Dead by Daylight Short Stories
Chapter I: Uncertainty (Yun-Jin Lee & Ji-Woon Hak)
"If I have to stare at this studio wall for another minute..."
Yun-Jin Lee is a dedicated woman. Whether she is motivated by greed or the success of her clientele, nobody can deny the fact that Yun-Jin works endless hours for her people. Today is no exception.
It's been two weeks since the order came down from the Mightee One Directors to have Ji-Woon Hak put on close monitoring following the often edgy sound of his newest music. Numbers were high but dipping below the monthly sales threshold that the South Korean Superstar was very good at topping. Days of pleading from Yun-Jin Lee yielded little results, and the artist has revoked the privilege of mixing his own music.
That meant each album, single, instrumental, and everything had to be run through Yun-Jin Lee before making the final cut. They had to be precise with the tracks they produced so that during the magnum opus that they would be performing for the executives, Ji-Woon Hak would receive the confidence and support of his superiors.
It's now nine o'clock, and Ji-Woon was running late to the studio. Naturally, Yun-Jin sent a text message instead of calling her only musician before setting her phone down on the computer desk and staring back up at the monitor. She could edit the sound waves and volumes through digital sliders. Currently, there are ten layers, and each one serves a definite purpose. Today would be the day that Ji-Woon lay his vocals over the opening track to his LP that they were working together on.
It's a synth-filled song, and the rising and falling waves of synthesizers ended abruptly. They sounded like synths, but as each note faded out, it brought with it an almost unbearable inflection as if this wasn't an actual keyboard instead of an edited audio clip.
Curiosity got the better of the professional woman who made efforts to snoop through audio files and clips to see what the source of the audio file was. However, it was so heavily edited before Yun-Jin could get her hands on the album that undoing the work would take hours of productivity away from her art. So, she left it and instead focused on balancing the audio for the drums.
Suddenly, the studio doors opened, and in walked a tall man with partially shaved hair save for the long and dyed top. His long jacket was left open though he was wearing a long-sleeve black shirt underneath. Even though his layers, Yun-Jin recognized that he was sweating as though he was working out or ran to the studio.
"I saw your text, and I'm sorry for being late." Ji-Woon apologized as he relieved himself of his backpack and set it down alongside the exit door, and removed his long jacket before setting it on top of his bag. Once that was finished, he smiled to Yun-Jin, who offered a nod, her instincts picking apart his odd physique here and now.
Usually, she would crack down on him for always being late but seeing as she just wanted to get home and to her faithful bed, she didn't pursue and instead welcomed him in before returning to the screen of her phone.
"So we have two and a half months before we're expected to perform for them, and we have six tracks to complete beforehand. I think we're making good time; what do you think?" Yun-Jin asked as Ji-Woon was seen digging through his bag to retrieve papers. They were lyrics and notes that they had created together over the last two weeks. Naturally, Ji-Woon was in charge of building his songs while Yun-Jin was producing and mastering them.
For a moment, the famed singer didn't respond and instead wiped a streak of sweat off of his brow and clasped his papers before setting them down on the coffee table ten feet away from Yun-Jin. From there, he retrieved a pen from his pocket and finally gave his attention to the only other person in the room.
"I just want to make sure that I'm keeping NO-SPIN alive... I don't care about sales figures right now," Ji-Woon stated as he looked back to his paper. Immediately, Yun-Jin caught his lie. It was the way he turned away after mentioning NO-SPIN, the band that perished in a freak electrical fire in one of the studios of Mightee One's building of operation. Ji-Woon was naturally the only survivor, and she made sure he capitalized off of this stardom.
At times, his loss seemed genuine, and he would speak about their faces and shenanigans as though he genuinely missed their presence in his career. Other times, he said of them as divided attention that he became elated over not sharing with them.
Instead of calling his bluff, Yun-Jin studied the papers that he was fixated on as she watched his eyes scan the scribbles and lines. Out of the blue, his eyes widened at the papers before rushing to cover something with his pen. Of course, Yun-Jin looked down to spy what exactly he was hiding and noticed a slight hue of red now covered by black ink. The paper was marked by black ink throughout the pages, and they didn't use a red pen for anything on songwriting pages.
"Maybe he spilled something earlier...? Or was it..."
She didn't want to admit it, but Yun-Jin Lee was growing suspicious of his activity outside of the studio. There had been times when she needed to call him in the middle of the night to discuss news or plans for the following days. Often, Ji-Woon would answer the phone but sound like he was interrupted by an extreme workout. It was hard to pick apart what was going on from the other side of the line, but Yun-Jin assumed he was hitting the gym after studio sessions. But, the sight of blood brought back the news she read just days ago.
A young woman was reported missing from her home residence after the neighbors heard what sounded like foul play. This wouldn't have caused any concern had it not been in the city they were traveling to meet with outside producers. It seemed like a trail of blood was following Ji-Woon, and she was terrified of talking about it. Something about his demeanor screamed, don't talk to me about it, and she was well focused on not breaking those rules.
Suddenly, her thoughts drifted back to the audio she had heard. The near-human-like sounds blended into a synthesizer key played in a rhythmic fashion surrounded by the rest of the instrumental.
Was he... hiding people through layers on his produced tracks?
"I think I'm ready to go. Shall we get started?" Ji-Woon interrupted her train of thought as he stood up and received a shocking nod from Yun-Jin, who promptly turned around in her chair and stared up at the screen again. Ji-Woon made his way into the recording room and closed the door.
Left to her own devices temporarily, Yun-Jin fought the urge to search through Ji-Woon's bag as the suspicion got the better of her. Then, she looked up at the plaques hanging up on the wall.
This man was making her grossly rich, and he was becoming extremely successful himself. If she wanted to make ends meet and keep the dream of Mightee One alive, she would have to look past these dark thoughts and focus on the goal at hand, even if it meant covering the tracks or looking away from a colleague with a dark shadow.
Breaking the silence, Ji-Woon came over the speakers from the recording room and confirmed that he was prepared to lay down vocals. Yun-Jin looked at the clock before backing to the computer.
"Can I live with such a horrible decision...? What if there are bigger things at play here... am I OKAY with ignoring what could possibly be..."
Deciding against arguing herself into hysteria, the Korean woman shook her head and coordinated with Ji-Woon. Deep down, she knew that what she was doing was wrong, and it would solidify her monetary gain at the expense of whatever twisted games this man was playing outside of his studio life.
With her head clinging onto answers and further investigation, she rested her case and focused on the music for now. A time would come where she would learn more.
Little did she know that the time was creeping with each day...
... and that she would be right to trust her gut, but wrong to trust Ji-Woon Hak.
The Trickster.