In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 49

After Daisy left, we finished the remaining music video shoot.

While the staff were preparing to leave.

We were staring endlessly at the sunset sea.

“Wow.”

It was a peaceful scenery that healed just by looking at it.

The sound of the waves echoed in our ears, and the red-tinted seawater was swaying in the distance.

It was a time when I felt like old memories came to mind.

“Hyung.”

I heard the youngest’s faint voice. I answered with my eyes still fixed on the far horizon.

“Why?”

“Who will you give your songs to when we go solo later?”

“Yeah, who will you give them to?”

“I know everything, hyung. You’re not saying it out loud because you’re worried about hurting the other hyungs’ feelings, right?”

I smiled at the youngest who was fidgeting next to me.

“I’ll never give them to you. To you.”

“Wow, that’s so mean.”

“Yeah, Wang Ji-ho, you should have listened to me better. After all, the main vocal can digest the songs the best, right?”

“You’re even worse.”

Lee’s face, who was drinking the soup, crumpled.

“Hyung, I can write rap, so I don’t need much help.”

“You’re not either…”

The rapper who was trying hard to appeal turned into a gloomy rock, and the last one left smiled gracefully.

“I knew it, hyung.”

“No… everyone says no… why are you guys doing this to me?”

The kids laughed at my distressed expression.

“They’re saying that because of what Nayooni noona said earlier. They said other groups are eyeing you because your songs are good. What if someone comes and takes you away with candy?”

“Am I some kind of object?”

“Hey, that’s not it. Hyung, you’re that. What was it? That… as our dad would say, a goose that lays golden eggs?”

“I’m really not giving you my songs, to you.”

Ji-ho pretended to cry, and me and the members laughed.

Of course it was a joke.

It was a topic that could get heavy if we weren’t careful, so we were all deliberately talking lightly.

“Well, I understand that you’re worried because there are so many people who change after they get popular. But I’ve always hated that kind of thing.”

I had plenty of that experience at TJ Enter.

If there was a kid who had good monthly evaluation scores and seemed to debut soon, they would go and act friendly and fart around.

I hated that kind of thing.

I should have practiced singing one more time instead of doing that, why did they do that?

“It’s all pointless. In the end, you have to work hard and do well for yourself. I don’t understand people who try to use others to get ahead. Well, I’ve seen all kinds of things at the company I used to work for.”

The kids who used to ask me how I was doing every day when I was picked for the TNT debut team cut off contact with me the day I was dropped.

“Come to think of it.”

Bi-ju said as if he remembered something.

“I remember what you said back then. When we ran into Girls on Top at the Hwai Enter hallway.”

“Oh, when they ignored us because we were trainees?”

“I was really upset then.”

“Yeah, especially Gil Chaekyung.”

“That’s when you said it, hyung. Let’s not be like that.”

I just smiled silently. Bi-ju was saying what I wanted to say for me.

To reassure the kids, I opened my mouth.

“Yeah, don’t worry about changing or anything after you get popular. Honestly, I’m having a hard time taking care of our family, let alone someone else’s.”

“Did you hear that? Woojoo hyung called us family.”

“Hey, Ji-ho.”

I put my hand on the youngest’s head, who was smiling innocently.

“Can you please not look at the trees when someone talks, but look at the forest? You’re trying to hear what you want to hear… Wait, why are you guys making those faces?”

Was the word family that good?

I was speechless at the sight of the siblings who looked like they were holding hot steamed potatoes in the winter.

When was it that they said ‘Are you going to leave us if you do well?’.

Now they’re suddenly smiling brightly.

“Look at Ri-hyuk hyung and Bi-ju hyung. They must be touched.”

“Weren’t you the one who left the fandom when you saw the bikini?”

“There’s no such thing as leaving the fandom, only taking a break.”

I was listening to my younger brother Line’s incomprehensible conversation when I heard Min-ki hyung shout from afar.

“Hey, guys! Let’s get ready to go back!”

“Okay!”

We looked around at the members and sighed regretfully at the beach.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t even dip our feet in the water.”

“Well, let’s go to the beach again when we have time.”

“Oh, that sounds good. How about we make a promise to go on a trip as a celebration of becoming a family?”

The youngest clung to me with his arms around my neck and asked excitedly.

“Hyung, hyung. What do you want to do when we go together?”

“What should we do?”

Jung-hyun seemed to have an idea and said.

“We should grill some meat. And some clams too.”

“Kim Jung-hyun, do you only talk about food?”

“Oh, right. I forgot about drinking. It would be nice to have a drink. Woojoo hyung can’t drink, so he can have cola with the kids.”

“Then who’s going to drive? None of us have a license.”

“I do.”

“Let’s count Jung-hyun hyung out.”

“Why me?”

The youngest, who was still hanging on my neck, answered.

“Hyung, you’re strong and you break things easily. I feel like you’ll pull out the steering wheel if you drive. And then you’ll be like, huh…? And look at us like this.”

Everyone burst into laughter at the youngest’s exaggerated expression.

Even Jung-hyun, the victim.

Maybe it was because we had finished filming the music video, but we felt relaxed for the first time in a while as we entered the parking lot.

Behind us, the sunset was shining.

***

With the music video, the visual work for the debut album was over.

An album usually consists of three stages.

The first is the production work based on the plan made by the A&R team.

The second is the visual work that shows the produced album in a visual medium such as photos or videos that match the concept.

The third is the promotion stage.

We were at the third stage now.

In other words, there was nothing left for us to do.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we really didn’t do anything.

“There are things you need to prepare.”

The day after the music video shoot, Yoon Seok-hwan came to us with a huge pile of papers.

“Hyung, what is this?”

“We have to prepare for the showcase now. You guys can practice on your own, but I think I need to train you on how to deal with reporters and stuff. Well, I’ve summarized it briefly.”

We shivered as we looked at the evil-smiling manager.

“The showcase is an important stage. You’re competing with the Street Boys right now. The public will decide the direct outcome after listening to the songs, but there’s something called the initial momentum.”

Yoon Seok-hwan explained by comparison.

“You know the movie <Black Flower> that our company’s actor starred in, right?”

“I know. It’s the movie that Director Jo told us to watch.”

“Right. <Black Flower> was a case where it didn’t get much attention at first, but it became a ten million movie by word of mouth. Well, it’s hard to compare directly with the music industry, but anyway, the initial reaction of the reporters is really important here.”

“Isn’t it the case that they write favorably for the ones who give more publicity money?”

“Well, there are cases like that. But you can tell by looking at the articles. Whether it’s a press release from the company that they copied diligently, or whether the reporter wrote the article with their sincere heart.”

In order to gain the upper hand in the competition with Street Boys, we had to show an impressive performance at the showcase.

In other words, we had to avoid any mistakes.

“Especially since you have a rival situation, if you make a slip of the tongue about the other side, you’ll be gone right away. If it were America, I don’t know, but Koreans don’t like it when chicks fight with each other.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Practice hard. For the time being, I’ll teach you how to answer questions myself.”

So we received intensive training on how to answer questions that reporters might ask, along with performance practice.

It was hard enough when we were doing Something activities, but we were glad to have this opportunity.

We really struggled back then.

I didn’t know what I could or couldn’t say, because I had no clue about the rules of the industry.

I was more nervous when I heard that we had an interview with a reporter than when we had a radio show or an event.

So we paid close attention and listened carefully whenever Yoon Seok-hwan taught us how to answer questions.

It was a satisfying lesson overall.

“I was really worried. I’m glad the company taught us this.”

Bi-ju started to say something, but then he frowned.

“But these are the expected questions that the manager gave us. Do you think they’ll really ask us these? Some of them are too much.”

“Hyung, not everyone is as nice as you.”

“That’s right. My dad says there are several jobs that you can’t get along with in the world, and one of them is a reporter.”

“Hey, your father is…”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Ri-hyuk stopped himself from saying anything, as if he remembered the infamous reputation of Ji-ho’s father’s franchise.

“But still…”

I spoke to the worried Bi-ju.

“Don’t worry too much. We practiced a lot, right? We can even smile if they curse at us in front of us. Seok-hwan hyung brought us all kinds of trashy questions and trained us.”

“That’s right. Manager, you have the skills of a troll.”

Bi-ju smiled as if that wasn’t what he meant.

“No, I’m just afraid you guys will get hurt.”

“Why do you worry about that?”

My friend of the same age, Jung-hyun, smiled calmly.

“Just go for it. We’ve been through a lot of hard times when our debut was canceled. Compared to that, this is nothing. We made a good album, and we shot a good jacket and music video.”

“Oh, Jung-hyun hyung, are you going to say that again?”

“We have a good vibe.”

The kids panicked again, as if they remembered the jinx that something bad would happen whenever Jung-hyun said he had a good feeling.

Our team’s rapper looked indignant, as if he was wronged.

“I said it’s not a feeling, it’s a vibe.”

“Anyway, it’s not allowed.”

“That’s right. We’ll add vibe to the list of forbidden words.”

I smiled inwardly as I watched them make a fuss.

They reminded me of my grandmother.

She had a lot of superstitions, like don’t break an egg on the first day of the month, don’t do this or that when you go to the temple,

I was used to that.

But they were young kids, and they were acting like that, so it was kind of cute.

“Don’t laugh like it’s someone else’s problem.”

Ri-hyuk said with a pouty expression.

“You don’t know how scary it is, even though you’ve experienced it once.”

“I don’t believe in superstitions.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It reminds me of myself in the past. I used to be logical and not believe in any superstitions.”

Well, I’m still logical, he muttered, and I kept smiling as I looked at him.

Nonsense.

When Jung-hyun first said he had a good feeling, and then the article about Street Boys came out, I didn’t care.

It was a coincidence.

Jinxes are just jinxes, they have no effect.

That’s ridiculous.

I thought so and shook my head.

What could possibly happen?

And then, a little later.

Unbelievably, it actually happened.

***

On June 11th, a week before our showcase.

Street Boys, a nine-member boy group from DNS Media, finally had their debut showcase.

They said they would broadcast it live on the internet on K-Net.

We turned on the laptop on the studio table and gathered around. It was to monitor our competitors.

“Wow, they’re doing a live on K-Net? We don’t have anything like that.”

“DNS and that broadcasting station are close, you know.”

“Na Yoon said that last time, Scarlet also got a lot of help from there when they debuted.”

K-Net, a music channel, usually had a music show on Thursdays, and it was a show that singers usually went on before they went on the terrestrial channels on Fridays.

For idols, it had more influence than the terrestrial channels in some aspects.

According to the kids, the director of that station and the CEO of DNS were close friends.

On the other hand, I don’t know why, but I have a bad relationship with Lemon. It’s awkward and uncomfortable between us.

I’m not sure how much of it is true, but it seems like K-Net is pushing for Street Boys. 

They had a reality show before their debut, and now they’re doing a live broadcast on the internet the day before their debut.

“Oh? They’re coming out.”

“Wow, they’ve lost a lot of weight since last year.”

Amid the flashes of cameras, the members of Street Boys appeared on the low-quality screen.

They were wearing hip-hop style outfits.

“Ooh, they look cool.”

“They have swag, right? Should we try hip-hop later?”

“Shh, be quiet. I think they’re about to start the song.”

The lights went out and the first stage began.

We watched the screen with anticipation. Even though they were our competitors, we were curious as fellow musicians.

What kind of song would it be?

Soon, a powerful guitar riff sounded and the nine members started their choreography from the edges.

Finally, when the hand gesture reached the leader in the center,

All the lights turned on and the song officially started.

“Wow, this is good.”

We were enjoying the song and giving positive feedback, but our smiles didn’t last long.

It was because of the self-written rap by the leader, Hanjo, in the middle of the first verse.

People say

You don’t have Something cool

Something nice

But I think differently (differently)

What’s so special about that

We don’t lack anything

We have hunger and ambition

We all have a hunger

From then on, the chorus of We all have a hunger kept flowing on the stage of Hunger with the group dance.

But we were frozen stiff.

It was because of the nuance of Something in the rap that Hanjo spat out. It was subtle, but anyone who wasn’t a fool could notice it.

“Did he just…”

Ri-hyuk couldn’t finish his sentence, and I took over.

“Yeah. He just dissed us.”