Chapter 105. No One Can Beat Time
The old man named Cheon Yong-gu lived in Hoengseong.
The thought of driving along snowy roads again was exhausting, but I silently made the trip.
If the spam told me to go somewhere, what choice did I have?
When I reached the foot of the mountain marked by the address, I saw a house that was practically a mansion.
That had to be it.
The atmosphere was completely different from the shady private agency in Masan, which put me a little more at ease.
I parked nearby, walked over, and pressed the intercom at the front gate.
A moment later, the front door of the distant house flew open and an old man hurried outside.
I'd texted him to say I'd arrived, yet he still looked extremely flustered.
He'd probably spent the whole time I was driving here worrying that maybe he'd developed dementia.
Sorry if I caused him too much stress.
"Huh? Do... Jun-hyeok?"
"Yes. I came to look at the song. To be honest, this is our first time meeting."
Now that I'd actually met him, all I had to do was act shamelessly friendly.
When I admitted we'd never seen each other before, Cheon Yong-gu let out a breathless laugh of disbelief.
"Wow, hahahaha... Are you insane?"
I'd already heard that in Masan.
What else was I supposed to do?
I'd come all this way to look at a song.
And I was a customer willing to spend hundreds of millions of won.
He could at least talk to me.
I went inside Cheon Yong-gu's house and asked about the songs he dealt in.
"Universe? Isn't Universe pretty famous?"
"Not at all. We still have a long way to go."
"Really? Well, I suppose if you weren't lacking in something, you wouldn't have come looking for me. I usually try not to let people know I buy copyrights. But since you've come all the way here, what can I do? If the price is right, I'll sell."
He told me he'd originally started this business to help singers with unstable incomes.
When they urgently needed cash, they could leave their copyrights with him and receive a lump sum.
Most people treated small royalty payments almost like emergency relief money anyway.
Then, once they got through the immediate crisis and their income became stable again, they could buy their copyrights back.
When the Masan president explained the same kind of business, it had sounded like the work of the greatest bastard under heaven.
But hearing a kind-looking old man explain it made the exact same thing sound like an incredible charity.
"Then did all the original owners of the songs you have go broke? Sea Girls too?"
"Probably. If they still haven't come to reclaim them, then... Well, I understand. Life is hard enough as it is."
Sometimes, something would happen and a song he'd purchased years ago would suddenly climb the charts again.
Whenever that happened, the original songwriter would come running and beg him to return it.
But a contract was a contract.
Cheon Yong-gu had never given one back for free.
If they wanted it returned, they had to pay.
"Anyway, I'd like to see 〈I Love You So Much〉."
Cheon Yong-gu showed me the list of Sea Girls songs he owned.
The number was on a completely different level from the Masan president's collection.
And there, tucked away in one corner—
〈I Love You So Much〉.
Gotcha~!
"But this one should be the most expensive. Is it really worth the price?"
"Of course. 〈I Love You So Much〉 was their biggest hit. It was released around the time I was born, but... anyway, how much?"
"You're asking about money immediately? This song has symbolic value. I can't sell it for pocket change."
Cheon Yong-gu didn't seem particularly eager to make the deal.
Was he sensing the upcoming trend just like Yoo Jong-hak?
Fine.
Let's offer high.
"Would a hundred million won do it?"
One hundred million won.
Apparently, even he hadn't expected me to go that high.
When I named the amount, Cheon Yong-gu smiled with interest.
"That's higher than I expected. Why are you willing to pay that much?"
"It just feels like that's where the trend is going. I think a retro craze is about to hit. Soon."
"Really? A retro craze soon... Then it'll probably make quite a bit of money. In that case, I should charge twice that."
Seriously.
Whenever I said I had a feeling about something, everyone normally refused to believe me.
Why was this old man trusting me so easily?
I'd even lied to him once before coming here.
"Twice means two hundred million?"
"Yep."
"Fine. Two hundred million. We sign a contract, right?"
Cheon Yong-gu took a deep breath, stood up, and brought over the paperwork.
Now the song was mine.
"That's life. What good is being successful in your prime if you end up getting sold off to some stranger you've never even seen before? Nobody can beat time, can they?"
"That's not true. I'll manage this song properly and put it back at number one."
"Well, I'd be happy if you did."
I'd just finished filling out the contract and was about to stand when the doorbell rang throughout the house.
"Old man! Old man! Open the door! Hurry! I'm buying my song back!"
Cheon Yong-gu went out and opened the gate.
A woman hurried inside.
It was Yoo-jung, Sea Girls' songwriter-member, someone I'd only ever seen on television.
How did she know?
Just looking at her, it was obvious she'd heard about the planning for 〈Friday and Saturday Are for Singers〉 and rushed here.
Did she come all this way and still fail to appear on 〈Fri-Sat Singer〉?
Or was 〈I Love You So Much〉 actually somewhere in the top three, which was why I hadn't seen it in the future video?
But I'd already stamped the contract.
All that was left was the money transfer.
Still, let's hear what she had to say.
"Old man! I'm buying one of my songs back. 〈I Love You So Much〉! I'm taking that one!"
"〈I Love You So Much〉? Why that one? I just sold it. Pick another."
"What? You sold it? Why?! Who bought it? Why did you sell that one? Why?!"
A moment ago, she'd looked as frantic as someone who'd just won the lottery and was rushing to collect.
Now every bit of that emotion had transformed into anger.
Something about it felt unsettling.
It reminded me of the madness I'd seen in Kaiser at the casino.
When Yoo-jung demanded to know who had bought the song, Cheon Yong-gu pointed at me.
She glared at me once, then turned back to him.
"How much did he pay? Fifty million? Eighty million? A hundred million? I can send it right now. So cancel the deal with him and sell it back to me!"
"If you can offer more than two hundred million, explain your situation to that young man and try persuading him. The contract's already done. Looks like there's something going on here."
Cheon Yong-gu looked at me with curious eyes.
With the original songwriter suddenly appearing like this, maybe he'd started to trust my claim that I could push the song back to number one.
"T-Two hundred million?"
Yoo-jung sank down in despair.
Of course, I had no intention of undoing the contract I'd just signed.
"Can't you just cancel it and sell it back to me for a hundred million...? I wrote this song. It's my song. Nobody can sing it better than I can."
Yoo-jung tried appealing emotionally, but Cheon Yong-gu firmly shook his head.
"What does you being the original writer have to do with me selling it to that young man? Do you think I'm some loan shark who held your song as temporary collateral? You sold this song to me ten years ago. Ten years! What were you doing all that time, only to crawl back here now and complain that I sold it before you arrived? If you'd shown even once during those ten years that you wanted the song back, do you think I'd be this cold?"
"I'm saying this for the song's sake too."
"For the song? Didn't you sell it to me for thirty million won? Then it's my song, not yours. When you were crazy about gambling and sold your songs however you pleased, leaving your agency and your members behind, where was all this concern? And now you want to act like the original songwriter? You should've expected this could happen when you sold it! Pay more than two hundred million, or get the hell out!"
So it came down to gambling after all.
Then yes.
Cheon Yong-gu was right.
He was saying almost exactly what I'd said to No Ji-hye.
Yoo-jung's eyes had gone unfocused.
Her reason and emotions had been worn away to the point where she barely seemed capable of feeling anger anymore.
The thrill of gambling, supposedly something that could be even stronger than drugs, had reduced her to this.
If she'd sold it for money, then she should've expected to need money to get it back.
Once she'd sold it, she no longer had the right to pour affection into it.
From now on, I was going to love this song far more than she ever had.
After returning to Seoul, I dropped my exhausted body onto the bed.
In the end, I'd bought 〈I Love You So Much〉.
Only after doing it did I realize what kind of opportunity this actually was.
Just like Cheon Yong-gu said, Yoo-jung was probably planning to squeeze as much royalty money as she could out of 〈Friday and Saturday Are for Singers〉, then sell the copyright back to him once the trend dried up.
If he refused, she would've gone straight to Masan.
I needed to claim the song before that could happen.
Now all I had to do was quietly wait until February 29, 2024.
While handing it to Sang-do and having him work on the arrangement.
Judging by both its recognition and the quality of the song itself, we could make it number one.
I closed my eyes, hoping to finally get some overdue sleep.
Before I could even drift off, my phone began vibrating.
An unknown number.
"Yes, this is Do Jun-hyeok from Universe."
"Ah, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok! This is Yoo Jong-hak. We met before at the Korean Broadcasting Association."
Huh?
Yoo Jong-hak.
Why was he calling me?
At exactly the right time, Sea Girls' Yoo-jung had appeared at Cheon Yong-gu's house trying to buy her song back.
I'd already suspected she'd received an offer related to 〈Fri-Sat Singer〉.
After all, Cheon Yong-gu had said she hadn't shown any intention of buying the song back for ten whole years, and now she'd suddenly appeared.
Yoo Jong-hak was the PD planning 〈Friday and Saturday Are for Singers〉.
Maybe Yoo-jung had given him my name after losing the song.
"Ah, yes. PD Yoo Jong-hak."
"Yes, CEO Do Jun-hyeok. I told you before that I'm planning a program called 〈Friday and Saturday Are for Singers〉, right? There's one song we absolutely need for it, Sea Girls' 〈I Love You So Much〉. I looked into it, and apparently the copyright is now registered under your name, so I called."
Before getting to the point, Yoo Jong-hak launched into a long speech about how important 〈I Love You So Much〉 had been in the history of Korean popular music in the nineties.
"I don't know how their agency handled things back then, but apparently the copyright belonged to Yoo-jung, one of their in-house songwriters and members. But until recently, the copyright holder was a man named Cheon Yong-gu. We had no idea who he was or where he lived, so we'd built plenty of extra time into the planning... Then today I checked again, and the copyright holder had changed. To you, CEO Do Jun-hyeok!"
What an unfortunate story.
They didn't even know who the copyright holder was or where he lived.
"Oh, really? I found him relatively easily... But couldn't you have just asked Yoo-jung? She's the one who sold it, so she should've known."
"Yes, that's true. But once we learned Yoo-jung wasn't the copyright holder, there wasn't really any reason to include her in our project. In fact, it was better if she didn't know. Yoo-jung and the other members are on very bad terms."
I asked why Yoo-jung and the other members didn't get along.
Yoo Jong-hak didn't seem to know all the details.
Apparently there had been messy issues involving men, and her attitude toward practice had been poor.
Things like getting completely drunk the night before schedules.
Still, it wasn't as though she'd been verbally or physically abusive.
In any case, the other members had apparently said they absolutely wouldn't participate if Yoo-jung was included.
"So we needed to hide the project from her as much as possible, quickly find that man Cheon Yong-gu, and secure the copyright first. But CEO Do Jun-hyeok bought it before we could!"
Talk about dangerous timing.
Apparently one of the members had subtly tested Yoo-jung about something.
Yoo-jung sensed something strange, and that was why she'd gone to Cheon Yong-gu yesterday.
Cheon Yong-gu had described Yoo-jung as crazy about gambling.
Why did everyone love gambling so much?
First No Ji-hye, the original writer of 〈Killing Life〉.
Now Yoo-jung, the original writer of 〈I Love You So Much〉.
Both of them had gambling as their weakness.
That was probably why Yoo Jong-hak would've excluded Yoo-jung even if she'd bought 〈I Love You So Much〉 back.
Instead, he'd do 〈Walking〉 with the other Sea Girls members while leaving Yoo-jung out.
Noonas.
What on earth happened to you?
Cleaning up No Ji-hye's gambling mess was already enough for me.
At least I'd managed to make No Ji-hye reflect to some degree.
But Yoo-jung's eyes earlier had barely even been focused.
Calling her crazy really had been accurate.
There was probably a reason Cheon Yong-gu had rejected her so coldly.
Even if he sold the copyright back to her, he probably knew she'd come right back once 〈Fri-Sat Singer〉...
Well, even if he didn't know about that specific project, once the retro craze ended, she'd probably return and sell 〈I Love You So Much〉 to him again.
"Ah... This is difficult. Since 〈I Love You So Much〉 is an idol song, I thought it wouldn't affect your project much."
"Right. That period was transitional, which is exactly why it was something of a golden age."
The spam had predicted the retro craze that Cheon Yong-gu and 〈Fri-Sat Singer〉 would ignite.
And I'd managed to buy one of the songs that could sit right at the center of it.
"There is a reason I can't really explain why I bought 〈I Love You So Much〉. But if you can't secure this song, what will you do with the program?"
"Then the whole thing would be all shell and no filling... If there's truly no way to get it, there isn't much reason to keep delaying the project either."
All right.
Let's think.
Even if I hadn't taken the copyright, Yoo Jong-hak wouldn't have gained anything.
It was a song he wouldn't have been able to secure anyway.
What if I gave up the copyright now?
Then Yoo Jong-hak would probably call the Sea Girls members other than Yoo-jung and ask one of them to buy it.
If he personally owned the copyright and then designed a broadcast project to promote that song, the station would look at him badly.
But which of the members would willingly pay that much?
I couldn't give it up.
I could lend them usage rights.
But there was a better way for both sides to profit.
If I planned a new release of 〈I Love You So Much〉, the retro boom would only grow stronger.
"Unfortunately..."
"Ah..."
Yoo Jong-hak let out a sigh.
I'd use this song to make Blue Moon's comeback a success.
Ah.
No.
That wouldn't work.
If Blue Moon released a new song before the 〈Rebooting〉 debut group even debuted, we'd get cursed to death.
Fine.
With tears in my eyes, I'd give it to the debut group.
I quickly finished thinking and spoke.
"Actually, we'd already been planning to use a retro concept for our next song. It's something we've considered for quite a while. That's also why I became interested when I heard you were planning 〈Fri-Sat Singer〉. But it's difficult to change direction now. If we'd discussed it in more detail back then, maybe this wouldn't have happened. It's unfortunate."
Yoo Jong-hak kept trying to persuade me.
I refused until the end.
And honestly, two hundred million won was enough to make even my hands shake.
If I'd spent two hundred million, shouldn't I squeeze as much value out of it as possible?
And since I'd practically snatched the song away, I was in a position where I could at least explain myself if Yoo-jung later tried to make the issue public.
The moment I ended the call with Yoo Jong-hak, I immediately called Dae-hun.
"Hey, Dae-hun. I found the debut song. Call Sang-do!"
"What? Where did you find it? No, more importantly, what is it?"
I sent him the Mango Music link for 〈I Love You So Much〉.
"...You're using 〈I Love You So Much〉 as the song? The one I know? 'I told you that I love you so much.' That song?"
That's right.
We were going to throw away the opportunity to use a brand-new Billy Aaron song and promote with Sea Girls' old hit, a song whose trend had long since passed and couldn't be found anywhere on an MZ playlist.
Since it was a remake, preparation would be faster too.
"You're throwing away a chance at a brand-new Billy Aaron song for an old Sea Girls track that's already past its prime? What kind of strategy is this?"
"I'm tired of explaining the same thing over and over. When are the 〈Rebooting〉 trainees supposed to gather? Forget the schedule. Call all of them in right now. We're starting the concept meeting immediately."
