Chapter 65: Music Release
A/N: What It Sounds Like & Free get released!
-x-X-x-
HUNTR/X @OfficialHUNTR/X
Hey everyone, thanks for supporting us even through our hiatus! We hope you enjoy our latest song 'What It Sounds Like'! Now streaming on all platforms!
356k Replies | 1.6m Reposts | 10m Likes | 89m Impressions
"See Jinu? What did we tell you?"
Rumi watches as Jinu hums at the numbers, slowly nodding along. He radiates relief, something that she can't help but be amused by. He'd really, truly been afraid that he would somehow overshadow them to such an extent as to damage their future popularity in the long term.
To be fair, Your Idol and Golden HAD been sparring a bit for a couple weeks after Your Idol's initial release. The song had even managed to take the top spot on numerous music charts and in most cases, it was Golden that had been unseated in the process.
But while it was absolutely spectacular that Jinu's second song was such a smash hit, and to be fair even Soda Pop had been hovering in the top ten or twenty on most lists since it was released, Your Idol hadn't been able to keep its place for that long. In fact, Golden had been holding strong at the top for the past three weeks now and based on these initial social media numbers, it wouldn't be toppled by anything but HUNTR/X's newest release in the end.
What It Sounds Like was clearly resonating with a lot of people and that… that made Rumi very, very happy. It might have been a song born of desperation and the heat of the moment, but it was also a song of love and acceptance and friendship.
"… Some people online are twisting the message though."
What? Rumi looks over as Mira and Zoey both lift their heads up from their phones as well. All four of them are in the penthouse's common area again, using their trusty couch for checking up on online sentiment.
Except this time around, Jinu has a smartphone of his own… and Rumi has to admit, he's gotten scarily good at using the damn thing in a very short amount of time.
Letting out a grunt, Mira hops up and stalks over.
"What do you mean they're twisting the message? What are they saying, exactly?"
Seeing Mira move closer and Rumi lean in from the side, Zoey also hops up to join them as they all crowd around Jinu's phone.
Huffing, Jinu lets them see what he's found.
"There are some people who are more focused on me and Rumi than they are on the main point of the song. Tch… I should never have agreed to be in the music video."
Oh, Rujinu was trending again. That was what had Jinu upset. And it wasn't even trending that high either! But… it was trending higher than Polytrix Plus. Rumi can't help but smile a little bit, even as Mira rolls her eyes and Zoey giggles. They all exchange looks with one another even as Jinu taps away at his phone, a mulish glint in his eyes.
"You're taking the shipping too seriously, Jinu. Shippers are always going to ship. Besides, that moment was pretty cute, I think it made for a fine addition to the 'story' of the music video."
They didn't exactly want to recreate what had happened in real life or anything like that. Even if Gwi-Ma was dead and never coming back, recreating Jinu's sacrifice seemed like it was in poor taste. Or at least, it wasn't something Rumi wanted to think about any more than she absolutely had to.
Instead, they'd changed things up a bit. Since it was a music video, they weren't confined to a single stage or anything like that. They could have fun with it. And fun they'd had.
Basically, about halfway through the music video, it goes FULL Demon Hunter. Rumi, Mira, and Zoey appear in a demonic, gothic castle and start fighting their way through demons trying to keep them from their ultimate goal.
That ultimate goal is Jinu, who they find shackled in the castle's dungeons wearing his full Jeoseung Saja attire from the Your Idol music video, chained to the floor with his head bowed. It's meant to symbolize his character's imprisonment, to show that the Jinu character shown in Your Idol was as much a victim of abuse as anyone else was.
And as Mira and Zoey fight off demons outside the door, Rumi is the one who goes in and frees him in the music video. He snaps at her at first, gnashing his teeth, but Rumi doesn't give up on him, nor does she raise her blade.
Instead, she places a hand on him… and both of them start to glow with the power of the Rainbow Honmoon. It looks like special effects of course, but in actuality, that part was real, them using their demon patterns for something good for once.
A moment later and Jinu breaks free in the music video, and together the four of them fight their way out of the castle. It's telling a story across two different songs and expanding on Your Idol in a way that none of their fans were at all expecting.
Of course, as amazing as Rumi felt it had turned out, Jinu still had his hangups. He felt like it put him in too good of a light, making him look like he was only the victim and never the antagonist. But privately, Rumi felt like it was her that the music video made look too good.
There was no attempt at manipulating Jinu into helping them turn the Honmoon gold after all. No moment where she lied to his face about the Golden Honmoon allowing him to stay on this side of the barrier. So yeah, they both had their hangups, maybe. It was still a damn good song and a damn good music video.
"Rumi is right, Jinu. Shippers were always going to latch on to that part of the video. It's really not a big deal."
Zoey nods, backing Rumi and Mira both up as she grins.
"Besides! All three of us went and saved you, in the end! That's gotta score points for Polytrix Plus, right?"
Oh no. Zoey, stop helping. Rumi resists the urge to groan as Jinu gets this… light in his eyes.
"You're right, Zo! That's exactly the tack to take!"
As he begins typing away at his phone, Zoey matches his energy by pulling up her own phone and clearly sending some messages as well. Mira just smirks and sits back down, returning to her own device. Rumi is left feeling like she's going insane.
"Jinu… Zoey… please don't start another flame war between our fans?"
The two of them barely even look up from their respective devices.
"We didn't start anything Rumi. But we will end it."
"Good one, Jinu! What he said!"
Rumi growls and is considering the potential value in confiscating BOTH of their phones when the penthouse elevator suddenly dings and Bobby arrives a moment later.
"Girls! Jinu! These numbers are so good!"
Rumi can't help smiling in the face of Bobby's exuberance as she leans back on the couch. Six years in and he still freaked out and came running to celebrate with them the moment one of their releases did well. Chuckling, she gives the man a nod.
"Thanks Bobby, we're pretty happy as well."
Bobby, arriving at the couch, furrows his brow as he looks among the other people on the piece of furniture.
"… You sure about that Rumi? They all look a little bit… engaged."
Mira raises her hand.
"I'm happy. This is my happy face."
Her sarcasm is not lost on Bobby, who huffs in response. Though after a moment Mira does smirk.
"It really is great, Bobby… but also, kind of knew it would be. Nothing quite like this song to bring people together."
Bobby nods but can't bring himself to get overly excited again. Instead, he's looking at Jinu and Zoey with some concern.
"… Are they okay?"
Sighing, Rumi rolls her eyes.
"They're just getting sucked into the fandom's reaction, you know how it is."
Though admittedly, it was probably a bad thing they'd let Jinu get this addicted to social media. The four hundred year old demon had literally only had his own smartphone for a few months now…
"Ah, gotcha. Well, I didn't just come up here to celebrate with all of you. I have a bit of an announcement to make!"
An announcement? Rumi raises an eyebrow and reaches over to jab Jinu in the ribs.
"Ow! Oh, hey Bobby."
Zoey at least manages to lift her head up from her phone without any… outside encouragement. With that, all four of them are looking at Bobby, who grins and plants his hands on his hips as he puffs out his chest.
"These numbers are so good and the fan reaction to you girls 'rescuing' Jinu from the dungeon is so positive that the team is pretty sure we can finally go ahead with the release of Free!"
Rumi's brow raises. She'd expected this eventually, but not quite so soon admittedly. It had been the plan for a while now to let the fans themselves start asking for that sort of thing, allow Rujinu to build up enough steam, and then make Free seem like the sort of song they only developed because the fans were begging for it. Jinu's one-man war on Rujinu shippers notwithstanding, anyways.
"What?! But that'll just make the Rujinu pricks even smugger!"
Yep, there it was, Rumi covers her face with her palm as Bobby's smile falters and he stares at Jinu in confusion.
"Uh… what?"
Letting out a sigh, Rumi reaches over and grabs the phone out of Jinu's hands.
"Alright, you're officially off of this thing for at least a week, Jinu."
"What?! No! I need it!"
"You definitely don't. You're addicted to it and you're going cold turkey. Also, we'll release Free in a couple weeks, Bobby."
"But what about those dastardly Rujinu shippers?!"
Rumi doesn't know how to get Jinu out of this spiral. Fortunately, she's not alone. Though in the end, her support comes from the most unlikely of places. Zoey.
"Jinu… Rumi is right. The shippers don't REALLY matter in the grand scheme of things, even if it is fun to mess with them. And Free is a really, really good song. It deserves to be heard by the world."
Jinu looks at Zoey as though she's betrayed him for a long moment, before turning his eyes towards Mira. The pink haired hunter raises an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Don't look at me, dude. I taught you the Light Side of the Force, Zoey is the one who taught you the Dark Side. And if even your Sith Master is telling you you're wrong, well… might be time to listen."
The references only work because they binged Star Wars with Jinu just a week ago. In the end, his shoulders slump and he hangs his head.
"… Ugh… alright then."
Bobby just looks more confused than ever by this whole exchange. Rumi can't really blame him though; they'd literally just had to convince Jinu to release an amazing song that would definitely turn heads all because he was obsessed with the shipper wars. Priorities, Jinu. Priorities.
"Well… alright then. Good talk, glad we could come to some sort of agreement. I'll just go and get everything set up for releasing Free then in a couple weeks…"
Rumi smiles and nods to Bobby.
"Sounds good, Bobby. And thanks for all that you do for us."
"Oh, don't mention it! It's my job, haha!"
With that, Bobby is gone. Rumi is still holding Jinu's phone and when she sees how sullen he looks, she's tempted to give it back to him right then and there. But no, he needs to detox. He needs a chance to stop thinking about social media for a moment. Fortunately, she's sure she knows how to make that happen.
"Phones away, everyone."
Both Zoey and Mira look defensive at that, but Rumi just smirks as she rises to her feet and places her hands on the bottom of her shirt in a purposefully provocative fashion. As she plays with the hem with her fingers, she gives them all a raunchy grin.
"There's something more fun all four of us could be doing instead."
That gets their attention, and the girls have their own smartphones tucked away in no time. Jinu just huffs at her as Rumi turns and grins at him. In the end, he smirks as well even as he rolls his eyes.
"Fine, but mark my words, Free will add way too much fuel to the fire."
Chuckling, Rumi moves to straddle Jinu, even as Zoey and Mira join them.
"You're being silly, Jinu. It's just a simple love ballad. Sure, it'll get some attention, but it won't be nearly as popular as some of our other stuff. You'll see."
Jinu just grunts and brings his hands to her waist. The four of them forget all about social media and numbers for a while after that.
-x-X-x-
Sunlight Entertainment @OfficialSunlightEntertainment
It is our pleasure to announce the release of 'Free', a duet between HUNTR/X's Rumi and her hoobae Jinu! Now streaming on all platforms!
669k Replies | 2.3m Reposts | 14m Likes | 100m Impressions
The penthouse is silent as everyone just stares at their phones. Well, everyone but Jinu. Even though he got his phone privileges back a week ago, that week of detox had done him good and he'd ultimately agreed that he went a little overboard. So right now, HIS phone is put away.
And yet… that doesn't stop the smugness from radiating off of him in palpable waves as he wraps an arm around Rumi's shoulders and leans in to read the numbers on the post over her shoulder. You could literally watch them go up in real time.
"You were saying? Just a simple love ballad, was it? Not nearly as popular as your other stuff, hm?"
The craziest part is he's not even smug about the song doing well in and of itself. He's smug about being right that the song would do well. It's a weird but nevertheless important distinction Rumi can't help thinking, even as she pouts mightily.
"… T-This doesn't mean anything, Jinu. You still shouldn't get too involved with the shippers. It's never worth it."
"Yeah, you're right."
His casual agreement causes Rumi to look at him sharply, incredulity writ large across her face. But Jinu just grins and gives her shoulders a squeeze.
"After all, no matter what the shippers believe… we all know the truth. Polytrix Plus is the real deal, at the end of the day."
"Damn straight, Jinu!"
"... You are such a bad influence on him, Zoey."
As Zoey and Mira give their two cents, Rumi just stares for a moment longer before finally breaking down into giggles. In the end, she just leans over and drops her head against Jinu, letting out a sigh as she listens to his heartbeat in his chest. She'd take a page out of his book and stop looking at her phone for a while.
Honestly, she was just glad they had finally gotten Jinu off of social media…
-x-X-x-
A/N: Yeah Rumi, sure you have~
Feedback is GREATLY appreciated, every comment helps me shape a story like this one!
-x-X-x-
If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com where I have over a thousand stories!
If you'd like to contribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon.com/Cambrian
Thanks for reading!