Colorize.
PLUTO's senior group, which put five-members-five-colors front and center and safely landed on the eventful third-generation girl group wave with distinctive, innocent looks backed by solid skills, and which was later counted as 'the company's pillar,' 'the miracle of small agencies,' and so on.
On top of that, all five members were outstandingly talented in various directions, so whenever they appeared anywhere—variety shows, radio, and so on—they tended to generate buzz.
Now that I'd regressed seven years, they'd be in roughly their fifth year.
Maybe because of schedules, only two of the members seemed to have come here today.
"Oh, hello, noona-nims!"
"Hyun's always full of energy."
"If I lost my energy, I'd be a corpse, wouldn't I!"
When Namgung Hyun, the most sociable in PLUTO, greeted them first, the other guys greeted Colorize in turn.
"I heard Yeon-gyu came back to the company. So it's true?"
"It just ended up that way."
"Welcome back. You don't know what a waste I thought it was when I heard a kid like you got cut from the debut team. I heard from the CEO that this friend here brought you back?"
Jae-woo, who had been talking with Go Yeon-gyu, turned her head and looked my way.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Pyeong Seol-han."
"Wow, where on earth did they find this kid? I seriously thought Ji-hyuk had come back to life."
Colorize's youngest, Cheong-yun, who had come in following Jae-woo, was looking at me with eyes as if she'd discovered something fascinating.
"Come back to life? Ji-hyuk isn't dead yet, Cheong-yun."
"At this point, when nobody knows whether he vanished into thin air or dropped off the face of the earth, he's as good as dead."
"Moon Cheong-yun."
Jae-woo, who had been gentle the whole time, wiped the smile from her lips and called Cheong-yun by her full name.
"Yesss......."
At that, Cheong-yun, who'd been full of spirit until a moment ago, immediately tucked her tail and turned solemn.
Is that the dignity of a leader?
If you divided idol groups into two kinds—those where the leader's role isn't very important and those where it is—Colorize definitely belonged to the latter.
It's practically because Jae-woo, as leader and eldest, set an example by taking the lead and greatly helped her still-inexperienced younger members grow that the united Colorize of today could exist.
Because of this background, I know that not only the members but also Colorize's fans had very deep trust in their leader, Jae-woo.
As a result, Colorize left behind a rare case for a group that debuted from a small agency: a unanimous contract renewal without a single member leaving.
I remember that even when I was thirty-four, they were still showing off the tight friendship among the members.
In a way, Solar has been through both the hope edition of a leader member's influence, Colorize, and the despair edition, PLUTO.
"Do you know who we are, by any chance?"
Cheong-yun, sending me a look full of anticipation, hit me with a surprise bombshell question.
If I answered wrong here, I could only see a future caught in one of two ruts: being used as a weird-first-impression anecdote on all sorts of broadcasts later, or getting trashed as the obnoxious junior who hadn't even properly memorized his agency seniors' names.
So I decided to keep a polite attitude and give the correct answer.
"You're Colorize's Cheong-yun sunbaenim and Jae-woo sunbaenim. I always enjoy listening whenever you release an album."
"Oh! Do you know who the other members are too?"
"I know there are also Ju-young sunbaenim, the main rapper; Cho-yeon sunbaenim, the sub-vocalist; and Dan-i sunbaenim, the lead vocalist."
"Oh my gosh, he knows even their positions? That's seriously amazing!"
Colorize is a popular group that can stand shoulder to shoulder with other girl groups from major agencies, so wouldn't it be dereliction of duty for a music reporter not to know even this much?
"Ah, right. I'm twenty-one too. That's why I made friends with Min-seong right away! Since it's come to this, want to drop the formalities and be friends too, Seol-han?"
"I'm fine, Cheong-yun sunbaenim."
"You can really use banmal, though!"
"Cheong-yun, don't bully your junior."
"Yesss, unnie."
Meanwhile, Cha Min-seong, the one she supposedly made friends with...... had an especially tired look on his face.
From the guy, who usually wore nothing but an expression so impassive it was hard to read what he was thinking, today I sensed something like the soul of a laborer worn out by grueling work.
Had he been pestered by Cheong-yun a lot all this time?
Jae-woo, holding the paper bags, looked around for a moment, then jerked her head at Namgung Hyun and said.
"Hyun, bring your bag quick."
At that, Namgung Hyun quickly brought over his bag from the corner of the practice room.
"There's lots of room in your bag, right?"
"Of course. Today was the first day of school, so there's noth~ing in it, noona-nim!"
"Good. Then let's pack it quick before anyone sees. Take all this to the dorm and eat it in secret."
What Jae-woo took out of the bags with careful hand movements reminiscent of a black-market deal were all sorts of snacks, like foreign sweets and cup ramen.
I heard they'd been on a world tour until recently; it seemed she'd bought them then.
Keeping pace with Jae-woo's and Namgung Hyun's well-drilled movements, the many snacks that had been in the paper bags tumbled into Namgung Hyun's bag.
Is it okay for an idol senior to push junk food this actively on juniors preparing to debut?
The moment I harbored that small question inwardly, Jae-woo added.
"Later, when you guys start diet management, you won't be able to eat anything besides what the company gives you. When you feel so hungry you can't hold out, open these and eat a little at a time. Hunger isn't something you can hold out against with willpower, I found."
Jae-woo was famous as the member with the most thorough self-management even within Colorize.
If even Jae-woo is that fed up with it, that period must be pretty hard.
"Thank you, sunbaenim. We'll enjoy them."
"I'm only saying to eat them when you feel you can't hold out. Don't take them out often, got it? That comes with its own regrets later when you look at the camera."
Having finished her snack lobbying behind the staff's backs, Jae-woo stood up and asked.
"Have you decided on a leader? What did the company say?"
"They kindly let us decide ourselves, but in the end we decided to go as a group without a leader."
"Aha, there have been more groups like that lately."
When Ha Hyun answered, Jae-woo nodded in agreement.
"When Ji-hyuk was here, it seemed almost settled that he'd be leader. Seol-han, didn't you think about being leader?"
"Ah~ That hyungnim may not look it, but he's a fresh-out-of-the-shell chick who got trainee training for the very first time this year!"
"What? Really?"
When Namgung Hyun answered slyly, Jae-woo narrowed her eyes and looked at me.
"You've never been a trainee anywhere at all?"
"No."
"And you still went straight into the debut team?"
"That's right."
Jae-woo, all sorts of emotions showing in the eyes fixed on me, pressed hard on her temple with one hand.
"The CEO's done it again......."
That's the normal reaction, all right.
In Jae-woo's head, the calculation that I got into the debut team on nothing but a face resembling Baek Ji-hyuk's would already be finished.
Jae-woo, who seemed to barely swallow a deep sigh she'd been about to let out, left some advice full of concern.
"Kids, whatever the CEO says, don't take it too literally, and push back on what needs pushing back on. Got it? It's true the company is debuting you, but make sure you remember it doesn't take responsibility for your whole lives."
Coming from that Jae-woo, it sounds like weighty advice straight from the heart.
Because when Colorize appeared on a certain variety show, Jae-woo once said this.
-When I first heard our debut concept, it seemed so wrong for us that I thought, 'This won't work. We have to change it to something else,' so I made a PPT myself, gathered the staff from each team, and persuaded them.
The initial Colorize concept Jae-woo described was 'girl crush emphasizing easygoingness and freedom.'
But considering the members' personalities at the time, it seemed hard to pull off the haughty, bold feel of girl crush in style, and so, after much thought.
She apparently proposed a new concept that was dreamy yet elegant, combining delicately made antique porcelain dolls with spring.
And Jae-woo's call produced results so successful that, at the time of their debut, all sorts of online communities called it a stroke of genius.
I don't think Colorize would've blown up this much if they'd gone with the initial concept
⤷Considering there was a flood of girl crush around when Colorize debuted, wouldn't it have been an ending where they just got swept away
⤷They can nail girl crush now that they're a bit older, but back then the kids were way too young and sweet overall lolol I can totally understand the leader's feelings
Thinking about it now, maybe it was because of a precedent like this that Seon Yeong-ran made me such a reckless offer.
The methods are a little different, but somehow it makes me wonder if the new PLUTO's beginning isn't following a path similar to Colorize's.
"Seol-han, can you keep up with practice okay?"
"The other trainees always teach me kindly and well, so I'm managing to keep up somehow."
"Glad you all seem to get along. Seol-han, can you hand me your smartphone for a sec? I'll put in my number."
When I held out my cell phone, Jae-woo saved her number and handed it back.
"If you're ever curious about anything, ask me anytime. I'll answer right away whenever I can reply."
"Thank you. If it isn't rude, I'll reach out."
Cheong-yun, glued to Jae-woo's back and watching the number exchange, asked.
"Come to think of it, I heard Yeon-gyu's in charge of your title track?"
Go Yeon-gyu, who had been quietly listening to the conversation with his arms crossed, opened his mouth.
"That's how it turned out."
"Ooh~ Cool~ Then are you going to be Ju-young-unnie's successor, Yeon-gyu?"
"Maybe so."
Ju-young was the member of Colorize who stood out most in producing.
Maybe because of that, once she'd built up some years, you could often find Ju-young's name not just on Colorize's albums but on all sorts of OSTs and other singers' albums too.
"You guys are debuting in the second half of this year, right?"
"I heard we're scheduled to debut at the end of August."
"It's March now, so....... Considering you'll be called here and there for recording and filming, there isn't much time left."
Jae-woo, who thought carefully for a moment, looked at the faces of the PLUTO members gathered in the practice room and made an unexpected offer.
"We're shooting the music video for our comeback album soon. Want to come see the set once before your debut, as a sort of field trip?"
Come to think of it, I'd caught wind from the company staff that Colorize was preparing for a comeback.
What was the album Colorize released around this time seven years ago?
I think it was probably one of or .
Whichever it was, there was no reason to refuse when a senior was offering kindness first, so the trainee guys and I gratefully accepted Jae-woo's offer.