[ Park Moondae's POV ]
The manager was a decent guy.
"If you need anything, just tell me!" he told us as we were driving to the T1 building.
"Once you start the album activities, there will be another road manager, so don't worry!" he continued to say.
"Yeah, we're already too popular to just be treated as rookies," I thought with a small sigh as I looked out the window.
I glanced at Seungmin through the reflection in the window.
[ Name: Cho Seungmin ]
Vocal: ? (Rapping: ?)
Dance: ?
Visual: ?
Charm: ?
Characteristics: On the spot!
!Status abnormality: Sealed truths & Make money or die!
Animosity progress: 11%
Obviously there was a big change from the last time I checked his status page. There was no status abnormality when we finished the show, but it was added when we finally entered the dorm.
================================
[ Make money or die ]
: If you don't make 1 billion won within the time limit, you will die
Remaining period: 357 days
================================
And now, his animosity meter was a ticking time bomb for him leaving the group.
"Does the system really think he'll be able to amass that much money? That's just an execution order," I thought bitterly.
Rookie artists shouldn't even make less than half of that amount in their first year. Even taking into account the fact that TeSTAR was much more popular than the average rookie groups, 1 billion won was still too much.
But I couldn't ponder it any longer because we arrived at the office room of the new director of the new agency.
The meeting that hasn't even gone on for 5 minutes was already shit.
From the moment I met and greeted the director, I knew he had no experience in the entertainment business.
"Worldview?" Seungmin echoed the word of the director's strange rambling. It seemed he didn't know what that meant.
"Well, these days, most idols who are aiming for a global fandom have a worldview, right? All you youngsters like cartoons and stuff."
I held back a groan.
We were a group that didn't even release a song yet. I wasn't sure how we were supposed to build a worldview already.
"And Idol Inc. already provided content for fans to give us characters."
This meant that the agency only needed to give us popular songs, nice choreographies, and eye-catching costumes. It didn't matter if we didn't have an established worldview yet because we could build it slowly with the upcoming albums.
"I binge-watched the auditions! Everyone is great at self-production," the director boasted. "So, you're going to perform two songs. Only one will be provided by the company. The other will be managed by the talents of TeSTAR!"
He continued to talk about it like it was a brilliant idea, how self-produced idols are the trend, blah blah blah.
Beside me, Ryu Chungwoo sat up straighter.
"Thank you very much, but it might be difficult with our capabilities alone..."
"Of course~ the staff is here to help you," the director reflected. "I just mean to make good use of your creativity and your inspiration."
The high-ranked boss, probably more than twenty years older, was so adamant that the leader swallowed his words with a bitter smile.
Kim Raebin's expression was turning blank.
My face might have been the same if I weren't trying so hard to control it. The amount of work we now had to do compared to the time limit was insane.
The director took it too lightly.
"Come on, we have a lot of work to do, so we should all get up now, right?"
It was evident that he was leaving with a bright smile because he thought he took good care of TeSTAR just now.
Again, I vowed not to expect much from the company.
It was something I could uphold well with the continuous lack of content from the production team and the A&R* team under the director.
*artists and repertoire team. they basically negotiate with artists and find talents/songs to sign to the company.
They didn't have any results other than repeating like a parrot that the worldview would be a 'school' motif. But it was understandable. The agency was launched less than two weeks ago.
"Of course, I'm not saying you have to make a song with this worldview from scratch. We will send you the candidate songs as soon as we get the final confirmation, so please take a look at them."
Out of all the meetings subsequent to that director's, something useful was finally said.
"How long will it take?" our leader asked with a hopeful voice.
"Maybe around two days?"
More questions were exchanged, and then the meeting ended in a lighter mood.
"They asked a lot about our opinions," Keun Sejin noted as we walked out of the building.
"I-isn't it supposed to be like that?"
"Yeah!"
Both Cha Eugene and Kim Raebin responded strongly to Seon Ahyun's words.
"He never listened!"
"He didn't let us speak at all. The atmosphere there was always that we had to follow instructions!"
I did hear that the two youngest recorded their debut song at their former agency. It seemed like there were a lot of pent-up feelings after they were knocked down and left for the audition program.
"I think their agency was going downhill after their figurehead idol filed a lawsuit over a fraudulent contract..."
"There are some things I'm worried about, but it's a good environment. Let's try our best," Ryu Chungwoo smiled.
Everyone agreed as we got into the car.
It was a quiet ride if you ignored Cha Eugene talking to Seungmin about random things.
The apartment was also decently close to the agency, so we got home quickly.
"Home is the best," the red-haired boy cheered, entering the apartment first. "Oh! Claw doll machine!"
He ran toward the living room.
He must have forgotten about it because we left half-awake early in the morning for the meeting with the director. So thankfully, his reaction was genuine.
Everyone gathered around the machine too. Then the robot vacuum cleaner appeared and handed over a card.
"'Pick out a doll and carry out the mission inside! Each doll has TeSTAR's anonymous missions,'" Seungmin read out loud.
We all had to write a short mission on paper yesterday. I guessed that's where the dolls came from.
Cha Eugene, who was the first to grab the toggle, moved around the claw first.
But the result was a complete failure.
"...The machine is weird."
"Leave it to me~" Keun Sejin announced as he took over the joystick. But he, too, failed.
"He's right. The machine is weird."
Countless failures took place afterward. I politely declined from joining the obvious ploy of the production team. And then, it was Lee Sejin's turn.
"...Which doll?" he asked quietly to the rest of us.
"Rabbit!"
Somehow, he succeeded in pulling it out in one try. The moment the brown rabbit's head dropped out of the outlet, people poured their compliments to the oldest member.
"I want to try again!" Cha Eugene exclaimed, but the claw machine had already stopped working.
"It probably has a trigger in the outlet so that it stops once one is taken out," Seungmin commented from next to me.
Cha Eugene looked dejected by his words before he turned over the doll in his hand and looked at the card attached to its belly.
[ Watch a horror movie together~ ^^ ]
"...Was it you?" I asked Keun Sejin.
"No way," he playfully rejected, waving his hand. He probably wrote something with more usable content. You couldn't really record many fun things when everyone was sitting and focusing on a movie.
"Ah, it's mine," Ryu Chungwoo calmly answered.
At once, everyone began to create an urgently mild atmosphere, surrendering to the older person they weren't particularly close with.
So in the end, the evening was spent watching a horror movie.
I concentrated on the popcorn as the movie streamed. Around me, I could hear Cha Eugene laughing and the others also munching on the popcorn, but it wasn't enough.
Screams rang in my brain.
I felt a tap against my shoulder, but I refused to look up, knowing it was Seungmin.
"Moondae hyung, there's no more popcorn," he muttered.
I still focused on the bowl in my hands.
I hate horror movies.