NOT EDITED, THE EDITED ONES WILL BE UPLOADED ONCE AN EDITOR WORKS THROUGH THESE.
Upkey Girl 3
< No Talented People? >
There was about 30 minutes left until the audition.
The chatter that started from the parking lot went on even after we came back to Yeom Dae Soo's CEO room.
The celebrity gossip wasn't something I had access to on a normal basis, so it was very interesting.
"This audition done the same way, we train them for the basics and put them into other companies."
"Is the training paid for by those companies?"
"Yeah. They contract us for the vocal and dancing collectively."
"If you can do vocal and dance training, and can produce your own songs, can't you just produce them yourselves?"
Hyun Dong asked me back after letting out a smirk as though he were dealing with a newborn.
"Do you know how much it takes to bring up one team of idols?"
Aha.
I realized as soon as I heard those words.
I remember seeing it on television.
I think it said it takes about 500,000,000 won to produce one ideal team of 5. (Approximately 500,000USD)
"We need investments unconditionally to make idols, but that's pipe-dream.
Yeom DaePyo scratched his nose as he said that, and Hyun Dong's proceeded to elaborate.
"It's a problem even after we get them to debut. The operating expenses are on Ugk-level even if they do nothing but breathe. Take into consideration 1,000,000,000 that it takes on average to circulate their debut album. (1억 ugk = 100,000USD approx. 억 denotes 100,000,000 just as man만 denotes 10,000)
"But isn't everyone producing idols because they can make that and more?"
"Yeah. If they make it, they can make everything back in one go. But those kinds of cases are rare and in-between. It's the same as gambling."
"People only think of the major agencies' idols, there are a lot of cases that put out one song, and run them through events for the rest of their contract. And then end up in a legal battle between the company and the kids with, give me the money for the work you haven't done, fuck off we're still in the red, that kind of shit."
"Why does it take so much production expenses though? Is it being puffed up like distribution?" (TLN: author said 뻥튀기 ppungtwigi., which means to be puffed up without having anything inside or of merit, also distribution in Korea is known to be infamous for pumping up costs with no real reasons by running the shipments through the whole countryside to where a head of cabbage ends up more expensive in the area where it was produced than in Seoul, the capital city.)
Then Hyun Dong started to list it one by one and folding his fingers.
Singing, Dancing, Acting, Foreign Language, Plastic Surgery, Aesthetic, Food expenses, Lodging, Song expenses, Recording, Music Video, Album Cover, Apparel/Costume, Hair, Makeup, Choreography, Backdancers, etc, etc, etc. (TLN: Aesthetic ->pretty sure it's just skincare but premium price b/c its for beautification only
Also author put album jacket but it means album cover)
In the end, ten fingers weren't enough.
Added to that, the stress from managing Beale-like kids that comes with the age. (TLN: 비글비글할 - to be Beagle-like, meme in KR where Beagles are one of the 5 most devilish dogs because they fucking run rampant.)
What is this, President-maker? (TLN: twist on princess-maker, a famed JP game popular in KR approx. 20 years ago)
I looked back in self-reflection for imagining and dreaming of producing a Girl Group.
It doesn't mean anything even if I have eyes to detect stars.
Forget the Girl-Vengers, being a salaryman is the best.
President (CEO), and other officers, please lead a long and healthy life. (TLN: CEO here is Hwejang-nim which is basically the owner of a conglomerage, aka head Jaebol rich family for generations also he said 무병장수 無病長壽which means a disease-free and long life)
Dae Soo also talked about his experiences of meeting the people in the agencies. (TLN: 썰SSul = new word which comes from 설 說 and means to talk/story)
It was because they primarily work on training idols that the stories were based on idols, so I even got to hear the stories I only heard from rumors.
"I'm also a producer, but there's so many garbage-like people in this field. One called the trainees while drinking with friends, uhyoo…" (TLN: Uhyoo is 어휴 which is a dejected sigh, yes the kind your asian mothers do when they're disappointed)
"There's byungsin trainees as well. Some get caught while getting it on in the dorms, some get pregnant, some do drugs…" (TLN: byungsin a much-used cussword in KR, means cripple, handicapped in a bad way. Basically, how Americans use retard)
"Woah, Really?"
"The nice kids are nice, but it's case-by-case. There are idiots that act high and mighty when they're just trainees."
"Usually, before they get into a debut-ready group, we tell them to come forth with anything that'll be an issue. School bully, body-cam, red-light district worker, if these things get unraveled, we're all fucked. The company needs to know to be prepared, but do these fucks bother telling the truth? They play innocent, and once we start promoting their debut, all kinds of things come in an email to the company. She was my ex-girlfriend and we lived together, he's my ex-boyfriend and I have a video, I'm a close friend and she used to work at a pub where they go for a second round, uhyoo…" (TLN, 2차2cha/second round is where they go outside of work for sex with the customer.)
"Holy shit." (TLN author wrote 대박DaeBak, which means holy shit, really?, no way, or express astonishment in any way possible good AND bad, similar term in Japanese is yabai, yabe やばい、やべ、やべっ)
As I stuck out my tongue in astonishment, Hyun Dong sealed the deal with a true story he went through.
"There's one in my group of students. He broke up with his non-celebrity girlfriend after his debut, and the girl came to the company with a sex video. Threatening to put it on the interent."
"Woah… is he famous?"
"He's in the new idol group called JayTeens (제이틴스)."
"I think I've heard of them… so what happened?"
"They took care of it silently apparently, but from what I saw on tv recently, he was going on about never having a girlfriend, and chastity before marriage. Even said he's never had a first kiss. Motherfucker."
"Kekekekek."
Humans are funny.
It was the funniest story I've heard in a while.
"Is it him? BeeHo?"
"Yeah, it is. What a shitty stage name."
As I was looking up the student that Hyun Dong told me about with my cellphone, Yeom Dae Soo checked the time and got up.
"It's time. Let's start soon."
We went over to the audition stage, which was the dance practice room.
The main judges were four in total.
Yeom DaePyo(CEO), Hyun Dong(Vocals and composition), Lu Joo(Dance), Choi Hoon Min (Vocal and other).
And the extra and consultant me (Sharingan). (TLN: author put Kkakdugi aka cubed radish kimchi which means extra/third wheel in most situations - don't ask me why I don't fucking know always wondered when it happened in Korea, also author wrote 사륜안 Sharingan / 写輪眼 in parenthesis himself, I just chose to put sharingan. a meme from Naruto. look it up if you need to.)
I came thinking this would be something interesting as I wouldn't be doing much this weekend, as if it were a picnic, but it was becoming rather serious.
The pressure was building after I took my seat.
Now that I think about it, this meant I would decide fate just with my decisions.
From what I saw before, there weren't many kids with auras.
Then since I couldn't discern songs with my ears or dancing with my eyes, I would be disqualifying most of them.
From a quick glance, the other judges had a point system chart for every applicant in front of them.
I just had profile information.
It meant they didn't expect any professional judging from me, but just to be safe I asked Hyun Dong who was sitting next to me as a precautionary measure.
"So, I can just split passes and fails with what I feel?"
"Yep."
"But from what I saw earlier, there weren't many kids that I felt would be a star." (TLN: too much implied in this sentence, that I just had to add stuff in to make it sound halfway decent.)
"Then just pick the ones that are handsome or pretty."
"What if their abilities are really bad?"
"It doesn't matter. We can teach them to sing and dance. But you can't teach them to have a good face. Idol audition's 1st rule is looks."
"Aha."
After that, the hyungnim called Choi Hoon Min, sitting at the other end, peeked out facing me and added.
"Yep. Face is the most important in idols. Singing, dancing, we don't need any of that. Video Killed the Radio Star." (TLN: he says this in a terrible English accent as written by the author. Pretty sure it's intended)
"Ahaha, ok…"
These people, why were they doing an audition then?
They can just pick from pictures.
Choi Hoon Min even shot me a thumbs up and nodded again at me.
"Girl group choigo." (Choigo means best, or in another example :excited: girl groups are the best!)
"Ok…"
"The Joys of Life" (인생의 낙 translates to joys of life or 'the better things in life)
"Ok…" (TLN: the author put예… which is basically an 'ok…' as a response over and over because he feels that this situation is tiresome/bothersome.)
To be fair what man doesn't like girl groups, but to say it's a joy of life.
This hyungnim, I thought he was cool since he's a famous vocal trainer that active celebrities come to learn from, but that snapped me out of it. (TLN : 확 깨다 can also mean snap awake, suddenly awake, in this case it means he no longer found him cool)
"We'll begin the Find Dream Audition! The participants numbered 1 through 5 please enter. 6 through 20 please wait outside!" (TLN: also realized 찾아드림Find Dream in KR also is a play on words for 'will find it for you' because dream = 드림 in phonetics)
The door opened and the 1st group entered.
What. (TLN: author put 헛which is basically a surprised intake/gasp of air)
Participant number 1 was the Jonna girl I saw earlier in the alleyway.
The girl that was saying how its fucking mother fucking shitty annoying that her eye was swollen.
"Please to meet you. Participant number 1 that you won't forget, Baek Hyun Jin! Uwun, Wuwung!" (TLN, pleased to meet you, nice to meet you, any sort of greeting is combined into 안녕하세요 in Korean. Also, uwun uwung is the sound she makes for cutesy sounds. Aka 애교eigyo 사나는 사랑입니다. Sana is love. Sana is life. fuck you if you don't like Sana. )
She poked her cheeks with her fingers and tried with all her might to look cute.
To me, who has already seen true face, it felt completely fake.
It wouldn't be fair to conclude her personality was bad just because she was swearing in front of her friends, but it doesn't help my image of her.
Yup. Disqualified in my book. (TLN: author put criteria.)
Regardless of everything, it was because I couldn't see an aura.
Number 1's song started.
I didn't get the feeling her singing was good.
She danced.
Yeah, the dancing was so-so.
Her face was of normal prettiness. It's probably closer to the truth to say her face was cute because she was still young.
No touching emotions, not interesting, if it was a TV audition she'd have been edited out completely.
If it was like this to my ordinary eyes, I assumed she would be disqualified.
But huh?
The other judges including Hyun Dong all had the proceed to the 2nd preliminaries marked.
It wasn't a result I could comprehend, but once I saw the other participants my doubts vanished.
Without any embellishments, there were 20 kids where I could do better. In addition, their looks weren't that good either.
Hyun Dong whispered with a smile after seeing my expression.
"Any audition's 1st preliminaries are like this…"
And after an hour.
I had a sense from just hearing their comments.
"Yeah, that's good. Thanks for the hard work."
Disqualified.
"Can you dance by any chance?"
Pass.
"Yeah, thanks for the hard word."
Disqualified without a second thought.
"Can you turn your chin to the side for a moment?"
Passed by face.
It was called a singer's audition, but it was basically a beauty pagent.
Of course, they were professionals and could tell from just a few bars (of a song), but regardless they were tenaciously selecting through faces.
But if it was at this level, it made me think selection based on looks was the right choice. Even from what I could see, there were too many unprepared applicants.
I couldn't see a single participant with an aura even after going through 50 people.
"That was the last one, right?"
"Yeah."
The audition started at 12 noon and ended close to 4pm.
The complaints began.
"Wah, after seeing K Star One I was thinking 'why are there so many good singers in our country' but this is the reality."
"Yeom, are we going under?"
"Kukukuk, it's still the 1st day so be paitient."
From the 218 participants today, the only talents I found were 5.
What was worse was that two of them weren't even singers. One was an entertainer, and the other was an actor.
It felt futile.
The trainers except for the four judges went to the other rooms for personal lessons. The people left went over the audition recordings and held a meeting.
The cutline was 50 out of the 218 participants, but they ended up with a much smaller number. The ones accepted by all four were definitely in the 2nd round, but they decided to debate about the others.
I thought they would see things similarly, but surprisingly their opinions differed.
"Pass, pass, okay, number 35, stop."
"Number 35? I don't like this one. Too much bad habits." (TLN: author wrote 쿠세 which is a word of Japanese origin meaning bad habits)
"Mmm, I'm half and half, but don't you think that one is better suited to hiphop vocals rather than an idol?"
"Then let's just leave that one for time being. HC was looking for a BabyLogic like vocal."
"Is anyone BabyLogic nowadays? I think I've heard BabyLogic's song over 50 times today."
"Hmph, Hmph, it's the most popular one nowadays. Super cute."
"Then number 35 get a pass… ah, what did you think of this one? Number 109, male."
Yeom DaePyo operated the monitor himself and asked.
"Mmm, I didn't like that one."
"Me neither. Just so-so."
"Lu Joo?"
"I felt it was super common? He probably learned dancing mistakenly." (TLN: I need to fix this 춤을 잘못 배웠어요)
"Really? Hmm, I quite liked him…"
Number 109?
It was an 18-year-old male kid that was marked on my paper.
I remember. It was the first one that I gave a pass to.
He had both blue and red light emanating. It meant he also had an open possibility as an actor.
But Yeom Dae Soo and three others didn't think much of him.
If I leave it be, he'll fail. It's time for me to step up.
I carefully raised my hand.
"It's a pass in my book."
"Gooood."
Yeom DaePyo thrust his fist toward me like one of those 'brotha' types because I was thinking the same thing as him and I matched his fist and added.
"He'll be good at acting as well."
"Okay, acting possible…"
Yeom Dae Soo put parenthesis beside number 109's name and wrote that.
At that sight, I wondered.
Hyun Dong, I could understand because he brought me, but what was Yeom Dae Soo's trust in me based on?
I let out a feigned laugh and asked him as if it were a joke.
"But, don't put blind faith in my words. It's just a feeling-like feeling." (TLN: Author put 느낌적인 느낌which literally TLs to feeling-like feeling. In English it should probably just be 'a feeling')
Then he shook is head.
"No, I think hyungnim's senses are definitely good."
And then he proceeded to take my memos on A4 paper and checked the numbers I wrote down with his. As if he were playing a game of Bingo.
From the five I selected, four match Yeom Dae Soo's.
Choi Hoon Min hyungnim was three, two with Lu Joo ssem (쌤 teacher) in charge of choreography and the same for Hyun Dong.
Through that I realized.
That Yeom Dae Soo's senses as a producer were quite well developed.
In another perspective, you could say it was greater than mine.
"Why don't we send up the five that Yoon Ho hyung picked?"
Everyone agreed.
I felt like I became a cheat-code. (TLN: author put 치트키cheat-key)
I was confident in my abilities so I just hoped that the participants will do well.
"Hey, I'll head out for a bit."
"Ok."
My body felt stiff from having sat in one position for almost four straight hours, expect for the one break in the middle.
I came out to buy some snacks and catch some air.
After buying an assortment of snacks in the convenience store across the street, I sat down at a parasol and took a cigarette to my lips.
I turned my head without thinking as I lit the cigarette, where a girl was peeping around the studio building.
"Wha…?"
I raised my pointer finger and pointed at her without thinking.
It was something I haven't seen before, a purple aura.
< No Talented People? >
Author's words
'재미있어요' (TLN: loosely, it's entertaining, fun) and comments make me crazy. (TLN: crazy in a good way)