Episode 56. Sunbaenim (5)
As soon as Kang Dae-oh saw Kang Yera, who was initially disheartened, he thought:
‘Did her mom scold her, perhaps?’
Min Seung-yeon happened to be in the kitchen, preparing dinner.
Kang Dae-oh quietly walked towards the kitchen first.
“Did you scold Yera today, by any chance?”
“No?”
“Then why is she like that?”
Min Seung-yeon also shrugged her shoulders up and down once, saying she didn’t know why.
“I don’t know. She’s been like that ever since she came home after filming. Even when I ask her what happened, she doesn’t answer.”
“······Really?”
It wouldn’t be because she fought with her sisters.
Kang Yeyoung was away from home because she had a local shoot since yesterday.
Kang Yebin was still filming in the US, so there was no one who could have caused trouble with Kang Yera last night.
Kang Dae-oh hadn’t said anything harsh to Kang Yera either.
On the contrary, Kang Dae-oh, as a father, had only given her positive words, saying he would continue to support his daughter.
However, today’s Kang Yera was so disheartened that Kang Dae-oh’s previous words of encouragement seemed meaningless.
Min Seung-yeon was thinking, ‘Won’t she just cheer up on her own with time?’, but…
If she had any worries.
Kang Dae-oh wanted to listen to his daughter’s concerns right away.
He worried that neglecting her might negatively affect the Gayoyeoljeon recording, which Kang Yera had so hoped to appear on.
Considering this point, Kang Dae-oh decided to speak to Kang Yera first.
“Yera.”
“······Dad? When did you get here?”
“A moment ago. About 5 minutes ago?”
“I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else for a moment, so I didn’t even notice you came.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
How deep must her worries be that she didn’t even notice her father coming home, despite being in the living room?
At this point, Kang Dae-oh genuinely started to worry about Kang Yera.
“Do you have something on your mind?”
Without beating around the bush, Kang Dae-oh directly asked Kang Yera about what she was worrying about.
Kang Yera showed a moment of internal conflict, wondering whether to tell her father or not.
Then, Kang Dae-oh brought up another topic.
“They say that just by confiding your worries to someone, their weight lessens.”
“······.”
“So tell Dad. Dad is incredibly good at listening to people. Our daughter knows that too, right?”
Running a business had made him accustomed to listening to people.
Even before business, Kang Dae-oh was more of a good listener than a good talker.
This was a strength of her father that Kang Yera knew well.
Did her father’s words move Kang Yera’s heart?
Kang Yera started with a deep sigh.
“It’s because of the broadcast.”
“If it’s the broadcast······ are you talking about Gayoyeoljeon?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Is it because the people you’re competing with have such big names, and you feel pressured by that?”
If that were the case, he was going to comfort her by saying there was no need to worry. He would tell her that if it was a battle of skill, his daughter could do well enough.
However, the reason for Kang Yera’s worries that spilled from her lips was due to someone completely unexpected.
“I don’t know what to say to Harin sunbaenim.”
At the time of the first Gayoyeoljeon recording.
Kang Yera felt the mindset she had when she debuted as a rookie singer after a long time.
That’s because among the singers appearing here, there was no one who was her junior.
In fact, the place was filled with people whose careers and achievements were so great that Kang Yera wouldn’t even dare to look them in the eye.
Kang Yera, along with Harin, went around the waiting rooms for the first time in a while, starting a greeting tour to their sunbaenims before the recording began.
“Hello, sunbaenim!”
“Oh my! Look who it is? It’s Harin! And next to her······ Yera! It’s Kang Yera, right?”
Kang Yera replied with a bright smile, her tone expressing honor.
“Yes, that’s right, sunbaenim!”
“My goodness. How can both of you be so cute? Maybe it’s because I always record with old folks, but with you two here, the atmosphere itself feels so much brighter?”
“Sunbaenim, you’re still young enough.”
However, she shook her head vehemently, denying Kang Yera’s words.
“I’ll be turning 40 next year, what do you mean? Compared to you two, I guess I have nothing to say even if I retire right now.”
Harin smiled bitterly.
“There you go again. There are still so many fans who want to see your stage, sunbaenim. You shouldn’t say such things.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course! Both me and Yera, we’re big fans of sunbaenim. Right, Yera?”
Kang Yera nodded vigorously, as if strongly agreeing with Harin’s words.
These weren’t empty words to make the sunbaenims feel good; they came from the bottom of her heart.
To that extent, Kang Yera genuinely liked all the sunbaenims appearing on Gayoyeoljeon.
Before regression, she wouldn’t have even dreamed of setting foot in this program.
But now, Kang Yera had risen to a position where she could stand on the same stage as those called legends.
That meant all the efforts she had put in during her past days were not in vain.
Perhaps because of that, Kang Yera resolved to prepare diligently, determined not to cause any inconvenience on a stage with them.
A little while later.
With the announcement that filming would begin soon, Kang Yera went to the stage with Harin.
There were a total of 7 teams participating in Gayoyeoljeon.
It was a survival format where teams were ranked each week, and the last-place team was eliminated. Even if a team took first place this week, they couldn’t let their guard down.
Because. If they took last place in the next week’s recording, they would be immediately eliminated, regardless of their past first-place record.
It was a place where only skill was evaluated.
However, looking at the individual members, it wouldn’t be strange at all if anyone got eliminated or if anyone took first place that week.
Perhaps that’s why.
Teams that came in last place and had to face the bitter cup of elimination didn’t show much resentment.
Everyone was just too good.
The eliminated teams were also good, but they didn’t fall because they were bad. They fell because other teams were too good.
Because this perception was strongly ingrained, there was no lingering regret even when eliminated.
Viewers also did not make any evaluations that the eliminated teams lacked skill.
The stages of Gayoyeoljeon were truly a collection of “another class” artists.
“Sunbaenim.”
Just before the filming began.
Kang Yera quietly called Harin with a small whisper.
As Harin turned her head, Kang Yera, with eyes full of determination, said:
“We, we must win this time.”
Let’s start as spectacularly as possible.
This was Kang Yera’s first goal within Gayoyeoljeon.
Then Harin also nodded vigorously, deciding to actively participate in Kang Yera’s idea.
“Alright. Let’s do our best.”
“Yes!”
These two, brimming with youthful ambition.
However, they had no idea at the time that this very ambition would later hinder them.
Gayoyeoljeon gives a specific theme to the challenging teams in each episode.
Since they had to prepare their stage according to this theme, it was no exaggeration to say that the teams’ preparation status was determined by what theme was assigned each week.
Therefore, the theme presented each time was always important to them.
The MC stepped to the center of the stage and revealed this week’s theme.
“This week’s theme is······ it’s probably been a while. Please reveal it!”
With the MC’s shout, a phrase appeared on the large screen installed above the stage.
[Freestyle]
“You can decide freely.”
Was it to accommodate the newly joined Kang Yera and Harin team?
This time, instead of a complex and difficult theme, a theme was given that allowed them to prepare their stage freely.
For a freestyle theme, most teams tend to prepare a song genre and stage that they are most confident in.
Or an experimental stage.
It was usually one of the two.
The decision for this rested solely on the participants’ will.
The production staff did not interfere at all. Even if they wanted to interfere, they couldn’t control participants of this level to their liking, so interference was strictly prohibited.
It was a golden opportunity for Kang Yera and Harin.
It was their first battle, so it could have been a difficult week. But thanks to a situation where they could proceed as they wished, they felt greatly relieved.
Each team was provided with a separate meeting room.
Kang Yera and Harin immediately moved to the meeting room assigned to them.
As soon as she opened the door, Kang Yera’s gaze quickly swept across the entire meeting room.
Cameras everywhere she looked.
Cameras everywhere she looked.
It was full of cameras.
There were at least 7 visible with the naked eye.
Adding the 2 home cams placed on the table, nearly 10 cameras were arranged in this small meeting room.
That showed the production staff’s intention to film Kang Yera and Harin’s team a lot.
As celebrities, isn’t it their duty to achieve results commensurate with the high expectations of the production staff?
Harin had the same thought.
“Shall we choose a song first? Do you have anything in mind?”
Harin gave Kang Yera the first choice.
Then Kang Yera, in turn, yielded her choice to Harin.
“Please choose, sunbaenim. I’ll follow you.”
“I don’t have anything in mind right away······.”
While a freestyle theme is good for having no limitations, conversely, it also has the disadvantage of not being able to find direction.
Still, because they had monitored all the previously aired Gayoyeoljeon broadcasts, they had a general idea of what kind of stage to prepare and could grasp the direction.
The judges who evaluate and score the Gayoyeoljeon stages are not expert evaluation panels. They are the audience who come to the live recording.
To create a stage that satisfies them, it is necessary to appeal to the tastes and preferences of the general public.
“Should we go with a popular idol style?”
“Idol feel, you mean······.”
“How about a dance song? Both you and I have a lot of experience with dance songs. And if you look at the songs currently ranking on the music charts, they’re quite fierce, or rather······ dance songs with a ‘I’m the best’ vibe are very noticeable.”
It wasn’t a bad choice.
It was trendy.
However, Kang Yera felt that while preparing a stage to impress the audience was important, pursuing a stage that they could truly love and enjoy seemed more desirable.
It wasn’t just any stage. It was her first stage to be performed on the Gayoyeoljeon program she admired.
But she couldn’t easily open her mouth.
Because Harin already had ideas for how to decorate the stage rapidly forming, one by one, in her mind.
This hesitation was precisely.
The cause of Kang Yera’s current worries.
