Chapter 63 : Concert session (2)

The official SNS, YouTube channel, and even the ‘White Room’ YouTube channel. ‘Group Sound’ had quite a few communication channels.

Except for the fact that they weren’t really updated, except for the White Room channel.

Twitter (I felt a bit hesitant to call it X) only had a few tweets after its creation and then stopped.

The official YouTube channel was only created.

Ha Su-yeon’s personal channel, White Room, didn’t feature any content related to the group sound at all.

‘Don’t these kids have any intention of promoting themselves?’

That’s what A-yoon thought.

The bands she had seen performing for the past few months would continue to promote themselves after the performances, or engage in social activities with the audience to appeal to the band.

In comparison, Group Sound, although they performed frequently… after the performance, they would just say, “Thank you. Have a nice day,” give a few autographs, take some pictures, and then leave, giving the impression that they didn’t care about promotion at all.

As Jeong A-yoon, who defined herself as the number one fan of Group Sound, it was an unbearable situation that she couldn’t just ignore.

So, A-yoon took action.

She created a Twitter account called ‘Group Sound Social Club’ and a cafe under the name ‘Group Sound Unofficial Fan Club’, and posted various things.

After continuing those activities, she reached the point where quite a few people had gathered.

[Does anyone know what happened to the Band Pioneer situation?]

The online competition went so well that I went to promote and vote, but Group Sound wasn’t on the voting list.

I don’t know what happened, can someone explain? 

-I contacted the organizer and they said they withdrew.

 Huh?? Why? They only said it was for personal reasons  They don’t want to tell me.

[Looking at the Top 6 online competition this time]

To be frank, there was a huge difference between our band and the other bands.

If they hadn’t withdrawn voluntarily, they would have almost certainly won, so why did they withdraw voluntarily?;;;

I wonder why they withdrew;

Has anyone asked the band?

 They don’t usually use SNS, and there haven’t been any recent uploads/lives on their personal channel, and they’re not performing until next week;;

Oh no, could something have happened?

I made a protest call and even talked to a judge, but they said they couldn’t tell me it was for personal reasons; they said the band didn’t want to reveal it. 

Most of the posts on the fan cafe were about ‘being frustrated because they couldn’t know the situation’.

There were also posts like ‘Does the cafe manager perhaps know?’, but if A-yoon knew, she would have told them, she wouldn’t have just kept it to herself.

A-yoon looked up some related videos out of frustration, hoping that something might be written in the comments.

While searching through YouTube videos, she saw a comment.

-Ha Soo-yeon from Hanseung High School was a famous school bully in Jongno-gu  I guess that’s why they withdrew.

“School bully…?”

A-yoon thought of the leader, Ha Su-yeon’s face.

Could she really be a school bully? She’s pretty, but she doesn’t even wear makeup.

If you were to judge by appearance alone, the bassist,  Iseo, would be more suited to being a school bully than Ha Su-yeon.

She wears flashy makeup and is big.

Isn’t that the kind of vibe?

But A-yoon thought that the hypothesis itself was quite plausible.

Of course, she didn’t want to believe it.

Her first favorite group being a school bully band was crazy.

The result of searching the internet with that thought was a bit bleak.

There were posts that made it clear that at least in the past, she ‘played around’ a bit.

‘But there might not be any problems now, right? She might have turned over a new leaf.’

Of course, that possibility was quite slim considering past cases of school bullying, but A-yoon ignored those cases with overflowing affection and searched the internet.

And when she came to her senses, she was in front of Hanseung High School.

While getting wrinkled up while approaching teenagers with the strongest spirits in the world, …

“Why are you looking for Ha Su-yeon ?”

The person she met was a girl who called herself ‘Park Da-in’.

“Let’s talk while taking a break. Gather around.”

At Su-yeon’s words, Iseo and the others sat huddled around the table.

However, Ha Su-yeon went to her bag and rummaged around, then took out some egg tarts and desserts and laid them out.

“Wow! What is this?”

“I bought it for you guys to eat. It’s from some famous cafe, but the line was too long.”

Delicious-looking desserts were laid out, and Iseo licked her lips.

But there were no desserts in front of Ha Su-yeon .

Iseo offered Ha Su-yeon a snack to eat, but Ha Su-yeon shook her head.

“You guys eat a lot.”

“No, but…”

“No, I’m really okay. And listen while you eat. I think we can definitely practice enough within the deadline. It’s a vocal-focused song from the start, and not a song that focuses on performance.”

‘Certainly, there weren’t any difficult songs.’

Iseo thought while chewing on an egg tart.

Ju-hyun was a ballad singer who could put her new song in the top ranks of Melon even in this era of massive digital music sales.

As such, she had a prejudice that the song would be very difficult or hard to master, but it was completely different.

It felt like all the elements were thoroughly designed to assist the vocals.

There are a lot of sound effects and things like that, so it might be a little difficult for a regular band, but we have a keyboard, so it’s definitely possible.

I hope Hyun-ah will do a good job… we’ll do more arrangement, and if there are parts that we can’t do, we’ll have to call other session members to solve it.

“Then is that it?”

“Well.”

At Iseo’s question, Su-yeon twisted her hair slightly. Was there a problem?

“If you just think about it normally, we can just keep practicing as is.

But from the nuance of what they’re saying, it seems like that won’t be enough, and they won’t accept us as a session.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“Looking at the expression they had when they were talking to us, and listening to other things, it seems like they don’t like the fact that we’re involved, rather than being annoyed that the work is increasing.”

Iseo thought that Su-yeon’s concerns were a bit excessive.

Could it really be that far? But then again, the fact that she was lecturing us at the end, saying things like, “We have to leave it in writing,” made her wonder if that was really their intention.

“Then what do we do?”

The beginning of this was when we wondered if we should do the OST jazz session for this.

From the idea of ​​being a session at the concert, it feels like it wouldn’t be bad to have the entire session? But the working level doesn’t like it.

I see.

Iseo glanced at Ha Su-yeon ‘s face, which was worried.

So, it wasn’t a request from that side.

Su-yeon worked hard to get this job herself.

She felt a little touched.

Ha Su-yeon brought in this project for us despite being labeled as a bully, or rather, not labeled as a bully.

Anyway, even though she was the person involved.

Without thinking, we were just slumped over our previous failures, playing our instruments without motivation, thinking, ‘If a job comes in, we just have to do it.’

After thinking that, Iseo decided to say anything for now.

To brighten the slightly depressed atmosphere and revive the band’s motivation.

“I! I have an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Well, it’s not specific… but what if we go beyond simply being a session and make them think that if they work with us, they will be a hit no matter what? The feeling that there’s no one else who can do this, that kind of feeling.”

Honestly, it was a word I blurted out without much deep thought.

Just vaguely, a story that anyone can tell.

But Su-yeon seemed to get a hint from that story and was lost in thought for a moment…

“Shall we change the genre once?”

She muttered like that slightly.

“Ju-hyun-nim. Are you going to use those kids as a session?”

“Well, I guess I have to use them because the director told me to. I also wanted to try using a band sound at least once, and they said I don’t have to use them for every concert, just the Seoul concert.”

At Ju-hyun’s words, the employee’s expression hardened slightly.

Ju-hyun smiled at the employee instead of answering, and told them to go to work.

‘I’m tired…’

That employee was also someone who had worked with Ju-hyun for a long time.

To be exact, most of the people who worked with Ju-hyun had worked with her for more than five years.

As such, they were quick and clean with their work, and most of the concerts and albums were made perfectly for Ju-hyun.

But as such, she also felt like she was too stagnant.

‘This time is the same.’

Of course, they would inevitably be negative because their work routine was broken.

If they thought that the work that had been well maintained for several years, with schedules fitting perfectly, would be distorted because of the kids who suddenly came in, Ju-hyun would also feel a bit unpleasant.

But the staff were rejecting the band kids more than that displeasure.

They deliberately said things like, “I don’t think they’re good,” or “Where are there concerts that use bands these days? It’s just a passing trend…” to Ju-hyun.

‘It’s too stagnant.’

Ju-hyun recalled the reputation that her team had within the company.

That they play well among themselves but new people can never adapt.

When she first heard that story, she couldn’t understand it… but after seeing this, she felt like she understood it a bit.

“You can go that way.”

While she was lost in thought, a blunt voice came from the opposite hallway.

And the sound of tapping footsteps. It seemed like the kids doing the band had arrived.

‘The song was really good…’

Ju-hyun recalled the OST song she had received from those kids, [Before the Meeting Ends].

A sticky, ticklish, and slightly tense jazz-style band song.

It was quite a fresh stimulus for Ju-hyun, who had only sung ballads every day.

Other than that song, the other songs would be the same as the previous songs.

After all, they came as a session band. He felt a slight regret and entered the practice room.

“This is it.”

After the song performance, a very faint applause was heard. Ju-hyun thought, ‘Oh no…’ and clapped loudly. Then the applause came in.

“It’s okay. You did well. It’s definitely a band song, so it feels different from just MR.”

“So, it might not fit our concert environment right now. I know the band members worked hard, but…”

The stage manager suddenly interrupted the words that Ju-hyun took out with the intention of praising and turned them in a strange direction.

Receiving those words, several employees made noises that Ju-hyun could hear, such as “Oh, I don’t think so,” or “Is there a need to change this? The previous one seems better.”

“No, let’s think in a positive direction. We keep doing MR. It might be nice to change it to a band?”

“Our environment isn’t like that, Ju-hyun-nim. Right now, our environment is optimized for MR. If a band comes in, the settings will all change, but it doesn’t seem like it will get better because of that.”

That’s right.

‘Don’t they want to work?’

He felt something like that.

Just didn’t want to increase the work? What’s the point of doing better than before? He felt the intention of wanting to stay where they are.

Of course, his concert team was improving their work every year.

In many areas, such as video and stage effects.

But that was only a development in the direction they wanted.

For these people, the band felt like it was changing the environment they were comfortable with.

Ju-hyun sighed.

There was no reason for Ju-hyun to push them when they were so opposed.

Of course, the singer has the right to make decisions about performances and other things.

But Ju-hyun had no reason to side with those band kids, even at the expense of alienating the staff.

Well, I’ll just get scolded by the director.

I’m the main product anyway, how much would they scold me even if they do…

Ju-hyun, who was about to open her mouth to say sorry, was blocked by one action.

A hand raised at a perfect timing.

“Please listen to one song, and then decide.”

Su-yeon said that and started strumming another guitar next to her.

A melody I’ve heard somewhere, but a clearly different performance.

A mournful performance that felt much lower than the melodic and gloomy ballads that Ju-hyun mainly used…