Chapter 95
As soon as the stage performance by Joo Jin-woo, the current champion known as ‘The Frog Prince Who Sings Well,’ began, I couldn’t help but sigh.
“Ah… it’s my song?”
Why on earth did he choose this song for this round’s competition?
I didn’t think he knew I was appearing.
Still, Masked Singer was a program where the staff kept a pretty tight lid on things.
Since there was no way news of my appearance had leaked to him, Joo Jin-woo’s song choice must have been a pure coincidence.
‘You’ve really liked PODIUM for a long time, huh.’
When I released my full-length album, PODIUM was the song most highly praised by band member Park Han-su and Joo Jin-woo.
It could even be called an odd one out on the album, but it had received particularly high praise from critics.
The song was held up by a kick drum, a weighty bassline, and a hip-hop-style groove.
Layered over that was a sense of space and heft, as if it filled an entire stadium.
The core element was the chorus line, which sounded like everyone shouting together and naturally encouraged a singalong.
It was an anthem-style song that the general public could sing along to.
I had been inspired by the enormous soccer stadiums I saw in Europe and the heat I felt around them after the matches ended.
When the Incheon baseball team won the championship in Korea, I fleshed out the musical idea from the energy I felt at Neulneul Orphanage.
In other words, it was a song designed from the ground up with a concert in mind.
Since it was good for prompting singalongs and getting the crowd fired up, I had tucked it into the album intending to use it as a concert staple someday rather than chase the charts.
Naturally, it received a much better response from critics and musicians than from the general public.
Joo Jin-woo had been one of the musicians who responded particularly well to it.
I couldn’t even count how many messages he had sent me from the day of its release, going on about how much he liked PODIUM.
At the time, I had simply brushed it off as a matter of taste. I never imagined he would bring the song out here like this.
Sure enough, the moment the intro played, the celebrity panelists stood up and applauded.
A few of them even chuckled as though they found the situation itself amusing.
It was ridiculous even to me, so it must have looked even funnier from a third party’s perspective.
PODIUM’s intro, transposed to suit Joo Jin-woo’s range, thundered grandly across the stage.
I, too, lightly let my body follow the beat in the waiting room.
A melody I had heard dozens, if not hundreds, of times.
Personally, PODIUM was one of the songs I liked quite a lot.
The instant Joo Jin-woo’s lips touched the microphone, the density of the air changed.
The grand intro that had been floating over the stage receded, leaving only a weighty kick drum to split the silence.
It was the rhythm I had designed, like the footsteps of a giant shaking the earth.
Over that rough beat, he laid his distinctive husky voice.
As the first line began, a soft gasp escaped from the audience. Unlike the original’s neat, polished feeling, Joo Jin-woo murmured low, suppressing an energy that seemed ready to burst out at any moment.
‘I can sing like that now too…’
The texture and pitch of Joo Jin-woo’s voice perfectly recreated the atmosphere I had originally envisioned for PODIUM.
Two years ago, my vocal cords were still too childlike for me to imitate even a similar tone, so I had no choice but to release the song with an atmosphere somewhat different from the one Joo Jin-woo was producing now.
As the song grew more intense, all kinds of instruments whipped themselves into a frenzy. Joo Jin-woo’s singing gradually climbed into the upper register, while the drum snare rang out more and more frequently.
Joo Jin-woo recreated the weighty stadium atmosphere I had planted in the original with a level of immersion that sent chills down my spine.
The celebrity panelists were already swaying to the beat as if entranced, and Joo Jin-woo overwhelmed the audience by pulling out even sharper high notes.
-We are on the Podium!
With the burst of distorted electric guitar, the entire stage was washed in golden light.
The overwhelming sense of space I had once felt transformed the enclosed Masked Singer studio into a heated atmosphere that felt like a gigantic stadium.
‘I wanted to do that…’
It felt a little strange with Joo Jin-woo doing it.
Like it had been stolen from me.
During the high-note section, Joo Jin-woo gripped the microphone stand and roared.
When the singalong section came next, sounding as though dozens of voices had been layered together, the panelists and ordinary audience members alike thrust their hands into the air in unison, as if they had rehearsed it.
In the bridge near the end, where an irregular rhythm came rushing in, Joo Jin-woo walked all the way to the front of the stage and urged the audience to respond.
He was using every single element I had earmarked as a concert staple perfectly, as if he had read my mind.
The lights went out with one final, powerful drumbeat.
Beyond Joo Jin-woo’s silhouette as he panted heavily, only the lingering resonance of the grand instruments that had ruled this place moments ago drifted through the air.
‘Wait, is this right? It’s my song—can Joo Jin-woo really use it like this?’
More than anything, the problem was that Joo Jin-woo’s performance had been so intense that even I had been swept up in it.
To be honest, immediately after I had perfectly pulled off Tail Star’s stage, I had been certain I would win.
From the outset, I hadn’t thought the long-reigning champion would take the competition seriously, and even if he did, I was confident I could beat him.
But Joo Jin-woo had performed far too well.
I could tell my chances of losing had risen very, very high.
And then the voting results were announced.
I had no choice but to squeeze my eyes shut.
“I’ll announce the results! By a vote of 50 to 49, the reigning champion, the Frog Prince Who Sings Well, has once again retained his crown.”
I bowed my head and let it droop.
‘What kind of opening move is losing in my comeback match…?’
The identity reveal, the heart and soul of Masked Singer, began immediately afterward.
Joo Jin-woo left the stage, leaving only the host and me behind.
To make things even stranger, the host was the same one from my Singer Star days.
The first thing I did was toss off my shoes.
Then something amazing happened: nearly ten centimeters of height mysteriously vanished from me.
The audience burst into laughter at the sight.
“At this point, I think you’ve all figured out who I am.”
Affirmative responses immediately rang out from the audience.
“All right. Then… please take off your mask and reveal your identity!”
I flung off my mask on the host’s cue, and rather than surprise, the atmosphere was filled with laughter, as if everyone had expected it.
“Hello! It’s been a long time. I’m Seo Si-yeon.”
When I bowed my head in greeting, the laughter subsided and the studio was filled with applause.
Everyone seemed to have plenty of questions after my long absence from television, and they came pouring in.
At first, the Q&A proceeded in a very warm atmosphere.
Q: What did you do during your break?
A: I rested at home while making music.
Q: You seem to have grown a lot.
A: I got growth hormone injections. They say I’ll keep growing for at least another year.
Q: Why was your first broadcast Masked Singer?
A: I wanted to make my comeback through a music-related program, and I thought Masked Singer was the most suitable one.
Q: I heard you went through puberty, and your singing technique and vocal tone seem to have changed somewhat.
A: I worked hard to sing differently. It’s a shame that my identity seems to have been exposed at such a strange point.
Meanwhile, one of the celebrity panelists asked a question that could easily have been mistaken for something from UFC.
“The song that defeated you happened to be your own song. How do you feel?”
Naturally, this was WWE, not UFC, and I answered in kind, WWE-style.
“Well. Since you sang my song so well… if PODIUM sweeps the charts after this episode airs, doesn’t that mean I’m the one who ultimately benefits?”
Naturally, I was just tossing out a line.
The days when this program had that kind of explosive reach were long past, and I hadn’t particularly thought my comeback would create such enormous buzz.
But my prediction missed the mark in the most delightful way.
[Two songs climbing the charts at present lol]
(Watermelon TOP 100)
1. PODIUM-Seo Si-yeon
2.Tail Star-Yuna
(YouTube Music TOP 100)
1. PODIUM- Seo Si-yeon
2. Tail Star- Yuna
Fuck, it’s Dae Si-yeon again.
All I can do is praise them.
“Wait, how did it turn out like this?”
Completely out of nowhere, two songs—one released two years ago and the other a year ago—ended up taking first and second place on every chart.
Considering that Joo Jin-woo was, as a result, still stuck busting his ass as champion…
“Why am I the one who made such a huge profit?”
It had turned into a broadcast where only Yuna sunbae and I reaped enormous benefits.
The only thing left for Joo Jin-woo, who had just put on a legendary performance, was to keep having his time eaten up by Masked Singer while receiving a paltry appearance fee.
I felt a little sorry for Joo Jin-woo.