Hyunseung had been a notorious hikikomori since his previous life.
Not only drinking and partying, but unless it was a relationship required by necessity, he had never even thought of deliberately expanding his personal connections.
And because even his family relationships had been distant, outside of the hours he spent working, he had been crazy about games.
Among them, one was Animal Island, and another was LoL.
Truly.
It would not be an exaggeration to say he had poured his youth into it.
At one point, he had even reached Master rank.
Then, during that time, a request had come from the organizers of LoL World Championship (Worlds) to produce an OST.
He had been more excited than for any other project, and because it was for a match where a team he liked was advancing, he had thrown himself into it with everything he had.
Then, in the middle of that…
Of all things, the ‘CS Entertainment CEO death incident’ broke out, and the contract fell apart.
He had finally been given the chance to do the project he had wanted that badly.
Yet instead of even getting an official release, it ended up shoved into the trash.
It was a project that had remained as a lingering regret.
Yes.
He had finally been given a chance to resolve that deep grudge from his previous life, and yet…
He had known nothing about it.
That fact agitated Hyunseung.
“Why didn’t you tell me a Worlds OST production request had come into the company!”
In truth, he knew it was not something he had any right to get angry at Vincent over.
Vincent would not even know that he had once been crazy about LoL.
But because Vincent was written in the performer section of the production request form, that was why he had come looking for him.
Yes.
If… when Vincent kept coming to press him about work, he had mentioned LoL just once, Hyunseung would have shoved everything else aside and jumped into it…
“Uh…?”
At a time like this, when the order of every work process had already been set, of all times.
“You should have told me if it was a project on the scale of Worlds.”
“No, I kept telling you I had an important project.”
Vincent, sounding beyond dumbfounded and almost wronged, muttered in a thickly sulky voice, “I told you several times…”
“I didn’t know it was Worlds.”
“You didn’t even try to listen!”
In the end, Vincent could not hold it in and shouted.
“I told you several times, and now you come at me about it. What else was I supposed to do?”
Hyunseung really had nothing more to say. It was true that Vincent had come looking for him not just once, but several times, to push him about the work.
And he vaguely remembered hearing him say it was an important project.
Yes.
This was not Vincent’s fault.
“Forget that. This proposal is still valid, right?”
But that did not mean he wanted to let it go.
“Yeah, so I was making it myself.”
“You?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m in the studio this late.”
No.
This was a project that absolutely could not be missed.
“I’ll do it.”
Because this was finally his chance to resolve that grudge.
“You’ve got a lot of instruments taking numbers and waiting for their turn.”
“It’s fine. I’m absolutely doing this project myself.”
“It’s impossible.”
“No? I just need to call in one reinforcement.”
At that confident answer, Vincent asked back, “A reinforcement?” but…
“There is one.”
Hyunseung only answered briefly, wearing a meaningful smile.
“Anyway, you just loosen up your throat and wait.”
He rested a hand on Vincent’s shoulder for a moment, then added,
“Ah, and pass it along one more time that this year’s Worlds OST is absolutely going to be handled by our VINCIS.”
He added it with his molars clenched tight, as if his life depended on it.
“Got it? Tell them HS is making the Worlds OST.”
Then he left the studio as soon as he finished saying that.
Thud.
Vincent stared blankly at the closed door, then lowered his gaze to the proposal that had already been signed.
“Seriously, he’s impossible to figure out.”
A hollow laugh escaped him as he rubbed his face.
The next day.
At Hyunseung’s summons, 4WAY once again came to the studio inside the VINCIS building.
For whatever reason, their faces kept blooming with smiles.
Only Lee Sol looked somewhat anxious.
With Michelle standing guard at the door, the work began under even an added layer of unplaceable tension.
“The song is finished, so as soon as you’re ready, we’ll go straight into recording.”
Even at that one word, finished, the girls giggled and stamped their feet in delight.
But Hyunseung did not have the leeway to indulge that.
“Wouldn’t it be better to listen to it and hurry up and practice your own parts instead of spending time being happy?”
“Ah, yes, yes!”
Lee Sol answered briskly, standing straight like a private whose discipline had been snapped into place.
To be honest, it was the others he was worried about more than Lee Sol…
But as he had said, Hyunseung currently did not have the room to point all of that out one by one.
“I divided the parts arbitrarily. I made the song within the range each person can handle.”
Then Hyunseung added, taking hold of the mouse to play the track.
“So it would be better if none of you said anything unnecessary over the parts.”
It was a kind of warning.
A warning that if they took up his time over pointless nonsense, he would cancel the work itself.
“Then take your sheets and listen carefully to your own parts.”
Only then, under the atmosphere that had grown heavier and sharper than before, did the 4WAY members fidget, glance at each other, and nod.
♬ ♬ ♬
Soon, with a click, a retro-style melody that called to mind a wistful one-sided love flowed out through the speakers.
♬ ♬ ♬
The song as a whole was built around a melody that created a mysterious atmosphere.
♬ ♬ ♬
Centered around the synth, disco beats and occasional funky rhythms gave it bright variations and refreshed the song.
♬ ♬ ♬
In short, it was a song that could be said to contain every lovely and cute point a girl idol group could possibly show.
Needless to say…
The 4WAY members were already soaking in the song, covering their mouths like girls in love.
Click.
That lasted only until a heavy, sharp clicking sound brought the mood crashing down.
“Did each of you properly listen to your own part?”
At Hyunseung’s question, which caught them off guard, all they could do was fumble with faces that said, Ah, right.
No one answered confidently that they had.
Of course.
Lee Sol had been staring only at the score from the moment the song started, so naturally she had listened.
“It seems they were so focused on reading the overall mood of the song that they couldn’t pay attention to their parts as well. I’m sorry, but could we listen to it just one more time?”
She bowed her head and asked on behalf of the members.
Hyunseung looked down at the crown of Lee Sol’s head for a moment.
“Go ahead.”
Then he played the track once more.
Because the weight of leader that Lee Sol was carrying felt somewhat pitiful to him.
In truth, it was not as though letting them hear the song one more time would cause any problem.
And above all, since this was probably the first time they had ever received a proper song, he could fully understand how excited they were.
At least in his head.
But to say it once again, Hyunseung did not have enough room to understand all of that and wait for them.
Click!
Before the outro had even fully ended, the track was abruptly cut off by Hyunseung’s hand.
“Now, let’s start by getting rough takes of each person’s part first, shall we?”
Then Hyunseung pointed a finger at Gahyeon.
“M-me, me first?”
“Yeah.”
“Ah, w-well…”
Since she was such an inexperienced rookie that it would be awkward even to call her a recycled veteran rookie, telling her to sing a song she had heard only twice could indeed sound rather cruel.
“Even if you can’t do it, go in first.”
He had not expected anything from the start.
It might have been unlike Hyunseung, but he had structured the part distribution itself around Lee Sol, and since he had placed Han Seulgi, whose sound was fairly distinctive, as a refreshing accent, the other two did not matter much.
Yes.
This song could only survive if the weaknesses were hidden as much as possible and the strengths were brought out.
Even so, with this song, 4WAY would become widely known, just as their CEO wanted.
Wasn’t that enough?
They said they wanted success, not that they wanted to be reborn as true singers.
This was as far as Hyunseung could go for them.
Even if that… was because he had become interested in the instrument called Lee Sol, not because he had become interested in 4WAY itself.
How they used the opportunity created by that one miracle would now be up to them.
“We’ll start right away.”
And with that dry remark, the recording session he had the least expectations for began.
Meanwhile, Jayble let out a faint laugh as he looked out at the vast sky stretching beyond the window.
“Ah.”
Then he abruptly stopped smiling and wiped a hand over his gaunt face.
What am I doing?
After repeatedly laughing and then turning blank-faced as if he had bipolar mood swings, he eventually closed his eyes.
The reason Jayble had suddenly boarded a plane and was now looking at the sky was none other than a single message from Hyunseung.
[ S O S ]
Yes, the fact that he was heading to America immediately over that one message was laughable to the point of absurdity.
Hyunseung had not told him why he was calling him, so he did not know the reason.
Still…
Since they had entered into a collaboration before Hyunseung left for America, it was not something he could simply ignore.
Yes, that was why.
It was not that he was worried about Hyunseung or anything. It was just that, since they were in a collaborative relationship, Hyunseung might be calling him because of work, so he was going.
Of course, if it was not that…
Crunch.
He would not let Hyunseung off for making a fool of him.
Before long, the plane Jayble was on landed on American soil.
“Ugh.”
No matter how good first class is, a long flight is exhausting.
Jayble got off the plane, twisting his stiff body this way and that to loosen it up.
Seriously…
This was why he never wanted to do long-haul flights.
This had better be for nothing trivial.
Soon enough, grinding his teeth, Jayble got into a taxi.
.
.
.
Arriving in front of the VINCIS building, Jayble clicked his tongue at how unmodern the structure looked and pressed the call bell by the door.
It felt less like a company building and more like he had come to the house of some retired tycoon chairman.
Creeeak.
Who on earth had done the interior this unsophisticatedly?
“Tsk.”
He was muttering to himself and clicking his tongue repeatedly when the door opened, and a woman with hair so blond it was nearly silver, tightly tied back, greeted him.
“We’ve been expecting you.”
Jayble wondered how she knew he was coming and had been waiting for him.
“For me?”
But his gaze had already been stolen by the woman’s face, so he was not curious about that at all.
The only thing left in his head was that she had said she had been waiting for him.
“My, to have kept a lady waiting. My apologies.”
Jayble suddenly cleared his throat.
“I’m Jayble, HS’s business partner.”
After roughly wiping his hand on the side of his pants, he offered a handshake with the most gentlemanly smile he could manage.
However, the woman only stared at that hand.
“Yes, I know.”
She responded in a formal, standardized tone.
“I’ll guide you to where the CEO is, so please follow me.”
Jayble might well have been embarrassed, but acting as though it were no big deal, he simply shoved his hand into his pocket.
Click, click.
Following behind the woman walking ahead of him, he thought,
Yes.
He still did not know why Hyunseung had called him.
But perhaps the will of God that had brought him all the way to a distant foreign country was that lady ahead of him.
- hikikomori, condition in which a person is socially avoidant to the point of staying isolated at home for at least six months without social interaction.
T/N: Eyyy so happy to see Jayble again! <3
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