A few days passed after Daniel’s concert ended successfully.
Using that day, which would be recorded in history, as the turning point, a number of things changed.
First of all, HS’s standing in America had changed.
To be exact, his recognition had risen greatly.
Of course, he had already made a name for himself through working with Sarah Stewart, Vincent, and Mateo, but…
The current American music market was a red ocean among red oceans, an extreme red ocean, so with just that level of achievement, it was the kind of place where you could not even hand out a business card.
But once it became known that HS had taken charge not only of Daniel’s album work this time, but even the concert consulting, America’s attention turned to HS.
Along with that, the standing of VINCIS, the label HS had established with Vincent, also soared sharply.
“Very nice.”
Executive Director Park spread open an English-language newspaper and smiled in satisfaction.
Hyunseung thought it looked terribly out of place, seeing a newspaper in those hands instead of some ominous lump of metal.
“But, Executive Director….”
He did not mention it out loud.
Right.
No need to ruin his mood when he was that happy.
“You do know how to read that, right?”
“What, you punk?”
“No, I was just wondering.”
In the end, his mouth itched and he went ahead and said it anyway.
“Anyway.”
Right then, Vincent cut into the middle of the two of them and asked,
“What’s the plan for the next project?”
Hyunseung let out a low hum at the question, then, after a moment.
“Well.”
He shrugged and gave a short answer.
“Well? Did you just say ‘well’ right now?”
At once, Vincent shot back in an agitated tone, as if demanding an explanation.
“Why are you suddenly getting mad?”
When Hyunseung asked back as though scolding him, Vincent huffed as if he might start blowing hot air through his nose any second.
“You don’t remember?”
“What?”
“The promise you made with me.”
“What was it again?”
Vincent’s face flushed red and blue.
“How am I supposed to not get mad when you’re like this?”
And then he immediately rattled off words like a machine gun.
“You promised you’d give me a song after Daniel’s project was done, then all of a sudden you threatened me, saying if I stood in as the fill-in for the concert you’d give me one! And now what? ‘Well?’”
But Hyunseung did not even blink, only letting out a small, “Ahhh,” in realization.
“I was wondering what it was. That’s easy enough, I’ve got plenty of samples made already, so I can do that whenever.”
At those words, everyone else’s eyes turned to Hyunseung.
Honestly, if another singer had heard that, they would have been offended.
Especially if it were a singer at Vincent’s level, he would have every right to flare up on the spot.
And for good reason.
Saying he would give him one of the samples he had already made was not much different from saying he would just roughly touch up one of several practice pieces and hand it over.
But if the one saying it was Hyunseung, then it was a different story.
To others they might be practice pieces, but the sample songs Hyunseung churned out were of a quality so close to complete that they practically were finished songs.
And there were so many of those sample songs piled up in files that no matter how much you scrolled, you still could not see the end.
If you converted those files into money, would they come out to about the value of a treasure chest?
“Hoo….”
Vincent, who already knew that very well, let out the breath he had been holding as if suppressing his anger and answered,
“I’m letting it slide just this once.”
As the situation was settling down like that.
“If you get mad, you age. Don’t you feel anything when you look at Executive Director Park?”
Hyunseung grinned mischievously and glanced sideways at Executive Director Park.
“Why am I being brought into this?”
This time, Executive Director Park’s face reddened and he was just about to shove himself up out of his seat.
Knock, knock, knock.
A familiar knock sounded from beyond the CEO’s office door.
When Hyunseung answered naturally, “Come in,” Kim Woohyun opened the door, came in, and gave a light nod of greeting.
“Why have you been so busy lately?”
Hyunseung asked him in a gruff voice.
And for good reason, since even though Woohyun came to work every single day, it had become hard to see his face at all.
“CEO.”
Kim Woohyun called to Hyunseung in a low voice and continued.
“The company only runs if the inside is properly built up. The company doesn’t run just because you make songs.”
At that, Hyunseung scratched the back of his head and answered awkwardly, “That’s true.”
He had complained for no reason and ended up with the CEO getting scolded by one of his own executives instead.
But that did not mean he felt bad.
Thanks to Executive Director Park and Director Kim silently taking care of the internal work he was no good at, VINCIS was gradually taking on a pretty convincing shape.
Right.
A company is not something that runs well just because one person is good at what they do.
“Anyway, something came in the mail from Korea.”
At that point, Kim Woohyun held out what he had in his hand and added,
“It came addressed to you, so I brought it over first. The sender was Utopia Entertainment. Do you know the place?”
Hyunseung shook his head and took the mail.
“No. First time I’ve heard of it.”
“I’d never heard of it in my life either, so I looked it up. It’s as tiny as TM Entertainment used to be.”
“Looks like it.”
“I figured they were probably begging for a song, so I was going to throw it out, but just in case I brought it over. I’ll toss it.”
Kim Woohyun was just about to take back the mail still in Hyunseung’s hand.
“I’ll read it first, I guess.”
Hyunseung immediately tore it open and started reading the letter inside.
The contents of the letter were so long-winded and pitiful you could hardly read it without tears.
To sum it up.
Just as Kim Woohyun had expected, it was asking for a single song.
They would give him their entire fortune.
They had staked everything on this.
Please save the kids.
All of it was the kind of thing he had heard countless times in his previous life. They were also the kind of words that had smashed his life to pieces.
“We earnestly ask that you please grant us just one opportunity to come see you in person, CEO.”
After reading the final line, Hyunseung narrowed his eyes and tossed the sheet of paper down onto the table.
Thunk.
It was just too long-winded to keep reading.
Since the concert, Daniel had been growing weaker and weaker, but only repeated stopgap treatment.
As for “chemotherapy,” which could be called anything like fundamental treatment, he refused it entirely.
In any case, the cancer had already spread to every corner of his body, so there was nothing they could really do.
Even if chemotherapy somehow controlled the spread enough to make surgery possible, the chance he would live…
Would it be about 1%?
He did not want to rely on a probability so tiny it would still be difficult even if a miracle happened.
If he underwent chemo, his hair would fall out too, and he would lose all style.
He did not want to die like that.
He wanted to go on the way he had lived until now, proud, stylish, splendid, and glamorous.
Even if the road was leading to hell.
“Although Daniel’s ‘and again,’ which he revealed would be his final concert, has ended, videos keep pouring in and it remains the talk of the town day after day…”
The TV kept airing stories about him and nothing else.
Not only that.
Every single track on the released album had successfully charted.
[ Billboard Hot 100 ]
- And again – Daniel Parker
- shine bright – Daniel Parker
- it gets dark – Daniel Parker
- childhood – Daniel Parker
- Turn around – Sarah Stewart (Prod. HSxMateo)
.
.
- I’ll leave it – HS
- More than just music – Vincent Mah
- Black angel – Sarah Stewart
Normally, he would have immediately raised a toast, but ironically, he did not feel like doing that at all.
Was it because it was the result he had expected?
No.
It was not that.
He had always been number one, and it had long since become the default setting, but Daniel had only ever needed an excuse to drink.
On days like this, he would unfailingly clink glasses.
But now he did not even have the energy for that. It was true he lacked strength, but apart from that, he genuinely did not want to drink alcohol itself.
All of this… felt like glory that was nothing but a shell.
Yes.
No matter how much people praised Daniel as a genius who had carved a mark into the music industry, he was still the same kind of person as everyone else.
A person who laughs, cries, eats, drinks, sleeps, and hurts, just like everyone else.
When the day of death draws near, people change.
Daniel too was, in the end, nothing but an ordinary person, so he was changing. He was being crushed by the fear carried by the word death and shrinking under it.
Even so, he had desperately wanted, since he was going to die anyway, to live the same way all the way through and die in a way that suited him, but the body weakened by cancer cells spreading everywhere would not even allow that.
‘This isn’t like me.’
He, who was so attached to alcohol that he had a separate liquor storeroom in his house and even displayed especially rare bottles on their own….
Seeing himself like this, it was clear death had reached right up to his doorstep.
Bzz, bzz, bzz.
At that moment, the phone he had left lying at an angle on the table vibrated precariously, like it might fall at any second.
“Hoo…”
Daniel felt no desire to talk to anyone right now, whoever it was, so he wanted to ignore it.
But he could not just leave the phone there when it looked ready to fall any second.
“Hm?”
The moment he picked it up, Daniel let out a small laugh at one saved contact, as if he had never been annoyed in the first place.
[ NOJAM ]
It was because an old memory came back to him.
“You really seem like a boring person.”
“You’re calling me nojam?”
“Nojam? What does that mean?”
“In Korea, when something’s no fun, they call it ‘nojam.’”
“Nojam? Nojam, nojam… I like the sound of it.”
After that, Daniel had saved Hyunseung under the name NOJAM and went on and on calling him nojam whenever he got the chance.
Before long Daniel answered the call.
“So why’re you so quiet for once? It’s making me nervous.”
The first thing he heard when he brought the phone to his ear was completely out of nowhere.
But he could roughly tell what Hyunseung meant by it.
The album they had worked on together had just shot straight into the upper ranks on the weekly newly updated Billboard chart, and since Daniel had not contacted him at all, Hyunseung must have called first.
Apparently, he had worried him without meaning to.
“At this point, you should be making a huge fuss about throwing another drinking party, but you’re weirdly quiet.”
Ah, so that guess had been right after all.
“What, do you think I’m some guy who drinks every day?”
“Weren’t you?”
“Today’s a day off. So why did you call?”
“When are you going to keep your promise?”
“What promise?”
“You said you’d take me to the island you own.”
At that, Daniel let out an “Ah.”
“It’s not some imaginary island, is it?”
Then Hyunseung asked again, lightly teasing him.
“No. You’ve got to fly there on a private helicopter, so….”
Daniel trailed off and looked over his calendar.
Lawyer meeting.
Personal appointment.
Hospital visit reservation.
Because there were so many things he needed to get in order ahead of time, not knowing when he might die, his calendar was packed full of one schedule after another.
Then Daniel switched the phone to the other side and added,
“Let’s go on the second of next month.”
That day was the day before the documentary opened.
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