10. SOMEDAY(3)
After telling us a few rules, the team leader left the conference room to give Team B the same explanation, and silence settled for a while among the members, each lost in thought.
“Hyung, why don’t we each say whatever comes to mind and organize it?”
“Yeah, anything’s fine, so let’s gather some ideas.”
When I spoke up first, Hajun found some paper and a pen nearby and handed them to me. It felt like I had suddenly become the meeting secretary. Then, all of a sudden, one way to loosen the stiff atmosphere came to mind.
“Name?”
“Huh?”
“What should I write for you?”
As soon as I received the paper and pen, I gave Hajun a smile full of sincerity.
Realizing my prank, Hajun looked dumbfounded for a moment before quickly grinning, and Himchan, who understood what I was doing, laughed with his shoulders shaking before grabbing his own paper and pen and standing behind Hajun.
“Person in front, please keep the line moving.”
“Please write ‘Jun, I love you.’”
“I love you too.”
Gyeonghwan, who had been staring blankly at us without understanding the situation, finally burst out laughing only after I wrote my name on the white paper and added, “Jun, I love you.”
“This is my first autograph, so please treasure it.”
“Please write ‘Chan, I love you’ for me too.”
“One moment, please.”
After I finished scribbling something disguised as an autograph on the paper Himchan was holding, the sight of Hajun looking at me with a prim expression contrasted with Himchan, who had already failed to manage his face, making the whole scene quite amusing.
Satisfied with the much more relaxed atmosphere, I opened my mouth while imagining the future.
Unravel’s real fan signing event, which we would hold someday. And Jihwan and I, smiling there.
“The day will come when we can give our real fans autographs too, right?”
“Until then, our Jihwan should practice his handwriting. What is this?”
“Ah, why!”
“Jihwan, I can’t tell what you wrote!”
“Wow, even you, Chan!”
Being teased over handwriting I thought was perfectly legible made me feel wronged, so I grumbled for no reason and took the paper back to take notes.
Still, on the other hand, I thought it was a relief.
Because my body remembered Jihwan’s handwriting well.
Watching us with a strangely pleased smile, Gyeonghwan patted my shoulder.
“I’m glad you seem to have perked up a little.”
“What’s this, Gyeonghwan hyung suddenly pretended to be super mature! Hurry and go back to your usual self!”
“What did I do?”
“That’s right, Gyeonghwan. That’s a line the hyung should be saying.”
If a lot of footage of us getting nervous and making mistakes before the competition started got caught on camera, we might earn sympathy, but it would end there. I had started the prank because I thought it would help in many ways if we showed the fans how close we were by joking around like this.
It had been a spontaneous action I had thought of entirely on my own, so I secretly let out a sigh of relief at the members’ good sense in playing along.
In the video I had seen before, Team A had been stiff under the pressure of having to take the initiative and do something on their own, and of course, that had received poor reviews. Should I say there had been a strong sense that they didn’t know what to do and were floundering?
At the time, Yeongbin, who had led the team, had been busy taking care of Ubin, who was running wild like an unbroken colt, and Himchan had wanted to emphasize the choreography, but he couldn’t beat Ubin, who wanted to focus more on the song.
So in the end, the company staff told them the arrangement was so boring that the original was better, and they completely flopped.
I didn’t know what the atmosphere would be like now that the teams had changed, but for now, I decided to focus on my current team. Since the conference room camera had been running the whole time, I thought Hajun and Himchan’s affable sides as they played along with me would get a good response. And Gyeonghwan too, with his oddball side.
Guys, seriously, I’ll do whatever it takes to pave a flower path for you so you suffer less, so just trust me…!
* * *
Once we began the idea meeting in earnest, the members, now less tense, started throwing out all sorts of ideas. At some point, Hajun, who had criticized my handwriting, snatched the paper and pen away.
Was it that bad? This is making me tear up in its own way….
“This song is a really exciting dance track. From here, the direction we can take is ultimately one of two things.”
“Either arrange it with a ballad feel, or add hip-hop elements to it. Right?”
“That’s right. Looks like Jihwan did some studying?”
“Come on, that’s just something everyone knows.”
And I was absolutely planning to stop this song from being arranged as a ballad. Since it was originally an upbeat song, one might think making it into a completely different mood would have a strong impact, but to begin with, the song itself was already a popular and familiar track. If we messed with it wrong, it would end up neither one thing nor the other.
Of course, I knew nothing about arranging, but I was someone who had already seen the result of them failing after doing exactly that.
“Like Jihwan said, it’s one of the two. Gyeonghwan, Himchan, which side do you think would be better?”
“I think it’d be a bit hard to compete with Team B on vocals. Wouldn’t it be better to set the arrangement in more of a hip-hop mood and just make it even more exciting?”
Hajun and Gyeonghwan had experience making songs, and in Himchan’s case, dancing was his specialty, so everyone was gradually leaning toward the more exciting direction.
It seemed like the general reaction was that going in a slightly more familiar direction would be to our advantage.
“My position is a bit ambiguous, you know. I’m average at both dancing and vocals. I think it’d be more natural to set Jun hyung and Gyeonghwan hyung as the main focus, and have Chan and me support with vocals. Thankfully, Chan is good at making choreography, so I think the performance will look good too.”
The flood of opinions was written down, erased, and written down again. Thinking it had ripened enough, I organized the opinion I had been mulling over the entire time and laid it out, and the gazes of the three people looking at me became quite subtle.
I feel like I’ve been getting this look for several days now….
That look that said, Did he eat something weird? or, Is that really that Jihwan?
“Um… even I get hurt if you look at me like I’m some really strange creature.”
Feeling a little odd, I scratched my cheek and tried to play it off, but the three of them stared very persistently.
“Ahem. There’s something I talked about with Jun hyung.”
When I sent Hajun a look, he finally made an “ah” sound like air leaking out and clicked his tongue softly. If I left things like this, the misunderstanding felt like it would deepen too much, and I thought it was about time to lay some groundwork.
“I’ve been living while forgetting too much that we’re basically a single organism. We’re a team, so we’re supposed to cover for one another’s strengths and weaknesses, adjust to each other, and show ourselves as one like that. But I was only thinking about myself too much.”
The atmosphere in the conference room sank a little, and only Hajun, who had already had this conversation with me, looked at me with a somewhat proud gaze.
Then, suddenly, the word “trust level” floated into my mind. Hajun’s number had been pretty high, and the explanation for that range was… [70 or higher: A relationship where they would believe you had a reason even if you suddenly started dancing in the street, and would applaud for you]. Haha….
For the first time, it felt like that skill was being useful to me. Judging that the atmosphere didn’t seem bad, I activated the “Inner Familiarity” skill on Gyeonghwan and Himchan.
“After that, I thought about what I could do for the team, and I figured playing a kind of cushion role in the middle would fit me perfectly.”
“Cushion?”
Gyeonghwan, who had been listening closely with somewhat serious eyes, asked back. Yes, cushion. That cushion position was also the position I wanted to take in Unravel.
“Yes. Our members each have colors that really stand out, but I’m the type who blends in a little. When those colors need to pop, I’ll set up the background so they can pop, and when we need to come together, I’ll become the base that lets us unite. I want to be that kind of black.”
“If you do that, you might end up being neither here nor there. You know that, right?”
For some reason, Himchan asked with slightly wavering eyes. At the comment that seemed connected to the worry I had heard earlier about whether he should quit, I unconsciously patted Himchan’s shoulder.
“I know. That it’s hard to survive without a distinctive trait. But I think that cushion position where I can help our members harmonize might actually be the most unique spot. Put another way, it means I can match well with anyone. It makes me useful in more ways.”
“Now that I look at it, Jihwan was actually incredibly greedy.”
“Haha, you only noticed now? I’m kind of a lump of desire!”
Fortunately, Hajun cut off the atmosphere at just the right time before it could get too heavy and revived it playfully.
“Then let’s have me and Gyeonghwan look at the arrangement, and Chan and Jihwan look at the performance. We need to at least set a rough mood before we can ask the A&R team and choreography team for help.”
“Yes. Then should we all pick out a few of our seniors’ stages and watch them first?”
In the friendly atmosphere, we decided on a direction and finished dividing up roles, so today’s meeting seemed to have been a success.
“But I wonder what Team B is doing.”
Since that team consisted of Yeongbin, Ubin, and Sebin, Hajun seemed a little worried.
Even if we were in a structure where we were split into teams and competing right now, Hajun was still trying to worry about and take care of everyone.
“Wow, Jun hyung. Are you seriously worrying about another team in front of your own team members right now?”
“No, I was just wondering what the kids were doing!”
“Wow, Hajun hyung, that was mean!”
Wanting him to focus a little more on this situation, I poked Hajun in the side and started teasing him, and Hajun, who had inwardly flinched, jumped in surprise. Seeing that, Himchan, having found an opportunity, joined in from the side and poked him too. Hajun sent Gyeonghwan a look asking for help, but even he smiled brightly and shook his head.
“Fine, fine! Until the competition is over, I just have to take better care of you guys, right?”
“Wow, he’s getting mad over something that’s only natural. Gyeonghwan hyung, what do you think?”
“Hajun hyung was in the wrong.”
“Fine, I was wrong!”
Poing, who had entered the conference room at some point, was looking at us with that same expression from the park, the one he had sent me and Hajun as if we were pathetic.
That cat punk fairy?
When I quietly glared at him, Poing snorted and nimbly hopped up, plopping himself over my shoulder. Maybe because he was a fairy, I couldn’t feel his weight, which was a little strange.
Hajun, who had received excessive love from the three of us, rubbed his face dry with the expression of someone who had aged ten years in the meantime, and we looked more satisfied than ever.
“Now, let’s stop fooling around and go report to the team leader and request what we need.”
“Yees~.”
Following closely behind Hajun hyung, we each glanced once at the conference room where Group B was settled in before trailing after him.
‘Poing, you see that conference room over there, right? The place labeled Group B conference room. Go in there, check the situation, and let me know.’
‘What exactly do you think I am?’
‘My capable, talented, kind fairy?’
‘…Hah.’
Although he looked thoroughly annoyed, he must really have intended to help, because Poing jumped lightly down from my shoulder and vanished into the conference room with soft, gentle steps. I nearly screamed at the sight of him passing through the door, but I clenched my fist and pressed my palm to hold it in.
Isn’t that a total free pass to anywhere?
I saw a very happy future where Poing could help me with far more things than I had expected.