Damn Idol — Episode 28
Jo Gijeong was slightly taken aback.
The drums, keyboard, and bass had taken turns around the measure to match their groove, but he hadn't been given any such time.
Han Sion had probably gotten caught up in the feel and burst into song without even realizing it.
But it wasn't a major problem.
Jo Gijeong was both the original singer and composer of *Beneath the Streetlight*.
Within this song, he could accept any style of playing.
The intentionally bland progression of the original didn't suit this moment.
The keyboard had already unleashed an overwhelmingly stimulating melody; if he played like that, he'd only get buried.
It was better for the guitar and keyboard to compete.
'This is the beauty of improvisation.'
Having thought that, Jo Gijeong played the guitar as if possessed.
Listening to Han Sion's voice.
Still faded before fully blooming,
Why is the shadow, orange
The drums held their ground firm, and the keyboard surged ahead first.
The guitar competed with the keyboard, while the bass pushed solidly behind every sound.
Han Sion's voice covered over them.
Jo Gijeong listened to the sound and gradually fell into the performance.
He didn't know how it had happened, but the sound was truly perfect.
It was balanced, as if four people had matched their parts after looking at sheet music in advance.
Moreover…….
Han Sion's song was so beautiful.
Standing there
— Head
— Drooped
Beneath the streetlight, orange
This impression wasn't felt by Jo Gijeong alone.
Gang Seokwoo, who had been listening blankly, was startled as well.
This was an entirely different song.
It was neither the original sung by Jo Gijeong nor Han Sion's version of *Beneath the Streetlight*.
To be precise, it was as if a new arrangement had been draped over the song Han Sion was singing.
It fit like this had been the original outfit all along.
"It's good……."
Like someone's murmur, it was a song that hooked you hard.
The feel was slightly different from recent pop songs, but this kind of song didn't age easily.
In the meantime, the song arrived at the PRE
-HOOK.
At that moment.
BANG BANG.
Han Sion struck the keyboard hard, producing an intentional dissonance.
You and I
—Beneath
— The streetlight—!
The drums and keyboard suddenly stopped, but the guitar and bass didn't.
The blank space left by the drums and keyboard was only about a second long, but it was waiting for something.
For the incredibly intense chorus that would come after the pause.
Han Sion's voice burst forth.
The two of us—!
From here
— From here
—— From here——!
*Beneath the Streetlight* had been a song that received tremendous love for its chorus.
Because of that, Han Sion had barely touched the chorus itself.
Meddling with a song's identity wasn't a remake.
But he escalated the straightforwardly spreading note processing like climbing stairs.
At the same time, he broke away from the original's wailing vocal method and sang cleanly and purely.
The result?
A chorus was born that satisfied those who loved the original's chorus while feeling far more refined.
At the chillingly pristine burst of the chorus, the onlookers held back their inner cheers.
If this had been a concert hall, they would have screamed, but since cameras were rolling, they had to hold back.
But.
From here
— From here
—— From here——!
At the chorus that exploded once more with an even higher range, someone couldn't hold back and let out an exclamation.
Before long, LB Studio had transformed into a concert hall.
* * *
After the impromptu performance, Jo Gijeong called me up to the rooftop.
"Cigarette?"
"Ah, I'm a non-smoker."
Smoking is an absolute taboo when tuning your tone.
No, saying it like that makes it sound like I'll smoke as soon as I'm done tuning.
No matter what happens, I don't smoke.
Even when my senses were dulled by drug addiction due to depression medication, I avoided smoking.
I don't know how many albums I'll have to release to sell 200 million copies, but it'll be at least ten.
So vocal care is my top priority.
While I was thinking that, Jo Gijeong exhaled a puff of smoke and opened his mouth.
"That playing earlier, everyone matched except me, right?"
"That's right, sunbaenim. I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for……. Why?"
"I wanted to show the PD the song's persuasive power."
And so he had.
Today's performance had been rehearsed since yesterday with Lee Hyeonseok and Lee Yeongha.
"You don't have any thoughts of rearranging the original performance?"
"I think PD Gang would hate it."
"Ah, right? It might turn out different from the picture the PD had in mind……."
If PD Gang Seokwoo seemed likely to hate it, the solution was simple.
I just had to make him like it.
What I'd felt after experiencing countless directors was that, in the end, directors were influenced by taste as well.
They claimed they judged coldly for the sake of ratings, but they inevitably wanted to show what they liked and edit out what they hated.
Jo Gijeong had much more business sense than Lee Hyeonseok, so he understood my words immediately.
"Does the PD hate a full rearrangement?"
"For the broadcast, I only sang differently over your original, sunbaenim. Wouldn't viewers get confused if there were two remake versions?"
"At this level, it wouldn't matter even if they got confused. The PD's expression looked fine, too?"
As Jo Gijeong said, I had felt that PD Gang Seokwoo might permit the release of a full rearrangement.
He'd held his tongue, but he'd shown several times that he liked the song.
"Well, it's business, not my place to interfere……. What I'm really curious about is how on earth I melted into that arrangement."
The three of us had played a rehearsed piece, but Jo Gijeong had improvised.
Nevertheless, he had played in the way I wanted. Not 100% close, more like 80%?
So from Jo Gijeong's perspective, it was bound to be bewildering.
He'd clearly said he was improvising, yet I had predicted him entirely.
"How did you do it?"
The method was simpler than I'd thought. I analyzed *Beneath the Streetlight*.
Through that, I came to know what kind of composer Jo Gijeong was—how he connected melodies and what thoughts went into choosing his chords.
At the same time, I was able to catch what style of composition Jo Gijeong considered his ideal.
Based on that, I had guided Jo Gijeong's improvisation in the direction I wanted.
In other words, I didn't predict it.
I showed him the path he needed to take.
I had even started singing abruptly out of fear that if I let my thoughts wander, he instinctively wouldn't play along.
Of course, this was only possible because Jo Gijeong was an old-school composer who wrote in a classical manner.
But Jo Gijeong didn't seem convinced even after hearing my explanation.
"That's it?"
In the end, he smoked two cigarettes in a row and nodded slowly.
"Right. There's no use explaining what a genius just does in words."
"It's not like that, sunbaenim."
"You said you're an idol? Filming some team competition program, I heard."
"That's right."
He didn't seem to know the exact format of Coming Up Next, but I didn't bother explaining.
At that moment, Jo Gijeong said something unexpected.
"Is it even possible for your team to stay together?"
"Excuse me?"
"Even I'm jealous like this; do you think the other team members can feel nothing at all?"
"……."
"If they can't feel jealousy, they're talentless, and if they're holding it back, they have no ambition, don't you think?"
"……."
"Aren't I right?"
To be honest, I had thought Jo Gijeong would say the same thing as Lee Hyeonseok.
Why is a musician like you doing idol work?
Why don't you just become a solo artist or do a different genre, and so on.
I could understand why Lee Hyeonseok said such things.
After talking with him, I realized Lee Hyeonseok didn't hate idols or hold prejudices against them.
But he believed there was a huge difference between the music a solo artist could do and what an idol group could do.
When you're part of a team, the team's identity takes priority over the individual's.
So rather than music that showcases me well, I have to do music that showcases the team well.
That was the frustrating part.
But Jo Gijeong's question carried a different weight.
Asking if the team could be maintained?
Honestly, I was at a loss for words.
It wasn't because of Onsaemiro, Iion, Gu Taehwan, and Choe Jaeseong, whom I'd met on Coming Up Next.
Although we were on the program together, I didn't yet think of them as "my teammates."
The reason I was at a loss for words existed further in the past.
Now faded.
No, memories I'd tried to blur.
Round 6.
"Will people believe the four of us? Or will they believe you alone?"
"They said they felt sorry for us? Called us Han Sion and his sidekicks."
And Round 7.
"You're a really selfish bastard."
"Must be nice for you, hyung? Since you're a genius."
"Did you find it that repulsive, us lowlifes snatching grains of rice stuck to a genius's spatula?"
The reason I'd left for America and wouldn't even look at the K-pop industry.
The reason I'd kept putting off the challenge of becoming an idol even though I knew it was impossible to sell 200 million copies with GOTM.
And.
The reason I'm a 'damn idol.'
Because I've already done it.
This damn thing that remains as my worst memory.
"Han Sion?"
"……."
"Han Sion!"
"Ah, yes. I'm sorry. I got lost in thought for a moment."
"I guess I asked something a bit sensitive. Sorry."
"It's fine."
Jo Gijeong looked at me quietly, then changed the subject.
"If we record the rearranged version, what will you do for the session?"
"I was going to play the parts myself. Since I can't play drums, I was going to call in a session drummer or record with virtual instruments."
"I can play the guitar, right?"
"Hmm……. I don't know if payment will be possible due to production costs."
"I'll do it for free. Because the song is good."
It seemed like Jo Gijeong said it to comfort me, but…….
Honestly, I'd sound better playing it myself.
Still, having 'feat. Jo Gijeong' on the track would have plenty of benefits.
He had a lot of old fans, and he could blow away any negative evaluations of the remake's direction.
"Thank you."
"Sure. I'll head down first."
On the rooftop after Jo Gijeong left, I thought about the issue he'd raised.
GOTM were the teammates who made me most comfortable, but even they had been jealous of me at times.
In fact, this was the biggest reason why GOTM's members had changed several times.
If even GOTM, who'd possessed the greatest talent, had been like that, what about Korean idol trainees?
Would there be people who could run toward their goals with outstanding talent and endless drive for improvement?
Even if such people existed, how many rounds would it take to make them my teammates?
I didn't know.
But one thing was certain.
"Damn it."
I still hated this damn idol business.
Just then, the phone in my hand vibrated.
[Mr. Han Sion. Let's talk about the track. Come down quickly.]
It was a message from PD Gang Seokwoo.
When I returned to LB Studio, PD Gang Seokwoo seemed to have checked all the previous footage in the meantime.
"Let's do it this way. You know you're meeting with Take Scene soon, right?"
"Yes."
"The first mission is an individual competition where the same positions from both teams compete against each other."
"Meaning main vocal against main vocal, lead vocal against lead vocal, right?"
"Exactly. There, Mr. Han Sion, you'll sing the rearranged version of *Beneath the Streetlight*."
It wasn't a bad idea.
Singing a song you'd already sung once was risky, but in this case, it was fine.
In the pre-mission, I'd only sung the first verse, and no matter what anyone said, *Beneath the Streetlight* was a song whose chorus was the most exciting part.
"Understood."
"I'm counting on you."
"Yes. I'll do my best."
Right, it wasn't time to execute the regression yet.
I should try to go as far as I could.
With that thought, I shook hands with PD Gang Seokwoo.