Chapter 42
A strict family environment and the unending hell of studying.
Despite that, Joo Jinwoo never once let go of his dream of music.
He had even secretly worked as the vocalist of an indie band and quietly saved his allowance to enroll in a vocal academy.
Even calling it an allowance saved by a minor, the amount was tiny, so it was only enough to pay for a month or two of lessons at most.
Yet it took less than a month for Joo Jinwoo to become a better singer than the academy’s instructor.
Thinking perhaps the instructor at that academy was simply not very good, he visited several other academies nearby, but they all ended the same way.
Only then did Joo Jinwoo realize that what he was truly talented at was not studying, but music.
That was why, after serving in the military, he deliberately did not return to college and challenged Singerstar right away.
The nationwide audition he had only ever watched on TV—the stage he had always admired—was filled with geniuses incomparable to the Hongdae indie scene where he had briefly been active.
‘Seo Siyeon in particular is a complete monster.’
Among them, Seo Siyeon was an especially extraordinary existence who defied common sense.
At first, it was astonishing enough that a lower elementary schooler could sing that well. When he thought of himself at that age, he probably would have been scooping dirt into his mouth at a playground…
On top of that, when he heard that she composed every song she sang herself, he doubted his own ears.
While he was in the military, he had tried his hand at composing on a cheap computer in the soldiers’ Internet room, but quickly gave up after deciding it was not a field a non-major like him could handle.
Joo Jinwoo was not a narcissist, but he believed he had a fair amount of talent for both studying and music.
And that was actually true.
Yet even he had never had the slightest idea how to compose, while an elementary schooler was doing it herself—and could even produce songs good enough to rank among the greatest hits in almost every genre?
‘Does this make any sense? Is she really a regressor?’
Joo Jinwoo had more or less figured out Seo Siyeon’s identity, but regardless,
In his eyes, Seo Siyeon was simply an existence completely outside the standard.
He felt a little unlucky that Seo Siyeon happened to be in the season he had entered, but what could he do?
Even so, Joo Jinwoo had originally thought he had a more than fair chance of winning.
But after watching the previous stage, his thoughts changed a little.
Seo Siyeon had begun to do more than just make excellent songs; she had also started handling the stage at a top-tier level.
Not only did she use all sorts of production elements appropriately, she also instinctively knew how to connect with the audience.
On top of that, her vocal skills had now made explosive progress and ranked near the top even among all the contestants.
“Of course, it’s true that she isn’t without flaws. But… it’s too early to give up.”
Upsets could happen anywhere in the world.
Seo Siyeon might seem like the most likely winner right now, but everyone knew things could still be completely turned around with this stage and the finale.
“Let’s go. No mistakes this time.”
He absolutely had to win and successfully establish himself as a singer.
Only then could he escape this miserable house.
Having steeled himself so firmly, Joo Jinwoo stepped toward the stage.
* * *
Joo Jinwoo was the first to take the stage in the semifinals.
This time, he brought a song released in the 1980s that was still considered a karaoke staple regardless of generation.
Of course, although people called it a karaoke staple, its difficulty was by no means low.
Its high notes were not outrageously high, but they demanded solid fundamentals, and rather than having just one difficult section, the song had an unusually large number of punishing high notes that continued one after another.
Verse-chorus-chorus.
The song began calmly, but from the middle to the end, it kept driving forward with a barrage of difficult high notes.
Although it was often sung at karaoke, it would be fair to say that virtually no ordinary male singer could properly pull it off.
I watched him on the waiting-room TV with Blooming and Baek Yuyeon.
-If I could hold on to you as you drift away
-How wonderful would that have been
The high notes came rushing in after the calm introduction.
“Wow…”
“This is truly amazing…”
Baek Yuyeon gave a small shudder as she watched him perfectly perform a song notorious for its difficulty.
In fact, Baek Yuyeon had entered pure-enjoyment mode a long time ago.
Knowing that it was impossible to overturn the current firmly established top three, she seemed to have brought a song she simply liked rather than one she was especially good at.
Blooming had once again chosen a vocal-centered band song.
Rather than making a risky choice and relying on instruments at this point, they seemed intent on maintaining their original strategy.
“Jinwoo oppa is insanely good at singing, though.”
“We’re supposed to beat that?”
“We can. Easily.”
Yoo Seolha and Kim Seol’s conversation drifted into my ears, and at the same time, Joo Jinwoo’s stage came to an end.
The nearly 3,000 spectators at Jangchung fell silent for a moment, then all burst into applause.
Even those who were not Joo Jinwoo’s fans were praising the singer onstage for delivering a perfect performance.
I also gave him a light round of applause, then—
“Siyeon, we’ll start getting you ready soon!”
“Yes! Good work, unnies. I’ll finish quickly and come back.”
I headed toward the stage.
* * *
After Joo Jinwoo’s stage, the venue was engulfed in silence.
Before the lingering impression of the performance they had just seen had even faded, talk of Seo Siyeon, who was waiting for her turn, could be heard everywhere.
People heatedly debated what she might show them this time and told their companions what kind of feeling they wanted to see, each waiting for her stage in their own way.
As the stage lights gradually brightened, the audience sensed that the performance would begin soon, lost their words, and fell silent.
The venue was wrapped in silence, with nothing audible except whispered voices.
A single drum-kick sound shattered that silence.
* * *
At center stage, beneath the falling spotlight, I stood with my head bowed. As if to drive away the heavy afterglow left by Joo Jinwoo’s ballad, a refreshing synth-bell sound rang through the gymnasium.
Today, I was wearing short denim shorts and a long white top of ordinary length.
It was an outfit meant to give off an everyday feel.
- Bam, ba-ba-bam! Pop!
I raised my head along with the jaunty sound effect. The moment the camera captured my face in a tight close-up, I lightly bit my lip and winked with one eye, just as I had practiced.
As always, embarrassment lasted only a moment, while this stage—and my achievements on Singerstar—would last forever.
You could call it a moment of endurance for the sake of eternity.
“Here goes.”
As the intro began, I slid toward the front of the stage with light shuffle steps.
Those embarrassing dance moves Seo Ina and the instructors had agonized over would create indescribable synergy when combined with the devastating beauty of the girl named Seo Siyeon.
- My soft, squishy heart is like pink jelly!
I curled both hands into cat paws and held them beside my cheeks.
It was the birth of a move that would later circulate as the ‘Siyeon-nyang’ meme and poison my mind.
There were countless meme images of the various dark-history moments that would come out of this stage, so it was hardly an important concern.
In any case, although my inner self wanted to die, my body sprang into the air lighter than ever.
- Sweetly, pop! Jellypop! Take one bite and pop! Jellypop!
The highlight section.
I spun sideways from the center of the stage and blew an air kiss into the sky.
The key move in the choreography that followed was a cute biting gesture accompanied by a “Nom!” As I stared straight into the camera lens and winked, a powerful cheer erupted and nearly covered the entire venue.
The image of me on the giant screen would be the very definition of a fully realized solo idol.
A live vocal performance without a single hitch in my breathing, even during the choreography.
The movements were not particularly strenuous, but my body moved appropriately for each part.
It would have been unimaginable in my previous life or at the beginning of my possession, but Seo Siyeon’s body had improved in an instant, and before I knew it, I could deliver a live performance better than most idols.
- If our eyes meet, it might burst, pop! Pop!
During the bridge, I matched formations with the dancers in sharp, synchronized choreography.
Rather than dancing halfheartedly just because it was a cute song, I stretched my arms and legs out to create clean, refreshing lines.
It was an overwhelming command of the stage, impossible to believe was coming from the body of a nine-year-old child.
The final ending.
As the music stopped, I placed both hands beneath my chin in a flower pose.
Even while panting heavily, my gaze never left the camera.
‘I wonder if they’re doing well…’
The children I had debuted with through this song, the first ones I had ever taken charge of producing.
I suddenly remembered those girls who had just entered their sixth year of activities when I died and were seriously discussing how to break into the American market.
If only I had not died so pointlessly, perhaps I could have aimed for the top in America with them too… The fleeting thought passed through my mind.
‘Now I really have to let them go.’
From now on, as Seo Siyeon, and someday as a producer, I could simply build achievements and memories with the idols I would work with—achievements and memories surpassing those I had shared with them.
And so, I sent off one more ghost from my previous life, wandering through my memories.