The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

“Try running from over there, guys.”

“From over there?”

“But isn’t that too far, Tae-Yoon?”

“We’ll get tired while running.”

“Do we have to control our movements as if we're sprinting?”

“…Please just run if I ask you to run.”

In a desolate Kang Won-Do Hongcheon rural village late afternoon, I was holding a camera to film a music video with my members. We had finished our song and lyric writing two days ago, completed our recording yesterday at unprecedented speed, and were now filming our music video.

We had finished all this in four days, and even I thought it was quite an astounding feat. However, we were only able to progress easily because the song and lyric composition progressed smoothly, the recording only took a brief amount of time, and the music video didn’t have any hard composition.

The music video’s concept was a spring picnic. We took off our daily hanboks and filmed the music video in our daily clothes, and we took shots where we all ran together like a high teen movie. Then, we laid down the picnic mat and ate kimbab* [1].

There was also a small stream flowing in the mountain, and although the participant was unwilling, we were able to get a shot of someone falling there as well. The person who fell in was no one other than Dong-Jun.

“…Kang Do-Seung, I’m really going to kill you.”

“It’s your fault for standing there so precariously.”

“Kang Do-Seung!”

“Don’t shout my name.”

“Ackkkk!”

Unintentionally, Do-Seung had hit Dong-Jun and caused him to fall. Frankly, I thought it was Dong-Jun’s fault for standing playfully in a precarious spot. Although this situation could be considered unfair from Do-Seung’s perspective, Dong-Jun was so furious that Do-Seung accepted Dong-Jun’s complaints and helped him release his anger. I didn’t forget to capture that moment with my camera.

Then I also filmed Woon lying down on the grass.

I said, “That’s a good shot.”

“…But all I’m doing is lying down.”

“You look handsome.”

“I’m not particularly trying to look handsome…”

Perhaps due to Woon’s refreshing and bright self, his image fit well with nature. The next person I shot was Yeon-Hoon, and anyone could clearly tell that he looked good with flowers. Thus, I filmed a video of him in a place full of flowers. Yeon-Hoon crouched next to a bushel of flowers and cupped his face with his hands.

Yeon-Hoon asked, “How do I look?”

“You look good.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t even need to think of composition or whatnot; even if I took it quickly, Yeon-Hoon’s pose looked natural as he was not the type to stiffen in front of the camera. Then with my strong request, I shot a video of Do-Seung doing pull-ups from a tree. As for Dong-Jun, I filmed a video of him trying to prank Do-Seung. Dong-Jung tried to climb on the tree where Do-Seung was doing his pull-ups, but he didn’t have enough momentum and slid down. I was able to make a lot of progress in the music video in this way, and the last person to finally shoot was me.

“Tae-Yoon! Over there! Towards the direction where we can see the sunset more.”

My video had a sunset in the background. I asked, “Here?”

“Yep!”

“Stand still!”

The members all raised the camera, and I was the only one to stand in the sunset spot. I hadn’t thought much while going there, but once I got to the place where I could see the sunset well, all sorts of thoughts popped into my mind.

‘The reality show would be over after today.’ Although the reality show would be aired for three more weeks, the actual filming was until today.

‘It’s now time for us to debut.’ We had busily moved forward until now, but we would have to move even more busily from now on. All kinds of thoughts plagued my mind when—

“Wow, Tae-Yoon, this looks like an ad.”

“What the?”

“You look handsome.”

“Why is he suddenly pretending to be cool?”

“…?”

I had a lot of thoughts on my mind, so I was staring far in the distance, but to Dong-Jun, it must have looked like I was pretending to be cool.

“It’s not pretend. He does look cool!”

“Tae-Yoon! You look cool! Stay there like that!”

Yeon-Hoon scolded Dong-Jun for his comment, and Woon told me to continue what I was doing because I looked cool. I hadn’t thought anything about Dong-Jun’s comment, but the members readily defended me.

“Let’s just raise this and…” Then in the middle of shooting, Yeon-Hoon suddenly set up the tripod and fixed the camera on top of it, and he shouted, “Let’s all go together!”

Yeon-Hoon dragged all the members towards me.

“Tae-Yoon!” Then he ran and fell into my arms. Woon and Do-Seung stood behind me, and Dong-Jun crouched in the front.

I asked, “Why did you all suddenly come here?”

Yeon-Hoon answered, “Well, I just thought this sunset shot would be better with all of us together.”

“Guys, look at the camera. Let’s all smile brightly.”

Although it suddenly became a group shot, I didn’t think this was bad either.

“Let’s go~”

“Let’s go home now~”

After smiling brightly while looking at the camera for our last shoot—our music video shooting was over.

***

Our reality show shooting immediately ended after our music video shooting was over.

“I hoped all of you rested well on this mountain this past week.”

“Yes, we did~”

“Thank you for your hard work, and let’s meet again at an even better opportunity!”

“Thank you!”

“Good work~”

“Thank you~”

After shooting our closing scene, we bowed to the production staff, and with this, the reality show was completely over.

“Everyone!”

“Have you been well this past week?”

Just in time, Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna also came to pick us up.

“Hello!”

“It’s been a while~”

“Have you been well?”

Was it because we haven’t seen them for a while? The members greeted their managers with a bright smile.

“Let’s go down for now. We’ve prepared the car downstairs.”

We checked the car that they told us was parked at the entrance of the mountain. However—

“…Wait a minute.”

We couldn’t easily get inside. The car that we rode on used to be way past 10 years old, and it was a dangerous car that felt like it was on the verge of breaking as we rode on it.

“What…is this?”

“Where is the van we used to ride…?”

However, there was a strange, new car in front of us; it was a vehicle that celebrities were known for riding—a black and sturdy-looking van.

“The agency provided us with a van…!”

Gasp!

The first person to express their admiration was Dong-Jun. As the second youngest after me, he had to be squished with three other people the most often. Thus, he must have felt more joy about the big car than the other members as he no longer had to ride the car all squished up.

“…Ha.” For the same reason, I was overjoyed about our new car, and the other members also seemed pleased.

“Wow, we really did transfer to a big company…”

“Amazing…”

However, this was only the beginning. As soon as we got in the car and got out of Hongcheon and on the highway, Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna revealed another big news. “And we have to move to a new dorm right away. For furniture and things like that, we’ve just bought new ones and installed them in the new accommodation, but we couldn’t touch your personal luggage separately, so all of them are still in your old dorm.”

“A new dorm…?”

“Wasn’t your current dorm a temporary dorm owned by Dong-Jun?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not as great as that one, but we got you a dorm in a good location.”

“Wow.”

The new agency was going to give us a new dorm. After arriving in Seoul, we packed our bags and immediately entered our new dorm. Our first impression was—

“Wow, it’s nice!”

“Wooow!”

“How many rooms are there?”

“There are two big rooms and one small room here too.”

“Nice.”

The dorm’s condition was better than I expected. It was not a crazy apartment in the middle of Gangnam, but it was also in a secure place and was newly built. Moreover, since it was not in Gangnam, it seemed that this place would be safer as there were fewer people. We sat side by side in the living room and looked around the new dorm. Everything from TVs to refrigerators, sofas, tables, beds, closets, display cases, and other home appliances were all here.

The members’ expressions all looked dazed. Starting from our new car and new dorm, they must have felt like their whole world had suddenly changed. It was the same for me. I wondered if this was reality as good surprises were pouring out at once.

‘Yoo Won-Dong…?’ There was no way that the Yoo Won-Dong that I knew could spend so much money. Of course, it was not Yoo Won-Dong’s money but the company’s money, but it was still surprising.

‘I’m amazed?’ Every time Only One made an album, he always tried to cut costs, and he hadn’t treated us to a single company dinner. He was an executive who only talked with figures and results, so he only thought about maximizing the highest results possible with the lowest input. It was hard to believe a person like that could give u a new car and house for us, who didn’t even bring in any money yet.

‘What’s he thinking?’ I might be too pessimistic, but I was suspicious first. Thus I asked, “Perhaps, is this house company property?”

“Property?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, yes! That’s correct. I heard that they bought a house to use it as a dorm under the company’s name.”

When I asked if this house was owned by the company, Ms. Seung-Yeon said yes. It was uncommon for an agency to buy and sell celebrity accommodations. Many people lived on a lease and after they ended their contracts, they moved to another house.

‘In other words, the executives just invested with the company’s money.’ Rather than a benefit for us, it was more of a property investment for the company, and it would be categorized as company’s asset instead of expenses. But still, I was thankful about getting a new house.

Then the next question was why they gave us a new car, so I asked, “May I ask where you got this car from?”

“Where?”

“Well, the place where you first received this vehicle.”

“Oh! From the JI ENM parking lot. There were a lot of cars like this when we went there?”

“Gotcha.” I roughly understood what happened. The new car also came not with the money from the joint venture, where Yoo Won-Dong would sit as president, but from the equipment support from its parent company, JI ENM.

‘In short, he didn’t spend a single penny.’ As expected, he didn’t spend a single penny, but he did take care of our convenience with his capabilities. In a way, this was a sign of a competent manager.

‘But why do I feel iffy about this?’ How did I explain this? It kept feeling like he was pursuing cost-effectiveness. For now, it felt okay because we were saving costs on products such as our dorm and vehicles, which we could be cost-effective about.

‘Hmm.’ Ididn’t know whether he was just cost-effective in areas we could afford to be, or he would try to be cost-effective about everything.

***

Exit 4 of Gangnam Station. In a relatively small, 11-story building on the roadside some distance from the station, the construction builders were currently removing an old sign and putting up a new sign. It was the building purchased by JI ENM for this business, and the building to be used by Siren’s agency “Next Wave” as its office building.

“Because all the interior design has been newly installed, it sure looks nice. Hahaha!”

“We plan to turn this first floor here into a café so that Siren fans can use it freely.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

“Then that would be profitable, right?”

“Ah, I think so. But usually, it’s just for fan service.”

“Then would it be okay to raise the price a little?”

“…I recommend you set the price to an average café price.”

“Haha! But still, it’s our The Showcase’s winners Siren, so it would be totally fine for us to raise the price!”

“…Right. It’s not going to be a lot of money for Siren’s loyal fans.”

Yoo Won-Dong smiled in satisfaction with the exterior of the building. He exclaimed, “Let’s get on a roll with good results and good sales!”

“Yes, I’ll work hard until I break every bone in my body.”

“Hahaha! Great!” To Yoo Won-Dong, this building and product called Siren looked like a ladder for him to climb higher. There were only two things on his mind—performance and sales. He didn’t intend to stay here for long anyway.

He planned to stay here for exactly five years and enter the center of JI ENM group within five years. Thus, for the next five years, he planned to produce results that anyone would be awed by. Of course, he didn’t know anything about idol groups, and he still understood this business as just a playground for children, not as an extremely competitive industry.

1. Korean seaweed roll ☜