12. Strike While the Iron Is Hot
After discussing it with Ayeong, he decided to appear on the program called Star King.
The recording was on a Tuesday, three weeks later.
It was plenty of time to record the song.
'WZ-380.'
When he focused on the WZ-380 icon, a mini audio player appeared before Jinha.
- 1 (5:06) - Chiron
- 2 (2:12) - Chiron
Now, the remaining songs were number 1 and number 2.
Red and yellow.
'Since blue was the puppy...'
Which of the two would be the song people liked?
'If I had the money to buy both, I'd buy them both.'
This time, he had to choose a song that would captivate people, not just puppies.
Before going on the air, he needed to record and gauge people's reactions, so time was tight.
['1' is priced at 12.76 million won at the local exchange rate. Would you like to proceed with payment?]
The money he had left was 383,000 won.
It was nowhere near enough to pay.
['2' is priced at 15.12 million won at the local exchange rate. Would you like to proceed with payment?]
"Hmm..."
It was a price that made his eyes spin.
For a moment, Baek Yujin flashed through his mind.
"No."
It wasn't that he was trying to hold onto his pride in front of money, but going to her without looking into any other methods and simply asking, "Please lend me some money," just didn't seem right.
They weren't that close, either.
[If you are short on funds, credit is available.]
"Credit?"
As if reading Jinha's mind, the word 'credit' appeared before his eyes.
Usually, it wouldn't even answer when he asked something out of curiosity.
[The amount available through the credit system is 300 million won.]
[You must pay the credited amount within one month at the latest, and if it becomes overdue—]
"If it becomes overdue?"
[You die.]
"..."
How cold.
There was the advantage of paying later, without interest, but dying?
If someone else had said this, he would have thought it was a joke, but thinking about everything that had happened to him so far, he could be certain he would really die.
"Hmm..."
12.76 million won, 15.12 million won. Combined, 27.88 million.
They said he'd die if he couldn't pay it back, but it wasn't like he had absolutely no plan to earn money in the meantime, and if the worst happened, he could just go to Yujin.
"Still, just in case, just one..."
For now, he would buy just one, and if it wasn't a song that people liked, he would buy the rest then.
No matter how confident he was, he only had one life.
"No need to stake my life over something trivial."
[Payment completed. Credit amount: 12.76 million won.]
[Remaining period: 30 days.]
"What are you doing alone, Oppa?"
"Ah, nothing. I was just brainstorming some song ideas."
"Brainstorming is good, but these days when I see you spacing out, it's kind of scary sometimes? I was wondering if something was wrong because of the accident last time."
"Don't worry about that. Come sit here."
"Why?"
He hummed along as he played the song he had just received for Ayeong.
The moment he received and listened to it, he got the feeling that it was a song people would like.
But since everyone has different tastes, he needed to make sure.
"Oh, it's good? I really like it. Did you seriously make it just now?"
"No, I've been working on it since before."
There was no need to explain the truth in detail, so he roughly glossed over it.
The important thing was that Ayeong also liked the song.
"Anyway, you know you have to row when the water comes in, right? Now that your subscribers have increased, don't just get swept up in it; you need to drive the nail in properly."
"Iyol, our oppa's passion is burning bright. I think so too. Life is all about momentum."
Jinha thought fast as what he absolutely needed to do now and what he could do sorted themselves out.
"Ayeong, bring the camera. Let's film something."
"What? Your face?"
"No, down to my upper body. I have something to say to my channel's viewers."
"A gratitude video? Well, your subscribers exploded, so that sounds good. Wait a moment."
After Ayeong meticulously set up the camera, Jinha stood in front of it.
"Aah, dear subscribers. Thanks to your support, I will be appearing on TV this time. It's a program called Star King..."
"Oppa, can you take out that 'aah' at the beginning? It's so old-fashioned, like you're doing a mic test. And you usually speak well—why are you stammering so much?"
"I can just edit it out."
"Then the whole beginning gets cut off. Do you want to refilm?"
She was more nitpicky than when learning tightrope walking from the tightrope master of the Cheongmaepae.
Jinha had to be corrected down to the smallest expressions, gestures, movements, and even the direction of his hair before he could start again.
"Hello. I am Woo Jinha of the Woo Jinha channel. Thanks to your support, I will be appearing on a TV program called Star King. I wanted to share this happy news with you all, and I wanted to tell you something that will make you happy as well."
Without any script, Jinha spoke fluently.
Ayeong's eyes widened, as she had simply expected a greeting.
"This time, I plan to hold a performance where I release new songs, including 'A Poem for Puppies,' which you subscribers like. It's a small performance, but I hope you will come with your companion dogs and enjoy yourselves. If I had my way, I would invite all of you, but due to circumstances, I will only be giving invitation tickets to 100 people. If you leave your email address in the comments and hit the like button below..."
Jinha continued speaking, referencing the event formats he had seen on YouTube.
An event inviting 100 pet owners!
It was a chance to promote 'A Poem for Puppies' and also announce the new song he had just bought for 12 million won.
No matter how much online media had developed, nothing was as scary as word of mouth.
He also needed to put a stop to the talk of it being staged or fake after they saw a video of the dogs going wild.
"Okay, cut!"
Having finished the grueling recording, Jinha realized firsthand that broadcasting was no ordinary task.
Still, it didn't feel difficult.
On the contrary, he was filled only with the thought that it was fun and that he wanted to keep doing it.
* * *
"Young lady."
Doeun knocked on the door engraved with luxurious patterns.
"Unnie, you can just come in without knocking."
When she opened the door, Yujin, who had been sitting on the sofa, turned her head toward Doeun.
"Have you eaten?"
"No... I didn't because it was a hassle... Huh? Did you bring this for me?"
Yujin's face broke into a bright smile when she saw the tray with the pasta Doeun had brought.
"Who else would I bring it for? Resting is good, but you should eat before you rest."
"I was just getting hungry. Really, only Doeun-unnie is there for me."
Doeun watched Yujin, who was hurriedly stuffing pasta into her mouth, for a long while.
"Eat slowly while you look at this. I looked into Woo Jinha."
When Doeun took out a paper from her pocket and held it out, Yujin waved her hand dismissively as if annoyed.
"Ah, I told you not to look into that. You don't believe me? I really saw him in my dream! Are you thinking I'm mentally ill too?"
"No. The Chairman might laugh it off that you saw the person you'll spend your life with in a dream, but I believe you. I've seen things up until now. I just want to be certain. There's no harm in being certain."
"I still don't like it. I told you not to do background checks. Things like that always come back to bite you someday."
"..."
"Why? I'm right. All that stuff is illegal. Why do you do it when you know that?"
"It seems Ayeong from the other day is not his biological sister."
"What?"
Clang!
The fork Yujin was holding struck the plate, the sound echoing throughout the room.
"You don't seem interested in background checks, so I'll take this back. Eat slowly."
Swish!
She snatched the paper from Doeun, who was trying to put it back in her pocket.
Woo Jinha. 23 years old.
- Height 179cm, weight 66kg.
- Currently living at the house of Sim Gitae, Ayeong's father.
- Sim Gitae was a friend of Woo Jinha's father, Woo Jinhyeok.
- Woo Jinha's father died in an accident 10 years ago and had been a fighter during his lifetime.
- While working as a fighter, he broke into broadcasting and was active in various variety shows.
- Sim Gitae was Woo Jinhyeok's manager.
.
.
.
A brief but eye-catching summary.
Reliable information, packed densely across three sheets of paper.
As expected of Shin Doeun.
Yujin put down the pasta she had been devouring and read the paper intently, again and again.
* * *
"Woof, woof!"
"Hey, Haebi. You can't eat that."
Jinha was individually packaging macarons ordered from Seongyeon's macaron shop and handwritten letters with Ayeong.
They were gifts for the audience who would come to the performance.
"Oppa, I sent text messages to all one hundred people selected from the commenters. Now we just need to prepare for the performance."
"Yeah. Seriously, thanks for your hard work."
『A Small Performance for Companion Dogs: You Are Invited.』
Woo Jinha · 81,000 views · 1 day ago
The video announcing that they would hold a small performance through a lottery for YouTube subscribers who applied had fewer views than his other videos, but comments flooded in like an explosion.
The conditions were: be a subscriber to Woo Jinha's channel, press the like button, and be a person raising a companion dog. Three things.
This performance was a gratitude event commemorating the sudden increase in subscribers, but it was also for promotion.
If he performed his 'A Poem for Puppies' live, he was confident he would completely captivate the dogs.
And he was prepared to steal people's hearts with the new number 1 song as well.
"I reserved the recording studio for three days later. The performance hall is booked for five days later. But are you really okay with scheduling it this tight?"
He had also finished planning to complete the recording of the newly purchased song before the performance, and the performance hall was ready.
It would have been impossible without Ayeong.
He had pulled two all-nighters writing lyrics, so it was hard, but he could still endure.
"It's fine. And sorry for taking back what I gave you..."
"It's fine. I was just going to hold onto it without using it anyway. Instead, when you make a lot of money later, you have to pay me an awesome salary, okay?"
"Of course."
He had decided to use the allowance money he had given to Ayeong to rent a small performance hall.
Securing a hall that could fit about 100 people had been difficult, but Ayeong had resolved it by asking a vegetable shop uncle who was well-connected with officials.
"All done!"
After finishing the macaron packaging, Jinha lay down right there and immediately sought sleep.
Perhaps because he hadn't slept for two days, the moment his head touched the floor, he fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
Even though Jinha and Ayeong arrived at the performance hall three hours early, Yujin and Doeun were already waiting in the waiting room.
"Unnie! You're already here? Please have some of this. I didn't make them myself, but these are really delicious macarons."
"Wow! I really love these macarons. Thank you, Ayeong. Huh? Mr. Jinha is here? Wow! It's Mr. Jinha's dog, right? I saw it briefly on the broadcast! So cute!"
Yujin broke into a bright smile like someone whose package had finally arrived after waiting a week when she saw Jinha and Haebi, who entered later.
"Then let's get ready!"
After all rehearsals and performance preparations were finished, they waited for the audience to gather.
The staff to manage the audience was arranged by Yujin, so Jinha could focus solely on the performance.
"Oppa, it's not a huge concert, but you'll still be nervous. Take one of these."
"What is it?"
"What do you mean, it's Cheongsimhwan. It's the best when you're nervous."
"I'm not nervous at all? You take one. You're shaking a lot right now."
Ayeong looked so pitiful, trembling as if she were the one performing.
"Anyway, it starts in one minute. Hoo, hoo. Take a big deep breath! Ppasha, ppasha! Woo Jinha, fighting!"
"...Hurry up and take that Cheongsimhwan or whatever. You look like you're going to collapse."
Jinha lightly shook himself off and stepped out toward the stage.
He didn't look nervous at all.
"...Fighting!"
Watching Jinha and Ayeong from afar, Yujin gulped down the Cheongsimhwan that Doeun had handed her and headed to her pre-assigned seat in the audience.