“Mr. PD?”
Also surprised, Do Wook looked at PD Yong Soo Chul. It was definitely an unexpected appearance.
It was the dead of winter, but Yong Soo Chul was wearing a rider jacket embedded with spikes. It was an image that was reminiscent of the first time they met.
Of course, since Yong Soo Chul had earned a lot of money now, his current rider jacket had a different price tag than his previous jacket. The jacket he had bought at Nam Dae Moon was now an Italian brand jacket.
Still, there didn’t seem to be any change in Yong Soo Chul’s characteristics, and Do Wook and the members were overjoyed to see him.
“Long time no see.”
PD Yong Soo Chul greeted the members as he looked them over. Excited to see him, the members approached PD Yong Soo Chul and shook his hand.
He acted naturally, but Suk Ji Hoon, who was the youngest, had some bitter feelings towards PD Yong Soo Chul. The PD had grown with them, so when he had said he was going to a different company he felt like he had been abandoned.
However, he was feeling that way because there was also some affection there.
“Congratulations on the Rookie of the Year Award.”
As they shook hands, Do Wook congratulated Yong Soo Chul.
“But I’m not the one who won the award.”
“It’s the group that you raised. I heard that this time you did everything, starting with planning.”
“Haha. Well…”
“I knew you’d do well with a female group album too. But what brings you here?”
Do Wook asked as they chatted.
“There was something I requested from HIT Entertainment so I’m here for a meeting. I stopped by on my way to see you guys.”
When Yong Soo Chul answered, Do Wook became curious what that ‘request’ was.
“We’re about to go have dinner, come with us Mr. PD,”
Jung Yoon Ki said to PD Yong Soo Chul as the leader. Yong Soo Chul shook his head.
“No. I have to get going. Your performance yesterday was truly the best. I came because I really wanted to tell you that.”
Yong Soo Chul’s praise made the members smile.
“I’m proud to see KK progressing further and further.”
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“What do you mean all thanks to me? It’s because you all worked hard.”
Ahn Hyung Seo, who had previously been too scared to properly talk to PD Yong Soo Chul, was casually having a conversation with him.
They were very happy to hear that the producer who worked on their debut album with them was proud of them.
It would have been nice if PD Yong Soo Chul was still producing KK’s albums, but KK already had a producer named Do Wook. Thanks to PD Yong Soo Chul moving to a different position, they had to work even harder, which probably is what allowed them to progress.
“Well, hope I’ll see you guys around. I’ll get going now.”
“Ok.”
PD Yong Soo Chul said goodbye and left. On his way out, he faced Do Wook and specially gave him a pat on the shoulder.
Do Wook had always been special to PD Yong Soo Chul.
“But what brings you…?”
As he saw PD Yong Soo Chul out, Do Wook privately asked him. PD Yong Soo Chul grinned and said he’d find out soon.
“Do Wook. I look forward to working with you.”
His words only made Do Wook’s curiosity grow.
After the quick visit from PD Yong Soo Chul, the KK members had dinner by themselves.
There were quite a few people who recognized them now and there were a lot of fans even when they just stepped out of the company building, so they had to eat in a separately prepared group area even when they went to the family restaurant by the company building.
Instead of Manager Oh Baek, who was out of the office, Gu Chul Min had to manage the members.
They ordered a steak for each person for a total of 7 orders, 3 orders of pasta, and 2 orders of salad. Along with an order of french fries topped with a lot of cheese, the group table was full to the brim.
“…is it ok if we eat all this?”
Suk Ji Hoon, who had already finished the soup that came out as an appetizer, asked as he looked blankly at all the dishes on the table.
“Eat up, eat up. Don’t worry, man,”
Jung Yoon Ki replied as if it were no big deal.
“Yeah. You have to eat when you can. It’s ok if you eat like this for one day. Reward Day!”
Ahn Hyung Seo yelled.
They weren’t being as strict about controlling the diet as when they were preparing for an album, but they still had award show performances one after another and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say the members had to take care of their bodies almost 365 days a year.
However, there was no way they could survive on just eating chicken breast every day. Ahn Hyung Seo’s argument was that they had to have days like this once in a while.
Of course, even Manager Oh Baek Ho and the trainer knew that it was ridiculous to restrict food 365 days a year.
In that regard, before activities started or when it was their inactive period, the rules were relaxed to a certain degree and they took care of their bodies through exercise.
Still, this didn’t feel right. There was too much greasy food. Even on their way to the family restaurant, Gu Chul Min had planned on letting the members have steak only.
As Ahn Hyung Seo said, they worked very hard preparing for the award show performance until yesterday, so this was like a reward.
However, as soon as they grabbed the menu, the members ordered food like crazy and Gu Chul Min had no means of stopping them by himself.
He looked at Do Wook, who had always helped him with the members when this kind of thing happened, but even Do Wook pretended not to see him.
Gu Chul Min had been in charge of KK for a much shorter time than Manager Oh Baek Ho had. He was a newcomer amongst newcomers who hadn’t been in charge of a celebrity before, but there was one thing he knew for certain.
It was that KK had a good personality incomparable to other groups, and had great teamwork.
Even though they each had their unique characteristics, they got along well. In fact, because they were different, they made up for what each other lacked. Even Gu Chul Min could see that.
And among them, Do Wook had such an upright personality that it left people speechless.
Do Wook’s skills were so perfect that he almost seemed flawless. One reason there was no discord even though one member was outclassing them was because the other members didn’t have a mean side, but also because Do Wook himself had not once been arrogant about that.
Furthermore, when their packed schedules made the other members exhausted, irritable, and go off the path a little, Do Wook was unshaken and endured it, which made the other members unable to act out.
It was like how iron is pulled along by a magnet.
Gu Chul Min realized that fact soon after he started managing KK.
Because of that, if they had to make a decision in an unexpected situation and Manager Oh Baek Ho wasn’t around, he would follow Do Wook’s decision.
It was the best he could do as a new manager who still had difficulty making executive decisions. And for the most part, it was always the right answer.
“I’ll keep it a secret from the manager. Relax and eat.”
Gu Chul Min felt that if Do Wook wanted to eat comfortably for today, he should be allowed to.
After Gu Chul Min said that, the members, who planned on eating comfortably anyways, ate even more comfortably and went as far as undoing their pants zipper.
Do Wook was human too. For today, he scarfed down the pasta, which was full of carbs.
The members even devoured the cake that was served as dessert after the meal. Park Tae Hyung and Do Wook, who didn’t like sweets, put down their forks and were on their cell phones.
[Sunbae, are you resting well?]
[Of course, I’m resting well! Everyone’s been going on and on about how great yesterday was! Haha. The company is also excited since the response was good, haha. I’m totally getting overshadowed by you, haha. Let’s perform together again sometime.]
[It’s an honor, haha. I’d absolutely like to meet with you again. Thank you.]
After the award show was over yesterday, Do Wook was preoccupied trying to avoid fans while escaping from the award show venue that had gone wild as an aftermath of the performance.
He felt bad that he didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to Lee Jin Ri because of that, so he sent her a text.
Lee Jin Ri’s words made Do Wook smile a little.
Lee Jin Ri and Do Wook’s name was still on the trending list. A video of KK’s sharp group performance was also uploaded on the community site.
The members were about to get up from their seats, patting their full bellies.
The employee who had been their server approached them.
“Excuse me…”
It was something that happened all the time when they went to a restaurant. Gu Chul Min, who had realized immediately that the employee wanted an autograph, frowned.
It was hard to eat properly when they ate out because other customers there asked for autographs. Employees at least asked for autographs before or after they ate.
They couldn’t accommodate every person every time, so whenever possible, Manager Oh Baek Ho or Gu Chul Min stopped them.
However, the members were in an extraordinarily good mood today. The thrill from all the cheers they received yesterday hadn’t died down yet.
Excited, Ahn Hyung Seo asked before the employee even asked,
“An autograph?”
“Ah yes! Yes. May I ask you for one?”
When even Jung Yoon Ki, who was usually the most conservative about autograph requests, nodded his head, the employee excitedly held out the pen and paper she had been holding.
It was going to be posted at the restaurant. All six of their autographs were packed onto one paper.
As she was getting Do Wook’s autograph as the last one, the employee said shyly,
“Do Wook. I’m such a big fan.”
“Ah, Thank you.”
When Do Wook smiled sweetly and answered, the employee’s face became bright red. Flustered, her hand that was holding the paper was trembling.
“You’re…you’re….you’re so sexy!”
The employee’s face looked like it was about to explode when she said that. The employee left, walking backwards and thanking them repeatedly.
He could definitely see that the impact from yesterday’s award show performance was strong.
He had heard “you’re cool” and “you’re handsome” many times, but it was pretty much the first time he directly heard the compliment that he’s sexy.
‘It’s a good thing to be able to broaden one’s image.’
Do Wook got up with the other members as he thought that.
***
A few days later, Do Wook had a meeting with album production team leader Shim Joon.
“Oh, Do Wook. You’re here.”
Team Leader Shim Joon seemed extremely tired.
Of course it was a team that was always busy doing preliminary research and studying trends in preparation for the next album, but right now wasn’t actually a very busy period, since they weren’t in the middle of an album production in full swing.
“Are you ok, sir? You look…”
“Is this what they call a happy dilemma?”
“Sorry?”
“Yaaaaaaawn―”
Shim Joon Team Leader yawned.
There were lots of drinking engagements over the holidays anyways for both business and personal reasons, but lately there were so many that it was too much even for Team Leader Shim Joon, who liked drinking, to handle.
It was thanks to KK’s success.
The industry was overflowing with people who wanted to do whatever they could to work with KK, and the number of people who reached out to Team Leader Shim Joon doubled compared to last year.
He often had to drink in the process of turning them down carefully in a way that wouldn’t hurt their feelings, since you never knew what would happen in the future.
Do Wook had a slightly pitying expression when Team Leader Shim Joon was drinking until dawn yesterday too because of that.
“Maybe you should at least drink a hangover cure drink?”
“I did, I did.”
Team Leader Shim Joon replied as he shook an empty bottle of ‘Dawn 500’,
“I called you because among the people who want to work with you, one of them is PD Brave Only Child.”
“Sorry? Ah…”
Do Wook nodded his head, recalling when they recently met up at the rehearsal hall.
“Did he say he’ll produce for us again?”
“No. There’s no way he would when he’s completely independent now and even making a production company.”
“Then…”
Team Leader Shim Joon was one of the people who thought PD Yong Soo Chul left at the right time. Looking back, it was true result-wise.
“Honestly, if he had left earlier I might have felt sad. haha.”
Explaining further, Team Leader Shim Joon got to the point.
“That girl group ‘One Minute’ that PD Yong Soo Chul is raising.”
“Yes.”
“They want to work on a project with you.”
“What project…?”
“They plan on having one of the girls in the group go solo, and he wants to do the production with you. Since the results were really great when you guys worked together before…I’m telling you because I don’t think this is something the company should decide, since it’s a request that came in specifically to you.”
Do Wook thought it over. If it was a member from One Minute that was trying to go solo, it was easy to know who it was. Furthermore, they’d have a lot of success as a solo artist.
Do Wook thought quickly. Then he shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”
“Hmm?”
“I think it’d be better to turn it down. For now.”
—