Chapter 35: One more time, Ok?! (5)

“H…Happy news?”

Jung Yoon Ki, who finished changing clothes the quickest, asked Oh Baek Ho, puzzled.

Oh Baek Ho bit his lip hard to stop himself from laughing when he saw the members’ confused expressions.

The last of the debut album activities finished with them receiving first place on Life Song.

They were even given three days of vacation. Most of the members were sleeping in really late as they pondered over their sweet dilemma of what they would do with their three days off before going into preparation for the next album.

Of course, Do Wook’s situation was a little different since he was doing the composing himself and became heavily involved on the first full album. However, he was sleeping in as well.

The fact that Oh Baek Ho brought Fan Marketing’s Do Ra Hee to the dormitory without any notice on the morning of the first day off…They didn’t have any scheduled events so everyone was in a defenseless state; therefore, it meant only one thing.

‘Even if it’s the inactive season, you absolutely can’t slack off!’

Oh Baek Ho wanted to teach that lesson to the members.

Even though Oh Baek Ho told the members it was a vacation, he only allowed simple hang out with friends to grab something to eat and go to a cafe. He also planned to strictly prohibit drinking and smoking for adult members.

It was especially easy for problems to occur when people were drinking.

Of course, they might not adhere to those rules. Unless there were six of him, he couldn’t follow all six of the KK members 24/7 and monitor them.

However, Oh Baek Ho trusted that the current KK members would follow his rules well. They had built that much trust during the last active period.

“Yes. Happy news. First, everyone come gather here.”

Do Ra Hee smiled at the members, with her hair like a bird’s nest, wearing a stretched out t-shirt, ragged sweatpants, etc.

“You might have seen her around in the company, but this is Fan Marketing Team’s employee, Do Ra Hee.”

“Hello, I’m Do Ra Hee. I look forward to working with you!”

The members bowed and returned her greeting.

Do Ra Hee gave off a girl idol group member impression rather than an employee vibe. The members rubbed their eyes and looked at Do Ra Hee’s face again. Her delicate facial features were definitely cute.

She had a small build, not even reaching Oh Baek Ho’s shoulders. She faced the members and laughed. Her smile was very charismatic.

“First things first! I was going to have Manager Oh deliver it to you guys but I thought it’d be better to deliver it in person so I brought this!”

Do Rae Hee took out blue boxes from the shopping bag she was holding.

“Also, after an internal meeting, they decided on “Key Ring” for the name of the fan club!”

“Because we are the key, haha.”

“I…I like it.”

When Ahn Hyung Seo and Park Tae Hyung responded, Do Ra Hee laughed and distributed the boxes to the members. The KK logo was engraved on the blue boxes, and each of the boxes had post-its with individual member’s name written on it.

The members opened the box with their name on it.

“Oh!”

Ahn Hyung Seo yelled, excited. The box contained a KK fan club kit including cheering tools, a fan card, a photo card, etc. to be given to the official KK fan club.

“So cute~!”

“Oh, it’s dope!”

Everyone expressed their appreciation after opening the box. All the members loved the heartfelt fan club kit.

Additionally, the individual member’s names were written on the fan club card.

“I can’t believe we have a fan club…”

Jung Yoon Ki muttered, feeling somewhat moved as he examined the fan club card from all sides.

The fan club was currently in the process of recruiting. Since registering for the fan club was essential for offline fan activities such as attending open broadcasts etc. many people flocked since the first day of recruitment.

Even if it wasn’t necessarily for offline activities, they planned on giving those who registered for the fan club perks such as invitations to fan meetings or priority for purchasing concert tickets etc. in the future. There were also many fans who decided to register after seeing what was included in the fan kit in the released promo.

“Now that the fan club is made, we plan to do more aggressive marketing, so there will be more and more reasons for us to talk.”

Everyone nodded their heads at Do Ra Hee’s remark. They thought it wouldn’t matter who came from Fan Marketing outside of Team Leader Jo Anna, but if it was Do Ra Hee, who was kind and cheerful on top of being cute, she was welcome anytime.

“I think the fans will like it.”

Do Ra Hee agreed enthusiastically with Do Wook’s remark.

“I heard it was you who gave the idea for the cheering tool.”

“Oh, yes.”

“We’re also preparing other member goods based on the other suggestions you gave.”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

“The company’s design team and I had a hard time coming up with a design for the cheering tool, but I really loved it when I saw the result. You have batteries here, right? Put in batteries and try turning it on!”

At Do Ra Hee’s words, Oh Baek Ho grabbed the batteries from the drawer.

Everyone put batteries in the capital K-shaped cheering stick and pressed the power button.

“Wow…Pretty…”

Park Tae Hyung’s jaw dropped in admiration. The shining blue light was pretty.

They each turned on their cheering sticks and imagined the wave of blue lights in a dark concert hall.

“Also, regarding the happy news Manager Oh mentioned!”

“This wasn’t the happy news?”

Do Ra Hee nodded in response to Ahn Hyung Seo’s question. Oh Baek Ho answered instead.

“The actually happy news is something else, dude.”

“Ho ho, an opportunity for a commercial came for the KK members.”

When they heard the news about the commercial, they looked at Do Ra Hee as if urging her to tell them what kind of commercial it was. Do Ra Hee felt like her back was sweating because of the burning gaze from the six of them.

“It’s an advertisement for school uniforms! Elite Look!”

Everyone had a cheerful and amazed expression as they said “Ooooh”.

School uniform commercials were a good indicator to know who the hot idols were. School uniforms were a business that had a clear target. Only idols who were the most popular among teenagers could become the star of a school uniform commercial.

Milky Way and another boy idol group handled Elite Look previously.

The generational change in the idol world went hand in hand with the replacement of models in school uniform commercials. You could tell even by the fact that M2M recently became the model for Smart Club.

“Additionally, we have bad news too.”

Oh Baek Ho said to the members who were excited and making poses. The members’ expressions hardened in an instant.

“Bad…News?”

“Yes. Your vacation became one day shorter. If you want to get in shape in time for the commercial shoot, you have to start taking care of your body starting Wednesday!”

The type of body care Oh Baek Ho was referring to was not just exercise but also included a controlled diet. Their struggle with chicken breast that took place before the debut was still fresh in everyone’s minds.

Oh Baek Ho left the members, who were frozen in their tracks, and saw Do Ra Hee out as she got ready to return to the office.

“Everyone is in shock so it looks like it’ll be hard for them to say goodbye. I apologize on their behalf.”

“Hahaha, not at all.”

Do Ra Hee tried to check on the members’ condition, but Oh Baek Ho told her to get going and even opened the front door for her. Do Ra Hee was somewhat concerned about leaving the members behind.

“Then, I’ll be heading out.”

The members, who barely came back to their senses, said goodbye to Do Ra Hee.

“Then Ra Hee, get back safe and I’ll see you later.”

“Yes. I’ll contact you again Manager Oh.”

Kim Won, who had been observing the two of them saying goodbye, let out a mischievous laugh.

Ater Do Ra Hee left, Kim Won asked Oh Baek Ho,

“Baek Ho, you and Do Ra Hee hmmmm~?”

Kim Won was in denial that their vacation was only two days and they’ll start doing body care once it’s over. He wanted to move his focus to a different topic.

Oh Baek Ho’s tone towards Do Ra Hee was very soft. On top of that, the two of them standing side by side were like Captain Hook and Tinkerbell. They seemed like they wouldn’t be a good fit, but they look strangely good together.

“Hmmm? What do you mean hmmm?”

“Why? You look good together.”

Jung Yoon Ki, who wanted to mess with Oh Baek Ho for no particular reason, nudged.

Oh Baek Ho shook his head.

“With Ra Hee? That’s nonsense. You know how old she is?”

“How old is she?”

“24”

“Hurrr. It’s not that she just looks young, she actually is young!”

Ahn Hyung Seo muttered, shocked.

Do Ra Hee entered the company by getting scouted to the Fan Marketing Team after graduating college. She actually graduated from a two year community college with a degree in Early Childhood Education. There was a reason she was scouted even though she studied a field completely unrelated to Fan Marketing or the Entertainment business.

She was active as an avid fan of so-and-so idol group since age 18. She created the fan cafe, became the fan club board member, etc. and at age 20 she worked as a fan manager.

The qualifications to become a fan manager wasn’t very rigorous, but since they had encounters with fans while working on site it was a position of endless problems.

However, Do Ra Hee showed truly “Do Ra Hee”-like character in the field and quelled the fans. She was very good at getting things done, with her small physique, without even a hint of gossip surrounding her. On top of that, she was good at staying professional so she never pointlessly clung to idols either.

Thanks to that, word spread quickly that she’s a fan manager who’s good at her job, and through acquaintances, she was able to get scouted all the way to HIT Entertainment Fan Marketing team.

“Also, don’t even think of saying something like that you guys. Despite how she looks, she’s a scary person.”

“Her?”

“Yes. Everyone, be good to Ra Hee. And don’t say unnecessary stuff.”

Oh Baek Ho shook his head as he recalled the story he heard in the past involving ‘Do Ra Hee. How did she calm the 40 fans on site all at once?!’.

***

Soon after, the KK members and staff gathered at the indoor basketball court in Goyang, Gyeonggido for the school uniform commercial shoot.

They had already received the run down of the shoot at a previous meeting. The outfit was summer school uniform and the concept was boys enjoying their youth playing basketball on the basketball court

They understood why Oh Baek Ho was saying take care of their bodies.

When they wore the short sleeve summer uniform shirt, it showed all the curves of their upper body. It was also true that the better shape you’re in, the better the fit of the clothes would be.

“Taking off the hot coat~ I’m on my way to you~!”

While they were waiting to shoot, Jung Yoon Ki bounced the prop basketball as he sang an anime theme song.

In preparations for this shoot, the members played basketball at the Hangang park near the company everyday, contemplating how they could pose in a way that would look cool when they shot the ball. Thankfully, there weren’t any members who were completely terrible at basketball.

Jung Yoon Ki was confident, saying he was on the basketball team during his school days and that he even dreamt of becoming a basketball player. Of course, he had to give up that dream because he stopped growing.

Furthermore, Kim Won had played a lot of basketball when he was studying abroad and was one of the members who were used to basketball. Park Tae Hyung and Ahn Hyung Seo were already very used to moving their bodies so they picked up basketball very easily. Do Wook was athletic and tall to boot so he was able to do dunk shots.

If there were one concern, it was Suk Ji Hoon. Suk Ji Hoon’s form was awkward, starting from how he dribbled. However, it wasn’t a real match anyways so he was able to somewhat make up for it with facial expressions.

“What song is that?”

“Dude, you don’t know this song?”

Jung Yoon Ki was shocked by Suk Ji Hoon’s question and dropped the basketball he was holding.

He thought they were only a few years apart, but he felt the generation gap during times like this. Jung Yoon Ki stopped in his tracks out of shock and Suk Ji Hoon brushed past him with an indifferent expression.

It was a fact that securing a proper waiting room was hard since they were shooting on a basketball court. Do Wook headed towards the bathroom next to the hallway to change into the outfit for the shoot, the summer school uniform.

However, Do Wook couldn’t even enter the bathroom and had no choice but to stop in front of the hallway.

“You goddamn asshole, you ratted me out?”

“I’m, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? You think sorry will fix everything? You bitch, I knew I didn’t like you from the beginning! You think you’re all that because Director Kim likes you?”

Abusive language was coming from in front of the hallway.