Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols - Chapter 10
Only Krnovel
| Episode 10. Monthly Evaluation (1)
Even though it was a busy day just practicing, there were many things to take care of.
The most representative one was the monthly evaluation. At the same time, a new task related to the evaluation was also given.
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[SYSTEM] ‘New task’ has been assigned.
▷ Establishing a Month-End Evaluation Plan
▷ Reward: Experience (10)
[SYSTEM] ‘New task’ has been assigned.
▷ Get a passing grade on the month-end evaluation
▷ Reward: Experience (30)
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It seems like getting a passing score is important. Even after adjusting the experience points, it still gives a whopping 30 experience points.
If you don’t pass the test, you’ve already failed to achieve your KPI. Aren’t you planning properly?
UA’s evaluation factors were vocals and dance. And recently, I have been focusing more on dance practice.
There were two main reasons for this.
First, because while I could at least pretend to sing, I had never danced in my life.
If I had two assignments, one in Korean and one in German, I had to buy a German vocabulary book first.
I was at least more confident in memorizing song lyrics than in memorizing choreography.
So I spent most of the first half of the given practice time dancing. I had successfully memorized the choreography, so I had passed the first hurdle.
Second, because the number of vocal lessons I would take before the end-of-month evaluation was expected to be less than the number of dance lessons.
This meant that the amount of feedback to hear and reflect on in class would be less than in dance class.
In fact, when I took the same class once, I got less feedback in the vocal class.
‘It’s better to learn properly from the beginning than to just act like a guest on your own.’
It’s better to have a newbie who learns one thing and does it perfectly than to have a newbie who learns ten things and then fails all ten.
Besides, fortunately, the problems that arose during vocal lessons were still within the range that I could handle on my own.
So, I diversified my investments, but I also put a few more eggs in the dance basket.
The ultimate goal was to show that I could do half the job by grabbing the weak points and pulling them up.
It was useful because once I had my bearings, I could focus on my dance practice.
The end result of all these plans was ultimately heading in one direction.
Position.
There was only one thing I was aiming for, sub vocals.
Spark’s vocals were quite solid. This was ambitiously planned by UA, a vocal powerhouse.
The group’s position balance was also good.
In the vocal line, Park Joo-woo and Jeong Seong-bin took the lead, and in the dance line, Choi Je-ho and Kang Ki-yeon took the lead.
If Lee Chung-hyun, who was in charge of rap, had just rapped perfectly and shown off his cool side, everyone would have been at peace… … .
In reality, there were a few twists and turns. The vocal difficulty of the song that UA initially gave to Spark was truly extreme.
Perhaps because they wanted to be reborn as a small but strong idol powerhouse through Spark, UA gave Spark a lot of songs that made you wonder, “How can you sing this while dancing?”
≫ UA you fucking bastards, are you enemies with Seongdae?
└ If it were me, I would have already sued UA when I got hit with 3 high notes in 4 consecutive songs.
Spark, who has a shining talent, surprisingly performed dolphin high notes and power dance every time.
In the process, Lee Cheong-hyeon had to go through four tough times, including writing lyrics, composing, rapping, and singing. Jeong Seong-bin got vocal nodules.
As long as I knew there was a chance of injury, the positional issue was potentially settled within me.
‘If I can lighten the burden of singing even a little, the members won’t have to take on four roles each.’
So I decided to prepare a sub vocal position to give the members some breathing room.
In the first place, there’s only so much I can help you with.
Once I set my goal as ‘a member who fills in the vocals without standing out as much as possible,’ the task became clear.
It seemed like I could get to the point where I only had to shed blood, sweat, and tears to become a member who only filled the vocal position.
Because among the many songs Spark will sing in the future, there were definitely parts that I could sing within my vocal range.
It’s a good thing there are only two evaluation criteria. If there had been fan service, I would have had to bite my tongue and be reborn.
No, but why don’t you check for real fan service? Isn’t this the basic quality of an idol?
I don’t know what effect Spark’s fan service has, but I do know that fans desperately wanted Spark’s fan service.
They weren’t like those guys with iron plates on their faces, so it seemed like they were trying to do something, but objectively speaking, it was just a crude attempt that was a shame to lose their face.
This is why Spark fan service is ruined, the fandom atmosphere is depressed, aggro is generated, articles are published every day, and the members are disbanding…
Thinking about it makes me feel hot again. Deep breath, deep breath.
Anyway, the remaining task is to avoid being noticed by the team as much as possible.
Among the sparkling idols, if there’s one solid member who’s squeaking, it can’t go unnoticed, so he had to practice his dance like crazy.
Once the potential conclusions have been drawn, the task of developing an evaluation plan is completed.
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[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ has been completed.
▷ Reward: Experience points (10) awarded
▷ Cumulative experience: 10
▷ Accumulated points: 0
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Now, if you collect 900,000 experience points, you can level up your dance proficiency and vocal proficiency.
The first notice was just around the corner.
* * *
Since becoming independent at the age of twenty, I have lived alone for about seven years, excluding the time I was in the military.
But there was one basic manner that I had momentarily forgotten.
The point is that when you have a roommate, you have to adjust your sleeping patterns.
Because of that, I had to pretend not to have any luck and wait for them to fall asleep.
And when Choi Je-ho and Lee Cheong-hyeon’s tossing and turning stopped, I carefully came out of the room.
The living room was dark and quiet after 1 a.m.
I decided to just turn on my laptop because I thought the whole house would be brighter if I turned on the lights.
Luckily, my agency had one installed in the dorm for video search purposes.
I wanted to use Webcell, but unfortunately my laptop did not have the NS program installed.
I was itching to upload the license purchase payment.
‘If I ever need to use it again, I’ll buy it with my own money.’
I had no choice but to open up a spreadsheet and fill in the items one by one.
The order was song title, memorizing lyrics, basics, and then total.
Next, I wrote down all the songs I knew under the song titles and crossed out all the songs for which I didn’t know more than 70% of the lyrics.
Since my time was limited, I planned to focus my resources on improving my skills rather than memorizing lyrics.
Lastly, based on the fundamentals learned in vocal lessons, each item was scored to the extent to which it was deemed appropriate to demonstrate them.
‘We need to think about methods other than simple labor-type brainstorming.’
As I was typing with my heavy eyes, feeling the familiar sense of stability, someone’s hand appeared from the darkness and tapped the side of my laptop.
When I looked up, Jeong Seong-bin was standing across the table with his eyes half-open.
Wow. You’re quite quiet, aren’t you?
“why?”
When I asked in a small voice, Jeong Seong-bin blinked and answered.
“I’m sorry to bother you. But what are you doing…?”
“I’m going to choose a song to sing during the evaluation. Should I use the living room?”
“That’s not it… … It’s late, and there’s someone in the living room.”
Jeong Seong-bin’s voice and face were filled with sleepiness.
When I looked at my watch, it was already 3 a.m.
I didn’t know how time passed like this.
Anyway, in this fucking world, prices and time are all moving ahead of me.
“I’ll finish up quickly and go in. If you wake up, go back in quickly. A good night’s sleep today will make a 180 tomorrow.”
Jeong Seong-bin, who had been nagged in the middle of the night, did not turn around right away, but instead looked at me and the clock in turn. Then he pulled out the chair across from him and sat down at the table.
“Do you have any candidates in mind?”
“uh?”
“This is a candidate for song selection.”
Jeong Seong-bin asked, rubbing his eyes.
Surprisingly, Jeong Seong-bin seemed to want to stay in the living room for me instead of sleeping.
I feel a little more at ease when I’m alone.
But no matter how much spark there was, it was unlawful to ignore someone right in front of your nose.
I showed Jeong Seong-bin a list of about seventy songs that survived the fierce survival competition.
“The grades are… … . Oh, so they’re based on what the teacher said.”
“Yeah. And mainly songs that I feel have a similar vocal range to the songs we sang in class.”
Jeong Seong-bin nodded occasionally at my explanation as he read the list. Then he muttered in a voice that clearly showed he was still half asleep.
“I think I have a rough idea of what song you want to choose. Considering the range I learned in vocal lessons, I think you can sing this song… … too. Have you ever heard it?”
“Are you trying to help me now?”
“I don’t know if this will help much, but if you wanted to choose a song you already know for fear of getting the lyrics wrong… … how about this song?”
“… … .”
“The lyrics for the first and second verses of this song are almost the same. The lyrics are also short.”
I knew that he had a very affectionate personality because the expression ‘affectionate bin’ appeared frequently in Jakon.
But I thought that was only relative to the members.
Looking at Jeong Seong-bin sleeping, I briefly wondered if it would be better to just move him to his room.
Still, I carefully received and wrote down the magical feedback.
After that, K-Pop daily instructor Jeong Seong-bin touched his lips and repeatedly marked my candidates with ○△ or added and removed songs, and selected a total of thirty songs. My batting average seemed to be around 0.41.
Even though there were guidelines, the speed at which Jeong Seong-bin could output appropriate values in a situation where conditions were suddenly set was not ordinary.
‘Seongbin hyung is a real K-pop monster! He’s practically a karaoke veteran.’
‘I even know songs that came out before I was born.’
‘Brother, do you just listen to music after eating? Ah… … Just listen to music.’
‘Then Seongbin’s nickname is Karaoke Veteran!’
After seeing it with my own eyes, I realized how scary the old man was.
I guess I had to become this intellectual to survive in the tough world of idols.
“I was wondering if we could choose one of these, but what do you think, hyung? Do you think the recently released songs would be better…?”
I could only interpret Jeong Seong-bin’s help to me as being based on goodwill.
Even if he asks me for something in return for helping him, the only thing Jeong Seong-bin can take is my organs.
Jeong Seong-bin’s personality was not that of someone who slept 4-5 hours and ate only low-calorie food all day long while dancing and singing.
At least it was impossible for me. It was even more so when I was eighteen, the age that Jeong Seong-bin is now.
I was secretly admiring the fact that this was what it took to be a leader, and then I met Jeong Seong-bin’s eyes.
Jeong Seong-bin’s eyes were wide open, as if he had just woken up.
I have seen a picture of so many cheering sticks reflected in these eyes. It was when I made a birthday advertisement to be hung at Exit 4 of Gangnam Station.
“brother?”
“Uh, uh. I’ll listen to your recommendations and then decide. Thank you.”
“No, don’t worry. Cheer up.”
Although right now, the only light is a pitch-black kitchen and dim laptop lights.
I felt the urge to ask Jeong Seong-bin, ‘Why are you so kind to even a passing idiot?’
But I held back because I thought that if I didn’t put Jeong Seong-bin to sleep now, he might grow shorter in the future.
An idol’s growth period is precious, so we have to protect it.