Solo Farming In The Tower

“Queng, thanks for brewing the coffee. Great job, everyone.”

Sejun spoke to Queng and the other employees of the Queng Café.

The café’s operating hours were from 9 AM to 7 PM. At last, the day’s business was over.

A moment later—

“Oh! 120 million won in daily sales! Our Queng is amazing!”

Quhehehe.

Sejun checked the day’s revenue on the POS system and praised Queng. It was thanks to Queng being able to brew 10 cups of coffee at once.

Queng?

[Dad, then how many Tower Coins did Queng earn today?]

“Hmm. About 60 Tower Coins?”

Huh? That’s too little?

Converted into Tower Coins, the amount suddenly felt small.

Queng’s weekly allowance was 100 Tower Coins…

Sejun worried that Queng might be disappointed.

Quhehehe. Queng! Queng! Queng!

[Hehehe. If Queng works every day, that’s 420 Tower Coins a week! Queng is rich now, so just tell me anything you want, Dad! Queng will buy it all for you!]

Positive King Queng was already imagining his weekly earnings and feeling happy.

“Puhuhu. Queng, then I, the Vice Chairman Te—nyap?”

Sejun covered Theo’s mouth. If left alone, Theo would definitely ask for something super expensive without thinking about Queng’s wallet.

Just then—

“Queng, can you brew seven iced americanos?”

Sedol made a request.

About five minutes later, a van stopped in front of the café.

“Sedol!”

“Brother-in-law, hello!”

“Brother-in-law~”

Sera and the other members of Moonlight Fairy poured out of the van, calling out to Sedol.

Moonlight Fairy, a girl group in their 10th year. While they kept things private from the media, unofficial dating was allowed, so the other members already knew that Sedol and Sera were dating.

“Yeah. Guys, good to see you. This is my older brother.”

Sedol introduced Sejun to the members of Moonlight Fairy.

“Hehehe. Nice to meet you. I’m Park Sejun.”

Sejun greeted them.

“Puhuhu. Human ladies, nice to meet «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» you! I am the loyal servant of the great Chairman Park…”

As Theo began his introduction—

“The legendary Golden Claw Hybrid Cat, Park Theo! I’m Yuri Cha, Moonlight Fairy’s official cat butler! Can I touch your paws?!”

Yuri Cha interrupted Theo’s intro and spoke instead. For reference, she was also a member of Theo’s fan club, the Meowmeowdan.

“Puhuhu. Very well…”

Theo graciously began to permit it when—

“Kkyu-kkyu—not allowed!”

Theo-nim is mine!

Iona expressed her discomfort. She had already held back earlier when the girls took pictures with Theo—but touching his paws?! That was skinship!

“Oh my! The hamster talked!”

“So cute!”

“Can I pet your fur?”

“Would you like some nuts?”

All attention that had been on Theo instantly shifted to Iona.

“Tch.”

“Nya.”

And thus, the two were forgotten by the fairies.

“Sedol, let’s go to Paris together when I fly there for my next photo shoot.”

“Should we?”

Feeling bored, Sejun sat at the table where Sedol and Sera were chatting.

Clatter.

The other members of Moonlight Fairy followed, gathering at the table as they chased after Iona, who was clinging to Theo’s tail on Sejun’s lap.

Once everyone was seated—

Queng!

[The coffee is ready!]

Queng brought out the coffee and cakes.

“Wow~!”

“So cute!”

“What is this place?! There are too many adorable beings!”

“I might die from cuteness overload!”

The members of Moonlight Fairy squealed in delight again.

While their attention was elsewhere—

Nom. Nom.

“Sedol, your brother made this, right?”

“Yeah. Eat as much as you want.”

“Okay!”

As expected, brother-in-law’s cake is the best! So delicious.

Sera stuffed her face with cake eagerly—after all, the more her members reached for it, the less she’d get.

Just then—

“Huh?! Sera unnie is eating all the cake!”

The youngest glutton, Soyoung Oh, shouted.

“So unfair!”

“I want cake too!”

The members grabbed forks and dove into battle over cake.

“Wow.”

There went Sejun’s fantasy about celebrities.

“There’s more, so take your time.”

Sejun decided to treat the idol members casually.

“Brother-in-law’s cakes are the best, aren’t they?”

“Brother-in-law? Sejun brother-in-law, can I have one more blueberry cake?”

“Ria-chan, you can’t call him brother-in-law! Sedol’s mine!”

“Oh. Is that so? I didn’t know. Sumimasen.”

It was pure chaos.

“Puhuhu. Humans, aren’t you curious about the legendary tale of how the great Hybrid Chairman Park and I, Vice Chairman Te, first met?!”

Quhehehe. Queng!

[Queng also wants to tell the story of meeting Dad for the first time!]

Kihihit. Kkin!

[Heehee. The great Kkamang wants to go first! Actually, the great Kkamang had already marked the human as his butler before the butler was even born!]

Jingle! Tingle!

[To have marked Sejun-nim before he was even born! As expected of the great Kkamang! You are truly amazing!]

Of course, chaos wasn’t limited to the other side either.

As the noisy chatter between Sejun’s group and Moonlight Fairy members went on—

“Huh?! A bell sound?”

Kurosaki Ria, called Ria-chan by Sera, heard Kkobang’s bell and pulled out her phone to play a song.

Jingle. Jingle.

(Were you having a hard day again today?)

Music began to play.

“Huh?!”

“This is?!”

Everyone’s attention turned toward the song.

For different reasons.

Sejun’s group thought—

It’s our song!

Because it was a song they had composed.

As for Moonlight Fairy—

“Huh?! Sejun-nim knows this song too?!”

“Of course he does. It was on the news for hitting a million streams in record time on WorkPie and topping the Melong charts.”

“I heard even Appletunes is showing strong reactions.”

“But how did someone come up with this concept?”

“Whoever composed this must be a genius.”

“Pinky Girls are so lucky. To get a song like this…”

“I heard it was composed by someone named Kyungsoo Cho from CK Entertainment.”

“Kyungsoo Cho? Never heard of him.”

“Ugh. I’m jealous! I wish we’d gotten this song…”

It was the hot trending song right now. As industry insiders, they were more aware of such buzz.

Soon after.

When the song ended—

“Guys, time to go! If we stay longer, we’ll be late for the next shoot!”

The manager herded Moonlight Fairy out. As they left, each one carried two boxes of cake—saying they needed to support the café’s grand opening.

“Sedol, wrap things up for me.”

Sejun asked Sedol to clean up.

“Okay.”

Sedol nodded silently at the rare serious look on Sejun’s face.

He’d only seen that look once before—when Sejun promised to get back the money local bullies took from him. He didn’t recover the money, but he came home with bruises.

And then they went to eat tteokbokki together…

While Sedol drifted into memory, Sejun and his group stepped outside.

“Teotson, ready?”

“Puhuhu. Detective Sherlock Sejun’s great assistant Teotson is ready to catch the bad human-nya!”

Queng!

[Detective Quenan is also ready to catch the music thief!]

Kkin!

[Butler! Detective Kapang is ready too!]

Yes. The detectives.

They were headed to catch Kyungsoo Cho—the one who stole their song.

“Then Taecho will be… Detective Taechoping!”

Taecho quickly made up her own detective name and joined the game.

***

“Ah. It really feels like a dream lately.”

“Same.”

“Can you believe we’re number one?”

In the van en route to an interview, the members of Pinky Girls chattered excitedly.

Their schedule was brutal—they only got two hours of sleep a day—but the joy of rising from a second-tier group to a first-tier one wiped away all their fatigue.

And—

Ahem. “Who brought that second wind, huh?”

Rosa, the group’s leader, struck a smug pose with both hands cupped behind her ears.

“Rosa unnie, stop. That’s more than the hundredth time.”

“One hundred? I’ll say it a thousand times!”

“Fine, fine. As you wish, Queen Rosa.”

“But it really is thanks to Rosa unnie being the first to hear the song Kyungsoo Cho uploaded and leaving a message.”

Kyungsoo had shared it in a group chat for the A&R team, which included celebrities under CK Entertainment.

“Hehehe. Normally, I would’ve ignored him as a nepotism case, but for some reason, I wanted to listen to it that day. And I was right. The moment I heard it, I knew—‘this one’s ours!’ So…”

“So Rosa unnie sent a message saying ‘Me!’ with a hundred hand-raising emojis to show her passion?”

“Hey! That was my line!”

“Hmph. Too bad.”

While Rosa and her archrival Kir argued—

“I honestly had zero expectations when I heard he was a nepotism case. Who knew he was hiding such talent?”

“Exactly. Everyone was shocked.”

They talked more about Kyungsoo Cho.

“Honestly, I wanted to cry when we had to cancel our MV shoot the night before and rush to record and choreograph again, but now I’m so happy!”

“Same. But thank god we didn’t film the MV. If we had, we wouldn’t have gotten this song.”

“Right. Manager oppa said if we had filmed it, the song would’ve gone to Phoenix.”

“That’s such a relief.”

“By the way, when is Phoenix coming back?”

“I heard they’re set for next month. And apparently, all five songs Kyungsoo Cho uploaded after that went to Meteor.”

“Wow. We really snatched this song away from Phoenix and Meteor…”

Just then—

“Girls! We’re number one on both WorkPie and Appletunes!”

Their manager, checking the music charts on his phone, shouted—

““Kyaa!””

The van rang with Pinky Girls’ joyful screams. Meanwhile, they quietly arrived at the interview venue.

***

[CK ENTERTAINMENT]

“This is the place?”

Sejun looked between the map app on his phone and the building.

“Puhuhu. Looks like it-nya! Let’s go catch Kyungsoo Cho-nya!”

Queng!

Kkin!

“Dad, leave it to Detective Taechoping!”

The group was fired up.

They had already memorized his face from all the news appearances. Despite stealing the song, he shamelessly gave tons of interviews.

“Guys, hide yourselves.”

At Sejun’s command, the group used stealth skills to vanish. For those without stealth—Kkamang and Taecho—Iona cast invisibility magic.

“Who are you here to see?”

When Sejun tried to enter the CK Entertainment building, security stopped him.

“Kyungsoo Cho.”

“Composer Kyungsoo Cho? Do you have an appointment?”

“No.”

“Then please come back after scheduling one.”

“Sure.”

Sejun backed away without resistance. He’d already anticipated this wouldn’t work.

Alright. Time for Plan B.

“Iona, hit me with Invisibility and Blink spells.”

“Kkyut-kkyut-kkyut. Okay!”

Shooom.

Thanks to Iona’s magic, Sejun comfortably entered CK Entertainment.

“Where would he be?”

Remaining invisible, he began calmly searching for Kyungsoo Cho.

***

“Hehehe.”

Kyungsoo Cho lay on the recording studio sofa, giggling at his phone.

Two things were different from usual today.

One: he was eating late-night snacks instead of lunch and lying on the sofa. He’d stayed out drinking late with the company president as thanks for yesterday’s hit song.

His uncle, who had gotten him this job, insisted he work at least 8 hours a day. So here he was, begrudgingly.

The second:

– Hello, Composer Cho. This is Daniel, leader of Meteor. We love all five songs you sent! The members are thrilled. Let’s work together on our next album too!

– Hello. This is Lee Kyung-tae, Head of A&R at DD Entertainment. If you’re available, how about grabbing a meal?

He was now receiving messages like this. He used to just scroll through forums or webtoons, but now he checked DMs from people trying to contact him.

And so, his self-esteem was skyrocketing.

“But why haven’t they sent more songs lately?”

He had told the staff to immediately forward any files received from sjbb music, but nothing had come in.

Should he approach them and pressure them to make more?

Honestly, he hadn’t expected things to go this well, and now he was getting greedy.

So—

– Hello. This is Composer Kyungsoo Cho from CK Entertainment. I saw your song and wanted to reach out. Would you be open to discussing it over a meal?

He sent a DM from the sjbb music account.

Then—

Bzzzz.

A vibration came from right beside him.

Good. Let’s talk.

Sejun, standing right next to Kyungsoo Cho, checked the phone and grinned.