Siblings Work in Business (11)
“We’ll do our best!”
As if we had planned it, I jumped up and shouted, and Lee Eun-ji yelled at the same time.
I felt Lee Eun-ji glancing at me, but I kept my eyes fixed on CEO Park.
“Yes, that’s how you should answer. It makes me want to work.”
The CEO chuckled and put down the A4 sheets he was holding.
“Now, I’ve brought a few designs for your team logo, so choose the one you like.”
“Team logo?”
“You need a logo for your promotions and albums.”
The A4 sheets the CEO was holding seemed to be printed materials for the team logo.
There were various designs.
However, Lee Eun-ji seemed dissatisfied, tilting her head.
“E-ung? The spelling seems weird.”
As Lee Eun-ji asked, tilting her head, the CEO, as if anticipating the question, calmly wrote the word [Samardzija] on a piece of paper and handed it to Eun-ji.
“Read it.”
“Sama, d, ji… ja?”
“It’s Samardzija.”
“But how can it be…!”
“Just read it as they ask you to. That’s why we went with ‘E-ung’.”
Lee Eun-ji looked dumbfounded but seemed to have no words to retort, placing her hand on her forehead and leaning back against the sofa.
“Forget the spelling, Eun-ji. Choose a logo you like, like Eun-ho.”
While Lee Eun-ji was sprawled out, I looked through the A4 sheets the CEO had put down, examining the designs.
“I thought Eun-ho would be upset that I didn’t tell him beforehand.”
“Huh? Oh.”
I looked up at the CEO, and he was looking at me with a strange expression.
“I trust your sense, CEO.”
CEO Park had been in this industry for as long as I had been alive.
The sense he had developed from that experience was something I couldn’t just dismiss because I could sing a little.
‘However, I didn’t realize that back then.’
So I stubbornly pushed my own way.
And that’s how I messed up my single, mini-album, and first full album.
‘The team name ‘Tiger something’ was something I could ignore…’
But even that, it turned out, was because of the CEO’s experience as an A&R.
He was skilled at handling people, and I later learned that it was his technique to ‘intentionally suggest the worst options to speed up the decision-making process.’
“Trusting my sense? What’s gotten into Lee Eun-ho?”
The CEO’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at my answer, and then he chuckled.
His gaze then shifted to Lee Eun-ji.
“Eun-ji, don’t neglect your practice because of songwriting.”
“I’m working hard.”
“Don’t overdo it.”
“Yes.”
After the brief exchange, the CEO sat on the opposite sofa and started talking about the upcoming schedule.
‘February 8th.’
I instinctively sensed that our peaceful daily life of bickering over ramen was coming to an end.
“Manage your condition thoroughly so you don’t collapse in the middle.”
“Yes!”
“The recording schedule will start with Eun-ji’s ‘DUO.’ I’ll let you know the exact schedule when it’s confirmed.”
“Yes.”
“And Eun-ho…”
“Yes?”
It looked like he had something to say, but the CEO awkwardly opened his mouth and stopped.
Then, he awkwardly shook his head and changed the subject.
“Um, never mind.”
The strange discrepancy made me feel uneasy.
But it probably wasn’t important.
I brushed off the distracting thoughts.
—Bzzz. Bzzz.
Just then, the CEO’s phone vibrated.
“That’s all for today. Take these with you, discuss them, and bring them back when you’ve decided.”
“Yes.”
“You can go now.”
Lee Eun-ji and I gathered the piled-up designs and stood up.
“Oh, and…”
Just as we were about to leave the CEO’s office…
“From today onwards, you’ll have lessons together on Mondays and Tuesdays, so go to the academy together later.”
“Huh?”
Lee Eun-ji looked at me with a disgusted expression.
“Yes, this is CEO Park Chang-seok of NRY.”
Lessons together?
That was never part of the schedule before the regression.
I looked back, and Lee Eun-ji also seemed to have a lot to say.
But we didn’t have the chance to ask the CEO anything.
“Ah, yes. Yes, yes.”
We lingered at the door, but we were soon shooed away by the CEO’s hand gestures.
After being practically kicked out of the CEO’s office…
I decided to wash my face before going to the academy and headed to the second floor.
Lee Eun-ji was unusually quiet today.
If it were before, she would have been throwing a fit, calling me a pumpkin or rockfish head, regardless of whether the CEO was on the phone or not, complaining about having to do lessons together.
“Lee Eun-ji.”
“Yeah.”
“Why aren’t you complaining?”
“About the… lessons?”
“Yeah.”
“I am.”
Lee Eun-ji frowned as if thinking about something, then shrugged nonchalantly and sighed.
“But it must be for the sake of quality, so it can’t be helped.”
“What’s gotten into you?”
For Lee Eun-ji to give such an answer…
Honestly, I expected her to complain, so I was surprised by her calmness.
But that was short-lived.
As soon as we arrived at the academy…
“I don’t want to!”
Lee Eun-ji, who had been acting mature at the dorm, exploded.
Perhaps it was the teacher’s style, but since we were a group, breathing became important, and our lesson method changed.
The problem was that the song…
Was a love song, which we both extremely loathed.
‘And a super sweet one at that.’
“Some,” one of the hit songs of 2014.
It was a nostalgic song for me, from years past, but to encounter it again as a ‘new’ song…
It made me realize that I really had gone back in time.
Just as I was lost in my thoughts…
Lee Eun-ji’s straight index finger pointed right in front of my face.
“I have to sing this, looking at… at my… brother?!”
That punk, she was definitely about to call me a rockfish head again.
In response to Eun-ji’s question, the teacher nodded with an emotionless face.
“You have to sing. Are you planning to sing on stage without even looking at each other?”
“But we’re not going to sing love songs…!”
The teacher’s gaze at Lee Eun-ji was so sharp that it felt piercing even to me.
“Yes, what you don’t do, you don’t do. But it shouldn’t be because you ‘can’t’ do it.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Lee Eun-ji sulkily pouted.
“But how can I… looking at this rockfish head…!”
“My, the pumpkin speaks well.”
At my nonchalant reply, Lee Eun-ji was about to yell but closed her mouth.
It was because of the teacher’s chilling gaze, which clearly warned us to stop.
“Eun-ji, it’s important to try.”
“I know, but…”
“If you try and it doesn’t work, you can refuse then. But I won’t tolerate giving up before even trying, saying ‘I can’t do it.’ That’s not even trying.”
Lee Eun-ji seemed to have lost some of her stubbornness and sighed deeply.
“Hey, Lee Eun-ho!”
“She’s trying to act like me again.”
“Ah, whatever! Can you sing this song with me? Looking awkwardly into each other’s eyes, like the teacher said?”
“Do you think I want to? It’s not like I’ve been shot in the head.”
“Head?”
“Yes, head. Just sing. You’re a professional, you’ll do it properly anyway.”
“…What?”
Then…
Lee Eun-ji faltered and asked, as if she had heard something unbelievable.
I knew Lee Eun-ji’s sensitive spots better than anyone.
This was all thanks to the diary she left behind.
“You don’t want to remain an amateur, do you?”
2014.
The era of ‘some.’ At the beginning of January, two songs with the same word, ‘some,’ in their titles were competing for first place.
Whether it was on the radio or variety shows, everywhere was talking about ‘some’ or singing “A Sweet Night in Autumn.”
Perhaps that’s why…
Before the regression, I had already sung this song with Lee Eun-ji.
On the radio, even.
Live.
‘Back then, she immersed herself in it even more than I, who was sick of it…’
During the radio broadcast, Lee Eun-ji and I had completely opposite reactions.
I was even more disgusted than Lee Eun-ji was now, and she was the one scolding me, asking what was wrong with doing it.
「“Act like a professional!”」
That day, Lee Eun-ji had said that.
Even in her diary, that day’s events were vividly described, and her desire to be a ‘professional’ was strongly expressed.
“I’ll do it. I’ll try.”
As if ‘professional’ were a magic word…
Lee Eun-ji seemed to have changed her mind, answering calmly and standing in front of the microphone.
“Okay. Then Eun-ho, you go first.”
While Lee Eun-ji calmed herself down with a deep sigh…
The teacher started the MR accompaniment.
I lightly opened my mouth, listening to the four-beat drum sound of the intro.
Sometimes I get annoyed too
Even though my heart hasn’t changed
I heard rustling sounds beside me, but I tried my best to focus on the song and lyrics.
The song itself wasn’t difficult.
But the teacher’s demands went beyond just singing, and there were no exceptions.
“Lift your head and look at each other affectionately.”
“Empty, puhkgeuk…”
I tried my best.
I could tell Lee Eun-ji was genuinely trying to suppress her laughter from her flushed face.
But at the teacher’s request, we made eye contact, and at that moment…
We both spat at each other.
“Pfft!”
No matter how hard we tried to stay composed, we couldn’t hold back our laughter.
It lasted for a good 10 minutes.
A laughter close to wailing that we couldn’t stop even if we wanted to.
We tried several more times after that.
But most of the time, we couldn’t even get past the verse before breaking down.
Especially with the cheesy love songs, we failed faster and more easily.
After that, we tried to get through a whole track even while gritting our teeth, but the song, without emotional immersion, was just ‘singing,’ not something worth listening to.
“Take a break.”
Lee Ha-neul left the booth, leaving behind the exhausted Eun-ho and Eun-ji.
Even with an existing song, it was this bad.
Lee Ha-neul could clearly see that it would be even more disastrous if they had to sing a song with their own emotions.
Lee Ha-neul calmly walked to the water dispenser and filled her tumbler, sighing and rubbing her forehead.
‘Stuck in the middle, what am I even doing…’
Sibling singers who struggled with love songs, and a CEO who insisted on including them.
Lee Ha-neul was the shrimp caught between two whales.