Chapter 11

Bethany is holding her breath in the intensity of the conference room where the new CEO, Kevin is talking and leading the floor with the members that seemed to have been raising an eyebrow at him for a while now. She is being careful not to have anything that can cause the attention to shift to her.

She looked at Kevin that was unfazed, and still continued his speech.

“So, for now, let us focus on putting all of our efforts into the group that we formed for already a year and let them shine on stage instead of making another one –”

“How do we know that they are still going to be a success?” Someone finally interjected him, having all eyes on the board member, a man about a little older than him, and looking at his desktop, looking at the girl group that was on his screen. “The group is already a year old, and not even a single fat check was given to us from their music. Might as well disband them and start anew.”

Silence took over the room. Bethany closed her eyes, understanding the board member who was dissatisfied with the group. She knows because she listened to the songs of the band; none of them were bad, but none of them also stood out.

She is afraid that Kevin is just doing a nonsense activity to revitalize the career of the group.

“Who formed them?”

“I am sorry?”

“Who formed this group?” Kevin looked at the man questioning him with a straight face. In an immediate manner, the man felt uncomfortable and started to clear his throat, looking around and not wanting to answer his question.

“That is not the point of the conversation. My point is that we have to –”

“How many disbanded groups have we done and how much are we going to do just to have a group that will be massively successful?” Kevin interrupted him before he could even finish his question. Bethany noticed while listening to him that his emotions were getting the better of him, but she chose not to interfere with his talk.

For there is no other man that can stop him but himself.

“We have to find a way that they can have their dreams come true, to play the music that they and the fans want on the big stage,” Kevin’s voice started to calm down, and explained his sentiments on reviving the girls’ career. “Sure, they started a year roughly. But it is not too late, we have to just find the right taste of music for them in order to thrive and compete.”

“But we are not wishing granters, Kevin,” a board member reasoned out with him, siding with the other member earlier. “We are here because of business, and the dreams of the trainees and idols are our products. We can’t have them just be around if they don’t bring us the results that we want.”

Overlapping chatter and disagreements followed. The board members were arguing against each other and there were two groups that formed instantly: the ones who think that the girl group that they want to sell should be repackaged and the ones who should make the call that they should disband.

Kevin let them fight amongst themselves until a slam on the table made a resounding sound, overpowering the voices and getting them to be silent.

It was from another board member who looked him in the eyes and stretched his hand out, seemingly trying to understand him.

“Tell us, Kevin. What are you proposing to us before we give a go signal to repackage the group?”

“Give the girls another shot to have their music to be performed to make or break their career. If the next song is good, they shall remain. But if it is not, then I will let you call them off.”

“And who is going to be in charge of overseeing them?”

“Me.”

It was already half an hour since the meeting ended and they returned to their stations in the office. Bethany is in the middle of encoding data into her computer and through the window of the door of her boss’ office, she can see Kevin, still working with his other assistant, Lee Ali, on the damage control of what happened in the conference.

While seeing him smile, she could not shake the events inside her head of what happened earlier with the meeting with the board of directors.

“You?” A board member raised an eyebrow at him. “How can you possibly do that? Can you make music?”

“I have… a fair experience in making them,” he answered. Bethany was not convinced by his answer and might need a lot more convincing like the others that are with them. “However, I wanted this girl group to succeed, and overseeing them personally is a must for me.”

“Or proving a point.”

All eyes went to the older man who was pressing him earlier into disbanding the group. Silence took over once again, letting all of them process his wager and breathe. Ultimately, Bethany was the one who led the rest of the meeting by asking for their favors, which surprisingly had more votes in favor of Kevin than the ones who do not want.

By the time they had adjourned, Bethany could overhear some words from the board of directors before even leaving the room.

“A problematic trainee going to oversee a dead girl group’s music; he must have a lot of time on his hands.”

“Well, let’s just see what happens from here. If this song flops, then we can also vote him out from the board as the CEO.”

She clenched her fist in frustration. They did not even wait for their conversation before leaving the room. Bethany then looked at Kevin, trying to scold him for such a rash decision, but his eyes were looking serious from far away.

He must have heard all of it. The frustration that she had for him was gone and they calmly exited the room after everyone had already left.

Snapping back into reality, she pulled her drawer to see a photo of the girl group that they were arguing about earlier, together with the photos of the other groups that were in their company, that sadly did not make it to the top like they have projected themselves into.

Lip n Hip, a girl group of five members, about a year old. The producer that their company had made music for them, but it was out of their desired concept, and by the time it was released, the other entertainment companies have already established newer concepts that were fresh, completely overpowering the group, putting them in the bottom right after their debut single.

Bethany still could not understand nor comprehend what it was that Kevin was trying to achieve, but she knew that it might take a miracle for them to pull through and revitalize the careers of the girls.

The door opened and Lee appeared in front of her. She was quick and put the photo back in her drawer and greeted her colleague. Lee was wearing a stoic expression on his face as he simply and slightly bowed down to her and walked away. She then saw Kevin with a small smile on his face, as if it was a sign of small relief.

Before he could close the door behind him, Bethany halted him.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” Kevin answered with a puzzled expression and let her in. Bethany could not hold any of her thoughts to one person for a long time, except for the people to whom she is holding grudges. And in this situation and with her gut feeling, she felt that Kevin needed to hear the things she is going to say.