novellhall Chapter 30 Tsk, Jiang Yanxi
Chapter 30 Tsk, Jiang Yanxi
Jiang Yan shrugged, a roguish smile playing on his lips: "If you want to call me Oppa, that's fine too. Anyway, you're shorter than me. If I tell others this is my sister, no one should doubt it."
"Hey, Jiang Yan!"
Choi Sulli grabbed a checkered cushion next to her and threw it at him. The cushion flew through the air in an arc, and Kang Yeon caught it with one hand with a smile and casually placed it on his lap.
Choi Sulli laughed along, her clear laughter echoing in the small space filled with picture frames, washing away much of the heavy sadness and grievances she had just felt.
After laughing, she wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes with her fingertips, then habitually curved the corners of her mouth into a smile, picked up her beer, tilted her head back, and took a big gulp.
The cold liquid slid down her throat, and she sighed heavily.
"So tell me, how did you end up in SM Entertainment? Based on what I knew of you when you were little, I thought you'd form a band or become an underground musician in Hongdae. I never expected you to join our company."
"That's a long story."
"Then take your time. There's nothing much going on tonight anyway." Choi Sulli crossed her legs on the sofa, propped her elbows on her knees, and rested her chin on her hands, adopting an attitude of listening attentively to the story. "Let's start from the day you left the orphanage. No jumping allowed."
Jiang Yan smiled helplessly, leaned back on the sofa, and began to speak slowly.
He talked about being led back to the Taoist temple by Lao Jiang and his life in Liangshan.
From that dark and damp basement in Yeonnam-dong, to that 24-hour convenience store in the alley.
She talked about the countless all-nighters she spent in the university recording studio and the most difficult days after Lao Jiang passed away.
He spoke slowly, and some long-forgotten details required him to stop and think before he could recall them. There were some things he thought he had long forgotten, but as he spoke, those scenes would clearly appear before his eyes.
Choi Sulli listened quietly the whole time, her eyes crinkling at the occasional funny part and her head bowing at the sad part, her fingers unconsciously fiddling with the pull tab on the beer can.
When she heard that Lao Jiang had suddenly passed away from a heart attack, Jiang Yan, who had been alone in the empty dojo from dusk till dawn, felt a slight tremor in her shoulders.
When she heard that Jiang Yan only had 310,000 won left in her bank account and was sending the demo to the client with the last glimmer of hope, she bit her lower lip and swallowed back the sigh that was about to come out.
Seeing that her mood had dropped again, Jiang Yan quickly sped up his speech and softened his tone: "But all of that is in the past. I've signed a contract with SM now, and Kenzie is personally mentoring me. Everything is moving in a positive direction."
Upon hearing this, Choi Sulli's eyes dimmed for a moment for some reason, but were immediately replaced by surprise, and her eyes widened: "Kenzie sunbaenim? You were noticed by Kenzie sunbaenim as soon as you joined the company?"
"I guess so." Jiang Yan briefly recounted the final mixing process for Red Velvet. When he mentioned that Kenzie had told Lee Sang-min, the head of the department, in the recording studio that he wanted to take him on as a protégé, Choi Sulli's mouth was already agape in a small "O".
"Great fortune."
She shook her head, looking incredulous. "What kind of incredible luck do you have? You were taken on as a disciple by Kenzie as soon as you joined SM, and you even got to work on mixing Red Velvet's albums. This is an opportunity that many producers can't get even after five or six years of hard work."
"It wasn't all luck." Jiang Yan stood up and stretched his stiff shoulders. "The version of the title that I helped Tiffany Noona revise was the only one she was satisfied with out of the dozen or so versions that were rejected. It was because of this that Professor Kenzie noticed me."
"Tiffany unnie?" Choi Sulli blinked, a gentle look in her eyes. "We're really close. When we were trainees, she took the best care of me. She's such a kind person."
"It really is very good." Jiang Yan couldn't help but smile bitterly as he thought of the ten million won in pocket money and the bag full of daily necessities that Tiffany gave to Kim Minjung this morning.
Choi Sulli keenly caught the hint of helplessness in his tone, tilted her head and looked at him with interest, her eyes sparkling with gossip: "What? Dazzled by Noona's enthusiasm?"
"Ani, I just feel like I owe her a huge favor." Jiang Yan touched the back of his neck. "She not only treated me to a meal, but also introduced me to Taeyeon. She always thinks of me. All I can do is focus on making music and achieve something to see if I can repay this favor."
"Oh, favors are meant to be owed, otherwise what's the point of having friends?" Choi Sulli waved her hand dismissively. "I didn't expect you to know Taeyeon unnie too. She's also a very nice unnie to me. She and Tiffany unnie are best friends, but they're completely opposite in some ways. Tiffany unnie is the kind of person who says what's on her mind directly, while Taeyeon unnie is the opposite. She carries everything on her own and never says a word."
At this point, she let out a long sigh. "It feels like it's been ages since I've seen my two unnies. I really miss them... Anyway, let's not talk about that. You just said you have a younger sister?"
"Yes, but she's not my biological sister. She's the daughter of my neighbor in Busan. I watched her grow up." Jiang Yan smiled, took out his phone from his jeans pocket, showed her a picture of Kim Min-jung, and handed it to her. "Her name is Kim Min-jung. She's fifteen years old and currently a trainee at SM Entertainment."
Choi Sulli took the phone and stared at the smiling little girl on the screen for a long time.
The photo was taken in the summer at the beach in Busan. Kim Minjung is barefoot on the sand, holding a large ice cream in her hand. The sunlight falls on her face, and she looks like a green apple that has just been picked from the branch, so fresh and tender that you could squeeze water out of it.
Fifteen.
Her fingertips gently traced the youthful face on the screen, a hint of envy and melancholy flashing in her eyes that she herself didn't even realize, before she looked up at Jiang Yan in front of her.
He was unscrewing the cap of a mineral water bottle and tilting his head back to drink. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down with each swallow, and his jawline, in the dim light of the studio, outlined a clean and strong curve.
She suddenly burst out laughing.
"Wei?" Jiang Yan put down the water bottle and looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"It's nothing." Choi Sulli handed the phone back to him, hugged her knees again, and tilted her head to look at him with an inexplicable mischievousness in her eyes. "I just think that with your personality, you must be really good to her."
She tapped her cheek absently with the palm of her hand supporting her chin, her mind automatically conjuring up the image of Jiang Yan bustling about.
The more she thought about it, the more something seemed off, and her tone was full of bitterness: "Did you make her bed before she even arrived? Did you buy all her necessities? Hmm, and you probably even picked her up from get off work every day? Tsk, Jiang Yanxi, am I right?"