Chapter 44
Myeongjeon adjusted the amplifier this way and that. He had asked the composer about the solo’s tone, but the composer said he didn’t have anything specific in mind. In that case, he would just go with something comfortable.
‘Let’s add a little drive. It’s a somewhat ordinary tone, but… a sound like this is actually better for giving it that ‘rock ballad’ feel.’
It was somewhat removed from the tone he usually used. But to make the emotion explode in the latter half, he needed to make the sound stretch out cleanly and freely.
‘As for the line…’
He tried putting together a line using familiar, usable licks. Letting it soar on the high notes, he carefully added bends and bend vibrato in the middle. Nothing edgy, just an unexceptional performance.
“I’ll go into the solo at the end.”
Having said that, Myeongjeon waited for the song. 3. 2. 1. A high-note bend. As the guitar sound burst out cleanly, Myeongjeon moved his fingers with ease.
“That’s so smooth~”
The composer listening beside him exclaimed. It was a solo that ran straight on, carrying the emotion from the moment the vocals ended. An unadorned performance without any particularly flashy techniques.
But Jaehun was all the more satisfied for that.
‘How can she play like that? At her age.’
One of the common mistakes made by guitar session players. When the time came to add a guitar solo, they suddenly exploded with the ‘ego as a performer’ they had worked so hard to suppress until then.
As if someone had asked, “You can’t play guitar, can you? You’re a hack, right?” they played an explosive solo, and when the others said, “Not like that,” they replied, “But this sounds better, doesn’t it?” Of course, it probably did sound better as a solo.
But you’re a session player.
There were many guitarists who, despite not being the main act, thought, ‘It’s a guitar solo now, so it’s my turn, right?’ and dug in, refusing to compromise. Even experienced players did that, so what could you expect from a beginner?
But the performance Suyeon was showing was nothing less than a textbook example of a guitar solo for an OST. Without adding any particularly flashy techniques, it felt like an extension of the vocals… a performance that served as a kind of auxiliary device whose only role was to make the emotions explode.
“Okay, great. The main line is good. But I’d like the very start to be a little different…”
“How?”
“Keep the part that rises with a little jiiing!, then scrape this once and come in with a quick run… Bring it up all at once.”
“Like this?”
“Ah, yes, exactly. Something like that.”
The composer gave instructions into the room. Suyeon listened to his words, understood them immediately, and produced the line he wanted. Watching this, the sound engineer muttered, “What, did she plug a USB cable straight into her brain?”
“Then I’ll overdub it. Give me the track.”
At that, Seokjun played the track. Then the solo was layered over the song as it played again.
‘I should get her business card… No, looking at her age, there’s no way she has one. Since I’ll be calling her often, should I tell her to keep some time slots open?’
* * *
“The guitar’s done!”
At that, the staff gave a small round of applause. “That was over so fast!” “Hey, I should go grab some food outside. Ugh, I’m sick of boxed lunches…” The conversation continued in an atmosphere completely different from when Suyeon had first appeared.
A staff member carrying the acoustic and nylon-string guitars followed behind Suyeon as she came out with her guitar. The fact that he even offered, “Want me to carry it?” while already holding a guitar in each hand showed just how grateful he was to Suyeon.
“The guitar was great!”
Apparently delighted to have gained enough time to sleep, even if only briefly, the composer clasped both of Suyeon’s hands and shook them up and down.
“Thank you.”
“I really hope we get the chance to work together again next time!!”
“Ah, yes, well…”
Suyeon let her words trail off and headed toward another staff member.
“We’re all finished, right?”
“Yes. You can leave now, and as for the payment, it’ll be within a week…”
Unless it was urgent, delaying payment in the broadcasting industry was a tradition, if not an official one. Session players were always firmly on the weaker side of the relationship. But the staff member thought, ‘After she did such a great job, shouldn’t we pay her a little sooner?’
“Pay her as soon as possible. And go tidy up over there.”
“Ah, yes!”
Jaehun had approached before anyone noticed. While the staff member hurried off after hearing him, Jaehun looked at Suyeon and spoke.
“Um, you’re not hurt by what I said earlier, are you?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, at first…” Jaehun scratched his head slightly and continued. “Well, you weren’t exactly a proven player, so I didn’t know. It’s not like I’d heard any of your work—I just told you to come based on that Im Junhong fellow’s recommendation… But anyway, it all worked out now, right!”
He kept talking. In fact, he had only insulted her to encourage her. People doing their first session usually didn’t perform to the full extent of their abilities, did they? He had just wanted to give her a little fighting spirit, something like that, and so on…
“Anyway, that’s why I said it. I only said it because I wanted everything to work out. You understand what I mean, right? I’m saying this because I feel bad. We’re going to keep working together, aren’t we? Next time, and the time after that. We should keep going together. That’s how we both improve.”
“Ah, yes.”
Suyeon’s expression had stiffened slightly, but her answer suggested that she understood. At that, Jaehun inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
He had asked another staff member and found that her fee was much cheaper than even a top-tier session player’s. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if she got offended over his cursing earlier and said, “I’m not working with you”?
Still, it was a relief that she was someone who understood things easily. From the way she said she understood after picking up on his hint that he planned to keep calling her in, at least.
“Then, our schedules are a bit tangled up, but could you possibly leave some time open? I don’t know when it’ll be, so I can’t give you a definite schedule yet.
“Still, since it’s broadcasting work, it’ll be good for your career. It’ll help you with session work, too, so it should be worthwhile.”
“Oh, is that so? But, um…”
Suyeon replied in a bright tone. Jaehun smiled triumphantly. Her guitar skills were good, but apparently she was naive as a person.
“I think next week will be a little difficult for me.”
“Next week? Why! Next week’s an incredibly busy week. There’ll be tons of work. Can’t you clear your schedule a little? Once something gets scheduled, I’ll call you first since you’re a student.”
At Suyeon’s words, Jaehun spoke in a voice that was half coaxing and half bullying. It was a voice particularly effective at pressuring young people.
“Ah, but that’ll still be difficult.”
“Okay. So next week’s out. What about the week after?”
“No, I don’t think I can do the week after, either.”
At that, Jaehun’s expression changed slightly. Was she messing with him? She had just said she would work. So she couldn’t do it when things got busy?
“What are you talking about? If you’re going to work, you have to accommodate our schedule.”
“It’s just that I think I need to go to the hospital.”
“Huh? What hospital?”
“A psychiatric hospital.”
The sudden turn in such a bizarre direction left Jaehun speechless for a moment. The staff, who had been pricking up their ears to listen to the conversation beside them while talking among themselves, were no different.
“I believe you called me a weird girl earlier, Director.”
“Huh? Ah, no, I mean—that was just something I said in the heat of the moment.”
“If you said I was weird, shouldn’t I go somewhere like a psychiatric hospital and get checked out?”
“No, no, earlier I just…”
Jaehun looked deeply troubled. But the staff behind him looked extremely excited.
“I’m a little strange in the head, so don’t say things vaguely like that. Please be clear with me. Earlier, you were swearing, saying, ‘Im Junhong, that fucking bastard, that goddamn piece of shit,’ and then you said to me, ‘What, some weird girl showed up,’ and told me to get lost, didn’t you?”
“No, that’s not what I meant! What I mean is—first of all, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay…!”
“Does being sorry make it okay? I struggled all the way here carrying an extra guitar because I said I’d do the rest of the session. Then I get here and you call me some weird girl and tell me to get lost, and say Im Junhong, the person who introduced me, is a fucking asshole… I have to go through all this shitty treatment, and now it was all nothing? It was all in my head? I’m a mentally ill person who just imagines things? At this point, I feel like I really should go to a psychiatric hospital, get a diagnosis, and go to the police station to fill out a few forms, huh? I think I really should.”
* * *
Throwing a goddamn fit over being slighted wasn’t Myeongjeon’s style. They were all in the same industry, and their livelihoods were at stake, so everyone being sensitive was unavoidable. That was why, unless someone made a huge scene right in front of him, he usually just laughed it off.
And this incident wasn’t even a huge scene. It was the kind of thing that would end at a drinking gathering with, “No, I’m telling you, Kim Jaehun called someone a fucking asshole and a weirdo~” “That bastard’s at it again? What a fucking asshole.” And that would be that.
But should he let it go this time, too? Just because? Why? In the past, his livelihood had been on the line, so he had simply smiled and said yes-yes to the people above him and let it slide…
Not anymore.
So Myeongjeon checked off one item from his lifetime bucket list: giving a broadcasting-industry asshole a taste of his own medicine.
‘So this is why people call it abusing your power? I feel like all my stress just melted away.’
The things he had carelessly rattled off—‘the police station,’ ‘the psychiatric hospital,’ and ‘filing a complaint.’ Myeongjeon had absolutely no intention of following through, but the other party had no idea of that…
He would suffer quite a bit worrying about it, no doubt. Wasn’t that enough? If he had helped accelerate Jaehun’s hair loss, that was satisfaction enough.
Thinking so, Myeongjeon checked his bank transactions. Had they said they would transfer the money that morning? The amount deposited was… 600,000 won.
‘It was definitely supposed to be 300,000 for the one-percent bump. Is this a peace offering? Did he give me the two-percent amount because he wants me to keep working with him?’
It was a ridiculous thought. Did he take Myeongjeon for some kid… Though technically, he was one.
Myeongjeon gave a short laugh and opened his email.
Unlike the barren inbox before, emails were slowly piling up. Collaboration offers, session inquiries… There weren’t many, but the mailbox was distinctly different from before.
Junhong had said he was going around talking about her. Was that what caused it? Or was it YouTube? Or word of mouth from her session work? He didn’t know which, but the situation was definitely different from a few months ago… and Myeongjeon felt a small sense of satisfaction.