Damn Idol Chapter 66
All the members seemed to understand what I meant at once.
Ah, right. Since Choi Jaeseong wasn’t here, not all the members.
Anyway, the first to speak was On Saemiro.
“Then what happens to Seoul Town Funk? All five of us sang together there. Isn’t that a contradiction in the setting?”
“Not sure? I haven’t thought through the details. We can just say he’s a traitor, can’t we?”
“How about hypocrite instead of traitor? He was only pretending to be their friend all along, while hiding the fact that he wanted to monopolize time travel.”
I shrugged at Gu Taehwan, who had cut in.
It wasn’t like we were writing a movie script. Did we really need to be that detailed?
What we could show onstage would be limited anyway.
Still, I didn’t say anything negative.
At first, I’d thought concepts were useless too, but I’d been wrong.
Learning things like this might turn out to be useful someday.
“Whatever it is, I thought we could give some justification for why Ion hyung feels subtly out of place.”
After I finished speaking, Lee Ion, who had been thinking for a long while, spoke up.
“But Sion.”
“Yes.”
“We can’t keep designing every stage like that, can we?”
Lee Ion was right.
This sort of trick wasn’t something we could keep using forever.
Besides, right now we had Coming Up Next, so we could directly explain the stage devices through the broadcast.
But still……
“Ion hyung, we’re not going to keep designing stages.”
Lee Ion was wrong.
“We only have three stages left.”
Maybe only two.
Coming Up Next was scheduled for ten episodes, and two had aired so far.
Episode three was set to air tomorrow.
But in the broadcast, even the B Team selection round still hadn’t finished.
There was too much left to air.
The karaoke mission where we first met Take Scene.
The position battle where we sang the remix under the streetlights.
Even the self-produced mission where we performed Seoul Town Funk.
On top of that, the hot issue named Chris Edward had joined in, and we also had to do a mission arranging one of Chris Edward’s songs.
Aside from that, there would be minor things too, like the minigames we played after moving into the dorms and individual cuts.
To air all of that, there was a pretty high chance the program would end after only four stages, not the five stages that had originally been announced.
“If that happens, we only have two stages left. After that, Sedalbaegil disbands.”
“But we might all debut together under Lion Entertainment, right?”
“No. There’s no way I’m staying with Lion. I’m going to debut within this year, no matter what.”
There was no way Lion would debut Sedalbaegil within this year.
I’d gotten a decent grasp on the idol scene by now.
A company invested an enormous amount of money into a single idol group, then poured all its capabilities into recouping that investment.
So for a while, Lion had to bet everything on Take Scene’s success.
That meant they had neither a reason nor the room to debut Sedalbaegil.
Of course, Coming Up Next had become a hit, so there was a chance they might debut us somewhat quickly.
But even then, it would be the end of next year.
Since it was April now, even if we debuted in October of next year, that would mean waiting close to eighteen months.
In reality, there was a high chance it would take much longer than that.
I wasn’t confident I could endure that long.
One day, I would regress.
Turning everything I’d accomplished so far back to zero.
Of course, I couldn’t tell my teammates about any of that.
All I could say was that I wanted to debut quickly, so even if they felt hurt, I had nothing to say……
What the hell? Why do they all look like that?
“Because of your parents?”
“……
Something like that.”
“I see. If that’s the case, then it can’t be helped.”
They’re sympathizing with me over this?
Is it because of the conversation we had last time?
“Sion. Did you come on this show so your parents could hear your songs at the hospital?”
“Something like that. That’s also why I want to debut as quickly as possible.”
But if you looked at it coldly, wasn’t that just a vague wish with no factual basis?
It wasn’t like my parents would wake up just because they heard my song in their hospital room.
Could they really sympathize without knowing that I’d made a contract with a devil?
I was confused for a moment, but I only nodded.
If they were going to sympathize on their own, there was no need for me to ruin the mood.
“But Sion.”
“Yes.”
“Then what happens if I go to another group?”
“What do you mean?”
“No, I mean. It’s not like my vocal tone only doesn’t fit with Sedalbaegil.”
“Ah, that? I don’t think it’ll matter.”
“Why not?”
“Have the judges ever pointed out your vocal tone before now?”
“……
No?”
The reason Lee Ion’s vocal tone bothered me was because of my compulsion.
Since I was aiming for the absurd goal of two hundred million physical album sales, I’d started avoiding even the slightest source of anxiety.
Most likely, other producers wouldn’t have any particular complaints.
Or even if they did feel a slight regret, they might think his looks and skills more than made up for that flaw.
If it really came down to it, couldn’t they cover the recording with mixing and lay AR under the live performance?
In other words, I avoided Lee Ion because I was aiming for a flawless team, but to a team aiming for a reasonable peak, it wouldn’t matter much.
“So you don’t need to worry too much.”
Now that I thought about it, I probably should have told him this first.
From Lee Ion’s perspective, his flaw must have felt quite significant.
Would he feel a little more at ease now?
But Lee Ion’s reaction was completely different from what I’d expected.
“That’s kind of a shame.”
“What is?”
“That means if I go to another team, I won’t be able to give it my all. They won’t even recognize it as a problem.”
“……”
He wasn’t wrong.
If Lee Ion wanted to show off one hundred percent of his potential, it would be impossible in some half-baked team.
But most people weren’t that desperate.
Once people tasted success a few times, they sought comfort instead of desperation.
And that wasn’t a bad thing either.
Lee Ion might be saying that now, but he’d probably change later.
“Well, the important thing is doing our best right now.”
“That’s right.”
“Yeah. I’ll try playing the villain. Back when I was in school, my friends treated me like a villain all the time.”
“Why?”
“They said if they hung around with me, their romantic prospects were doomed.”
I chuckled at the rare sight of the usually composed Gu Taehwan’s mouth hanging open.
Yeah, Lee Ion was right.
I had to do my best right now.
“I’ve decided on Highway for the Chris Edward song I’ll be arranging.”
“Ah, that song is good.”
“I like it too.”
Highway was a song composed by Chris Edward and sung by the R&B star Lazy Boy.
Ah, now that I thought about it, Gu Taehwan had sung a Lazy Boy song before.
It was the Lazy Boy song he’d sung during the B Team selection after taking my advice.
Anyway, Highway was released in 2016, and there had been a bit of controversy at the time of its release.
It was the first R&B dance track released by Lazy Boy, who had gained popularity through contemporary R&B blended with soul.
That was why Lazy Boy even danced in the music video.
He was pretty good, but it felt awkward because it was different from his usual image.
It wasn’t like he was Usher or Chris Brown.
In any case, the song was ignored by his existing fans, but unexpectedly, it received a lot of love from people who hadn’t liked Lazy Boy before.
Thanks to that, it even climbed to ninth place on the Billboard Hot 200.
But I’d thought from the beginning that this song had been planned incorrectly.
They should have just openly gone for the Motown genre instead.
After all, Motown and contemporary R&B were fruits from the same tree anyway.
“Sion, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Ah, it’s fine. Once you hear the sound, you’ll get the gist.”
A singer didn’t necessarily need genre knowledge about music.
Once the 2020s came around, the distinctions between musical genres would grow increasingly blurred anyway.
There would even be singers openly complaining, asking if everything a Black artist sang was going to be classified as R&B.
Around that point, people would start lumping everything together as easy-listening tracks based on some specific genre.
“I’ll start working.”
I’d already finished the arrangement in my head anyway, so it probably wouldn’t take long.
Maybe around five hours?
* * *
When the work was about halfway done, I sent the members home first.
“Leaving you to work alone is a bit……”
“This is enough footage for reactions. I’m more comfortable doing the rest alone.”
When I was recording the instrumental sessions, there might have been things for the members to react to, but from here on, there was nothing.
All that was left was the process of refining and adjusting things to make a better sound.
They were just going to sit on the sofa and doze uncomfortably anyway, so wouldn’t it be better for them to go sleep in beds?
After sending the members to the dorm the broadcasting station had arranged, I focused on work again.
How much time had passed?
Since I’d come out of my state of concentration, I got up from my seat.
I was going to have a cup of coffee.
But an unexpected person was waiting for me in the break room.
It was On Saemiro.
“What? You didn’t leave?”
“I left and came back.”
“Why?”
“There’s something I want to ask.”
Was he anxious because I’d hit Fade?
Well, from my perspective, I’d calculated the line where it wouldn’t become a problem before hitting him, but from his perspective, he might feel anxious.
Sure enough, the subject of On Saemiro’s question was Fade.
“Why did you hit Fade?”
“Just because. He deserved it, didn’t he?”
But the question that followed was truly unexpected.
“You left your aunt’s husband alone.”
“What?”
“Shouldn’t you have hit him too?”
What was he talking about?
The two cases were completely different.
I’d hit Fade because there was a high chance it wouldn’t come to light, and even if it did, I was confident I could handle it.
Fade had been insulting On Saemiro first, so it could be brushed off internally as excessive friendship and quietly covered up.
On top of that, Fade’s side had nothing to gain from rumors spreading everywhere that he’d been beaten by me.
But if I hit my eldest aunt’s husband, there was a big chance the facts would be distorted.
No matter how much of a scene he’d caused first, it would still be an idol trainee assaulting a civilian.
One wrong move, and it could mass-produce internet news articles plastered with sensational headlines.
“It’s different.”
“How?”
“It’s a question of whether it can be managed or not.”
“You can think about that in a situation like that?”
Wait.
Did On Saemiro think I’d hit Fade because I was angry?
Now that I thought about it, from his perspective, it was perfectly plausible to see it that way.
But if that was the case, he just needed to say thank you……
“Thank you.”
And there it was.
“He was a guy I’d wanted to hit anyway. You don’t have to be too grateful. Just a little is fine.”
I tried to throw out a suitable joke and end the conversation, but On Saemiro stared at me silently before opening his mouth.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
At that moment, I felt something.
No, I became certain.
Having lived for an extremely long time, I had encountered countless people.
Thanks to that, I was skilled at dealing with people with a concrete intention in mind.
Like making Producer Kang Seokwoo take my side, or making Fade apologize.
In contrast, there were many times when I missed the point in ordinary conversation.
Chitchat, private talk, icebreakers that killed time through ordinary conversation.
Conversations without any intention often made me seem like a dull person.
Even so, there were times when I became certain of another person’s emotions……
And that was when the other person was in despair.
On Saemiro said,
“Can I beat you?”