Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols

The days were busy enough just practicing, but there was so much more to keep track of.

 

The most notable was the monthly evaluation. I happened to be assigned a new task related to the evaluation.

 

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[SYSTEM] A ‘new task’ has been assigned.

 

▷ Establish a plan for the monthly evaluation

 

▷ Reward: Exp (10)

 

[SYSTEM] A ‘new task’ has been assigned.

 

▷ Achieve a passing score in the monthly evaluation

 

▷ Reward: Exp (30)

 

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It must be important to get a passing score. Even after the exp adjustment, they were giving out 30 exp for it.

 

If I didn’t get a passing score, I would have already failed to achieve the KPIs. I should plan properly.

 

UA’s evaluation criteria consisted of two elements: vocal and dance. And recently, I had been focusing more on dance practice.

 

There were two main reasons for this.

 

First, while I could at least pretend to sing a song, I had never danced even once in my life.

 

If you had assignments in both Korean and German writing, you would start by buying a German dictionary first.

 

I was more confident in memorizing song lyrics than memorizing choreography.

 

So, I invested most of my initial practice time in dancing. Since I had successfully memorized the choreography, I had passed the first hurdle.

 

Second, I was scheduled to have fewer vocal lessons than dance lessons before the monthly evaluation.

 

This meant that I would have less feedback to listen to and reflect on compared to dance classes.

 

In fact, even when I had one lesson of each, there was less feedback from the vocal lesson.

 

‘It’s better to master what I’ve been taught rather than recklessly trying things on my own.’

 

A newbie who perfectly executed one task taught was better than one who messed up all ten tasks after learning some nonsense on their own.

 

Fortunately, the problems pointed out in the vocal lessons were still within my ability to manage.

 

So, while diversifying, I put a few more eggs in the dance basket.

 

My ultimate goal was to grab the areas I was lacking in and pull them up so that I could at least show that I was about half of a person’s worth.

 

Once I set the direction, I could focus on dance practice, which was good in terms of efficiency.

 

All these plans were ultimately aiming in one direction.

 

Position.

 

What I was aiming for was just one thing: sub-vocalist.

 

Spark’s vocals were quite solid, as they were ambitiously planned by UA, a company known for its vocal prowess.

 

The group’s position balance was also good.

 

In the vocal line, Park Joowoo and Jeong Seongbin took the lead, and in the dance line, it was Choi Jeho and Kang Kiyeon.

 

If Lee Cheonghyeon, the rap member, had also perfectly handled the rap, it would have been a perfect performance, but…

 

In reality, there were many twists and turns. This was because the vocal difficulty level of the songs that UA initially passed on to Spark was truly extreme.

 

UA seemed to want to establish itself as a small but powerful idol company through Spark, so they gave Spark a bunch of songs that made you wonder, ‘How do you sing this while dancing?’

 

≫ UA, you *sshole, did you have a grudge against the members’ vocal cords?

 

└ If it were me, I would have already sued UA when I received three consecutive high notes in four songs for my parts.

 

Spark, with their shining talent, astonishingly managed to pull off dolphin high notes and power dances each time.

 

In the process, Lee Cheonghyeon had to handle composing, writing lyrics, rapping, and vocals. Jeong Seongbin ended up with vocal nodules.

 

Knowing that injuries could occur, the issue of position was already settled in my mind.

 

‘If I take on some of the vocal burden, the members won’t have to handle four roles each.’

 

So I decided to prepare for the sub-vocalist position, which would provide the members with some breathing room.

 

In the first place, that was all I could do to help.

 

Once I set my goal as ‘a member who filled in the vocals while staying under the radar as much as possible,’ the task became clear.

 

It seemed possible to become a member who just filled in the vocals with a bit of blood, sweat, and tears.

 

Among the many songs Spark would sing in the future, there were definitely parts I could handle within my vocal range.

 

It was a relief that the evaluation criteria were just these two. If fan service were included, I’d have to bite my tongue and be reborn.

 

But seriously, why didn’t they evaluate the fan service? Wasn’t that a basic skill for an idol?

 

I didn’t know the effectiveness of Spark’s fan service, but I knew that fans desperately wanted it.

 

They weren’t completely stone-faced, as they seemed to be trying something, but objectively speaking, their attempts were crude enough to make you think they wasted their good looks.

 

This was why Spark’s fan service flopped, the fandom atmosphere soured, they attracted aggro, articles came out daily, and the group disbanded…

 

Thinking about it got me angry again. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

 

Anyway. The remaining task now was to stay under the radar as much as possible within the team.

 

If a stiff codfish was creaking among the sparkling idols, it was impossible not to stand out, so I had to work hard on dance practice as well.

 

After making the potential conclusion, the task to establish an evaluation plan was marked as complete.

 

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[SYSTEM] Task completed.

 

▷ Reward: Exp (10)

 

▷ Total exp: 10

 

▷ Total point: 0

 

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Now, if I accumulated 90 more experience points, I could match my dance proficiency with my vocal proficiency.

 

My first milestone was just around the corner.

 

* * *

 

Since moving out and becoming independent at the age of twenty, I had lived alone for about seven years, except for the time I spent in the military.

 

During that time, I had momentarily forgotten one basic manner.

 

When you have a roommate, you need to sync your sleep pattern with theirs.

 

As a result, I had to pretend to sleep and wait for them to fall asleep, which wasn’t part of my original plan.

 

Then, once Choi Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon stopped tossing and turning, I carefully came out of the room.

 

The living room after 1 a.m. was dark and quiet.

 

I couldn’t turn on the lights because it would illuminate the whole house, so I decided to just use my laptop.

 

Luckily, the agency had provided one in the dorm for video searches.

 

I wanted to use WebCell, but unfortunately, the laptop didn’t have the NS program installed.

 

The desire to raise the license purchase approval was strong.

 

‘If I ever need to use it again, I’ll buy it with my own money.’

 

I had no choice but to open the spreadsheet and fill in the items one by one.

 

In the order of song name, lyrics memorization, basic skills, and total sum.

 

Next, under the song title, I listed all the songs I knew and eliminated any songs I couldn’t memorize more than 70% of the lyrics for

 

With limited time, I decided to focus resources on improving proficiency rather than memorizing lyrics.

 

Finally, based on the basics I learned in vocal lessons, I scored each item according to how well I thought I could showcase them.

 

‘I should probably think of methods other than this labor-intensive brainstorming too.’

 

As I was typing with heavy eyes, feeling a familiar sense of stability, someone’s hand appeared out of the darkness and tapped next to the laptop. 

 

When I looked up, Jeong Seongbin, with his eyes half open, was standing across the table.

 

That surprised me. You’re quite stealthy, aren’t you?

 

“What?”

 

When I asked in a small voice, Jeong Seongbin blinked and said.

 

“I’m sorry to interrupt you. But what are you doing…?”

 

“Choosing a song for the evaluation. Do you need to use the living room?”

 

“No, it’s just… it’s late, but someone is in the living room.”

 

Jeong Seongbin’s voice and face were full of drowsiness.

 

Looking at the clock, it was already 3 am.

 

I had no idea time had flown by so quickly.

 

Anyway, in this lousy world, prices and time were all moving ahead of me.

 

“I’ll finish up soon and go back in. If you woke up, go back to sleep quickly. A good night’s sleep today creates tomorrow’s 180 degrees.”

 

Instead of immediately turning back after being nagged in the middle of the night, Jeong Seongbin alternated between looking at me and the clock. Then he pulled out a chair across from me and sat at the dining table.

 

“Do you have any candidates in mind?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“The song candidates.”

 

Jeong Seongbin asked, rubbing his eyes.

 

Surprisingly, it seemed Jeong Seongbin was willing to stay in the living room just for me instead of going back to sleep.

 

I felt more comfortable alone.

 

But no matter how much resentment I held towards Spark, I shouldn’t ignore someone who was right in front of me.

 

I showed Jeong Seongbin the list of around seventy songs that survived the intense survival process.

 

“The scores… Ah, you graded them based on what the teacher said, right?”

 

“Yes. And focusing on songs with a similar vocal range to the ones I sang in class.”

 

Jeong Seongbin nodded occasionally as he read the list and listened to my explanation. Then he muttered in a voice still full of drowsiness.

 

“I think I have an idea of what kind of songs you’d like to pick, considering the vocal range you worked on in vocal lessons. What about this song… Have you heard it before?”

 

“Are you trying to help me?”

 

“It may not be much help, but if you wanted to choose from songs you already know to avoid messing up the lyrics… How about this song?”

 

“…”

 

“The lyrics for the first and second verses of this song are almost identical. Plus, they’re short.”

 

I knew Jeong Seongbin was a kind-hearted person from the way he was always referred to as ‘Kind Seongbin’ in independent content.

 

But I thought that was only in comparison to the other members.

 

Seeing Jeong Seongbin dozing off, I briefly considered whether I should just move him back to his room.

 

Still, I meticulously took notes on his almost magical feedback.

 

After that, K-pop tutor extraordinaire Jung Seongbin continued, pursing his lips and marking my candidates with ○ and △, adding and removing songs, until he narrowed it down to thirty songs. My batting average seemed to be around 0.41.

 

Even with the guidelines, the speed at which Jeong Seongbin provided appropriate suggestions under the newly set conditions was impressive.

 

‘Seongbin hyung is a real K-pop monster! He’s like a karaoke veteran.’

 

‘He even knows the song that came out before he was born.’

 

‘Hyung, do you only eat and listen to songs? Ah… you only listen to songs.’

 

‘Then Mr. Jeong Seongbin’s nickname shall be Korean Song Veteran!’

 

After seeing it with my own eyes, I realized how scary the veteran was.

 

To survive in the harsh world of idols, you probably needed to be this knowledgeable.

 

“How about you pick from these? What do you think, hyung? Do you think the recently released songs would be better…?”

 

There was no way to interpret Jeong Seongbin’s help other than him doing it out of goodwill.

 

Even if he tried to take something from me in return, all Jeong Seongbin could take would be my organs.

 

Jeong Seongbin’s personality was hard to find in someone who danced and sang all day on low-calorie diets with only four to five hours of sleep.

 

At least, it was impossible for me. Even more so if I was eighteen like Jeong Seongbin’s current age.

 

This was what it took to be a leader. As I was inwardly admiring him, Jeong Seongbin and I made eye contact.

 

Jeong Seongbin’s eyes were bright, suggesting he had fully woken up.

 

I had seen photos where countless light sticks were reflected in those eyes. This was when I made a birthday advertisement for Gangnam Station Exit 4.

 

“Hyung?”

 

“Uh, yeah. I’ll listen to the ones you recommended and decide. Thanks.”

 

“No problem. Cheer up.”

 

Though the kitchen was now dark, lit only by the dim light of the laptop.

 

I felt the urge to ask Jeong Seongbin, ‘Why are you so kind even to a passing novice like me?’.

 

But I held back, worried that if I didn’t let Jeong Seongbin sleep now, it might stunt his future growth.

 

An idol’s growing years were precious, after all. I had to protect that.