The Villainous Member Has Returned! Episode 173
* * *
Having voluntarily worked himself to the bone, and above all, completely exhausted from a two-day recording studio schedule, Tioje looked more like a zombie than an idol.
“Huuuh, I’m so, so tired. Hobin hyung, could you please take me to my bed? Please! Just… this once!”
“Hwaseong ssi, I’m smaller than you, how could I possibly….”
“Hwaseong-ah, hyung will carry you on my back. …Let’s go.”
“Jaeha hyuuung! I really have no one but you!”
The moment their manager, Yu Hobin, brought them to the dorm, there were scenes of them half-crawling toward their own beds.
“Ugh, then hyungs… sleep… well….”
“Huh… Good night? Good morning? Whatever.”
“Ugh, let’s see each other after we sleep and wake up. Ugh, ack. My voice is about to give out…!”
“Yuchan hyung, take some propolis before bed. Ugh, my body….”
And of course, our own Kim Chunyong was among that procession as well.
Composing songs and choreographing.
Ah, how could he not be exhausted?
“Chunyong-ah. Could you draw the curtains before lying down? I want to do it, but I’m too tired….”
“Yes, yes. Just a moment….”
Kim Chunyong, reaching the curtains on his knees, barely managed to draw the curtains for his and Son Jaeha’s room before he could lie his body down on the bed.
Inside that red-haired head of his, dyed to a shade close to pink as someone had previously recommended, there were only two thoughts.
Wow, I’m really, insanely tired.
But this was enough.
“…Aja!”
Overwhelmed by a tremendous sense of satisfaction from head to toe, Kim Chunyong shook his tightly clenched fist in the air, careful not to disturb Son Jaeha’s sleep.
Anyone watching might wonder why he was getting so worked up when the album wasn’t even out yet….
But looking back at the roughly nineteen hours they had spent working, it was understandable.
“OMG, Yongyong hyung! You’re back? Did you work on the choreography drafts?”
“Yeah. It’s still only the highlight parts mostly… but I took recordings of two or three versions. I brought them to show the members. More importantly, the song?”
“Ugh, it’s in full swing right now. Yuchan hyung is recording the demo as we speak. We changed Logan’s pre-written draft into Korean bit by bit and wrote lyrics to flesh it out… just listen for now.”
“…
Oh.”
Whether it was because the members had begun carrying out their assigned roles with perfect unity, or because the song Logan had made was just so incredible.
“…
It’s good? Is this really the first demo recording?”
“Yes. It’s insane, right?”
From the start, the first recording, titled [Repackage Album Title Track Candidate_Final], was already good enough before the [ReallyPleaseThisIsTrulyReallyGodFinal] version came out.
- Somewhere, where you choose
I already know, that it’ll be good enough
Somewhere, where you talk
Each step I take is sweet
Walk on waltz, Walk on wales
The room he entered through the door of that notorious Korea University Practical Music Department—Logan’s song adorned with Yuchan’s vocals held a different charm than what Kim Chunyong had known.
- Oh, Oh, Oh, Walk on, Walk on!
The next episode too
Oh, Oh, Oh, Walk on, Walk on!
Perfect right through to the epilogue
It felt somewhat more powerful and bouncy than when Logan sang it with his guitar.
It was a song that suited Tioje perfectly, who had the image of “boys growing from their past,” befitting their survival program origins.
“I think it’s good like this? This is the first time a demo recording has finished so quickly. Logan, your directing is really amazing.”
“Holy, thank you, Yuchan hyung. I’ll write the email right away. Let’s get off work quickly too!”
However, the reason they made a [ReallyPleaseThisIsTrulyReallyGodFinal] version of this already good song was….
“Hmm, wait. Logan. I checked while writing the lyrics… is the ‘Wales’ that appears here not a typo for ‘whale’ but the place name Wales? The, uh, Commonwealth?”
“Um, yes. That’s right. It’s because I traveled to Wales with my grandmother back then.”
“Uh… I’m hesitant to bring this up, but doesn’t that not quite match the overall mood of the song? Honestly, even when I understood it as ‘whale,’ it felt a bit strange… I think it’d be good to change this part to different lyrics.”
“Oh, sure. There’s no problem with changing the lyrics! But I accidentally already sent an email… what should we do?”
“…
Let’s fix it, re-record, and send again.”
It was the very, very trivial things that kept tripping them up.
“Wait, Logan. I think I should go in for this part of the demo instead of Yuchan hyung. It’s a rap, after all. Wouldn’t it be better if I did it?”
“God, right. I forgot about that! Uh, Yuchan hyung? Please switch places with Hwaseong for a moment… Ah, damn it. I already sent another email!”
“Uh, Logan hyung… this part, the part… if Chunyong hyung and I split it… I think it would be better….”
“What? Wait, wait, Siu. I need to note that down… God, the emails are going off on their own again….”
“Hyung, you just pressed send with your elbow….”
After Son Jaeha pointed out subtle lyrics with a sharp eye, feedback came pouring in almost like a flood.
Kim Chunyong alone had stopped by the recording studio to check on things nearly ten times in between.
And the thought of “If we just fix this, it’ll definitely get better,” had made all the members working on the demo suffer even more together, if you will.
“…
The bridge changed? Wait, wait. Send this file to me. Then I’ll have to fix the choreography for this part a bit.”
“What?! Chunyong hyung, did you already choreograph up to the second verse bridge?”
“…
Though it’s a situation where I have to redo it now.”
Needless to say, the suffering of Kim Chunyong, who was choreographing to match the song, also increased.
Besides, Kim Chunyong’s hardships were hardly limited to choreography alone.
“Uh, so… is this the ‘ThisIsReallyTrulyTheLast’ version right now?”
“Yes. It really took a long time to get here. Did it take about nine hours, Hwaseong?”
“Aren’t you lowballing it, Logan?! You need to add at least three more hours to that!”
“Huh. That’s what he says. Anyway, what do you think, Chunyong hyung? Can I send the email again now? Once you’ve sent it once, sending it multiple times isn’t scary anymore.”
“Yeah, good. It’s really good. But… couldn’t we add a bit more sound?”
“Oh, like what?”
“Like, um. That music box feeling from when ‘Hide and Seek’ first came in….”
“…
Wait. I have some samples. Would you like to pick one, Chunyong hyung?”
Kim Chunyong also had to drop hints bit by bit about the completed track Logan had released in England during his Arrows activities.
Because of this, the emails they sent to Mun Yunha and the A&R team grew countless, and the song’s versions reached the [ReallyPleaseThisIsTrulyReallyGodFinal].
“I bought some coffee for you to drink while taking a short break. Is the work done now?”
“Hobin hyung! Yes. We’ve been working without rest for almost seventeen hours… Huuuh, this is totally a potion. Give it here, to me!”
“Ah, yes. Really, everyone worked hard. Take care of your throats. …
Hm? Mr. Logan, are you writing an email right now?”
“Yes! This is the twenty-first email now. God, this really makes me feel like a working adult….”
“Y-you sent twenty-one emails about the song? Wait a moment!”
It was hardly a secret that, thanks to this, they had all collectively received a lecture from Hobin on “how to write professional business emails,” after he found out that Tioje had sent such a mess of emails as a group.
“…
Hoo.”
Recalling the day he had spent breathlessly obsessing over a single song, Kim Chunyong let out a low sigh and slowly blinked his eyes.
If one only heard up to here, it would simply sound like the tale of a rookie idol’s absurd suffering, but the reason this was not a tale of suffering but a tale of achievement lay in the result.
“Everyone, thank you so much for following my directing today… I’ve shared the song on our account cloud, so download it and check it out!”
The demo song they had worked so hard on entered all the Tioje members’ phones.
The song that made Kim Chunyong inwardly shout “We did it” the moment he heard it seemed like a good weapon he could wield against X’s impromptu mission and Sin Giho’s interference.
“…It’ll definitely become the title track. With this level of completion, even if Director Sin hadn’t wanted to include it initially, he would’ve had to. This is really it. So, if I think about what comes next….”
Kim Chunyong quietly organized his thoughts and slowly reached out to pull over the phone he had tossed by his bedside.
On the phone he had left neglected the whole time, messages had arrived in droves, like a youngest sibling sulking because their older brother wouldn’t play with them.
- X: Hmph, do you think you can really get first place like this? Do you think first place is a joke?
- X: The song is good, yeah ㅡㅡ I know you’re working hard ㅡㅡ
- X: Hey, hey. The fundamental thing is that you need to apologize to me, you get it?
- X: That’s all it would take, Chunyong-yong. You’re really cruel, so cruel.
Having lightly brushed off X’s messages, which ultimately confessed “I’m sulking because it seems like you don’t care about me,” Kim Chunyong tossed the phone aside again and exhaled.
Kim Chunyong didn’t have much to say to X.
Summed up, it would be “I’m not doing this much because of you,” perhaps?
It wasn’t a thought that came from wanting to beat X at his sulking game; it was Kim Chunyong’s sincere, genuine feeling.
Well, even if his stats had dropped by five points each, it wouldn’t have shown much in the current situation.
The skills he had acquired during that time, and his compendiums.
Thanks to that, his stats were being met at a fairly decent level.
Even if Sin Giho had forced things to prevent Logan’s song from being included, Tioje wouldn’t have suddenly received a terribly awful report card.
From the very beginning, even when he received X’s absurd impromptu mission, and even when he heard words dangerously close to threats from Sin Giho.
Kim Chunyong had been incomparably unflinching.
He had simply maintained an attitude of “Since it overlaps with what I had to do anyway, I’ll do it like that.”
“…….”
Kim Chunyong briefly glanced at the calendar on the nightstand he shared with Son Jaeha, squeezed his eyes shut, and stretched his mouth into a straight line.
A few days ago, when he had fun playing with the members and, thanks to that, met his family.
Since then, one new thought had filled Kim Chunyong’s cleared mind.
The more time passed….
“Did everyone pack their carriers? Then we just take the limousine bus… wait. Kim Nari. Why is your luggage so heavy?”
“Huh? It’s all clothes, clothes. What else would there be?”
“…
Hey. We’re going to a country that’s in summer right now. Are you stupid?”
“Oh my, Chunyong-ah. Those are Mom’s….”
“Oh, Mom!”
“Haha, son, daughter. Dad said he’d buy Mom clothes there. Let’s get going. We’ll be late for the limousine bus at this rate!”
“Yeah, Kim Chunyong. Hurry up and carry the luggage. You’re the one with a mountain of luggage yourself, look at this…!”
That “day” when he had lost everything was approaching.
“…
Hah.”
Without realizing it, Kim Chunyong’s eyes shot open and he gasped for breath. He raised his body from where he had been lying face down on the bed and rubbed his face with both hands.
That was why.
Because he had completely cleared his head once. Because he had recalled why he had come back like this.
He had gained such great strength from the people who were precious to him; failing to think of that would make him no different from a fool.
Therefore, since that day, Kim Chunyong had steeled his heart even more.
To change the past that had become the present, more and differently than before, and to meet X’s demands faster.
“…
Hoo.”
Having steadied his slightly quickened breathing, Kim Chunyong looked once at his phone. And once at the soundly sleeping Son Jaeha. And once at the family photo on the nightstand.
The release of the repackage album that would become another turning point in his new life.
And the year-end music awards ceremony, where he had to fulfill the condition of “winning the Rookie Award.”
They were slowly approaching.