The Hit Song of This Life Is Revenge - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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This Life’s Hit Song is Revenge
Episode 45
The story Baek Song-ha chose was exactly the same as in the past.
For a split second, was it because the graphic of the laurel wreath encircling the words “1st Place” seemed to overlap in her vision?
Without realizing it, her eyes narrowed.
‘No. It’s different this time.’
Time ticked by, and even the trainees who had selected the same story finished making their choices.
Before long, the screen with the moving mouse and scroll wheel belonged to her alone.
Every gaze in the room locked onto that movement.
By now, even the sound of the clicking stopped and started like hesitation itself.
‘Let’s just turn the page one more time.’
As the screen changed to yet another new layout, the trainees relaxed their posture.
Jae-i’s cursor floated across the screen, drawing small circles like an manifestation of uncertainty.
It was then.
A single, eye-catching title arrested her gaze.
‘Please… let the story be good too. Please.’
Jae-i clicked the mouse, almost swallowing her breath.
And the story that popped up on the screen was a mere single line.
A piece of writing where most of it was white space, looking remarkably empty from afar.
[I miss you.]
Yet, Jae-i did not hesitate.
“I will choose this story.”
* * *
The third day after the story selection ended.
Whoosh-.
Jae-i splashed cold water from the communal restroom sink, shaking off the lingering drowsiness.
Conversations among the trainees had practically ground to a halt.
Everyone looked so haggard from throwing themselves into composition that it felt almost rude to even ask how they were doing.
But the questions from Kim Cho-a, who had followed her all the way into the restroom, showed no signs of tapering off.
“But Jae-i. How are you planning to write lyrics with just that one line?”
Jae-i wiped away the water droplets clinging to the tip of her chin and slowly turned around.
“Actually, I prefer it because it means I don’t have to be trapped in a box.”
“Oh? Oh…. I see.”
The end of Kim Cho-a’s sentence trailed off sharply.
Jae-i pulled out a paper towel to dry the remaining moisture on her face.
Of course, composing was difficult.
But what drained her even more was Kim Cho-a hovering around her.
She had thought the remarks were unrelated, but there was one question that repeated without fail.
‘She asked about the melody every single time.’
She inquired as if it were a casual matter, but her timing was always completely out of the blue.
On the other hand, Baek Song-ha had already finished her song and moved on to the producing stage with Casey.
So why was this questioning so persistent?
Jae-i looked askance, scanning Kim Cho-a, who was staring down at the tiled floor.
‘Could it be that she wants to use it?’
Even though that thought flashed through her mind, the lingering image of Baek Song-ha was not easily erased.
It was actually herself who wanted to confirm something through Kim Cho-a.
Then all she had to do was let the information slip properly.
Once she arrived at that daring thought, her lips relaxed into a soft curve.
“To be honest, I’m having a bit of trouble.”
“What is it?!”
In an instant, Kim Cho-a’s eyes flashed.
Jae-i pulled a folded piece of sheet music from her pocket.
“The transition feels a little awkward, so do you want to give it a listen?”
“Yes!”
Kim Cho-a’s ears perked up instantly.
The first note, a very quiet humming, drifted out and rippled along the tiled walls of the restroom.
An exclamation of awe burst forth first.
‘……Wow.’
Within that simple humming, a deep yearning crept up her arms in the form of goosebumps.
It was a moment where she found herself losing her mind and becoming completely immersed.
Suddenly, Baek Song-ha’s shrill voice mixed into the notes.
‘There’s bound to be something that just hits you.’
Back then, she hadn’t understood those ambiguous words.
But now, it felt as though that sentence was finally being completed.
‘Is this… what Song-ha was talking about?’
Caught between pure admiration and a rushed impulse, the sound grew distant.
Before she knew it, Jae-i, who had finished the song, turned to her and asked.
“How is it? If you give me your honest feedback, I think it’ll help.”
“Huh? Oh….”
Her voice trailed off.
It felt as if taking just one more breath would cause a genuine exclamation to pop out.
That it was such a great song, that this would definitely make it.
To swallow those words, she pulled long and hard at the edge of her sleeve.
“The song feels a little difficult, I think….”
The best she could squeeze out was an ambiguous answer.
Upon hearing her critique, Jae-i nodded slowly.
Cho-a’s heart thudded irregularly, laced with a mixture of lies and tension.
Feeling like she would be found out soon if she didn’t widen the distance, she took a step backward.
Jae-i remained silent for a moment.
A pause that seemed to organize her thoughts, or perhaps press down her emotions.
Right around the time that silence began to stretch, Jae-i folded the sheet music in half.
“As I thought, it’s a bit like that, right? I should map it out again.”
And then, thud-.
The sheet music dropped inside the trash can.
The moment the thin paper slid down the metal bin, her gaze locked onto it like a magnet.
The feeling of something shifting direction with a soft rustle from inside.
Lee Jae-i threw that melody away.
‘If I have that, I won’t even need to memorize it.’
Instinct took over before thought could even form.
Kim Cho-a gripped the edge of her sleeve tightly, holding back the impulse.
Jae-i glanced back and asked.
“Aren’t you going?”
“I’m going…!”
The answer popped out quickly, but her footsteps were slow, as if still firmly tied down.
‘…….’
Jae-i watched Kim Cho-a walk away silently, staring only at the floor.
Even while letting out the humming, she had been scanning Kim Cho-a’s face the entire time.
She could clearly see the ripples spreading.
‘I hadn’t intended to go so far as throwing away the sheet music.’
Seeing her rush in upon spotting a bait that wasn’t even visible made her bold.
The moment Jae-i arrived at the lecture room, she opened a new sheet of music and sat down in her seat.
However, the seat next to her was soon vacated.
“My stomach suddenly hurts a bit…. Go ahead without me.”
Kim Cho-a disappeared outside the lecture room with hurried steps.
Jae-i stopped the pen in her hand and quietly watched the receding figure.
* * *
Dinner time.
In the quiet lodging, Baek Song-ha’s irritation-laced breath scattered into the air.
‘Producing, my foot.’
Her fingernail tapped against the leather sofa, making a short, sharp clicking sound.
Baek Song-ha swept her hair back aggressively and leaned her back heavily against the sofa.
Casey had done nothing but flip through the song she had created for a long time.
And then, he uttered just a single sentence.
‘Proceed as you are. There is nothing to tweak separately.’
Looking at the words alone, it was high praise.
But Casey’s expression, twisted as if he had smelled something unpleasant, remained burned into her mind.
‘What on earth did he want to say?’
The tightly closed line of Casey’s lips seemed to speak even louder.
What followed was silence, but she felt as though she had just come back from an unspoken battle.
She had brought him the song.
Even if it wasn’t praise, shouldn’t he at least offer his impressions?
To say there was ‘no issue’ without any other mention whatsoever.
Baek Song-ha leaned her stiff neck against the sofa.
Her eyelids dropped downward of their own accord.
Knock, knock-.
She hadn’t let her into the room just so she could drop by whenever she had time and babble on with idle gossip.
As she thought of Kim Cho-a, a bitter taste rolled over the tip of her tongue.
Since it was dangerous to openly tell her to steal Lee Jae-i’s song, she had beaten around the bush as much as possible.
‘She just can’t catch on.’
She had clearly told her that since there was already a completed score, she didn’t even need to find out everything.
It was starting to feel like the leech was attached to her own side, not Lee Jae-i’s.
“Sigh…. Come in. It’s unlocked.”
Baek Song-ha didn’t even have the mind to pick herself up.
If she was just going to babble about trivial matters again today, she intended to cut her off right here.
Casey’s reaction left a thoroughly unpleasant aftertaste, but there was no time to write a song all over again.
The creaking sound of the door opening grated on her ears like scraping a piece of iron.
“Song-ha!”
A familiar voice.
But today, Kim Cho-a’s demeanor was overheated to an unfamiliar degree.
Baek Song-ha recognized it at a single glance.
That this was not a temperature created by someone who knew nothing.
The next morning.
Baek Song-ha stepped forward with a light bounce in her stride.
Halting in front of Casey’s workshop, she fluttered the sheet music held in her hand.
‘Ah, what a relief.’
Looking at the single sheet of paper Kim Cho-a had brought, a burst of refreshment exploded within her chest that had felt so suffocatingly weighed down.
It wasn’t as if there was a CCTV camera in the restroom, so Kim Cho-a was the only one who knew about this song.
That was as good as saying there were no witnesses.
Besides, strictly speaking, finders keepers applied to things that were thrown away, didn’t it?
‘I like it.’
The anxiety she had felt over what to do if the notes didn’t blend vanished entirely the moment she saw the completed version.
The melody brought to life over the tightly layered bass line was even more charming than before.
‘Things that are meant to happen just work out like this.’
She had torn up the sheet music carrying Lee Jae-i’s fingerprints into tiny pieces and flushed them down the toilet several times.
As the last scraps of paper swept downward, it felt as though the musical notes were playing a symphony of victory.
Baek Song-ha lightly rotated her wrist, recalling the exhilarating sensation.
When she knocked on the door, Casey’s refined voice drifted out.
“Yes. Come in.”
Casey looked at Baek Song-ha with the exact same eyes as yesterday.

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