If life could be a fairytale... 

Ahn Taehee used to be a very happy man. His life working for BigHit never had meant to cause him any kind of trouble and he had never wished to achieve something bigger than he had already done. He was happy from head to toe. As an errand boy for all the managers he was content and even grateful. Since he was more of a lazy person who tried avoiding stress and difficult tasks as much as possible, his job was just perfect. For a little amount of work he was allowed to enjoy privileges that others didn’t. He was able to see the trainees, he was able to see the idols. He even gained enough money to get married if he had wanted to (not that he had even found a woman to marry yet but just to mention how comfortable his life was). And he lived a life without anything bothering him. Especially compared to his two superiors, the managers of BTS and Arora, he was enjoying a stress-free and fun life. 2015 had been a tough year especially for Arora’s manager Cheolmin, who had to manage a group of girls that just debuted and had to fight for at least a bit of success. Just too often he had complained to Taehee about how worried he was 24/7 about the girls’ and his future. That was why Taehee was so thankful for his current lifestyle.

But everything changed that one damned day. The day CEO Bang Sihyuk called him into his office. 


While he was standing in front of Hitman Bang’s office door, he was thinking about everything he might have done wrong. Had he been too lazy? Did someone catch him steeling glances at some of the female trainees? What reason would Bang Sihyuk have to call him into his office? He wouldn’t get fired, would he…? Taehee sighed before he sheepishly knocked at the door. Great. Just great.

“Come in.“, the director’s voice was granting him to enter his office.

Taehee entered, being careful not to produce any sound, not even when he slowly closed the door behind him. “I heard you wanted to talk to me…right?“, he asked and cleared his throat while his brain was running on high-speed, desperately trying to figure out the right words to save his .

“Yes… don’t you want to take seat?“, Bang Sihyuk asked and raised an eyebrow, seeing Taehee still standing in front of the door as if he was about to flee any moment like a frightened rabbit.

“O-Of course!“, Taehee answered and quickly moved forwards towards one of the two chairs in front of the director. His life was over. He was only 27 years old and his life would drown in a limbo of nights looking for a new job. He had loved his life, why wasn’t he allowed to keep it the way it was…?



“The other entertainments are bringing out one group after another. YG has iKon, Winner and now Blackpink. JYP has Twice, Korea’s new national darling group. And SM has Red Velvet and that giant mammoth project NCT. What do we have?“, the CEO asked, eying the errand boy seriously. Was this a test? Was Taehee allowed to stay if he answered correctly?



“We have BTS and… Arora.“ But compared to the other companies’ groups Arora was just a little star in the sky. It still had to grow to compete with one of the named ones. 



“What else do we have?“, Bang Sihyuk further asked.



Taehee didn’t understand the question. What else? To go against the music industry giants? Nothing? “Uhm… hope and love for what we do?“, he answered in a questioning tone. He felt so stupid talking to the director like this but luckily Hitman Bang was cutting him off immediately.
 “We have a load of trainees who are waiting to debut.“, Bang Sihyuk told him and again popped one of these questions that made Taehee feel as if he must have been able to answer but couldn’t. “How many do we have?“



“Uhm… regarding Arora’s debut and lots of female trainees being taken over by other companies after that… at least double or triple of male trainees compared to the females. But I don’t know the exact number.“ Because there were way too many. With the rising success of BTS the interest in becoming a trainee at BigHit had grown a lot and there were so many trainees at the moment that the staff had to divide them into different groups and levels of skills regarding their major fields of performing.



“Do you know how much money we have left to keep these trainees?“



And there it went. He would tell Taehee that they didn’t have enough money to keep him working at BigHit and that would be the end of it. Taehee didn’t even feel as if he had had the chance to prove that he was worth working for them.



“PLEASE DON’T FIRE ME!“ Taehee jumped up from his chair just to throw himself on the ground immediately again. He was begging for his life and the CEO was more than confused about the employee acting as if he was some emperor who was about to get him beheaded.



“What? What are you talking about, boy?! Get up again!“, Bang Sihyuk told him and started laughing. “I wasn’t about to fire you. I just need you to plan together with me.“



Taehee, still completely wrought up, got up again, looking at the director in confusion. What was he talking about? Planning together?



“I heard you are the one who knows the trainees best.“ True. No one else had been able to see them as often as Taehee. As the errand boy the coordinators, coaches and staff were all the time sending him to take care of important stuff. Especially when it came to the trainees. That was why he was the one knowing them best. The young man slowly nodded and Bang Sihyuk took it as a go to explain what he was thinking of. “Since we debuted Arora last year and they weren’t as successful as expected, the company lost a lot of money. With all the trainees we have, it’s burdening our budget a lot at the moment and we can’t let BTS pay for everything forever. We’ll have to dismiss some of the trainees, especially the ones whose contracts will expire soon.“



So the one being fired wasn’t Taehee… it were some of the trainees. Taehee didn’t like where this was going. It just sounded wrong. It sounded as if Hitman Bang was about to tell him, that he was the one having to chose who of the kids he would kick out of the company. “We’re going to end their dreams like that?“, he asked with a trembling voice. It didn’t feel right. Not at all!



“Not all of their dreams. I have another idea that won’t be too risky if you do a good job.“, the director said. “There are some trainees we already invested a lot of money in. I want you to chose seven boys that are able to debut coming November.“ Bang Sihyuk suddenly got up from his chair, his vigor seemingly making it impossible for him to stay seated calmly. “We don’t have the capabilities to debut a group like NCT but all we need is just one group, another group as popular as BTS! And I want you to take care of this!“

This was not where Taehee had expected it to go. For a short while he stopped breathing. Not because he was surprised. Just to stay calm and prevent crying. He just realized what Bang Sihyuk was trying to tell him. He wanted him to form a boygroup and be the manager of them… Right now he wasn’t sure what he should say about all of this. It was too much at once. Taehee had no experience in managing… why would Bang Sihyuk tell him to take care of a boygroup then?

“You want me to take care of this?“, he asked as if he didn’t understand the director’s words.

“Yes.“ The director looked at Taehee with bright, expectant eyes. Taehee blinked back at him, the sudden pause and silence making him feel very uncomfortable. Take care of it… was that all the director had to say? No debut plans, choreographers, promotion ideas? Nothing?

“Wait, wait.“, Taehee finally spoke up. “…what do you mean by…taking care of it?“ He suddenly had a very bad feeling. A very, very bad feeling…

“Since we don’t have a lot of money left, the group will be responsible for promotions and further on itself. As I heard there are a lot of talented boys among the trainees who wanted to become producers or choreographers. I’m sure you will make the right decision and chose the right members to succeed and work under these conditions.“

“WHAT?!“ Now it was Taehee who got up from his chair, his eyes completely widened and full of terror. “Are you saying that they have to do everything on their own?! That I have to prepare all of this on my own?! UNTIL NOVEMBER?!“



Was the CEO in his right mind?! What on earth was he thinking?! This was insane! Insane and impossible!



“Let’s call this an experiment. An experiment that won’t take too much money but instead can bring in lots of it if taken care of properly.“

Properly? Was he on drugs? If he wanted someone to take care of it properly why would he tell Taehee to do all of it? Taehee had no idea of how to manage a group! If Bang Sihyuk was serious about Taehee being the manager the poor boys were doomed. AND: He was doomed, too.

“I’m sure you won’t disappoint me.“ Bang Sihyuk looked for something in one of his drawers, a folder which he pushed into Taehee’s hands. “This is a collection of all our trainees, their records and so on. You know them best so you are the only one I can entrust this. There are also some lists of producers, photographers, video shooting teams and so on that you can ask for assistance or even book for the group, their prices included. It’s up to you how you manage the money that will be handed out to the new group. Just be aware that it’s not a lot and the boys will have to take care of most of the productions themselves.“

Great. Just great. He had to take care of all the stuff the other managers had help and money for. He had to make his boys produce their own songs, make up own choreographies and take care of their promotions. But the worst was that he was the one who had to chose seven members. He didn’t even know where to start with.

“Oh, and Taehee…“ The torture wasn’t over yet. The freshly announced manager looked up at his boss and waited for the worst message yet to come. “There is one member I want you to include no matter what.“ Oh, so at least he had one point to start with. The chosen member. But Taehee had been relieved too soon. “That boy from Germany…Taekyung? The one that signed the solo- artist contract a while ago and whose debut had to be postponed because of Arora. I want you to convince him joining the group instead of sticking to his solo debut. We can’t afford solo debuts at the moment and among the trainees he’s the most expensive. Tell him he’ll be the first to bring out a solo album after their debut or something else. Just make sure that we’re saving money by adding him to the group and he won’t cause trouble for the company.“

Taekyung, better known as Toby. Tobias Liebenthal. That half-Korean guy that had been abandoned from BTS before and who had made such a ruckus about it that Bang Sihyuk was willing to promise him a solo debut. That Tobias Liebenthal was the one who he had to add? The director surely was losing his sanity…

“Bang PD-nim… do you really think that’s a good idea? I mean… you know Toby… what if he leaves BigHit because he gets mad?“, Taehee wanted to call on the director’s right mind. He couldn’t be serious about this. How was Taehee supposed to convince BigHit’s most complicated trainee?!

“Taekyung isn’t stupid. He knows that this is his only chance to come out big. YG won’t let him sign in their company and even if they do he has to wait at least 5 years to debut. He’s too old for SM Entertainment… not to mention that he would go berserk in a huge group as NCT. And JYP? Look at GOT7… who of them is famous in Korea besides Jackson? JYP is mismanaging their boygroups, if Taekyung thinks he can come out big at JYP he’s more stupid than I expected.“ Bang Sihyuk shook his head, a victorious smile gracing his lips. “Don’t worry too much, Taehee. I’m sure you can manage all of this. Just look for a way to convince Taekyung with the least loss for us. We can’t lose him but we can’t pay loads of money for him either.“

The director moved around his desk, patting Taehee’s shoulder when he accompanied him on his way out of the office. “We’ll talk about the budget for the debut later. Take care of the boys first. Debut date will be the 1st of November this year.“

“But PD-nim, that’s in only two months!“, the manager was about to protest when the door was already opened and he was pushed out of the office.

DAMN YOU, BANG SIHYUK!

That guy knew how troublesome all of this was, still he was loading all of it onto another one’s shoulders. On Tahee’s! Someone who had never managed a group before! Someone who didn’t even have the skills to do it! This was insane!
Taehee was burying his own life. Goodbye fun nights at bars with friends. Goodbye regular six hours of sleep. Goodbye beautiful hair which would soon turn grey thanks to the stress (or worse even fall out). Right now he didn’t know what would have been worse. Being fired… or this.

There were enough reasons why the director had wanted to avoid meeting Tobias Liebenthal. He was an unpredictable, devious, destructive and not to forget extremely salty trainee. But Taehee could feel the different vibe immediately when he entered the rehearsal room that Toby and his choreography team were occupying. As a signed solo-artist he had enjoyed several privileges like solo lessons in almost everything. Only on very rare occasions the other trainees were allowed to get in contact with Toby. For their own sake.



Just by looking at him, Taehee was reminded of why Toby had been denied to become a part of BTS. He didn’t match with them. Taehee wasn’t even sure if Toby matched with anyone. And he surely didn’t want to match with anyone. 



“What’s the matter?“, Toby asked directly when he noticed Taehee staying in front of the doors, hesitant to interrupt the rehearsal. With a slight smile the young trainee looked at the team. He was just too good at pretending that he was an angel. “I guess we need to talk alone. Take a break, we’ll continue later.“

While the others were leaving the room, Toby moved over to the mirror front of the room where he got a towel out of his backpack. He seemed all peaceful, even friendly at the moment. But just because he didn’t know what was about to happen. And Taehee was scared of his reaction. Just a hand full of people knew about Toby’s more than spoiled personality and unfortunately Taehee was one of them which meant that Toby would not even try to hide his anger.

“I’m here to talk to you about the debut…“, the poor manager tried to start the conversation. “Oh yeah, did they already chose a debut date?“, Toby asked and ran his hand through his sweaty hair.
“Eh… yupp. It’s the 1st of November.“, Taehee answered and got all tensed up. “November? Wow, that’s pretty soon. The choreographies and songs must already been up to being finished then, I guess. Phew, it’s gonna be a tough time. You’ll be my manager?“



If he just knew. If he just knew that there was nothing planned, nothing in the making, just plain nothing. And that they would even have to promote on their own. “Yes…I’ll be your manager…“, he answered and grew all silent. Toby took it as normal and grabbed his water bottle, taking a sip while starting to speak about his debut. He seemed better prepared than Taehee. Well…at least someone would know what to do. “What name will I debut under? I mean… Tobias Liebenthal is pretty uncommon. Are we going to use my Korean name? Lee Taekyung? Or even another name? Can I chose one myself?“ 



The name. What the… There he was, the freshly announced manager with not even the slightest idea of how the boygroup he was in charge of would be called. He didn’t think about stuff like that yet. And he didn’t even know if he was the one who should decide the name. “…let’s decide that later…with the other members…“

If there had ever been a moment in life where background sounds were appropriate…well, this was it. Because Taehee could hear glass shatter the moment he mentioned additional members and Toby was looking at him with shocked, widened eyes and even froze in his drinking position, the water running down his chin.

“What did you just say?“, he finally spoke again, trying his best to sound controlled but his jar was trembling and the manager noticed how the boy’s nostrils also widened.

“That’s the thing…BigHit will debut you… with a group. A 7-member group. I wanted to-“, - “No.“, Toby interrupted him harshly. “I refuse. There’s no way I’ll debut in a group. I signed a solo-artist contract and I’ll debut as a solo-artist. No discussion. Did you understand me? Go and tell exactly that to the director.“ For some reason Taehee felt as if he was having a fight with his girlfriend. And this was about to end in a break-up. “The director was pretty clear about it…when he said he won’t debut you as a solo-artist.“, Taehee went on speaking, doing nothing else than worsen the whole situation. 



Toby snorted shortly before he started grinning and looked aside. “Well then…tell the director that I’m leaving BigHit because I got another offer by Seven Seasons and they’ll definitely let me debut as a solo-artist.“

Seven Seasons? That small company? Toby couldn’t be serious about it… but still, Taehee could feel panic crawling up his throat. “Seven Seasons is nothing compared to BigHit…do you really want to give up your life here to sign under a small company?“, he asked and shook his head. The response came too quick, though. “Of course. I’m sick and tired of all of this. Why should I debut under BigHit, a company that’s fooling around with me? I’m full of the empty promises. Acta non verba!“



For a second Taehee looked at Toby with big question marks in his eyes. What the f… what language was that even which Toby had suddenly switched into? At least Taehee could tell that the trainee was serious about his plans of dropping out. And unfortunately he had no idea how to change Toby’s mind. Maybe the truth could help. “Okay, Tobias, here’s the thing. BigHit has no money. That’s why we can’t afford another solo-debut. Arora has taken up all of our funds and I don’t even know why BigHit is debuting another group. There is no money for anything, there are no producers, no choreographers, we have to do all on our own…It’s not even decided who is going to debut… you’re the only one the director told me to include into the line-up.“

Convincing others had never been Taehee’s strength. That was also one of the reasons why he had been an errand boy and nothing else besides that. But for some reason his poor speaking skills and the truth itself were enough to change Toby’s mind. The boy suddenly seemed interested, even excited. “No producers.., no choreographers you say… so you mean, we are free to do whatever we want?“, Toby asked, the sparks in his eyes slightly scaring Taehee. However, he just nodded. “Well… that changes everything.“, Toby mumbled and the muscles of his face slowly released any tension and formed a little, yet honest smile. “Okay, I’m in. But I will only debut in a group under certain conditions.“

Oh right… Toby wasn’t that easy to please. Of course they were not done yet. “I want to have prior rights on producing, songwriting and choreographing. The center of attention has to be me - but I don’t want to be the one taking care of that. That’s your job. I don’t care about what you tell the others but I don’t want to pick fights or stuff. Way too troublesome and just a waste of time. I’m the center. You will convince them of it. That’s my demand.“ In other words, Toby was planning to make Taehee debut a boygroup whose name could also be ‚Toby and his background dancers‘. Interesting. But unfortunately not how a group worked. “And“, Toby went on, “I want a special insurance for if I leave the group - no matter under which conditions. If I leave or if I get kicked out -instead of paying you back the compensation for all the trainee years as it’s mentioned in the trainee contracts, I want to get the double amount of money that was invested in me during my time as a trainee back.“

Okay, this boy was going overboard right now. “I don’t think that will be possible, that’s not how things work.“, Taehee said and even had to laugh about it a little. This boy was living in his very own world as it seemed. But Toby wasn’t willing to back off. Instead he only looked at the manager, his face showing that he was strongly of the belief that he would win this discussion, no matter what.

“It will. Because otherwise I will sue BigHit for keeping me as a trainee under false promises. I signed a contract as a solo-artist after you kicked me out of the BTS line-up. That was the compensation to keep me three more years I could have spent elsewhere. Do you think these adhesion contracts can only be used against trainees and idols? It will be a piece of cake to find a lawyer for this case and even win - because I have Samsung to back me up.“

Damn it… he was playing the Samsung card. Taehee started to dislike Toby a lot. Using daddy as a way to get what he wanted was a low move. Toby’s father was one of Samsung’s most influential Executive Managers and if Taehee would get back to Bang Sihyuk and tell them that they did not only lose Toby as a trainee but also got into a fight with Samsung, Taehee could start looking for a pretty coffin he could have his funeral in.

Unwillingly the manager sighed and crossed his arms, thinking about how to get out of the dilemma. Should he grant Toby his wishes? It could mean a lot of trouble. Could. But on the other hand… did he have another chance? Not really… and just because it could mean trouble it didn’t mean that the outcome had to be what he was expecting right now. And if he didn’t tell Bang Sihyuk about this new contract of Toby? He had given Taehee full power about whatever happened with the trainees…so why not just keeping it a secret? “Fine.“, Taehee agreed. “I’ll include that to your new contract…“


And like always… Tobias Liebenthal got exactly what he had wanted.
 



Cheolmin was returning from the washing room when Taehee was about to finish his fourth bottle of Soju. He had decided to meet up with the Arora manager after having that disastrous conversation with Toby and wanted to get some advise. Well.. it didn’t end as planned, just like always. “Shouldn’t you stop drinking now? You have to start looking for the trainees to debut tomorrow. You have only two months left to prepare a whole debut.“, Cheolmin reminded the young man of his duties. 



“ that …I’m out. I don’t even know how I got into that spot. Why am I a manager? I was a very happy errand boy…a very…happy…lazy…and stupid errand boy… What the heck happened…?“, the drunk guy whined and leaned forwards against the table, almost knocking over his glas.



The older of the two looked at his manager-mate with guilt in his eyes. It had been him who had suggested Bang Sihyuk to give Taehee a shot in being a manager. He didn’t even think twice about it or if Taehee ever wanted to become a manager. “Ahhh… Taehee, don’t say stuff like that. This might be a great opportunity. Don’t leave yourself hanging…it’s because you talked to Toby, right?“ Even Cheolmin knew what kind of person Toby was. Unfortunately. He could already imagine what kind of difficulty he was making Taehee go through.

“That freaking brat! He and his outrageous conditions! Damn you, Lee Taekyung! Tobias…whatever your freaking German surname was…!“ With this said, Taehee grabbed his glass and poured it all over his pants during his failed attempt to lead it to his lips. “…whoops.“

Cheolmin furrowed his eyebrows. “Conditions? What kind of conditions?“ Taehee was trying to dry off the Soju stains on his pants while rerunning the conversation in his head. “Prior rights on production…blah-blah. Compensation if he leaves the group for god’s sake’s reasons…and he wants to be in the center without getting into trouble with the other members. How am I supposed to make this happen?“ He finally gave up on cleaning his pants and threw the used napkins on the table.



“Hmm…“, the other man was thinking aloud. “Well.. if you have to put him into the center and don’t want to get into a fight with the other members, you need a good reason for it. A reason like an already existing fanbase.“ Taehee was sighing about Cheolmin’s words. “And how do I build a fanbase for him then?“

Cheolmin was only smiling.

“Well…I do have someone in mind who might help us with this.“
 
 

author notes

Hey everybody! So, this is the very first time you might read how I'm writing and how this story most likely will look like. I will upload the chapters with another POV every time - this time introducing Ahn Taehee's POV, the manager of Black Dragon and probably the person who could be called the Black Sheep among them the most.
Let me know if you have trouble with the layouts or anything else, otherwise I will just keep it like this (I'm working mainly on my PC so everything looks alright for me, but if the majority of you is using smartphones and the layout is causing troubles, I will change at least the chapters' layouts so it's 100% mobile-friendly.)
I also want to thank those of you who have already applied for my story and make it possible for me to start very soon. I will start right away once the deadline is over and beforehand want to tell (and maybe warn you) that I might use your character in the final line-up but not as the position you originally applied for. There are two apps at least for almost every plotline and whenever I find one character matching to another plotline and want to include him desperately, I will change his position. There won't be an extension of the group's line-up unfortunatelly but still I will keep my promise and each and every character will appear in this story (not only once.) If I choose your character as another plotline, let me know if you want to fix your app to match up with the new plotline.
That's it so far, I hope you enjoyed the prologue, I know it's pretty long but that's the way I write - long and with a lot of content, haha. I can't wait to introduce all of the characters to you and let the drama take place!
See you in a week and let's all give some love to the poor soul, Ahn Taehee. Our manager will suffer a lot x'D

“ the world is not a wish granting factory ”