The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 59

< Verse 9. Twisted World (End) – End of Volume 2 >

“……”

Tense silence hung between Sanghyun and Cha Inhyun.

Having met in an empty lot near the L&S practice room, the two stood facing each other, unfazed by the scorching sunlight. Sweat trickled down their backs.

When Cha Inhyun didn’t speak even after some time, Sanghyun sighed and began to speak.

“The song… yes, you can sing it. But the World DJ Festival is the last time.”

“……”

“Don’t register the track or the lyrics copyright. Then it will pass as if nothing happened.”

Sanghyun said in a firm tone. Cha Inhyun, who had been looking down, raised his head and glared at Sanghyun.

“It’s already over.”

“There’s still enough time to turn back.”

“No, I already sold ‘One’ to the agency. You know Juyohan, right? ‘One’ will be included as the title track of Juyohan’s new album.”

Sanghyun felt his last hope crumble at Cha Inhyun’s words.

Juyohan is one of the most popular singers in Korea. He has been dedicated to acting recently, but he started as a singer, and he will end as one.

“The composition and lyrics will be under your name?”

Cha Inhyun’s expression flickered at the use of ‘you,’ but he answered calmly.

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have any musical pride?”

“No.”

“And you can still call yourself a musician-!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! What is that crap? Does pride give me money? Does it feed me? Does it pay for my father’s surgery? What can I do for my mother who works 14 hours a day at a restaurant if I protect my pride!”

“But… but you clearly felt guilty. That’s why you avoided me, and you looked relieved when you were eliminated in the Round of 14.”

“…No.”

Cha Inhyun abandoned the last shred of conscience in his heart.

*Right, there’s no need to persuade him. Just, no excuses are needed. I’m already a bad person.*

However, Cha Inhyun was greatly shocked by Sanghyun’s following words.

“There was a rapper. That rapper doesn’t know his father’s face. And his mother has been sick since he was young. But to raise her child, she had to work, dragging her sick body. It was a desperately poor family, but the rapper wanted to do music so badly. So, he got greedy, dropped out of high school, and started music.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s the story of the original creator of the song you stole under the name ‘One’.”

“…What?”

“That song isn’t my song. It’s a song containing the last hope of a musician. I just happened to hear it and sang it in the hospital. And you stole it. Do you know what that means? You stole someone’s future!”

“Th-the rapper’s name is…?”

Sanghyun hesitated to answer Cha Inhyun’s question, who was clearly flustered.

He didn’t know what would happen if he said it was Caliph. If Cha Inhyun went to Caliph and asked about the song, Caliph would naturally say it wasn’t his.

When Sanghyun couldn’t answer, Cha Inhyun bit his lip and looked away.

“Whether you’re right or wrong, it doesn’t matter. I’m not a saint; I’m just doing it for my family.”

“Then what about L&S? What do you think L&S, who has always supported the musician Cha Inhyun, will think? If Cha Inhyun steals someone else’s song and tries to use that glory!”

Sanghyun threw his last card. But Cha Inhyun’s cold reply came.

“I’m going to Seoul now. I signed a contract with Juyohan’s company.”

“What? Then what about L&S?”

Cha Inhyun bit his lip. The contract with the company was under the name of ‘Cha Inhyun’ individually. It wasn’t impossible to take L&S as a backing band, but if that happened, L&S would just become session men with no musicality. Just a simple performance gig.

Could he take L&S as a simple session band at this time when they were just establishing themselves as a Gwangju band?

“I sincerely like L&S, but I’ll just think that this is the end of our road.”

“You disgusting bastard!”

Sanghyun cursed. He was angrier now than when his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was stolen.

L&S is now gaining ground. They were able to connect the buzz from the Show Business interview to the result of reaching the semi-finals of the World DJ Festival.

In the band scene, L&S’s name value will definitely rise, and that will soon become a weapon to appeal to the public.

However, the color of the vocalist Cha Inhyun is also included in this band L&S. L&S’s music. Cha Inhyun’s influence, who is weak in high notes and fantastic in mid-low notes, was significant in the process of developing that musicality.

Cha Inhyun, who had been staring at Sanghyun, left.

Sanghyun stood in the scorching sun for a long time.

He realized that it was irreversible.

***

Ohkyung ENT’s business areas are largely divided into three categories.

Although business cooperation is possible, strictly speaking, it is safe to say that there are three subsidiaries within Ohkyung ENT.

The first business area is ‘Broadcasting Content.’

In 1995, the 14th President’s pledge to introduce cable channels was finally implemented. In line with the trend of the times, Ohkyung Group established the broadcasting affiliate Ohkyung ENT in 1996.

Since then, large-scale investments and aggressive business expansions have continued, and Ohkyung ENT’s cable channel, OMB, has become the overwhelming leader in the industry.

Experts predicted that OMB would be on par with terrestrial broadcasting within 10 years.

The second area was ‘Media.’

Initially, the media division served as the face and public relations department of Ohkyung Group. Therefore, it was an ambiguous group that was a mix of newspaper and advertising production companies rather than an affiliate. This media division began to take off after a major restructuring was carried out after the IMF crisis [International Monetary Fund crisis, a major financial crisis in the late 1990s] and it was absorbed into Ohkyung ENT.

Currently, it is raising its stock price through aggressive marketing in various fields, such as absorbing the publishing house D&C and the magazine Show Business.

The last is the ‘Media Content Area.’

Media content was an organization that handled various fields such as dramas, movies, animations, entertainment, music, and performances. It was a large field, so there were rumors that it would soon be separated into an affiliate called Ohkyung Media.

Recently, Ohkyung ENT’s media content department created a ‘Dream Team’ by calling in talent from the broadcasting content department and the media division.

The goal of the Dream Team was very simple.

The successful hosting of AIMMF [Asia International Music & Media Festival].

To mention the unmentioned goal, a much more successful hosting than the LOC Group’s World DJ Festival.

Therefore, the ‘AIMMF Hosting Dream Team’ was planning a stage to accommodate various performers, from famous overseas musicians to domestic mainstream musicians and underground artists from various fields.

‘Ah, this is such a pain in the ass.’

Yoo Mijin, a third-year assistant manager at Ohkyung ENT, was also a member of the Dream Team. However, the work that the Dream Team members did was truly annoying and labor-intensive.

‘That’s why internal politics are a problem.’

The work that Yoo Mijin was doing was handover.

A very strange handover.

Usually, a handover is the process of transferring the work I have been doing to another department so that they can continue it.

But the work Yoo Mijin is doing now is slightly different in nature. She was handing over the work that someone else had been doing to someone else. More importantly, she was not able to properly understand the work due to the previous person’s irresponsible dismissal.

So, to put it in a nutshell, Yoo Mijin was putting in a lot of effort and hard work to organize the work in order to properly convey something that had nothing to do with her to someone else.

‘I didn’t go through all that trouble to get a job at Ohkyung ENT to do this kind of work….’

The person who had been in charge of AIMMF’s recruitment was Executive Director Jung. His position was Chairman of the AIMMF Music Content Steering Committee and Executive Director of Ohkyung ENT’s Public Relations Department.

However, his position was only impressive on paper, and in reality, he had fallen behind in internal politics and was reduced to visiting city halls in candidate locations as a side job. He seemed to be passionately running around to do well, but that’s how others saw it.

‘Still, Director Jung at least had passion.’

Director Jung was marked as an ugly duckling by the higher-ups, but there were many employees who liked him. This was because Director Jung had joined Ohkyung ENT as an employee and had risen to the position of Vice President, making him a self-made man in his own way.

However, Director Jung was eventually dismissed. Even if executives are non-regular employees and do not receive regular employee protection, it was too quick of a measure.

Director Jung was also a man of strong character. So, the handover could not have been done properly.

As a result, only Yoo Mijin was dying [experiencing immense difficulty].

‘Gwangju had the best conditions, but why was Yongin approved? There’s no proper comment [explanation].’

Yoo Mijin grumbled for a while and started organizing the data into an Excel file. It was data to be sent to the outsourcing company ‘Dream Entertainment,’ which would be in charge of recruitment in the future. While doing so, Yoo Mijin found strange data.

It was data from the most difficult part to organize, the domestic underground musician section that was in the process of being recruited.

-Lee Sanghyun (Recruitment on Hold).

Oh Minji had been organizing data for three days, but it was the first time she had seen the words ‘Recruitment on Hold.’

If it’s in the process of being recruited, it’s in the process of being recruited, and if the recruitment is complete, it’s complete. If the recruitment has failed, either ‘Recruitment 추진 [in progress]/Recruitment 중단 [stopped]’ is marked.

‘Recruitment on Hold?’

Confused, Yoo Mijin moved the mouse over the word ‘Recruitment on Hold’ and saw that it had a hyperlink. When she clicked the hyperlink, a Hangul file [Korean word processing file] opened and showed data about Lee Sanghyun.

Lee Sanghyun. 1988.10.03. Male.

23-12 Ochidong, Bukgu, Gwangju.

888 Crew. Guest Rapper of the band L&S…….

‘If he was born in ’88, he’s a high school student? Why is only this person organized? Was there a personal interest?’

The hyperlink document contained a brief summary of the rapper Lee Sanghyun’s personal information. It also briefly summarized the story of the diss battle with Show Business.

However, what caught Yoo Mijin’s attention was the content written on the very last line.

2004, Ohkyung ENT Second Half Audition Final Pass.

Yoo Mijin pondered something for a while and downloaded a list of singers and trainees currently affiliated with Ohkyung ENT through the company’s intranet.

However, there was no name of Lee Sanghyun there.

‘What is it?’

Yoo Mijin looked through the 2004 Ohkyung ENT Second Half Audition list in the document archive. There were a total of 5 finalists, and among them was the name ‘Lee Sanghyun.’

‘He’s someone who left the agency.’

Only then could Yoo Mijin understand Director Jung’s thoughts. He seemed to be trying to find out whether to recruit Lee Sanghyun as an insider or as an external guest.

‘Of course, he’s an external guest. Didn’t he leave?’

Yoo Mijin was about to change Recruitment on Hold to Recruitment in Progress, but she suddenly stopped at a thought that came to her. It was because she remembered an incident that had happened ‘3 years ago’ when she joined the company.

In the end, Yoo Mijin postponed the processing of Lee Sanghyun by adding a detailed explanation to the hyperlink document.

‘Strictly speaking, it’s not my job anyway. They’ll figure it out.’

Thinking so, Yoo Mijin sat back down and started organizing the rest of the data.

Even as Sanghyun was furious at Cha Inhyun for stealing Caliph’s ‘Once in a Lifetime,’ the world around him was moving on.

Twisted World.

< Verse 9. Twisted World (End) – End of Volume 2 > End

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