Siblings Work in Business (21)
‘She’s skilled.’
The method the owner taught her was surprisingly effective.
The incidents of bloodshed, whether it was Eun-ji’s or someone else’s, decreased noticeably.
‘Is she starting now?’
Eun-ji picked out transparent plastic bottles from the recycling bin and skillfully removed the labels and opened the caps.
Then, she looked at the deflated, chubby plastic bottles with satisfaction and began.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
While Lee Eun-ji was frantically crushing the transparent plastic bottles…
I watched her, bursting out laughing as if watching a comedy show.
“Are you done?”
“Not yet. There’s one last step.”
The ‘last step’ was putting the caps back on the bottles.
I didn’t know why, but she said the owner told her to do it, so she did.
After diligently putting all the caps back on, Lee Eun-ji put them back into the plastic recycling bag.
‘It’s been a while.’
Perhaps thanks to Lee Eun-ji’s unique tidying show, which I hadn’t seen in years…
Even my pent-up frustration eased.
“You’re so weird.”
“Yeah, your face is weirder.”
Lee Eun-ji, seemingly in a better mood, jokingly teased me as usual.
“You’re being silly again.”
“You awe beeing silly.”
“You should stop talking…”
“Heehee, I win.”
“Oh, dear.”
“When we get to the station, wash your hands in the bathroom.”
“Of course.”
On our way home after tidying up…
Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned Lee Eun-ji’s dirty hands.
I glanced up at Lee Eun-ji’s face with a sense of foreboding.
“Oh, shit!”
My intuition was right.
“Ew!”
Lee Eun-ji ran towards me with her dirty hands outstretched.
“Agh! Stop it! Crazy!”
“No! I don’t want to! Hahaha!”
Eun-ho, genuinely disgusted, ran towards the subway station with all his might, dodging Eun-ji’s hands.
Eun-ji also sped up, determined to get him.
“I’ll go wash them now.”
“Please do.”
Fortunately, as soon as we arrived at the subway station, Eun-ji, also seemingly bothered by her dirty hands, immediately went to the bathroom and washed them.
—The train is now arriving. Please stand behind the yellow line…
Just as Lee Eun-ji came out of the bathroom…
The timing was perfect.
We boarded the arriving train.
“There are plenty of seats.”
We found seats facing each other near a pole, all empty.
Perhaps because of running around and playing…
Or maybe because we had been in the cold and suddenly entered a warm place…
Sleepiness overwhelmed me.
—This station is XX. XX station. The doors will open on the…
I don’t know how long I slept.
I instinctively opened my eyes at the unfamiliar station name announced through the speakers.
No wonder things were going so smoothly…
“Shit. Hey, hey! Lee Eun-ji, get off!”
“Ugh.”
There was no time.
I grabbed the still-drowsy Lee Eun-ji by the scruff of her neck and threw her out the door like a sack of potatoes.
“Ouch!”
I followed her off the train, and Lee Eun-ji, seemingly awakened by the impact, stomped towards me angrily.
“That hurt!”
“Where are we?”
“What?”
Lee Eun-ji huffed and then looked back at the blue sign behind her.
Then, she asked with a pale face,
“What the… Why did we get off here?”
The subway had passed our stop by eight stations.
“When’s the next train? If it’s not the last train, we can just take the next one…”
I silently showed my phone to Eun-ji, who was trying to remain calm.
A dark shadow fell over Eun-ji’s face.
“We’re screwed.”
“Yeah, we’re screwed.”
We had missed the last train.
An hour later.
In front of the darkened subway station…
A man and a woman, with similarly sharp features, were squatting dejectedly.
“Because of you two…”
The two looked up at the man with sparkling eyes, as if looking at a savior, at the familiar voice.
“Because of you two, my heart is wearing out. Do you know that?”
“Heehee.”
Unable to resist Eun-ho and Eun-ji’s grins, CEO Park sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead.
“I need to find a new manager soon… You’ll catch a cold. Both of you, get in the car.”
“Yes!”
The moment CEO Park pointed at the car…
The siblings, barely suppressing their smiles, immediately jumped into the back seat as instructed.
CEO Park, watching them both obediently fasten their seatbelts, finally got into the driver’s seat.
“So…”
A moment later, CEO Park, holding the steering wheel, spoke in a calm voice.
The siblings, who had relaxed in the comfortable warmth, stiffened.
“I received a call saying that the recording went well and you were both satisfied, so why were you at the subway station until this hour?”
CEO Park had been extremely busy with debut-related meetings lately.
“That’s…”
We dozed off on the subway and missed our stop.
That’s what I originally intended to say.
Because it was true.
But today was a chance to have a proper conversation with the CEO after almost a month.
I hesitated for a moment and then spoke.
“It was… a form of rebellion.”
“Rebellion? What rebellion?”
It was different from what I initially intended to say, but it was something I wanted to say, something I had to say.
“We’re trying our best to adapt, but there are frequent disagreements about the working style.”
Then, I explained the recording situation of the past week to him, emphasizing the ‘work’-related aspects as calmly as possible.
The CEO was strictly professional with everyone except us siblings.
He expected the same from Lee Eun-ji and me.
“We’re trying our best to adapt, but there are frequent disagreements with the composer about the working style.”
“Disagreements…?”
“Yes. If this continues, the results of Composer Payoff’s song might be below your expectations, CEO.”
It was only natural.
It was difficult for a composer who didn’t understand or trust the singers to bring out their charm.
“We’ll always do our best since it’s our album, but as rookies, we need your permission to properly sing.”
I was a complete rookie now, unlike before the regression, when I had some recognition.
That was one of the reasons I brought this up.
The CEO listened quietly, his eyes fixed on the road.
“I knew the vocal recording time was longer than what you were used to…”
“We did our best, but since the flow isn’t connected, it’s quite tiring. Especially for Eun-ji, who relies heavily on feeling, the difference in concentration was significant.”
“Normally, I would have been there to mediate, but I was too busy.”
“The atmosphere at the site was fine. I just… have some regrets.”
As the traffic light turned red, CEO Park slowly stopped the car.
He checked on Eun-ho and Eun-ji through the rearview mirror.
“What kind of regrets?”
“Both Eun-ji and I are confident we can do better if given the chance, but since we’re not given the chance, there’s no way for us to show…”
Eun-ho paused, lost in thought at the CEO’s question.
Eun-ji seemed to have fallen asleep, leaning against Eun-ho’s shoulder, unable to overcome her drowsiness.
The traffic light turned green, and CEO Park looked away, focusing on the road ahead.
“Well, something like that.”
We can do better if we do it our way.
Eun-ho, looking out the window, subtly expressed his ambition.
CEO Park took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
It was more of a breath to organize his thoughts than a sigh.
“Whether you know it or not, my way is to follow the director’s opinion on site.”
“Yes.”
Eun-ho, who had worked with CEO Park longer than the CEO himself thanks to the regression, knew this well.
It was an expected answer, so he wasn’t disappointed or regretful.
“So, it will be difficult to change things the way you want right now.”
Honestly, I didn’t bring this up to ask him to change the situation.
It was simply to express that ‘we’re uncomfortable with this method.’
So, just by bringing it up, I had already achieved my goal.
But there was still something I needed to clarify.
“You mean ‘on site,’ right?”
“What do you mean by that?”
CEO Park frowned, but his eyes were still fixed on the road.
“If the results are different, I was wondering if there might be a chance, even a small one.”
Payoff’s song was definitely a good song for the public.
His working style would also be welcomed by singers who were compatible with him.
A repetitive, easy-to-memorize hook and melody.
Simple lyrics and a trendy trap beat with a calm yet cheerful atmosphere.
Even based on my experience and knowledge of the future, it was definitely a song with a high probability of becoming a hit.
“Are you saying you’ll slack off?”
“No, of course not.”
I opposed Payoff’s song when they were choosing the title track.
So, I knew why the CEO said that.
However…
“Just like Lee Eun-ji, I’ll always do my absolute best since it’s a song for our album.”
Only after I emphasized the word “best” twice did CEO Park seem to drop his suspicion.
No matter how much I disliked Payoff, it was still ‘our’ song, the song that Lee Eun-ji and I, Team E-ung, would sing.
So, I would do my best, whether it was composed by Payoff or Lee Eun-ji.
“And I wish we had that kind of environment.”
The difference in working style.
When I first heard Payoff’s song, I opposed it even without any personal feelings.
There was a reason.
It wasn’t our style.
It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t quite fit.
So, I had hoped that if our opinions were incorporated during the recording, we might have a chance to express our own style.
The result?
‘Payoff didn’t even give us a chance.’
He spent almost 20 hours a day in the studio with us throughout the weekdays.
Even though the song was less than four minutes long, including the intro and outro.
Payoff didn’t give us a chance.
Because we were ‘unproven rookies.’
‘It doesn’t look good, but…’
I understand.
Payoff was a famous composer with many hit songs.
He had the experience, so it made sense from his perspective.
However…
I wanted to prove to him, who didn’t even bother to understand our style, that we were at least…
Not as incompetent as he thought, as ‘trainees.’
“That’s good. There’s something I’m working on. Eun-ho, you want to prove yourself, right?”
“Y-Yes.”
CEO Park smiled and continued.
“Payoff is a composer who’s interested in the public, so…”