Chapter 129
I’m translating the chapter into clean HTML prose and checking where any special in-universe text needs styled blocks. The main work here is keeping the dialogue natural while preserving the group’s roles and the production-meeting flow.CHAPTER_TITLE: Concept Meeting
Putting Manager Gwak’s deep-seated doubts behind him, Neoul gathered the members and the AR team staff in the meeting room and had everyone sit down in a circle. The AR staff all looked thoroughly bewildered.
Baek Yuri calmly explained to the staff how the members had ended up taking charge of the album production themselves, then offered a polite apology for the inconvenience.
"...So we’d really appreciate your help. From the AR team’s point of view, it must feel like the plan has fallen apart twice now. I’m sorry for making things troublesome and confusing."
The AR team leader shook his head and said it was fine.
"Honestly, we weren’t crazy about the second plan either. Nothing’s even been set in motion yet."
At that, the rest of the team nodded in agreement.
"CEO Jake told us to take good care of you guys, but we couldn’t exactly go and poke Kim Woohwan in the eye and get ourselves fired, could we? We kept our heads down because we couldn’t speak honestly."
The team members nodded even more vigorously.
Despite Jake’s advice, the hot-blooded staff who had snapped back at management had all been laid off cleanly.
Those who remained had complied to avoid being fired, but they weren’t cowardly opportunists. If anything, they were the sort of people who would patiently bow their heads and protect the members from beneath the surface.
No matter how awful Kim Woohwan’s plan was, the staff had stayed quiet, planning to make the most of whatever detailed elements his hands couldn’t reach. Album design, package composition, concept photos, and the like.
"Then do the members already have a concept in mind?"
"Yes. We talked about it last night, and..."
Baek Yuri briefly summarized the long conversation the members had shared freely about an underwater library, book possession, psychic powers, and the rest.
"An underwater library... That’s good! Libraries are familiar spaces, but adding the underwater element makes it feel original and fun."
"Right. It’d also be good to make it more accessible by using stories or books everyone knows as the motif. You know how films get homage references in music videos all the time? Like that."
The staff evaluated the idea positively, but the AR team leader pursed his lips with concern.
"The idea is good, but... our problem is that there isn’t enough budget to build sets or use CG. And we don’t have the time for that either. What you’re describing feels like it should be grand and spectacular if it’s going to be worth watching."
As the staff and members fell deep into thought, silence spread through the office.
Then one staff member shot a hand into the air.
"You said Galchae suggested grounding it in reality, right?"
"...Yes. But it doesn’t have to be reflected exactly. I think there are other better ideas, so you don’t need to worry about mine..."
"No! No, that’s not it. It just seemed like a good idea! For this album, what if instead of an underwater library, we use a real library or bookstore as the medium and have them enter the world of books? And then later, with each album, we expand the world little by little, um..."
"......"
"Ah! Right! What if all libraries are actually connected by secret passages? Or what if the first album makes it seem like they’re ordinary Korean people, but then in a later album it’s revealed they were actually librarians from an underwater library!"
Another team member chimed in enthusiastically.
"That’s good. So we’d set the music video timeline in reverse, right? If the first album is the present, then by the third or fourth album we can go back into the past."
The members, who were ordinary Koreans except for Yeo Do-bin, the sole Australian, all had their eyes shining.
The AR team leader nodded as well.
"That would definitely save a lot of money if we film in existing libraries or bookstores instead of building sets. But I’m not sure whether we can still get pretty visuals out of it."
"What’s there to worry about? Their faces do all the work."
"The background and overall harmony matter too if you want it to look good. You can’t have it looking too cheap."
"Real skill is pulling off high quality no matter the budget."
The AR team leader and the staff started bickering among themselves.
"What if we deliberately give it a vintage feel, as if we’re going for realism?" Baek Yuri suggested.
"First of all, we have to make three music videos, right? So one could be filmed in a clean modern public library, and another against the backdrop of an old, weathered 1980s-style bookstore. If all libraries are connected as one... it might be even more appealing if they can cross not just space, but time too."
"Wow...! That sounds fun...!"
Yeo Do-bin’s eyes went wide, and he started talking excitedly.
"Crossing time would be good, and vintage is good too. Old Korean school uniforms, nostalgic childhood games, old drama sets from the past—those are popular these days, too. I’ve always wanted to go to a drama set like the one I saw in Reply Not 7942...!"
Then he added his own idea.
"What if they go across time, but the passage closes behind them, and they stay there for a little while until it opens again...? They could do part-time jobs, go to school back then..."
"If seven unidentified men suddenly appeared in that era, wouldn’t they get suspected as spies? They might get dragged off and tortured, too."
Ha On-ha, who had been listening with his chin propped on his hand, tossed out the pragmatic observation with a wicked grin. Yeo Do-bin stared at him in shock.
"Tortured...?"
Neoul’s eyes widened too. Just appearing there and getting tortured for it? In the old days, it seemed, only men like Dongdong and Gyeomsabok were allowed to live.
"I’m kidding. We don’t need that level of historical accuracy."
Ha On-ha lowered the hand supporting his chin and placed it on the desk before speaking seriously.
"I like both Yuri-hyung’s and Do-bin’s ideas. And trying to get the best quality while working within budget is good too, but... I do have one thing I want to ask."
Ha On-ha tilted his head and smiled with his eyes.
"Couldn’t we secure a little more budget by using advertisements in the music video? Is there anywhere we could collaborate with?"
"...!"
"Idol Travel finished successfully, too, so there’s no way we wouldn’t have gotten any ad offers, right?"
"Yes! Exactly!"
The AR team leader clapped his hands.
"Originally, we planned to debut first and then pick a few advertisements from the proposals and film them slowly, but now that things have turned out this way, it might be worth thinking about collaboration right from the music video stage. As long as the products we advertise don’t feel out of place and can be woven in naturally."
Right now they were short on both manpower and budget. If they collaborated with another company, they could clearly receive support on multiple fronts and fill in the gaps.
After the concept meeting was more or less wrapped up, Yeo Do-bin took out his smartphone and played the self-composed songs he had saved.
"Um... I have demo versions, and I have finished songs too. I recorded them by myself, so we’d still need to rearrange them to fit our concept and the members’ voices, but... I-I’ll play them for you...!"
With nervous hands, Yeo Do-bin started the first track.
A beautiful string melody immediately caught the ear. Then clarinets, saxophones, horns, and other instruments joined in one by one.
Yeo Do-bin’s voice rose over the instrumentation, singing in Australian English with pronunciation that was hard enough to understand, mixed with something even less comprehensible than that, like an alien language.
Ddoo doo ddo dodo ddo ddo doo
It was a gorgeous song, teetering on the line between classical music and pop.
The climax surged upward brilliantly and spectacularly.
"Kyah!"
"Whoa!"
Admiring exclamations burst out from all around. Glancing around nervously, Yeo Do-bin relaxed when he saw the good reactions on everyone’s faces.
After the first song, they listened to four more in a row. The second was a refreshing easy-listening track.
Unfortunately, after hearing such a flashy first song, the second one felt a little plain. Even so, the melody had a strangely magnetic quality that made you want to keep listening. It was also the most complete of the set, which meant it would likely be the easiest to refine.
The third song gave off the feeling of a soundtrack from an American animated film. The whistling woven through it in places was especially appealing.
The fourth song sounded like a Christmas carol, and the fifth was a deep, powerful hip-hop track.
All five songs had been subjected to the perfectionist composer Yeo Do-bin’s own strict internal quality control before he deemed them worthy of being released into the world, so their quality was beyond question.
At that moment, everyone in the meeting room had the same thought.
Thank goodness for Yeo Do-bin!
"The melodies are really good. Especially Tracks 1 and 3... the moment I heard them, I could picture scenes in my head."
At Baek Yuri’s heartfelt praise, Yeo Do-bin broke into a wide smile. It was a smile of relief.
"Do-bin! Thank you!"
"You saved us, hyung!"
Baek Gi-yeom and Woo Cheong were deeply moved. No matter how hard they worked on a good concept, made a decent music video, and put on a great performance, if the song itself was bad, it was over. They would all have crashed and burned together.
To them, Yeo Do-bin’s high-quality, easy-to-listen-to songs were a beam of hope cutting through Jjokbit’s dark indigo. They were like a sturdy rope lowered from the heavens.
"Do-bin! I’ll make sure you rake in the royalties! Let’s all do our best together~"
Ha On-ha called for high-fives from the staff and members alike.
They all felt a heavy sense of responsibility in that moment.
Everyone except Neoul.
"Yeo Do-bin. What if we change the melody in Track 3 just a little?"
"Huh?!"
Neoul had been preoccupied with something else.
The others had only been exclaiming about how good Yeo Do-bin’s self-composed songs were.
That was because the song Kim Woohwan had shoved at them had been so utterly terrible that hearing something far better had cleansed both ear and heart. Instantly happy, they were too busy offering praise and gratitude.
But Neoul had been listening as though analyzing the songs note by note. As a result, while the others were flawless, he felt that Track 3 was lacking something.
"......?"
The members and staff looked at him in confusion.
"Why? It already sounds really good."
"What’s wrong with it?"
Everyone wore faces that said they didn’t understand. Yeo Do-bin asked Neoul a question.
"U-um... where? Which part would you change, and how...?"
"Could you sing it for me once?"
Neoul immediately sang it again with a slight adjustment to the melody. Then he sang the original version as well, so they could compare them.
"Waaah!"
"What, that’s so good!"
Exclamations burst from the group.
"Wow...! It definitely sounds prettier when you change it like that! It’s easier to listen to, too, and it sticks right in your ear...!"
Yeo Do-bin’s black eyes flashed. He quickly turned on his phone recorder and asked Neoul to sing it one more time. Neoul gladly did so.
"Ah! If you bend this part when you sing it, it really brings out the feeling! This section should be split once... No! Rather than that, we need to get straight to the recording room..."
As Yeo Do-bin muttered to himself, analyzing the part Neoul had casually altered, he looked like one of those eccentric genius characters that show up in comics. It was obvious at a glance that, when it came to work, he was someone completely consumed by music.
Ordinarily, if someone pointed out a flaw, he might have shrunk back or gotten upset. But Yeo Do-bin was simply delighted by the thought that his song could be improved.
With a bright expression, he said, "Ah! I think it would be nice if we all worked on the lyrics together...! Yuri-hyung and Gi-yeom-hyung are both really good at writing lyrics...!"
"Oh! Cheongy can sit this one out! I’ll take the choreography instead!"
"Me too~"
Woo Cheong and Ha On-ha, who lacked confidence in anything literary but were very confident in dancing, slipped out quickly and took on the choreographic side of things.
Neoul hesitated briefly, worried that Ha On-ha would end up revising the choreography over and over again. But since he knew the final result of those revisions had been impeccable, he stayed quiet.
After the intense discussion and planning, the remaining roles were decided quickly as well.
Overall production: Baek Yuri
Composition: Yeo Do-bin, Gal Neoul
Guide vocal: Gal Neoul
Arrangement: Yeo Do-bin, Baek Gi-yeom
Lyrics: Baek Yuri, Baek Gi-yeom, Lee Gal-chae, Yeo Do-bin
Choreography: Ha On-ha, Woo Cheong
They would actively incorporate every member’s opinion throughout the album-making process, but they still needed a general producer to keep the planning on track. The members all felt Baek Yuri was perfect for the role.
Even back during Idol Travel, Baek Yuri had enjoyed weaving storytelling into stage concepts and lyrics. He also had a decent sense of aesthetics, and his sensitive nature meant he never missed small details and handled everything with care.
Maybe it was because he felt the responsibility of being the eldest, but Baek Yuri had also been the one to organize the members’ opinions and step forward first to convince Kim Woohwan.
He was the most reliable choice for communicating accurately and without error with the AR team. And as someone who had briefly debuted once before, he was probably also best suited to coordinating the members’ roles.
By unanimous decision, Baek Yuri became the overall producer.
"I’ll do my best."
Baek Yuri chose his words carefully, vowing not just to work hard, but to do well.
As a top-line composer, Gal Neoul would participate in composition and take responsibility for modifying and supplementing the melody.
He also had the widest vocal range on the team and could learn songs faster than anyone else, so he was put fully in charge of the guide vocals.
For arrangement, in addition to Yeo Do-bin, Baek Gi-yeom, who knew how to work MIDI, would assist as Do-bin’s support.
Lyrics would be handled chiefly by Baek Yuri, Baek Gi-yeom, and Lee Gal-chae, while Yeo Do-bin would feed them keywords or lines that sprang to mind whenever he thought of them.
"Good. That’s settled."
At Baek Yuri’s declaration, the members clapped.
The AR team leader and the staff looked on in amazement as the members rapidly divided up their responsibilities.
"You work together so naturally!"
"Maybe it’s because they got a taste of it while filming the survival show?"
Thanks to having gone through self-produced missions during Idol Travel, the members already knew who was good at what. That meant they could assign roles without wasting time or getting into pointless arguments.
Just then, one AR staff member raised a hand and asked, "But, Team Leader! Self-production is great and all, but... Jjokbit is an idol group. Shouldn’t we decide on a leader first?"
"......!"
Ah. Right.
***