God's Song

Between the two, Yoon Jung Su was more surprised. The shock was great. Usually, lawyers did not get involved in this industry whether they gave the song first or they received the money to write a song. Since they were friendly, they trusted each other and paid an adequate amount.

If Jun Hyuk was already appointing lawyers, no singers or companies would want his songs no matter how good they were. They would all disregard him as a jerk who wanted money.

Jun Hyuk had not even made a proper debut in the entertainment industry, but he had created a firewall because of what he had experienced so far. It was regrettable.

Son Jin Young was already frowning. A brand new rookie who had been on broadcast once and had not even released a single was telling him to talk to a lawyer about money? And that was in the presence of a veteran senior. Jun Hyuk may have said it without much thought, but the person listening wanted to just give up the song.

However, they could not just overthrow everything when they had already convinced the main producer of the broadcast station. Son Jin Young grit his teeth and took the memo with the lawyer’s phone number.

“Alright, I’ll take care of this. Jung Su, I’m a little busy. I’ll get up first. Sorry.”

Yoon Jung Su could fully understand how Son Jin Young was feeling. He was already bearing through a lot just by suppressing his anger.

Jun Hyuk is not the only person with rights to this song, but also himself as the lyricist. There had been the prerequisite that the song was for Nam Seung Hee and he had written the lyrics accordingly. If something went amiss with the lawyer, he would become laughable.

However, Yoon Jung Su did not speak anymore. He thought that he must take time and slowly teach Jun Hyuk the rules and etiquette of this industry.

***

Lawyer Baek Seung Ho did not know that Jun Hyuk had written a song until he got a call from JSY. After quickly confirming, he met with the people coming to him with a contract.

“We are here from JSY. We’re here because of the song that Jang Jun Hyuk made.....”

“Oh, yes. I was waiting for you. But I haven’t heard the details relating to JSY.”

“I see. I guess you may not have heard because Jun Hyuk is living in the dormitory.”

The JSY legal team briefly described how Jun Hyuk wrote a song for Nam Seung Hee and that they were there to buy the song.

Baek Seung Ho reviewed the contract that JSY passed over.

“I see the composition fee is $5,000.”

“Yes. That’s the industry average amount.”

“I’ll have to discuss with Jun Hyuk, but do you know that Jun Hyuk left matters of money to my discretion?”

“Yes. That’s why we are sitting in front of you right now.”

This was the first time Baek Seung Ho was meeting with someone in regards to a song or composition fee, but it was also the first time JSY was meeting with a lawyer to acquire one song. It was custom for the musicians to settle these issues themselves to just send a contract back and forth.

“There is one thing I can tell you for sure. I don’t know what Jun Hyuk is thinking, but he will follow me if I say ‘no’.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

“It’s simple. We won’t sell it at such a low price.”

“Whew.....”

This is why JSY did not like when lawyers got involved. They had a habit of unconditionally rejecting the first proposal. Lawyer made simple issues that could be settled in a friendly matter, difficult.

“Don’t look at it like that too much. We have good reasons for this.”

“Should we listen to those good reasons?”

“The key element of a transaction is not whether or not a poet wrote a song. The important thing is necessity. It’s a world where people pay $7,000 for a brand name handbag that doesn’t cost $50 to manufacture. Why? Because they need it. So don’t you think it’s a song that’s needed if a big company like JSY is trying to buy it for just $5,000? I want to sell it at an expensive price to someone who needs it.”

JSY was starting to dislike lawyers even more. Even though what they were saying made sense, they said it in a way that made the listeners feel unpleasant.

“We’ll sign this contract in a year.”

“Excuse me?”

It is over if he said that he would not sell it, but what did he mean by a year later?

“In one year, Jun Hyuk will probably be worth 10 times more. Bring back a new contract, or we’ll meet in a year.”

Baek Seung Ho knew that the value of goods changed the future. If they settled on $5,000 for Jun Hyuk now, he would be $5,000 even when he was worth 10 times more in the future.

The important fact was that no one yet knew Jun Hyuk’s worth. There was no idiot who would sell a diamond in its rough form without buffing it. They need to wait while sharpening and cleaning it to create its best appearance.

It was not even a situation where they were lacking money. It was not a time to hurry, but to wait until his elaborate and shining self appeared. Baek Seung Ho firmly believed that this was the best decision for Jun Hyuk.

JSY’s side that was not able to receive Jun Hyuk’s song took the contract and went back to the office. They needed to hurry up and let Director Son Jin Young know.

“Hey! I can’t believe it. The little brat is being arrogant because he gained a little popularity... Forget it. We don’t need it.”

Son Jin Young did not like Jun Hyuk or the ballad from the beginning. The answer was to go with a sexy performance as JSY usually does.

***

“Jung Su, we’re going to pretend the thing with Jun Hyuk’s song never happened. Honestly, I don’t even want to talk about it.”

Yoon Jung Su who had discerned Son Jin Young’s thoughts got off the phone and told Jun Hyuk.

“Jun Hyuk, have you heard the news?”

“Yes? What news?”

“The lawyer you mentioned said that he would not give the song to Nam Seung Hee. They said he asked for a lot of money.”

Yoon Jung Su was hesitant to talk about it, but he spoke cautiously.

“Did he?”

Unexpectedly, Jun Hyuk showed a dull reaction.

“Um... I don’t think Nam Seung Hee will be able to sing the song if it goes like this.”

“Well that’s fine. Someone else can sing it.”

“But you made that song for Seung Hee.”

“Not exactly. I just made the song because I liked her voice when she sang the jazz song I arranged.”

“It’s a song created for a voice and not a person?”

“Wow, you speak so well. A song created for a voice. I’ll have to keep this memorized.”

Yoon Jung Su saved his words as he looked at a Jun Hyuk who was smiling naively. He thought that there would be no need to explain about things like money, business, and industry fees to a child who was only just 17 years old. He comforted himself thinking that as someone with a right to the song, he could just push it back.

It was an old song. No matter when it was released, they could get the tribute for it.

“Alright. Then we’ll think about that song later and make the mission song now. I’ll put two producers I work with on you, so try making something really cool.”

“The pressing birds you talked about?”

“Ha ha. Yeah, pressing bird. But you can’t call them that to their faces. It’s a term that denigrates them.”

***

Jun Hyuk spent half a day using his cellphone and listening to a computer hard drive with a sound library full of sound effects. It was full of all the sounds in the world. It was to the point where he wondered what had not been included since there were even the sounds of people yawning and burping in different versions.

After half a day passed, Jun Hyuk abandoned his intention to listen to all of the sounds in the world. Eventually, he did not even get to listen to half and picked among the sound effects used often in the electronic line that the producer chose to listen to.

After the group of sound effects was compiled, Jun Hyuk and the two producers sat in front of a monitor that showed sounds from the master keyboard. The people at Jo Hyung Joong’s studio had already let them know that Jun Hyuk is a perfectionist. They had heard that he even detected the sound of an oboe bouncing off of a music stand.

If a kid with an ear like this had the ability to see soundwaves with his eyes, it was obvious that he would not look past even the smallest issues. The two producers already had a grim feeling that they may need to work for the next few days to complete the song.

“First off, do you have a separate track for the voice of the song Teacher Yoon chose?”

“Of course. Do you want it?”

“Yes. Please let me hear them in order.”

Jun Hyuk kept working on stretching and shortening the vocal tracks of the four songs. In more extreme cases, he did not hesitate to shorten it by three times. A producer threw him a question,

“But Jun Hyuk, you’re not going to sample it? What verse are you going to take out to use? Isn’t it easier to take out just that part to work with?”

“No, I’m not sampling it. I’m going to use all of it.”

“What? You’re going to use the whole song?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think you should do that. I’m pretty sure it’ll just be noisy once you mix the other four songs.”

“That’s why I’m matching the four songs. First, I’m going to hold the place and adjust the volume.”

After playing with the track for several hours, he had a satisfied expression.

“The vocal track is finished... and we have to put in the violin.....”

“Violin? You’re finished already? You finished the four songs?”

“Yes. Can you set this master keyboard to the violin?”

The producer did not get to listen to the entirety of the song that he finished. Fixing one part and listening again to edit again... Jun Hyuk was done in one go without working like this.

“But Jun Hyuk. You don’t need to listen to the work you did?”

“Why? I saw everything with my eyes.”

“You know by looking at the soundwaves?”

“Yes. I think it’s much more comfortable being able to see the sound with my eyes. This program is really good.”

The producers did not say more. They now thought that they would not need to have questions for Jun Hyuk any longer.

“You’re saying it’s like that. Um... oh, okay. You see these two dials? The one on top is the vibrato effect, and the bottom has the slide effect.”

“Okay. Then.”

Jun Hyuk pressed a few of the keys to test it out and laughed as though it was wondrous. It was because he was pressing the keyboard, but there was the sound of the violin.

“He he he. This is really fun.”

As he put both of his hands on the keyboard, he played the familiar Vivladi’s part 1 of Four Seasons Spring. After that, he played multiple classicals but did not play over 8 verses.

Soundtracks kept collecting on the monitor.

As he got used to using the master keyboard, his hands became faster. After the violin, he changed to the bass guitar and held the whole beat.

The producer who was listening next to him guessed that the beat was around 150BPM. It seemed a little slow, but there was no way to check because he could not listen to the whole song.

When Jun Hyuk finished the bass guitar, he stretched his arms and back and got up from his seat.

“Let’s start again after a break.”

“We haven’t done anything. You did everything yourself.”

“This is the real start.”

“What? Then what have you done ‘til now?”

“This is the combination for the bass sound. It’s the color tone that won’t be that noticeable. Now we need to work on the riff (key melody line), the drum that will point out the beat, and sound effects.”

They also passed out when they heard that everything he had done until now was just the background. The bigger problem was that Jun Hyuk had not once listened to the results of his hard work so far.

“Uh Jun Hyuk, we have to hear it first. I’m really curious too.”

“Ah, sorry. I thought you already knew because we worked on it together.”

“We’re not geniuses. We have no idea what any of this is just by looking at it. Ha ha.”

Jun Hyuk’s first electronic. Half with curiosity and half with expectations, Yoon Jung Su, Jang Na Rae, and Kwak Hye Sung came to listen to Jun Hyuk’s first piece together.