The Genius Composer Starts Again - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“So, when you add harmony here like this, the atmosphere completely changes, right? Then if you touch it up to here like this…”

Easy-to-understand explanations.

Intuitive examples.

Jeong Tae-seong’s classes deserved their popularity. Even boring theory became engaging when he explained it with analogies and jokes.

Difficult harmonic progressions became much easier to focus on when accompanied by a few bars of performance.

‘The problem is.’

While explaining, Jeong Tae-seong caught my eye and grinned, shooting me a playful wink.

‘…Why is he acting like that.’

I didn’t know the reason, but it just felt unpleasant.

Mun Ah-rin tapped my shoulder from beside me. Then she leaned close to my ear and whispered:

“The professor keeps sending me looks. He really cherishes me, you know.”

“…”

I just nodded vaguely.

She’s free to be mistaken.

Jeong Tae-seong returned to the podium and leaned against it as he spoke.

“Alright. Since it’s the first day, shall we end class here?”

“Yes!”

“Wow!”

Enthusiastic responses echoed from around the room.

Everyone had been getting restless since he’d been conducting a proper class from the very first day of the semester.

“But!”

Jeong Tae-seong placed sheet music on his desk as he continued.

“I’m giving you an assignment.”

“Ah~.”

“From the very first class?”

“An assignment?”

Several students who were close to Jeong Tae-seong openly complained. But Jeong Tae-seong didn’t seem inclined to change his mind.

“It’s simple! I’ll give you a basic melody, and you need to add appropriate harmony and create 4 different melodies with different moods. How’s that? Easy, right?”

Jeong Tae-seong spoke very casually, but the students’ faces remained grim.

“Why are you all like that~. Don’t exaggerate. You’ll finish it quickly! I’ll pass the sheet music back now, so take one each.”

“Ugh.”

“Keep complaining and I’ll give you another assignment?”

When Jeong Tae-seong jokingly threatened them, the students immediately shut their mouths.

“Alright. Submit it by next week!”

Jeong Tae-seong spoke cheerfully and made his exit.

“An assignment from the very first day. That’s too much.”

“I know, right.”

“Still, for Seol to catch up with the other students, having assignments like this is probably better. Right?”

Mun Ah-rin naturally put me down.

As if I, who transferred departments, was behind others and needed to catch up to them.

‘Here we go again.’

In the past, I would have been shaken by these words, but not anymore.

The sheet music was passed back one by one from the front. Soon my copy arrived.

‘Each person’s is slightly different.’

Mine and Mun Ah-rin’s were similar but had some slightly different parts.

When I checked the sheet music, a Quest window appeared.

[ SYSTEM – SUB QUEST ]

> Complete your first assignment successfully!

> Content: This is your first assignment since transferring departments. Complete it successfully and make a good first impression.

> Achievement Condition: Achieve assignment grade A or higher

> Reward: Reputation increase – ‘Better than expected?’ (Professor and classmates’ perception becomes one level more favorable.)

> Penalty: Reputation decrease – ‘Transfer students really do lack fundamentals’ (Professor and classmates’ trust decreases by one level.)

I was getting quite used to this by now. I skimmed through it and closed the window.

“Seol. How does it look?”

“Yeah. The sheet music itself is in a good form for adding flesh to it. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Mun Ah-rin studied my expression for a moment, then smiled and subtly pushed her sheet music toward me.

“So, Seol.”

Her beaming face filled my vision.

“Would you like to work on this one together too? It’ll be good practice for you.”

Well, well.

Look at this?

“You want me to do your assignment?”

“It’s not like that. Like I said earlier, we’ve done countless assignments like this since our first year in the Composition Department. But you haven’t. So I thought it would be good for you to get as much experience as possible.”

Her words flowed smoothly.

“Of course, you could practice on your own. But if you do it as an assignment and submit it, you can even get the professor’s evaluation.”

Mun Ah-rin continued speaking with a casual smile.

“I thought it would be helpful for you. I’ll help you from the side so you can do well!”

“How will you help?”

I asked, curious to see how far she would go.

“We’ll brainstorm ideas together, and I’ll find reference songs for you. Wouldn’t that make it much easier?”

In the end, she was saying she’d leave everything to me.

Mun Ah-rin tapped the sheet music with her finger, emphasizing once more.

“It’s fine, right? If Seol practices like this from now on, your skills will improve quickly, right? I’m really saying this because I care about you, Seol.”

Hearing this reminded me of something.

It was from when I took a break from school and received composition tutoring from Mun Ah-rin.

-Seol. I’ll teach you based on what I learned at school and give you assignments too. Then your skills will improve quickly!

After saying that, Mun Ah-rin really did give me various assignments.

Back then, I was grateful and sorry that she was actively helping me like a tutor, so even when the assignments gradually became overwhelming, I followed along without complaint.

Looking back now, wasn’t she already dumping her school assignments on me from that time?

‘She tried it out with one or two assignments, and when it worked out fine, she made me handle everything.’

As those memories surfaced, a corner of my heart grew cold.

With those assignments she dumped on me, Mun Ah-rin received school scholarships and built connections with Jeong Do-hyun, stepping onto bigger stages.

I was merely a shadow working silently in the background.

At the time, I thought Mun Ah-rin was amazing. But thinking that she was pulling such stunts by stealing my songs made me nauseous.

‘…Do you think things will go your way this time too?’

A cold, hard resonance arose in my chest.

This is different from before my regression. I won’t let my songs be stolen, and I won’t be used in the same way ever again.

I slowly raised my head to look at Mun Ah-rin.

And very gently, even adding a smile, I answered.

“Alright, sounds good. I’ll do it.”

“Yeah!”

Mun Ah-rin smiled brightly as if she knew I would agree. I also smiled back at her.

But inside, flames of anger were rising.

***

“Damn it. I even left a comment. Why is there still no contact?”

Min Chan-hyeok muttered while gnawing on his nails. He kept refreshing SAPL, but there was no separate contact or reply.

‘They haven’t already signed with another producer, have they? Please no!’

The prolonged lack of contact kept triggering his anxiety.

Click.

It was when he habitually hit refresh once more.

A notification window flashed in the corner of the screen.

“Finallyyyyyy!”

Min Chan-hyeok shot up from his seat and let out a cheer.

With trembling hands, he clicked on the notification to find a message from composer ‘YULE’ had arrived.

“Gasp!”

He hurriedly opened the message and checked the contents written there.

His breathing, which had been rapid with excitement, gradually calmed down.

“…Huh?”

Min Chan-hyeok blinked for a moment.

It was completely different from the answer he had expected. Min Chan-hyeok had only considered exactly two possible scenarios until now.

‘Option 1: Sure, I’ll sell it. Option 2: No, I won’t sell it.’

Just about that much.

But YULE’s choice was a third option.

[ Hello, this is composer YULE.

I’m contacting you after seeing the comment left by Producer Min Chan-hyeok. First, I’d like to thank you for your high evaluation of my song.

Additionally, I can provide the source, but there is one condition.

I don’t want to remain simply as a source provider.

I want to directly participate in the overall composition process and create music together.

I know this is a somewhat unreasonable proposal for a newcomer to make, but I’m saying this because I believe you’re someone who understands the value of this song.

If you can accept this condition, I’ll gladly cooperate.

Thank you for reading. ]

Min Chan-hyeok raised his eyebrows.

“This is ridiculous.”

If you’re a newcomer, you should mostly be satisfied with a flat fee.

Usually newcomers are happy just with the fact that their song is being sold.

Participating in the overall composition process meant that YULE would get their name listed as the composer of that song.

Getting your name on the credits was a privilege for people with some track record and experience.

But YULE was demanding to cross over that barrier.

“It’s an absurd thing to do.”

In other circumstances, Min Chan-hyeok would have scoffed and refused.

However,

The most frustrating point was that it was hard to reject that preposterous proposal.

It had that much value. 【Fracture】 did.

‘They seem to know that perfectly well. They don’t seem like a newcomer at all.’

Min Chan-hyeok narrowed his eyes and muttered.

“Just who are you, exactly?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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