After Story 133

"Now then, we'll decide which youths will get to work at which passionate workplace. Please, bring the Work Box."

Choi Myungho raised his hand as he shouted the opening commentary of Hot-blooded Youths.

A staff member came forward with a yellow cardboard box. Myungho received the box and looked at the cast standing next to him.

"We'll start with Epix, who won the mini game."

Two good-looking male idols came forward. Through the material he received from the writer before the shoot, he knew when the 'Epix' had debuted and what their debut song was. He even looked up their song and listened to it, but the song wasn't to his tastes.

He had come across numerous idols while doing Hot-blooded Youths. As idols only manage to debut after a harsh period of practice, he wanted them to do well.

However, of the idol teams that appeared on Hot-blooded Youths, there were only two teams that ever made it to the higher ranks of music charts. As for the rest, he didn't even know whether they still existed.

Succeeding in the entertainment industry was just that hard.

Myungho spoke to Cheonho from Epix, who clearly looked nervous,

"Cheonho. What kind of work would you like to do today?"

It was Myungho's job to make them relax and to induce them to comment. As all of them knew how TV programs worked, they would usually speak well if they were given the opportunity.

"I'm confident in my stamina, you see, so I think I'll cope well with something physically taxing."

"How about you, Jay?"

"I also prefer to move around over sitting down."

"The two of you are the same in that regard. Well, then, which one of you will do the picking? Cheonho? Or Jay?"

Cheonho put his hand inside the box. A piece of paper folded twice was dragged out between his fingers.

"You picked one? Then please reveal it to the audience!"

Cheonho opened the folded piece of paper. Today, Epix was going to work at a call center. Myungho spoke in pity,

"Looks like you two will be running your mouth today, not your body. How about it? Do you have the confidence to respond well to the inquiries of customers?"

"I'm slightly worried, but I'll do my best."

"I'll do my best as well."

Myungho told them to do their best before bringing the box to the next group.

This time, it was a girl band. One of them had short, black hair, while the other had curly blond hair.

Just like before, he asked the questions and received their answers. He tried asking them about what they were up to recently and about the program in order to induce more conversation, but the only responses he got were short answers.

They seemed to have frozen stiff because of the pressure that they needed to do something.

It was a pity, but he couldn't do any more for them as the host.

“The two of you from Bad Girl are going to a fish market. Do you two like fish?”

“No.”

“I don’t like them either.”

Myungho smiled at the two when he listened to their answers. He could predict that these two girls would be getting an earful from their agency CEOs after today.

He looked at where the managers were gathered. The man he presumed to be the manager of Bad Girl was looking at the two girls like he was frustrated to death.

“We’ll resume once the excavator goes by.”

An excavator passed next to the entrance of the TV station, where they shot the intro. There seemed to be construction in the park nearby.

Myungho put down the box and talked to the two girls.

“It’s the first time you two are in a program like this, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“It will be hard. You might be awkward in front of the camera. You heard from other people that you should speak as much as possible and react exaggeratedly, right?”

The two of them nodded simultaneously.

“At first, it might feel forced. That’s because you haven’t gotten used to it. If you keep doing it, you’ll gradually become used to it and will be able to spot opportunities to step in. There are people who quickly get accustomed to this, but normally it takes time. So try being just a little more proactive. It might be because you’re thinking too much that you can’t do it. Don’t be too focused on one thing and try blurting things out from time to time. Don’t worry about ruining the atmosphere just because you said something wrong. We have the power of editing on our side, okay?”

He felt pity whenever he saw young people out here to shoot TV programs. Who wouldn’t want to do well? Even these girls, who might be frozen stiff right now, might have thought of funny lines before coming to the shoot, only to blank out because of the unfamiliar environment they were in.

He also approached Epix and complimented them for the commentary they did. These two showed promise, so they would probably do well in their workplaces.

He also went over to the two people that didn’t pick their lots yet and talked to them. One of them was a comedian officially recruited by YBS. As comedians often held shows in Daehak-ro and were generally talented people, he didn’t worry about them. They would show their specialties as long as they were given the opportunity.

“How are you doing today?”

The last one he talked to was a new actor. His name was supposedly Han Maru. He was quite well-known for being a new actor as he was the narrator of a documentary that became a hot topic.

“I’m doing good. The weather’s perfect for working outside today. I was worried because I heard it was going to rain, but it puts me at ease that it’s sunny.”

From the way he added new topics to the response, he didn’t seem nervous. He smiled and looked at Maru.

“Just do it like you were doing now once we resume the shoot.”

“Okay.”

The excavator disappeared and the noise died down as well.

“We’ll start now.”

After a clap to indicate the editing point, the shoot resumed.

Myungho held out the box to the comedian. The comedian pulled out a paper in nervousness like he was gambling before opening it with much difficulty.

“That’s exactly what I wanted. I’ll deliver laughter along with the packages.”

The comedian didn’t need help with comments.

Lastly, Maru took out a paper from the box. On the paper he held out to the camera, it read ‘Joong-il Market.’

“There! That decides the places our four teams will work in today. Then shall we get on with it then?”

The main producers followed Epix, who could be considered the main characters today. As for the others, the sub producers and the main writer joined them.

Myungho also got into the same car as Epix for the time being. They arrived at a company in Jongno. It was a place packed with call centers for home shopping programs belonging to large companies.

They went to the place that was arranged beforehand. The shoot began with Epix receiving job training.

Myungho’s job was to package the events that may occur during their work in an interesting manner before presenting it. There would be interviews with them throughout as well.

After the training, Epix was sent to the task force. Myungho watched Epix receiving the calls before going to the producer.

“Those two are hard working.”

The producer nodded.

“Considering the kids that zoned out all the time last week, they’re much better. But I don’t think it’s going to be interesting today. I guess we’re going with the documentary theme instead of an entertaining theme today too.”

The producer smiled bitterly. Although this was a program that he had ambitiously prepared for and started last year, the responses weren’t that good.

As the guests changed all the time, it was hard to expect a fixed element of interest, and as the main format was labor, it was hard to add any stimulating tastes as well.

There was once when he tried to package it in a funny way out of his greed, but it ended up getting backlash from everywhere.

The audience all criticized him for causing a fuss in other people’s work places.

That day, Myungho drank with the producer. As the main host, he had it just as hard as the producer.

Since that event, they changed tracks to capture the genuine appearances of the guests, and naturally, laughter was reduced.

They were fortunate to have a hardcore audience base. Otherwise, the program would’ve been scrapped during the Spring reallocation season.

“I’m sorry, Myungho. I asked you to do this with me.”

“You’re at it again. I like this program. I often hear they watch it all the time. Don’t you think programs like ours should at least exist?”

“A program that has no laughter at all?”

“There are explosive moments from time to time. Who knows, the other fellows might create a big one today.”

“I hope so. If the others are so-so just like those two, we might not be an entertainment program anymore.”

He told the producer not to worry. It was something that he had gotten used to saying.

Don’t worry, it’ll go well; the viewing rate isn’t everything — words like these, he said a lot. However, inside, words he could never utter sometimes poked their heads up.

Do worry. It will not go well. The viewing rate is everything.

Ultimately, TV programs couldn’t help but be sensitive to numbers. It was a world where viewing rate was everything. This was especially for entertainment programs, which only had a single purpose. There was no escape from the pressure of numbers.

“Should we get an interview?”

Myungho turned on the mic again and approached Epix.

Sighing didn’t make the non-existent laughter appear out of nowhere. He had to do something to make it happen.

It’d be great if he could get at least ten minutes of usable footage from one hour of shoot.

Would he strike a jackpot today?

Only the god of entertainment would know.

* * *

The talent to make people laugh was no good in the face of the onslaught of packages. The comedian, one of the promising people of today, was focusing on his work while sweating hard.

According to the main writer, for the first hour, he tried saying all sorts of things to liven up the mood, but after that, he wordlessly loaded packages with a smile on his face.

The girl band side he visited just before was in the same situation. They were all focused on doing well so there was no room for laughter at all.

The production crew tried their hand but it was to no avail. The stiffened up idols had a hard time working.

As the producer predicted, today was going to be a documentary style as well.

A realistic documentary in an era where realistic entertainment shows rule, huh. Maybe this was a new type of strategy for survival?

While he carried out an interview, the comedian did his best to induce laughter. He was thankful for that. The comedian worked his bones off and even created some laughs.

He bought some drinks with his personal money and handed them out to the workers.

“Do you think it’ll be fun if it goes on TV?” the comedian asked.

He replied that it was going to be okay. He couldn’t say that it was going to be fun.

If they artistically edited the four scenes today, they might be able to produce entertainment that probably doesn’t exist, but looking at the situation today, that seemed difficult.

It was around the time Myungho also took off his jacket to participate in the loading work in order to get some footage.

The sub producer received a call and he quickly waved. Myungho approached him, wondering what that was about.

“Hyung-nim. Apparently it’s chaos at the market.”

“The market? You mean the place the actor fellow went to?”

“Yes. Apparently, there are so many people that it’s hard to get any audio. The main producer is going there as well.”

“Then who’s looking after Epix?”

“Wang-noona went their way.”

Wang-noona. That was what they called the main writer.

“The producer’s calling you to come as well.”

“I have to get more interviews here, though.”

“He said we should settle things in the market first, mentioning something like getting a good picture before all the people pulled out.”

Myungho sighed. He made eye contact with the comedian arduously carrying boxes. The comedian said goodbye as though he had an inkling of what was going on.

“I’ll go to that side for now. Do your best at work.”

“Okay! Go on.”

He felt sorry when he heard the energetic answer. As pitiful as it was, TV programs were bound to be centered around entertainment. If a new oil reserve of laughter exploded in the package delivery side, the camera would not have moved to the market.

He put on his jacket and got in the car. If the producer himself had put the main writer in charge of Epix and went to the market, it meant that this was quite big.

Just what was happening for there to be so many people at the market? Maybe they were overreacting even though it was usually like that around this time of the month?

He arrived at Joong-il market with all sorts of worries in mind.

There, he witnessed.

A man was wearing a dried squid like a mask and was shouting.

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