Chapter 40: Ye-eun sees through the company: fans will love everyone more than the company.
In February 2000, Kwon Ji-yong participated in his first freestyle battle in his life with his brothers in the practice room. After two rounds of competition, he barely made it to the finals, but finally stopped in the quarterfinals.
He was still not satisfied with himself, but the underground rappers at the scene all raised their eyebrows when they saw this young boy who already had a lot of feelings in his first competition.
While Quan Zhilong was frantically absorbing nutrients, Yien noticed at the company that had gradually stabilized, and began to fluctuate again.
The most obvious thing is that many teachers who had taught them in the company for a long time have left.
“I heard that it was President Kim and the teachers who took our company’s artists to accept announcements, but all the announcement fees did not go through the company.” All the money went into the pockets of the agents, and the company’s artists did not earn any income.
Compared to herself a few months ago when she said that the company's internal strife had nothing to do with them, Quan Baoer is now a little worried. After all, even the teachers who work with them day and night have been involved.
"Besides, come closer." Quan Baoer covered her mouth and spoke carefully, "I heard that President Zheng came back from China and opened a company with others, intending to poach all the artists whose contracts are about to expire in our company."
What attracted the most attention was that several members of HOT seemed to have received his olive branch. After all, it is a group led by President Zheng himself, and many people speculate that HOT may really turn to Zheng Haiyi's company when he returns to China.
This matter is actually not a secret. After all, ever since Zheng Haiyi returned to China and served as the director of Sidus, the print media has begun to speculate that South Korea’s first idol group will fall apart due to infighting among the top management, and SM will face a huge crisis.
The following year, just as the media had predicted, was a mess.
Today, Lee Soo Man also attended HOT's concert and smiled amiably in the audience. Tomorrow, a company employee will reveal that HOT will not be renewing their contracts collectively due to different contract times.
Today, Lee Soo Man said on the show that not only will HOT not disband, but the company is even considering their solo debut. However, a few days later, the father of a certain member came out and said that he had just met the company's representative Kim, from whom he learned the news of the dissolution, and that HOT's concert in a few days would be the last.
Even a group like HOT, which has already taken Asia by storm, is just a small fish in the pond that is affected by the infighting among the top leaders.
Not to mention everyone else in the company. In this chaos, BoA's debut at the age of fourteen was sudden but not unexpected. But before her official debut, she looked at the overwhelming publicity that said she was cultivated by S/M with all its efforts and billions of won, and she couldn't help feeling nervous and ridiculous.
After all, when deciding her debut date, the company insisted that she drop out of school despite her excellent academic performance, which was equivalent to cutting off her retreat.
Ye-eun tried her best to adapt to the new teachers' teaching methods, but it seemed that because HOT, the children who were nurtured by the company, had their own ideas, the teachers' teaching methods became more and more strict.
"The company is everyone's support. Without the company, none of you can make a successful debut. Do you understand?!"
"If you can't debut, you're done for, you know that? No company will dare to hire you trainees who leave S/M! Think about it, either train as hard as you can, or go back to being an ordinary person!"
"Some trainees dropped out of school before they even graduated from elementary school. Do they still want to be ordinary people? How can they be ordinary people?"
During class, the teachers would always find a way to say this, and after scaring the trainees until they turned pale, they would give them a sweet treat, "Of course, the company will always be your strongest backer. You may have heard about the company's recent affairs. But no one knows what is true and false. As long as you keep going forward with determination, you will definitely have a good future."
"Please listen less to what the media says. If the contract terms given by the company are really so harsh, why would so many people sign it? Train hard, and after your debut, you will be able to make money and live a better life for yourself and your family."
Verbal brainwashing is sometimes more terrifying than physical bullying. Almost everyone is coaxed into training desperately by these words. However, in Yien's family, her mother went out to work after graduating from junior high school. After working full-time for three years after marriage, she was suppressed by her husband and decided to divorce and leave. Her stepfather was also able to insist on not getting married and having children in traditional society until he met his true love and got married decisively in less than a year.
Under the guidance of these two people, when faced with the words of some teachers, Yeen not only did not feel anything, but sometimes she even felt genuinely worried for them. Is this the schizophrenia mentioned on TV?
They scold you or even slap you today, but the next day they can say with a smile on their face that it is all for your own good. Some teachers really should go to the hospital!
Ye-eun had just put this question out of her mind when she took the gift from her sister who was waiting at the door.
“Hey, this is a letter for Moon Heejun oppa, this is for Ahn Chil-hyun oppa, this is for…” Ye-eun was also squatting on the ground, in front of her was the unnie who had asked her who she was a fan of, “Okay, this is a birthday card for Moon Heejun oppa alone.”
In early 2001, Ye-eun, who was not even ten years old, was already eleven years old in Korea. However, even at the age of eleven, she was still a child in front of these fans.
They were somewhat happy, but also a little worried, "Ye-en, is it okay for you to bring it in for us? Will we get scolded?"
"And recently...it must be difficult for Oppas lately. We wrote letters to cheer them up, but we were afraid that they would be even more upset if they saw it."
Ye-eun shook her head, carefully sorted out the letters that represented the sincerity of the fans, and sorted out in her mind which letter was for which oppa, "It's okay, it's not like we haven't brought them before, and if the oppas see that everyone is still supporting them, they will probably be very happy."
The company's policy is not to allow artists to accept gifts, but letters can be given to artists after being checked by the company.
As usual, Ye-eun took the letters from the unnies to the staff for inspection and prepared to leave. "It's clearly written on who it's for, so it should be fine."
Ye-eun has always believed that the staff will give the letter to the oppa and unnies after checking it. However, this time, thinking of the recent chaos in the company, she turned back worriedly. As soon as the door was opened, she started talking without even raising her eyes: "If the Oppas are busy, then I'll take it..."
The people inside didn’t expect her to come back, so they pulled back their outstretched hands and smiled awkwardly, “No, we’ll give it to them.”
However, it would have been fine if he didn't move, but how could Ye-en not notice the obvious action of pulling her hand back?
She lowered her eyes and saw two familiar-looking letters in the trash can.
Ye-eun didn't know why she suddenly felt so sad. She squatted down and picked up the two letters from the trash can under the watchful eyes of the staff. Even though the bottom of the envelopes were covered with plastic film, coffee stains still seeped in from the bottom.
The light brown stains turned the red heart on the envelope into an ugly and irregular dark brown.
All the staff members were silent for a moment, but within a few seconds they turned around and started talking about the previous things as if nothing had happened, without taking this matter to heart at all.
Ye-eun looked expressionlessly at the staff in front of her who said they would hand the letter to the artist safely, and stretched out her hand straight.
The other party silently put the letter in Yien's hand, but the moment Yien left, he spoke speechlessly: "This kid, is it necessary? It's just a few letters."
Yien didn’t know whether it was necessary or not, but she had seen these sisters in front of the company countless times. Regardless of whether they had waited for their favorite artists or not, their faces were full of anticipation and joy. As for the company staff, she would only give the letters to them for checking every time, and she had never seen them hand over the letters from the fans to the oppas and unnies with her own eyes.
The coffee-stained envelope seemed much heavier, and at that moment she knew that the fans must love the artists more than the company she worked for.
Separating the clean envelope from the soiled envelope in her hand, Yien found the staircase she often went to, crossed her legs, bent over and took out the soiled letter, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the handwriting inside was still clear.
She looked at the two letters with a headache. She clearly said that there was no problem, but in the end she got them dirty.
Ye-eun rummaged through her bag. Fortunately, she has liked all kinds of fancy notebooks since she was a child, and her heavy schoolbag is filled with these messy things every day. She compared the style of the letter paper and carefully tore two pieces of similar colored paper from the notebook.
It’s still very different, but at least the paper that’s torn off is clean. HOT Oppas might be happier seeing this.
She lay on the ground, imitating her sisters' handwriting stroke by stroke, and she copied the letter much more seriously than she did her usual homework.
"What are you writing?"
The voice came from above his head, echoing in the empty stairwell. Yien was startled, and the horizontal line she wrote instantly turned into a long line. She felt distressed and depressed. She pouted and looked up, only to see that the recipient of the letter was bending over with his head down, his eyes full of seriousness.
"Hello, Wen Xijun Oppa.
I have liked you for five years, from 1996 to now. Although we have had some hard times recently, I was lucky that year..."
He whispered the first few sentences of the letter, and Ye Eun lowered her head with a sad face, "This is the letter that Oppa's fans asked me to bring to you, but after I gave it to the company's staff, he threw it away..."
Wen Xijun squatted down with a smile, picked up the letter that had turned into a different color, and compared it with the letter written by Yien. After all, she was young, and no matter how hard she tried to imitate, her handwriting was still completely different.
"So you're writing a new one here?" He unfolded the letter and read it carefully, a glimmer in his eyes flickering, "Thank you, but it's already very good that this letter has reached my hands."
Even though the letter is dirty, the fans' hearts are shining.
At the end of last year, they won the Most Popularity Award at the second MKMF awards ceremony. Fans were cheering, but they felt empty and confused inside. They were only in their early 20s, but these five years seemed like a lifetime.
In the first year, they were full of confidence and worked without rest all year round, toiling day and night in several countries. However, they did not expect that at the end of the year, they were told that their hard work for the whole year could not even pay back the company's training fees.
The following year they became even more famous, and their album set a record for physical album sales in Korea after its release. But they were helpless to learn that for each album sold, they would only receive less than 100 won. Yes, after each person got their share, they would get less than 20 won.
They just realized what contract they had signed and they wanted to protest.
But from that time on, they gradually got used to their agents slapping them in the face when they performed badly; they got used to Director Li Xiuman smiling and saying that it was okay and that they could borrow from the company if they had no money, as the company's interest rate was lower than that of the bank; they even got used to being the dazzling big stars in front of the crowd, but still being the trainee who could only fill their stomachs with instant noodles when they returned to the dormitory.
“Even if you are no longer in S/M, even if you will stand on the stage in other ways, we will still shout your names as always.”
Wen Xijun laughed, and imitated Yien's posture and sat cross-legged on the ground. He said quietly and playfully, "I'm going to tell you a secret. I told you before that the teacher corrected you in class because it meant that he valued you. I regretted it within two years."
Yien looked at him blankly, she even forgot what he said at that time. After all, as my mom said, for a stubborn person like me, if what others say is different from my own understanding, I will just let it go in one ear and out the other.
However, after his debut, Wen Xijun repeatedly recalled what he once told a little girl: even if he was scolded or beaten, it meant that the company valued him. By saying that, isn't he becoming an accomplice of the company?
"So, I'm sorry." He patted the little girl's head and took the half-written envelope in his hand. "Also, thank you, little friend."
On March 14, 2001, Wen Xijun's birthday, 3,000 fans gathered at the door of Wen Xijun's dormitory to celebrate his birthday. The event, which had been discussed with the community management in advance, was orderly and even some residents joined in.
On March 17, 300 fans gathered outside S/M company, holding signs and shouting "Oppose the disbanding of HOT", urging the company to give the members fair treatment.
On May 13, HOT, which made great contributions to S/M's listing, was officially disbanded.
Two days later, 100,000 HOT club fans held white candles in protest, refusing to buy all S/M records, and sang HOT's "You and Me" and "Our Vow" in a demonstration.
However, the fans' protests were ignored by the company, and there was no turning back on HOT's disbandment. Even rumors of SES's disbandment have once again become a hot topic.
At that time, Ye-eun had officially terminated her contract with S/M, and she took the small mobile phone bought by her mother and entered everyone's phone numbers one by one.
The buttons of the nine-square grid need to be adjusted with the correct letters and numbers one by one. She entered the contact information of Quan Baoer and Cui Chengxi, and said goodbye to them with tears in her eyes, "Ounis, you must work hard. From now on, there will be two less people who will buy snacks for me."
The two who were almost moved laughed at the same time, "Okay, got it. I'll buy you snacks whenever we meet in the future."
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