What’s he going to do if he’s dissatisfied? If I tell him to do it, he has to do it.
While Go Won was out, I briefly closed my eyes and swept my face.
“I’m going crazy…”
‘So, my involvement in Go Won’s debut work isn’t entirely because I got caught up in it unfairly.’
“Ha…”
To argue about wishes being granted in this ridiculous way… the memory of my eyes spinning when I saw Go Won’s stage in the practice room last time was still vivid.
It was the appearance of a muse that had given me a shock, as if to wake me from my sluggish slump.
Now that it’s come to this, I’ll make it succeed no matter what.
Having renewed my resolve like that, I embarked on the path of hardship once more.
The recording ended after a full 20 hours of revision after revision.
As a result, a song that fit Go Won perfectly was born.
Taeyoung hyung
The song was good. You worked hard.
You’ll do the mixing yourself, right?
“Ha…”
Of course. After suffering like this, I won’t be satisfied unless I see it through to the end.
Kwon Taeyoung replied that the engineers would get right to work on tuning, so I should rest a bit and then check.
That aside, personally there’s something I absolutely have to say.
Hyung, but that song was what I was going to bring out for yACE’s comeback
That’s why I thought my hair would all be pulled out reworking a group song into a solo song.
Stop cleaning up after others and let us release an album too, leader-nim ㅡㅡ
Quickly grab the 5th Division director’s right hand and left hand and negotiate
Taeyoung hyung
Okay. Thank you and I’m sorry.
Damn it. It was really a song I’d been saving.
The spot where the song had been in the aged cloud storage felt empty, like a missing tooth.
But since I’d recalled it so quickly and even played it for him, and it suited Go Won so well.
Honestly, the relief was as great as the regret.
Could this song have become part of a yACE album?
Unable to answer that, it’s a song that had been buried in the folder for the past few years.
‘It’s time to let it go.’
Besides, if Go Won fails, I fail, if I fail, Kwon Taeyoung dies, and yACE is finished. If yACE fails, our fans will be sad, and that might as well be the end of the world.
In other words, if Go Won fails, the world will end, so it’s right to show my best sincerity.
Only after repeatedly monitoring the recording until the very end and writing notes to send to the engineers could I get up from my seat.
“Go Won.”
When I called his name, the guy who had been sitting on the sofa half-spaced out raised his head.
“…Yes. Is there something else to do?”
“No. It’s done. I’m going to sleep.”
“Yes.”
“If you’re tired, just close your eyes there and go. You’re going to practice choreography later anyway, aren’t you?”
“No.”
Maybe he was really tired—his tension seemed to loosen a bit, but he quickly came to his senses and stiffened the softened wall again.
Go Won gathered his notebook and the outer clothes he’d taken off with a rough face. Regardless, I went into the bedroom and flopped onto the blanket.
I thought I’d black out as soon as I touched the pillow, but the head heated from deep immersion and the elation of finally creating a satisfying finished product held onto my consciousness.
It felt like I’d pushed my creative ability to the limit for the first time in a while. If Go Won fails his debut, it could all fly away, so it’s not bad to burn it all out one last time…
No, that won’t happen.
I guarantee it.
‘Go Won will have a successful debut.’
I could assert this as someone who had already benefited from the Quest Window.
Just then, footsteps were heard outside the door, and the studio entrance opened quietly.
It seems he’s going to completely forget the death camp we shared here together and leave without even saying goodbye. Annoying bastard.
“Hey, Go Won! Go Won!”
“Why, why?!”
“Come here! You didn’t do something important!”
“What is it?”
When I called urgently, Go Won turned his steps back and came running with a startled face.
“Turn off the lights before you go.”
“……”
Frustration rose over Go Won’s face, tinged with fatigue. I even faintly heard a ‘shi…’ sound.
‘Well now.’
Now he doesn’t even have the energy to wear a mask, so his temper is popping out.
Soon the room’s light went off. The lighting in the work space was also thoroughly turned off.
“…Take care.”
I did hear a goodbye before the last door closed.
“Go Won, I heard that ‘shi’ sound. Come here.”
“……”
Go Won paused for a moment, then hesitantly moved his steps inside.
“It wasn’t a curse, I’m sor…”
At that moment, I stretched out my arm and yanked Go Won over.
Caught off guard, he flopped right onto the bed.
“Sleep before you go, you bastard. If you collapse on the way, Taeyoung hyung will scold me.”
Go Won, who had been looking at my face with a flustered air, frowned and let out a sigh.
“They say you can’t spit on a smiling face, but you sigh right in my face? Are you cold-blooded?”
“…I’ll be going.”
“Wow, really cold. You sucked all the sweetness out of your senior and you’re just leaving?”
“No…! That’s not it, sunbae-nim is.”
Go Won tried to say something but shut his mouth tightly.
Maybe because he’s so taciturn and holds things in, even just this reaction was kind of funny.
Perhaps anticipating that the more he tried to leave, the worse the teasing would get, Go Won occupied a corner edge and lay down.
The large back hunched pitifully while leaving the spacious spot empty was just funny.
“Hey, Go Won.”
“…… …Yes.”
Very slow, but he still answered pretty well.
“Aren’t I amazing? Making a song in just a few days.”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t it feel good to desperately cling to something and finally complete it properly?”
“…Yes.”
“Where else is there such a kind-hearted and good senior like this?”
“…Yes.”
It seemed like an answer of ‘don’t make me laugh’ wearing the mask of ‘yes.’
Ah, teasing my junior is more fun than I thought.
His temper seems to match his face value, so how did he end up living a life of holding it all in like that?
I was also at my physical limit to continue that thought. Watching the back rising and falling regularly before my eyes made me even sleepier.
Flinch.
At that moment, Go Won’s body trembled lightly, then he groggily got up.
My eyes were already closed. Go Won carefully and quietly slipped out of the bed with cautious movements.
That guy dozed for about 10 minutes.
Moving stealthily like a cat, Go Won likewise walked carefully, closed the door, and went outside.
The wall full of wariness apparently didn’t allow sleeping together with someone.
“You paid dearly for that coffee. Pretty one.”
Actually, the coffee he brought when he first came here wasn’t my taste.
Once Go Won disappeared, complete silence came to the room that had sustained all-nighters for a while. Soon I was slowly sucked into sleep.
***
Q1-1. Crisis!
Progress: 40%
Current stage: Filming pre-release song music video
The weather was such that one’s breath rose white, indistinguishable from clouds.
After the weather had been warm unlike winter for a while, suddenly starting today a cold wave began to strike without warning.
An outdoor set where various filming equipment and staff busily came and went.
I was sitting alone on a plastic chair placed in a corner.
“Ugh, shit, it’s cold. Why is the weather like this?”
Team Leader Shin in the seat next to me sniffled and spoke. Even though he said he was washing his hands of Go Won’s business and was annoyed that all sorts of trouble had erupted, he ended up chasing here in the end.
“That’s why you’ve been gently cooked and boiled by that raccoon Kwon Taeyoung for 10 years, hyung.”
“…Whew, Won must be suffering. It’s fortunate he’s young.”
In the direction I slyly turned my gaze was that suffering young kid.
Right now he’s wrapped in a long padding, but when filming starts, that guy who is the music video’s protagonist will have to throw off all the outer clothes he’s wearing in this cold.
‘Did he blow all his dice on looks and talent, so his luck stat is a total bust?’
With that sentiment, I watched the guy having a serious conversation with the director.
Go Won, whom I saw after a few days, had a sharper facial line than when I last saw him.
You could see that he’d been spending time just as frantically as during recording while preparing for debut. The baby fat that had remained here and there on his face was completely gone, leaving only sharp lines.
“By the way, Hanje, why did you come here?”
“I guess I’m not a raccoon either.”
The raccoon controlling me would be the Quest Window…
Even though I’d meticulously checked up to the master audio, since the goal of ‘safe debut’ still hadn’t been achieved, I was just as anxious.
Go Won’s music video filming was scheduled once at the racing circuit in Inje, Gangwon-do, and once at an outdoor set near Seoul.
On the last filming day when I didn’t go to the site, I had a nightmare with my eyes open.
Q1-1. Crisis!
Progress: 25%
Q1-1. Crisis!
Progress: 31% (▲6)
Q1-1. Crisis!
Progress: 28% (▼3)
“Why the hell is it fluctuating!”
I later heard that there were many impromptu changes, such as revising the storyboard and shooting anew according to the on-site situation.
Not knowing such circumstances, having to check the progress going up and down in real-time was truly hellish for me.
Taking that day’s nightmare as a lesson, for this filming happening not far away, I chased after it eagerly, going on about the composer’s will or whatever.
‘I’m going to die of nervous breakdown before Go Won’s debut…’
“Let’s start!”
With the director’s shout, Go Won unhesitatingly took off the padding he was wearing and set it down.
With only the form-fitting black outfit remaining, Go Won flinched and shivered his shoulders for a moment, but that was all. After that, he walked to the center of the filming site as if unable to feel the cold.
