Chapter 89 Chapter 89
After the elimination rounds are broadcast, the contestants’ performance audio will be simultaneously released on the Melon platform at 12:00 am on the same day.
The highlight and peak ratings of this round were undoubtedly focused on Kim Woo-chan, who made his final appearance. "Lovers" debuted at number one on the Melon daily chart the night it was released, and its listenership continued to climb. On Naver's real-time search,
Hashtags like #KimWoochanLover surged to the top, far outpacing the other contestants. But KimWoochan himself wasn't having an easy time. Backstage at the livestream—"Explain," Lia coldly uttered.
She knew that her face must be extremely ugly now. Jin Yucan lowered his head, his face pale and almost transparent. He had certainly anticipated such a moment.
Even the scene before him was exactly the same as what he had rehearsed in his mind: even at this point, she did not choose to confront him in public.
They were in a dead corner backstage, not on the main traffic route, and the staff coming and going would basically not pass by.
At first, he just wanted to "borrow" the demo, but no matter how he modified it, it was still not as good as the melody she played casually. He felt lost, and his body took that step uncontrollably.
He did what he once despised the most. He was even certain that as long as he showed remorse, Lia would not choose to expose him. By then, he would have gained enough attention and popularity to advance to the finals. He was disgusted with his own calculations.
He put on a look of utter despair. That wasn't a disguise. The moment the coveted thief touched the treasure, the glittering gold melted into boiling magma, devouring him beyond recognition.
"...Miyane, Nunna." He finally said only this. "Why? You know best what a work means to its creator." Lia stared at him intently. "Self-composed music?" "This time,
"What's next? Keep stealing other people's songs?" she pressed. Jin Yucan stood frozen, completely defeated by the stare. He found he simply couldn't bear this gaze—a gaze mingled with anger, disgust, and deep disappointment.
The way she looked at him used to be gentle and admiring. He suddenly felt the urge to reach out and cover her eyes.
"Because of jealousy," he finally said, avoiding her gaze. "I'm jealous of Noona, of how she easily reached heights I could never reach." Jealousy...? For a moment, Lia felt almost convinced.
"No, it's arrogance." She interrupted him. Jin Yuchan was stunned and looked up in surprise.
"'Easily'?" she repeated, her tone even colder. "With just one word, 'easy', you negate all my efforts and attribute everything I have to talent. That's not jealousy, it's arrogance."
She raised an eyebrow, watching the color drain from his face. "You're so easily dismissing your own talent. You've never really considered how far you can go with hard work, have you?" She understood that feeling all too well.
The higher you climb, the more you see those at the top, those who possess both talent and hard work. Climbing from the bottom takes countless days and nights, but being crushed by the gap between people only takes a moment.
Giving up on the path you came from so easily is the greatest arrogance towards the hardworking self you once were. Jin Yucan was shocked.
He had always thought that he was ready to face it all—the accusations, the disappointments, the judgments. He had always thought that he had the courage to bear all the consequences.
But at that moment, he suddenly realized that the wavering feeling deep in his heart had never truly disappeared. It wasn't fear, nor was it regret, but an almost unspeakable unwillingness—a betrayal and denial of the "self" who had traveled thousands of miles from a foreign country to Seoul, fighting tooth and nail just to stand on the stage.
He betrayed not only his music, but also the part of himself that still believed in the meaning of hard work. "...I will ask the PD to withdraw from the competition." After a long moment, he uttered only this sentence.
"That's your business. Don't bother looking for me again." Lia heard her own voice. She didn't want to ask anymore. Anger and disappointment made it almost impossible for her to think further.
Reaching out to turn off the recorder in her pocket, she took one last look at Jin Yucan and turned away.
Lia couldn't remember how she finished her work for the day, said goodbye to her coworkers, returned home, and fell into a deep sleep. It was as if years of fatigue had all boiled over that night. Sometimes in her dreams, she saw Kim Woo-chan's regretful face, sometimes he was on stage singing that so-called "self-composed song."
The real-time search results were full of entries related to him, but she couldn't easily push him to the gallows like in the TV series.
Perhaps she projected a part of her past self onto him—the self who had come to Seoul alone, striving to pursue her dreams. She couldn't help but reflect on what was the difference between what she and Teddy had done that had led him down this path.
Although she recorded the audio, she hadn't thought about how to deal with it. It was more like an instinctive self-protection.
She had been in the storm before, and had witnessed the power of public opinion. Once this matter was made public, there was no turning back. The pleasure of revenge was followed by the complete collapse of a young man's life—a price she wasn't ready to bear.
But trust is something that's easily eroded. After this experience, she probably wouldn't be able to trust anyone easily again. By the time she got to the Busan studio in a taxi, her emotions were still turbulent. Today was the day Yoo Seung-ho wrapped filming.
After the live broadcast ended, it was a short vacation. A few weeks ago, she secretly contacted Manager Choi, who was also on the set, to give Yoo Seung-ho a surprise. And now, even with this incident, she didn't want to delay her original plan any further.
The niche film "The Long Goodbye" directed by Liu Quanze started shooting at the end of October last year. After four months of filming, it is about to be successfully completed.
Lia had originally helped pass on the script. No one expected the project to actually come to fruition until a producer friend of Jeong Laichai took a liking to the script. After more than six months of preparation, filming finally began in Busan.
The story tells of a middle-aged painter who, after his wife's death, falls into a long-term creative bottleneck and becomes emotionally withdrawn, fleeing to a seaside town. Every day, he goes to the town's old cafe, sits in a fixed seat and sketches, and the townspeople regard him as a freak.
Yoo Seung-ho plays Tae-woo, a young man working part-time at a cafe. His family is struggling: his father passed away at a young age, his mother is frail, and his younger sister is still in school. Although he's reluctant to be trapped in a small town for life, the weight of reality and family ties forces him to give up his dream of photography.
Two people meet in a cafe and slowly develop a subtle connection through repeated conversations. This is a story about "staying" and "leaving."
The painter, unable to escape his obsession with his deceased wife, flees to the small town; Tae-woo, trapped by his real-life responsibilities, is unable to leave. The small town is both a prison and a refuge; a place where time stands still and a silent redemption.
Yoo Seung-ho was so devoted to this role that he wrote more than three versions of his biography. The painter was played by Yoo Sung-yong, who had just won the Blue Dragon Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work.
The director's ambition is evident from the scriptwriting to the casting. The final scene was filmed on the beach, late at night. When Lia arrived on set, the director yelled "Cut." "Thanks for your hard work, wrapping up!"
Cheers echoed from the beach. The night sea was deep and majestic, and the breeze, mingled with salt and damp air, lashed my face. The lights of the fishing boats in the distance echoed with the small group on the beach.
The crew hugged and high-fived each other in celebration, some handed over bouquets of flowers, and the photography assistant held up a camera to capture the final group photo. Yu Seung-ho, holding a bouquet of flowers, patiently took photos with each crew member.
Lia stood at the edge of the crowd, watching, and suddenly felt a sense of peace. He was like her "small town," like time had stopped, allowing her to temporarily escape the storm outside. Manager Cui noticed her first.
"The cake has arrived." He came over and greeted politely.
Even though so much time had passed, they still couldn't be called familiar with each other. Perhaps it was because she had always been obedient and cooperative. Apart from the conversation when they first met, the two of them maintained a decent but distant distance.
"Thank you," Lia nodded with a smile. She had asked Manager Choi to order the crew's wrap cake in Yoo Seung-ho's name. Although he wasn't very familiar with her, he always cooperated with her in the most crucial aspects.
Yu Seung-ho noticed the commotion as well. He smiled and nodded, quickly finishing the last photo. He walked towards her quickly, holding the flowers, his eyes filled with undisguised joy. "Why are you here?" he asked in a low voice.
"Isn't wrapping up a big deal?" Lia smiled at him. "Did the livestream go well?" Yu Seungho handed the flowers to Manager Choi and took her hand. Her expression dimmed slightly, and she hesitated for a moment. "Yeah, it's okay. Where are we going?"
"Let's go to the beach," he said cheerfully. They walked side by side, listening to the waves crashing against the reefs. The empty winter night made everything seem distant, and their breaths were filled with the salty, damp smell of the sea breeze.
She opened her mouth, but the thing about Jin Yucan got stuck in her throat and she couldn't say it. Sometimes, she would feel that there seemed to be something wrong with the way they got along.
She was always accustomed to sharing good news but not bad news, whether it was to family or friends, while he was always quiet. They both seemed to have tacitly accepted this mode - automatically filtering out the bad parts of life, hoping to be the one to share the burden, but neither wanted to bring trouble to the other.
They all learned too early how to deal with problems on their own like adults, but they could never learn to rely on others and ask for help as confidently as children.
Perhaps he was aware of this, too. But in a sense, they were too similar, and neither of them spoke to break the tacit silence. "What a shame, I haven't had time to watch it these past two days." Yu Chenghao suddenly sighed.
"I didn't act in it either." Lia said with a smile. But as soon as she finished speaking, she thought of Jin Yucan and her smile could not be maintained.
"Ani, you put a lot of thought into it. That's your show." He said, gently squeezing her hand as if to cheer her up. Lia suddenly felt a little sad.
"...Yeah." She took a deep breath and whispered, "I'm so tired." Yu Chenghao thought she was talking about her schedule and said apologetically, "Miyang, I could have had a good rest today."
Lia shook her head and didn't explain. They walked all the way to a small viewing platform on the shore. The guardrail was covered with a thin layer of frost. Yu Chenghao walked over first, tentatively wiped the railing with his sleeve, and turned back to wave at her.
She hesitated for a few seconds, but still walked over and stood beside him. "It seems like a long time ago that I last came to the beach." He looked at the sea. "...Do you mean in high school?"
"Yeah." His voice was carried away by the sea breeze, drifting into my ears intermittently. "How does it feel to wrap up?" Lia thought for a moment and asked softly.
"It's a bit unreal." He thought about it seriously, "It's like... being pulled out of another person's life."
It's like living another person's life in a short time. At some points, you even feel that person is the real you. "Then you suddenly feel empty and don't know what to do next."
He looked up into the distance. The sea and the sky merged into one, and only a few sparse fishing boat lights could be seen, flickering in the night. The light and shadows seemed far away, as if they would be blown away by the wind at any moment.
"Then you've already lived several lifetimes." She quipped softly. "Yeah." He turned his head and smiled, "But I like this one the best."
She didn't know much about filming, and it was a rare occasion for them to sit down like this, talking about life and characters she didn't know much about. They sat side by side, gazing at the boundless Black Sea. Occasionally, a breeze blew, darkening the night even further.
Time seemed to stretch out, yet it seemed to just stop quietly at this moment. They were the closest people in the world, yet also the most unfamiliar people in the world.
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