[Trainees Rest When They Need To: Im Chang-won Concert]
580K views · 2 days ago · #trainee #Im Chang-won Trending Video #13
“It's about to hit 600K?”
Dance trainer Jang Ji-su exclaimed while looking at his smartphone.
They had merely edited and uploaded the footage filmed at Im Chang-won's concert, but it had somehow caught the algorithm, entered the trending videos, and exploded in views.
The comments were responding well too, since the video showed many different sides of Chanhwi and Yujin.
└I only came here through the algorithm, but I've found something precious.
└That kid named Yujin. Isn't this the first time his face has appeared? He's seriously handsome as hell.
└2:51 Ah, Yujinㅠㅠ I'm getting embarrassed for you.
└What's with that level of singing; why is someone from the celestial realm down there?
└7:38 No, where did Chanhwi get that nerve, lol? He just strolls naturally onto the stage.
└Was the butterfly dance always that sophisticated?
Thanks to that, their NeoTube channel had surpassed 90K subscribers and was nearing the 100K needed to receive a Silver Button.
“If you hit 100K, film a Q&A video or something. By now, your subscribers must have a lot they want to ask you.”
Chanhwi was nodding at the senior NeoTuber's advice when it happened.
THUD!
Yujin, who had been practicing choreography beside him, missed his footing and fell.
“Yujin!”
The two trainers rushed over to him in alarm.
Fortunately, an examination of his foot showed that his legs had merely tangled and he had not sprained anything.
“I'm sorry. I got distracted for a moment.”
But Yujin's mistakes did not end there.
He danced the choreography to an entirely different song.
The right-handed bastard picked up his spoon with his left hand.
He even made a mistake in the lyrics of the song he sang best.
As he behaved like someone whose mind had been left somewhere else, vocal trainer Park Mi-yeong asked worriedly.
“Yujin has been out of sorts all day. Is something wrong?”
At her question, Yujin answered as if he had finally made up his mind.
“Trainer. I want to move onto the debut team.”
The vocal trainer sighed at Yujin's request.
***
“You two seemed joined at the hip. Why this all of a sudden?”
Dance trainer Jang Ji-su spoke in a tone of genuine incomprehension.
“I asked Chanhwi, but he said he had no idea either.”
Park Mi-yeong turned and asked a question.
“What should we do, CEO?”
After hearing about the day's events, CEO Kim Dae-myeong scrubbed both hands over his face and sank into thought.
Tap. Tap.
After drumming his fingers against the sofa for a long while, CEO Kim Dae-myeong finally reached a decision.
“We have no choice. Let's debut him as a soloist.”
He personally found it deeply regrettable, but from the company's perspective, they could not delay any longer, so he had no choice but to decide.
“A&R Team, please prepare a song that suits Yujin's image.”
“Understood.”
Head of A&R Ha Dong-hun answered happily at the prospect of working on something again after so long.
The A&R (Artist & Repertoire) Team, the department that oversaw every aspect of an artist's album at an agency, gave singers their concepts and either solicited songs from outside or created the songs themselves.
If the singer was the skeleton, the A&R Team's role was to decorate the exterior built over those bones.
In Ha Dong-hun's opinion, Yujin was a dark character.
A taciturn boy who always wore a blunt expression.
His image resembled a man rendered listless by parting from his lover.
Accordingly, Ha Dong-hun chose a ballad and completed a song with a dark base that suited a breakup.
The song flowed out so smoothly that it seemed to be telling him it would become a hit.
He had heard Yujin sing before too.
Yujin's singing was certainly good enough for an immediate debut. No, it was good enough to stand beside skilled singers right now.
Ha Dong-hun believed without a doubt that this song would give him wings.
The next day, he summoned Yujin to the recording studio and played him the song he had written.
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
“.......”
Yujin furrowed both brows, then bowed his head and apologized to Ha Dong-hun.
“I'm sorry.”
Ha Dong-hun could not believe Yujin's reaction.
The boy should have been thanking him, yet he rejected the song immediately after one listen?
A rejection was possible. Coordinating opinions with the singer was one of the A&R Team's duties. But still.
“I don't want to sing a song like this.”
“Ha, huh.”
Ha Dong-hun let out a disbelieving laugh.
Although his connection with CEO Kim Dae-myeong had landed him the position of Head of A&R at a fledgling agency, Ha Dong-hun was a composer who ranked among the industry's hitmakers in his own right.
More than ten hit songs had come from his hands.
Singers who had become famous thanks to his songs had even begged to commission more from him.
“What did you just say?”
***
“What the hell was that earlier?”
“.......”
There had been a commotion at the agency that afternoon.
I had seen a man who was apparently Head of A&R point at Yujin and shout furiously that he would never write another song for a bastard like him, so I asked.
“And what are you doing now?”
Yujin had been sitting motionless at the desk since evening, so I peeked over to see what he was doing.
He had covered the desk with sheets of staff paper and was drawing what looked like crawling ants.
“......Seriously, what are you doing?”
“I'm writing a song. Don't interrupt me.”
“This is a song?”
No matter how I looked at it, dozens of ants were crawling around.
I stared at the back of Yujin's head and sighed.
‘So it ends up happening like this?’
I already knew that bastard wanted to debut alone, so his reaction did not surprise me.
I remembered Yujin's first song.
-I spent countless hours creating this song.
-Other songs were offered to me, but they did not suit me...
-I wanted to compose exactly what I felt, but only much later did I realize that it was beyond me.
I remembered an interview with him that I had read one day.
“Do you want to debut soon?”
Without looking back, Yujin lightly answered, “Yeah.”
His answer made me sigh.
‘Fine. I'll help you just this once.’
***
Every day, Yujin placed dots and drew stems on staff paper in an attempt to create the kind of song he felt inside.
Yet while he struggled to produce the feeling he wanted, a trainer contacted him.
“Mr. Yoon Seung-pil sent us a song. Give it a listen.”
While the trainer inserted the prepared USB drive and operated the computer, Yujin put on the headset and listened to the song that began playing.
But a moment later, he pulled the headset away from his ears.
“I'm sorry. This song isn't quite right for me.......”
“I thought it was quite a good song.”
The trainer had recommended it because its lyrical mood and lack of any dramatic turn seemed well suited to Yujin, so the rejection came as a surprise.
“I'm sorry.”
It did not match the kind of music Yujin pursued.
He intended to return to writing his own song.
But then the trainer stopped him again.
“Then would you like to listen to this song?”
She held a USB drive of a different color from the previous one.
“Huh? Oh, yes.”
Had there been another song? Yujin wondered casually as he put the headset back on.
Then the music began to play.
――♬―♩――♪
Yujin tore off the headset in shock.
“Y-you don't like this song either?”
The trainer cautiously asked whether he disliked it enough to be that shocked, but his answer was the complete opposite.
“Trainer, this song. Who wrote it?”
“Uh, well.......”
When Yujin heard where the song had come from, he could only reel in shock.
Then he rushed out of the agency and sprinted somewhere.
Upon reaching his destination, Yujin quickly entered the passcode and flung open the door.
In the entryway, he encountered Chanhwi's younger sister Eun-hee, who seemed to have been about to go out.
She jumped in surprise when Yujin burst through the door with uncharacteristic force.
“Y-Yujin-oppa. Is something wrong?”
“Where's Chanhwi?”
“Uh, my brother's in his room.”
Before she even finished answering, Yujin kicked off his shoes and strode toward Chanhwi's room.
“You're back early?”
“What are you?”
Yujin had been unable to contain his shock after hearing the second song.
It was exactly the same as the song that had existed only in his imagination.
That was why he wanted to know who had written it. How could someone have created a song like that?
But the trainer's answer had pointed to someone he never could have expected.
-Uh, well, Chanhwi left this with me.
“What are you, anyway?”
At Yujin's incredulous question, Chanhwi smiled quietly.