“Would it be ok…if we prepare one additional performance?”
The members, who had been excitedly picking chicken, briefly looked at Do Wook, who had asked cautiously, with a blank expression.
“Were you that upset that we asked you to pick out a chicken…?”
Ahn Hyung Seo asked as he hesitantly took back the flier that was in Do Wook’s hand.
There was a strong coughing sound. Turning to the direction of the sound, it was Jung Yoon Ki. Jung Yoon Ki was purposely making the coughing sound. He was putting on an act, hawking as if saying, ‘oh no, my throat’. He tried to force a cough that didn’t want to come out, so it was weirder that his throat wasn’t hurting.
“Suddenly…I…don’t understand Ko-re-an. Pardon?”*
(TL Note: Some of the words were said in English, some were said in Korean.)
Kim Won asked with English mixed in as if he didn’t understand what Do Wook was saying. They couldn’t help but think it was silly because anyone could tell he was just acting, and there was nobody rebuking him.
It was Do Wook who burst out laughing.
Looking at the members’ reaction, it was clear that it was burdensome to prepare another performance.
The members directly voiced their opinions rather than frowning. The members had always followed Do Wook’s plans without complaining even if they were a little challenging. Do Wook felt more grateful than disappointed.
‘I guess the idea I just thought of would be difficult after all.’
He had no intention to overwork the members. With that thought in mind, Do Wook moved on from the idea.
“Please continue choosing the chicken. I’ll get the Emperor Olive Chicken.”
Suk Ji Hoon, who was the youngest, was writing down each member’s chicken order on a notepad. Suk Ji Hoon was realizing that the members’ food taste was as diverse as their personalities.
“The Heavenly King Bulgogi for me.”
“Bulgogi for Yoon Ki….Heavenly King..Then everyone’s picked, right? I’m going to order it now.”
(TL Note: What funny chicken dish names lol)
Suk Ji Hoon, who collected all the menus, started calling the restaurants one by one.
As the members waited for their chicken, they settled down in a comfortable position to watch TV. Jung Yoon Ki, who was sitting at the corner of the sofa and flipping through the channels with the remote, pressed the power button and turned the TV off again.
The members’ gazes turned in unison to Jung Yoon Ki, who was sitting behind them.
“Tell us,”
Instead of answering the members who were looking at him with resentful gazes over the TV suddenly getting turned off, Jung Yoon Ki asked Do Wook. Do Wook was briefly confused because he didn’t understand what Jung Yoon Ki meant, but he soon understood his question.
“We can’t ignore it when there’s never been a time where something bad happened from listening to you,”
Jung Yoon Ki added. The other members realized what he meant and sighed. They had a feeling they’d end up doing one more performance.
However, even as they sighed, they quickly gave up as if they knew things would end up like this and they listened with rapt attention to Do Wook.
Honestly, the other members’ feelings weren’t different from Jung Yoon Ki’s. The reason KK made it to where they were now was because Do Wook wasn’t the only one who wanted to make it to the top. The other members were always filled with yearning to get to the top spot and to be loved more, regardless of how physically demanding it was.
“Yeah…I was thinking it was strange how relazed my body felt this year,”
Ahn Hyung Seo playfully complained.
Even now, their bodies didn’t have time to rest compared to other singers. The amount of practice KK put in was always the most out of everybody. Furthermore, the KK members had a busy year coutning their regular activities and touring alone.
However, it was true that there had been less group activities this year, due to increased individual activities.
For Ahn Hyung Seo, who didn’t have any extra individual activities, this year felt easier than last year.
“I’ll just have to suffer a little during the end of the year! What kind of hardship do I need to go through?”
“Ahh.”
Do Wook hesitated for a moment and brought it up.
In summary, they were in discussion regarding the MC request they had received and saw the TBN cue sheet in the process. Explaining what happened a few moments ago, Do Wook also clarified to the members why he suggested doing one more performance.
“Ah… I guess Ara really is powerful…”
Park Tae Hyung, who had been listening quietly, muttered, a little dejected that they couldn’t beat the might of Ara Entertainment again.
Do Wook continued to speak.
“TBN has to accept it first, but I think it’ll be good if we’re able to do it. We’ll show the public the power of performance, which can’t be touched even with an agency’s strength.”
Jung Yoon Ki gave a sincere nod to what Do Wook said. It was very clear what he meant.
The members had achieved sufficient success through various activities, including ‘Blue Sky’. The award ceremony was the day they’d get evaluated for it. It was natural that they wanted to get a proper evaluation.
‘Ding dong―’
At that moment, the doorbell rang. The chicken delivery person was visible on the intercom.
“Gasp! Chicken! Who is it? Whose is it?!”
“My chicken!”
Ahn Hyung Seo and Jung Yoon Ki dashed to the door.
A chicken delivery person rang the doorbell 5 more times after that.
***
What Do Wook had in mind was a special performance counter proposal.
Unlike last year’s performance with Lee Jin Ri, there was no special performance on this year’s cue sheet. The closest thing to a special performance was Little Star performing remixes of their hit songs from their debut until now.
Then, he wondered, what if KK prepared a proper special performance? The usual tradition for people who prepare a special performance with other singers’ songs was that they are rookies who’ve been eye-catching that season, or agency hubaes of a group who is doing a special performance.
If the special performance wasn’t a collaboration like Do Wook did with Lee Jin Ri before, but simply a cover performance, most singers would rightfully be reluctant.
They wouldn’t be singing their own songs and they would have to specially prepare for it during the busy holiday season, so it was only done if the broadcast station made them do it.
‘So if we step up and say we’ll do it…from TBN’s point of view, it’d be hard to refuse since there would be more eye-catching moments. Also, if it’s KK and not some unknown rookie or singer…’
Do Wook thought.
The broadcast station must also be aware that viewers are always looking forward to a performance from KK, a group who was ‘dependable’.
In fact, in an end-of-year survey, KK was selected as the number one among singers that people were looking forward to as a performance at the award ceremony.
As such, if KK said they’d prepare a new performance that wasn’t even the main event, it would be a difficult proposal for broadcasting stations to reject. It would also make a good excuse to give to Ara Entertainment for increasing KK’s stage time.
‘If we want to increase our stage time, we can increase it by preparing more things.’
To put it more harshly, they were ‘securing’ it.
If Ara Entertainment, who had been demonstrating their power in the music industry for a long time, was trying to keep KK down, they couldn’t just sit there and take it even if they fell behind in agency power. They had to do everything they could to show they wouldn’t be pushed around.
After Do Wook, who had gotten the members to agree, discussed it with Assistant Manager Kwon Woo Chan who was in charge of performances, he suggested the idea of preparing a new performance to Manager Oh Baek Ho.
Manager Oh Baek Ho listened carefully to what Do Wook was saying.
Normally, it was a top-down process where you prepare a performance according to the time you are allotted once you receive the time allocations from the broadcast station, but it didn’t seem bad to propose doing it the opposite way.
“Ok. It’s a little frustrating that we have to go this far, but…”
Although he had been in charge of many singers before, it was the first time that Manager Oh Baek Ho had been in charge of a singer like KK who was good enough to reach the top.
Rather, raising a major group was making him realize the power of a large agency like Ara Entertainment.
When they were lagging behind, he was just thinking how difficult it was to secure broadcast appearances. Now that they were ahead, Ara was strongly resisting not to lose any more ground.
“But I’m not sure if all the original singers would give their consent.”
“They most likely will.”
“Is that so?”
“No, they definitely will,” Do Wook answered with a more confident tone.
Manager Oh Baek Ho nodded while looking at the list of songs to be put together for the special stage.
“I think they will, but…”
Fortunately yet expectedly, KK’s proposal was accepted.
TBN was pleased, saying that if it was for a performance, they could devote a little more performance time to KK. Naturally, KK’s stage order also changed to the position after Little Star and right before Sa Bang Shin Hwa.
TBN had a justification to side with KK, who had now become renowned, despite being wary of Ara Entertainment.
The members immediately started rehearsing. They had to prepare for the KVS Award Show too, but the TBN Music Awards was sooner so it was actually more urgent.
Also, unlike the the songs they would be doing at the KVS award ceremony song, which were an arrangement of their existing songs, the performance they would be doing on TBN had three additional new songs, albeit arranged shorter.
There were still a few weeks left, but it was tight. One fortunate thing was that they had no other events scheduled.
Additionally, it helped that their skills as well as their understanding of each other had grown a certain degree from doing their activities, so they were in good harmony during rehearsal.
Back in their trainee days when the group KK was first formed and had not debuted, it took them at least a week’s time to perfectly learn one cover dance.
There were split opinions on which member would get which role or choreography, and it took time to modify and get used to it to fit the KK members.
However, 3 days was plenty now. After seeing it just once, they had a sense of who would be good for what role and their ability to bring it together had greatly improved.
Do Wook knew that as well, which was why he planned this performance.
[Title | TO. Our beloved Key Ring
Author | KK_Ahn Hyung Seo
Post time | ..12.21. 07:34:21
(Photo)
Key Rings! It’s time to wake up! Have a nice day at school and work, everyone!
We’re finishing up rehearsal and headed to bed!
So that we can show you Key Rings lots of even better performances.
We’re giving it our all so please look forward to our award ceremony performance.
We love you~! Hahaha ]
Ahn Hyung Seo’s selfie and post, which he posted at 7:30 in the morning after finishing rehearsal, tugged at the heartstrings of the fans on their way to school and work.
The fans were burning up with the desire to do more for their idols who were trying so hard for the awards ceremony performance.
What they could do first and foremost was to vote.
KK fans started a general offensive to vote for KK’s popularity. Although they were already Number 1 in the voting, the difference from the Number 2 singer was only 5 percent.
The fans were determined to win the vote with a complete and overwhelming victory so that KK could take home the popularity award as well as other awards.
The second thing was of course to increase the album sales.
KK fans fervently worked on making KK shine at the award ceremony, even drawing in foreign fans.
Here and there, the internet community and fan pages were heating up over award show-related issues.
***
It was TBN who had a headache to deal with.
The sheet was set in stone for the most part. However, the issue was the grand prize. Of course the right thing was to award the grand prize according to the ranking, but it was also their job to carefully distribute the awards while keeping various political circumstances in mind.
“Sa Bang Shin Hwa will just do the same old thing even though they were given so much time…Look at KK, they stepped up first, saying they’d put together a performance.”
When the Director of the TBN Entertainment and Music Channel grumbled, the CP in charge of the award ceremony, who was sitting next to him, replied.
“It’s probably chaotic over there right now over internal problems. They’re deciding whether to withdraw or not.”
“The new kids they’re trying to grow aren’t doing well…and Seo Jun was pretty much buried.”
“They must have a lot on their mind.”
“Honestly, seeing as it is now, KK should receive the grand prize…”
The Director didn’t even finish the sentence before he shook his head.
“If they want to be the top, they need to step up and be like a top group. They can’t win it if their ranking isn’t good enough, never.”
“Well…”
The CP also nodded his head as if saying he agreed to a certain degree.
The two of them were out at a Korean restaurant to prepare for next year’s award ceremony in advance. Starting with next year’s ceremony, they had ambitions to expand their market from Korea to all of Asia and raise the prestige of their award ceremony.
To do so, getting investors was extremely important. They especially had to get a solid foundation in the Chinese and Japanese markets.
Today was the day that would serve as the springboard to pioneer into that market.
“They’ve arrived.”
The door opened, and the employee informed them that the expected guest had arrived. The two stopped their conversation and relaxed by drinking the water in front of them.
—
Next chapter: We see the new M2M perform for the first time and they’re….good