Heun hye’s POV

The music team has been really busy lately, from composing songs for albums to recording and directing them. As I was more fluent in Japanese, I was given the role of helping to create Junho’s solo Japanese album, Kimi no koe. Meanwhile, Wooyoung’s Korean album had been released, and promotions were going on.

“Junho-goon, can you add more emotion whenever the line “I will protect you” comes up? That’s the main message the song is trying to convey so there should be more emphasis. Good job so far! Let’s try that verse again.” I leaned back and closed my eyes, noting happily that there was indeed more emotion injected this time. This album was going very well, both because of Junho’s amazing voice and also his music sense, he knew the types of songs he was suited to sing. Suddenly, “Falling down” played in the studio. Chan Yeong looked up sheepishly and ducked her head in apology before running out of the studio to answer her phone. The ringtone reminded me of Wooyoung’s solo album, which unfortunately, was not a success. Junho took this interruption as a break and had exited the recording room. I called him back in a hurry. “Junho goon! I’m sorry for this, but do you happen to know how Wooyoung is doing?” Junho looked down, before replying dejectedly. “Wooyoung hasn’t been very happy lately…he’s been very stressed about his album and well…he doesn’t really want to share about his problems with us. Maybe he’ll talk to you?”

With this input, I determinedly arranged to meet up with Wooyoung, eager to share his burdens. Although he had a busy schedule, we finally managed to find a time to meet up at the rooftop. When I arrived, he was perched on the bench we always frequented, he held a bottle of soju in his hand. “Wooyoung, what are you doing? You can’t drink in the company and you know that! What if reporters catch you? You’ll be doomed if Boss Park hears of this.” He nodded, but didn’t reply for a long while. I sat opposite him in a wooden swing. “I won’t drink a lot, don’t worry. I’m just so tired, from all the useless promotions and variety shows I have to go on. It’s so lonely for one thing, I’m so used to having the members around me.”

I gently asked why he found the promotions useless, to which he gave a wry smile. “Album sales have been terrible, the album reviews online are even worse. They all say that…that Jinyoung hyung only let me have a solo album because he knew that it would fail, a business method of keeping me from becoming a solo artist. He would never let Junsu hyung have a solo album, for fear of him becoming too successful and choosing to leave the group…like, like what Jay hyung is having now, solo success. I don’t know what to think now, whether to believe that Jinyoung hyung is doing what’s best for me or that this was all just a business ploy.” I finally understood why Wooyoung was looking so down, and why he had been so lifeless in all his promotions. Such was the fate of a kpop artist, always at the hands of their entertainment companies.

“Junho goon told me that you refused to share your problems with your members, why is that? If anything, they should be your closest friends, confidantes, family.” He shook his head vehemently. “What if my conjunctures were wrong, and because of that all of them think that having solo albums are bad? I would be ruining their career for them, especially people who have not recorded solo albums before, Junho is recording one now, what if he gets discouraged to continue to do well? I don’t want my experiences to affect them.”