Chapter 145. A One-off Single (3)

Translator: Chamber

Editor: Illidan

***

“There’s not a lot left of Spring. Ladies who want to melt the hearts of your beloved in this warm weather, please come here. Over there, the lady with the coat. Why don’t you try this?”

Joo SeNa was trying to sell some cosmetics as a store employee. The lady in the coat was persuaded by her soft smile and approached her. Joo SeNa endlessly praised her and led her to a place where some cosmetics were laid out on display.

Her eloquent words attracted the attention of many ladies around.

The male employee in charge of the sales promotion staff of the store smiled while looking at her satisfying work.

‘She’s so young, but she’s good.’

Joo SeNa did not shirk away from heavy-duty work despite her short and thin body. Although the female employees might get jealous of how she caught the attention of many male employees, she smoothed it over with her eloquent words and was loved by all. She was a mood maker for the store.

The male employee then had a look at Joo SeJin who was standing there with a grumpy expression.

‘They are supposed to be twins, aren’t they? Why does he work like that?’

Joo SeNa’s role was to attract customers to the store, while Joo SeJin was in charge of explaining about the products and selling them. Joo SeNa would pass the customers over to SeJin and he would sell them the products. However, Joo SeJin didn’t seem enthusiastic at all, and most of the time, the customers would walk away after briefly talking with him.

Eventually, the male employee had to speak to Joo SeJin when he saw that he sent away dozens of customers.

“Hey, Mr. SeJin. How can you send those customers away like that? You need to sell these products.”

“She doesn’t want to though.”

The male employee was flabbergasted. Send them away because they don’t want to buy the product? Was that the words coming out of an employee?

“…You should have offered a few more times at least.”

“They have no intention of buying. Do I really need to offer them anything?”

“…What?”

The man was flabbergasted. He couldn’t believe that this young man was the twin of Joo SeNa outside. If this was going to happen, there was no point in employing people for part-time jobs, no?

However, he couldn’t say anything. He glared at Joo SeJin before commenting about his expression.

“…First, look in the mirror. Do you think anyone would want to buy anything if they look at your expression?”

“What about my expression?”

“Of course, you have to smile! Show them a good expression!”

Joo SeJin was getting annoyed as well. Was it his fault that the products weren’t selling? What was he supposed to do when the customers didn’t want them? Now, he was getting picked on because of his expression.

He couldn’t stand this anymore.

“…Forget it.”

Joo SeJin muttered before standing up. However, having heard those words, the man caught him.

“Hey, Mr. SeJin. What did you say just now?”

“I’m going to look in the mirror. Is that a problem with you too?”

“What!?”

The man’s patience finally ran out.

In the middle of the street, the two started fighting with each other. The man grabbed Joo SeJin by the collar, while Joo SeJin shouted out loud telling him to stop.

“…What, a fight?”

“So noisy.”

In the end, even the customers that visited the shop wanting to buy something ended up leaving. The only people left were the ones wanting to watch a good show.

Like that, an hour had passed.

Obviously, Joo SeJin was notified of being fired.

“Yeah, I hope you fall over!”

He changed into his normal clothes again and left the shop after spitting on the ground.

“Joo SeJin!”

Joo SeNa called out to him, but it was like reading the bible to a cow.

In the end, she had to come to the rooftop house after her work shift was over.

Joo SeNa climbed the narrow stairs, tired. However, she heard a familiar guitar sound.

“This guy….”

Normally, she would be overjoyed to listen to the guitar, but right now, it couldn’t sound any worse. Joo SeNa ran up the stairs due to a rush of adrenaline despite her fatigue.

“SeNa, you’re ba…!”

Before SeJin could say anything, Joo SeNa gave SeJin a big smack on the back.

“Ouch! That hurts!”

“It’s meant to! What were you up to today? Do you know how awkward it was for me for the rest of the day?”

“…That dude picked on me first. What am I supposed to do?”

“You are the one that didn’t work properly. It was no wonder you got scolded. How much longer are you going to keep living like a child?”

“..Dammit.”

Joo SeJin frowned. However, Joo SeNa did not back down and kept smacking his back and scolded him.

“Dammit? You were the one who wanted to come to Seoul first! And now that we’re here, what are you doing? You’re picking fights, and getting fired from a job.”

Joo SeJin became angry at those words.

“Yes, thanks for mentioning that. Why did we come to Seoul? We came here to become singers, but now all we’re doing is working our asses off! We’re here to sing, not work!”

“Singing requires money, dumbass!”

Singing when they couldn’t currently afford a living? Joo SeNa was flabbergasted by the childish words of her brother. She of course wanted to try an audition and wanted to contact the man that gave them his business card, but the difficulty of living took away any opportunities.

Whether that childish little brother of hers knew what she was thinking or not…

“Ah forget it. I’m trying for an audition.”

“Joo SeJin!”

Like that, the two quarreled for the entire night…

“Hey, you damned brats. Do you think you’re the only ones living here!”

…or not. They couldn’t do so because of complaints from their neighbors.

***

“So like this…”

Inside the studio, KangYoon was talking to Kim JaeHoon about the nation-wide tour.

Kim JaeHoon told him about what he wanted from the concerts, and KangYoon added some details. Although the overall outline wasn’t there yet nor was there a concrete time slot, the very mention of the word concert made Kim JaeHoon cheerful.

They were in a heated discussion when the door to the studio abruptly opened and Jung MinAh came in.

“MinAh, what’s up? Something happened?”

KangYoon stood up from his seat as well. Jung MinAh looked up at KangYoon while panting heavily. It was very rare for her to breathe heavily when not in practice due to her trained body.

“*pant, pant*. Ahjussi! This, this….”

“Take a deep breath.”

“N, no. Fu, fuu… This time’s comeback stage. Is it true that there’s only cable TV?”

Jung MinAh’s voice was rough.

She was very shaken. As the leader of Eddios, she had to lead everyone in a charismatic manner, so she had always hidden her weak side, but right now she couldn’t afford to do so.

Kim JaeHoon was also surprised because this was the first time he had heard of this.

KangYoon spoke calmly.

“Yes, you’re right.”

“Whaaat!?”

Jung MinAh was shocked. With her knowledge, an idol singer not having a public TV stage when making a comeback simply could not happen. But this was exactly what was happening right now! All three major public TV stations were not having her.

“Wh, what do we do then? Are we delaying it?”

“MinAh, calm down first. Why don’t you come sit down over there?”

KangYoon tried to calm Jung MinAh down. From her face, it looked like she hadn’t even taken her stage makeup off yet. She likely had come here immediately after the music video shoot was over.

‘Looks like she hurried here. Well, it’s not hard to guess why.’

KangYoon gave Jung MinAh a cup of cold water. She drank it in one gulp before trying to calm her breathing. The cold water seemed to have calmed her down a little, and her heavy breathing died down.

When Kim JaeHoon quietly left thinking that he wasn’t necessary here. KangYoon then spoke in a calm manner.

“I told you right now, but there is only one TV stage for the comeback stage. I wasn’t able to get a slot allocated for public TV.”

“…Uu… Is it the same strategy then when JiMin debuted?”

She asked to see if there’s hope, but KangYoon shook his head.

“With JiMin, we did an exclusive show for one TV station because we wanted to be allocated more time, but this situation is not intended by us so I don’t think we can do that.”

“Haaa… what do we do then? The comeback stage’s impact is not small….”

The impact of the first week was very big. If they could not make use of the impact from the comeback stage, success wouldn’t be so easy. However, there was only one comeback stage happening this time. No matter how confident she was, and how much she had prepared, the pressure of not being able to stand on several comeback stages due to the weak influence of the company scared her.

Seeing her expression, KangYoon spoke with a confident expression.

“MinAh, leave this to me. This is my work and not something for you to be worried about.”

“But the situation calls for it…”

She didn’t dare say ‘you can’t be so relaxed about it’. She had faith in KangYoon, but the outlook didn’t look so good.

However, KangYoon was calm.

“I’ve prepared something much better than TV stages. So you don’t need to worry about it.”

Jung MinAh’s gaze became a little strange. A stage more effective than appearing on TV? This wasn’t enough to calm her down.

“Ahju… I mean, President. I’m not that knowledgeable, but you know why us idols stake it all on TV stages. Although we only make about 200,000 won (200USD) off it, the effect of advertisement through it is incredible, so everyone else wants a slot on it.”

As the leader, Jung MinAh had many things in her mind. KangYoon was rather proud to see her so grown up after remembering her trainee days. He lightly patted Jung MinAh’s shoulders.

“Yes. MinAh, you’re cool. You can think of things like that.”

“Th, that’s not what’s important right now!”

KangYoon’s soft side made Jung MinAh stutter a little. However, indeed, as she said, that wasn’t important right now. KangYoon knew that as well.

“MinAh, what’s your job?”

“My job, of course… I’m a singer, so I have to show the public something good.”

“Then what’s my job?”

“Ajussi’s? Mm….”

She thought for a moment before speaking.

“You’re the CEO of my company, so you help your artists sing well?”

“And what’s the situation now?”

“A situation that makes it harder for me to sing.”

“Solving that is my job. You focus on your work. I’ve prepared everything already.”

“How?”

KangYoon’s following explanation made Jung MinAh’s expression brighten up a little. However, she still couldn’t rid herself of the worries plaguing her.

***

The next morning.

Lee HyunJi sighed while looking at the request of the budget that KangYoon had given her.

“…That’s an unexpected use of funds.”

Lee HyunJi heaved a deep sigh while looking at the budget.

“We need to be daring when we need it.”

“You’re right, but still….”

Lee HyunJi clenched her teeth. Actually, wasn’t all this money being lost because public TV boycotted Jung MinAh? This was unthinkable when she worked at MG.

“Director.”

“Ah, sorry about that. I was just thinking about those dumbass producers….”

KangYoon felt shivers down his spine. Seeing Lee HyunJi act fired up like that sometimes made him shiver.

“XT Hall in Samseong-dong? Isn’t the scale getting too big here?”

Lee HyunJi was scared herself. He seemed calm, but when he got angry, he was like an erupting volcano.

XT Hall’s rental fee was an order of magnitude higher than other places. Needless to mention the facilities, the visitor capacity, and ease of transportation were through the roof as well. Usually, top-tier idols like DiaTeen or the release of blockbuster-level dramas would take place here.

“Since it came down to this, we need to do it properly. We will call everyone we can and make a huge deal out of it.”

“The will is there, but can we really fill such a wide space? Eddios is after all… quite old….”

Lee HyunJi was skeptical. They had finally taken off the respirator and started breathing with their own funds. If this large-scale showcase ended up being rather empty, it was unknown what hyenas in the skin of journalists would make out of it. If that happened, Eddios would not have a step to go up but would be digging their own grave.

Hearing her worries, KangYoon continued to speak in a calm manner.

“What is the purpose of money? We should do everything we can in our power. We’ll utilize our connections for JaeHoon, JiMin, Eddios, and White Moonlight. And if even that is not enough, we’ll hand out money to make it work. MinAh is, of course, one of them.”

“…Look like we’ll become poor after one showcase.”

Although she sounded like she was joking, Lee HyunJi was inwardly at a hard spot. This was what it felt like to take care of finances. However, KangYoon did everything his way with or without knowing what was on her mind.

“Right now, we need to invest rather than save up. I don’t think Eddios will fail. It’s just that the road getting there is quite hard. Please believe in me and be patient.”

“…If you say that, I can’t say anything. Well, it’s your words, president, so they’re probably true.”

She was unable to say anything when the president had so much confidence. Lee HyunJi heaved a deep sigh and signed off the paper which was already signed by the president. Her hands shook as she signed her name on it.

‘…I hope those damned PDs die an early death.’

Although the current season had nothing to do with the cold, the mood at World Entertainment was quite frosty.

***