| Episode 88. Job Competency Improvement Training (2)
Jeong Seongbin laughed heartily for a long while.
Then he even sniffled and wiped away tears before saying to me,
“Hyung.”
“What?”
“If you say you’re selling it, I’ll buy one bottle of octagonal negative-ion carbonated water.”
“Just try buying something like that somewhere. I’ll make you clean the bathroom with that water.”
After issuing a firm threat, I left the emergency exit with Jeong Seongbin.
After that, a few days later, the system’s double experience week arrived—Jeong Seongbin came up with the name. Apparently, it was an expression used a lot in PC bangs—and all of us practiced like mad.
I thought there might be someone who’d question whether we really had to work that hard, but the guys agreed as soon as they heard what I said.
Was it because they were the type to practice on their own even if left alone?
Or maybe they just had nothing to ask me.
Ah, the student group was a little disappointed.
‘Can’t we skip school and practice too?’
‘Giyeon, don’t make my blood pressure rise. Go to school.’
Still, I coaxed them properly and sent them off to school. I suppose this was the hardship of being a guardian.
Because my schedule had become so tight, I also had to divide my twenty-four hours using a five-nanometer process.
My daily routine to raise my proficiency by three points was as follows.
3:30 Wake up
4:00 Wash up and planning work
4:30 Make toast and go to the practice room
5:00–10:00 Dance practice (1)
10:00–16:00 Singing practice (including shower, lunch, and meeting)
16:00–19:00 Dance practice (2)
19:00–21:00 Training
21:00–23:00 Dance practice (2)
23:00–00:00 Return home, wash up, and monitor
00:00–00:30 Worry about the future
00:30 Sleep
Thanks to the grit I’d honed at Hanpyeong Industries and the system’s labor support function, I was grinding my body down. I never thought there’d come a day in my life when I’d be grateful to those two.
Of course, I didn’t make the members live like this too. They couldn’t receive labor support.
Thanks to that…
“If you’ve filled your time, everyone go home.”
“What about you, hyung?”
“How many times do I have to say it, Cheonghyeon? I still have a long way to go, so I’ll stay a little longer before I leave.”
“No, hyung, you’re going to collapse at this rate!”
…we had been repeating this kind of tug-of-war for a week now.
Did he think I was that sloppy? If I were going to collapse from something like this, I would have collapsed back at Hanpyeong Industries already.
“Cheonghyeon, look around you.”
As I said that, I put a hand on one of Lee Cheonghyeon’s shoulders.
The current time was 10 p.m. Everyone had received dance training and finished five hours of dance practice.
At this point, I was the only one standing normally.
The rest were all stuck to the floor… No, Choi Jeho was at least sitting.
Anyway.
“I’m the only one fine, right? This is why you guys need to go home now.”
“Where on earth does this hyung’s stamina come from?”
“I’ve already given up on understanding.”
Hearing Lee Cheonghyeon’s dazed voice, Kang Giyeon shook his head.
Whether those two were doing that or not, I urged the guys to quickly pack their things and go back.
Just then, Choi Jeho, who was getting up with his bag, asked a question.
“Is it okay if we don’t leave together? What are you going to do if Yu Hansu passes by?”
“No, that guy left work at four earlier.”
If there was one thing I knew damn well, it was what time a superior got off work.
So I told him to just take the kids and hurry back to the dorm, then pushed Choi Jeho’s back and closed the door to the practice room.
Once the guys left, the practice room grew quiet as if it had never been noisy. Only then could I let out a small sigh.
Forcing myself to endure the queasiness in my stomach, I also rubbed around my mouth a couple of times with my hand.
To be honest, my condition wasn’t exactly good. I was only less exhausted than the guys.
I turned on the system and checked my accumulated fatigue.
+
.
.
.
Accumulated Fatigue: 35% (Labor Support Service applied)
+
My base fatigue was 35%. If I added the 20% currently being generously discounted by the labor support service, my total fatigue was probably around 55%.
I’d gotten a nosebleed when it went over 40%, so I’d have to be careful not to let it rise any higher.
I wanted to avoid pouring out a bowlful of blood from my nose in front of people and attracting attention.
To do that, I had to rack my brain with every petty trick I could think of to find the most efficient way to rest.
But now that I thought about it, it pissed me off. How nice would it have been if something like this had existed back when I was at Hanpyeong Industries?
Of course, Department Head Nam wouldn’t have batted an eye even if I’d been vomiting and crawled out of the bathroom on all fours.
‘If I don’t want to rejoin Hanpyeong Industries, I just have to shut up and work hard, I guess…’
Half resigned, I drank some water.
The one fortunate thing was that recently, the members hadn’t been causing trouble.
If those guys had run away from home like before debut, or fought, or even gotten sick, my fatigue probably would have gone up another 20% from stress.
Yeah, practicing quietly and well was already something.
I decided to applaud the tact of the guys, who knew how to distinguish when to cause trouble and when not to.
However, as if mocking this peace, the very next day, a boulder was immediately thrown into the lake of my heart.
* * *
“You think we’ll have to postpone the comeback?”
Jeong Seongbin asked. It was because of what Jugyeong-nim, who had called us together, had said.
She had said that we might have to postpone the release of our second album, which had been scheduled for early to mid-May. It was, quite literally, a bolt from the blue.
“Why?”
Unable to suppress his impatience, Choi Jeho blurted out.
“Newri-ssi is scheduled to make a comeback in June, and if you guys come out in May, it seems like there won’t be enough personnel within the company to support both sides. If that happens, both sides suffer.”
It meant that the comeback schedule of a well-known ballad singer signed to UA and our schedule overlapped.
It certainly wasn’t wrong. But there was a contradiction in those words.
“But Jugyeong-nim, may I ask why this issue came up so suddenly?”
If they were going to talk about something like this, they should have done it much earlier. Not now, when we had already received an estimate for the album cover.
At my question, Jugyeong-nim hesitated and avoided my gaze. Then she cautiously began to speak.
“The truth is, Newri-ssi’s album should have come out in April, but it got pushed back a lot.”
“I see.”
“Since it’s Newri-ssi’s first comeback in three years, the company was really planning to prepare it well. So…”
Jugyeong-nim trailed off.
She must feel awkward having to tell us this. I understood.
Schedules getting pushed back were common in a company.
Even two months wasn’t impossible, though there would probably be about five people in charge so frustrated they felt like they were going to burst.
But something kept bothering me.
A company that said it was preparing so carefully for a comeback after three years had managed its schedule so sloppily that the date got pushed back by two months?
To the point of delaying the work of a group they should have been starting to push right now?
And on top of that… knowing the concept of our next album?
My head was filled with question marks.
At the same time, however, I also thought of a single keyword that could answer all those questions.
“Jugyeong-nim, I’m being very cautious because I feel like I might be overstepping right now… but if it’s all right, may I ask just one thing?”
“Hm? No, it’s fine. Ask comfortably!”
“By any chance, is PD Yu working on Newri sunbaenim’s side?”
At that very moment, a gasp came from somewhere. When I subtly shifted my eyes, Lee Cheonghyeon was covering his mouth.
Jugyeong-nim smiled as if troubled.
“Iwol, you’re quick on the uptake too. That’s right. PD Yu is currently handling things over there.”
“Thank you for telling me. Ah, still, would it be possible for us to proceed with the regular meeting scheduled for this week as planned?”
“Sure. I’ll send out the notice.”
Then Jugyeong-nim met the members’ eyes one by one as she said,
“Still, don’t worry too much, kids. Things like this happen a lot in the industry, and it’s not even close to being a major issue. It’s not that the company is neglecting you, so there’s no need to feel anxious. Okay?”
They were warm words of comfort. It was at times like this that I felt Jugyeong-nim was a good person.
Jugyeong-nim was also right. At Hanpyeong Industries, Department Head Nam delayed an approval for three months, and nothing went wrong.
But not now. This really was a big problem, and we were screwed.
If we didn’t make a comeback at the scheduled time, Spark would most likely not be able to appear on the survival program airing in June. Our recognition was still lacking.
Considering immediate buzz, there was nothing that could gather recognition like a survival program, but to be cast on one, you needed a minimum level of recognition.
It sounded just like saying they’d hire a newbie with experience, but reality was filthy and cheap. If we wanted to hit number one as soon as possible, there was no other way.
No wonder things had been peaceful lately. I had a feeling sleep was now a thing of the past.
* * *
I lay in bed and called up the system.
And then I thought,
‘Do they not have something like an in-company loan for employees? Like guaranteed stamina support or something.’
Then the system popped up.
+
[SYSTEM] A work order from the “Manager” has arrived.
▶ Employees these days are so vicious, I swear. They don’t think about working like everyone else, but they won’t be satisfied unless they receive everything everyone else gets, huh?
+
This is seriously unfair. What work have I not done, exactly?
Anger surged up, but I held it in. Right now, the important thing was to coax the system somehow and get whatever more I could out of it.
Then, suddenly, I remembered that I had moved up our debut date before.
I immediately took out the scheduler. The date we had set for our next comeback was written clearly on the hologram scheduler.
‘How far can this be moved up?’
The debut schedule had been moved up by as much as a year.
When I roughly made a motion of dragging it forward, the schedule moved ahead several boxes at a time before stopping at a date about a week earlier. It was the very beginning of May.
In that case, the date could be moved up enough.
The problem was what kind of incident would happen this time.
Department head bastard… No, system bastard. Is someone going to run away this time too?
+
[SYSTEM] A work order from the “Manager” has arrived.
▶ These days, I still feel like our department has entered a stable period. The more it’s like this, the more everyone should avoid ruining the mood and, hm? Do your best in your respective positions.
+
It was still a displeased tone, but by now, I had gained enough experience to extract only the hint from those words.
In conclusion, it meant no one was suddenly going to run away or fight until blood was drawn.
If it wasn’t a human relationship problem, the rest would at least be less of a headache. Without the slightest hesitation, I chose to move up the comeback schedule.
Then the tasks that had arrived not long ago came back without even dying.
+
[SYSTEM] A “New Task” has been assigned.
▷ Secure personnel for the comeback
▷ Reward: Increased chance of making a stable comeback
[SYSTEM] A “New Task” has been assigned.
▷ Improve job competency
▷ Reward: Increased chance of making a stable comeback
[SYSTEM] A “New Task” has been assigned.
▷ Have a secret conversation with the members
▷ Reward: Increased chance of making a stable comeback
+
At three times the usual amount, too.
Ha, fuck. I guess I shouldn’t have moved it up after all.