<Episode 38>
“Hello? Yes, Secretary Han.”
Cain, who was sprawled out in the dorm after having too much fun at the company dinner, answered the call from Han Suseok.
“Yes.”
The other members, who were also sprawled around the dorm, gathered around Cain one by one.
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
Cain hung up the phone.
“Secretary Han? What’s up?”
“He said we’re going to make goods, and asked us to draw something.”
“Huh? Draw? Us?”
“Yeah.”
The expressions of the Spade Joker members darkened instantly.
“What kind of drawing?”
“He said to draw animals based on our faces. They’re going to make dolls out of them.”
“So… they’re going to make dolls based on drawings we make?”
“Yeah… We can’t give something that shabby to our fans.”
Heeseo said with a distressed face.
“Let’s just try drawing first.”
The members of Spade Joker sat around in the living room, spreading notebooks and paper around them.
“I can’t even get started.”
Ding.
A notification rang on Cain’s phone.
He picked it up and checked it.
“It’s a message from Secretary Han.”
“Huh?”
“What did he say?”
Entering the message window, Cain saw photos that Han Suseok had sent.
“These are photos of other idols’ dolls.”
“Let’s look together.”
They gathered closely as if drawn by magnets and carefully examined the pictures.
“Looks like they usually draw animals that fans say they resemble.”
“Yeah.”
“But what animals do fans say we look like?”
At Leejoo’s question, silence fell over the dorm.
“I don’t know.”
“Me neither.”
Not long ago, they didn’t even have social media accounts, and because company rules told them not to look at such things, they hadn’t seen anything at all… so they didn’t even know what fans compared them to.
“They did tell us at fan sign events, but since there were so many, I can’t remember.”
Because they met so many fans in a single day, there was actually too much information.
“Then should we ask the fans?”
“That’s a good idea.”
“I’ll ask.”
Juseok wrote a post on their official account.
“Everyone! How are you? We had a great time at the company dinner yesterday and are now resting at the dorm. Then, suddenly, we thought of this question… what animals do our members resemble?”
As soon as the post was uploaded, comments flooded in like crazy.
↳ Why ask something so obvious? I’ll summarize it. Cain is a cheetah. Juseok is a weasel, Zen is a fennec fox, Sora is also a fennec fox, Leejoo is a red panda, and Heeseo is a cat.
↳↳ What? Zen is a cat!
↳ Were you curious about that? So cute.
↳ Cain isn’t a cheetah; he’s a tiger.
↳ Juseok isn’t a weasel, he’s a marten. They’re slightly different. Juseok has big feet… martens have big paws.
↳↳ What? Juseok is an otter, though.
↳ Why is Leejoo a red panda? Wasn’t it a raccoon?
Spade Joker became even more confused after reading the comments.
Even the fans disagreed among themselves.
“Let’s just pick one from these.”
At Juseok’s words, everyone nodded and opened their blank notebooks.
“Even if we draw badly, they’ll make it cute, right?”
“Let’s believe that.”
***
Eventually, the recording ended well past lunchtime.
“Good work.”
“Thank you.”
As I was about to head home after exchanging light greetings, PD Yoo approached me.
“CEO.”
“Yes.”
“Great job today. The reality program is in its final planning stages, so we’ll show it to you soon.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. I think the ratings will go up a lot thanks to you.”
PD Yoo said with a bright smile.
“I’ll treat you to a meal next time.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
After saying goodbye, I was about to leave the studio when I saw Han Suseok.
“What are you doing? I gave you a task.”
“I did it in your waiting room.”
I had planned to send him home, but being so diligent, he chose to stay and work instead.
‘Being too diligent is also a problem.’
“Still, I’m your secretary. I should escort you home.”
“Alright.”
At this point, sending him away had no benefit, so I decided to just ride in the car he drove.
I was also exhausted from the long recording.
‘It would feel pretty empty if you filmed this long and ended up with no screen time.’
Having now experienced it myself, I could understand how painful it must have been when Spade Joker filmed for hours back when they weren’t popular, only to barely appear on broadcast.
“CEO.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve delivered the drawing request to Spade Joker, and I’ve also compiled and updated the goods list.”
“Alright. Thanks.”
“You’re heading home, right?”
“Yeah.”
I had briefly considered going to the company, but then Han Suseok would likely stay as well, so it seemed better to just go home.
We arrived at my house.
“Han Suseok, you should go home too.”
“Yes.”
“See you tomorrow. It’s your day off, good work today.”
After sending him off, I went inside, grabbed my tablet, notebook, and pen, and immediately left again.
I could work at home, but being human, I found myself getting lazy. Still, going all the way to the office felt like a hassle.
So I chose the café in front of my house.
“One iced Americano and one blueberry scone, please.”
Maybe because I talked too much during the recording, I was hungry.
As I handed over my card, I felt the part-timer staring at my face. I wondered if something was on it and touched my face.
“Oh, sorry. I saw you on YouTube yesterday.”
Only then did I understand the meaning of the gaze.
“I see.”
The part-timer processed the payment and handed back my card.
“Please take a seat, I’ll bring it to you.”
“Thank you.”
I put my card back in my wallet and sat in the most secluded corner of the café.
Since I wasn’t someone who enjoyed going out, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of being recognized.
‘I should probably avoid going out for a while.’
I took out my tablet and started writing a reply to Kang Woojin.
It wasn’t anything particularly important, just a brief explanation of what kind of album we would produce.
Explaining how their song would be included and how the album would be made might seem trivial, but it was important.
This was my own way of building trust with composers.
It was probably around the sixth iteration.
After requesting a song from a composer, I ended up explaining the album concept, track arrangement, and follow-up plans… and that positively spread through the industry.
Thanks to that, I gained a good reputation among composers.
Since then, no matter who I worked with, I explained the album concept and production plan.
‘If you think about it, it’s only natural. What creator wouldn’t be curious about how their work will be presented to the public?’
“Your Americano and blueberry scone are ready. The pudding is on the house.”
“On the house?”
“Yes. I became a Clover fan of Spade Joker this time.”
I already knew through social media that Clovers’ attitude toward me had changed.
But this was the first time I encountered one in real life.
It felt… new.
“Thank you.”
“It’s a bribe to take good care of our boys.”
The part-timer gave a light bow and returned to the counter.
I didn’t usually like pudding, but for some reason, I reached for it first.
‘Sweet.’
As expected, it was very sweet.
I didn’t particularly like sweet things, yet I kept eating and drinking Americano in between whenever it felt overwhelmingly sweet.
‘Ah, wait. I was supposed to let Spade Joker listen to Composer Maru’s songs yesterday. I completely forgot.’
There wouldn’t be any issue showing them a few days late, so I decided to contact them tomorrow and have them come to the company when they have time.
‘First, I should find a designer for the goods.’
Since the members weren’t particularly skilled at drawing, I needed a talented illustrator who could refine their work into something high-quality.
So I browsed portfolios on related sites and started narrowing down candidates.
Bzzzt.
A message arrived from Han Suseok.
It contained six photos.
‘They finished the drawings faster than expected.’
The photos were drawings by Spade Joker.
They were scribbly, like something drawn by elementary school students, but each had detailed notes written beside them explaining what they intended to express.
‘Cain is a cheetah, Juseok is an otter. Zen and Heeseo are cats, Sora is a fennec fox, and Leejoo is a red panda.’
It was slightly different from before.
‘If I remember correctly, Juseok used to be a weasel, and Leejoo was just a panda, not a red panda.’
But that change wasn’t particularly important.
Right now, the priority was finding someone skilled enough to turn these drawings into dolls that fans would actually want to own.
‘It might be nice to keep these photos and reveal them later. Fans would be happy to know how serious Spade Joker was about making these dolls.’
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