
With the exception of the group “The Moon,” who belonged to TM Entertainment, they were all artists under LS Entertainment.
If he tried to take them by force, it was obvious he would have to wage a desperate war with LS Entertainment.
But Hyunseung did not want that.
Whatever the case, it was true he had received help from LS Entertainment.
And if it was not an unavoidable situation, he wanted to avoid a fight.
More than anything….
He wanted to respect their will.
“That’s it. Dismissed.”
With those words, everyone in the room only answered in unison, “Yes!”
Before long, the release date for Hyunseung and Mateo’s collaboration was approaching, and both Unice Music Group and LS Entertainment began to get busy at the same time.
The distinctive point of this album was….
That two albums with the same title would be released simultaneously in Korea and the United States.
To organize it….
Sarah Stewart’s <Turn around> and <I’ll stay here>, sung by Matteo for the first time, these two songs were scheduled to be distributed and released through Unice Music Group under the album name 『The timing is off [volume. 1].
In the case of Jo Kyungmi and Jo Yeri’s <It’s late, but once again> and <I’ll leave it>, which Hyunseung had finished recording solo, distribution and release would proceed through LS’s distributor under the album name 『The timing is off [volume. 2]』.
In other words….
This went beyond a simple composer collaboration album and was a Korea-U.S. collaboration album.
With songs by two composers, the benefits the representative distributors of the two countries would take were something he could confidently say would be enormous.
So LS Entertainment and Unice Music Group had no choice but to move busily.
Especially since the two were not just distributors, but integrated entertainment companies that also handled managing and promotion, they had to move even faster.
They had been loudly promoting that a collaboration album would be released, but exactly who would sing which songs and release them remained under wraps.
And on top of that, even LS Entertainment, which was directly in charge of promoting and distributing 『The timing is off [volume. 2], only found out about “I’ll leave it,” the track Hyunseung added last, when release time was already near.
Even though it was not Hyunseung’s first time singing a song himself, this was a point that was perfect for stirring buzz among the public.
Inside the company, it was already a hot topic, though.
“Couldn’t you tell us stuff like this ahead of time? Are you trying to make someone sick?”
“You found out in the end, didn’t you?”
“No, do I have to hear it through the PR team?”
After hearing through the PR team that Hyunseung had participated as a vocalist, Kim Woohyun immediately came to Hyunseung’s studio.
In his hand, of course, was coffee.
A venti-sized coffee for Hyunseung.
“Isn’t that too much?”
Even as he handed over the coffee, his mouth did not stop nagging.
“We’re now really in the same boat.”
Kim Woohyun emphasized the word “really.” It was not like they had not been in the same boat until now, but in a way, since they would truly be bound together by a contractual relationship, it seemed he was putting it that way.
Seriously.
So you really decided you want to be with me.
“Since you didn’t come at all, I thought you were saying let’s pretend it never happened.”
“Hey, even if you’re leaving, you still have to make sure the work’s locked down.”
“But if we’re in the same boat, who’s rowing the oar?”
Hyunseung asked with a teasing face.
“Obviously you row it.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the owner of the boat.”
At that, Hyunseung chuckled, saying it was logical in its own way.
“Geumdong, this isn’t the time to be laughing.”
“Why?”
“The release date is a week away, a week!”
“Right, so why?”
“This album has a completely different meaning from now.”
“What’s different? You know I don’t care about that stuff in the first place.”
This should have been the timing for Kim Woohyun to laugh and say, “True, that’s you,” but instead of laughing, he looked at Hyunseung with half-lidded eyes.
As if that stare was uncomfortable, Hyunseung asked back, flustered.
“What is it?”
Like an investigator, Kim Woohyun just kept staring at him.
Of course, his lips twitched as if he had a lot he wanted to say.
“…Never mind.”
In the end, he withdrew his gaze and ended it with a lame conclusion.
“Hey, what is it?”
When Hyunseung grabbed at his clothes hem and pressed in a pained voice, Kim Woohyun snorted and stood up.
“You go wonder about it yourself.”
And with that, he left the room.
“Ah.”
Left alone, Hyunseung could only stare at the door with a hollow face.
Seriously, how childish.
After leaving the studio, Kim Woohyun had not even taken three steps before he stopped.
And then he turned his head back and looked at the closed door of Hyunseung’s studio.
“That kid.”
With a complicated face, he sank into his thoughts.
.
.
Hyunseung would not know.
That he had gone to the studio for several days.
Yeah.
Since there had been a confidential talk he shared with Hyunseung, Kim Woohyun had gone to the studio whenever he had a chance, bringing coffee.
So that Hyunseung would not think he was avoiding him on purpose if he did not show up under the excuse of being busy.
But each time, Hyunseung had simply been recording inside the booth.
Normally, he would have greeted him right away and whined for him to let him listen.
But he could not.
Maybe because it was connected through a headset instead of speakers, inside the studio he could only hear the sound of machines running, but…
Hyunseung’s face as he sang inside the booth was strangely clearer than ever.
His face was so small it could be hidden by the standing microphone, but in the brief glimpses of him, Hyunseung had his eyes gently closed, looking as if he were in pain somewhere.
His brow, tightly furrowed as if he were forcing himself to recall memories that were hard to pull out, was enough to make him feel sorry.
“Geumdong…”
Was there some deep matter that the kid had buried in his heart?
Kim Woohyun felt pity as he looked at Hyunseung, not even knowing why.
But he turned around and left.
The next day, and the day after that, he came again, but Hyunseung kept himself shut in the booth.
Without even knowing Kim Woohyun had come, he sang again and again.
Kim Woohyun left Hyunseung in the studio just like that.
“That kid…”
If he had to sing while suffering like that, then there must be some reason or circumstance.
And that was not something someone else could do for him. It was Hyunseung’s share, something he had to do.
That kid was that kind of kid.
A guy who completes what he has to do better than anyone.
So that was why he decided he would trust him and follow him out.
Thud!
Only after something struck his shoulder hard did Kim Woohyun snap out of his thoughts.
“Why are you standing there blankly, blocking the hallway?”
When Kim Woohyun turned his head, he saw Executive Director Park’s face.
It was a sharp tone, but there was no malice in it.
“Sorry.”
He did not know if he had been that kind of person from the start and he just had not realized it, or if the man’s disposition had changed.
Either way, maybe because of that, facing Executive Director Park now felt fairly comfortable.
“But what brings you here?”
The floor where Hyunseung’s studio was located was a place packed only with the studios of exclusive composers, not somewhere an executive director would come and go.
Yeah.
Which meant his destination was Hyunseung’s studio.
He knew it and asked anyway.
Like he was a gatekeeper, asking what business he had coming to see Hyunseung.
“I came to see the owner of the studio you’re blocking, obviously. What else would bring me here?”
Is it that you, too, are getting in the same boat?
“I see.”
Kim Woohyun nodded, pressing down the question he wanted to ask.
If Hyunseung had not made an offer to Executive Director Park too, then Kim Woohyun would just be running his mouth.
And if Executive Director Park had any other intention and went straight to the CEO’s office, it would be a disaster.
They had not taken any measures on their side yet, and if it got conveyed through someone else’s mouth, Hyunseung’s position would become extremely awkward.
“Hyunseung is inside, so go in.”
As soon as he got that far in his thinking, Kim Woohyun immediately stepped aside.
Thud, thud.
Just as Executive Director Park passed by Kim Woohyun,
“Not yet. Don’t let it show.”
He stopped his steps abruptly and added a meaningful remark.
“For the kid’s sake, too.”
His firm voice rang low through the entire hallway.
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