Chapter 16

The sound of a car horn came from outside the accommodation.

"It must be Manager Yoon. Let's go down."

Mr. Yoon Seok-hwan, who always picked us up at the same time every day, was here.

Scared of getting a lecture, I hurriedly put on my clothes and helped the owners find their shoes that were scattered around.

Still, I wondered,

"Clearly, Biju cleaned everything up the day before. When did it get messy again?"

"Jiho, is that mine?"

"Bro! That's mine."

The culprits who occupied 90% of the shoes in the entrance were putting on a little comedy sketch while Lee Hyuk opened the shoe cabinet and looked at them with disdain.

Meanwhile, Biju checked the gas and electrical cords.

After finishing all of this, we would go downstairs and get into the Starex on the first floor, marking the end of our morning routine.

"Hello!"

"Good morning, Manager."

Recently, due to a series of resignations, Manager Yoon Seok-hwan had taken on the responsibility of picking us up from the accommodation to the practice room.

Of course, today was a bit different.

Manager Yoon was dressed up dandy, and we were also in casual clothes, not our usual tracksuits.

"Are you all ready?"

The corners of Yoon Seok-hwan's eyes, visible through the rearview mirror, were raised.

Today was the day.

The day we were going to Hwa Entertainment for a collaboration project.

Collaboration.

An industry term that means working together with another artist.

To be more specific, it means artists of different genres or musical styles singing together.

The difference from featuring, which is commonly marked as 'feat. Hong Gil-dong' in songs, is that featuring involves the other musician only in a part of the song, while collaboration means both musicians have equal weight.

Actually, it doesn't have much significance.

It's just a distinction for convenience, and even people in the industry get confused.

"Really struggled with the featuring terminology."

Manager Yoon Seok-hwan brought up the behind-the-scenes story of the negotiations with Hwa Entertainment.

"I thought I was going to go bald negotiating with them."

"Who? The CEO?"

Pretending not to know, the youngest member suddenly joined the conversation, causing everyone in the car to burst into laughter.

I'm sorry, CEO.

Yoon Seok-hwan laughed while removing the memory card from the dashcam in the car.

"I always delete the dashcam recordings because of him. What if someone listens to them?"

"That feature can be turned off."

"Never mind. I sometimes use it anyway."

While inserting the memory card into his phone, Yoon Seok-hwan continued the conversation.

"There was a power struggle between the companies over the song title. Hwa Entertainment said their debutees weren't real artists and wanted to use 'feat.' Our side argued for equal weight."

"That's what they fight over?"

"That's why there are agencies, you know."

"Manager."

Jung-hyun, who was munching on a banana in the back seat, asked.

"So, how did it end up?"

"It was settled. I told their representative that we had a talented composer among our members. They would not only sing but also participate in the songwriting process."

Yoon Seok-hwan looked at me and asked.

"Why am I telling this story?"

"…To do well?"

"Exactly. You need to do well. Whether the song title will be 'Jang So-won x New Black' or 'Jang So-won feat. New Black' is now in your hands."

It was a statement that made me feel a lot of pressure.

"Still, it's my first time going to Hwa Entertainment."

"You haven't been there?"

"Hyuk, I used to go to auditions for acting. I only came to our company because of that."

So, your original dream was to be an actor.

I always thought you looked like an actor.

I asked Hyuk.

"Have you been to Hwa Entertainment?"

"I might be the only one who has. I went for a vocal audition a long time ago."

"Ah, the one where you got eliminated in 10 seconds?"

"It wasn't 10 seconds."

"Bro, you said you got eliminated as soon as you entered the audition room."

"Why did you get eliminated?"

Hyuk answered reluctantly.

"…They said I looked like I could sing well and asked me to dance first."

Everyone except one person laughed.

Seo Mo, who was 5th in the New Black dance ranking, swallowed his tears and rationalized.

"Originally, it was a company I wouldn't have joined even if they asked."

"Hmm, really, bro?"

"You should be quiet…"

While the youngest member smiled at the sincere request, Hyuk brought up the topic of Hwa Entertainment's office.

"I almost gave up because of the facilities."

"Facilities?"

"It looks good from the outside, but it's strange inside. When I went into the practice room, there were toothpaste stains on the mirror."

"Well, it was a long time ago."

I summarized.

"It might be different now."

"But Hwa Entertainment is rich, right? It's one of the largest companies that participated in the year-end evaluation. Why were the facilities like that?"

"True."

"Wasn't it when the Sugarfish seniors were doing well?"

At Biju's question, we all wondered.

Hwa Entertainment.

Once, when people heard 'Sugarfish's agency,' they would exclaim, 'Ah!' During their peak, the Sugarfish's power was enough to threaten the top girl group.

They must have made a lot of money back then, so why were the facilities like that?

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a sloppy company.

They don't even have an official website.

Usually, companies of a certain size have a website with artist photos, but Hwa Entertainment didn't.

Well, it doesn't really matter.

After all, Hwa Entertainment is one of the well-known agencies, both then and now.

I'll show you the dance I prepared for you

Follow me Honey

A girl group song with a lot of electronic beats from the radio.

The familiar chorus tickled my ears after the bridge part.

Baby Lalala Baby Lalala

Biju hummed the song and nodded her head.

The other members were also singing along with this popular song.

The singer was Girls on Top.

Hwa Entertainment was their agency.

"Girls on Top is really hot. Isn't this always number one?"

"Probably."

"No, they only got number one in the first week."

"Really?"

"Scarlet came back in the second week. They were probably second place throughout the period."

That's why they recently got the nickname 'Beans on Top.'

Girls on Top.

A successful 4-year-old girl group.

They are famous to the general public for their appearances on variety shows and dramas, and in the industry for their good singing.

They are the next line of strong sound source artists after their agency seniors, Sugarfish.

Although their debut album flopped, all their subsequent title songs have consistently ranked in the top 10, making them a very popular girl group.

If there's a downside, it's that all their songs have a similar vibe.

Girls on Top succeeded with a second-place marketing strategy.

Instead of aiming for first place, they solidified their image as the second-place group.

Thanks to this strategy, Girls on Top remained a familiar second-place girl group to the public while the top spot kept changing.

Until Scarlet appeared the following year.

In 2012, the new girl group Scarlet, launched by Director Cho Gyu-hwan, started to push them out of the second-place position.

The nickname 'Beans on Top' and their reduced presence on variety shows.

However, they are still a very successful girl group.

"Thinking about it, Hwa Entertainment has an amazing lineup of girl groups, really."

"They probably keep the company afloat."

"Probably."

"But wasn't Sugarfish even better? They were huge when I was in elementary school."

The 90s-born members, who shared the same memories, nodded.

Sugarfish.

Once called the top group during their peak, they enjoyed immense popularity, but their glory was short-lived.

It was due to controversies among the members.

One of them was arrested by the police for smoking marijuana with her boyfriend, for example.

It was a shocking incident at the time.

The most popular member of the girl group, who sang well on music shows the day before, appeared on the social page of the newspaper the next day.

Despite trying to continue activities after expelling the member, Sugarfish's life line was cut when another member's affair with a film director was reported.

A five-member group.

Senior Jang So-won was one of the three remaining members.

She's a truly remarkable person.

It took a long time for Jang So-won, who fell from a popular singer to the bottom, to make a comeback.

The path of a singer-songwriter.

Using her songwriting skills, Jang So-won successfully built a new image by leveraging her low popularity as an unknown member.

And now she is the best-performing member among the five.

She participates in drama OSTs and releases singles one after another.

Unfortunately, she hasn't had a hit song yet.

The average performance of the songs I sang at auditions and used for year-end evaluations, such as and , is around 70th place.

Of course, it's a tremendous achievement for us, who haven't even debuted.

"What happened to the other Sugarfish seniors?"

"I don't know except for Jang So-won."

"I heard that Senior Baek Hyang quit and is going to school, and Senior Lisa is working as a musical actress."

"They're all doing