Damn Idol, Episode 44
While the audience held their breath and immersed themselves in the song, Han Sion’s hand moved and touched the keyboard.
A piano has velocity, but a keyboard does not.
That was why clumsy arrangers often caused problems when they tried to replace a piano with a keyboard.
Of course, Han Sion was not one of them.
The shadow laid down before the color had fully spread—why is it orange? Han Sion’s velocity was in his voice.
The keyboard sound was clearly solid, and yet, because of Han Sion’s voice, it felt as if softness and strength were being expressed.
The audience may not have known, but Jo Gijeong, who had been invited as a special guest performer, bit his lip.
During rehearsal, he had found the balance without much difficulty as he played, but once they were on the actual stage, the immersion was different.
One wrong move, and he felt like he would get even more absorbed in the song than Han Sion and make a mistake.
Already, his picking rhythm had been slightly swallowed by Han Sion’s rhythm.
‘Crazy bastard.’
When he first saw the fully rearranged score, he had thought he was a crazy bastard, and when they recorded together, he had thought he was a crazy bastard.
No matter how he looked at him, Han Sion was not a twenty-year-old aspiring singer.
He didn’t even want to use the word genius.
Because hidden inside the word genius was always the implication of young.
Han Sion’s music was not half-ripe.
That was why he was a crazy bastard.
Because Jo Gijeong could not bring himself to call him…
A master.
Standing there
- stock
-still beneath the streetlamp, orange
The bass and guitar ran around and played atop the house built by the drums, and the keyboard covered it with a roof.
And the voice transcended all of it into the distance.
Jo Gijeong once again felt jealousy surge within him.
How wonderful it would have been if he had talent like that.
How many things would he have been able to do then?
But the jealousy lasted only a moment.
Soon, Jo Gijeong continued playing as he felt a deep ecstasy.
You and I,
- beneath
- the streetlamp—!
The pre-hook.
After the deliberate blank space between the racing drums and keyboard, the chorus burst forth.
Right here——!
Han Sion was someone who knew how to make something “pleasant to listen to,” and to do that, he knew he could touch everything else, but he must not touch this song’s chorus.
Even if he could change it into a better chorus, if he touched the identity of the song itself, it would become “something unfamiliar.”
Then a reaction like this would not come out.
-Wooaaaaah!
-Waaaaaaaah!
The moment the familiar chorus burst out, the audience’s reaction heated up intensely.
It made no difference whether they liked the original song or not.
Everyone who had heard this song even once simply screamed.
Jo Gijeong had created the chorus of
The feeling of slowly advancing toward an utterly beautiful and perfect treasure.
For that purpose, he had wanted to create sections that, though somewhat dull and difficult, one would endure.
Believing that only then would the beauty of the treasure be maximized.
But after seeing Han Sion’s stage, it seemed that kind of composition had been wrong.
Because the very act of throwing the public a trial and asking, “Can you endure this?” had itself been arrogance.
By contrast, Han Sion was beautiful from beginning to end.
It was the feeling of walking along a beautiful promenade, entering a beautiful garden, and taking out a precious treasure.
Of course, this was not something one could do simply because one wanted to.
If it were, why would musicians all over the world have racked their brains so much for the sake of a “beautiful progression”?
And yet the melody Han Sion had created, flowing without pause, was satisfying that very condition.
Right here——!
And then, the chorus burst forth, raised one octave higher.
It was the shocking debut stage of Han Sion, who had spent a length of time impossible to count digging only one well.
* * *
When Han Sion’s stage ended, filming was paused for a while.
The audience’s reaction was so heated that they needed time to calm them down.
After all, they had even called for an encore.
Once their excitement had settled like that, the audience suddenly felt puzzled.
Today’s competition format was a position battle.
And the order of battle was an obvious reverse ranking, with the competitors going sequentially from fifth place to first.
Han Sion had also received the sub-vocal title and was placed fourth.
Then just how perfect were the people who would be singing after him?
Could it be that they were witnessing the beginning of a group that would achieve tremendous success?
The thought went that far.
However…
[Lead Vocal
- Gu Taehwan VS Fade]
“What? This is kind of bad.”
“Didn’t he make a mistake there?”
Fade, who was up after Han Sion, clearly ruined his stage.
He could not erase Han Sion’s stage from his head and missed what he himself had to do.
Gu Taehwan, who already knew Han Sion well, was better than Fade, but he did not show any particular strength.
The following competition between Siyu and Lee Ion was the same.
At least Lee Ion sang better than expected, enough to surprise those who had judged him by his appearance.
The stage worth listening to was the competition between the main vocals, On Saemiro and Juyeon.
-Only then do you leave!
-I liked it, everything!
Juyeon put on a stage good enough to make the audience forget Han Sion’s shadow, if only for a moment.
On Saemiro was not as good as Juyeon, but he was more than worthy of applause.
In truth, if Han Sion had not been there, Juyeon would have been first place and On Saemiro second.
However…
“Wow, what was that guy’s name again? Han Sion?”
“Is this going to be released as a digital track? If it is, I think it’ll be huge.”
“I’m sharing it on social media.”
“Doesn’t it feel like it’ll go viral as soon as it airs?”
“He’s handsome too. Look at what I filmed.”
“Whoa, damn. The vibe was insane.”
Everyone leaving after filming ended was talking about Han Sion.
And Choi Sehui was…
‘This is absolutely going to work. There’ll be some forced hate from people feeling threatened that their main fandom’s share might get stolen, but still!’
With a pleased heart, she was admitting her error in judgment.
But where there was light, there was also darkness.
The light brought about by Han Sion’s stage was surely a deep darkness for someone.
“……”
“……”
Namely, the production team.
Of course, it was good when a contestant did well.
If it seemed likely to create a huge buzz?
Naturally, that was even better.
But when it reached the point of changing the very color of the program, it became a little troublesome.
This was, after all, Lion Entertainment’s idol survival debut program…
“No matter how I look at it, I think the people coming in because of the buzz are going to mistake this for a nationwide audition show.”
In truth, even that could not necessarily be called bad.
The truly bad part lay in the fact that the skill gap between Han Sion and the other members was too great.
People who watched
But what if there was no one who could provide fun similar to Han Sion?
They would end up supporting only Han Sion.
The problem was that the final protagonist of this program was not Han Sion, but
In the end, Han Sion had to be eliminated.
That was the problem.
“What do we do about this…?”
“Should we try pushing Juyeon a bit? He was pretty good today, at least. The reaction was good too.”
“That’s true, but…”
Wasn’t there about as much difference in weight as between the Asian Games Golden Boot and the Ballon d’Or?
The head writer could not erase that thought.
In the end, the head writer, feeling a sense of crisis, went to find Producer Kang Seokwoo, but Producer Kang Seokwoo reacted as if it were no big deal.
“So what?”
“Pardon?”
“Our top priority is the success of the broadcast, isn’t it? We just need to think about that first.”
“But you also have to think about the share of the pie we’ll be getting from TakeScene. If that shrinks, the higher-ups won’t like it.”
“Hmm… Well, I suppose we should at least show CEO Choi Daeho that we did our best.”
“Pardon?”
“Our next mission was originally an individual round too, right?”
Strictly speaking, it was not exactly an individual round, but a stage prepared by dividing them into groups of two and three.
However, it was certainly closer to an individual round than a team round.
“Instead of that, let’s pull up the third mission.”
The third mission was the
Of course, even if it was called self-production, they would not be made to create a completely new song.
The members would choose a song they wanted and decide things like the arrangement direction, part distribution, stage concept, choreography, and outfits themselves.
At first glance, it seemed like the kind of thing Han Sion was good at.
But Kang Seokwoo thought there was a high chance Sedalbaegil would start creaking during this mission.
Geniuses like Han Sion could not understand why other people could not do things like they did.
That did not mean the members would obediently follow Han Sion’s words either.
And to speculate a little further, Han Sion might also have an aversion to idol-like things.
In Kang Seokwoo’s eyes, Han Sion was more of a musician than an idol.
“Compared to that, TakeScene will have it much easier. To be blunt, even if they bring in songs that were candidates for the title track while pretending it’s self-producing, we can pretend not to know.”
“But, Producer.”
The writer, who had been quietly listening to Kang Seokwoo, opened her mouth.
“What if he even does that well? Then his weight class really will grow beyond control.”
At the writer’s words, Kang Seokwoo chuckled.
He had not told the production team yet, but there was something he had discussed with the director.
“I’d like to check how much I can earn with Han Sion over two episodes.”
“Hmm… Okay. I’ll schedule two more episodes for you. But on one condition.”
“Yes.”
“Pay some attention to YouTube views and subscribers. And if you really do get results that look plausible, I might be able to negotiate with CEO Choi Daeho.”
If Han Sion and Sedalbaegil’s weight class really grew that much, then perhaps movement in another direction could arise.
But all of that was only an assumption for if it succeeded.
In Producer Kang Seokwoo’s eyes, it did not seem likely that Sedalbaegil would do well in the self-production mission.
Well, that did not mean Han Sion’s image would be damaged.
Because any uncomfortable cuts related to Han Sion would be edited out anyway.
Han Sion was now a product that must not be scratched.
“We’ll see about that when the time comes. For now, just know it’ll be like that, and pull the mission up and get them ready.”
“Understood.”
“I’ll explain it to CEO Choi Daeho.”
* * *
I’m satisfied.
For a week, I did my best, and I created a stage with my best.
Of course, it wasn’t the greatest stage, but it’s not as though even I can always present only the greatest.
Doing my best is enough.
After the stage ended, the judges, including CEO Choi Daeho, said this and that, but I didn’t particularly listen closely.
Because they were only picking out things that could be used for the broadcast anyway.
“No, seriously, you’re saying Contestant Han Sion came up with the melodic variation that connects from that intro?”
At least Composer Lee Changjun’s review was a little interesting.
In truth, if I had been even a little lacking, the judges would have torn into me.
I know that too.
Today’s stage was not idol-like.
I didn’t dance at all, and filled the stage only with keyboard play and vocal play.
But so what?
On the next stage, I just have to show something that can truly capture idol fans.
No, and in the first place, wasn’t Producer Kang Seokwoo the one who told me to sing the remix version of
While I was thinking that, the judges’ comments ended, and the next mission was revealed.
Hmm, but this is a little interesting.
So what I’m curious about right now is this.
You’ve decided to give up on debuting TakeScene, right?