LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 52: A New Attempt
Chapter 52 A New Attempt
“Come on, wake up and sit down.”
It was 11 o’clock, and it was time to get up, no matter how tired I was the day before. I finished preparing lunch and started waking up the members.
I thought it would be nice to have a holiday mood after having a meeting for an hour or two and filling our stomachs with shabu-shabu.
“Ugh… I’m sleepy, I want to sleep a little more…”
As I finally opened the door and entered, I saw Ye-jun, who was snoring with two blankets wrapped around his body, and
“Phew-!”
Kyunghwa, who just woke up and blinked his eyes with a blank expression.
“What are you doing…”
“Ah…”
Kyunghwa finally started to boot his head and looked down at the floor. Meanwhile, Ye-jun showed no sign of opening his eyes.
“Hmm… Grandma, I’m going to sleep a little more…”
“Who’s your grandma? Get up right now!”
As I snatched the blanket wrapped around his body, Ye-jun jumped up from the bed.
“Ah? Ah…”
I was about to spray a spray on Ye-jun’s face, which was unusually pale, but I gave the blanket back to Kyunghwa.
“That’s not mine.”
“…”
It was only after I took the rest of Ye-jun’s blanket that we could start a proper meeting.
“We still have plenty of time until the comeback. Rather than just doing the occasional schedules that come in, I think we need to make something that we can do consistently and use our time well.”
As I started to push hard, Ye-jun, who had just washed his face and came out with water dripping from his hair, answered.
“Ah~. I agree with that. It would be nice to have something fixed to do.”
Then Kyunghwa expressed his concern with a bit of reluctance.
“I think a group-only reality show would be good, but… The best would be to launch it on cable or OTT with external investment.”
Kyunghwa paused for a moment and glanced at the members.
“The problem is… Can we get the investment?”
To be honest, it was impossible. It might be possible if we were squeezed into Floss Planning with a 1+1 deal.
But no one would willingly invest in a failed project that had no profitability or expectations.
‘What investment… I would have refused even if Jo Young Food asked for sponsorship.’
Sadly, we had to face reality.
“I don’t think so. We can’t break through ‘MovieFlix’ or ‘SeeYa’ or ‘Sweet Potato’ with our own planning.”
“Then what do we do? Is YouTube the only answer?”
“I’ve seen a lot of people doing that these days. It’s free and if you ride the algorithm well, it’ll be a chance to let the public know. Unless you have to get an investment, that would be better.”
But we were in a situation where we had to get an investment. The company wouldn’t give us more budget…
“How much does it cost to hire a PD or an editor?”
“If you’re going to use a freelancer with their own equipment and tools, it’ll cost a lot… But these days, there are so many YouTubers and the industry is booming, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one.”
It was just a guess. Neither Kyunghwa nor I had actually tried it.
“Let’s think of it as not expecting any help from the company. And the cost… I’ll pay for it myself.”
“Again?”
Kyunghwa was surprised and opened his eyes wide. Shh, I quickly raised my index finger and put it in front of my lips, but it was too late.
“Again?”
Seong-won, who had been listening all along, looked at me and Kyunghwa.
“Ah… No, I was mistaken.”
“What do you mean mistaken? If you’re going to hide it, hide it properly. Don’t deny it after you get caught. It makes me feel bad.”
Anyway, that guy… He didn’t know how to say anything nicely.
I decided to keep it a secret between me and Kyunghwa that I was going to pay for the extra cost of the comeback.
I thought it was unnecessary to tell the members.
And unlike Cheonise, who liked to show off whenever he did something, I didn’t want to make a fuss.
I didn’t want the other members to look at me and feel awkward… I didn’t want to create a bad atmosphere because of that.
“It’s nothing. I’m paying for the choreography, that’s why.”
“Ah?”
Ye-jun finally seemed to understand and exclaimed.
“You didn’t just get MyType for nothing. You gave him a lot of pay, right?”
Um… It was a reasonable guess, but that wasn’t it.
I used the chance of knowing Kang Yugeon, but he said he would charge the usual fee.
“I see, I didn’t know that…”
Seon-woo, who had been silent all along, looked at me with round eyes.
“It’s really nothing. Don’t worry. If we break even, I’ll take the investment as a share and get more money, so don’t think of me as a charity businessman.”
I said confidently, but it was only true if the last attempt was successful and we made a profit.
We had never broken even as a group.
“It would be nice if we could get paid.”
Like other idols, Climax members also relied on the agency for their food and living expenses.
And all those costs were accumulated as the agency’s investment. Climax failed to earn more than the investment in each activity.
We ended up with a lot of debt after four activities.
We might not be able to pay off the investment that had been accumulated since our trainee days with one hit. It sounded like a lie to say that we shouldn’t worry because we would take care of it ourselves.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re paying for it, Sehyeong. Let’s pay a fine if we’re going to talk about depressing things from now on.”
Ye-jun quickly changed the mood with some nonsense.
“I don’t get much allowance…”
“Just take it as a joke, I didn’t mean it.”
Ye-jun smiled playfully and slapped Seon-woo’s back. He hit him so hard that the sofa shook as if he was hitting him seriously.
He was really easygoing…
I didn’t miss the flow and continued.
“Anyway, let’s solve the cost problem by myself. So, what ideas do you have for what we should do?”
As soon as the topic changed, Ye-jun raised his hand again.
“What now?”
“I have something I want to do, I’m serious.”
It must be some useless nonsense. But this guy also deserved a chance to speak. The more ideas, the better.
“What is it?”
“I want to go on something like ‘Rules of the Jungle’. Deserted island! Wilderness exploration!”
And for once, Seong-won, me, and Kyunghwa all said the same thing.
“Rejected.”
“Rejected.”
“Rejected.”
We all expected it, but we didn’t know we would agree so well.
A burst of laughter erupted.
“Huh… Pfft…”
“You’re too much~. Why do other idols do that on their own channels?”
“That’s other idols’ story. Look at Son Seong-won’s face. He’ll be left on a deserted island before he goes.”
But that was underestimating Ye-jun.
“Really? But I think that would be fun. Let me try it. It would be fun to film myself going back home.”
‘This crazy guy.’
He was saying that with his eyes shining. He was serious.
“Will you?”
“Hey, why not? It’ll be fun for sure.”
“Stop talking nonsense and let’s hear what other people want to do.”
Then Seon-woo raised his hand quietly.
“What is it?”
“Recently…, I’ve seen a lot of people doing things like food tour channels.”
Now that I think about it, there were a lot of those. Seon-woo’s sister Seonyoung’s group was doing a dessert review channel called ‘Sweet Road’.
“Rejected.”
Before I could even say anything, Kyunghwa cut me off.
“Why? I think it looks good.”
“No. Content that can create a weight management risk is dangerous. You’re not making it yourself, and if you eat outside, everything will be high in calories.”
“Then what if it’s not high in calories?”
We fell silent again.
“I think it would be okay if Ise-hyung makes it.”
After a long silence, Seong-won finally made a positive remark.
“It was okay when you appeared on School Kitchen Attack last time. How about inviting other people besides the school and making custom dishes for them?”
It wasn’t impossible. The only problem was how to get the guests.
“How are we going to get the guests?”
“Let’s do it once for each member and if the response is good, we’ll increase it to external guests. If it doesn’t work, why not call Kang Yugeon? He’ll come running, won’t he?”
Would he really? Before I could answer, Seon-woo’s voice brightened.
“I think that’s a good idea!”
What would you not like? It was an obvious reaction.
“What do you think?”
Kyunghwa naturally turned the decision arrow to me. Hmm… If I wasn’t Cheonise but another member, I wouldn’t have agreed so easily.
Because… This was a plan that depended too much on Cheonise. Cheonise paid for the cost, and Cheonise was the main host.
Of course, if it was Cheonise before he died, he would have liked to monopolize the attention.
‘Then it would end up being ‘Cheonise and the Kids’ again.’
The group’s identity would not be much different from before.
We’re not in a position to be picky about cold or hot rice. But… We had to change from before to succeed. I wanted to succeed with all these members.
My success alone wouldn’t be meaningless, but the desperate faces on stage kept haunting me.
I thought for a moment and answered.
“I don’t hate it. But if we’re going to take cooking as the main thing, you guys have to have some weight in the plan.”
“What do you mean by weight?”
“It means you can’t be my kitchen show’s sidekicks.”
“Ah…”
Ye-jun realized the problem and pouted his lips.
“What if we change the host for each episode and you help as a teacher on the side?”
It’s not like cooking is bad… It could be a fun factor as a variety show. But it was a different story if we could keep it up for a long time.
It was still uncertain if we could pull it off as a long-term project.
“That’s still fundamentally dependent on me. This is not a one-man show that I do alone, so you guys have to think of something that can show your strengths as much as possible.”
“Hmm…”
After thinking for a while, Ye-jun raised his hand again.
“I have a good idea!”
“Don’t say anything like wilderness exploration again.”
Ye-jun’s eyes sparkled when he had a good reason. We all had the same thought in our minds.
“No way! This time it’s a really awesome idea!”
Seong-won’s cold tackle made Ye-jun jump up and down in his seat.
“Listen, this is a really good idea!”