Even after finishing the arrangement, adjusting the beat and melody to fit together more plausibly, all that remained before completing the demo was—
“How about we try the lyrics like this?”
Writing lyrics for the empty spaces between the topline and singing the guide vocals to match.
“Anyone want some whiskey?”
“Beer’s enough for me.”
These exuberant composers insisted that demo lyrics had to be written spontaneously. They produced glasses from somewhere, huddled together, and began pouring themselves drinks.
Was this how it was normally done...?
“Dohee, you want some too?!”
“I’m underage...?”
“That’s right, you idiot!”
For now, the simple concept I had decided on for the song was this:
A captivating demon who could enchant everyone, in keeping with the song’s working title, Me Demon.
These drunkards began laying lyrics over the melody as if they were perfectly accustomed to it.
Most of the lines were meaningless, of course, but even so, they deliberately worked in rhythm through rhyme and meter.
─Wishing, I could get a taste of yours
As expected, this was what the professionals did...
‘N-no... Why are the lyrics so lewd?’
I had no idea why they kept attaching lyrics with such a sexual feel.
A demon like you excites and captivates me...
Making me cling to you again today, making me burn...
I’ll offer myself to you, so gently bite the nape of my neck...
“Dohee, your face is really red.”
“Yours is red too, you idiot.”
“That’s because I drank whiskey!”
“You guys, Dohee’s still too young to drink!”
These... these depraved Westerners...
Still, as an open-minded person, I could understand it perfectly well.
Th-this was simply a difference in culture!
There had always been plenty of demos like this from English-speaking composers. Just look at pop songs—weren’t sexual topics the default?
And when you got to hip-hop... well, they were completely blatant about it.
The lyricist would change it later anyway...
‘Right... This isn’t lewd... It’s just a song...’
B-but it’s my song...?
I’d have to record it too...
I mean, I’m still, uh... the ultimate role model for today’s teenagers...
K-pop is wholesome music that even little kids listen to...
“Should we write different lyrics? Just something about love.”
“Yeah, just a little... Just, please... do that.”
.
.
.
Before long, the four composers were drunk enough to clap their hands, cackle, and whistle with the exaggerated reactions characteristic of foreigners.
“How about we listen to the youngest member of our team sing!?”
“Let’s hear it, let’s see it!”
I had no idea when I had become the youngest member of this composing team, but...
I stood in front of the microphone fitted with a pop filter.
Then, after humming a few more times, I began recording the guide vocals for Me Demon in earnest.
* * *
“Chiyo, you and Unni wash up first.”
Wooa returned to the dorm late at night after repeating private lessons and practice until then.
“Hiya!”
“I’ll wash up and come right out, okay?”
Her individual training had become more intense than it had been during her trainee days, and more organic and advanced as well, including instrument practice.
After sweating it out all day, Wooa headed toward the source of the commotion with a smile, satisfied that she could still improve.
“Ah, my ears hurt!”
“No, seriously, it’s the best song I’ve ever written. You’ll understand once you hear it.”
“Ah, then play it for me now!”
“No, we said we were doing a blind test.”
“What am I supposed to do, then? What am I supposed to do!”
“It’s a good song. A really good song.”
“Ebe-be-beb.”
Seoyun, having finished her individual schedule, must have gotten off work first. She was lying on the bed in her room at the dorm.
Next to her, Dohee was lying down as well, clinging tightly to Seoyun’s arm and chattering away.
“Oh! Unni’s back? I didn’t even hear the front door.”
Dohee sprang up from the bed and headed toward Wooa.
Leaving Seoyun, who was smiling refreshingly as though she had finally been liberated, Wooa held out an arm to keep Dohee away.
“No, you smell like sweat. Really bad.”
‘I danced all day.’
But Dohee seemed not to care. She dodged the arm and eventually nestled into Wooa’s embrace.
“It’s okay. I smell lovely.”
Today, her voice was lower than usual, as though she had deliberately dropped its pitch.
“What’s with your voice? What happened to it?”
“Is it strange?”
Seoyun answered for her from behind.
“Very. Completely. Extremely.”
She sounded thoroughly annoyed.
“No, it sounds nice. Relaxing.”
“They say it’s called vocal fry, and it’s a vocal technique that’s trendy among American women in their twenties these days. Totally the latest trend.”
“Really? Who taught you?”
“The composers I worked with. They’re foreigners, remember?”
“Oh, I see?”
Dohee must have learned a lot during the song camp.
For a moment, Wooa felt satisfied seeing how hard she herself had worked that day, but then her spirits sank a little as she looked at Dohee.
“So, speaking of which, what I did yesterday and today was...”
“Oh, reaaally~?”
“What’s with that way of speaking?”
But as always, she listened to Dohee’s chatter until it was time to wash up.
“Wooa-jjang~ I’m all clean!”
“I guess I should wash up too, then?”
“...Hmm.”
As if disappointed, Dohee crooked a finger and pointed toward Chiyo.
“Hey, you! Come over here!”
“...Hah!”
Pat pat pat.
Tap tap tap.
Chiyo ran away, and Dohee chased after her.
I should just take a shower and go to bed.
* * *
A howling sound could be heard from early in the morning.
“Genius composer Lee Dohee...”
“Ah, let go of me!”
When Wooa went out to the living room, Dohee—the star of the show—was being dragged around by Seoyun, who had grabbed her foot.
No matter whether Dohee swept up the dust on the floor or not, Seoyun stubbornly trudged toward the bathroom, grunting with every step.
“Members, hurry and get ready~ Dohee, finish shaking off the dust!”
“Seoyun Unni’s foot won’t let go of meee...”
“Tell her to let go!”
And it was only in the afternoon that Wooa and the other members finally got to listen to Dohee’s self-composed song.
* * *
Blind test.
The meeting room was packed with A&R staff and the five members.
“First, we selected six songs for the album through a blind test with the A&R team. You’ll listen to them together as well, and then we’ll decide on two title tracks by vote.”
Jeong Sohyeon sat in the seat of honor and looked at the members.
“The most important thing to pay attention to as you listen today is, of course, the quality of the songs. Focus on how pleasing each one sounds to your ears. And as you all know, there are two title-track concepts: Debonair and Born ideals. Consider how well each song suits those two concepts, too. From now on, you yourselves, as members, will be deciding the group’s identity.”
The members nodded in response.
Soon, the songs began playing loudly in title order.
Most were demo versions, still unfinished, with no lyrics and only rough English humming in their place.
As far as Jeong Sohyeon was concerned...
The first song did not appeal to her much.
The second was too difficult to use as a song for the girls.
And the third was a song with even Korean lyrics already added, leaving only the recording to be done.
‘This one... was easy enough to attach lyrics to. About 6.5 out of 10.’
By Jeong Sohyeon’s standards, a 6.5 meant that—
If released by a popular girl group, it was good enough to reach number one at least once.
Not an amazing song, but decent enough that people would listen to it.
More than sufficient for a B-side.
She felt sorry to Dohee, but the arrangement she had worked on during her days with Seiven, “Rhapsody,” had been around this level.
It had achieved much better results thanks to the title of being a song arranged by Dohee and group member Gong Chaerin, Seiven’s stature, and the performance.
Even so, 6.5 was more than enough for a professional-level song.
Jeong Sohyeon watched as the staff and members listened quietly and marked their scores on paper ballots.
“I’ll play song number four now.”
The beginning of number four was—
─Boom, boom
A familiar, bass-heavy, groovy sound that everyone would probably like.
The sound was especially realistic, as though it had been recorded directly.
─yeah
Then a low voice added a brief ad-lib hum.
─huu
The staff and members were already reacting differently from before.
There was something like this.
Even before the verse or lyrics appeared, a single line presenting the main theme could give you confidence.
A feeling that this song had no choice but to be good.
And so, with the sound of an open hi-hat, the verse began.
─hey, something blooming inside you...
Dohee’s voice came through languidly yet powerfully.
Yes, this was Dohee’s self-composed song.
She had not even tried to hide that it was her own song.
Every guide vocal had been recorded in Dohee’s own voice.
She revealed herself with absolute confidence during the blind test, without even attempting to hide the songwriter’s identity.
It was the kind of confidence that came from the quality of the song—the certainty that no one would say otherwise.
The confidence that, even if they did not know it was Dohee’s song, they would inevitably choose it.
Jeong Sohyeon agreed with that sentiment and glanced at Dohee.
“Ang...?”
‘...Maybe not.’
As if she were not the girl who had been turned into an anthropomorphized rabbit, Dohee sat there with her mouth hanging open and her two front teeth showing, wearing a foolish, bewildered expression.
Judging from her uniquely flustered look, she really did not seem to have been conscious of the blind test at all when she recorded it.
‘It would have been nice to film this and keep it as a video.’
Even at a moment like this, Jeong Sohyeon could only regret not capturing something the fans would have loved.
In any case, the song’s transitions and progression continued to be excellent.
The open hi-hat announcing the first verse, followed by the electronic drum rhythm and bass, all harmonized with the pleasing melody.
In the pre-chorus, the drums and bass stopped, replaced by synth sounds that added a 2000s feel and the sound of clapping hands.
It felt as though special points had been added to follow the retro trend, just as outlined in the plan.
Then the high notes burst out, and the chorus began with a guitar riff.
─Here-ee-ee Demon-mon-mon
Since the chorus was the most important part, Jeong Sohyeon focused on the song again.
Leaving aside Dohee’s voice and the melody leading the song—
New instruments were being added to the chorus instrumental, or rather, the accompaniment, halfway through.
‘It was like that from the verse.’
If the verse consisted solely of the main theme—
only the bass and drumbeat—
then the main theme continued into the chorus.
A guitar riff had been added at the beginning and on the first line.
Then, when the chorus repeated once more, the sound of a new percussion instrument, somewhat like a wooden temple block, was added.
Despite being a hook song with a repeating melody, those subtle details kept it from feeling tiresome at all.
Jeong Sohyeon herself had already listened to it nearly twenty times since yesterday.
‘Even considering that it’s simple and addictive enough to sing along to from the second verse after hearing the first...’
This was not a hook song that invited criticism for forcibly repeating itself until it drilled its way into your brain.
It was a song that made you want to seek it out again after hearing only one line, so surely many people would add it to their playlists.
And she had been consciously excluding Dohee’s voice from her assessment, but it was an attractive, breathy voice that suited the song extremely well.
A rich low range for a woman.
A voice too high and clear to be a man’s.
Though she had once been told that her tone was unpleasant because vocal issues had caused her to produce a masculine voice, Dohee had somehow transformed it into a voice that was genuinely pleasant to hear.
As befitted the song’s author, her voice suited it perfectly.
There was only one disappointing thing about the song.
The progression of the first and second verses was exactly the same.
Of course, there were ways to address that.
The lyrics of the first and second verses could be changed to advance the storyline.
The performance could be strengthened.
But the addictiveness that let you sing along to the second verse after hearing the first also came from this, so she would need to hear what Dohee, the original creator, thought.
In any case, the fact that Jeong Sohyeon had listened to it twenty times and still had not grown tired of humming it meant...
‘It probably wouldn’t be bad to leave it as it is.’
The second verse passed, and then came the bridge before the third verse.
At last, the song changed once.
A new pop melody line.
Just as in their debut song.
This bridge would probably benefit from a slight dance break as well.
Even now, the way the instruments were used in the accompaniment was interesting.
The wooden-temple-block-like percussion sound that had been added in the chorus continued into the bridge, creating tension.
The synth sound heard in the pre-chorus added another layer of fun.
And that string instrument sound that drew the ear’s attention with a single note in the middle...
‘A violin... No, it sounds like the tone of a cello pitched up.’
There had probably been a cellist among the composers they worked with. Most likely, they had raised the pitch of a melody played directly by that person, making it sound like a violin.
With the synth sounds already in place, it seemed like a cute intention to add a natural sound as well.
As expected, the continuous novelty created by adding instruments to the accompaniment was the secret behind the song’s ability to be both addictive and fresh.
In the third chorus, the 2000s-style synth sound that had not appeared in the first or second choruses burst out with a bright bam!
It was a repeated format that built tension and added to the arrangement as the song progressed, then made everything explode.
Of course, it was only possible because the melody itself was overflowing with addictiveness...
And so. Just like that, the short, two-and-a-half-minute song came to an end.
Then, in the silence, Seoyun raised her hand.
“Teacher, isn’t this obviously Lee Dohee’s voice? Isn’t it illegal to use this in a blind test?”
Seoyun never stopped joking around.
“But it’s really, really good. Totally my song!”
Chiyo was claiming ownership.
“Why is it your song?”
“Eee... Dohee-jjang is sooo stingy...”
Even so, their reactions were clearly positive.
By Jeong Sohyeon’s standards, the song’s score was high as well.
If she had to give it a number... 8.5 or 9 out of 10.
If an unpopular girl group could only attract attention through promotion, this was the kind of song that could make them popular in an instant. If a popular group like theirs released it, it was guaranteed a place on the year-end charts.
‘Though since it’ll be released in summer... it’ll be difficult to reach the very top.’
Even so, the public’s reaction would surely be similar to the atmosphere in this meeting room.
“Our maknae is a real master singer, huh~?”
“Awesome! So proud of you! Praise, praise!”
“They adjusted it with Auto-Tune, didn’t they?”
“...What are you talking about? It’s completely live. Could you stop being jealous, Seoyun?”
“So they didn’t touch it?”
“Of course not. Naturally.”
“Really? Swear on Doa.”
“What?”
“If you’re lying, Doa will hate you forever.”
“...I barely touched it, okay? Just the high note in the bridge a little... Yes, F6, or the third-octave F. Just that part a little...”
“I knew it. I’m taking that part, okay?”
“No, but I didn’t alter it because I can’t hit the high note...”
“Yes!~”
“No, seriously, that part is yours, but I did it on purpose to give it the feel of your natural voice... with Auto-Tune...”
“That’s my part? Yes!”
“Do you want me to show you the high note right now? Huh? Come with me to the vocal room! Come on!”
Jeong Sohyeon watched the meeting room grow noisy and Dohee flash her front teeth in an aggrieved expression. Then she simply played the next song.
“Unni, you’re dead. Since I’m overseeing the production, I’m just not letting you pass.”
“Ah, right. Just a moment, Dohee.”