69 – Genius Producer. (1) 69.
"Do you mean appearing on a broadcast?"
"Yes. Well, I don't know about screen time or anything, but since he's describing it as 'exposure,' it probably won't be much."
After telling Won Seongmin I would think about it, I called my manager, Jung Jaeho. Since I signed with the company, I couldn't just decide on my own.
"Do you happen to know the program's name?"
"He said it's a cable show called 'Star Kingdom.'"
"All right. I'll look into it and get back to you."
"Yes. Please."
After that, I hung up. Then, beside me, Suyeon—who was checking the reactions to "Pop, Pop" on the laptop—asked in an interested voice.
"Oppa, are you going on TV?"
"Even if I do, it'll be, like, one minute at most. And not even a proper one-shot—probably just to the level of briefly showing my face."
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. It was hard to get any significant screen time on those music programs in the first place, and more than anything, I'd never even heard of a show called Star Kingdom.
If I hadn't heard of it when I knew basically every music program that got even a little popular, that meant it was probably a pretty insignificant show.
"Still, I'm jealous. I want to be on TV too~"
"If you debut, you can."
"Debut, debut… when will that even be possible?"
Suyeon muttered as she rolled around on the sofa. Who knew when. I worked my phone and logged into Cloud, checking the Drop Pop channel.
The uploads were a bit delayed because I was working with Blue Aka, so things dipped for a moment, but it was still steadily growing. And the response to "Pop, Pop," which I uploaded this time, was really good too.
It hit the highest views we'd ever gotten, and once again, the song got featured on Cloud's main channel. The growth was much faster than the goal I originally set.
And once it reached about this point, word started spreading in the industry too. Not at the level of "We need to cast them right now!" More like, "This kid's pretty good—should we keep an eye on him?"
How did I know that?
[When are you going to introduce your sister?]
Thanks to Seo Chaerim.
Even after I signed with the company, Seo Chaerim kept contacting me regularly. It seemed she wanted to maintain a good relationship with the people she introduced.
Anyway, Seo Chaerim kept listening to what we uploaded on Drop Pop, and she was getting greedy for Suyeon.
Of course, I had no intention of introducing her right away.
"Just be patient a little longer."
"Until graduation?"
"No."
That was way too far off.
We just started—who was going to wait until graduation?
"Until summer break of first year."
"What's happening then?"
"Something, obviously."
Suyeon got accepted into Seolwon Arts High School as the runner-up. Meaning, like Han Goyo, she would go up on stage as the first-year representative at the Practical Music Concert.
That was what I was aiming for.
All kinds of entertainment people showed up at the Practical Music Concert. There, Suyeon would put on an overwhelming stage as the first-year representative and raise her value as high as possible.
"I want to stand in front of a camera soon~"
"You will, soon."
I answered in a confident voice.
Then Suyeon smiled shyly and said,
"Okay. I'll trust you."
§ § §
"The music video shoot will probably only be possible around late February."
"Then until then, we just work, I guess."
While doing arrangement work, I said that to Won Seongmin.
Won Seongmin nodded.
"We're planning to finish the work by early February. Ah, by the way, when does school start?"
"February 5. And spring break starts right away on the 12th. Then we start school again on March 2."
"…I'll try to avoid those times as much as possible."
At his words, I smiled and replied.
"You don't need to. We can just work after school. More importantly, when is the Star Kingdom shoot?"
"It starts February 8, and filming takes about two weeks."
"So we can't make the song in advance?"
"They said they'll tell us the song topic after filming starts."
Starting from February 8.
If I ended up filming with them, I could probably help starting from the 12th.
Thinking that, I looked at the closed practice room door. Han Goyo was inside that practice room.
To learn melodic rap for the first time, she was inside listening to the songs I recommended and practicing.
"What a shame."
"What is?"
"That a performance is only possible at the end of the year."
I clicked my tongue. Of course, releasing the track and filming the music video were good things, but they didn't compare to being on stage. And more than anything, I wanted to see how Han Goyo would pull this off live.
"It can't be helped. For now, you two are students."
I was about to respond to Won Seongmin when my phone rang. Who was it? Seo Chaerim?
Thinking that, I looked at the screen.
Oh. It was Jin Sohyang.
—Tomorrow, the album finally comes out!!!
"Ah."
Tomorrow already?
The album that people called the master key for girl groups, the album that would make Hwayangyeonhwa a top-tier group.
And more than anything, the album that included my first official work was being released tomorrow.
—We go on stage the day after tomorrow and I'm so nervous I feel like I'm going to dieㅠㅠ I think the song is good, but what if the response is bad??
Along with a little sighing emoticon, the message came in. I replied that it would be fine, then I let out a small sigh too.
I was worried too.
Hwayangyeonhwa's album would be a huge success with the public and artistically as well. There was no need to worry about that.
What I was worried about was the response to "Rough," the one I worked on.
My first official track.
What if the response was bad?
Without meaning to, the miserable evaluations I got in my previous life floated into my head.
Ah, my stomach felt bad.
I'd forced myself to forget and move on, but once I remembered, it kept bothering me.
Then my phone rang again. I checked it, thinking it might be Jin Sohyang again.
But it wasn't Jin Sohyang this time.
The one who messaged me was my manager, Jung Jaeho.
—I'm contacting you regarding Star Kingdom and Hwayangyeonhwa's track that will be released tomorrow. Would you be able to come to the company tomorrow?
"Senior. I might be late tomorrow. Is that okay?"
When I asked Won Seongmin that because of Jung Jaeho's message, Won Seongmin replied, "Of course," and nodded.
At that, I texted Jung Jaeho back.
[What time should I come?]
—How about around 2?
[Yes, that works. Then I'll see you tomorrow at 2.]
After sending that, I put my phone down.
And the next day.
When I went to the company, Jung Jaeho welcomed me and brought me to a meeting room.
Then he said to me out of nowhere,
"We're going to do a shoot."
"A shoot?"
I frowned. A shoot? What kind of shoot? Were they planning to make some new in-house content or something?
While I was thinking that, Jung Jaeho took a sip of coffee and said,
"A photo shoot. You're mm Entertainment's first artist, so we need to promote you. More importantly, we're planning to put out an article too."
"An article for promotion?"
"Yes. That you worked on a track on Hwayangyeonhwa's album, and if you appear on Star Kingdom, that's also a strong promotional point. And for that kind of promotion, official photos are essential."
He was right. And that promotion was the biggest reason I signed with an entertainment company in the first place.
With a serious expression, Jung Jaeho kept talking.
"And we're planning to run aggressive marketing through you. Seventeen—no, you're eighteen now. Anyway, there are plenty of singers who debut in high school, but composers aren't that common. And you're not just a composer, you're a producer, so the differentiation is clear."
"That's true."
Ah. I never really thought about it like that.
But hearing it, yeah. There weren't many people who signed a producer contract at eighteen.
"Of course, we won't force media exposure on you. But we're a company. If you release music or work with other singers, we have to promote it."
"Right."
It took a lot of money to make an album. And a company wasn't running a charity. They had to earn back what they invested.
That was only natural.
I already accepted that when I signed.
"Understood. Then when do we shoot?"
"There's no need to drag it out, so let's do it today. We also have a studio we're contracted with, so we can shoot there."
"Okay."
A photo shoot wasn't exactly hard.
I nodded and was about to stand up when Jung Jaeho spoke.
"But before that."
"Yes?"
"Let's go to the shop first."
§ § §
The place Jung Jaeho took Yoon Hajun to was an extremely high-end hair salon in Cheongdam. Seeing Yoon Hajun flustered by the luxurious salon he'd never been to before, Jung Jaeho said,
"First, let's cut your hair. Just looking at it makes me feel suffocated."
"…Ah, yes."
Yoon Hajun nodded.
To be fair, even he thought his hair was pretty bad right now. After his regression, he never once went to a salon. He let it grow for a full year without even a single trim.
Suyeon and his mom nagged him to cut it already, but going to a salon wasn't easy, and he stayed busy with work, so he kept putting it off.
"Dyeing will be difficult, so we'll just add a bit of color with color spray. We're doing makeup too. And… what about the outfit? Do you have a concept in mind or anything?"
"By concept, you mean the shoot concept?"
"That, and your outward image."
Outward image.
In simple terms, how the public would perceive him.
In the past, that kind of outward image was extremely important. Some people wouldn't even talk to seniors or colleagues just to maintain a "mysterious" or "arrogant" concept.
But now, it wasn't taken that far.
Even so, an outward image mattered. Outward image was first impression. And the public judged people by that first impression and consumed them.
"For now, the concept we picked is obvious, but… genius. Something like that."
Genius.
At that, he let out a small snort of laughter. It was a word that was too far from him.
The Yoon Hajun he thought of wasn't a prodigy or a genius.
If anything, it was "experience" and "precociousness."
And even that precociousness came from time no one else had.
But—
I can't say that.
And people wouldn't understand anyway.
Genius, genius…
Yoon Hajun muttered quietly.
These days, what was the most important thing in entertainment?
Bait.
Celebrities lived off public attention, and bait pulled public attention in.
There was a reason idols took on weird superpower concepts or did reckless things on variety shows. It was all to bait attention and get even a little more interest.
In that sense, "genius" wasn't a bad concept.
And if he thought about it, he himself was basically a walking bait factory right now.
A composition major at Seolwon Arts High School, with a scholarship.
He worked on a track for an idol group.
And at eighteen, he signed a contract with an entertainment company as a producer.
It was enough to sell as "genius."
And even if he was a producer, getting famous wasn't a bad thing. If he got famous, more people would want to work with him.
More importantly, it would help Suyeon when she debuted.
"Whew."
Yoon Hajun took a short deep breath.
Once an outward image was set, he couldn't take it back.
Genius cosplay.
At Seolwon Arts High School, it was possible. Even if it was a high school full of kids with some talent, they were still just high schoolers.
But where he was stepping into now wasn't a high school.
It was the entertainment industry.
A world where only real geniuses could succeed.
In that place, how long could he stay a "genius"?
"Yes. I think it's not bad."
"Good."
With Yoon Hajun's answer, they started setting him up in earnest. The hair he grew diligently over the past year got cut and fell to the floor.
Watching it, Yoon Hajun lightly clenched his fist. Somehow, those strands of hair felt like the past that held him back.
In his previous life, he entered the entertainment industry as a singer, and he failed.
Now he was challenging it again, as a producer.
So this time, he wouldn't fail.
Yoon Hajun tightened the fist he lightly clenched. Since it came to this, he intended to take everything back.
Suyeon's dream that he stole.
His mother's happiness.
And—
One more thing.
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