Park Cha-myung, intrigued by Yoo So-yeon’s words, headed to the elevator.
A short while later, he fully understood what she meant upon reaching the company lobby.
‘Damn, he’s ridiculously good-looking.’
Now it made sense why Yoo So-yeon had immediately assumed he was a celebrity.
Even if he were a terrible actor, he’d still be worth casting for an audition, and even if he were tone-deaf, he’d still be fit to be the center of a boy group.
‘But who is he? There’s no way I’d forget a face like that.’
The man, who seemed to be in his early twenties, was carefully observing different parts of the lobby.
His demeanor looked straight out of a commercial.
At that moment, the man’s gaze turned toward Park Cha-myung.
‘Whoa, shit.’
He was even more handsome up close.
The closer he got, the more he felt like an extra named “Park Nobody” standing next to a handsome lead character.
“Hello. I’m Park Cha-myung, a team leader at MOK Entertainment. You’re here to see me, right?”
“Oh, yes. Hello.”
“May I ask your name?”
“I’m Han Seon-ho.”
“Han Seon-ho Excuse me, but when did we meet? It’d be hard for me to forget someone this good-looking… Unless you were in zombie makeup or something?”
With 13 years of experience in the entertainment industry, Park Cha-myung casually addressed a sensitive topic, and Han Seon-ho responded by handing him a business card.
“This is your business card, right?”
“Hmm, that’s the old design.”
Since he’d changed his business cards after his promotion last September, this one was exactly a year old.
“When did I scout you, Han Seon-ho?”
“February of last year.”
“So, about a year and a half ago? Did your contract with your former agency just end?”
“No.”
“Then are you looking to transfer while still under contract? If you don’t mind me asking, how much time do you have left on your contract?”
At Park Cha-myung’s question, Han Seon-ho shook his head.
“I’ve never signed with an agency before.”
“What? Not even once?”
“No.”
The unexpected response made Park Cha-myung’s heart race.
His gaze was intense, his voice had great tone, and his speech was clear.
With Low Five flopping so badly, things had been tough, but this guy seemed like more than just a way to cover his losses—he could be an actual success.
“Han Seon-ho, since you’ve come to see me after two years, can I assume you’re interested in my proposal? Which field are you looking into?”
“Field?”
“Like acting.”
“No, I’m not here to become an actor.”
“Then singing? Vocals? Rap? Dance?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Han Seon-ho looked at Park Cha-myung and slowly opened his mouth.
“I want to become a producer, not a celebrity.”
“A producer…?”
It was an unexpected answer.
The term “producer” was used broadly in the entertainment industry.
TV station PDs were short for producers, A&R engineers were also called producers, and even in film and drama, many people were referred to as PDs.
However, Park Cha-myung quickly realized that, in this situation, there was only one type of producer Han Seon-ho could be.
A producer at the lowest rung of the entertainment industry.
A manager.
“Han Seon-ho, if you want to be a manager, you should be applying through job sites. You can’t just show up out of the blue like this—”
“No company hires someone who didn’t even graduate elementary school.”
“You didn’t graduate elementary school?”
“That’s right.”
A middle school dropout was rare enough, but an elementary school dropout in an era of compulsory education?
If what Han Seon-ho said was true, he would have never made it past the document screening to even get an interview.
‘I can understand the situation, but…’
What manager in the world gets hired through street scouting?
MOK Entertainment wasn’t a small company.
There were clear guidelines for hiring new employees.
Sensing Park Cha-myung’s skepticism, Han Seon-ho bowed politely and said,
“I’m not expecting to be treated the same as others from the start. If you just provide me with room and board for a year, I’ll work. After that, if you like me, we can continue working together. If not, I’ll leave. This isn’t a request I’m making lightly.”
“Hah, this is…”
Normally, no matter how much Han Seon-ho begged, this wouldn’t be possible.
However, Park Cha-myung couldn’t help but feel the timing was strangely fitting.
Two thoughts made him hesitate.
‘If I keep him around and let him see celebrities up close, he might develop admiration or ambition. It’d be a waste to let go of such a face.’
That was the first thought.
‘And since I was in a bind, maybe I could assign him as Haemi’s manager? His position seems like it’d fit well…’
That was the second thought.
‘Rather than rejecting him outright, should I try steering him toward becoming a trainee instead?’
After a moment of contemplation, Park Cha-myung made up his mind.
Holding an interview wasn’t that difficult, after all.
“Let’s go upstairs. We can’t have an interview in the lobby.”
MOK Entertainment’s 5th floor, Engineer Room.
Han Seon-ho waited there for Park Cha-myung.
Since the interview was impromptu, he had to wait until Park Cha-myung finished his scheduled tasks.
Waiting was usually tedious, but not for Han Seon-ho at that moment.
‘This is where music is made.’
His heart pounded.
Countless unfamiliar machines and instruments.
Just looking at them made his heart race.
Han Seon-ho wanted to create happiness through music.
Because happiness, unlike people, didn’t discriminate by gender, age, or wealth.
Because…
‘It found its way even to someone as unlucky as me.’
Han Seon-ho slowly approached a master keyboard that resembled a piano.
At that moment, the sound of a door lock being pressed rang out.
“Team Leader Park Cha-myung?”
He had thought it would take a few hours, but maybe Park Cha-myung had come back sooner than expected.
However, the person who walked in wasn’t Park Cha-myung.
A man in his mid-to-late twenties, wearing a black snapback cap backward.
With his head buried in his phone, the man only noticed Han Seon-ho belatedly.
“Who are you? You’re not supposed to be in here.”
“I’m waiting for Team Leader Park Cha-myung. He told me to wait here for him.”
“Team Leader Park? But why in the engineer room…”
“Team Leader said the meeting rooms are all in use and directed me here.”
At Han Seon-ho’s reply, Jeong Tae-myung, the youngest member of the A&R team, tilted his head.
It didn’t make sense that all the meeting rooms were in use at this hour.
However, Jeong Tae-myung soon realized the reason.
Since a team leader-level meeting was about to start regarding Hye-mi’s matter, it was natural to control the outsiders near the meeting rooms.
‘I don’t know who this is, but he’s really stunning.’
Although Jeong Tae-myung hadn’t been with MOK for long, he had seen most of the singers and actors from the company.
Still, he thought he’d never seen anyone this good-looking before.
“Hello. I’m Jeong Tae-myung from the Engineering team.”
“Ah, nice to meet you. I’m Han Seon-ho.”
“Your name really suits you. How old are you?”
Jeong Tae-myung started chatting with Han Seon-ho and showed him some interest.
To him, Han Seon-ho seemed like a ‘tree that would grow tall.’
Just being handsome wasn’t enough to become a star, but it certainly raised the chances.
So, there was no harm in making friends with someone like him early on.
Jeong Tae-myung wasn’t a shallow person, but most composers and engineers in the industry thought this way.
In today’s world, where album production standards were raised, and Song Camps or overseas outsourcing were trends, having connections with entertainers was a very important part of the job.
Han Seon-ho quickly caught on to Jeong Tae-myung’s overly friendly attitude.
If it was this obvious, it would have been a shame to ignore it.
“I’m older than you, so it’s okay to call me ‘hyung’ (older brother), right?”
After chatting for a while, Han Seon-ho suddenly asked, and Jeong Tae-myung smiled pleasantly.
“I don’t mind at all.”
“Then, you should speak casually too. By the way, are you busy right now?”
“Right now? I’m a bit busy, but not at the moment. Why?”
“Then, could you quickly show me this? I think I’ll be waiting for Team Leader Park for a while, so I want to do something in the meantime.”
Han Seon-ho pointed to the master keyboard connected to the main mixer.
“Ah, so you’re interested in composition?”
“Yes.”
“Well, these days, everyone is trying to go for the singer-songwriter image.”
Han Seon-ho noticed that Jeong Tae-myung thought he was an aspiring entertainer.
But he didn’t correct the misunderstanding.
He hadn’t lied; he simply ignored it.
“Hmm, well, if you want to learn properly, it would take a few months just to cover the basics. But if you’re just passing time, there are some fun things to try. Just wait a second.”
With that, Jeong Tae-myung plugged a security USB into the computer.
Then, he started backing up some songs onto the USB.
“I’ve got work to do, too.”
Jeong Tae-myung’s job was to pass on potential single tracks from the failed debut album of Low Five to the A&R team.
After just one month of debut, Low Five had suspended album activities.
Instead, they were preparing for single songs.
Though they would continue activities until the single recording was done for continuity’s sake, the debut album had already been effectively “dead.”
‘Ugh, rich kids are different.’
If Low Five had been an average debut group, they would have been running around trying to make ends meet through small gigs.
But that wasn’t the case for Low Five.
The leader of Low Five, AT, was the son of Kim Dong-han, the CEO of MOK Entertainment.
As soon as Low Five’s debut album was declared unsalvageable, they immediately began preparing for a single.
“Is this boring?”
“No.”
“Wait a minute. I’m almost done.”
After a short while, Jeong Tae-myung finished organizing all the candidate songs on the USB.
He carefully stored the USB and loaded the last song he had backed up, then spoke.
“This is a song made by the leader of Low Five, AT. It’s pretty boring, but considering he made it all by himself, it’s not bad to listen to.”
Most idols referred to as “composer idols” were actually top liners, who contributed ideas and sources rather than directly composing.
But AT, the leader of Low Five, wasn’t a top liner.
He had decent composing skills, learned from his father, the CEO of the agency.
However, as Jeong Tae-myung had said, it was a bit too dull to be presented to the public.
It had the basics, but there was no potential for a hit.
That’s why Jeong Tae-myung had brought AT’s song.
“Now, if you look at the screen here, you can see the session blocks that make up the song, right? Each block has one instrument in it. Here’s the drums, here’s the bass, here’s the guitar… Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Now I’m going to mute one by one.”
When Jeong Tae-myung muted the drum session, the beat played without the drum sound.
Similarly, when he muted the bass, the beat played without the bass.
“Solo is the opposite of mute. If you just want to hear the drums, select the drum session and press the S button here. Got it?”
Using the solo function, Jeong Tae-myung played each session one by one, making Han Seon-ho quickly grasp the process of how the 12 sessions came together to form a song.
“Now, the fun part for you is giving this song the ‘killing source.’”
“Killing source?”
“Yeah. It’s like what the old composers used to call ‘Yama-seunda’ (a defining element), the element that makes it a killer track.”
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