Chapter 37
Secretary Cha sighed, opened a new window, and handed it back to Se-rang.
There stood a trainee with visuals that were hard to forget after seeing her once. Yes, this was Han Riwon.
Han Riwon, whose visuals could not have come from a small or mid-sized agency, who was called the miracle of a small agency.
Han Riwon, who swept up every advertisement without exaggeration as soon as she debuted.
Long time no see.
Se-rang sank into a strange feeling as she watched Riwon’s audition video. But then….
“Wait. This is an acting audition, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. She’s being trained as an acting trainee at Imperial Entertainment.”
“What? Riwon is?”
Did Baek Do-gyeong eat something wrong? He sent a kid with this kind of talent to acting?
You’re sending our born-to-be idol into acting? What are you talking about? Riwon can’t act.
“Her visuals themselves suit acting as well. Even I acknowledge her face.”
“But just looking at this video, I can tell she can’t act well.”
“…….”
“What were they thinking, sending a kid with no acting talent into an acting track? Do you have a video of her singing?”
“Yes. Go to the next one.”
When she swiped the window once with her finger, a video of Han Riwon singing a pop song appeared right away.
Ah.
This was it.
A refreshing vocal that seemed to open the ears. A husky voice and explosive volume that contrasted with her delicate-looking face.
This was Han Riwon. Was there really an idiot who would take this talent and make her act?
“Why on earth would they waste this talent…?”
“I don’t know either. That would be Imperial’s internal matter.”
“This is driving me crazy.” Se-rang sighed heavily again and again. “What do you think, Secretary Cha? If we recruit these two, how do you think it’ll go? Do you think it could possibly fail?”
“…….” Secretary Cha only sighed instead of answering. But that was the answer.
“I know too. An idol’s own charm and skill are important, but the company’s planning ability is just as important. But.” Se-rang pointed at herself.
“Look at me. No, don’t look at me. You saw the kids’ stage earlier, didn’t you? Didn’t you see our kids earlier? Wasn’t it killer?”
“…I’ve heard that an idol’s success is determined by heaven. I’m not sure whether it’s an area humans can predict.”
“Come on. Even so, with this talent and my planning ability, failure is impossible, heaven or whatever be damned.” Se-rang stated it flatly.
That was because she already had a record of making it succeed once. If only Imperial had not interfered, Ideal would have undoubtedly become one of the top girl groups.
The domestic response had been good, and the overseas response had been good too. Se-rang fell into thought for a moment.
“What happened to the other two people I mentioned?”
“For now, it doesn’t seem like they belong to any agency. They don’t seem to have entered the entertainment industry at all yet, so it will likely take more time to find them.”
“Tell me once you find those two as well. Until then, I’ll have to think about how to recruit these two first.”
“Neither Yeon Entertainment nor Imperial will likely let them go easily. The moment we try to recruit them, they’ll risk everything too.”
“Of course they will.”
If they had eyes, they would know these were talents they could never miss.
It had been quite difficult to bring them in before too. Back when she belonged to Imperial, she could at least recruit them by putting the producer’s reputation forward, but right now, Yeon Se-rang’s only reputation was notoriety.
“Still, wouldn’t CEO Baek be a little easier to persuade? At least… compared to CEO Yeon.”
“They’re neck and neck. In some ways, Baek Do-gyeong will probably make me even angrier.” Se-rang sighed.
It really is hard to repay the debt I owe my kids.
Se-rang took out her phone and sent two text messages somewhere.
[Yeon Entertainment Yeon Sae-byeok]
[CEO Yeon?]
[Shall we have a meal together?]
Sizzle.
The sound of meat grilling filled the space between the three of them.
“Hyung, are you good at grilling meat?”
The place the three trainees came to after receiving a card with no spending limit from Se-rang was, at most, a good restaurant in front of the agency famous for pork shoulder.
They came here because Jung Taeha said pork shoulder was probably better than pork belly for the sake of their conscience, and the other two trainees fiercely agreed.
“I worked part-time at a barbecue restaurant before.” Seo Dowon smiled brightly as if telling them to trust him and leave it to him.
“You worked part-time?”
Trainees were so busy just practicing that it was rare for them to have part-time jobs.
Most trainees received support from their parents. Taeha and Yuhyun were no exception.
Besides, both of them were still minors.
“Yeah. Before I joined Imperial, I worked part-time too. Not a lot…. Only on weekends at a restaurant run by someone I knew.”
“I see…. Hyung, you don’t look like someone who’s done part-time work, so I didn’t know.”
At Yuhyun’s words, Dowon only flipped the meat as if embarrassed.
“It’s not anything impressive.”
“Imperial gives you allowance, right? Do they give a lot?”
“About five hundred thousand….”
“Wow, that’s a lot.”
Taeha and Yuhyun answered with slight surprise. Almost no agencies gave trainees allowance.
They had heard some companies occasionally gave maintenance expenses to trainees whose debut was truly imminent…. But Seo Dowon wasn’t even on a debut team, yet they gave him that much.
“Haha. Right. It’s a lot….”
“Imperial sounds like a good place. Maybe I should’ve gone there.”
When Taeha muttered that, Dowon’s face stiffened slightly.
“Mm. No…. I think Blue Royal is much better.”
“Why? Hyung, I guess you don’t know much about Blue Royal. Our company’s CEO doesn’t care about us at all. Isn’t your company’s CEO Baek Do-gyeong? Everyone says he’s good at his job.”
Baek Do-gyeong was famous even among trainees. He was capable enough to rise from an ordinary A&R employee to someone in charge of producing, then all the way to a label CEO.
But Dowon could not seem to agree, and only gave an awkward smile.
“Anyway, Blue Royal is much better….”
“That’s strange. During your interview, you said you were grateful to Imperial, so I thought you were satisfied with Imperial.”
“…It’s not like there’s nothing I’m grateful for. After all, Imperial picked me even though I didn’t have any skills, and that’s how I got this kind of opportunity. It’s not an opportunity anyone can have.”
The two boys were slightly flustered by Dowon’s strangely subdued state, but they did not ask further.
They assumed there must have been some circumstances inside.
“Anyway, I think we did pretty well today. The Director even gave us her card like this.”
“Right. Honestly, we were pretty decent.”
Even Taeha, who was stingy with acknowledgment, nodded, and Dowon also smiled with slightly flushed cheeks.
For all three of them, today’s stage had been the best stage they had ever performed.
They were definitely improving.
Just as Se-rang predicted.
“Honestly, I thought we would screw up the worst. But we got the most praise today.”
When Yuhyun spoke in an excited voice, Taeha glared at him.
“Don’t get cocky. We probably got praise because they had no expectations for us at all. Objectively speaking, Eden’s team did the best.”
“…That’s… true.”
Just as Yuhyun was about to become sullen again, Taeha’s phone rang.
Taeha checked his phone without thinking much, then his face hardened.
“Why? Did something happen?”
“…….”
“Taeha. Are you okay?”
When Yuhyun and Dowon asked with worried faces, Taeha hesitated briefly before speaking.
“Senior Seungha says she wants to see us for a bit.”
“What?” Yuhyun asked in shock. “Just you?”
“No.” Taeha shook his head and showed the two of them his phone screen.
Senior Seungha:
[You’re at dinner, right?]
[Can I join you for a bit?]
“She says she’s coming here.”