It was content the members had discussed among themselves before being summoned to the company. According to Jion’s memory, even after receiving the song that would be their career high, the CEO didn’t make any particular investment in the group. Though it was annoying, as the CEO said, it was a situation where individual efforts from each member were needed to survive.
“A YouTube channel?”
The CEO frowned upon hearing Ryu Geon’s proposal.
“Doesn’t that cost money?”
“Ah, no it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
Eungi quickly waved his hands.
“Rather, if the views blow up, it generates revenue.”
“Really?”
At the mention that it wouldn’t cost money while generating revenue, the CEO changed his expression as if tempted.
“Then before you guys do that, can’t we make a channel for our Sori or Eunsil first? I think they’d get more views.”
“……”
Did he recruit an idol group or company employees? The members momentarily turned serious at the CEO trying to extract ridiculous exploitation. The one who could ease this tense atmosphere was Jion, who had spent 7 years not even as a subordinate (eul) but as a third-class subordinate (byeong, jeong).
“Ah, but since the seniors have class… YouTube content for kids is a bit…”
“Is that so? Well, those guys do have a different target audience.”
“Yes… nowadays content is a bit frivolous, isn’t it? For people like the seniors who sing songs with weight, seriousness… and the depth of life, it seems a bit unsuitable.”
“Mm. Well, yeah. Idol songs are just too light…”
“Right.”
Jion matched the CEO’s mood with a bright smile, like at a company dinner during contract renewal season.
“Well. Adult songs are songs you can’t sing without real depth.”
“That’s right.”
“The experience that comes with years, you can’t ignore that.”
“Exactly.”
“Back in the day…”
With the kids standing there, the CEO went on for nearly 30 minutes about his heroic tales of who he discovered and how, and who worked the night stages for how many years. During that time, Jinyeong’s expression crumbled several times, but Eungi diligently pinched his side so he wasn’t caught.
“Alright then, the vigor of youth! Youth! Passion! Huh? With that kind of thing, do well! If you need help, speak up!”
It meant only to speak up. The members left the CEO’s office with no expectations.
“Seong Jion really hangs in there well.”
In the car on the way back to the dorm, Jinyeong clicked his tongue. Eungi also clicked his tongue at Jion’s smiling face.
“On-hyung, why don’t you try acting?”
“What acting would I do?”
Jion tickled the back of Seonwoo Jin’s hand, who looked exhausted, and laughed.
“Acting is for someone with visuals like our Woojin.”
“Ah, again, what, even visuals…”
Caught off guard by the compliment attack, Seonwoo Jin couldn’t hide his laughter. At that blatant expression, laughter bloomed in the car, and riding the softened atmosphere, Jion proposed to the members.
“Then before we make our channel, how about we all change our styles?”
It was a chance he’d been waiting for a long time. Originally he planned to wait until the single came out before making changes, but the plan changed after unintentionally going viral. An opportunity to naturally propose a styling change and one the company would accept.
“I want to get our faces known before the next promotion.”
A merchant who doesn’t want to make money.
An old person who thinks they should die.
A nobody idol who says they don’t need to blow up.
What do they have in common?
They’re all talking bullshit. It’s not like they’re exhibition nuclear submarines—how could there be a nobody who doesn’t want to blow up, who shouldn’t blow up?
At Jion’s words saying they want to get their faces known so please cooperate, all the members happily agreed.
“Well. I thought my hair was getting too long too.”
“I wanted to try dyeing.”
“A perm might be good too.”
The members couldn’t hide their excitement as they talked about the styling they wanted one by one, but among them, only Seonwoo Jin sat quietly without saying anything. He wasn’t someone who didn’t know that in this group, his face was the most competitive, so it was strange that he was keeping his mouth shut.
“Woojin, don’t you have any styling you want to do?”
“Me? I’m going to show my forehead and get a root perm, like we decided.”
At Jion’s question, Seonwoo Jin answered as if it was obvious. It was exactly the hairstyle Jion had proposed in the practice room. Since he didn’t expect Seonwoo Jin to accept the advice so readily without resistance, Jion was inwardly flustered.
Was this kid this easy to handle?
Jion reflected on his past self, no, his pre-regression self. If he’d known he was this easy, he would have gotten close to him earlier, coaxed him well, and confiscated his phone. But fortunately, God gave him another chance, and this time Jion was confident he would do really well.
“Then won’t you stand out too much by yourself?”
“Ey…”
Jion acted hurt and played cute, and it hit Seonwoo Jin’s taste perfectly. Since he was actually aware that he was the best visual in the group, he didn’t even suspect there might be any intention behind Jion’s compliment and powerlessly blushed and felt embarrassed.
Thus BNCZ pursued a visual innovation under Jion’s not-really-a-scheme scheme. That said, they didn’t do anything obvious and expensive like cosmetic procedures. Not only would the company not support that much money, but they didn’t need to go that far.
Originally, even if older people’s sense was a bit old-fashioned, they had an eye for picking out conventional handsome men. BNCZ’s CEO was like that. The members he personally selected were faces that wouldn’t be out of place anywhere in their raw state, so just giving them slight changes could have quite a big effect.
Leader Ryu Geon revealed his features with modest hair styling to match his affable impression, aiming for the ‘meeting-the-parents free pass look,’ and Jinyeong cut his awkward shoulder-length bob short and added bangs. Eungi, who wanted a flashy color befitting the maknae, bleached three times to put in pink.
Originally, an idol group needs to have at least one flashy hair color.
Jion was very satisfied with Eungi’s hair color, recalling the period when they were active. Jion himself also changed his image by dyeing his hair a light brown, which was directly accepting advice he’d seen in some comment.
“If he changes his hair to a lighter color and gets a perm in his bangs, he’d look delicate and pretty”
The result of accepting the comment’s suggestion as-is was amazing.
“On-hyung, you’re the prettiest I’ve ever seen!”
“What’s ‘pretty’ for a guy, it should be handsome.”
Ryu Geon corrected the words in an old-fashioned way at Eungi’s fuss. Jion could hear Jinyeong, who was listening from the side, pointing out that you shouldn’t use such biased language these days, but it didn’t register well in Jion’s ears. He quite liked his appearance in the mirror, so he didn’t have time to pay attention to anything else.
Would there have been more reaction if I’d tried dyeing once back then?
Jion habitually regretted his flop idol days, then quickly snapped out of it. Hadn’t he dyed his hair now to prevent that from happening? And now it wasn’t just him but all the members who changed their styling. With even his secret weapon Seonwoo Jin, what was there to fear?
And after the members gathered and had a brief meeting, their first content was decided to be Eungi’s vlog. Other than Eungi, none of the members were familiar with digital devices, nor were they talented at walking around holding a camera while talking to themselves.
“I think I can do well!”
Eungi challenged it with maknae-like enthusiasm, and the result seemed not bad.
『Helloooo, BNCZ’s maknae, Eunki here!』
Eungi’s vlog started with a cute voice whose pronunciation was all mashed up from excitement. The 15-minute vlog didn’t contain any particular content.
He wakes up with bird’s nest hair and greets the camera, shows around the room once, then films Jinyeong still lying in bed. The sight of him sleeping with his upper body bare was impressive. The camera comes outside and shows the back of Ryu Geon preparing breakfast, then attempts an interview.
『What’s today’s side dish?』
『What are you doing hahaha!』
Ryu Geon’s appearance being embarrassed even though he obviously knew what was happening was quite watchable. The picture of his solid build wearing an apron was also quite nice.
However, today’s video highlight was neither Jinyeong’s back showing lean muscles that looked thin when clothed but muscular when bare, nor Ryu Geon in a neat apron that didn’t match his hearty impression.
『Woojin-hyung, On-hyung… what’s this?』
A strange picture was captured on Eungi’s camera when he went in to wake up the two hyungs who were still sleeping.
『Mm… Eungi?』
『Why are you two like this here? On-hyung’s bed is the top bunk.』
Along with Eungi’s bewildered voice, what appeared in the video was the bottom of the bunk bed, with two adult men crumpled lying on the narrow bed. To be precise, it was an affectionate appearance where Seonwoo Jin’s one arm was wrapped around Seong Jion’s waist, who was pushed toward the wall, and the arm underneath seemed to be giving Seong Jion an arm pillow.
It looked like lovers hugging and sleeping together no matter who saw it.
Most viewed scene 5:52
Since ancient times, in the idol fandom, if two decent-looking guys were stuck together, they squeezed oil even from stones. No matter how much BNCZ was a nobody idol in their second year who’d only gone viral once, the sight of a handsome man and a pretty-looking man lying closely together in a dim place was enough to bring hot reactions.
Bullshit Expert @Ssapsori_special
Going viral and then solidifying with BL couple vibes, the determination is really legendary ㄷㄷ
Frozen Goldfish @Cold_Gold_Fish
It’s too contrived
BL couple score -50 points, determination score 10 points, visual score 100 points
I give you a total of 32,000 points
Ansan Thug Water @dkstksRkdtodtn324
Why are male idols’ BL couples so fierce these days
The screenshot of the two lying together in Seonwoo Jin’s bed spread in an instant to all kinds of female-dominated communities and SNS. It was a direction Jion hadn’t intended.
“…They’re not watching what they should watch and watching weird things.”
Jion, who was sitting in the practice room checking the vlog’s reaction, sighed. The reason Jion had subtly pushed toward a vlog among the many content proposals at the member meeting was to show the shitty appearance of the dorm by entrusting the filming to Eungi, who was thoughtless and only cheerful.
The CEO was greedy for money but also subtly cared about his reputation. Jion had planned to naturally make it a public issue by exposing this dorm with mold, tattered door frames, and peeling wallpaper in the vlog.
At least let’s say we should change this moldy wallpaper, if nothing else.
However, unlike Jion’s modest and sinister plan, the cruel eyes of the public didn’t reach places like the poor dorm environment of a nobody idol. BNCZ was still too much of a nobody to show them affectionate interest or concern. The public’s attention only briefly stayed on the members’ faces and then disappeared.
“No, but why were you two like that? Were you aiming for something?”
