Siblings Work in Business (47)
“Oh…”
“Alright, that’s enough looking. Please return to your floor, Team Leader Min.”
“Just a little longer.”
Despite Team Leader Min’s plea, Jeon Myeong-hun coldly closed the window.
“So stingy. At least tell the editor to write a good article about them.”
“Fine. Now, I have to edit these. Please leave.”
“Haha. Alright. Good work, Myeong-hooni.”
Jeon Myeong-hun waved his hand dismissively, gesturing for Team Leader Min to leave.
As Team Leader Min was practically kicked out of the CK Music Life Magazine office…
Jeon Myeong-hun turned to a female employee sitting at the desk next to his, her hand resting on the partition.
“You heard that, Seul-gi?”
“Of course.”
On the other side of the partition…
Joo Seul-gi peeked over and made an ‘OK’ sign with her fingers, smiling brightly.
“I heard it all.”
Jeon Myeong-hun, seemingly unfamiliar with Seul-gi’s cheerful demeanor, asked cautiously,
“Wow, it’s been years since I last saw you smile like that, Seul-gi.”
“Oh, really?”
“Did something good happen?”
“Yes.”
Joo Seul-gi looked at Jeon Myeong-hun for a moment, then turned back to her monitor and added playfully,
“I like the work I’m doing now.”
“That’s unexpected.”
“You said you weren’t interested in singers…”
“Well, I wasn’t, but people change.”
“It’s surprising to see you change, Seul-gi.”
Jeon Myeong-hun took a sip of his lukewarm Maxim coffee and continued their idle chatter.
Seul-gi, typing on her keyboard, smiled and replied,
“I’m human too. You’d be even more surprised if you knew I’m also an E-UNG fan.”
“Pfft, what? You’re kidding, right?”
Jeon Myeong-hun stared at Seul-gi in disbelief, looking at the coffee he had spilled on his desk.
He even asked again, unable to believe it.
“Seriously. I’m even an administrator of their fan cafe.”
“That’s ridiculous. What are they even doing that everyone’s their fan?”
At Jeon Myeong-hun’s strong reaction, Joo Seul-gi chuckled and said,
“What do you mean ‘what are they doing’? They sing well, they’re both handsome, they take good care of their fans…”
Seul-gi smiled, remembering Eun-ji showing off her earrings at the Twenties Live Bar performance.
“And the younger sibling is very charming.”
“The younger sibling… you mean the girl?”
“Yes.”
“Why her?”
“Why?”
Seul-gi’s eyes sparkled as Jeon Myeong-hun asked.
“Girls like pretty and cool girls too.”
DUO
A week after the music video shoot…
“Achoo!”
I flinched while putting on my shoes.
“Damn it.”
It didn’t feel like anything came out, but it felt icky.
“Why are you sneezing on my butt?”
“You should have put your shoes on faster, or sat down to put them on!”
“Give me some space then.”
“You could have turned your butt towards the wall.”
Ah, right.
I felt embarrassed, realizing she was right.
I shoved the long shoelaces into my shoes and quickly stood up.
“Why did you sneeze all of a sudden?”
“Can’t I?”
“Do you have a cold?”
I asked, a bit concerned.
With our debut date approaching, the CEO was strictly managing our condition.
Of course, it was still much, much less strict than at bigger agencies.
But he was thorough when it came to health management.
“I don’t think so…?”
“It’s either you do or you don’t, what’s with the ‘I don’t think so’?”
Lee Eun-ji mumbled her reply and walked past me.
Then, as she headed towards the stairs…
“Lee Eun-ho’s butt stinks!”
“Lee Eun-ji, you…”
“Haha!”
By the time I called her name, Lee Eun-ji was already downstairs.
“Hurry up! We’re going to be late!”
Lee Eun-ji yelled from downstairs as I locked the door to the second floor.
‘Sigh.’
Just as I went downstairs, ignoring her loud voice…
The front door opened.
“Stop being noisy outside and come in!”
The CEO yelled from the doorway.
He seemed to have come out because he heard Lee Eun-ji’s loud voice while waiting in the living room.
We glared at each other and then bowed our heads.
“We apologize.”
“Come in.”
“Yes.”
The CEO didn’t let go of the doorknob until we were completely inside.
Hyun-woo was already sitting at the meeting table in the living room.
We nodded in greeting and sat down.
Today’s meeting was about the final cut arrangement file we received from Dark Ocean Production.
In a way, it was our last chance to give feedback.
“You heard that the editing is finished, right?”
“Yes, hyung told us.”
“After today, even if you give feedback, it will be difficult to make changes.”
“Why?”
Eun-ji tilted her head and asked.
“Eun-ji.”
“Yes.”
“Imagine a 100-story building, built up to the 60th floor. And then someone asks you to move it 1cm to the side. How would that be?”
“Crazy.”
I rubbed my forehead, seeing Lee Eun-ji casually cursing in front of the CEO.
“Yes, it would be crazy, but don’t talk like that outside. That’s a warning.”
“Yes…”
Eun-ji seemed to realize her mistake at the CEO’s warning and covered her mouth.
“Anyway, if you want to make changes after today, it will be just as difficult. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Now, focus.”
The CEO displayed the file from Dark Ocean on the screen.
We focused on the screen, checking the order of the cuts, and shared our opinions.
“It’s all good, but I want to change the intro part a little.”
“How?”
“Well… hmm.”
Lee Eun-ji seemed to be struggling to explain, her arms crossed.
The intro…
As I was reviewing the part Lee Eun-ji mentioned…
‘Ah, that’s why…’
I quickly found the part that was bothering her.
The screen slowly zoomed in, creating a relaxed atmosphere, but the intro of “DUO” started with a strong bass drum beat.
In other words, the visuals and the music weren’t synchronized.
“CEO.”
“Yes?”
The CEO, who had been waiting for Eun-ji’s answer, turned to me with a curious look.
“This part here.”
I rewound the video to the intro.
The part she mentioned.
“I think it would be better to use jump cuts here, synced to the bass drum. It feels like the slow visuals and our song don’t match.”
“Yes! That’s it!”
As I briefly explained, Lee Eun-ji clapped and gave me a thumbs-up, as if relieved.
But then, she tilted her head and asked,
“What’s a jump cut?”
“How can you say ‘That’s it!’ without even knowing what it is…?”
“I can be impressed even if I don’t know what it is.”
Haha.
As I looked at Lee Eun-ji in disbelief, Hyun-woo, who had been quietly watching, burst out laughing.
I explained it to Eun-ji, pointing at the screen.
“Like the name suggests, the screen slowly zooms in from here to here, right?”
“Yeah.”
“If you cut out parts in between, the scene will jump from one point to another, like teleportation, right?”
“Oh! Yeah!”
“That’s called a jump cut because it looks like it’s jumping. Just understand it like that.”
“Ooh!”
She’s always good at being impressed.
As I glared at Lee Eun-ji…
“But Eun-ho.”
“Yes?”
“Where did you learn about that?”
The CEO, who had been watching the screen along with Eun-ji, suddenly asked.
“Um, j-just heard about it.”
“Really?”
It was a trick I learned while working on several songs before the regression.
But I didn’t have a good excuse, so I just answered vaguely.
“Hmm, I see.”
Thankfully, the CEO didn’t press further and nodded in understanding.
“Not bad. I’ll relay your suggestion to the production team.”
“Okay.”
That was the end of the meeting.
The scenes were so perfect that there was nothing else to add.
It was a video that justified the CEO’s generous investment and our hard work during filming.
“I’ll tell them we’re going with this!”
“Okay, sounds good.”
After we gave the okay…
The CEO told us that the music video went straight into post-production.
Lee Eun-ji and I focused on practice and self-management.
Just like before, we continued vocal and dance practice during the day and worked on new songs in the evening.
[Come to my room now.]
[Why?]
[New song.]
One evening, busier and more hectic than usual…
Lee Eun-ji sent me a KakaoTalk message, saying she had a new song.
If it were for something trivial, I wouldn’t have bothered, but since it was a new song…
I reluctantly got up, my body exhausted, pushing my notebooks aside.
And as I opened Lee Eun-ji’s door…
“What the…”
I wondered if I had entered the wrong room.
Her room, usually covered in clothes, making it hard to distinguish the floor from the bed…
Was surprisingly tidy today, the clothes neatly hung on hangers.
And there were no half-eaten energy bar wrappers or empty water bottles.
No scattered food containers that used to hold chicken breast!
“You… you’re not Lee Eun-ji.”
“Crazy.”
“There’s no way Lee Eun-ji’s room would be this clean.”
“Are you insane?”
Lee Eun-ji’s room was incredibly clean today.
Half serious, half teasing, I gasped dramatically at the clean trash can and the tidy desk.
“Ah, you crazy bastard! Stop it!”
My teasing seemed to have worked, as Eun-ji yelled, picking up a weapon.
If it were any other object, I would have continued teasing her, but what she happened to pick up was a sturdy makeup case, the kind professionals use.
And a pretty big one.
“Okay, okay! I’ll stop! Put that down first, I’m sorry.”
I instinctively covered my head and yelled.
I knew I would get seriously hurt if I got hit by that.
“I was lectured… for two and a half hours.”
Lee Eun-ji put the case down and muttered in a tired voice.
The CEO had called Lee Eun-ji aside before the weekend, probably to tell her to clean her room.
“So, what’s the new song about?”