#anyway minah and sung r the cutest and sung wants to bathe in her vocals

[fmdjoosungarchive]

location: bc studio

date: mid-late sept mayhaps

word count: 1275

tldr; verification for @fmdminah’s timeless and lonely, partial production for each! sung goes to record the songs with minah, gets offered a role in her mv, then does what he can mixing-wise with the leftover time he has, tho i more allude to the latter part. one lil mention of yujin

paper crinkled in sung’s hand with every step. just the one, while his other hand curled around the strap of his bag, keeping it taut so it didn’t bounce up as high with the swishes of his legs.

he’d read the lyrics an hour ago, a few times over, but he needed the feeling to be fresh. piano and guitar swirled his eardrums through his earbuds as he read the lyrics, trying his best to imagine how they would flow into the melody he’d written. sung forgot how much he enjoyed timeless, as it came to be called. it wasn’t like what he usually wrote. in that way, it was unique, something just for minah and her career going forward.

honestly, sung didn’t think that he’d have made it onto minah’s album at all, let alone with two different songs. he couldn’t be sure how much influence minah had in her solo output. when it came to himself, he only really had the power of suggestion, but minah was so much more of a senior idol that it was possible she had more people willing to listen to her thoughts. maybe, she pushed for this to happen. or, it could have been gold star, wanting to push his good relations with lipstick members while also continuing to use his songwriting for marketing. he could never truly be sure.

sung wasn’t there for the initial demo recordings, so he was more or less coming in with a blank slate. at least, with timeless. with lonely, minah’s company had sent him the demo there, which ended up being what he’d listened to on repeat for the hour between when he first read timeless’s lyrics, to when he went back to the composition. he had thoughts.

those thoughts were why when he finally walked into the studio, folding over the lyric sheet to slip into his bag, sung suggested to minah and the other producer that they start with lonely first. that was, after greeting each of them and giving minah a hug --he had manners. and frankly, also missed minah. although, as she went into the recording booth, sung had to wonder whether he missed minah more, or her voice. something about it felt dripping in jewels. gentle jewels, like topaz or opal.

he led minah through a quick vocal warm up, something that might have seemed strange to the other producer considering he did it alongside her. sung didn’t mind seeming strange, though. it was part of his process, to be as fully connected with the artist as possible. to him, music was all about feeling and connection, which could only be achieved by seeing one’s self in another’s shoes.

minah had nice shoes.

sung told minah a little bit about his process writing the song, recalling how contradiction had been the main focus in the lyrics. “it’s in that space, right? between the beginning of a breakup and moving on. you know the best thing to do is find contentment in yourself, but this exhausting relationship is still something you almost want back. you’re not sure what to do with the loneliness. the exhaustion is where it comes from. it’s easier to fall back into old ways that hurt. i would say, bring that thought into your voice. let us feel the breathless exhaustion of being in between.”

strangely, what stuck by him most, even until the end of his mixing, was an um. minah had taken so well to the concept of the song, and yet that throwaway word was so pleasing to the ears, and a perfect encapsulation of what he’d meant to portray. he hoped, if minah performed this song anywhere, she’d continue that feeling there. if only there.

sadly, time constraints were a stressor added onto their time together. if they’d had all the time in the world, sung would have loved to go over every little detail of the songs, discuss them with minah, get her full opinions on how she’d come to view them in the time she had them. life wasn’t so kind, though, which meant the transition between recording for lonely and timeless needed to be somewhat swift.

sung had come up with a decent enough way to do that, by this point of having worked with enough idols to know how quick the process needed to be sometimes. they’d come back together in the same room to listen to timeless, this time the demo, through headphones, with their eyes closed. the point, was to eliminate more senses, to truly feel the song through their ears rather than be distracted by other sounds and sights. it wasn’t the best method, maybe some other producer did something better, but it worked well enough for their purposes, for sung’s. he spent the listen more intently on minah’s voice in the demo, to pick out what he might suggest otherwise for the final recording session.

bc having wanted, and having chosen this song for minah was out of his perceived notion. it ended up being the first thing he said when minah went back into the recording booth. “this song must be the most different one on the album, right?” a snicker fell from his lips, before he requested minah send him the album when it was finished so he could listen to it fully. he went on to explain more of his influences rather than the lyrics since... he didn’t write anything real. what he had written were more vague vocals that he could still hear on the demo version. sung mentioned with a fondness that he’d bugged yujin so often to record the song for him, and that, if minah could hear it, there were still bits of her in the background.

though, most of what he talked about were those influences. the song ended up being something sung would call a power ballad. there were rock influences, largely from the japanese power ballads he’d been listening to a lot at that time. there was his biggest note, to give her. sung wasn’t sure how familiar minah was with that style, when he’d come into the recording studio, but he believed in her ability to give him intensely powerful vocals to match with the feeling of the song. “time passes the same as the wind blows. this person was so, so meaningful to you, that now the worst of the feelings of losing them are gone, you’re left with the knowledge that what you had was special anyway. it’s powerful, i believe, to be secure in that knowledge. it reads like a letter to this person, doesn’t it? think of it that way, and pour out your emotions to them.”

that song took a little more finessing. minah’s voice was strong, powerful in a way many idol singers weren’t, but it required a few breaks for ‘mini games’ of a sort, like giving a good yell into the walls of the booth, to pull the complicated mess of feelings into the song in a way that sung thought worked well. it was there he relished more having a partner to work on the production with him, and to be working with a friend like minah, who might have understood his fumblings, when his words weren’t the best.

sung made sure to give a tight hug to minah, and let her know what a great job she’d done, when they’d wrapped up their recording session. he was blessed, to have the opportunity at all, but when minah mentioned her music video shoot, sung really had to wonder how it was he managed to find such amazing friends like minah.