HPDBC Chapter 1417 I'm Listening
Chapter 1417 I'm Listening
Chapter 1417 I'm Listening
As night deepened in the music room, only a warm light shone from beside the piano, casting a long shadow of Chi Jingyuan.
Inspiration flowed like a spring, his fingertips danced across the piano keys, the melody flowed naturally, without the slightest pause, and was completed in one go.
Some happiness can never be regained.
"This is the last thing you told me."
Even after the melody was completed, the lyrics were quickly sketched out.
He first wrote the Korean lyrics, but his inspiration didn't stop there. After slightly adjusting the rhythm of the instrument, the imagery of the Japanese lyrics naturally emerged.
Instead of directly translating the Korean lyrics, he reconstructed a Japanese-style delicate expression with the same theme, using gentler words and a more profound artistic conception.
He even impulsively tried writing Chinese lyrics.
However, comparatively speaking, he prefers the Japanese lyrics a bit more, because this song doesn't have the intensity and flamboyance common in K-pop, but instead has a touch of J-pop style, delicate and lingering.
Although this song was inspired by the passing of Kim Jong-hyun, it doesn't carry much sorrow.
Instead, it felt like a sincere, painful, yet liberating and profound form of self-healing.
As the night deepened, Chi Jingyuan looked at the sheet music and lyrics in front of him and let out a deep breath.
This is not a lament written to mourn, but a commemoration of friendship and a sense of peace with life.
…………
The night passed, and it was Friday, December 22nd.
As is customary, this is also the day when SM Entertainment's 'SM STATION' project releases songs.
SM STATION releases songs every Friday. Except for a very few songs, this project doesn't invest much resources or do much promotion.
They rely solely on a dedicated SNS account, 'SMTOWNstation,' for announcements. They usually announce things about two days in advance on the account, including the singer and song title, and sometimes they also release some promotional photos.
This time, however, because it was the anniversary of Kim Jong-hyun's death two days prior, the official account couldn't possibly promote any songs, so it remained silent.
Chi Jingyuan does have a following, but at this time, he can't possibly post any promotional content on his social media... He didn't intend to do so either.
Therefore, Ji Kyung-won's song this time was basically unpromoted. Apart from a few core fans who followed the subway song project, even many of his personal fans were completely unaware of it.
At 4 PM on the 22nd, the subway song "Horizon of Events," sung by Ji Kyung-won and featuring Jung Eun-ji, was quietly released online.
…………
"Thanks for your hard work"
Chi Jingyuan took off his headphones, walked out of the soundproof booth, and nodded to the staff in the recording studio.
"Jingyuan, your voice is still so wonderful, and your emotional control is becoming more and more delicate."
The sound engineer came up to him, smiling and praising him.
After a brief chat about the recording details, Chi Jingyuan walked out of the recording studio and immediately saw a group of familiar faces gathered outside.
A large crowd had gathered outside. Kangta, BoA, Shim Changmin, Kim Tae-yeon, Byun Baek-hyun, and most of the main vocalists from SM Entertainment's groups were there.
This was a last-minute gathering by the company to re-record the song "Dear My Family" here.
"Dear My Family" is a song that Yoo Yong-jin released a long time ago, back in 2001.
The songs were re-recorded in 12 as a commemoration of SMTOWN's successful performance at Madison Square Garden in New York, and as a re-release of the soundtrack for the youth biopic "I AM.", which documents the New York performance and the singers' daily lives.
Overall, the melody, lyrics, and the song as a whole are quite inspiring, heartwarming, and meaningful.
This was the third time the song was re-recorded. It was probably because of Jonghyun that the company decided to use this song as the subway song project for the following week, December 29th, and decided to donate all the proceeds.
Ji Kyung-won, as EXO's main vocalist, also played a key role... and was assigned four lines of lyrics.
He greeted his friends around him... Everyone present at yesterday's funeral was there, and everyone looked terrible. Kim Tae-yeon and a few others were crying uncontrollably.
But when we met again today, everyone looked better and seemed more energetic. We even huddled together and chatted quietly for a bit.
The sadness will not disappear, but life must go on.
Chi Jingyuan chatted with the others for a while, then found a seat on the sofa. As soon as he took out his phone, he saw several unread messages.
Upon seeing the sender's name, he shook his head slightly, a sense of relaxed helplessness in his expression.
These text messages were all sent by Sana Minatozaki.
He made a promise with Sana Minatozaki that he would send her more text messages as compensation.
But ever since he replied to those few unanswered text messages in a rather silly way, it's as if a switch has been flipped.
It was clearly said that Chi Jingyuan should send more, but Chi Jingyuan's personality makes it difficult for him to send out so many boring text messages out of thin air... On the contrary, Minatozaki Sana became excited as if she had taken drugs, and kept sending messages, sending them in the morning, at noon, at night, and even before going to bed if she was interested.
Regardless of whether he could reply in time, she kept sending her own messages. It seemed that she wasn't trying to communicate, but just enjoyed sending text messages to Chi Jingyuan.
It seemed that she was happy just by sending a text message to Chi Jingyuan.
"The weather is so nice today, Oppa, did you see it?"
"Ugh, it's so cold today, like a freezer... Oppa, are you dressed warmly enough? I'm not!"
"I smelled red wine and suddenly wanted to drink it... but I felt that it should be shared between two people."
I think I'm sleepy even before the stars. Goodnight, will tomorrow be a nice day?
"Red or white sweater? Urgent, Oppa, tell me quickly!"
The chat history, which had been empty and quiet for almost a year, has grown rapidly in the past few days. A quick scroll up reveals various text messages from Sana Minatozaki.
Ji Kyung-won clicked on the latest post: "Oppa's new song is so good! The scene in the MV where he sits there singing under the night sky is really touching."
"I want to see it too."
Upon checking the text message, Chi Jingyuan was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected that Minatozaki Sana would listen to "The Horizon of Incidents."
This song didn't make much of a splash after it was released yesterday.
Just as he was about to reply, his phone rang again; a call came in.
This time it's Chou Tzu-yu.
Chi Jingyuan picked up the phone and went outside, answering the call as he walked towards the window in the corridor.
"What are you doing?"
A soft, youthful voice came from the other end of the phone.
"We were just recording," Chi Jingyuan briefly explained the song he was recording.
At the same time, I opened the window, and a cold wind rushed in instantly.
"Oh……"
Chou Tzu-yu responded, then asked curiously, "If I donate it, will I get a lot of money?"
"It's not much money either."
Chi Jingyuan smiled.
How much money can a subway song make? There are no related merchandise or physical releases, and no public performances.
"Hmm... It's so cold today," Chou Tzu-yu responded, then muttered somewhat awkwardly, her voice full of energy.
"It's a bit cold... Chou Tzu-yu, just say what's on your mind."
But Chi Jingyuan knew her too well; as soon as he heard her circling around in circles, he knew she had something to say.
"Um……"
Chou Tzu-yu hesitated for a moment, then tentatively asked, "Are you giving Sana a new phone?"
After questioning Sana Minatozaki that day, she couldn't find any flaws and felt that the matter was indeed reasonable.
...but something felt off later on.
I couldn't help but ask the question now.
"Yes, her phone broke."
Chi Jingyuan didn't hesitate and admitted directly: "It's that blush gold iPhone X, right? ...I happen to have a few left. I asked you before if you wanted them, and you said no, so it's from that batch."
Ji Kyung-won knew that neither JYP nor Minatozaki Sana had told the rest of Twice about what happened that night, so of course he wouldn't say a word.
...Although he didn't think this matter could be hidden for long, after all, quite a few people had seen it, and the Cody group in the industry was the best at spreading the news.
But he won't say it on his own initiative.
However, since the black woman asked about the phone, there was no need to hide it from her.
"That's it..."
The voice on the phone was still soft and gentle, with the last syllable slightly drawn out.
...It sounds like there's nothing wrong with it.
"I have a few more here, do you want them? I'll have someone send them over to you."
Upon hearing this, Chi Jingyuan roughly guessed what Zhou Ziyu was thinking and knew that she had seen Minatozaki Sana's phone, so he took the initiative to ask.
"Hmph! No!"
Unexpectedly, Chou Tzu-yu gave a soft snort, her voice tinged with a hint of stubborn resentment.
She really liked the color, but the envy and jealousy of the other members made her feel a little envious.
If it weren't for Sana Minatozaki, Ji Jingyuan would have accepted her if he had asked her like this.
But Sana Minatozaki got it first, and it was a gift from Ji Jingyuan. If she sees it and gets jealous, what kind of person would she be if she went to ask for it too?
unhappy!
"Ha, so you've got a temper now."
Chi Jingyuan opened the window, letting the cold wind blow in, and couldn't help but laugh when he heard Zhou Ziyu's tone: "You said you didn't want it yourself!"
"I just don't want it, I just don't want it."
The little black girl started to act spoiled, her tone full of dissatisfaction.
"Then I'll get you a different color, it'll look good too, do you want it?"
"Do not……"
The angry voice on the other end suddenly stopped. After a brief silence, a soft, sweet voice came through again, tinged with a hint of anticipation: "How good is it?"
"Black and gold, specially made for you, but I think 'Tzuyu Black' would be more suitable, it matches your skin tone..."
Chi Jingyuan paused deliberately, suppressing a laugh as he spoke.
"Pah, no, no! What black and gold? What Tzuyu's black? I've told you I'm not black at all! I've said it so many times! What do you want from me?!"
Upon hearing this, Chou Tzu-yu immediately exploded, launching into a tirade in her Taiwanese accent before angrily shouting, "That's too much! That's too much!!"
"I wanted to give you something and you insulted me? You really don't know what's good for you."
Chi Jingyuan forced a smile and retorted, "That's too much."
"Hmph!" Chou Tzu-yu said angrily.
This person is so awful! If she didn't have other things to do, she would have hung up the phone right away.
"I'm not going to talk about this anymore...you."
Taking a deep breath and calming herself, Chou Tzu-yu spoke softly and cautiously, "I listened to the song you released yesterday, and I thought it was really good. It's just... the numbers don't seem to be very good, but..."
Hearing the girl's tone, Chi Jingyuan was slightly taken aback, but couldn't help but laugh.
Surprisingly, he was comforted by this dark-skinned girl.
However, what Chou Tzu-yu said is not wrong.
The song "Horizon of Events" was released yesterday, but it didn't even make it onto the charts, making no splash whatsoever, which looks quite dismal.
The subway song project itself didn't attract much attention; it was mainly driven by SM family fans and the singer's own popularity.
Even some singers' own fans don't listen to them much... because most of their songs aren't well-produced or particularly pleasant to listen to.
For example, the subway song from the previous week was NCT DREAM's "JOY". Not only did all the members participate, but this time the music video also pioneered the use of 4K resolution, which is a first for all artists under SM Entertainment.
As a result, it barely made a splash... and even now, many NCT DREAM fans don't know that their idols released this song.
It is indeed very different from the official comeback.
With no promotional materials, no publicity, and no prior warning, Chi Kyung-won's sudden appearance on the first day, especially with his subway song, was understandably disappointing.
Yesterday's sudden appearance was disastrous; I haven't paid attention to Chi Jingyuan today and don't know if he's made the list yet.
"Um……"
Although Chi Jingyuan didn't need it, he suddenly heard the dark-skinned girl carefully comforting him, and some of her words sounded like they had been carefully considered for a long time, which warmed his heart.
"It's alright. After all, there hasn't been much publicity. Both the company and I are handling it quietly because of what happened before."
Chi Jingyuan replied gently, "However, I'm quite confident in the quality of this song. If the news spreads out in a few days and more people listen to it, it might be better."
That's good!
Upon hearing his tone, Chou Tzu-yu knew that nothing was wrong and felt relieved. She eagerly chimed in, "I also think it sounds great. I feel very comfortable after listening to it, and the music video is also beautiful."
"Of course, how could my work be bad?"
Chi Jingyuan said smugly, "Just you wait and see... Alright, I'm not talking to you anymore."
"Mmm," Chou Tzu-yu replied obediently.
"correct……"
Before hanging up, Chi Jingyuan suddenly dragged out his words and asked quickly, "That Tzuyu is black..."
But before he could finish his prank, Zhou Ziyu seemed to have anticipated something and hung up the phone in a flash.
Chi Jingyuan looked at his phone, which had lit up again, and, with the cold wind blowing on him, couldn't help but burst into laughter.
…………
That evening, in the SBS studio, Twice was participating in a radio program.
Twice is still in their comeback period, and their title track "Heart Shaker" continues its popularity, achieving good results. They are very busy every day.
The atmosphere at the live broadcast was lively. The two MCs, holding scripts, interacted with the members with warm smiles: "Good evening, everyone from Twice! Welcome to our show!"
"Aigoo~ Heart Shaker is so popular, our production crew is playing it on repeat! I wanted to ask Jihyo-ssi, what was the concept behind this comeback?"
"Momo Xi's dancing is as cool as ever. Is there anything that impressed you during this shoot, or any dance moves?"
"..."
The MC then asked Nayeon, Dahyun, and several other members about their comeback and schedules. The members' answers were both sincere and adorable, and the live stream chat was filled with comments, making the atmosphere even more lively.
"The next question is for Tzuyu-xi!"
After discussing comeback-related topics, the MC changed the subject and looked at Tzuyu: "Some fans have been asking in the comments, what songs has Tzuyu been listening to lately? Do you have any favorite songs you can recommend to everyone?"
"..."
Upon hearing this, Chou Tzu-yu sat up slightly and gave the camera a bright smile.
She picked up the microphone and said in a soft, natural voice, "As for the songs..."
"I'm listening to the new song 'Horizon of Events,' a collaboration between XO's Yuan and Eunji."