Translator: Dreamscribe
“Shall we listen to the song first?”
Guilt, anger, wariness, hope.
I felt these strange emotions from the four team members, excluding myself.
Yun-kyung, who had taken on the role of team leader, looked downcast, possibly feeling guilty for choosing a difficult song.
Perhaps because of that, Yun-kyung was the first to speak up to break this hellish awkwardness, suggesting we listen to the song.
“Lucid Dive is by Boyvious sunbaenims, right?”
And Soo-yeon, who had been sending resentful looks my way since the team was formed, now seemed to accept reality and responded to Yun-kyung’s words.
‘Boyvious? I think I’ve heard of them.’
When Soo-yeon said that Boyvious was the original artist of our team’s song, I felt uncertain, but I vaguely remembered seeing a boy group with that name on TV a long time ago.
Considering I don’t know much about idols, the fact that I could remember them meant they must be a fairly well-known group. Still, I had no idea about the song Lucid Dive.
“Has anyone not heard this song before?”
Perhaps noticing my reaction, Lee Ga-hyun asked the team members.
I honestly raised my hand and confessed.
Wondering if maybe someone else didn’t know the song either, I looked around at the team members, but unfortunately, I was the only one.
“Si-on nim! How can a trainee not know Boyvious sunbaenims’ Lucid Dive?!”
“...Sorry.”
And then, Geum Shin-yu, a member of our team, began making a fuss, saying that it was unbelievable.
“Lucid Dive is a song that represents the essence of Boyvious sunbaenims! It’s a track that gives the feeling of falling into a dreamy world, expressing the blurring emotions between reality and dreams through spatial sound and dreamy vocal tones with groove!”
As she looked at me and asked if I now understood how good the song was, I could only nod in response to Geum Shin-yu.
‘What’s with this girl’s tone? No, more than that, this is...’
All I did was say that I had never heard of Lucid Dive before, but watching Geum Shin-yu get all excited and deliver a full-blown speech reminded me of when I conducted newcomer interviews back in my days as a company commander.
-Ah! Commander nim, do you know Dungeon Fighter? I think Dungeon Fighter is the essence of games! When I was outside, I was a pretty famous ranker in Dungeon Fighter, and this game isn’t something you can just do well at by spending money....
I asked what his hobbies were like I usually did, and when he said gaming, I asked which games he played. Since it was a game I had heard of, I made the mistake of pretending I knew it.
After that, I had to sit through nearly an hour-long presentation on Dungeon Fighter from that guy.
‘Is she like… a Boyvious fan or something?’
Of course, Geum Shin-yu now and that recruit back then looked completely different, but the crazed look in her eyes while explaining the song by Boyvious was exactly the same as that soldier.
Come to think of it, I realized I knew absolutely nothing about this contestant named Geum Shin-yu.
We hadn’t even been in the same class, and since we didn’t share a dorm, there had been no opportunity to become acquainted.
If it hadn’t been for Seo Ryu-jin’s recommendation, I wouldn’t have picked her at all.
“I’m going to go see Seo Ryu-jin for a bit.”
“Ryu-jin unnie?”
“Yeah.”
If a question arises, it’s best to confirm it right away, right?
I told Yun-kyung that I was going to meet Seo Ryu-jin, then stood up and headed toward the spot where Ryu-jin’s team was gathered.
“Hey Petty Seo, can we talk for a sec?”
“Petty Seo? Okay, what’s up, Lee Noob?”
Noob? Lee Noob?!
For a moment, I debated whether I should punish Seo Ryu-jin for daring to call me a noob after securing the team leader position through such a petty method,
‘Hold it in. Handle the matter first, get revenge later.’
A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years.
I took Seo Ryu-jin to a secluded spot away from the other contestants and got straight to the point.
“Hey, why did you tell me to pick Geum Shin-yu?”
“Oh, you came because of Shin-yu?”
“Then why else would I come?”
In response to my words, Seo Ryu-jin looked at me with an incredulous expression and answered.
“You should be grateful. Your team would’ve been doomed without Shin-yu.”
“What?”
“Shin-yu knows how to produce.”
Produce?
It was a word I had heard before.
Normally, you’d see news articles about famous idols or singers on TV being produced by famous composers.
But when I made a puzzled face, wondering what Geum Shin-yu knowing how to produce had to do with picking her for the team, Seo Ryu-jin, seemingly frustrated, began to explain further.
“This performance is a competition where two teams go up against each other with the same song, right? But don’t tell me you guys were planning to sing it exactly like the original?”
“Of course we’d sing it like the original. How else would we sing it?”
“You idiot! That would just be a cover performance. This is a mission! Each team has to present a new performance based on their own interpretation.”
What-?!
I couldn’t help but be shocked by what Seo Ryu-jin said.
Because I didn’t understand it.
And perhaps realizing my confusion, Seo Ryu-jin kindly began to explain once more.
“A cover is, literally, a performance that follows the original version. It focuses more on capturing the vibe of the original song than making changes.”
“Hooh.”
“But for this competition mission, just mimicking the original like a cover will probably be seen as a negative. If you perform the same as the original without adding your own color, would the judges or audience even want to see it?”
Now that I heard it, she had a point.
“So, you need to rearrange the song and add variations, that’s a type of producing. It’s something you can only do if you’ve learned about composing.”
“And Geum Shin-yu knows how to do that?”
“Yeah. Not just ‘knows how’, she’s good at it.”
After hearing the whole explanation, I finally understood why Seo Ryu-jin had insisted we pick Geum Shin-yu.
However.
“Then why’d you pass such talent to us? Don’t you need her too?”
“I’m already learning producing. I can rearrange this song on my own.”
Damn... Seo Ryu-jin, are you best at producing too?
I imagined an alternate timeline where Seo Ryu-jin had picked me.
Lee Si-on in that world, peacefully just doing whatever tasks were assigned by Ryu-jin’s team.
The mere thought of it filled me with rising anger, and I stopped imagining.
‘Tsk... I guess I’ll have to find a way to make use of Geum Shin-yu.’
I didn’t care if I failed, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Yun-kyung, who looked so dejected.
And when I thought about Soo-yeon, who got dragged in because of me, as well as Lee Ga-hyun and Geum Shin-yu, I felt like I had to do something.
***
-You! Do you think you’re good? How dare you act so arrogant!
After Lee Si-on left and disappeared somewhere, Geum Shin-yu felt uneasy.
‘Did I do something wrong again....’
She couldn’t stop worrying about having gotten too excited and explaining things when Si-on said she didn’t know Lucid Dive.
‘But seriously, this song is so good....’
Geum Shin-yu was a little different from the other trainees.
Whereas most other trainees began their journey after being drawn in by the flashy stages of idols, Geum Shin-yu became a trainee after falling in love with idol songs.
Sometimes, people would say idols just have flashy visuals and dances but that the songs themselves weren’t anything special.
But Shin-yu absolutely disagreed with that.
The way she saw it, Korean idol music, aka K-POP, was an experimental form of music with unpredictable progressions that mixed genres like EDM, hip-hop, classical, Latin, pop, and more, all within a single track.
And to make these various genres coexist, the sound was meticulously designed, and high-quality mixing was involved.
There was even international praise that K-POP was “the most mainstream yet the most experimental music in the world.”
Shin-yu didn’t just like that kind of K-POP, she loved it.
The lyrics that were closely tied to the storyline and concept, unlike other music.
The way it wasn’t just about vocals, but incorporated performance to complete the stage.
All of it, the stuff that sounded complex and difficult at first, ended up coming together in harmony, and that was something she found so lovable.
However.
‘If you’re a trainee, you should just practice dancing and singing. What’s with her always wanting to analyze the song?’
‘Exactly. She keeps saying we have to understand the story and put emotion into it, it’s so annoying.’
‘Is she trying to act all special just because she’s learning producing on her own.’
Geum Shin-yu was not well-received among the trainees.
In her eyes, being an idol wasn’t just about singing and dancing, it was about unraveling and conveying the story within a song, something akin to being an “actor.” She had shared this view with the other trainees a few times.
But the only responses she ever received were cold reactions.
– You’re good. I agree with what you said. Idols are actors too.
The only trainee who had ever agreed with Shin-yu’s opinion was Seo Ryu-jin.
Before joining her current agency, UI Entertainment, Shin-yu had met Ryu-jin at Logic Entertainment, where Ryu-jin had been the only person who understood her perspective.
However, after leaving Logic due to a lack of skill and moving to UI Entertainment, no one else had ever understood her.
Even the agency that initially said, “You have talent in producing” and promised to support her, had now become openly reluctant to let her learn composition, saying it was a waste of money.
‘I shouldn’t have stood out...’
Even now, Shin-yu was regretting how she had lost control and talked so much when Lucid Dive, a song she loved, came up.
She had vowed never to stand out when she joined Idol Ground 100, so now she began to worry that the other team members might find her strange.
Part of it was also due to seeing Lee Si-on disappear right after listening to her, which brought back past trauma.
– You! Do you think you’re good? How dare you act so arrogant!
The words spoken by Park So-yoon, a fellow contestant from the same agency, suddenly came to mind.
While preparing for the entrance performance with Park So-yoon, also from UI Entertainment, Geum Shin-yu had been subjected to harsh words.
From “Who do you think you are to arrange the song however you want” to So-yoon ripping up the sheet music Shin-yu had written for the arrangement, saying it didn’t make her stand out, So-yoon was like a trauma to Shin-yu.
Fortunately, after the entrance performance, So-yoon was placed in Grade B and Shin-yu in Grade C, so they hadn’t crossed paths.
– Contestant Park So-yoon, you stood out the most in Class B’s stage. You’ve been reassigned to Grade A.
Park So-yoon, who had taken the center position in Class B, was reassigned to Grade A after the mid-evaluation. After also winning today’s chicken fight, she had even earned the team leader position.
And whether by fate or not, the song Park So-yoon chose as team leader was also Lucid Dive.
‘What, you’re doing this song too? Go ahead, try leading again. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a team that’ll accept your ridiculous producing.’
So-yoon had thrown sharp words at Shin-yu, who happened to end up doing the same song, and that terrified Shin-yu.
Unlike So-yoon’s aggressive words, Shin-yu could no longer be confident in whether she even had talent in producing.
After all, So-yoon, who had dismissed her producing, was Grade A, while she herself was nothing more than a Grade C.
“I’m back.”
“You’re back, unnie?”
“Yeah.”
In that state of discouragement, Shin-yu looked toward Lee Si-on, who had returned to the team.
‘Thank goodness. I guess she wasn’t mad because of me.’
Seeing Si-on’s face brighter than ever as she returned, Shin-yu finally let out a breath of relief.
However.
“Shin-yu, you’ll be producing this song!”
“Huh?!”
At Si-on’s sudden announcement, not just Geum Shin-yu, but all the team members were stunned. Only Si-on, who had just spoken the words, wore a confident expression.
*****
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