Boyvicious.“Compared to Korea, they’re more popular abroad!”“More popular abroad?”“Yes! Boyvicious sunbaenims bring a unique concept with every song, and foreign K-POP fans really love those concepts.”When I suddenly suggested that we let Geum Shinyu handle the producing, all the team members hesitated, but in the end, for the simple realistic reason that no one on our team had learned composition, we agreed to let Shinyu take it on.It was just that, for some reason, the person in question, Geum Shinyu, seemed extremely reluctant to take on producing, but‘Ha··· I’ll do it.’All I did was quietly look at her for a moment, and then Shinyu soon said she would give it a try.After that, in order to start by analyzing the song, our team had Shinyu begin explaining to the members what kind of song ‘Lucid Dive’ was.“Especially this mission song, ‘Lucid Dive’, is one of the songs by Boyvicious sunbaenims with the strongest concept!”I didn’t know the song, but at Shinyu’s explanation, the other team members were nodding along in agreement.“What concept was it?”“It was a mermaid concept!”A mermaid?At Shinyu’s explanation, what came to mind was a Disney animated mermaid princess, with swaying red hair and a flapping fish tail.“If you listen to the song, you’ll see, but this song compares immersion in the person you love to diving down into the sea.”“Ohh, so they made the concept like mermaids based on that?”“That’s right! It’s a very terrifying concept, like a siren from legends who seduces the other person and drags them down into the deep sea!”Once I heard the explanation, I could finally understand a bit why it had been a mermaid concept.‘It really doesn’t seem like something that would go over easily in our country.’People in our country are fundamentally very conservative by nature, so when they see a concept like that, they tend to think it’s hard to digest.“Then, shall we listen to it all together now?”Having finally finished her explanation, Shinyu suggested to the team members that we listen to the song.The team members crowded in next to her.Once she saw that all the team members had gathered around, Shinyu operated the iPad in her hand and started playing the song.A quiet night comes downWhen I close my eyes I see youAt that sparkling smileMy heart sinks againBeyond the shining wavesYou reached out your handIs this a dream or is it realMy heart beats faster‘Is it because of the voice? It really feels like I’m under the sea.’The beginning of ‘Lucid Dive’, which I was hearing for the first time, was very calm.If I hadn’t known that the ones singing this were a boy group, I could have mistaken it for some indie band’s music; that was how different the mood was.Your scent that brushes past lightlyI hold my breath and follow youIn your dazzling gazeI fall in deeperBut as the song went on, the tempo gradually started to speed up, and by the time it got to the middle, I could feel the mood of the song change all at once.If the beginning felt like being under the sea, now it felt like I was floating in the water, a pleasant sense of buoyancy.And then,Lucid dive, take me awayTo the deep dream, to you inside itIn this moment when time has stoppedStay with meLucid dive, close your eyesUntil I reach your armsInto this night I won’t forgetEven when I wake, diveWhen it reached the song’s highlight, ‘Lucid Dive’ shifted into such a refreshing atmosphere,like the rush of crisp air that slips in through the warm room air when you open the window on a cold winter’s day.“···Can we see the stage video too?”“Of course! If we’re going to analyze the song properly, music video and broadcast stages are a must, aren’t they!”After listening to the song, I felt a strong need to see what it looked like when it was actually being performed.Maybe the other team members felt the same way, because we all huddled together and watched the ‘Lucid Dive’ music video playing on the tablet.And when I saw the music video, I could understand what kind of song ‘Lucid Dive’ was even more clearly than when I’d just heard the explanation.The members of Boyvicious wore deep blue see-through tops, as if to express the color of the cold sea.‘If I’d seen this without knowing, I probably would’ve said they looked gay···’Honestly, if I hadn’t had any background knowledge, the Confucian boy inside me might have jumped out and scolded them with something like, ‘Why are they wearing clothes that revealing.’But now that I knew even that outfit was meant to express the song’s concept, it started to look completely different.And with the choreography added on top, different again from just hearing the song, I could clearly understand what Shinyu had meant about “seducing the other person and dragging them into the sea.”‘The song, the dance, the outfits··· they weren’t separate, they were one thing.’Boyvicious’s stage, weaving together so many elements solely for the concept of mermaids.As I watched those stage videos, before I knew it, I’d completely fallen for it.“Now we have to newly arrange this song!”After listening to the song separately, then watching the music video and all the live broadcast stage videos, we now had to recreate ‘Lucid Dive’ to suit our team.“First of all, we have to keep the dreamy and mysterious atmosphere that you could call this song’s identity.”At Shinyu’s words, Lee Gahyeon, who had been quiet until now, opened her mouth.“Even if we arrange the song, that has to stay in the realm of variation. I disagree with shaking the foundation.”“I agree with that too. More than anything, I feel like if this song loses that feeling, it loses all its charm.”Suyeon agreed with Gahyeon’s opinion.I felt the same, so I nodded to lend strength to Gahyeon’s opinion.“I agree as well!”Maybe still feeling guilty about having chosen a difficult song, Yunkyung, who had been watching the team members’ reactions, finally gave her agreement, and for now we decided to keep the ‘dreamy’ and ‘mysterious’ concepts.“Why are you suddenly talking like Shinyu?”“That way of talking is weirdly addictive.”When I asked why she was copying that stiff, formal tone that didn’t suit her at all, the answer that came back was that she was just imitating it because it was fun.‘The end times, seriously. Of all the things to imitate, you pick that business-speech tone···’Once you go to the army, you’ll have to use it whether you want to or not. No, right, these kids don’t go.“Then, I think changing the concept would be the most effective.”“Concept?”“In the original, to match the mermaid concept, they emphasized calmness and the spatial feeling that made you think of the sea, but I think it would be good for us to reinterpret that and set a different concept!”Hmm.She had a point.If we kept the mystery and dreaminess as is but followed the mermaid concept on top of that, it really wouldn’t be any different from the original.“Does anyone have a good suggestion?”“...···”The magical trick where the team members, who had just been running their mouths, suddenly clammed up in an instant.It seemed like Shinyu, still being young, didn’t really know how to draw out people’s opinions yet.When you want to ask someone’s opinion, you don’t coax—you give orders. That’s when the opinions come out.‘People who think the oldest should go first in something like this, upvote.’“What’s ‘upvote’?”Ah.Without realizing it, I’d just used a term from the internet or games.“Just think of it as meaning you agree.”“I agree!”“I agree too!”“Then I’ll upvote as well!”The moment they realized they were no longer the targets, their mouths immediately loosened back up,and only Gahyeon, who’d ended up as the one in first place, protested her unfair treatment. But there was nothing to be done.In a democratic society, majority vote is power and authority.“Since everyone else agrees, we’ll unanimously start with Gahyeon unni suggesting a concept! Everyone, applause!”Clap, clap, clap.With the sound of applause ringing out, I could see Gahyeon’s eyes spinning as she became the first to suggest a concept.She probably had a lot on her mind, scrambling to come up with a concept.“S-sexy?”And after a brief pause, the word ‘sexy’ popped out of Gahyeon’s mouth.At the word ‘sexy’, Yunkyung, current middle schooler, jerked her head away like she’d heard something she shouldn’t, and Suyeon, clearing her throat, glanced down at her own body, then quickly started scanning the other team members’ bodies.“Is this the dignity of an adult?”I too could only express surprise at Gahyeon’s bold choice.No—at her selfish choice.“Are you bragging right now, by any chance?”“W-what are you talking about!”Hmm.Judging from how flustered she was, it seemed my guess had hit the mark.It was one thing for Yunkyung, who was still growing, but for the other team members, Suyeon and Shinyu, to put it nicely they were slender, to put it bluntly they were flat.By contrast, in both looks and figure, Gahyeon had the outward appearance of a mature woman, unlike the other team members, so maybe that was why she could say ‘sexy’ as a concept.As the gazes of the team members, including me, all drifted to the one particularly prominent part of Gahyeon’s body, she hastily covered her chest with her hands and glared at us.“How do you even come up with such gross, old-man thoughts!”Harsh.Never mind my past life, in this life I was still a fresh-faced third-year high school student, and she was calling me old-man-like.“Back in the day, when girl groups did dreamy and mysterious concepts, the image was usually pure.”“Then why did you say we should go sexy?”“If we go that way, we’ll definitely be directly compared to the other team.”At Gahyeon’s explanation, the team members, myself included, all went “Ah!” at the same time like Newton seeing an apple fall.“The other team has two A grades. Apart from that, overall their ranks are higher than ours, and their members’ visuals fit the pure image way better.”Gahyeon was thinking not only of our team, but also of the opposing team we’d be competing against with the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ same song.“As expected, the dignity of experience···”“Will you stop with the ‘dignity of experience’ already?! I’m only two years older than you at most, you know?”Should I have said years of experience instead?Since the look in Gahyeon’s eyes as she glared at me was pretty fierce, I hurriedly turned my head and changed the subject.“Okay, then next up, let’s hear from Suyeon.”“Me? Wait! Isn’t Sion unni the second oldest after Gahyeon unni?”“I’m the MC, so I have to give my opinion last. Are you going to keep wasting our precious time?”When I pressured her, Suyeon looked aggrieved, but in the end she opened her mouth.“Since this is a boy group’s song, I think it would be good to keep that feeling alive and go with a tomboy concept.”“Tomboy?”“Yes, a gender-neutral concept.”A gender-neutral concept···.With Gahyeon saying ‘sexy’ and Suyeon saying we should emphasize a neutral feeling, there was only one image that came to mind for me.That was none other than a song by Laon.‘Didn’t Laon have a song like that back in the day?’Laon was a famous female singer I’d known of since my previous life.Which made sense—ever since the early 2000s, when I’d been a student, she’d been active, winning not only first place but even grand prizes. If you were Korean, you couldn’t not know her.And there were a few songs of Laon’s that I knew too, and“‘Flame’?”one of them was ‘Flame’.“Why did you suddenly say that, Sion unni?”But since this song had come out in the early 2000s, it seemed like no one but me knew it.‘Shouldn’t at least Gahyeon know it···?’I looked at Gahyeon with a doubtful gaze, but when she snapped at me, asking why I was looking at her like that, I decided to let it go for now.“Go on YouTube. Among Laon sunbaenim’s songs, there should be one called ‘Flame’, and that fits exactly with the image you and Gahyeon unni just described.”At my words, Shinyu, who was holding the tablet, immediately opened YouTube and searched for the song I’d mentioned.“How do you even know a song like this?”“···Details later. Let’s watch the video first.”Soon, Laon’s ‘Flame’ started playing on the tablet screen.On stage, Laon was wearing an outfit similar to a man’s tuxedo, and“Wow, I didn’t know Laon sunbaenim had a song like this.”“I didn’t know this song either, but it has a really good vibe.”“It feels completely different from ‘Lucid Dive’, but somehow the texture feels similar!”Maybe because it was their first time seeing the stage, the other team members were focused on the song itself, but my attention was going elsewhere.‘Laon··· she really was an incredible singer.’Seeing Laon endlessly power through intense choreography while singing, I realized that ‘Flame’, which I’d once listened to without thinking much, was actually an incredible song.With the nonstop vocals and bursts of intense choreography here and there, just watching made me feel out of breath.And Laon was pulling that song off perfectly, live, not even lip-synced.Before I knew it, the song was wrapping up, and my eyes met those of the team members.“What do you think?”“I like it.”“I like it too!”It was the first time our team’s opinions had aligned.

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