Siblings Work in Business (25)
CEO Park closed his eyes, wearing his headphones.
The music file on his laptop started playing.
Come closer and tell me
CEO Park’s face contorted into a scowl at the autotuned voice.
I can’t hear you there
My head hurts, stop shaking it (you)
Slipping through my fingers, gone (you)
Eun-ji’s deep voice had been so heavily autotuned that it was painful to listen to.
CEO Park, his eyes rolling back, smoothed out the wrinkles between his eyebrows with his thumb.
“Phew…”
A deep sigh, like the earth collapsing, escaped him.
My head hurts, stop shaking it
Slipping through my fingers, gone
Haha.
A cold chuckle echoed through the CEO’s office and then faded.
It hurts so, so much
Or so smooth
It was like that throughout the song.
He couldn’t distinguish where Eun-ho’s voice began and Eun-ji’s ended, or vice versa.
Whisper
With Eun-ji’s whisper, CEO Park stopped the music before it could even reach the second verse.
He roughly took off his headphones, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair.
「“If this continues, the results might be below your expectations, CEO.”」
Eun-ho’s words had come true like a prophecy.
Composer Payoff had produced hit songs from his very first work.
However, to Park Chang-seok, who had been in this industry for a long time as an A&R, Payoff was just a usable composer.
There was only one reason he chose Payoff’s song.
The basic rhythm, melody, and the overall base weren’t bad.
He had relied entirely on Eun-ji’s arranging skills…
And Eun-ho’s song interpretation ability.
He believed that these kids, whom he had watched grow, could take this song and make it their own, interpreting it in a unique way.
‘It would be amazing if these kids could pull this off.’
That’s why…
He made the choice, trusting the two’s abilities, not Payoff’s.
「“…As rookies, we need your permission to properly sing.”」
Eun-ho’s words kept echoing in his head.
The day Eun-ho and Eun-ji missed the last train…
「“…frequent disagreements.”」
The recent Eun-ho was noticeably different from the Eun-ho he remembered.
That’s why he was even more concerned.
It was something unimaginable before, but the current Eun-ho was good at navigating social situations.
He always avoided saying anything that could put him at a disadvantage.
And that Eun-ho was clearly calling his work with Payoff a “disagreement.”
‘This doesn’t feel right.’
It was a mistake not to consider Composer Payoff’s personality.
Music, if you only looked at the final product, was great.
There was nothing better than enjoying it as a form of cultural consumption.
But a single song contained the hard work of countless people and a significant amount of capital.
Also, whether it was a singer, composer, or lyricist, most of them were sensitive.
For over 10 years, Park Chang-seok had been mediating between these sensitive individuals, better than anyone else.
Perhaps thanks to his long experience dealing with people…
CEO Park’s intuition was as sharp as a needle.
And his intuition was telling him.
Payoff wasn’t the right choice.
He could lose Eun-ho and Eun-ji, whom he had cherished and raised.
“This is Park Chang-seok of NRY Entertainment.”
Originally, the busking events were planned to start after they finished working with Payoff.
‘I was planning to promote our E-ung’s new song along with the drama promotion…’
Unfortunately, he couldn’t catch two rabbits at once.
CEO Park sent the two home and contacted CK E&M to reschedule the busking events.
The next day, he informed Eun-ji about the busking news and entrusted her with the rearrangement of “Last Day.”
The first busking event at Suwon Station was a huge success.
Eun-ji’s rearrangement contributed greatly to the success.
Videos of their performance were circulating all over social media.
The company was flooded with calls after people saw the videos.
Meanwhile, CEO Park’s worries deepened.
‘This is the time to strike while the iron is hot…’
He even considered moving up their debut date with a single release if the song turned out well.
‘If only the song turned out well…’
He had intended to continue working with Payoff, ignoring Eun-ho’s warning about the ‘disagreement.’
But…
“This is terrible.”
The song was terrible.
Even all the nightmares he had in the past few years combined were better than this song.
‘Eun-ho could have done this much…’
Eun-ji’s deep voice had lost its charm, buried under layers of autotune.
He even wondered why parts like Eun-ho’s high notes, which didn’t need autotune, were processed.
「“Both Eun-ji and I are confident we can do better if given the chance…”」
No matter how many times he listened to it, Eun-ho was objectively right.
A director is like a chef.
And Payoff was a chef who didn’t know the taste of ketchup or mayonnaise.
He might have succeeded once or twice by chance, but how could a chef who didn’t even know the taste of the ingredients cook ‘well’?
If it weren’t for his directing, this garbage song wouldn’t have been created.
CEO Park rubbed his face and looked up at the ceiling.
This was the worst.
‘I regret not scrapping it earlier.’
He felt foolish for having hoped for something despite Eun-ho’s warning.
He had to make a decision now.
Admit his mistake and start over, or…
‘Haha.’
Or…
There were no words to follow.
He had already made his decision the moment he heard the autotuned song.
“What, you’re going to scrap it now, after we’ve finished recording?”
Payoff, receiving the call, clutched the back of his neck and gasped.
He angrily threw the cigarette he was holding onto the floor and crushed it with his foot.
“A small-time agency CEO like you…!”
—Haha.
Despite Payoff’s provocation, CEO Park chuckled leisurely and slowly spoke.
—I’m sorry.
“Of course you’re sorry. Listen, CEO Park, you’ll regret this later! I have a connection at Soundmate, and I’ll make sure they never sell songs to your rookies!”
—Oh.
Payoff gritted his teeth and hung up at CEO Park’s brazen exclamation.
“A small-time agency CEO! Aaagh!”
Payoff threw his phone at the leather sofa in anger.
Crack.
The iPhone bounced off the sofa and landed on the floor with an ominous sound.
Payoff clutched his head and yelled in frustration.
“Just you wait, you bastards. I’ll see how well you do after screwing me over! Damn it!”
He cursed, but his anger didn’t subside.
It was because of what he saw at the Suwon Station Rodeo Street busking event.
「Good job!」
「Eun-ho is the best!」
A familiar voice coming from a phone speaker, amidst the applause after the song ended.
Lee Eun-ho hadn’t seen them, but Payoff saw them clearly with his own eyes.
A large man, easily noticeable despite the black mask and deeply pulled-down cap.
「Yeong-hee, hold it a little higher!」
“Yes, hyung.”
It was bizarre to see the entire group, including a hulking man like a rock, cheering for those pretentious rookies, who weren’t even officially debuted, through their phones.
Toxin, the emperor group that showed no interest in even their fellow TaKa Entertainment rookies, let alone rookies from other agencies.
‘Visuals, vocals, connections…’
He wanted them to fail more than anyone, but those damn siblings already had too much.
“Damn it!!!”
Payoff slammed his fist on the desk in rage.
“Agh!”
But his anger, with nowhere to go, seemed to turn back on him, as he cradled his reddened wrist and sobbed.
“You’re scrapping it?”
“I know you worked hard, but the song…”
“It was terrible! Right?”
As Eun-ji asked cheerfully, CEO Park nodded silently.
Eun-ji, seemingly pleased with his answer, grinned, her dimples deepening.
“So, I’d like to rework the first single with Eun-ji’s ‘DUO’…”
“Oh!”
“I wanted to see what you thought. It’s a shame about all the hard work you put in, but—”
“I’m not sorry at all, and I like it!”
I agreed with Lee Eun-ji’s answer and added,
“I’m more worried about your wallet, CEO.”
“Haha, don’t worry about that. We’re still in the safe zone, barely.”
“Barely? We can’t let this happen again.”
The CEO, his face looking haggard, didn’t answer.
“By the way, to strike while the iron is hot, we need to prepare as quickly as possible.”
“Now is the right time.”
Stories about the “twin performance at Suwon Station” were flooding social media and news articles.
Although February 8th was set as our debut date, it didn’t have to be.
It would be nice to have a way to promote ourselves more…
CEO Park looked at Eun-ji, who would be directing “DUO,” and asked,
“So, when would be a good time for the recording, Eun-ji?”
“The guide and mixing are all ready, so I’m good whenever, as long as the engineer is available.”
“That’s it… That’s what we needed!”
“Ouch! What are you doing?!”
Excited, I grabbed Eun-ji’s arm and shook it vigorously.
I had forgotten, but there was that.
“What’s ‘that’?”
Lee Eun-ji asked, brushing my hand off irritably.
“O-Tube!”
“What…”
“O-Tube?”
As Eun-ji looked at me as if I was talking nonsense, CEO Park seemed to be pondering the words “O-Tube.”
Before the regression…
NRY Entertainment was behind the times.
They were so far behind, and they missed out on so much because of it.
So this time, let’s be ahead of the game.
Eun-ho continued his enthusiastic explanation.
As Eun-ho finished his calm explanation, CEO Park summarized and asked,
“So, Eun-ho, you’re saying we should show the process of recording and working on songs like ‘DUO’ on there?”
“Yes. And also, like vlogs, show our daily lives occasionally.”
“Vlogs?”
“Like a video diary of our daily lives.”
“Oh, well. Since there’s no separate cost per video…”
CEO Park seemed to be seriously considering the idea, lost in thought with his hand on his chin.