Free Web Novel"Good morning, sir."
"Good morning. Good morning to you as well."
KJ Entertainment’s CEO, Kim Sanghyeok, had a simple daily routine.
Get to work by 7:30 a.m.
It was much earlier than the official start time of 9:00, but since plenty of employees had been coming in early lately anyway, it wasn’t anything unusual.
"How far along is the editing on this content?"
"We’re at about 80 percent right now. I’ll finish it today."
"Okay. And before lunch, let’s have a meeting about the next self-content. From what’s being discussed right now is···."
That was how it went—after coming in, as Sanghyeok went up the building floor by floor, he could see employees who’d come in early, or who were working without going home.
Lately, the team pulling the most all-nighters was the content team.
-We’re planning to do a special project with the members this time.
Not only were they preparing the special project he’d mentioned to Raon and Sanghyeok last time, they also had to upload what they’d filmed on schedule, so they couldn’t help being busy.
While the manager team and the stylist team saw their workload shrink during the off-season aside from events or self-content shoots, the content team stayed just as busy in the off-season as they were during promotions.
'The best solution is increasing headcount, but that isn’t easy either.'
Making two teams and rotating filming and editing was the better option, but the catch was that KJ Entertainment was too small to increase headcount right now.
If they had multiple artists under the company, maybe, but in a situation where they only had Iam, expanding further than this was risky.
"Oh! Good morning, sir."
"Good morning, PD Lucas. Were you still working?"
"Yes. It can’t be helped. Recording has started now, so I have to work so it can come out even a little better."
Passing the second floor where the content team was and reaching the third-floor recording studio and workrooms, Sanghyeok saw Lucas in the hallway, drinking coffee.
'Is he addicted to instant mix coffee?'
Lately, Lucas had been doing intense album work in the company workroom with Raon, and every time Sanghyeok ran into Lucas, Lucas always had a paper cup in hand—Lucas liked instant mix coffee that much.
-This is Korea’s coffee?!
Lucas kept saying sweet things were delicious and always had it on hand. Sanghyeok couldn’t understand why a Swedish person’s mouth produced a satisfied "Ahh," but he only hoped Lucas would cut back a little for health’s sake.
"Keep up the good work."
"Yes, sir!"
After exchanging that energetic greeting with Lucas—who said he loved K-pop so much he even learned Korean—Sanghyeok finally reached the fourth floor.
Arriving on the fourth floor, where the CEO’s office and the meeting rooms were gathered, Sanghyeok went straight into the CEO’s office, aired it out, organized his things, and headed to his desk.
Documents waiting for approval, and the whiteboard showing the current progress of the follow-up album production.
In the morning, checking all of that again was part of Sanghyeok’s routine.
As Sanghyeok started work and reviewed the documents, he could newly feel Iam’s popularity.
'So this is why people jump into the entertainment business?'
Just one group.
And yet, even though KJ Entertainment only had Iam, who had just debuted, KJ Entertainment’s financial situation was surprisingly very positive.
Of course, the initial investment cost was enormous, but Iam was bringing in such astonishing sales that it made you forget that investment.
Sanghyeok could understand why hit producers went out and tried to start their own agencies.
However,
'This alone isn’t enough to satisfy me.'
Iam had clearly achieved remarkable results with their debut song, but Sanghyeok was looking beyond that.
Rookie of the Year at the year-end awards.
An award given to the most promising group that debuted that year—to the point people called it “a preview of the grand prize”—was KJ Entertainment and Iam’s true goal.
Some people said that since they were promoting with support from their parent company, KJ, it didn’t matter if they took it easy anyway.
But Sanghyeok’s pride wouldn’t allow that.
'The members’ potential is already basically proven. If they don’t win Rookie of the Year, that’s KJ Entertainment’s responsibility.'
Honestly, if they put out a follow-up album while only ensuring a decent level of quality, they could probably post decent results and bring in plenty of sales off Iam’s popularity alone.
But that wasn’t satisfying.
Knock knock.
The knock woke Sanghyeok out of his thoughts.
The moment he answered for them to come in, the door opened, and a woman walked into the CEO’s office.
"You’re here?"
"Yes. We need to decide quickly by today."
That woman was none other than KJ Entertainment’s producer, Raon.
Sanghyeok finished what he was doing, headed toward the sofa where Raon was sitting, and brought out a simple drink.
"Thank you."
"I’m sorry for setting a meeting from the morning when you must be busy."
"No. It’s something I need to check too."
"Thank you for understanding."
Sanghyeok and Raon sat facing each other on the sofa, with a single proposal between them.
"Three Kingdom."
When Sanghyeok read the title of the proposal in a low voice, tension drifted across Raon’s face.
[Three Kingdom: War of the Stars]
It was the title of a new variety program MPlay and the variety production company SY Production were preparing as a collaboration.
"I still can’t believe SY and TSP accepted this proposal."
"The production side was clever. They leaked information in advance, so now, if they pull out, they can’t avoid the image that they ran away."
In the first half of ’16, debuting at almost the same time, Iam, LYNX, and VYNNIA.
After one article labeled it a girl group Three Kingdoms, those three groups kept drawing attention among the public.
And that made sense—since their results were similar and their fandom sizes were the biggest among recently debuted girl groups, there was no choice but for people to wonder who was the best.
[Iam is the best, aren’t they? They were the first to achieve a grand slam.]
↳LYNX is a little higher on digital charts
↳But Iam sells more albums
↳If you go by album sales, VYNNIA is No. 1 though?
↳VYNNIA is the lowest of the three on digital charts though?
↳Fuck, let’s just have all three fight it out
↳Then Lee Sion wins
↳No, who said to actually fight?!
LYNX for digital charts, VYNNIA for general-public appeal, Iam for fandom power.
[Girl group search keyword rankings]
1st Iam
2nd LYNX
3rd VYNNIA
.
.
.
↳These days, everyone my age likes Iam
↳VYNNIA is lower than LYNX, that’s unexpected
↳For general-public appeal, Iam is No. 1 because of Agbaek and variety, and then LYNX after that, I think
↳Honestly, the fact they got 3rd with that song about beating up the lion of Nemea is a miracle
↳SY, you crazy bastards, compromise with the public a little!
[First-half girl group album sales rankings]
1st VYNNIA 293,5** copies
2nd Iam 227,2** copies
3rd LYNX 199,3** copies
.
.
↳What kind of girl group sells almost 300,000 albums?
↳I heard they did massive group orders in China and Japan, this is a level even most boy groups can’t touch
↳Iam and LYNX would’ve just taken 1st in any other year, but VYNNIA’s fandom really is insane
↳Don’t be petty and fight over album sales, fight it out with digital charts
↳For digital charts, you just swap VYNNIA and LYNX there and that’s it
↳Why is Iam 2nd in both digital and albums?
↳Why is Iam 2nd in both digital and albums?
As these three groups split fans like that among idol fans, all three were currently teasing July comebacks, raising everyone’s anticipation.
-I want to shoot a competition program with all three groups participating. Over a total of three stages, we’ll pick the team with the highest overall ranking, and for the team that takes 1st place, MPlay will assign them a solo concert and a special stage at the year-end MPlay Music Awards.
As if responding to the public’s desire, they were proposing a program where the three groups competed through stages against each other.
"PD Kim Miyoung was the original planner of Agbaek, right?"
"Yes. Seriously, how does she only pick provocative material like this···she’s exactly like Sion."
And the one planning this insane program that looked like it was begging for a fight was Kim Miyoung—Sion’s aunt, a former MPlay PD who had now transferred to SY Production as a PD.
A purely interest-driven plan of, people are curious, so put them in a ring and make them clash to see who the strongest is.
In truth, if your ranking was bad here, it could cause fatal image damage for the rest of your promotions, so normally, big agencies like SY or TSP wouldn’t even look at a proposal like this.
But—
"The fruit is too sweet."
"They must be confident in their own groups too."
Amazingly, it was PD Kim Miyoung who relayed that both SY and TSP had expressed their intent to participate in this program.
Those two agencies’ participation, when you’d think they’d never join.
It couldn’t be helped—the things they stood to gain if they won were too tempting.
If they took 1st place, they could preemptively claim the image of being the No. 1 group among the three groups who would be locked in fierce competition going forward.
And then there was the shocking benefit of giving a rookie girl group a solo concert and the main-event slot of a year-end stage.
It was a golden opportunity to take the unquestioned lead in the idol scene now being called the third generation.
"Then we have no choice but to participate too."
"The timing will be late August, after the July comeback stages wrap up."
A sigh escaped Sanghyeok on its own.
A first round in July, a second round in August with Three Kingdom.
KJ Entertainment was finally joining that fierce battlefield deciding which of the three—Iam, VYNNIA, and LYNX—would be this summer’s final winner.
"It feels like Zhuge Liang pulling out his memorial before the Northern Expedition."
"Huh? A memorial?"
"Three Kingdom. The title itself is Three Kingdoms, isn’t it?"
At Sanghyeok’s words, Raon looked at him with an expression of disgust.
'He must’ve been influenced by Ms. Sion.'
Before he knew it, Sanghyeok had grown used to expressing things through Three Kingdoms comparisons himself.
***
"This is choreography?"
"Yeah. This is our choreography."
I couldn’t hide my shock at Ryu Ayeon’s shameless answer.
-Starting today, we’re going into choreography practice. This choreography, Ayeon participated in the making of it too. I want Ayeon to teach the members well.
Ryu Ayeon’s participation in making the choreography—something I knew because I’d secretly eavesdropped.
But I remembered the other members looking startled like they truly didn’t know.
And for Lee Gahyeon, Yunkyung, and Shinyu, the moment they found out Ryu Ayeon had participated in making the choreography, they couldn’t hide their horror.
-Ryu Ayeon! What kind of brutal choreography did you put in again?!
-I thought we finally escaped the choreography demon, when did you join the new song choreography?!
-Are we pulling an all-nighter starting today?!
News that Ryu Ayeon, the poster child of brutal group choreography—carried down proudly since Agbaek—was in charge was more than enough to make the three members who were on the weaker side in dancing freak out.
However, the choreography Ryu Ayeon made was unexpectedly not difficult. freewebnσvel.cѳm
If you judged by difficulty, it was actually on the easier side.
"This choreography is a waacking-based choreo. The moves repeat and are simple, so it won’t be hard to learn."
Watching Ryu Ayeon demonstrate in front of us and calmly continue explaining, me and the members lost our words.
"Ayeon, uh···so this aerobics-looking choreo is our new song’s choreography, right?"
"You saw it exactly. The point was to add aerobics on top of a waacking base, to give it that upbeat, fun calisthenics feel."
"And you made this?"
"I didn’t make all of it, but I suggested a lot of ideas."
This choreography was surprising in a lot of ways.
Ryu Ayeon’s original choreography taste was either brutal like a boy group, or sticky in that Western-style way.
In a way, the Bang! Bang! Love choreography she made back in Agbaek was basically Ryu Ayeon’s essence.
So it looked cool when you watched it, but the people dancing it died—was the distinctive feature.
But the choreography for "DON'T BLINK" that she said she made this time was the complete opposite of the choreography Ryu Ayeon had made before.
'Even I know waacking.'
I’d learned it was a kind of street dance where you use your arms especially fast and a lot, and even the trainer teaching us had said it was trendy in the U.S. lately and taught it to us.
-This was originally a dance people did in gay clubs.
Waacking, which was surprisingly a dance gay people did, maybe because of that, put special importance on intense poses and facial expression.
Thanks to that, unless you were shameless as hell when you danced it, it was hard to create that unique vibe.
But the choreography Ryu Ayeon produced was waacking-based, with aerobics mixed in on top of it.
Not “stylish aerobics,” but real aerobics—the kind Mrs. Sukja would do at a neighborhood aerobics studio going "Hup, hup!"
"Hey, if you dance it it’s funny, but if we dance it, won’t it be a disaster?"
With waacking and aerobics mixed together, it felt completely different from any idol group choreography I’d seen until now.
Even when Ryu Ayeon—the best dancer among us—danced it, honestly, it looked more funny than cool, so it didn’t seem easy to pull off.
"This choreography considered a lot of things."
Ryu Ayeon calmly explained why she made it like this, in response to the questions from me and the members.
"First, I matched it to the rhythm of this new song. Brutal group choreography doesn’t suit this track."
At Ryu Ayeon’s explanation, I nodded.
She was right. Brutal group choreography didn’t feel like it would suit this track.
"Fast rhythm, repeating melody and lyrics. When you only danced just now it might’ve looked awkward, but when it’s combined, the way it locks in feels light and bouncy."
At Ryu Ayeon’s words, I layered this new track over the choreography she had shown earlier.
'It’s definitely better, but isn’t it still kind of awkward?'
Had she noticed my doubt?
"The most important part is, with only that, the choreography is monotonous, so the stage can look empty. So this time, backup dancers will be added too, and they’ll dance this together as a group."
"Backup dancers? How many?"
"We’ll have to match it first, but for now, fourteen."
At the words fourteen backup dancers, my mind went blank for ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) a second.
'With our members too, that’s twenty-one people. Twenty-one people doing the stage at the same time?'
When I pictured around twenty people on stage doing the choreography Ryu Ayeon had just shown to the new song, military drill suddenly came to mind.
-Switch step and move!
It was a simple motion if you thought about it, but just having a large number of people do the same motion created that unity and that oppressive force.
Hearing that, even though the vibe would be different, something like that would unfold on stage, it felt incredibly interesting.
"Sounds like it could be fun."
"Right? I think the choreography for this stage came out well too."
Only then could I understand why Ryu Ayeon had made such a unique choreography.
"Then let’s start choreography practice right away. The moves are simple so it’ll be easy to memorize, but for this choreography, it’s important not just to do the moves—you have to bring the facial acting and the feel to life, so we’ll have to practice a lot."
The other members seemed to grasp the intent of the choreography like I did, because at Ryu Ayeon’s words to start practice, they showed motivation.
"Seo scrub, just follow as much as I do."
"Are you insane, Lee scrub? You passed vocal directing in one try, so now your nose is all the way up in the sky?"
"Ahem. I was considerate because I thought the scrub who still hasn’t even finished vocal directing might struggle if she also does choreography. How can you be so ill-natured?"
"Seriously, Lee Sion, I’m going to teach you a lesson with choreography today."
To pump up the members’ motivation before practice really started, I lightly provoked Seo Ryujin, and sure enough, that burning look in Seo Ryujin’s eyes was nice to see.
"Follow me, scrubs. I’ll carry you."
I was confident.
I’d always been fast at picking up choreography, and this time the choreography was simple, so I’d already memorized it to a certain extent. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
And so, our first choreography practice began under Ryu Ayeon’s guidance.
.
.
.
"What’s wrong with you, Lee Sion, why are you so awkward?"
"Boss, are you hurt?"
"Sion, you just looked totally like a mannequin."
"Hey, stop messing around and do your facial acting properly."
After I started being an idol, I ran into my first crisis.
