Chapter 192. The Trigger That Made Her Start Singing (3)

“…W, wait.”

KangYoon was flustered due to the sudden confession.
He thought that he tried his best in order to not give room for that. However, it seemed that it was a misconception on his part.
He always looked at Lee HyunAh as a good ‘little sister’ but never as a woman.
Regardless, Lee HyunAh approached him and leaned on him.

“The first time I met you, I was flabbergasted at your actions. You lashed at me saying that my song was better than the others and told me to have confidence. And that ended up leading me to the College Pop Festival.”
“Professor Choi was the one who applied for that.”
“It wouldn’t have been possible without you though.”

Lee HyunAh continued.

“After the College Pop Festival, my opinion about you took a complete turn. I found out that you weren’t just a dreamer but someone who had the power to realize his dreams. I also thought that I might be able to dream as well if I stayed with you.”

Lee HyunAh closed her eyes.
Would she have been able to become a singer without KangYoon’s presence? In the first place, would she even dream of becoming one?
She was afraid of showing her work to the others. There was someone who pushed her back and gave her power on stage and now, he gave her the stage where she could sing to her heart’s content.
Such was KangYoon.
How could she not fall for him?

“…Until now, I was watching your back, but I wish to look at the future by your side.”

Lee HyunAh spoke while her eyes shook.
Meet him as lovers. She conveyed those feelings properly.
Now it was his turn to answer.

‘…I can’t end this without wounding her, huh?’

KangYoon closed his eyes.
Lee HyunAh was a precious…

‘Singer, and a little sister to me.’

Lee HyunAh was definitely a charming lady.
She was cheerful, proactive, and had pretty looks to boot.
However, he already had a lady by his side. Lee HyunAh had no place in that.
Eventually, KangYoon spoke after a long sigh.

“…HyunAh.”
“……”

KangYoon turned around and pulled himself away from her. When he did that, Lee HyunAh looked at KangYoon worriedly.

“I’m sorry.”
“Oppa…”

Her voice trembled.
His cruel words dug into her heart and she teared up.
Although KangYoon could have hesitated, he did not, as he had made up his mind.

“Thank you for looking at me in such a positive light. I’ll reply with my own, personal feelings. I do not see you as a woman. You’re a good little sister to me. Honestly speaking, I wish we could stay as the president and singer in the future.”
“Oppa.”

His tone was soft, but his words weren’t.
He was cutting off whatever emotions she had towards him.
However, Lee HyunAh still wanted to keep those emotions.

“Ha, have you ne, never really th, thought of me… as…?”
“Never.”

His words cruelly dug into her heart.
Lee HyunAh no longer had the confidence to face him anymore.

“…Ahaha… Hahah… I, I thought I would…”

She stood up from the bench and walked into the sunset while swaying.
KangYoon coldly spoke even though he could console her.

“You should wait for the professor.”
“I’m sorry. I will ta, take my leave first….”

Lee HyunAh slowly walked before grabbing a taxi.
Seeing that, KangYoon covered his face with a bitter expression.

‘I’m sorry, but this is the best I can do.’

He couldn’t leave room for her to try again whether it was for her, for him, or for everyone else.
KangYoon took out a cigarette, which he rarely smoked these days, under the darkening skies.

***

Late night.
Lee HyunAh was sitting down by herself in the empty space that was Lunas.

“Haha, hahahahaha!”

There was not a single light on within the hall and only a faint light could be seen through the door.
As to shake off everything within her heart, she laughed like a madwoman.
However, her sadness couldn’t be shaken off so easily.

“….Fine! Go! You evil guy!”

At that moment, the door creaked open.

“Miss HyunAh?”

Lee HyunAh turned around in surprise due to the sudden voice. When she turned around, she saw the curvy silhouette of Jung MinAh.

‘Why now…’

Of all people, she wanted to not find out…
She rubbed her eyes and spoke as though nothing had happened.

“Miss MinAh? What is it?”
“I just finished practice. What happened to you, Miss HyunAh? What are you doing here?”

She was bellowing her lungs out in an empty concert hall.
Jung MinAh tilted her head.
“…Something was on my mind. It’s nothing much.”

Lee HyunAh was about to say something, but she decided not to.
Her pride did not allow her to say that she was rejected by KangYoon today, at least not to Jung MinAh.
However, a woman’s intuition was good.
Jung MinAh approached her and sat down next to her.

“…..”
“…..”

Silence pervaded.
Lee HyunAh did not tell Jung MinAh to leave.
After a long time, Jung MinAh spoke.

“…Ahjussi is such a bad guy, isn’t he?”
“Damn right. Bad guy.”

The two people found something to sympathize with each other.

Usually, Jung MinAh would be enraged if someone called KangYoon a bad guy, but right now, it was a little different. She seemed to have felt something.

“…He doesn’t get how we feel.”
“Exactly. He doesn’t even remember how he charms people.”
“I hope he trips over.”
“Hahaha.”

They say insulting someone together was the best way to become closer.
The two became close in an instant as though all of their past did not happen over a glass of alcohol.

***

Recently, a wave of passion for music production was hitting the dorms of Eddios, thanks to Seo HanYu.
Seo HanYu was learning music production from KangYoon and was doing the assignments that KangYoon had given her.

“Doesn’t a Gurzweil piano sound better?”

Christie asked Seo HanYu as she was browsing through the piano sounds on the music software.
Christie An visited Seo HanYu quite frequently whenever she was on the computer and learned some things, and as she had good ears, Seo HanYu took all of her opinions into account.

“Really? Doesn’t a hefty sound go better here?”
“No no. Look at the melody. The bass is a little too low here. I think a Mutif fits better than Gurzweil here.”

Seo HanYu followed Christie’s words. She switched out the piano, balanced it before playing it back.
She raised her thumbs up after hearing that the sounds had become better.

“You really have the knack for this, unni.”
“Sheesh, I really don’t.”

Although she said that, Christie felt good regardless.
She gave some of her input while Seo HanYu did her work. Seo HanYu was given a lot of help by Christie in regards to the choice of instruments.
The score production ended quickly thanks to Christie’s help.

“Phew. This ended quickly thanks to you, unni.”
“Really? Oh yeah. What was that song just now? Is this for the new album?”

Seo HanYu shook her head in pity.

“Nah, no way. I’m still far from that level. This is an assignment that the president gave me.”
“So that thing you were learning last week?”
“Yes. Do you want to try as well, unni?”
“I’m horrible with electronics, so no.”

Christie An shook her head. She found just browsing the web a hard task, so tinkering with music software like that was out of her league.

‘But it looks fun at least. I want to try.’

Christie could not leave the room and kept watching HanYu working.

***

The day after Lee HyunAh and KangYoon went to Hallyeo Arts University.
KangYoon was currently waiting for someone while smoking on the rooftop.

‘…Even if HyunAh decides to leave, that’s for me to undertake.’

The smoke from KangYoon’s cigarette clouded the skies.
He couldn’t do anything about human emotions. If Lee HyunAh decided to leave the company due to yesterday’s matters, then he was going to let her go.
As soon as he threw away the cigarette, Lee HyunAh entered the rooftop.

“Oppa.”
“Sorry for calling you here when you must feel awkward meeting me.”
“…..”

Her emotions from yesterday couldn’t be seen anywhere and she looked at KangYoon head-on.
KangYoon calmly spoke.

“If you find it difficult to practice or do those stages, then I’ll give you some days off. Go and rest a little. Or, you can…”
“It’s fine.”

Lee HyunAh interrupted him and spoke calmly.

“You hate it for personal things to interfere with official things. It also goes against your principle as well. So I don’t want to do that.”
“But this time….”

KangYoon looked at her worriedly.
Lee HyunAh was definitely serious when she talked to him yesterday. She staked everything and…

“I’m also a professional. It’s not right for me to do that because of this.”
“HyunAh.”
“Thank you for your consideration, though. Really, you’re the best president I could have.”

Lee HyunAh smiled and raised her thumb into the air.
Seeing that, KangYoon felt extremely bitter.

“…I’m sorry.”
“Stop. You’re making me feel more tragic.”
“……..”

She stood next to KangYoon.

“Actually, I just expressed what was on my mind. You just didn’t see me as a woman.”

Lee HyunAh lightly hugged KangYoon. KangYoon did not push her away this time.

“That’s it. Unrequited love is painful so I’m gonna stop.”

She then pushed KangYoon away.
She was also declaring that she would no longer hold that incident to heart.

“If you don’t have anything more to say to me. I’ll get going. I thought up of a good song yesterday.”
“…Tell me if you need anything.”
“Yes, president. Thank you.”

Lee HyunAh closed the door and went down to the practice room.

“…I’m sorry.”

KangYoon muttered bitterly while looking at the shut door.

***

White Moonlight’s practice room.
Lee HyunAh was writing down music notes and lyrics on a piece of paper while sitting in front of the synthesizer.

‘I loved you, even as the days pass….’

Her mind was spinning violently.
A completely different melody to the ones she had written until now was being put into a piece of paper through her fingertips.
A page, then another.
The scores filled with ink were scattered across the floor while her forehead became drenched with sweat.
Despite that, however, her teary eyes did not leave the score.

“Hahahaha. So, yesterday, right? At a club, oh, Hyun… @#$%!”

Kim JinDae and Lee ChaHee opened the door and entered the practice room.
However, after seeing Lee HyunAh focusing on something, Lee Chahee immediately shut Kim JinDae up forcefully.

‘@#@$#@@%^!”
‘Shush, come on out.’

Lee ChaHee quietly dragged him out of the practice room.

***

“…How are we supposed to look through all of this?”

Lee HyunJi sighed while looking at the number of videos on the server.

“Looks like the video we uploaded on Tune had some effect?”
“It’s not just ‘some effect’, I think.”

When KangYoon asked while sipping on his coffee, Lee HyunJi shook her head.
There was an endless number of videos uploaded on their website.
It wasn’t a quantity they could look through.
Even KangYoon, who was quickly skipping through the videos leisurely with a coffee in hand, became shocked after seeing the number of videos.

“…Let’s divide them up then.”
“What a number, eh?”

When Lee HyunJi sighed, KangYoon shrugged.
Turning off the computer, Lee HyunJi gave KangYoon some papers.

“…It looks like it’s not easy renting a concert hall at the end of the year.”

KangYoon sighed while reading the report that said that it wasn’t easy renting a place in December. Other big-time singers had rented out the famous concert venues so they were already booked.

“End of February. That was the only time we could get.”
“That’s not a good time. There would be no time to rest if we decide on a country-wide tour. I’m worried.”

Lee HyunJi agreed with him.

“You’re worried about the condition of Mr. JaeHoon’s voice, right?”
“Yes. It would be troublesome if he strains his voice too much. But we can’t delay the concert too far if we want to see the effects that we stacked until now. Doing a concert in spring would mean that we won’t see the effects… so we can’t have everything.”

He thought of doing the concert in the summer, but in the summer, many other events other than concerts took place so it wasn’t a wise choice.
Lee HyunJi spoke after thinking about it.

“Looks like we can only shrink the number of concerts.”
“I guess so. How is the subcontract going?”
“It’s doing well. Since this is the first large-scale project by World Entertainment, many businesses want a share of the pie. It won’t be that hard.”

These were some good signs.
KangYoon finished talking about the concert then spoke about the next topic.

“So the next topic is Miss MoonHee, huh? What choice would she make?”
“You mean whether she decides to stay at the company or keep her job as a teacher, right?”

They couldn’t have her, someone who already had a job, be a singer.
The moment of truth was coming.
KangYoon calmly spoke.

“She’ll be at her crossroad once the students start their winter holidays. She should be aware of that.”
“You don’t want to let her go, do you?”

KangYoon nodded his head.

“Naturally… but I can’t force her to make a choice. I only want people who wholeheartedly want to stay in this industry.”

KangYoon raised his cooled coffee mug.