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Chapter 10

“We’re shooting tomorrow...?” I struggled to grapple with the reality of our situation and asked the two employees in front of us.

“Ah, yes.”

“Uh, Mr. Tae-Yoon, are you angry?”

I must have looked angry even though I was just pondering what to do. Since I also knew that I had an intimidating appearance, I relaxed my expression a little.

I replied, “I was just thinking.”

Frankly, I was also a little angry since they agreed to tomorrow’s shooting without any questions and were pushed around by the broadcasting program’s request.

‘I’m glad we at least got accepted to The Showcase.’ It was a huge relief that Plan A had succeeded. I had been constantly clicking in and out of the production company’s website to win the right to appear in ‘that drama\' for Plan B, but now, there was no need for that. Although we could just focus on The Showcase, there was something that bothered me.

‘Will we be able to shoot tomorrow?’ Although the time frame to upload the application video for The Showcase was closed, it had only been about a day since we uploaded our application video. Of course, thanks to Kang Hyun-Sung’s video, we were able to instantly rise to second place in total views, but frankly, there was no need to progress so quickly.

‘Is there something else they’re scheming?’ The production team for The Showcase must be moving fast because they wanted something from us.

‘Perhaps, they must have sniffed out that we were truly struggling, no-name idols.’

They might have approached us after researching our environment and situation. I carefully looked around our practice room. Since we filmed the video in this practice room, the production team must have realized that our practice room was also dreary and poor. Though every scene in our application video was close-up shots, the production team must have noticed our humid, moldy mess of a practice room right away.

Even the practice room of TH Entertainment, another small-sized agency, was not at this level. Although their practice room was small, it had a modern aesthetic. In contrast, our practice room had a run-down aesthetic, let alone a modern one. Thus, the reason why the production team must have wanted to shoot this early was because they wanted to catch the footage of struggling idols when they were most struggling.

‘Are they planning to rush in without giving us time to prepare to get things as raw as possible?’

Usually, even for struggling idols, if they managed to snag a big deal, the agency began managing them more heavily, and there were times when they even quickly moved their dorms. Since both the agency and idols knew that their lives could completely change if they took advantage of this opportunity, they were willing to go to great lengths.

Of course, if they went too far, their efforts could backfire and earn the disfavor of the public. Anyway, it seemed as if the production team was planning to invade our living and work spaces before we got a chance to change their appearance for filming. If that was the case—

‘It’s actually better.’ I thought this wouldn’t be a bad idea for us as well.

“Won’t shooting tomorrow be a bit tight?”

“We haven’t even cleaned our dorm yet.”

“I think we should also clean the entire practice room thoroughly.”

The members began expressing concerns about tomorrow’s filming schedule. It wasn\'t completely fixed on whether we could shoot tomorrow.

“Personally, I think shooting tomorrow would be a great idea.” In this case, if one person took the lead, other people’s opinions would naturally follow.

“Tae-Yoon, you want to shoot tomorrow?” Yeon-Hoon asked to make sure.

“Yes, I prefer it that way. Since it’s a shoot that we need to do anyway, I think doing it quicker will help my nerves.” I said that and took a deep breath to pretend that I was nervous.

“...Yeah. It would be better for our nerves if we get it done quickly.” Yeon-Hoon must have sympathized with my anxiety in that short time frame as there was pity in his eyes while looking at me.

I added, “Also, if we shoot quickly, we can get the first stage hint quicker.”

Do-Seung and Woon reacted positively to my second point.

“That’s true.”

“After listening to Tae-Yoon, I think there’s also an advantage in getting the shoot done quickly.”

“Let’s do it quickly~.” Last but not least, Dong-Jun, sounded like he didn’t have much thought on the topic as always. Dong-Jun was not really a thoughtless person, but strangely, he rarely participated in important discussions like this.

“Yes. Then, I’ll confirm tomorrow’s shooting schedule with the production team!” The two people from the company said and left the practice room to contact the broadcasting crew of The Showcase.

“Ahhhh. We’re really going to be filming now.” Yeon-Hoon rolled his feet with slight fear after the two from the company left the room.

“We’ll do well.”

“Let’s clean up first.”

“I think it’d be better if we all starve tonight.”

The other members made suggestions that we could accomplish right away for tomorrow’s shoot.

“Why don’t we eat a lot for dinner instead of cleaning tomorrow?” Yet, I opposed. The reason was clear—if we cleaned up our place, we would feel less like struggling idols and our situation would appear less striking on screen as well. If we were going to use the struggling idol angle, I thought we should go all out to receive all the benefits as possible. Therefore, improvements in our environment need to be avoided as much as possible.

On the other hand, there was no particular reason why I refuted the suggestion of skipping dinner. I just didn’t want the other members to starve. We could go on a diet after we debut, so why were they already thinking of starving themselves? When they were all already skinny as hell too?

“I-is that okay?”

“Wouldn’t it look unnatural if we seemed to have put too much care and cleaned the whole place?”

“Well, that’s also true.”

“I think it would be better to focus more on practice.”

The members seemed to ponder about this for a moment and then said:

“Yeah, since it was thanks to Tae-Yoon’s idea that we won the right to appear on The Showcase, let’s follow Tae-Yoon’s opinion.”

Since Yeon-Hoon took the lead to support me, the rest of the members accepted my suggestion.

“Then let’s practice some choreography that we can use on stage from now on.”

“Okay~”

Like this, the last practice of the day before the shooting began.

* * *

The production crew of <The Showcase 2—First Chance> gathered at the filming site at 6 a.m. They suggested a filming schedule to WD Entertainment at an extremely short notice yesterday and were informed that the shooting date was confirmed. They had asked on a short notice, expecting WD Entertainment to refuse, so they were all quite surprised by the turn of events. They couldn’t gauge if the agency was extremely seasoned and planning something or were simply bad at their jobs.

Kim Min-Young, a scriptwriter for The Showcase, looked blankly up at the apartment’s rooftop. She said, “So that’s Siren’s dorm, right?”

“Yes, that’s what they said.”

Although it was annoying to work so early in the morning, Min-Young felt happy that the smell of a struggling idol strongly permeated from the small, rundown apartment. The concept of The Showcase Season 1 had been ‘the rebellion of unknown idols’, but the concept for this time was ‘discovering struggling idols’.

The goal of this season was to make further use of the heart-wrenching stories of unpopular idols and intensify their struggles and hardships by showcasing idols who were bound to flop rather than unpopular idols who had already debuted before. In addition, although the idols that came out in last season were called unknown idols, there was, in fact, a collection of groups whose names were already known by idol-loving fans.

However, it was for real this time. They were legit struggling idols who had barely any support and backup. Currently, two teams that have already flopped and three groups that would have clearly flopped after their debut have been garnered. Among them, Siren was the most likely group to fail. When Min-Young looked up WD Entertainment agency before the shoot, she even wondered how a company like this could exist. The representatives of this agency were song producers who have written a few famous songs in the past.

However, they were now out of touch, and their work wasn’t in demand anymore. They could now only sell a few songs here and there. However, for financial matters, it seemed as if they had a bit of money from the few hit songs they made in the past. When she searched the internet, it seemed as if one of the top representatives was rich enough to own a small building, so it didn’t seem like there would be a major problem with the agency’s financing but—

‘There is something fishy about the way they work.’ Min-Young could sniff it from a mile away.

“Let’s go up.” The production team, led by Kim Min-Young, went up to the rooftop to film. Since there was no elevator, they needed to walk up with heavy equipment. After they arrived and knocked on the door—

“Yes~ I’m heading out!” They heard a cheerful voice from inside.

“Uh? Hello! You’re very early!” When they opened the door, the person who stood at the very front in Siren’s application video appeared behind the door—it was Woo Yeon-Hoon. His round and pretty eyes curved softly into a bright smile.

“Guys! The filming crew is here!” At the leader’s call, the Siren’s members began coming out one by one.

The tall and sharp-looking member was Kang Do-Seung, the second oldest in the group and the rapper of the group. The member with the lean and elegant body and face was Lee Woon. The member who was as pale as a ghost was Park Dong-Jun, the third oldest in the group. And lastly, the person standing at the end was Bong Tae-Yoon, the youngest member of the group. He was tall and gave off a cold aura.

Min-Young didn’t say this out loud, but she thought, ‘If they didn’t tell me who the youngest was, I would think it was Woo Yeon-Hoon.’

Bong Tae-Yoon strangely gave off the impression of an adult even though he was the only one who was a minor at 19 years old*.[1]

It didn’t mean that he looked old.

‘How should I describe it?’ He looked very intimidating and didn’t seem like he would be picked on by anyone.

“We don’t have a team greeting yet, so can we just do a basic greeting?” Woo Yeon-Hoon hesitated and asked.

“Ah, yes. You can just do a basic greeting.” Kim Min-Young said and captured Siren’s greeting on camera.

“Hello! This is Siren! Nice to meet you!” Five handsome young men greeted the camera loudly.

Then Min-Young said, “From now on, you can move freely and go on with your daily activities. The concept is like a reality show.”

“Ah, yes. I see.”

Kim Min-Young stepped back, and the filming team began to attach observation cameras all over the room. Then all the unnecessary personnel went out. It was to make the setting as realistic as possible, but it was also because the room was too small for many people to stay inside.

Min-Young ordered, “If you’re done installing, please leave right away.”

Soon after, everyone left, and the only person left from the filming crew was Kim Min-Young. She sat in the corner and watched how the Siren members lived. She had worked at broadcasting stations for many years and had met many idols, but it was the first time she saw five members living together in a dorm that was no different from a studio apartment.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’ The room was small and the facilities were greatly lacking. Depending on how they filmed, the video could be mistaken for a grave documentary instead of a program about idols. The documentary topic would be about idols suffering in the dark spots of the idol industry. Then concerns began to arise in her head.

‘Won’t the public criticize us for exaggerating the situation?’

The filming crew had come here to garner sympathy and pity for struggling idols, but Min-Young had no idea Siren’s living conditions would be this poor. Since this was a house where people lived, Min-Young kept a calm face and didn’t show her surprise, but she was quite shocked.

It was to the extent that their show might get involved in a controversy for manipulating the environment and trying to garner fake sympathy if they aired the dorm as it was. While Min-Young was concerned about neutralizing their situation so that it could be easily consumable by the public—

“Okay! Get the table out! Ah, come on, set up the table!” The member who looked aloof and sharp, Kang Do-Seung, brought a pot of stew and called the other members.

“Yeahhh!”

Then the other members opened a round sitting table together. It looked like a tin table found at a grandma’s house. Min-Young watched the scene with interest.

“Egg rolls are coming out. Egg rolls!”

“Spam is coming out next, spam!”

Min-Young was worried that their daily life would also be extremely pitiful and sad because their living facilities were so poor, but they showed a scene in direct contrast to their environment.

‘They had a side like this as well.’ The members showed a scene of a family busily preparing breakfast and eating together.

“Park Dong-Jun, I told you that you can’t eat double portions of rice.”

“Come on! You said I can eat a lot for breakfast!”

“There’s still a limit.”

“But if there’s spam and egg rolls, you need to eat a lot of rice.”

“No, you should eat moderately.”

“Seriously.” Sigh.

“Do-Seung, don’t be too hard on Dong-Jun.”

While Kang Do-Seung and Park Dong-Jun quarreled with each other over food early in the morning, Lee Woon mediated between the two.

“Yum! The stew is so good! Did you make it, Tae-Yoon?”

“I just boiled the stew that I made yesterday again.”

“It’s good~ So good~ I’m starting to hum because of how good it is~”

Woo Yeon-Hoon and Bong Tae-Yoon were sharing a friendly conversation to the side, and when Woo Yeon-Hoon happily moved his shoulders up and down as he ate, Tae-Yoon stared at him with a smile.

Kim Min-Young captured the scene unfolding in front of her without missing a single detail. She stared at the soy-bean stew, egg rolls, and grilled spam on the tin table and the members talking amongst themselves—Min-Young had been racking her brain, trying to figure out how to make their situation look less sad, but the solution was right in front of her. Even in a piss-poor environment, the members didn’t seem to care at all, and they had a deep bond like a family. Although directing the video with this storyline was a bit cliché—

‘It’s a classic for a reason.’ There was a reason why clichés became cliché in the first place. With these members, Min-Young thought she could make an interesting story even with a cliché storyline.

Even though they were struggling idols who were expected to be in charge of the program’s tear-jerking scenes, Min-Young thought, ‘I think I can depict them as more complex characters.’

Rather than using them as characters for throwaway, heart-wrenching scenes, Min-Young decided that it would be better to use them as a more important group for the program.

1. Tae-Yoon is 19 years old in Korean age, so he would actually be 18 or 17. Under Korean law, anyone who is under 19 in international age is considered a minor. ?