Chapter 58:
Chapter 58
He was congratulated for becoming the most popular member in the group.
(Can you make the beginning part more deep?)
“Sure, I’ll try.”
Bluemic’s directing was more meticulous than expected.
The recording session at night did not seem to end even until dawn.
[What does he mean by deep?]
‘Maybe… I need to put more emotion into it?’
[These ‘artists’ are so vague. Tsk.]
While Ian was recording, Joo Hyuk and Jin Hyuk were watching Bluemic’s directing without sleeping.
(That’s good, let’s go with this. This one was really good.)
“Thank you.”
(Let’s keep this feeling and continue.)
Bluemic never gave an OK at once. He kept recording in different versions.
“Good job.”
Ian came out of the recording booth and drank some water.
“But don’t you feel sleepy, hyung?”
“I usually record at this time.”
Bluemic clicked the mouse while wearing a cap.
“You can go first, Ian. We’ll stay here and do the post-production with hyung.”
“All night? That must be hard… Well, I’ll go then.”
Ian yawned and left the recording studio. Bluemic looked at the door that Ian left.
“How can he be so handsome even without sleeping?”
“We’re sometimes surprised too.”
Bluemic leaned back on the chair after adjusting the volume.
Jin Hyuk smiled.
“Did Joo Hyuk do most of the composing for this song?”
Bluemic asked a sudden question.
“It’s half and half, with Jin Hyuk.”
“No, it’s not. Joo Hyuk hyung did all the composing. I only wrote the lyrics.”
Bluemic spoke without taking his eyes off the monitor.
“It’s the first time, of course I agreed to work with LoveJ, but as I listened to this song, I liked the sound so much. How about this version?”
“Hmm… I want to fix it like this.”
Joo Hyuk listened to the song and took the mouse from Bluemic’s hand. He clicked and adjusted the tone balance of the song.
“That’s good. Let’s go with this.”
Bluemic glanced at Joo Hyuk. There was a gem like LoveJ here.
“Come to my studio when you have time.”
“Can we?”
“Of course. Let’s work together later. You guys are good.”
Joo Hyuk widened his eyes. Me too?
“Have some confidence. You guys have a high participation rate in composing. You’ll be registered at the same rate as me, you know?”
“Oh… really?”
Jin Hyuk grinned.
“But you have to line up, hyung.”
“Why?”
“We already have to go to Kim Hee Sang teacher’s studio.”
At Jin Hyuk’s words, Bluemic shook his head.
Jin Hyuk was good at composing but had no sense.
“By the way, this…”
Bluemic tapped on the paper with lyrics written on it.
The lyrics that the members wrote together were almost discarded.
There was nothing worth using.
The only members who survived were three.
Jin Hyuk and Joo Hyuk, and…
“The handsome guy from before was Choi Ian, right?”
“Yes.”
“He has some sensibility too.”
Ian was also going to be registered as a lyricist for their song.
***
While preparing for the music video shooting and their own contents, their first full album work was finished and their comeback date was approaching.
[Your stylist is really a pervert.]
‘I agree.’
On the day of their comeback showcase, Ian lifted up his assigned outfit.
A black shirt and black leather pants were nothing special.
The problem was the harness that wrapped around his shirt.
[Is this all handmade?]
The harness was not just a harness, but it had cubic decorations and long chains woven together.
“Isn’t this a dog collar…?”
Ian was still better off.
Kim Joo Young, who was holding his clothes next to him, looked at the choker decoration around his neck and said dejectedly.
“Who would like this?”
Ian also thought so and shrugged his shoulders.
But… there were people who liked it.
“Kyaaah!”
They were fans.
[Look at their screams, they’re no joke.]
“Did you enjoy our stage?”
“What time is it now? Is it time?”
This showcase started at 6 o’clock and there was a time to check the music chart rankings together at 7 o’clock.
The LED screen on the stage wall suddenly changed and showed the real-time TOP100 rankings of major music sites.
The fans shouted loudly when they saw the screen.
The members turned around one by one and looked at the screen.
“Huh?”
NEW 1. AWY – Dawn (Prod. Bluemic)
“Wow!”
“Awesome!”
Jin Hyuk shouted. Tae Woong and Joo Young ran around the stage. Seo Dam knelt down on the stage.
‘My God… The day we ranked first on the music site has come.’
Ian also high-fived Joo Hyuk.
He had never dreamed of ranking first when he was Kim Yong Min.
Now he achieved it before his debut anniversary, which was touching.
“Guys, come here.”
Joo Hyuk called all the members and gathered them in front of the stage.
They hugged each other in a circle.
It was a gesture to boost the team atmosphere.
“Kyaaah!”
“Congratulations, guys!”
The fans screamed.
[It’s different when you have a famous producer by your side.]
‘Don’t be so sour.’
[Maintaining is important, you know?]
‘Anyway, we’re first.’
Ian ignored Jin’s words.
The members lined up and held each other’s hands.
They bowed to the fans.
“Thank you!”
The showcase ended successfully.
“Wow, we really ranked first.”
“It’s amazing.”
They didn’t go straight to their dorm after the showcase.
AWY had to go back to their company and film an album unboxing video.
“I saw Joo Hyuk hyung crying in the waiting room earlier.”
“No, I didn’t cry.”
“That’s a lie.”
Kim Hyun slapped the back of the seat where Joo Hyuk was sitting.
Only Read it at Galaxy Translation /novel/entertainment-life-with-a-camera/]
“It’s understandable that Joo Hyuk hyung would cry when he thinks about the money that will go into his bank account.”
“Beef! Beef! But then, shouldn’t you cry too, Choi Ian? You also got credited as a lyricist.”
“Are you jealous? If you’re jealous, you should cultivate some ‘sensibility’ in your spare time.”
“Hey, I have some sensibility too.”
As Ian and Tae Woong laughed and shouted, Joo Hyuk muttered quietly.
“I wish our song that we worked on entirely would rank first next time…”
***
“Is this our album?”
“Wow… it’s thick.”
AWY released three versions of their album.
It was a strategy for people who wanted to collect different versions.
The members looked at the album with curious expressions.
They picked it up and put it down. It was quite heavy.
“Let’s put on gloves.”
“Reverently. This is our first full album.”
The members who were drama queens bought white gloves themselves and carefully put them on their hands.
They were not ordered by their agency to do so.
“Now! We will start our first full album unboxing!”
They looked serious as if they were unboxing a luxury item.
“Scalpel.”
“Yes.”
Tae Woong reached out his hand and Ian handed him a cutter knife.
Tae Woong slid the knife along the edge of the album.
“Eh! Be careful! Don’t cut the paper!”
“Professor Jo, be careful not to scratch the album.”
Joo Young and Kim Hyun nagged at him.
Regardless, Tae Woong tore open the plastic wrap of the album.
“Oh… let’s take everything out and put it here in front.”
They shook out the contents and lined them up in rows on the table.
“First, we have our mini photobook.”
“As you can see… it’s thick, right? Wow… I think this is where all the weight comes from.”
“How about our fans who buy several copies of this? Is the weight okay?”
The members made a fuss.
“And we have postcards with our messages on them.”
Tae Woong opened the envelope with postcards.
This is where the true value of the album strategy was revealed.
The postcards were random 1 out of 7 types.
Of course, they were not group photos.
They were individual photos of each member.
There were three versions of this, so there were 21 types in total.
“Oh, it’s Seo Dam.”
“Really? Wow.”
“Seo Dam looks good.”
That was not all.
There were also photocards.
There were different concept photos for each member, and they were also random.
There were two concept photocards for each member, random 1 out of 14 types, and different for each album version, so there were 42 types in total.
“The photocards are… Joo Young and Jin Hyuk hyung.”
“Wow, I thought this was legendary when we shot this, but it came out as a photocard?”
“Yeah, I remember everyone was crazy then. You got lucky.”
Ian exaggeratedly imitated Joo Young’s pose.
“Hey, when did I do that!”
Joo Young hit Ian’s arm.
“And we have a CD and a bookmark inside.”
“We also have that. A poster.”
“Oh, right.”
Tae Woong brought a bundle of posters from behind and put them on the table.
They gave two posters when they bought an album.
One was a group poster that they gave to everyone who bought an album.
And the individual poster was of course random.
It was random 1 out of 7 types.
“Who will be the star of this poster?”
“Please reveal it!”
As Tae Woong unfolded the poster, Joo Hyuk’s individual poster appeared.
“Oh, it’s Joo Hyuk hyung.”
“We’ve been getting them evenly so far, right?”
“Let’s open the other versions too.”
Ian secretly hoped that his poster would be there too as he opened the poster.
It was Tae Woong.
“Tae Woong, which version is that?”
“Seo Dam’s.”
Joo Young opened the last remaining poster and saw Seo Dam’s face.
‘There’s none of mine. What? Is it a printing mistake?’
[Congratulations on becoming the most popular member in the group.]
‘What?’
[They usually print less of the popular members. You have a lot of individual fans, so they’ll buy more.]
‘You mean they’re playing tricks even with so many types?’
[That’s how capitalism works. People who know, know.]
Ian looked at the box full of albums that he had to unbox.
‘Wow… it’s so different from before.’
[That’s why the album sales have increased overall. And the fans rank the album sales and post them in real time. They even fight over the Chinese group orders. He’s the Korean top, but only 10,000 in Chinese group orders? He’s not that popular, they say. Actually, 10,000 is a lot for an individual member in a group.]
‘How weird is that?’
Ian couldn’t finish his sentence as he remembered the past.
He had a time when he was jealous of Lim Tae Woo, the popular visual member of Diamond, the group he was in before.
The members now were all well-educated and had good personalities. But what if they witnessed the fan reactions and discrimination caused by popularity?
‘…Let’s not worry about it until it happens…’
Ian shook his head. He decided to do so, but it popped up again.
‘But is it really fair to discriminate like this?’
The members didn’t know and happily finished filming.
“Everyone! Please love our first full album a lot!”
“Until now! We were AWY! Bye!”
The staff member who pressed the recording end button said.
“Guys, you worked hard. Those albums are for your families or friends, right? Decide well.”
“Yes!”
After the staff left, the members sat in front of the box and opened one album after another.
They wanted to send them to their families with their own photocards and postcards.
Ian also planned to send his parents an album with his photocard and postcard by international express delivery, but it was not easy to get them.
“Hey Tae Woong, here’s what you were looking for.”
“Oh! Then I’m done with my version. I’ll send it to my mom.”
“Hyung, what about me?”
“Uh… Seo Dam’s here. But Ian’s is completely wiped out?”
There were only three photocards and postcards of Ian in the box of 40 albums.
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