Episode 180
- A Man’s Theme Song (3)
“Team Leader, it’s been a while.”
“Iwol, how have you been? Your complexion looks much better.”
“Thank you for the compliment!”
A warm and friendly greeting was exchanged with the planning team leader.
“Cheonghyeon, you’re here as an observer?”
“Yes. I came for ideation purposes, so please don’t mind me and proceed as usual.”
The meeting that I and Lee Cheonghyeon attended was not the Spark dedicated team, but a certain promotion meeting of the existing UA planning team.
Since I had given a heads-up beforehand, the conversation flowed smoothly. Lee Cheonghyeon sat in a corner seat of the meeting room with a relieved expression.
30 minutes later.
“No, there’s no point in having a meeting like this.”
“How long are you going to keep saying the same thing? We should have a conclusion by now!”
“We absolutely need results today. You all know that, right?”
“I know, I know……. Sigh.”
Ta-da. A typical meeting scene that could be seen anywhere unfolded.
Lee Cheonghyeon rolled his eyes around in confusion.
Of course. He had only ever seen meetings where I came prepared with everything to say.
He wouldn’t have any idea how to get inspiration from this. He couldn’t write lyrics like ‘A conclusion that never comes out even if we meet every day, no more, not like this.’
I jotted down a few short words in the corner of my memo pad.
Focus on the sounds.
Lee Cheonghyeon’s eyes widened.
Sounds of sighs, rising voices, the atmosphere quieting when one side speaks, a flow that builds up together then instantly cools. The clicking sound of a ballpoint pen.
Whether to actualize the sounds or the atmosphere was up to Lee Cheonghyeon, but wouldn’t it be most certain to decide after actually hearing the on-site sounds?
Usually, when this happens, people close their eyes to focus on the sounds, but Lee Cheonghyeon opened his eyes even wider.
And he concentrated as if trying to remember everything in the meeting room.
Even things like the movement of placing a damp paper cup on the desk with a sound.
When the sluggish meeting exceeded an hour, Lee Cheonghyeon tapped my memo pad. It was a signal to leave.
We carefully closed the meeting room door and came out so as not to disturb.
“You don’t need to watch anymore?”
“Yeah, it’s enough.”
Lee Cheonghyeon smiled wickedly.
“I’ll make an OST that you absolutely can’t skip during emotional scenes.”
His determination was extraordinary. I guess I should have shown him such a raw meeting sooner.
***
“So that’s why the OST passed so quickly. Cheonghyeon, was it? He must be a real genius.”
“I think so, objectively speaking.”
At my words, Ha Seomyeong laughed heartily. Despite not looking the part, word was he doted on his members terribly.
“I hope the final version comes out quickly. I watched ‘Nae.Ga.Jang’ too, and Seongbin sings incredibly well.”
“Our main vocalists are really good at singing. I’m having a hard time just keeping up with them.”
“Really? Then next time I should watch something with Iwol in it too.”
“How about using your precious time on something more beautiful? Seongbin covered a song amazingly too.”
Me, Kim Iwol, going right after Jeong Seongbin? What sort of dishonorable death is that? I don’t want to face Ha Seomyeong awkwardly avoiding eye contact from the next filming onward.
As I desperately promoted Spark’s best output songs, a familiar voice was heard.
“Entertainers sure get along well with each other.”
The actor playing the male lead, Ji Seongin—Gu Jahan—was looking this way. The surroundings fell silent in an instant.
“Ha…….”
Ha Seomyeong let out a hollow laugh.
Gu Jahan’s snide remarks toward the idol-turned-actor were nothing new.
I wasn’t hurt by Gu Jahan’s words at all. Just because I was called an entertainer didn’t mean I had any reason to have my pride wounded. Rather, it was just Gu Jahan showing off his lowly way of thinking to everyone around.
But Ha Seomyeong was visibly stressed by Gu Jahan day by day.
The reason was simple. The ‘pedigree actor’ Gu Jahan was worse at acting than the ‘entertainer-turned actor’ Ha Seomyeong.
A guy who was worse at acting than him, whom he had to match, was mocking him? And he had to put up with it because that guy was one of the male leads? From Ha Seomyeong’s perspective, it was maddening.
That’s why you shouldn’t forcibly put two suns in the sky. Since one is an incomplete artificial sun, the real sun has to produce twice the energy. It was the height of unreasonableness.
‘And it’s not like he’s only behind in acting…….’
Ha Seomyeong had an extraordinary sense of responsibility for his work. You could tell just by looking at him improvising with me several times a day.
Ha Seomyeong’s will was to extract more than what could be drawn from the script, and to plant many seeds since you never knew what might sprout where.
Gu Jahan was the exact opposite. He wanted to extract the maximum effect with minimum effort. It was the way every large corporation wanted.
However, there was a difference between large corporations and Gu Jahan. Large corporations had technology accumulated over a long time; Gu Jahan did not.
A script where he had only memorized his lines would be erased from Gu Jahan’s head if the blocking got even slightly tangled, and getting supporting actors’ names wrong was a frequent occurrence.
Decisively, Gu Jahan was not good at acting. To be exact, his acting was not outstanding for his own career length.
Think about it. A person who practiced like crazy to remove the tag, and a person who only tried moderately. Which of the two would be better?
As another idol-turned-actor, I didn’t know about other acting, but I was confident I wouldn’t lose in ‘acting like a moderately good person’ and ‘office worker acting.’ I was also confident in ‘acting as a stubborn old manager,’ but I’ll exclude that since it’s related to Do Yeonghwan.
Anyway, for outsiders like that to appear even as supporting roles, let alone leads, it’s understandable to feel uncomfortable. But what’s the point of showing such pettiness so openly?
“I think my voice was too loud. I’ll be careful, sunbae-nim.”
“Iwol’s sunbae is Seomyeong, not me.”
Gu Jahan sneered at my words until the end and left his seat.
Ha Seomyeong ruffled his hair.
“Just thinking about filming the romance scene with that guy makes me want to quit everything…….”
For that moment alone, no words could comfort Ha Seomyeong.
***
This week’s meeting time.
Spark praised each other as usual in an ordinary and harmonious manner, and checked whether the Dormitory 12 Commandments—which had somehow doubled in the meantime—were being kept.
To practice ‘talking a lot’ among them, I had also brought a topic.
“There’s something I want to ask you guys.”
“Us?”
“Why us all of a sudden?”
Lee Cheonghyeon and Gang Giyeon showed insolent reactions.
Yeah, because I have no other friends, so I’m asking you guys.
“I think changing jobs… or rather, changing career paths, isn’t a plus, but it’s also not a particularly negative factor either. But in some cases, there seems to be a lot of backlash during the transition process. I was wondering how it was for you.”
Aside from Lee Cheonghyeon, many had changed their major fields. Choe Jeho went from street dance to idol dance, and Bak Juu went from rock ballad to idol vocal.
“There were people who ignored me, but I never really cared, so I don’t know. They all say the same thing.”
“What do they usually say?”
The remarks Choe Jeho relayed were very filthy and vulgar. I wasn’t a thousand-armed Guanyin, so I regretted being unable to cover all the members’ ears.
Lee Cheonghyeon rubbed down both his forearms.
“I think that tension is scarier than a diss rap.”
“Isn’t a diss rap no joke either…?”
“There’s often respect in a diss rap, right? But that’s just plain verbal abuse!”
This isn’t something you should say, you who dissed senior groups while wearing a large-dog muzzle. I hope you take some time to reflect on yourself soon.
“I think songs are on the free side……. Rather, you’re praised if you can handle many genres.”
Bak Juu said, tilting his head. It was Jeong Seongbin who voiced an opposing opinion to this.
“I don’t think the reaction is very favorable when a regular singer switches to musical or vocal music. There’s the issue of acting, but I think there’s rejection in areas where the vocal method changes.”
“Hmm…… I agree with that part.”
Bak Juu cleanly acknowledged Jeong Seongbin’s statement. Here, Gang Giyeon cut in.
“Isn’t it ambiguous to say it’s a vocal method issue? A metal singer doesn’t get scolded for singing ballads.”
“What about a pansori major becoming an idol trainee? An opera singer switching to trot?”
“Wait, don’t make it more complicated!”
Lee Cheonghyeon’s collection of ‘what-ifs’ swept through like a storm. Gang Giyeon clutched his head and shouted.
‘Still, the one who changed the most dynamically is Lee Cheonghyeon after all.’
No sooner had I looked his way than Lee Cheonghyeon shrugged his shoulders.
“My family told me to do a job where I absolutely had to wear a suit. Researcher, prosecutor, professor. If I was going to do music, then piano or conducting.”
“Were orchestra session musicians not included either?”
“Yeah. They were obsessed with having names written separately. Not even knowing how different playing and conducting are. Such fun people.”
Lee Cheonghyeon scoffed with an expression that showed it wasn’t fun at all.
“And yet you managed to become a celebrity?”
Choe Jeho threw a fastball without hesitation. The pupils of the four of us besides Choe Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon shook violently.
I had roughly heard the circumstances before, and Gang Giyeon probably knew to some extent too but…….
Jeong Seongbin and Bak Juu were breaking into cold sweats and only reading the room.
Lee Cheonghyeon himself was nonchalant.
“We fought a lot. Rather than fought, I was just scolded one-sidedly. They said they’d cut me off the family register, and I happened to be emotionally fragile at the time so I cried a lot in my room.”
“Really……?”
Perhaps because his younger brother looked pitiful, Bak Juu’s eyebrows turned downward.
“But what could they do when I said I wouldn’t study? So at first, they allowed me to do piano at least. Once I talked back and figured out the method, I started drifting from then on.”
“Amazing.”
“Only under the premise that I maintained a certain grade. If my grades dropped, they really would have cut me off the family register. Therefore, Iwol hyung, I’m counting on you for this midterm too.”
“How about telling me the exam dates from the start before saying that, Cheonghyeon?”
I smiled gently.
While Lee Cheonghyeon’s complexion rapidly darkened, Jeong Seongbin called out to me.
“Iwol hyung.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Is filming ‘In My Office’ very hard?”
What the.
Is it you, not me, who’s actually housing an ancestral deity?