“Is it going well?”
“When did you get here again.”
“Just now.”
SY was Korea’s top agency, so they had multiple studios.
And Seyon, the CEO, had personally co to one of them—Yoo Hyunsoo’s studio.
If it had been any other employee, they would’ve jumped and panicked at Seyon’s visit, but Hyunsoo—who might as well have built SY together with Seyon—didn’t look surprised at Seyon’s sudden appearance at all, still sitting in the studio chair, staring blankly at the monitor.
“How’s the work?”
“Not sure. I want to polish it a little more.”
“Do you know how many tis you’ve said ‘a little’ now?”
“Is it really okay to oppress a creator like this?”
“You rember when you said you wanted to set up your studio and I dropped a billion won on equipnt, right?”
“Seriously, I’ve heard that story about 1 billion won, like, 421 tis now.”
“It’s 1 billion won, so let’s hear it exactly 579 more tis.”
Yoo Hyunsoo, who’d recently taken charge of producing SY’s rookie girl group VYNNIA, was hard to catch.
The mont the debut album work ended, Hyunsoo shut themself back up in the studio again and went straight into preparing the follow-up album.
Because of that, even Seyon, the CEO, only got a progress report once a week and couldn’t know exactly what was going on.
A situation that should never happen.
But because it was Yoo Hyunsoo, it was possible.
‘Hyunsoo is definitely a genius.’
If you had to pick the number one person responsible for making SY what it is today, no matter what anyone said, Seyon would pick Yoo Hyunsoo.
A top producer who built the foundation of the Korean-style idol music now called K-pop by reshaping Arican and European music trends to fit Korea—while also racking up extre love-it-or-hate-it reactions with a unique worldview and cryptic lyrics.
Living up to that reputation, even VYNNIA, who’d just debuted this ti, hit the all-ti number one record for girl group debut album sales, announcing that Hyunsoo was still very much alive.
‘When Hyunsoo said they’d make a worldview out of Greek-Roman mythology, I thought they’d lost it.’
How many other lunatics were there who would make Heracles from Greek-Roman mythology the worldview of a girl group?
Yoo Hyunsoo, who said they’d turn the Twelve Labors of Heracles into albums, actually went and made a song thed around the Nean Lion.
“Right, hey. That Swedish composer who ca to the song camp last ti—did you get in touch?”
“That’s exactly what I ca to talk about.”
And a request Yoo Hyunsoo had made of Seyon lately while working on VYNNIA’s follow-up album.
Bring in a composer to help with the album work.
A song camp.
A system where multiple composers, lyricists, and producers gather for a set period and work together—SY had been the first to introduce it in Korea, based on a thod used at Motown Records in the U.S.
At these song camps, SY invited musicians of various nationalities in addition to their in-house artists, and if soone had solid skill, they sotis offered a contract and even collaborated on an actual album.
For SY, it was good because they could get ahead of talented composers who could present fresh music that hadn’t seen the light yet.
For new composers, it was a true win-win, because they got a fair chance to present their music.
Thanks to that, the song camp that had been held every year since 2012 had also been held a few months ago under SY’s host.
And Yoo Hyunsoo had requested that SY bring in a Swedish composer who’d participated in that song camp.
Lucas Ryuberi.
Back then, they hadn’t offered a contract because his music was considered too unconventional and not a match for SY’s color.
But Yoo Hyunsoo hadn’t been able to participate in the song camp because they’d been too busy preparing VYNNIA’s debut album, and after they belatedly got their hands on the song camp results—
-Lucas Ryuberi? You have to grab this guy for !!! No matter what!!!
They’d shown deep interest in Lucas and strongly demanded that Seyon bring him in.
However—
“I heard he already signed.”
“What? Did he get scouted in the U.S. after that?”
At Hyunsoo’s request, recruiting a rookie composer like Lucas wasn’t a big deal for SY.
So SY contacted Lucas using the contact info they’d had before and offered him a contract.
-Sorry, but I ended up working with the place that sent an offer first.
Shockingly, Lucas was already under contract.
“It’s not the U.S.”
“Then Europe? Damn··· Lucas’s music really does feel more Europe than U.S., so···.”
“Korea.”
“Huh? Korea?!”
And it was with a Korean agency, at that.
***
“Welco, Lucas!”
“Oh, Raon, long ti no see!”
Raon was at the airport for the first ti in a while.
Incheon Airport.
Back when she was active, there were tis she practically lived on airplanes for an entire month, so after retiring, she hated going overseas and wouldn’t even look at the place—but today, she had to co.
‘Because Lucas is worth it.’
What if you gained the ability to recognize a jewel?
To Raon, Lucas standing in front of her right now looked like a jewel.
To other people, he might look like nothing but a roadside rock for now, but Raon had no doubt that he would soon turn into a jewel.
“This is your second ti in Korea, right?”
“Yes. The first ti was at the last song camp.”
Raon and Lucas chatted about this and that as they left arrivals and headed to the airport parking lot where the car was waiting.
Raon had first run into Lucas at SY’s song camp.
-Korean idol music is so interesting!
Raon rembered eting that naive, earnest Lucas, who’d co all the way from Sweden—half a world away from Korea—just because he liked K-pop.
Back then, Lucas and Raon were both being pushed out at SY’s song camp.
-Why is Raon suddenly saying she wants to learn producing?
-Singers get that producing disease once they build up seniority, don’t they.
-You said you hated SY and left when your contract ended, but you still co to the song camp? What kind of move is that.
In Raon’s case, people resented her because she left SY, yet still participated in the song camp saying she wanted to learn producing.
-And what kind of music is this, exactly?
-This isn’t even ‘no fundantals,’ it’s just a total ss···.
-Who even invited Lucas?
In Lucas’s case, the musical direction he pursued was so unfamiliar in Korea that it wasn’t easily accepted.
Because of that, Raon and Lucas stuck together all through the song camp, talking about music, communicating in Korean at tis and English at tis, and they got quite close.
And Raon was sure.
‘Lucas’s music is going to hit, no matter what!’
That Lucas had talent beyond even Yoo Hyunsoo, the best composer Raon knew.
Honestly, this was sothing only Raon could’ve recognized.
Raon’s disastrous failed U.S. expansion back when she was a singer.
But that attempt didn’t leave her with nothing.
Working with famous local labels for that U.S. push widened Raon’s perspective far more than before.
Because of that experience, back at the song camp, Raon could recognize the value at a glance in the original, new music Lucas presented—electronica-based, built on Jersey club and breakbeat.
Raon was the only person on-site who recognized Lucas’s true value.
No—more accurately, only Raon could recognize it.
-Raon, actually, I work under a stage na.
After they got close, sticking together at the song camp, Lucas quietly told only Raon his stage na.
‘To think John Press, who charted high on the UK Singles Chart, was Lucas.’
The monster rookie composer who appeared out of nowhere on the UK charts—that was Lucas’s hidden identity.
“It was so hard working in Sweden.”
“Our company has a studio, so from now on, you can work there with us and finish the rest.”
“I want to see Iam as soon as possible! If it’s Iam, they can definitely pull off the music you and I made perfectly!”
“First, we can go to the dorm, unpack, and et them slowly. You’ll be seeing them until you’re sick of them.”
“I listened to the songs you made a ton, Raon. If they pulled off those tracks, then the kitschy (Kitsch) songs we make will definitely suit them too!”
Like this, Raon—who knew Lucas’s talent and also knew his secret identity—thought Lucas was the optimal partner for collaborating on Iam’s producing.
For the debut album, they’d been too pressed for ti to ask for Lucas’s help, but while preparing this follow-up album, the first thing Raon did was contact Lucas and propose they make an album together.
Raon had fully prepared to persuade him in case the proposal didn’t land.
But she didn’t need to.
-I’m Yours!
Lucas, who was a K-pop fan, was already a fan of Iam.
After that, Raon and Lucas built the album by sharing work online and sotis debating things out.
But collaborating only online had its limits, so Raon got Sanghyeok’s approval and invited Lucas to Korea for this album work.
‘On my own, I can’t beat Taesu or Hyunsoo.’
Raon definitely had talent for producing.
But when her opponents were the kind of people who would absolutely be included if you listed the top five producers in Korean music history, Raon alone wasn’t enough.
But if she had Lucas with her, she could face them head-on.
***
“Ms. Sion, what’s wrong?”
“This is really my settlent money?”
“That’s correct. I attached the detailed breakdown, so please check it. If there’s anything difficult to understand, I can explain it, and if you feel you need verification, I recomnd getting help from a professional and checking whether there are any strange parts.”
I couldn’t really hear what CEO Kim Sanghyeok was saying.
-Co to the CEO’s office alone today at 3 p.m., without telling the other mbers.
CEO Kim Sanghyeok had asked to co to his office alone while I was working out at the gym like usual, then coming to the company and doing training with the mbers.
Back then—
-What is it? I didn’t cause an incident today.
—I’d been tense, wondering if sothing blew up again.
And that made sense, because CEO Kim Sanghyeok was the kind of person who never called us in unless there was a reason.
So what the hell is it?
I arrived at the CEO’s office at the right ti, thinking it over.
I knocked and went in, and CEO Kim Sanghyeok welcod like he was happy to see , and even personally brewed tea for , so I couldn’t help getting even more tense.
After that, while we drank tea for a bit, he started asking about what had been hard lately, or if there was anything I wanted to suggest to the company.
It looked exactly like when I used to be a company commander and had to do sit-downs with “special managent targets” I needed to keep an eye on, so a slight sense of unfairness surged up in right then.
-Now I should get to the point. Ms. Sion, this is your Q2 settlent statent.
Sanghyeok handed a few sheets of paper.
And when I saw it, my hands started trembling.
70,890,540 won.
A massive amount—seventy million won—was written there as my settlent amount for Q2 of 2016.
“Like I told you when we signed the contract, settlents will continue on a quarterly basis going forward, and in Ms. Sion’s case, because you don’t have an original agency, your settlent was calculated exactly according to the contract ratio, so it’s probably a larger amount than the other mbers’···.”
Sanghyeok’s words, explaining the settlent amount to , were going in one ear and out the other.
‘This isn’t even annual salary—this is a quarterly settlent?!’
The biggest amount of money I’d ever touched in my past life and this life combined.
Sure, compared to what my Bitcoin account—currently sleeping quietly—would make in the future, it was small, but even so, this was an insane amount.
If I invested this money straight into Bitcoin, then in ten years, I’d probably be unbelievably rich.
Wasn’t this a heaven-sent chance to recover the countless Bitcoins I lost in that old computer fire incident?
“Of course I can’t force you, but I recomnd that Ms. Sion not disclose the amount you received to the mbers.”
“Huh?”
“As I ntioned earlier, because Ms. Sion has no solo ads and no original agency, you received a larger settlent amount compared to the other mbers. If the other mbers find out how much Ms. Sion received···.”
CEO Kim Sanghyeok’s explanation dragged back to reality from the future where I was thinking about making a Korean edition of Kongming’s Three Kingdoms.
‘Oh, right.’
Unlike the other mbers, I was under a one-year contract only with KJ Entertainnt.
Even at the ti of the contract, I’d been told that because of that, unlike the mbers who had to split profit with their original agencies, my settlent would be distributed to directly.
“Have the other mbers already gotten their settlents too?”
“No. For the other mbers, it will be sent to their original agencies after excluding our KJ-side costs. But because of the costs incurred during their trainee ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) periods, I think at the earliest, it would probably be around next quarter before they receive a settlent.”
“Really?”
Like I thought, this settlent was probably sothing only I was getting.
“Because Iam’s activities went so well, if things continue like this, next quarter, the other mbers will be able to receive even more than what Ms. Sion received now, so you don’t need to worry too much.”
“Yes···.”
And maybe he noticed what I was thinking, because CEO Kim Sanghyeok reassured , saying the other mbers would be able to get their settlents soon too.
But for so reason, I didn’t like that.
“Then, could you maybe do an additional settlent for the other six mbers using half of my settlent amount?”
“Huh?”
“Um, like thirty million won! If it’s thirty million won and you split it between six people, it cos out evenly, so just that much sohow···.”
“Ah··· I’d have to look into it, but is there a need to do that?”
At CEO Kim Sanghyeok’s words, tilting his head with a face that clearly didn’t understand, I nodded.
‘Money matters.’
Money was definitely extrely important for living.
I an, I’d jumped into Idol Ground 100 just to get one million won, didn’t I.
But—
-When I get my settlent money, I want to buy my parents gifts. I’ve never properly given them a gift even once.
-I want to buy my grandma an air conditioner. She keeps saying one fan is enough···.
-I hope that day cos soon.
I rembered the ti I’d accidentally ended up talking with the mbers about settlents.
Everyone’s situation was different, but I didn’t like the idea that I’d be getting mine first, ahead of the mbers I’d suffered together with for the last three months.
I didn’t think I’d made this much money because I was great all on my own.
‘We all did this together, so I want us to get it together.’
If soone heard it, they might call it a stupid thought.
But anyway, once Bitcoin goes through the roof later, I’ll have more money than I can ever use alone, so right now, I wanted to spend it the way my heart pulled .
“Even if Ms. Sion gives up part of the settlent and distributes it to the mbers, it’ll go back into their original agencies, so in the end, there won’t be any money that actually ends up in the mbers’ hands.”
“Is that so?”
“So instead, I think it would be better if Ms. Sion personally gives the mbers gifts or sothing for them.”
However, CEO Kim Sanghyeok’s words sounded reasonable—saying that even if I did that, the mbers wouldn’t actually be able to receive it, and that it would be better for to buy gifts for them instead.
“I’ll do that, sir. But could I maybe go ho for two days?”
“Ho? Ah··· because of the settlent money. Hmm, it’s not a particularly busy period right now, so I’ll tell the managers.”
“Thank you!”
As I wrapped up the settlent conversation and was about to leave, a thought popped into my head, so I asked CEO Kim Sanghyeok for two days off—today and tomorrow.
‘Wait for , Madam Sukja!’
I couldn’t just let an event this big pass.
It was ti for Grand Prince Suyang to show up.
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