[Author Note: Okay, currently I am working on some slice-of-life side stories for this fic. There are stories that occurred in between chapter 9 and 10. These chapters won't be released publicly as all the events were summed up in this chapter. All that's left are "boring" character dev chapters filled with nothing but the MC, Gwen and Carlie goofing around and working.
If you like such stories consider supporting me on PAY-TREYON link will be in the author's thoughts.
Free users could vote for the release of the side stories and members will be able to read all chapters.
P.S. I'm doing this as most webnovel readers are ADHD kids that could not enjoy anything that's just continuous action and climax. Sorry to the non-ADHD kids that could not spare the extremely high rates. I set things up not only to limit the anger inducing comments ADHD kids would add but also to make me know if there are people who genuinely want to see proper development.
P.P.S. Polls will be up if I see a substantial amount of members commenting on the free threads in PAY-TREYON]
=== HERE IS THE CHAPPY ===
"It's been a month and he still sings here-"
Gwen mumbled as she continued to serve drinks to the customers but her eyes were more focused on the young man performing on stage.
"Are you saying my bar is too low class for your oh so famous boyfriend?"
Carlie asked, appearing suddenly behind Gwen.
"Whoa! Don't sneak up on me like that Carlie!"
Faking her surprise, Gwen responded like a normal girl would have before retorting.
"Also, I'm not saying that your bar is small or that your stage is not that great but I'm just saying, Jonathan could do bigger concerts you know"
Gwen spoke with a somewhat fake tone and Carlie knew what she meant as the young manager rolled her eyes responding to Gwen.
"Well, it's not like expanding is that easy, also, your boyfriend's the one who still continues to perform here without any complaints~"
Neither of the two said anything about calling Jonathan, Gwen's "Boyfriend".
"Still, never would have thought that Jonathan would get that famous in a month"
Carlie said as she looked at Jonathan singing on stage accompanied by a band.
Ever since Jonathan's first performance, he had been continuously performing at the bar.
If he wasn't at the bar he would either be at the recording studio or at the copyright office. For a whole month, Jonathan had been continuously working which resulted in him gaining quite a following.
Coupled with the way he managed his intellectual property, his fame had skyrocketed.
His fame was growing by the day as people continuously posted videos of his performances online.
Social media exploded, cover artists played his songs but few were able to give out a performance close to or equal that of Jonathan's.
Because of this, Jonathan, despite not being a professional content creator, started a youtube channel that immediately exploded.
All his socials were flooded by followers as he posted short videos of his performance. Although the short video format was not yet as famous as it would be in the future, he still abused this type of content.
Then, although rare, he also did some crazy public performances.
Unfortunately the crowds were so huge that he was "advised" by authorities to perform in larger spaces like parks etc.
Now, Carlie's bar had earned a huge reputation being the only place where one could watch Jonathan's performance live consistently.
Because of this, Carlie had to implement various rules and reservation of spots became the name of the game.
Much like buying tickets to watch a concert, Carlie started to sell tickets to seats in her bar. Competition was high and there were people who took it upon themselves to resell tickets, an act Jonathan and Carlie did not mind. So long as they were selling real tickets it wasn't a problem.
Because of this, Carlie and Jonathan became creative with performances.
Special themes for each night were set up, it started out with simple themes but as time passed their themes became more interesting and unique.
Today the theme was "Melancholic joy", this time Jonathan was performing various songs he had recently applied rights for.
At times the theme was somber, others it was like today, filled with joy.
This type of style was great for business as it allowed Carlie to prepare beforehand all the drinks that might be ordered.
After all, there were times when people just wanted to drink hard liquor and wallow in sorrow to sad tunes like Jonathan's first performance or, just like today, jump for joy and party while drinking sweet low alcoholic beverages.
It was like a rave but not, also drugs were not allowed, though no one would want to take drugs as Jonathan's singing was a drug in itself.
After all, even Jonathan would notice the weird fact that his own performance was, to others, a hundred times better than that of other musicians.
Jonathan had long understood what kid of power his Siren Song had.
Though his singing becoming better and the like were just side effects as the true limits of his ability was something he had yet to fully grasp.
Through trial and error, Jonathan knew that he could use sound to manipulate objects and even air. He could turn sound waves into sharp blades or use sound to manipulate objects like a weird form of telekinesis.
Unfortunately, this ability of his was only good enough to let him protect himself while performing, there were a lot of creative ways to use it but-
Jonathan did not have any plans to become a hero- at least for now.
Recalling all the things that happened in the past month, Carlie turned to Gwen.
"You know, even I did not expect to become his manager, so how about asking him if he's willing to perform in a concert with anyone, a bunch of artist are sending love letters and Jonathan keeps on rejecting them… you know it will be bad PR if he continues to reject them"
Recalling her own email that had hundreds of messages from various talent agencies and managers, Carlie felt her head ache.
"I'll try but you know how he is"
Gwen said she knew that Jonathan's songs were not his own, she also knew about his abilities.
Ever since that day, Jonathan had come clean with Gwen, he revealed a lot about himself and Gwen likewise did the same.
The two bonded after that and it was interesting how their relationship developed after an accident.
At first neither Jonathan nor Gwen tried to do anything crazy but… after Gwen made a scene talking about how Jonathan did not really like her or anything. The two ended up doing a few night time exercise sessions.
Interestingly enough, due to a few abilities he earned after that accident, Jonathan's stamina and a lot of other capabilities made him perform better than he did the first time. Not to mention, these activities they did occurred with Jonathan fully conscious.
Unlike the first time where it was almost like Gwen committing a crime, their following sessions were a mix of romance and lust.
This helped them develop their feelings more as Gwen understood more about Jonathan and vice versa.
Now, Gwen knew so much about Jonathan that she could predict how he would react to certain things.
Of course, that was before adding the fact that Gwen knew Jonathan's thoughts about the various proposals for partnerships and the like.
As the two girls were talking about business, Jonathan finally finished his performance.
"Nobody got you the way I do~"
Jonathan finished singing his final song for the night much to the crowds dismay.
"Alright, alright! Even "I" need some rest after all, I still have another performance tomorrow!"
With that, Jonathan left the stage and walked up to Gwen and Carlie.
"So what's gotten the two of you all riled up?"
He asked as Jonathan was able to clearly see the expressions on the faces of the two women.
"It's about working with other artists"
Carlie answered without any hesitation, her eyes calm but the pressure she was exuding revealed how she truly felt.
"You know I just started singing for a month-"
Jonathan responded with the same response he did before but this time Gwen interjected saying-
"Yet here you are with almost a hundred songs still unknown to the world"
Hearing her response, Jonathan gave the two an embarrassed smile as he did not really know what to say now.
Carlie and Gwen were both aware of his insane list of songs, the former knew because she is Jonathan's manager while the latter knew because she was his lover.
Of course, the two also knew why he can't really perform those songs- for now.
"Maybe you could finally do a collaboration?"
Carlie proposed, since one of the reasons why Jonathan was unable to perform those songs he had was due to the fact that most of those songs were written as a duet, some had rap and others just needed a female vocalist to sound really good.
"Uhm… Gwen?"
"No"
Jonathan turned to Gwen, he had long asked her if she wanted to sing with him but every time he asked her answer was the same- no.
In fact, Carlie had already proposed such an idea long ago but Jonathan was hesitant to pull the trigger.
After all, he was not fully prepared to jump into the "World Famous Artist" track.
Of course he was willing to perform with other, not so famous artist but-
'XXX artist gets famous after performing with Jonathan'
'Jonathan rejects XXX to perform with a subpar artist?'
'Jonathan hates XXX'
'Scandalous! The secret war between Jonathan and XXX'
Humans are interesting creatures, they would latch onto negative information quicker than to positive ones and this happens despite none of such information having any solid backing.
What made Jonathan mad was the fact that a LOT of famous artist were sending him love letters.
Although the number was not as high as the average unknown artist, but that was due to the difference in the total number of the former compared to the latter.
There were millions of struggling artists who had a small amount of fame and barely a thousand really famous artists.
It also didn't help that Jonathan made it apparent that he was capable of singing various genres of music, and all of his performances went viral.
He was like a Master of All Trades in the world of music at the moment which made his fame explode every time he performed a song with a different genre.
Jonathan knew what kind of pressure Carlie had been going through but-
"..."
"..."
He wanted to give another negative response but, for some reason, the pressure Carlie had been releasing had gotten stronger and Gwen even added more fuel and flames to the pressure.
Facing the two women, Jonathan was unable to run away anymore.
"Fo-for now, how about we look for artists performing in New York?"
His response made Carlie jump for joy as she rushed to her office and Gwen held his hand preventing him from following her.
"Uhm… Gwen?"
"Stay"
Jonathan stared at Gwen for a moment and tried to move but he felt it-
"It hurts…"
"S-T-A-Y"
"Yes ma'am"
Facing Gwen's pressure and death grip, Jonathan, who did not have any epic superpower that made him stronger, was forced to stay.
'Is this what being a henpecked husband feels like?'
He thought as Gwen dragged him to the employee's lounge.
'Well… it's not all that bad'
Jonathan thought as he looked at his beautiful lover's back.
A lot of things had happened, Jonathan had found himself in various situations. His previous world, his family and friends, they all came to his mind at times but-
'Well that's what I get for being the middle child and a loner'
Jonathan thought as he realized just how disconnected he truly was from others.
The more he thought about it, the less he cared.
From recalling the fact that he had already created a will in case he suddenly dies or disappears, he can't help but calm down.
The things his family would go through does weigh on his mind but-
'It's not like I can just leave now can I?'
Looking at Gwen's figure, Jonathan was able to calm his mind once more. All the things he had been going through for the past month were things he never would have experienced in his previous world.
With the way he handled his life, he would have never thought of going out to play around-
'Though most of those times were dates'
He recalled fondly, times spent playing around were a waste to him but for some reason doing it with Gwen felt more fulfilling than finishing work.
'Well at least I learned a lot about my abilities and some of the limits'
Jonathan thought, recalling how, despite the way he handled his copyright, he still ended up earning money from his masters.
Despite many cover artists making covers of his songs, people still preferred his original recordings as they carried his ability's bonuses.
This resulted in him earning a ton of royalties from various producers and studio's paying for rights to use his songs.
In fact, he even earned royalties from these shows since his songs were used as openings and ending OST, some even became the core OST of the shows after a surge of popularity brought by his original recordings matching the shows themes.
His studio recordings brought a new dimension of emotion to scenes, romance and drama became even more tear jerking and action scenes filled with adrenaline became more exciting.
Some game companies even approached him asking if he could make the music for their games.
Ultimately, Jonathan rejected all the game companies and accepted the proposals of the shows and movies.
'I don't want to work and I'm not really that creative'
Were his thoughts but that still did not stop the game companies from buying the rights for his already published and released songs.
'At least it gave me money'
Jonathan thought, recalling the long string of zeros in his account.