The Road to Glory Chapter 201 - [Side Story] Chapter 3. wave_r

‘Is it okay to come in like this?’

Jang Jinsoo had doubts about his qualifications when he received the acceptance necklace—or rather, the intern necklace—after going through a simple interview that barely qualified as one.

Though he hadn’t worked before, so he didn’t know the details.

This position might be desperately wanted by someone else.

Getting into the A&R team as the youngest member without going through difficult tests or pressure interviews—he couldn’t help but think he was a parachute hire.

The so-called interview only consisted of questions about when he could start working and if he was busy today. Since they didn’t ask anything else, he confessed first that he had to go to school starting in March.

“Korea National University of Arts? Oh my, you got in? Congratulations.”

“Huh? Yes. Thank you.”

“It feels like just yesterday when you were in middle school, and now you’re already a college student…”

And that was the end of their reaction.

‘Is this company really running properly?’

Having previous part-time job experience, Jang Jinsoo knew this definitely wasn’t normal.

Surprisingly, the company ran well.

Whether it was always like this or because Halo had returned, the label regained its vitality. The PR team member who had grabbed Halo while crying was now saying:

“Yes, reporter.”

“What? Sunyeon, what did you say? There’s a tip that Halo was seen at some high school graduation ceremony? No, what are you talking about? How could Halo, who’s in LA, be in such a place? We’re quite taken aback too. Reporter, you didn’t contact us about such an absurd thing, did you?”

She showed acting skills worthy of a Hollywood audition, and

“Welcome, boss. We have some interesting potential recruits—”

“Boss, about the new content planning—”

The employees continued active communication with their boss who was much younger than them.

Jang Jinsoo was honestly intimidated by such proactive and professional staff.

“There’s a content planning meeting on Monday morning, until then—”

“What?”

“What’s wrong? Do you have questions?”

“No, it’s not that. Can I join too? Is it okay for me to join?”

“Yes. Of course.”

Team leader Kang looked at him as if wondering what the problem was.

“In our label, all employees must attend meetings.”

“…”

Though he received an intern necklace, he wondered if it was okay for a part-timer like him to attend such meetings.

Even though he learned a bit from the hideout hyungs, he didn’t know professional terms.

And if he made any mistakes, wouldn’t it be awkward for Roh Haeil too?

“Will I be helpful?”

Kang Yeongmin finally realized why Jang Jinsoo was hesitating.

He let out an ‘ah’ and scratched the back of his head. He pondered how to answer the question.

It was the same concern he had when he was scouted by Halo back then.

And it was also something many people in this company—especially those not majoring in this field—worried about.

What should a leader do in this situation?

Some would encourage based on their experience, some would persuade with eloquent words.

And some might not even allow such doubts with their strong charisma.

However, Kang Yeongmin didn’t belong to any of these types.

Rather, he was more of a freelancer style who just did his own thing.

Thinking he really wasn’t leadership material, Kang Yeongmin responded as kindly as possible.

“Whether you’ll be helpful or not, we’ll find out at Monday’s meeting.”

Maybe the answer wasn’t great.

But he would find out on Monday.

That content planning meetings might not be as special as Jang Jinsoo thinks.

A meeting where anyone can pitch ideas.

No matter how far-fetched or funny those ideas might be.

In fact, Halo rather enjoyed such absurd things.

He would find out on Monday.

That being helpful isn’t as difficult as he thinks.

Of course, this doesn’t seem to be helping the current Jang Jinsoo at all.

He just nodded with a very tense face.

Wondering if he wasn’t helpful enough, Kang Yeongmin started explaining about the work anyway.

#

“Hello, I’m Jang Jinsoo, intern from the A&R team.”

And at 9 AM.

Though the meeting was scheduled for 9:30 AM, the formal Jang Jinsoo bowed 90 degrees to people starting to enter the meeting room.

With his very tense face. And people who knew he was just twenty years old, the same age as the boss, looked at him adorably. Though called a parachute hire, most H label employees were actually brought in by Halo and could be considered parachute hires. It was harder to find someone who came through normal routes.

Moreover, since people Halo brought in usually handled their work sufficiently or even better—seems like the power of fan dedication and very high salary(!)—there was trust in boss’s judgment.

Unlike Jang Jinsoo who was nervous about making mistakes in his first meeting, the employees thought he would do well enough. His nervous appearance reminded them of their own younger days and looked cute.

“Jinsoo, hi!”

“You seem unnecessarily tense.”

“Hyung!”

Jang Jinsoo’s face brightened somewhat at the sight of familiar faces.

Since the Monday content planning meeting was managed by the content planning team, the planning team leader brought up the agenda.

“Halo has two NuTube channels, right? He said he wouldn’t merge them, and we planned based on that. How about utilizing the ‘wave_r’ account, also known as ‘waver’, which is Roh Haeil’s account?”

With the development of NuTube, many celebrities use NuTube to show their lives or their own content.

Celebrities could freely show content they couldn’t do on broadcasts, and fans could see their beloved stars more often, making it a win-win channel that could satisfy both sides.

Even before being Halo’s employees, and even now, employees who wanted Halo to have more exposure hoped he would utilize his channel more.

Especially people who were fans before Halo’s coming out secretly regretted that the existing Roh Haeil channel was being neglected.

The Halo account has music videos and new albums uploaded.

The Roh Haeil account—despite having an enviable number of followers—only had the original videos.

The suggestion to utilize ‘waver’ came from such regrets. And they decided to be a bit more ambitious.

“Since Mr. Halo said he’ll release an album under Roh Haeil’s name this time—”

‘Oh really?’

Jang Jinsoo suddenly looked up.

Since he released Halo’s 14th album, he thought he would continue activities under the name Halo.

As if it was already agreed upon, Halo nodded.

“How about reviving waver? By creating original content to upload on waver.”

“What kind of content?”

“We had several opinions from our side.”

When Halo nodded, the planning team members started speaking one by one.

“We thought it would be good to make more original content? Something that can be shown continuously. So how about a talk show that can show human relationships like what ‘Liv’ does on NuTube?”

“Or how about showing a completely free life? Like with a title ‘Star’s Vacation’—. One day going to Japan for sushi, another day going to Italy for pasta.”

“Oh, that’s good. Sometimes riding a yacht too. Introducing vacation homes.”

“Could you give me everything from here to there? How about that?”

Then one by one they started speaking up.

“I think it would be good to show Mr. Halo doing something he’s never done before. Like gaming or cooking.”

Jang Jinsoo was surprised that the meeting content wasn’t as difficult as he thought. Sometimes, they even suggested quite outlandish ideas.

“How about something completely fresh like playing guitar in zero gravity?”

“No one has probably done that before.”

“Might even get into the Guinness Book…”

They laughed and chatted together.

Then came a moment when everyone became quiet.

Because they ran out of ideas.

That’s when Halo, who had been quietly listening and responding to jokes, smiled and spoke up.

“Seems like there’s someone who hasn’t spoken yet.”

Jang Jinsoo unconsciously tensed up.

That bastard, no, that boss surely isn’t calling me. On my first day. When I really don’t know anything.

Jang Jinsoo denied reality but accepted it when his eyes met Halo’s.

Judging by his expression, rather than caring for someone who hadn’t spoken, he seemed to find it fun making them uncomfortable.

Jang Jinsoo thought ‘that bastard’ internally, but decided to confess first.

“I—”

People’s attention turned to him.

Actually, something had occurred to him while listening to the employees’ brainstorming.

He had stayed quiet, thinking they must have already discussed it.

Since nothing else came to mind, he finally spoke up.

“Maybe others have already thought about this, but when I think of Roh Haeil, no, Halo, there’s only one thing that comes to mind.”

“Music.”

It might be obvious, but it really was like that.

The life of Roh Haeil that Jang Jinsoo had seen was filled with music.

Precisely from when they met in Hongdae until now, continuously.

While seeing Roh Haeil gaming or cooking might be interesting and fun for some, for Jang Jinsoo, Roh Haeil doing music was the most interesting, enviable, and admirable.

Could you say that Roh Haeil couldn’t be explained without music, and a version of him without it was simply unimaginable?

It might be cliché.

Everyone might have already considered it.

So to add a bit more to his opinion.

“If it were me, I’d be most curious about seeing Roh Haeil creating his next album. Ah, not that I’m not curious about other aspects.”

Though he accidentally called boss by his name, Jang Jinsoo didn’t notice people’s sharp gazes due to his nervousness.

“Or, um… how about producing for people like me who love music but aren’t good at it? Like for people who appeared on ‘Show Your Show’. Though it might not be profitable since he’s like a machine churning out songs alone—some people snickered—for me it was the most meaningful time…”

Honestly, Jang Jinsoo didn’t know what he was saying. At some point he started rambling and lost his point. People’s expressions seemed to be hardening.

Was it really such a foolish opinion?

“Roh Haeil… Boss just doing music seems most convincing…”

Silence fell.

Jang Jinsoo hoped anyone would say something.

Even if Roh Haeil said something this time, he would really be grateful.

That’s when it happened.

Halo slowly lifted the corners of his mouth.

It didn’t feel like he was teasing, but rather like something pleased him.

When Jang Jinsoo blinked, Halo spoke.

“I like it, what do you all think?”

It felt like frozen time had thawed.

“Nothing more to say.”

“Good.”

“Young brains are really something.”

“We’ve gotten too used to big scale things.”

The heavy atmosphere dissipated instantly.

Moon Seoyeon smiled brightly at Jang Jinsoo, and Han Jinyeong gave him a thumbs up.

The PR team member, who was said to be a former fan club executive, hit her forehead.

“I lost my beginner’s mind. I’ll reflect on that.”

The content planning team leader shouted “Wait a moment” urgently and started writing something on the PPT.

Jang Jinsoo was confused about what was happening.

That’s when Kang Yeongmin, sitting next to him, patted his shoulder.

“Well done.”

“What?”

“Maybe artists understand each other?”

Something seemed to have happened.

Somehow in a positive direction.

People seemed to be reviewing his opinion positively.

“Then shall we create content showing the making process from next album planning to release?”

“About producing… Mr. Halo meeting amateurs. Could go the healing camp route, or make it more intense. Everything sounds too good?”

“Let’s record that source and use it later. For now, let’s focus on daily reality. Can’t be all over the place.”

Suddenly people started adding new ideas or supplementing my idea from here and there.

“How about adding reality elements to the making video? Not just MV behind-the-scenes. Really showing everything from A to Z. From a composer’s agony to how much effort and manpower is needed for an album to be completed.”

“Mr. Halo’s… agony…? But daily reality would be good. There’s steady demand for it.”

“Expanding it into a format like ‘Home Alone’ or ‘The Omniscient Point of View’ might not be bad either?”

“What should we title the content? How about ‘Smart Music Life’ that’s trending these days?”

“Or like ‘Parent’s World’ that was once popular—how about ‘Halo’s World’?”

“World, huh.”

At that moment, everyone’s mouths closed.

This time it wasn’t because they agreed with the title, but because a title had crossed their minds.

“Did only I just think of our content title?”

“I think I thought of the same thing.”

When they hear ‘world’, there’s one thing they think of first.

Moon Seoyeon’s favorite song and the song of ‘waver’, no, ‘Roh Haeil’ that we’re focusing on now.

“Welcome to my world”

Welcome to my world.

Someone spoke these words that were essentially this content’s identity.

There was no opposition.