LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 206:
Is he really that good?
“That time? It was the loudest cheering I ever got during my busking. I thought I was at a concert.”
Hong Ju-hoon, the host of the ‘Busking with HongTV’ channel, shared some anecdotes about his busking with AWY before the first broadcast of ‘Our time’.
“The moment they took off their masks, helmets, and stuff on their faces! It was right when the sun was setting, and the street was lit up…!”
He exclaimed and raised his thumb.
“See for yourself on JBTC. I’ll end the stream when the show starts.”
Someone sent a message along with a donation. The sender had a nickname that looked like an AWY fan.
“Oh, thank you for the ten thousand won donation! How was it meeting AWY?”
Hong Ju-hoon chuckled and showed a photo of him with the AWY members on the screen.
“See? Wow, celebrities are celebrities. They’re all handsome.”
-Wow
-Get HongTV’s face out of here
-Bro, you’re ugly…
-Please delete the Photoshop master’s face lol
-He’s the only one who stands out lol
“Did you see the size of my head? They tried to bring their faces forward as much as possible for this photo.”
Hong Ju-hoon laughed as if he was used to this kind of reaction. He enthusiastically told the story of how he saw the members in person.
“Especially Ian…”
As soon as he said Ian’s name casually, the chat room went up fast.
-??
-He crossed the line
-Bye HongTV
“Wait a minute. I’m like a brother to him, a popular idol.”
Hong Ju-hoon shrugged.
“And these days, fans are grateful for the stories, right? They don’t get mad and curse at me. Right?”
The number of viewers on the live stream increased a lot compared to the previous day. AWY fans who heard the news came and filled the chat room with palm emoticons. Even foreign fans joined and made it more crowded.
“Anyway, they were all very… humble, I guess? They were really kind. They came to me first and called me hyung. You’re jealous, right?”
Hong Ju-hoon was in a good mood because he received a lot of donations and viewers. He moved his mouth without a break.
“Anyway, who’s the most handsome in real life? They’re all handsome. Especially Ian… Wow, how can a person look like that? I wondered. He was just… just beautiful.”
Hong Ju-hoon had a dreamy expression on his face.
“I felt it when I was going home after the busking recording. Even if he’s a guy, I’d date him…!”
-?
-He crossed the line
-Don’t you think you should consider Ian’s opinion too?
-?? : He wouldn’t take you even if you gave yourself to him
The viewers’ ‘public sentiment’ exploded. Regardless, Hong Ju-hoon was happy. He received a lot of donations.
“What are we doing on AWY’s ‘Our time’? I don’t know. I only got a call to host the busking.”
He didn’t budge to the AWY fans’ request for spoilers. In fact, he didn’t know anything other than the busking.
“It seems like some kind of healing vibe, right? Is it time? I’ll end the stream now!”
***
Hong Ju-hoon’s prediction was wrong. It was not healing, but competition. The members arrived at a pension in Gyeonggi-do for a songwriting survival camp. They got off the van with their bags.
“You can stay in one building per team.”
“Wow…”
They opened their mouths at the sight of the pension with three detached houses and a large garden. Among them, what caught their eyes was something in the garden that made them lose their appetite.
“Hey, there’s a barbecue grill.”
“Looks delicious…”
“Meat later?”
The members whispered to each other, but PD Lee Jong-soo heard them and smiled meaningfully.
“Do you think you’ll have time to eat meat? We’re not here to eat, you know?”
“Ah, PD-nim. Don’t scare us already.”
“Scare? We’re not doing anything like a ghost special.”
“Not having time to eat is scary enough.”
Kim Ju-young narrowed his eyes.
They fixed the microphones on their clothes, lined up in front of the camera, and responded to the opening remarks of Park Seo-dam and Ian. They looked nervously at PD Lee Jong-soo until he opened his mouth.
“What do we do now?”
“You have to compose two songs each in your teams during the three-night, four-day training camp.”
“Two songs?”
Kim Joo-young widened his eyes. Lee Joo-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk also swallowed nervously.
“Yes, both songs will be included in your mini album.”
“That’s hard…”
The biggest reason why Lee Byung-hun agreed to appear was that JBTC had no stake here. JBTC expected to increase their ratings and advertising revenue, while the agency hoped to promote their next album through the broadcast.
“You know you can’t use any pre-made songs, right?”
“Yes.”
They decided to start from scratch at the training camp today, excluding any existing songs for fairness.
“And there’s one more thing I need to tell you. Some judges and mentors will be coming, but we don’t know who or when they will come.”
“What?”
The members were stunned by PD Lee Jong-soo’s bombshell. Park Jin-hyuk’s bag slipped off his shoulder and fell to the grass.
“They will come randomly and listen and evaluate your songs.”
“Huh…”
“What if they come and you don’t have any songs to show them?”
PD Lee Jong-soo grinned. Ian turned around and shouted after a few seconds of silence among the members.
“Run!”
“Ahh!”
As Ian ran at full speed, the other members also screamed and ran towards the dorms. They managed to find different houses without getting in each other’s way.
“They’re enthusiastic. Good.”
PD Lee Jong-soo, who loved music, was looking forward to the songs they would create.
***
“So they just want us to work all day.”
“I shouldn’t have trusted PD-nim.”
Ian laughed bitterly as he entered the dorm. There were Lee Joo-hyuk’s composing equipment in the corner of the kitchen and the spacious living room, and three beds were placed side by side not far away.
“Let’s start working right away. We don’t know when the mentors will come.”
Lee Joo-hyuk sat down on a chair and turned on the computer as soon as he put down his luggage.
“Do you have any ideas of what you want to do?”
“Well, I picked out a few songs that I listen to often.”
“Then let’s listen to them first.”
Ian and Kim Hyun sat on either side of Lee Joo-hyuk and took out their phones. Lee Joo-hyuk listened to each song once and crossed his arms, thinking for a moment.
“Hyun likes electronic music and Ian likes country music, right?”
“We did country music before, too. Oh, I guess I can say this much?”
Ian smiled at the camera installed inside the dorm. Kim Hyun pushed Ian’s shoulder lightly.
“Hey, hey, that’s risky. You’re worse than Park Jin-hyuk.”
“Anyway, I enjoyed country music. But I also liked the disco you showed me. Retro always works, right?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Joo-hyuk looked around. In addition to his equipment, there were various instruments such as keyboards, acoustic guitars, and drums.
“For now, why don’t we try making some melodies? You don’t have to use the keyboard, you can just hum if you want.”
Ian and Kim Hyun followed Lee Joo-hyuk’s instructions and started working right away, while Park Seo-dam and Park Jin-hyuk also sat down at the desk in the next dorm.
“Hyung, what do we do now?”
Park Jin-hyuk looked at the keyboard and tilted his head.
“Just play it.”
“What?”
Park Jin-hyuk’s expression was more serious than anyone else’s, even though it sounded like a joke.
“You’ll come up with a decent melody if you play it.”
“Really?”
“Just try it. I’ll listen.”
Was this a four-dimensional way of thinking? Park Seo-dam sat down in front of the keyboard with a nervous expression.
‘Is this really all I have to do?’
***
Compared to the two enthusiastic teams, Jo Tae-woong and Kim Ju-young’s team lay down on the bed as soon as they entered the dorm and stared blankly at the ceiling.
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t know… Do you remember the lessons we took?”
They had taken composition lessons together as trainees, but Jo Tae-woong had focused on acting after his debut. He also concentrated on writing lyrics for the album, so Kim Ju-young’s role in composing was important.
“I’m not sure, maybe I’ll remember if I see it.”
“Yeah?”
Kim Ju-young, who thought he might be criticized for being unmotivated after the broadcast, jumped up.
“First of all, what do you want to do? Do you have a favorite genre? Show me your playlist.”
“Wait a minute.”
Jo Tae-woong took out his phone from his pocket.
***
About two hours after they went into their dorms and started working, a luxury car came from afar and parked in front of the pension.
“Hello.”
PD Lee Jong-soo ran to the car and shook hands with the person who got out. The first mentor and judge was Choi Ji-min, the CEO of VI Entertainment.
“Where did you find this place? I wish our kids could stay here too.”
“We have a lot of information at the broadcasting station.”
“Oh, I see.”
A staff member came over and attached a pin microphone and transmitter to Choi Ji-min.
“Before you go in, we’ll do a little interview.”
“Sure.”
Fortunately, the weather was good enough for an outdoor interview. Choi Ji-min sat on a makeshift chair prepared by the staff. The writer of ‘Our time’ read the questions.
“Why did you decide to come here?”
“Byung-hun… I mean, the CEO of AWY’s agency and I are friends, so I came here.”
“Can I ask what kind of friendship you have?”
“Byung-hun was my manager. Ah, if I knew he would do better than me, I would have treated him better…”
Choi Ji-min joked. Lee Byung-hun and Choi Ji-min were friends and colleagues who had risen from the bottom. The production team knew that Choi Ji-min had helped Lee Byung-hun a lot when he founded BHL Entertainment, so the atmosphere was good.
“Ji-min, you started as a first-generation idol and became a successful producer, right?”
“Ah, I’m not successful, we were all mediocre. It’s so hard to make a group hit big. Oh! You’ll edit this properly, right?”
“Yes, please continue.”
PD Lee Jong-soo raised his hand and told him to speak comfortably. Choi Ji-min leaned back on the chair and crossed his legs.
“So I asked him what his secret was, and he said, ‘It’s not me, it’s the kids who did well.’”
“Oh… that’s very…”
‘Nice answer.’ PD Lee Jong-soo was about to say, but he smiled awkwardly at Choi Ji-min’s next words.
“Unlucky, right? He’s the one who picked them…”
“…He has a good eye.”
“Anyway, I was curious about AWY’s friends, are they really that good?”
“Do you have any team that you’re looking forward to?”
Choi Ji-min opened his mouth without hesitation.
“It has to be the leader team.”
“Joo-hyuk, Hyun, and Ian, right?”
“Yes, first of all, Lee Joo-hyuk, he does the whole producing, right? Kim Hyun, I also noticed him when he was on a survival show before…”
“What about Ian?”
“He’s… unlucky. How can he be so handsome and talented?”
It was an unexpected answer, but it was a compliment.
“Anyway, I think their quality will be high.”
“Good. They’re in the house on the far left.”
Choi Ji-min got up and headed to the left house. He thought, ‘Will the team with a producing member be different?’ and opened the door with anticipation.
“Doing this here! Bang!”
Ian kicked the wall corner with both feet and jumped up. Then he spun around in the air and landed on the floor.
The important thing here was that there was a drum cymbal on Ian’s head. And the cymbal didn’t fall to the floor until Ian landed.
“Good, good! What a waste of talent!”
“Choi Ian is awesome!”
Lee Joo-hyuk and Kim Hyun clapped their hands, and Choi Ji-min, who was standing blankly in the chaotic dorm atmosphere, muttered emptily.
“What is this…?”