Devil’s Music

Zens quickly pressed alt + tab to switch to the desktop and launched the screen recording program.

Not only that, Paul saw him start a screen capture program as well and said anxiously, “Check the screen quickly, what are you doing?”

Zens flicked his index finger while focusing on the screen. “You don’t know because you’re from the social department. It seems like this just came out. The Fantagio servers might explode soon. I’m recording in advance, and if the screenshot doesn’t come out, I might have to write the article just with text.”

“Ah… I heard they upgraded the Fantagio servers so they won’t crash anymore.”

“You never know, this is their first studio album and there’s been a higher level of interest than usual. It’s been a long time since they released a new song. Shall we check it out now?”

The full-size pop-up on the Fantagio homepage filled the screen completely.

Inside a box with a white border, there were four divided screens, and a brief introduction of the album was written above them.

Zens kept pressing the screenshot button and began reading the album introduction.

“First of all... It seems like there are a few songs for a studio album, only four. Huh? This song is over 20 minutes long?”

“The Song of Water, The Song of Wind, The Song of Fire, The Song of Earth? The album title is The Nature, it’s big scale, huh?”

Zens pointed to a part of the screen and suddenly stood up.

“No way!! Except for the Song of Water and the Song of Fire, all the other songs have featured artists! And, the Song of Earth is featuring Snoop Dogg and Eminem! The Song of Wind was recently in the news with Korean girls.”

Paul’s mouth dropped open as he looked at Zens.

“Is it just me seeing this? The album producer is Dr. Dre?”

“Wow!! Where!? That’s huge!! It’s true!”

“Wow, how vast is his network?”

Zens pulled his chair back and sat down again.

“Even if you're from the social department, show some interest, it’s Kay we’re talking about. Dr. Dre’s comeback track featured Kay, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem participated in ‘Break the wall,’ although it was a free track.”

Paul seemed to remember suddenly and furrowed his brow.

“Ah, I remember now. It was a few years ago.”

“Shall we take a look in order?”

As Zens was about to play three videos, each only a few seconds long, he noticed something strange about the part marked The Song of Water—a photo of Geon's back standing alone by the seaside, the only one without a video.

“It’s just this one that doesn’t have a video. Well… maybe the title and the song don’t really match. Let’s start with The Song of Wind then.”

Zens was about to connect his headphones to the laptop when Paul quickly unplugged a speaker cable and handed it to him.

“Let’s listen together!”

Zens laughed, tossed aside the headphones, and connected the speaker. He played the video.

The video didn’t start immediately but changed to a black screen, and then the Fantagio script logo elegantly appeared.

On the screen, two pairs of Golden Goose shoes from Converse were laid out with their laces untied.

Shortly after, two white hands grabbed one pair of shoes, and from the opposite side, another hand grabbed the other pair.

Four pairs of legs wearing short socks entered the Golden Goose shoes, and white hands came out to tightly tie the shoe laces in a split-screen scene. As the screen slowly panned up, two girls wearing black tracksuits, their hair tightly tied, stood in cool poses. �

Zens muttered as he looked at the background.

“This looks like the Grand Canyon?”

The background where the two girls were standing was indeed the Grand Canyon, shaped by thousands of years of geological layering in the United States.

The two girls standing in the wilderness turned around in the video. As the screen moved past between the two girls, focusing far behind the Grand Canyon, a man wearing a black hood, hands in his pants pockets, head bowed, gradually came into view.

The drone-like shot flew swiftly towards the man, circling over his head as Geon slowly removed his hood.

Paul, seeing Geon's expression as he removed the black hood, said with drool almost falling from his mouth.

“Wow… even a man can see he's really beautiful.”

Zens nodded in agreement. As Geon slowly raised his hands, a long, red silk scarf appeared from nowhere, rising from the ground.

Geon glanced at the scarf for a moment, then stretched out his arms forward, sending two scarves flying in a straight line.

The

fluttering scarves followed the screen to the end, where the two girls, still in the same posture, were caught.

The scarves, as if alive, approached the girls and covered their eyes.

As the scarves wrapped around their heads and stopped fluttering, suddenly, music with a shuffle rhythm began to blast, and the two girls, despite their eyes being covered, began dancing with precise choreography.

The typical K-pop choreography known as 'gunmu', combined with explosive dance music, made Zens show his goosebumped arms.

“Look, I’m getting goosebumps.”

Paul seemed to feel the same as he shivered and focused on the screen. The two girls stepped lively to the shuffle rhythm, and although their eyes were covered, their movements were as precise as if one person was dancing.

Though the moves didn’t seem difficult, the strangely addictive dance repeated, and Zens found himself unconsciously trying to mimic their movements.

“This is killer, it’s definitely going to be a huge hit!”

The dance of the girls on the screen did not stop, and the screen quickly shifted back and forth between Yunjeong and Jinyeon, finally adding a shot of Geon with his arms raised and a view from far above showing all three people.

The music also sped up, and with countless transitions on the screen, it ended with a bang, zooming in on Geon's face.

Geon's face filled the screen, glaring at the camera before giving a small smile and then the video simply ended, leaving only a black screen.

However, neither Zens nor Paul could regain their senses, and after a long time, Zens shook his head vigorously as if trying to snap out of it.

“Phew, it's always amazing. Is this the title track?”

Paul, snapped back by Zens' words, rubbed his shoulders, feeling as if his body temperature had dropped due to the chills.

“Wow… Kay does dance music too? How many genres does he do?”

Zens moved the mouse around and then spoke urgently.

“Darn, look how slow the site is responding. There must be over ten million people on the site by now! We need to see the rest quickly!”

“Yeah, quickly!! If we're too late, I won't be able to sleep tonight!”

Urged by Paul, Zens quickly clicked on the video for The Song of Fire, and the video seemed to play again with a black screen and the Fantagio logo appearing.

No matter what, Zens felt a sense of relief that they could at least watch The Song of Fire.

This time, a black-and-white screen showing a music rehearsal room appeared, but with no one in it. A drum set, Geon’s trademark White Falcon, a grand piano, and a bass guitar were hanging on stands.

In one corner of the rehearsal room, four wristwatches were neatly displayed on a shelf.

Zens took a closer look at the four stunningly beautiful watches.

“These are watches from The Lake company?”

Paul leaned in as if to enter the screen and said.

“Yes, I wrote an article about them recently. White Falcon, Orange Sunburst, Black Penguin, Silver Falcon collaboration models. These are all handmade watches, those four displayed there are probably worth more than our salaries?”

The four watches moved simultaneously. With no variation, they all indicated the same time at exactly the same speed, and the sound of the second hands of the watches grew slightly louder, reaching a similar volume level as the music from The Song of Wind.

It's a strange human sensation to feel one's heart rate accelerate to match the loud ticking of a large clock's second hand, even though it isn't actually happening.

Paul, his heart beating faster as he listened to the growing ticking sound, noticed a black man in a black suit, white shirt, and black tie entering from one side of the screen.

The man, appearing to advertise himself as a drummer, closely held drumsticks in his hand. Paul tilted his head slightly, trying to place him.

“Huh… where have I seen this man?”

Zens, uninterested in the drummer, waved his hand dismissively.

“Kay only uses celebrities, probably a famous session musician or something.”

“No, wait a minute. Can you pause the screen for a second?”

Zens pressed the space bar to pause the playback as Paul hurriedly ran to his place to fetch his laptop.

After touching the touchpad, which immediately brought the screen to life, Paul opened a folder containing articles about The Lake company that he had written and checked the articles. His eyes widened as if they were about to tear.

As if he couldn’t believe it, Paul alternated between looking at his laptop and Zens' laptop screen. He placed his laptop next to Zens' and pointed.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“It's him! Yes, that's him!”

Zens leaned forward to see Paul’s screen.

“What’s right?”

“This man!! Look at this man!”

Zens pulled Paul’s laptop

closer and saw a photo of a man smiling and shaking hands with Fred Johnson, the CEO of the Greach company, with a billboard in the background advertising a collaboration between Greach and The Lake.

Zens squinted as he examined the man’s face closely, his eyes gradually widening in shock.

Astonished, he rewound the video a few seconds to confirm the man in the black suit who had made eye contact with the camera was indeed Arthur, then looked at Paul.

Paul, still in shock, had his mouth wide open. Zens pointed at the screen with a trembling voice.

“This man… could he be the same person?”

Paul stared at the screen intently for a long while before speaking.

“If both our eyes are not mistaken… then yes.”

Zens jumped up from his seat and frantically searched for his phone to make a call.

“Yes!! Chief!! It’s Zens!! The teaser for Kay’s studio album has just been uploaded on the Fantagio homepage! Yes, yes! Oh, I'm recording the screen and I've prepared screenshots, but there's huge news! We were watching the teaser for the song The Song of Fire, and the drummer is Arthur Hodgson, the CTO of The Lake company! Yes, yes! Definitely! Yes! Okay!”

Zens handed the phone to Paul.

“Your turn!”

Paul took the phone and after a series of affirmative responses, he sighed and hung up.

“What did they say?”

“They said to confirm it thoroughly and then post the article immediately.”

“Typical, Kay always selects astounding events.”

“Let’s hurry, check everything, and write the article immediately. Other journalists might be watching and verifying it now too.”

“Got it!”

>

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