LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 46: Fireworks
Chapter 46 Fireworks
A few days after hearing the news about Minjun.
We were having lunch in the studio.
“Here you go.”
Bi-ju smiled brightly and handed out the lunch boxes.
The boxes were made of high-quality material. The contents were so splendid that they made my mouth water.
Chicken karaage, smoked duck, bulgogi, and more.
“I love you, hyung!”
Ji-ho tore the wooden chopsticks with a blissful expression. I also thanked Bi-ju.
“Please tell your father thank you.”
The lunch boxes we were eating were sent by Bi-ju’s father.
He must have wanted to express his gratitude in his own way. Bi-ju’s family often sent us expensive lunch boxes like this after the surgery.
“How is Minjun doing?”
“Don’t even ask.”
Bi-ju waved his hand and laughed.
“He’s so excited to go to school next year. He’s been nagging his mom and dad to buy him a backpack. His mom sends me pictures every day, and his expression is getting brighter and brighter.”
I didn’t see the pictures, but I could imagine.
The expression on his face as he was talking about it was sparkling.
I felt a warm feeling in my chest.
“Oh, right.”
Bi-ju changed the subject after talking non-stop for a while.
“I ran into Manager Yoon on the first floor. He said to wait for him after lunch. He has some things to tell us.”
“Things to tell us? Oh. We have a meeting today.”
A meeting where all the departments gathered to promote our debut album.
It was like a mission briefing.
The only things left for New Black’s album were the cover photo and the music video.
The meeting today was to discuss the final work and marketing.
“Hyung, you’re going to be famous as a composer now.”
“Come on, no way.”
“Why not? There hasn’t been an idol who debuted with self-composed songs from the start. Aren’t you the first?”
He wasn’t wrong.
We were the first to debut with self-composed songs.
It was unprecedented in many ways.
It was only natural.
It takes billions of won to make an album.
Would there be a company that would entrust such a huge project to an idol’s self-composed songs?
Our company also had a lot of opposition at first.
Even the big agencies failed when they tried to debut solo idols with self-composed songs. How could we succeed?
“But the staff seem positive.”
Bi-ju said with a smile.
“They seemed a bit hesitant before. But their expressions changed after they saw the final version of Fireworks.”
“That’s right. I asked a sister in the PR team yesterday. She said the atmosphere in the departments changed completely after the A&R team played the finished songs. They said they have to promote them properly because they’re good songs.”
“Wow, they’re really pushing us.”
Jung-hyun, who was admiring, added.
“The songs are good. And the company is passionate. I have a good feeling…”
But Jung-hyun couldn’t finish his sentence.
“Ah! No!”
“Hey, Wang Ji-ho. Cover Jung-hyun’s mouth!”
“No way. Why do I have to do it!”
I turned my head and looked at Bi-ju.
“What’s going on?”
“Jung-hyun has a jinx… or something. Whenever he says something is going to be good, or he has a good feeling, something always goes wrong. The last time I heard him say that was the mid-year evaluation, I think?”
“That’s right.”
Ri-hyuk shuddered as if he hated the thought.
“We got totally crushed by Street Boys then. The atmosphere in the rookie development team was terrible, and the CEO didn’t even greet us properly for a few days. I hate to think about it. Really.”
“Hyung, you promised not to use the word ‘feeling’ except for snacks.”
“I’m sorry…”
The rapper, who was scolded by his younger brothers, ate his lunch box with a sullen face.
His face looked like an angry teddy bear, so it seemed like a sullen bear holding a honey jar.
I felt sorry and cute for Jung-hyun, so I comforted him.
“Why are you guys like that to Jung-hyun? Don’t believe in such nonsense.”
“Hey, you don’t know our history. You’ll see. Do you know how long and glorious Jung-hyun’s jinx is?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ll find out soon.”
“Why are you scaring me? Right, Bi-ju?”
But Bi-ju also gave a awkward laugh at my words.
It made me feel uneasy.
“Hyung.”
Jung-hyun said with a sheepish expression.
“I want to say it’s not true, but it’s weird. Whenever I say something like that…”
“What’s this?”
Ri-hyuk looked at his smartphone with a frown.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, Jung-hyun said he had a good feeling, so I thought something might happen and went online. But as soon as I got in, there was this on the main page. Look.”
“Hmm? What happened?”
The youngest looked at something and popped his head out, making the same expression.
“Can you show me too?”
Bi-ju also frowned as he took the phone.
Then the three of them looked at me with a smirk.
“What?”
As Jung-hyun moved away from me, the younger ones looked at each other with my questioning gaze.
You do it, hyung do it.
The same look was exchanged.
Bi-ju took the lead.
“Hyung, do you remember Street Boys?”
“The ones we competed with at the end of the year evaluation? The ones that DNS Media is launching.”
“Yes, there’s an article out right now.”
Bi-ju cautiously handed me his smartphone.
As soon as I saw the headline that popped up on the screen, I couldn’t help but frown.
-New boy group Street Boys, the true ‘self-producing idols’ are here.
…What is this?
***
-Street Boys, debut album tracklist revealed… “Members’ self-composed songs are the title tracks”
-From title tracks to self-composed songs, ‘Street Boys’ bring a fresh breeze to the music industry
-DNS Media says “Look forward to their self-composed songs”
It all started with an article from Young Daily.
After that, articles with different titles but the same content started to appear.
It meant two things.
DNS Media was aggressively launching a publicity campaign. And Lemon Entertainment got a big blow from their rival.
“A representative of DNS Media said ‘The recent music trend is changing rapidly’ and ‘Look at Something. Didn’t they succeed by writing and composing their own songs as idols? We got convinced by that. Soon, it will be an era where idols have to survive by writing and composing their own songs’ and explained the reason for choosing a self-composed song as the title track… How can they be so shameless?”
The director, who was reading the article, spat out a harsh word, but no one stopped him.
Even CEO Park Kyu-ho was just listening quietly.
“…”
A heavy silence hung over the conference room.
Lemon Entertainment and DNS Media were traditional rivals.
The two medium-sized agencies with the largest scale after the Big Four were always growling and competing with each other.
It started as a pride fight between the two CEOs, who were former managers and engineers of TJ Entertainment, but as fights always do, it had now turned into an inseparable competitive structure.
If Scarlet released an album, La Vie en Rose would release an album, and if they launched Street Boys over there, we would launch New Black over here.
From the end-of-year evaluation, there were pride fights between the two companies everywhere.
But until now, they had never crossed a certain line.
“This is too malicious.”
The A&R team leader opened his lips.
“They didn’t even mention the word ‘self-composed’ when they were about to debut in April, but suddenly they say it’s a self-composed title track. It can’t be a coincidence, since the composer is someone we met.”
There was a name they knew in the production team of the title track that was posted on DNS Media’s official SNS.
It was Jung Chang-mo, a composer who used the pseudonym JCM.
A third-year composer.
He was now co-composing the debut title track ‘Hunger’ for Street Boys, but he was originally supposed to be a composer for New Black.
If the A&R team hadn’t rejected him after hearing Seon Woojoo’s song.
“He must have tipped off DNS after hearing that we refused because of Woojoo’s self-composed song. That’s not what I meant to tell him…”
“Don’t blame yourself.”
CEO Park Kyu-ho opened his lips.
His expression was slightly stiff, but he was smiling generously as usual.
He comforted the staff who couldn’t hide their disappointment.
“What’s done is done. We can’t change that. It’s not a one or two day thing to get hit and hit back in this business. You have to be strong-minded at times like this. The company has to hold its ground for the entertainers to survive.”
The staff nodded.
“So let’s stop the negative thoughts here. Let’s discuss the countermeasures.”
The meeting resumed.
“Come to think of it, this situation shows how desperate the other side is.”
The manager in charge of New Black, Yoon Seok-hwan, said.
The current situation of DNS Media was not good.
In line with the idol generation change, DNS recently launched a girl group called La Vie en Rose.
But the result was not good.
Only member Jeon Yu-bin was shining in variety shows, but there was nothing to say about the group’s overall performance.
So they were pouring their blood into launching a new group called Street Boys.
Even the debut reality show they filmed last year was rumored to have a huge lobby on K-net.
The problem was that Street Boys, who should have debuted already, had their launch delayed due to DNS Media’s internal problems.
They suffered a lot of losses in investment costs, from venue fees to costume fees.
In the meantime, New Black, who had risen sharply since the end-of-year evaluation last year, was enjoying a sensational popularity with their duet song.
“In a way, this mess happened because of Woojoo.”
When they heard that the person who made the fresh stage at the end-of-year evaluation was Seon Woojoo, the agencies just shrugged.
They did a good casting this time, they thought.
But then they heard that the new face was composing with Jang So-won, and then they came back with a song that shook the whole country in February.
At first, everyone thought it was Jang So-won’s merit.
But when the music cafe revealed the story of composing and the fact that his father was Seon Myungjoo, the atmosphere changed to half-belief and half-doubt.
Does he really have a talent for composing?
In that situation, when they heard the news that Lemon Entertainment decided to reject the professional composer’s song and go with Seon Woojoo’s self-composed song as the title track, there was no need to say how flustered DNS Media was.
How good is the song that they are sending it out as the title track?
From the perspective of DNS, who recalled the precedents of the end-of-year evaluation and Something, they couldn’t ignore the self-composed song of an amateur.
If they went on like this, Street Boys would be in a situation where they might lose their recognition to a strong rival from the start.
The best strategy they could take in this situation was a preemptive strike.
They would take the ‘self-producing idol’ image for themselves first.
“Anyway, the situation has become awkward.”
The PR team leader said.
“In this situation, even if we spread press releases massively, the public will only see us as the latecomers. We threw the breadcrumbs with the mention of the tracklist since April, but who would remember that. In a situation where DNS is sending out articles as they are.”
There was silence in the conference room again.
The eyes of the worried people were tangled in the air.
Then the voice came from the producer who had been silent until then.
“You don’t have to look at it negatively.”
Director Jo Gyu-hwan opened his lips.
“Although we couldn’t monopolize the image we should have taken because of DNS’s marketing, on the other hand, this could be a big opportunity.”
“Opportunity?”
“Using their publicity materials in reverse.”
He continued to explain.
“DNS is betting their lives on the Street Boys project. They are trying to beat us to the punch with the publicity we haven’t done yet. The more we respond, the more they will come out stronger. We use that to create a rival structure between our kids and Street Boys.”
When Lemon and DNS started a marketing fight over their groups, the reporters naturally smelled something.
The debut fight of the new boy groups.
It was a topic that could bring some excitement to the recent boring music industry.
“Once the rival structure is formed, the next fight will be in our favor. The more DNS promotes, the more naturally New Black’s name will be mentioned, so we can enjoy the marketing effect for free. The bigger the fight, the more the public’s interest will grow.”
“True. There will be people who will listen to the song out of curiosity.”
CEO Park Kyu-ho was deep in thought.
“But this seems like a big risk. If we win after raising the stakes, it’ll be a jackpot, but if we lose, it’ll be a disaster.”
The winner would sweep up all the money, but the loser could suffer a huge blow.
It could be a fight that would end up losing more than they gained.
The CEO, who was tapping the table while lost in thought, turned his head to the A&R team leader.
“Team Leader Park.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That song that Woojoo made, you said it was mixed and finished a while ago. Can I hear it again?”
One of the things that CEO Park Kyu-ho felt strongly while raising singers at the company was that it was ultimately a song fight.
No matter who did more publicity.
Or which program they appeared on.
The most important thing for a singer’s success was the quality of the song.
Luck and opportunity were secondary, he believed that a good song would eventually become popular.
That’s why he needed confidence.
The confidence that this investment would pay off before making a big decision.
Soon, the A&R team leader who got up from his seat played the final version of Fireworks on the speaker.
When the song finally ended.
CEO Park Kyu-ho was able to make a decision with a confident feeling.
***
Several hours later than the scheduled time.
We, who were adjusting the choreography of Fireworks in the practice room, greeted Yoon Seok-hwan, who was exhausted.
He looked like a math genius who had been microwaved.
He drank the water that was on the corner table and looked at us with a blurry focus.
Then he gestured for us to gather as if he had something to say.
“I have some things to tell you.”
We all sat down.
“The CEO made a decision after the meeting. From now on, we’re going to double the budget for New Black’s debut.”
The kids opened their mouths in astonishment at the shocking news.
I was also flapping my mouth like a goldfish.
Wait a minute.
It’s already a lot, but twice?
“Everything will change. We’re going to hire the best director for your jacket shooting and music video. The showcase preparation cost will also increase significantly. It goes without saying that the company’s celebrities will support you on SNS.”
The matters that were decided at the meeting were all amazing.
“The PR team will also increase the video production staff and film your daily life in a reality show format.”
Until a few days ago, when he was asked to film and upload our daily life, Yoon Seok-hwan said he didn’t have the resources to do that.
The company was busy with the movie promotion. And there was only one employee in charge of video editing.
But today’s event seemed to have changed all that.
“Basically, the company will do everything they can to make you fly. The CEO and the executives are all determined. This is a big opportunity for all of us. Especially for you.”
The manager said earnestly.
“You have to grab it. If you want to survive.”
That’s how our debut battle with Street Boys began.