Chapter 63

Hajin had his reasons for landing on city pop as the arrangement.

'For starters, these guys' vocals just aren't strong enough.'

Dan Haru could hold his own, but Seo Taehyun didn't have the chops to pull off 'To You I Declare' as the original — and Park Jaeyoung, forget it. That Jayden bastard was pushing a rap position to begin with.

Do what Seo Taehyun wanted and preserve every ounce of the original's insane technique, and we'd be buried alive before we ever debuted.

'"To You I Declare" would come out as "To You I Just Screech" — mounted on the wall like taxidermy.'

And Hajin had exactly as much intention of getting buried as one of Sarin's many sacrifices as he had money in his bank account. (Meaning zero.)

'So we just have to do what we do well.'

Guess this is how we break up

Guess we've really broken up

Along with Jayden pulling off a sing-rap-style part, this time everyone froze in unison. Poses expressing different characters — and only Jayden, whose part it was, kept moving. Every time his path brought him face-to-face with another member, a paired sequence played out.

Passing through unremarkable days, once in a while,

Clutching at time that only crawls, once in a while,

The LED backdrop that had been showing a sunset sky now displayed a dark city at night.

The highlight coming around one more time.

The key had modulated up, making the high notes one step harder, but Hajin sang with a relaxed face.

'Feels like I could push it up a few more notes if I wanted.'

But on this stage, right now, overselling the emotion would be poison. So Hajin held back, just adding enough variation in the right places to keep it from getting dull.

Because…

'…it's not time to let it rip yet.'

The next part followed right after. The section Taehyun had taken in falsetto.

Unlike the first verse, where every instrument had been muted, this time the accompaniment — more elaborate, and for that reason lonelier — filled every space.

At the same moment, Haru and Taehyun stepped out together and faced each other at center.

Bye, Oh Bye!

Thanks to the key going up, the range was even tighter for falsetto. But this time, Haru's crystal-clear high note — as if he'd never even been through voice change — carried the part with no strain.

Bye, Oh Good Bye!

Yes, at last we've arrived at our end

Over that crystal-clear voice, Taehyun's slightly husky low harmony layered in. The bell top line from the intro rang out again — just like a school bell.

♪♬♬♪♪—♪♪♩—

And the dance break began.

Seo Taeil, tapping the rhythm on his pen along to the familiar arrangement, laughed.

"Kept what needed keeping, then."

Rhythmic solos from brass instruments, backed up by a variety of keyboard sounds.

This was the 'jazz'-concept arrangement he'd panned to hell and back at the midpoint check. In the natural gaps of the song, the trainees held their formation and stepped through it lightly.

Same steps, same expressions, same paths.

But the way it landed was different from before. Not just an escape from the original — this time, the emotion they were reaching for was clear.

"…Strange."

Unlike the first verse, where the school uniforms had unified everyone, now each of them was styled completely differently.

A full change of clothes wasn't possible on stage, so traces inevitably remained.

But that was more effective.

"Like classmates meeting again all grown up, right?"

"Smart move. The costume change and all."

Bright faces and open smiles, contrary to the sad lyrics. But also carrying the lonely, faded quality baked into the city pop genre.

The stage centered its performance around Taehyun — a natural at this kind of emotional expression — and Haru, brimming with young, fresh energy.

'Unfortunately, neither my features nor my style are any good for this genre.'

Hajin knew perfectly well that, for a concept like 'a memory surfacing with the sunset,' he came off way too strong. Pushing Taehyun as the lead vocalist while handing center to Haru had been an unavoidable choice from that same calculation. But,

'What, we start with Seo Taehyun and end with Seo Taehyun?'

Sure, the stage had started as Seo Taehyun's wish-fulfillment, but Hajin had exactly as much intention of becoming Seo Taehyun and Friends as he had of befriending Han Seongwoo. (Meaning negative.)

And to put it another way,

Yes, at last we've arrived at our end

'Meaning: just because I look fierce doesn't mean I plan on being background scenery on my own stage.'

As the dance break wound down, Hajin drew in a small breath. The accompaniment, which had held steady in a subdued register throughout, had grown a little fuller thanks to the jazzy dance break.

Final highlight — Hajin came in right on cue.

At the end of every one of those special days, we,

At the end of all the time that's already flowed by, we,

Hajin, who'd been keeping the choruses clean with a light mixed voice, deliberately dug in and pushed the pitch up into full chest voice.

As if to capture the original's explosive emotional arc exactly as written.

Like this, we,

We're really breaking up like this

The end of us, who loved each other

Along with the aching voice, the note cracked slightly at the end — and even that felt like part of the expression. The tempo slowed a little, and a beautiful piano melody came in with it. Between the trainees, each facing a different direction, Taehyun moved in flowing motions.

Bye, Oh Bye!

Bye, Oh Good Bye!

Yes, at last we've arrived at our end

They struck an ending pose calculated down to the fingertips, and the stage slowly darkened.

Hmm— hmmm—

The humming from the intro returned, and the now-signature bell sound came through with it, monotone like a music box.

At the far end of the stage, back again — the desk and the mailbox.

Haru, no longer in his school uniform, walked slowly through the lighting and took the letter out of the drawer.

Hmm— hmmm—

Yes, at last we've arrived at our…

In a voice like a whisper meant for someone, Haru slipped the letter into the mailbox — and the song ended.

Hajin, his eyes fixed straight out on the stage, looked at Seo Taeil quietly smiling and thought:

'Landed.'

Whatever else, he felt lighter. And apparently so did his 'companion.'

Comrade 'Seo Taehyun' has achieved a realization! (Congratulatory reward ∥ 300 cash) A companion's realization is a huge boost to quest progression! Comrade 'Seo Taehyun's past timeline (1) is unlocked!

'Something curious… just kicked in.'

The update was worth it, wasn't it!

Yeah, aren't you just something.

"Yes, Sad Ending team. Well done. Please come to center stage."

At Seo Taeil's lead-in, the trainees — frozen in place until now — all started moving again. Dan Haru, who'd greeted the ending alone in front of the desk, turned around too — a proud smile hanging on his face.

The stage of 'To You I Declare' was over.

---

"Ah, this is fun."

"Honestly, it's making me a bit nervous — these hoobaes are really good."

While the trainees briefly wet their throats and touched up their makeup, the mentors' seats traded evaluations back and forth. And, in the middle of that, there was one person unusually quiet, sorting through her thoughts.

"……"

Sarin — the original artist of 'To You I Declare' — just blinked slowly and gazed at the stage. The trainees, who moments ago had reinterpreted her song and sung it anew, were patting each other's shoulders, their expressions lightened.

The pride of having done everything they set out to do. The ease that comes after pouring out everything they had.

'Ah… I'm jealous.'

All of it was what she'd been missing so badly.

"…Noona, you okay?"

"Huh? Ah, yeah."

Noticing her expression had darkened, Taeil asked quietly, and Sarin gave a startled nod. Then, for a moment, she looked down at her evaluation sheet — where she hadn't managed to write anything at all.

"Um, Taeil-ah."

"Yeah, noona. You're not feeling sick, are you?"

"No, I'm okay. That… you know, the assessments."

"Yeah."

It looked like they'd be rolling again soon — the lighting was being reset, and an AD could be seen going up on stage for the slate.

Her eyes still fixed on the stage, Sarin gripped her pen tight and let it go, then spoke to Taeil.

"Could I go first? If there's no big issue with that…."

At her cautious question, Taeil let out a soft breath of a laugh and nodded.

"Of course no issue, you're the original artist. Got it. I'll ask you first in a bit."

"Yeah, thanks."

Relieved by Taeil's easy answer, Sarin gave a small smile of her own and steadied her breath. She just wanted, more than anything, to be the first to tell them how precious this stage was.

---

"…Dan Haru, what's with your face?"

They said we'd take a short break, so I grabbed water from a staffer and polished off a whole bottle before coming back — and Dan Haru, already standing at center stage, was wearing a slightly downcast look.

Just a few minutes ago his eyes had been sparkling like a baby rabbit who'd hit its goal — what happened all of a sudden?

"Hungry?"

"No… nobody cried."

"……?"

I'd been wondering what he meant — turned out the kid was earnestly beating himself up over my grand goal of making at least one person cry.

"It's fine. The one crying doesn't have to be the mentor panel."

"…Really?"

The point of that goal wasn't really to literally make anyone cry.

'It meant: make them forget Sarin's original.'

If the people listening to this song could forget the original for even a moment, and take in the emotion we were trying to deliver — our own emotion — in full, that alone was enough.

This stage had been prepared with less of an eye on first place than on just beating Han Seongwoo, so I wasn't especially hungry for the score either.

"Good job, Dan Haru."

When I patted the back of Dan Haru — who'd more than done his part — he finally reverted to his happy-rabbit self and gave a small smile. The way he squirmed a little in his happiness — the very picture of a Happy Rabbit.

"Alright, Sad Ending team. Line up centered on the stage."

"Yep."

"Rolling! One, two —."

And finally, it was our turn to hear the assessments.

"The Sad Ending team's 'To You I Declare.' Let's hear the assessments. First… the original artist herself, Mentor Sarin, what did you think?"

"Ugh."

When the original artist stepped up as the leadoff hitter on assessments, Park Jaeyoung next to me let out a strangled sound. I gave his side a subtle jab and turned to the mentors' seats with the most respectful expression I could manage.

"…Hmm."

Sarin grabbed the mic like she'd been waiting for the cue, but couldn't easily open her mouth. She looked like she was picking through her words in her head. Still, the silence didn't last long.

"I've been wondering what I should even start with."

"……"

"Thank you."

Out of nowhere?

"Thank you for reminding me that a song can be sung this way too."

I'd figured she'd throw us some standard compliments, but the voice was more genuine than expected, and it threw me a little. I'd expected something more along the lines of 'thanks for singing my song well' — the fond kind of smile a sunbaenim gives her hoobaes….

Something about Sarin's expression as she looked at us wasn't ordinary.

"Ah…."

"……"

"Ha, I really was trying not to cry."

And in an instant, her eyes went red at the rims — she fanned her face with her hand and tilted her head up toward the ceiling. When Seo Taeil quickly pulled a few tissues out from below and pressed them into her hand, she just openly started dabbing away tears. Uh — huh?

"You pulled out the courage for me to sing again. Thank you, Sad Ending team."

Uh — I hadn't meant to do quite this well?