Chapter 7 Part 1 Pre-sale (Below) (Seeking Recommendations)

  This is today's first update, next update tomorrow afternoon, afraid of another power outage ~

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  As the most fashionable street in all of Hancheng, Gyeonguijeon was not lacking in record stores. Wonseung drove around for a bit before spotting a store with Ahn Jungho's poster plastered on its door.

  Posters are provided by the company, which is also one of the promotional methods for pre-sales. If there is no poster indicating it, who knows which store accepts pre-sales and which does not? Moreover, these types of stores are usually regular franchise stores on major sales charts. Pre-sale sales can be counted as first-week sales if the buyer pays in full and receives the album after its release.

  It was probably just before noon, and many companies had not yet closed for the day. The music store had relatively few customers, with soft music drifting out from inside. An Junhe sat in the car listening carefully to it - it was Tei's regular 2nd album "Ucu.Pra.Cacia"'s title track "A Person's Love".

  This senior singer, who rose to fame in January last year and swept the charts of various radio stations with "Love, Leave a Scent", was the hottest topic of conversation in the first half of last year. This month, he released his 2nd album, continuing his strong momentum from last year. In the first week, he returned to the stage, and by the second week, he had already taken the top spot on the popularity chart for song lyrics, even beating out the popular rock band he.Max, who was promoting their song at the same time. Additionally, Tei was also the first competitor that his company warned him to be careful of before Ahn Jun-hee's album release.

  However, there wasn't much conflict between the two sides. Tei's promotion has already reached its midpoint, and by the time Ahn Jun-ho's title track is eligible to enter the top spot, his promotional period will be almost over. He has basically received all the awards he should get and no longer has competitive power.

  At first, the company chose to launch in March, and it's not without reason. From various channels, it can be seen that only March is the month with the least competition. After March, there will be BUZZ returning, followed by last year's popular group SG Wannabe coming back with their 2nd album, and then there will be Seo In-guk, Shin Hye-sung, MC Mong, etc., and the competition will become more intense as the year goes on. It's even less possible to wait until the second half of the year. Not to mention that the company wants to take advantage of the popularity of the drama "Reply" which has not yet dissipated, but just with Baek A-yeon releasing an album at the end of June, it would be enough to cut off Ahn Jun-hyuk's path, let alone the fact that Dong Bang Shin Ki will also return to China in the second half of the year to release a new album, which is a situation where the management layer naturally wants to avoid.

  Thinking carefully, South Korea is a small country with an extremely fierce competition in the music industry. There are too many well-known singers and the market is too small, so it's no wonder that the company didn't have high expectations for his album pre-sales.

  An Junhe shook his head, dispelling the thoughts in his mind. He tidied himself up a bit in the car, put on a hat and mask, took a glance at himself in the mirror, and figured no one would recognize him. Then he got out of the car and walked into the audio-visual store.

  The snow that had been falling in Seoul for several days finally stopped today. Under the gloomy sky, it was no longer like the previous few days when the snowflakes were flying everywhere. Only a few snowflakes fell from the clouds like feathers, gently floating down in the air. The weather was still extremely cold, with strong winds blowing against my face, making my cheeks ache. As I pushed open the tightly closed glass door of the audio store, a warm gust of air rushed out, and my body suddenly felt warm, feeling much more comfortable. With Tei's rich and dense emotional voice and the fresh air in the room, a lazy feeling floated up to my mind.

  There were indeed not many people in the store. An Junhe looked around and saw that there were only five or six figures wandering between the rows of shelves. Near the counter by the door, a middle-aged man who was likely the owner was chatting with a young girl beside him in hushed tones. Hearing the sound from this side of the door, the middle-aged man turned to look over here and saw that it was a customer, so he immediately stood up and greeted with a smile: "Sir, do you need anything?"

  He didn't react much to An Junhe's weird outfit. The weather was cold and it was the peak season for flu, so such an outfit was nothing out of the ordinary.

  An Junhe lowered his voice and said: "Just now I passed by outside, I saw a poster of An Junhe's pre-sale, can we accept pre-orders here?"

  "An Jun-he?" The boss was taken aback, then quickly reacted and laughed: "Ah, is that the uncle from 'Sorry, I Love You'? Yes, we are a Hanteo Chart affiliate store, absolutely authentic. In fact, you can tell from the poster outside, it was sent by SM Company overnight, the contract has already been signed, pre-orders will definitely be counted towards sales..." After boasting for a while, the boss enthusiastically asked: "...How many copies would you like to reserve?"

  "Eight copies." He had originally wanted to buy more, and with his wealth, he could have easily splurged on himself to get first place in the first week without any problem. However, thinking about that kind of pretentious behavior, he really couldn't bring himself to do it. So, he just ordered eight copies - one for himself, one for Zhi Xiu, and the rest for Tae Yeon and YoonA as a memento of buying his own album for the first time with his own hands!

  "Alright, the deposit is 2,000 won per item, for a total of 16,000... Also, please leave your contact information so that our store can contact you to pick up the album when it arrives on March 1st."

  After paying the money, An Junhe took the card handed over by the boss and wrote down his mobile phone number. After everything was settled, the boss instructed the young girl to go inside and fill out a pre-order form, and then use this pre-order form to pay the remaining payment and pick up the goods with the receipt.

  Taking advantage of the cashier's absence while filling out the receipt, An Junhe chatted with the boss, "How's the pre-sale of this album going?"

  Maybe it's just a new business, the boss is in a good mood, and upon hearing this, he smiled and said: "It just started pre-selling this morning, how can you know if it's good or not so quickly? Moreover, most of the students and young people who are the main buyers have already started school and work, so how can we tell how the pre-sales are going...". He glanced at his watch, "...hmm, it's almost time for a break, let's wait until everyone has some free time to see."

  An Junhe nodded, and then stopped asking more questions, turning to inquire about other singers, especially Tei's sales. A singer's album sales, retailers are the first to handle it, and they know best whether it's hot or not. After chatting for a few sentences, the young girl who had gone into the back room came out with a completed pre-order form, let the boss sign it, and handed it to An Junhe. The girl curiously asked: "Are you also a fan of Uncle?"

  "Hmm..." An Junhe was taken aback for a moment. The term "big uncle" was only used by his fans to address him in such a familiar way. He didn't expect the girl who had been quiet until now to be one of them. He nodded slightly, thickening his skin as he said, "Yeah, I really like the TV dramas he's acted in."

  The girl smiled and saw a customer on the other side bringing over a record, the middle-aged boss went to settle the bill, she quietly approached, whispered: "Is there a membership account for 'Anjia Xiaozhu'?"

  An Junhe found it a bit strange and didn't know why she was asking this, he did have the membership account of Anjia Xiaozhu, but it wasn't convenient to say it out loud, that ID was really too eye-catching, so he shook his head: "No!"

  The girl suddenly looked a bit disappointed, "No... sigh!"

  "You're asking this, is there something going on?" He was a bit curious.

  "The... " The girl hesitated for a moment, then looked at the pre-order card in his hand, seeming to have made up her mind. She whispered: "Since you've pre-ordered eight tickets and look like a nice uncle, I'll make an exception and tell you, but don't go spreading it around..."

  She leaned in close to his ear, the proximity of their bodies making their actions somewhat surreptitious, and her soft whisper took on a conspiratorial tone: "......We're planning a big move!"

  "Huh?"

  Before An Junhe could ask any questions, the wind chime at the entrance suddenly rang out, and the two of them turned their heads to look. They saw a group of more than ten girls, still wearing school uniforms and carrying backpacks, running in panting, and before they had even stopped, one of the girls called out towards the counter: "Is there a pre-sale for uncle here?"

  With a nudge from her companion, she said, "Tell the uncle that he doesn't understand, it's An Junhe, boss. Can we pre-order a set of An Junhe here?"

  "I've seen the poster, it must be true!"

  "The uncle on the poster is so handsome."

  "What a pity! I didn't get to see the MV. Why don't those music channels play it at noon? It's really!"

  “…………”

  A group of girls chattered and laughed, the quiet store suddenly became lively. The boss who had just finished settling accounts on the side was taken aback, then hurriedly came over with a smile all over his face: "Yes yes yes, we are..."

  The girl who shouted at the beginning waved her hand with a lot of momentum: "No nonsense, 2 tickets per person!"

  "Ah......" Boss's mouth was agape, one person two sheets, the girl in front of him had... more than a dozen, that means... his heart suddenly fluctuated violently, stunned for a moment, boss's face, which was originally passionate, smiled almost to the back of his ears.

  At the same time, An Junhe looked at these girls in shock, turned his head to look at the girl who had previously revealed that she had a big move, saw her smiling and looking over with excitement in her eyes, and somewhat understood something...

  ……

  As soon as class was over, Yoon-ah hurried to the company and pulled Tae-yeon, who was already practicing at the company, and rushed to a nearby audio equipment store.

  "Yuner, what are you doing? The cafeteria is about to open for dinner soon."

  "Eating is minor, rushing to the top is major, hurry up!"

  She dragged Taeyeon, who was bewildered, all the way to a shopping mall and found an audio-visual store with Ahn Jun-young's poster on the door. The girl immediately ran inside. However, it seemed like they were still late, as soon as she pushed open the door, she saw that the store was packed with people. The originally spacious passageway between the shelves and counters had already formed two lines of queues, mostly consisting of girls in school uniforms or young men and women in work attire.

  "This is...". Taeyeon stared blankly at the scene in front of her, momentarily dazed, before snapping back to reality a moment later. "What's going on?"

  She doesn't often buy albums, but occasionally when she goes to the mall to shop, she'll pass by some music stores. She's never seen it so crowded before and can't help but wonder if some heavenly king of singers has released a new song?

  It seems that there is no other way to interpret the current sluggish Korean music industry.

  Seeing her surprised look, Yun'er next to her was giggling and just about to speak when she suddenly heard someone in front complaining: "What's going on today? Even settling the bill is so difficult, did Xu Taizhi release a new song or something? Why are there so many people."

  "It's not Xu Taizhi." A girl wearing a female high school uniform in front of him turned around and smiled with a hint of pride, "It's the pre-sale of our uncle's album!"

  Uncle?

  That person was a bit bewildered, not knowing which singer it was, but Tae-yeon, who was queuing behind him, felt a sudden jolt in her heart. As far as she knew, the only one who could be called "uncle" by fans was Jun-hyuk hyung, and what's more, it was the day of his album pre-sale, wasn't it?

  She stared at Yoon-ah with wide eyes, and the girl flashed a smile at her, her small tiger teeth sparkling under the intense lights of the store.

  Moreover, what she didn't know was that this kind of queueing phenomenon wasn't just limited to the store she was in. In this shopping mall, and even throughout Hanzhong and Gyeonggi Province, many stores that had obtained pre-sale qualifications all had similar situations to varying degrees.

  A thunderous "god-making" movement initiated by fans themselves is slowly unfolding!