“Completely honest” meant that if he said anything truly honest, they were all dead.
Twenty-year-old guys awkwardly doing business pleasantries is so cute, why does it make me squirm like this? LOL
Fortunately, messages with more positive content soon began surging upward.
In the midst of them, Gowon opened his mouth.
“...I had a chance to see your year-end performance in person last year.”
“Ah, so before meeting as artists from the same company, you met as performers and audience! How was it?”
“I was envious.”
“Oh, envious? In what way?”
“I could feel the exhilaration of putting everything into preparing a performance and then making it explode onstage. It made me hope that one day, I could give a performance like that too.”
“.......”
“The Newton members must feel wonderful. And congratulations to Gowon for getting to sit beside the artists he once admired.”
“Ha ha... Yes, I see.... Thank you!”
Jeongho answered emphatically, but he could hardly endure the feeling of something pressing heavily against the inside of his chest.
“Passionate rookies and friendly competition are wonderful, but isn’t the most beautiful thing of all seeing people acknowledge each other? Which brings us to the segment we’ve prepared. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘compliment prison’?”
“A prison made of compliments? That sounds a little contradictory....”
“I haven’t heard of it.”
“You could say it means showering someone with so many compliments that they don’t know what to do with themselves. You trade compliments and acknowledge each other. Representing Newton, our youngest member Yusang will step forward.”
Gowon and Yusang’s gazes met.
At that moment, Yusang’s expression plainly said, I’ve got you now.
Jung Yusang, no!
At nineteen, Yusang was the only one younger than Gowon. Of course, a junior showing respect toward a senior was important, but it would be troublesome if people started saying, “Even to someone older than him?” So he needed to regulate himself carefully....
“You seem incredibly determined. Like you’ve genuinely never let go of anything in your entire life.”
“.......”
After a silence, Gowon answered.
“Thank you.”
His black lashes, lowered as though he had been thinking about something, slowly rose again. Just as his eyes seemed to darken.
“The Newton members are exceptionally strict about time management.”
Holy shit.
Jeongho’s fingertips went cold.
Yusang’s childish provocation had lit a fire under Gowon too.
“...Huh? Time management? Is there some story behind that?”
“Wow, that? You were the one who left the practice room late—”
“Sometimes our timing for using the facilities happens to overlap exactly! That must be why he remembers us that way!”
Yusang and Jeongho spoke at the same time, their voices overlapping.
Fuck.
The microphone had undoubtedly caught every trace of panic in his voice.
“No interruptions from the other members. And because we’re short on time, please avoid compliments that require additional explanations. Now, let’s begin again!”
Mitchell’s voice was cheerful, but the look she gave Gowon and Yusang clearly told them to behave.
“...Your debut song was reaaally good.”
“.......”
But apparently her warning had failed to reach Yusang, the youngest member and center who had always been carefully indulged.
“Yes. I also believe it is a good song. As for you....”
“.......”
“You are exceptionally honest in expressing yourself.”
“Ha.”
The atmosphere is... kind of...???
Is Yusang in a bad mood today?ㅠ
“...Yusang has given plenty of compliments, so shall Jeongho take over now?”
“Yes! Gowon, you’re so handsome it startled me!”
“...Thank you. I also learn what perfect synchronization looks like whenever I watch Newton perform.”
The atmosphere finally settled down, and as they moved on to the next segment, a friendly mood was successfully staged.
However, the troublemakers who had entered earlier remained among the fans struggling to post positive comments until the very end.
I mean, emotionally, I understand that you’re supposed to get along with an adopted younger brother, but would you accept it if someone suddenly told you, “This is your brother now,” overnight? Newton are still rookies too~~~
Is Yusang in a bad mood today?ㅠ
Yes, but feeling awkward and bullying a junior are two completely different things, aren’t they?
What about Gowon saying he liked their year-end performance? Did everyone collectively develop dementia?
They keep going on about who’s the senior, but factually the <Debut Chart> trainees’ group song came out before Newton’s debut song LOL.
Trying to establish who outranks whom with an Edelweiss ancestor sitting right there... Is this real life?
“Managers, come see me.”
After professionally carrying the broadcast all the way through the closing, Mitchell’s channel cut to advertisements.
The veteran employee, whose roughly seventeen years at the company included her trainee period, summoned her fellow K-Dom staff.
“This is honestly so pathetic that I can barely stand it, but arguing over it would mean insulting members of my own company, so I’m holding back. Teach those boys how to behave properly. You understand what I’m saying, right?”
Her voice was loud enough for the members to hear clearly.
Mitchell was already an untouchably senior artist, and in the present situation, anyone could see that the juniors had been in the wrong. Newton and Gowon therefore headed home under a cloud of mortification.
“Gowon, listen... Of course the Newton boys crossed the line first today, but next time something like this happens, try not to confront them quite so directly. It would be better to come back to the company and file a complaint. You are still their junior, after all.”
“.......”
After a brief silence, a quiet voice slipped out.
“I was told not to go around letting people beat me up....”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“Nothing. I’ll be careful. I’m sorry Mitchell had to reprimand you because of me.”
“Oh, no. I wasn’t saying that because I wanted an apology. Now I’m worried you’ll go back to swallowing everything in silence again. Anyway, let’s be cautious around the Newton boys for a while. All right?”
“Yes.”
As always, Gowon answered obediently. Then he stared out the window with an expression that revealed nothing of what he was thinking.
Or maybe not?
It was the same blank expression he always wore, yet today he looked dazed, as though lost in thought.
After staring vacantly outside for a while, Gowon placed a hand on the front passenger seat and leaned forward.
“Jonghyeok, could I... connect some music to the car?”
“What brought this on? Go ahead.”
“How do I do it?”
“Gowon, give me your phone. Turn on Bluetooth, then....”
With Chief Manager Park’s help, the phone was soon connected to the van’s speakers.
“It’s a Hanje song.”
It was the drama soundtrack that had seemingly waited for Gowon’s promotions to end before seizing first place, and even now continued moving around the highest reaches of the TOP chart.
When the song finished, Gowon searched for “yACE” and played the first result.
It was a song that had struck the very ceiling of Billboard three years earlier.
Even Gowon recognized it. The former manager recognized it all the more.
Among the rapidly passing English lyrics, one voice occasionally caught his ear.
Hanje—Hanzel voluntarily stepped down as Young Ace’s main vocalist.
Just as Mitchell had said, Baek Hanje did not have many individual parts. But because he supported the entire song throughout, each time his voice appeared, it drew every scrap of Gowon’s attention.
Then, after the second verse, just before the song launched into its final climax, an explosive section arrived.
—Aaah—!
A high ad-lib poured out in Hanje’s voice, raising goosebumps across the back of Gowon’s hand.
Without realizing it, Gowon touched an earlier point on the progress bar.
“Huh? What happened?”
The others, who had been cheerfully humming the lyrics they knew by heart, sounded puzzled.
“I touched it by mistake.”
“Ah.”
Thanks to that, Baek Hanje’s ad-lib played once more.
The next track was another song from the same album.
As Gowon listened through Young Ace’s older music, he gradually began distinguishing Baek Hanje’s voice within it.
Baek Hanje moved freely between falsetto and his natural register. Young Ace’s songs were mostly hip-hop, and the lines that softly changed the mood—the pre-choruses, bridges, and similar sections—usually belonged to him.
Before the powerful °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° section arrived, his voice drew the listener in as though wrapping around them....
...Though his actual personality was nothing like that.
He says such mean things, and every day he acts like he’ll die if he doesn’t tease me....
While he was lost in thought, the van dropped Gowon off in front of his accommodations.
As he waited for the elevator, he searched for Young Ace on YouTube this time.
Helpfully, there were videos compiling all their old performances under titles like <From Debut to the Present>.
Half the thumbnails showed group photographs. The other half showed the face of the group’s center, Cha Yensu.
Gowon scrolled farther down until he found a video with Baek Hanje in the thumbnail.
He clicked it.
The image quality of the first song was pixelated in several places.
yACE 【Heir to Peace】 M/V
That was seriously the song title?
Young Ace had so many enormous hits that most of their title tracks were familiar to him.
Yet despite the symbolic importance of it being their debut song, this one felt utterly unfamiliar.
“......?!”
Six members in white synthetic-leather jackets soon began dancing with sharp precision onscreen.
Among them was Division Head Kwon Taeyoung, who looked close to Gowon’s own age....
And Baek Hanje, who looked like nothing more than a child.
The bewildering concept, the bewildering dance and song... and those lyrics....
“.......”
Baek Hanje looked much younger than Gowon’s sister.
His voice was thin, as though it had not yet changed.
And yet his distinctive gaze—that cold, arrogant look—was already exactly the same despite his youth.
His delinquent aura was already insane at fourteen. Legendary second-male-lead energy—telling the heroine to be happy before riding away on a motorcycle. Baek Hanje is unreal.
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