Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 171
Bijoo, who was standing in the living room, asked Woojoo, “Can I dance to any song?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just think of making a choreography to the song in your head.”
“Wait a minute, let me think.”
Bijoo pondered deeply.
Meanwhile, Woojoo turned on the camera app on his smartphone and checked if the living room was captured on the screen.
Okay. Confirmed.
All he had to do was wait for their dancer’s signal.After bowing his head as if in meditation, Bijoo lifted his head and calmly said, “I’m ready. Hyung.”
Woojoo started filming and he immediately stretched his legs gracefully.
At first, he took light steps.
His bare feet softly brushed the carpet as if he was moving on a real stage.
His slender silhouette began to draw gentle curves in the living room dimly lit by the faint light.
“Wow…”
Woojoo let out an exclamation without realizing it.
It was amazing that he could do this with just an improvised dance.
Even if he had some kind of feeling in his head, what he was seeing was a choreography that he made up on the spot.
It was amazing.
Woojoo had to think in his head three times to the left, once to the right, and so on to move, but he was dancing instinctively.
Of course, it wasn’t very difficult.
But it felt different.
Woojoo felt a unique and mysterious atmosphere that he could only see from people who were born with a natural talent for dancing.
Everything around him seemed to dance with him.
As if a gentle wave would rise when the wind blew, the surrounding objects swayed along with his arms and legs.
When he flicked his fingers or moved his neck in the air, his hair and shadows fluttered and filled the empty space.
He seemed to melt into the dark living room.
It was amazing.
Woojoo unknowingly followed his movements.
He was lost in them for a moment.
While watching the choreography that Bijoo improvised, Woojoo also started to think about the song.
At first, he was doubtful if this method would work, but it was very effective.
It was easier to understand than explaining for hours while putting notes on the MIDI program.
Woojoo understood what he wanted to do as soon as he saw his dance.
A feeling like Canon in D.
A beautiful melody that repeated and varied, giving a warm embrace to the listener.
A song that was warm like the spring sun.
As Woojoo followed his graceful silhouette, a song was quickly completed in his head.
After finishing his dance, Bijoo blinked his eyes.
“…Hyung?”
Woojoo was sitting on the sofa, frozen.
He was still holding his phone in recording mode, but he didn’t react at all.
“Hyung, can you hear me?”
“…”
“If you can hear me, blink your eyes.”
“…”
But there was no answer.
Bijoo was about to say something more, but he looked like he was seriously thinking.
From experience, it was better to leave him alone when he was like that.
After about five minutes, he would come back to reality and grab him excitedly, saying “Bijoo! Bijoo! Oh, I did it!” and tell him what he had made.
‘I should peel some apples.’
While he was spacing out, Bijoo diligently peeled some apples.
As expected, Woojoo returned to the real world soon.
“How was it, Hyung?”
“I think I know what you want to do.”
“Really?”
He didn’t know that himself.
He had a feeling of a song that he wanted to try in his head.
The dance he had just done was what he thought the choreography would be like if he made it based on that song.
But was it possible to make a song just by looking at the dance?
They had been talking for almost five hours, but they couldn’t communicate well.
Bijoo knew he had a talent for composing, but he doubted if he could do it.
Tap. Tap tap. Tap.
Woojoo’s fingers rhythmically tapped on the table.
“This is how the beat goes.”
He then started to hum softly.
He sang it as naturally as if he was singing the chorus of an existing song, but it was a song that Bijoo had never heard before.
“…”
Bijoo was speechless.
‘How can there be such a person?’
Was it really possible to create a melody at such a fast speed in just over five minutes?
And this song was exactly what he wanted.
It was as if a skilled doctor had opened his head and plucked out exactly what he wanted and handed it to him.
Woojoo asked with sparkling eyes, “How is it, is this right?”
“Yes.”
He was flustered, but soon he answered with a smile.
“This is exactly what I wanted.”
The two of them, who were smiling brightly at each other, started to chat up a storm.
“Wow.”
Bijoo covered his mouth and said, “Awesome, Hyung. This is exactly what I wanted.”
“Right? I knew it.”
“How did you match it so perfectly? It’s amazing.”
“It was possible because you danced with such a good feeling. How could it be possible because I did well?”
“No, it was because you did well, Hyung.”
“No, it was possible because of our dance god.”
That was how the two members, who were praising each other for almost 10 minutes, left their seats for work.
“…”
Director Jo Gyuhwan, who was watching the whole situation from the second-floor railing while sipping his coffee, scratched his chin.
‘What was going on here?’
One of them suddenly danced a solo dance in the living room that could be the next title song choreography.
The other one watched him blankly and then made a melody that had to be the title song.
What happened in 10 minutes was enough to surprise anyone.
On the other hand, Director Jo Gyuhwan was also perplexed for another reason.
‘How do I package this?’
He thought the kid was stuck with his song, so he gave him some advice while eating pork belly.
But then they started to drum and play the gong and made a song.
‘I can’t tell the media that…’
If he told the truth, he would only hear that they were too obsessed with their concept.
He had a headache.
He wondered how to package what had just happened as he walked toward the library.
‘Pork belly.’
He stopped abruptly and nodded.
‘Let’s leave out the pork belly.’
He didn’t know about the rest, but that one had to go.
The week they spent at Director Jo’s house was like a golden time.
Woojoo was happy.
It had been a long time since he had slept so soundly after his debut, and it felt so good to be able to do something with a clear mind.
Maybe it was thanks to that condition.
On the morning of the sixth day.
Bijoo and Woojoo came out of the basement studio and let out a gloomy laugh as they looked at the finished product.
“Kuhuhu.”
“Heehee.”
They stared at the ‘Untitled No.2’ saved on the laptop desktop and Woojoo asked Bijoo, “Shall we listen to it again?”
“Yes, yes, let’s listen again. We.”
“Okay, here we go.”
As soon as Woojoo pressed the play button, the song that was completed in the first stage started to echo through the speakers.
“Kuu. This is it.”
“Wow. It sounds so good even when I listen to it again.”
Woojoo smiled brightly and asked, “Good, right?”
“It’s so good.”
“Kuhuhu.”
“Hehehe.”
Rihyuk clicked his tongue as he saw them laughing happily.
“You two look like something.”
“Like what?”
“Like Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant, laughing as they see their artificial human wake up.”
“What are you talking about, we’re not like that…”
Woojoo saw their faces reflected on the glass window of the recording booth.
Two faces, smiling and giggling, with cheeks flushed.
Woojoo cleared his throat and regained his composure, then asked Rihyuk, “So, what’s your opinion?”
“It’s good.”
Rihyuk read what he wrote on his phone’s memo app.
“But there are a few things I want to say.”
“Tell me everything.”
“Before the chorus, there’s a part where I hit a high note, right? Can you lower the pitch a bit there?”
Rihyuk pointed at the monitor and said, “When I go up there, I can reach it, but when we perform live, our condition is only about 80 percent of normal. Even if we use AR, there’s also choreography. Considering that, the note might be unstable.”
“Got it, I’ll fix that part. Anything else?”
“I think the chorus could be a bit longer. If we add some harmonies among ourselves…”
They spent some time listening to Rihyuk’s opinions, and finally, it was time for evaluation.
“It’s better than I expected…”
Rihyuk scratched his cheek and looked far away as he spoke.
“I agreed to go with a vocal-focused song when you suggested it last time, but I honestly didn’t think it would turn out this good.”
“Really?”
“Well, yeah. It’s a bit more than just not bad… That kind of feeling.”
Bijoo and Woojoo smiled brightly.
He was the type who would say “not bad” even when something was pretty good, but now he was positively saying “good”.
The song was still rough since it hadn’t gone through mixing and mastering yet, but getting such a favorable response was a good sign.
They clinked their paper cups filled with juice as a toast, and Rihyuk asked, “So what are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to call Junhyun and Jiho and hear their opinions, and then make some revisions based on the feedback.”
And then…
“The Director asked me to play him the song later. I can’t guarantee it, but I think there’s a high chance he’ll push for it to be the title track. After that, I’ll talk to the A&R Team and…”
But the plan Woojoo was telling him didn’t seem to be what he wanted to hear.
He asked cautiously, “So you don’t have any plans for the lyrics yet?”
“Yeah. I’m thinking of outsourcing it to a lyricist.”
“Can I write them? The lyrics for that song.”
He didn’t say it outright, but it seemed like he really liked the song that Bijoo and Woojoo had made.
Woojoo asked him jokingly, “Are you confident you can write well?”
“I usually don’t give a definite answer to this kind of thing… but I have some idea.” Rihyuk said as he looked at the monitor, “I got a feeling of what lyrics I should write.”
That evening.
“Director, you’re here?”
“Yeah, I am.”
They greeted Director Jo Gyuhwan, who was taking off his shoes at the entrance, like little kids who came out to meet their parents.
“Have you had dinner? We’re preparing it right now.”
“It’s okay. I already ate. You guys eat comfortably.”
He looked tired and weary, as if he had a hard time at work.
The atmosphere seemed like they shouldn’t talk to him more, so they exchanged glances with each other.
‘He must be exhausted.’
‘Director looks so worn out.’
They looked at him with pity as he climbed up to the second floor with heavy steps.
“He must be having a hard time.”
“Ugh… who made Director so miserable? I don’t know who they are, but they must be very bad people.”
“Exactly, who would do that to such a kind person…”
They went back to the living room, glaring at whoever had made the Director suffer.
Jo Gyuhwan lay down on the bed as soon as he finished showering. Then he reached out and grabbed the calendar.
January 2015.
There was an X mark on each day from January 1st.
He swallowed his dry saliva and marked an X on January 6th.
‘Finally…’
Everything would be over in a day.
‘I’ll be alone tomorrow morning.’
He stared at the ceiling with dull eyes and reminisced about a week ago.
He had smiled involuntarily the morning after he had brought in New Black. He thought it would be fun for a week.
Of course, it was fun at first.
He liked that the quiet house became lively.
But he soon realized how big of a mistake that was.
“Hahaha!”
The laughter of the youngest member of New Black was so loud that it followed him everywhere like a hallucination.
-Wow, guys, did you see that cloud just now? Awesome! It looks so wicked, like Rihyuk Hyung.
-Director! Did you see this? It’s a funny meme on the internet, hahaha!
-Wow! The soap smells amazing! Guys, guys, we have to get one of these when we go to the dorm, hahaha!
He seemed to laugh every 30 seconds.
He wondered if he needed some serious examination, but it wasn’t just Jiho.
“Kekkek!”
“Hehehe!”
Even now, all kinds of laughter were coming from the living room on the first floor.
He covered his ears with both hands, but Jiho’s laughter pierced through them like ultrasound.
‘What’s so funny?’
He peeked out of curiosity yesterday and saw them laughing among themselves, pointing at the bean sprouts on the dining table.
This morning, he smiled with joy when he saw the forsythias blooming in the yard.
‘They’re not normal.’
The youngest one was always smiling brightly, but the others were no better.
-This is heaven. This is heaven.
Rihyuk muttered some strange words to himself as he pushed the vacuum cleaner.
He cleaned almost every hour on weekends, even though there was no need.
Whiiing.
Now he could hear the vacuum cleaner in his hallucinations.
It sounded like a mix of giggling and whiiing. But that wasn’t the only sound he feared.
Knock, knock.
Every time he heard that sound, the study door would open and Bijoo would come in with a tray.
-Mom said apples are good for breakfast.
-You had a lot for lunch. I saw on a blog that apples help with digestion.
-Scientists say apples are good for dinner too.
Yesterday, he brought him a soda for the first time and asked him with a smile.
-Today it’s not an apple.
-I thought you might get tired of them.
Bijoo smiled shyly.
-I blended it today.
-…
-It’s the recipe mom taught me.
That damn apple.
Director Jo’s cheeks trembled.
He heard laughter from the living room again, so he turned on the classical music and closed his eyes.
But in front of his eyes, apples were spinning around, and in his ears, various hallucinations were combined. Whiiing knock knock. Whiiing knock knock.
‘At least Junghyun is quiet…’
Something was strange.
He went out to go to the bathroom and saw Junghyun standing in the middle of the hallway with a water bottle.
Their eyes met in that state.
-…
-Hello.
-…
-I’m breaking my record right now. 5 minutes 39 seconds. 40 seconds. 41 seconds…
He ignored him and went to the bathroom.
‘And Woojoo is…’
He looked fine, but he was the weirdest.
‘What the hell is he doing?’
When he woke up at dawn and tried to go to the bathroom, he saw a faint laptop light from the living room.
He seemed to be watching some videos.
Every time the playback ended, he would twist his neck around in the living room, doing a Bongsan mask dance or swinging his fists in the air.
When he asked him what he was doing, he gave him a strange answer.
-I’m preparing for the idol sports festival.
-Oh, I see.
He wanted to ask him if he was ready for a bench clearing, but he decided not to ask any more.
He didn’t want to be curious.
He just swallowed his tears.
‘Is this how the owner who got scammed feels?’
He had brought in five angelic-looking beagles without knowing any better.
The sofa was all torn up, the puppies were running wild, and the owner was drinking soju by the bottle…
‘The problem is that they’re too nice.’
They were more polite than anyone else, unlike the nephews who ran around and made a fuss.
They seemed to try not to inconvenience the landlord as much as possible.
But that didn’t make it any less uncomfortable for a pro introvert.
He wished they would go home soon.
‘This is my house…’
It felt like the owner had changed.
“Just one more day.”
He repeated to himself as his throat burned.
He went downstairs to get some water and saw the New Black members huddled in front of the living room TV.
Woojoo quickly turned down the volume when he saw his expression.
“Director, is the TV sound too loud for you?”
“No. I came to get some water.”
He couldn’t help but smile as the five members came rushing over to pour him some water.
‘They’re cute, but something…’
As he lay back on the sofa in the living room and watched them on TV, Jo Gyuhwan suddenly paused.
‘Wait, this scene looks familiar.’
Jiho, lying on someone’s lap and munching on chips.
Junghyun, smiling broadly as he watched TV.
Rihyuk, making a sour face with his pale complexion.
Bijoo, wearing a red shirt and slicing an apple.
He pointed at them one by one with his finger.
‘Hee-dong, Michael, Ddo-chi, Doughnut…’
And Dooly, wearing a flower-printed shirt and giggling.
He abruptly turned his head and looked at the mirror. Jo Gyuhwan, the director, blinked at the sullen face in it.
It was a face that had aged a lot in a week.
‘Go-gil-dong?’
…Was he Go-gil-dong?