Chapter 4: The Strange Girl (First Update, Seeking Recommendations and Bookmarks)

  Cough, thanks for Ah Dong 8888's comment, it would be even better if it were 10 points ~ (@^_^@) ~

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  The next day, Ahn Jun-hee rushed to the company early in the morning to sign a contract. Because he had taken a look at the draft the day before, he didn't pay much attention to the content of the contract this time. Among the major economic companies in Korea, S.M is notorious for being strict with trainees' contract terms. He also didn't expect to make money as a singer, so when he finished signing the contract and came out of Lee Soo-man's office, his new manager Kwon Bo-young handed him an envelope full of cash, leaving him stunned.

  "This month's living allowance, I'll give it to you in advance." Quan Baogen said with a smile, looking very pleased.

  An Junhe opened the envelope and counted it. There were exactly 100,000 won. He couldn't help but wonder: "100,000... I remember, there should only be 50,000."

  Kwon Bo-geun's smile faltered, and he stared at Ahn Jun-ho in disbelief. "Didn't you read today's contract?" Seeing Ahn Jun-ho nod, Kwon Bo-geun let out a resigned sigh. "You little brat... do you think the trainee contract is something to be looked down on? Geez! Look for yourself - living expenses doubled, guaranteed debut within two years, commercial activities during training, and the company only takes 50% of earnings as operational fees. And if you submit an original song that gets adopted, you get to keep full copyright... these are all favorable conditions I fought hard to get for you... Ugh, your attitude is really disheartening!"

  Is this considered as repaying peaches with plums?

  An Junhe smiled and watched Quan Baogen perform, then patted him on the shoulder after a while, interrupting his long complaint. "I know, thank you Uncle Baogen, keep working hard! When I debut later, if you can get me an artist contract with better conditions than this one, I'll be even more grateful to you. That's all for now, bye!"

  He said and waved his hand, turning around and leaving, with Guan Baogen calling out behind him: "Hey, where are you going?"

  "Sing it again! Sing it again!"

  Looking at his back, Kwon Bo-geun muttered a sentence: "It's really hard to understand the thoughts of this kid." He had seen many trainees who were newly selected for practice, and when they signed the contract, they showed various attitudes such as excitement, madness, or sadness. But it was the first time he saw Ahn Jun-hee, who didn't care about it at all. He himself had worked hard to get the contract from the president, hoping that this contract would be more beneficial for him and deepen his relationship with Ahn Jun-hee, making their emotional foundation stronger in the future. But unexpectedly, the other party didn't care about it at all, and his efforts were in vain.

  He shook his head, was about to return to his office, suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly shouted at Ahn Jun-hee who was about to disappear around the corner of the corridor: "Jun-hee, your vocal teacher is waiting for you in practice room 2 on the basement floor, don't be late."

  He vaguely saw him waving his hand, and didn't know if he had heard clearly or not. Quan Baogen hesitated for a moment, thinking of chasing after him, when the door to Li Xiufull's office opened beside him. In his hasty bowing, Li Xiufull said: "Come in for a minute, I want to talk to you about An Junhe's song yesterday."

  Quan Baogen was taken aback for a moment, then hastily nodded: "Yes!"

  ……

  "Studio 2... Studio 2... Did I miss something?"

  Looking around the room signs in several floors, basically all almost finished, An Junhe also did not find where the so-called second practice singing room is, dance rooms are many, most of them have people practicing inside, vaguely can hear various dance music mixed together sounds, echoing in the corridor.

  Everyone is busy, and he can't even find someone with nothing better to do to ask for directions.

  Until he turned to the third floor and still couldn't find it, preparing to go back and ask Quan Baogen again, he finally saw a girl wearing casual clothes, with her hands in her pockets, walking towards him with a leisurely pace, looking relaxed. An Junhe hurriedly stopped her, under the girl's vigilant gaze, smiled somewhat apologetically: "Senior, hello! I'm a new trainee at the company, may I trouble you for something?"

  The girl is quite pretty, with chestnut-colored curly hair simply tied back behind her head. She must have just exercised, as there are still faint sweat marks on her broad forehead. Her expression is rather cold and aloof, making her facial features appear somewhat stiff, but this does not detract from the stunning beauty that would make one remember her at a glance.

  The girl looked at him a few times, didn't say anything, just nodded and indicated for him to continue.

  Her cold demeanor seemed to be a bit arrogant... The girl's behavior made An Jun's eyebrows furrow slightly, but he was just a new trainee in the company. Even if he encountered a senior with a bad temper, he could only endure it. This wasn't just because of his upbringing, but also because he was one of the youngest trainees in the company. All the other trainees were considered his seniors, and if rumors spread that he didn't respect his elders, he would immediately be ostracized by the large group of over a hundred people, which would be very detrimental to his development.

  An Junhe remained respectful and said: "That's right, I just signed in today, I'm not familiar with this place, so I'd like to ask my seniors where the second practice room is?"

  "Learning vocal music? Practicing singing?" The girl finally spoke up, her soft and pleasant voice a stark contrast to the expression that kept people at bay.

  The huge contrast made An Junhe, who had always been mentally strong, stunned for a moment, "Ah... it's vocal music."

  Upon hearing his response, the girl turned around and walked away. An Junhe was left standing there, feeling somewhat perplexed and unable to understand what she meant. A few seconds later, the girl, who had already walked a distance ahead, turned her head and called out to him: "Come on, I'll take you there."

  An Junhe was taken aback, "Oh, thank you senior!" and hastily followed up.

  Two people, one in front of the other, silently walked through the corridors and stairways, no one speaking. The girl walking ahead was thinking about something, An Junhe didn't know what it was, he only knew that his heart was now wandering with a faint sense of conflict.

  This is the first time I've met a girl like that, saying she's enthusiastic, from start to finish, not a single smile. But if you say she's cold and arrogant, it's not entirely true, after all, she kindly took the initiative to guide him on the way, normally, even if an ordinary stranger just points out the location, it would already be considered quite enthusiastic and easy-going!

  As they walked down to the first floor in silence, Ahn Jun-hee, who didn't like this stifling atmosphere, spoke up first to ease it and asked, "Senior, when did you join the company?"

  “……”

  There was no response ahead, and the girl continued to walk with that eight-character step that always reminded An Junhe of the uncle in the neighborhood, neither fast nor slow.

  An Junhe shrugged and stopped trying, others didn't care about him, he didn't need to always try to get close, daily social interactions are not business dealings, everyone is on the same level, no one is more noble than anyone else, there's no need to lose his own status.

  A few minutes later, the girl led An Junhe down to the basement, through a narrow corridor, and not far from the door of a room with an obvious "No. 2 Practice Room" sign, he let out a sigh of relief and muttered: "Finally found it... what a long feeling!"

  When they arrived at the door, the girl raised her chin slightly, indicating that An Junhe should go in himself. As a courtesy, he bowed slightly to the girl: "Thank you for leading the way!"

  Just as I was about to push open the door, a girl's puzzled inquiry suddenly reached my ears: "You... what did you just say?"

  "Huh?" An Junhe looked at her strangely, but still replied: "I said thank you for bringing me..."

  "Not that." The girl interrupted him, her drooping eyes slightly raised, looking very puzzled. "Is... the sentence above, you seem to have asked me something..."

  "Uh..."

  An Junhe suddenly felt that his brain was a bit inadequate. Kid, it turns out you weren't ignoring me just now, but were in a daze? You can walk without bumping into walls and still accurately find your destination, all these years you've really lived a miracle!

  Not getting an answer made the girl slightly dissatisfied, she frowned at him and said in a cold tone: "Remember for next time, it's not right to ignore someone when they're asking you questions, humph!"

  With her training finished, the girl with chestnut-colored long hair flipped it back and left elegantly.

  Behind him, An Junhe was speechless with his mouth agape:

  What kind of stance can she take to say such words with a clear conscience and without any scruples?

  ……

  Lee Soo-man arranged for Ahn Jun-hee to have vocal lessons with a pop singing instructor from Starlight Academy, which is under SM. The so-called Starlight Academy is actually a training school that cultivates students' vocals, acting and dancing skills. Although it claims to be independently operated, everyone knows it's just a reserve talent pool for SM Corporation. At least, this can be seen from the fact that it often organizes students to participate in internal showcases at SM Corporation.

  Not to mention now many trainees in the company are from there.

  The teacher's surname is Li, a middle-aged woman who looks a bit stiff at first glance but has a good personality after getting to know her. She was also a classical music major and later switched to popular music halfway through. It took Li Xiuman a lot of effort to find her to teach An Junhe.

  Because of the need to switch singing methods, for the entire morning, after a brief understanding, An Junhe was re-practicing breath control under the teacher's guidance. This is a necessary process. Although bel canto and popular music share some commonalities in terms of foundation, they differ greatly in breathing techniques. To thoroughly get rid of the influence of bel canto, one must start by changing their breathing from the beginning.

  It was almost noon when class ended, An Junhe didn't go to the cafeteria, and hurried home to take care of his sister for lunch. In the afternoon, he didn't go back to the company, but continued to practice breathing exercises at home. At this point, it's not necessary for a teacher to guide him step by step, after all, he wasn't starting from scratch without any foundation, and his research on bel canto was not in-depth either. As long as he remembered the practice method, he could slowly master it himself.

  The next few days were the same, a dull and busy life, with financial difficulties at home and his sister's mental state, An Junhe was running back and forth between home and the company, he himself may not feel tired, but it made Quan Baogen very worried, every time seeing An Junhe panting and rushing to the company, hastily greeting before going down to the basement, then hurrying back home at noon, sometimes with dance classes, having to come again in the afternoon, returning home for dinner, and coming over again at night, just a few days had passed, and he had already lost a circle.

  He wanted to ask An Junhe about his financial situation several times, but never had the chance to speak up, and could only watch him overdraw his energy to barely hold on, not knowing when he would collapse.

  An Junhe also understands that his current busy life is abnormal, because his sister cannot take care of herself, and many times he doesn't even rest well at night. The overexertion of his physical strength is secondary; mainly it's the lack of rest that causes his spirit to be abnormally tense, making him feel like a tightly wound string that might suddenly snap at any moment.

  He just kept waiting, waiting for news that could thoroughly end this kind of day.

  Until that day, Ahn Jun-hee, who was practicing dance, suddenly rang his cell phone. Sweating profusely, he stopped and picked up the phone. An excited voice shouted: "Jun-hee! Jun-hee! You're really amazing, soybeans...soybeans have actually risen by over 1000 cents! Now it's $10.45 per bushel! The entire soybean market is going crazy, listen, listen to these voices."

  On the other end of the receiver came a cacophony like a shockwave, composed of various roars and wails. Then that excited voice asked frantically: "Junhe, what do we do now?"

  An Junhe could understand the other person's frantic behavior on the phone, because his heart was also racing wildly, and his chest felt like it was about to explode.

  He clenched his fist tightly, took a few deep breaths, calmed down the surging emotions, and his voice became rational and calm again. He instructed, "Brother Yingjun, start closing our positions! From today on, we're going short."