Chapter 29: His Returned Song

“Liking Seo Eunhan. Since when was it like that?”

At Woohyung’s words, Jemin sat straight up in bed.

Woohyung wasn’t a member who played jokes on people.

Faced with such a serious question, Jemin was dumbfounded.

“Is what you’re asking me right now really coming from the intention I think it is?”

Woohyung was someone who didn’t even monitor their content, so it wasn’t like he was acting like this after reading delusion posts by fans.

Don’t tell me he was doing this because he read that chat comment during the fan live earlier?

Jemin couldn’t grasp what was going on.

“If you mean it like that, it’s absolutely not, so stop talking nonsense and just go to sleep.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

“And how on earth am I supposed to prove that to you?”

Woohyung didn’t offer much of a reply, but the air flowing through the room was thick with distrust.

“Besides, you said you’ve never even liked anyone before. Why did you think I liked Eunhan?”

“Your eyes were sparkling.”

Faced with Woohyung’s flimsy logic, Jemin felt ridiculous for even trying to have a serious conversation.

‘This guy is just saying whatever because he wants to pick a fight with me.’

Reaching that conclusion, Jemin offhandedly brushed aside Woohyung’s words.

“Don’t get confused. My eyes are naturally clear and bright.”

“Ugh.”

Even in the dark, it felt as though he could see Woohyung’s scowling face.

“It’s just because fans like that kind of stuff…”

“Don’t use fans as an excuse.”

It wasn’t for the fans, but because you liked him.

It seemed Woohyung was already firmly convinced of that.

“Whatever I say, you’re not going to believe me anyway. Just go to sleep.”

Jemin glared at Woohyung before lying back down in bed.

Turning his back, he silently wished that for the remainder of their contract period, Jung Woohyung wouldn’t get involved in scandals on either the social news or entertainment pages.

Hoping for his departure was out of the question since their fandom had already grown too big for that.

‘Will Jung Woohyung ever change?’

Jemin let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

Finally, their first reality variety show, 4ever’s 5colors, hit the airwaves.

Despite being a reality show, it drew fiery reactions—plenty of them negative—with comments like: “Is the dorm only shown during meal scenes?”, “What’s with the state of that dorm?”, “It feels like a PPL broadcast, don’t they know our fandom hates heavy product placement?” and so on.

• What? Wasn’t Eunhan holding Jemin’s legs in the teaser?

A day before the broadcast, when only the teaser had dropped, HanJemmers were in full celebration mode.

When they actually watched the main episode, however, there were strangely many scenes where Woohyung split the two apart.

Yet there was an even bigger problem than that.

CluelessStan @why_amiwrong_hmm

To be honest… in Ep 1, JM went a bit too far…

I almost threw up my HanJem.

Retweets: 204 | Quotes: 8,241 | Likes: 301

Thanks to Woohyung’s intrusion getting it edited down, broadcasting “Hold it tighter… ♡” was fortunately prevented, but other minor instances of Jemin’s business gay behavior were caught on screen, sparking a modest controversy.

StopBusinessGayJemin @stopbusinessgayjemin

Don’t tell me to delete my account.

If Yoo Jemin stops business gaying, I’ll delete it myself.

Retweets: 102 | Quotes: 2,241 | Likes: 24

│

EggAccount @dhsahwewqenkr

Looks like the account owner is a HyungJemmer.

Replying to @stopbusinessgayjemin

TotalAttackAccount @qwejkhqlkwqekl

Doing this just to keep HanJem in check loses you all dignity.

Jemin was monitoring everywhere with four windows open alongside the live broadcast of 5colors.

Witnessing raw reactions to his business gay act on social media left him completely shocked.

‘Wasn’t this the kind of stuff they wanted to see?’

Realizing that he had failed to keep his boundaries in check made Jemin’s face flush bright red.

Seeing his blatantly targeted actions through the video was embarrassing even to himself.

At this point, one might wonder why such a disaster happened to Jemin, who knew the hearts of fans so well.

The cause of this tragedy stemmed ironically from the fact that Jemin was too good at searching the web.

Because HanJem was such an absolute mega-ship, it paradoxically produced nothing but cliché character interpretations.

Within that realm, Jemin had constantly bounced back and forth between a classic fragile bottom and a cliché clueless bottom.

Jemin had mistakenly assumed that fulfilling those exact depictions was what satisfied their needs.

JeminIsAllRight @jeminisallright

Jemin-ah, you really don’t need to overthink stuff like that.

We’re confident we can ship you even if you just breathe.

│

EggAccount @dqjwhtoweewk

Excuse me, please censor your tags.

Whether due to embarrassment and mortification, or because of the harsh critics, Jemin felt deeply hurt inside.

Being someone with high resilience, Jemin would snap back quickly, but on the day he checked those comments, he deliberately kept his distance from Eunhan and didn’t even speak to him.

The person who noticed Jemin keeping his distance wasn’t Eunhan, but Woohyung.

‘Looks like my advice actually worked.’

Jemin had long since forgotten Woohyung’s words.

Woohyung believed that thanks to his blunt callout, Jemin had given up his feelings for Eunhan.

‘Well, yeah. Feeling that way toward a fellow teammate makes no sense to begin with.’

Woohyung thought to himself, completely unaware of what lay ahead.

“Our next album’s tracks are out already?”

The members of 4ever and the Q2P staff all gathered inside a tiny recording studio.

“Of course. It’s because our Q2P composers are so remarkably talented.”

“Is there anyone besides Woohyung-hyung?”

“There’s me.”

“Oh….”

James was about to say “Oh, my god,” before quickly giving the CEO a thumbs-up instead.

“Listen objectively to tracks 1 through 6 to see which one has title potential, then fill out this evaluation form.”

“CEO, but did you print this paper on scrap paper?”

On the back of the paper labeled Title Track Evaluation Form, a completely nonsensical Excel spreadsheet was printed.

“It’s all out of consideration for the environment.”

Mid-sentence, an artistic inspiration suddenly struck the CEO, causing him to grab a ballpoint pen.

“Environment. Hold on a second. Yeah. Next time, I should write a song about the environment. Scrap paper… use me once more… okay.”

“Are we picking just one song out of the six? Or do we rank them from 1st to 6th place so the song with the highest score becomes the title?”

Yunbin raised his hand sharply and asked a question.

It was a keen point.

“Listen through and pick two songs that feel like title material to you.”

And so, a blind test was conducted to select the title track for 4ever’s 2nd mini-album.

Perhaps feeling nervous, the CEO let out a long breath.

Woohyung, on the other hand, wore a face that looked completely unbothered.

It was an attitude of absolute confidence in his own work.

‘Wow. Anyone listening could tell that one was made by the CEO.’

Jemin naturally scowled as he listened to the pitches flying around completely out of key.

No matter how much he disliked Jung Woohyung, public was public and private was private.

He couldn’t push the CEO’s song for the title track just because he hated seeing Jung Woohyung earn royalty fees.

“That was a heavenly track, right?”

“Please play the next song.”

The second track was also the CEO’s creation, and listening to it made his mind feel troubled immediately.

Just as he was wondering if the melody was generic, the lyrics turned out to be a complete mess this time.

Perhaps because the CEO did the guide vocal recording himself, the pronunciation was slurred, but the lyrics he managed to catch…

Glaring with wide eyes

Tasty wild shoots

Vrooming toward you

Sturdy knees

Jemin felt there was no need to listen any further.

He drew an X next to track 2.

‘Seeing how the third and fourth tracks are both pretty good, Jung Woohyung must have made them.’

Holding a pencil in his mouth, Jemin glanced over at Woohyung.

Woohyung, who had been gauging the reactions of others, happened to meet eyes with Jemin when he looked up.

Jemin hastily lowered his head.

‘Crazy. This is it.’

While the previous two tracks were good, the moment he heard the fifth track, the feeling hit him instantly.

This was undeniably title track material.

It was a song that perfectly fit 4ever, a group that had hit big with powerful refreshment.

On top of that, the message of refusing to give up and pushing forward until the end aligned with the team’s overall direction.

Jemin immediately drew a circle in the space next to track 5.

“Ahem.”

Woohyung had clearly seen Jemin select his song.

He let out a fake cough to hide his proud mood.

Hearing Woohyung’s noise made Jemin feel like he had lost for no reason, so he folded his paper in half to hide it.

‘The last one is bound to be the CEO’s song without even listening. Since the previous three tracks were all good….’

Thinking there was no need to listen further, Jemin set his pen down.

“Hm, the last track is… never mind. Just listen to it first.”

Without much expectation, he felt something different right from the intro.

Jemin had no choice but to pick up the pen he had set down.

‘The CEO didn’t record the guide vocal for this one. Who is it?’

It was a voice Jemin was hearing for the first time, but he was surprised to find both the lyrics and melody far better than anticipated.

‘Was this made by Jung Woohyung instead of the CEO? But the previous three tracks fit Jung Woohyung’s style.’

Whether the CEO composed the song himself or bought it from someone else, it was good enough to threaten Woohyung’s track.

Glancing at Woohyung, he saw that Woohyung wore a startled expression as well.

Rather than simply because the song was good, his expression was complex and subtle.

Jemin found that puzzling.

“You’ve heard them all, right? Alright, hand in all your evaluation forms.”

“Are you announcing the results right away?”

“Of course. I can’t hold back my curiosity.”

Not only the members but all the staff handed in their evaluation forms.

Since there was a high chance the CEO might manipulate the votes while counting, Yunbin was tasked with making the announcement.

“Can you guys seriously not trust me that much?”

“One vote for track 5, one vote for track 6.”

As the vote tally progressed, it turned into a tight race between track 5 and track 6.

“Lastly… one vote for track 5, one vote for track 2.”

“Track 2?”

“Why? I think wild shoots are delicious.”

“James-hyung, that means you like wild shoots, not the song.”

“It’s fun. Feels like boom bap.”

Thanks to James-hyung’s unique taste, the blind test concluded with track 5 being selected as the final title track by a margin of a single vote.

“How can guys who claim to do music lack an ear for listening like this. Congratulations, Woohyung, you punk.”

Jemin had assumed the CEO was dying of regret because he lost by just one vote.

Until Woohyung uttered those words, that is.

“Are you in touch with Hyunguk-hyung?”

Even though his own song had been selected, Woohyung focused his attention entirely on a different matter.

“How did you get a track from that hyung?”

“He gave the song to me. He said he wanted to give you guys a track. If I had known it would push my own song out, I wouldn’t have accepted it! Argh!”

Only then did Jemin realize that the song good enough to rival Woohyung’s work was the creation of that hyung named Hyunguk.

He felt like he understood why Woohyung had been so visibly shaken just by hearing the guide recording.

“If we proceed with this as the follow-up track, you’ll see him during the recording anyway. Listen to the details then.”

Jemin observed Woohyung’s expression.

Next, he observed the expressions of the other members.

If that person he didn’t know hadn’t gone missing, would 4ever have been a 6-member group?

Or would an opportunity never have even come to him at all?