The Interview
Having wrapped up both the gayageum tracking and the vocals without a hitch, Kim Se-jun figured he wouldn't have much left on his plate. The world, however, had no intention of leaving him alone.
He'd only dropped by to watch Song Dae-jun work on the mix when Ha Dong-jun handed him a few sheets of paper.
"What's this?"
Se-jun took the pages, frowning in confusion, and a look of quiet satisfaction spread across Ha Dong-jun's face.
"Se-jun. You've got an interview. That's a list of expected questions our PR team put together. Nothing too tough on there, but look it over anyway so you don't slip up."
"An interview? I haven't even debuted yet."
Se-jun skimmed the pages as he asked. Ha Dong-jun was right — there was nothing particularly awkward among the predicted questions. Just a basic rundown of who he was and how he'd ended up at Ares Music.
"You were trending on social media for a while there. Once word got out that a kid like that had signed with us, I guess they figured it made for a decent story. They reached out first. It's not a major outlet, so don't get your hopes too high. Think of it as a dry run for the interviews down the road."
"That's surprising."
Ha Dong-jun watched Se-jun mutter to himself, and a grin crept across his face.
"Surprising? Yeah, surprises me too. A walking lucky charm just walked into our company."
The kid wrote great songs, recorded them beautifully, and even generated his own buzz without anyone lifting a finger. Ha Dong-jun liked to think he'd seen it all in this business. But a rookie like Kim Se-jun? First time in his life. Every time he looked at the boy, a smile found its way onto his face all on its own.
"The interview's the day after tomorrow, so swing by the shop near the office and get your makeup done."
"Makeup too?"
"Of course. Your face is going in the article, so you've got to get it done. You're not exactly a visual-type singer, but dressing it up never hurt anybody. An entertainer can't even run down to the convenience store looking sloppy. Start working out too — put a little muscle on. You're already tall, so a bit of polish and you'll be fine. Probably."
The last word left something to be desired, but Se-jun pretended not to hear it and nodded. Ha Dong-jun was right. From here on, every outward inch of him was a product. He would have to learn how to present it and take care of it.
"Oh, and be as friendly as you can during the interview. There's no downside to getting along with entertainment reporters. Especially for a rookie like you — one extra line in an article because the reporter likes you is already a win. You get what I'm saying?"
"Yes, sir. I understand, Vice President."
With that last piece of advice they parted ways, and Se-jun found himself unexpectedly moved. He'd sat through plenty of interviews before the regression. But this time, it actually felt as though he had become an entertainer.
Two days later, Se-jun went to the shop Ha Dong-jun had pointed him to, sat through makeup, and headed into the office.
Makeup really is a miracle worker.
The first time he'd come near the company, he'd shrunk into himself watching people who seemed to glow. Now he felt as though he had become one of them. Once a professional's hands had touched not only his face but his hair, he looked — even by an objective measure — like a completely different person, newly born. His height had always sat a notch above the Korean average to begin with. This is well above average.
He arrived at the company with a quiet self-appraisal of his own appearance and a heart filling up with confidence. A few people who saw him started in with the usual fuss.
"Whoa. Who is this? I barely recognized you, Se-jun."
"You could debut as an idol at this point."
"Funny you mention it — I've been seriously considering it."
Se-jun's deadpan cheek drew a burst of laughter. After parting with the staff he'd run into in the lobby, he headed for the meeting room.
The spacious room was empty. He sat alone in a chair, and ten minutes crawled by. The moment the appointed hour arrived, a woman opened the door and stepped inside.
Her hair was dyed brown and styled in waves. The impression she gave was a little sharp — not quite a conventional beauty, but an attractive woman all the same.
"Kim Se-jun?"
"Yes, that's me."
Se-jun rose from his seat and offered a handshake. She took it, smiling.
"It's a pleasure. I'm Kim Se-jun."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kang Su-ji, entertainment reporter at Mediatis."
She pulled out a business card and offered it. Se-jun accepted it carefully and set it neatly on the desk.
"I'm sorry. I don't have a card of my own yet."
"Oh my. You haven't even debuted — what would you need a business card for? It's fine."
She seemed to take it as a joke, covering her mouth with a smile. Not one of those swollen-head cases, then?
Among the freshly minted celebrities, there was always that type — the idiots who decided they were already a star the whole world looked up to. As an entertainment reporter who had seen more than her share of puffed-up lungs and puffed-up egos, Kang Su-ji found Kim Se-jun's first impression remarkably decent.
"This is your first interview, right?"
"Yes. I don't have any experience yet."
"Don't get too wound up just because it's your first time. An interview isn't really much, honestly. Just a simple rundown of who you are, more or less? If a question is awkward or uncomfortable, you don't have to answer it."
She was rattling on a little, clearly trying to put him at ease.
"Well, I appreciate that."
Se-jun answered with a small smile. They sat, she started the recorder, and the interview began.
"First off, the video of you that went up on social media drew a lot of attention. How did that feel?"
"Honestly, I was really surprised. I hadn't expected it at all. I didn't even know someone was filming the stage, and I had no idea this many people would like it — so it's been dizzying, and I'm very grateful."
"I see. And there's something else to congratulate you on, isn't there? You've just joined Ares Music as a new singer. Could you give us a brief account of how that happened?"
"As it turned out, CEO Lee Hae-jin happened to be watching that performance. He was kind enough to find it striking, offered to sign me, and that's how I ended up here."
They were the obvious questions from the list the company had given him. Thanks to that, the answers came smoothly, and the interview rolled on without a hitch. What followed was mostly simple — upcoming plans and the like — and the warm, easy atmosphere held.
"Now, we can hardly talk about you without mentioning the gayageum, can we? It was already a topic on social media, but I did a little looking into you on my own, and you're quite well-known in gayageum circles, aren't you?"
Huh?
Se-jun flinched at the faintly pointed question, then conceded it.
"Yes. Well, reasonably... I suppose so?"
He tried to laugh it off and move on, but she was persistent.
"Oh, come on. 'Reasonably' isn't the word. Your father is Kim Chang-yong — he's even been designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage holder."
How did she find that out?
His family history. It wasn't a secret, but it wasn't something he went around advertising either. At the company, the only people who knew were Lee Hae-jin and Ha Dong-jun. So this is why reporters are terrifying.
"On top of that, you yourself were a highly regarded prospect in the gugak world. Could you tell us what made you change course and decide to become a singer?"
The moment he heard the question, Se-jun knew. I have to answer this carefully.
Her eyes curved into crescent moons, but coiled inside them was a sleek, hungry snake. If he answered vaguely here, he'd be dancing on her fingertips. She might run a headline that made it sound as though pop sat above gugak.
"I've always liked pop, too. Then one day the thought just hit me — what if I fused pop with gugak? Plenty of people are already doing that kind of research, but I wanted to dig deeper. And then the CEO's offer came along, and I figured it was a good opportunity."
That should do it. That ought to keep any controversy from taking root.
The same moment Se-jun let out a breath of relief, a flicker of disappointment crossed Kang Su-ji's eyes — then she nodded.
"Understood. I think that's enough for the interview."
As if to prove she meant it, she switched off the recorder.
"The article should be out in a couple of days. Thank you for your time. For a first interview, you handled that remarkably well."
"I think that's thanks to you guiding me so well, Ms. Kang."
It was a save he'd been able to make only because he'd already sat through more interviews than he could count, and because he knew exactly how shrewd reporters could be. But he didn't let that show, playing the humble rookie as best he could. The closer he stayed with reporters, the better — just as Ha Dong-jun had advised.
"You've got a way with words. Let me grab a few photos and we'll wrap for real."
"The article came out well enough, but..."
The headline alone was as flashy as they came.
"So they used my father's name after all."
He'd seen it coming. The moment he'd answered her carefully, he'd known the main hook of her article would be his father's standing. He didn't love it, but he understood. She had to eat, too. Besides, neither the headline nor the content was particularly offensive. Just an ordinary article. And one that had come out of a small paper like Mediatis.
"So why is it ranking this high?"
His article. His article, sitting at number five on the most-viewed TV entertainment news ranking. The first time he saw it, he blinked, unable to believe it. Then he rubbed his eyes. The number five ranking did not change.
"Was I really that popular?"
No matter how he turned it over, he'd been a brief flash — not someone with this kind of reach. The thousands of comments beneath the article went some way toward answering his question.
"Heh... you've got to be kidding me."
A hollow laugh slipped out at a modifier he had never heard in his life. In forty-six years of living, not once had anyone called him that. The combined miracle of professional makeup and the once-in-a-lifetime shot Kang Su-ji had snapped — a triumph forty-six years in the making.
"Is this going to blow up even worse once I actually debut?"
He could already hear the groaning of fans who'd seen him in person and been disappointed — but the corner of his mouth twitched anyway. Sorry to the fans who'd be let down when they saw the real thing, but from a results standpoint, he couldn't have asked for a bigger windfall. With the album drop just around the corner, interest in him was climbing at a terrifying clip.
January 17, 2016. Lee Jin-ah's new single, Lotus, dropped.
The people at Ares Music had been watching with their hearts in their throats, and as the days passed and Lotus climbed higher and higher, they erupted in cheers. Se-jun had known the song would be a hit — but because the lyrics had changed on his account, diverging from the future he remembered, a thread of anxiety had lingered. The results let him breathe again.
Then came January 25, 2016. The day after Lee Jin-ah's Lotus hit number one on the music charts, Kim Se-jun's Lotus was released.