Jayble had always been the type to fall in love fast.
That did not mean he fell in love at any time and place.
He had, in his own way, very strict standards of his own, and in his whole life, there had only been exactly three women who met them.
And then…
Now there was one more.
Click, click.
The woman currently walking ahead with her back held perfectly straight…
Yes.
The woman who was presumably Hyunseung’s secretary happened to be exactly Jayble’s ideal type.
Lucky bastard.
The thought that Hyunseung got to work with a secretary like that made Jayble so envious he was almost resentful, but with her walking right beside him, he could not show it.
Knock, knock.
The woman lightly knocked on the door with fingers so slender her knuckles almost stood out.
Jayble seemed to like even that, because he could hardly tear his eyes away.
“That was faster than I expected.”
Until the door opened and Hyunseung came out.
“But where are you looking?”
“Huh?”
“You’re going to burn a hole through Michelle’s face.”
At those words, Jayble drew back his gaze and quietly rolled the name over in his mouth.
“Michelle.”
“Hmm…”
Hyunseung looked at Jayble oddly for a moment, then said,
“Well, I just finished up work too, so come in.”
As he opened the door wider and motioned him inside, a wave of hot air rushed out.
Only then did Jayble come back to his senses and look around inside Hyunseung’s studio.
“Who are they?”
There were four unfamiliar women inside…
Two of them looked like it would not be strange if they were carried out on stretchers right then and there.
And the other two… looked fresh, as though they had just finished getting ready.
No way.
Had there ever been people who came out of Hyunseung’s studio looking that fresh?
Even he himself had to come out looking like a complete wreck.
“So those two are the group, and the other two are maybe their managers?”
That was the only answer Jayble could come up with. Otherwise, it made no sense.
“All four of them are the group.”
It really was something that made no sense.
First of all, meeting his ideal type here was already absurd enough.
But for someone to survive Hyunseung’s studio and come out looking fresh…
Were they unbelievably good singers?
Yes.
If they sang so insanely well that they could finish recording in one take, then it made sense.
That was what Jayble thought.
It seemed Hyunseung was trying to cause a stir in America by raising some monstrous rookie group.
And that he had called Jayble in to help cultivate those monsters.
“So you were raising a monster rookie group in America.”
Jayble asked with absolute certainty.
“It’s not like that. I just gave them a song.”
But Hyunseung cut him off flatly, then sent the women out without the slightest hesitation.
“I’ll finish the post-work and send it over, so you can go now. Michelle will at least help with the flight ticketing.”
“Yes, understood.”
Asking my love, Michelle, to see them off.
The girls were one thing, but there was no need to send Michelle out too…
“Tch.”
Jayble smacked his lips in lingering disappointment, then dropped onto one side of the sofa.
Anyway, Michelle and I will meet again.
Soon, putting that regret behind him, Jayble took in Hyunseung’s new studio with his eyes.
Even at a rough glance from the corner of his eye, it was full of expensive new equipment that would be hard to get your hands on…
So even after taking the CEO position, it seemed Hyunseung had no intention of letting go of music work.
Then again.
If a guy like that just sat in an office all day, he would get sick. Really sick.
“So, why did you send me an SOS?”
Before long, after finishing his scan of the studio, Jayble asked.
In truth, there was something like expectation in that question.
And for good reason.
Wasn’t Daniel the first project the guy worked on after coming to America? And on top of that, the documentary he made with Daniel at the center was currently ranking number one on Netflix in several countries.
It had gotten to the point where even back in Korea, where Hyunseung was absent, all anyone heard was the music Hyunseung had made.
And judging from the two women who had just walked out of the studio looking perfectly fine, it seemed he was working with some incredible monsters.
Which meant…
Wouldn’t the project he was asking Jayble for also be on that level?
Something on a completely different scale from the work he had been doing in Korea.
“I need your help with something.”
Even just from Hyunseung’s tone, lowered and serious as he asked, Jayble could be sure of it.
“What is it, that you’re setting the mood like this?”
Jayble asked back, leaning his upper body against the sofa and hiding the anticipation gradually swelling inside him.
“I have to make the Worlds theme song.”
“Right, you have to make the Worlds theme song… what?”
But not long after, he sprang forward as if someone had shoved him in the back.
“You don’t mean… that LoL?”
Because it was a request he had never expected in the slightest.
It was Lee Sol’s first time flying business class. Her body was comfortable, but her mind was not.
And for good reason.
It felt like the recording session had ended without being satisfactory.
In truth, contrary to what she had expected, that they would be given a little time to listen to the song and prepare, the recording had proceeded so suddenly it was like beans being roasted in a lightning strike, and she had been flustered…
But if she wanted to become a true professional, that kind of exceptional situation was something she would have to grow used to, so it could not become an excuse.
More than anything, though it was true that she had the most parts, she had also taken the longest recording time.
No.
It would not even be an exaggeration to say that more than half the time spent in the studio had been for her recording alone.
“Ha…”
Unable to know Hyunseung’s intentions, Lee Sol blamed herself, thinking it was because she was lacking.
I should just sleep.
No matter how much she thought about it now, the work was already over. Lee Sol closed her eyes, intending to save her strength on the plane and start practicing again the moment she arrived back in Korea.
How much time had passed?
Just as she was about to drift off for real, she heard whispering voices from somewhere.
“Honestly, I’m a little bothered by it.”
“That, me too…”
“At this point, isn’t it favoritism?”
She had heard them so often by now that she could tell whose voices they were even with her eyes shut.
Gahyeon and Yujin.
They were the voices of her own members.
“Come on, it was only one meeting. What favoritism?”
“Still, since she got hurt because of him, he could feel sorry.”
“Still, it’s because of unnie that we were able to get a song in the first place. And unnie is the main vocal too.”
She had not heard the earlier part of the conversation, but she could more or less tell what they were talking about.
It was probably about the part distribution being tilted far too heavily.
In truth, she knew that too.
How could she not?
From the chorus to the important highlight parts, she had sung them all, and Seulgi had taken every rap part in the middle.
In practice, Gahyeon and Yujin had only split a few leftover lines between them.
But she could not offer any rebuttal or objection.
“So it would be better if none of you said anything unnecessary over the parts.”
There had been HS’s warning.
And 4WAY… did not have the power to go against that warning.
Still.
Once they succeeded with this song, it would all be resolved.
Then they would make composers come looking for 4WAY.
And then all they had to do was divide the parts fairly and sing them.
Just this once. Yes, just this once, please.
I’m sorry.
The only thing Lee Sol could do right now was pretend to be asleep.
Revolution Games.
Known for short as “Revol Games,” this was the company that developed the globally beloved game LoL.
They had developed several other popular games too, but none of them could stand against LoL.
Riding on that popularity,
Revol Games came to host the LoL World Championship, known simply as Worlds, themselves.
And now, in its tenth year, the World Championship…
had come to be recognized by the BBC and various overseas media outlets as a game tournament on a scale the history of esports would never see again.
Because of that, this year’s Worlds could be called an extremely important season.
Ten whole years.
For ten years, it had raced forward breaking its own records every single year, so the Worlds to be held this year also needed new records in every respect.
For that reason, the part Revol Games was paying the closest attention to, the part they cared about most, was…
“Do we really need to anxiously wait around for a song that isn’t even coming?” the Worlds theme song they released every year.
“I’m telling you, I’ll just make it myself. Don’t you trust me?”
“But Vincent’s condition for participating was that he would sing only if the song was personally made by—”
As the scale of the tournament grew larger, the singer chosen to participate in the yearly theme song also tended to be the hottest singer of that year.
And this year’s singer had been chosen as Vincent.
Of course.
It was something Vincent had to agree to first, but he had been more willing to participate than expected.
On one condition: that the song would be made by the composer HS.
From Revol Games’ side, if the hottest name of the moment, composer HS, would participate in making the song, they would only be grateful.
Yes.
Far from being a loss, putting the names Vincent and HS up front would already secure the buzz all by itself.
But then… a problem arose.
“I’m saying, he said he’d make it himself and sing it, and yet there hasn’t been so much as a single update.”
The problem was that no progress whatsoever on the project had been relayed from Vincent.
“Let’s wait a little longer…”
“At this rate the tournament will start first.”
Seizing that opening, Sebastian, Revol Games’ lead composer, stepped forward insisting that he would make the theme song himself, leaving Alberto, the music director, in a rather difficult position.
“When we already have a lead composer, do we really need to wait for another composer’s song?”
“As I keep saying, Vincent—”
“No, does the singer absolutely have to be Vincent either? There are plenty of popular singers. There’s Sarah Stewart, there’s Vince…”
“But even you admit Vincent and HS are the hottest names right now.”
“Is Worlds a tournament that has to ride on their popularity to attract attention? It isn’t!”
Sebastian argued hotly, veins standing out in his neck, but Alberto could not easily continue his reply.
Yes.
Because everything Sebastian said was true.
In truth, the theme song did not absolutely have to be sung by Vincent, and Sebastian too was a capable composer in this industry.
More than anything, Worlds was already the biggest e-sports event in history, large enough to command worldwide attention through the tournament alone.
Still, as a music director, he simply could not help but feel greedy.
The composer Daniel had acknowledged.
He wanted, badly, to hear the Worlds theme song made by that composer.
But.
When greed goes too far, it invites disaster.
If things really stayed like this until the tournament was right in front of them and even the schedule got tangled…
Ugh.
It would become a catastrophe he did not even want to imagine.
“Then let’s contact Vincent one more time, and if there’s still been no progress, then I’ll—”
“Director, can’t you just trust me and break the contract?”
But despite Alberto trying to placate him, Sebastian showed no sign of backing down at all.
“I actually already made the theme song too. I’m really confident this time.”
In truth, Alberto also knew why Sebastian was coming on this strong.
In the previous season’s tournament too, he had once lost the chance to another lead composer, Alex, so this season he must have wanted the theme song to absolutely be one made by his own hand.
“Just once…”
Since he cared about Sebastian, he wanted to hear out his earnest request, but because this was not something he had the authority to break on his own once the contract had already been signed, it was a deeply difficult situation.
“Ha…”
Just as Alberto let out a deep sigh and rubbed his dry face.
“Director!”
Adam, who worked as his lead assistant, came running in waving his phone with an excited look on his face.
“We finally got a response!”
“A response to what?”
“We heard back from Vincent!”
At that news, joy and despair crossed over both their faces.
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