A Song Calling for You
My Worst/Best Choice
Jungmin glanced at his phone’s clock again. He had said at half past he was sure of it. Maybe she was still asleep. For now until she arrived he would be guessing what had happened.
“Sorry I was late. The traffic’s bad so my bus wasn’t there on time.”
There she was. A paper coffee cup in her hand, in white knee length shorts, red slip on sneakers and a dark blue V-neck shirt. Her hair was down for once, hanging straight and her eyes covered with sunglasses.
Shaking his head Jungmin assured her it wasn’t a problem. “I was just worried that you weren’t going to come since I hadn’t heard from you.”
“Park Jungmin I will say I can’t come if I’m certain I can’t make it. Otherwise expect me to be there even if it’s late.”
She was an open book today. He was surprised by her honesty. “Alright, shall we go in?”
“Ok then.”
They entered into the dark furbished rooms. One with black couches another with a few office chairs where the sound desk was. And the recording room with the standing microphone. Jungmin introduced her to the producer and his manager who had not poked his nose where it didn’t belong. All Jungmin had said to them she is interested in singing and needed a hand in getting closer to a break.
“Here it is,” Jungmin said handing her lyrics. She looked at them, pausing when an instrumental started playing from the computer. Guitar with other instruments slowly coming in.
“Um what exactly am I doing Jungmin-ssi?”
“Don’t you know?”
Jungmin glanced at the other men in the room. They took it as a hint and hurried out. “Chohee, the reason I asked for a favour is… I need someone to sing the other part of this song.”
Backing away from him Chohee’s eyes bored into Jungmin like a drill. “You want me to do a duet with you?!”
“Yes,” he admitted wondering why she was becoming upset. “I remembered how great you sounded the other night so I—“
“—no.” She stated to him, her lips in a tight line of defiance. “Jungmin… I can’t do it, I’m sorry.”
“Why not, what’s stopping you?”
“What if legal issues arise? What if someone unfairly accuses you of the song being plagiarised? How will I be ok? I have no funding, no company to back me up. What then?”
“We’ll worry about it when and if it happens.” Jungmin tried to reason. “What do you have to lose? We don’t have to put you in the title of the song but in the part where they list backing vocals. You can have an alias if you would like.”
Her face seemed to soften but not a lot. “Chohee let me help you, as a friend. Can we do this together?”
Chohee lifted her eyes to him and studied his face carefully unable to notice anything suspicious. “Well… If I have not been successful by October then I will have to go home. But just as a friend alright?”
He breathed out with a grin. “That’s the spirit, thanks heaps!” He suddenly hugged her. After letting her go he went to call the others in. Chohee stood there, grabbing the lyrics and fanning herself with the paper before he could see.
Jungmin’s mood had lifted from Chohee’s agreement. Beforehand he’d imagined she wouldn’t budge though like before she appeared to be a little more flexible.
He stood behind the producer as they got Chohee to record her solo parts. She placed the headphones on, nervously speaking into the microphone like she was checking it for a live performance. Jungmin’s manager nudged him in the side. “She’s cute.”
“Alright Chohee-ssi, we’ll take it nice and slow alright?”
The music started playing and after a short instrumental Chohee began to sing, toning down the power in her voice so it aligned with the mellow melody.
“Cut,” the director said as he pressed stop on the recording. “Your voice is great but you’re mumbling a little. You have to enunciate clearly while focusing on the feel.”
She nodded but looked a little dejected. Jungmin gave her a thumb up however she wasn’t paying attention to him. Reading the lyrics again she breathed in slowly and waited to have take number two.
“Cut,” he said sooner than the first. “What are you doing? Do you think we can hear you at that volume?!”
Jungmin nervously glanced at his manager. He felt that the Producer was being a little harsh. However this had to be perfect as possible. Chohee needed to focus as best she could.
The chagrin look on her face exposed the fact she was taking the criticism way too personally. He wanted to step inside the booth and encouraged her, but they were pressing for time.
Instead he mouthed a ‘fighting’ to Chohee which she saw. Shyly the corners of her lips went up.
After a little while Chohee was getting more of a feel for recording; except she still mucked up her parts with the simplest of errors. By the time the Producer had said ‘cut’ for the sixth time his patience had reached its limits. He leaned a hand in his head, a dark expression only seen by Jungmin as he shifted in his chair to discuss it.
“You said she would work hard. What is this nonsense you’re giving me?!”
“Sir,” Jungmin’s manager interrupted. “You’ve left your microphone on.” The producer moved back and saw he was right.
They heard a door swing and they focused on the booth. It was empty. Jungmin was up and out in a flash.
He caught up with her as she was going through the main doors. “Chohee wait!” He caught the door as it opened. Following her to the street she finally spoke, hurt evident in her tone.
“I’m sorry, I’m not the person you need.”
“I asked you to help me.”
“So why did you?” She asked with her head down. They both halted, only a few people passing due to it being early in the morning. Jungmin stood adjacent to her.
“You know this is a lot of pressure for me. You could have picked tens if not hundreds of other female singers to take the part—“
“—but why would I when we would have to pay them for their contribution?”
Immediately after Jungmin winced at his words; Chohee stayed still.
“Listen Chohee, being in a company is not a bag of sunshine. The one I’m with is messing around with me. It would be hard to find someone who would be ok with participating and not worried about their reputation getting tarnished.’
‘You’re right to be worried about plagiarism. I know you don’t have a company standing behind you but for now isn’t that better? Better that you get to choose what you do with your life and time. To make decisions yourself without having some rich CEO waving wads of money in your face, telling you to do this or that because they will get more if you do it?”
Chohee said nothing. Jungmin rubbed the back of his neck, praying in his head for some sort of tiny miracle. Chohee moved her head, breathing out a sigh.
“I can’t promise I’ll get it in the next go, but I will try again as long as you promise me something.”
He was desperate enough to agree to anything she needed. “Sure anything you would like Chohee.”
“Just…” She hesitated. “…Don’t forget about me. Don’t forget I’m around and needing support while you’re busy with your schedules. Anything you do for me and will do is appreciated.”
Timidly she rubbed one of her bare arms. “What you’re doing really; really means a lot to me… I don’t know how I can ever repay you for your kindness.”
For her to say that to him was a large leap. He could see more of her real self every time she spoke something from her deep, inner depths. Now he was faced with a struggle to embrace her again or even hold her hand. To kill off this urge he was the first one to go back in with her following.
“Alright now let’s give the final chorus a go.” The producer said. Jungmin scooted to the side to allow Chohee to stand next to him as she entered.
They brushed shoulders. A buzz went down Jungmin’s spine. He hoped that the reaction wasn’t too obvious but his manager winked at him and his cheeks blazed.
“Let’s take it from the top.” Chohee wet her lips, did a few warm ups and then gently touched Jungmin’s shoulder.
“Let’s work hard; oppa.” Again he was hit with another buzz. If this wasn’t attraction at its peak then God knows what had overcome him.
Well I hope we enjoyed this update. Finally managed to get the seperators centred after a lot of nuisance. How do you guys normally manage to do it?
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