Siblings Work in Business (148)
[Eun-ji – New beat!]
[CEO – Eun-ji, you sent me three songs two hours ago…]
[Eun-ji – Should I send them later?]
[CEO – If you send them later, there will be more, won’t there?]
[Eun-ji – LOL exactly]
[CEO – Just send them.]
[Eun-ji – Okay~ (Emoticon of a cat saluting)]
[68.mp3]
A few minutes after Eun-ji’s message arrived…
[Eun-ho – (Picture of a notebook)]
[CEO – ?]
[Eun-ho – Lyrics for #28.]
[CEO – (Emoticon of a bald man pulling his hair and yelling “Stop!”)]
[Eun-ho – ???]
[CEO – You and Eun-ji…]
[Eun-ho – ?????]
[CEO – Forget it. Just forget it.]
Eun-ho chose the songs and wrote the lyrics.
The numbers in the chat referred to the order in which Eun-ji’s songs were approved.
So, 68 songs had been approved so far.
CEO Park, buried under the mountain of choices, gave up the next day, throwing his hands up in the air and yelling,
“Just do whatever you want!”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Just like the upcoming ‘TIME’ album, group a few songs together and choose yourselves! Bring me the selection.”
“You mean, we choose?”
“Yes. Gather the songs, and then we’ll have a meeting with the staff to decide how to proceed. So stop sending them to me. Please. I’m going to go bald from all this stress—”
Although he mentioned “bald” as a joke, Eun-ho and Eun-ji, looking at him with genuine concern, readily agreed.
He was relieved, but there was a problem.
He often visited the recording studio to check on Eun-ho and Eun-ji’s progress.
“Is it bad?”
“Yeah, it’s worse than I thought.”
“Let’s scrap it.”
“Okay, I’ll try another one.”
“Should we try song #40?”
“Sure.”
Eun-ho and Eun-ji would readily discard a perfectly good, catchy song without a hint of regret.
This was the biggest disadvantage of giving them complete control.
Even if he liked the song, whether it would be released or not depended entirely on whether they liked the final result.
“Aren’t you… a little bit… sad about discarding it? You wrote good lyrics…”
“Nope. Lee Eun-ho, are you sad about the lyrics?”
“A little, but it’s okay. I can always write more. If we cling to this, we might miss out on a better song. That would be a bigger waste.”
“See? That’s what he said.”
CEO Park had nothing to say to that.
Having given up the decision-making power, he could only soothe his disappointment. He had no idea what would happen next.
If they had a schedule during the day, they worked at night, and if they had evening schedules, they sacrificed sleep and worked until dawn. They worked tirelessly for days, and then collapsed from exhaustion. And as soon as they woke up, they started working on new songs again. By the time CEO Park found out, this had been going on for weeks. Since their debut in February, according to the CEO’s standards, they hadn’t had a single day of ‘rest.’
Honestly, from a ‘business’ perspective, their workaholism was a good thing.
As long as they worked, the company made money.
Especially during the university festival season in early June.
Their performance fee for a single stage was in the hundreds of thousands of won, even higher with sponsorships.
Since they weren’t getting many broadcast appearances…
Their fees were relatively low compared to more established idol groups.
So, they were known in the industry as a cost-effective group.
Then came the Ihan University festival performance.
“Hello, this is NRY Entertainment!”
“Yes, NRY Enter— oh, yes! An i-interview?”
After their performance, the phones at NRY Entertainment were ringing off the hook.
It wasn’t a literal fire, but they were ringing non-stop.
All the staff members were busy answering calls.
As soon as they hung up, another call came in.
During the hundreds of calls, the staff had no idea why.
Then, they learned from social media, even later than the news outlets, that Eun-ho and Eun-ji’s impromptu ad-lib and fancam had gone viral.
“NRY Enter— I apologize. E-UNG’s schedule is full until July. We’ll check and get back to you.”
From then on…
They were flooded with calls from various media outlets and event organizers.
Their schedule was completely booked until the end of summer.
While the company celebrated the good news, CEO Park’s worries grew.
As they gained popularity, broadcasting stations, which had been cautious because of the Toxin issue and TaKa Entertainment’s warning, started sending offers.
They received numerous requests, not just for interviews, but also for music shows and variety shows.
‘Variety shows… Eun-ho would be fine, but…’
He decided to put them on hold, worried about Eun-ji’s temper and the potential for on-air incidents.
From then on, their days were filled with back-to-back schedules.
In early June, most of their schedules were events, not broadcasts.
At least two performances a day, up to five. Some even offered more money, but CEO Park limited their schedules, considering their health.
「“They have about three events scheduled per day. We can reduce it if they’re too tired—”」
「“Don’t reduce it! Lee Eun-ho might be tired, but I’m fine! We can handle it!”」
「“I’m fine too, we can do up to five.”」
「“Oh, great! Five! Let’s do five! If any were canceled, please reschedule them!”」
「“We should work hard while we’re popular.”」
「“You two always agree when it comes to this.”」
CEO Park’s limit was three stages a day. But Eun-ho and Eun-ji insisted on five, just because they enjoyed meeting their fans.
The E% on E-FAN were happy about their active promotions.
At first, they were.
[Have Rangi and Ji-ji lost a lot of weight recently?]
└ Maybe they’re managing their weight?
└ It seems a bit excessive for weight management.
└ It can’t be helped since they’re idols, but it seems a bit much lately.
└ Right, I’m worried because they lost weight so quickly ㅠㅠㅠ…
└ CEO Park… I liked you, but this is not okay…
CEO Park, reading the comments on E-FAN, sighed worriedly, seeing the fans’ concerns about their sudden weight loss.
‘I finally got them to a healthy weight…’
In just two weeks, due to their hectic schedule, Eun-ho and Eun-ji had lost a noticeable amount of weight, almost 10kg each. Even the staff at the company were worried. The rapid weight loss was partly due to their intense schedule, but mostly because of their eating habits.
「“They say they don’t like seeing leftover food… so they’ll eat later.”」
「“And do they actually ‘eat later’?”」
「“No… they say they’ll eat when they get home.”」
「“Their refrigerator is filled with rotten food, what’s there to eat at home?!”」
Koreans live on rice, yet…
Despite their demanding schedules, Eun-ho and Eun-ji, obsessed with work, often skipped meals.
CEO Park’s lecture mode was activated when he heard they had been skipping meals for days. He was their guardian. Not just figuratively, but legally, before they became adults.
‘My heart aches when they skip even one meal…!’
Knowing about their past, he was heartbroken when he heard they were starving themselves.
“They begged me to make sure they never went hungry again, and now they’re starving themselves…”
He wasn’t the only one worried.
“I feel so bad for Hyun-woo…”
CEO Park knew Hyun-woo well.
Although he always seemed indifferent on the outside, Hyun-woo, like Seul-gi, was a staff member who had signed a contract based on his fandom.
Which meant, he was also working for them out of affection. He just wasn’t expressive. But CEO Park always noticed his subtle changes. And today, Hyun-woo’s voice during his report was trembling slightly, a subtle difference he might have missed if he wasn’t paying attention.
Hyun-woo, although an early fan of E-UNG, was a professional manager.
Which meant, he had witnessed his artists starving themselves for work for the past two weeks.
How could he endure that?
CEO Park couldn’t understand and finally exploded.
「“If I hear you skipped another meal, I’m canceling all your schedules!”」
「“And! We’re going back to the mandatory break time policy after promotions!”」
Would that threat even work?
CEO Park himself found it ridiculous, but…
…surprisingly, it worked on Eun-ho and Eun-ji.
A day before the lecture…
…an announcement from CEO Park appeared on the E-FAN app.
「To all E% who love and support E-UNG:
Hello. This is CEO Park Chang-seok of NRY Entertainment.
I’ve recently heard concerns about ‘Rangi’ and ‘Ji-ji’s’ health.
…
Therefore, I’m taking them away to educate them and to ensure this never happens again.
…」
CEO Park knew, from experience, that lectures weren’t effective.
So, to prove he was serious… he took the two on a fishing trip.
The place, filled with container houses, was a haven for fishing enthusiasts, a place where there was nothing to do but fish.
For Eun-ho and Eun-ji, it was hell.
‘No phones.’
‘No singing.’
‘No writing in notebooks.’
‘No composing.’
And to make matters worse, even humming was prohibited.
Hyun-woo was in charge of monitoring them while filming for their YouTube channel.