Little Pink Starfish

It was only natural that I chose Selfish as the first track to present to Sound Fact.

Selfish isn’t bound by timing or social context.

No matter when it’s released, with the right promotion, it’ll hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

Even if I’m relatively unknown.

So, there was no better song to introduce myself with.

Of course, this was all pre-cleared with Double M, Drop Out’s label.

Selfish is part of a trilogy.

Selfish, Twist, and Abandon.

I sold all three songs to CEO Oh of Double M and told him that if Drop Out’s chances of re-signing were at 49 to 51, this trilogy would at least push it to 50-50.

Thanks to that, Drop Out—one of the top K-pop boy groups of the time—appeared on our own content show.

And next month, Drop Out will release Twist as the title track of a mini-album with full promotional backing.

CEO Oh has started to feel the pressure to reveal that this is part of a trilogy—and that I composed it.

Their contract ends with this upcoming album, so he’s clearly feeling the urgency.

So when I said I wanted to perform Selfish on a foreign show, he was all for it.

But there’s one thing CEO Oh doesn’t know.

This whole “trilogy” thing? I made that up on the spot.

Twist and Abandon were written quickly to make the sale of Selfish to Double M feel more dramatic.

Still, the quality of those songs is solid—so it’s not really a scam.

Probably.

“Do I just play these in order?”

“Before that—can I use that guitar?”

I pointed at a guitar displayed in one corner of the Sound Fact podcast room.

Originally, I had planned to bring my own, but this added more flair to the “genius act.”

Ronnie shrugged.

“Sure, but the tuning’s a mess. No tuner either, and we won’t give you time to fix it. This is a podcast.”

“Yeah?”

The guitar is a chromatic instrument, each fret representing a half-step.

Unlike fretless string instruments, it’s incredibly easy to play melodies on a guitar.

It has its downsides when it comes to chords, but still.

And that’s why a mistuned guitar can sound incredibly off.

Precisely tuning each fret to the exact pitch isn’t easy.

Even with a tuner, mistakes happen.

But that’s not a problem for me.

Not because I have perfect relative pitch down to quarter-tones—no.

Because I’m a regressor.

Do anything for over a hundred years, and you’d be just as good as me.

The moment I said “Yeah?” to Ronnie, I started playing a chromatic scale as fast as possible.

Back in my first life, I used to have competitions with my friends—who could play chromatic scales the fastest?

As that memory flashed by, I casually adjusted the tuning pegs.

“All done.”

“…You’re joking.”

“Not at all. Come on, let’s go. This is a podcast, right? People must be bored since they can’t see my face.”

“Would seeing it be entertaining?”

“Hey, even ugly faces can be fun to look at.”

I said it with a playful grumble, and Ronnie and Bonnie exchanged glances and chuckled.

They seemed to catch on to what I was doing.

I was the guy who greeted in Spanish and spoke West Coast English.

I guarantee—out of all the listeners tuning in right now, not a single one thinks I’m Asian.

Or thinks I’m a K-pop idol.

Not one.

I thought either Ronnie or Bonnie would comment on me being Asian, but they didn’t.

If they had, I was going to deny it and claim they were just making assumptions—but starting with Spanish turned out to be the right move.

Now imagine what’ll happen when the video is released.

Sound Fact’s YouTube videos always get at least a million views.

This will be fun.

Judging by the look in Ronnie and Bonnie’s eyes, they just realized the twist.

“Alright. Let’s do this, Queen’s Gambit.”

“I’d prefer Quality Game, honestly.”

“How about Quantum Gravity?”

“Marvel-nerd Asians will love that.”

“That’s racist.”

“I’m Korean to the bone. Out of every country on earth, I love Korea the most.”

“Snrk.”

Bonnie stifled a laugh—and then finally pressed play.

The MR of Selfish started playing—minus the guitar.

That part was mine to perform live.

“The song’s called Selfish.”

Tap, tap.

I silently counted two beats in my head and started playing.

Ronnie and Bonnie shut their mouths to avoid letting any noise in, but their wide eyes gave them away.

They were clearly stunned.

This untuned guitar suddenly sounding perfectly in pitch—as if a tuner had been used.

But tuning isn’t a skill that defines an artist.

Shaking off their surprise, they stared at my hands with the intent to dissect my performance.

Go ahead. Watch closely.

You’ll need to, if you want to find flaws.

But there won’t be any.

In any field, one of the fastest ways to improve is to eliminate your weaknesses.

Fourth life? Maybe fifth?

That’s how long I was guitar-only.

It’s not that I can’t play piano—but my guitar skill is on another level.

So imagine how hard I worked to erase my weaknesses as a guitarist.

Once I’d erased them all, I took on new challenges—turned them into strengths—and then erased the next set of flaws.

That’s what I’ve done with this instrument for over a hundred years.

I can confidently say—even someone like Eric Scott or Eric Clapton would struggle to find flaws in my playing.

The performance flowed, and Ronnie and Bonnie wore faintly dazzled expressions.

Then my voice broke in.

I only knew myself
So full of confidence
Rude without realizing
Arrogant with every step

---

Jamie, still listening to Sound Fact, suddenly froze in place.

The song pouring through her earphones was too perfect.

There are times when perfection isn’t a compliment.

Sound obsession gets passed off as perfection, and pitch control as artistry.

If accuracy alone made a song great, the best singers on earth would be scientists.

Or the ones who made the best vocaloid software.

But this…?

This is amazing.

Some songs hit instantly.

You hear it on the street, and you have to know the name.

You catch 5 seconds of it in an ad, and you scour the internet to find it.

This was one of those songs.

And the voice?

Jamie closed her eyes.

Right now, listeners of Sound Fact were enjoying a fun guessing game.

Question Guy, Queen’s Gambit, Quality Game…

Whatever you called him, this guy—they were trying to picture what he looked like.

As soon as she shut her eyes, she imagined a sun-kissed man with Spanish charm and tanned skin.

Didn’t he say he was ugly?

But there’s a difference between a regular person’s “ugly” and a celeb’s “ugly.”

Plus, even though he claimed he was ugly, Ronnie and Bonnie’s reactions didn’t seem to support that.

As a longtime listener of Sound Fact, Jamie could tell.

To them, he probably wasn’t bad-looking at all.

But what if he’s not even Spanish?

His English sounded way too Californian to be a native Spaniard.

With his youthful voice, she pictured a carefree Cali boy running on the beach.

My halo’s conquest
Incoste was just a nickname

And the lyrics—so rooted in Anglo culture.

Still, there was an educated feel.

“Incoste” was a nickname for Alexander the Great, and Jamie had never heard a Spanish speaker use that term.

Wait… do even Americans use it?

As Jamie was thinking, the song kept unfolding.

Selfish—a story about a man who lived selfishly all his life but becomes helpless before one woman.

The more it progressed, the clearer Jamie’s mental image became.

A violent British gangster in a sleek mafia suit?

Cold and cynical about the world—but hopelessly chaotic when it comes to her?

And most of all—his own confusion is what makes him truly confused.

“…What am I doing?”

Jamie snapped out of her trance as the song finally ended.

Or rather—it didn’t feel like an end.

She wanted to hear it again.

She wanted to see it live.

[That was the best live performance I’ve ever seen.]

Bonnie’s words jolted Jamie.

Wait—this was live?

The guitar and vocals were all live?

And barely touched by Sound Fact’s signature minimal effects?

Jamie, suddenly realizing the magnitude, jumped into the Sound Fact community.

It was blowing up.

Even Reddit was on fire with Sound Fact threads.

–Who is he? QG?

–(Photo) Here’s a list of rookies signed by Colors Media over the past 5 years. Gotta be one of them, right?

–You can scratch the top five. None of them play guitar like that.

–Scratch anyone over two years old too. None of them compose.

–Why does this song feel so familiar?

–You’re imagining it. If something like this dropped on Billboard, no way we’d miss it.

–Could’ve been buried.

–Technically possible, but maybe 0.1%. A song this good, backed by Colors Media? No way it stays hidden.

As buzz exploded, even people who hadn’t been listening rushed to plug in.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Ronnie were speechless.

[So? Tell me the flaws. I came here because I want to become a better musician.]

QG pushed forward with total confidence in his voice.

---

Ronnie and Bonnie’s greatest strength was that they were honest and cool.

That honesty sometimes got them into trouble—but when it came to music, they never lied.

After a long silence, they admitted it.

“There aren’t any.”

I raised an eyebrow and asked with a grin.

“None?”

“Yeah—none!”

“There’s no such thing as a perfect musician.”

“Sure, in terms of taste, there are flaws. Some people might find your tone angelic. Others might call it whiny.”

“My tone?”

That was true, but my vocal tuning had been calibrated to appeal to the overwhelming majority of listeners.

Unless someone specifically liked ultra-low, cave-like voices, they wouldn’t dislike my tone.

They might not love it—but it would be pleasant enough to listen to.

Maybe Bonnie sensed my thoughts, because she let out a long sigh.

“That face—you’re so smug.”

“Wow. Maybe we’re friends now. My friends say that to me all the time.”

“Should I start praying for your friends?”

Ronnie’s random quip sent all three of us into laughter.

After the laughter died down, Bonnie concluded.

“Really—there’s nothing. Damn. It’s been a while since I heard a song I couldn’t even evaluate.”

“It was so good I lost my mind.”

“This was released on Billboard? Then it had to chart.”

“Hmm…”

It’s a bit of a tricky story.

Drop Out did barely chart on one of Billboard’s most minor minor charts.

They published tons of hype articles about it.

Was it Billboard Global?

They don’t even have that chart anymore, do they?

Anyway, it did chart somewhere, but calling it a Billboard hit is a stretch.

Still—this’ll be more fun.

“Don’t remember exactly, but I think it made it onto a Billboard minor chart.”

If I said anything more provocative, it might come off as a jab at Drop Out.

Even what I said was a little close to the line.

But I’m the composer, so my leeway is wider—and Double M promised to grease the wheels like crazy when Twist drops.

“There are too many songs titled Selfish—I can’t find it.”

Bonnie muttered, scrolling through her phone. Ronnie asked:

“You wrote it—and you don’t remember which chart it was?”

“I’ve written too many songs. Speaking of which, how about we move on to the next track? I won’t be performing this one live.”