The Conditions for Becoming a Gentle Idol Leader - Episode 8
“Boss, you do realize the world-building itself isn’t the problem, right? It’s the concept. How many times do I have to say this? We can’t keep going in the same mood every time, and you know it. So why do you keep doing this?”
“I know. You think I’m trying to ruin these kids or something? I like what I like. What am I supposed to do about that? If it really bothers you that much, why don’t you become the boss?”
His face didn’t change at all. He was shameless as ever.
To be fair, when CEO Kwon Dae-do came at them like this, there really wasn’t much left for the employees, who were the ones drawing salaries, to say.
“You said this time you were going to match the song. You even said you liked the song after listening to it.”
“The track was fine. That’s exactly why I’m saying we should use a good song with an even better concept.”
“Then why did you insist on releasing it as a special album in the first place? It’s supposed to be special, boss. Special. It’s not a long-term image, it’s a one-off special release!”
The employee, who had stayed composed through Kwon Dae-do’s infuriating back-and-forth, was starting to lose his temper.
Understandable, really. He’d probably worked himself to the bone preparing the presentation all night.
“And look at it this way, too. If you suddenly flip the image all at once, it can backfire. People say they want a transformation, but when it turns out to be something they didn’t expect, they get thrown off. That happens, doesn’t it?”
“It does……”
“You don’t even need to answer. We’ve had this kind of thing more than once.”
I thought he was just stubbornly arguing for the sake of it, but apparently that’s not all he is……?
Kwon Dae-do wasn’t exactly wrong. It was just that this wasn’t the right situation for that argument.
He could have pushed back if he wanted, but he knew it would only turn into a pointless war of attrition, so the employee sighed and went along with it.
If he was going to worry about that, why did he set the title track before anything else? This place is just as absurd. ...So maybe that’s why they ended up scrapping a song before.
Watching this play out in real time made him start to hesitate. In the past, he hadn’t stepped in at this point.
Not just him, either. None of the members of Zero One seemed to have objected.
And in the end, they’d gone out with that grim summer requiem exactly the way the boss wanted.
This time, I should interfere.
Damn status window. If ever there was a time to show up and say something useful, this was it.
He even tried muttering a few hard consonants on purpose, hoping that maybe if he looked like he was cursing, it would trigger something, but it didn’t react unless the profanity was genuine, as if it could tell what he was thinking.
Damn it.
If he wanted to avoid another reset, he would have to change more than just the members. The group activities themselves would need to shift, at least to some extent.
That was the only way the group’s fate could be dragged somewhere else.
Besides, no matter how he looked at it, it seemed more feasible to force a concept change now than to sit around and hope the members would somehow reform themselves overnight.
It felt wrong to do nothing and let it slide as usual.
He’d been cursed out so much that maybe he was stuck in this hell because he couldn’t even die properly. The thought was so absurd it almost seemed possible.
Go Young-in’s bad feeling was usually right, so it wasn’t exactly meaningless.
All right. Let’s force it. If we can’t change it now, then we’re really screwed.
There were only about two months left before the comeback date the agency had set. If they blew this up midway through, the schedule would be brutally tight.
Usually they listened to the artists’ opinions to some degree, so if he objected here, they’d at least pretend to hear him out.
In the end, Go Young-in cut into the boss’s tedious tug-of-war with the employee.
“Boss.”
“Oh? Look who it is. Our leader. What brings you to me first for once?”
Kwon Dae-do looked at him with a strangely surprised expression before speaking to him in an uncharacteristically friendly way.
It was nothing like the stubborn nonsense about world-building he’d been spouting just a moment ago.
Leader... It still sounds awkward as hell.
“I think it might be good to change the image this time around to fit the song.”
Shit. That reaction is not good. I’ve already lived through this.
His mouth itched like crazy. If it were up to him, he felt like grabbing the man by the collar and shaking him.
“You had complaints about the concept? Then you should’ve said something sooner. I thought you’d all been quiet this whole time because you agreed with me.”
Kwon Dae-do swept his gaze across the people in the conference room, then brought it back to Go Young-in.
“No?”
He didn’t look offended, exactly. His face was too unreadable for that.
Go Young-in had assumed the boss would reject him or start lecturing him, so this reaction caught him off guard.
It’s ridiculously pressuring. ...This isn’t the response I was expecting.
Had he really failed to understand Kwon Dae-do properly? Just as Go Young-in was growing puzzled by the continued silence, Kwon Dae-do tilted his head and went on.
“Do all the members think the same as you?”
“Pardon?”
Shit. Go Young-in froze at the sudden mention of the members.
He’d gotten so used to handling things alone that he’d forgotten.
If you’re the leader, this is probably the kind of thing you discuss with the members first. ...You don’t know unless you’ve tried.
[Article 101 | A perfect idol group is not made alone.]
Now you show up, when I told you to come out earlier……
Go Young-in glared at the useless status window.
He had no idea why Kwon Dae-do was suddenly doing something he’d never done before, just because he’d asked a question like that.
As for saying the members all agreed with him, he couldn’t even begin to predict how they’d react.
Cheon Sa-yoon, who had been staring at him with a distinctly unexpected look, suddenly smiled and looked away as if nothing had happened.
That was as good as saying he wasn’t going to help.
Same opinion, my ass. He hadn’t expected anything from him anyway.
When Go Young-in failed to answer readily, Kwon Dae-do nodded as though he’d expected it.
“Lim Se-bin. What about you?”
In fact, Kwon Dae-do seemed to think Go Young-in would never be able to answer, because he began naming the members one by one.
“Let’s go with the original.”
Lim Se-bin, who had spent the entire presentation with his eyes lowered and obediently staring at the papers in front of him, spoke slowly.
Go Young-in hadn’t expected him to agree, but they had clearly never been on the same page to begin with.
Even without saying more, it was obvious he viewed the new change negatively.
Before long, Lim Se-bin had lifted his eyes and was looking at Go Young-in, the source of all this commotion.
Is he glaring at me?
“Thought so. Cheon Sa-yoon, what about you?”
“We should go with the direction the company wants.”
Cheon Sa-yoon smiled softly, wearing that irritating little expression from earlier.
His answer was exactly like him: slick, tactful, and full of honeyed words that concealed his real opinion.
“As long as the song itself is fine, I don’t care.”
Before his name was even called, Pyo Jae-ho answered on his own, and Kyeon In-woo also declared neutrality, saying he’d go with the majority.
After hearing the members’ opinions, Kwon Dae-do turned back to Go Young-in.
“So that’s how it is.”
One against, three neutral.
“Which way are you going, Go Young-in?”
So this was a neutral state.
First, he looked over the remaining three, excluding the opposing Lim Se-bin.
If there was anyone most likely to side with him here, it was… Pyo Jae-ho?
From what he’d heard on the van, music always seemed to come first for him.
Pyo Jae-ho probably wouldn’t like the boss’s preferred concept being forced into the song either, would he?
But Pyo Jae-ho sat there with his arms crossed, frowning slightly and saying nothing.
Just from his expression, he clearly looked dissatisfied. If Go Young-in had actually known his personality, he might have been able to guess better.
Haah……
Just then, his eyes met Cheon Sa-yoon’s across the table.
Cheon Sa-yoon’s lips moved as if he were trying to say something. Go Young-in watched his mouth and silently formed the words with his own lips.
Me.
Do you want me… to help you?
Do you want me to help you?
No. Absolutely not. Trust was not part of the equation.
He’d been sitting quietly a moment ago, and now he was suddenly acting like this. It was deeply suspicious. Go Young-in shook his head and refused indirectly.
I’d rather just say it myself. Even if I do accept help, I don’t know whether he actually thinks the same thing or not.
Go Young-in wanted to sound as calm as possible.
“I was worried the main and the secondary might get flipped.”
“Right. Then we can just change the song too. We built it after we came up with the original concept and image anyway, so let’s just keep doing things the same way.”
“I’m not just talking about the song and the concept. In the end, the music has to be the main thing. The world-building is secondary. Zero One has felt like it’s been dragged around by the world-building too much so far.”
“Hm, then should we get rid of the world-building entirely?”
I’m losing my mind. Why is he so extreme?
No matter how serious he was about world-building, he was still the CEO of a company. He couldn’t possibly be stupid, so he must have understood what Go Young-in was trying to say. What on earth did he still want to hear?
He wasn’t saying they should abandon the group’s identity just because they didn’t use world-building once. He was saying they should try another genre for a change.
“No. I’m not saying we should get rid of it entirely. I just think we should give more weight to the music now. After all, we’re musicians first. Shouldn’t the music come first? I think it’d be fine to try a new genre once.”
There was no way the people in the room, including the boss, didn’t understand what Go Young-in was saying.
They simply hadn’t said anything because of the boss’s excessive obsession with world-building and his mule-headed stubbornness.
“Who says I don’t know that? Everyone just does what I say because I tell them to do it. I’m asking about something else. What do you really want to say, Go Young-in?”
What is this, a new kind of harassment? Is he really asking because he doesn’t know?
Even while listening to Go Young-in speak, Kwon Dae-do’s expression made it obvious he already knew everything and was doing this on purpose.
He was grinning so exaggeratedly that anyone could tell.
For a second, Go Young-in considered just dropping the whole thing because that irritatingly pleased expression was getting on his nerves, but then he remembered that the status window probably wouldn’t let it end there.
[Article 101 | A perfect idol group is not made alone.]
This bastard only shows up when he wants to.
“This time, I… no, uh.”
By now it had become a fact only Go Young-in knew, but Kwon Dae-do had really once overturned everything just because of his own taste.
Maybe that was why he couldn’t get the words out easily once he tried to say them aloud.
“I…? What is it? Are you saying, ‘Please get rid of the world-building’?”
The tone was openly taunting. He nearly blurted out, My music, instead.
At this rate, he’d never die with any dignity. No, come to think of it, he hadn’t really been able to die in the first place.
It was miserable.
“I want to make music for Zero One.”
He hoped the excuse would hold. He didn’t know what else he was supposed to say beyond that. Go Young-in wet his lips with his tongue.
Why am I this tense over something so stupid? Shit……
Unlike the tense Go Young-in, Kwon Dae-do looked perfectly relaxed.
“So you mean you want to capture your own story directly in the music? Something like that?”
Not exactly. I just want a different direction from before because of the reset.
Still, it wasn’t completely wrong, so Go Young-in gave a half-hearted nod.
“Yes……”
“Hmm.”
He answered, but the response still felt oddly flat.
In truth, Go Young-in had unconsciously assumed there was no way this would work.
But surprisingly, Kwon Dae-do backed off just like that.
“Really? Fine. Got it.”
No, what the hell. Then why had he made such a fuss in the first place? There was no way he’d give up this easily, would there?
Before, he’d gone so far as to scrap the song entirely and push it toward the gloomy concept he wanted.
Nothing had really changed this time, either…… so why suddenly……
Leaving the bewildered Go Young-in behind, Kwon Dae-do fell into thought for a moment with a serious expression, then clapped his hands to gather everyone’s attention.
“Okay. First, we need to have a quick meeting among ourselves, so manager, take the kids out and let them rest for a bit.”
Go Young-in blinked. All of a sudden?
“A... about an hour should do.”
Kwon Dae-do held out both hands and gave them a shake.
“All right, then. Dismissed for now!”
It was a rather abrupt order to leave.