Chapter 52 "Always You" - Fishbone Bites Kitten in Shallow Water...

[Holy crap! Holy ...

[Seriously, Haha, you're too bold! Be careful you don't get assassinated by Kobe fans!]

[Was I hallucinating? Did they really say GD?]

[What's the big deal... Haha has always been a fan of GD, and he often talks about GD with the big fan over the years, but I didn't expect him to say that he is GD's child. Does he want GD to be the godfather of his child?]

The key point about the conjugate father-son relationship (not really) isn't whether Haha mentioned GD, but that Haha mentioned GD in front of Coldy!

Why? Is there some kind of taboo between them? When did they break up? No, when did they even meet? I didn't know. Did they mention it and I'd get a lawyer's letter?

[It's not that exaggerated. There was a rumor before that had no basis in reality. GD liked a lot of Instagram videos related to Coldy, and then he said that he admired the players of SW and decided to sponsor them with his brand PMO. Some people thought that GD was trying to pursue Coldy, but in fact, the two have had zero contact since SW ended. There was no real evidence to prove that they had any interaction before.]

[For those who have been secretly shipping these two, let me clarify: they're not completely unconnected. During the finals, GD left halfway through Coldy's solo performance, leading many to believe he wasn't interested in Coldy. But actually, GD is still liking Coldy-related Instagram posts... Yes, from last October until almost July now, he's probably liked fifty or sixty videos and posts in total. Of course, that's nothing compared to GD's vast ocean of likes, but fifty or sixty is still a significant number.]

[They don't even have any connection. No one can prove they've ever met. I really don't understand how anyone can ship this completely unrelated couple. And they don't even consider the age difference. If Long were a little more rebellious, he could have given birth to Han Mei. It's not uncommon for 13-year-olds to become fathers.]

That's a bit too rebellious... But I don't think liking posts can be considered evidence of a relationship. You need to see them meet in person to count. I thought it was something serious that made so many people excited, but it turns out it's just a trivial matter between these two. They're practically strangers.

[Actually, I think Coldy's reaction was quite interesting. Her first reaction upon hearing GD's name was surprise, though I don't know what she was surprised about. She then gave a full reaction by laughing, but the laugh seemed fake, a standard business smile. It's quite strange for Coldy because she's actually quite easily amused. It's not necessarily that she has a low threshold for laughter, but when someone says something that's meant to be entertaining, she'll show a smile that meets the audience's expectations, not this kind of perfunctory one.]

[Does anyone else feel the same way? Weren't we speculating she might like Bigbang (G-Dragon)? But judging from her behavior, if she were a real fan, she would have joined the discussion, right? Her reaction after hearing GD's name is strange. Theoretically, it should be a sign that she's not interested in GD, but I don't dare to jump to conclusions.]

[The renowned micro-expression observation master is here! Let me tell you, that expression just means she's daydreaming. She probably wasn't even listening to what the master and Haha were saying. She was already saying she was leaving, and now she definitely wants to leave, who cares if it's FD, HD, JD, or GD?]

[You can tell something from her expression... Well, I could say she's acting guilty. Look how hard she's clutching the bouquet, she must be flustered because she's dating GD and suddenly the host mentioned her boyfriend's name. Do you really believe such a ridiculous analysis?]

[Yeah, some fans are acting like entertainers, making it seem like Coldy and GD are sworn enemies, while others are trying to discredit their "relationship" by liking posts. Why don't they just have a fight? They're just ordinary senior-junior colleagues, they only know each other's names.]

[To take it even further, you might as well say that the friend who came out with Coldy is G-Dragon!]

[Ahhh, my sister just left like that, even her back view with the flowers was so beautiful... Some people say my sister looks like a K-drama heroine just standing there, and they're right. Her departure looks like a breakup scene with the male lead.]

[Some people are so beautiful you can tell just from their backs, haha. Han Jie's outfit today is both casual and stylish. Her waist is so slim and her legs are so long when she raises her arms. She has such a beautiful figure.]

[I'm out of withdrawal now, when's the next time we meet?!]

[Ugh... Daesung and Haha should take this opportunity to ask Lumera when she's coming back; this is breaking news!]

[Yeah, such an important question and we didn't even ask! I wonder if you two will regret it lol]

On the screen, Yoo Jae-suk and Haha have no regrets for now; they are heading to the final review location with the photos on their phones.

When they saw that the audience judges were a bunch of middle-aged men and women with an average age of over fifty, their expressions clearly showed that they had miscalculated!

People usually get to know new idols when they are young. Someone in their thirties might also know them by surfing the internet, but those who don't use the internet much might not know this girl!

However, the two remained confident, not wanting to appear weak. Besides, so what if they didn't know each other? They were both taking pictures of people, not flowers and plants, so there was no way to take shortcuts or cheat.

As the photos were taken one by one, the audience judges gave their scores. Finally, it was Yoo Jae-suk and Haha's turn.

The two strolled up leisurely, opened the photos they had taken, and the first one was a stunning picture of them holding flowers and gently smelling them by the river, an image of breathtaking beauty.

Yoo Jae-suk eagerly said, "We just ran into a special guest while we were looking for someone to film."

"So our subject for the shoot is—Coldy!" Haha announced excitedly, his voice brimming with blatant boasting, as if to say, "How could we be so lucky?!"

"???"

Is it the Coldy they know?

The other permanent residents were immediately startled. When they looked at the photo, it really was true!

Uncle Wang with the big nose and Kim Jong-kook immediately started arguing: "Isn't this wrong? Isn't this cheating?"

Yoo Jae-suk: "How can this be considered cheating? This is something we happened by chance, and the staff here can all testify to it."

The camera crew immediately nodded vigorously.

Song Ji-hyo: "Wow... these photos are really good. Oppa, your photography skills have improved a lot. Coldyxi is really beautiful."

Kim Jong-kook denies it: "It's all thanks to the models."

HAHA: "Huh, what does that mean?"

Kim Jong-kook automatically ignored this sentence: "Why didn't you invite Coldy here too, so we could have a look as well?"

Jeon So-min: "Yeah, I really want to see Coldy too."

Liang Shiheng: "I'm a fan of Miss Coldy!"

Yoo Jae-suk laughed and scolded, "Se-hyung, are you not a fan of anyone at all?"

HAHA continued to act arrogantly, raising his chin: "You guys don't have a chance today, wait until next time."

After some lighthearted banter, the final decision rests with the public jury. The scores are based on average, with the highest score currently at 8.7, which is already quite high.

The judges scored the results one after another, and before the results were announced, Yoo Jae-suk randomly interviewed several judges.

"Auntie, how many points would you rate our photos?"

The woman firmly stated, "10 points!"

Even Yoo Jae-suk was somewhat surprised: "Why?"

Auntie: "This girl is very well-behaved. She looks like she's a good student and very filial."

HAHA beamed with joy and gave a thumbs up: "Auntie, you were absolutely right!"

Yoo Jae-suk then interviewed an older man: "Ajusshi, how many points did you give the photo?"

Uncle: "I'd say nine out of ten. She's so beautiful, I'm almost afraid to get close."

HAHA: "Not bad either, uncle has good taste!"

Finally, I asked an older woman, who replied in a strong voice, "Full marks!"

"This looks familiar, like I've seen it on TV before."

Yoo Jae-suk guessed that the auntie was too old to watch music shows, so she probably only saw her in commercials. Coldy had filmed a lot of Binggrae commercials in the past few months.

The uncles and aunts' reasons were all very simple and straightforward, but the scores were all quite good. Yoo Jae-suk and Haha secretly thought to themselves that they were in the clear, but they were still shocked when they saw the final scores.

A full 9.5 points!

The other permanent residents shouted, "This is unfair!"

These photos look like artistic portraits, how can they compare to Coldy's!

[kkkk Coldy's presence here is definitely a bug-level thing, it has a kind of numerical beauty. Actually, I feel that Ji-hyo's group, which has the best photos, also scores very high, close to 9 points.]

[That's just how modeling monsters are! I guess I'll just have to accept my bad luck. Who would have thought Coldy would suddenly appear out of nowhere?]

[An older woman said she'd seen me, Han, on TV. I've really made something of myself! My influence is gradually expanding to middle-aged and elderly groups.]

[To summarize the rating criteria of the older generation—it's so beautiful! Although human aesthetics are subjective, when someone's beauty is objectively recognized, a unified aesthetic can be achieved.]

[Program team, please release these original photos quickly! Our Coldy is so beautiful! She just came out for a stroll and produced some amazing pictures.]

From now on, Coldy will have a 9.5 out of 10 looks.

[Too low! This 0.5 point is obviously due to poor photography techniques (sorry to the two seniors), our Coldy is a perfect 10 in looks!]

The final result satisfied the fans; they wanted to see their sister dominate with her beauty!

This episode of Running Man indeed had significantly higher viewership than the previous two episodes, rising like a mountain peak. When Coldy appeared, the number of comments surged, and clips of Coldy appeared everywhere online, with at least hundreds of thousands of views and many even reaching millions.

The fans' enthusiasm was also aroused, and they asked WK1 what Lumera's next plans were.

But WK1 learned a trick from YG – playing dead.

*

Jiang Tinghan finally decided to stop hesitating and cooperate with Epik High!

Moreover, she had already written the song, on the night her date with Kwon Ji-yong ended, and it was called "Always You".

She didn't dare look at the lyrics she wrote a second time, and immediately sent an invitation to Epik High, along with a lyrical rap lyric.

Epik high was probably also unemployed, with elderly parents and young children to support, and quickly sent a reply.

Cooperation! They couldn't be happier!

And so our first meeting took place.

We met in July at Wake One's office building.

Because Ke1per's management has been outsourced to another company, they don't come to Wake One very often. So, after Lumera debuted, they could basically only see their members and staff at the company. But recently it's different because a new boy group, ZB1, has debuted. They are also preparing their debut album and come to the company for training very frequently.

Jiang Tinghan met Zhang Hao and Shen Quanrui, the Chinese green card duo from ZB1, today. They were both quite handsome, and when they saw her, they instinctively bowed and said, "Hello, Senior Coldy!"

It took me a second to realize that there were three Chinese people present, so there was no need to use Korean.

Jiang Tinghan calmly replied in Chinese: "Hello."

I wonder how he feels about having a Chinese person in the center position in two consecutive talent shows.

After a brief greeting, they left. As Jiang Tinghan walked away, he could still hear the two of them quietly regretting their foolish actions.

She arrived at the conference room to wait for Epik High. If it were someone else, they might need to be protected by a manager, album producer, planner, etc., but because it was Coldy, the company felt comfortable letting her take the lead on her own.

"Hello, hello, hello." Tablo greeted Jiang Tinghan in Chinese as soon as he saw him.

"Hello?" Jiang Tinghan replied politely before immediately switching to the new language system, as if it were muscle memory, and said, "Ah ni haseyo, I'm Coldy from Lumera, nice to meet you."

“Okay, okay,” said another rapper, Mithra. “We’ve already tried practicing the rap that Coldyxi posted, so how about… we perform it first?”

The other two naturally had no objections; it was up to Jiang Tinghan to decide.

Jiang Tinghan suddenly felt like she was an HR interviewer, and she tentatively asked, "Is that okay too?"

"But I don't think I've sent the melodies to the seniors yet?"

Tablo: "Ah... that! We wrote one ourselves, because we got inspired when we saw these lyrics, and we could roughly imagine what the style would be like."

DJ Tukutz: "It's okay if we don't use it!"

Jiang Tinghan understood; it was just that he felt the urge to perform and wanted to sing, right?

Then she should also be a good listener.

So she nodded and clapped twice: "Okay, good luck, seniors!"

Tukutz immediately started DJing live using the equipment in the practice room. A gentle but somewhat sad melody rang out in the empty room, but it wasn't slow. Instead, the drumbeats were very dense, as if you could feel the singer's melancholy and anxiety just by listening to it.

Jiang Tinghan sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, listening to Tablo speak, his voice sounding somewhat empty and melancholic, instantly evoking a strong hip-hop vibe.

Her lyrics flowed out through the rapper's voice.

"Hey, do you know why your steps are so heavy when you walk on the road?"

"It's because I'm on your back, walking with you."

"Your life carries the weight of my soul."

Don't be scared when you see the first few lines. This is not a horror story. It's because the "I" in the lyrics, which is Jiang Tinghan himself, has already passed away. This is a song to commemorate a deceased lover, but the story is that the deceased "I" is still accompanying "you" in another way.

For example, if your steps are heavy and your heart is heavy, it's not because of pain, but because I'm pressing down on you. Or, for example, our past memories can accompany you for a lifetime.

Next came the lyrics that Jiang Tinghan didn't want to listen to a second time.

Epik High also delivers a series of emotionally resonant rap verses with melodic harmonies, creating a rich and varied listening experience with its varied highs and lows.

"Do you remember? That afternoon when even the wind was languid?"

"You and I, nestled on the bench, share a cigarette."

"Between your lips and my lips."

"The smoke, thick with sunlight, is flowing..."

"A silent kiss..."

"The smoke that flickers between your fingers now, that is me, do you understand?"

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Author's note: This APEC performance video made me so nervous! I initially thought they were only going to sing one song, but it turned out to be three!

Goodnight, my darlings, I'm going to get some rest now to prepare for the movie tomorrow! (rubbing hands)