Free Web Novel“The title of the song I’ll be giving you this time is ‘Starlight Umbrella.’”
The atmosphere in the practice room where the girlish pop concept team was gathered was quiet.
It was hard to believe this was the same group that had been throwing a dance party and raising hell just moments ago.
“How did this happen, Suyeon-mon?”
“Uh... who knows? I didn’t expect Producer Park Taesu to be the one who made the girlish pop song either.”
The producer Suyeon and I had been expecting for girlish pop was Tenji, but the person who’d opened the practice room door and walked in just now was none other than TSP’s CEO, Park Taesu.
‘It really is fascinating.’
Park Taesu.
He was a famous singer whose songs even I knew a few of, and at the same time a celebrity in his own right as the head of TSP, one of what people called the Big Three agencies in Korea.
The fact that someone like that wasn’t just a judge on Idol Ground 100, but had actually written a song for the Concept Evaluation stage and was planning to personally produce it, still didn’t quite feel real.
“Maybe it’s fine even if it’s not Tenji...”
“It’s more than fine, this is insane! I bet every other contestant is jealous of us right now!”
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Sitting next to me, Suyeon’s eyes had gone round as she whispered to me in an excited voice.
“If he sees us in a good light, maybe he’ll just scoop us up as TSP trainees on the spot?”
“Hm...”
Come to think of it, among the program participants, the only independent trainees left now were me and Suyeon, so it seemed Suyeon wanted to catch Park Taesu’s eye and get into TSP.
But that wasn’t the part that interested me.
‘If I make a good impression this time, he might write songs for me later when I produce my Three Kingdoms drama.’
One of the things on my list for when Bitcoin moons was producing a Korean remake version of Kongming’s Three Kingdoms.
Among those plans, it seemed like a good idea to ask Park Taesu to do the OST.
Originally, I’d planned to dump it on Shinyu for cheap, but thinking about it, if it was Park Taesu, he’d probably crank out a masterpiece.
While I was mapping out my Kongming’s Three Kingdoms remake plans in my head, I snapped back to reality at the sound of Park Taesu’s voice as he moved on from his greeting to explaining the song, and focused on what he was saying.
“Girlish pop is actually a genre that’s hard to define as a genre. When you hear ‘girlish pop,’ are there any feelings that come to mind?”
“Innocence?”
“That’s right. When it comes to girlish pop, what comes to mind first isn’t a specific instrument or beat or chord, but the emotion.”
Watching Park Taesu calmly continue his explanation in front of the contestants, I couldn’t help being impressed.
‘He’s amazing.’
Back when I’d watched other audition programs he appeared on, he’d spoken so well that I’d wondered if it was all scripted, but experiencing it in person, it felt more like he was just someone with a good head on his shoulders.
And people who were smart usually explained things well to others too.
“Then, shall we listen to the song once now?”
“Yes!”
The mission song for the girlish pop concept was finally having its true identity revealed.
Afraid we might disturb the music, all the team members were holding even their breathing as they focused.
I was no different.
‘What kind of song is it going to be?’
Just the thought that I was going to be the first to hear a song that hadn’t been released to the world yet made my heart flutter for some reason.
And then—
(Sub 1, 2)
After the rain, in the cleared-up afternoon air
I think of the road I walked with you
Our two hands gathered under a small umbrella
We really laughed so much back then
The song began with a refreshing female voice.
‘It’s really sweet and fresh.’
With a melody and tone completely different from the songs of the previous stages, I was instantly drawn into it.
(Sub 3)
Those feelings that were a bit clumsy then
Have now become a precious memory to me
If the previous songs had felt like all kinds of different sounds piled together in a very complicated way, so that even the vocal had felt like just one more instrument—
(Main 2)
Under the starlight umbrella, just the two of us
Carefully putting our hearts into each other
Even if time gets far away, I won’t forget
We’ll smile again someday
—then in this song, you could immediately feel that the other instruments had been moved into supporting roles so the vocal could shine.
(Main 1)
Under the starlight umbrella, we made a promise, remember?
That we’d meet again next season
Even if the rain falls, I’m not afraid
Because it’s a sky with you drawn in it
By the time we finally reached the last part of the song, I thoroughly understood why Park Taesu had described girlish pop as closer to an emotion than a genre.
‘Why does it bring up memories I don’t even have, just from listening?’
In both my current life and my previous one, my school days hadn’t had a single trace of romance; they’d been completely plain. But listening to this song, an image of me as the protagonist of a Japanese youth movie flashed through my mind.
“How was the song?”
“I like it!”
“I really want to sing it!”
“It’s seriously amazing!”
When the song ended, Park Taesu asked the girlish pop concept team for their impressions.
In response, all the team members answered with cheers, and seeing that reaction, Park Taesu smiled as if he was satisfied as well.
“But while you were listening to this song, did any of you happen to divide it into parts?”
“Pardon?”
At those words that followed, the practice room instantly turned cold.
No wonder. Up until just now, everyone had been so busy appreciating the song that we’d all set one thing aside: part distribution.
“Suyeon, this isn’t a song ten people can sing, is it?”
“...No. At most, it’s probably a song for around five people.”
I thought back on the song we’d just heard in light of Park Taesu’s question, and just like Suyeon said, no matter how generously you tried to assign people, it was a song that at most five could sing.
“It looks like you’ve all caught on. That’s right. Among the ten contestants who chose the girlish concept, only five will actually be able to sing this song on stage.”
While the team members were falling into confusion over part distribution, Park Taesu delivered the death sentence everyone had expected but hoped wouldn’t come.
***
“Good. Yuri, if you make your pronunciation a bit clearer, you’ll do even better.”
“Thank you!”
Seeing the contestant bow her head to him and say thank you, a smile rose on its own to Park Taesu’s lips.
‘I ended up smiling without thinking again.’
This time, he wasn’t just producing; he was in a position where he had to pick five people who would sing, so he’d been trying not to show his emotions as much as possible, but he couldn’t help it.
When he looked at the contestant named Kurosawa Yuri, who had just given an excellent performance of his song ‘Starlight Umbrella’ in front of him, he couldn’t help but smile.
‘She’s a perfect fit.’
When making Starlight Umbrella this time, Park Taesu had thought about capturing the feelings of a fresh high school girl’s first love.
First love, separation, and a promise.
To do that, he’d gone with a BPM in the 100s (Beats Per Minute, a unit that expresses how fast a piece of music is by the number of beats in one minute) instead of the high tempos he usually favored, and had used only acoustic guitar, synth pad, and the snare of the drums to make the song.
Thanks to that, Starlight Umbrella had turned into an emotional song with the cozy atmosphere unique to girlish pop.
‘For songs like this, the vocal is all the more important.’
In the completed Starlight Umbrella, the most important point was the voice.
There was no flashy choreography, and the song’s progression wasn’t particularly shocking either, so in the end, the only thing that could hold the audience’s gaze on stage was the power of the voice.
In that sense, because Kurosawa Yuri’s voice carried exactly the innocence and freshness that fit his song, Park Taesu already felt one of the five people who would be on stage was decided.
‘This really is a cruel system.’
When he recalled what had happened at the meeting between the production team and the producers a few days prior, Park Taesu couldn’t stop himself from shuddering a little.
– Producers, among the ten contestants, you’ll need to pick the five you think are the best fits for your song.
A cruel directive that said: since the producers had made the songs, they should personally pick which contestants would stand on stage.
Some producers had felt burdened by the production team’s viciousness, but in the end, they couldn’t help being persuaded.
– If you don’t pick them, they’ll end up being chosen by viewer vote anyway, and I think it’s better for the stage if the producers, who understand the songs best, are the ones who choose.
It wasn’t wrong.
If the five people to stand on stage were chosen by viewer vote, they would definitely be picked by popularity. For a survival program, that was only natural, but from a producer’s standpoint, it wasn’t a particularly appealing prospect.
Above all, once they heard that not being selected didn’t mean elimination and that a separate stage was also being prepared for the excluded contestants, the producers had all ended up agreeing.
The only thing was, after that meeting, Park Taesu had mentally upgraded the program’s new main PD, Park Hyungsoo, to someone to be on guard against.
“Hello, contestant number 100, Lee Sion!”
“Right, nice to meet you.”
Finishing his thoughts about the program, and just as he’d been mulling over what part would fit Kurosawa Yuri, Park Taesu lifted his head at the energetic voice he heard from in front of him and checked the face of the contestant standing before him.
‘Her visuals are unbelievable both on camera and in person.’
Lee Sion.
The contestant who’d been the key reason he’d decided to participate in Idol Ground 100’s third mission, the Concept Evaluation, as a producer was standing right in front of him.
Just in terms of looks alone, she was so stunning that it felt like there was no one who could match her, even if you included all of TSP’s girl group members and trainees.
And on top of that, her blue eyes created a mysterious aura that completed that appearance.
Seeing Lee Sion in person, looking exactly as she had on broadcast, Park Taesu couldn’t help resenting the casting team.
‘We should have recruited her before she went on the program.’
If TSP had scouted her earlier and she’d joined LYNX, the girl group currently preparing to debut, how great would that have been? Just thinking about it made his chest ache.
But this wasn’t the time to be dwelling on regrets.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes!”
“I’ll start listening right away.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the intro to Starlight Umbrella began to play.
And in time with it, Lee Sion got ready to sing.
After the rain, in the cleared-up afternoon air
I think of the road I walked with you
‘Clean.’
Even when he’d heard her on broadcast, Park Taesu had thought Lee Sion’s vocal had an attractive tone, and hearing it live and finding it exactly the same made him feel a slight sense of relief.
These days, music programs did so much post-production that until you heard someone on-site, you couldn’t tell what their real tone was.
Right now, though, the voice of Lee Sion singing sounded even cleaner than it had on broadcast, to the point that it made Park Taesu marvel.
It was the kind of sound that could only come from singing with solid breath support and proper vocal technique, so he couldn’t help wondering how someone like Lee Sion, who might as well have had no trainee period at all, could pull it off.
Only—
Under the starlight umbrella, we made a promise, remember?
That we’d meet again next season
Even if the rain falls, I’m not afraid
Because it’s a sky with you drawn in it
After listening through the end of the first verse, Park Taesu found a major flaw in her voice.
“Sion, that was well sung for now.”
“Yes.”
“But there’s something lacking in how you sang just now.”
“...Okay.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“No. Honestly, I’m not really sure.”
“Emotion.”
“Emotion?”
The big flaw in Lee Sion’s singing that Park Taesu had felt was precisely emotion.
‘Pitch can be off. Even pros have a hard time with that.’
Her singing wasn’t bad.
No, to be precise, among the contestants who’d sung before her, except for Kurosawa Yuri, she was among those who’d sung the best.
But that was all it was—she’d sung well. The feeling wasn’t alive at all.
“Have you ever gotten a paper cut?”
“Sorry? Yes, I have.”
“When you get a paper cut, sometimes you don’t realize you’ve been cut until later, right? Why do you think that is?”
“Because the cut is so clean?”
“Exactly. That’s what your singing is like right now. You sang cleanly and well, but it doesn’t leave an impression.”
“Oho?”
Huh?
Just as he was about to tell her she needed to add emotion and explain why her singing wasn’t memorable, Park Taesu was thrown for a moment by a reaction from Lee Sion he hadn’t expected.
“Uh... so, what I mean about your singing is...”
“I caught it right away! So it feels kind of obvious and forgettable, right?”
“...Yeah.”
“Wow! Just now, it really felt like I was watching K-pop Singer! When you, CEO, were watching the contestants’ stages there and giving critiques...”
A flustered Park Taesu, and Sion chattering excitedly, delighted by his comments.
‘What is with this kid?’
The scenario he’d originally imagined was that once she learned her flaw, Lee Sion would be momentarily dejected or disappointed, and then he would give her warm consolation and encouragement.
Most trainees, after all, easily had emotional swings when they received this kind of critique.
But instead of even a speck of disappointment, Lee Sion was happily chattering away, like she just found it fascinating that he’d pointed out her weakness.
“Um... contestant Lee Sion! You can’t just say the names of programs from other stations out loud!”
“Oh, right! I’m sorry. Then is it okay if I say Ding Ding Ding Singer?”
“No, it is not!”
“Tch.”
Only when the staff member filming them couldn’t take it anymore and jumped in did Lee Sion’s vocal evaluation finally wrap up.
Watching that, a °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° thought crossed Park Taesu’s mind—if he didn’t keep his head on straight, things could get dangerous.
***
“I’ve done a first-round test of your vocals just now, and based on that, I’ve divided up the parts like this.”
At his explanation, mine and the other contestants’ gazes all turned to the large monitor in the practice room.
[Main Vocal 1 – Lee Sion, Choi Sojin]
[Main Vocal 2 – Kurosawa Yuri, Kim Suyeon]
[Sub Vocal 1 – Jang Yuna, ···]
“The parts I’ve assigned aren’t fixed, and they can change at the mid-check. Of course, after that, they’re locked in.”
Up until now, there hadn’t been any detailed explanation about how the Concept Evaluation would proceed, so now that we were finally hearing the process from Park Taesu’s own mouth, everyone perked up their ears and focused on his explanation.
“So until the mid-check, you guys will need to create choreography that fits this song, and each of you will practice the parts you’ve been assigned and show them to me. Think you can do it?”
“Yes!”
“And through the mid-check and final check, one of each pair currently assigned to the same part will make it onto the final stage.”
At those words from Park Taesu, the air in the practice room shifted.
Just moments ago, the team members had been laughing and chatting with each other, but now I could feel them quietly sneaking glances at the people who overlapped with them in position.
‘Choi Sojin, huh...’
Choi Sojin, who’d been assigned Main Vocal 1 along with me, was looking at me too.
“What I’ll be focusing on most in my evaluation is how well you express the vocal in a way that fits the song. I want to see emotion that suits this song.”
“Yes!”
Once he finally finished his explanation, Park Taesu said that from now on he’d be watching individual practice one by one, and told the rest to practice their assigned parts on their own.
“Sion, we’ll start with you.”
“Yes!”
At his call, I moved to the recording booth and got ready for training with my headphones on, just like when I’d gotten my vocal test earlier.
And then Park Taesu’s training began right away.
“Sion, what do you think about when you sing?”
“Mm... I think about my breathing and the rhythm while I sing.”
“Right, that’s important too, but now you need to move beyond that and put emotion into your voice.”
After the evaluation earlier, where I’d been told my singing lacked emotion, I’d wrestled with it in my head afterward, but it wasn’t an easy problem.
“You said you like Three Kingdoms, right, Sion?”
“Yes!”
“I like Three Kingdoms too. Then why don’t we use Three Kingdoms as an example while we talk?”
“Three Kingdoms?!”
I suddenly liked him a lot more.
There was no such thing as a bad person among those who liked Three Kingdoms.
There was just one thing I needed to check.
“Which country do you like the most, CEO?”
“Huh? I... like Shu the most.”
Perfect.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before TSP, the agency where Park Taesu was CEO, crushed SY and YH and unified the Korean idol scene.
The urge to start buying TSP stock right this instant was surging up inside me.
“When you watch Three Kingdoms, what part makes your heart race the most, Sion?”
“Mm... it’s hard to pick just one, but I’d have to say when the three brothers Liu, Guan, and Zhang form their brotherhood oath under the peach trees. Because people are so familiar with that scene, they tend to brush past it lightly, but later on, when those three brothers act and make decisions, it has an enormous influence. Of course, besides that, in the last of the Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage, when Zhuge Liang...”
“O-okay, got it. Then this time, while you’re singing, why don’t you try picturing the Peach Garden Oath scene from Three Kingdoms and think of yourself as one of them?”
“You mean... sing while thinking of myself as Liu Bei?”
“Yeah.”
At his instruction, I quietly closed my eyes.
Soon, the scenery of a peach tree grove rose up in my mind. free𝑤ebnovel.com
It felt like I could smell the sweet scent of peaches at the tip of my nose.
‘Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, watch me!’
My heart pounded with excitement, and my voice, as I sang, filled with trembling and joy.
