Entertainment Life With A Camera

Chapter 62:

Chapter 62

Is this a diss track?

“Wow, you did a great job.”

“Thank you!”

Director Choi patted Ian’s shoulder with a satisfied expression. 

He was doubtful when he saw his face, but once he started acting, he became a different person on the screen. 

Rather, the actor who played the pro-Japanese policeman looked more awkward.

Ian’s scene would go into the first scene of the drama and play a big role in leading the viewers’ immersion.

‘It’s a shame that he’s an idol…’

There were hardly any star-like male actors in their 20s in the entertainment industry these days. 

According to Director Choi’s intuition, Ian could fill that spot easily. 

He remembered a project that he was going to shoot next year and casually asked.

“How is your schedule for next year, Ian?”

Director Choi blatantly showed his closeness, and Ian laughed. 

He was grateful for the love calls already, but he had an important schedule next year.

“I have a world tour next year.”

“Really? That’s too bad. Can you give me your number?”

Director Choi handed him his phone. Ian shook his hand and gave him his phone instead.

“I’m planning to change my number often… It would be better if I get your number, director.”

“Really? You change your number often? That’s troublesome…”

“My fans often hack it.”

“How do they hack it?”

“I heard that some telecom employees leak it.”

“I only heard about it, but it really happens… You must have a hard time.”

Director Choi took Ian’s phone and typed his number.

In fact, even if he changed his number, they would somehow find out and contact him. 

His current number was already the second one he changed.

“It’s such a waste… Let’s see each other again next time.”

“Thank you. Please call me anytime.”

Ian smiled contentedly. 

Director Choi Moon-sik was a hit-maker who produced hit works in both movies and dramas after ‘The Righteous Band’. 

It was a good connection to have in advance.

Ian approached Jo Min-hwan, who was fixing his makeup.

“Good job.”

“Thank you, hyung. Thank you for calling me. Do you have a lot of shooting left?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to see you after a long time. I’ll buy you a meal next time.”

“Hyung, don’t make empty promises.”

“It’s true. I’ll buy you meat next time.”

Jo Min-hwan had secured his lead role firmly by attracting 7 million viewers with the movie he starred in after ‘Black Out’.

“Then I’ll go ahead!”

“Bye. Keep in touch.”

Ian got rid of his makeup and got on the van after receiving Jo Min-hwan’s farewell. 

Ian’s special appearance was conducted in secret, so he couldn’t watch the rest of the shooting.

***

Awi prepared for the award ceremony stage without a single day of vacation after their first full album activities ended. 

The agency prepared various costumes and stage compositions for their first award ceremony where they were nominated for the rookie award.

“Get up with your stomach muscles in this state.”

“Wow, this is dangerous if we do it wrong?”

Park Seo-dam crouched down.

“Be careful, it’ll be a big deal if you get injured.”

Ian showed him the movement as an example in front of Park Seo-dam.

“Wow… this is hard.”

“Let’s do it slowly. We have plenty of time.”

“Hyun-ie hyung! Help me out!”

Kim Joo-young, who had already learned all the movements, sat leaning against the wall of the practice room and shouted while playing with his phone.

“Hyung! Did you hear that Park Sung-hoon released a song?”

“Really?”

Park Seo-dam, who was practicing the movement with Kim Hyun’s help, quickly sat next to Kim Joo-young. 

The other members also gathered one by one.

Park Sung-hoon was YANG Entertainment’s trainee who was dissed by Kim Hyun in ‘The Righteous Band’.

“Is this a diss track?”

“Play it.”

Kim Joo-young pressed the play button and turned up the volume of his phone.

“The lyrics are too mumbly?”

“What is he saying? Am I the only one who can’t hear well?”

“His diction is not clear at all? Show me the lyrics.”

The seven members crowded together and stared at Kim Joo-young’s small screen.

Roughly summarized, it was ‘No matter how fast you debuted, I’m a genius and I’ll blow you all away when I debut and your company has less money than ours’.

“Hmm… not good.”

“Me too. Really objectively speaking, there’s nothing catchy to my ears.”

[Wow, really no sense of shame…]

Even Jindo, who was watching, made a remark.

“How come his skills are getting worse?”

Kim Hyun rubbed his ears as if it was funny. 

Ian also shrugged his shoulders and asked Kim Joo-young.

“When did this song come out?”

“The day before yesterday.”

“How did it do?”

“He hyped it up as a response to ‘The Righteous Band’, so the entry was good. 14th or something?”

“He hyped it up? But he couldn’t maintain it since he’s out of the chart now.”

In the past, he didn’t know, but these days, the meaning of ‘response’ has changed a lot. 

It was a method that the unknown ballad singers who manipulated the chart with machines used a lot.

“Isn’t ‘response’ something that real manipulators use?”

“Why did he say it was a response when it’s a diss track?”

A nameless male singer would release a song about money and alcohol and put it up with the power of machines, then a female singer from the same agency would release a song from a female perspective.

Then they would manipulate that song too. 

The current chart also had four manipulated songs in the TOP10.

“Originally, ‘The Righteous Band’ was aimed at dissing Nnet, so it’s meaningless to hype it up as a response.”

“YANG Entertainment always does weird hype.”

It seemed like an attempt to get some attention by using Park Jin-hyuk’s ‘The Righteous Band’ as a sacrifice, but the rap skill and the quality of the song were so bad that it was swept out of the chart in no time.

“He doesn’t debut but only releases songs like this, so he’ll probably debut in two years.”

“I was scared for nothing because he said it was a diss track.”

“But YANG Entertainment is doing another survival audition, right?”

“Again?”

Kim Hyun frowned.

“The survival audition is popular these days because of P.A. YANG Entertainment is also doing it, I heard.”

“Our Jin-hyuk hyung is ahead of him by a few steps. He’s really legendary.”

Jo Tae-woong admired and Park Jin-hyuk smiled proudly.

“Kim Young-joon timed it well.”

Kim Joo-young muttered.

The survival audition never ends. 

When the idol audition craze passes, the trot audition craze comes. 

So it was advantageous to participate in these auditions in season 1.

‘But if YANG Entertainment does survival, is it that one that comes out next year?’

[Wasn’t that the biggest debut scam survival show ever?]

Ian remembered the YANG Entertainment survival program ‘YANG 7’ in 2019. 

It was an audition survival show that followed the project idol trend. 

It involved auditioning trainees from their own company and other companies.

[And Park Sung-hoon was there too, right?]

‘He’s from their own company, so they’ll debut him later, right?’

[They’ll make their own trainees survive, but they’ll still debut them.]

Usually, these kinds of programs needed a trainee who stood out as a star, but there was none. Moreover, the problem was that YANG Entertainment’s CEO Lim tried to highlight himself more than the trainees.

Because of that, the ambitious program failed miserably with low ratings. 

CEO Lim, who expected a project idol-level success, abandoned the seven trainees who survived the final round. 

Eventually, it became known as the worst debut scam audition program ever.

‘Tae-woo should have picked a better timing…’

The trot craze that started with ‘The Man of Trot’ also faded away as more and more trot audition shows flooded the market. 

People felt tired of them, and some contract fraud scandals also emerged.

Ian hoped that Lim Tae-woo would appear on ‘The Man of Trot’ next year.

“I feel sorry for Park Sung-hoon again.”

“Hyung, we have no reason to pity him.”

Kim Hyun clicked his tongue. 

While everyone was looking at their phones, Kim Joo-young opened an internet window.

“Oh… wow, our fans are amazing…”

“What is it? What is it?”

Kim Joo-young opened a community page related to Awi and showed it to the members. 

Most of the fans were using fist emoticons and scolding them.

-Vote now kids! We’re the rookie award candidates! hxt

-You can only get the rookie award once, so if you don’t vote, you’re not an Awi fan

-Watermelon Music rookie award vote go go go they’re catching up to us

-Favorite Idol what is this? Grandma help me;;

└That’s an app that counts for next year’s Nuri Chart Music Awards. It’s good to do it regularly because it donates in the name of the kids if you get a lot of votes

└When should I vote? Should I do it at the last minute before the day ends?

As Awi’s global popularity and album sales soared, there were more and more music awards shows.

Among them, there were some one-time awards shows that tried to make money from selling concert tickets to fans. 

They were dirty and cheap, but there was no reason not to go if they gave awards.

“Wow… did you see the votes? We’re first.”

Awi attended almost every music awards show they were invited to. 

Some of them counted not only album and digital sales but also fan votes.

-Buy a Watermelon Music subscription and get 3 votes per subscription. Buy a subscription and stream the kids and vote too

-AAMA don’t be complacent about being first

-Who are you voting for the grand prize? Who are we allied with?

└Luna Girls

The members’ fighting spirit rose with the fans’ sincere voting guides and organized activities.

“…let’s practice.”

“Where did we stop?”

***

Awi prepared slightly different stages for each awards show to repay their fans’ efforts.

They started with the Asia Artist Music Awards (AAMA) and continued with M Company’s year-end music festival until February.

“Unnie, am I going bald?”

“Do you have any baldness in your grandparents or parents?”

“No, I don’t… wow, it’s so itchy I’m going crazy.”

“Don’t you whine like Tae-woong?”

Ian shrugged his shoulders. 

Jo Tae-woong giggled and pushed his camera forward.

“Now you know how I feel?”

“Hey, scratch my head for me. It’s so prickly and itchy I’m dying.”

Jo Tae-woong zoomed in on Ian’s face, who frowned, and then filmed Park Seo-dam next to him.

“Seo-dam, are you okay?”

“Hyung, I’m not prickly.”

“You’re young, so your scalp is healthy.”

The hair salon manager who was touching Ian’s head made a ridiculous expression. 

He couldn’t help but laugh at the one-year difference between them who were talking about youth.

“Seo-dam is pink?”

“It suits our cute Seo-dam.”

“Ah hyungs stop being cheesy!”

The members who got addicted to teasing the youngest gathered around them one by one.

“It’s a good thing that the awards show is in the evening. If it was during the day, we would have been bleaching our hair at dawn.”

“Wow, just imagining it is horrible.”

The awards show dyeing was also done secretly like the comeback.

“I hope we get an award for working so hard.”

“Rookie award! Rookie award!”

“Guys, don’t think about getting an award. You’ll be more disappointed later.”

Lee Joo-hyuk calmed down the members, but they didn’t care and kept making noise.

It was a problem to go online often. 

The netizens calculated the album sales and digital rankings and confirmed that Awi was already the male rookie award winner. 

And the members who often went online couldn’t miss that post.

“How do I look?”

Ian came out after washing his hair and stood in front of the members. 

Ian finally got to dye his hair, which he couldn’t do because of his drama appearance. 

The hair color that was decided by the company staff’s meeting was silver gray.

“Wow. Ian. You look awesome.”

“You suit any hair color.”

“Choi Ian is what.”

The process was painful, but he was satisfied with the hair that was completed after four bleaching sessions.

“Our stage today will match well with this.”

Awi was scheduled to perform a special stage at the AAMA awards show today.