Since Kim Raebin had brought up highly recommended comments, maybe I should respond with indicators that had actual numbers attached to them.
“Let’s look at it objectively, the way you said. Right now, ‘Procession’ is ranked higher digitally than that song. Isn’t that itself an objective and dispassionate evaluation from the public?”
But Kim Raebin wasn’t fooled.
“I believe that is an issue of sample disparity arising from the difference in public recognition. What is required is an evaluation made after people actually listen to both songs without personal bias…!”
“……”
So he was determined to hear my opinion no matter what.
Suppressing a sigh, I answered slowly.
“All right… Fine. To my ears, ‘Procession’ is the better song.”
“R-Really??”
“But their song is more accessible.”
“…!”
“It’s easy and comfortable to listen to.”
Kim Raebin clenched both hands where they rested on his knees.
I continued explaining.
“But that’s because the songs were made with different goals. We created ours with performance as the highest priority from the beginning.”
“But……”
“What I’m saying is there’s no reason to compare them unnecessarily. There’s no song that’s perfect in every possible way. An objective comparison is difficult too. Timing, taste… and luck all matter.”
“……Yes.”
Kim Raebin still looked dejected.
But he seemed to understand what I meant and nodded.
I let out a small laugh.
“Does it bother you that much?”
“What? …Yes.”
Kim Raebin hesitated, then added:
“I… am often told that I am not particularly eloquent and that I am not the type suited for communal living.”
Oh dear.
“So if my contributions in production are also insufficient, I thought it would be correct to develop other abilities through which I can be helpful to the group.”
“Hmm.”
Apparently Kim Raebin needed confidence that even if he couldn’t currently contribute to the performance, he was still contributing to the album.
Then maybe that really is the best way.
I remembered one of the plans I’d been preparing.
But before bringing that up, I should correct what he’d said first.
“For starters… I don’t think you’re especially bad at group living.”
“I have often been told that I fail to read the atmosphere……”
Yeah.
I could believe he’d heard that a lot throughout his life.
But he wasn’t stubborn in interpersonal matters, and he certainly wasn’t malicious.
So it had never caused any problems while working.
“Really? Has any member ever actually gotten angry at you during TeSTAR activities?”
“…No.”
“See? Then it’s not at a level that causes problems, so stop worrying about that.”
“I-I see!”
Kim Raebin’s expression brightened a little.
“And as for the production issue… Hmm. Hold on.”
I turned on my smartphone and pulled up the information for Golden Age’s new song on the music platform.
The copyright-credit section.
“You see the composers and arrangers here.”
“Yes.”
The information I’d checked in advance flowed smoothly from my mouth.
“The composer is an outside freelancer… but the arrangers aren’t part of the composer’s team. They belong to Golden Age’s company.”
“Hmm, yes.”
“Do you understand what that means?”
“Modern composition is a comprehensive production process involving multiple stages, so placing all responsibility upon myself would be excessive self-consciousness…?”
An astonishing answer popped out.
“…No. It means the direct comparison you want is possible.”
I tapped the composer’s name on the screen.
“Actually, I got a few songs from this composer.”
“…!! W-When and how did you arrange that??”
“A little while ago. Successfully.”
Cheongryeo’s words had been bothering me, so at the start of promotions, I’d already contacted the composer and received several songs.
They were candidates for the promotional track on the repackage album that would follow this album after a short interval.
“Golden Age got decent results with this song, so they’ll definitely receive another song from the same composer. And their company will probably handle the arrangement again.”
“…Surely.”
“Right.”
Now he understood.
“If you arrange a song from the same composer and release it, you can make the direct comparison you wanted.”
“…!”
“To see who… arranged a song by this mass-appeal composer better.”
That was the conclusion I’d reached after listening to all the candidate songs we received from the composer.
They write melodies that stick extremely well, but their structures are weak.
To put it crudely, the overall completion level was low.
The songs seemed highly dependent on arrangement.
Kim Raebin appeared to spend a moment imagining what would happen, mouth slightly open.
Then he suddenly came to his senses and spoke.
“But if handled incorrectly, it could create too direct a rivalry and become disadvantageous to both sides……”
Well, well.
He’d even thought that far?
I smiled slightly.
It was a little admirable.
Just as Kim Raebin said, if things went badly, that frame itself could hurt TeSTAR.
No, considering the way that agency worked, they might even try to push public opinion toward the idea that TeSTAR had stolen Golden Age’s composer.
But actually making that stick would be difficult.
“It’s fine. It won’t become a rivalry.”
“Yes?”
“We’re not the only ones using that composer.”
I turned off the smartphone screen.
“A VTIC unit and Youngrin sunbaenim are also using that composer on their next albums.”
“……!”
That was right.
You got indigestion if you tried to eat something like this alone.
You had to drag in people who could share the meal.
Good thing I got Youngrin’s number during that doppelgänger variety show.
…I felt slightly uncomfortable about the Cheongryeo side, but if I wanted to stop him from trying anything stupid, putting him in the same boat was better.
Anyway, both of them had agreed with surprisingly little fuss.
–Ah, sounds fun. Good idea^^
–Thank you for introducing me to a good composer. This should give our new album production some momentum.
Top-tier acts with different companies, different years of experience, and different images had all happily taken songs from the same composer.
That would make it difficult to connect the composer exclusively to Golden Age.
The composer’s name value would simply rise.
And it wasn’t like I had bribed the composer to prevent Goldie #1’s company from receiving songs, as Cheongryeo had advised.
Wasn’t this extremely conscientious behavior?
That’s what you get for grabbing someone else by the collar without permission.
They’d brought it on themselves.
I smiled and folded my arms.
“Within this year, there’ll be four or five songs by the same composer, all arranged separately by different people. It’ll be a real head-to-head comparison.”
“……”
Kim Raebin swallowed.
“You still want to try?”
“Yes…!”
Good.
Now that the board had been set, his motivation seemed to have returned.
Kim Raebin’s eyes shone with enthusiasm.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean we absolutely have to use that composer’s song as the promotional track. It’ll only be one of the candidates, so we’ll discuss it with the members and choose whichever song seems most accessible.”
“Understood!”
I nodded.
“Good. Then hurry up and sleep.”
“Yes…?”
Kim Raebin was thrown off by the abrupt ending.
I continued solemnly.
“Even if we sleep right now, we only get four and a half hours.”
“Gasp, I’m sorry! I’ve caused significant damage to hyung’s sleeping time……”
“It’s fine, so let’s sleep.”
I stopped Kim Raebin and immediately switched off the room light.
We had to wake up at the crack of dawn and figure out what sort of stage we could show in Japan with Kim Raebin’s injured foot.
Maybe we should put him on a tiger doll or something.
Hoping desperately that either the company or the members had come up with some usable idea, I fell asleep.
This was three days before the Japanese broadcast-stage recording.
Read only on MUGEX
A weekday morning in August, when every student was on summer vacation.
A high school student lazily browsing WeTube on his computer under the air-conditioning noticed a music video that was still sitting near the top of the trending list.
[TeSTAR ‘Procession (present)’ Official MV]
“……”
Actually, this male high school student had already watched the entire music video.
Entirely because of the teaser.
His older sister had slowly coaxed him by saying the final song performed by Park Moondae, the Groom of May from The Singer I Made, who had left an enormous impression on him, appeared in it.
-Hey, hey, watch this
-Ah, what is it? Get lost
-Hey~ When are you giving me that hundred thousand won? I’ll knock ten thousand off, so hurry up and watch. That song Park Moondae sang on My Singer is in here too
-…….
-This is getting insane word of mouth right now, the views are going crazy. Hurry up and watch it too
And so the high school student had finally watched the teaser, only to become interested because of its enormous scale.
His sister’s sales pitch had succeeded.
But the high school student denied it vehemently.
…I only watched because I wondered if they rearranged it.
He tried hard to convince himself that he’d simply been curious about another version of the final song sung by the “Groom of May.”
But objectively speaking, it really was a high-quality video. It looked like a trailer for some massive NetPlus drama, so isn’t it obvious it’d be fun?
By the high school student’s standards, the music video itself had actually been more entertaining than the teaser.
Because the music video was much shorter and more intense.
The pacing was insane.
After hesitating for a moment, the high school student clicked the music video and played it.
I already watched it once. So what if I watch it again?
Fortunately, the video started immediately without an advertisement.
[Chakho Gapsa Chung, come forth and receive the royal command.]
The music video’s story followed Ryu Chungwoo, who had received an order from the king to capture “the most harmful monster.”
Carrying the Record of Yokai Investigations, he traveled around Joseon searching for yokai.
Each member, dressed as a yokai, interacted with Ryu Chungwoo by either giving him clues about “the most harmful monster” or being exterminated by him.
-The day that finally came
Procession
At last, here today
Every time the chorus arrived, the intense choreography shots and dynamic story shots alternated, creating an overwhelming sense of momentum.
As the choreography scenes inserted throughout continued raising the tension, Ryu Chungwoo finally met Kim Raebin inside a cave.
Kim Raebin attempted to discover the identity of “the most harmful monster” using the lanterns floating all around his cave.
At that moment, his own part of the song played in parallel, and the way the Kim Raebin in the story shot directly faced the camera and performed his lines created an extremely strange sensation.
The lanterns inside the cave glowed with all kinds of neon light.
Like warning lights.
-Now, he has appeared
Warning after warning
Approaching in a figure eight
Slowly, thrillingly
As the flickering lanterns created strange patterns of light, the camera spun around—
And revealed Ryu Chungwoo.
-Me
The song stopped.
Then came a very short flashback composed of screams and running.
[Aaaagh!!]
[H-Hngh……]
It was a four-legged beast.
The creature’s shape was difficult to make out because the shots passed too quickly.
When the sun rose, it transformed into the form of a young child.
Over that image, the present-day Ryu Chungwoo inside the cave was superimposed.
Ryu Chungwoo realized that he was “the most harmful monster.”
The song exploded again.
-Even if you lower your head, you can’t run away
Watch closely, now
The thrill follows
For several dozen seconds, including the final dance break, choreography shots at their absolute peak came rushing without any story scenes.
Only once the song reached its climax and began closing did the narrative return.
[…….]
A dark night.
Ryu Chungwoo glared at the camera, then turned his back and disappeared into the forest.
The song ended with the sound of the taepyeongso.
[Procession]
Then the ending credits began.
With an unfamiliar background song playing behind them.
-Lying down late at night
I quietly think that maybe
From the very beginning, you
Were never really me
It was a song about parting.
At first listen, it sounded like a love song.
But playing after that story, the lyrics sounded extremely suggestive.
It was Ryu Chungwoo’s solo song, “Truth.”
There were truckloads of fans and WeTubers who had gone through the music video and teaser from beginning to end, analyzing every possible clue and theory about it.
The high school student didn’t know any of that, nor was he particularly interested.
He had simply thought, That video was insane, and then—
There was even a post-credits scene.
Indeed, after the ending credits finished, another clip appeared.
It revealed the identity of the king whose legs alone had been shown while solemnly giving Ryu Chungwoo his orders in the opening scene.
[You actually fell for that~]
It was Lee Sejin, fox ears sticking out from his head.
Still grinning, Lee Sejin crushed his gigantic tail ornament underneath himself and sprawled lazily across the throne.
That was how even the post-credits scene ended.
Completely unaware of the fans who had convulsed over the shock and cuteness of that ending, the high school student smacked his lips.
Why doesn’t NetPlus make something like this?
Even while insisting to himself that it would’ve been better with actual actors rather than idols, the high school student couldn’t find any flaw in the video.
Not even awkward acting.
…They are good.
The boy admitted it once again and tried to leave the music-video page.
Or rather, he tried to.
The browser lagged, and the back button didn’t work properly.
Ah, seriously.
Fed up, the high school student repeatedly clicked back.
The rapid chain of backward pages accidentally exposed an internet page his sister had left open.
It was one of her browsing traces that usually didn’t remain because she used private browsing.
“What the hell??”
On the blue SNS page…
There was a GIF of Park Moondae turning around inside what looked like a classroom.
========================
Magic Boy MV Behind-the-Scenes Cut (1) Park Moondae
(Edited GIF)
#ParkMoondae #BlondMoondae #GoldMoondaePuppy #MagicBoy
========================
In front of a vivid sky streaked with red, yellow, and purple, black-haired Park Moondae wore a white summer school uniform.
When he turned around, his hair transformed into blond.
It was an extremely polished GIF.
“……”
For reference, the account bio read:
“A blood alliance sworn to love only Gold Moondae Puppy.”
They look the same either way.
The male high school student grumbled, but privately concluded that black hair was easier on the eyes than the chaotic blond.
Is this another music video? Looks weak as hell.
Scoffing while still harboring a tiny amount of expectation, the high school student searched “TeSTAR” on WeTube.
But before the “Magic Boy” music video could catch his eye, something else appeared first.
It was a video uploaded just yesterday.
[TeSTAR Procession Japanese Broadcast CUT]
“Huh?”
The thumbnail showed a Japanese comedian with his mouth hanging wide open.
Ah, I can’t resist this.
They were blatantly targeting Korean national pride.
The boy snickered and clicked that one first.