66

I had a bad feeling from the first time we met and talked to the
management of the agency. The person came from the planning and
marketing team of another affiliate of T1 but was assigned as the
director this time.

In short, this person is the head of the company's business division,

and he has no experience in the entertainment business.

'Fuck.'

Fortunately, the people on the content production team under it seem

to be made up of experienced people, who also seemed to be thinking
'what strange things does this bastard mean'.

"Our worldview?"

"All idols who are aiming for a global fandom have a worldview these
days. Right? All the young kids... you like things like in the comics and
animations."

"...."

There was a strong gust of wind.

Worldview? That's nice.

If you're saying we will release a new song within a month, does it

make sense to start by talking about the worldview? Even if it's just a
single, we should start talking about the song right away.

Also, TeStar was not in a hurry to see the world.

'We already made our characters and stories known through the
audition show, but what kind of nonsense is he talking about...'
As far as I know, the worldview is about giving fans content to be
immersed in, but <IdolCo> was already that kind of content.

In addition, the members had already gone through the debut process.
Gaining public recognition and positioning was finished.

This means that the agency only needs to produce a popular song,
make a sophisticated choreography, and bring costumes.

The worldview could be built slowly while preparing for the next
album.

'Has he seen any lectures?'

Recently, as agencies have been appealing for their own independent

capabilities due to the stock problem, this guy seemed to have been
harshly affected by this as he kept on talking about the worldview like
it's a huge hundred-year-old system.

'Since it's your own career.'

What makes it even crazier is that you work hard without knowing it.

"...You mean us?"

"That's right! You guys did well on the show."

The director praised each member while saying that he

diligently 'binge-watched' <IdolCo> and made explosive remarks.

"Well, let me tell you now. We are going to do two songs."

"...?!"

"However, at the company we will only be in charge of one song. For

the rest, you, the talented TeStar will be in charge of executing it,
right?"
Of course, the confirmation and revision is done by us.

"It's nice to do according to the worldview, isn't it? Self-producing!"

Self-produced idols are the trend this and that....

That's right, we want to do everything the people say is good...

The new agency seemed to have taken an 'autonomous and hip' image
for themselves.

Naturally, the members were puzzled, but for those of us who

successfully finished <Idol Co>, where there was a lot of shady tricks,
this wasn't too much.

"Ah, we're very grateful but...wouldn't this be difficult with just our
capabilities alone?"

"Uhmm~ of course, all the employees do it together. You are all free!
Show your creativity, your inspiration, put it to good use! This is what
I mean."

"Yes..."

Ryu Chungwoo, who tried to deal with the situation by talking to a

resolute man who was twenty years older, also swallowed his words
with a bitter smile.

Kim Raebin already spaced out with a blank expression.

'His soul is gone.'

He must have been thinking about what to do while comparing the

enormous amount of work with the little amount of time.

"Now now, we have a lot of work to do, so we should get up now,

right?"
"Yes, yes."

The director left after saying what he had to say. He seemed to be

pleased that he took the time to take care of 'TeStar' himself.

'...Could this guy be the nephew of T1's CEO?'

Our future has already been drawn.

'...It's going to be hard if we don't get first place this time.'

Looking back I should have guessed it when T1 wanted to steal the

debut group of <IdolCo> and from the moment they suddenly wanted
to create a new agency.

'This is the kind of surrounding where they fight and steal... Obviously,
the preparation for the debut album that the original agency was
producing could not be carried out.'

Thanks to that, we had to make a whole new album right away.

In addition, the people who are not familiar with the industry are
sitting at the top while spouting a lot of bullshit and giving a deadline
that was too short.

'Um, I really want to quit.'

...Once again, I vowed not to have high expectations for this company.

The situation was the same at a later meeting with several people
from the content production team and the A&R team under the
production room.

These people have not gotten any results yet.

...In fact, it was understandable. It's been less than two weeks since the
agency was launched.
"Well... First of all, our worldview will be based on the theme 'school'."

"Ah...yes."

"I think you should focus on that. Um..."

There was no real aid other than saying that the worldview is school-
related.

"Of course, I'm not saying at all that you should make a new song from
scratch. We will send you the candidate songs as soon as we have our
final confirmation, so please take a look then."

"Yes!"

"How long would it take?"

"Ah, um...it will be in two days."

Fortunately, these people were basically infatuated with the TeStar

members.

'You can see it thanks to the nationwide successful audition show.'

First of all, the treatment was more personal as it added a personal

liking to the group that was basically guaranteed to succeed.

"They're asking about our opinion a lot."

//TN: I think he's being sarcastic?

Keun Sejin said this after we came out from the meeting.

"I-isn't it su-supposed to be like that?"

"Yeah!"
"Yes!"

Unexpectedly, Cha Yujin and Kim Raebin responded strongly to this.

Seon Ahyun was surprised.

"They don't listen!"

"They don't give us any right to speak. There was only a strong
atmosphere where our only virtue was to listen to the instructions and
work hard!"

"Ye-yeah..."

Cha Yujin and Kim Raebin had even recorded their debut song at their
former agency, but it didn't work out, so it seems like a lot of issues
had piled up on them.

'The agency seemed to be doing well. Maybe... it could be because their

figurehead idol filed a lawsuit against them due to a fraudulent contract
and they went out of business.'

It seems that the two of them also got caught up in the process, then
left the agency and appeared on the audition program.

"There are some concerning things, but it's a good environment to

work hard in. Let's try our best."

"Yep!"

"Yes!"

Ryu Chungwoo smiled, checked the number of members and got into
the car.

There wasn't much discussion about this, but it's almost certain that
Ryu Chungwoo is the leader.
First of all, this is because Lee Sejin (the actor) who was the oldest and
the same age as Ryu Chungwoo, wasn't fit to be a leader, and the
agency usually prefers the leader to be the oldest member.

We will go through a credible process of choosing the leader through

the reality show but... it's pretty much already decided.

I had no complaints.

"So nice to be home~ Oh?"

"What is it?"

"Doll drawing!"

Cha Yujin was the first to enter the living room and ran towards it
after seeing the claw machine.

It seems that when the director called us early in the morning, Cha
Yujin must have forgotten it was there while going out half-asleep.

'Thanks to that, there was a real reaction.'

I also approached it and looked around. The machine had cameras

installed both inside and outside.

The robot vacuum reappeared and handed us the card. It roughly said
that we have to pull out a doll and carry out the mission that's inside.

"Umm, 'Each doll has a mission that was anonymously written by the
TeStar members.' ...Oh, I'm curious."

"Let's pick one up!"

Most of the members were excited and stuck to the machine. Firstly,
Cha Yujin grabbed the steering wheel and controlled it.
"Eeyap!"

The result was a disastrous failure.

"...The machine is weird."

"Leave it to me."

Keun Sejin took over the joystick from the depressed Cha Yujin and
moved it excitedly. And likewise failed.

"You're right. The machine is weird."

Since then, countless feasts of failures continued.

Amidst a series of lame excuses from those who couldn't accept the
result, I politely declined to be the next batter.

'It's annoying.'

If I turn around, someone else will pick it up.

And it was Lee Sejin who grabbed the joystick.

"...What do you want me to pick?"

"The rabbit!"

"Pu-puppy..."

And Lee Sejin immediately succeeded on his first try.

"....!"

As soon as the back of the fluffy brown rabbit's head fell into the
outlet, everyone accepted the result.

"Wow, woaahh!!"
"Hyungnim is very good with your hands."

"This was something you could pull on first try."

"Can we pull another one?"

However, the claw machine had already stopped working. Perhaps it

was a household machine designed to automatically stop when one
was pulled out.

The members stuck to the rabbit doll behind Kim Raebin, who
murmured that he would definitely pick one tomorrow.

When we turned the doll over, there was a card attached to the
stomach.

"Well then, what did someone write..."

[Watching a horror movie together~*^^*]

"..."

"...It was you wasn't it?"

"Hey, no way!"

Keun Sejin waved his hand denying it. He was full of confidence that
he had written more useful content.

Then Ryu Chungwoo gently answered.

"Ah, it's me."

"....Wow! That sounds fun! Horror movies!"

"I-I'm looking forward to it...!"

The revelation of the oldest member, who everyone wasn't very close
with yet, created an urgent atmosphere of gentleness.

In the end, that evening was spent watching horror movies. I let the
others watch the movie, while focusing on eating popcorns myself. A
scream rang out.

It was a waste of time, but I felt comfortable.

And the next day, early in the morning, the options for debut title song
demos arrived.

It was a painful time.

***

"My ears hurt."

It was Yujin's remark after listening to all the demo songs about 20
times with all the volumes turned up. Almost everyone, except for Kim
Raebin, vaguely agreed with that statement. Meaning they just nodded
their heads.

Those who were excited and enthusiastic about the idea of having our
own songs were exhausted from listening to them for hours.

"... Even if we listen more, it doesn't seem like there will be any big
differences, so let's raise our hands first and vote."
"Yes~"

"So from the first song."

That's how we got to the last number 11.

There was a general trend. It was somewhat similar to what we had

already seen during <IdolCo>.

First of all, Seon Ahyun and Ryu Chungwoo preferred the medium
tempo. Seon Ahyun especially liked lyrical songs.

Kim Raebin and Cha Yujin preferred rhythmic songs with a strong
bass.

Keun Sejin first picked a popular genre, and only raised the hand to
melodies that seemed kitsch.

Lee Sejin only raised his hand for one song. All that's left was me... I
just chose something that sounded good.

The situation was fine nonetheless.

The reason was because I got a new ability when the status window
popped up with a 'Succesful Stage' during the live broadcast of the last
episode of <IdolCo>.

[Character trait: Snatching Ears (A)]

- It seems this song will succeed?

: Ability to distinguish masterpieces +200%

The grade was A.

The slot machine had stopped and floated on the platinum-colored

slot, which was one in every ten slots.

'Even if I didn't consider the grade, I definitely had to keep this.'

If you're going to be in the music industry, there's nothing like this

ability.

Because of this, I threw away the 'I want to be a center' trait that raises
my skill stat by one level, but it was worth it.

In fact, I was thinking about throwing away 'Now that you mention it,
you are right' but kept it for now because I thought it could be used in
various situations.

'It's okay because I leveled up my skills by practicing and performing

during the final.'

So, my current status window looks like this:

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]

Level : 13

Title: None

Singing: A

Dance: C+

Appearance: B+

Talent: B-
Character Traits: Infinite potential, Now that you mention it, you
are right (C), Bacchus 500 (B), Snatching ears (A)

Status Abnormality: Win 1st place or die

Remaining points: 1

The problem is that the ability to distinguish songs obtained this time
is not added as a fixed amount but as a fixed rate.

'In the first place, this means that the increase value is ambiguous if I
just listen.'

I don't know for sure since it's a subject I've never really had to think
about before, but since the rate of the ability amplified to 300% , I
think it should work to some extent.

So the song I chose was...

"So Moondae also chooses only the number seven?"

"Yes."

There was only number seven. This song sounded somewhat dreamy,
with a trendy beat and a popular melody, which made it uniquely
pleasing to listen to.

'The rest were weak.'

The development of other songs were slow or bored the listener quick.
I don't know music theory, so I just believed in the judgement of my
'ears'.

Still, I believe it was okay, since Kim Raebin's eyes lit up.
"Hyung certainly has good ears. Number seven sounds the most
complete."

"Hey, Raebin is too much~ You don't like the one I chose?"

"Oh, oh no, that's not what I meant..."

As Kim Raebin sweated at Keun Sejin's teasing, Ryu Chungwoo smiled

and organized the situation.

"Then we have number two and number seven left in a tie. Let's focus
on these two songs."

"Yes~"

No. 2 was an R&B style song that was easy to listen to.

'The song bored me too quickly, so I didn't raise my hand.'

Anyway, everyone seemed tired, so I just complied without saying

anything.

'Next time, I'll push for song number seven a little more properly.'

As soon as we finished our morning like that, we got called in again.

It was a meeting with the content production team. The title song
made by the company was selected.

'...Normally we would have to discuss the songs with the A&R team,
right?'

//TN: A&R = artist and repertoire

This time I had a bad feeling, that couldn't be avoided.

And the song they brought out...

"What do you think? It's good, right?"

"...Yes."

The song was good.

The problem was that the concept they came up with was a 'baseball
team' concept, but the song was a disco song.

This is making me crazy.