Siblings Working in Business (162)
“He’s skilled.”
Payoff’s composing ability, to be blunt, was good.
Although she found him repulsive, she acknowledged his skill.
He was good. Just… excessive.
The proof was in the numerous dissonant tracks that assaulted her ears. When she stripped them away…
Just separating and removing the tracks yielded results.
Multiple songs, in fact.
The more she stripped away from Payoff’s song, the more its merits became apparent.
What she realized while recreating his song was that the problem lay in the excessive variety of ‘genres’ crammed into a single track.
Payoff’s compositions were easy to listen to and sing along to.
In other words, he focused heavily on mass appeal.
The extracted tracks, each on their own, were solid songs with clear mainstream potential.
However, despite his ample skill, Payoff seemed to forget the existence of ‘singers.’
He could have easily filled the gaps in his music with vocals.
But he didn’t trust singers and tried to solve every problem with his own skills.
‘Whether it was a mistake or a lack of sense, he should know better.’
The result was the unnecessary addition of distorted sounds and ill-fitting tunes.
Payoff, initially stunned, gritted his teeth.
“What’s so good about this empty song?!”
When he heard Eun-ji’s remake, a clear look of defeat flashed across his face.
Payoff was crumbling.
But he refused to admit it.
Eun-ji, as if anticipating this, checked the video she had just uploaded and showed Payoff her phone screen.
「Are you kidding?」
「Is it April Fool’s Day?」
「Unnie, tell me you’re joking. Is this really your next song? Unnie, no, this is too much….」
「What is this」
「I can’t even understand the genre. How many are mixed in here ㄷㄷㄷㄷ」
「This sucks lol」
Most of the viewers on O-Tube were Eun-ji’s fans.
Yet, Payoff’s song was flooded with negative comments.
Eun-ji then showed Payoff the comments on her remake.
「Ah, this is it」
「So the first one was bait lol」
「Phew, this I approve」
「I seriously considered canceling my album order lol」
「? Was there something else besides this?」
└ Yeah, there was a video uploaded with a bunch of weird machine sounds lol
Although it was just within O-Tube, it was enough to gauge the public’s reaction.
Initially, when he heard the terms of the bet, Payoff was confident in his victory.
The rules were clearly in his favor.
But that very confidence became his downfall.
“Damn it, yeah, try it! Do you think that kind of song will be a hit again? Go ahead and try!”
Payoff, his pride wounded, lost his temper and yelled.
“You little greenhorn, disrespecting your seniors, you little—”
The manager, seemingly anticipating this, called security via intercom.
A man, twice Payoff’s size, entered Eun-ji’s studio.
Payoff, who had been yelling and pointing at Eun-ji, abruptly shut his mouth the moment the security guards entered.
Eun-ji glanced at her manager.
‘Let me hit him just once.’
‘No. Please. For CEO Park’s sake, please hold back.’
The manager’s response to Eun-ji’s silent plea was desperate.
“I-I’ll leave on my own! Let go!”
Payoff grumbled pathetically as he left the studio.
Eun-ji shouted at his retreating figure,
“Oh, and we’ll send you the contract for transferring the song through our company lawyer within two days, okay?”
What happened after that?
The song, Eun-ji’s remake of Payoff’s track, was polished and released as promised.
It was released as a digital single, and since it was born from malice, there was no promotion whatsoever.
Yet, the song reached the top 10 on the music charts.
Of course, without Payoff’s name.
The title of the song reflected the meaning of the incident.
Too good to be a newbie’s work
My skills are sorry
Two kids Took it
Took it in half an hour
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Payoff slammed his fist on his desk repeatedly, his hand throbbing.
“It’s mine, it’s my song!”
He gritted his teeth, but two days later…
Just as he was told, a lawyer from NRY Entertainment visited his studio.
「“Let’s have a drink—”」
「“Please sign this first.”」
Although he tried to sweet-talk and find an opening, the lawyer was an impenetrable fortress.
The contract was ironclad.
‘Fine, whatever.’
What Payoff found most unbearable was Soundmate’s reaction.
Soundmate had recently been passing over his work with a look that said, We have a lot to say, but we won’t.
‘And yet, those bastards!’
They heaped praises on ‘his’ song released by that brat Lee Eun-ji, calling it ‘a good melody,’ ‘a perfect song with no flaws,’ and ‘genius.’
And then they told him,
「“Learn from this. This is how you write a song. Haha.”」
Teaching him with his own song.
“Aaaaagh!”
Payoff roughly opened his refrigerator, plastered with red stickers, grabbed a bottle of soju, and chugged it down.
“Cough! Hack! Hack!”
He choked.
Coughing, the bitter taste of alcohol stinging his throat, Payoff slumped to the floor and sobbed.
Collection notices from various agencies, white and yellow, were scattered around him.
Red stickers were plastered everywhere, on furniture and appliances alike, as if declaring, Nothing in this house belongs to you.
They were the remnants of his past, when he had recklessly spent and borrowed money, intoxicated by the success of his hit songs, thinking the income would last.
“Fuck… I, I…”
Only after being driven to this corner did he finally admit it.
Eun-ji’s success with , stripped of all the elements he considered his ‘signature,’ was proof…
…that his methods had been wrong all along.
Eun-ji smiled and spoke to Hwa-rang, who had been grumbling and complaining about Payoff.
“Unnie, you don’t need to dirty your multi-thousand dollar shoes cleaning up dog poop on the street.”
“Ah.”
“Your mouth is precious.”
No need to dirty it.
Although the direction was different…
Payoff, unchanged from before the regression, was already heading down a similar path.
Eun-ho, seemingly sensing the underlying meaning in Eun-ji’s words, glanced at her.
After their meal, Hwa-rang left the studio, not wanting to disturb their work.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
Eun-ho, returning to the studio after seeing Hwa-rang off, called out to Eun-ji, who was staring intently at the monitor.
“Did something happen between you and Payoff?”
Flinch.
She tried to pretend she didn’t know…
But her body instinctively reacted to Eun-ho’s pointed question.
Her memories from before the regression returned quickly when it involved something she had shared with Eun-ho.
Next were memories related to people directly involved in those shared events.
And lastly, when she heard stories about related people, objects, or situations, even if not directly connected.
In other words, the reason she hadn’t remembered the incident with Payoff for a long time was because she hadn’t shared it with Eun-ho.
“It’s…”
Although late, since Eun-ho had told her about what happened with Aeseul, she had to tell him as well.
The Album
There was an announcement that coincided with the release of .
News of the upcoming mini-album “TIME,” a compilation of her previously released digital singles.
And although very late…
The fan who suggested the fandom name ‘E%’ finally received the promised photocard and gift certificate.
CEO Park, apologizing for the late delivery, also included an ‘EG Lamp,’ a mood light that would be given as a first-come, first-served gift to fans who purchased the album.
Ah-yeong, who named E%, wasn’t a hardcore E-Per.
Although she had been obsessed with E-UNG at the time, she was now what you would call a ‘fair-weather fan.’
‘There are so many idols, and so many groups I like.’
When she heard E-UNG’s album was coming out, she pre-ordered it, but…
She was still debating whether to buy the cheapest version or the deluxe version with all the extras.
The delayed photocard was one of the reasons her enthusiasm had waned.
The longer the delivery took, the greater her disappointment.
So, she originally planned to sell both the album and the photocard.
She had a friend, Eun-jeong, who had become obsessed with E-UNG after a recent university festival.
‘I thought I would only get the photocard.’
Perhaps because she had lowered her expectations…
The moment she saw the mood light included as an apology gift with the deluxe version, Ah-yeong felt a flicker of joy.
“This… haha.”
The familiar design of the mood light’s lampshade evoked a sense of nostalgia.
Ah-yeong rummaged through her phone, looking for the screenshot from back then.
When E-UNG didn’t have an official light stick yet…
They had asked fans to choose between three light stick designs, numbered 1, 2, and 3.
“What? Haha, I welcome this kind of recycling.”
As expected…
It was the head of the number 1 light stick, the one that kept falling off and flustering Eun-ji.
As if to confirm Ah-yeong’s guess, a small card slipped out from under the mood light as she took it out of the black box.
「Hello, E%.
Thank you for always loving E-UNG. Does the ‘EG Lamp’ design look familiar?
Actually, the ‘EG Lamp’ is a product based on Eun-ho’s idea, reusing the design of the ‘number 1 light stick’ that unfortunately wasn’t chosen.
Eun-ho actually uses this as ambient lighting when sleeping or writing lyrics… (omitted).」
The short but sweet letter confirmed Ah-yeong’s guess…
And also mentioned that Eun-ho was already using the product.
Perhaps because of that…
‘Maybe I should keep this…’
Her heart hadn’t completely moved on from E-UNG, and Ah-yeong changed her mind slightly.
As if to prove her change of heart, she carefully placed the mood light back in the black box, unlike when she roughly took it out earlier.
Rummaging through the corn husk packing material, she found another black envelope inside, seemingly containing the main event.
Ah-yeong opened the black envelope with a casual hand, thinking,
‘I should sell this to Eun-jeong.’
Just then, as she took out the well-laminated photo…
“Holy crap.”
Although her thoughts had changed several times, this was different.
She couldn’t sell this.
No, she wouldn’t sell this.
She had heard that E-UNG visited Eun-jeong’s university.
Eun-jeong said that, thanks to the cat doll she gave her, she was able to hold Eun-ho’s hand on stage and listen to him sing.
Suddenly…
Ah, her stomach ached.
‘I should have gone.’
The thought of ‘what if’ made her heart ache.
But she had the photocards now, at least.
[Me ― Eun
― Eun
― Eun!]
[Eun-jeong ― Huh?]
[Me ― Look at this]
Ah-yeong, her thoughts completely different from before opening the package, took pictures of the beautifully packaged gifts…
And sent them to Eun-jeong.