Chapter 42: Seniors (Part 1) (First Update Seeking Recommendation)

  First update 4K, seeking recommendations ~

  Thank you for the reward from fellow student Cui Tong! Thank you for the rating vote from fellow student Jian Mie Shen Feng!

  ============

  On the second day of January 2005, the snowstorm suddenly stopped. The city, dressed in silver and white, shone brightly under the morning sun. Ahn Jun-hee, who was used to exercising in the morning, took Tae-yeon, who was dressed like a little penguin, for a run around the fence of their residential area. He apparently overestimated the girl's physical strength, and after just a few laps, Tae-yeon collapsed pale-faced on the shaded path at the back of the residential area, refusing to get up.

  "Didn't you say you wanted to lose weight? Exercise is the most effective way to lose weight, you have to persist, grit your teeth and persist! You can do it!" An Junhe said as he jogged around her in small steps, exercising continuously while cheering her on.

  "It's no use... *pant*... really can't do it, let me rest for a bit..." The girl's hair was disheveled, and her small face, hidden in the puffy down jacket, was deathly pale with not a hint of blood color.

  "This is the first extreme, break through and it's over, come on, come on! The more you rest, the more tired you get!" He went to pull her.

  "No...!" The girl struggled.

  "Oh, it's so heavy, you must be over 100 pounds!"

  “…………”

  An Junhe turned around and ran, with Tae-yeon, who had just been complaining of fatigue, hot on his heels, shouting loudly: "Ah, An Junhe! Stop right there, I'm going to kill you!!"

  Snowflakes fall from the branches, and a day's life unfolds in lively pursuit.

  After running and breaking through two limits, the girl who was exhausted finally went home to have breakfast. Let her stay at home and rest, while An Junhe went to the company alone.

  Currently in Korea, New Year's Day is not particularly popular, but many businesses have also made it a day to promote goods, and have hung up promotional banners. Even SM Entertainment is no exception, with staff arriving early to hang up several large posters on the front of the building featuring Ailee, BoA, TVXQ, and him, Ahn Jun-hee.

  The poster uses a cover photo he took for a magazine last time, with a dark-colored Western-style room as the background. The intricate thorn carvings are wandering on the walls and the edges of the fireplace, with a half-curtained window on the side, and a beam of light shining in. The contrast between light and dark is extremely strong due to the film-like quality. He is wearing a black suit, sitting lazily on a thick earl's chair behind the beam of light, with one hand holding the armrest and the other supporting his chin, his fingers slightly curled up to cover his philtrum, revealing only half of his face, with deep and profound eyes that give people a great sense of impact.

  After the release of this cover, it was highly sought after by fans and received many accolades in the fashion world, who considered him to be the most suitable star for dark tones, with a natural temperament.

  But at that time, looking from afar, the poster was waving in the wind, with phrases such as "Happy New Year" written in Korean, Chinese and Japanese, which gave me a strange feeling.

  Today is still a rest day, and there are many fans who don't have to go to school gathered at the front gate. Ahn Jun-hee doesn't know if he has his own fans inside, but he's not daring to get close, so he quietly goes around to the back door to enter. That place is still the territory of private fans, but what's different from before is that now he also has private fans.

  "Uncle! Uncle!"

  Even though he was wearing a hoodie and a mask, the girls still recognized him from afar and ran over excitedly, cameras flashing away. They asked him what TV drama he would be filming next after "Sorry, I Love You", or worriedly advised him to wear more layers so as not to catch a cold. One girl even pulled out a thermos of hot milk tea from her bag.

  An Junhe didn't quite like private fans before, but when he had one too, he could understand why celebrities both loved and hated them. Because when they weren't disturbing the celebrity's private life, they were really lovely, caring about you through thick and thin, and as long as you weren't heartless, it was impossible not to like them.

  Just like now, An Junhe had no choice but to put on a cold face towards them, and reluctantly took the cup of milk tea, chatted with them for a while, took a few more photos, before waving goodbye and entering the company.

  All the trainees are on holiday, and this morning is very quiet, with only a few employees walking back and forth. When they see him coming from the back door, they all greet him respectfully.

  "An Junhe, good morning! The director of the department has arrived. He instructed earlier that if he sees you, to let you go to the office to find him."

  When he passed by the front desk, the receptionist greeted him respectfully and said.

  "Got it, thank you!"

  An Junhe politely replied and went upstairs directly.

  Recently, due to his outstanding debut performance, the company gave him a generous reward. As his agent, Kwon Bo-geun's position in the company also rose with the tide. Just a few days ago, he was promoted to deputy department head. Although the position has only advanced one step, and the actual power in his hands is still the same as when he was the room leader, but his salary and office treatment have suddenly increased by one level. Now, his office has also been moved to the fourth floor with the best lighting, spacious and bright, much more comfortable than the original small room.

  When Ahn Jun-hee arrived, Kwon Bo-geun was in the office talking to a middle-aged man. Seeing him come in, he quickly stood up and introduced: "Jun-hee, this is Teacher Yi Yong of Yi Yong Town. Brother Yi, you've met Jun-hee before, so I'll be counting on you to take good care of him when we make the album."

  Under Guan Baogen's indication, An Junhe bowed respectfully: "Teacher Yu, please take care of me from now on!"

  He nodded in greeting, taking a quick glance at the middle-aged man in front of him. His first impression was that he didn't look particularly impressive - wearing a grey sweater, with slightly dark skin and thinning hair, an ordinary-looking uncle who could be seen anywhere in the neighborhood.

  But it was this person, together with Lee Soo-man, who created H.O.T and led the first wave of K-pop to sweep across Asia, followed by S.E.S., Shinhwa, TVXQ, and every other group that achieved great success in the company, all of whom relied on his behind-the-scenes support.

  Up until now, he is not only a heavyweight producer within his company but also in the entire K-pop scene in Korea.

  This was An Junhe's first time seeing him, recalling that when he still had a good relationship with Li Xiuman in the past, the company had arranged for An Junhe to learn from him, but after their emotions broke down, that learning opportunity naturally became an illusion.

  He glanced at An Junhe with a slight slant, and the seemingly ordinary Yu Yong Town immediately revealed his years of power cultivation in this simple small action. His expression was not cold, but also lacked enthusiasm. When he heard An Junhe's greeting, he nodded: "Public is public, private is private. Since I promised to help you produce an album, external factors won't be considered so much. What needs to be taken care of will naturally be taken care of. I heard that the two main songs were written and composed by yourself?"

  "Yes, Teacher Yu!"

  "Is it done?"

  "Not yet."

  Yu Yongzhen looked up at him and said, "I've heard the short piece 'Lies' you composed before, it's not bad. I also listened to 'One Minute One Second' on Mid-Autumn Festival. Both of them are sentimental songs with a consistent style. Although I have reservations about your composition skills, there's no doubt about your songwriting level. So I'm not worried about the first single 'One Minute One Second', what I'm worried about is how good are the dance tracks you've made?"

  These words of obvious distrust were spoken very bluntly, but indeed as he said, public and private are separate, he was just questioning from a personal perspective and did not completely deny it due to the bad relationship between the two parties.

  He had anticipated distrust from him, so he wasn't surprised and calmly replied: "The song is also a HIPHOP song, the style is black punk."

  "Black punk?" Yu Yong Town furrowed his brow, this genre mostly belongs to the minority, and the term "black punk" is rarely used. Most musicians just consider it a combination of death metal and dark atmosphere, with the main characteristics being extremely gloomy melodies and irregular playing without rules.

  But An Junhe said to make it a dance track, probably just wanting to try combining punk and HIPHOP, he had some interest in his heart, of course, only a little. After frowning, he nodded indifferently: "Finish writing the dance track as soon as possible, let me take a look first. Since I'm producing this album, sometimes don't mind my harsh words. If I think that song is no good, I'll definitely cut it out. You'd better be mentally prepared."

  "Yes, everything is as you command!" An Junhe said respectfully, seeing him wave his hand, seemingly not wanting to talk more, and bid farewell to leave, returning to the work studio to continue writing songs.

  About half an hour later, it should have been Quan Baogen who had just sent Yu Yongzhen away and found his way here. As soon as he entered the door, he shook his head repeatedly: "This Yu Yongzhen is getting more and more difficult to serve. Junhe, don't mind his attitude, his personality is like that, with an air of disdain towards everyone."

  An Junhe, who was drawing notes on the five-line staff, looked up and smiled: "It's okay, he's a gold medal producer, it's normal for talented people to have some quirks."

  "It's good that you didn't take it to heart."

  As he spoke, he glanced at the sheet of music that Ahn Jun-hee had just written on the piano stand, picked it up and read it briefly. With his musical appreciation level, he couldn't tell if it was good or bad in terms of artistry, but by simply putting himself in the listener's role, he could easily distinguish whether it sounded good or not.

  He hummed a few lines in his mouth, and then Quan Baogen suddenly remembered something and asked: "By the way, Junhe, Yiyong Town just mentioned selecting an MV director for you, what style do you require?"

  As he spoke, An Junhe's fingers lightly jumped on the electronic piano keyboard, playing soft notes. Upon hearing this, he paused for a moment, looked up and smiled: "The director doesn't have any requirements, but... if I say, I want to produce the MV myself, what do you think?"

  "Huh?" Guan Baogen was taken aback, then burst out laughing: "Don't be kidding."

  An Junhe looked at him, not looking like he was joking at all.

  His eyes widened in surprise, "You really want to?"

  "Hmm!"

  "Absolutely impossible!" Quan Baogen hastily shook his head, "Let you arrange the song yourself, the company has already made a big concession. You haven't achieved much as a singer yet, and the company won't agree to this request."

  An Junhe continued to stare at him, but Quan Baogen refused to budge.

  In the end, he had no choice but to give up. He also knew that this request was a bit too much. The MV is a key part of the main song, especially for dance music. Without mature skills, how could the company possibly trust him with it?

  But he still felt a bit unresigned, what kind of lens language should those two leading songs be interpreted with, he was the clearest, seeing that it was impossible to get involved in the production position, so he said: "Then give me an MV director's position, let me Can make some suggestions on the script and editing, this should be okay? I wrote the song, no one understands how to express them better than me."

  Seeing him insist on it, it seemed that he had held onto this bottom line and would not let go. Guan Baogen hesitated for a long time, finally gritting his teeth and stamping his foot: "Alright! I'll help you try... You're always giving me a hard time!"

  He sighed and walked away with a bitter face.

  He smiled and saw him off, and in the quiet studio, An Junhe continued his work. The melody kept coming back to him, turning into slightly messy handwriting on paper. After a while, the loud ringtone of his phone pulled him out of his repetitive memories.

  Put down the pen and open the phone, on the screen "He Zhiyuan" three words are jumping.

  Ahn Jun-hee didn't think it was strange, since the scandal, they had been in contact frequently, especially recently when So Ji-sub recovered from his illness and was preparing to enlist, Ahn Jun-hee made time to introduce him to his former comrades and arranged for a desk job so he wouldn't have to do hard labor. When Ha Ji-won found out about this, she became even more affectionate towards Ahn Jun-hee, although they didn't dare meet in person due to the scandal, but they often talked on the phone, and over a month, they really did become close friends.

  This woman is indeed nicknamed "multi-faceted person", after getting familiar with her, it's known that her personality isn't always as mature and independent as she appears, occasionally she would act like a little girl, pretending to be innocent, especially loves to cause trouble, several times in the middle of the night she would call him, playing pranks on him by yelling at him to get up and pee...

  As soon as the call was connected, a deafening music suddenly came from the receiver, making An Jun's eardrum ache, and he quickly pulled the phone away.

  Then came Hae-in's loud shout: "Hey, Jun-heok, Jun-heok, can you hear me... It's weird, I clearly connected the call."

  An Junhe rubbed his ears in frustration, and after a moment, lazily replied: "I can hear, I can hear. Hailin sister, where are you? Trying to scare me to death?"

  "Haha……" On the other side, Ha Ri-yeon burst out laughing. Before long, the music had died down a lot. "In your bar, I came with a few friends to have some fun, and it feels so comfortable to be able to drink freely, haha! Jun-hyuk, you come too, and I'll introduce you to some seniors!"

  I thought it was An Junhe calling again to chat and harass me, I hesitated for a moment, "Uh... senior?"

  "Yes, senior in the music industry, didn't you say last time that after finishing the TV series, you would release an album? I don't know many singers, but I've invited all of them today, they're all big seniors, so be sure to perform well later! That's it, come quickly, we're waiting for you!"

  Having said that, he didn't wait for him to respond and hastily hung up.

  What a hasty girl... An Junhe sighed, and didn't dare to refuse her. Looking at the unfinished score, he let out a breath and had no choice but to put it aside for now.