The Hit Song of This Life Is Revenge - Chapter 65

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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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My hit song in this life is revenge.
65
Kim Cho-a stood before the camera with no makeup, her appearance unremarkable and plain.
Her face looked as though she’d been weeping until moments before.
The video was two minutes long, its title itself an apology.
It began with her bowing her head so that the crown of her scalp was visible.
After a brief greeting, Kim Cho-a broached the controversy.
– I thought I was helping Trainee Baek Song-ha through fan support, but I realize now that I was reckless.
Her trembling voice was almost pitiful to hear.
Now she couldn’t undo it even if she wanted to.
She understood too that the only thing left to grasp would be the hem of Baek Song-ha’s pants.
Lee Jae-i followed the video with eyes gone cold as stone.
– Trainee Baek Song-ha had no knowledge that the song in question belonged to another trainee. I sincerely apologize to both those who were harmed and misled because of me.
Every sentence absolved Baek Song-ha of intent.
All the blame directed solely at Kim Cho-a herself.
Her own name wasn’t mentioned once.
It was more aggressive than expected.
She’d thought Kim Cho-a’s agency would do the speaking instead.
Comments followed below.
└ If there was something YU Entertainment was hiding, they couldn’t have come out swinging that hard. So there really was something going on.
└ Then Baek Song-ha’s a victim too. Shouldn’t they overturn the disqualification?
└ The Song-ha fandom is really muddying the waters. Don’t you know what “self-composed” means?
└ 222. Even if Lee Jae-i and the song didn’t overlap, it still wouldn’t be self-composed.
└ When you really think about it, he gave her a song? That’s such a good deal. That’s exactly what this is lol
There weren’t many comments outright opposing the Broadcasting Station’s decision.
Yet there was also a contingent defending Baek Song-ha.
A teary-eyed apology video had massive reach.
‘God, Baek Song-ha.’
She invoked the name inwardly with something like regret.
The girl had sacrificed another person’s life like a scapegoat without feeling a shred of guilt.
Why did such monsters always manage to survive so long?
Lee Jae-i leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.
The timing might vary, but truth accumulates grain by grain until it inevitably shatters.
‘I’ll be the one to decide Baek Song-ha’s ending.’
She’d make certain of it.
So the world wouldn’t be fooled by that nauseating deception.
For now, Baek Song-ha’s moves seemed like something she could ignore.
With all attention fixed on Kim Cho-a, she’d probably hope to be quietly buried and forgotten.
Lee Jae-i opened her eyes and switched the screen on her cell phone.
To that final moment before the program ended.
[I’m Your Singer Season 3. Grand Champion. Lee Jae-i.]
The first verse of the sheet music about revenge was complete.
Still, she couldn’t let her guard down.
Baek Song-ha wasn’t completely broken yet, and Yoo Young-jae was still standing.
Now it was time to spread her dreams as a singer and write the opening of the second verse.
Lee Jae-i tightened her grip on her cell phone and pushed herself up from where she sat.
* * *
At the same moment.
Baek Song-ha stood with her lips drawn tight, gnawing them as if to grind them to dust.
Her shoulders convulsed in fine tremors.
She could feel her body’s reaction to rage she couldn’t swallow down.
‘That stupid bastard.’
She’d known from the start that the girl couldn’t understand a thing.
Still, if she was going to show her face, she should have done it properly.
From Baek Song-ha’s perspective, Kim Cho-a’s explanation was like turning off the gas before the water in the pot even began to boil.
Not hot, not lukewarm—just an unsatisfying, murky unease.
“The way you talk makes it sound like some of this is my fault!”
The words tumbled out harshly, muttered to the empty room.
She’d refused adamantly, yet she’d asked persistently, longing for the song to be sung.
At the very minimum, really at the very minimum, that one line should have been there.
Like she was reluctantly doing him a favor in agreeing to sing.
‘How hard was that?’
Baek Song-ha clenched her teeth.
That’s why she’d suggested from the beginning that they write out a full script.
Every single word, every single ending particle, matching perfectly.
But that obvious look of disgust on Director Yoo Young-jae’s face.
Backing down in that moment had been the mistake.
‘I should have just thrown a fit no matter what.’
Rage welled up from her depths, racing through her blood from scalp to fingertips.
Her breathing turned shallow.
Then her cell phone, which she’d thrown onto the bed, began to vibrate.
[Yoo Young-jae]
“Ha…”
The moment she saw the name, a sigh erupted from deep in her core.
There was no way this would be anything good.
And the fact that the other end wouldn’t be gentle with her either made it even worse.
Baek Song-ha tilted her chin up, took a deep breath, and pressed the answer button.
“…Yes.”
– I’m guessing you’ve seen the video, so I’ll keep this short. We’re closing the matter like this.
No explanation whatsoever.
Instantly her mouth went dry.
Her tongue cracked stiffly like she’d eaten a mouthful of sand.
If she just sat there and took it, she’d have to swallow it whole.
Then those gritty particles would scrape all the way down.
Baek Song-ha slowly swept the inside of her cheek with the tip of her tongue.
And deliberately opened her mouth at an awkward angle.
“Kim Cho-a should put out an additional apology, shouldn’t she?”
The breathing on the other end of the line caught once.
– Ha…
A curse cut off mid-word, an ambiguous, choked sound.
In that single syllable, exhaustion and irritation saturated every frequency.
The air flowing through the receiver suddenly thinned.
As if the frequency had jumped up a notch.
An invisible tension pricked the inside of her ear.
– Do you not understand that if you push this further, you’ll be exposed?
Crack-crack.
This time Baek Song-ha ground her molars.
At the same moment, a sigh filtered through from the other end.
Feigned exasperation.
A sigh that didn’t bother hiding the fact that he was above her.
– The Broadcasting Station is closing it out as a “disqualification” on the condition that Yoo Entertainment covers up Daekyung’s involvement.
His words paused.
– Are you perhaps itching right now to announce that you’re a Daekyung Group daughter? At this very moment?
His inflection rose mockingly at the end.
Blood vessels suddenly bulged at his temples.
She could feel her pulse clearly.
The undertone was nauseating—as if his failures alone were her fault.
Was there a single thing Director Yoo Young-jae had done that he could stand behind with conviction?
‘Cunning bastard.’
Baek Song-ha bit the inside of her cheek hard.
If she didn’t swallow down the curse, it would burst out right now.
Her mind still didn’t stop, though.
In terms of impact, Daekyung Group was a name that came up far more easily than YU Entertainment.
The media and public opinion always gnawed at the larger body first.
‘You’re betting everything on that one thing and acting invincible?’
Baek Song-ha’s head spun with bone-deep regret once more.
She should have gone directly to Kim Cho-a.
If she’d simply crushed Kim Cho-a properly, the picture would have been perfect.
‘She didn’t even resist—she went along so obediently!’
Wouldn’t it all have worked out if the girl who was going to be buried anyway had taken everything with her to the grave?
But.
‘Why do I have to take the damage?!’
That single line wouldn’t leave her head.
Fragments of thought kept jabbing at one place in her mind.
“You should have designed it so it looked like she was the only one being stubborn. Doesn’t the director’s seat mean that much to you?”
It was a rebuke.
Words she’d been holding back came out, finally taking shape.
Then an equally cold sentence returned from the other end.
– You’re worse at this than I thought.
At the unexpected comment, Baek Song-ha’s brow furrowed deeply.
– In your eyes, was she really skilled enough to go that far?
She heard something she had no knowledge of, and her breath pulled back.
Then Yoo Young-jae, sensing he had the upper hand, continued.
– Song-ha. Get your head straight. If you want to get your money’s worth out of your investment, you’ll need to do some appearances. A complete washout isn’t an option.
Her rage, unable to escape outward, turned direction inside.
‘So what do you want me to do.’
That’s what she screamed silently.
But no counter-argument made it to her lips.
Yoo Young-jae didn’t miss the beat of silence.
As if he’d been waiting, his irritated voice fell as the final word.
– If you go do some weird interview on your own, you’ll be getting breach-of-contract paperwork. So just quietly prepare your album.
Click.
The cell phone, which had been carrying the hum of electronic noise, went silent.
Baek Song-ha stared at the darkened screen she’d just pulled away from her ear.
“…He hung up?”
Her own face was distorted in the blackened reflection.
Unable to stop her hand from shaking, the face in the screen trembled grotesquely.
At the end of that roiling emotion, only one name surfaced.
Lee Jae-i.
‘…It’s all because of you.’
By now she must be feeling like she’d won.
Imagining that smiling face, she wanted to pummel her, but even that wouldn’t satisfy the ache.
Audition program winners abound.
How many would the public actually remember?
If you don’t survive, you fade like a burned-out bulb in this business—just an afterimage, a faint glow, then gone.
Right. Just a brief sparkle.
Along with the imagined moment of the lights turning on, the rage she’d been suppressing exploded outward.
“Don’t even sparkle for a second! You bitch!”

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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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