Chapter 36: One more time, Ok?! (6)

It was the staff for the commercial shoot.

The man was verbally abusing the woman, who seemed to be his subordinate. Do Wook briefly observed the two people, holding the summer school uniform in his hands.

“I’m sorry sunbae-nim*. I’ll fix it.”
(TL Note: Sunbae is how you address your senior, nim is a term to show respect.)

She tried to hold it in but she was on the verge of tears from the abuse.

“Shit, nothing’s working out. We have to finish the shoot quickly so work twice as fast today, got it?!”

“Yes! Understood!”

As the man cussed and was about to say more, Do Wook made his presence known with his footsteps.

The two people turned around. When he saw Do Wook, the man cleared his throat and left the area first. The woman quickly averted her gaze when she made eye contact with Do Wook. The light make up she had on was all smudged.

The woman went into the women’s restroom next to the hallway, perhaps out of embarrassment.

Do Wook went into the men’s restroom soon after and changed into his outfit.

‘I wonder what’s going on?’

There wasn’t anything he could do about it, but Do Wook was only human and was curious.

When he came out after he was done changing, he could faintly hear crying from inside the women’s restroom. Do Wook recalled the times he cried alone in the school restroom in the past.

It wasn’t the same type of torment, but Do Wook knew well what a miserable thing it is to cry alone as you hide.

Do Wook headed towards KK’s coordinator team who were in charge of hair, make up, and wardrobe. The coordinators were chatting amongst themselves while they waited for the shoot.

It was also possible to understand the earlier situation a little through the coordinators’ conversation.

The chief director of the advertisement filming team planned for the shoot to take no longer than six hours. Because of that, the director staffed the location for 8 hours. However, the problem was that the filming team’s male assistant director incorrectly told the female subordinate staff member six hours from the beginning.

The female staff member confidently staffed the location for six hours, and was called in by the chief director, Director Kim. When she told him that she was informed six hours, Director Kim had called the male assistant director.

However the assistant director made up excuses saying he never told her that. On the contrary, he called the female staff member and caused a scene, going off on her and yelling when did he ever say that.

The other younger staff members clearly heard the man say six hours, but they couldn’t step up to help her so they were talking about it afterwards amongst themselves instead.

“He looked like he has a really terrible personality.”

“I understand people in broadcasting have potty mouths, but that jerk seemed like a real asshole.”

“Ah, I really hate it. If Manager Oh were like that, I wouldn’t be able to stand it.”

Do Wook headed towards where the coordinators were gathered and called one of them.

“Excuse me, nuna*?”
(TL note: nuna is how males refer to older females)

“Yes? What is it, Do Wook?”

“I’m going to use that for a little bit.”

Do Wook was pointing to a compact of fixing powder.

“Are you going to fix your make up? Your face looks fine.”

“Ah, it’s not for me. Briefly. I really only need it for a bit.”

The coordinator was suspicious of Do Wook suddenly looking for the powder compact but obediently handed it over to him.

Do Wook walked quickly to the hallway and stood in front of the women’s restroom. Soon a woman came out who looked like she had washed her eyes with water. She was surprised when she spotted Do Wook and stopped walking.

“Excuse me…Here, use this.”

It was obvious that the guy would pick on her more if he saw that she had cried. Still, there was no way she had enough time to go back and fix her makeup.

She briefly looked at the powder compact Do Wook was handing her. She went back into the restroom as she thanked him and came back out after fixing her makeup.

The swollen area around her eyes definitely calmed down and it was less obvious that she had cried.

“Here you go. Thank you very much.”

Do Wook silently took back the powder compact from her.

“You’re KK member Kang Do Wook…Right?”

“Ah, yes…”

She stared at Do Wook’s face.

It took several years for her to climb from her days as the youngest staff member to where she was now. If she were to recount every single humiliation she had suffered on set in that time, her mouth would hurt. There were times she was harassed by her superior like today, and there were many times when she was harassed by the advertisement models or the advertising company.

There were also many people who watched her overcome those difficulties. There were coworkers who gave her words of encouragement, but this was the first time a celebrity comforted her.

On top of that, it was a very attentive and thoughtful consolation coming from a young male idol.

“I won’t forget this kindness.”

“It’s nothing.”

Do Wook didn’t think it was something he should be thanked for at all since he didn’t do much.

However, she shook her head and said she would absolutely repay his kindness. She walked quickly as she returned to the filming site.

Do Wook simply thought that he would be happy if he was able to comfort her even a little. He couldn’t imagine in his wildest dreams that the woman would really repay the favor later on.

***

The shoot progressed according to the script. On the set you could feel the director’s determination to not have any delays since they had to finish within the time left.

Thankfully, the KK members finished the shoot without many retakes despite it being their first commercial shoot.

Jung Yoon Ki dribbling as he quickly dashed across the court, Ahn Hyung Seo passing to the team member in front of him, Suk Ji Hoon snatching the ball in one try, and Park Tae Hyung crouching down low and intercepting the ball from the opponent.

And Do Wook successfully making a clean 3-pointer shot.

After they finished shooting all the solo scenes, the camera got a shot of the six members standing in a row. It was the scene for the finale at the end.

Additionally, the director shot a scene of just Do Wook standing alone. It wasn’t part of the script but he thought that it would make a good shot.

The successful completion of the shoot was met with a round of applause.

The Elite Look PR liaison approached Manager Oh and the members and thanked them for their hard work as well as informed them of what the next steps were. Oh Baek Ho agreed to keep their schedule open for the poster shoot, the paper advertisement shoot, etc. that were to follow. He then said his goodbyes and exited the set.

“It was fun, but I’m tired.”

“I know, I’m yawning man.”

Jung Yoon Ki complained about being tired. Ahn Hyung Seo also let out a long yawn as he rubbed his eyes.

“You worked hard, all of you.”

Oh Baek Ho praised the members as they headed towards the parking lot.

***

The third week of their inactive period.

It was a very important rule that as a rookie you should not have a long period of inactivity. It was because those who didn’t become core fans yet could easily move on to a different group.

KK and the company tried very hard so that the fans wouldn’t feel empty during the inactive period. Manufacturers made content for consumer fans to look at and enjoy. In other words, they had to endlessly create “the next hit item”.

It was a relief that a so-called “next hit item” was created when the school uniform commercial they recently filmed aired. Furthermore, the members were updating about what they were up to through Facenote almost every day. Thanks to that, the number of followers continued to grow despite being inactive.

Additionally, fan marketing edited and uploaded behind the scenes videos on Itube once or twice a week.

Thanks to that, the fans didn’t feel like KK was in an inactive period at all and they even got many new fans during this period.

While that was going on, the members were rehearsing on their own and focused on recording the title song and album that came out recently.
(TL note: for clarification, the song/album has not been released to the public yet. The members recently received the completed song and are getting ready to record it.)

The album included songs they received from the album development team and a couple of new songs that Yong Soo Chul composed.

The title song was the song Do Wook composed and wrote together with Yong Soo Chul.

The song was so catchy that you would never forget it after hearing it once. When Team Leader Shim Jun listened to it for the first time, he expressed his surprise by covering his mouth.

The choreography for the song was currently commissioned to the choreographer who did the choreography for ‘Sorry but I Love You’. Once the choreography is ready early next week, they planned to go into preparation for the album full swing including the musical video shoot after rehearsal.

‘I wonder how the public will react…’

This title song, a joint project between Yong Soo Chul and Do Wook, was a song unlike anything else.

Of course, Do Wook already knew how the trends would go and picked a genre that would soar in popularity around this time as the genre of the title song. Furthermore, the direction the song would progress was done in a way that would catch people’s attention in this time period.

Furthermore, he believed in Yong Soo Chul’s skills so he was confident that the title song would draw a lot of popularity, but it was human nature to worry about that 1% of uncertainty.

“Do Wook, are you sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard these days?”

The sound of someone asking him something finally broke Do Wook out of his deep thoughts.

“Sorry?”

“Dude, your dark circles will go down all the way to your chin if you keep that up. You may be good looking, but don’t you think you should still avoid that?”

It was Jung Yoon Ki. He was sitting across from Do Wook at the living room table, and it was already past 2 am.

Among the non-title songs, there were still two songs that haven’t been recorded yet. One of those two songs was waiting for Jung Yoon Ki’s rap lyrics and Do Wook was in the process of writing the lyrics for the other song.

They returned to the dormitory after rehearsal, but the two of them had work left to do so they turned on their laptops and were pulling all-nighters.

“It’s no trouble at all. What about yourself? You must be tired.”

Do Wook asked Jung Yoon Ki, who had written the majority of the rap lyrics in the songs.

“Me? Well. I’m struggling this much writing a few lines of rap; you’re composing and writing. We have the same schedule. Are there five of you?”

Do Wook laughed. His laugh was full of fatigue.

“Still, the raps you wrote; they’re really good.”

He meant it. Through their time together, Do Wook learned that Jung Yoon Ki had much more talent in rap than he initially thought. Therefore, he helped Jung Yoon Ki have a bigger role in making the album.

“Thanks, dude. I really liked the title song you wrote too. I’m a little late saying it, but when I first heard it, I was so surprised that I was speechless.”

“It’s something I worked on with PD Yong.”

“No, it’s a different vibe than the debut song. Dude, I thought to myself that day what incredible luck I have to be in the same group as you.”

Jung Yoon Ki’s words touched Do Wook’s heart. Jung Yoon Ki being that happy made him somehow feel more acknowledged.

“Anyways, don’t push yourself too hard. You’re still growing at that age.”

“Haha, yes…Thank you for being worried about me.”

“Don’t brush it off because someone shorter than you said it!”

He chatted and laughed with Jung Yoon Ki.

Then a message arrived on Do Wook’s cellphone. It was a message from Kwon Ji Hyung, a member of Monster.

[Thank you my hubae* lol. I don’t know if you heard, but we were first place today lol. We only just finished with the company dinner so I’m contacting you now lol. I was sulking because the title song wasn’t doing well…But we were saved thanks to you! I’ll treat you to a nice meal later!]
(TL note: hubae is is referring to one’s junior at a job, school, field, etc.)

Monster placed first place today on a cable music broadcast program with their follow up ballad song, ‘Moonlight Love’.

The lyricist for ‘Moonlight Love’ was Kim Soom. Kim Soom agreed to be the song’s lyricist upon Do Wook’s request. Furthermore, she wrote melodic lyrics, like a prose of a poem, as Do Wook expected.

You can’t credit it all to the power of the lyrics, but hearing that ‘Moonlight Love’ was doing well made him happy that he was able to help even a little.

Actually, the reason Monster’s title song was never able to get first place was because M2M took first place for the 5th consecutive week. Monster was only able to get first place after M2M’s active period ended.

As expected, M2M’s ‘Look at Me’ was drawing much more attention than ‘You’re Too Pretty’ and was taking M2M to the top spot.

Ara Entertainment even poured their resources into bringing back the music broadcast ranking system, perhaps because they were starting to notice KK.

Thanks to that, the ranking system was revived in a majority of the music broadcasts and in the blink of an eye, M2M received an incredible amount of first place trophies that KK couldn’t compete with.

However, the newly reinstated ranking system didn’t only apply to M2M. Now, KK also had an opportunity to sweep through all the broadcast stations and get first place.

‘We can do it…’

Do Wook thought again as looked at Jung Yoon Ki, who was right in front of him.

The release date of KK’s first full length album, < Sensation >, was just around the corner.

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