Chapter 27: The OST Sung by the Flowers (6)
On Saturday, December 26, I visited Letter’s practice room. I was there to watch the nearly completed choreography for the idol’s song.
“Is this right here?”
“Yes, they should be practicing inside.”
Following the staff’s guidance, I arrived at an unfamiliar wooden door. As I opened it, a familiar melody filled the air, and soon, Lilac came into view, fully immersed in practice.
I quietly closed the door and leaned against the wall, simply observing them. It wasn’t one of those intense group dances where sweat flies in all directions. This song was more about vocals than dance, and I appreciated the relaxed atmosphere.
“Ahh, I’m exhausted. Oh, what’s this? Oppa’s here?”
As the song ended, Yoo Ah-ra was the first to spot me. Lee Yeon-ji and Kim Yoo-jung greeted me in turn, and they all gathered around where I was standing.
Yoo Ah-ra, grinning, spoke up first.
“How was it? Pretty amazing, right?”
“Yeah, it’s good, but you could use a bit more practice. You were the only one who messed up.”
“What? Ugh, seriously, Oppa, why are you always so critical to me?”
Yoo Ah-ra pouted and playfully tapped my shoulder. I handed her an electrolyte drink I had brought along.
“Ah, thanks.”
“…What’s with you two?”
Seeing us interact, Lee Yeon-ji shot a rather annoyed look our way. Her expression was unusually intense, and Yoo Ah-ra raised an eyebrow at her.
“Hey, what’s with the look?”
Ignoring Yoo Ah-ra, Lee Yeon-ji turned to me.
“Oppa, don’t you think it’s a bit unfair to give only Ah-ra Unnie a solo song?”
“Oh, come on. Then why don’t you pay me a million won?”
After the whole ordeal, Yoo Ah-ra gifted me a laptop as compensation. It was a high-end model worth around two million won. I couldn’t exactly refuse a gift offered with such insistence, so I accepted it without much fuss.
“If it’s a hundred thousand won for a song, that’s cheap. And I sing better than you, Unnie.”
She threw in a little tease, glancing over to gauge Yoo Ah-ra’s reaction. Normally, she’d be shouting back in a heartbeat, but she’s changed. Instead of flaring up, she just smirked confidently.
“Oh, honey, you and I are on different paths, you know~”
Yoo Ah-ra tilted her head from side to side with a smug look, so I put my hand on her head and ruffled her hair.
“Aah! Stop it!”
“Be quiet, and just focus on practicing your singing. Stop obsessing over SNS and the like.”
[Looks like I’ll be releasing a song soon~ You can look forward to it~]
[Tune in for the Small Diary premiere~!]
[Tomorrow’s premiere of Small Diary…]
These were the kinds of posts Yoo Ah-ra had been flooding her social media with for the past three days. Each one featured scenic shots of the mountain village in Jeongseon where the drama was set.
“…Oppa, don’t you think I’m doing SNS just because I want to? These days, promotion runs through SNS too. Tons of ads come through social media now.”
As she fixed her ruffled hair, I just gave her a faint smile.
“I already set up an account. Go ahead and follow me.”
My username was ‘Heli’, and the account’s bio said ‘Producer’. I had only started it yesterday. It seemed like it could be useful down the road.
I noticed Yoo Ah-ra only had about twenty followers—my following would probably bump her count up by a thousand or so in no time.
“My followers are precious, you know? We haven’t even known each other a month, and you think—”
There she was, shaking her head in that haughty, smug way she does so well.
I simply said.
“You do know you have a re-recording session today, right?”
“…What?”
A deep frustration flickered in her eyes.
“I told you. We’re recording it again, exactly the same as last time.”
It had been five days since the ‘Travel Log’ shoot. Right after finishing the scene of the mountain landscape for the OST, she’d managed to slip out of re-recording tracks for the ‘Idol’ album with one excuse after another, dodging me like a slippery fish.
“Uh… we’re still in the middle of practice, though?”
“Practice is over, right?”
I turned to Kim Yoo-jeong and Lee Yeon-ji. Yoo Ah-ra shot them a pleading look, but they simply nodded, unfazed.
“Come on, let’s go.”
“You guys, seriously… Oh, wait. Wait a minute! Oh, right! I just remembered—I’m singing in the drama today! My schedule’s been so packed I completely forgot!”
Just as she said, her song would air today for the first time in ‘Small Diary’. The OST was set to release the next day, after the broadcast of ‘Travel Log’.
“Oh, that?”
A glimmer of hope returned to Yoo Ah-ra’s face.
“Yeah, I know. We can monitor it together after we finish directing.”
But her face fell again just as quickly.
Late that night, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., we finished the re-recording session. It was a grueling five-hour marathon.
We were so absorbed in recording that I didn’t even have a chance to check out her song’s debut on the drama. I only realized it was trending on Naver after seeing a text from Yoon Hyeok-pil.
“Sleep well.”
I draped a blanket over Yoo Ah-ra, who had passed out on the sofa, completely worn out, and then stepped outside. I rode the elevator down to the lobby on the first floor.
“Yawn…”
I was exhausted, ready to head home as I pulled my coat tighter around me. But then, I heard footsteps coming up from the basement stairs.
Step, step.
Who would be coming up the basement stairs at one in the morning? Curious, I glanced over.
“…Oh.”
A surprised sound escaped me without thinking.
It was a face I’d seen only once before, yet one I couldn’t forget—a woman who reminded me of Jeong Ha-yeon for some reason. A singer whose voice had once left a deep impression on me.
Ji Ah-young.
Before I even realized, I was already speaking to her.
“Hello.”
Ji Ah-young gave a faint smile and nodded without replying. For some reason, she looked especially tired tonight, her energy visibly drained.
“Heading home?”
“…Yes.”
She kept walking, and I found myself falling into step beside her.
“Do you remember me?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Ah, thanks.”
I asked her something I’d been curious about.
“…So, when are you debuting, Ji Ah-young-ssi?”
“That, I’m not quite sure about.”
“With the skill you showed back then, you could debut right now…”
Honestly, I wanted to tell her that there’s a song I made while thinking of her voice. But I held back, not wanting to come off as some kind of lunatic—it’s only our second meeting, after all.
“Thanks, even if it’s just words.”
“Just words? I really…”
At some point, we arrived at Letter’s main entrance. As I held the door open and we stepped outside, a deep voice approached us.
“You’re here.”
The man approaching with a warm smile was someone I recognized too—Ji Hyun-wook, the head of Letter.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Ji Ah-young replied, moving toward him. Ji Hyun-wook put a gentle arm around her shoulders and guided her into his sedan. The whole scene was so natural that it almost looked like a practiced gesture.
After he settled Ji Ah-young into the back seat, he walked over to me.
“Heli-ssi?”
“…Ah, yes. Hello.”
I gave a small bow, and he continued with a smile.
“I heard you showed up out of the blue. At first, I thought you might be trouble, but now I see you’re a blessing. I enjoyed the drama.”
He extended his hand, and I shook it. His grip was large and solid.
“I never imagined Ah-ra-ssi could sing a song like that so well…this was the first time I saw it myself…”
He continued talking about various things, but I barely registered. Mostly, I was curious about his relationship with Ji Ah-young.
A sponsor…? No, that couldn’t be it—Letter isn’t that kind of shady agency. Maybe they’re family, since they share the same surname?
“I hope we can continue this good relationship.”
Whether he sensed my lingering curiosity or not, Ji Hyun-wook said nothing more as he got into the back seat.
The driver took off the moment he was inside.
The wind from the sedan passing by was unusually cold. Watching the car quickly disappear, I pulled my parka zipper up to my neck.
I was freezing to death.
Finally, the day had come. Sunday, December 27th, the official release day of ‘Mountain Scenery’.”
The song’s debut aired during yesterday’s eighth episode of ‘Small Diary’, which, fortunately, wasn’t a failing drama. It even trended at the time, generating quite a bit of buzz.
Plus, since it’s releasing right after today’s variety show airs, it should perform well on the charts.
“Oh, Ji Ah-young? The CEO’s niece?”
“Ah, so she really is his niece.”
While waiting for ‘Mountain Scenery’ to drop, I casually tried to probe Yoo Ah-ra about the relationship between Ji Ah-young and Ji Hyun-wook.
With the other Lilac members tied up in individual schedules, it was just the two of us in the studio.
“Yeah, she’s technically his niece, but he treats her almost like his own daughter. Why do you ask? And how do you know her, anyway?”
Yoo Ah-ra looked at me with wide eyes, more curious than suspicious.
“Oh…uh, well, she’s a trainee, right? I just ran into her here and there.”
“Oh, okay. But why?”
“She reminded me of Jeong Ha-yeon, so I found it interesting.”
“Oh, right. She’s pretty famous for that at the company. She hasn’t been a trainee for long, but people say she has that same aura and look as Ha-yeon Sunbae.”
Ha-yeon Sunbae. That familiar term caught my attention this time.
“…Are you close with Jeong Ha-yeon?”
“Huh? You didn’t know? I acted in a drama with Ha-yeon Sunbae. I was only a supporting actress, but the show hit a 30% rating.”
“Oh, right.”
Was it called ‘Man from the Stars’? I think I watched the first episode briefly.
“Anyway, what rank do you think we’ll debut at? Wanna bet on it?”
Yoo Ah-ra slapped my arm a few times, bouncing with excitement. I glanced at the clock—55 minutes past the hour, just five minutes before the show started.
“What rank do you think we’ll hit?”
“I’m going with… number five!”
“No way. That’s too high.”
“Why? The song’s good!”
“Honestly, I think breaking into the top 20 would be a great result.”
Even though the variety show should give us some good exposure, healing songs like ours rarely rank high on the charts—they’re more about lingering softly in the background and finding a steady place.
“Come on, we’re definitely making the top 10!”
“And if you get disappointed? …Ah, it’s starting.”
“Ohhh.”
Just as we were chatting, ‘Travel Log’ started airing. We were glued to the screen.
To my relief, the episode turned out better than expected.
Sure, the scene where I appeared to ‘coach’ Yoo Ah-ra felt as awkward to me as I’d feared, but they’d left her performance on stage mostly uncut, with several different camera angles to capture it all.
Yoo Ah-ra murmuring the song ‘Mountain Scenery’ under the rain in Mungyeong… Even though the sound setup wasn’t the best, it looked beautiful and pure.
—Let’s play the bonk hammer game!
After the performance, it switched to some scenes in the room—games, a close call with Yoo Ah-ra nearly setting the torch on fire, her tearing up after eating garlic bossam 1(wrapped pork). The whole segment came out quite amusing.
And though I hadn’t realized it at the time, watching Oh Seok-jae’s team’s pathetic reaction to their loss was surprisingly hilarious. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
They bickered needlessly, then turned on each other again when the PD said only two people would get food, splitting the team with more betrayals. Guess that’s the mark of real professionals on a broadcast.
Anyway, the main broadcast wrapped up quickly after an hour and twenty minutes.
‘Mountain Scenery’ should have already been released about ten minutes before the broadcast ended. And several press releases from Letter would now be splashed all over the entertainment news sections.
Taking a deep breath, I opened Rommel 2(Melon Chart).
“Well, how’s it doing?”
Yoo Ah-ra, clearly much more nervous than I was, leaned in next to my shoulder, unable to check for herself.
“It just went live.”
[Mountain Scenery (with Heli) – Yoo Ah-ra]
Mountain Scenery appeared proudly on Rommel. Oh, and just so you know, that ‘with Heli’ part was something Yoo Ah-ra insisted on—she barely got them to add it in.
The responses started rolling in as soon as the song went up. In less than ten minutes, there were already a hundred reviews, and the rating sat squarely at 4.0 stars, with fandom wars tugging it back and forth between fan attacks and fans’ support.
Yoo Ah-ra didn’t seem pleased. She leaned her chin on my shoulder, grumbling.
“Ugh. It’s so annoying. Why can’t they just listen to the song for the song’s sake instead of turning it into a fan war?”
Her voice was trembling, and her hands were sweaty. She was incredibly nervous.
Yoo Ah-ra didn’t say anything else, and I didn’t press her.
Unless it debuts in the top three, we won’t know the ranking for about an hour, which means we have to wait until 7 o’clock…
In the meantime, Yoo Ah-ra and I sat in silence, just alternating between glancing at our phones and laptops.
Finally, the chart was updated at exactly 7:00 PM.
“Here it goes.”
“…Yeah, okay.”
I slowly refreshed Rommel, then started scrolling down from the top.
Slowly, slowly.
I scrolled down gently, as if handling a baby. When I reached the 5th position that Yoo Ah-ra had hoped for, another song was there. For a moment, my heart sank, but I had expected this. After all, I had predicted it would be somewhere around the 20th.
I kept scrolling, scrolling. But ‘Mountain Scenery’ still didn’t appear.
How much further down do I need to go? Am I supposed to flip the page to see it? Just then, sweat began to pour down my forehead and back, when finally…
I saw the name.
49th.
The entry position was 49th.
Both my prediction and Yoo Ah-ra’s were wrong, in the worst possible way. Yoo Ah-ra’s face, unsurprisingly, showed no signs of happiness.
I quietly lowered my phone and muttered,
“Sorry.”
“…Huh?”
I gave her a slight smile as I looked at her. Even the smile felt precarious. My own mental state was hanging on by a thread.
“I told you. If it does well, it’s thanks to you. If not, it’s my fault. I wasn’t lying. Your vocals were more than good enough.”
“Shut up. I’m satisfied enough. And it’s still early. It’ll rise… probably.”
Satisfied? Really? I remembered how Yoo Ah-ra freaked out when she couldn’t get Lilac to #1, wondering what I would do if I reached the top before her. I remembered it all.
After that, we didn’t speak. Yoo Ah-ra moved farther away from me, lying limp on the couch, and I, too, felt completely drained, as if all my energy had been sucked out.
Was it disappointment, or guilt? I found myself more concerned with how upset Yoo Ah-ra was than the ranking itself.
We sat there awkwardly for about an hour…
Then, ‘Mountain Scenery’, which had entered at 49th, suddenly shot up to 9th place.
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