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“Seo Hoyoon.”
While looking at the anxious Sung Jiwon, I noticed Lim Hyunsoo beckoning to me a second later. He whispered after I sat down beside him.
“Hey, your members are a lot better than I thought. They’re so nice.”
“They’re not bad.”
“Yeah, I thought they’d all be little shits like you.”
“Is that a compliment, Composer-nim?”
“Of course, you cute, mean little bastard.”
Lim Hyunsoo kept humming as if he was in a good mood.
“For the first time in a while, I finally got something fresh. It was a bit rushed, so it feels a bit rough
 but I’ve been taking care of big idol groups for such a long time that I’m about to get sick of them, so working with a new group that’s so disciplined is kind of fun for me as well.”
I put my chin on my hand and looked at Lim Hyunsoo.
“Composer-nim, you know people call that going soft, right?”
“You mean being nice?”
“Of course, I like you a lot, after all, Composer-nim.”
“Thanks a lot.”
Despite being someone guilty of plagiarism, it seemed Lim Hyunsoo was rather excited thinking back to his newbie days.
Sung Jiwon stood before the pop filter, looking really nervous. Lim Hyunsoo turned on the mic that was delivered to the recording studio.
“Main vocalist, are you ready?”
“Yes! I’m ready.”
Sung Jiwon nodded. The members who had been busy practicing their parts in the back suddenly raised their heads.
The beat started to play out and Sung Jiwon took a deep breath, His eyes fluttered as if he was feeling anxious. To this, Lim Hyunsoo muttered.
“I hope he’ll do well.”
I smirked.
Will Sung Jiwon do well?
[Give me, Give me, Give me Second Chance]
The most useless thing in the world was worrying about celebrities.
Sung Jiwon’s voice echoed through the recording studio. Lim Hyunsoo narrowed his eyes and shut his mouth.
As the song progressed, Sung Juwon gradually released his tension and his immersion in the song increased.
[ I’ll say it again. This is the start.
I will come back every time
this strange feeling of dĂ©jĂ  vu. Don’t be scared.]
Ah, Sung Jiwon’s way of raising the note was really relaxing.
So relaxing.
I leaned against the backrest of my chair and eased up.
“
W-Was that okay?”
Turning on his mic connected to the recording studio, Lim Hyunsoo talked to Sung Jiwon who looked around after finishing his part.
“Sung Jiwon-ssi.”
“Y-Yes?”
“How do you think you did?”
Lim Hyunsoo asked in a low voice. Hearing that, Sung Jiwon’s pupils shook in all directions like waves on a stormy day.
“I
 I
 I think the pitch was fine.”
“Pitch? The pitch is not the problem now.”
Lim Hyunsoo laughed.
Jung Dajoon breathed out sharply, and Kim Sunghyun also seemed very nervous.
Anyway, Lim Hyunsoo would always do these things to make people nervous. He was a popular choice as a judge for audition shows.
“Your voice is pretty nice.”
“T-Thank you very much!”
“Why do you only show up now? You’re good. Even the ending is clean
 Did you spend a long time as a trainee?”
“I
 I practiced for seven years.”
“As I thought, that was pretty obvious. No need to be nervous. I feel like your voice is a bit off because you’re too nervous.”
“Ah, yes
”
Being told not to be nervous, Sung Jiwon only got even more nervous.
‘Hn?’
Lim Hyunsoo gave him a few more directions as if he didn’t notice and made Sung Jiwon come out of the recording booth. Even after leaving it, he was still slightly shaking as if he was still nervous.
‘Hey, isn’t that a little
’
“Well, you can do better next time. Let’s move on to the rapper next.”
“Yes! I’m Kang Yichae, let’s start the recording!”
Kang Yichae went into the booth. Lim Hyunsoo continued to listen and commented that while he wasn’t as good as Sung Jiwon, he wasn’t bad.
Kim Sunghyun and Jung Dajoon likewise went in one after the other.
“Kang Yichae-ssi, pay more attention to your pronunciation. You’re good at rap, though.”
“Kim Sunghyun-ssi, you have trouble hitting the higher notes, but you have a nice voice.”
“Jung Dajoon-ssi
 Your voice is pretty unique and attractive. It’s not bad, but you do have to practice more.”
As Lim Hyunsoo gave them directions one after another step by step, the recording was over in an instant.
At the same time, I was able to reevaluate these members. They lacked a bit of star quality, but their skills were mostly good. Their personalities weren’t bad either, yeah
 Though it wasn’t my business.
I was still drinking a smoothy the staff brought me when Jung Dajoon finished his recording and came out of the booth.
Then, Lim Hyunsoo looked back at me and grinned.
“Come on, you little bastard. Go inside.”
“Yes, yes.”
I answered him light-heartedly and opened the door to the booth. The other members’ overall quality was better than I thought so I had to match them well.
The members’ worried gazes were poking into the back of my head.
Because I only practiced dancing since coming back from being sick, I couldn’t even afford to practice singing a single line of the song, so they were worried that my singing skills also regressed.
First of all, in the setting of the game, the ‘Idol Seo Hoyoon’ was said to withdraw from the group because he was sick, so he wouldn’t have been able to properly train with the other members before.
“Are you ready?”
When I entered the recording booth and put on the headphones, I could hear Lim Hyunsoo’s voice coming out of them. I often came to recording studios because of the competition programs I was in charge of, but I was still amazed by all this stuff because this was my first time recording myself.
I tapped the pop filter and gestured to Lim Hyunsoo.
“Give me the beat.”
“Are you crazy?”
Lim Hyunsoo cursed at me, but he chuckled and played the song.
I went in exactly on the beat.
[Ooh, Pick a card, A clear future.]
Lim Hyunsoo’s eyes widened.
[Low chances make you anxious
there’s no need to be
It’s okay I’ll lead you]
I thought that he would stop the recording at this part as he did with the other members but the beat kept flowing.
I glanced and Lim Hyunsoo. However, Lim Hyunsoo only stared at me with burning eyes and did not make any other gestures. As if he was telling me to continue.
Well, it wasn’t too difficult.
[Come to me, Come to me,
Don’t be Afraid, come to me
I have my second chance]
In the middle of the first verse, the music finally stopped. I thought the recording would be over with this.
“
”
“
What is it?”
I took the headset off and looked at Lim Hyunsoo and the members. They all had somewhat strange expressions.
“Should I do it one more time?”
I asked because I thought I had done something wrong, but Lim Hyunsoo turned on his microphone to speak.
“Hey, Seo Hoyoon. Who did you learn to sing from?”
“No one
”
“Huh, there were no flats. They were all anchored
”
Ah, so that’s what he meant. Not particularly surprised, I nodded. Lim Hyunsoo rubbed his chin.
“Usually when kids try to show off, they try to showcase various skills and techniques, but you didn’t do any of that. Rather, it was rather clean, making the characteristics of your voices come alive.”
That was how it had to be after all. Lim Hyunsoo’s words reminded me of the judges of the last audition program I had worked on.
Abusive language and criticism poured into the contestants!
‘Don’t use any useless techniques.’
‘What do you think is the beat there for?’
‘Did you notice that your voice cracked a lot?’
And 70 percent of that abuse would come from Lim Hyunsoo. During the editing, I had to replay these scenes at least a dozen times.
I constantly had to listen to the judges’ evaluations and the singing of the contestants.
So I had established three rules in my mind in regard to singing.
Always stay anchored. Don’t try to be too playful, just sing honestly. Being out of tune is a sin in itself.
“Was it okay?”
Lim Hyunsoo nodded when I asked him.
“Yeah. But you’re a bit lacking in emotion. Don’t sing it too faithfully and try to sing it more flowingly. I think that would fit the concept better.”
“Yes, sir.”
He nodded again and told me to do it one more time. This time I sang the chorus and was asked to harmonize with Sung Jiwon’s part.
“Wow!”
Lim Hyunsoo waved his hands in excitement.
“Hey! How is it possible for you to manage to harmonize with these parts almost immediately?”
It was also possible for me to edit a program and watch Lim Hyunsoo talk about chemistry for more than three hours. This was the shortcut tutorial for ‘Harmonizing is that easy’.
“It’s a bit lacking in emotion, but let’s record it again after you give it some more thought. It’s fine because you have the basics down.”
Lim Hyunsoo gave me a double thumbs up, looking very satisfied. The members also gave me a round of applause as I left the recording booth.
“Our smart hyung
You’re so good at singing.”
“Hyung! You were so good!”
“I almost thought you turned into a vending machine. As soon as he ordered you to do something you gave results.”
I shrugged my shoulders at the pouring praise. I wasn’t actually that good.
I just
 lowered their expectations by a lot because of my lack of dancing skills. Feeling embarrassed, I sipped my smoothie again, but Kim Sunghyun, who looked as though he had relieved the burden on his shoulders, caught my attention. It was clear what he was thinking.
‘At least, he isn’t a troll
’
He probably thought something along those lines.
I just continued to watch as Sung Jiwon went in to add a few more chords to harmonize. Once it was all done, Lim Hyunsoo played the whole recording.
“It’s alright.”
“It came out much better than I thought. It’s good.”
Lim Hyunsoo nodded with satisfaction and whispered softly as the members let out a sigh of relief.
“Honestly, I think this is better than the White Cherry song I’ve been working on.”
“Oh, that’s
 Such an honor!”
“Thank you very much, Composer-nim!”
“Hahaha, praise me more, kids.”
‘Show-off
 ‘
Objectively, there couldn’t be anything better than a well-paid White Cherry song.
He was just saying that to show off, but the members went overboard and bent down to bow.
Still, if the genre suited people’s tastes better, it could be seen as better than a White Cherry song. The lyrics were well written, so we just had to interpret them well into the music video.
“Well done, boys. If there are parts that I don’t like, I’ll make you sing them again, so goodbye for now. I’m busy.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
“Ah, Seo Hoyoon. Come here for a second.”
“What is it?”
When I approached him calmly after being called, Lim Hyunsoo asked something to me in a whisper.
“You threatened Joo Woosung, didn’t you?”
“
”
It seemed he had seen Joo Woosung’s Insta post. I had no intention of denying it so I turned silent, and Lim Hyunsoo burst out laughing.
“Are you sure you’re not actually a con artist?”
“Why are you asking that to someone who just wants to innocently live a good life?”
“If you’re innocent, then everything is upside down.”
“Is that all you want to say?”
“Ah, wait a minute.”
I shrugged. I thought I should go now if he was just going to talk bullshit, but Lim Hyunsoo had something more to ask.
“I just overheard the kids talking about it. You’re going to film the music video with Director Jung, right?”
“Ah
 Yes. It ends up like that.”
Director Jung. To be honest, I wasn’t really familiar with the music video industry, so I didn’t know anything about the guy.
It turned out that he was an expert in filming idol music videos. I wondered why he was brought up.
“I know him. He acts pretty rough when he films his music videos. And he’s a bastard who only cares for money, but the videos he makes are usually good.”
“Aren’t you talking about yourself?”
“You want to die?”
He really sounded like Lim Hyunsoo. They say birds of a feather flock together.
As I was thinking about that, he lightly pushed my forehead with the palm of his hand.
“I told him beforehand. To take good care of you guys.”
“
”
That was surprising. I didn’t even threaten him, and yet Lim Hyunsoo lend some help beforehand?
‘What is he after?’
I raised my eyebrows and tried to grasp Lim Hyunsoo’s intentions. However, when he saw me like that he just clicked his tongue.
“Did you only ever get betrayed by others? Why can’t you just trust people? No, well
 It’s a good habit to have in the entertainment industry though.”
“
I don’t know why Composer-nim is being nice to me. I haven’t done anything good.”
Lim Hyunsoo burst into laughter after hearing my straightforward words.
“I just decided to keep up with the madman’s tune.”
“
”
“It’s fun, and if you guys become popular, donating my talent to you would be pretty worthwhile.”
Ring!
[Friendly relationship with Lim Hyunsoo is achieved.]
[You have completed the ‘First Recording’ quest.]
[300 Points will be handed out.]
It was quite the unexpected favor and luck.
I nodded lightly. I thought it was good that Lim Hyunsoo didn’t hold grudges and acted calmly.
“Thank you.”
“Make sure to be nice to me, Seo Hoyoon.”
“I’ll bring you another bottle of delicious sake next time.”
Lim Hyunsoo held out his middle finger to me. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that.
I shrugged my shoulders and went to join the other members who were waiting for me outside. I thought it had ended on a pretty positive note, but the members’ faces were completely blank.
“I really
 Did I really just record a song with Blue Tiger?”
“Am I dreaming? Someone punch me.”
“Hyung, I can hit you real hard.”
When Kang Yichae balled up a fist, Kim Sunghyun quickly took a few steps back. Sung Jiwon’s face darkened a little.
I patted them on the back and urged them.
“Let’s go and practice.”
We still had a long way to go.