Chapter 969: I Am the King of Singers, But...? (4)

The audience stared at one another blankly.

“Did you just hear that?”

“What was that...?”

The moment Ri Hyuk sang the opening line, goosebumps shot across their arms.

His clear, refreshing voice rose softly, yet it felt as though the temperature around them had dropped several degrees.

The audience murmured among themselves.

‘What is this?’

‘Was Ri Hyuk always this good...?’

Everyone already knew that Seo Ri Hyuk could sing.

If someone asked, “Do you know any idols who are really good singers?” they could confidently answer, “Ri Hyuk!”

But this...

‘This is completely different!?’

The nationally beloved hit song, Girl in the Forest.

The version Ri Hyuk sang now was utterly different from the karaoke favorite people casually belted out all the time.

Faster along the river

Higher across the fields

A clear, transparent voice.

High notes that climbed effortlessly, without a trace of strain.

‘This is insane....’

‘Was this song always like this?’

As the audience stood there entranced by the beautiful voice, “King of Singers Sun Wooju” continued singing.

Following the cool breeze

Chasing after whispers, I ran

The ending note of “I ran” spread broadly through the air.

One audience member unconsciously let out a loud gasp.

“Waaah...”

Everyone wore expressions of agreement.

‘This isn’t just “good” anymore!?’

The perfectly chosen song was shocking the audience.

Girl in the Forest wasn’t just a popular hit song; it was also one singers frequently covered.

It was the kind of song rookie girl groups performed once at year-end festivals.

The kind contestants on singing competitions picked when they wanted to show off their refreshing vocal tone.

But the version of Girl in the Forest Ri Hyuk was singing now far surpassed every previous cover.

It was definitely a familiar song.

And yet...

‘This feels completely different...?’

The Girl in the Forest sung by King of Singers Sun Wooju sounded like a song nobody had ever heard before.

It made people think, So this song could be sung like this too?

Seo Ri Hyuk was demonstrating that his fundamental base stats themselves were simply on another level.

The stability born from perfect breathing.

The clear, transparent vocalization produced by optimal posture and thoroughly trained vocal cords.

Precise diction that made every lyric land clearly in the listener’s ears.

Even though he was showing off nothing but fundamentals, the audience was already in shock.

And on top of that, there were the four years of stage experience he had accumulated since debut.

Grand prize stages at domestic award shows, concerts at the main stadium, global stages like the Time 100 Gala and the Billboard Awards.

The main vocalist of NewBlack was showing exactly what the dignity of a singer with the greatest possible career someone his age could achieve looked like.

Every graceful gesture from King of Singers Sun Wooju drew the audience’s gaze in as though they were being sucked toward him.

“Wow......”

Someone whispered to a friend.

“Hey, do you realize how insane this is right now? There’s only piano accompani—”

“Shh.”

Everyone focused entirely on the song.

Then, after mesmerizing the audience over the piano accompaniment, Seo Ri Hyuk slowly lowered the microphone.

People swallowed dryly.

And then came the sudden absence of sound.

In the perfectly silent stage, the beautiful flower mask raised a gloved hand.

Snap-

A finger snap.

Snap- snap-

As he snapped rhythmically, the piano returned, and the drum snare hissed to life.

The bassist and guitarist grinned as they began playing as well.

The audience instinctively understood the singer’s intention.

Clap- clap-

As the audience began clapping along to the rhythm of Girl in the Forest—

the band guitarist played a refreshing melody, and King of Singers Sun Wooju raised the microphone once more.

Can you hear it?

The sound of that forest

I can see it

Its beauty

With the singer’s gestures, something seemed to unfold before the audience’s eyes.

They were only listening to a song, yet it felt as though some fantasy scene was being painted vividly inside their minds.

Ri Hyuk’s own version of Girl in the Forest.

Into the forest waiting for me

I leapt

Though I don’t know

What awaits me there

The narrator in the song had clearly leapt into a forest, yet for some reason the audience imagined a young boy diving into the sea instead.

A boy of the sea.

A pure boy living in a fishing village beside a deep blue ocean discovers something beckoning to him.

Soon, an image forms of him sailing beyond the horizon in a small boat.

The excitement of standing before something new.

A figure still full of clumsy inexperience.

And a touch of youthful passion.

Hello, world

I’ve arrived

The one you were calling for

I’ve arrived—

People became convinced that Ri Hyuk was smiling beneath the mask.

Now the festival begins

And then the English chorus unfolded.

At last, they could picture the boy discovering the beauty of the world he had long awaited and delighting in it.

The first verse passed, then the second.

As the song rushed steadily toward its ending, the audience began feeling reluctant to let it end.

‘More... just a little more.......’

‘I want to rewind it.’

If this had been a recorded track, they would have wanted to loop back to the first verse the instant the third chorus ended and replay it forever.

Unlike the coolness of the stage itself, the atmosphere kept growing hotter and hotter.

And finally, when King of Singers Sun Wooju drew out the final note and slowly lowered the microphone—

“Ah......”

Silence settled over both the audience and the singers as they stared at him in a trance.

Normally, a great stage brought cheers and applause.

But this was the kind of overwhelming performance that left people too stunned to say anything at all.

Only then did everyone realize they hadn’t shouted a single cheer since the stage began.

And at last, the audience returned what the singer who had shown them such an incredible performance rightfully deserved.

“WAAAAAAAHHHHHH—!”

With the loudest roar ever heard in the history of Mission Singer.

Even the celebrities applauded amid the thunderous cheers.

“This is crazy. Seriously crazy.”

“Wow....”

Sensing the mood of the crowd, the celebrity panelists sprang to their feet and clapped.

The commentators were making a huge fuss too.

“Girl in the Forest is basically a national song, isn’t it? And yet it’s been reborn like this.”

“It’s so beautiful. I haven’t heard such gorgeous high notes in a long time. It genuinely sounds like a perfectly tuned instrument.”

“And the important thing is that Ri H... no, King of Singers Sun Wooju sang completely relaxed. The entire concept was, ‘I’m only showing you the basics,’ yet every single thing was flawless. The title ‘King of Singers’ really suits him perfectly! Elegant and refined......”

While the audience nodded along to the commentary, the Braised Soy Sauce mask trudged pitifully onto the stage.

People burst out laughing.

‘So that’s why!’

They finally understood why he had entered earlier looking like, Well... my life ends here today.

Now it made sense.

Ordinary viewers might not know, but singers themselves understood exactly how skilled Ri Hyuk was.

“So that’s why our Braised Soy Sauce looked like that earlier.”

“Honestly, understandable.”

As the celebrity panelists made those comments, the commentators asked the audience to vote, and the one hundred judges pressed their switches.

“Now then! We’ll reveal the results!”

Lights flashed brightly onto the two men.

King of Singers Sun Wooju stood there calmly while the musical actor clasped his hands together in prayer.

Amid the tension-filled background music, the results appeared with a dramatic boom.

[Braised Soy Sauce 11]

[King of Singers Sun Wooju 89]

An overwhelming landslide, nearly nine to one.

‘That makes sense.’

‘Seriously, this absolutely makes sense.’

As everyone nodded in agreement, King of Singers Sun Wooju politely folded his hands and gave the audience a deep bow.

The audience burst out laughing.

‘Perfect accuracy!’

‘That really is Sun Wooju!’

At first glance it looked playful, yet he never crossed the line.

If he were fully committing to the concept, he should have been acting smug like, “Hehe~ adorable me won again~”

But instead, he suddenly turned respectful.

Even behind a masked concept, he was preemptively avoiding any criticism that he had shown disrespect toward the eliminated contestant.

So this is the dignity of a king of singers! the audience thought admiringly.

‘Wooju really is polite.’

‘Right.’

‘That’s one of the things I really love about him.’

Perhaps because the portrayal was so perfect, the audience gradually stopped thinking of him as Ri Hyuk and started accepting him as the character “King of Singers Sun Wooju.”

If Seo Ri Hyuk had realized it, he probably would have gone, “No...! It’s me!” and felt genuinely upset.

Just as those thoughts spread through the room—

“Thank you for your hard work, sunbae.”

King of Singers Sun Wooju bowed politely and extended his hand to the senior entertainer.

“No, it’s an honor for me. Ri Hyuk 씨....”

“If you make it through the revival round later, I hope we’ll meet again.”

“Thank you. You’re even warmer-hearted than I expected, Ri Hyuk 씨. You really are just like Wooju.”

“......”

After exchanging warm words like that, King of Singers Sun Wooju descended from the stage as the winner, while the defeated Braised Soy Sauce said farewell to the audience.

Meanwhile—

“Ah.......”

Inside the waiting room of “Mill Cat,” who had advanced past Round 1 only to face Seo Ri Hyuk in Round 2—

Singer Dokgo Young, a former survival audition contestant, buried his face in both hands.

‘You’re telling me I have to meet him in the semifinals? I’m insane. Why did I refuse to challenge him last week...!’

If he had simply challenged him last week, he might have become the king of singers already!

Trying to be strategic with, “I’ll wait until next week,” had only twisted the situation into something terrible.

Of course, since he had already passed Round 1, he could still challenge for the title next week as well...

But by then, Seo Ri Hyuk would probably already be sitting there as the king of singers going, Hehehe!

“I should’ve just challenged him last week...!”

The ballad singer despaired over the fact that he would now have to face Ri Hyuk in Round 2.

His manager silently patted him on the shoulder.

After his overwhelming victory in Round 1—

Ri Hyuk achieved another spectacular victory in Round 2.

“Then we’ll now reveal the Round 2 results!”

Numbers appeared on the waiting room TV screen.

[King of Singers Sun Wooju 62]

[Mill Cat 38]

A voting ratio close to six to four.

The gap was narrower than expected, but considering his opponent had once won a survival audition program, it was still an impressive result.

“WAAAAAAH!”

“Sun Wooju! Sun Wooju!”

Everyone was chanting the name King of Singers Sun Wooju, and I ended up rubbing my nose awkwardly while grinning.

It somehow felt like the “King of Singers Sun Wooju” brand had officially launched successfully.

As I gave the staff chanting my name a warm smile like, Come on now, this is embarrassing...

“I’m back....”

The door opened, and Ri Hyuk staggered in looking completely exhausted.

“Ri Hyuk....”

“Ri Hyuk?!”

He wobbled unsteadily.

The moment he removed the mask, his face was revealed, drenched in sweat.

“Water!”

“There’s a fish dying over here! Water!”

The utterly exhausted kid, who now resembled an ugly pirarucu fish, shot me a glare.

When I handed him water, his pretty lips opened and closed like a fish as he gulped it down.

Like a fish that had dried out after flopping onto land suddenly regaining moisture, Ri Hyuk quickly came back to life.

“Wow, seriously.......”

“Was it hard?”

“I thought I was gonna die from the heat.”

I waved one of the giant fans Souffle used at him.

Ri Hyuk whined.

“No, but it was seriously so hot.”

“Oh~ was it?”

“The lights were blazing down, I was out of breath, and the heat had nowhere to escape. Sweat just kept pouring down, but I couldn’t exactly stick my hand inside the mask and wipe it off. I seriously thought it was midsummer.”

“Aww, poor thing.”

I even popped his favorite dried sweet potato snack into his mouth.

As Ri Hyuk happily munched away with a grin, he suddenly came to his senses.

“Stip tritting mi like a bibi.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Kyaak!”

The moment I reached out to pat him, Ri Hyuk tried to bite me like a shark.

Then, apparently too tired to continue, he collapsed across the sofa.

“Wow. How are we supposed to get through all of this? We’re only halfway done.”

“Long road ahead, huh?”

“This is really just the beginning. The finals and the king of singers match are the real main stages of this show.”

As we chatted like that, we watched the TV.

The screen had gone dark.

Filming had temporarily stopped for a break.

The audience members were heading to the TBC cafeteria for dinner, while the contestants were resting as well.

Knock knock-

“Yes~”

A staff member entered after knocking and checked whether we were uncomfortable in any way.

Then they asked about the king of singers match.

“If you make it to the king of singers match, will you challenge the current king?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you. We’re checking the finalists’ intentions regarding the revival round preparations.”

“What about the others?”

“The other contestant also said they’ll challenge the king of singers. Thank you!”

After saying that, the staff member left the room.

The revival round.

Basically, Mission Singer kept four contestants remaining after every competition round.

But when the finalist challenged the reigning king of singers, a problem arose.

Whether they won and became the new king or lost and were eliminated, one of the four remaining contestants would disappear.

In those cases, before the king of singers match took place, they held a revival round where one previously eliminated contestant would return.

Minki hyung clicked his tongue.

“Today’s revival round is gonna be brutal too.”

“Yeah, definitely....”

Strong long-term contestants like “Princess Socks” and “Braised Soy Sauce” had both been unexpectedly eliminated.

And the other two eliminated contestants were hardly ordinary either.

As we thought it sounded pretty exciting, our ordered lunchboxes arrived.

Ri Hyuk happily admired his neat grilled fish lunchbox while I smiled blissfully at my meat lunchbox.

Then—

“But, you know.”

Minki hyung spoke up.

“Now that I think about it, isn’t the person in the finals that person?”

“Ah.”

We looked at the finals bracket.

[King of Singers Sun Wooju VS Lonely Wolf]

Minki hyung pointed at it with his chopsticks.

“Isn’t it weird? We ran into that person here again.”

“Right. Back when hyung got called LisaLover in front of sunbae Lisa....”

“Hey!”

“Ah. This meat tastes amazing.”

Ignoring my manager glaring at me, I stared at the bracket.

Jo Yuri.

The vocalist of Jo Yuri Band, the hugely popular band from 2015.

An unpleasant first impression from back then came to mind.

We had gone over to greet the band in the waiting room, and they ignored us, pretending not to hear while scratching their ears.

-Hello, sunbae.

-.......

After staring at me with heavily lined smoky eyes, Jo Yuri flicked his jacket and said—

-“Sunbae” is something you use for people in the same field as you, isn’t it?

Ri Hyuk looked surprised.

“You remembered all of that?”

“I tend to remember first meetings with pretty much everyone. Anyway, that’s what happened.”

And after that, there weren’t really any bad memories.

Because we exploded in popularity.

The few times we ran into Jo Yuri Band afterward, they would hesitate upon seeing us, and we would just smile and greet them anyway.

“That’s surprising.”

Thinking back on Jo Yuri’s usual interviews, I spoke.

“I didn’t think someone like him would come on a show like this.”

“Seriously.”

Judging from his usual comments, he seemed like the type who would frown and say, “A variety show where people fool around in masks? Is music some kind of joke?”

Though if someone then said, “But your currently popular senior singer appeared on it?” he would instantly switch to, “The greatest variety program in the world! Hahahaha!”

Of course, three years had passed now. Who knew how much he had changed?

“Hmm....”

Still, I could roughly guess why he had appeared.

I always kept up with the music industry by constantly listening to the latest songs, and Jo Yuri Band had gone through ups and downs over the past two or three years.

Back in 2014 and 2015, they had managed to place three or four songs on the yearly charts.

But after 2016, the numbers dropped sharply.

They still dominated music festivals as mid-lineup headliner-level acts, but their mainstream popularity had noticeably declined.

Of course, it wasn’t the band’s fault.

Sometimes that just happened.

Cases where, by pure coincidence, the kind of music a singer pursued happened to align perfectly with public taste and exploded in popularity.

Jo Yuri Band in 2015 had been exactly that.

At the time, even combining senior Lisa, who was active as a musical actress, trot singer Song Bohyung, and us, the rising rookies, none of us could beat them in terms of recognition.

But public taste always shifted unpredictably.

And as people’s preferences slowly changed, Jo Yuri Band’s music naturally drifted back into more niche territory.

So...

“They probably came on to prove their skill.”

“Sounds about right.”

I figured they had joined the show to reestablish their presence in the public eye.

And...

I could already read what the other side was thinking too.

-Oh? Seo Ri Hyuk is here?

Then, after appearing on the show, they discovered Seo Ri Hyuk was competing.

If they defeated Seo Ri Hyuk, who had already reached the finals after astonishing the audience with his unexpected skill?

Even temporarily, they could gain fame and cement all kinds of images in people’s minds.

And while they were at it, they could share stories on variety shows too.

-“Yuri 씨, back on Mission Singer, you beat King of Singers Sun Wooju in the finals, right?”

-“Me? That wasn’t me, though....”

-“Oops...! (The panel bursts into laughter. ‘Hey! Stay in character!’) Anyway, Wolf-nim defeated someone truly incredible.”

-“‘Defeated’ sounds a little strange. Personally, I don’t think I won. The audience simply viewed the performance favorably.”

-“Wow, look at him slipping away like a mudfish~”

-“Alright then, with that in mind, shall we listen to that competition song one more time?”

Even while speaking humbly, he would subtly keep emphasizing, I beat Seo Ri Hyuk.

Just getting associated with us generated headlines.

But beating Ri Hyuk too?

That was an enormous gain.

Right around when I realized he was probably planning to throw himself into this with everything he had—

“Uh....”

Our road manager Minsu spoke with a troubled expression.

“But, um... do you think we’ll be okay?”

“Hm?”

“He really is insanely good. He was incredible in Round 2 too... and more importantly, even if there’s a difference in skill between contestants, winning nine to one means......”

Our manager looked slightly nervous about the opponent’s ability.

Ri Hyuk perked up.

“Really? I didn’t get to see the stage.”

Since he’d been too busy moving around to watch the other performances, the manager pulled out his phone and placed it on the table.

It showed Jo Yuri overwhelming Lucky Girl vocalist Ellie with a blues song during Round 2.

“Hmm.......”

While Ri Hyuk stared intently at the video—

my phone buzzed.

Biju [Hyung]

Biju [We’re at the cake shop right now]

A photo popped up of Biju, Junghyun, and Jiho posing dramatically at our favorite cake shop.

Then a flood of cake photos followed.

Biju [Which one do you think Ri Hyuk would like?]

Me [Ask the others]

Biju [Both of them are just picking what they personally wanna eat..]

Me [I see..]

After telling him which one suited Ri Hyuk’s tastes—

Biju asked another question.

Biju [What do you think is gonna happen~~?]

Biju [Plan A?? Plan B??]

Those were the plans the underlings and I had come up with together.

Plan A: Ri Hyuk becomes king of singers and we all go “WAAAAAH!” while throwing a huge celebration party.

Plan B: If Ri Hyuk failed to become king of singers and felt embarrassed, the underlings would quietly disappear so only I could comfort him.

“Hmm.......”

As I looked at the messages—

Ri Hyuk, having finished watching Jo Yuri’s performance, calmly reached a conclusion.

“Scientists don’t usually use words like ‘one hundred percent,’ but I think this one thing is certain.”

“?”

“I think I’m gonna win.”

The seriousness of his confident expression made me laugh as I typed a reply.

Me [Bring the cake]

Me [I think Ri Hyuk’s gonna win]