Chapter 209 : At Times Like This, Just Be Happy
Chapter 209: At Times Like This, Just Be Happy
The moment I heard that I'd been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score—
“Gasp......!”
I froze like a statue, my phone still in my hand.
I wasn't the only one who was stunned.
CEO Kim Minsoo couldn't manage his expression either.
Whenever something good happened, he was always happier than I was, showering me with all kinds of over-the-top compliments like, “Taeyoon, you're amazing,” “I knew you'd pull it off,” “As expected of God Stay,” and so on.
Yet now...
He was so shocked that he simply blinked at me without saying a word.
We stood there facing each other for quite some time, doing nothing but staring.
I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about film.
But I understood the weight that the Academy carried.
The names of countless musicians flashed through my mind.
John Williams.
Hans Zimmer.
Alan Menken.
Ludwig Göransson.
And even Billie Eilish from last year.
I could hardly believe that STaY now stood proudly among names so magnificent they felt almost too sacred to mention.
Even after the preview screening at KW Film Lounge LA in North America...
I'd only thought,
'I hope it does well.'
A small-scale film.
Without a single line of dialogue.
Filled only with the emotions carried by my music.
And now...
In America.
It had become a nominee on the stage every musician in the world dreamed of.
It felt as though my heart had stopped, only to begin beating again.
“Wow......”
Unable to find the right words, I simply stood there in awe.
Kim Minsoo asked,
“How do you feel?”
“...I don't know.”
“At times like this, just say you're happy.”
“The word 'happy' isn't enough.”
Five million moviegoers.
Two hundred thousand OST albums sold.
Success even in North America.
Even when I heard all those achievements, I hadn't reacted dramatically.
Even when people said <Footprints That Became a Star> owed everything to the OST, I'd remained calm.
Because I believed music and movies had many things in common.
Yes, I wrote the songs.
I arranged them.
I added the lyrics.
But music was never created by one person alone.
There were the singers who interpreted the songs beautifully.
The engineers who refined them into something clearer and more delicate.
The people responsible for promotion and distribution.
Only those who had experienced it knew that the people working behind the scenes carried far more of the burden.
Even a four-minute song required that many people.
How much more so for a movie?
One hundred and twenty minutes.
The budget.
The number of staff involved.
Neither could even be compared.
So how could anyone say the music alone deserved all the credit?
After hearing my thoughts, Kim Minsoo gently patted my shoulder.
“This is why you succeed.”
“Huh?”
“There are people like that sometimes. Whenever something good happens, they treat everyone around them like shadows. They think everything happened because they're amazing, and everyone else is just riding on the success of what they created.”
I silently nodded.
“People like that don't last long. But Taeyoon.”
“Yes?”
“Being humble is good. But sometimes, it's okay to express your happiness too. Your joy. Your pride. You've earned the right.”
I simply smiled.
That smile alone would tell him everything.
Kim Minsoo was the kind of person who understood.
“Think you'll win?”
“Just being nominated already makes me happy.
I really mean that.”
There were five nominees in total.
The award evaluated the film's complete musical score.
“Imagine a composer winning an Academy Award before a Grammy?”
“Oh, come on.”
“What? Thinking about it just makes me happy. The Academy carries even more symbolism than the Grammys, especially in film music. It'll be much bigger for your career too.”
My imagination was running so wild it practically burned itself out.
“But there's one thing I'm worried about.”
“What?”
“If you win, you'll have to reveal your face. You know the composer has to accept the Best Original Score award in person at the Academy, right? A composer revealing himself at the Academy... that's pretty rare.”
I'd heard it was an especially competitive year with many outstanding films.
Kim Minsoo knew it too.
Simply maintaining this feeling until the winners were announced was already an honor that might never come again.
Still...
For today...
His playful assumptions didn't bother me.
So...
Since we'd already come this far...
I decided to join in.
“Oh, come on. This is the Academy. Who cares about revealing my face? Not only would I reveal it—if they told me to dance, I'd dance.”
Kim Minsoo burst into hearty laughter.
Well.
There was no harm in imagining.
“Good grief, it's already this late. When are you heading home?”
“No matter how happy I am, I should at least finish what I was working on.”
“On a day like today, go home early. Have something delicious with Dongyoon and your mom. Here.”
“You know there's no spending limit on this, right?”
With that, Kim Minsoo quietly left.
I stared blankly at the black card he'd left behind.
It still didn't feel real.
I sat absentmindedly in the studio, unable to fully process everything.
Buzz— Buzz—
Without thinking, I picked up my phone.
Congratulations messages kept pouring in.
Not only from everyone at KIM Entertainment...
Even older acquaintances from other entertainment companies were sending messages.
[Lyricist Oh Jisoo: Stay, you did it!!!]
[Yujin Noona: Stay! God Stay!]
[Signum's Yehwan: Hyung, are you really walking the red carpet??? You're taking me too, right??]
[CEO Kwak Youngho: Composer Stay, congratulations^^ I really enjoyed the movie. I even went to the special screening hahaha.]
[Tae Sihyun: Composer, I was so shocked when I heard the news... I cried so much watching the movie. I almost couldn't finish recordingㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Gibong-hyung: Let's just go all the way and win it, gogogogo?]
Messages continued arriving endlessly.
Anyone looking would think I'd already won the award instead of merely being nominated.
I slowly replied to each one.
Finally, I opened Mom and Dad's chat.
[Mom: You worked hard, son. Is galbi okay for dinner? Thank you. I've been in such a wonderful mood all day today. You'll come home early, right?]
[Dad: Stay next... Blackhole?]
Yes.
Absolutely.
After happily replying, I returned to my little bedroom DJ mode.
Even if I felt like I was floating...
Work was still work.
Ah...
Why was composing going so well today...?
The person most shocked by Taeyoon's news wasn't Kim Minsoo.
Nor Seo Dongyoon.
Nor Seo Jeongmin.
Nor Han Yujin.
It was a man who had spent the entire day unable to do anything except stare at articles about Taeyoon.
None other than critic Baek Seonghwan.
“Hoo......”
Clouds of cigarette smoke drifted through the air.
Sitting in front of his computer.
He absentmindedly arranged cigarette butts like flower decorations and stacked empty paper cups into a tower while reading the public's reactions.
'This isn't right.'
He didn't mind people insulting him.
Being a critic was that kind of profession.
People cursed you whether you praised something or criticized it.
The public was always angry whenever they didn't hear what they wanted.
He considered even those reactions to be a form of attention.
Making someone angry wasn't much easier than making them happy.
Either way...
It meant he'd moved people's hearts.
However...
Even he encountered something that made it difficult to remain composed.
The news that <Footprints That Became a Star>'s OST had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score left him strangely unsettled.
[<Footprints That Became a Star> Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Silent Film's Bold New Approach—Stay's Composed OST Officially Receives a Nomination.]
↳ Damn... That's Stay for you, heading straight to the Academy ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
↳ Not the Grammys—the Academy's Best Original Score. That's insane.
↳ Calm down. Anyone reading this would think he already won;;;
↳↳ Just getting nominated is already an unbelievable honor. If you don't know, stay quiet.
↳ The OST really is incredible. I still cry whenever I hear that musicㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
↳ Who the hell is Stay, nerd?
↳↳ Open the Maron Chart. Check the yearly rankings. Open the song information. Look at the credits. Easy, right?
↳↳↳ Holy crap. I just looked him up. Who even is this guy?
↳ What do you mean who? He's STaY LOL.
↳ K-Movies absolutely crushed it.
The more he read...
The stranger the reactions became.
It was unbelievable.
Were people really this excited?
...Then again.
They had every right to be.
Before he was a critic...
He was also someone who genuinely loved movies.
Had a Korean film ever been nominated for an Academy Award in the music category?
Not once in decades.
Never.
This was the first time in Korean film history.
It wasn't simply another critically acclaimed movie.
Nor was it merely about winning Best Picture.
This was an event that would remain in film music history.
[A New Chapter in Korean Film Music History. <Footprints That Became a Star> Receives an Academy Award Nomination.]
↳ Is this really that impressive?
↳↳ Yep. Korea has never even received a nomination in film music before.
↳ The first Korean ever nominated for an Oscar in music? That's actually insane.
↳ Even in America, it's unusual for a silent film to receive a nomination. But from Korea? That's just crazy.
↳ If it actually wins, isn't this textbook material?
↳↳ LOL textbook my ass.
↳ Anyone who knows how significant this is understands.
↳ National pride intensifies......
↳↳ Save the national pride until after it actually wins.
Baek Seonghwan let out a long sigh.
“Hoo......”
This was bad.
Before he knew it...
He wanted to join in celebrating.
When he honestly asked himself...
Perhaps the person happiest to hear this news was Baek Seonghwan himself.
After all...
When he'd written that the music carried the film...
Wasn't he also saying the music itself was flawless?
“Ugh!”
His fingers began itching uncontrollably.
He desperately wanted to write something.
Events like this didn't happen often.
Not participating in something this exciting felt like wasting life itself.
No.
The award hadn't even been won yet.
He should wait and watch.
The two sides of his mind began arguing childishly.
Only for a moment.
“Ah, whatever.”
He simply couldn't hold back anymore.
Click.
He logged out of his official account.
Then logged into another account he'd created purely for leaving comments as an ordinary audience member.
After hesitating...
↳ At first, I thought the emotions were excessive.
The instrumental arrangement felt almost too restrained, and the repetition of the main theme seemed surprisingly bold.
Yet somehow, it kept drawing me in.
This music doesn't shine only within the movie.
It becomes a story all by itself...
(Read More)
That was all he posted.
Finally.
The uncomfortable feeling inside him eased.
As expected...
People only felt satisfied after doing what they truly wanted.
Snap.
Baek Seonghwan closed his laptop and headed outside.
His movie reservation time was almost here.
This would already be his fourth viewing of <Footprints That Became a Star>.
While he immersed himself in the movie wearing Sonya headphones...
His comment climbed to the top as the Best Comment.
↳ ??????? Why does this sound exactly like something a professional critic would write?
↳ Mr. Baek Seonghwan, you can't be doing this here.
↳ Even the Academy is too powerful for the harsh critic to resist LOL.
↳ Who's Baek Seonghwan???
↳↳ He's the critic who trashed the movie LOL.
↳ Then why did he suddenly switch sides?
↳↳ You just can't resist national pride......
↳↳↳ Seriously. No matter how much someone loves stirring up controversy, nobody can resist national pride. So he had to switch to his alternate account......
↳ He criticized the movie, not the music LOL. If anything, he practically praised the music LOL.
The feelings he'd tried so hard to suppress...
Couldn't remain hidden forever.
The Academy was the Academy.
The club was the club.
Over the next few days, the Academy buzz gradually quieted down.
Time passed quickly.
Before anyone knew it, there was only one week left until Club Lunatic's grand opening.
“Ahhh!”
An unexpected phone call startled me so badly I nearly dropped my phone.
“Ye... Yes, I'm Blackhole.”
A voice echoed from the other end.
Deep.
Rich.
Like a cavern itself.
Blackhole. Good to hear your soul again, old friend.
It was Guldan.
Was it really just a coincidence that he'd contacted me one week before the club's reopening?
And he said he was in Namsan right now...?
I hurriedly changed my clothes and hailed a taxi.
I couldn't wait to see what Guldan looked like in Namsan.