I couldn't check my phone immediately when Saturday hit.
I woke up at three in the morning to take care of the clothes I washed last night and iron them. It felt like I was moving on autopilot as I prepared to go out to Jung Restaurant once again.
I walked for about five minutes to get to the street market while thinking about random things.
I hadn't thought much about changing my practice routine, but I know I should start preparing for a performance on Make Your Idol's first episode.
Actually, I already have a song in mind. The choreography is pretty easy and I wanted to try covering this song with a style I imagined by chance.
For now, I focused on helping Grandpa Jung sell food. He actually serves a lot more than just rice cakes, rice cakes just happen to be customer favorite.
The weekend passed by with me helping Grandpa Jung. I earned my money and ate my three meals a day for free, as always, and used my free time to pick out instrumentals for the song I wanted to cover.
I was serious when I said there was a song in mind.
Now, while I definitely couldn't produce anything, I found this producer on Fouver with the alias KSH. He produces for cheap but has enough good reviews for me to believe in him.
It's not like my request was that complicated, so I didn't feel bad around it. He accepted my commission for ₩30.000, which I was more than happy about.
Anyways, it's back to Monday again, and I recorded another song cover to upload, which would make my third post in the account @h.chan.
That was when I remembered.
The followers!
I had very much forgotten about Kim Dojun's post over the weekend, but now that I'm on Instapounds for a reason that's not talking to Kim Dojun, I finally remembered to check my own profile.
"I should've turned on notifications for new followers," I murmured, scratching my head.
When I finally checked it, I actually had over 30.000 followers already. From one to that much over the span of what, three days max?
Kim Dojun, you truly work wonders.
Well, even if I have this many followers, they're only stopping by for Kim Dojun. But hey, my two song covers got a warm welcome by them since Kim Dojun reposted both videos.
I thought about it and decided to reply to Kim Dojun's post, though it's been quite a while. I made a pretty cheerful text and went on to post my new song cover.
The comments on the previous two were mostly supportive. It made me believe I had talent for singing.
- [New message from @dddojun!]
Ah, speak of the devil.
I tapped the notification almost impatiently. Before I knew it, I'd become somewhat fond of this guy. Perhaps it was his charm as an aspiring idol.
- @dddojun: Chan!! I'm listening to ur new post right now!
This idiot. You don't really have to report that, you know?
The message made me smile. I started typing in reflex.
- @h.chan: Is it any good?
- @dddojun: The intro's great! It's not over yet but
- @dddojun: wait no i just listened to ur high note
- @dddojun: This is awesome!! Your voice suits ballad songs so well!
- @dddojun: It's like I'm listening to a whole new song tho, like i love how u sing it in your own style!
These messages were in the span of two minutes, by the way.
Kim Dojun went on to write a whole paragraph, half criticizing and half complimenting. I guess I did make some improvement, after all.
Even I myself realized how much less voice cracks I had even when hitting complicated notes. This cover only took one other take before I decided it was good enough.
Still, I'm not professional level yet. I think my level of singing fits a school talent show better than a TV-cast idol show.
The thought reminded me of the time I performed a one-man story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for my school's talent show back in middle school. I was a wild kid back then.
But my Mister Hyde was great, though. Perhaps it came off as too raw and unpolished, my parents, then, almost brought me to a psychiatrist.
Thinking about the child me who loved to act so much, maybe I could incorporate this into my performance.
God, why am I so smart sometimes?
Anyways, I started practicing my performance for later on for the rest of Monday. It took some time, but I eventually decided on placing a high note for this cover.
Being this extravagant should catch attention enough, and the song choice itself will definitely bring some talk.
In any case, I fully practiced for just this song until the end of the week. The producer KSH was quick to finish his work and I could practice by the end of the week with the newly arranged instrumentals.
"Something about this feels flat, though..."
It's not like my idea was perfect or anything, nor was I trying to create a once-in-a-lifetime performance either.
Right now, I just feel like there was a hole to patch, and I could fix it up if I just thought of something...
In the end, I kept wondering to myself, "How do I fill in for a lacking character?"
I remember thinking about this when I first started acting. I couldn't picture the life of the character I was playing and asked countless questions to anyone on set.
The answers I got were usually either of two things, an added backstory or another way to describe my role's personality.
The singer of this song already has an established story, though. And I'd also sprinkled some of my own creativity to it.
Since this is a song with my twist, the singer should show a duality in performing.
"Just like Jekyll and Hyde..."
Wait.
Just like Jekyll and Hyde!