Siblings Work in Business (147)
With the CEO agreeing with me, we decided to keep Hwa-rang’s “bomb” as a safety measure against TaKa Entertainment.
Then, a heavy silence fell over the CEO’s office, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
I was also thinking about what Hwa-rang had told us.
When I saw B&C’s performance…
Hwa-rang was carrying the entire song by herself, compensating for her male counterpart’s mistakes.
She had trained for seven years?
That was a long time.
When my own debut was delayed for a year or two…
‘I believed the CEO would let me debut as long as I improved my skills.’
I took my debut for granted. I didn’t realize how lucky I was.
‘So I was jealous of Eun-ji, who debuted first…’
It was still an embarrassing memory.
But Hwa-rang was different.
‘Seven years…’
And without even the certainty of a debut.
It was a long time, a humbling realization for my past self, who was so impatient and took his debut for granted. It couldn’t have been easy, especially with everyone around her leaving.
I had heard of trainees with even longer training periods, but it hadn’t felt real back then.
I was too preoccupied with my own struggles.
But Hwa-rang was different.
I had seen her failed debut stage with my own eyes.
A stage she had reached after seven years of hardship, ruined by her teammate. I couldn’t even imagine the despair.
My only concern had been, ‘Am I holding Eun-ji back?’ I never considered the possibility of her failing.
‘What if it wasn’t Eun-ji?’
The thought was unsettling.
I didn’t trust strangers. And a stage performance wasn’t a solo act.
‘Hwa-rang…’
A single opportunity, after years of preparation, thrown away in an instant… It was a difficult situation to overcome. But Hwa-rang hadn’t given up.
‘She’s strong.’
That was my first impression of her.
While Eun-ho was thinking about Hwa-rang…
‘Unnie Hwa-rang. She seems different, I hope the CEO accepts her…’
Eun-ji was also thinking about Hwa-rang, although her thoughts were different from Eun-ho’s.
Workaholics
Until now, besides the dance team, Eun-ho and Eun-ji were the only ‘singers’ at NRY Entertainment.
Even before the regression, trainees only joined after NRY grew significantly.
The trainees were much younger, and to them, Eun-ji was like a god.
She was a ‘Top 10 killer,’ her songs always charting high.
She tried to befriend the trainees, but most of them were intimidated by her strong image and her senior status.
Eun-ji longed for the close relationships between artists from the same agency.
But she barely had any proper conversations with them.
None of them lasted long, unlike at TaKa Entertainment.
Thanks to the CEO’s business acumen and generous spending, NRY offered top-tier benefits, but the training was also rigorous.
In the past few years, only one group had managed to debut from among the countless trainees who joined NRY Entertainment.
Lee Ha-neul’s vocal training method, which intentionally broke down their egos…
Followed by Lee Gu-reum’s dance training, which pushed their physical limits…
It was mentally and physically demanding, and on top of that, CEO Park’s lessons on general knowledge and the music industry…
The heavy workload was one of the reasons many trainees quit.
Still, Eun-ji often had opportunities to talk to the trainees, at CEO Park’s request.
He called it ‘senior feedback sessions.’
But the trainees both looked forward to and dreaded these sessions.
「“What’s the most difficult part for you?”」
Lee Gu-reum’s teaching method was the most common complaint in response to Eun-ji’s question.
Eun-ji wasn’t good at comforting others. It was the same during her first performance with Eun-ho at Suwon Station Rodeo Street.
When Eun-ho had a sudden panic attack, Eun-ji, startled, scolded him and said harsh words out of frustration. To Eun-ji, a seasoned performer, even those considered ‘geniuses’ were just mediocre. And as a ‘hardworking genius,’ she couldn’t relate to the trainees’ complaints.
「“Well, I’m worried because I’m not improving despite practicing so hard…”」
「“You call that difficult? I never thought of that as ‘difficult’…”」
「“Then just quit. It’s only going to get harder. Why are you even here if you’re already complaining?”」
Eun-ji’s blunt words often discouraged and frustrated the trainees.
Eun-ho was similar.
But he wasn’t particularly interested in the trainees, except for one.
「“After you debut, you’ll sometimes have to learn choreography in a day or two…”」
「“If you’re going to make excuses every time, shouldn’t you just leave now?”」
「“If you don’t like the teaching methods here, go find a place that suits you.”」
There was a trainee who asked to reduce the intensity of Lee Gu-reum’s training.
Eun-ho was sensitive to such requests.
He himself was struggling to reach that top 0.1%, even though he trained just as hard as Eun-ji, so he was even harsher on them.
This was a place where hard work alone wasn’t enough.
Perhaps that’s why… the artists and idols who debuted from NRY Entertainment, having overcome such hardship, were all successful. It was inevitable, considering their relentless release of songs. It was all possible thanks to Eun-ji, their “factory manager,” constantly churning out music.
The Cloud Dance Team, being Lee Gu-reum’s students, were also used to an intense workload. And ironically, the trainee who had complained about the training intensity ended up debuting successfully.
Fans jokingly called the idols from NRY Entertainment ‘robots’ because of their flawless performances under pressure, even as rookies.
There were some criticisms about them being overworked, but… those comments disappeared after CEO Park’s ‘break time’ policy was proven effective by the artists themselves.
Silence fell over the CEO’s office after Hwa-rang’s bombshell.
Clap!
Then, CEO Park clapped.
“So, I’ll take care of Hwa-rang’s situation, so let’s talk about why you two are here.”
“Isn’t it because of tomorrow’s broadcast?”
“No. We had a promise, didn’t we?”
“…?”
Eun-ho and Eun-ji tilted their heads in confusion.
“I knew you wouldn’t remember.”
“…?”
“You promised to take a break after this busy period.”
“…When?”
“When things get busy.”
“When things get busy… ah!”
Eun-ho clapped his hand, seemingly remembering.
‘What?’
‘The time we postponed dinner because we were busy and got a one-hour lecture…’
‘Ah.’
After their silent communication, Eun-ji’s expression changed, not to joy, but to a mix of sadness and disappointment. CEO Park, watching them, couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You two are the first people I’ve seen who look sad about getting a break after working so hard…”
“We weren’t… that tired…”
“Okay, okay. Anyway.”
“We weren’t tired…”
As Eun-ji muttered, looking at Eun-ho, he nodded in agreement.
“Shouldn’t we at least wait until the album is released before taking a break?”
“No.”
He wasn’t going to let them wiggle out of this. He had been talking about breaks since their debut. But Eun-ho kept finding ways to create more work, and so it continued until now. CEO Park sighed and asked,
“Do you even know when your last day off was?”
“We had a lot of days off. We rested when TaKa canceled our schedule.”
“That’s not what— Eun-ho…”
CEO Park facepalmed and sighed.
“Other people use that time to prepare new songs, they don’t call it ‘rest’…”
Practicing choreography, vocal lessons for new songs…
Even without promotions, Eun-ho and Eun-ji never stopped working.
Even when TaKa blocked their schedules, the CCTV footage from the first-floor recording studio showed them there almost every day and night.
[Eun-ji — New beat! What do you think?]
[Eun-ho — (Picture of his notebook) Here are the lyrics.]
Eun-ji would send him mp3 files of her new songs, and Eun-ho would send pictures of his lyrics.
They contacted him every day, or at least every other day.
CEO Park found himself constantly checking his phone, like someone waiting for a message from their lover.
It hadn’t been like this before. He usually just checked and approved Eun-ho’s lyrics, and Eun-ho took longer to write than Eun-ji took to compose. Eun-ji, however, sent him at least one song a day, sometimes up to ten in a few hours. Thankfully, it had been easy to distinguish the good songs from the bad. But lately, he was having trouble choosing. Every hour, another great song was added to the pile, each one hard to discard.
「“This is driving me crazy.”」
「“Hey, that just means she’s talented, it’s a good thing. Right?”」
「“It is, it is! But if you experienced this yourself, you’d go crazy too.”」
「“I can’t imagine. Haha. Right, Badugi(spotted dog)?”」
「“Meow.”」
CEO Park had even complained to PD Kim Cheol-soo, who frequently visited to see his cat.
But she couldn’t understand.
Eun-ji’s composing pace remained the same.
However, her skills had improved drastically. Before, he could discard seven out of ten songs she sent. But now, there were days when he couldn’t discard any. He couldn’t understand how she did it, not having known her before the regression.