Idol of the Heavenly One - Chapter 12.2
“How about something refreshing?”
But I already had a plan in mind when putting this group together.
“Do people even do that kind of thing these days?”
“Don’t they mostly just do hip-hop now?”
Exactly. Since almost everything these days was hip-hop, I wanted to go with something refreshing. There was a video Lee Ji-eun had once shown me over lunch. I wasn’t sure if the group performing had been YEARZ, but some idol group had recreated a classic refreshing stage from the second-generation idols at an end-of-year show, and it had gotten a very good public reaction.
“Refreshing is nice, but what if it ends up looking tacky?”
“No way. I can’t act cutesy.”
“Hyung! For boy groups, hip-hop is the only way to make it feel less cringey, right?!”
“Y-yeah!”
But the opposition was stronger than I expected. It made sense. These days, kids hate anything they find cheesy or old-fashioned if it wasn’t hip. But if we did hip-hop with this lineup, it wouldn’t leave much of an impression on the company executives judging us. We didn’t need something predictable. We needed something shocking. The problem was how to convince them…
“Let’s do something refreshing.”
While I was still thinking, Baek Jae-heon suddenly took my side and suggested going with refreshing.
“Huh? Really?”
“What?”
“J-Jae-heon, seriously…?!”
“No way.”
The others, clearly flustered, started asking him again as if they had misheard.
“Go with refreshing. You can highlight both the vocals and the dancing.”
Baek Jae-heon even gave reasons, as if to prove this decision wasn’t wrong, and fully pushed for refreshing.
“Well… if Baek Jae-heon stands in the center, maybe it won’t look tacky.”
“True. Refreshing isn’t just about acting cute anyway.”
“If… if Jae-heon’s on board, then I-I’m in too…!”
“If we can highlight the dancing, then I’m fine with it too!”
So when I said it, it was supposedly cheesy, but when Baek Jae-heon agreed, suddenly everyone was fine with it. I felt a brief sting of annoyance, but in the end, I was relieved we could push forward with refreshing thanks to him taking my side.
“But what song would we do for something refreshing?”
“Right now, what comes to mind is ‘Oh Small Girl,’ ‘Naju Ice,’ ‘Love Me Left,’ and ‘Boda.’ About those four.”
“Oh? I think “Love Me Left” would be good!”
When Lee Soonbok listed the refreshing songs that came to mind, Kwon Ji-hak clapped and said Love Me Left sounded good. Love Me Left was the ultimate refreshing anthem from “Hug & Kiss,” a third-generation boy group often called the kings of their era. It was still a song many people looked up even now. I had only found out about it three days ago, but it really was a great song and stage. It was good, but…
“Ji Myeong-hyeon, do you have a song in mind?”
Noticing my expression, Go Hee-min asked.
“I do, but…”
The song I was thinking of wasn’t that kind of refreshing. It wasn’t the type of refreshing you’d expect from seasoned idols. I wanted to give such a strong impression that people would be shocked we could pull off this kind of vibe with this lineup.
“What about ‘Into the New World’?”
“What, are you a supermarket? That’s a fresh idea.”
“Huh? Myeong-hyeon, isn’t that an old song?”
“O-old isn’t the issue, but that’s… that’s a girl group song…!”
“Myeong-hyeon-hyung, I don’t think a girl group song is the right choice.”
The opposition was even stronger than when I first suggested refreshing. Kwon Ji-hak even went so far as to look completely serious. Well, of course. With so many boy group songs out there, why would I insist on doing a girl group song?
“Well, technically, the original version of this song was by a guy.”
“What? Isn’t that a second-generation girl group song?”
“It should be. By ‘Forever Girls’ sunbaenim.”
Ah, so they didn’t know. They didn’t know who the original owner of the song was. Well, technically speaking, the version I wanted to do was the one remade by that second-generation girl group, though.
“You might not like it, but…”
“I-I don’t like it…!”
“Yeah! I don’t like it either! I want to do something cool!”
Before I could even start persuading them, the two members in the dance line strongly objected. I could understand where they were coming from—they wanted to show off as much fancy choreography as possible to get points.
“But all the other groups are doing hip-hop songs right now.”
“Y-yeah! That’s because it’s h-hip!”
“Exactly!”
But I had a reason for insisting on refreshing, no—on a song that felt youthful and pure. After studying boy groups from past to present, I noticed that refreshing concepts used to be much more common, but at some point, hip-hop started taking over, and now most boy groups only did hip-hop tracks.
“To be honest, hip-hop feels overdone.”
“Wh-what…?!”
“What do you mean, overdone?!”
Not that I was saying it was bad. Just that hip-hop had become so saturated that even the trainees were picking only hip-hop songs for evaluations, making it feel a bit stale.
“Trust me. The judges will want this too.”
“H-how would you know that…!”
“Yeah! How do you know?!”
“Trends always come back around.”
That was why I wanted to flip expectations. I had a feeling it would bring about a very positive reaction, just like that end-of-year stage back then.
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