“But PD Yak, your face…… did something happen?”
At those words, PD Yak’s expression stiffened for a moment, then he shook his head as if to say no and leaned back in his chair. Since PD Yak, who always had a smiling face, looked particularly exhausted today, Onseol asked with a puzzled face, and Ma Doun also didn’t say anything but seemed inwardly worried as he looked at PD Yak.
PD Yak, who kept waving his hand saying no, soon looked at Onseol and Ma Doun and let out words like a deep sigh.
“A kid just like you guys…… a kid like a son left first, so it’s harder than I thought.”
When PD Yak said that and smiled bitterly, Onseol and Ma Doun closed their mouths as if they’d finally caught on. PD Yak had been with them since Fort’s debut and was a PD who worked on most of their hit songs to the point of being called Fort’s father. But right now, Fort was…….
Onseol fidgeted with a face that looked like he felt so sorry he could die, and Ma Doun also fussed around next to him.
“Enough of the depressing talk. Did you guys bring the song you worked on? I’m finally seeing it.”
For the sake of the apologetic Onseol and Ma Doun, PD Yak soon shook his head saying he didn’t want to talk about it anymore and changed to a new topic. Onseol and Ma Doun still didn’t know what to do, feeling sorry for PD Yak, but when the PD urged them, they handed him a USB containing song samples.
“I’ll pick a good one from these, and you can come again next time? By the way, I heard you guys brought in a new member?”
“Yes, that’s right. Now that we’re five, the dance formation should work out well too. And that friend has good skills, so I have high expectations.”
“Well, five is perfect for positions and dance formations, and part distribution works out just right too. What kind of gem is he? I’m curious since you, Seol, who’s stingy with compliments, are praising him.”
PD Yak looked at Onseol with a curious face, when Ma Doun, who was next to him, suddenly spoke up.
“I also saw the end-of-month evaluation video that Seol sent me yesterday, and he’s really good.”
“Oh— Tomato, is your face not turning red anymore?”
“Ah, shit……”
As expected, it’s fun to tease. PD Yak, who was laughing lowly, asked Onseol.
“Show me the new kid.”
“Jerim? Just a moment. It’s a self-composed song……”
“Oh, a self-composed song?”
Onseol searched for the video he received from Director Gye yesterday and played it. In it, Ka Jerim was playing the piano while performing the song.
For a moment, the three people watched Jerim’s video without words, and Ma Doun covered his ears that had turned red with excitement, saying that falsetto and emotion were chilling even when watching it again.
[<Poison Cup>.]
The video ended with Jerim’s appearance as he mentioned the title. Onseol was about to say how amazing it was, but then wondered at PD Yak’s face, which had become completely rigid.
“PD-nim?”
PD Yak, who had been silent for a moment, suddenly jumped up from his seat and hurriedly gathered his things. Onseol and Ma Doun, who stood up from their seats along with him, kept calling the PD in flustered voices, wondering what on earth this situation was.
“Sorry. I forgot and didn’t…… take care of something urgent. I just need to check the USB and pick a song, right? Let’s talk again the day after tomorrow, and ah, send me that video too.”
“What?”
“I need to check the video of the friend named Jerim, so. Then I’ll go first. Sorry.”
“PD-nim? PD-nim!”
PD Yak came out to the hallway before properly hearing their answers. Then, waiting for the elevator but soon feeling frustrated, he went down the stairs, quickly went to the parking lot, got in his car, and made a call.
While the dial tone rang, PD Yak frowned as he recalled <Poison Cup> sung by Ka Jerim.
“It doesn’t make sense. Hohyeon isn’t someone who would go around leaking songs.”
It was a song that hadn’t been shown to the CEO or other producers. As soon as the busy year-end was over, he was going to finish completing the song, get final confirmation from CEO Lee Woohyeon, and then go through the arrangement process. Also, although the song itself was written solely by Cha Hohyeon, it was a song they were going to rearrange as a collaboration between the vocal line Cha Hohyeon and the rap line Go Yoon who would be joining in…… Of course, it fell through when Hohyeon died. Anyway, it was that kind of song.
[Oh, hyung-nim.]
At the voice answering the phone, PD Yak barely put aside his thoughts and pulled himself together. The other person’s voice was very hoarse, and it seemed like he was having quite a hard time cleaning up the aftermath of this incident.
“Do you have time now? Your voice is terrible.”
[Ah…… Yes. I guess I’m also in a big mental shock right now…… It’s complicated. I should have greeted you separately at the funeral a few days ago, but I couldn’t contact you.]
“It’s fine. It’s not like I don’t know you’re out of it too.”
[By the way, what did you contact me about?]
PD Yak tapped the steering wheel for a moment, then asked as if he’d decided.
“It’s nothing else, but I have something to ask. Do you know a song called <Poison Cup>? It’s a song Hohyeon wrote.”
[What? <Poison Cup>?]
“Yeah. Didn’t it come up on the final confirmation list?”
[No, hyung-nim, what are you talking about…… This is the first time I’m hearing about it.]
Lee Woohyeon, the CEO of LS Entertainment, is from the same university’s composition department as PD Yak and is in charge of final confirmation for songs by LS artists. So usually when the kids write lyrics or compose, PD Yak refines them, Lee Woohyeon gives final confirmation approval, and they go into additional arrangement.
But since it was a song that wasn’t completed yet, <Poison Cup> wouldn’t have been put on the final confirmation list, so it was natural that Lee Woohyeon didn’t know about it.
‘Then there’s no leak route at all. Only me, Hohyeon, and Yoon knew about this song. In fact, last time because of the song leak incident, <Poison Cup> only existed on USB. I didn’t leave a single trace in the studio.’
Cha Hohyeon was dead. Knowing better than anyone that he wasn’t a kid who would leak songs before dying, PD Yak, who had been thinking for a moment, opened his mouth.
“By any chance, has Yoon regained consciousness?”
[Yes. But we haven’t released an article yet. We’re watching the progress a bit more—]
“Then can Yoon meet me?”
[……What?]
It was a song only the three of us knew.
“It’s important.”
And now one person is gone, and it should be a song that only the two remaining people know, but a complete stranger of a trainee sang <Poison Cup>.
Not only that, but the incomplete part of <Poison Cup> was even completed in Cha Hohyeon’s composition and lyric-writing style. A living person had perfectly concluded a dead person’s incomplete song to the point where one could believe the dead person had completed it.
It was a strange matter.
* * *
“Ah, why do I have to share a room with him……”
Seon Hobeom muttered as he took off his shoes. His face reflected in the yellow sensor light that had turned on was already mercilessly crumpled.
Ma Doun and Park Eden were already using the same room, and among the remaining three, Seon Hobeom ended up using the same room as Ka Jerim instead of Onseol, who was the eldest, so Seon Hobeom’s mood was quite bad.
‘Was it early this year, or was it the end of last year? He’s been really weird since then. He tried to attempt suicide in the practice room, and last time there was a lot of talk because he tried to hit another trainee…… What if he ruins your team?’
After coincidentally overhearing a fellow trainee talking about Jerim, he’d been worried a lot. It was true that five was better for dance formations and part distribution, but he thought four was fine too, so he wasn’t pleased, and moreover, when he found out that the new member had a dirty reputation, he was even more displeased.
Seon Hobeom, who didn’t want to be with Ka Jerim, stayed at the practice room and only entered the dorm late at night. Grumbling that he didn’t want to be in the room with Jerim, as soon as he left the shoe cabinet and stepped foot in the living room, he was startled by the groaning sound he heard in his ears.
“Ah, fuck, that scared me…… Why is he sleeping here?”
He discovered Ka Jerim sleeping in an uncomfortable position on the sofa.
Seeing the pale face even in the pitch-black darkness, he made a disgusted expression and recalled that there was a mattress temporarily placed in the room. Why is he sleeping here instead of there? He made a puzzled expression thinking that, but soon turned away.
‘Not my problem.’
Whether Jerim slept there or not, it had nothing to do with him. Rather, thinking it was great because he could sleep comfortably, Seon Hobeom.
“Ugh……”
“……Ah, shit.”
When he actually heard Jerim’s groaning, he had no choice but to stop his steps heading to the room. In the end, striding toward Jerim, he frowned seeing Jerim sleeping curled up on the sofa without a blanket.
“Why are you sleeping here all scrunched up like a loser? Hey, wake up. Hey!”
But even when shaken, Jerim didn’t wake up. Just as Seon Hobeom was thinking whether to just give up and go to his room at the constant groaning sounds, he felt something and widened his eyes. When he grabbed and shook Jerim’s shoulder, the shoulder was incredibly damp and wet.
“What, why is this happening?”
“Ugh……”
“Don’t tell me this is all sweat?”
As his eyes finally got used to the darkness, he could now see Jerim’s pale face crumpled in pain in the darkness.
Startled for a moment, he staggered back slightly from the sofa, and when the sensor light of the shoe cabinet next to him reacted and turned on, he properly saw Jerim’s face. Jerim’s hair was soaked with sweat, and the clothes he was wearing were damp from perspiration.
“No, don’t…… wake up……”
“What’s wrong with you?!”
When Seon Hobeom detected something strange about Jerim’s condition and shook his shoulder while making a loud noise, Jerim, who had been mumbling, slowly opened his eyes. Jerim’s face was completely covered in tears. Even making eye contact with his hazy eyes as if he still hadn’t come to his senses, Seon Hobeom frowned.
“Are you conscious now?”
“……Juno hyung?”
“What?”
But the situation went strangely. When Jerim suddenly looked at him and started sobbing, Seon Hobeom panicked and tried to pull his body back. But in an instant, Jerim grabbed Seon Hobeom’s wrist, and held the wrist so strongly beyond imagination that he couldn’t let go.
