🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 6
The conference room was dark, and the screen was filled with black.
Along with a wistful piano melody, Baek Doha’s narration flowed through the room.
“I think there’s something so exciting about the word ‘first’ all by itself.”
“Your first kiss, your first day at work.”
“……And.”
“Your first meeting.”
The screen brightened, and the loud cries of newborn babies filled the room.
“Oh my, what do we do!”
“Congratulations. It’s a boy.”
“What a pretty little princess~”
Scenes of parents holding their newborn babies passed across the screen.
Soon, the image of a mother with tears welling up in her eyes and her child was shown in close-up before gradually fading to black.
“In the darkness where nothing could be seen, a single ray of light came toward us.”
Baek Doha’s voice echoed through the room along with the caption.
“I don’t wannaaaa-!”
“Lu, Luha!”
Crash! Bang! Clatter!
The mood changed abruptly.
The Lumis members were running around frantically while Luha darted skillfully between them.
Several noisy shots followed one after another without giving anyone a chance to catch their breath.
“It wasn’t easy.”
The caption appeared against a black background as Baek Doha’s calm voice continued.
“Big broooo~”
“Luha~”
This time, the scenes were quite warm.
It showed their peaceful daily life—reading books together, playing Jenga, and singing songs.
And finally.
“We can do this, right?”
“Our family…….”
“We’ve got a youngest member.”
The screen gradually brightened.
The Lumis members were smiling brightly with Luha in the center.
Unlike the beginning, the ending overlapped with a white background as the video came to an end.
“Oh…….”
“Wow~ It actually works?”
“Whoa…… Is this really a variety-show teaser?”
Exclamations erupted throughout the conference room as the video ended.
The ‘Lee Geon-woo team’ was definitely different.
According to what Choi Eun-bi had told them, there wasn’t supposed to be a single usable scene.
So how had they managed to produce something like this?
The finished teaser had a depth reminiscent of an emotional documentary.
Click.
The conference room lights came back on with the sound of a switch.
“Not bad, right?”
Lee Geon-woo, the general producer of Our Family’s Youngest, smiled confidently.
Lee Geon-woo was one of the most renowned variety-show producers in Korea.
He was a star PD who had produced numerous successful variety shows, including Eat, That’s the Only Way to Survive, Let’s Go to the Island, and Somehow.
Then, quite suddenly, he had announced his independence by establishing a production company called ‘Geon-woo Pictures.’
Our Family’s Youngest was his first project after going independent, as well as the debut project that would serve as Geon-woo Pictures’ declaration to the industry.
Of course, it wasn’t a completely self-produced program. It was being made in collaboration with “JjinTube,” a YouTube channel operated by WJ ENM, one of the country’s major content-production and distribution companies.
But even for someone like Lee Geon-woo, the moment the proposal was revealed, the response from inside the company had been cold.
“A failed idol group and a little kid, without even a main MC?”
“They said the other side didn’t commission it either, right? That this PD came up with the idea and cast them himself? Why on earth would he take such a risk?”
It was an era when anyone could become a broadcaster and anyone could become a producer. Content was overflowing, while viewers’ standards had risen higher than ever.
In an environment where even hiring popular guests didn’t guarantee success, the decision to take a dangerous gamble by casting a mediocre failed idol group naturally drew reactions like these from within the company.
“I can do it!”
Lee Geon-woo had declared confidently.
But as time passed, even Geon-woo himself began to waver.
The casting had been troublesome from the very beginning, and the idol group had no particular appeal to speak of.
More than anything, the editing process had been the hardest.
It was supposed to be a ‘healing’ program, but they couldn’t find scenes that actually felt like ‘healing,’ no matter how hard they searched.
The scene of Luha reading a book that had been inserted into the teaser?
It had been a staged scene that the staff had practically begged them to film.
The peaceful scene of them singing?
The actual set had been anything but peaceful.
Why was the pitch like that? Why was the rhythm like that?
What could a five-year-old kid possibly know?
Yet he’d been swinging a back scratcher around and mercilessly berating the members.
‘Should I really just scrap this……?’
That was when Geon-woo had been tearing his hair out in the editing room.
Then Luha’s voice came from the monitor.
“Why do you keep worrying about it? You just have to take the plunge. If you’re too afraid, you won’t be able to do even the things you can do.”
It felt as though someone had struck him hard on the head.
‘That’s right. Just take the plunge!’
Lee Geon-woo pulled himself together.
But the truth behind the famous line(?) that had moved him was a little different.
A few days earlier, at the Lumis dormitory.
“I think it’s going to collapse if I take this one out…….”
Kang Ian carefully pointed at a safe-looking block.
It was obviously firmly in place—a block that absolutely should not be removed.
“Come on! Why do you keep worrying about it? You just have to take the plunge!”
Luha shouted impatiently, tapping his own chest with his tiny hand.
“If you’re too scared, you won’t be able to do the things you can do! Pull it! Pull it out!”
“Can you be quiet for a second?!”
“Oh dear, how can you be so scared of everything~?”
Luha let out a series of deep sighs and shook his head.
There was a subtle provocation hidden behind his innocent expression.
“Ah…….”
In the end, Kang Ian pulled out the dangerous block with trembling hands, and, just as expected, the Jenga tower came crashing down.
“Oh dear, it collapsed!”
A devilish smile spread across the face of the angelic-looking child.
“All right, now it’s time for punishment. Come here!”
“A-ah! It hurts! I said it hurts!”
Luha spun the back scratcher around as he chased after Kang Ian.
[Our Family’s Youngest Teaser] A ‘light’ called the ‘youngest’ has come to us. The premiere of Our Family’s Youngest!
(110,000 views)
The entire cast consisted of the failed idol group Lumis and a five-year-old child.
Judging solely by that lineup, 110,000 views for the teaser wasn’t a bad number.
However, considering that “JjinTube” had more than three million subscribers, there was no doubt that the figure was woefully inadequate.
Besides, wasn’t this a reality-variety show produced by PD Lee Geon-woo?
Even if it was only a teaser, it needed at least 300,000 views.
Unlike the disappointed JjinTube production staff, the internal response at Clef Entertainment was fairly positive.
That was because the teaser had received significantly more views than Lumis’s previous fancams, stage videos, and so on.
Still, there was one disappointing aspect.
The viewers’ reactions.
— Lumis??? Never even heard of them. How did they get on JjinTube?
— Oh, it’s PD Lee Geon-woo? But who are Lumis?
└ Aren’t they the most unknown idol group he’s ever worked with? Their recognition is the lowest too. I only found out about them this time.
└ 22. Unless they’re a major idol group, he only works with actors.
└ 333. Still, the kid is cute.
└ Usually, agencies pay for appearances like this before a comeback.
└ Huh? They’re not debuting this time, but making a comeback? LOL. That’s rough. LOL.
— Has Lee Geon-woo finally run out of steam……? Why did he go independent? Tsk tsk.
└ It’s Lee Geon-woo. Of course he’d go independent.
└ He’s only able to make things shine because he’s a famous PD. Not everything he makes succeeds. It’s a fact that his formats are all similar too, so they’re losing steam.
└ It’s called independence, but it’s basically a subsidiary. They’re using WJ’s capital and personnel anyway.
└ There is the Lee Geon-woo team, though. You can’t exactly say they’re WJ personnel.
└ Where do you think their salaries come from? WJ, right?
└ Do you have trouble reading? It says he’s independent. Then Lee Geon-woo must be paying them.
— Who’s the kid?? He’s seriously adorable ㅠㅠㅠ
It was definitely Our Family’s Youngest, a show featuring Lumis.
Yet somehow, most of the comments were about producer Lee Geon-woo rather than Lumis.
“Can’t be helped.”
A voice suddenly came from the corner, and every Clef employee turned their head.
It was Luha.
“Luha, why are you here?”
Han Su-jin, the head of the PR team, narrowed her eyes as she asked.
“The members are practicing right now, so I brought him with me.”
Manager Choi Eun-bi, who was sitting beside Luha, answered in his place.
“Then you should send him to kindergarten! Why bring him here?”
As a working mother, Han Su-jin tended to emphasize the importance of early education.
She had a daughter around Luha’s age, and before she knew it, she’d even begun worrying about Luha’s education.
“Kindergarten…….”
Luha quietly muttered.
Most idols lost the memories of their teenage years while spending their youth as trainees.
Retreats and school trips were nothing more than dreams, and all they could do was barely meet their attendance requirements while dragging their exhausted bodies to school.
Still, they had something to show for it.
Although they had been practically ghost students because of their training, their faces remained in their graduation albums.
But Jin Do-hyeon didn’t even have that.
He had only completed the bare minimum of compulsory education through middle school, then obtained his high-school diploma through the qualification exam.
Perhaps that was why kindergarten had been one of his little dreams.
So much so that one of the items on his bucket list had been:
“One day, hold my own child’s hand and walk them to kindergarten.”
Now, he had a life where he could have a nice house, a nice car, a nice watch, and anything else he wanted.
He could also travel anywhere he wished—to Japan, China, the United States, Europe, wherever.
But his childhood had been far removed from the life he had now.
Back then, even kindergarten and high school had been luxuries.
While he was lost in those thoughts—
“What did you mean earlier when you said, ‘It can’t be helped’?”
Yoon Tae-jin’s voice pulled him back to reality.
At the same time, everyone’s eyes turned toward Yoon Tae-jin.
And understandably so.
For a question directed at a five-year-old child, his tone had been far too sharp.
“W-what do you mean?”
Realizing the atmosphere a moment too late, Yoon Tae-jin hurriedly corrected himself.
Having a conversation in public with Jin Do-hyeon, who had become a five-year-old child, was no easy task.
“Hmm…….”
Luha stroked his chin with his adorable little hand.
Then he tapped the chair and spoke.
“Lumis isn’t famous, right? People probably clicked because it’s JjinTube, and because it’s PD Lee Geon-woo. So it’s only natural that they’d react like thisss~”
It was a reasonable point.
The employees quietly nodded.
At the same time, they couldn’t resist fawning over Luha.
“Oh my, listen to the way he talks!”
“How can he talk so well and be so cute?”
“Luha absolutely has to go into music!”
“Look at those little fingers fidgeting! He’s so adorable!”
‘Oh, come on…… These people are nothing but a bunch of ‘cute!’ parrots.’
Luha shook his head and sighed.
“Our Family’s Youngest is the first step. Just getting people to learn that there’s a group called ‘Lumis’ out there? That alone would be a huge successss~”
“Then what comes next?”
Yoon Tae-jin asked with a serious expression.
“After that?”
Luha looked at him as if to say, Why are you asking me something like that?
He let out a small sigh before adding,
“We have to show them what kind of group Lumis is.”
He moved his tiny hands and pulled out a cellphone from the bag hanging around his neck.
It was the little bag decorated with Piano Fairy Doremi that Yoon Tae-jin had bought for him, along with the newly activated cellphone.
He tapped the screen several times, pulled something up, and slid the phone toward the center of the table.
Everyone leaned forward, gathering around the middle of the table.
“Revival……?”
Choi Eun-bi murmured under her breath.
On the cellphone screen was a poster showing the silhouettes of idols beneath dazzling lights.
“Oof!”
Luha pushed himself up with his little body and hopped onto the table.
“It’s a survival program that AMP Music is preparing.”
The playful expression disappeared from his face.
A sharp glint flashed through his eyes.
