The Unice Music Group engineering room was heated to the point of resembling a war zone.
Of course, only on the surface.
“Haah…”
Yohan, an engineer at Unice, briefly stopped his moving hands and wiped down his rough face.
His skin, once smooth enough for him to take pride in being naturally gifted, was nowhere to be seen, feeling instead as coarse as sandpaper.
And reasonably so.
For the past three days, he had been surviving on catnaps, working non-stop.
An ordinary person would never have endured it.
Right.
He should actually be grateful that ruined skin was all he had to show for it.
“O-One more track has just arrived.”
Just then, another engineer muttered feebly, his voice sounding as if he were on the verge of bursting into tears.
At that, suppressed grievances erupted from all corners.
“Haah, again…?”
“Is he out of his mind?”
“Is this ever going to end?”
One track, two tracks, three tracks… Now it was the seventh track.
That was why they whined with faces full of resentment.
Of course.
At first, it had been great.
Since it was a track by none other than Min Hyunseung, the work had been fun.
If anything, they had poured far too much effort into it. Since it was his comeback project, they wanted to make it even more perfect.
Having heard that the engineering team from the famous Korean agency LS Entertainment had handled the primary work, they wanted to prove they were far superior.
Above all else, this was a matter of pride between both engineering teams.
However, was it not true that nothing depleted faster than human passion?
Now that Hyunseung’s seventh track had arrived, not a single trace of enthusiasm could be found even if one searched with a magnifying glass; the room had cooled down like burnt-out ashes.
Even so, running away was not an option.
Because Killian, the engineers’ superior and an executive director of the company, was serving as the commander of this war.
“Let’s hang in there a little longer, alright? If Min Hyunseung is a human and not a monster, this track has to be the last one.”
Killian encouraged the engineers and took the lead in starting the work.
“I suppose that must be the case…?”
“Yes, I’ll do my best…”
“I’ll handle the chorus section.”
If it were anyone else, the engineers might have resisted, but they listened well to Killian’s words. It was only natural, as they were people who had gathered in the notoriously grueling Unice engineering room solely out of their love for music.
Killian loved music more than anyone, and when it came to processing that music, his skills were the finest in the company.
Clack, clack-clack-clack, clack!
And once more…
Clack, clack-clack-clack, clack!
Though they had whined, a brilliant gleam shone in their eyes the moment they plunged into work.
After all, nothing was more thrilling than shaping good music.
“Haa…”
Yohan, having been absorbed in his work for quite a while, exhaled a heavy sigh.
It was not a sigh of exhaustion. Whining wouldn’t make the work finish any faster, and he was past the age for that anyway.
It was simply because it was astonishing. Yes, far too astonishing.
“Seriously, does this even make sense?”
Yohan muttered to himself in admiration without realizing it.
“Did a problem come up?”
Killian responded immediately to the voice.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just a bit surreal.”
“In what way?”
“Well, think about it.”
Yohan blinked, looking genuinely curious as he added:
“How can every single track he sends be so entirely different, yet so good?”
At the flawlessly innocent question, Killian burst into laughter.
Yohan, along with the nearby engineers, paused their hands and looked at Killian.
Living up to his fierce-looking face, Killian was a man who rarely showed a smile.
For such a man…
To be flashing a grin with his bright white teeth showing was enough to draw everyone’s attention.
Before long, as Killian’s laughter subsided, he asked Yohan:
“Who created those tracks?”
“Former CEO Min Hyunseung.”
“Right. So there’s nothing to be surprised about.”
With that, he delivered a firm and definitive answer.
Naturally, the engineers were surprised once again by his response.
Yes.
They knew Killian was close with former CEO Min Hyunseung, but they hadn’t realized his trust ran this deep.
To speak like that…
Didn’t it mean he completely acknowledged and believed in Min Hyunseung’s abilities?
“True enough.”
Soon, Yohan nodded along with a bright smile.
Just then, one engineer looking at his monitor chimed in.
“Killian, I think this might actually surprise you, though.”
“What is it now?”
“First of all, another track just arrived by email, and…”
“Again—?!”
For a split second, despair crossed Killian’s face.
Being human himself, it was only natural that he, too, harbored the desire to wash up with warm water and sleep.
Moments later, the engineer scratched his chin before adding cautiously:
“Yes, and he says he wants to schedule the distribution release for all the tracks submitted over the past few days for nine months from now.”
“What?”
Killian, who rarely lost his temper, raised his voice in disbelief.
“Nine months from now? No, why on earth…?”
“Well, I’m not really sure either…”
“Why would he sit on tracks like these?!”
At the words bursting from Killian’s mouth, the engineers bit their lower lips to hold back their laughter.
Killian, seemingly oblivious to this, continued to stomp his feet in utter frustration and regret.
“Haa…”
Just what is this monster planning?
The returned Hyunseung, just like in the past, was a man utterly impossible to figure out.
Even after returning to the United States, Hyunseung never took a break.
He pulled consecutive all-nighters working on tracks for Vincent, Jamal, Rise, and Sarah Stewart.
At the same time, deep shadows beneath his eyes deepened, and his sighs grew more frequent.
It was certainly not because the songwriting was grueling or difficult.
Creating music—and creating good music at that—was the most outstanding and unrivaled among Hyunseung’s innate talents.
There was no way someone like Hyunseung would feel stressed from the songwriting process itself.
However, his worries had simply deepened.
“Haah…”
This dilemma had started with Baek Gyuho’s request.
Yes.
The request to write a song for Hyeong Jinwoo.
While that in itself shouldn’t be a difficult task…
Writing a song for a former singer who had lost both his sight and hearing was by no means an easy feat.
To make matters worse, it was blues… a genre Hyunseung had not yet ventured into.
Furthermore, from what he had heard, it didn’t seem as though Hyeong Jinwoo had stepped forward himself wanting to make a comeback.
Rather, since the accident, he was said to live as a recluse at home, almost entirely severed from the outside world.
It was merely his longtime friends and colleagues, Baek Gyuho and Moon Beomjae, stepping forward to help him get back on his feet.
Therefore, a worry crept in about whether it was right to push forward with a project the person in question hadn’t asked for.
What if readily stepping up to help actually ended up gnawing away at the man’s remaining courage?
Yes.
Just like it had been with his father.
“The auditory hair cells themselves have been dead for a long time, so with our hospital’s current technology, it will be difficult.”
His father, too, had heard hopeful news from various hospitals that his hearing might be cured, only to rush there and return empty-handed dozens of times.
In the end, his father abandoned even hope and refused to step foot across a hospital’s threshold again.
What if Hyeong Jinwoo, too, harbored hope because of him, only to be crushed by disappointment? What if he shut his door completely and retreated forever?
Just in case…
What if he ended up abandoning the hope that he could live as a singer again?
“Ah…”
Thinking of his father made the decision even harder to make.
Of course.
Even setting his father aside, Hyunseung currently lacked the confidence.
Later.
Yes, let’s think about it again later.
“Ugh…”
Hyunseung forced the worry to the back of his mind and twisted his stiff body from side to side.
Naturally.
The worry hadn’t disappeared, nor had he stopped working.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Park grumbled bluntly as he looked at the firmly shut door of Hyunseung’s studio today as well.
“Did that kid run out of money? Why is he working so relentlessly?”
At Executive Director Park’s jokingly tossed remark, Kim Woohyun couldn’t even let out a dry chuckle, let alone laugh.
“Hey, why do you look like you’re attending a funeral again?”
Executive Director Park chided Kim Woohyun upon seeing his expression.
He had only said it for a laugh, so why did the man always grow so soft-hearted whenever it came to that punk Hyunseung?
Honestly, he was as soft inside as he was bulky on the outside.
However.
He could understand that worrying heart.
Because it was Hyunseung, of all people, and he was continuing to work at an excessive pace.
Well…
Originally, he was a guy who seemed to live leisurely as if he were the only one in the world, yet also clung to his work like a madman, so it wasn’t particularly strange.
Still, was the intensity a bit too severe?
How long had it been since his comeback, and he had already produced nearly ten tracks, finished recording them, and put them on standby for distribution?
On top of that…
He was continuing to work on additional tracks without a moment’s rest, so it was only natural to worry.
Yet they could not stop Hyunseung. He surely had his reasons for pushing himself so hard.
However, Kim Woohyun couldn’t just brush it off so serenely.
Hyunseung’s reaction from last time lingered uncomfortably in his heart.
“Why do you assume it will be difficult just because someone is deaf in one ear?”
Though he was naturally a kid with a blunt way of speaking, he had never shown hostility like that before.
At first, he wondered if Hyunseung had taken offense because his father was deaf.
However, it wasn’t as if Hyunseung’s father was suddenly trying to become a singer, so it hadn’t been something that warranted such hostility and backlash.
‘Just what is going on with him…?’
To Kim Woohyun, Hyunseung looked somehow anxious these days.
He seemed precarious, like a man walking alone across a tightly drawn tightrope, appearing so fragile that the rope might snap at any moment, plunging him to the ground.
Though it felt odd to call it a benefit…
Kim Woohyun was keenly understanding the saying “a parent’s anxiety watching a child near the water” these days.
“I think I need to stop him today.”
Just as Kim Woohyun, having made up his mind, was about to knock on the studio door.
“What is everyone doing in front of the door?”
Vincent appeared.
“There’s been a rumor going around that you two have been pacing restlessly in front of Hyunseung’s studio like puppies needing to pee, and it turns out to be true.”
“There’s a rumor like that?”
“Yes, so please, both of you, head back to your respective offices.”
Offended by the uncalled-for dismissal, Executive Director Park furrowed his brows and retorted:
“And what about you? Why aren’t you guarding the CEO’s office instead of being here?”
“As you just said, I am the CEO who guards the CEO’s office, so could you please start treating me like one?”
“Sure, sure. Of course.”
A sarcastic response followed immediately.
Vincent, already accustomed to such reactions from Executive Director Park, paid it no mind and stated the reason for his visit.
“As for me, I’m here because I have a session today. Joy follows suffering; my turn has finally come.”
Vincent’s face looked exceedingly happy.
On one hand, a strange sense of pride was even evident.
Knock, knock, knock.
Soon, Vincent knocked on Hyunseung’s studio door.
However, no response came from inside the room.
“Did something happen?”
All sorts of uneasy thoughts consumed Kim Woohyun’s mind, and before he could even deliberate, he flung the studio door wide open.
There.
Hyunseung was seen sitting before the work desk, wearing wired earphones.
“He must not have heard because he had earphones in.”
Kim Woohyun swept his chest in relief.
Moments later, Kim Woohyun approached Hyunseung’s side, and as he drew closer, his face became stained with bewilderment.
“Hyunseung…?”
It was because the earphone was plugged into only one of his ears.
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