Chapter 45 – If It Is Hard to Make a Living, Come This Way Later

Geum Nae-yeong took out and placed the tablet and notebook he had brought on the judges’ table.

On his tablet, a single file was displayed.

The ‘character evaluation sheet’ that Geum Nae-yeong had made himself.

The evaluation sheet given by the writer was too insincere, as if it had been made hurriedly as a formality.

‘Character cannot be evaluated by a single metric. It must be divided into qualitative evaluation and quantitative evaluation.’

On the stage, Team A was coming out to the center of the stage first.

Although they said the teams were composed randomly, it was a form where anyone could see that major agencies and influential candidates were concentrated in the conspicuous Teams A to C.

“Hello! We are Team A, with an A+ in both dance and vocal! Please look upon us kindly!”

When the FD raised both hands up, the staff clapped to mark the spot to insert the reaction sound.

“Camera close-up!”

The camera closed in on the center of the stage, and interviews with each trainee followed.

“Hello! I am Ma Hui-yeong from Team A. I am good at Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian. I am as confident in my vocals as I am in my language skills. I will show you!”

Ma Hui-yeong finished singing and bowed her head in greeting. A large nametag sparkled on her stomach as she smiled brightly under the shining lights.

‘S&MT’. The name of the agency with the greatest capital power was printed in large letters.

The judges, especially a singer from S&MT, nodded with satisfaction.

A ★ mark was already drawn next to the evaluation sheet Geum Nae-yeong received.

“Then, shall we see the dance?”

“Dum Dum Dum- Ye, Ye, Ye-“

As the fast-beat dance music rang out, Ma Hui-yeong started dancing. However, Ma Hui-yeong’s movements could not keep up with the song. Limp movements.

“Ah, yes. We have watched it well.”

JP, a judge and the president of an agency, grabbed the microphone.

“Although the basics of her movement are a bit lacking, her sense of rhythm is innate. If she practices just a little more, her potential will explode soon. In terms of potential, I think she is the best.”

It was excessive praise compared to her skills. Several judges made eye contact, and they were seen marking scores close to the highest point.

And immediately, the next trainee came up.

“Hello! I am Myeong Seong-ji. I am confident in dance and rap!”

As expected, she was a trainee from the giant agency YSG.

The rapper sitting next to Geum Nae-yeong spoke to him quietly.

“They say she’s the granddaughter of that famous pharmaceutical company. Born with a gold spoon for generations. Let’s give her good scores on our own.”

Then, without even looking, he wrote down A+ in the ‘rap’ section of the evaluation items. In this manner, the evaluation of trainees up to Teams A to C was carried out.

In reality, the evaluation of the main characters of this program was almost finished.

After finishing the evaluation of the next teams, the last Team K appeared.

A team consisting of small agencies and individual trainees.

The attitude of the judges also changed, and there was not a single familiar ★ mark on the evaluation sheets.

The trainees walked up onto the stage.

“Hello! We are Team K, who will one day surely become the K-pop…”

“Hey! Hey! Cut!! Cut!”

Before the trainees’ greeting could even finish, an annoyed voice pierced sharply from somewhere.

Perhaps because it was the first recording, it seemed the CP had personally come down.

In an instant, the lights snapped off.

The atmosphere inside the studio grew cold.

“Hey! Why are your faces so gloomy? Ha… fuck. This is depressing…”

Stopping the recording, the CP scanned Group K on the stage up and down. Extreme irritation was written on his face.

“If you guys have nothing, shouldn’t you at least be good at smiling brightly? Or you should have redone your faces to look cheerful before coming out!

Is this opportunity nothing to you guys? Are you, the last place, going to ruin the recording atmosphere like this, huh? You should smile more!

How is this going to look on screen! We are giving you guys an opportunity! Are you going to do it like this?”

At the harsh words spat out by the CP, some trainees walked on eggshells, while other trainees looked down at their toes hesitantly.

The leader of Team K looked around at the team members, steeled her expression first, and bowed deeply at 90 degrees.

“…We are sorry!”

“Smile instead of being sorry! Smile! If you are ugly, at least be good at smiling!”

“Yes! We will smile well!”

The PD rushed over in a hurry.

“I will give the kids a proper attitude adjustment. Let’s go.”

Step, step—

At that moment, Geum Nae-yeong stepped down from the judges’ seats.

And as he stopped in front of the CP, the CP’s gaze stared at him with a glare.

“What?”

“If the king falls over?”

Receiving the question, the CP looked at the PD with an absurd expression.

“Wh-what? What is this?”

The PD hurriedly introduced Geum Nae-yeong.

“Th-this is the special judge I mentioned before. Lawyer Geum Nae-yeong…”

Geum Nae-yeong took a step toward the CP and asked again.

“Again, if the king falls over?”

“Wh-what?”

The CP stammered as if flustered.

However, without changing his expression at all, Geum Nae-yeong only sent a gaze demanding, ‘Answer.’

Geum Nae-yeong glanced at his wristwatch and began counting the numbers calmly.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“Time’s up. The answer is King Kong.”

“What! What are you doing right now!”

The CP was thoroughly angry at Geum Nae-yeong, who had suddenly intruded.

“It is a nonsense quiz, is it not funny?”

“What…?”

“If it were you, and someone shouted and then told you to ‘smile’ on stage… would you smile? No matter how funny the story is, it is not funny at all in that situation.

But why do you force them to smile after getting angry? That is coercion, and depending on the case, it could also constitute child abuse.”

“…Wh-what… you?”

As the CP became dumbfounded, the PD hurriedly dragged the CP down off the stage.

“Oh, the lawyer says it’s a joke. A joke. Hahaha. Now, resume recording!”

The PD quickly smoothed over the atmosphere.

“Now, let’s hit the slate! 3, 2, 1. Cue!”

The leader of Team K, who had tried to clean up the situation first when scolded by the CP earlier, came forward and bowed.

“Hello. I am individual trainee Ju Ha-yul!”

Ju Ha-yul smiled brightly upon seeing Geum Nae-yeong sitting expressionless in the judges’ seat.

‘Lawyer Geum Nae-yeong oppa, he helped me after all.’

When she first saw him in the judges’ seat, Ju Ha-yul was startled. This was because she did not even know that Geum Nae-yeong was participating in this program.

Since he was an always cold and calm adult, she thought he would just pretend not to know her even if she went up on stage.

However, when the CP vented his anger for no reason, he stepped up without hesitation.

For some reason, she was grateful for that sight.

“My specialty is dancing! I will show you my dance first!”

The music flowed out.

“Follow that light—”

Ju Ha-yul began to move her arms to the beat.

Although her eyes shook slightly at first, once she passed one verse, confidence attached to her movements, and she freely performed quite high-difficulty moves.

“Hmm… she dances quite well?”

“She does pretty well.”

The judge in charge of the dance evaluation and the rapper nodded.

Next was the vocal evaluation.

“Under tha-at sky, we-e are…”

“Stop, stop.”

The vocal judge raised his hand and cut off the music immediately.

Ju Ha-yul was not very good at singing.

“Contestant Ju Ha-yul is an individual trainee, right? Perhaps because you don’t have an agency yet, you lack the basics of vocals.”

Although the vocal judge made a definitive evaluation, Ju Ha-yul answered energetically.

“Yes! I don’t have an agency yet, but I am working hard for my future self! I go to school diligently, and I am faithful to my studies! I am also studying hard! I am also working on my vocals! Please make sure to watch over me!”

At Ju Ha-yul’s cheerful energy, several judges nodded and gave her good scores.

“Although you will have to make a lot of effort, the bright energy is good…”

Ju Ha-yul looked at Geum Nae-yeong with expectant eyes.

‘Lucky to have Lawyer Geum Nae-yeong oppa here. Since he helped me earlier too… he’ll give me a pretty good score this time, right? Hehe.’

Meanwhile, having watched both the stage and the interview, Geum Nae-yeong had Ju Ha-yul’s character evaluation sheet spread out in front of him.

He picked up his pen with a cold expression.

[Group K Individual Trainee, No. 91 Ju Ha-yul]

Geum Nae-yeong went through the items one by one and wrote down the scores.

Honesty : -5

Diligence : -5

Self-transcendence : -5

Total -15 points

“I go to school diligently, and I am faithful to my studies, and I am also studying hard.” – Too many lies.

At the very moment Ju Ha-yul smiled while looking at Geum Nae-yeong in the judges’ seat from the stage, Geum Nae-yeong was deduction-marking Ha-yul’s score very diligently with an expressionless face.

***

“We will cut recording for a moment!”

Along with the FD’s shout, the red light of the camera turned off.

The lights dimmed, and in a brief moment of silence, the staff and writers moved busily.

Someone tidied up the microphones, while someone handed water bottles to the contestants.

“Now, you confirmed Team A’s lodging, right?”

The moment the writer’s voice was heard,

a hand shot up from one side.

“Excuse me!”

It was Myeong Seong-ji of YSG.

“I can’t sleep well if the bed is uncomfortable. My parents got me an officetel nearby… Can I go sleep there with my personal manager?”

Instantly, the writer paused, and the surrounding staff glanced at each other’s faces.

At that moment, the PD sitting in front of the monitor slightly raised his chin and sent a wink.

‘Just allow it.’

The writer forced a smile and nodded.

“Ah… yes. Go ahead.”

As Myeong Seong-ji returned to her seat, her personal manager hurriedly brought over a water bottle with a straw in it, and she drank the water as if it were natural.

However, the other contestants were different.

Having even turned in their cell phones, they had to endure in bunk beds in a cramped dormitory. Due to the gap between them, a subtle emotion was felt among the contestants as well.

Watching that scene, Geum Nae-yeong stood up and silently headed to the studio corridor.

Clatter.

A canned drink dropped from the vending machine.

*Tss, click*, when he popped open the can and took a sip of the drink,

“Hey, they are recording that idol program in this studio right now, right?”

“Yeah. I heard from Hyeon-su yesterday that the kids picked to go there are dying right now.”

In front of the vending machine, the two men who had bought drinks lowered their voices.

“That CP, he’s a total lunatic. He meddles in the program telling them to do this or that, and it’s a relief if he only swears. I heard he even raises his hand against his direct subordinates sometimes?”

“Really? Wow… guys like that always get promoted well.”

“That bastard Baek Seung-ju also joined him. I heard he got the main PD spot this time by flattering him until his fingerprints wore off?”

“Geez, he has no skill, but he succeeded with his mouth.”

“Hey, they make them work overtime, but they don’t even let them log overtime pay. Isn’t he real scum?”

“Don’t even mention it. If a post saying the program review is bad goes up on the viewer bulletin board, they get kicked in the shins immediately.”

“Really? If they tell me to go there, I’d contemplate resigning immediately.”

As they moved away while conversing, Geum Nae-yeong also quietly returned to the studio.

“Hey, you back from resting?”

When Geum Nae-yeong returned, the CP approached with a welcoming laugh as if intentional.

“I couldn’t greet you earlier. I am the Chief Producer, Park Si-ram.”

“I am Geum Nae-yeong.”

“You are a lawyer? Haha, nice to meet you. Among my friends, there’s a guy who goes to a top 5 law firm. Hahaha.”

Geum Nae-yeong had no answer.

‘What’s with this guy? If someone speaks, shouldn’t he respond?’

As a awkward silence flowed for a moment, the CP stopped laughing and spoke with a subtle sarcasm.

“But you know… they say the lawyer side is also going through a lean period these days, right?”

A smile looking down on people hung on the corners of his mouth.

“When I meet my friends these days, they only make dying sounds.

Well, it’s an old story now that lawyers make a lot of money. Still, since Lawyer Geum has good looks, if it’s hard to make a living, change careers to this side later.

I will take good care of you. Hahaha.”