Chapter 46
[Singerstar Finals Information Compilation]
The three finalists are Seo Siyeon, Joo Jinwoo, and Blooming.
The stage order will be the reverse of the semifinals, so it will be Blooming-Joo Jinwoo-Seo Siyeon.
For the first time in Singerstar or any other audition program, a contestant ten or younger has made it to the finals.
The stage will be held live at Gocheok Dome the week after next. They say around 16,000 seats will be released, so anyone who wants to go should be able to get in, more or less?
For the record, this has already become the season with the most songs ever placed on the Watermelon daily chart among all the Singerstar seasons.
Naturally, it's also the first time there have been this many first-place finishes, so you could call it a legendary season in many ways.
-Would you believe it if I told you all those first-place finishes belonged to one person?
ㄴ And they're all songs written and composed, then sung by a kid under ten? LOL. How is this even real?
ㄴ We might be watching the birth of a legend.
-I thought last season would be the peak… Guess I was completely wrong.
ㄴ Honestly, last season was boring because it was just Lee Hyojin dominating everything. Yeah, yeah.
ㄴ For real LOL. This season is pretty competitive, so it's fun to watch.
ㄴ Honestly, even if you assume Seo Siyeon will probably win, you can still think, “Maybe Blooming or Joo Jinwoo could pull it off?”
-When does ticketing open?
ㄴ Eight tonight.
ㄴ Thanks, thanks.
In Korea, Gocheok Dome carries a meaning of its own.
Even if its maximum capacity is only a little over 20,000 and its acoustics and seating incline are fucking awful, it's still Korea's largest domed stadium, a venue most singers or idols wouldn't even dream of filling.
‘Honestly, from a fan's perspective, KSPO Dome is several times better than this place. It can hold quite a lot if they open all 360 degrees, too. Its acoustics are even the best.’
Even so, the production staff had deliberately chosen Gocheok Dome for the finals, despite how difficult it was to use during baseball season.
Because it still carried a certain symbolic significance.
And considering this season's popularity, they must have calculated that they could fill a single night at Gocheok and then some, rather than needing two days.
“Haaah. Gocheok, huh… It's on a completely different scale from Jangchung.”
Honestly, even if Seo Siyeon had nerves of steel, performing in front of nearly 20,000 people would be a little difficult.
But Blooming and Joo Jinwoo would be in much the same position.
The pressure from the audience at the venue would be on a whole different level from Jangchung, and that meant anyone could make a mistake.
In the midst of that, the key to the finals stage would be making as few mistakes as possible.
“Hmmm-hmm…”
Even as I thought about all that, I hummed to myself and diligently brewed coffee.
Ah, Americanos were too bitter for me to drink comfortably, so I had recently switched to lattes.
Lattes were delicious, too. Apparently, Americanos really didn't suit a child's palate.
Online, some people criticized me while watching Singerstar, asking why a child like me was drinking coffee, but honestly, from my perspective, it made even less sense that I couldn't drink the coffee I had consumed two cups of every day in my previous life.
‘Well, they do say it's bad for you in various ways when you're young… But honestly, it's too much of a hassle to worry about things like that while living my life.’
Still, for the sake of my health, I thought I should make a conscious effort to eat vegetables from now on.
Since I was a little shorter than average for my age, it would be best to maintain healthy eating habits.
Honestly, I wasn't the type to worry much about height, but personally, I wanted to grow past 155 centimeters.
However, seeing how slowly Seo Siyeon's height was coming along, I was starting to worry that I might not even reach 150.
‘Should I go to a hospital after Singerstar ends?’
They said growth shots to make you taller were common these days, so I wondered if I should get one stuck in my stomach or something.
“Oh. Siyeon, you're drinking coffee? Make me one too!”
“…Make it yourself.”
“…I don't know how!”
After Yoo Seolha said that, I finished brewing mine, changed the capsule, and made her an Americano.
“Put in your own ice.”
“Hehe. Thanks. Sometimes, Siyeon, you seem more mature than me!”
Of course. That was because I had a previous life in which I had lived for over thirty years.
Adding the years I had lived in this life and my previous life together, I was now qualified to enter the Young Forty club.
In contrast, considering that Yoo Seolha wasn't even twenty, she hadn't lived half as long as I had.
“Well, I suppose I am a little like that. The kids at the orphanage are all pretty mature, too.”
“…S-sorry.”
“Just take it easy. Have I ever acted like I was sad because I'm an orphan?”
“It seems like you have…”
Was that so?
I looked back on my past.
Come to think of it, The Girl in the Photo and Pray For were songs about the orphanage and parents, weren't they?
As far as I was concerned, I hadn't had any particularly negative feelings about it; I had simply used my status as an orphan to leave an impressive stage behind…
‘But from the outside, it might have looked like I was expressing my sorrow.’
In fact, judging by the communities these days, quite a few people had apparently started donating to orphanages after seeing me.
Seeing that, I sometimes felt inexplicably proud that I seemed to have had a positive influence after all.
“I suppose it could look that way. But I don't particularly feel sad about being an orphan…”
“Sniff…! You don't have to pretend you're okay!”
‘This is driving me crazy.’
Apparently, it was going to take quite a while to clear up this misunderstanding with the people around me.
* * *
"Siyeon, do you have a moment?"
While I was sipping my latte and worrying about my height, the main producer, Kang Junhyung, approached me cautiously and spoke to me.
He was proposing that we film an interview to fill the broadcast slot for the week before the finals.
"What kind of filming?"
"Um, it's nothing special. The title of your final song is Goodbye, My Four Seasons, right? So we want to do a simple interview about how Siyeon has lived and her memories at the orphanage."
Simple? When the word came from a PD, “simple” was not something I could trust.
It was obvious he wanted to film some tearjerker interview to milk the emotions.
I lowered my latte cup slightly and stared at the PD.
"PD-nim, are you looking for one of those shots of me crying in front of the orphanage?"
"Huh? Th-that…"
The PD's pupils shook as if hit by an earthquake. It seemed I had hit the nail on the head.
"Everyone in the country already knows I'm an orphan. I don't really want to do something like that even after making it all the way to the finals…"
"But Siyeon, the public goes wild for that kind of story. If we show how you overcame such difficult circumstances to get here, it'll do wonders for your popularity, too."
The PD desperately tried to persuade me. But my mind was made up.
From the beginning, I had wanted to shake off that image to a reasonable extent and be remembered by the public simply as a clever young musician, so I flatly declined.
"Goodbye, My Four Seasons isn't a song about the misfortunes of my past. It's a song about putting my past in order and resolving to move forward. I think I can persuade the public with that message just as it is."
The PD clicked his tongue at my resolute attitude.
He probably already knew I was mature for my age, but he certainly hadn't known I could be this stubborn.
If I had been some mediocre contestant, he might have been able to crush me with his authority, but I was plainly a contestant with enough power to rival the broadcasting station itself!
A person no mere PD could treat carelessly.
So in the end, he backed down and accepted my opinion.
"……All right. Then let's do it your way, Siyeon. How do you want to film it?"
"I'll just do the interview in the practice room. I'll honestly talk only about why I wrote this song and why I gave it this title."
A few hours later, cameras and lights were set up in one corner of the communal practice room. Wearing a comfortable hoodie—the sort I usually wore—I made hot chocolate and sat in a chair.
"All right, Siyeon. Just talk comfortably. First question. Is there any special reason you titled your final song 'Goodbye, My Four Seasons'?"
The interview began with the sound of the slate. I recalled the memories of my previous life for a moment: my glamorous days as a producer, my futile final moment, and the new life I had begun as Seo Siyeon.
"I think everyone goes through their own four seasons. There are happy moments, warm like spring, but there are also cold and lonely moments, like a biting winter."
I continued speaking as calmly as possible, but with sincerity.
"For me, the past was a time when winter lasted unusually long. I didn't even know who my parents were, and I had to learn about the world inside the walls of an orphanage. But even in that winter, spring flowers bloomed from time to time, and there were passionate moments as hot as summer."
I could hear the breaths of the PD and staff beyond the camera lens.
What I sensed from them was not pity, but astonishment.
"This song is a farewell to all those seasons. The sad memories and happy recollections are all precious pieces of me. Now I want to carry those pieces in my heart and move forward toward my own new season. I wanted to show the public that resolve."
Producer Kang Junhyung's eyes flashed with eerie intensity as he watched the interview.
He had read a depth of life in the eyes of a nine-year-old child that he could scarcely imagine.
"……Cut. Perfect."
The PD let out a deep sigh and gave the okay sign.
He instinctively sensed that this calm, weighty confession would have a far more powerful impact than forced melodrama designed to wring tears from people.