| Episode 37. Setting Internal Rules
“Then, from this moment on, we will begin the first group meeting!”
“Woo!”
At Jeong Seongbin’s opening line, everyone clapped enthusiastically.
As if to prove they were Koreans, all six of them had abandoned the sofa and were sitting on the floor. Familiar. Nice.
“Today’s agenda is ‘setting dorm rules.’ To be honest, there haven’t been any problems so far, but I thought we could take some time to talk, in the spirit of getting along even better from now on.”
His hosting was neat, too. Nice.
As it turned out, after Jeong Seongbin had heard about the content idea, he’d apparently made a separate script and practiced it.
It seemed he’d built up presentation experience from being class president or student council president. This is why you use experienced hires.
‘More importantly… should I say something first?’
Once someone opened the floodgates, it would be easier for everyone else to talk.
There wasn’t anything in particular I’d found uncomfortable while living with the guys, but I had thought of a few things in consideration of the video’s runtime.
Small, wholesome things, like making sure to drink a cup of water in the morning.
I was earnestly racking my brain, wondering what topic wouldn’t overlap with what the others had prepared, when Jeong Seongbin spoke first.
“I think that if a member is doing housework, everyone in the dorm should help together. Unless there’s an unavoidable reason, like exam season?”
It was a good suggestion that made us look harmonious.
Then Choi Jeho asked back.
“Don’t we all clean properly?”
“A little while ago, I saw Iwol hyung folding towels by himself. Hyung takes care of breakfast for us too, but I don’t think it’s right for him to do even the things the members aren’t paying attention to all by himself.”
Hm?
Was this meeting held because of me?
I remember Jeong Seongbin coming over at the end that day and folding towels with me.
And “taking care of breakfast” only means toasting bread.
I’d suddenly become the main character of the agenda, and I was perfectly fine, but Jeong Seongbin looked extremely serious.
Even the others seemed to be taking this situation heavily. I had no idea why.
Still, it wasn’t good for the flow of the conversation to go in a direction that sounded like blaming the other members.
I wanted to show these guys making fresh, lively comments, not open a personnel hearing with them.
‘If I can’t revive the mood here, we’ll have to edit this out.’
I immediately forced my way into the heavy atmosphere, which felt as though someone was about to announce they’d be going into self-reflection.
“Who’s going to write down what Seongbin just said? Looking for a secretary for the day.”
“…I’ll do it.”
Then Park Juu picked up a board marker. His willingness to do something, anything, was admirable.
“Then may I speak now?”
As if he’d been waiting, Lee Cheonghyeon also raised his hand and shouted.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“I wish the members would talk to each other a little more!”
“Talk?”
“There are parts where you get closer by talking! Honestly, doesn’t our conversation lean way too heavily toward ‘Good morning’ or ‘Let’s practice’?!”
Lee Cheonghyeon had a point.
If I had to rank who talked the most in this dorm, Lee Cheonghyeon would be first, I’d be second, Jeong Seongbin would be third, and the rest would be tied for fourth.
“It means we should build friendship through conversation. Of course, things are already really, really good now, but the youngest members hope the dorm can become twice as bright as it is now!”
“Why am I being forcibly included in that?”
“Do you like a bright and harmonious dorm, or a bleak and rough dorm? Huh? Say it.”
When Lee Cheonghyeon pounced on Kang Giyeon, it made for a pretty good bickering scene. As expected of a guy who knew broadcasting.
Riding that current, I also expressed agreement.
“I agree that it’d be nice if we talked a lot.”
Then Jeong Seongbin added,
“Is it okay if we don’t decide on specifically what kind of conversations?”
“For now, let’s go with ‘talk a lot’! If it doesn’t work well, we can improve it then!”
“…Okay. I’ll write it down like that.”
With Park Juu finishing the record in the minutes, the “let’s all talk together” agenda was also neatly settled.
After that, Kang Giyeon and Choi Jeho offered their opinions in turn.
Kang Giyeon’s was “put shoes neatly in the shoe cabinet,” and Choi Jeho’s was “make sure to leave the mood lamp in the living room on at night.”
Kang Giyeon’s reason for his suggestion was that when he came back to the dorm late at night, he always ended up stepping on someone else’s shoes in the entryway, and he felt bad about it.
Choi Jeho’s reason was…
“When I come out to drink water at night, I can’t see anything, so I keep bumping into the dining table.”
“Right. Your eyesight’s bad. Can you not see much when it’s dark?”
“Yeah. That’s why I even brought the lamp out on purpose, but someone keeps turning it off.”
“You were the one who brought that out, hyung?!”
Judging by the way he flinched with guilt, the culprit seemed to be Lee Cheonghyeon.
Anyway, everyone decided that even if they turned off the living room lights, they would leave the mushroom-shaped mood lamp on.
Seongbin: Do housework together
Cheonghyeon: Talk a lot
Giyeon: Put shoes neatly
Jeho hyung: Don’t turn off the mood lamp at night
After writing all that down, Park Juu looked at me and asked,
“What about you, hyung?”
“Me?”
When my turn came, I was about to bring up the “drink water in the morning” idea I’d roughly thought of last night.
But the atmosphere was a little strange.
Why… does everyone look like they’re expecting something amazing?
‘Assistant Manager Kim, I’m asking you just this once.’
‘Team Leader… how am I supposed to decide the team KPI on my own? I’m only an assistant manager.’
‘What does it matter who decides it? We just need to make it look proper, that’s all.’
‘If the department head finds out, this will be a really big problem, Team Leader.’
‘It’s fine. The department head said to leave it to you too, Assistant Manager Kim.’
‘Pardon?’
‘So please do me this favor. Hm? I don’t usually ask you for things like this.’
That was a lie. During my time at Hanpyeong Industries, the team leader’s requests had come up roughly one million and twenty-one times.
Apparently, other people had been convinced I’d bring out something amazing.
Including the five members who were currently staring at me.
I had a feeling that if I mentioned something like drinking water here, they’d give me icy looks as if to ask whether I couldn’t read the room.
Then what on earth should I do?
Write a written apology every time someone says something thoughtless? If a fight breaks out, open a dispute mediation committee and resolve it?
I was confused. The first and last time I’d experienced communal living that included room and board was the military.
After agonizing over all sorts of things for a brief moment, I blurted out the very last thing that came to mind.
“Let’s go with… not ruining the practice atmosphere.”
“Oh… if someone puts off practice or something, one person’s life is going to be over.”
I don’t know. If everyone practices hard, that’s a good thing.
After barely getting through my turn, the only one left was Park Juu.
“What about you, Juu?”
“I’m fine with everything… but I’d like us to do the dishes on time. …Preferably right when they happen.”
It was a fairly meticulous opinion.
There weren’t many people who ate things in the dorm, so it hadn’t been much of a problem so far, but…
“That’s true. Once summer starts, fruit flies will begin gathering.”
At my words, all five faces turned pale at the same time.
Fortunately, it seemed none of them had a hobby of raising bugs.
And so the first six commandments of our dorm were decided.
Along with a modest amount of experience points. It was a historic moment.
* * *
After filming footage so raw that it was closer to a vlog than in-house content,
a few days later, I was summoned by the Planning Team.
“The Production Division?”
“Yeah. The CEO said you’ll be coming here often from now on, Iwol, so he told me to show you around properly.”
The Planning Team staff member said they’d been asked to introduce me to the Production Division.
It seemed there had been some sort of behind-the-scenes conversation about me without my knowledge.
Well, there was nothing bad about learning the company structure. Even more so if I had to collaborate with various teams while producing.
‘I was in trouble because there was no organization chart on the company website, so this worked out perfectly.’
Delighted by the opportunity that had arrived at just the right time, I had face-to-face introductions with the teams belonging to the Production Division.
In the process, I got to hear small bits of talk here and there, even if they weren’t all that interesting.
‘Are you that kid, by any chance? The one who carried boxes at Jang Junho’s music video shoot?’
‘I think that was me.’
‘The producer must’ve found that really impressive. They kept talking about how you worked so hard running around in the heat. Maybe it’s because they’ve been in the industry a long time, but they really pay attention to things like attitude.’
‘Jeho helped too. And we really didn’t do much of anything…!’
Things like that.
Other than that, I also heard things like, “You’re the one who said you wanted to film in-house content this time, right?” and “I was going to look over the proposal you submitted soon anyway!”
The meaning contained in those words could be summarized in exactly two sentences.
So it was you?
The guy who gave me more work.
It was heartbreaking. I, who had hated Department Head Nam dumping work on me so much, had now become someone who created work for others.
I smiled as innocently as possible while bowing as deeply as I could, to the point where my head nearly touched the floor.
After finishing the tour of the Production Division and heading back, the staff member said,
“Your parents must have raised you really well, Iwol.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yeah. I’ve never seen kids your age be this polite.”
Could I understand this as meaning I seemed to have been well brought up at home?
Of course, there was a contradiction in that expression.
Because I had never received anything resembling proper education at home.
If I’d been caught doing something wrong, those people would have thrown me out of the house rather than discipline me.
The one fortunate thing was that, thanks to growing up getting smacked on the back by my older sister, I’d been able to grow up without ever going astray.
But I vividly remembered how hard I’d struggled to learn, through reading the room at school, the manners I hadn’t learned in childhood.
It had also helped that I relearned how to speak while working in the HR Team.
When I thought through each thing one by one like that, my parents had played no part at all in shaping my character. In either a good sense or a bad one.
Even so, I had no choice but to answer, “Thank you.” Because I knew how harsh society was to people who had no family to lean on.
* * *
When I returned after finishing the tour of the Production Division, all the members were gathered in the middle of the practice room.
It was an uncommon sight, so I couldn’t help but ask about it.
“What are you doing instead of practicing?”
Had they already broken the rule about not ruining the practice atmosphere?
Just as I was seriously considering whether I should drag them one by one into the vocal practice room, Lee Cheonghyeon raised his head and waved.
“Hyung! Perfect timing. Let’s watch Parte sunbae-nim’s teaser together!”
“Teaser?”
“Yes, yes. It just dropped!”
When Lee Cheonghyeon pulled me over, Park Juu and Kang Giyeon moved aside a little to make space.
On the spare device Jeong Seongbin was holding, Parte’s teaser, which had been uploaded an hour ago, was paused.
“You said it just dropped. It says it was uploaded an hour ago.”
“We were practicing, so we only checked it during break…”
Thank goodness. I wouldn’t have to conduct one-on-one interviews in the vocal practice room.
“Then I’ll play it.”
When Jeong Seongbin played the video, a grand and eerie sound filled the practice room.