Chapter 33
Untitled
A week after the Music Cafe recording.
We officially ended our broadcast activities, but that didn’t mean we were done with everything.
There were still events left to do.
Something was undoubtedly the biggest hit song of the first half of the year, and there were many places that wanted us to sing it.
Naturally, the company was ecstatic and booked our schedule non-stop.
We would wake up at dawn, visit a southern region, then stop by Gangwon-do, and return to Seoul.
This routine was repeated over and over.
When I closed my eyes, I was in Gyeonggi-do, and when I opened them, I was in Seoul.
I would often lose my sense of space.
“The air is so nice in Gangwon-do.”
“We’re in Seoul, dude. Wake up.”
I stretched in the car and looked out the window.
Oh, what?
It really is Seoul.
As soon as I saw the city filled with buildings, the fresh air that came through the car window felt stuffy.
“See? This is what they call the placebo effect, guys.”
Ji-ho smiled brightly from the seat next to me.
“Since it’s you, it should be called the souffle effect instead.”
“You’re so cocky because you haven’t been on Music Cafe yet.”
It would be broadcast next week, so there was only a week left.
I smiled warmly.
“Just wait. When the clip of you crying comes out, I’ll spread it everywhere.”
“I’ll help you with that.”
Ri-hyuk quickly joined in. But the youngest just smiled confidently.
“That won’t happen. Hyungs.”
“Why?”
“I sent a bunch of chicken gift cards to the Music Cafe writers, you know.”
In other words, he lobbied them to cut out his crying scene, so he thought it wouldn’t be broadcast.
“…”
Ri-hyuk and I looked at each other, and I opened my mouth.
“I bet 500 won that it will be broadcast.”
“I’ll add another 500 won that it will be a close-up shot.”
“I don’t think it will be a close-up shot.”
As we exchanged bets, the youngest started to broadcast his unfounded faith in the broadcasting station again.
His eyes were shaking nervously, so I guessed he didn’t believe it himself.
Of course.
What kind of place is a broadcasting station that they would not air something because a high school freshman sent them some gift cards?
“By the way, I just thought of something.”
Jung-hyun, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, opened his mouth.
“Do you think we’ll have some fans now?”
“Huh?”
“We’ve been on music shows for almost a month. And Music Cafe will be broadcast soon. I wonder if we’ll get some fans.”
Everyone fell into thought.
It was a question that everyone was curious about, but no one dared to say out loud.
What should I say?
The word fan sounds so fancy, like an expensive outfit.
You glance at it through the shop window, but when they tell you to try it on, you wonder if you can wear it.
New Black worked really hard for a month.
We got up early and ran to music shows, did interviews with reporters, took a photo shoot, and went to events.
But we didn’t have much to show for it.
The only exposure we had was on music shows.
We were lucky to be on Music Cafe, otherwise people would think Ri-hyuk was the only one who could sing.
The problem was that it hadn’t been broadcast yet.
“What did we do to get fans?”
Ri-hyuk pointed out the realistic part.
“People still know Something as Jang So-won’s song. If we stop someone on the street and ask them about New Black, they won’t know. And it’s not like we’ve been on any variety shows.”
“Is that so?”
Jung-hyun shrugged and spoke in a calm tone.
“I want to think positively. There must be someone out there who likes us.”
“Right. They’re definitely hiding somewhere. We just haven’t found them yet.”
“Ji-ho, what do you want to do when we have fans?”
The rapper and the youngest were excited and drinking their imaginary soup, while Ri-hyuk sneered from behind.
“Tsk.”
“I mean, you should worry about fan service only if you have fans, guys. Don’t you think you should focus on how to get fans first?”
As he stared blankly at Ri-hyuk, Jung-hyun whispered to Ji-ho.
“He’s spitting fire again.”
“Ooh, nice rhyme. You should put that in your mixtape, bro.”
Ji-ho hummed “He’s spitting fire~” in a rap style, trying to make it sound cool. Ri-hyuk shook his head in dismay.
To be honest, I sympathized with Ri-hyuk.
How to get fans.
We would probably gain some fans after our debut, but what could we do right now?
I asked our manager, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
“Seok-hwan hyung.”
“Hmm?”
“Is there any place we can go?”
“You know how hard it was to get you on Music Cafe, right? The director and I had to pull some strings for that.”
“…I know.”
“And your status is also ambiguous.”
Lemon Entertainment was one of the top five agencies for actors, but it was a medium-sized agency in the music industry.
Of course, it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t get any variety show appearances.
But if we wanted to go somewhere, the broadcasting stations would demand our actors in return.
And it was a delicate situation to trade our actors for us.
The broadcasting stations treated us as rookie idols who debuted with Something.
But we weren’t really official singers either.
That’s why I understood the company’s position.
If we had released a full album, they would have said “Okay, let’s promote New Black!” and traded our actors and variety shows generously. But Something was already a famous song.
And it was mainly sung by another singer from a different agency.
And even if we did well on a variety show, it would be a problem.
We would only gain fame, but no profit.
Because we had no other songs to sing.
This was like a dilemma.
We couldn’t promote because we had no songs, and we couldn’t sing even if we promoted.
So, the problem was the songs?
But this wasn’t something I could solve right away. The songs for our debut album were entirely supervised by the company’s A&R team.
Then, what could I do with my own hands?
“Well, variety shows are out of the question. What else is there, Ri-hyuk?”
“How about SNS? We have an official SNS account, right? We could post some stuff and communicate with the fans.”
Seo Min-ki, who was driving, nodded as if he agreed.
“That’s a good idea. What do you think, sir?”
A merciful smile appeared on our director’s face.
“Min-ki, you have to manage that.”
“SNS is not a good idea, guys.”
Our road manager changed his attitude quickly. We all laughed.
It was cowardly, but we couldn’t blame him.
Usually, a group like us would have at least two road managers, but Min-ki hyung was handling our schedule alone.
So, SNS was also on hold.
I crossed out the SNS column on my mental list.
Jung-hyun suggested a self-made reality show that captured our daily lives, but it was also rejected by Yoon Seok-hwan.
He said the promotion team was busy with the movie that our actors starred in.
And there was only one staff member who could edit the videos, and he was behind on his work.
“Bi-ju, what do you think… Oh, you’re listening to music.”
I tried to ask Bi-ju for his opinion, but our main dancer was staring out the window with earphones on.
It didn’t seem like a good time to talk to him.
But wait.
Something was weird.
The earphone jack that went to his pocket was disconnected from his phone.
He was just wearing them without any music?
And his eyes were unfocused, unlike his usual self.
Was he too tired from the event?
I decided to be considerate of him.
Then, Yoon Seok-hwan said as if he remembered something.
“Come to think of it, there was one variety show offer for you, Woojoo.”
“Really? For me?”
“Yeah, someone was interested in you. They said it was okay even if you were a trainee.”
“Wow!”
“But I think you won’t like it…”
I said to my manager, who trailed off at the end of his sentence.
“What are you talking about, hyung? It’s a chance to make our name known. Even if it’s a jungle or an extreme challenge program, I’m confident I can do it.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I can do anything.”
Seok-hwan hyung gave me a strange smile as he saw my firm determination. Then he uttered the name of the program.
“Military experience variety show, Men on a Mission.”
“No way.”
At that moment, everyone except Bi-ju burst into laughter.
****
After finishing our schedule in Chuncheon, we didn’t go to our accommodation, but headed straight to the company as usual.
It was because of the lessons and practice.
Now that we officially ended our broadcast activities, we had to prepare for our debut.
“…Juya. Seon Woojoo?”
A dandy-looking man was staring at me.
I came to my senses and realized it was the recording studio.
To be exact, it was where I received composition lessons from Director Jo Gyu-hwan.
“Why are you spacing out?”
“I was wondering if I had to go back to the army.”
I explained the situation to Director Jo, who made a weird expression. He burst into laughter when I finished.
“I’m serious, Director.”
I put on a serious face, but he kept laughing.
This guy is unbelievable.
He waved his hand as I looked at him.
“It’s because you’re cute. So cute.”
“Director, should I just go once with my eyes closed? It would be a benefit if we could make our group name known that way.”
“Well…”
Director Jo stroked his chin.
“That seems to deviate from the essence of the problem.”
“The essence?”
“As you said, it would be nice to have fans before debut. The power of idols comes from fandom. That’s why these days, agencies are obsessed with debut reality shows and such.”
A close example was Street Boys, who were our rivals at the end-of-year evaluation.
“I like your idea of increasing fans. But the problem is that the direction is wrong.”
“I guess it’s hard to appeal with a military variety show, right? Not going is…”
“No, no.”
The producer of New Black waved his hand and smiled.
“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the overall direction. Our company is an actor agency, so let’s take an example from an actor. Suppose you’re an actor. And you want to be more popular. What would you do?”
The answer came out without hesitation.
“I would try to appear in good works. Movies or dramas. Works with good scripts or direction… Ah!”
“Now you see why it deviates from the essence?”
“Yes, I think I do.”
The gist of what our producer said was simple.
Just as actors gain popularity through works, singers should gather fans through songs.
Not through variety shows or other trivial things.
“Of course, I’m not saying that singers should only compete with songs like in the 90s. It’s just easier that way.”
“Easier?”
“How was it when you appeared on Music Cafe? Broadcasting is not easy, right?”
“Yes, it was a bit difficult.”
“Real variety shows are even harder. I once appeared on a show, and I couldn’t say a word because of the pressure from the entertainers.”
I felt a bit embarrassed.
It felt like I was caught drinking soup by myself.
There was no guarantee that I would do well in a military variety show, but I thought it would go well anyway.
Why did I do that?
Was it because of the successive successes of the end-of-year evaluation, Something, and Music Cafe?
“I don’t know why I thought it was easy when nothing is easy.”
“Everyone does that when things go well. You’re not weird.”
I looked at the director with gratitude for his warm words.
What should I call him?
He was not only the producer of our group, but also a reliable adviser personally.
He always gave me good solutions for whatever I was worried about.
It was like this when I was struggling with Something.
Suddenly, I feel a surge of gratitude in my chest.
“Thank you. I think I did well to ask you.”
“No, you did well to ask.”
He smiled.
“I’m proud that you guys had such a concern. It’s not something you can do just because someone tells you to.”
I thought for a moment and nodded.
Then I repeated the solution he had suggested so far.
“In the end, we have to compete with good songs.”
“That’s right. That’s why we’re taking this class.”
The class resumed with that.
It was a time to learn about various techniques while looking at the composition program on the laptop screen.
When the class was over, Director Jo organized his papers and said.
“Did you get anything from the management team? They decided to go with a single album with four songs or so for the debut album.”
“No, I haven’t heard of it.”
“It seems that the news hasn’t been delivered yet. Well, that’s what they decided. The rest is something I have to ask for your permission…”
He asked.
“How about one of your songs for one of the tracks? Not the title, but the track, so you don’t have to worry.”
“My song?”
“Yes, your song.”
Well, it was about time I started making my own songs.
I had studied composition in the army, and I had started taking formal composition lessons from Director Jo since last December.
It seemed manageable to challenge myself with a track, not a title.
“Okay, I’ll try.”
As I answered, I felt relieved.
It felt like I had found the answer to my dilemma.
Yes.
Making good songs was more important than planning to make fans with variety shows or other programs.
After all, the army is not a place for entertainment.
No way.
“Okay, we’ll discuss the details with the A&R team later.”
Director Jo looked at his watch and said.
“It’s about time they came.”
“They?”
I was puzzled.
The members entered the recording studio with a knock.
They greeted Director Jo with bright smiles, led by Bi-ju.
Behind them were Yoon Seok-hwan and Seo Min-ki.
Now that I see it, Min-ki hyung had a small handycam in his hand.
What’s going on?
I don’t remember agreeing to film anything.
As I tilted my head, Director Jo gave me a meaningful smile.
“We prepared a gift for you.”