The biggest problem was not knowing how long this would continue.
What if it never ended for the rest of my life...?
Q99-99. The Path of a Successful Elderly Singer
Complete 100 HBN dinner shows
Progress: 65/100
Success: Restore knee cartilage health
Failure: Depart this life
What if I ended up doing this kind of shit in my old age?
“Brother, tell Gowon to practice hard.”
The faster he became something, the faster the quest would end too.
“Don’t say anything like that to him.”
“Huh?”
At that unexpected response, I turned to find Kwon Taeyoung looking at me sternly.
“You saw him today. He already spends every waking hour outside of eating and sleeping in the practice room. Everyone around him is trying to stop him because they’re worried he’ll get hurt. Now that promotions are over, we’re going to force him to spend a week at home.”
“Really...?”
Well, if my brother was going that far.
I had watched his stats shoot up throughout these promotions like a game character left on autoplay, so I had no complaints.
Then was this finally a quest where I only needed to give him the occasional nudge from the sidelines?
Personally, I preferred objectives with clearly visible success conditions, like “win first place,” which had vanished in an instant.
...Ah, first place.
That reminded me of something else.
“Anyway, I’m not going easy on you next time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Gowon’s first place.”
“Ah.”
Kwon Taeyoung seemed to understand now.
“About seventy percent of the credit belongs to Yeban. Aren’t you taking this bragging a little too far?”
“Yeban only moves when his youngest member asks.”
“...Anyway, yes. Thanks for waiting.”
“Sure. Now you’ll have twice as much to brag about at the meeting.”
***
On the weekend evening when Gowon returned to his accommodations after finishing his schedule, clutching his first-place trophy and bouquet, the drama soundtrack by Kim Yeban—a Young Ace member who was now also a popular actor—was released.
Its original release date had been slightly earlier, but only a very small number of people involved knew that it had been postponed at the request of Kim Yeban, the drama’s lead actor.
If Winter Never Ends – Hanzel (Young Ace)
It was an emotional song that appeared like a comet in an age starved of ballads.
The heartrending love song, steeped in the atmosphere of winter, quickly caught up with Gowon’s ranking on the strength of the drama’s popularity. It then began fiercely battling Dearune, who still held the throne, for the number-one spot.
And the following weekend, Hanzel swept first place on the music shows.
Gowon
Congratulations, Senior.
Look at that, the baby even knows how to send a text now
I am not a baby
Sure, sure, baby. First place is so easy, so why couldn’t you do it for two weeks?
After a long silence, another congratulatory message finally arrived.
My strange connection with this junior was apparently going to continue.
[Pre-Chorus 1]
Official promotions for the first digital single had ended.
Gowon received a week of vacation and went home. His family lived in an old apartment building on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
It was a much better environment than the semi-basement apartment where they had lived before, but even though Grandma and Grandpa never showed it, climbing to the third floor of a building without an elevator was difficult for them.
The apartment consisted of a cramped living room and kitchen, one main bedroom, and one small bedroom. Grandma and Grandpa used the main bedroom, while the small one belonged to his high-school-aged younger sister. Whenever Gowon came home, he spread bedding in the living room and slept there with his younger brother.
The television that used to play dramas day and night was now always tuned to music channels. That remained true even after Gowon’s promotional cycle ended.
“Gowon, come sleep in here.”
As Gowon prepared to spread his bedding in the living room, Grandma and Grandpa pointed toward the bed in the main bedroom.
“You’re an entertainer now. What are we supposed to do if you ruin your health at home? I’d be too uncomfortable [N O V E L I G H T] watching you sleep in the living room.”
“Ah, I....”
“Brother! Then we can sleep in the main bedroom!”
“Hey, Go Suhyeon! They’re telling him to rest comfortably while he’s here. Why would you sleep with him? You sleep in the living room!”
“Brother always sleeps with me. You don’t even know that, idiot. Bleh.”
“I told you he came home after working himself exhausted. While he was gone, you slept wedged between Grandma and Grandpa, so what do you mean, ‘always’? I wouldn’t say a word if you’d been sleeping alone in the living room this whole time.”
“That’s right, Suhyeon. Let your brother rest.”
“Ah, whyyy!”
When even Grandma and Grandpa refused to take his side, Suhyeon threw a fit and shrieked in frustration.
Gowon had two younger siblings.
His seventeen-year-old sister Sua, who understood poverty and had been forced to grow up far too early, just as he had. And Suhyeon, the younger brother their worse-than-useless father had suddenly appeared with seven years ago, tossed at them, and abandoned.
Now ten years old, Suhyeon still did not fully understand what poverty was. Just as children began probing one another’s family circumstances and comparing their backgrounds, he had gained one thing he could boast about.
My brother is on TV!
And their financial situation genuinely had improved to some extent, so he had not experienced the same degree of deprivation as his older brother and sister while growing up.
Sua watched her immature younger brother throw a tantrum for a moment before speaking coldly.
“Go Suhyeon. Shut your mouth while I’m still asking nicely.”
“.......”
“I told you that if you exhaust him, he won’t be able to come home at all.”
Overpowered by his sister’s weighty warning, Suhyeon huffed angrily and turned a pleading gaze toward his brother this time.
“I’ll just sleep in the living room. It’s comfortable there too.”
That suggestion was rejected because Grandma and Grandpa remained adamant.
In the end, Gowon took the main-bedroom bed alone. While he lay awake, unable to sleep because of his discomfort, Suhyeon eventually crept into the room and burrowed in beside him. Gowon pretended to be asleep and let it happen.
After using the bed in his company-provided accommodations for several months, the rough mattress and his brother’s leg draped over his knee felt uncomfortable.
Then he felt guilty for finding them uncomfortable.
Once he received his first profit settlement, he would postpone paying off the debt for a little while and first look for another home on the ground floor. After they moved, he would put a soft bed in the main bedroom and replace the elementary-school desk Sua was still using. The living-room television that constantly flickered off and back on too....
Once the thoughts began, one led to another. He wanted to buy his family new clothes and shoes, and new bags for his siblings. He wanted to take Grandma and Grandpa to the hospital for full medical examinations.
...It suddenly felt bitter that until recently, he had not even been in a position to dare imagine such things.
Gowon closed his eyes. In a home where there was nothing he could do except sleep, poverty settled over his head like a blanket, and sleep came as if by magic.
***
Gowon went straight to the company after eating breakfast with his family.
On his way to the practice room, his gaze briefly settled on the elevator button for the seventh floor. But he soon turned his head away.
Things would not be as intense as they had been during promotions, but various festivals and events would begin once the weather grew warmer.
Several event schedules had already been arranged for Gowon. If he wanted to stand on those stages, he could not allow himself to lose the instincts he had developed during promotions.
He had also heard one encouraging piece of news. His debut album had performed well enough that if his second album achieved similar results, his profit settlements could begin.
That was possible because he had not been a trainee, meaning the company’s investment costs had been comparatively low.
Of course, there were still the penalty fee K-Dom had paid to an Rnet-affiliated agency and the production costs of the newly added <Unlimited(∞)> to overcome, but Gowon had crushed every obstacle with his results.
Perhaps the things he had imagined in the apartment the previous night might come true sooner than expected.
...In truth, he had completely forgotten about profit settlements throughout his promotional cycle.
He had been busy enough to lose his senses, but more than that, the exhilaration he poured out onstage had numbed every other sensation.
No matter how perfectly he recreated the stage in the practice room, it could never reproduce that thrill.
...If I could perform onstage again....
He did not know how much longer he would be allowed this miracle, but he did not want to carelessly waste a single part of it.
Gowon had kept moving until his strength ran out and was lying on the floor catching his breath when the practice-room door opened. He sat up.
There were five men who looked close to his age.
Gowon knew their faces. They were Newton, the boy group that had debuted under K-Dom Entertainment the previous year.
“Hello, Seniors.”
Gowon stood and bowed.
But the five of them exchanged awkward looks.
“...Ah.”
“Yes....”
“Ah, what the hell? Why is he here? He’s seriously fucking annoy—”
“Jung Yusang.”
One member stepped forward from the openly hostile group.
“Well... you appeared on <Debut Chart> the year before last, so I don’t think we’re really your seniors.”
“...Even so, I....”
“It also feels strange being called a senior by someone we’ve never even done a single monthly evaluation with.”
“.......”
Gowon vaguely realized why all ten eyes were filled with resentment. Then awkward Korean rang out from behind them.
“It is our practice time now. Please leave?!”
“Pfft.”
The other four burst into laughter at the foreign member’s words. Gowon silently picked up his belongings.
Considering both their status as his seniors and his own position, it was better to simply leave.
Their gazes followed him as he walked past without reacting.
Perhaps they thought he could not hear them because he had put on his headphones, but their whispers reached him.
“Oh, you were cool, Brother. ‘We’ve never even done a single monthly evaluation together.’ He looked fucking terrified.”
“Jung Yusang, watch your attitude. Don’t give people anything to talk about.”
“What? Why are you only criticizing me? Liam was fucking hilarious too. ‘Please leeave!’”
“Enough. None of you pay attention to him, and don’t interfere. ...I’ll keep taking care of it myself. Understood? Let’s just practice properly.”
As Gowon left the practice room, he checked his phone. Then he exhaled briefly toward the ceiling and resumed walking down the corridor.
There were still ten minutes remaining in the practice-room slot assigned to him.
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