Chapter 344

Chapter 344

Seon Ahyeon’s attitude had changed. It began during the scheduling meeting.

“So we don’t need to gather any more image references for the concept, right? We go ahead with what we have?”

“I think that should be fine!” Raebin said.

“All right. If anybody else has a different opinion—”

The general assumption was that nobody did.

“I-I do!”

“…!”

But Ahyeon, who had never interrupted anybody before, had raised his hand before the sentence had even been completed.

Chungwoo seemed a little taken aback, but asked kindly, “All right. Ahyeon, what is your opinion?”

“I-I think we should collect a little more data, with a broader scope this time. We still have some time, so…”

“Hmm…”

Ahyeon was even directly proposing an opposing opinion.

Is something wrong with him? Should we end the meeting right now and check on him? I could tell that the members were all thinking such things, judging from the looks in their eyes. Ahyeon wasn’t even done.

“Just two… two more days! Couldn’t we take two more days? The staff from the Projects Team mentioned that the deadline is in the afternoon, two days from now… So if that is the set schedule, things won’t go any faster just because we produce results more quickly!”

He was even explaining his opinion, despite him looking like he was about to start sweating. His reasoning was convincing, even.

“Oh, I guess you’re right.”

“Wow, you remembered that, Ahyeon? That was three months ago…”

“Y-yes… I wrote it down…”

He wasn’t the best at producing unique ideas, but he made good calls in any given situation, and his opinions were put forth with tenacity. This was in line with Ahyeon’s usual personality, that much was true.

“S-so… Let’s take two more days to think it over…!”

“Uh… I’m all for it, of course! Aren’t we all?” Big Sejin said.

“Hmm, yes.”

There was about ten times as much energy in Ahyeon’s voice than usual, however, and that was hard to ignore. Everyone was taken aback, and clearly very unsure how to react.

What is going on here? I wondered if this was a good thing, but something about it alarmed me a little. What had come over him that he was showing such a marked change.

“What do you think, Moondae?” Ahyeon asked.

Gosh, you’re making me nervous.

“I… agree, of course.”

“Okay!”

He was even going so far as requesting a verbal response from me. He had never been this proactive before.

What is going on?

He carried on with the same energy even at the composition meeting that evening.

“I-I think… we need more stringed instruments in the accompaniment!”

“Wow!”

“What kind of stringed instruments?”

“Something with a sharp, cheery sound, but also dramatic… The fiddle, for instance! I think that would fit in with the concept more!”

“The fiddle?”

Ahyeon began to explain in detail with even more fervor about what a fiddle was. He said that it was the least classical of the bowed string instruments, which had earned it a separate name, and the sound was almost country like. He went on and on.

“Wow.”

He almost sounded like he was giving a presentation. Eugene, who had been listening with interest, looked ready to applaud

“That’s a great idea! Amazing!”

“Okay!”

His face went red as a tomato, but he did not turn down the compliment.

What in the world? I really had no idea what was going on.

Well, even if this is rather strong for him, it’s comparable to the way the others speak when they have something they feel strongly about… If there had been some kind of psychological change inside him that made him want to participate more, then that could only be a good thing.

Ahyeon hadn’t been able to join conversations easily thus far. But compared to the passion the other members often showed when speaking their mind, his new approach wasn’t that much of an outlier.

“So we can do as Ahyeon suggested and insert the violin, which is the stringed instrument that has the sharpness and gentleness that he spoke of, while also fitting in very well with the current arrangement—” Raebin began.

“N-no! Not just a violin! A fiddle! A fiddle! That’s what we need!”

“R-right!”

Actually, maybe he was being a little excessive.

He is acting like this is a life and death matter.

“I’ll try my best!” Raebin said.

“Th-thanks!”

Even Bae Sejin seemed cautious now. The meeting went on like this, Ahyeon firmly leading, before eventually coming to an end. Big Sejin was sitting and drinking sparkling water in the kitchen when he turned to me with a serious expression.

“Moondae, is there some kind of sad backstory I don’t know about? If we fail to put together a good album, is someone going to go out of business or something?”

I did not respond.

“Or did you pick on Ahyeon because he wasn’t pulling his own weight— Yow!”

Of course, I didn’t. I stared at him as he pretended that the slap I’d delivered to his back had actually hurt. I withheld a sigh.

“There must be a different reason. That can’t be it,” I said.

“Yeah? Hmm… well, I suppose.” Big Sejin shrugged and moved on, just as I had, obviously deciding that the situation wasn’t a bad one. “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean that we have to know every little detail about each other, I guess. Isn’t that right?”

That’s rich coming from you. You demanded every little detail about my situation. I felt a bit irritated. Ahyeon had run off to his room as soon as nighttime retreat had ended and hadn’t shown his face since.

What is he up to in there? I repressed a groan.

“I’m guessing that he feels a little bit… left out.”

“Huh?”

“You and I have been talking a lot lately, and we’ve never once involved him in our conversations.”

The three of us were identical in age, experience, and so on. Perhaps he was pissed about this unfair treatment, and this was his way of dealing with his stress—albeit positively.

Big Sejin nodded, thinking slowly. “Hmm. I suppose that might be the case. But come on. He’s not really the sort of person to— Oh.” He groaned. “Ahyeon didn’t really have that many good friends in school, did he?”

“No…”

“Hmm, well… I guess he doesn’t feel very good about this whole situation, then.”

He glanced at me and asked in quite the grave tone, “What are you going to do about this?”

How would I know? He wasn’t really asking me for a solution, of course. He was probably wondering if I was going to share my secret with Ahyeon as well—that is, if his strange behavior was because I hadn’t told him yet about the supernatural phenomena.

“Hmm… I have no right to tell you what to do, of course. But it seems to me that his attitude toward you won’t really change all that much just because you tell him.”

I had to agree with him there.

He’s just such a nice guy. I sighed briefly.

“Hey! It’s not like he will start avoiding you or something, just because you’re actually older than we are— Ow! Hey, that one actually hurt!”

Yes, it must have. That’s the power of a young man in his twenties, you bastard. The most embarrassing part is I had probably resorted to slapping him because I felt guilty.

I sighed looking at the cackling Big Sejin.

He finally changed the subject when he had stopped laughing. “Gosh… By the way, what do we do about Heeseung? Should I tell him that I’ve become privy to his little secret and scold him a bit?”

He grinned.

“Or should I just tell him that I came from the future, too? Oh my gosh. That would be so funny.”

“Enough.”

It would be in ill taste and the timing would wreak havoc with the entire story.

“That sort of joke wouldn’t make any sense. I think this works like a relay race.”

“Wow! Moondae, you’ve really analyzed this situation, I see! That’s Moondae for you. So that’s why you were so nice to Heeseung. So you could learn more from him.”

Perceptive bastard. I intertwined my fingers.

“Yes. And we have a use for Goldie #2.”

Big Sejin was silent for a moment.

Huh?

He seemed serious as he spoke again in a puzzled tone, “But Moondae.”

What?

“I wanted to ask you about this earlier… By Goldie #2, do you mean Heeseung?”

“…!”

How did you know— Wait, have I been saying that out loud all this time?

“So I’m right! Is that what you call Heeseung? Why?”

“Uh…”

“Wait, hold on. Let me guess. Is it because he was gold grade on Idol Inc.? Did you attach a number to his grade?”

I said nothing.

“I got that right, too? No way! You are so heartless, Park Moondae! Idol Inc. ended so long ago. You still call him that?”

F*ck. I gritted my teeth as I watched him double over laughing.

“I get to call him whatever the hell I want. Is that a problem?”

“You should be ashamed—actually, no. Sorry. I laughed too much, didn’t I? Hey. Sorry. I mean it!” He was trying to make up for his amusement with an insincere apology. Big Sejin soon calmed down, his eyes glowing. “Moondae, I’m asking this out of genuine curiosity… Is that what you called Sejin, too? Did you categorize everyone from the show that way? Am I Goldie #1?”

Dream on.

“You were just Big Sejin.”

“Oh, wow! So at least I got a nickname. Not bad. Not bad at all.”

I felt the urge to sigh as I watched him nodding to himself. He’s driving me nuts.

“So how long did you call me that?”

I remained silent.

“Moondae?”

I still call you that, you bastard. I ignored his whining and went to my room to sleep.

***

The album retreat continued the next day as well, as did Ahyeon’s sudden energetic attitude.

“If we continue to stall like this, we’ll have to work til night. I’m sure none of you want that. So let’s—” I said.

“Wh-why not? Let’s do it!” Ahyeon said.

“Huh? Okay…”

Was this really necessary? Now he was really acting out of character. Ahyeon was as eager as Eugene was whenever he got to work with special devices. I stared at him and said no more.

“Hey, I don’t like working overtime!” Eugene said.

“W-we have to do it, if necessary…!” Ahyeon said.

Would you look at that? He was even being a little harsh with Eugene. Not that this was a bad thing, of course. In terms of efficiency, this was good. What bothered me was that he seemed to be pushing himself too hard. I watched him as he secretly wiped cold sweat from the back of his neck and made up my mind.

This won’t do. I’d have to try to start a conversation, at least.

“Good work, guys!”

“Let’s clean this up now.”

I went to Ahyeon’s room when the meeting had tentatively come to an end after dinner. He had retreated to his room again as soon as it was done. I knocked.

“…!”

“It’s me,” I said, opening the door and going inside.

Ahyeon was hunched over his desk, as if trying to hide something.

What are you doing, exactly?

“L-looking for something?” he asked.

“I just wanted to chat—”

I walked closer, then suddenly realized what he was hiding. It was a scrapbook of sorts, containing printed versions of everything regarding our previous albums, such as articles, reviews, and scores.

“The most important part?”

“The problem is expressiveness.”

There were comments written here and there in neat handwriting, presumably his. He was also hiding an e-reader, and there was something on the screen.

The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 5

Wait, don’t tell me you’ve been collecting material on the side? It was obvious that all of this was in preparation for our new album. I decided I would still ask him about it, though.

“What is all that?”

“Oh, yeah! This is…” He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon he replied in quite the confident voice, “I-I think I found something that suits us more… among the works of Edgar Allan Poe, as S-Sejin suggested.”

“…!”

“A b-black cat is nice and all… But uh… It feels a little bit like it overlaps with ‘Nightmare…’ I wanted to include something that would suit us better.”

He seemed nervous, but there was a faint smile on his lips, too. I was already pretty convinced by what he was saying.

“H-here.”

He held out the notebook that had been below his e-reader, his hands slightly trembling.

I took it and opened it, discovering that inside was the name of the album as well as existing concepts for our group that we could connect it to. I quickly skim read through a few of the highlighted words in the notebook.

“Release of energy”

“Immersion, speed”

Then I perused the entire thing, saying nothing.

“I-I haven’t been able to organize it yet so that it’s easier to read… which is why I didn’t tell anyone yet. Y-you need to have supporting facts… for an argument.”

He bowed his head, looking slightly embarrassed.

“I’m… not very well-spoken… So I thought it would be nice… if the material was thorough at least.”

Gosh.

“From the way you spoke today, I doubt you need to worry about that.”

He went red in the face.

“Th-thanks. But if I can finalize this a little more…”

“Oh, so you were working on this on the side!” Raebin said.

“…!”

Whoa. I turned around and found Raebin, who had been working with his headset on at the opposite desk. He had removed his headphones and turned around to face us.

How long have you been there? He had been completely silent as he worked, so I had failed to notice him.

“Ahyeon was reading something every day for the past few days. I didn’t realize they were album reviews,” he said.

“Yes…” Ahyeon said, his face as red as a tomato.

Raebin nodded in understanding. His eyes were shining. “I thought it was a new hobby you’d developed during our tour. I had no idea that you were putting in so much time and effort for such large-scale analysis… You are both diligent and talented, just as I expected.”

“Y-y-yes…” Ahyeon looked extremely inclined to disagree, but was doing his best not to.

I grinned at him. “Yes. This is great.”

“…!”

“You’ve put together some good stuff. You could have brought it up to everyone else right away, actually. It seems ready as it is.”

“R-really?”

You think I would lie now, of all times?

“Yes.”

To put it simply, his idea was so enticing that we would have been drawn to it even if somebody had tossed us the rough draft.

The process that leads to the conclusion is logically perfect. There were people, of course, like Raebin, who needed only a little bit of inspiration to produce something that was lovely to listen to for anybody. But sometimes, people went through a different process—putting together multiple puzzle pieces, filtering out the potential answers, and finally reaching a single conclusion.

This was exactly how Ahyeon had done it this time. It was obvious at a glance just how much reading and analyzing he had done regarding our existing albums. And the conclusion that he had reached was extremely appealing.

He must’ve put a lot of work into this. I thought of how he’d been gloomy over not being able to take part in the retreat properly. I was impressed. This was way better than I had expected.

“I’d like to try this right away, actually.”

“…!”

Ahyeon was practically starry-eyed and bushy-tailed. He seemed touched, almost.

“M-Moondae… Thank you… so much.”

“You’re the one who deserves thanks for coming up with such a great idea.”

Ahyeon was not done, however. “Uh… In that case…”

Huh?

“C-could you… maybe… t-tell me about…”

I suddenly realized what he was talking about.

Wait… Is he asking me to tell him my secret? It seemed I had been mistaken about something. His eagerness hadn’t been fueled by rage. The way he was looking at me so carefully made it seem almost like he was trying to join some secret society by proving himself worthy.

“N-no! Never mind… L-let me organize this information a little bit more…”

Despite his words, his face was filled with expectation. He crept toward his desk.

“May I take a look, too?” Raebin said.

“Sure!”

It seemed that Ahyeon had used his emotions in a far more productive way than I had expected—these emotions being his desire to contribute to the retreat, as well as his wish to be acknowledged by the members that were the same age as him.

At this rate… I’ll seriously be f*cked if I don’t tell him. Oh, what the hell. I don’t know what I should do anymore. Arrange a date or something. At this rate, I would end up telling everybody capable of keeping a secret. I rubbed my face.

In any case, that night, Ahyeon called for a meeting and gave his presentation. The members all had a great sense of judgment, and they reacted much like I had. They loved his suggestions.

“I like this better, too,” Bae Sejin said.

“Then we’ll shift our direction in this way. Nice one, Ahyeon,” Big Sejin said.

“Y-yeah. Th-thanks! Thank you!”

Ahyeon bowed his head upon seeing that everyone was happy with what he had brought forth, including himself and the more practical members among us. The vibes were good, and the group almost seemed on the verge of applauding Ahyeon.

Then someone caused a shift in the mood.

“Hmm. That means we’ll have to go over our schedule again.”

“…?”

Chungwoo grinned. “We will have to revise every single one of our plans, which we already finalized.”

We all fell silent at this, and Ahyeon stared at the floor.

“S-sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for? Our album concept will be so much better this way. This is a good thing.”

His response was replete with the sorrow of the modern worker.

It looks like our hellish K-pop overtime retreat… is back in business.

There was one thing to be relieved about, at least. Our overtime retreat was a very effective way to get things done.

“Let me add just one more thing,” I said.

“Hmm.”

Since we were already altering things, I added an element that I had wanted to include, but had excluded for the sake of balance.

So this is the final plan. By the time the weather had grown properly warm, our new album was ready for release.