Idol Hides His Military Service

“You worked hard.” 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“Thank you.”

An empty conference room.

It was so quiet it was hard to believe a meeting had just taken place here that would determine KJ Entertainment’s future going forward.

Clink!

With the representatives from each agency who had attended today’s meeting all gone, the only ones left in the conference room were Raon and Sanghyeok, tilting canned coffee like shot glasses and toasting.

With the sound of the cans clinking together, they sent sweet coffee celebrating their victory down their throats.

“It’s a miracle.”

Iam’s full-group contract renewal, which they had thought impossible.

A moment when the groundwork had finally been laid for the group to promote fully without having to feel anxious anymore about that one-year time limit, so for Sanghyeok the CEO and Raon the producer, it was the best possible outcome.

“I was seriously shocked! Do you know how stunned I was when that nasty CEO Park Sangmun walked out of the conference room without being able to say a word?”

“It was thanks to Ms. Shinyu. With issues like that, it really comes down to how much evidence the person involved has to prove it. Since Ms. Shinyu had recorded everything so meticulously, it was resolved easily.”

“The timing was good. You deliberately waited until the other agencies left, right?”

At Raon’s question, Sanghyeok silently nodded.

‘See, this proves it. He’s got a sly side to him.’

Raon knew that even if Sanghyeok usually looked dry and expressionless, when it came to work, he had a quietly sly side to him.

Even in the contract renewal meeting that had just happened, Sanghyeok had deliberately left only the three heavyweight agencies behind and negotiated with them separately.

With UI Entertainment, he’d made an offer that was practically a threat.

With Logic Entertainment, he’d offered compensation they could be satisfied with.

Since saying those things in front of the agencies that had already agreed and left might have either frightened them or made them resentful, the way Sanghyeok waited for the right timing and handled everything was, in Raon’s eyes, perfect.

‘And I almost jumped in without even realizing it.’

Raon, who had prepared materials with Sanghyeok all this time for today’s contract renewal, had nearly jumped in out of frustration at one point, wondering why Sanghyeok wasn’t immediately pulling out everything they had prepared and pressing the other side.

But Raon had trusted that Sanghyeok wasn’t holding back his cards for no reason, so Raon endured it.

If Raon hadn’t held back and had jumped in, today’s negotiations might have gone badly off course, so in the end, it had been the best possible judgment.

“But I still thought it was strange that Taesu oppa agreed to Ayeon’s renewal so easily.”

“That was only possible because it was CEO Park Taesu.”

“Huh?”

Still, if there was one question left, it was this: the other smaller agencies had agreed to the renewals because they understood that the benefit of staying in Iam was greater than clumsily launching a group of their own.

And in Logic’s case, it made sense that they agreed because they had been given compensation in the form of a future survival program.

But TSP had readily agreed to Ryu Ayeon’s renewal even though they hadn’t received any special compensation like Logic had.

“Even if someone is the company’s CEO, once a company gets as ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) large as TSP, normally that person can’t decide everything just by personal will.”

“That’s true.”

Even at SY, Raon’s former agency, there had been fierce conflict and power struggles between departments, and even Lee Seyoon, the CEO, had found it hard to decide the company’s affairs however he wanted.

Even in a case like Ryu Ayeon’s contract renewal, harsh as it might sound, Ayeon was still a company asset, so pushing through that renewal carelessly could have caused problems later.

“But CEO Park Taesu is famous for always taking the artist’s opinion into account, even in situations like that.”

“Right! Everyone knows Taesu oppa is a good person.”

“Not long ago, Ms. Ayeon told me about what happened at TSP. Apparently, TSP originally planned to debut Ms. Ayeon as a soloist.”

“They talked about something like that?”

“But Ms. Ayeon refused.”

“That kid’s crazy too! What company even debuts people solo these days?!”

Startled by the story that Ayeon had refused TSP’s solo offer, Raon raised Raon’s voice without realizing it.

And that made sense. In the current music industry, where idols were dominant, it was absolutely not easy to debut as a female soloist.

It wasn’t impossible, but the existing female solo singers were holding their ground so firmly that breaking through wasn’t easy.

So in that situation, TSP’s offer to debut Ryu Ayeon as a soloist was an incredible proposal for a rookie.

“I was surprised too. Honestly, I thought Ms. Ayeon might want solo activities. But···.”

-I realized it while promoting with Iam. Thinking I could do everything on my own was arrogance. If I’m given the chance, I want to reach the top here with the members first, and then do solo work after that.

After hearing what Ayeon had said to Sanghyeok, Raon finally understood what Ayeon had been thinking.

‘That’s admirable.’

The truth was, solo debut was something a lot of idol group members dreamed of, but at the same time, it was also a path that could destroy the group or lead the person into a slump.

The shortcomings in yourself that you never noticed while you were in a group.

Some people realized those and grew into solo artists, while others disappeared with only their flaws highlighted.

From Raon’s point of view, Ayeon was overflowing with the qualities of a solo artist, but there were still areas where she fell a little short, so it was right for her to take more time and prepare a little more.

But this was the kind of thing only a seasoned veteran,

‘To borrow Lee Sion’s expression, an old master like me, can say. It’s not the kind of conclusion a young kid like Ayeon reaches easily.’

After all, there had been countless juniors who hadn’t accepted Raon’s advice at the time, then later regretted it and said they should have listened back then.

Even Hyeryeong, one of the juniors Raon cared about, had brushed it off during G.G’s promotions no matter how much Raon told her to take things with more ease.

In that sense, it was remarkable that Ryu Ayeon had chosen Iam instead of rashly choosing solo activities, even without any particular advice.

Of course,

“Taesu oppa is seriously magnanimous.”

“I only took a gamble after hearing Ms. Ayeon’s story, so fortunately it worked.”

“Huh? You didn’t do it because you were sure?”

At Raon’s question, Sanghyeok shook his head and continued.

“I was confident I could persuade the other agencies, but TSP was the one exception. I had no choice but to rely on luck.”

He said he couldn’t give TSP what Logic wanted, and unlike UI, TSP had no weakness to exploit, so in the end, he’d simply taken a gamble based on the kind of person Park Taesu was.

“Still, now that we’ve gotten over the biggest obstacle, I guess we can finally breathe a little easier.”

“No way! Now we have to start preparing the members’ contract renewals right away, and then jump straight into getting the next album ready, so we’re about to get insanely busy.”

“Come to think of it, I left the album prep entirely in Producer Raon’s hands and haven’t really been paying attention. Is it going well?”

“I left it with Lucas, but I think we’re probably going to have to change it.”

“You mean scrap the original plan?”

“Yes. The truth is, I’d been preparing it thinking this would be the last album. But now it isn’t, so we need to prepare an album that announces a new beginning instead.”

Raon could feel Raon’s heart pounding at the thought of being able to make an album that announced not an ending, but a beginning.

Not just the production of a new album, but even the Japanese debut that would move forward as soon as the renewals were completed—there was a mountain of work to do.

For an ordinary office worker, it might have been stressful, but Raon was thrilled right now.

“When should we schedule the members’ contract renewal negotiations?”

“Well···there aren’t any urgent schedules for the time being, so I think we’ll have to look at dates and coordinate with them one by one.”

“That makes sense. Three Kingdoms is over, and we already shot all the urgent broadcast stuff, so now it’s basically just events and in-house content left. We should have some breathing room.”

A period of rest that had come to Iam for the first time in a while after running nonstop.

Since they had just had a vacation recently, Raon figured they were probably all gathered at the dorm, and found Raonself wondering what everyone might be doing.

***

“Blue corner!!! KJ Entertainment’s trueborn loyalist! KJ Entertainment’s faithful retainer! KJ Entertainment’s Artist No. 1, Lee Sion!!!”

“Wooooah!!! Go, Captain!”

“We believe in you, Sion unni!!!”

Swish swish!

Seeing me stride into the living room in style, wrapped in Lee Gahyeon’s beloved bathrobe and shadowboxing, Shinyu and Yunkyung cheered enthusiastically.

Thump.

Playing to Shinyu and Yunkyung’s cheers, I gave a thumbs-up toward Yuri, who was serving as today’s announcer.

‘That was an excellent entrance introduction.’

It didn’t matter why a Japanese person was able to give such a fluent introduction like that.

What mattered was that it had described me perfectly.

“Red corner!!! The assassin who crossed over from Logic! The one who brings ruin to KJ Entertainment! Seo Ryujin, whose pettiness has pierced the world!!!”

“Why is Ryujin’s introduction the only one that’s like that?!”

“Yuri, what did Lee Sion bribe you with?!”

After my introduction ended, the next thing I saw was Lee Gahyeon and Ryu Ayeon sending Yuri accusations of bias over the introduction that followed.

“It’s fine. I’ll prove it with skill.”

“If you try to prove it with skill, you’ll get wrecked.”

“I don’t lose to scrubs.”

And then, bursting in energetically between Ryu Ayeon and Lee Gahyeon, Seo Ryujin started wagging that wicked tongue at me.

“Scrub? You win by using cowardly dirty tricks every time, and you’re not even ashamed?”

“Who do you think has used more dirty tricks?”

“That would be Sion unni, actually!”

“Shh! Shinyu unni, now is not the time to be stating facts!”

Back during Agbaek, I don’t think Seo Ryujin’s tongue was this vicious, but lately the sharpness of the trash talk had been getting worse by the day.

It was enough for even loyal retainer Shinyu to get briefly swept along by that tongue and attack me.

“Before we begin today’s Iam dorm deep-cleaning showdown, please swear that the losing team will take care of the cleaning without complaint!”

“Okay. If we lose this match, Im Yunkyung, Geum Shinyu, and I will clean the entire dorm spotless without complaint.”

“If I lose, then me, Gahyeon unni, and Ryu Ayeon will accept the dorm deep cleaning.”

“Great! Best two out of three! The first match is team Yutnori!”

The first game we were playing today with the dorm deep cleaning on the line: Yutnori.

‘I can’t lose!’

The incident had started with the party we had yesterday.

After Seo Ryujin’s unexpected confession about the contract renewal issue tanked the mood in the dorm, I had no choice but to sacrifice myself and order delivery food on Seo Ryujin’s card to raise the atmosphere.

Chicken, pizza, and—

-Today of all days, I need food from my homeland!

-No!!! Sushi is too expensive!

-I want bossam!

-Then I want jokbal!

We ordered all kinds of delivery food, then got smacked in the back one by one by Seo Ryujin while we ate and hung out.

-Ugh···I’m stuffed.

-Cleaning is annoying, let’s do it tomorrow.

-Captain Im, now that you’ve made captain, your judgment has improved.

-Of course.

We ate, messed around, got tired, and ended up saying we’d just clean it up the next day before going to sleep.

So when we woke up and the dorm was a total disaster, it was, in a way, our own fault.

“Jiu unni stopped checking on the dorm lately, and it turned into a complete mess right away.”

“It couldn’t be helped! We’ve been way too busy lately preparing for the Three Kingdoms stage.”

“If Producer Raon sees this, Producer Raon’s going to try to kill us.”

“Won’t the CEO say something too? This house belongs to the company.”

At Yunkyung’s words, I nodded in agreement.

-Are you all children of darkness? If you’re just going to keep the curtains closed and stay buried in your sleeping bags all weekend, you’ll get sick! Everybody grab your blankets and get outside!

-Eek!

If you visited the barracks on a weekend when I was a soldier, you’d find that stale smell clogging your nose and a scene where the only light in the room came from the TV.

Who would believe that seeing our dorm made me think of that?

‘The fans would be horrified if they saw this.’

At least usually, Seo Ryujin forced the members onto a cleaning rotation, and every time our manager Jiu stopped by the dorm, Jiu would organize things a little, so it had still looked at least somewhat fit for human habitation.

But lately everyone had been too busy with schedules to pay proper attention to it, so it had gotten into worse shape than even my room back in the day, the one Lady Sukja used to call a pigsty.

-Aaaah!

I remembered Yunkyung shrieking in horror this morning when Yunkyung saw the fruit flies swarming around the food waste.

Fruit flies were just the kind of friends you ran into from time to time if you lived alone, but Yunkyung had clearly grown up pampered, so I guess meeting those friends for the first time had been a shock.

Anyway, everyone agreed that we couldn’t leave the dorm like this any longer, which was how this showdown with the dorm deep cleaning on the line came about.

Taking out the trash, cleaning every area of the dorm.

There was no option where the members split up that enormous amount of work, the kind of workload that sounded like it would eat up an entire day off just hearing about it.

Stuff like this was most fun when you lay on the couch and watched someone else do it.

So Seo Ryujin and I each selected teammates as representatives, and we decided to face off in a three-on-three match.

In Yuri’s case, we needed someone to referee, so Yuri had been made the tagalong judge.

“If three pieces come out first, you win, got it?”

“Hey, Seo. Less talking, more throwing.”

And so began the first game in the deep-cleaning showdown: Yutnori.

I had no idea why we even had it, but it was one of the dorm essentials we periodically used for things like meal bets and dishwashing bets.

‘If we’d gone with arm wrestling, I’d have won no matter what.’

Originally we had been going to settle it with arm wrestling, but—

-What kind of bullshit is that! Who do you think is going to let you pick something that favors you?

—we ran smack into Ryujin-scrub’s fierce opposition, so we had no choice but to switch to Yutnori.

“Geol!”

And so the game began with Seo Ryujin’s team going first after winning rock-paper-scissors.

“Captain! You’re confident, right?”

“Of course.”

Seo Ryujin’s little gang, chuckling and grinning because they got geol, not even knowing the future that was about to hit them.

For all you know, I was the magician of Yutnori known as Haandong Kaiji.

My golden right hand had crushed the other companies every holiday in my past life, winning the Yutnori matches held in the unit every single time.

Today’s match was already as good as decided.