The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 130

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Former Idol’s Indie Band Hard Carry
Episode 130
Jo Hyun Seop watched that day’s video over and over again.
Sky Way Music Festival.
The stage of Oktatop, captured directly by his own camera.
Countless people running and shouting.
That sight of them calling out those kids’ names.
It was strange.
He’d watched stages countless times throughout his life.
He’d raised first-generation idols, stepped onto overseas concert halls.
He’d been through every ordeal imaginable.
He’d thought that by now, no stage could make his heart race anymore.
Usually his appreciation ended at grasping the level of what he was watching.
But then.
Those five kids who emerged from the container waiting room and captivated the masses.
That raw stage had made his long-weathered heart beat again.
Oktatop had something special.
And the people who recognized that specialness were beginning to approach through Jo Hyun Seop’s channel.
At first it was domestic broadcast and advertising inquiries.
These were the kind of steady calls he always received, so handling them was straightforward.
But after a few days, foreign languages began mixing in.
—I’d like to connect with OKTOP’s management representative.
—We’d like to have OKTOP appear on our broadcast.
—Can we discuss OKTOP’s overseas schedule?
Offers from abroad.
The Fire Truck performance challenge made its way around the globe.
When Fire Truck’s audio source was used rampantly in short-form videos, it made another round.
Like a snowball growing as it rolled across the earth, the popularity was surging with an endless stream of overseas offers.
Jo Hyun Seop flipped through the emails one by one.
Among them were entertainment agencies whose names alone were recognizable, and famous broadcast networks as well.
Of these, several.
There were a few broadcasts that Jo Hyun Seop was paying attention to.
If they showed a good performance there, Oktatop’s popularity would grow to a level incomparable with the present.
His long experience was catching a glimpse of that future.
Until now, Oktatop had gotten by without a company.
He drove them, arranged their schedule, sometimes even handled filming, and attended meetings with them.
All without any compensation.
But that was enough.
The essence of indie lay in that extravagance and the romance that came with it.
And for the freedom to move about, this way was actually better.
But now.
It was impossible for him, an aging man, to handle this volume of contacts alone with a single phone.
Traveling around with Oktatop was fun, but there was no helping that his stamina was falling behind.
Jo Hyun Seop looked back at the pile of emails.
He felt a sense he’d buried long ago stirring back to life.
Producer.
CEO.
Those names that once called to him.
A Band Boom was coming.
Oktatop had opened that door, and the world was walking toward it.
The five kids couldn’t be left to handle this current alone.
“…Should I do this again?”
Jo Hyun Seop felt something that had grown cold slowly warming up again.
* * *
A few days after the festival ended.
Our boss called us together.
It was the gathering of that promise to “just grab a meal.”
“Wow, boss—what kind of place is this?”
The place we’d gathered was a Premium Beef Restaurant not far from ST Studio.
How is he planning to handle five twenty-year-old guys like us?
I roughly knew this guy had money.
But even so, it was an incredibly expensive place.
I know because I’ve earned and spent money in my past life.
“Wow! Beef!”
“Awesome! Cool!”
“I haven’t had beef in so long….”
“This is a place I come to often with my family.”
These guys have no concept of money yet, so they’re just excited.
Once we were seated, the boss took care of the order himself.
And the portions were quite generous.
“Eat plenty.”
“Thank you so much!”
“We’ll dig in!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
God, I hope this is okay. This alone seems to be running about a million won.
“Wow…. I’m having beef for the first time….”
“Really?”
At Heo Jun Sung’s words—his eyes glistening—Lee Do Young was taken aback.
“Yeah…. So this is what it tastes like….”
I was taken aback too, but thinking about his family situation, it made sense.
As we continued our happy meal, the boss set down his chopsticks.
“Do you guys know you’ve been getting a lot of calls from overseas lately?”
“Really? Did the audio source hit number one again?”
“No, not that. Fire Truck’s doing well, right?”
“Yeah, is it?”
It was actually hard to sense.
This was a time when Koreans couldn’t find information about the audio sources in short-form content or check their rankings.
But in the West and China especially, short-form platforms were already trending early.
People in our country used those platforms too, but the perception wasn’t very good.
The most important thing was that none of our guys used that platform.
So there’s no way we’d know how famous we are overseas.
“So what? Are we going to the United States?”
“Not right now, but….”
Boss Jo Hyun Seop maintained silence for a moment.
“I’m thinking of starting a company again.”
“Oh!”
“Really? No way?”
“I see.”
“The legendary return…. How interesting.”
The words I’d been waiting for finally came from the boss’s mouth.
It was later than my expectations and sooner than my predictions.
“I thought it’d be better to manage you guys properly.”
“That’s great! If it’s with you, boss, we’re totally on board!”
Lee Do Young was thrilled.
The others all showed positive reactions too.
The only one who didn’t answer was me.
“You’re quiet, Seo Ha.”
The boss asked me, and there was one thing I wanted to confirm.
Jo Hyun Seop is a capable man.
It’s been long since he left the entertainment industry, but many current players still recognized his talent.
And it was clear he possessed considerable capital.
The boss’s ability is outstanding, but for us to work together, we need to be aligned.
“We want to stay an indie band, boss.”
At my words, the boss let out a small laugh.
“Kid, if I couldn’t give a damn about that, would I be trying to work with you guys?”
He already knew I was going to say something like this.
“To manage guys as reckless as you lot, you have to give them autonomy.”
“Huh? Boss, reckless? That’s just free!”
“Same difference.”
The boss gave Heo Jun Sung a lecture as he mumbled his response while chewing meat.
“Anyway, if I was going to mess with the music itself, I wouldn’t have brought it up.”
It was a satisfying answer.
“But you’ll have to do some broadcast appearances.”
At the word broadcast, the guys started kicking up a fuss.
Some weird broadcast, they said they didn’t want.
Cameras scared them.
One of them asked if they could just appear on music-related shows.
And there was even a weird question about appearing on Japanese broadcasts.
The boss, of course, didn’t bother responding.
I pushed through the noise the guys were making and answered while looking the boss straight on.
“Sounds good. Let’s do it.”
That’s how things were decided in an instant.
A small record label.
A vessel that would now hold Oktatop and the band scene to come was about to be created.
“Alright! To celebrate starting the company!”
Heo Jun Sung raised his glass dramatically.
“That’s soda, dumbass.”
Amid the noisy laughter.
I clinked my glass and glanced at the boss.
It was a face that looked genuinely happy for the first time in a long while.
* * *
A few days after the company dinner.
We decided to go over the detailed company matters one by one while preparing the paperwork for the Popular Culture and Arts Planning Business.
Since we’d done a verbal agreement, we needed to work through the details step by step.
Jo Hyun Seop sat in the ST Studio office, staring at the monitor.
The screen showed a clear view inside the studio.
Beyond that, Oktatop was making music as usual.
Cha Seo Ha gave direction, and Heo Jun Sung implemented it.
Kim Ji Hu tapped the keyboard with a furrowed brow, then shook his head as if something didn’t sit right.
Cha Seo Ha said it was good enough, but Kim Ji Hu didn’t stop.
Kang Min and Lee Do Young sat on the couch, giggling and waiting for their turn.
Park Min Ji, who’d been watching the screen beside him, spoke as she rested her chin in her hand.
“It’s amazing every time I watch.”
“What is?”
“I’m amazed at how they do it like play, yet such great songs come out.”
“That’s just how those guys are.”
“But boss.”
Park Min Ji’s eyes sparkled.
“Are you really starting a company? With Oktatop?”
“Did the kids tell you?”
“No, those papers over there….”
Park Min Ji pointed at the stack of documents set in the corner.
“Hey. You shouldn’t be looking at your boss’s things.”
Jo Hyun Seop scolded Park Min Ji, but the cunning part-timer didn’t even bat an eye.
“See? I told you I’d be the one to keep those guys in line!”
“Yeah, you did say that.”
Park Min Ji shrugged and puffed herself up with pride.
“But it’s unexpected.”
“What is?”
“You said before you were sick of this business and would never come back.”
…….
“So why did you change your mind?”
Jo Hyun Seop kept his eyes on the screen for a moment before choosing his words carefully.
Once upon a time, the stage was just calculation.
How many people to draw, how much to earn, what to put out next quarter.
A world that only showed in numbers.
But then.
“When I saw those kids on stage, I oddly remembered the old days.”
“The old days?”
“The old days when I first started doing this.”
In the monitor, Cha Seo Ha’s face broke into a wide smile as he slapped hands with the members.
Those pure faces.
Jo Hyun Seop overlaid his own face from long ago that he’d lost onto theirs.
And he longed.
To be among those young people.
Not as a helper standing to the side.
He wanted to burn everything of himself once more.
Even at his age, he wanted to run until the day he died.
Because that was youth, and that was romance.
“Oh, you found your original passion?”
“Something like that.”
Park Min Ji giggled as she looked at Jo Hyun Seop’s glowing profile.
“Then you’ll hire me as an employee at that company later, right?”
“Do your job right first, then we’ll talk.”
“Ugh!”
Park Min Ji pouted and soon turned her gaze back to the screen.
That small noisy room beyond the studio.
Park Min Ji imagined what would happen when the band scene’s troublemaker Oktatop and the legend of the past came together.
With such grand thoughts, she wore a happy smile.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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