Persuasion (1)
By the time the call ended and he glanced at the clock, it was already past eleven at night. He had spent so much time cleaning that filthy, neglected house that the hours had simply vanished.
“You all agree with self-production? I think it’s a good idea.”
Baek Gi-yeom spoke first.
“Hyung, why are you even asking? I’ve wanted to do that from the start!”
“Me too…! It’ll be a lot easier on my mind, even if it’s harder on my body…!”
Woo Cheong and Yeo Do-bin answered at once.
“Me too~ The concept and songs are such a total mess right now… honestly, anything would be better if we do it ourselves. If they say no, I feel like threatening to break the contract.”
Ha On-ha gave a self-mocking laugh and rubbed his forehead. Lee Gal-chae spoke up quietly as well.
“...The contract did say that if the fault lies with the company, we can demand termination without penalty. But Director Kim Woohwan never said he wouldn’t let us debut, so contract termination is practically impossible. He technically did do the work, after all.... I think self-production is still the best option for now.”
Ha On-ha’s eyes widened in admiration.
“Oh~ Gal-chae, you read the contract really carefully?”
“...I nearly lost my guarantee a few times because of toxic clauses in contracts. I haven’t joined a company until now because a lot of places kept shoving awful contracts in my face.”
Lee Gal-chae said it as though it were nothing unusual.
When his parents were alive, things had been fine, but after they died he kept working alone as a child actor to make a living, and that made him an easy target for adults who wanted to exploit him.
The members’ sympathetic gazes fell on him all at once. Baek Gi-yeom rested a hand on top of Lee Gal-chae’s head.
“You’ve had it rough.”
Ha On-ha draped an arm over Lee Gal-chae’s other shoulder.
“No wonder you feel way too much like a grown-up for your age compared to Cheongi.”
Neoul, who barely understood the legal discussion, simply followed Baek Gi-yeom and Ha On-ha and put an arm over Lee Gal-chae’s shoulders too.
“You use many difficult words.”
In truth, even when he read the contract Director Jake had given him, Neoul had barely understood what any of it meant. Everyone else had signed, so Neoul had simply written his name as well.
Baek Yuri opened his bag, took out a bottle of vitamins, and held it out whole. Yeo Do-bin also pulled out some Australian snacks his parents had bought for him and shoved them toward Lee Gal-chae.
“...I’m really okay, though.”
Lee Gal-chae fumbled awkwardly with the vitamin bottle and the bag of snacks.
“I’m the kind of person who can’t let anything slide casually. I need to check everything two or three times before I’m satisfied. So you don’t need to look at me like that.... And there are too many snacks. I don’t really eat sweets.”
“Didn’t you like the strawberry latte earlier?” Woo Cheong asked.
“I like strawberries. Fruit is... fine.”
He didn’t especially enjoy artificial sweetness, but the natural sweetness of fruit seemed to be all right.
In the end, they left the snacks spread out and shared them among themselves. Since Neoul and Baek Yuri had both agreed to self-production, the decision was unanimous.
“Why don’t we each wash up in turn and think about the kind of concept we want? What sort of group we want to debut as, that kind of thing. Everyone probably has a different direction in mind when it comes to the group’s identity and overall mood.”
At Baek Yuri’s suggestion, the members scattered for a while. “Scattered” was a generous word, though, since they could reach each other by stretching out an arm.
“There are only two bunk beds, so that’s a problem. Bringing in another bed for the living room would make it too cramped. For now, I don’t mind sleeping on the floor. The people whose backs hurt should use the beds.”
Baek Gi-yeom said that, and after Baek Gi-yeom and Baek Yuri yielded the beds first, Neoul followed their lead and gave up his place too.
Yeo Do-bin and Lee Gal-chae took the top bunks, Woo Cheong and Ha On-ha the bottom ones, and the rest decided they would spread blankets out in the living room and sleep there.
Neoul was taking out his toiletries and clothes when he asked Baek Yuri, “What, specifically, should I think about?”
“Ah. That was a bit vague for you, wasn’t it?”
Baek Yuri pulled up a few videos of senior idol groups and some concept photos on his smartphone, then explained.
“For Dunkiss seniors, they often use gray buildings, cities, and a bleak, ash-covered kind of gray. The basic concept is something like, ‘In a gray world where humanity is collapsing, boys whose hearts have grown emptier and emptier set out in search of lost love.’”
Neoul nodded. Humans would remain humans no matter what they did, so he did not quite understand why humanity had to collapse. Still, it sounded profound.
“This is their debut album from ten years ago. The title track is the one I performed in my first survival-show stage. It’s mainly about jealousy toward others, the desire to rise higher in competition, and the collapse of humanity that follows because of it.”
The music video was gray from beginning to end. Ten years earlier, U Yongdam appeared in a gray school uniform.
After receiving a report card marked with a D grade, U Yongdam couldn’t bring himself to go home for fear of being scolded by his parents, so he stayed in the classroom late into the night studying.
Only the classmate who had gotten an A grade remained with him in the classroom. U Yongdam imagined shoving that A-grade classmate out the window, stealing the perfect report card for himself.
He snapped out of the fantasy and looked forward in a cold sweat, startled, just as the A-grade classmate, who had been studying as if nothing were wrong, stood up with his bag.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
The A-grade classmate left school first, and U Yongdam, left alone, tore up his report card as the intro began.
The scene shifted, and the background became the school auditorium. Onstage, Eunto was performing in a play, but when his opposite actor drew all the audience’s attention, he angrily tore at his hair.
[Hey, where do you think you’re looking
Why don’t you look at me
From one to ten, there isn’t a single thing I like]
As Eunto threw a hysterical fit as if he intended to ruin the play entirely, he picked up a prop sword and stabbed his scene partner with a sharp real blade.
But when he suddenly came to his senses, everything had been nothing more than Eunto’s imagination, and the play was continuing without a problem.
[My mood climbs and falls a hundred times a day
Sometimes I want to choke the breath out of you
And then I want to choke myself instead]
The other Dunkiss members were the same. Their imaginations spiraled into something grotesque and cruel under the weight of inferiority and jealousy. Each time they snapped out of it, they would run as if fleeing somewhere.
[Could I have lost something important
I don’t feel like myself anymore
The cold face in the mirror is smirking
The devil inside me is whispering]
No matter how far they ran, the boys somehow kept returning to the same place.
As though time had been turned back, U Yongdam was holding an intact report card that had not been torn, and the A-grade boy in front of him was studying.
Eunto ran away from the stage, only to be dragged back again and again to a stage that drew no attention.
[Push it all away
This emotion I can’t escape is JEALOUS]
Their cruel fantasies repeated over and over. Instead of tearing up the report card again, U Yongdam smashed the window with a chair and broke free of the illusion. Eunto tore down the curtain onstage.
In the end, only after they gave up running and performed absurd acts in front of everyone did the boys finally escape the endless loop and become free.
They had been branded as troublemakers, but they looked strangely relieved. As they strode confidently out through the school gate, they ran into one another, exchanged embarrassed smiles belatedly, and ended up becoming friends as they linked arms and left together.
From beginning to end, the entire music video was rendered in monochrome, like an old black-and-white film.
Baek Yuri explained, “From the second album on, they completely break away from the system that turns them into devils and labels them as troublemakers, and the story becomes one of wandering in search of new values. They try all sorts of things while looking for something fun.”
“I see.”
“And in the last scene of the second album’s title track, Treasure Hunt, there’s a map... and in this world that’s all gray, only one heart sticker marking the treasure is a bright, vivid red.”
Baek Yuri replayed the music video and showed him the scene he had just described. After that, starting with the next album, Dunkiss’s music videos, albums, costumes, and everything else began to acquire more and more color.
Their world, which had once been entirely ash-gray, had become a riot of color by the time of the recent albums. Gray props and accessories still appeared here and there, but compared to the beginning, everything was vastly more vibrant.
“Dunkiss’s fandom name is Paint. It means the fans’ love paints color into Dunkiss. Do you want to look at another group?”
Neoul nodded.
Baek Yuri then showed him material for Luma, a group in their second year.
“Luma’s main worldbuilding is fantasy apocalypse. The world suddenly ends, the six magicians lose the people they love, and then they all turn back time and return to the past together. After that, they stand against the apocalypse to protect the people they cherish.”
Even if I reach the end of the apocalypse, I will still think of you.
This song expressed the narrator’s feelings as they faced the threat of destruction once more after turning back time. It carried the helplessness of someone who might fail, while also blazing with fierce determination.
I will definitely protect you. But if I can’t save you and end up alone again in a world after the apocalypse, I will miss you and turn time back once more. I’ll go back and save you again and again. That was the message hidden inside it.
Watch over me from the dawn I found on the day the sky came crashing down.
Haeosea, the song that gave Luma their first No. 1. Composed by Yeo Do-bin, it was about discovering a passage out of a world in ruin and into another, safer one.
You first send the person you love to a safe place, and from there ask them to wait while watching over you. In this case, dawn meant “hope.”
Neoul studied Luma’s worldbuilding, where Rabbit Number 4 appeared, with keen interest.
“B.A.D.... So ‘Villain and Dance’ focuses on rough, rebellious concepts like punks, villains, and pirates. In senior Seoseim’s music videos, clocks always appear. The lyrics also talk a lot about time.”
There were also groups built around aliens, AI, psychics, high school youth, ex-boyfriends, canned fruit, and more. A wide range of groups existed.
A group’s worldbuilding was not confined to a single album; it kept its threads connected over time.
Some groups did try new and varied concepts with each album, but most preferred to make changes within the boundaries of their established identity.
After washing up one by one, the members gathered again with towels draped around their necks like people who had come back from a public bath.
“All right, shall we start talking? Let’s begin without putting any limits on ourselves and just speak freely.”
At Baek Gi-yeom’s question, Woo Cheong raised his hand.
“Psychics! I wanted us to each have a superpower like in an action hero story!”
“...I think it would be better to ground it in reality. I’d like us to deal with emotions everyone feels at least once in their lives. For example, the kind we’re feeling right now... like fear of an uncertain future. And even so, keeping on and trying to do well.”
That was Lee Gal-chae’s opinion. The youngest members’ opinions clashed.
Ha On-ha, who had been listening quietly, tilted his head.
“Long-term, couldn’t the group’s identity be built gradually~? For the debut concept, refreshing is just the standard~”
Baek Yuri wrote the members’ suggestions down neatly on paper in careful handwriting. Baek Gi-yeom also turned to Yeo Do-bin, their composer, and asked him a question.
“What about you, Dobin?”
“W-well, since the group name is Jjokbit... maybe it would be nice if the album covers and stage outfits gave off a clear, blue feeling, like an indigo sky or an indigo sea...? Director Jake seemed to want that too....”
“Oh. I think the same thing. The team name itself is already so distinct.”
Baek Gi-yeom voiced his agreement with Yeo Do-bin’s idea.
“And Yuri?”
Baek Yuri, who had been taking notes on the members’ opinions, set down his pen for a moment and looked up. With an expression that still seemed to hold some lingering concern, he said,
“I want us to have a conceptual image that’s accessible and easy for the public to approach, but also distinct from other groups, something that feels uniquely ours.”
It was the sort of statement that sounded a bit like, “I’d like a warm iced Americano, please.”
* * *