# Chapter 92
“So now everything’s settled. We just need to strengthen the scenario.”
Seo Irun managed to summarize everything even in the midst of all this.
Hey. Why is nobody listening to me?
And so, everyone except me got their happy ending.
* * *
The Grand Tamer acting team worked themselves to the bone, as if determined to finally make the two CEOs of Grand Tamer take notice of the acting team’s presence.
Because of that, Crop Five and I were the ones suffering.
Wait. I agreed to appear in a music video, but who said anything about aiming for a Best Actor award?
These people seemed determined to turn us into acting masters.
For Crop Five, learning these skills would at least be useful somewhere, but for me?
I couldn’t understand why I was learning this alongside them.
When filming the music video, there were more cameras shooting “Crop Five Epilogue” than cameras filming the actual music video.
The atmosphere was so free-spirited that someone even suggested they could borrow footage from each other if either project was missing scenes.
Kim Taeyoung watched the filming with a constantly moved expression, while we each performed our acting.
When we filmed and checked the monitor, it didn’t look that bad.
However, that turned out to be too modest an assessment, as revealed after the music video was released.
* * *
[What’s going on with PepperMix’s music video]
[Is it true that Crop Five, who has everything, is also perfect at acting?]
└Honestly, calling it perfect might be a stretch. But the music video was definitely well-made. It felt like Crop Five surpassed themselves again.
[Crop Five fever starting all over again.]
[It’s supposed to be PepperMix’s music video, but I only see Crop Five. Oh, and God Hyunshin too.]
└That’s because PepperMix hasn’t appeared yet, so of course.
└Let’s refrain from comments like this. If you want to praise our boys, just talk about our boys without making it sound like you’re taking shots at PepperMix.
└That’s right.
└Just ignore these kinds of comments completely.
[Crop Five’s loyalty is seriously impressive. They did this for their manager. Why would world-class top stars film a music video for someone Team Leader Hyun used to manage?]
[I hope Crop Five acts more from now on. I wish they would all appear in a movie about Crop Five’s life story.]
Not only Crop Five fans, but fans of other artists also gave positive reviews.
The consensus was that the acting wasn’t bad and the music video concept was good.
From that point on, we focused on redirecting the attention focused on us toward PepperMix.
PepperMix might have returned to fulfill an unfulfilled dream, but now that they’d met us, they couldn’t be satisfied with just that.
As a result of Ki Hyunshin and Crop Five providing a bit of vocal and dance guidance whenever they visited Grand Tamer, he had changed considerably.
We told him we’d help with whatever we could and to speak up if something wasn’t working well, so he frequently asked Crop Five for help.
And the members shared their know-how with him, holding nothing back.
Even with Crop Five deliberately passing on their skills, how much he could absorb was a separate issue, but Kim Taeyoung was absorbing it at a frightening rate.
It wasn’t a matter of talent, but rather an achievement born from a desperate determination that he had to do this.
The person who understood this best was Team Leader Hyun, who shook his head several times while watching Kim Taeyoung.
He said that even being generous, Kim Taeyoung wasn’t someone who should be able to accomplish this much, and wondered aloud whether Crop Five was amazing or Kim Taeyoung was more amazing, clicking his tongue.
Seeing Kim Taeyoung absorb everything so ferociously, Crop Five got increasingly excited and kept raising the intensity.
Originally, they had planned to end “Crop Five Epilogue” after helping with the music video.
But the story that followed was also quite entertaining, so “Crop Five Epilogue” continued a bit longer.
In that part, the content focused on Crop Five teaching PepperMix, and people became captivated by the sight of Crop Five coaching Kim Taeyoung’s vocals and dance for free because of their connection to Team Leader Hyun.
If there had been some other motive behind it, people could have understood.
But there was something about the way they all worked together to help PepperMix’s comeback—the painful spot for their former manager, Team Leader Hyun—that seemed to create a weighty resonance.
“Hyung. Hyung. You’ve improved so much from the beginning. But when you do the wave here, don’t move this part. Your line from here is thin, right? This could be an advantage, but it doesn’t match this atmosphere. So leave this part alone and just use your neck and this area. Try going with a stronger, rougher feel. Ah, good. Good. How’s that? Much better, right?”
Lee Dagyeong fully demonstrated his dance god abilities, holding nothing back as he taught, driving Crop Five fans wild.
[I’ve always thought of Dagyeong as cute because he’s Crop Five’s maknae, but seeing him like this, he’s incredibly professional and cool.]
└Dagyeong was always like that. At first, there was a big skill gap between Crop Five members, but Dagyeong raised everyone’s level like that. For things like this, individual effort is important, but having someone who can pull you up makes an enormous difference. Even with dance trainers, having someone who can explain things in detail makes you improve really fast. I think Dagyeong is responsible for 40% of what made Crop Five.
└I’m not particularly a Dagyeong fan, but that’s absolutely right. If I had dance skills like Dagyeong, I don’t think I could teach everything I know. Even thinking that they’re on the same team and the team’s success benefits everyone, ultimately dancing is his strength, and if he teaches everything, he’ll have nothing left to distinguish himself. Seeing him teach PepperMix, I can imagine how he’s been teaching the Crop Five members all this time. Poor maknae.
[I’m so jealous of Kim Taeyoung. Crop Five is watching him with eagle eyes. He’s getting those intense, beast-like stares all day. Ugh, I’m dying of envy.]
└Is that really just a good thing? I think I’d find it extremely burdensome. They’re looking at him with fire in their eyes to see if he’s doing well or not. Ugh, I’d suffocate in that atmosphere. When you think about it, Kim Taeyoung is really amazing too. Twenty-seven isn’t young for an idol, but he’s come back to try again, and he’s accomplishing everything they’re asking of him.
└I agree with this. Even at work, there are people you want to teach and others you don’t. And whether you want to keep teaching someone after you’ve started is another matter. But Kim Taeyoung has satisfied both conditions. That’s definitely not ordinary. It’s an extraordinary talent. A special ability.
Gradually, in this way, people began to evaluate those who hadn’t received much attention before, and that drove the popularity of “Crop Five Epilogue.”
Kim Taeyoung knew this too.
Perhaps thinking that if he did well, it would positively impact Crop Five as well, he practiced without sparing his body.
Day by day, each time we saw him again, we couldn’t help but wonder if this was really the same Kim Taeyoung we knew.
With things going this way, people started suggesting that Grand Tamer should just manage Kim Taeyoung, and Hyung expressed the same thought.
“It’s an issue we should approach carefully, though.”
Team Leader Hyun spoke without reaching a simple conclusion on the matter.
“If we’re not careful, we might repeat the same mistakes as before, and since Grand Tamer is in the absolute position of power, we also need to consider how this will look to outsiders.”
“If we were doing this out of our own greed, that might be true, but this would be more efficient for PepperMix. First, let’s talk to the artist himself and their CEO, and if they say no, we can continue supporting them like we are now.”
When Hyung set the guidelines to that extent, Team Leader Hyun seemed to think that was just right and began adjusting accordingly.
Even when Grand Tamer sent him a love call, Kim Taeyoung didn’t waver and rejected the offer.
Though he surely understood how precious the offer was, he seemed to think he couldn’t betray the CEO who had found him again.
However, his CEO said he would let Kim Taeyoung go, giving up all the costs he had put into him and all the rights he could claim.
It was such a rare scene that I wondered when I had last seen such a relationship.
He said he knew where Kim Taeyoung would bloom most brilliantly and thanked Grand Tamer for providing the opportunity.
“I never got into this business with the intention of succeeding as an agency. I was Taeyoung’s fan, and I got through difficult times in my life listening to Taeyoung’s songs. So I just wanted him to be able to continue singing for a long time. I only wanted to help make that possible.”
He was just three years older than Ki Hyunshin, and this was his first experience in the industry.
