| Episode 29. The Appearance of a Competitor (1)
Even after hearing Jeong Seongbin’s story, our lives didn’t change all that much.
The most we could do was for me to cause a huge scene quitting the company while shouting, “That son of a b**** is the one who deserves to die!”
‘I’m confident enough in my ability to make a total mess of things, though.’
Instead, once a week, starting from the oldest, we decided to compliment the next person in line.
The point was to encourage one another after our self-esteem had been worn down.
Adorably enough, it had been “that” Park Juu who suggested it first.
‘I am a little uneasy that the person complimenting Jeong Seongbin will be Choi Jeho, though…….’
If he had any sense, he’d just watch what I did and follow along.
Oh, when we went to turn in our phones to the manager, I did bring it up once in the office.
“Manager, our company doesn’t have anything like seniors abusing juniors, right?”
“Of course not. If we did, that’d be a huge problem!”
“Really?”
“Of course. There isn’t anything like that even among the trainees, is there?”
“No. Still, I was wondering if there might be things that have to be observed between seniors and juniors.”
“Basic manners are important, but no one bullies anyone or anything. If they did, they’d be ruined.”
The office where we had this conversation was the one used by the management headquarters. In other words, I said it in a space with more than ten pairs of ears listening.
And about power harassment, no less, a sensitive issue in the entertainment industry.
Maybe he thought I was about to expose what Jang Junhu had done right then and there, because Jeong Seongbin’s face did turn pale.
But in the end, I didn’t say it, so Jeong Seongbin let it pass without a word.
Right now, it probably seemed like nothing much. But someday, someone might appear who understood the context behind those words I had suddenly blurted out.
If nothing came of it, then there was nothing I could do, but if it did blow up, that would be good. For now, I had taken it out as a sort of insurance.
And so, though none of us had particularly hoped for it, a series of incidents had naturally turned into group membership training. Meanwhile, for the first time since we joined the company, a group meeting was scheduled for all the trainees.
The project to properly cultivate the debut team had begun.
* * *
UA’s meetings had a gentler side compared to Hanpyeong Industries’.
For starters, there was the fact that raised voices and ballpoint pens didn’t fly over the table.
What had the conference room scenery been like at the company I had belonged to until only recently?
“Who said I wanted to know an extremely legal and ethical method? Bring me a loophole, a loophole.”
“The kids who say they aren’t coming to the hiking club are all new employees, right? Make a list of them. No, never mind, tell them all to come to my seat right now.”
“Management told us to do it, so what are you going to do? Do you all not want to have a career? If you don’t, write your resignation letters and get out.”
No matter how I thought about it, I should’ve left back then.
If I had left then, at least I wouldn’t have had to go light Manager Nam’s cigarettes every fifteen minutes after that.
Even though UA’s entire building was non-smoking, whenever I thought back to that time, I felt like my clothes smelled of acrid cigarette smoke.
In an atmosphere much more fragrant than my previous life, I was forced to hear again the early concept of this group that I had gotten sick of while being forced to stan Spark.
“The management team said all of you have that cold-handsome-guy look. So overall, we’re thinking of giving the album, the group logo, and so on a strong winter-boy feel.”
So that was why the debut song’s music video had been filmed in a field where all the grass had frozen to death.
Wait a second.
Then why had they named the group Spark?
Didn’t people usually pick a name that could contain the team’s image?
Though I supposed I wasn’t one to talk, having changed my name to Kim Iwol just because I was born in February.
In any case, saying they wanted a winter-boy feel while the team name meant fire was a little contradictory.
“The group name candidates the company has in mind for now are Spark, Flake, Glint, and Flame. Ideas are always welcome, so if anything comes to mind, feel free to tell us.”
Every single candidate was simple and glittering. Just hearing the names made my eyes dazzle and my face heat up.
I’d almost forgotten. This was a company obsessed with textbook idols.
From those dazzling names, it was obvious they wanted to include a symbol and mass appeal and everything else, so they had dumped it all in and planned to organize it later.
This was why planning documents had to be written by one person. If there were multiple writers, the content went off into the mountains.
Personally, I wanted to keep the original team name. It was only proper to preserve Spark’s path as much as possible.
However, the conversation did not flow the way I hoped.
“If we’re going with the fire category anyway, wouldn’t Flame feel a bit stronger than Spark, so it might be better?”
“If we’re going for strong, shouldn’t we at least go with something like Blaze?”
Because the staff’s passion for the rookie group was blazing up in the group name.
Of course, there was a rational person among them too.
“Um, didn’t you say we were going with a winter-boy concept……?”
But among the crowd, intellectuals were always lonely.
The trainees, including me, had no choice but to quietly watch as the group name turned into a blazing pillar of fire.
“This is the general direction we’re discussing. Do you have any opinions?”
The CEO asked.
I answered with a bright smile.
“We’ll discuss it at the dorm and share it with you right away through our manager!”
First…… I had to end this nutritionally empty discussion!
When the CEO gave an okay sign at my words, Jeong Seongbin, sitting across from me, let out a small sigh of relief.
Yeah, even in your opinion, putting on a fire show with the group name was a bit much, right?
After that came the usual list of precautions.
“I know all of you are diligent, so I won’t say things like, ‘Practice hard,’ too much. Instead, you have to be much more careful with every single action than before.”
I wholeheartedly agreed with the CEO on this part as well.
Especially when I thought of how Park Juu had been torn to shreds because he hadn’t paid attention to his expression when greeting the senior group.
“And from now on, more classes will be added. We’re thinking foreign languages and fitness, but which one did we say we’d start with?”
“Foreign languages first, CEO.”
There was the option of fitness, and they were deliberately starting with foreign languages?
That made no sense. Muscles built during adolescence lasted ten years.
It wasn’t as if Spark was going to advance overseas right away. These guys made their Japanese debut in their fifth year, so what foreign languages?
Besides, all the Spark members were still growing. If we made good use of this period, they might grow a few centimeters taller than they had in the past. Leaving those frames alone would be an obvious loss.
‘Since Lee Cheonghyeon can speak English anyway, foreign languages aren’t that urgent.’
If I remembered correctly, Jeong Seongbin was pretty good at Japanese too.
It was possible he hadn’t learned Japanese yet at this point, but seeing as he had used it fluently during their activities, he might simply have had a knack for learning languages.
If worst came to worst, I could just show off something like “One Hundred Business Sentences Office Workers Can Use.”
I had thought the last English study in my life would be the TOEIC Speaking I had prepared for right before graduation to get a score.
Just thinking about it made me sick of it, but there was nothing I could do.
“Good. For English and Japanese, let’s aim for basic conversation, reading, and writing. Jukyeong will tell you the details later.”
I quickly took about a hundred deep breaths in my mind.
Objecting to something decided by the higher-ups—if this had been Hanpyeong Industries, a file folder would have flown at me immediately.
However…….
‘If I’m the only one who gets badly scolded, then of course we should take the average height.’
When Kang Giyeon, who had stood in a line with the members looking sunken all by himself, came to mind, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of duty.
“CEO!”
I took a huge breath in my mind and called out to the CEO.
Even if everyone calls me a free rider in the distant future, Kang Giyeon, you alone must not do that.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry, but could we take weight training classes first?!”
This was not a request. Give permission immediately.
This is all for the growth of your company’s children.
Perhaps my solemn determination got through to him, because the CEO responded positively.
“Iwol, did you want to do weight training? Since he wants it that badly, should we sign them up for fitness first?”
“We were going to start them one month apart, so I don’t think starting with weight training first will make much of a difference, CEO.”
“Then let’s do that. Just report the processed expenses to me later.”
“Yes!”
And so the objection raised to win weight training was peacefully wrapped up without a single object flying through the air.
Though I think processing expenses would suit my aptitude better than building my body.
* * *
Along with winning the weight training classes, there was one more piece of good news.
“Hyung! Hyung!”
“What?”
“I finished the song!”
Lee Cheonghyeon had finished the song he had been working on for several weeks.
I didn’t know how long composing usually took on average, but if this was the amount of time it took to make a first creative work, it did seem impressive.
On top of that, even though Lee Cheonghyeon had no memory of having worked on it in the past, he had made something better than before.
I couldn’t carelessly judge someone else’s effort with the word talent, but it truly was an incredible ability.
“Is it very different from before?”
“It’s almost the same, but I changed the ending a little.”
As he said that, Lee Cheonghyeon rummaged around and took out his earphones. Kang Giyeon, who had been watching him, asked,
“What? Hyung, have you heard it before?”
“The version before the edits? Yeah. Cheonghyeon played it for me.”
“What the hell, Lee Cheonghyeon? Why haven’t you played it for me all this time?”
“I was going to play it for our Kang Giyeon once it was finished!”
Asking if he was sulking, Lee Cheonghyeon kneaded Kang Giyeon’s face like sujebi dough.
I had told him so many times not to touch people’s faces because it might cause trouble. He really didn’t listen to a word I said.
Anyway, it was surprising that Kang Giyeon hadn’t heard the song either. With Lee Cheonghyeon’s personality, I had thought he would tell everyone to gather around and listen to his song twice a day.
‘Has he really not played it for anyone besides me and the A&R team?’
Unaware that I was looking at him in confusion, Lee Cheonghyeon handed the wired earphones plugged into the laptop to Kang Giyeon.
“How is it?”
“Wait. It’s only been thirteen seconds.”
While Kang Giyeon listened to the song with his chin propped on his hand, Lee Cheonghyeon stood beside him with an expression so anxious it was like watching a child approach a flock of pigeons.
And about four minutes later.
“It’s good.”
“Really?!”
Lee Cheonghyeon’s face brightened. Kang Giyeon answered with the same indifferent face, but seriously.
“Yeah. Really.”
Then Kang Giyeon asked Choi Jeho, who was lying on the sofa half asleep.
“Hyung, do you want to try choreographing something with me later tonight?”
“To what?”
“Lee Cheonghyeon’s song.”
Before, they used to glare daggers even when their eyes merely met in midair. This was tremendous growth.
I was so moved that I thought I might even change their relationship dynamic from “sandpaper boys” to “sweethearts.” For about two seconds.
While the two members of the dance line were making constructive practice plans like that, Lee Cheonghyeon, who had been organizing his laptop to go to sleep, raised his voice.
“Huh?”
On the laptop screen that I glimpsed, the pink entertainment news UI that hadn’t changed in years was open.
“What’s wrong?”
Jeong Seongbin, who had been drinking water, also approached Lee Cheonghyeon’s side, then saw the article and made a strange expression.
“……It says MYTH is launching a boy group.”
That was right.
The assured top-tier group that would be the unrivaled number one among rookie boy groups for the next three years.
The group that would spend years in a tiresome fight over results with Spark, whose comeback timing was horribly unlucky.
And even in that fight, the group that had taken victory every single time—Parte’s debut plans had been revealed.