Chapter 108
“Bursting out at this part isn’t so bad . Should I switch things out a little?”
“How?”
Kim JaeHoon showed curiosity towards KangYoon’s work . Kim JaeHoon knew about compositions as well, and that was why this was all the more interesting to him . He wanted KangYoon to burst things out even more than it is now . KangYoon worried for a bit before looking for even more sounds .
However, when he played back the sound, the light turned even murkier .
‘Ugh… . ’
Seeing a darker grey than before, KangYoon shivered subconsciously . Kim JaeHoon also shook his head this time .
“I think it was better before . ”
“You’re right . Let’s go at it again . ”
KangYoon looked for other sounds to combine . Many types of musical notes harmonized in front of him . When he did that, the grey from the beginning slowly faded out and white became more apparent . However, grey still remained and made him concerned .
“I think it’s good . ”
Not knowing that, Kim JaeHoon was happy that his song was good, but KangYoon shook his head .
“I think it will become awkward if we add the lyrics later . I need to make it so that your voice fits the song well . Can I record your ‘ahh’ voice for a second?”
KangYoon plugged in a microphone and gave it to him . Then, he switched the synthesizer to the grand piano and played a G .
“Aah— . ”
“Okay . ”
After recording Kim JaeHoon’s voice, KangYoon started looking into more things to play . He had to look for instruments that matched Kim JaeHoon’s vocal frequencies .
“Hyung, I’ll be off first then . I have a schedule to do tomorrow . ”
“Okay then . ”
In the end, Kim JaeHoon ended up falling asleep without managing to see the finished song .
The next day .
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Kim JaeHoon walked to the bathroom to wash his face . But then, he saw that KangYoon’s room was open . When he pa.s.sed by, KangYoon was still in front of the computer .
“Hyun!?”
Kim JaeHoon entered his room withoutk knocking in surprise . KangYoon looked back at him with a very tired expression .
“…Oh, you’re up . ”
“Yes . You didn’t have any sleep?”
“Uh, it’s this time already? Well, I’m done anyway . I have a day off too . I’ll be fine . ”
KangYoon stood up from his seat and stretched his arms out . His body was screaming in muscular distress .
“The intro is perfect now . Listen to it . ”
KangYoon played back the song immediately . The bra.s.s instruments bursting out all in one go made Kim JaeHoon fall for it immediately . He drowned in pleasure for those 20 seconds .
The introduction ended when his ‘ahh’ voice started .
“That’s a pity . I wanted to listen to more of it . ”
“I had no time, so I’ll let you hear the completed version later . But for now, I need some sleep . ”
KangYoon couldn’t endure anymore and collapsed onto his bed . Very soon, he could be heard sleeping .
“He worked so hard during the day, and did all that during the night… you’re amazing, bro . ”
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Kim JaeHoon shook his head while shrugging his shoulders .
In his view, KangYoon was an amazing man the more he saw him .
***
Signing a contract that stated that one party was buying a building from another, KangYoon shook hands with the former owner of the building .
“Will you be coming in immediately?”
“We’ll take place in a week . There’s a lot to do including some construction work . ”
“Okay . Although this building is a little old, its location is something I’m proud about . Please use it well in the future . ”
The former owner of the building asked KangYoon to take care of the building well since this had many memories from him .
After the contract was over, Lee HyunJi spoke in joy .
“Yes . Now I feel like things are starting to work . ”
“We got this a lot easier than we expected . I thought we would only be able to get it by autumn . ”
“Well, you did push the budget a little . ”
“Hahaha . ”
KangYoon lauaghed awkwardly . He felt that he would never be able to buy a building if he kept going into detail .
“Phew… Just as I thought that we got some room in our finances thanks to JaeHoon… Looks like I’ll have to tighten my belt again . Please consider my situation running the company, would you? My waist size decreased by an inch these days . ”
“Weren’t you 24 before?”
“Oh? How did you know that? I don’t remember telling you that . ”
(T/N: “tighten one’s belt” = live with a lower budget)
The two had a very bright mood between them . Achieving something gave them inexplicable pleasure, and the two knew how to enjoy it .
Lee HyunJi told KangYoon that she would pay the money by the date, and the matters about the concert hall ended there .
A few days later, Lee HyunJi settled the balance . She had already done things like confirming the certified copy of the register or things related to tax . Since this was buying a building, there were a lot of things to do .
Like that, a concert venue under the name of World Entertainment appeared in Yeonnam-dong, near Hongdae .
After everything was over, KangYoon and Lee HyunJi took White Moonlight to visit their new place .
“…It definitely is wide . ”
Lee HyunAh was surprised to see a concert hall that took both the first and second floors . It was definitely wide since the second floor was included as well .
“It seems like it wasn’t originally intended to be used as a concert hall, but as a shopping area . But I bought it since its location was good . ”
“Well . That’s true . It’s not far from a subway station . If we promote this well, then we might get a lot of people . ”
Lee HyunAh walked forward . Since this place was very wide, her voice echoed quite loudly . Hearing that, she tilted her head . Though, KangYoon spoke as though he understood what she was thinking .
“I’m planning to do a proper acoustic reconstruction here . The clubs near here mostly had horrible acoustic construction with tight s.p.a.ces . I’m planning to do one properly even if we have to spend a lot of money . ”
“Oooh, I’m definitely looking forward to that . ”
Lee HyunAh exclaimed out as though this was her dream coming true . The rest of her band was the same .
Lee HyunJi calmly told them .
“The reconstruction will begin next week . We’re planning to use the 3rd and 4th floors as waiting rooms for the performers . We’re planning to use this entire building as a small concert hall . ”
“Wow… this isn’t a joke . Is it?”
Lee HyunAh gulped . She was worried that a small company with not a lot of members was going beyond its capabilities . Seeming to notice that, Lee HyunJi calmly told her .
“This is an investment from us to you . You did hear about it, right? You’ll be the ones playing here every week . It will be troublesome for us if you don’t get us any achievements even when we prepared all this for you, right?”
“Th… that’s right . ”
Unlike KangYoon’s words, Lee HyunJi’s words pressured them . They now felt the responsibility . The fact that KangYoon stayed silent meant that he implied the same .
After thinking for a while, Lee HyunAh replied in a serious voice .
“Don’t worry, director-unni . This investment . We’ll never let you regret it . ”
“Okay . I’ll look forward to that then . ”
Lee HyunJi turned around and headed to the place where the broadcast studio will be . She implied that the rest will be up to KangYoon .
“Sheesh . Everyone, listen to the Director’s words well, okay?”
“Yes . ”
Thanks to Lee HyunJi’s heavy words, White Moonlight had a slightly heavy atmosphere . Everyone calmly followed behind KangYoon .
KangYoon stood in the empty s.p.a.ce where the stage would be . Right now, there was nothing there . KangYoon talked about the facilities he would bring in .
“Over there, we’ll bring a mid-sized speaker . I want to decrease the number of monitor speakers as much as possible . I want the stage as clean as possible, after all . ”
“But don’t we need one for each instrument?”
Kim JinDae’s words brought about KangYoon’s agreement .
“Yes . We do need them . If it’s possible, let’s replace them with headsets or in-ear mics . It may be more expensive to do, but it will be a lot better . However, we’ll have to get them ready since other teams performing here may use it . ”
“Yes . If we have sufficient monitor speakers and a mixer with enough channels, I think it will do . ”
Replied Lee ChaHee . KangYoon also thought that she was right .
KangYoon asked White Moonlight about the things they needed on stage . They each had their own instruments anyway . However, a drum kit and some amps were still necessary . Since they were things that other bands required when they performed here, they decided that they would buy them, and they wrote down other things they needed as well .
While discussing that, time pa.s.sed by in a flash .
After having a look around the 3rd and 4th floors, Lee HyunJi came back down .
“Let’s go now, then . ”
When Lee HyunJi lead the way out, everyone followed suit .
Inside the van heading home, KangYoon asked the members of White Moonlight .
“We need to decide on a name for the hall . What do you think would be good?”
“A name?”
Lee HyunAh shook her head saying that this wasn’t her forte . Everyone pondered seriously about the name .
At that time, Lee HyunJi, who was driving, just threw one out of nowhere .
“How about Lunas?”
“Lunas?”
When KangYoon showed curiosity, Lee HyunJi continued .
“Luna is the G.o.ddess of the moon, isn’t it? White Moonlight, Luna . G.o.ddesses . Don’t they seem related?”
“That’s good . How about it?”
“It’s good!”
Kim JinDae thought that it was very cool, while Lee ChaHee thought that the name was more suited for a coffee shop, but everyone rather liked the name .
On their way back .
World Entertainment’s new concert hall, Lunas, was born .
President Choo ManJi of Yoonseul Entertainment was all smiles recently .
His 5-girl idol group, DiaTeen, was doing very well in the absence of Eddios, while other entertainers of his company was rising as well . Thanks to that, the stocks of his company was rising by the day . The shareholders and directors all looked at him very pleasantly .
However, despite all that, just one thing was not to his liking .
‘Ah, Eddios… I need to crush that Eddios once and for all . ’
In his own office, he was tearing his hear out while looking at a news portal about entertainers . In the article, the journalist said that he or she was going to compare the charm points of Eddios and DiaTeen and compared their respective leaders, Jung MinAh and Kang SeGyung .
‘Why is our SeGyung second!’
The article said that Jung MinAh was superior to Kang SeGyung by about 55:45 . This was a much better result than before where it was mostly 80:20 or 70:30 .
The problem was the comments section . It was as though Jung MinAh had some fanatic followers of her own, as the comments section all talked about Jung MinAh . Although DiaTeen received positive feedback, many people found her lacking when compared against Jung MinAh . Especially regarding dancing .
However, he was cool-headed .
‘This is because each of their members have strong characteristics . Jung MinAh for dancing, Han JooYeo for singing, Lilie (T/N: Ailee?) for acting cute . A month or two of difference is really hard to overcome . I don’t think there’s much difference in their skills… We were pushed back in marketing . ’
During Eddios’s debut days, MG Entertainment’s marketing was very strong . It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the biggest girl idol group fandom was made back then . President Choo ManJi didn’t try to clash head-on against that fandom, and slowly shaved away from the outer rim . If he did clash head one, DiaTeen may have been buried way before . Eddios was that strong back then .
However, the moon wanes after it’s full . With Eddios’s long-term stay in the US, their fans had left them, and were slowly becoming more and more forgotten . It wasn’t like they achieved any success there either . However, it was unknown what the directors at MG were thinking, and they didn’t seem to have any intentions on bringing them back .
‘Are they planning to not contract them again? Although I did hear that they were raising a new girl group, but I’m not sure if they’ll be as strong as Eddios… Did they ask for something unreasonable? I wouldn’t know . ’
Although he didn’t know about the internal affairs of another company, this was an opportunity for him and DiaTeen . He closed his browser, then called for his secretary .
“Secretary Han . Call SeGyung in her practice room to come up . ”
– Yes, sir .
After a brief while, a lady with a short violet hair entered his office .
“Sit . ”
She greeted the president and sat down .
“SeGyung, is practice going well these days?”
“Yes . We’ll have our comeback soon, won’t we? Everyone’s trying hard . ”
“Well, you girls can take care of yourselves now . ”
He asked about their progress . Kang SeGyun talked about how they’ve been doing lately .
After that discussion, President Choo ManJi went into topic .
“The t.i.tle song this time, why don’t we get it from another place this time?”
“Another place?”
Kang SeGyung tilted his head . Until now, the t.i.tle songs for all of their alb.u.ms were composed internally within the company . She also didn’t question her company’s style . But now, they were getting an external one to do one for them .
“Are you trying to give a change?”
“Change? Well, I guess you can say that . You know, the hot composer these days . You’ve heard of him haven’t you? About Muse . ”
“Yes . Of course I have . You mean the one that rose through Korea ONE STAR, right? He’s pretty famous nowadays… and people all said that Jay Han won the program thanks to him . ”
“The internet was one thing, but this side was an uproar too . He should have gotten quite a lot of requests this time, I think . But seeing that he’s still quiet, I think he’s being cautious . Maybe he’s trying to raise his value… but I heard that he’s at World Entertainment, where Kim JaeHoon is currently at . I think he has good senses, and I think it would be pretty good to ask him for a song this time . If the song is good, we’ll have to invest . Let’s go there with me tomorrow . ”
“Okay . ”
After everything was over and Kang SeGyung was about to leave, President Choo ManJi stopped her .
“SeGyung . ”
“Yes? Do you have something else to talk about?”
“Let’s put some filler in your nose when you do your comeback this time . ”
“Eeek? Why? My nose is quite high already! I don’t want to do it!”
“It’s just a joke . ”
When President Choo ManJi giggled, Kang SeGyung shivered .
***
“This is the primary shopping list for the equipment we need . There are things that aren’t sold domestically, so you’ll have to look into a lot of things . ”
“I’m not that knowledgeable with musical equipment… . ”
Jung HyeJin was worried after receiving the list from KangYoon . However, KangYoon told her about foreign music sites and blogs that explained in detail .
“If you see here, there are websites that lead you to where you can buy them . Compare their prices and calculate the date they can come in the country by, as well as the taxes . The construction can only start once they’re all in place . ”
“Okay… . ”
Jung HyeJin sighed deeply saying that she got another difficult workload . Understanding her, KangYoon added one final line .
“After this is over, I’ll give you vacation and a bonus . ”
“Please leave it to me!”
Her eyes were suddenly lit on fire .
After his work was over at work and he was about to go down to the studio, Lee HyunJi stepped into his office . Behind her were two guests .
“President, you have guests . ”
“Guests?”
When KangYoon saw, it was a man with narrow eyes and a thin body . Behind him was a lady with a short, violet hair that looked to be an entertainer .
“Whoa . It really was you, Mr . KangYoon . No, I guess you’re President KangYoon now . It’s so nice to see you here . ”
“President Choo?”
KangYoon stood up from his seat and accepted the hand that was offered to him . Although this visit was outside his expectation, he met the guest with a bright smile .
Jung HyeJin gave them coffee and the four sat down on the sofa .
The first words came from President Choo ManJi .
“I only heard that you started your business a while ago, so I wasn’t able to send you any flowers . Please excuse me . ”
“Not at all . ”
KangYoon shook his head . He was curious about President Choo’s business with him . After briefly talking about recent matters, President Choo ManJi’s business came out .
“I want to buy Muse’s song . ”
“Who is going to sing it?”
President Choo ManJi pointed at the lady next to him .
“DiaTeen . I wanted to see the composer that is producing many good songs nowadays . I heard that I could meet one here . ”
A song for DiaTeen .
Although this was unintentional, didn’t this mean that he had to create a song for Eddios’s compet.i.tors by his own hand?
KangYoon felt somewhat strange at this offer .