Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 113

Of course, Jamie still had a long way to go to reach the level of Karen Carpenter.

It wasn’t even comparable to when Jiwon used to squander his talent on mere imitation.

That was the benchmark, so even though Jamie possessed the inherent talent of a Karen Carpenter, she couldn’t even properly emulate her.

Consequently, her singing, which should have been the focal point, was inevitably overshadowed by Youngchan’s piano throughout the performance.

Thus, Youngchan was the only one present who truly recognized and admired her potential.

‘It’s a relief in a way.’

While appreciating her talent, Youngchan was also relieved by her relative lack of developed musical skills.

He knew from his experience with Jiwon that it was much harder to correct ingrained bad habits that stemmed from haphazard learning.

Jamie, as Youngchan perceived her, was like a blank canvas.

“Just like me, they long to be close to you.”

She was singing the last verse of the song, and she seemed to be completely warmed up now.

You could tell by how she was gradually locking into the rhythm with his piano playing.

-Da-da-dan!-

-Wooooah!-

With that final flourish on the piano, the audience erupted in cheers, and Jamie closed her eyes, basking in the applause for a moment.

As Youngchan had suspected, she hadn’t decided to pursue music until recently.

In fact, it was only a year ago, and she had only started actively pursuing music for less than six months.

Even then, she hadn’t really learned from anyone formally but had mostly looked things up on YouTube, and even that was limited due to her busy daily life.

She needed money to survive alone in a foreign country.

In that sense, it was no exaggeration to say that this was her first time singing on a real stage.

But unfortunately, she couldn’t simply savor this moment.

“Do you know ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’?”

That’s because Youngchan had chosen ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ as the next song. This was also a Carpenters song, included on the same album as ‘Close to You’.

“Oh… yes. I know it.”

Of course, she knew this song.

‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ was the song that knocked ‘Close to You,’ which had been number one for six weeks, off the top spot and held it for seven weeks. It was also included in Rolling Stone’s list of the ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time.’

Having grown up listening to the Carpenters’ songs under the influence of her parents, she seemed confident.

Youngchan gave her a gentle smile, and Jamie’s eyes fluttered for a moment.

Was it because he had played such amazing piano? Or was it because his neat bangs had become disheveled due to the intense piano performance?

Youngchan, who had just been a pretty boy before going on stage, felt different to her now.

-Thump, thump-

Before she could even decipher that feeling, Youngchan spoke.

“I’m going to add harmonies. Don’t worry about anything else, just focus on my harmonies. Got it?”

“Oh! Uh-huh.”

She nodded vigorously, belatedly understanding his words, as she felt like she was going to stop breathing with Youngchan’s face suddenly approaching.

As a blush rose on her fair face, Youngchan quickly arranged the sheet music for ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ that he had glanced through.

Then, he borrowed a microphone from the stage manager and set it up, and soon began to play ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’.

-Ta-ra-ra-ra-da-dan!-

“Uhhhmmm, uhmm~”

-!!!-

The ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ that started was enough to shock the audience.

Originally, ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ does have harmonies and duet parts to some extent, but it doesn’t usually include harmonies from the very beginning.

Nevertheless, Youngchan’s harmonies blended so seamlessly with the song that it felt like it was originally written that way.

The audience believed that Youngchan had a special arrangement of ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’ but in fact, it was an impromptu arrangement made in less than a few minutes. If they knew this, the audience’s surprise might have been even greater.

Jamie was also surprised, but she had heard about the harmonies earlier, so she quickly composed herself.

And as he said, focusing on the harmonies, which presented her with surprise and awe the more she listened, a surprising thing happened.

“We’ve only just begun to live, White lace and promises……”

-!!!-

The audience, who had been focusing on the piano sound as before, were captivated the moment she started singing, as if by magic.

Her singing had changed so much that it was hard to believe that the person singing on stage was the same person.

And her singing level was improving in real time.

Of course, in a good way.

In fact, some people couldn’t even hear the piano sound properly anymore.

She could have been overwhelmed by what was happening to her, just like the surrounding audience, but Jamie was singing with a more peaceful expression than ever, with her eyes closed.

It was the result of losing herself in Youngchan’s humming, forgetting everything else.

‘…This is insane.’

Youngchan, who had only admired the talents of countless legends called geniuses but had never truly been impressed, found a vocalist with talent that he could genuinely admire for the first time today.

And…….

“And when the evening comes, we smile So much of life ahead We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow And yes, we’ve just begun~”

The moment he saw Jamie, who had finished singing the last lyrics of ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ and turned her head to him with a bright smile, he knew.

He knew the source of this déjà vu he was feeling.

2018.

Youngchan, who was on the verge of death and addicted to drugs, first saw her on a TV that someone else who was addicted to drugs and giggling had turned on.

It was a common audition program called Miracle American, made for ordinary people.

It was an audition program held within the state of Pennsylvania, not nationwide.

Of course, the level wasn’t that high either.

Most of them were attention seekers who came out just to become famous and increase their number of SNS [Social Networking Service] followers, so most people watched it for the absurdity.

It was Jamie who appeared among those absurdities.

She had matured and looked somewhat exhausted after three years, which surprised quite a few people.

At the time, she sang ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’ and she showed an amazing level of synchronization with the original song on the spot.

Because of this, many people became interested in her, but that didn’t mean she became dramatically popular.

She was only regarded as a Karen Carpenter knockoff, and even that had little impact because it was an old pop song.

This also meant that Jamie was recognized for her talent as a singer, but rather for her talent for imitation.

“…Karen Carpenter!”

However, even though he was addicted to drugs, or rather, because of it, Youngchan, whose inspiration was running wild, immediately recognized her potential.

He realized that she had the talent to be considered the reincarnation of Karen Carpenter.

If he had known her just three months earlier, or even a month earlier, he would not have let her be reduced to a mere imitator.

But now he couldn’t exert much power.

If he woke up from the drugs, he would forget about her due to the aftereffects of the addiction.

Fortunately, he was able to watch the stage she sang on when she made it to the finals of Miracle American, and he couldn’t hide his regret even in that greedy hedonism.

He knew how great she could sing if her talent was properly developed.

But unlike his feelings, she ended up being eliminated in the first preliminary round, and Youngchan died of drug addiction not long after.

“…It would have been stranger not to feel déjà vu.”

Youngchan, who finally realized the source of the déjà vu, muttered to himself as he looked at her, who was looking at him with a joyful expression.

Even if it was an imprinted memory, the memory of when he was addicted to drugs was vague.

It was as if he was placed in a strange world where the sky and the sea were mixed together. It couldn’t be helped, because memories are created through Youngchan, not a third party.

Just like how things feel relatively different even when you see the same thing, his memories of doing drugs were mostly bizarre.

Of course, it is true that those memories stimulated his inspiration and made him into a monster-level talent like he is now, but even so, he didn’t want to bother recalling them.

But the fact that he recalled Jamie on TV in those memories, even when he was completely out of it, meant that he had seen her so impressively.

The current Youngchan understood his feelings better than anyone else.

Her talent, which absorbed everything like crazy even though he had only opened a small waterway, was brighter and more beautiful than anyone else’s.

If she had an acquaintance like Richard Carpenter, like Karen Carpenter did, she would have already taken America by storm.

“Hahaha……”

In the end, he laughed.

He was so happy to have discovered this gem that he had found as if by fate in a place he never expected.

-Hwaaaak!-

And Jamie couldn’t help but blush at his laughter.

She couldn’t come to her senses because of his almost demonic charms revealed by his more disheveled hair.

“Ah!”

It wasn’t just her who was surprised.

The audience was also surprised by his appearance.

They started whispering here and there, and Youngchan realized that the bangs that had been protecting him were greatly disheveled.

“Is this the end?”

Youngchan, who knew that this game was over as soon as he learned about the gift that another version of himself in his memory had told him, got up from his seat with regret.

Then, he put a business card that he had brought in his pocket into her front pocket and said.

“Contact me. Got it?”

“Yes? Yes! Yes……!”

Youngchan smiled silently at her, who was repeating ‘yes’ like a broken toy, and hurriedly left the restaurant.

Many people whispered and were excited about Youngchan, who suddenly appeared like a fairy in a story, bewitched people, and then disappeared.

That’s because some people with keen eyes said that he was definitely YC [Youngchan’s stage name].

It didn’t make sense that he, who had caused a great stir in the world music market beyond the United States, was on the stage of this shabby live house.

Just the money spent to put him on stage in Las Vegas was enormous, wasn’t it?

But even so, it couldn’t be said that it wasn’t him, because there was no one else who could replace YC, who could show his magical piano skills and the tremendous demonic charm he showed at the end.

“Jamie! Is it real? Is that person, no, is that YC?”

“……”

Of course, questions poured out to Jamie, who was on the same stage as him, without anyone thinking about it.

Of course, Jamie, who had never thought about such a thing, couldn’t answer. Even now, she was still unsure.

It was when she belatedly took out the business card he had given her that she realized the reality.

When Jamie first took out the business card, she was a little embarrassed.

It was different from the business cards she usually saw.

It was heavier than she thought, and she realized that it was because of the gold letters that stood out on the black background.

At least a don’s worth of gold was applied.

So it would be a lot of money in itself, but she didn’t notice that fact.

-YC ENTERTAINMENT.

CEO YCP.-

That’s because of the business card that said the content referring to YC himself, who is currently shaking the world.

She doesn’t know, but this business card is a business card that is given out only in special cases, and the number of people who have it can be counted on one hand.

“Oh! Jesus!”

In the end, she had no choice but to seek divine intervention after a very long time.