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"Great work. You really did great in recording today."
"Thank you!"
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It was what the members and I had on repeat these days.
"You guys worked hard recording the radio. That’s it for schedules today."
"Yunsik, just say it straight···. Yesterday’s schedule ended today, and today’s schedule is still there too."
"That’s true."
When Lee Gahyeon asked back in a drooping voice at Yunsik saying today’s schedule was over, Manager Yunsik just agreed without even making excuses now.
Back then, Yunsik would at least lie to calm us down, but lately, maybe he’d realized it was useless and started throwing it at us straight.
"What about Jiu?"
"Ah, she clocked out. Later, once you guys sleep a bit and get up, she has to take the morning schedule and move you."
"Ah···then tomorrow we have to go without eating in the morning."
"Exactly. When we get in her car, it’s better not to even drink water before you get in."
"Still, her driving has improved a lot lately."
Until recently, Jiu used to stay glued to Yunsik, but lately, maybe he decided she’d learned enough, because the two of them started rotating.
And to be fair, our schedule had been packed so tight lately that they couldn’t handle it without rotating.
Especially on days like today, when a music show overlapped with other schedules, you had to brace yourself.
Because you had to keep grinding through the schedule without a break until dawn.
"···."
Thanks to that, the moment we got in the van, the members crashed without saying a word.
Vroooom.
It was only possible because it was Yunsik driving, the van gliding smoothly down the empty pre-dawn road.
If Jiu had been driving, no matter how tired we were, our survival instincts would’ve barely kept our consciousness hanging on.
'Even if her driving has gotten better, it’s still scary to close my eyes.'
Thinking that, splitting it so she handled the morning block and he handled the evening-to-night block felt like a pretty decent distribution.
In the morning, when you still had some stamina left, it was fine not to sleep while moving around, but at night like this, after schedules ended, it was only natural to want to rest even a little.
"Hm···."
"Sion, you should get some sleep too. It’ll take about thirty minutes to get back to the dorm."
His voice came while I was looking at the members sprawled out so hard you could’ve carried them off and they wouldn’t know, and seriously considering whether to make a formal suggestion to the company to create a physical training program.
Looks like it stood out that I was the only one awake.
"I can still hold out."
"That’s impressive. This is the kind of schedule even idols with years under their belt would struggle with."
"Really?"
At my words, I saw him nod from the driver’s seat.
"If it’s busier than us, it’s basically only top idol groups."
"To get even busier than this, what would # Nоvеlight # you even have to do?"
I flinched a little at him saying there were groups even busier than us.
Even Iam’s schedule right now was so tight it brought army field training to mind, and they beat this?
"Our broadcast schedule is similar, but···."
"Similar, but?"
"If you add events on top of that, the difficulty jumps like crazy."
"Ah, right. Events!"
"Yeah. For now, the company’s holding you back, but once you start doing events, you’ll get insanely busy. They try to book it with travel routes in mind, but if they can’t, there are days you literally have to go from one end to the other and back all in a single day."
As you’d expect from him after working at SY for seven years, he briefly explained the schedule of Exy, the boy group he used to manage.
"They flew out in the morning, did an event in China, came back to Seoul to prerecord a music show, then immediately got on a plane and went over to Japan for a fan meeting."
"Ugh···."
"And in between, they’d squeeze in quick radio spots or ad shoots too. Back then, it was really scheduled down to the second."
Just hearing it gave me chills, and maybe it gave him chills too, because he suddenly shuddered.
"But why is our company holding back on events?"
"Huh?"
"Is it because we still don’t have enough popularity to be doing events yet?"
I did have one question. Hearing him say our schedule was still ‘human’ only because we hadn’t started events yet made me wonder why we weren’t doing events.
Honestly, when you thought of idols, events were one of the first things that came to mind.
Starting with college festivals, idols were always showing up at all kinds of events, but—
-Wow! Even at this backwoods event, idols are coming, Company Commander.
Back when I was a company commander, there was even some unknown boy idol who showed up at a highland kimchi-making festival near the base holding a red pepper.
Anyway, idols and events were a relationship you couldn’t separate if you tried, but we still hadn’t done a single event.
And to be honest, I felt a little regret about that.
'Meeting the fans who come to music shows is nice, but I miss going on stage in front of a huge crowd like the Final Round.'
Putting on a stage for the fans who came to see us was great, but the thing that made me feel the most electric was still the performance at the gymnastics arena.
Maybe that was why I kept thinking I wanted to show our stage to more people, in a bigger place.
"With Iam’s level of popularity, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are tons of event offers coming in."
"What? Then why aren’t we doing them?"
"Because you’re still having a hard time."
"Huh?"
"Once events start, you’ll be so busy you won’t even be able to breathe."
"That’s true."
It was obvious.
Even now, when most of our schedule was just repeating the broadcasting station, the dorm, and the company, it was still tight enough.
"Maybe if you were used to broadcasting, but you still aren’t fully adapted. If the company forces event schedules on you too early, you’ll probably just end up with bad things happening."
"Bad things?"
"Events are still a stage you show in front of people. If you book events too aggressively, it’s not rare to end up creating a black history moment because the members’ condition drops."
"Ah! I’ve seen that on YouTube."
"Me too, but the people at the company are thinking about you a lot. Profit activities like events matter too, but the top priority is Iam staying healthy and active. So don’t worry too much just because events are delayed."
Listening to his explanation, I understood why the company wasn’t booking events for us.
I glanced back.
Iam members were asleep with mouths hanging open.
Even with the schedule we had now, they were struggling like this. If we went up on an event stage in this condition, I didn’t even want to imagine what kind of disaster could happen.
"That’s why tomorrow matters. You know it too. Why do you think we’ve been running radio and variety so hard since last week? If tomorrow goes well, we can cut down the broadcast schedule a bit, and then we might be able to start events soon."
"Wakata.(Got it.)"
"What is that—why are you suddenly speaking Japanese?"
"I caught it from Yuri."
There was exactly one reason we’d been grinding our bodies down doing schedules all week, starting with The Guy Next Door we filmed last week.
1st Place.
We were aiming for first place on the music show.
***
[A girl idol going head-to-head with Kang Hobong]
(A shot of Lee Sion sprawled out on the classroom floor after losing the chicken-leg fight to Kang Hobong)
↳Is that an idol or a moth flying into flames? Picking a chicken-leg fight with Kang Hobong lol
↳Kang Hobong looked flustered too lol When Lee Sion suddenly yelled and rushed in halfway, I legit jumped
↳Yeah, no matter how you look at it, at first he was going to lose gently, but when she suddenly charged, he switched to serious mode and pinned her down, and then he looked even more flustered
↳This scrub is always overflowing with confidence, I like that. So what if she’s bad at chicken fights, she’s nice
-Sion··· I’m a fan, but yelling "best two out of three" after losing was kind of ugly
↳Kind of? No, really ugly
↳Still, saying she wanted to chicken-fight again because she wanted to promote, that drive was nice to see
↳For real, honestly, after getting smacked once by Hobong-ham, you should get timid, but why is Lee Sion a honey badger?
↳That’s rookie idol guts
↳Promoting one time is this hard
"The reaction is really good." free𝑤ebnovel.com
"It feels like a lot changes from just one variety show shoot, more than I thought."
"That’s the power of variety. Being able to target a viewer demographic you can’t grab no matter how many music shows you do—that’s a huge weapon."
The entertainment industry was a textbook 3D job.
Five-day workweek.
Some people might complain that even five days is too long, but for people working in entertainment, that was a work schedule they truly, desperately wished for.
Agency employees who ran on a motto of 24-hour on-call, not nine-to-six, didn’t have weekends during an artist’s promotion period.
No, weekends were even busier.
"Why haven’t the kids’ outfits arrived yet?"
"I got a call asking why we didn’t send a sample for the changed camera route for this stage—who checked that?!"
"Call the salon and see if they can start thirty minutes earlier today. We suddenly have one small shoot to do before going to the music show."
Even though it was Sunday, KJ Entertainment’s office was noisy like a weekday morning.
Of course, the CEO Sanghyeok and the producer Raon were also at work, checking things.
[Gahyeon tanking highlight]
-Oh? Why isn’t your leader Gahyeon, but Ryujin? Gahyeon is the oldest, isn’t the oldest member usually the leader?
-We picked our leader through a democratic process, not by age.
-Ah, so Gahyeon yielded to the younger members?
-···No.
-Huh?
-They didn’t pick me···.
(A shot of Lee Gahyeon answering with watery eyes)
↳How is that the oldest member of the team lol
↳At first I felt bad that they always dogpiled Gahyeon, but lately I keep going around looking for unjustly-wronged Gahyeon memes
↳lol yeah, who told her to get hit so satisfyingly
↳I get Lee Sion, honestly. She reacts like that, how do you not tease her
↳The members keep tearing into her nonstop, so the fact the The Guy Next Door cast ends up protecting Gahyeon is a crazy kill point
↳Iam already has six hyenas lol
To anyone else, it might look like Sanghyeok was just loafing around, scrolling internet communities and YouTube, but this was also legitimate work.
"Is Gahyeon’s image being taken badly?"
"I was a little worried at first that she might be getting locked into a character who just gets bullied too much, but the reaction is surprisingly good. People say the gap with her looks makes it a twist charm."
"Hm···then it should be fine to keep it for now."
"Yes, so I’m also planning one self-content idea that matches Gahyeon’s image."
"When the draft is finished, please show it to me as well."
"Yes."
Checking and reviewing online and fan reactions to broadcast stages or programs your artists appeared on was important work.
There was always a gap between what you thought on set and what the public actually reacted to, so it was basic to analyze the response quickly, fix what needed fixing, and reinforce what needed reinforcing.
Of course, as CEO, Sanghyeok could’ve been fine just receiving the analyzed data from below, but in his case, he was directly checking things himself, like he was learning the job.
It was only possible because the company only had one artist, Iam.
Thanks to that, Sanghyeok was learning the idol world fast.
"This morning, I got a text from PD Yoon Juwon."
"PD Yoon Juwon—as in The Guy Next Door PD?"
"Yes. PD Yoon Juwon said they broke their all-time peak ratings thanks to Iam, and thanked us, and said they want you back again later."
"That’s insane!"
Raon clapped and made a fuss at Sanghyeok’s words, but Sanghyeok thought it was practically inevitable.
'Peak ratings 7.3 percent. They finally broke past that cursed 7 percent wall they never cracked before, so of course.'
The Iam episode of the popular variety show The Guy Next Door that they filmed last week got scheduled at an unusually fast speed and aired yesterday.
Normally, even fast scheduling wouldn’t happen until two or three weeks later, but KJ Entertainment wanted it out quickly too, and The Guy Next Door side also wanted to air the footage before Agbaek’s buzz died down, so that speed was possible.
And,
[The Guy Next Door Iam episode breaks 7.3%! New all-time peak ratings!]
[Iam pushed past the cursed 7% wall. Even after Agbaek ended, the buzz is still going!]
[New-concept variety-idols! Love calls flooding in for Iam to appear on variety programs!]
[Gallsearch celebrity buzz ranking: Iam takes 1st place!]
That decision was excellent.
The Guy Next Door Iam episode was pulling massive attention and buzz, to the point of setting a new all-time peak.
So as Sanghyeok and Raon checked reactions, the sheer amount of material had them feeling overwhelmed from the morning.
["A girl group member making Kang Hobong surrender with dance"]
-I’m in charge of dance in Iam.
-You dance that well? Hobong has made idols dance for over ten years!
-No need for words. I’ll show you. Music, please.
(A shot of Ryu Ayeon doing the Spotlight dance)
-What, is that it?
(Then Ryu Ayeon dances Pink Spell)
-Isn’t that the one Jihyun sang?
-That’s right, sir.
-Hobong is excited again because something came up that he knows.
(Then Ryu Ayeon dances Bang! Bang! Love)
-Wow, Ayeon dances really well
-She’s good no matter the genre?
-She’s young, so she’s overflowing with energy. My joints hurt now, I can’t do dances like that
(Then Ryu Ayeon dances Raon’s Popstar)
-Oh, she’s even dancing their producer’s song?
-But this is kind of an old song, how does Ayeon even know it?
-Her dance range is seriously wide
(Ryu Ayeon keeps dancing without stopping)
-Uh···Ayeon, how long are you going to dance?
(A shot of Kang Hobong’s flustered face, and Ryu Ayeon continuing to dance in a trance, like she’s fallen into her own world)
↳In my life, I never thought I’d see Kim Yucheol give up on copying idol choreography lol
↳Seo Jangun’s face is real lol He was staring like he was looking at a monster
↳First time I’ve ever seen Kang Hobong begging an idol to please stop dancing lol
↳Now even Kang Hobong can understand how idols felt on Star King
↳And then Kim Hyeongcheol comes out to copy her and dance together, and Ryu Ayeon stops immediately and goes back to her seat, is that not insane?
Usually, a variety show’s runtime is around an hour.
If it was longer than that, it could get boring, and if it was shorter than that, it was too short to show everything prepared, so about an hour was considered an appropriate length.
But staying funny for that entire hour wasn’t easy at all, even for a top variety show.
Just like how even the league’s best hitter in baseball only bats .300, even the funniest celebrity being funny every single moment was close to impossible.
But Iam did those unbelievable things, and as a result, they broke past the 7% peak wall that even famous actors hadn’t cracked.
"Iam is already on a different track from ordinary idols."
"I think so too. A rookie idol group that just debuted already having clear character identities by member, and being able to naturally show charms that match those identities—that’s an enormous weapon."
Sanghyeok and Raon thought this kind of record wasn’t possible on buzz alone. It was possible because Iam had real appeal.
"Now we just have to hope this buzz helps Iam."
"Yes. Depending on whether we take 1st place on UBS’s music show today or not, a lot will change again."
Sunday.
For office workers, it was a day off that closed out the week and also a day to prepare to start another week, but for KJ Entertainment, it was a kind of midterm evaluation day.
[Iam achieves 1st place on Music Count! A huge record achieved in just three weeks since debut!]
[Will LYNX sweep 1st place across the three terrestrial networks? Only UBS Popular Top Ten left!]
[Iam vs. LYNX in a fierce 1st place battle—who’s the winner?]
Entering their third week of promotions, Iam finally took 1st place.
-Music Count is KJ’s backyard to begin with
↳People always say Music Count 1st place doesn’t count because the scoring method is weird
↳BullshX. When it’s the singer they stan, they say it’s a more solid metric than terrestrial music shows that include broadcast points lol
↳LYNX is higher on the digital charts, how does it make sense for Iam to get it?
↳If we’re doing that, how did LYNX take 1st on terrestrial music shows when Iam beat them in album sales?
↳Damn, you’d think album sales were off by like 10,000 copies
↳Then shX, Iam hit #2 on the digital chart too, you’d think they charted out?
But since that 1st place was on a music show from MPlay, which was a KJ Media affiliate, there was a lot of noise right now.
"If we take 1st place on a terrestrial music show, then we won’t just be rivals with LYNX in words···."
"We can become truly equal rivals."
That was why the results of UBS’s Popular Top Ten music show, which would be announced today, had become extremely important.
