Chapter 130. End of 2011

Translator: Chamber

Editor: Illidan

When Kim JaeHoon started practicing, KangYoon also returned to his room and turned his PC on.

‘Phew, it’s not like I can get anyone to do it…’

He still remembered his own artists cleaning up the stage and chairs after that Christmas event. As he was someone who believed that musicians should focus on music, this came as a very big shock to him.

KangYoon licked his lips while looking at the Lunas’s employment notice that Lee HyunJi had put up on an employment website. Many people had applied for it, but there wasn’t anyone suitable. This was because he had raised the monthly pay higher than many other similar jobs in the industry. He was looking for 3 people, but there were over 300 applicants.

‘Nice specs.’

Muttered KangYoon as he looked at a resume from a person who went to a good university, but majored in a language. He classified those that deemed suitable on one pile before going over to the next.

However, there were too many applicants. In the end, KangYoon turned off the internet after looking through about 100 people.

‘They say human resources management is the hardest….’

KangYoon sighed. In the end, he decided that he should do it with Lee HyunJi and turned around to do something else.

Like that, he was getting something done for Kim JaeHoon when his phone started ringing. From the long series of numbers on the caller ID, it seemed to be from America. There was only one possible number.

“Yes, HeeYoon.”

[Oppa.]

He heard his sister’s voice, familiar, yet nostalgic. Just in case he interrupted Kim JaeHoon, he took his phone call outside.

“How have you been?”

[I’m good. How about you?]

He sat down in one corner of his porch and asked his sister about her well-being. The reply was that she was doing fine other than the fact that grades would be coming out soon. KangYoon didn’t care much about those grades. For him, it was a miracle that she was healthy again, so he wasn’t greedy about her grades. But now, such a sister turned out to have immense talent in music composition… for him, it was a matter he would thank the heavens for.

“Are you coming over to Korea on holiday?”

[Yeah. I’ll go once my grades are out. I want to meet the artists too.]

HeeYoon’s voice contained expectation. KangYoon smiled hearing that she wanted to come as soon as possible.

“Okay, I’ll send you the money, so get a ticket with that.”

[It’s fine. I have a lot of money. I’ll get one on my own.]

“No. Your brother is going to do it.”

KangYoon and HeeYoon fought regarding who was going to buy the ticket. Although they quarreled for a while, HeeYoon won over in the end. Her reason was that she had plenty of money from the copyright fees she had gotten.

(T/N: Why not use both the money to get a first class one…)

(E/N: Hyung you don’t understand just how much money first class costs)

“…Okay, fine. Do call me before you get on board.”

[Okay. Do you need anything?]

“Duty free cigarettes.”

[Oppa, are you looking for a fight?]

As though he was disappointed, KangYoon mentioned smoking. However, they still ended the call on a good note – that he should stop smoking.

‘My girl HeeYoon’s all grown up now.’

After the call, KangYoon made a soft smile while looking at his phone. He was like a dad that felt disappointed for his daughter growing up when he thought she’d stay a kid forever

***

TV stations at the end of the year were like warzones.

There were many award ceremonies as well as special episodes for various TV programs.

It was really like an active volcano that erupted at random times.

At the peak of the volcano was the meeting room for producers.

“God d*mmit.”

“Seonbae, what’s up?”

“Min JinSeo’s not showing up on the ceremony, again.”

A bearded producer grumbled while looking at the text message on his phone. When his direct junior asked in a soft tone, he showed her the text message while frowning.

“It seems that filming in China will take longer than expected, and she will not come back to Korea at the end of the year. Thank you for understanding? Goddammit, it wasn’t the person in question that replied, and it was a director. Just what the….”

“Wow, Min JinSeo sure is different. Doesn’t this mean that she’s above that director? And from what I know, MG’s board of directors are known for being stuck-up. Perhaps because it was about Min JinSeo that they decided to bother to do something.”

“Yeah, probably. She’s MG’s queen after all. Dammit, she wasn’t here last year, and she’s not here this year either… And here I was getting my hopes up.”

Thanks to his disappointment, the bearded producer could not stop frowning.

While listening to his junior’s consolation, another fellow producer spoke.

“It’s a pity about Min JinSeo. I heard she expressed her opinion that she wanted to participate in this year’s one.”

“That’s what I mean. Well… she’s been stuck in China all year. Hey, what about you? I heard you scouted Kim JaeHoon this time?”

“I’m having a blast. Do you know World’s president? He’s a cool guy. I gave him a call, and he gave me an okay on the spot.”

Kim JaeHoon at an idol-centered award ceremony? The bearded producer was in charge of the actors’ ceremony looked at his fellow producer that was in charge of the music award ceremony.

“Kim JaeHoon gave an okay for a TV program? I heard he doesn’t do TV programs with idols. You’re amazing for having done that. Don’t the other companies say anything about it?”

“What can they do about it? If they do, they’re narrow-minded.”

“I guess. Anyway, a singer on Kim JaeHoon’s level should put a lot of pressure on the idols. They won’t be able to do a song live at all.”

“Don’t even start. The absolute majority of them are bringing recordings. Ah, forget it. I hope Kim JaeHoon makes up for it.”

“Lol, that sounds fun.”

(T/N: I don’t actually watch those end-of-year ceremonies… not to mention the 2011 awards, so don’t ask me why music awards are centered around idols and whatnot… I don’t know a thing)

The junior producer only tilted her head in confusion while listening to the two seniors’ conversation.

***

The video of Han JooYeon and Sedy’s duet went up on Eddios’s fan cafe, Aries, and received an enormous number of views. It had the highest video resolution, and also the best sound. Although many people had recorded the video of the two, this video had the highest number of views in its kind.

Thanks to the video, the number of fan cafe visitors started rising exponentially. Ever since Eddios came back from America, the number of visitors in the cafe was increasing steadily.

Jung HyeJin recorded the number of visitors each day per KangYoon’s instruction. It was to monitor the current status.

‘He said that there will be a sharp rise at some point… and he’s right!’

After the video was uploaded, the number of visitors exploded after one day. At the same time, the number of people joining the cafe increased as well. Although the video was available to the public without logging in, there were many people that became fans after watching the video.

The video ended up attracting more people to the fan cafe.

“How is the monitoring going?”

“Director.”

She was reading the articles in the fan cafe when Lee HyunJi called out to her. Jung HyeJin turned her seat around to Lee HyunJi.

“Are there more people visiting?”

“Yes. It tripled. It’s amazing.”

Jung HyeJin couldn’t hide her surprise, but Lee HyunJi lightly shook her head.

“Triple, huh. There’s still a lot of ways to go until we recover the original number.”

“Oh yeah, this was Eddios….”

Jung HyeJin had made a mistake. Although she was surprised at the sharp increase in fan count, Eddios had been a peak-level idol in the past after all. There was still a lot of ways to go until they recovered their former fans, not to mention increasing that count.

Lee HyunJi came to Jung HyeJin’s seat and spoke in a bland voice.

“This number… It isn’t so bad. Please make a report and leave it on my desk.”

“Yes, director.”

Jung HyeJin replied before turning back to her monitor.

Lee HyunJi opened the employment website. She was going to pick out some people for managing Lunas, as well as some office workers. However, when she opened the website and had a look at the resumes, the scroll bar became tiny.

‘Wh, what’s this?’

Although it was good that she was given a lot of choices, how was she supposed to look through all of them…?

Lee HyunJi sighed. It looked like she was going to work overtime yet again.

When the two were focusing on doing their work, the door to the office opened and KangYoon came in.

“President.”

“You’re here.”

The two waved their hands at him. Lee HyunJi had bags under her eyes. KangYoon didn’t seem to notice that and rummaged through his desk, looking for something.

“I think I put JiMin’s plans over here somewhere… oh.”

KangYoon took out a document he had hidden deep inside his desk and left the office immediately. He came and went like the wind.

The two looked at KangYoon’s empty seat, blanking out.

“The president is such a bad guy.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Jung HyeJin spoke badly about him and Lee HyunJi deeply sympathized.

He was the source of all… work! Bad guy!

Those lines made the two become closer to each other.

***

“Why are my ears so itchy?”

KangYoon kept scratching his ears as though he could hear something. Kim JiMin, who was next to him, asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I guess someone’s talking about me.”

KangYoon stopped scratching after a while. Then he gave JiMin a set of papers.

“It’s your plans that I talked about. Have a look.”

Kim JiMin gulped when he said that this was a plan about her future. She looked through the plans with a nervous expression.

“Let’s have you debut after the Lunar New Year.”

“After Lunar New Years?”

Hearing a detailed date, Kim JiMin seemed shocked. Although she had an inkling about when she would have her debut, nervousness overcame her when it became more detailed.

“Why? Do you think it’s too early?”

“No, uhm… there’s Eddios-unnis too and…”

Kim JiMin seemed hesitant. However, KangYoon was firm about this.

“They are them and you are you. I think you’re worried about MinAh’s solo debut in March, but you two take completely different roles in the industry so it’s absolutely fine. Your debut will be either early February or at the very latest, end of February.

Kim JiMin’s eyes were shaking endlessly. Although report documents were written in hard, stiff words to make it sound formal, the papers in her hands were easy enough for her to understand.

Kim JiMin couldn’t hide her worry even after reading through all of the report.

“I don’t think I’ve prepared for a year even….”

The average number of years for a trainee to prepare for their debut was 3 years. But now, she was doing one in less than one year. She was worried that her preparation time was too short.

However, KangYoon replied confidently despite her worries.

“JiMin, do you think we’d send someone unprepared to their debut?”

“No.”

She strongly shook her head.

She had seen how World Entertainment did things. They took in White Moonlight, who was rejected by a big company, and even built a concert hall for them; wrote a song for Jay Han, who later won a competition on a TV show; and even revived Kim JaeHoon back from 4 years of absence. Things that were considered miracles in the industry happened very frequently here at World Entertainment.

KangYoon spoke calmly.

“I heard from professor Choi that you’re almost done learning the SLS vocal method. Although some in-depth training will be necessary as you take on your singer lifestyle, you won’t have to listen to several lectures a week. I heard that you didn’t have any bad habits and was quick to learn. Well done.”

“Sir….”

The words ‘well done’ shook her heart. She remembered back to the process – when KangYoon had scouted her out, and when she had prepared all this time. It was now time to go past that stage.

Like that, she was given a concrete debut plan, and it was now time to talk about what theme she should go with.

“As for the genre, I think we’ll go with folk.”

“Folk? Like the 80s?”

KangYoon shook his head when he heard her question.

“No way. If you sang like someone from the 80s then you won’t have any success. If you have a look at America, they have a lot of modern-feeling folk songs. I’m planning to make your title song one like that.”

“Is that fine? A folk song is….”

“You’ll see when the song is complete. You definitely won’t be disappointed.”

She nodded her head since KangYoon showed so much confidence. He kept speaking.

“Also, the fact that you’re able to play the guitar is like a performance in itself. There’s also the advantage that it’s easy to set up in a short time. However, it won’t be fun if you show it off too much, so let’s just do it once in a while.”

“Okay. I guess I’m going to need one for the debut stage?”

“No.”

Hearing KangYoon’s words, she widened her eyes in surprise.

“People will only watch if there’s a sort of impact on the first stage…”

“Let’s not show everything off in one go. You’re going to last long in this industry.”

“Yes.”

After that, KangYoon spoke about a lot of things. Along with things about the song, they talked about what they wanted in the debut stage. Kim JiMin found it curious that she was able to talk with KangYoon in regards to something like this. She felt as though she was a full-fledged artist already.

They were talking about it when it came to talking about the composer.

“The company’s exclusive composer will be visiting us soon.”

“Oh, you mean HeeYoon-unni?”

Kim JiMin’s eyes colored with curiosity hearing those words.

“She won’t be going anywhere for the holiday. I’m going to have her focus on your album this time, so I want you to learn from her.”

“Yes!”

Kim JiMin shouted in expectation.

A popular songwriter, one that made Kim JaeHoon, White Moonlight and even DiaTeen famous, was going to focus on her alone! This was like a dream to her.

***

December 31st.

Today was the last day of the year and the day that summed up the year. It was also the day that an end-of-year Pop contest happened in OTS TV station.

KangYoon and Lee HyunJi were watching the show through the TV at the company.

“There sure are a lot of girl groups. And boy groups too.”

They had already watched more than three-quarters of it. Lee HyunJi gave her evaluation after seeing that the majority of singers in the first half were girl groups and boy groups. One of her evaluations was the ‘standardization of the singer industry’.

KangYoon’s opinion wasn’t that much different from hers.

“The girl groups are the majority here, alright. The ones that have appeared so far should be considered well-off in their field. Below them should be about 70% of similar groups….”

“There are many companies that have the mindset to earn money through events after doing a single album. If it goes well, it’s a good thing. If it doesn’t, then oh well. – that’s what they think about it. Phew, on one side, I’m pitying them. Just how many of them will still be active next year?”

KangYoon deeply sympathized with Lee HyunJi’s words.

“You’re right. These days, one success doesn’t mean everything. It’s a frightening era alright. Now, one successful result in an album isn’t nearly enough to keep going in the industry.”

“This is hard. Eddios will have to join the field and I’m worried.”

It was no wonder that Lee HyunJi was worried. From one perspective, Eddios had it worse off than their competition. However, KangYoon was very firm about his stance on the matter.

“It’s time we show the public another side. There’s no more opportunity if all they can do is shout ‘oppa’ on the stage, like what they did before, targeting the male audience. We need to create an area of sympathy and get everyone to join us.”

“Is there a strategy for that?”

“We’ll need firm foundations. It’s not something we can do in just a day or two.”

There was a heated discussion on TV and there was a mention of Kim JaeHoon. The two people gazed at the TV simultaneously. There was a video playing about the candidates of the runner-up award. There was some footage about Kim JaeHoon’s appearance on TV shows as well as some other people that were candidates.

– Those were the three candidates for the runner-up award. Then, let us announce – the runner-up award

There was a drumroll noise.

At the same time, both KangYoon and Lee HyunJi gulped.

– goes to… Mr. Kim-Jae-Hoon~! Congratulations!

Along with a loud fanfare, Kim JaeHoon, clad in a suit, walked up to the stage with a slightly red face. He accepted the flower and the trophy with a soft smile and stood in front of the mic.

– First, I’d like to thank you all for giving me this wonderful prize. I’d also like to thank my family members at the company, DaeHyung-hyung that works hard for me every day, as well as my parents. Finally, I’d like to thank Muse that has created the opportunity for me to stand on stage again…. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m tearing up… after 4 years of absence. My brother, president, really, really… thank you.

Kim JaeHoon put the things in his hands down and kowtowed towards the monitor. Everyone was deeply shocked, but he stood up without thinking about it.

– I’ll repay you with even better music in the future. I love and thank you everyone!

Applause rang out from the TV. KangYoon fell into a daze after seeing Kim JaeHoon’s kowtow. That was definitely aimed at him. Lee HyunJi, next to him, seemed touched.

“That’s awesome, president, getting someone to kowtow towards you in such a big, official place.”

“Looks like the internet will be hot about it.”

“Hahaha, is that a problem? Wow, I didn’t know Mr. JaeHoon had such a side to him. The friendship between men is so cool. I’m almost falling for him now.”

Lee HyunJi looked at KangYoon in envy. Their friendship, unhindered by the mass media, excited her.

“Looks like there will be a news article in 10 minutes. What do you think the post title will be? [Kim JaeHoon, a man’s big kowtow]?”

“You’re freaking me out here.”

“Hahaha.”

When Lee HyunJi laughed, KangYoon scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

2011 was a year with a warm ending for World Entertainment.