LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 35
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 35
When Seon Woojoo suggested working on a song that everyone else had given up on, his brothers had mixed reactions.
“Are you sure you can do it? Don’t give up halfway. Let’s be realistic and start with something easy.”
The main vocal of New Black, who was in charge of the reality check, was skeptical.
“I’m worried, but if you say so, I’ll support you.”
The main dancer smiled with concern and approval.
Kim Junghyun just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, do whatever you want.
The youngest one proudly showed off his thick wallet while eating a pickle.
“Do as you please. It’s your choice that matters. I don’t know anything about composing, so I’ll just treat you to some snacks.”
The vote was 3 in favor, 1 abstention, and 1 against.
They settled their opinions on the debut song project.
Seo Rihyuk didn’t seem happy and said, “I’ll go along with the majority, but can you really do it? It’s objectively too difficult.”
“Hyung, don’t you remember what you said at the end-of-year evaluation?”
The youngest one chimed in.
“Back then, Woojoo Hyung suggested an idea, but you said it was unrealistic and too hard.”
“Are you really useless? Whose side are you on?”
“I’m obviously on the side of the composer who will give me a good part.”
He fed Seon Woojoo a pickle with a smile in his eyes, and Seo Rihyuk stuck out his tongue in disbelief.
Then, Kim Bijoo suddenly said as if he remembered something, “By the way, I was curious about this at the end-of-year evaluation. How do you work on composing or arranging?”
“Right. Me too.”
“It was so weird back then. You suddenly said, I’ll finish it by tomorrow, and then you came back the next morning with the completed arrangement.”
Seon Woojoo dipped a pizza in the sauce and answered, “It was thanks to Director Jo’s help that I finished early. If I had done it alone, it would have taken longer because of the computer work.”
“Then how did you do the arrangement? Without a machine.”
“I wrote it by hand. Roughly made a score.”
His brothers looked at him with strange expressions.
“You did it by hand?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did you come from? 19th century Europe?”
“I did it that way in the army. I couldn’t install Logic or Pro Tools on the military computer. In the end, I had no choice but to use my hand.”
They seemed to accept it when he mentioned the army.
They probably thought it was a mysterious world they didn’t know.
They would probably believe him if I told them he was a combat warthog breeder in the army.
“Then how do you work?” Kim Junghyun asked. “We need to know that so we can figure out how to help you.”
“Oh, the work method.”
Seon Woojoo recalled the method he used when he worked on music.
He created a stage in his head and worked from there.
But if he said that, they would probably look at him even more strangely.
“I’m telling you in advance, don’t look at me weirdly after you hear it. I know I’m a bit special.”
“Just tell us, old man. What else can surprise us?”
“Um… Well, it’s like this.”
Seon Woojoo put down the pizza and said, “Close your eyes.”
They all closed their eyes.
In the meantime, the youngest one stole a piece of pizza that Seo Rihyuk had saved, with his eyes open.
Seon Woojoo held back a laugh and continued.
“Did you close your eyes? Then, think of a familiar space. Preferably a large one. The auditorium of your school, or the stage of the music show we performed on.”
Their eyeballs moved under their closed eyelids.
“That’s it. Then, in that state, you set up a session, that is, instruments, on the stage. Guitar, bass, keyboard, saxophone, cello, things like that. Drums are enough for drums. Leave out the other percussion for now.”
“Hyung, I think I forgot from the middle.”
“I couldn’t even remember. Hey, Wang Jiho. Do you remember?”
“…I think I did it roughly.”
Wang Jiho, who was focused on eating pizza secretly, didn’t answer, and only Kim Junghyun seemed to follow his instructions roughly.
“You’re almost there. The next part is easy. You put the five of us on the stage and work on it. Imagine that we’re all singing. Make a melody. Add some instruments.”
“…”
“Just repeat that. Until it works. I did the same thing for the end-of-year arrangement. I kept imagining it in my head.”
“Is that it?”
They opened their eyes and looked at Seon Woojoo.
He nodded.
“That’s it.”
“Ah.”
One by one, the members opened their eyes.
At first, they seemed to adjust to the light, but soon they looked at him strangely.
“I told you. It sounds weird.”
“…You can do that, Hyung? Playing instruments in your head?”
“How else do you think I arranged the song in one day?”
They all had skeptical expressions.
It was the same when he was at TJ Entertainment.
When he told the TNT kids about this, they reacted similarly.
‘Does that make sense, Hyung?’
They would say.
And they would look at him like he was an alien.
Their gazes were exactly the same as back then.
Some seemed to admire him, and some seemed to look at him with disdain.
“…”
They all stared at Seon Woojoo blankly.
How much time had passed?
Seo Rihyuk’s voice broke the silence.
“What the hell. Where’s my pizza?”
***
The first day at the studio passed and they returned to their daily routine.
Events, practice, lessons, and music production were added to the list.
After singing Something with Jang Sowon sunbae at a local event and returning to the company, they had group PT, vocal, dance training, foreign language education, and so on.
When that was over, Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo headed to the studio instead of the dorm and stayed up all night.
Most of the work was technical.
Discussions and work on how to shape the melody.
The concept was already decided.
The concept of their B-side song was a summer season song.
They had announced the spring season with Something, so the plan was to make a summer season song for their debut.
Of course, this was what they said in front of the Director.
It was just a simple idea that they came up with, ‘It’s summer, so let’s make a summer song’.
That was a secret between them.
A cool and refreshing song that suited the summer.
They made the melody of ‘Untitled’ according to that concept.
It was a simple task.
At first, Seon Woojoo wondered how to tweak the melody, but once he tried it in his head a few times, it was surprisingly easy.
Of course, it wasn’t because he was talented.
It was possible because he didn’t preserve the subtlety of the melody as other people did.
He tried to keep that feeling at first, but he failed in the end.
So he decided to make a beat from scratch, even if they lost that subtlety.
And he got a lot of help from their connections in the process.
He asked Jang Sowon Sunbae for advice whenever they met her at the event hall, he asked the Director for his opinion whenever they took lessons from him, and he talked to the company’s A&R team and the affiliated composers whenever he had a chance.
With their help, the work went smoothly.
“Where should we get the instruments from? I want to make the sound more sophisticated.”
“Let’s scan the Billboard chart up to 100, what.”
They referred to the latest trends in the US for the sound that went under the top line melody.
“Why don’t you do the intro, Junghyun?”
“Me?”
“You have a good sense of rhythm, so you can find the bending or attack point well. Then it will have an impact. And here, B part, Bijoo’s voice is soft, so it will fit well.”
“I think it would be better if you did it, Hyung.”
They also discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the members for the parts.
“What about Rihyuk?”
“He has a good vocal balance, so he can fit anywhere.”
“That’s true. We’ll have to think about it when the choreography comes out. We should put him in the part with less dance.”
If Rihyuk had heard their conversation, his ears would have turned red.
In this way, they progressed the work quite quickly, enough to discuss who to give the parts to.
The problem occurred then.
“Hey, Junghyun.”
“Yes.”
“Do you see this in your head?”
“…Are you talking about that weird method that only you can do?”
“No, not that.”
Seon Woojoo asked, “Do you see yourself performing this on stage in your head?”
“Uh… Wait a minute.”
He closed his eyes and immersed himself in his thoughts for 10 seconds, then opened them.
“It doesn’t work.”
“Right, it doesn’t work, does it?”
The problem was the identity of the song.
The work was going smoothly, but no matter how much he listened, it didn’t feel like ‘our song’.
It felt like no matter what title he put on ‘Untitled’, it had nothing to do with New Black.
To put it simply, he succeeded in technically crafting a gem, but he didn’t know what to make of it.
He had a gem, but he didn’t know if it should be a necklace or a ring.
“What do you think is the problem, Hyung?”
“I think we didn’t consider our identity when we made songs so far.”
“Identity?”
“Something is Jang Sowon’s song, but this is our song. It should feel like ‘New Black’, but… it’s too bland.”
The problem he hadn’t thought of until now was New Black’s identity.
What kind of music did they want to do?
What were the emotions or codes that they wanted to convey?
Seon Woojoo only studied how to make the sound better while working, but he didn’t think about who they were as a group, or how to express themselves in this song.
“Hmm…”
In the studio, Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo were lost in thought.
The sound of Kim Junghyun’s grip strengthener and Seon Woojoo tapping the keyboard made a discordant sound.
Seon Woojoo learned by imitating movements, but the muscles of his fingers that couldn’t follow the signals of his brain got tangled up in Rachmaninoff’s piece.
Just like his head.
Time kept passing, and Kim Junghyun, who had stopped the grip strengthener and was doing push-ups on the studio floor, came up with an idea.
“Hyung, how about this? Let’s focus on what we like.”
“What we like. That sounds good.”
“What do you like, Hyung?”
“Me? Grandma is number one, money is number two.”
“Uh… Neither of them seem to go well with our song. Maybe rap would be okay.”
“Yo, I like two things. GrandMoney and Money. How about that?”
The rapper laughed at the ridiculous rap.
But focusing on what they liked was a reasonable suggestion.
Taste was related to who they were.
“In the end, we have to think about what kind of singers we are. To do that, we have to know who we are.”
“I honestly don’t know. Do we have anything that can be called our team color?”
“We have to find that out from now on.”
He scratched his chin and bit his lip.
Then he got up from his seat.
“I think we need to talk to the kids about this problem. It’s about our team color.”
“Let’s do that. Let’s talk to them after the broadcast. They said they’d be here soon, right?”
“They might take a little longer. Bijoo said he’s going to make them practice more because they’re not in sync.”
The clock on the studio wall pointed to 10 o’clock.
It was Friday night.
Finally, the night music program ‘Ha Seungju’s Music Cafe’ was airing.
***
11 p.m.
Thirty minutes before the broadcast of Music Cafe, the studio was bustling with five people for the first time in a long time.
On the table, there was a laptop with the PBS channel on and a pile of snack bags.
“Hyung, can I just have a sip?”
The youngest eyed the beer greedily, but Kim Junghyun shook his head.
“No.”
“I’m the only one who hasn’t drunk alcohol at school. I hear that other group kids say that their hyungs or unnies give them a sip each. Even Gil Chaekyung tried it.”
“Why are you trying to drink alcohol as a minor?”
Seo Rihyuk, who was sitting on the edge of the sofa, chewed on a sweet potato snack.
“And stop spilling snacks on the floor.”
“Yes.”
He smiled and rubbed his snack-covered hand on purpose.
“…”
Soon, a sweet potato snack hit his face accurately.
Seon Woojoo must have been absorbed in the work.
He was making a beat without knowing it, following the rhythm of the youngest and Seo Rihyuk’s fight.
“Hyung, have one.”
A slice of apple that was carefully cut was offered. Seon Woojoo turned his head and saw a tray full of apple peels and Kim Bijoo.
“Thanks.”
“My mom says apples are the best when you’re tired. You worked hard composing.”
“Only you can do this, Bijoo.”
As Seon Woojoo ate the apple with gratitude, Kim Junghyun put down the dried squid and stretched out his big hand.
“I worked hard on the composition too.”
“Here.”
“Ah, not the one that’s been bitten. Don’t you have a clean one like Woojoo Hyung?”
Seon Woojoo smiled at his friend who was the same age as him.
No, he only smiled with his mouth.
Kim Junghyun, who was looking back and forth between the knife in his hand and his face, coughed awkwardly.
“Wow, that apple must be really delicious.”
Kim Bijoo turned to me and asked, “Did you contact your grandmother?”
“She must be sitting in front of the TV by now. Do you want to say hello to her since we’re talking about it?”
Seon Woojoo pressed the speed dial number 1 and switched to video call.
The younger ones who were measuring their head sizes on the screen slowly retreated behind him.
Soon, Mrs. Kim Deoksoon’s face appeared.
-Oh, my. What a surprise. What’s this? Why is your face showing up?
Everyone burst into laughter and he felt embarrassed.
“I wanted to try video calling you for a change.”
-Then you should have told me before you called!
“Yes. I’m sorry, Mrs. Kim Deoksoon.”
Seon Woojoo smiled and introduced the younger ones.
“You remember them all, right, Grandma? We met last December. I came here with them to watch the live broadcast of Music Cafe.”
-Ah, yes. It’s nice to see all your faces.
Her wrinkled face, which was tense when she saw Seon Woojoo, softened and brightened as she looked at the younger ones.
What the hell, why, how.
I’m your grandson, but you like them more than me.
“Hello!”
The younger ones greeted her and Grandma’s face became even brighter.
-Oh, how pretty.
“Grandma. I’m your grandson. Pay attention to me.”
-You’re so petty, you know that? I’ve seen your face enough in the corner of the house. Why do you need to see it again? If someone else looks pretty, you go, ‘Grandma, I’m jealous,’ and all that.
“…Grandma, they’re laughing at me.”
Seo Rihyuk and Wang Jiho were biting their lips and holding back their laughter. Was it that fun to see him suffer?
But he didn’t feel bad either.
It was weird.
He felt more comfortable when he heard Grandma’s harsh words.
They continued the conversation until the broadcast started.
Seon Woojoo tried to brag about how they got a studio at the company, but she didn’t even compliment him once.
She just told him not to bother her.
Finally, when the logo of ‘Ha Seungju’s Music Cafe’ appeared on the top right corner of the TV screen on the laptop.
“Grandma, I’ll hang up now. I’ll call you again after the broadcast.”
-Is it Channel 7? I can’t see well these days.
“Yes, it’s Channel 7, PBS.”
-By the way, Woojoo. Did you make any mistakes this time? Like last time, when you said something weird about bread…
“Huh? What? I can’t hear you. I love you, Grandma.”
-You, this…
Seon Woojoo ended the call with a faint ‘you, this’ echoing.
The younger ones looked at his face and burst into laughter.
“Yeah. Laugh…”
Seon Woojoo sighed deeply and then unknowingly got infected by their laughter.
He felt lighter after laughing for no reason.
His mind, which was complicated by thoughts of his dad who would appear on Music Cafe and the composition, felt a bit clearer.
Now he was looking forward to the scene that would become the youngest’s black history.
“Oh, the logo is gone. It must be starting.”
The laptop monitor went black and then the studio appeared on the screen.
Everyone swallowed their saliva and looked at the screen.