Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 21 Dead End (1)

I glanced back and saw Kyunghwa bending down to pick up his phone that he had dropped on the floor.

“Did you drop your phone?”

I asked as I turned around.

Kyunghwa answered hastily.

“Uh, I found it. Don’t worry about it!”

He kept fumbling on the floor with his fingertips, which didn’t look like he was not worried at all.

Wasn’t he usually calm? Why was he so restless?

I didn’t have many opportunities to interact with Kyunghwa one-on-one, unlike with Seon-woo or Yi-jun.

I thought he was the most composed big brother among these trash, taking on the role of the leader.

I answered with a hidden curiosity.

“We have some time before we arrive, so take your time to find it.”

The reason why Kyunghwa accompanied me to the concept meeting, which I was supposed to attend alone, was simple.

I still couldn’t trust myself completely.

I had been researching and studying, but I was still a 40-year-old illiterate.

It was a sure way to fail if I trusted 100% of the taste of a 40-year-old man who had nothing to do with the entertainment industry.

‘I studied as if I were an investor, so my sense wouldn’t be that bad…’

But it couldn’t be the same as what the kids these days see.

I needed a criterion to judge how good my decision was.

Kyunghwa seemed to have found his phone completely, and he sat up straight.

But his face was still stiff.

“Don’t be too nervous.”

You’re the strong heart on stage, huh? Are you only strong on stage?

I wanted to say something, but I swallowed it.

“…I’m not nervous.”

He was obviously lying, but he was stubborn. It wasn’t helpful anyway.

Hide your face that looks pale, will you?

I clicked my tongue lightly.

It took about 15 more minutes by car to arrive at the office, which was a seven-story building.

It looked like an old building, and several business units were sharing the whole building.

I arrived at the entrance and called the manager.

A moment later, I received a guide to come up to the 502 conference room.

The fifth floor… I guess I have to take the elevator. I quickly scanned the agency building as I moved.

‘Don’t these entertainment agencies usually check something like an ID card on the first floor?’

I didn’t know if they let me in because they knew I was a celebrity.

The security guard who was nodding off at the entrance just nodded his head and let me and Kyunghwa in.

Was I expecting too much because Floss, who boasted the best popularity of the current generation, was affiliated?

When I was ‘Lim Hyun-seong’, I had received a few offers from large agencies.

I thought it would be a flashy building like the ones I visited then.

‘Considering that the entertainment industry is not as profitable as it looks, it’s natural.’

I convinced myself and pressed the elevator button to go up to the fifth floor.

The food industry was not much different. Of course, not as much as the culture industry.

The sales scale was basic, so the accounting was in the hundreds of billions of won.

In reality, the operating profit margin was so low that there were not many companies with a lot of operating profit.

“Hey, you’re here?”

As I opened the door to the conference room lightly, the manager saw me.

There were three employees who looked like they were in their late twenties to early thirties, besides the manager.

‘They’re all… too young, aren’t they?’

I felt a sense of incongruity when I remembered the times when I started with the late thirties when I went to the new product planning meeting.

Of course, this industry was generally young, but still.

“This is the planning team leader, and these two are Lee Jinju, the assistant manager of the planning team, and Lee Sejun, the staff. Have you met Sejun before?”

All of them felt like strangers to me.

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

A man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties and dyed his hair khaki waved his hand lightly to greet me.

I was surprised by his casual attitude, expecting the usual bowing greeting.

I realized it was natural. I was not a 40-year-old representative, but a 24-year-old idol.

“First of all, we have set the schedule for our activities from the fourth week of October. Today is the second week of June, so we don’t have enough time to prepare, so we’ll have to release the sound source first, and then release the second full album together next time.”

It was a meaningful remark, considering that the contract pre-termination consultation was possible from December this year.

Are you saying to end it with a single sound source and end it because it won’t make money anyway?

“If it’s the second full album, you’ll have to leave a gap of three or four months with the single release. Then it means that it will be pushed back after the re-contract period, right?”

Kyunghwa also had the same thought as me, and he pointed out the part that bothered him.

The planning team leader, who looked like the most experienced among the three, smiled as if he wouldn’t bleed a drop even if he was stabbed.

“It’s a shame that the preparation period is too short, but I think we have to do that. Let’s do our best to get good results this time!”

In other words, ‘No. Go away. We can’t do the full album.’

I thought it would be hard to do a full album considering the period, but I didn’t say it. You’re so hopeful to say it.

It would only lead to an emotional fight if I argued here.

If it were Cheon Ise, he would have insisted that it wouldn’t work. Would he have asked Chairman Cheon to do something impossible, or…

It was a meaningless assumption. I hurriedly regained my senses and returned to the main point.

“So the timing is set. What about the other parts?”

As I asked, recalling the album preparation process I had seen on YouTube, the youngest staff member raised his hand.

“I’ve brought three demo songs to choose from.”

A, B, and C options. One of them would be a high probability of being a discard card.

It would be lucky if one of the remaining two was good.

“You…”

As I was about to turn the topic, Kyunghwa clenched his fist under the table as if he couldn’t accept it.

How can you give up so easily?

What are you going to do if you get angry?

They’re people you have to face and work with anyway. Are you going to threaten them?

I looked into Kyunghwa’s eyes with a cold expression.

“Let’s talk later.”

Kyunghwa’s eyes shook. I didn’t give him a chance to interfere and cause trouble, and I continued.

“Shall we listen to it right away?”

“Yes, please! I’ll play you the first song.”

The youngest staff member quickly turned on his laptop so that everyone could see it and played an audio file.

♪~♬~♩♪

It was a reggae-style song with lyrics in English that were hard to understand. The quality itself didn’t seem so bad, but…

‘Doesn’t it feel too out of place for autumn?’

It felt like they had prepared it for another group’s summer album and got rejected, so they sent it here.

“Shall we listen to the second song right away?”

As I looked at Kyunghwa’s expression, I thought people must have similar thoughts.

He had a complicated expression, as if he couldn’t outright say he hated it.

“Sure! I’ll play it for you right away.”

♬-♩-♩~♪

I recognized the second song as soon as I heard it.

‘This is a throwaway card.’

It was a digital pop song with English lyrics that hummed along. It sounded so chaotic that even I was shocked. Kyunghwa seemed to be flustered as well.

“It seems like the world is not ready for this for another 20 years…”

Kyunghwa quietly complained.

“Well… sometimes these kinds of songs that are ahead of their generation become hits, you know.”

The team leader tried to lighten the mood with a joke, seeing Kyunghwa and me with stiff expressions.

It’s fine to joke, but still. There might be a possibility that it could get better with lyrics and arrangement, but this was not it.

At this level, I didn’t have much hope for the next song.

Maybe it would be better to buy a song from an external composer with Cheon Ise’s wealth, or remake a foreign song.

While I was desperately trying to find a way to survive, the second audio file ended.

“I’ll play you the last demo now.”

Maybe because he was so disappointed with the second song, Kyunghwa kept thinking about how to make the first song fit the October vibe.

Click, the sound of the mouse clicking and the last audio file started playing.

♩♬~♩♪-♩

‘Huh?’

The demo song lyrics were not in English this time.

They were in Korean… but I had definitely heard this voice somewhere before.

Before I could tilt my head in confusion, Kyunghwa spoke up.

“Did Seong-won do the guide recording for this?”

Then, Jin-joo, the assistant, nodded her head.

“Oh, yes. Seong-won sometimes helps out with the recording of the exclusive producer when he has time.”

He was the only vocalist in S, and his voice and singing skills were not lacking in the previously released songs, so I had some expectations, but…

‘He’s too talented to be buried in obscurity like this.’

If only he could fix his temper and attitude, he would have gotten more opportunities from here and there.

Meanwhile, I bit my lips and blamed Seong-won in my mind.

“The song… is good.”

The catch was, I couldn’t tell if it sounded good because Seong-won sang well, or if it was really good.

The light but not too flashy beat sounded rhythmic and matched well with Seong-won’s falsetto.

His voice tone was not low at all when he spoke normally, but sometimes it sounded high, and other times, his low notes grazed the bottom and resonated.

“This is the best one, I think.”

Kyunghwa declared before the song even ended.

Maybe because it was a demo with guide lyrics, there were meaningless words repeated often, and the same lyrics came up again and again. The lyrics needed to be reworked from the start, but…

“I agree.”

The team leader quickly checked the other team members’ opinions as they agreed on the last song.

“Actually, the one we were pushing for was the first one we played for you… This is a song we got from a really famous foreign producer. You know Dr. Reggie, right?”

I don’t know. I don’t even know Korean singers well, how would I know a foreign producer? I reflexively narrowed my eyes and answered.

“But it feels too mismatched with the season. If we’re going to release it in autumn, the last demo seems the best, don’t you think?”

Then, the planning team staff came out as a group and tried to persuade Kyunghwa, as if they wanted him to pick the throwaway card.

“Um… well, I guess you could think that way. But reggae is not something that only comes out in summer, you know. How about we aim for a concept that captures the essence of late summer?”

Why are they so desperate?

I don’t care about that, but they’re making it hard for us by being stubborn.

It’s not even pushing or anything, it’s like they’re trying to dump a specific demo on us.

I frowned at their attitude, which seemed to want to get rid of us.

No, even if you force it, there’s a limit.

How can you say it’s late summer in the fourth week of October? This is the time when people start taking out their wool coats.

“No. I think the third one is the best, after all.”

As the tension between me and the team leader grew, I heard Kyunghwa swallow his dry saliva.