Chapter 146

Yoo Won-Dong pondered about this request for a bit. Siren was asking for a meeting all of a sudden, and he couldn’t easily decide whether he should accept this meeting or not. It was because he had a lot to think about but hadn’t organized anything inside his head yet.

‘Moreover, why do they want to see me...?’

Yoo Won-Dong felt conflicted about this whole situation. First of all, he was certain that Siren was the one who issued these articles. The timing was too perfect for it to be anyone else. And regardless of who was behind all this, he had no idea why those guys would send out an article complimenting him when he never requested them to do such a thing.

There weren’t many possibilities he could think of, and Yoo Won-Dong repressed his groan by pressing his temples.

“Tell them to come in.” In the end, he decided to meet Siren.

***

“Director Yoo says it’s possible to meet all of you. You can go in now,” the employee at the front desk told us, and we all got up from our seats.

“Then, I hope your meeting goes smoothly.” After the Next Wave employee backed away, my members and I got on the elevator and moved up to the tenth floor where the director’s office was.

Sigh.

“Will we be able to do a good job?” Do-Seung asked, sounding uncharacteristically nervous.

“Don’t worry. It will be all right.” Woon comforted Do-Seung.

Dong-Jung appeared unfazed, and Yeon-Hoon looked resolute.

“No need to be worried. We just need to say our stance as artists of this company,” I said.

I didn’t have a big goal for today’s meeting. The purpose of today’s meeting was only to get closer to Yoo Won-Dong and build a friendly relationship with him. Of course, we wouldn’t really become

‘friends

’; I mean, what would we do after becoming buddies with a man thirty years older than us? This was all surface-level stuff, and right now, we needed to firmly express our stance without going overboard.

‘Will we be able to not cross the line...?’

All in all, we needed to win this battle of nerves. Right now, all Yoo Won-Dong wanted to do was latch a string of achievements under his belt. He wanted the projects with his name in the headlines to achieve great success so that he could rise in the ranks of his company. It was fine that he had so much passion for his work, but...

‘He’s going in the wrong direction.’

And that direction didn’t favor us. Thus, we needed to have a good talk with him.

Ding.

It was then that the elevator stopped at the tenth floor.

“Let’s go.” My members and I got off the tenth floor and walked to the director’s room. I knocked on the door and heard Yoo Won-Dong say in a friendly voice.

“Yes~ Come in~”

We entered the office.

***

Yoo Won-Dong stared at the Siren members who came inside his office. He thought this whenever he saw them but they were like fetuses in his perspective. Even the oldest member among them was twenty-three, Yeon-Hoon, and the youngest was underage. It gave him a strange feeling to be interrelated with guys who were his nephew’s age with business matters.

“Wasn’t it tiring to come all the way here? Do you all want something to drink? Juice? Cola? Or water?” he asked.

“Ah, I’m fine,” Tae-Yoon said.

“Ah, is that so? What about everyone else?”

“We are also fine.”

“Haha, that’s fine. Then, I will drink a cup of coffee.” Yoo Won-Dong maintained his friendly smile and treated the Siren members like important customers. Siren sat side to side on the sofa for visitors and Yoo Won-Dong sat at the main seat.

“How is the new dormitory we provided for you all? Is it adequate?” Yoo Won-Dong asked. He judged that these guys wouldn’t be used to business-like conversation yet because of their age. Thus, he planned to first talk about daily life matters and focus on making small talk.

“I chose the TV myself to install at the dorm~ Since you all are the representative idols of our Next Wave, I know you will need to monitor shows constantly. Isn’t it nice because it’s so big? Haha!”

But the moment Yoo Won-Dong tried to stir the conversation to the TV, Tae-Yoon spoke. “We didn’t come to talk to you about the TV model, sir.”

Yoo Won-Dong was a bit taken aback for the youngest member to take charge of the conversation in the most business-like manner.

“We wanted to...have a meeting with you because of this article. We would like further explanation about this.” Yeon-Hoon pulled out his phone and showed Yoo Won-Dong an article. It was an article about a possible collaboration with JayQueen.

“Ah, what about this collaboration? Are you interested in it? If you are, we could immediately push it forward. Should we go on with it?” Yoo Won-Dong’s face brightened, thinking that Siren members came rushing to him because they liked his idea. He was about to feel embarrassed about himself for really expecting such guys to discuss business matters when Woon spoke next.

“No. We came to ask why our opinions weren’t considered for such a big matter like a collaboration.”

Yoo Won-Dong halted then. It was as these guys said. Though collaboration was a big matter, the company had made its decision without any input from the main people affected. This action could easily be interpreted as undermining their artists.

‘We didn’t tell them that we personally made this happen though,’

Yoo Won-Dong thought. Though it might sound unconvincing, he could shift the blame as they hadn't told Siren that it was the company that released these articles. He thought he still had room to escape from this situation and tried to change the topic when Do-Seung stopped him.

“I hope that we will not be excluded from important decisions from now on. Since this is our career on the line, we think we should be involved in the decision making process as well.”

Then, Dong-Jun added more forcefully. “This collaboration could’ve become our debut album. Next time, please ask for our input.”

Yoo Won-Dong was at a loss for words for a moment. It was true that it was the company’s mistake not to consider Siren’s opinions.

‘...But why are they so rude...?’

They didn’t have the proper attitude when relaying their thoughts. Regardless of what they were saying, Yoo Won-Dong was their great elder in terms of age, and this wasn’t the proper way to address their boss and superior. Thus, he opened his mouth to say his objections.

“First of all, this collaboration news doesn’t have anything to do with us. I suspect that a journalist simply made a reach when they saw that our marketing team shared a JayQueen’s post on a social media site,” Yoo Won-Dong said.

To start his rebuttal, he needed to tell them that it wasn’t the company behind the collaboration news. Though it was a lie, that wasn’t the important part. If he lost in this argument, these kids would continue with their strong-headed attitude, and to prevent that, he needed to take the lead and put them in their place.

Then, he planned to tell them that it wasn’t proper for them to only pour out their thoughts to their superior like this. He would teach their positions clearly and then, take a more gentle approach. After all this, he would tell the members they weren’t going forward with the collaboration, and that they should go back now. He would end the meeting by saying that the company would prepare their debut album well, so they had nothing to worry about.

It would be all in that order—at least, that was what he thought before Tae-Yoon spoke, “Ah, so the company doesn’t have any connection with the collaboration? That’s a huge relief, director.”

“...Hm?” Yoo Won-Dong, who had been preparing to give his big speech, stopped.

“Truthfully, we thought things were truly hopeless if the company had really sought out a collaboration with JayQueen.”

Yoo Won-Dong barely repressed his anger then.

“It will be difficult to bridge the wall between the Waacking genre and the holistic image of the group, Siren.”

‘Waacking...?

’ Yoo Won-Dong didn’t know what that was. All he knew was that JayQueen was a famous dancer who was good at dancing.

“We thought if the company really planned our collaboration with JayQueen and spread the news, the company failed to grasp even a little bit of what our group was.”

Yoo Won-Dong silently glared at Tae-Yoon. Tae-Yoon’s way of speech was a tactic he was very familiar with.

‘He’s making snide comments...about me...’

Aware that he had lied, Tae-Yoon was insulting him right to his face. Yet, Yoo Won-Dong knew that things would turn worse if he got angry here. He forcefully repressed his anger and made it his priority to change the main topic. What was something that could change the topic and befuddle these guys at the same time?

‘Ah, I can use that.’

After being backed into a corner, Yoo Won-Dong’s options appeared limited, and he couldn’t think well. Thus, he ended up bringing out the worst card he could.

“...Besides that, in this article congratulating Siren’s birthday, there was something about me. I don’t recall telling you all to reveal the fan song on one of your birthdays...Did you request this article to be published?”

When he said these lines, he knew he had made a mistake. Yet, he couldn’t take back his words.

“Ah! You mean that?” Tae-Yoon immediately latched onto the opportunity to begin speaking.

***

Yoo Won-Dong brought out what I wanted to mention on his own, and I, of course, had no intention of letting this chance go to waste.

“We personally requested some journalists to post that for us. Truthfully, we also came here to tell you about these articles.”

Yoo Won-Dong probably hadn’t decided yet whether this article was attacking or supporting him. Though this article spoke in his favor, he was likely suspicious of what its intention was since he never gave such a command. Though he suffered no losses, it was understandable that he would also feel uncomfortable by it. Thus, I was sure that this question about the article would pop out if he felt even the slightest bit psychologically cornered.

‘So, he really asked about it.’

He asked about the article mid-conversation and thanks to it, I was able to say the lines I prepared for.

“Since the company provided our dormitory and car and cared for us in so many ways, we didn’t want to get all the credit for everything good that was happening to us,” I calmly said my lines while looking into Yoo Won-Dong’s eyes. “So, although we might have been going a bit overboard, we wanted to make the story also about how the company helped us. We will only be able to do well if the company also does well.”

As I was saying this, I knew Yoo Won-Dong would have a difficult time making sense of what I was saying. I simply sounded like I was saying we should share what was good, but someone with quick wits like Yoo Won-Dong probably caught onto another meaning behind my words and was feeling conflicted over it. Thus, I spoke my real intentions more blatantly.

“Going forward, we will continue to work hard in our work, and I will be grateful if the company continues to support us like it has been doing. Then, we will continue to say in our interviews and broadcast shows that the company takes care of us well and the director provides the utmost support to us.”

Yoo Won-Dong probably got a clear sense of what I was saying now.

“Ah...like right now?” he asked.

In other words, that meant: ‘

Don’t do anything. We will take care of our matters and you guys should support us from behind accordingly. If you do that, we will make sure you can get your credits and achievements.’

Yoo Won-Dong’s face stiffened noticeably, but he immediately changed his expression again and said, “Hahaha. We didn’t even do much for you. Many fortunate events happen because we have such talented artists. Hahaha!” He laughed boisterously.

Was he really that pleased?

‘Your eyelids are almost spazzing,’

I thought. Yoo Won-Dong appeared to be so furious that the skin under his eyes was trembling.