The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Yeon-Hoon was right; we could also go in that direction.

‘Feeling blue’ meant being melancholy in English, and in fact, there were many songs that utilized this term. When the color blue was used as a means to express sentiments of loneliness and sadness, we could leave an unexpected impact on the viewers. As soon as I thought of this, ideas sprang up inside my mind.

“Ah.” I was itching to share my ideas but then thought, ‘I should think about it a bit more.’ I knew from many years of writing that 90% of ideas that popped up hastily were trash. I curbed my excitement and watched the members talk amongst themselves.

“Melancholy? Melancholy Blue? I don’t think that would be a bad idea.” Dong-Jun showed interest in the new direction.

“Melancholy. Hmm. I think it would be good to refer to modern dance and incorporate that into our choreography.” Woon was already thinking about the choreography.

For reference, the choreography for “Sailing” had also been made by Woon. I had prepared appropriate commentary to laud Woon’s ability, but there were so many variables during our last performance that I couldn’t find the right timing to say it.

‘What a shame.’ It was a waste to think that I missed the chance to get one more cut for us. Soon, we went back to the topic of the color blue.

“Blue. Blue hmmm~” Do-Seung was already working on a melody he came up with based on the idea of blue. Since it was still a secret that he was composing songs, the other members must have thought that he was just randomly humming.

And last but not least, Yeon-Hoon seemed as if he just didn’t like anything gloomy. “How do we do something gloomy? I don’t like gloomy…”

A gloomy color didn’t fit Yeon-Hoon, but apart from that, ‘I think it will fit well with his vocals.’ Although he had a high, soft voice, there was something deep and sorrowful about his voice. Thus, I thought he could pull off a melancholy song quite well. Excluding Yeon-Hoon, it seemed all the members were generally positive about going for a gloomy song to convey the color. And regards to Yeon-Hoon, he always followed the direction we wanted to follow, so there seemed to be no problem even if we finalized this concept.

‘Let’s show it. A story.’ I thought about a storyline that expressed this concept, and why the narrator would be feeling melancholy. I thought about what lyrics we could sing and what to express with our dance and based on these factors, I began to write a story that we could show on stage. The other team would probably use previously released songs, arrange them appropriately, and perform on stage.

However, I wanted our group to use only songs that we created from start to finish on this show. The first reason was because I didn’t think we would be able to produce good results if we left the song rearrangement to our agency.

‘Also, there are strong merits to self-producing a song.’ In the long run, the power of self-production was going to become more and more significant. It went beyond providing more substance and talent for our fans to enjoy.

‘We could gain a say inside the agency.’ When our contract was transferred to a joint contract after the program was over in the future, self-producing our songs could be our weapon to not be treated as mindless puppets in the new agency. That was a distant story for the future, but for now, we could garner a bit more attention if we possessed the title of self-producing idols. I was planning to make good use of that, and in order to carry out this plan—

‘First, I need to persuade Do-Seung today or tomorrow.’ We needed to secure the song composer first. I made plans, drafted a storyline, chose the lyric theme, and looked out the car window. I watched the car drive straight ahead.

* * *

Inside OnlyOne’s car, the trip back to the dorm was dead silent. There was only one person who could make the atmosphere so tense like this. It was Kang Hyun-Sung sitting behind the driver’s seat. Since Kang Hyun-Sung didn’t say a single word before he got into the car, no one could dare to break the silence.

Only One’s maknae, Park Young-ho, glanced sideways at Kang Hyun-Sung. He was in the same group as Kang Hyun-Sung and had once practiced together in the past. At that time, Kang Hyun-Sung didn’t have a bright and warm personality, but he wasn’t someone with such a chilling atmosphere like now.

However, Kang Hyun-Sung became a completely different person after the Select Your Idol show and performed as part of the group ‘Yours’. Of course, Hyun-Sung didn’t bully them or vent his anger at another member. Rather, it was the opposite. He acted strictly businesslike with them to the tee.

Sometimes it felt like he was being overly polite like someone drawing a line and treating people he wouldn’t be seeing for long. He didn’t talk to his team members unless it was strictly necessary. As a result, Hyun-Sung’s mannerisms influenced the whole group’s atmosphere, and everyone treated each other businesslikely.

Since Hyun-Sung acted cold to everyone, they all became cold to each other. However, he was a bit different from usual today and appeared a bit more emotional. Park Young-Ho tried to think about events that might have led to Hyun-Sung’s change of mood when Kang Hyun-Sung suddenly called his name.

“Young-Ho.”

“Ah! Yes, sir!” A very formal answer intuitively popped out of Young-Ho’s mouth as his name was called out of the blue.

Hyun-Sung smiled slightly at his reaction and stared at him. He asked, “You’re a year younger than Siren’s maknae, right?”

“Ah, yes. That’s probably the case.”

“Do kids around that age normally give off a vibe like that?”

“What?” Park Young-Ho thought about the group called Siren. It was a group that filmed and uploaded a video with the same concept as them. Frankly, they were all very shocked when Siren uploaded the same video as them and wondered how the same video could be uploaded at around the same time.

Their video’s idea had come from Kang Hyun-Sung. He said that rather than doing a half-hearted version of a striking idol performance, it was better to do something funny instead to get a good response. When Kang Hyun-Sung, who was always so cold and aloof, brought out such a comical concept and began acting, Young-Ho had thought he was dreaming. Thus, it was more surprising that there was someone who had the same thoughts as Kang Hyun-Sung in Siren—the group’s maknae.

Young-Ho had heard Siren’s maknae was 19 years old, and he hadn’t yet heard if Bong Tae-Yoon went to school or not. Was Kang Hyun-Sung bothered that there had been someone with a similar idea as him? It seemed as if throughout the shooting, Kang Hyun-Sung seemed to have been watching Siren’s maknae more keenly than the others. Furthermore, this thought was supported by how Kang Hyun-Sung was asking about Siren’s maknae separately like this.

“Well, uh, he does feel different from an average 19-year-old…?” Young-Ho also felt like Siren’s maknae was an unusual person; the high school boys he knew were rowdier and louder. However, Bong Tae-Yoon even gave off the impression that he was the oldest in the team.

“…But why are you asking me that?” Park Young-Ho cautiously asked the intention of Kang Hyun-Sung’s question.

“No, it just bothered me.” Hyun-Sung succinctly replied and turned away his gaze. After that, the car heading to their dorm was again engulfed in silence. It felt stuffy like someone was suffocating them. Park Young-Ho habitually tapped his chest. From a certain point in time, he felt like something was continuously pressing down on the area near his stomach.

* * *

“It’s here~ We’ve arrived at the dorm!”

The car, which had been full of energetic conversations about the topic of the color blue, finally became quiet after arriving in front of our dorm.

“Let’s first go up and think about the stage a little more!”

“Yeah, all right!”

“Let’s get off~.”

“Agggh!”

As the members sitting in the front got off one by one, I, who was sitting in the back, pulled the car seat back and came out. Since this was an old car, the third-row seat was utterly terrible to sit in.

‘My back hurts.’ I thought I should really buy a foam roller.

“Then, don't hesitate to get in touch with me whenever you have an emergency! Ms. Hyuna and I will now go back to the agency!”

It seemed like they had to return to the agency’s company building.

Yeon-Hoon asked, “Are you not going to get off work?”

Seung-Yeon replied, “Well, we have to fill out and submit an activity report today. Hahaha.”

Then Hyuna said, “We also have to organize the history of our company card usage and handle expenses…”

This was the pain of working as an administrator. No matter what they did, they had to write a report to the higher-ups. The biggest problem was that the higher-up was head manager Yoon Tae-Hyun, who didn’t do crap.

‘Well, he won’t even look at it even if they report it. It’s all a formality.’ This was the moment when I missed the head manager before Yoon Tae-Hyung. The atmosphere was at least hopeful when he was around. I pushed away my miscellaneous thoughts and looked up at our dorm. It was an old apartment’s rooftop.

‘We should move soon.’

It wasn’t because I wanted a spacious and nice house. After the broadcast, we may gain a fandom, whether big or small. Then there was definitely a risk that there might be a stalker-fan. It was clear that if we lived in a house with such poor security, they'd come breaking in at the slightest opportunity. From their perspective, our living spaces would be a full-course meal for them.

‘Should I ask Dong-Jun about this?’ I stared at Dong-Jun, who was doing a strange tap dance with Yeon-Hoon with a huge smile on his face. He was someone who was extremely energetic every single day. In the past, I used to wonder why he was always smiling, and I found out there was somewhat of a reason for that.

‘It’s still fascinating.’ I thought I should leave that matter aside for now and look at Do-Seung first. After calming down Yeon-Hoon and Dong-Jun by telling them to stop, he dragged them up the stairs.

‘I need to make him officially start composing for us.’

While I was thinking about ways to convince him, Woon came up from behind and asked, “Aren’t you going, Tae-Yoon?”

“Ah, yes.” I climbed the stairs with Woon. We reached the rooftop, opened the front door, and entered our dorm.

“Everyone, sit here for now. Before today is over, let’s talk a little bit about what we’re going to do for the next stage and then go to sleep,” Yeon-Hoon said and spread the sitting table in the middle of the living room. We put our luggage down in the corner and sat in a circle in front of the table.

“First, it's definite that we’re going with the concept of melancholy blue, right?” Yeon-Hoon brought out a notebook and pen from somewhere and wrote down the words melancholy blue in the middle of the paper.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I like it.”

“I also like it.”

“I’m all for it.”

Since all five people agreed, that part was completely set.

“Hmm, then we have to find a sad song to compliment the color blue,” Yeon-Hoon said and entered the streaming app. After entering the tab that categorized songs by keyword, he clicked on the tab called sad.

“They’re mostly ballads.” This was the reality. Of course, there were some melancholy idol songs as well. However, the problem was—

“There’s no dance in this.” Most of the gloomy idol songs were non-title track songs with no choreography, and they weren’t suitable to dance to either. Although they were idol songs, they were all basically slow, ballad songs as well.

“It’s hard.” Although our theme was good, no song perfectly fit our goals.

“Shall we get a melody from that SoundClown site again? And then how about adding lyrics to that?”

“That sounds like a great idea. If there’s no suitable song, we have to make it anyway. “

“Since it would be hard for us to get a professional composer, I think our best bet would be to get permission from one of the people who released their music for free.”

Dong-Jun and Yeon-Hoon exchanged opinions and continued to talk in the direction of using SoundClown.

“Tae-Yoon, can you write the lyrics this time too? If it’s difficult, we can all—”

“No, I can do it,” I replied.

“Wow, that was fast. Then we at least got the lyrics down and…”

It seemed as if they wanted to add the lyrics I wrote to a song we found on SoundClown again. Although we ranked fifth, we all knew that “Sailing” was well received. Since this was a method that succeeded once, it was natural that they wanted to utilize it again.

As our meeting continued, two people remained particularly quiet. One was Do-Seung. Since the SoundClown idea was brought up, Do-Seung began to stiffen and glance around his surroundings nervously. The second person was Woon. I wondered why Woon wasn’t saying anything when he was usually the type to speak up in meetings.

‘Hmm?’ I saw that he kept glancing at Do-Seung and then moved his lips as if he was about to say something but closed his mouth again.

‘What?’ There seemed to be some unknown secret between the two. Perhaps, it was expected since they hung out every day and were the same age.

At that moment, I realized that I might not be the only one who knew about Do-Seung’s songwriting account.

‘Ah, perhaps. Does Woon know?’

When I realized this, I thought, ‘Maybe I don’t have to do anything and reap the benefits.’ There seemed to be a more plausible and easier direction than getting Do-Seung to compose a song for us.