Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 63

“Team Leader, here’s your iced Americano.”

“Huh? Ah!”

Tokashi finally looked up from his screen when Go-uri, now the assistant team leader of the planning department, brought him his coffee.

He couldn’t hide his surprise as he looked at Go-uri.

He noticed crumbs on her face.

“…Don’t tell me you went to the café looking like that?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Tokashi shook his head at Go-uri, who seemed completely unaware of her appearance, and finally said,

“…Enjoy it in moderation.”

“Huh? Ah… Ehehehe.”

Go-uri, who had been puzzled, realized what he meant and quickly brushed off the crumbs around her mouth, giggling.

Everyone else was exhausted from the continuous all-nighters for the past ten days, but she seemed to be getting more energetic.

It wasn’t just because of her stamina.

It was also due to YC Entertainment’s exceptional benefits.

YC Entertainment’s benefits were comparable to those of major corporations. Bonuses and overtime pay were 50% higher than those of other large entertainment companies.

There were many other perks, but Go-uri’s favorite was the free access to the unmanned convenience store and café.

Since she was the type to drink even poison if it was free, this benefit made her incredibly loyal to the company.

Thanks to this, Go-uri was showing abilities beyond her limits in this project.

She believed that she had to stand out in this project to survive here in the future.

Team Leader Lee Ji-woo was amazed by Go-uri’s dedication.

“I don’t know if I should call this amazing.”

“Sigh. I’ve half given up.”

Team Leader Lee Ji-woo approached Tokashi, who was sighing deeply, and massaged his tired shoulders.

“Well, shouldn’t the result be all that matters? More importantly, why don’t you take a break?”

He couldn’t help but worry about Tokashi, who wasn’t letting go even after submitting the first report.

However, Tokashi firmly shook his head.

“You know how it is. This is just the beginning.”

“Hmm.”

Team Leader Lee Ji-woo let out a short groan.

Tokashi was right.

They knew too well from years of experience.

It wasn’t easy to get music that matched the concept the planning department wanted.

In fact, at Mania Entertainment, they had fought countless times to create something even remotely close to what they envisioned.

Even then, it was only because Lee Ji-woo, his former superior, was a founding member that they managed to achieve some results; otherwise, they might have had to change the planning concept to match an absurd outcome.

In that sense, they had to overcome a major hurdle at this stage.

Since most of YC Entertainment’s music was created by YC, the main player would be no different this time.

That meant the person they had to face was YC, the genius who had taken the industry by storm upon his debut and their CEO.

-Slurp!-

Team Leader Lee Ji-woo could only pat Tokashi’s shoulder as he sipped the coffee Go-uri had brought him, feeling suffocated just thinking about it.

Unlike in the past, he had come here through Tokashi, so he didn’t have much power and could only offer this kind of comfort.

“Let’s go for a smoke.”

“…Sure.”

Tokashi stood up listlessly.

Tokashi was just as overwhelmed.

He knew the value of the data Young-chan had shown him better than Team Leader Lee Ji-woo. The moment he saw the data, he accepted it like the words of a messiah.

The data stimulated his inspiration that much.

Simply contemplating the ideas made him feel like his thinking was expanding.

This was why he was in such a predicament.

If the music Young-chan created after seeing his report was different from what he had envisioned, he might not be able to resist much.

He even thought that this might be a better path than what he had imagined.

As he released his frustrated feelings with cigarette smoke, an email arrived when he returned to his seat.

“From the CEO?”

Realizing that it was an email from the CEO, who had been silent even though a full day had passed since he submitted the report, he quickly opened it.

“…..”

The email contained four music files.

With no other evaluation or feedback on the report, just the music files, Tokashi was filled with a strange sense of unease.

He wondered if his report hadn’t been well-received, and this was the CEO’s way of telling him to change it through the music.

-Tap, tap, tap.-

He tapped his fingers on the desk anxiously, then started downloading the music files.

“I need to listen to them first.”

-Tap, tap.-

The files were large because they were uncompressed for the sake of sound quality.

He tried to accept the nerve-wracking wait calmly, then took out the headphones he had placed on the side and put them on.

“Hoo~.”

As soon as the first music file was downloaded, he played it without hesitation.

-Da-da-da-dan. Da-da-dan.-

It started with a very soft piano sound.

A whistle sound followed the unfamiliar musical chords, then the sound of wind enveloped him, and within it, the faint sound of a kitten meowing quietly faded away.

-Chijijijijing-

Then, a dreamy synthesizer and YC’s unique, clear high-pitched humming blended together, followed by the sound of a pen scratching, and a strange drum beat began to play over it.

As if hypnotized, Tokashi was drawn into this intro of just over ten seconds.

It was as if his tension before playing the music was a lie, and he was completely relaxed, captivated by the magic of the music.

And YC’s voice, which began to play, was enough to shake his heart.

Since the lyrics weren’t complete, there was a lot of humming in between, but it wasn’t difficult to understand the gist of the lyrics.

It was exactly what the Pink Diary project emphasized.

Lyrics that captured the sensibilities of a young girl in the mid-90s, written in a calm manner, without being artificial or forcing an authorial style.

Things that might not be a big deal now that they were adults, but stories that might have been everything to a girl of that age.

Some would listen to it and recall forgotten friendships or loves, while others might find their own purity that they had forgotten or thought they had lost.

-Da-da-da-dan. Da-da-dan.-

The piano sound that he had heard when the music first started grew louder, as if it was being emphasized, and the 3-minute and 12-second song came to an end.

“…….”

Tokashi couldn’t come to his senses after listening to the music.

It was because the music completely embodied his planning concept, which he thought he had organized and concretized.

‘Is this what it felt like when Sun Wukong [The Monkey King, a famous character in Chinese mythology], who thought the world was small, realized that he was actually on the Buddha’s palm from the beginning?’

Tokashi was distraught, like an extra who had realized that he was on a well-written script.

The song that Young-chan had sent him was absurd.

“…200%.”

His music, which seemed to have embodied not only 100% but 200%, invaded not only listening but also the subconscious.

It was, in a word, surrealistic music.

‘I’m ashamed.’

The title of creative director was embarrassing.

In fact, he thought that he should delve deeper into this music and create a planning concept.

Tokashi, who was having a hard time coming to his senses due to the confusion, swallowed hard.

“Come to think of it, there are still three more songs.”

Young-chan had sent him a total of four music files.

And he had only listened to one of them.

“Could it be that these are also at the same level as the previous song…”

Tokashi shuddered.

-Thump, thump, thump!-

He was so engrossed in the music that he didn’t realize it until later, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

What he realized was nothing else.

“…He made this kind of music in just one day?”

He couldn’t believe that he had made not just one song, but four.

With a doubtful heart, he began to listen to the remaining three songs, and his face fell into confusion.

Complex emotions such as joy, fear, terror, and sadness arose and disappeared on his face in no particular order.

“Monster…”

When the members of Black Tiger called Young-chan a monster, Tokashi, who was next to them at the time, just laughed.

He thought they were just joking because they were close.

But now he realized that it was not a joke.

He now knew that it was a word they had found because words like genius and monster were not enough to describe him.

“….Hahaha.”

He laughed like he had lost his mind, and Go-uri, the assistant team leader, who had been secretly eating chocolate snacks, swallowed hard and lowered her head.

She was scared that Tokashi, who had been crazy about work, had really gone crazy.

But what really terrified her was when Tokashi brought the planning concept team to the conference room.

-Da-da-da-dan. Da-da-dan.-

The music, which began with a soft piano chord, was enough to shock everyone in the room.

But what was really shocking was that three more songs of the same quality followed.

“This is crazy!”

Go-uri, who had majored in practical music, had an excellent sense of music and had to mutter in despair and fear.

The other members felt the same way, with varying degrees.

They also knew now.

That YC was an even more absurd being than they had thought.

Who else could write four such amazing songs in just one day? And at a level that was almost complete.

It would have been impossible even if they had worked as a team.

It was Tokashi who broke the heavy silence of confusion. He looked at the concept team with a burning gaze and said.

“Thanks to him, the path we have to take has become clear. I plan to move as quickly as possible, so please follow me well.”

-Gulp.-

Perhaps his will to embody the surrealistic images in the song was conveyed.

Go-uri and the team members swallowed hard with tension.

And so, they spent a stormy four days.

“Already the second report?”

Young-chan had heard from Jang Gil-san, who had become the head of the headquarters after a major reorganization, that the planning department was unusual these days.

But he never thought that the results would come out so quickly.

He thought he would receive it in about ten days, like the first report, which made it even more so.

“…I hope they didn’t just rush it.”

If Tokashi had been that kind of person, he wouldn’t have been able to achieve those results even at the hopeless Mania Entertainment.

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