ALL NOVEL Chapter 64
Chapter 64. To You (6)
Sarin, who had shed tears just as much as Dan Haru’s target, quickly composed herself and grabbed the microphone again.
“Actually, this song is my signature song… but it became a song that scared me to sing.”
Sarin knew the nickname she was well-known for, not only in the music industry but also among the public.
Boss.
During her heyday, she was so proud of that nickname. To maintain that title, she gave her best in every performance, delivering the best songs.
– Ah… even Sarin can’t beat time.
However, she never imagined that her efforts would become a barrier that confined her.
[4K] XX0712 Sarin – Shoutout to You @Neon Park Festival
– Wow, the live performance is crazy ㄷㄷ
– Please, sister, release an album
– It’s a pity that her old voice didn’t come out. Maybe her vocal condition wasn’t good.
└ She had too many events during her childhood days… ㅠ She should have taken a break after releasing her third album.
– I still can’t forget her performance of ‘Shoutout to You’ at that awards ceremony four years ago. It was a real Hermes, the wind blowing outdoors, Sarin tearing up during the final chorus… it was perfect. The 2:17 reaction from the idol in awe was legendary.
└ Where can I see this?
└ Search XX1230 Sarin Shoutout to You, you’ll find it.
└ Here’s the link itube.com/watch?
Her song that used to ‘make everyone the boss’ had become a barrier she couldn’t surpass herself.
“The song had become too famous, and I had sung it too well… So, actually, it was a song that pressured me every time I sang it. It became so difficult for even me to sing.”
From the time she was pregnant until now, she had used childbirth and childcare as excuses to stay off the stage. Sarin had lost confidence in singing on stage.
She could no longer reproduce her young, vibrant voice from ten years ago. It became even harder after childbirth when her physical condition wasn’t the same as before.
“But today, watching the stage you prepared, I forgot for a moment that this was my song.”
The high-pitched notes, the intense emotional expression, the flashy ad-libs, and techniques.
Listening to “Shoutout to You” without all the conditions that had become like a formula, it was still good. And it felt new.
She realized that the lyrics could evoke such emotions.
“For the first time in a long while, it felt like I was facing the song ‘Shoutout to You’ again. So, it made me think… Ah, I want to sing this part with these emotions, express it this way….”
“Wow, that’s high praise. Senior.”
Enderway’s Choi Yeonwoo clapped enthusiastically at Sarin’s luxurious review. The boys on stage still looked bewildered, scratching the back of their heads and looking at each other.
And standing at the center of the Sad Ending team, Kang Hajin thought.
‘Did I press the tear button properly or what?’
Whatever it was, he hit the jackpot. He hadn’t planned to do this well, so maybe he should revise his plan….
Hajin relaxed his body, thinking about Kwon Go-sa-jik, who was probably monitoring this situation somewhere in the studio.
‘It can’t hurt to raise my value.’
Hajin nodded simply.
But the impact of their performance seemed far from simple.
[System Alert: ‘Sarin’ has gained an epiphany!]
[System Alert: A turning point occurs due to ‘Sarin’s epiphany.]
[System Alert: ‘Sarin’s timeline is changing….]
‘…What? What’s changing?’
Before he could read and understand all the rapidly appearing system windows, Sarin smiled in relief and delivered her final comment.
“Thank you so much for giving me a chance to meet my song anew.”
[System Alert: ‘Sarin’s fixed event (disappearing after retirement) is deleted.]
‘Oh, really?’
It seemed like he had accomplished something amazing.
* * *
“Alright, let’s take a break and have dinner—!”
“Sad Ending team! Move to the waiting room! Gather here!”
“Mentors, please return to the waiting room! We’ll give you the call time schedule!”
After listening to the evaluations from the other mentors except for Sarin, we went backstage.
“D-do you think we did well?”
“Sarin senior’s evaluation was really good….”
It seemed like they didn’t care much about the backstage reactions, usually asking us to gather and chat, but this time the staff led us straight to the waiting room.
All the way back to the waiting room through the long hallway, our team members still looked dazed. Considering they tore apart the original song’s stage and even altered her timeline, their reaction was quite subdued.
The reason was simple.
“But the other evaluations were a bit disappointing, so we don’t know the result.”
Except for Sarin, the rest of them gave rather ambiguous evaluations.
– The fresh approach was good. However, it seemed a bit bland for a competition like this?
– Your energy! I really acknowledge that energy.
– I wonder if it would have been better to show more vocal prowess… just my opinion.
It was more positive than negative overall, but considering Sarin’s tearful high praise, it didn’t feel very satisfying.
But I smiled leisurely and patted the team members on the shoulders.
“It’s okay, guys.”
“Yes?”
Anyway, the broadcast will only show Sarin crying.
“We did our best, so it doesn’t matter what the result is.”
“Oh, right! We really worked hard!”
“Yeah! It’s enough to be acknowledged by the original artist!”
The two bright kids, who always looked on the bright side, nodded vigorously at my words.
Yeah, maybe because their expectations were low, they seemed quite satisfied with the current outcome.
We each received a lunch box at the entrance of the waiting room and sat down. One thing I always liked about this production company, even from my previous life, was that they took good care of the meals.
“Hyung, here are the chopsticks.”
“Oh, good job.”
“Your tone really sounds like my grandpa.”
“Should I give you some New Year’s money?”
“I will respect you, Grandpa.”
After a short banter with Seo Taehyun, everyone instinctively buried their heads in their lunch boxes. We didn’t eat much in the morning, worried about our faces swelling, so it was time to eat.
‘Thanks to my skill, I don’t have to worry about swelling, so I ate well this morning.’
I slowly opened a bottle of water and reviewed the system notifications that had popped up earlier.
[System Alert: ‘Sarin’ has gained an epiphany!]
[System Alert: A turning point occurs due to ‘Sarin’s epiphany.]
[System Alert: ‘Sarin’s timeline is changing….]
[System Alert: ‘Sarin’s fixed event (disappearing after retirement) is deleted.]
Sarin always stopped her activities around this time and left the music industry.
I don’t know how it was in the first round where I couldn’t live past twenty because I was regressed while taking the college entrance exam… but she always did that in every other round, and now that’s changed.
‘And this fixed event, it could be deleted?’
I thought it was something unchangeable like an important unwritten rule, but thinking back to how Park Jaeyoung’s event was modified, it wasn’t an absolutely immutable condition.
[System Alert: With the recent update, the authority of the (fixed) regressor has been updated.]
[System Alert: You can view more information about the human ‘timeline.’]
[System Alert: Would you like to enter the ‘space of unconsciousness’ to view information? (Entry condition: Unconscious sleep)]
‘Seems like it brought a lot of stuff.’
But I can’t just fall into unconscious sleep when the recording isn’t even finished yet.
I marked the last notification with a star and neatly closed the alert window.
[System Alert: This is very important information!]
‘Yeah, sure it is.’
Since it’s an update patch, I’m sure it brought some very important things. But what’s important to me right now is the chicken and stir-fried pork in front of me, not the grand epic of human destiny.
[System Alert: Something really, really amazing is happening… this is really huge…!]
Sorry, but right now, the most amazing thing to me is that as a trainee contestant, I’m getting a two-course meal instead of chicken mayo for dinner.
[System Alert: …The system feels a sense of unknown defeat and sadness.]
‘Systems grow through such experiences.’
I easily dismissed the now-familiar system’s complaint.
‘By the way, what was the assistant director thinking when they chose such an expensive lunch box? Do they have a lot of budget? Well, even when I was an assistant, PD Kwon was serious about meals.’
Thinking that, I mixed the stir-fried pork and kimchi into the rice when I happened to make eye contact with Han Sungwoo passing by.
“Wow, my appetite’s gone…”
As if. I ignored his gaze and took a big bite of the well-mixed bibimbap. Han Sungwoo turned his head with a grimace and went back to his seat.
And Seo Taehyun, sitting next to me, sighed softly as if he had watched the whole interaction between Han Sungwoo and me.
“Grandpa, please eat.”
“Kids these days have no respect for the elderly, tsk.”
“Ah, but I really don’t want to lose to that guy.”
“Same here, grandson.”
I stood up with the empty lunch box, having eaten every last grain of rice. No matter how much I
tried, I couldn’t fix the habit of eating quickly and cleanly.
When I was about to throw away the empty lunch box in the recycling bin, someone with bright hair was sitting there.
“…Lee Yugeon?”
With his yellow bleached hair slicked back and three piercings in his ear, Lee Yugeon was awkwardly crumpled in tight leather pants. He was arranging the lunch boxes and utensils stacked in the box.
“What are you doing?”
“They’ll fine us if we don’t sort the recycling properly.”
“But why are you doing it?”
“It’s a habit. Just leave yours here, I’ll throw it away.”
He even diligently removed the sticker from the lunch box lid. I had felt it before, but this guy wasn’t normal either. He’s in the same team as Lee Doha, so I’ll casually ask him later how he feels about it.
“I said, leave it.”
“No, I’ll do it with you.”
Having seen that uncomfortable leather outfit all scrunched up, I couldn’t just walk away.
There weren’t many left anyway, so I’ll help clean up and have a chat.
‘I wonder what happened to this special class main dancer to get so many debuffs.’
I opened the status window for Lee Yugeon, which I had checked before.
[Lee Yugeon (Affiliated: Miro)]
-Debuff: All attributes decrease by 20% from the original achievement rate
Position: Dance
Singing: 37% (Rap 71%) (-20)
Dance: 33% (-20)
Expression: 45% (-20)
Special: Copy & Paste (64%) (-20)
Appeal Points:
‘I still have 12 ships left’
-Responsibility, perseverance, strong immersion (persistence, perseverance, performance absorption 51%)
‘How on earth is this guy holding on in the special class with such stats.’
He seemed similar to Lee Doha, but his abilities were definitely lacking. Of course, he didn’t seem particularly bad when I saw him on stage last time… but something was off.
‘By the way, this status window is really inconvenient.’
It’s good for seeing potential, but it’s time for some objective standards. I need to negotiate when I check the update stuff later…
“Oh, sorry.”
…I was thinking, and a lunch box fell on my arm. The remaining kimchi soup and sauce splattered on my clothes.
“I didn’t see you had your hand there. Were you throwing away the trash?”
I looked up at Han Sungwoo, who had just tossed the lunch box in front of someone sorting the trash, and forced a smile.
“Hyung, you really need to get your glasses checked. You’ve been missing things a lot lately.”
Ah, this irritating jerk.