The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 205

As Sanghyun’s emotions deepened, the 20:00 [8 PM] station’s broadcasting studio fell silent, and the radio listeners also quieted down.

‘Am I stealing the time of those listening to the radio right now?’

With that thought, Sanghyun left behind the bridge where ‘I just see’ was repeated and began the second verse.

If the first verse was a vivid voice expressing his first impression of her, the second verse already contained a sense of resignation from the beginning.

Thanks to this, Verse 2 showcased a rap style where the ends of the bars were abruptly cut off, pulling the beat forward.

The space’s time keeps flowing

The clock on the wall keeps ticking

Like a satellite orbiting around

I feel like I’m going crazy

The second verse ultimately contained Sanghyun’s departure from the cafe without even trying anything.

A role already determined as orbiting around like a satellite.

Yet, a role that must constantly transmit signals.

4 bars… 8 bars… 12 bars…

Sanghyun’s rap continued, throwing out words as his emotions fiercely burned.

My footsteps rising from the seat

Already drooping, antennae towards you

At that moment, our eyes met

Your eyes are round, and your pupils are very big

The image of Sanghyun thinking ‘I think I made eye contact with her’ as he tries to leave the cafe.

With that image, the verse of I Just See came to an end.

The chorus returned.

A change occurred there.

I just wanted to hold your hand-

I wanted to walk the road together-

A melody-filled song layered over Sanghyun’s calmly reciting recorded voice.

At that moment, Park Hyeyeon’s voice humming along to the chorus was heard through Sanghyun’s headset. She was humming without realizing she was singing the chorus.

Sanghyun smiled slightly.

There was a reason why Hyeyeon unconsciously followed the chorus. It was because a deliberate feeling of ‘hope’ was subtly inserted into the final chorus.

In reality, Sanghyun left the cafe without saying a word. And he had the illusion that he made eye contact with her as he left the cafe.

But it wasn’t an illusion.

At the time, he thought it was an illusion, but he didn’t realize it wasn’t an illusion until about three weeks later.

His alma mater, where he went as the youngest member of the company for job mentoring.

It was because he was able to meet her again in the job mentoring group that Sanghyun was in charge of.

Surprisingly, Sanghyun wasn’t the only one who recognized the other person in the cafe. She was also aware of him.

But, You, Young & Pre-tty

I’m not confident, I Just See

So, a subtle hope arose in Sanghyun’s voice. The phrase ‘I’m not confident’ changed from a nuance of really not being confident to a feeling of slightly backing away, like saying, ‘Ah, I’m not confident.’

People who listened to the entire <56 JFTR> album could hear the second track, ‘I Need Time,’ which followed the first track, ‘I Just See.’

And people who listened to the songs in the order of the album could tell that the content connecting her and him in the cafe was omitted between ‘I Just See’ and ‘I Need Time.’

So, the two of them eventually got together, and that’s why a subtle feeling of hope was hidden in the final chorus.

“Noona [older sister/female friend].”

At that moment, Sanghyun, who was singing the chorus, gestured to Hyeyeon.

A signal to sing together.

After hesitating for a moment, Hyeyeon carefully opened her mouth towards the microphone.

Sanghyun and Hyeyeon’s voices began to fill half of the outro chorus, which was repeated a total of four times.

I just wanted to kiss your cheek-

I wanted to fall asleep together-

But, You, Young & Pre-tty

I’m not confident, Mister

It seemed somewhat incongruous that the 19-year-old Sanghyun referred to himself as ‘Mister,’ but emotionally, it didn’t feel strange at all.

It was a strange thing.

Hyeyeon carefully layered her voice behind Sanghyun’s voice while thinking that.

Hyeyeon’s voice, with the clear pronunciation unique to actors, permeated between the beat and Sanghyun’s song. Very carefully.

Neither of them were professional vocalists, so they weren’t good at singing.

However, because pleasant voices filled with rich emotions meshed together, it couldn’t help but be a beautiful sound.

In that way, Sanghyun’s I Just See was wonderfully stealing 3 minutes and 20 seconds of the listeners’ time.

After I Just See ended, a lingering feeling lingered in the radio booth for a moment. Radio shouldn’t have a blank of more than 3 seconds, but this was an allowed blank.

A blank more fruitful than any comment.

Rather than a blank, it was a space.

It was Hyeyeon’s hosting comment that broke the unprecedented silence of nearly 10 seconds, as she was the first to wake up from the lingering feeling under the conviction of being a host.

“It was Lee Sanghyun’s solo album, 56 JFTR’s first track, I Just See. The song is so good, isn’t it?”

“Thank you. Thanks to Noona, or rather, Park Hyeyeon-ssi [formal title], the song became richer. I didn’t know you had memorized all the lyrics.”

“Our manager is sick of 56 JFTR. He says he’s heard it so much while moving around that he’s going to get calluses on his ears.”

Hyeyeon, with a proud expression on her face at her own words, asked a few questions about the song.

“If what I felt is correct, and if the album story is correct, did the girl in the cafe and the Mister, who is the narrator of the song, eventually get together?”

“Yes. The two of them accidentally reunite about three weeks later, and that’s when the Mister realizes. That the other person was aware of him in the cafe that day, and it wasn’t just his own feelings.”

“Oh, so the girl also fell in love with the Mister at first sight?”

At Hyeyeon’s question, Sanghyun smiled slightly and shook his head.

“No. It’s not that she fell in love, she just saw him. You could say she was paying attention in her own way?”

“I’m curious, how old is the Mister in the setting, and how old is the girl? There’s a lyric that describes the woman as ‘Twenty or Twenty one,’ but… that’s purely a guess from the Mister’s perspective, right?”

“The woman is twenty-one in the fast year [Korean age system, where people are considered a year older at birth and age up on New Year’s Day], and the Mister is twenty-eight, having just graduated from college and gotten a job.”

“Twenty-eight? Then he’s definitely not old enough to be called Mister, is he?”

“Yes, that’s right. But the important thing is that he thinks so. I now have the thought that I’m a boring Mister who’s starting to get a belly and gets scolded by his boss at work every day.”

At Sanghyun’s specific answer, Hyeyeon exclaimed that this was why Sanghyun showed such perfect emotional acting. However, not all musicians could do this kind of acting just because they had a perfect setting.

‘It must be talent.’

Another admirable point was that the setting of a twenty-eight-year-old early career worker was very common.

The story of ordinary people, not special people.

The story of the public.

“Listeners are sending in a huge amount of questions via messages, and some of the questions seem to be from aspiring rappers. I’ll ask one on their behalf. When Lee Sanghyun was creating the tracks for his solo album, did he become the narrator? Or did he become a third party watching the narrator?”

“I became the narrator. Or to be precise, I imagined my future if I hadn’t rapped. The 모습 [image/figure] of graduating from college and getting a job normally.”

“Oh? Then are all the male protagonists from tracks 1 to 6 the same person? The future of an ordinary Lee Sanghyun-ssi?”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s one man, but three women? This is a complete Casanova, isn’t it?”

***

-Then there’s one man, but three women? This is a complete Casanova, isn’t it?

Miju nodded vigorously at the words of host Park Hyeyeon.

“That’s right! He’s a Casanova!”

No matter how she thought about it, she felt the touch of a woman. She had a hunch that the three women in 56 JFTR were real people.

When she first heard about the concept of 56 JFTR from Sanghyun, she found it interesting that the story could be set up in that way.

However, after listening to the album, she couldn’t just find it fun.

She had a strong feeling that the heroines in the song were based on some real person, but there was no ‘connection.’

‘Damn it, was I too passive?’

In fact, she had been too busy all this time.

The 888 Crew gained tremendous fame, starting with Hip Hop the Vibe and peaking with JFTR, and Sanghyun was no exception.

L&S also began to make a name for themselves with the Mudeung Stadium performance and the Royal Band, and became a team that confidently sold albums in the tens of thousands.

Of course, they were still far from entering the hundreds of thousands like the 888 Crew.

-No, there’s a time gap. A dating gap of 2 years at the shortest and 4 years at the longest. It’s not like he met three women at the same moment.

At Sanghyun’s words, Miju paused her thoughts for a moment and focused on the radio again.

***

After organizing his thoughts for a moment, Sanghyun added an additional explanation.

“The me in tracks 1 and 2 is a 28-year-old in his early career, and the me in tracks 3 and 4 is 32 years old, having quit my job and been running a business for a while. When I made tracks 5 and 6, I thought of a 37-year-old who had succeeded in business and didn’t feel any lack of money, but still felt empty somewhere. They are all my assumed futures.”

At Sanghyun’s words, Park Hyeyeon suddenly asked with an excited expression.

“You’ve never said this story anywhere before, have you?”

“Of course. I haven’t even done an interview about 56 JFTR yet.”

Hyeyeon’s voice, exclaiming ‘Nice!’ was heard softly.

That’s because the people who listened to the radio today would definitely listen to the radio tomorrow as well.

Tomorrow is the day when the complete 888 Crew comes out, and it’s the day to talk about their first full-length album, JFTR.

Sanghyun’s solo 56 JFTR already had so many behind-the-scenes stories, so no one could even guess how exciting the story of JFTR, created by seven people gathering together, would be.

The PDs’ [Producers] faces were also seen to be beaming with smiles.

The PDs, who were most surprised when Park Hyeyeon said she would be hosting 888 Week, were the ones who were now beaming with smiles.

No, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say that they expressed reluctance rather than surprise.

‘That’s a bit…’

‘Yes? No, why? JFTR exploded, and 56 JFTR exploded, didn’t they?’

‘No, we know too. That if the 888 Crew comes out on the radio, it will be a big deal. We also think the special stage is worth doing. But it’s a bit much to do it for a week with the budget…’

The 888 Crew doesn’t have an agency, but their value is no joke.

If they were in the top 20% of the entertainment industry’s value right after Hip Hop the Vibe ended, it’s no exaggeration to say that they are now in the top 5% after JFTR exploded.

Lee Sanghyun’s value, who even hit consecutive home runs with 56 JFTR, was literally in the top 1%.

So, no one knew how much it would cost to scout these people for a whole week. It was a relatively cheap radio show, but the budget allocated was also small because the pay was cheap.

At the PDs’ worries, Park Hyeyeon made a puzzled expression.

‘I told you. Thanks to the bet at the showcase, we can do it for free.’

‘Hey, Hyeyeon-ssi, do you think that can be achieved? It’s one thing if it’s just once, but will they really broadcast for free for a whole week? Eventually, when we contact them, they’ll have no choice but to talk about money. Well, there may be a pay cut, but free is ridiculous.’

‘The PDs don’t know the 888 Crew kids very well. I’m telling you, they’re definitely not the kind of kids who would do that. There’s no agency behind them to put pressure on them.’

The PDs felt puzzled as to why Hyeyeon, who had been in the entertainment industry for a very long time, had lost her sense of reality.

But surprisingly, 888 Week was achieved for free. The 888 Crew, who were contacted in an ‘oh well’ manner, never once talked about money, and even said it was okay when the radio station said they would show their appreciation.

They heard that Hyeyeon’s appearance in the music video was used as a substitute.

They didn’t know how much money was allocated for Hyeyeon’s appearance in the music video, but it wouldn’t be much different from the entire 888 Crew appearing on the radio once.

But that continues for a week.

Even at this point, when they are receiving a lot of event invitations due to the popularity of JFTR and 56 JFTR.

‘It’s real.’

The PDs realized that this team in front of them was a new ‘species’ that they were seeing for the first time since they entered show business.

< Verse 31. Jealous, Forgiveness, Truth, Romance > End

ⓒ