“This is bone broth soup that Jinyeong hyung’s mother packed for us!”
“Mom made it because she heard Jion hurt his leg.”
“Thank you so much, ma’am~! I’ll enjoy it!”
After they finished lunch, they were supposed to have a concept meeting, so Eungi hastily pulled out his camera. The reason was that he needed to film the meal scene too.
“I need to film the stuff Jinyeong hyung brought from home. Let’s film inside the fridge too.”
“What about what you brought from your place yesterday?”
“That looks way too obviously expensive, so we can’t show it.”
After getting thoroughly scolded for pretending not to be a gold spoon when he was one, Eungi started paying attention to what appeared on camera. While he couldn’t help the bright gold spoon vibes that overflowed from within, the point was that if too many expensive items kept showing up because they were living in a nice dorm, people would feel distant and leave hate comments. It was a good learning experience early on. Jion patted Eungi’s shoulder and hurriedly finished his meal.
“Alright then, let’s start the meeting!”
Eungi pressed the record button and scurried back to his seat. The meeting that began with everyone having a cup of coffee in front of them was a concept meeting for their fourth single. It was a development meeting of the discussion that had come up during their last drinking session, but they aligned their words as if starting fresh from zero for the vlog.
“So, shall we have a discussion?”
Ryu Geon awkwardly delivered his line. No matter how much they needed to lead the meeting with unscripted ad-libs, it was terrible acting. Watching Ryu Geon’s gaze float emptily, not knowing where to look, the members held back their laughter inside.
“Um… well. We need to make a comeback now. What kind of concept should we do next time?”
And surprisingly, Eungi was also weak at acting. He was usually lively and playful, and even had a cheeky side, so they thought he’d be good at it, but for someone who had been the one to request acting for the vlog, he was awkwardly stiff, which was funny. Jion slightly lowered his head, hiding his expression from the camera angle as he laughed.
Don’t laugh…
Eungi, sitting across from him, saw Jion’s laughing face and made a tearful expression. Seeing that, Jinyeong’s expression also slightly crumbled, but surprisingly, Seonwoo Jin shamelessly acted well.
“Last time, our concept was kind of fresh and refreshing, right? I think there’s still more we haven’t shown with that concept, so I’d like us to try a refreshing concept one more time.”
It was a calm tone that felt unexpectedly intelligent. Jion was inwardly a bit surprised by the sight of Seonwoo Jin fluently delivering his assigned lines. He’d thought he succeeded with his face, but maybe he actually had pure talent for acting and his face just helped. After glancing sideways at Seonwoo Jin’s expression, Jion gave Jinyeong a look.
“Ah, right. The response to our last single was good, and there are various types of refreshing concepts too.”
Meeting eyes with Jion, Jinyeong realized it was his turn and quickly delivered his line. While not as good as Seonwoo Jin, his acting was much better than Ryu Geon’s or Eungi’s. From now on, the real meeting was beginning. Since they couldn’t capture every scene in the vlog and would fast-forward and mute parts appropriately, everyone started to loosen up a bit.
“Is the song that one Hyundae hyung played for us last time? The one Jion was agonizing over between two choices.”
“Yeah, yeah. That one.”
Jion nodded his head. While working on their last single, Jion had bought up almost all the songs Hyundae had created. They were all good songs, but when he selected ones that fit the concept, two final songs remained, and the last single came from the final decision between those two.
“If the last single had a bright and cheerful feeling, this time I want to go with more depth.”
When Jion spoke with a serious face, the members agreed.
“It would be a bit much to keep going with refreshing concepts.”
“The refreshing concept itself can’t be used for long, so we should maximize it now, but since the gap until our comeback is relatively short, I want to create a slight difference in the song.”
Jion’s strategy was rational, and there was nothing for anyone to oppose. However, from here on, there could be some differences in each other’s positions or tension. It was part distribution. Although they only had Hyundae’s humming guide so far, deciding who would be the main in each part made it inevitably sensitive.
“First… last time, Woojin started it off, right? The killing part was Eungi…”
Ryu Geon cautiously took notes while gauging everyone’s reactions. The members nodded while observing each other’s expressions. The place where gazes focused most was Jion. Jion read Jinyeong’s thoughts from the look in his eyes as he stared at him.
‘Since you yielded both the chorus and killing part last time, if you say you want to do it this time, I’ll have no choice but to yield, but I also want to be in the spotlight once.’
It was a thought befitting Jinyeong. Jion tapped the table with his fingers for a moment, lost in thought.
Last time, he had positioned Seonwoo Jin at the very front while prominently featuring his visual, in order to prevent his insufficient singing ability from being exposed. It was quite a good strategy and the results were decent, but had the public become sufficiently aware of Seonwoo Jin’s face? After the fan cafe was created, Jion only communicated within the fan cafe, and being somewhat negligent in monitoring while engaged in a not-quite-something with Seonwoo Jin, Jion couldn’t gauge the public’s sensitivity to Seonwoo Jin.
It seems like he still needs a bit more push to switch it up right away.
Lost in thought, Jion unconsciously turned to look at the face of Seonwoo Jin sitting next to him. It was too direct.
Just then, Seonwoo Jin was also looking at Jion, so the two made eye contact, and Jion froze solid like stone. It was a noticeably stiff reaction. Seonwoo Jin, who had agreed to treat what happened as if it never occurred but whose wounds still hadn’t healed, darkened his expression at Jion’s reaction.
“…Why are you so surprised?”
“Ah, no, it’s just…”
Jion noticed from Seonwoo Jin’s sullen face that while he was pretending to be fine, he actually hadn’t recovered from yesterday’s incident yet, and quickly equipped aegyo to salvage the situation.
“You’re so handsome my heart almost stopped.”
While giving lip service compliments, he lightly bumped shoulders, and when he even leaned his head against those broad shoulders, Seonwoo Jin reflexively wrapped his arm around Jion’s waist and relaxed his expression. Confirming that Jion wasn’t avoiding him and didn’t dislike physical contact as before, his anxious heart began to stabilize. Seonwoo Jin gripped Jion’s waist tightly then released it, smiling slightly.
“I really hate those guys so much.”
Seeing this, Jinyeong clicked his tongue and shook his head. It meant he was sick of the two’s excessive lovey-dovey behavior, but at the same time, he realized that Jion was still obsessed with Seonwoo Jin’s beauty and trying to give him an important role. Just as Jinyeong suspected, Jion, with his head leaning on Seonwoo Jin’s shoulder, coldly finished his calculations.
As expected, the public still doesn’t know Seonwoo Jin’s face well. It wasn’t enough for them to just see his face and think he’s handsome. If they didn’t reach the stage where Seonwoo Jin’s face came to mind when thinking ‘handsome idol,’ the word-of-mouth gained from this face would obviously fizzle out quickly.
I need to push him more until he lands about three solo advertisements with his face and gets a few scripts. But I still can’t have him sing for long parts. If I make him rap, Geon hyung’s already narrow position will become even narrower. Also, if I give him the first verse, Jinyeong will probably get jealous…
After calmly turning things over in his head, Jion gave Jinyeong a choice.
“Do you want to take the first verse or the chorus?”
“What, I get to choose?”
At Jion’s sudden presentation of choices, Jinyeong was flustered while unable to hide the smile on his face. Since he had received good parts last time, he was doing mind control to accept being pushed back this time, but then he received the first opportunity to choose, so it was natural.
“Yeah, well, I…”
Jinyeong simulated the stage in his head. Given Jion’s style, he would continue with the strategy of emphasizing Seonwoo Jin’s visual, but if he started with his own face and then Seonwoo Jin appeared right after? No matter how well he sang, he felt like his presence would be buried.
“I’ll take… the chorus.”
“Okay. Then let’s have Eungi start at the beginning.”
“Huh? Me?”
And it wasn’t only Jinyeong who was surprised by the unexpected designation. Eungi, who had been watching the situation without any particular thoughts, widened his eyes in surprise at Jion’s designation.
“Not Woojin hyung?”
“Why, you don’t want to?”
“No, I like it.”
How could he pass up this opportunity? Worried that Jion might change his mind, Eungi frantically nodded his head. Confirming Eungi’s enthusiastic acceptance, Jion smiled.
Whether it was good issues or bad issues, the one who had the most viral buzz in BNCZ right now was Eungi. Seonwoo Jin’s visual was still BNCZ’s greatest weapon and important strategy, but being called a Seonwoo Jin one-tool group was undesirable. If they didn’t push members while appropriately changing the weight and placement, complaints would arise among fans, and the public would also think, ‘That group only has Seonwoo Jin to show.’
Having finished calculating up to this point, Jion firmly grasped Seonwoo Jin’s hand wrapped around his waist, looked up at him, and met his eyes.
“Let’s practice singing a lot this time and increase your parts, okay?”
