“Wow…Do Wook, it’s really badass.”
“This is a more obvious sign of a big hit than a ghost in the recording room. Man, Do Wook, you’re really amazing.”
“Of course. It’s a song from his dream!”
The members, who were gathered at the workshop inside the company building, each gave their thoughts.
An Hyung Seo and Jung Yoon Ki actively praised Do Wook. It was not just empty compliments, they were complimenting him because they couldn’t help but compliment him.
He wasn’t in a deep sleep, so rather than a song he thought of in his dream, it was more of a song Do Wook thought of when he was half asleep. Anyways, the members seemed to want to think of it in a more dramatic way.
Do Wook, who had woken up from his sleep and started working on it, completed the title song by not sleeping for 24 hours and eating and drinking minimally.
It made the Album Production Team, who only planned on having the basic beat within a week, dumbfounded.
Team Leader Shim Jun, who had received a call from Do Wook that he finished the song within a day, had muttered with a stunned look that there was no need to overdo it like this.
Do Wook also didn’t intend to put so much physical strain and overdo it.
Do Wook had planned on taking a rest if he hit a block or the progress became sluggish. However, the song had really appeared like a dream and he hadn’t hit a block since then.
He hadn’t gotten to the arrangement yet, but he couldn’t wait to play the finished song for the members.
Since he had brain fog from being awake for more than 24 hours, he couldn’t tell how his song was. He wanted to play it for the members and get honest feedback.
When they had gotten the call from Do Wook, the members had pushed back their other rehearsals and plans and had immediately rushed to the workshop.
Kim Won, who was listening to Jung Yoon Ki and Ahn Hyung Seo’s conversation, asked,
“Recording room ghost? What is…?”
“Uh…you don’t hear it too often nowadays, but…successful singers always say they saw a ghost in the recording room or that they heard a ghost…it used to be said that…if you say you saw a ghost in the recording room, it’s considered a sign that it’ll be a huge success.”
“Oh?”
Kim Won opened his eyes wide at Park Tae Hyung’s explanation and had an expression full of curiosity.
Kim Won, who grew up in Western culture, was not aware of Korean ghost stories or proverbs, and was the type of person who was very curious about them.
Suk Ji Hoon further explained to Kim Won,
“I think there’s a lot of ghosts there because that’s where you sing.”
“Ghosts like songs?”
“That’s what they all say.”
“Wow, no wonder my back’s sorrowful.”
A question mark appeared on Park Tae Hyung and Suk Ji Hoon’s faces at the same time as what Kim Won said.
“Sorrowful means sad. The correct word is chilly. In this situation.”
(TL note: Suh-oon means sad/upset/disappointed. Suh-neul means feeling a chill.”
Do Wook corrected Kim Won as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. Kim Won was usually good, but once in a while he would use words wrong.
However, if he didn’t at least make those kinds of mistakes, you wouldn’t believe that Kim Won didn’t grow up in Korea. His Korean was that close to perfect.
“Nobody has seen a ghost in this workshop yet, but…Anyways, it feels like this will be a hit. Thanks to our producer who would even suddenly get up from his sleep and work on songs!”
Suk Ji Hoon nodded his head to what Ahn Hyung Seo said.
“They’re always hits anyways.”
Everyone said, ‘that’s true,’ and nodded their heads. Hearing them say it was all thanks to him, Do Wook smiled a little embarrassedly and adjusted the machine.
“I haven’t finished the mixing yet…Keep in mind that it’s only completed up to the first verse as you listen. Also…I’d like you to give me your honest feedback.”
“Okay!”
“It was completed in a day anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you tell me to completely scrap it…”
Do Wook said as he looked at each member.
Do Wook didn’t want them to worry about hurting his feelings and just give their honest opinion.
Members shook their heads as if they knew what Do Wook was worried about and told him not to worry about it.
“Ok.”
Of course Do Wook didn’t think the members would hesitate giving their opinions out of consideration for him.
Everyone knew that their honest feedback would be helpful to Do Wook and it was something important to everyone.
If the song isn’t good, there is a limit to how much success they can achieve no matter how much popularity they’ve accumulated. So it was time for them to do everything they could to make a good song.
There weren’t any albums that weren’t important, but the album that was coming out next was important as it was the new album.
First, they had to protect their place on top.
The members were realizing recently that compared to running towards the top, protecting their position from the top is harder.
They didn’t look at their surroundings when they were gaining popularity as rookies. To be precise, they didn’t have the time to. They just ran straight like racehorses, hoping to get even one more person to notice KK’s music.
However, now that they were at the top, they had a chance to look at their surroundings, and they could see below.
When they saw M2M or other idols that were recently gaining popularity, they couldn’t help but think, ‘How long can we keep this spot?’.
That said, it wasn’t that they were just staring at what was below. KK had a new goal to conquer the global market, and was working hard once again to achieve that goal.
‘At one point I was thinking of how nice it would be if we could win the grand prize even once…now we’re heading towards a bigger and wider place.’
Do Wook was filled with emotion when he discussed the future with the members.
With the thought of the new goal in mind, Do Wook played the song he had prepared. It was always nerve-racking to present to others the song he wrote.
‘How is it…I tried hard to keep KK’s music style alive as much as possible, and I filled it with powerful sounds that would be comparable to before.’
Boom―! Boom―!
From the start the reverberation of the bass was extraordinary.
The members listened to the song, focused. The members’ expression of concentration was serious like no other.
When they got to the middle of the first verse, the beat slowed down and the melody started to get higher-pitched. There were no lyrics to go along with it yet and there were no guides either, but the idea ‘if the high-note vocal explodes here…’ popped into everyone’s minds.
Boom! Boom― Boom― Boom―!
The chorus was strong enough for people to think ‘Ah, this is the hook!’ It made them want to stomp on the ground and jump.
While the accompaniment played, the members didn’t even breathe properly. They concentrated on the song like it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was the same for Do Wook too.
“Gasp!”
Manager Oh Baek Ho and Gu Chul Min, who had just opened the door and entered the workshop, couldn’t even hear people breathing, only the accompaniment of the song Do Wook wrote, and subconsciously held their breaths as well.
The members only briefly glimpsed at them.
When the two of them had heard that the members had gathered after hearing that a draft of the song was completed and hadn’t eaten even though it was past lunchtime, they had brought takeout from a nearby restaurant.
The current time was 2pm.
It had been 1pm when Do Wook, who had been working in his room and then had come to the office workshop, had finished the song after working on it all night and had contacted the members. Most of the members had just woken up and had rushed over, so they hadn’t had time to eat.
Manager Oh Baek Ho and Gu Chul Min silently put the food on the table, then sat on the sofa.
After the song ended, there was a brief moment of silence in the recording studio.
Do Wook, who had been sitting on the chair and manipulating the buttons, slowly turned around. The members were standing behind him. Do Wook carefully asked,
“What…What do you think?”
When Do Wook asked, Jung Yoon Ki, who had his arms crossed, went ‘hmmm’.
“It’s so…”
Anxious, Do Wook swallowed his saliva.
“It’s totally the best.”
Jung Yoon Ki’s response made Do Wook’s shoulders, which were stiff from anxiousness, relax. He let out a gaspy groan subconsciously.
“Really, man. It’s the best. Am I the only one who got goosebumps?”
“No, me too!”
“Me too…”
When Jung Yoon Ki asked, Ahn Hyung Seo and Park Tae Hyung chimed in. Kim Won and Suk Ji Hoon also expressed their admiration with a thumbs up.
Everyone felt a thrill from feeling that this was ‘the song’ they were looking for during the concept meeting.
Since doing OKAY activities, Jung Yoon Ki also became passionate about composing and producing. He still had a lot to learn, but he had started writing songs that were complete enough for Album Production Team Leader Shim Jun to say, ‘Let’s add it to this album’.
Because of that, Jung Yoon Ki could tell even better how impressive the song Do Wook just put together was.
He felt that it had all the necessary components. Ki, Seung, Jeon, Gyul*. It seemed like it wasn’t missing anything.
(TL note: The different parts of a story such as introduction, exposition, climax, resolution)
“Do Wook…how did you put something like this together in a day…wow…”
Park Tae Hyung couldn’t say any more, he was just in awe. When even Park Tae Hyung, who was normally quiet, expressed his admiration, Do Wook became even more embarrassed.
“Is this good? If I also do this for the second verse…”
“Yes, of course! But I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Well…Will I be doing the high part?”
“Ah, probably. If it continues like this, I think that’ll most likely happen.”
Ahn Hyung Seo nodded his head to Do Wook’s answer. It would definitely become the killer part. Ahn Hyung Seo usually took on the high note parts and livened up the song, but the high note part this time was more impactful than in other songs. The segment was long too.
“Do you not like it?”
“No, no! I definitely do! It’s not that I don’t like it, rather, it’s too good. I wonder if I will be able to pull it off,”
Ahn Hyung Seo replied as he shook his hand at Do Wook.
Indeed, it was undoubtedly a satisfactory part from Ahn Hyung Seo’s perspective. At the same time, you could tell how much Do Wook, who had written the song with the members’ parts in mind, believed in Ahn Hyung Seo’s skills.
“You’re doing great even now, Hyung Seo.”
“Ah well, I didn’t say that to fish for a compliment~!”
Ahn Hyung Seo said as he laughed. In the back, Suk Ji Hoon quietly muttered, ‘I think you did.’ Ahn Hyung Seo glared at him.
“But, it has enough variation to make it feel like it’s two songs combined together…”
“Yes, I purposely gave it that vibe, but..”
“Ah, I’m not saying it’s weird. It’s good, good!* It’s just, wouldn’t it be better to go to the bridge when it transitions from the fast tempo to the slow tempo?”
(TL Note: the second “good” was said in English)
Kim Won said. Do Wook nodded his head and quickly jotted down the idea on a Post-it.
A part where powerful choreography would be added, an outstanding vocal and rap part: he didn’t want to miss anything. It was a single song, but varied between different forms. As he was working on it, Do wook thought that it could feel fresh but unfamiliar at the same time.
‘As expected, I’ll have to revise that part a little more.’
Do Wook thought to himself that it was a relief that the response from the members was good. Of course, this song still needed a lot of work to become a title song and he still needed confirmation from the Album Production Team.
‘Still…it’s definitely the overall vibe I wanted for the song. I hope the public will like it too.’
Do Wook clenched his fist hard, then relaxed it.
“How much more work do you have left on the song?”
Manager Oh Baek Ho, who had been sitting down, approached him and asked. Just like the members, Manager Oh Baek Ho was surprised when Do Wook had said he finished the song.
“If you guys think that it’s ok to proceed in this manner…I just need to arrange the second verse a little more. We’ll add the lyrics at the end and go into recording, finish up the mixing…First, I’ll send what we have today to Team Leader Shim and discuss it with him before I finish working on it.”
Manager Oh Baek Ho nodded his head. It would take the Album Production Team Leader Shim Jun and the team members at least a day to listen to it and give feedback.
“Then, eat for now and then finish the rest. I’m sure you’re all hungry.”
The members gathered at the table. Now that they’d finished listening to the song, the members noticed the smell of the kimchi stew wafting throughout the recording studio.
Gu Chul Min quickly unwrapped the packaging and set the utensils.
“Do Wook, you should come eat too.”
Everyone had taken their seats except Do Wook. When Suk Ji Hoon called out to him, Do Wook, who was turning the machine off and cleaning up, said,
“I…want to go to the dormitory and sleep, is that ok?”
Do Wook’s eyes were extremely sunken as he said that. It felt like if he stayed up a little longer, there would be a crack in Do Wook’s perfect looks.
Now that he got feedback for the song and a burden lifted off his shoulders, his tension released and he quickly felt tired.
“Wow, go get some sleep!”
“You worked hard, Do Wook.”
“Yeah, go get some sleep! I think sleep comes before food.”
Worried, Manager Oh Baek Ho sent Do Wook off.
Do Wook went straight back to the dormitory and fell into a deep sleep as soon as he laid down.
***
When the song came out, the album preparations proceeded at high speed like a sports car driving on the freeway.
The members’ jaws dropped when they received the choreography. It was way too hard. Even just watching the choreography made them short of breath. Before they could even start complaining, Noh Yoon Tae started the rehearsal.
Noh Yoon Tae knew very well how important the choreography for this album’s title song was. There were high expectations within the company, as well as pressure. Noh Yoon Tae put ‘his life on the line’ as he put together the choreography.
As such, it was natural that the KK members were feeling overwhelmed.
However, the members did everything they could to keep up with the choreography.
The sweat the members had shed was drenching the rehearsal hall.
It was difficult, but the album preparations were going smoothly. There didn’t seem to be any other problems either.
A problem occurred two days before the date the title song recording was scheduled for.
“Manager Oh! Big problem!”
Suk Ji Hoon, who had come out of the room, phoned Manager Oh Baek Ho. The gaze of all the members who were gathered in the living room were on Suk Ji Hoon.
—
Next chapter: A KK member is taken to the hopistal. Which member could it be?