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Chapter 152: Directing
Translator: Enuma ID
"Again!"
"Yes."
Lucas, the Swedish composer I had originally mistaken for a Russian.
'I guess they really are a people who won't even spare you a single meal, huh?' (TL: Referencing the meme about Swedes not feeding visiting guests, often referred to as "Swedengate")
Е̌n u̇ mа
He had welcomed us so warmly and made such a fuss when we first met that I was starting to wonder if any of it had been real. Now he was directing the members with an attitude as cold as ice.
Thanks to that, even though it was early summer, the recording studio felt downright frigid.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Yun-kyung, trust your voice. You're avoiding it right now."
"Huh?"
"You don't trust your own voice. In your part, the match? I mean, your volume keeps creeping up."
"...."
W̄ ẽb̄ ṅ оvӗl Ӗ n ü m̄ а
Yun-kyung's face went pale under Lucas's directing.
'Singing isn't easy.'
It wasn't just Yun-kyung. Even Yuri, who was rated the most gifted pure vocalist among our members, was suffering under Lucas's icy directing the moment she stepped into the booth.
-The point of this song is that the vocal works as part of the rhythm. Tone and texture matter more than melody.
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Our new title track, DON'T BLINK, had no exploding high notes, nor was it a song built to show off vocal power.
It was a song meant to be sung in a half-spoken style, with breath woven through every line.
Ёnum а.
It sounded simple enough in theory, but following the maddeningly vague instruction to keep that "feel" alive at the same time was incredibly hard.
So hard, in fact, that even the Double Ryus, who had always polished off every assignment thrown their way without breaking a sweat, were struggling on this song alone.
"Si-on, you're up next."
"Yes."
Yun-kyung's turn was finally over, and now Lucas was calling me in.
"Commander... hang in there."
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The shock of getting picked apart by Lucas for a solid hour must have been brutal, because Yun-kyung came out of the booth with dead eyes, throwing me a warning along with a word of encouragement.
"Yun-kyung...."
"Commander...."
Thunk.
I pressed the chilled bottle of Pocari Sweat I'd been holding into her hand.
"You got this for me?"
Ẇе b̊ǹо̇vе́l̀ Еnu̇ m a
Yun-kyung looked up at me with shining, moved eyes, as if just receiving the Pocari had touched her deeply.
I gazed back at her with warm eyes and answered.
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"No, this was for me. I just figured if I left it lying around, Yuri would steal it."
"Commander!"
The look of betrayal on Yun-kyung's face was honestly pretty cute, but if I really had left it sitting out, Yuri absolutely would have plundered it.
"I shall finish my directing before the Pocari goes warm."
En̂ û mа_.і d̃
"Victory!"
Even so, the moment I stepped through the studio door, Yun-kyung snapped into the salute pose she had grown so used to by now and cheered me on.
'I'm getting used to this too.'
The recording studio was a peculiar place.
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The instant the heavy door shut, I felt a stillness as if I had stepped into another world.
Inside that booth, with my headphones on and the microphone in front of me, the only sound reaching my ears was the music.
Е̂n̈ um ā
I stood in front of the condenser microphone, which I used to just call "the studio mic" because I didn't even know its proper name, closed my eyes, and waited.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
Lucas's voice came through the headphones, signaling he was set on his end.
Then the melody of the song began to play.
♬
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'So this is what they call a Jersey Club rhythm?'
Ever since Idol Ground 100, all the way up to debut and now, I had been studying idol music to fill the gaps in my knowledge.
By "studying", I mostly meant listening to the music of other idols I had previously ignored, or hunting down old performance videos.
Still, with the help of members like Shin-yu and Seo Ryu-jin, I had managed to grasp at least the basics of what counted as idol music.
But there was still a lot I didn't know.
-Jersey Club is a subgenre of electronic music! It has a fast BPM and choppy, super bouncy rhythms, so it's a genre that's great for dancing!
Еn u m̆а
Among us, the only one familiar with Jersey Club, which was unfamiliar to me and the rest of the members, was Shin-yu.
'My body really does want to move on its own.'
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DON'T BLINK, which had been built on a Jersey Club foundation, made my shoulders bob along all by themselves despite its unfamiliar melody.
Don't—
Don't blink
Yeah
The intro ended, and the song started in earnest.
The moment our eyes met
I think it's already too late
If I miss a single beat
I'll lose it all
Е̄ n ům̆а̌
The rhythm was completely different from our previous title track, Something's About to Begin, and the noticeably shorter lyrics stood out.
-The debut song had a strong dramatic feel. We packed a story into the song, with a clear setup, development, climax, and resolution.
Just as Raon, who had been explaining the song to us in place of Lucas while his Korean was still rough, had said, the lyrics really did feel like they were capturing a single fleeting emotion.
Even the words felt like they existed for the rhythm.
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Step too fast
Heart too loud
This feeling right now
In words, no doubt
The tone and texture Lucas had stressed while directing the members ahead of me.
Ẅ.е̇ bn̄ о̂.v е l̀ Е̊ n u mа
I had something close to a certainty that what would suit this song was a relaxed, bright, and almost taut, threadlike voice.
"Si-on, your part is starting now. Focus."
Lucas's voice came through, telling me my section was about to arrive.
I didn't reply with words; I simply nodded to confirm I'd heard him, then concentrated.
DON'T BLINK, DON'T BLINK
This is a warning
DON'T BLINK, DON'T BLINK
It all flies away
Unlike usual, I let the sound out at low volume without pushing it.
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Of course, just singing softly would mean nothing, so I mixed breath through my nasal passages into the projection.
If it weren't for the technique I'd picked up over months of vocal training, an unpleasant sound definitely would have come out, and I had to walk that razor's edge of control in real time.
DON'T BLINK, DON'T BLINK
This vibe right now
Miss it once
Never comes back
-If you hit a high note without thinking, you tense up without even noticing. So you've got to do it through technique. That's the only way you get a high note that sounds like it's just floating, light as air. When someone hears it casually, they go, "Wait, that was that high?" That's the surprise you're going for.
Now that I had to actually use the things I hadn't understood the reasoning behind when I was learning them, the lessons my vocal trainer had given me came back one by one, and my body followed them on its own.
But technique alone wasn't enough.
W е ḃ n̈о v ѐl Е n̈u m а
The visualization method I had learned back when Park Tae-soo was directing me.
'This song feels kind of breathless, doesn't it.'
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It was that desperate feeling, like being chased down by the enemy top laner and jungler in the Rift. But not just panicked. I had to keep a sense of restraint inside that urgency.
If that was the case, only one thing came to mind.
The bitter desperation of Liu Bei, who had been forced to flee for his life after his attempt on Cao Cao's life was discovered. Surely that fit this song to perfection.
'Your Majesty... I will remember you!'
Ẃëb́n̄о́v ê l̇ Еńû m а
The moment I conjured up Liu Bei, scattered from his sworn brothers and family, fleeing for his life from that Cao bastard's clutches, the song flowed out of me on its own.
I lost myself in Liu Bei's plight as I sang, and before I knew it, my part was over.
When Shin-yu's rap section came in next, I finally let out a breath of relief.
'This isn't easy. Just singing it with full focus is rough enough; if I have to do this on top of choreography later, that's going to be brutal.'
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None of the songs we'd done up till now had been easy, but I couldn't help thinking this one had to be the hardest of all by a wide margin.
'But why isn't anyone saying anything?'
Е_n̊ um̊a
While I was musing about the song's difficulty, I realized that no instructions had come down even though the song had ended.
'Did something break?'
It was strange that Lucas's "Again!" hadn't come barreling in the second a phrase ended, the way it had during the other members' sessions.
I started to wonder if the headphones had broken, but the music was still coming through clearly, so I was puzzled. Then,
"...Okay."
Finally, Lucas's voice came through.
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***
"Did you trick me, by any chance?"
"Lucas, I'm just as shocked as you are."
Lucas couldn't muster any reaction even to Raon's reply.
'How can she sing it exactly the way I imagined it, perfectly?'
And no wonder. Lucas had just heard, in real life, the exact vocal he had pictured when writing the song, and he felt close to fainting from the shock.
Ŵ ѐ b̌ ṅo v̆ еĺ Е̃n̆.ů m̈ ӓ
There were times when, in the middle of writing a song, Lucas would feel that without this particular singer, this song could never be completed.
And not just Lucas. Probably every composer started writing a song by imagining a voice tied to someone specific, and built the composition around that.
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'I definitely had the Iam members in mind when I made it, but....'
DON'T BLINK, the song he had co-produced with Raon this time, had been written by Lucas with the Iam members in mind.
He had watched all of the members' Idol Ground 100 performances dozens of times each, and combed through every performance of their recent activity for Something's About to Begin.
And the most striking moment of all, the great escape attempt to the convenience store, had been the image he held onto as he composed the song.
Е̊ n̄umа̂
The scene of girl group members breaking out of their dorm and climbing over the wall had completely shattered the image of idols Lucas had carried in his head.
What struck him was how oddly fun the members had looked, even though they were doing something forbidden by escaping.
And yet, the tension and the pressure of being chased had carried clean through the screen to Lucas in vivid detail.
He had wanted to capture and express that in a song, and the result was DON'T BLINK.
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And now, the very liveliness he had imagined while writing the song was coming back to him exactly. It was a dream-come-true situation for any composer.
"The other members sang it cleanly, but Si-on still has some rough edges, and yet she's bringing out the feeling of the song perfectly."
Е̄ n_u̇ m̈а̃
"I know. How did she nail such a tricky emotional line on the very first try?"
Lucas asked Raon again, unable to believe it, but no answer came back.
The truth was, between the two of them, Raon was even more shocked than Lucas right now.
'Si-on is a fast learner, but is she already at this level?'
Before Lucas, Raon had been solely in charge of producing for Iam, and before that, she had served as the producer for the Idol Ground 100 final round.
So Raon prided herself on knowing the members' skill levels better than anyone, but the performance Lee Si-on had just shown today was beyond what she had been prepared for.
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'I couldn't have done it any better than that myself.'
It might sound arrogant at first glance, but this was the highest praise Raon could give.
Raon, considered the most gifted female solo artist in Korea, had never once thought that the talented idols she normally observed were better than her.
But the vocal Lee Si-on had just delivered was hard to imagine being topped.
'On the repeating chorus, she didn't explode; she held back and almost whispered it like speech. And still letting the emotion come through like that, that's beyond just calling someone outstanding.'
It was the kind of voice that made the listener relax and not even notice the song had ended, the kind that made them hit replay just to hear it again.
Ѐńumа̇
Raon thought back to the time she had directed Lee Si-on during the Idol Ground 100 final round.
-People say it, don't they? For any one field to climb to the next level, a hero who can carry it has to appear.
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Hye-ryeong, a younger friend of hers who had once been called the top idol herself.
-I think that person is Lee Si-on.
Hye-ryeong had once told Raon she believed Lee Si-on was the one who would lift K-pop to the next level.
But back then, Raon had let out a quiet, dry laugh inside.
Еǹu̇m̆ а .і d̂
'She did stand out, sure, but I never thought she was anywhere near that level.'
Her looks were unquestionably exceptional, but an idol wasn't a being made of looks alone.
Skill, and beyond that, a born charm and individuality vivid enough that everyone instantly recalled it the moment her name came up.
All of those had to come together at once, and at the time Raon had observed Lee Si-on, she had not believed her to be at that level.
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But while directing Lee Si-on in person, Raon had come to realize the sheer scale of the talent Lee Si-on possessed, and she had immediately understood why Hye-ryeong had given her such glowing praise.
Lee Si-on absorbed everything she was taught the way it was taught, and then in actual performance she showed even more than what was expected.
Ê ńu mă.і̇ ḋ.
Raon's decision to take on the PD role at KJ Entertainment had, in truth, hinged largely on Lee Si-on's existence.
It would have been a lie to say she wasn't curious about how far Lee Si-on would grow, and how fast.
So watching Lee Si-on grow rapidly while producing for her directly had been one of Raon's greatest joys lately.
And yet Lee Si-on, who was always close at hand, was now showing yet another leap forward in a stretch of time so short that even Raon, who watched her constantly, had failed to notice.
"Right now, I'm going crazy wanting to see the kids' comeback performance."
"Looks like our hearts are in the same place today."
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Lucas and Raon could think of nothing but wanting to show what they had just seen and heard to other people.
'But are the members okay with this?'
The rest of the Iam members had been listening to Lee Si-on's vocals together outside the booth.
Normally, during recording, the other members were kept waiting outside so the one recording could focus and not be disturbed.
But today's session was for directing ahead of the actual recording, so even the members not currently being directed were observing together.
Only then did Lucas and Raon catch themselves and realize they had stopped the recording and shown an embarrassingly excited reaction in front of the members.
Ĕ n u̇ m̌ а̃ .і d
But,
'What... the kids' eyes have come alive, haven't they?'
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Hurriedly checking the members' expressions, Raon couldn't help being startled.
"Did Si-on just not use her chest voice there?"
"No. She just didn't use it thickly. She kept using it through the middle."
"This time, putting Si-on-chan as the main vocal and using a lot of doubling will definitely sound great."
Е_n ũ mа
"It's true that for this song, what matters isn't one person singing big, but multiple people singing with the same feel!"
"After today's directing is over, I'm going to my vocal trainer's. What about you, unnies?"
"We can't let Si-on pull ahead alone. I'll come too."
Contrary to Raon's expectations of moping or jealousy aimed at Lee Si-on, the Iam members were instead exchanging opinions with sparkling eyes, as if they thought this was a great development.
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In particular, Yuri, who had originally been Iam's main vocal, was suggesting that the rest of the members back up Lee Si-on as main vocal in her place.
'That's exactly the point Lucas and I discussed while making the song.'
Ёnù ṁа̌
Because this song wasn't built around a single person standing out but around something multiple people created together, the two of them had wanted to lean less on Yuri's distinctive voice up front and instead build the members' voices in layers through doubling.
Raon had known Yuri was serious about music despite her usually playful demeanor, but she hadn't realized Yuri could analyze a song to this degree, and that alone was a fresh discovery.
More than anything, the position of main vocal was one that would draw attention in any group, and for Yuri to casually say it would be better to give that up moved Raon to a kind of shame.
"Lucas, can you handle the rest of the directing on your own?"
"Hm? There isn't much left, so I'll be fine, but is something going on?"
"I need to have another conversation with the CEO."
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Once she had said it, Raon got up from her seat.
A debut song Grand Slam, album sales of 200,000 copies.
On top of the countless other records Iam had achieved, she felt she had been a little too cocky, thinking that on top of all that, she had also unearthed a PD who was a hidden gem.
'When the kids are giving me this much, I can't be the one falling short.'
Costumes, music videos, broadcast schedules.
She had to go back over everything she had prepared for Iam's comeback and check whether there was anything that could be made even better.
Е num̄а̄ .і̀d̃
A PD couldn't make a gem be born as a gem, but she could bring out its true value.
Raon wanted to make the gem called Iam shine more brightly than anyone else.
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