Chapter 68

“Flower Path, I know you’re being exceptionally generous to Gowon right now, but to me, you’ve always been nothing but a blackmailer. Don’t you think I have every reason to be wary?”

Besides, ten million views was not something you could just pull out of thin air.

Even the music video for <Unlimited>, the most-viewed of Gowon’s videos, had only just passed five million views. To produce a ten-million-view video within a month, Gowon would have to escape from prison like in The Shawshank Redemption while singing <DEEP> and end up on worldwide news.

A chance for Young Ace to make a comeback, earned by working Gowon that hard? If we prepared it that way, I would be too ashamed to face the members, and we would never make the comeback in the end.

So forget it.

For this quest, I would go no further than recommending that Gowon appear on a few YouTube channels. He would bring back results on his own within two months.

Part of the reason I was no longer as anxious about Gowon’s quests was that, during the time we had spent together, I had become certain he was not someone who would betray my expectations.

At first, when I heard that if he failed, my career would go down with his, I had wanted to finish the final quest as quickly as possible and get rid of him.

Now, well... I had started to think he would manage perfectly well even if I took my eyes off him.

At that moment, several messages poured in.

“Gowon” considers “Young Ace” his idol, role model, and ■■■.

A comeback by “Young Ace” will aid “Gowon’s” growth.

The capacity of the <A Senior Paving the Road to Glory> scenario is insufficient to interfere in any way with Young Ace’s current activities or performance.

Q3-2. The Most Filial Child Must Show His Face Often.

Hard - ☞Trigger☜ a full-group Young Ace comeback

The quest emphasized the final word as if to make a point.

“Oh, so what? You’re not saying you’ll guarantee the comeback or warn me about danger like before. You’ll only give us a little push?”

It was always so eager to interfere with pointless remarks, yet whenever I actually asked something, it never answered.

Do whatever you want.

Once I had organized my thoughts, I truly had no lingering attachment.

Still, my mouth had gone dry from the shock, though the reaction came late. When I stepped out of the room in search of water, Gowon was sitting on the sofa.

“How did you manage to get enough time to stay home for once?”

“I have schedules from dawn until night tomorrow, so they freed up some practice time today. Hanje, there’s something I wanted to tell you....”

“Ah, hold on.”

My phone rang, tangling with Gowon’s voice.

“It’s the division head.”

I should take this first. When I shook the screen to show him, Gowon closed his mouth.

“What is it?”

—Hanje, do you want to perform?

“Already?”

What was this? Were we making a comeback before reaching ten million?

—What do you mean, already? Don’t tell me you were satisfied with one special host stage.

“No, that’s not what I meant. Hmm. What stage?”

—It’s time for you to perform your own songs again.

The atmosphere did not seem like he was talking about a Young Ace comeback.

“So what’s the point?”

—The Han River Jazz Festival. You’d be the headliner on the final day.

“Wow... headlining solo is a little terrifying. I’m scared. Isn’t that held in the fall?”

The Han River Jazz Festival. Along with the Capital Area Rock Festival, it was considered one of the country’s premier music events.

It was certainly an enormous honor, but the schedule was tight.

It might have been different if I had been actively promoting until recently, with an entire set list and stage crew ready to go, but I had already spent two years living in a state where it was hard to tell whether I was an A&R employee or a singer.

I had received invitations to outdoor festivals a few times before, but this was the first time I had been offered a solo position of this scale.

Perhaps appearing on television while helping Gowon had been interpreted as a sign that I wanted to resume activities.

...And why was the person responsible for all of this staring at me so intensely?

Junior’s respect (+1)

What was this now?

—Think it over carefully and give me a definite answer by the end of this week.

“Yeah....”

—Hanje, you may not feel like doing it. But personally, I’d rather you went. I’ll go watch with whichever members have time. They’ll all be excited and say they want to come.

No, the reason I had sounded reluctant was that the gaze which had moved right up in front of me was far too intense.

After ending the call, I narrowed my eyes at Gowon, who seemed less than a step away.

“Did you cause trouble?”

“What?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“...Do my eyes look rude again?”

“No. You look like an actual junior artist, and it’s annoying.”

That pure, admiring look unique to junior artists felt unsettling coming from someone I had already seen at his worst.

“Hanje. Are you going to perform at the jazz festival?”

“I don’t know. I have to start thinking about it now.”

“I hope you do.”

“All right. I don’t place much importance on the baby’s opinion, but I’ll take it under consideration.”

Normally, by this point he would have left with a babyish complaint like, “Hanje, honestly...,” but today he kept hovering beside me.

“What?”

“...The Spades will be looking forward to it.”

“The invitation is still confidential, so I doubt any of them are specifically expecting the Han River Jazz Festival.”

“.......”

“And events like rock festivals and jazz festivals are double-edged swords for idols. If you do badly, people complain that some idol showed up and ruined the atmosphere.”

“You have a lot of emotional jazz songs among your solo tracks. And all of them are difficult songs.”

“Uh....”

“Any Spades who work in the industry or happened to hear about it will definitely be looking forward to it.”

“Hey, hey. That’s not how you make a decision.”

“.......”

Why was this guy so determined today?

He was trying to persuade me as if he had been entrusted with some sacred mission. Had Kwon Taeyoung put him up to it?

“By the way, didn’t you have something you wanted to tell me?”

“What? Ah.”

Gowon spoke as though he had only just remembered.

“I hope you perform.”

“Don’t lie. Was that really what you wanted to say?”

“I definitely want <Largo> and <Talk It Up> on the set list.”

He began listing even the songs I had promoted solo, and I laughed in disbelief.

After boldly spilling all that out, Gowon suddenly started hesitating and avoided my gaze.

“Please think about it seriously.”

Then he shuffled away and fled into his room.

“Where did he drink so much premature celebratory soup?”

Only then did I remember.

“Ah, I need to tell him to appear in some YouTube content. And tell him to work hard.”

The sudden interruption had made me forget the quest entirely.

Normally, I would have called him back and said it right away, but the look in his eyes the last time I saw him bothered me strangely.

Even Baek Hanje, who had lived his entire life doing whatever he pleased without hesitation, occasionally smiled brightly and treated people with harmless warmth. And for some reason, it felt like this was one of those times....

“But I only ever did that when meeting our Spades.”

At fan meetings or fan signings.

The rare days when Baek Hanje became Angel Hanzel....

What is this?

What kind of phenomenon was this...?

This was all because Gowon had done something completely out of character.

***

<DEEP> continued taking home trophies even in the final week of promotions.

Starting the following week, K-Dom’s summer queens, Girls’ Party–Argyle—the Aran, Gahyeon, and Illa unit—were scheduled to begin promotions. The timing overlapped perfectly with the end of Gowon’s cycle, and now that Executive Director Choi was gone, they could avoid internal fighting and peacefully divide the trophies among themselves.

“I have no regrets left! I wrapped up my final career achievement at K-Dom in spectacular fashion!”

With Gowon’s <DEEP> as his last project, Team Leader Shin Namwon began packing up his belongings at K-Dom, where he had worked for many years.

To be honest, once Executive Director Choi had fallen from power and the conflict had disappeared, I had hoped Team Leader Shin would stay. Gowon had produced results he could be proud of too.

But he submitted his resignation without hesitation. He said the only thing that had changed was that instead of leaving with a bitter taste in his mouth, he was now leaving feeling refreshed.

“You worked hard. Are you really leaving for Paris?”

“I don’t know. I wanted to spend a while doing absolutely nothing, but now that it’s actually happening, I keep worrying that I’ll lose my instincts while I rest and never be able to return.”

Clink. Our glasses struck each other over the center of the table. The soju I was drinking for the first time in a while was bitter and unpleasant, but the atmosphere did a great deal for the taste.

“I still recommend taking it easy for a while. When you decide you should rest but end up back at your desk without doing it, the work doesn’t come out well either.”

“Ah... that’s true. Right. I should put work out of my mind for a while.”

Team Leader Shin leaned his head back against the sofa and looked around.

“Then I’ll be saying goodbye to this studio for a while too.”

“Come visit. Leaving the company doesn’t make you a stranger.”

“I appreciate Young Ace’s Hanzel saying that, but the moment I resign, I have to return my access pass to this building.”

“You can come in as my guest.”

“Ah, no. I hate the company. Invite me to your house instead. Gowon’s there too. I want to hang out with the cute rookie.”

“Sure, that would be a really entertaining time for Gowon. A distinguished senior artist, his former company team leader, and if we invite Taeyoung too, he’ll really start loving corporate life. We should make it even more fun by declaring an informal-speech hour.”

“All right, I’m not going. I’m not going. You practically offer up your studio as a public space, but you’re still strict about your house. The only people who’ve been there are the Young Ace members and Gowon, right?”

“It’s not quite that limited.”

“Then who else?”

“My mother?”

Team Leader Shin’s expression said he had given up on the conversation.

To be fair, Gowon had been in rather unusual circumstances at the time too.

“The weather is incredible.”

“It is.”

The humid summer weather had lingered for some time, but the sky had finally cleared. Team Leader Shin opened the window. Once the seal of the room, which had been perfectly soundproofed on every side, was broken, all kinds of sounds seeped in. Cicadas. People moving through the city.

“Hey, half the year’s already gone. Does that make any sense?”

“.......”

I sprawled in my chair and looked outside as well. In years with grueling promotional schedules, time passed exceptionally quickly, while in inactive years it crawled endlessly.

Yet this year, even though I had not promoted at all, it felt as though time had flown by from the moment I met Gowon.

As if he had read my mind, Team Leader Shin clicked his tongue while looking out the window.

“Poor Gowon must be having a hard time too.”

“What hardship? I’m paving a road to glory for him.”

I gave him a home, gave him songs, took care of his mental health. Even the toad from the tale of Kongji and Patji had not been this devoted.

“No, you idiot. I mean Gowon’s obsessive fans have increased sharply lately. Look down there. Over there, that person.”