Chapter 124

Chapter 124

“Wow! What’s the new director like?”

“I hear he’s all right.”

One of the managers and Big Sejin were talking.

I’m better off not expecting much from this new guy. Odds were, this new upper management guy was going to be just as impossible to work with as the previous one. Objectively, TeSTAR had done pretty well while the former director held his post, so the company had probably sent someone similar.

However, my expectations were proven wrong, pleasantly so.

“All he does is approve documents, you say?”

“That’s right! Everyone thinks he’s being careful not to make waves because he’s not far from retiring.”

Based on what people at the agency were saying, the new director wasn’t interested in meddling all that much or trying to force his ideas through without any thought to reality. He was just leaving the agency’s employees to get on with it.

He hasn’t even asked to see us yet. It was only to be expected that he would want to meet with the agency’s only idol group, but we’d heard nothing. It didn’t seem likely he’d be around for long, but this was good news for us, at least for now. It was much better for an ignorant executive to just quietly approve everything than to be full of useless motivation.

His arrival, however, signaled the beginning of a huge project for us.

“A concert...”

“So we finally get to have a concert of our own.”

As large projects were steadily approved one by one, a date was finally set for our first solo concert. This caused a problem, however.

“March isn’t a really good time, is it?”

Indeed, the concert had been set to coincide with back-to-school season, when most people wouldn’t really have the time or energy to come watch us perform. We were told that though the original plan had been to hold a concert in the new year, but the agency hadn’t been able to rent a proper venue with all the chaos going on.

I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or not, but the delay had ensured that we had all the stage equipment and such rented and ready to go in advance. Thankfully, the members quickly got over any anxiety they might have had regarding the date.

“But it’s on the weekend. I’m sure lots of people will still try and come.”

“Th-those who have time w-will come!” Ahyeon chirped.

“The more the better!” Eugene cried with his usual endless enthusiasm.

“I want to prepare a really incredible performance for them,” Raebin murmured, clenching his fists.

There wasn’t a lack of motivation among the members, that was for sure.

We have three months to prepare… I’d heard artists say they’d prepared for their concert for as long as six months, but three months wasn’t bad, either.

Realistically speaking, we had only just debuted six months ago, and preparing for a concert would have been impossible at that point. It wouldn’t be easy, but this wasn’t as intense as a promotional cycle, so we’d be able to manage it. As I was thinking this, the employees suggested something.

“How about we announce that you’ll perform a new song at the concert?”

“So... we’re doing a comeback in March, too?”

“Do you think it’ll be too much?” one of the staff asked.

It was too much. The idea was absurd. Had they forgotten just how hard it had been to finish a debut album in a month? But their logic was surprisingly reasonable.

“We’ll have to prepare a few new songs if we’re going to have enough music to fill out an entire concert setlist. Don’t you think it would be better if those songs are TeSTAR’s, rather than covers of other artists?”

“Hmm... yes.”

“We already have most of the songs for the next album, so we only need to work on the title track. Isn’t that right?”

They were right. This comeback would be, in actuality, our first full album. Putting in our best efforts, we’d already recorded a lot of the songs while working on our previous albums. This had been done in our free time during promotions.

“We’ll need to film concert VCRs and music videos and so on. I think we could arrange a schedule for that... And we should take concept photos for the concert as well.”

There was a contemplative silence. Doing the concert and the comeback at the same time would save us time and effort, and help us form a concept for the concert. If we combined concepts for the concert and the album, we could promote both at the same time and the fans would probably enjoy it, too. In the end, we could make everyone happy by shouldering the burden of hard work alongside the agency’s employees.

Damn it. As expected, Raebin, who’d been listening quietly, was slowly raising his hand in agreement. At that moment, he was a rabbit voluntarily jumping into a hole that led directly to hell.

Chungwoo took control of the situation quickly. “Can we speak about this first and let you know what we land on?”

“Of course. You’ll need to let us know by tomorrow, though.”

We didn’t even need that long, since a decision was made in the practice room later that day. Surprisingly, our decision was unanimous.

“We’ll give it a shot.”

“Oh, that’s what I like to hear!”

The agency seemed happy with our decision. And as for the members, it was pretty clear they were all thinking that if they’d managed it once, they could do it again. This was the unfortunate side effect of our absurdly packed schedule bearing fruit.

Even Bae Sejin seems to have fallen victim to the positive energy. Redoing an entire end-of-year performance in a single week seemed to have turned him into an industry veteran.

***

Before long, we received the first draft of the list of concert tracks from the agency. Chungwoo briefed us quickly.

“It’ll include all our title tracks and b-sides... as well as the collab tracks and the fan song. All that and there’s only ten songs in total.”

“Hmm. We need at least twenty for a concert, right?” Big Sejin asked.

“I think twenty is on the conservative side,” Raebin offered. “We should probably have more.”

“Y-yes,” Ahyeon agreed.

The setlist, which had quite a few holes, was not complete yet.

“We could bring in two more songs from the new album, but that still leaves eight more new songs to make,” Chungwoo suggested, worrying his lip.

We considered adding songs from the new album that didn’t have any choreography, but this suggestion was eventually shot down by the members, who wanted to focus more on songs that had an accompanying dance. I was puzzled since they were so willing to toss aside an easier way of doing things so easily.

They’re going to dance themselves into the ground mid-concert at this rate. Thankfully, I was reminded of the agency’s suggestion.

“They wanted us to add in a few sub-unit songs. Let’s figure those out first,” I said.

Doing this would force the members whose unit wasn’t currently performing on stage to take a break. What was more, the agency seemed to have big plans for these sub-units.

“Oh, they said we’re going to film content, right?”

Indeed, the process of forming these sub-units and preparing the performances was going to be filmed and edited together like a variety show and then uploaded on WeTube. The sub-unit performances themselves would also be uploaded after the concert was over, sort of like a choreography video, but filmed live.

“That’s three songs. Which leaves five more. Does anyone have a song they’d like to do?”

“Me!”

“M-me too!”

After much fierce debate, five more songs were selected. The process went smoothly because Bae Sejin chose not to vote at all, while Chungwoo usually just let the other members have whatever they wanted.

“In that case, I’ll see what they say about this list.”

“Okay!”

The agency confirmed with us about ten times if we were up for such an intense setlist before moving around a few of the sets and approving it. They still didn’t seem fully convinced, however, since we were told that they wanted to make the pre-recorded VCRs that would play mid-concert longer, to allow for us to rest more between sets.

Looks like we’ll have to work on our cardio... Based on the employees’ reactions, I got the impression that the concert would drain us of every last drop of our energy.

We spent a few days deciding on the title and concept for the new album. After that, cameras were brought into the dorm for the first time in a while. They were going to film us forming the sub-units for the concert, but the method they had chosen was peculiar.

“What day is it today?”

“New roommate day!”

We would be getting new roommates and forming sub-units with the members we shared a room with. This feels just like a team battle from Idol Inc.

Apparently, the TV show had rubbed off on us. You know what they said—if you gaze too deeply into the abyss, the abyss will gaze right back at you. This attitude made things unpredictable and fun, that was for sure. It also showed that we were confident we could make it work no matter who we ended up with.

“Time to say goodbye to our dear roommates! Oh, I’ll miss you!”

Holding a cue card, Big Sejin delivered his lines as a makeshift MC and shamelessly pretended to sob as he hugged Eugene and Chungwoo. The entire performance felt like a comedy skit.

Raebin, caught up in the mood, politely said his goodbyes to Ahyeon. “Thank you for always being so accepting and gentle about my work and all the noise I made. I hope we can become roommates again one day.”

“I-I should be the one th-thanking you! A-and it was g-great to hear you work! Your songs a-are so good!”

While they seemed to get along just fine, they were still painfully polite with one another. Though they had managed to coexist peacefully, they’d failed to really become comfortably friends.

I spoke to Bae Sejin as well.

“I think we made great roommates because we have similar lifestyles. Too bad we won’t be together anymore.”

“You’re right. I would have liked to continue sharing a room.”

His eyes traveled subtly to Eugene—apparently, he was afraid they might end up together.

I sure hope that doesn’t happen, I thought, dreading the same thing he probably was. Rooming with the ever-loud Eugene would be truly terrible. I shook hands with him, finished with our goodbyes.

“Now to meet our new roommates!” Big Sejin cried.

“Yay!”

Everyone obediently clapped, and Big Sejin smiled as he pulled a prop from behind his back.

“This time we’ll be... choosing cards!”

“Oh!”

“Do you see the numbers on the back of the cards? These are the room numbers! Those of you who pull the same numbers will share a room!” Big Sejin began mixing them, his movements skilled—it was obvious he had his fair share of experience with card games like this. Then he placed the seven cards face-down on the floor. “Now, time for each of you to pick a card!”

“Okay!”

“Sounds good!”

We decided to determine who went first based on our noraebang scores.

“Yeah!”

It really didn’t matter who chose first, so we all focused on being entertaining, providing footage that could be used in the video rather than the game itself. The scores were also utterly meaningless as well.

“In first place, we have... Cha Eugene, with a hundred points!”

“Whoa!”

The member who had mistakenly selected a song he didn’t know and made up the notes as he went ended up getting the top score.

“Now, pick a card!”

“Okay!”

“Let’s see... Ah! You have room one!”

We took turns selecting a card, after Eugene. Surprisingly, I ended up sharing a room with Bae Sejin again.

“Ah! Bae Sejin, your room is... Number three! You’re in the same room as Moondae again!”

Bae Sejin balled his fists tightly, then cleared his throat as if embarrassed. “Ahem. Let’s make a good song.”

“Sure,” I replied. I felt the same way after successfully avoiding Eugene, so I didn’t have much to say in response. There was a problem, though—we had room number three. Just as when we’d decided on roommates during our reality show, number three was meant for three people. And the members who hadn’t been assigned a room yet were Big Sejin and Ahyeon.

“That leaves just us!” Big Sejin said.

“Y-you’re right,” Ahyeon agreed.

“Well then, here I go!”

Big Sejin was up next. He put his hand on a card, pausing as though he was trying to decide whether to take it. He slid his hand away, over to the second card.

Wait a second, what did that bastard just do?

“I’ll take this one! Ahyeon, shall we flip them over together?”

“A-all right!”

“Good. On the count of three!”

Both of them flipped their cards.

“Woohoo!”

“Yay! Eugene! Nice to see you again!”

Big Sejin was in room number one with Eugene, naturally leaving Ahyeon in number three. He grinned and showed us his card.

“L-let’s put on a good show! We can do this!”

“Sounds good. I’m sure we’ll get along well,” Bae Sejin said, instantly relaxing. He seemed pretty happy with the results this time around.

I chimed in with a comment of my own. “It’s been a while since we shared a room.”

“Y-yeah!” Ahyeon gripped the card in his hand tightly and rushed over to our group.

“Now then, we have a surprise announcement for our Loviewers! I wonder what it’ll be?”

The members laughed and began to play a drumroll on any available surface. Big Sejin raised his cue card into the air above his head.

“Our subunit performance teams will be our roommates!”

“Be sure to stay tuned!”

The members waved enthusiastically at the camera, as rehearsed, and filming in the living room came to an end.

“Phew!”

“Let’s move our things!”

The members jumped into action, rushing to move their belongings into their new rooms. The guy I expected to be the first to run off did something unexpected, however. He went to gather up the cards on the floor.

“Oh! Here you are!”

“Yes. Thank you!”

Big Sejin picked up the cards, put them back inside their box, and handed them to the staff. He smiled at me when he noticed I was still in the living room.

“Moondae, aren’t you going to move your stuff?”

“Yes. I should,” I said, following him down the corridor.

He marked the cards, I thought.

He’d avoided room three on purpose.