Chapter 27: Did He Seriously Just Read That?

“In all honesty, though… hm, I really have my doubts about whether the public will actually like this song.”

Live long, forever

Like the Ten Symbols of Longevity

These weren’t words that should come from the person who wrote those lyrics.

Yet the CEO discussed public appeal with a fairly shameless face.

“Which part, exactly?”

“Well… um, how should I put it, the lyrics are way too cliché.”

He was completely overlooking the fact that lyrics excessively defying common sense were far more problematic.

When Woohyung wore an expression that showed he didn’t agree in the slightest, the CEO hurriedly scrambled to provide evidence for his claim.

“Emotion. Your song lacks the emotion of love. Have you never dated anyone before?”

“It’s not like only dead people get to be undertakers.”

“Wait, if you write that into a lyric just now, I think it’d be pretty good? Hold on. You just awakened my creative soul.”

Woohyung stared displeasantly as the CEO busily scribbled notes into his notepad.

At this rate, the title of their next album was going to end up being Undertaker.

“You promised last time. You said you’d leave the next album’s title track up to me.”

“I did, but I’m telling you, a few songs came out that are genuinely good enough to be title tracks.”

The Eternitys had cried while streaming even Ten Symbols of Longevity, and that had apparently turned out to be quite lucrative.

Having received a satisfying royalty payout thanks to the trickle-down effect, the CEO was desperately eager to make his own song the title track no matter what.

“Then let’s do this.”

Up until Woohyung debuted, the debut lineup had changed four times.

Because Woohyung’s absolute goal was to debut no matter what, he hadn’t raised any objections in the beginning no matter how terrible the songs were.

He had compromised on the first album’s title track like that, only for things to turn out like this, and he was absolutely not going to let it happen a second time.

If he was careless, 4ever could end up stuck with a frame of being a group whose title tracks were guaranteed skips.

“A blind test.”

Unless someone had bizarrely unique tastes, Woohyung believed anyone would naturally choose his song.

After seeing the follow-up track he personally composed and wrote become a massive hit, he had gained even more confidence in his own abilities.

“How do I know you won’t play it for the members in advance?”

“How do I know whether you’ll play yours for the other staff members in advance, CEO?”

“Hm… Then it’d just end up a tie anyway.”

That was right.

Excluding the CEO, this trashy small agency Q2P had fewer employees than the number of members in 4ever.

“Sigh~ Woohyung-ah, if you pulled this in any other company, you would have been fired already.”

“That’s why I came here.”

Having built up a bit of seniority by now, Woohyung didn’t back down against the CEO.

Faced with Woohyung’s stubbornness, the CEO eventually put forward a compromise proposal.

“Fine. I’m confident too. Instead, bring me three more full songs within a week.”

“I only played you the chorus just now, though?”

“What good is only having a good middle? A person needs to have a good beginning and a good end. Besides, does an album only feature one single track? Are you that reluctant to put them in as b-sides?”

He wished the CEO would ask those questions to himself, but the CEO was solely focused on schemes to push Woohyung’s song out of the title spot.

He had long since completely forgotten about Ten Symbols of Longevity, which had been a mess from start to finish.

“Considering that, our debut album only had three songs, though. And one of them was an inst.”

“That’s why so many opinions came in saying it was a shame, so aren’t I trying to include a lot of b-sides this time? Even if it’s not as many as a full-length album.”

“Anyway, so if I bring three songs, we’re deciding the title track through a blind test in a week, right?”

“Yeah.”

Woohyung thought about the unreleased tracks stored on his laptop.

If he polished those and submitted them, it didn’t seem entirely impossible.

“By the way, that guy Yoo Jemin. He said he needed to post a birthday image for Eunhan, so I laid out Photoshop yesterday and worked really hard to make one for him, you know? But he took one look at it, said he didn’t like it, and said he’d make it himself.”

This company didn’t even have a design team.

In that case, they should have outsourced it, but because even that felt like a waste of money, the CEO tried to resolve it internally.

That was precisely why the album cover for Ten Symbols of Longevity had looked like complete trash.

If there was one saving grace, it was that he hadn’t used assets that infringed on copyright.

He had been criticized and asked if he drew it in MS Paint, but seeing how he mentioned installing Photoshop yesterday, he really must have edited it in MS Paint before.

“Well… looking at what he made, he designed it pretty nicely? That Jemin kid might actually be useful moving forward.”

The CEO was simply grinning at the thought of cutting labor costs.

He looked ready to slap a flashy business card labeled ‘Album Visual Director’ on Jemin and unload the work onto him.

“Anyway, did you do anything for Eunhan’s birthday?”

“We decided to do a live stream with the members.”

“Really? Then that’s fine.”

The CEO was coolly indifferent toward anything that didn’t bring in money.

Jemin and Eunhan put on masks and sunglasses, pulling their caps down low.

Even with all that, it was blatantly obvious they were celebrities.

It couldn’t be helped.

Jemin volunteered as the photographer to take proof photos for Eunhan in front of his subway birthday ad.

Even though they quickly went and returned during the crack of dawn when there were no people around, sightings immediately poured in.

RemoteHanJemmer @nearbyhanjem

Omg I just saw HanJem…

Taking proof photos in front of Eunhan’s birthday ad.

I could only take a photo of their backs, but they are literally a real couple.

│

HanJemFriend @imhanjemfriend

Ah crazy, that’s right in front of my house.

Without stopping there, Jemin even gathered all the gifts that came in as birthday support in one place, had Eunhan sit in the middle, and took photos of him.

If it were another agency, the staff would have done it, but this was Q2P.

[From. Eunhan]

Eternity~ Thank you so much!

It was the happiest birthday ever~

See you later at the 6 PM fan live!

Photo by Jemin-hyung!

Eunhan simply seemed in a great mood because he received so many presents, but the people who shipped Eunhan X Jemin were entirely fixated on that very last line.

HanDogJemRabbit @handog_jembit_4ever

Is it my birthday instead of Seo Eunhan’s birthday?

List of gifts HanJemmers received today:

HanJem birthday SNS post

HanJem two-shot selfie

HanJem subway ad sighting

HanJem photo by Jemin

I feel like I’m going to die of happiness.

Retweets: 3,157 | Quotes: 103 | Likes: 4,102

While he was spending such a busy day for Eunhan’s birthday, what was Woohyung doing?

Thinking about that put Jemin in a bad mood.

The fan live was at 6 PM, and it was currently 5:30 PM.

Even now, Woohyung had still not posted a birthday message for Eunhan on SNS.

“Eunhan is so lucky~ Can’t I change my birthday to tomorrow?”

“James-hyung! I think that’ll only be possible if you’re reborn tomorrow!”

Everyone was frantically busy preparing for Eunhan’s birthday fan live.

James was hanging balloons in the background, and Yunbin was using his tall height to secure a banner.

Even the banner had been ordered by Jemin.

It had a design similar to the birthday image, featuring a picture of Eunhan’s kindergarten days obtained by contacting Eunhan’s mother directly, along with the birthday date and a message written on it.

“Oh~ Woohyung~ I got scared thinking you weren’t coming~”

“Ayy, still, Woohyung-hyung isn’t the type of person to bail.”

They had rented a separate venue specifically to hold the fan live.

It was because there was no suitable space to do it at the agency.

However, when Woohyung didn’t show up until 30 minutes before the broadcast, Jemin left as many as 30 missed calls on his phone.

“Why aren’t you picking up your phone?”

“I was talking with the CEO.”

“You should have said something in advance. If you just do whatever you want like that, what are the people waiting supposed to do?”

Woohyung was already suffering from a headache due to the pressure of having to make songs, so listening to Jemin’s nagging made him annoyed.

“And why didn’t you post anything for Eunhan’s birthday?”

“I bought a gift.”

Woohyung answered while lifting a paper bag containing the gift.

Jemin frowned and spoke.

“Not something like that. You need to show something to the fans.”

“I’m going to give this during the fan live.”

“That’s not what I mean! Something more like what the fans want to see…”

“Ha.”

Yunbin, who was nicely decorating the cake over on the other side, sensed an unusual atmosphere and looked up.

“He’s not a kindergartener, so why do we have to cater to his birthday all day long?”

Wow.

What personality.

Jemin covered his mouth in disbelief.

He regretted ever harboring even a moment of gratitude toward this guy.

“As if no one else has ever been born before.”

“Wow. You speak exactly like your fan.”

So this was what people meant by ‘like idol, like fan’.

Jemin shook his head in amazement upon hearing Woohyung say the exact same thing a fan of Woohyung had said on SNS.

Woohyung didn’t seem to understand Jemin, who started throwing harsh words at him the moment he arrived on time.

“I told you I was busy.”

“Is breathing not busy for you? If you’re that busy, maybe you should just skip breathing too?”

“I really wish you’d speak like this when the cameras are rolling too.”

“Why should I? So I can end up hearing people say I act like Jung Woohyung?”

The members had assumed they would stop after a bit, but as Woohyung and Jemin’s voices grew louder and louder, they stepped in, startled.

“Please, stop!”

“Hyungs, I’m really okay!”

“Stop it!”

Standing at a distance where they could practically grab each other by the collar, the two glared at each other without backing down an inch.

“It’s a happy day, so if we do the fan live with feelings hurt like this, do you think the fans won’t notice?”

Yunbin said with a serious face.

“That’s right! Then what becomes of me on my birthday!”

“Hey, it’s almost time to start the fan live.”

James patted Woohyung and Jemin on their shoulders.

“Ha.”

Jemin turned his head and bumped past Woohyung’s shoulder as he walked by.

Amidst the razor-thin, tense atmosphere, the members sat in their designated seats for the fan live.

Since Eunhan was the star of the birthday, he sat in the middle, with Jemin sitting on Eunhan’s right and Woohyung on his left.

James and Yunbin sat on high chairs in the back row.

“Both of you, talk to me after the fan live ends.”

It felt like a homeroom teacher seeing students fighting in a classroom and saying, “Follow me to the faculty office after class!”

“That doesn’t mean you should make it obvious that you fought during the fan live, though.”

And so, the most uncomfortable birthday fan live in the world began.

“Hello Everlasting 4ever! We are 4ever~”

As the fan live started, waiting fans flooded in like an incoming tide.

In the early chat room, as if it were a fan event, comments were being spammed with [Happy brilliant 20th birthday Eunhan-ah].

“Woah~ So many fans are congratulating me. Thank you!”

The birthday fan live proceeded better than expected without any major hitches.

The atmosphere during the birthday present presentation wasn’t bad either.

Jemin gave him not only a gift but also a long letter he had written.

“Read it when you’re alone!”

“If I do that, the Eternitys will be curious, so that won’t do~ ‘To beloved Eunhan~’”

“Argh!”

“Ugh.”

Because Eunhan read it aloud in a mischievous voice, Jemin’s face turned beet red.

Woohyung stared at Jemin with a face asking if he was completely out of his mind for writing a note that openly expressed affection toward Eunhan.

No matter how closed-minded and prejudiced South Korea was, was this really okay?

“Shall we look at the chat room for a moment and communicate? If you have questions for Eunhan or anything you want to say, please speak up!”

[Eunhan-ah, today is my birthday too, please wish me a happy birthday]

[Say hello to ~~~ fans]

[Please call my name just once, it’s my wish]

[Can you end the fan live? I have to leave in 10 minutes so I won’t be able to watch]

[Omg~ Eunhan-ah, I think there’s something behind you!]

Unfortunately, because there were so many fans, there were also plenty of useless comments lacking substance.

As countless fans talked all at once, requests pushed by Eunhan’s core fandom like [Eunhan-ah, just once do a fan live wearing a school uniform] got completely swept away.

It was right at that moment when the members were looking at their phones, attempting to answer the fans’ chat.

“’What if Eunhan and Jemin dated?’ Ha, please don’t say stuff like this.”

Out of the endless chat messages, Jung Woohyung had managed to read that exact one out loud.