“CEO, you know the lore itself isn’t the problem. The concept is. No matter what, you know we can’t keep going with the same vibe forever, so what are you doing, pulling this every single time?”
“I know. You think I’m doing this because I want these guys to flop? What am I supposed to do if this is my taste? If you don’t like it that bad, you wanna be the CEO?”
His face didn’t change at all—he was shameless.
Honestly, once CEO Kwon Daedo came out like this, from the staff’s perspective as people collecting a paycheck, there wasn’t much left to say.
“You said this time we’d match the song……. You said the song was good after you heard it.”
“The track was fine. That’s why I’m saying we should use a good track with an even better concept, right?”
“Then why did you tell us to release it as a special album! You said it was special, special! It’s not even an image we’re carrying long-term, it’s a one-and-done special!”
The staffer who’d kept his composure through the CEO’s nauseating repeated questions was starting to visibly boil over.
Well, he’d probably gone through hell pulling an all-nighter to prep the presentation, so it made sense.
“And look, look at it, okay? A sudden, hard image change? That might backfire, you know? People say they want an image change, but if it goes in a direction they didn’t expect, they get thrown off instead. Happens, doesn’t it.”
“It does…….”
“You don’t even have to answer, you know. This isn’t the first time.”
‘So he’s not just stubborn for the sake of being stubborn…? Weirdly, it’s not that, huh……?’
CEO Kwon Daedo wasn’t wrong, exactly. It was just that this wasn’t a thing you said in this situation.
If he wanted to, the staffer could’ve argued back, but he knew it would only turn into a pointless war of attrition, so he just went along with it.
‘If that’s what you were worried about, why did you lock in the title track first? This place is just as weird. …So is that why the song got scrapped last time.’
Watching it play out like this made him start thinking, just a little. Back then, he hadn’t stepped in at this point.
Not just him—he didn’t think anyone in Zero One had pushed back.
And that was how they ended up with a gloomy summer dirge exactly the way the CEO wanted.
‘This time, I should butt in.’
That insane Status Window. This would be a great time to pop up and tell me to say something, wouldn’t it?
He even tried spitting out a curse on purpose, slipping in a harsh consonant like maybe it’d react, but whether it knew what he was thinking or not, it didn’t respond unless the swear came from the heart.
Bastard.
If he didn’t want to Reset, it wasn’t just the members—something about the group’s overall activities would have to change, too……
That was the only way the group’s fate would change somehow.
And honestly, hoping the members would turn their lives around was less realistic than forcing a concept change right now, even if it took brute pressure.
Doing nothing and letting it slide like usual felt wrong.
He was even starting to have weird thoughts like, Is this why I couldn’t even die and ended up back here like this? Because I got dragged so hard? That told him everything.
And since Go Youngin’s bad feelings were usually right, it probably wasn’t meaningless, either.
‘Let’s just go for it. If we can’t change it starting now, we’re seriously screwed.’
There were only about two months left until the comeback date the agency had basically decided on, so if they scrapped it in the middle, time would obviously get insanely tight.
Usually they at least pretended to take the artist’s opinion into account, so if he opposed it here, they’d at least act like they were listening.
In the end, Go Youngin cut into the CEO and staffer’s endless back-and-forth.
“CEO.”
“Huh? Oh? Look who it is. Our leader! What brings you to me first for once?”
CEO Kwon Daedo looked at Go Youngin with a surprised expression, then spoke in a warm, overly friendly tone.
It was completely different from the guy who’d been stubbornly ranting about lore and whatever other nonsense a second ago.
‘Leader… god, it’s so awkward I could die.’
“I think it might be okay to try changing our image this time to match the track.”
‘Fuck. People hate that. I already lived through it, I’m telling you.’
His mouth was itching so bad he felt like he was going to lose it. Honestly, he felt like grabbing the guy by the collar and shaking him.
“You had complaints about the concept? Then you should’ve said something sooner. You didn’t say anything up to now, so I thought you guys all agreed with me.”
CEO Kwon Daedo swept his gaze across everyone in the conference room, then looked back at Go Youngin.
“You don’t?”
He was staring straight at him, but it didn’t look like he was offended. It was an ambiguous face that gave nothing away.
Go Youngin had expected the CEO to reject him or nag him, so this was a little unexpected.
‘This is nasty pressure……. This isn’t the reaction I expected.’
Had he not understood the CEO properly, either? Just as Go Youngin started feeling confused by the continued silence—
“All the members feel the same way as you?”
“Yeah?”
Fuck. Go Youngin froze on the spot at the sudden mention of the members.
He’d gotten so used to doing everything alone that he’d forgotten.
‘If you’re the leader, you’d normally talk it over with the members before you speak up in a moment like this……. I guess you don’t know unless you’ve done it.’
─Ding
[ Condition 101│A perfect idol ‘group’ is not made alone. ]
‘When I need you, you don’t show up, and now you pop out…….’
Go Youngin glared at the useless Status Window.
He had no idea why CEO Kwon Daedo was suddenly doing something he’d never done before—when did anyone ask him to do this?
And he couldn’t confidently say they all agreed when he had no clue how the members would react.
Cheon Sayun, who’d been looking at Go Youngin with a gaze that clearly said this was pretty unexpected, suddenly smiled like nothing had happened and looked away.
No matter how you sliced it, it meant he wasn’t going to help.
Same opinion, my ass. He hadn’t expected anything.
When Go Youngin couldn’t answer easily, CEO Kwon Daedo nodded like he’d expected that.
“Im Sebin. What about you.”
CEO Kwon Daedo even started pointing to the members one by one, like he figured Go Youngin would never find the answer in his life.
“Let’s do it the way we’ve been doing it.”
Im Sebin, who’d kept his eyes down and quietly stared at the paper the entire presentation, opened his mouth slowly.
Go Youngin hadn’t assumed he’d agree, but they really didn’t match from the start.
Even without him saying more, it was obvious he viewed a new change negatively.
At some point, Im Sebin had lifted his eyes and was looking right at Go Youngin—the reason this topic even came up.
Was he glaring at him…?
“I figured. Cheon Sayun, what about you.”
“We should go in the direction the company wants us to.”
Cheon Sayun smiled softly with that polite, annoying grin Go Youngin had just experienced earlier.
A slippery answer that hid his opinion while sounding like a nice, proper thing to say—so perfectly Cheon Sayun.
“As long as the track is fine, I don’t care.”
Pyo Jaeho answered on his own before his name was even called, and Kyeon Inwoo also declared neutrality, saying he’d go with the majority.
After hearing the members’ opinions, CEO Kwon Daedo asked Go Youngin again.
“So?”
One against, three neutral.
“And Go Youngin, which side are you choosing?”
So he was a neutral country.
First, he looked over the other three again, excluding Im Sebin, who was against it.
If there was anyone with the most potential here… Pyo Jaeho?
Just from what he’d said in the van, he seemed like the kind of person who put music first, no matter what.
Wouldn’t Pyo Jaeho dislike the CEO’s taste concept getting shoved into the music, too?
But Pyo Jaeho just sat there with his arms crossed, faintly frowning, and didn’t say anything.
Judging by his expression alone, he definitely looked dissatisfied. If only he knew what kind of personality the kid actually had, he could’ve at least made an educated guess.
‘Haa…….’
Right then, he made eye contact with Cheon Sayun sitting across from him.
Like he was trying to convey something, Cheon Sayun silently shaped words. Go Youngin mimicked his mouth, moving his lips.
‘Me.’
‘Want me to help?’
Want him to help?
No, he absolutely didn’t. He didn’t trust him, for one.
He’d been sitting still up until just now, then suddenly pulled this—suspicious as hell. Go Youngin shook his head and refused indirectly.
‘I’ll just say it myself. Even if I get help, I don’t even know if he’s thinking the same way I am or not.’
Go Youngin hoped he looked as calm as possible.
“I’m worried it’ll turn into the tail wagging the dog.”
“Right. Then we can just change the song, too. We originally planned the concept and image first and made the track after, so let’s do it the way we used to.”
“I’m not talking only about the song and concept. In the end, music has to be the main thing. The lore is secondary. It feels like up until now, Zero One has been getting dragged around by the lore too much.”
“Hm. Then should we just get rid of the lore entirely?”
‘Jesus, why are you so extreme?’
No matter how serious he was about the lore, he was still the CEO of an agency. There was no way a guy like that was stupid, so he probably understood what Go Youngin meant. So what the hell did he want to hear more of?
It wasn’t like skipping lore once meant they were throwing away the group’s identity, and it wasn’t like he was saying they should abandon everything—he just wanted to try a different genre for once.
“No. I’m not saying get rid of it entirely. I just want us to put more weight on the music now. In the end, we’re people who do music, so shouldn’t music come first? I think it’d be okay to try a new genre at least once.”
There was no way the working-level people here—including the CEO—didn’t already know what Go Youngin was saying.
They’d just kept their mouths shut because the CEO was excessively, obsessively immersed in the lore and stubborn as an ox.
“Who doesn’t know that? Everyone just does it because I tell them to. Not that—what’s the thing you actually want to say, Go Youngin.”
‘Is this some new kind of harassment or what? Are you seriously asking because you don’t know?’
Even looking at CEO Kwon Daedo’s face while he listened, it was obvious he knew everything and was doing this on purpose.
The guy was grinning way too hard—what was that about.
For a second, the grin annoyed him enough that he almost said, Forget it, but then he realized the Status Window would never let him off that easily.
[ Condition 101│A perfect idol ‘group’ is not made alone. ]
This bastard—at this point it felt like it only showed up when it wanted to.
“This time, I— no, I mean.”
It had become a fact only Go Youngin knew now, but CEO Kwon Daedo had a track record of flipping everything upside down purely for his personal taste.
Maybe that was why. The moment he tried to say it out loud, the words wouldn’t come easily.
“Yooou~? What is it? Pleeease, can we take out the lore?”
He was being blatantly snide. He’d almost said my music.
At this rate he wouldn’t die a natural death. No—he hadn’t even been able to die in the first place.
It was shitty.
“I want to try doing Zero One’s music.”
He hoped the excuse worked. He didn’t even know what else he was supposed to add anymore. Go Youngin wet his lips with his tongue.
‘Why am I nervous over something like this. Fuck…….’
Unlike the tense Go Youngin, Kwon Daedo was relaxed.
“So you mean you want to put your own story directly into the music. Something like that?”
‘Not exactly. It’s just because of Reset—I’m trying to go in a different direction than before.’
Still, it wasn’t completely wrong, so Go Youngin more or less agreed.
“Yeah…….”
“Hmm.”
He answered, but the reaction was weirdly lukewarm.
Truthfully, Go Youngin had been unconsciously thinking there was no way this would work.
But unexpectedly, Kwon Daedo backed down without a fight.
“Alright. Got it.”
No, what the hell. If he was going to do that, why did he throw such a fit? He wasn’t the type to give up this easily.
Before, he’d gone so far as to scrap the song and force the gloomy concept he wanted.
And nothing had even changed that much……? So why all of a sudden…….
Leaving the confused Go Youngin behind, CEO Kwon Daedo briefly fell into thought with a serious expression, then clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention.
“Okay. First, we need to have a quick internal meeting just among us, so have the manager take the kids out and let them rest for a bit.”
Go Youngin blinked. Suddenly?
“A… about an hour should do it.”
CEO Kwon Daedo spread both palms and wiggled them.
“Alright, then—dismissed for now!”
It was a fairly abrupt order to clear the room.