The Siblings Do Business Together (5)
After the call ended, Representative Park Chang-seok tapped the desk with his fingertips, lost in thought.
Vocal trainer Lee Ha-neul, who had been raising numerous children with him for 12 years.
She was stingy with praise and not someone who easily uttered the word “growth”.
“Without seeing him, Eun-ho’s basics have suddenly grown rapidly to the point of being almost complete, did you know?”
Eun-ji was in a situation where she was being scolded by Manager Lee for being far behind in basics.
For him, who had been particularly focused on Eun-ji’s activities, it was a shocking story.
“Eun-ho is complete…”
Representative Park Chang-seok.
He was someone who had managed numerous skilled idol groups and solo singers at TaKa Entertainment before establishing this company.
To him, who had been in this industry for over 10 years, Lee Eun-ho was just a baby who had taken a slightly early first step.
Just about average, the kind that would emerge if you train most trainees well.
Representative Park’s evaluation of Eun-ho was no more, no less, just that.
For Park Chang-seok, who had to do “business” with content, to be honest, Eun-ho was the kind of friend whose growth had an end in sight.
Was that why? He hadn’t had any particular expectations for Eun-ho.
‘Honestly.’
If Eun-ji, who was born with a charming medium-low tone optimized for R&B and overflowing with talent, hadn’t been by his side, would the evaluation have changed a bit?
‘Because they’re family…’
Lee Eun-ho and Lee Eun-ji siblings have a bad relationship on the outside.
However, the two people Representative Park had personally seen were actually producing the best synergy that could be called for each other.
Eun-ji was greatly stimulated by the hardworking Eun-ho, and Eun-ho was sensitively honing his ordinariness into individuality in order not to fall behind Eun-ji.
‘What if we put those two together as a group and turn them into idols?’
The reason he first proposed a mixed-gender duo to the two was because of such an experimental idea.
Usually, mixed-gender groups require attention to various aspects such as dating issues and image, so management is cumbersome.
In addition, the fact that it is difficult to intensively target a single-gender fandom was also a problem.
But the moment he saw the sibling musicians who were sweeping the charts recently, Representative Park dreamed of new possibilities in the Lee Eun-ho and Lee Eun-ji siblings.
“Representative! Lee Eun-ho has been strange these days.”
A few days ago.
Eun-ji had said something like that in passing.
He had dismissed it as the usual grumbling between the siblings, but.
When he thought about it carefully, Eun-ho seemed a bit different from usual on the evening of the day he proposed the sibling debut.
“What if it’s not a love song? You can make the song, can’t you?”
If it were the usual Eun-ho, the moment Eun-ji said it was disgusting, he would have shouted angrily.
‘But Eun-ho persuaded Eun-ji.’
Although we’ll have to wait and see how the music turns out, there’s no big concern because it’s a song by Eun-ji, who has good intuition.
Eun-ji has an ear close to the public.
She’s someone who knows how to express it in her own way, and there’s also a professional composer who will work with her, so he’s not worried.
Representative Park turned his gaze to his pad on the desk.
In the pad, although the video quality was blurry, there was a video of Eun-ho frozen with his mouth open.
Manager Lee’s judgment was always correct.
Since Manager Lee, who was like that, said Eun-ho had changed, it was now time for him to work as a producer.
* * *
Work
It was a day about a month after that time.
“I was thinking about what to name your team.”
“Team name?”
“Yeah. I thought of something like Tiger Siblings, what do you think?”
When I glanced at Lee Eun-ji, I saw a startled face that looked exactly like mine.
I couldn’t think of anything in particular, but I didn’t want something like Tiger Siblings either.
Something a bit simpler…
“I…”
At that moment, unlike me who had no particular thoughts, Lee Eun-ji hesitantly and carefully opened her mouth as if she had a name in mind.
“What about something like ‘E-ung’?”
Maybe because it will be the name we’ll use for our activities in the future.
Lee Eun-ji asked me, not the representative.
“E-ung? Why?”
“Lee Eun-ho. Lee Eun-ji.”
Lee Eun-ji pointed her index finger at me and herself, showing a reaction as if what more explanation was needed.
“Then there’s also ‘Lee Eun’.”
“E-ung is cuter than Lee Eun.”
“What’s the point of a cute name when you’re not cute?”
“Shut up.”
E-ung.
Lee Eun.
“What about something like Two Silver?”
As if not hearing the representative’s suggestion, we were each lost in thought.
The conclusion was that ‘E-ung’ was better than ‘Tiger Brother’, ‘Tiger Sister’, or ‘Two Silver’ in terms of character and appropriateness.
“Eun-ho, do you also prefer E-ung?”
“Yes, it sounds good. E-ung.”
It’s awkward at first, but rolling it on my tongue, it seemed to match our sibling image quite well, and it seemed definitely much better than Tiger-something, so I nodded again.
“Then Tiger E—”
“Ew, no.”
“I don’t like that either.”
Why can’t you let go of the tiger?
The representative started it like a joke, but after seeing Eun-ji’s “ew” reaction, he had a sullen face as if his feelings were hurt.
“Then the team name will be ‘E-ung’, and before your debut, you’ll do a featuring work first.”
“Featuring?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s the singer?”
Lee Eun-ji asked in an excited voice.
I was equally surprised next to her.
“Hmm. First, listen to the song.”
The representative played a dark video on the pad placed on the table.
The intro starts with a playful snare sound.
‘Huh? This is…!’
As the repetitively hitting bass drum was added, a familiar beat was heard.
‘If that instrument appears here, this is definitely the song I know.’
When the anticipation was about to die down due to the ordinary beat.
At the section entering the verse, the clear sound of a woodwind instrument unexpectedly breathed life into the ordinary beat.
It was the song I had expected.
‘Sign’.
The saxophone freely prancing flexibly on the ordinary beat completed a sufficiently attractive jazz song on its own.
But not stopping there, an unfamiliar voice whispers decadent lyrics in a luxurious melody that might flow out of a lounge.
As the guide was ending, Representative Park opened his mouth.
“The singer you’ll be working with is Ji Ye-chan.”
“J-Ji Ye-chan?”
Lee Eun-ji smiled brightly and leaned her face towards the representative.
‘Ji Ye-chan.’
The idol group that swept the popular music scene from the beginning of the 2000s to the early 2010s and established TaKa Entertainment.
‘Toxin’.
Ji Ye-chan was the leader who was in charge of the main vocals in the group Toxin.
The song ‘Sign’, included in the solo album released by Ji Ye-chan, had taken a spot in the top ten of the streaming chart as soon as it was released.
“We decided that Eun-ho will do the featuring.”
“Here? Me?”
“Not confident?”
When the representative asked, leaning back, my mouth moved instinctively.
“No!”
Honestly, I was genuinely surprised.
Before the regression, these kinds of songs always went to Lee Eun-ji.
‘Featuring in senior Ji Ye-chan’s solo song…’
My interaction with senior Ji Ye-chan was just a brief greeting in the waiting room when I visited to say hello at the representative’s introduction during my peak activities.
“The parts you’ll participate in are Verse 1-A, Verse 2-A, and the Bridge.”
I simply marked the parts the representative mentioned with a star on the lyric sheet on the table.
“The recording schedule is tomorrow, and you’ll go with me.”
“What?”
“Just take good care of your condition.”
Taking care of my condition is obvious, but…
The recording is tomorrow?
“You can do well, right?”
“Yes…”
I mumbled, but I had nothing to say when it came down to it.
Thinking of the days I spent holed up in the recording studio for a year, it wasn’t anything particularly special.
‘I’ll just do it.’
I don’t want to lose this opportunity.
Meanwhile, Representative Park’s gaze shifted to Eun-ji.
“Eun-ji…”
At Representative Park’s call, Lee Eun-ji’s eyes sparkled.
Anyone could see that she was interested in the featuring, but the representative’s next words missed Lee Eun-ji’s expectations.
“How far along is the work?”
“What kind, ah, the song?”
“Yeah, you received the file by email, right?”
“Yes, I have it.”
“Let’s listen to it.”
Lee Eun-ji showed a slightly disappointed look and fiddled with her cell phone.
As Lee Eun-ji seemed to have found the song and placed her phone on the table, the music started with a heavy 808 bass that felt like it was being smashed down, thump, thump.
“Huh…”
I unconsciously exhaled.
The hint I first threw out was the feeling of a cat taking rhythmic steps.
Because that’s exactly how the song Lee Eun-ji made before the regression was.
But the song Lee Eun-ji presented this time was on a different level from the song back then.
First of all, there was no more cat.
If I had to compare, it was a feast of heavy beats that should be called the footsteps of a tiger, known as the mountain god, not a cat.
Tiger Brother or Sister is still bad, but I could understand why the representative kept going on about tigers.
Since she hadn’t completed the lyrics yet, alien language melodies that Lee Eun-ji had arbitrarily attached continued in between.
Before I knew it, I was humming along to Lee Eun-ji’s song.
‘Huh?’
My head hadn’t recalled it yet, but it was a rhythm my mouth remembered.
Although it was completely different from the song Lee Eun-ji made before the regression, this was definitely a song I knew.
‘Could it be?’
When I turned to look at Lee Eun-ji, she smiled widely as if bragging.
I remembered where I had heard this familiar rhythm before.
Our own concert in childhood.
The song where we randomly attached lyrics and tapped to find a pleasant rhythm.
How does she still remember this?
The story written in Lee Eun-ji’s diary that I received on the day of the funeral came to mind.
“If we had done it together, oppa would have had a blast here with me, so it’s a shame.”
Because of the song.
Suddenly realizing that I was experiencing the time I had wanted to return to so much, the welling up from back then came rushing in like a wave.
“It’s good.”
Lee Eun-ji looked at me with a gaze asking why I was like that, but it was a feeling difficult to explain, so I just avoided her eyes and answered.
* * *
“It’s late, so let’s end the meeting here and get up. Eun-ho, you have to leave around lunchtime tomorrow, so go to bed early.”
“Yes.”
The meeting that started late ended at 10 PM.
When I passed through the 1st floor lobby (living room) and went out the front door.
When I turned my head at the touch tapping my shoulder, Lee Eun-ji was looking at me with eyes full of mischief.
“What.”
“Lee Eun-ho, is the song I made so good that it makes you cry?”
I knew this would happen.
“Ah, why are you pushing and XXing!”
I nervously pushed away the pumpkin head that came close and was the first to climb the stairs leading to the second floor.