章節 15: Luxury

After settling in Hyun-jung, Min-soo decided to consult with Uncle Sun over the direction of the company.

"Uncle Sun, I don't know much about setting up a business, so is it okay if I leave the details to you?"

Uncle Sun smiled and nodded, "Min-soo it is good to see you acknowledge your weaknesses, very well leave things here to me. So, what will you do then?"

"Well, I have been thinking about finding the right people to make music with us. Grandfather gave me a list of people who were around during the first Hallyu Wave Project. I am sure you are quite familiar with a few of them. But there was one person who I would like to meet and possibly recruit."

Uncle Sun nodded and waited for Min-soo to finish.

"Uncle Sun, do you know a Bang Si-hyuk?"

Uncle Sun's eyes widened a moment in surprise. "Bang Si-hyuk? Hmm… that is a name I have not heard in a while and not the name I thought you would mention. I am not sure where he is at the moment, in fact I have only met him a few times and that was over a decade ago. Last I heard he was in the U.S. But, why him?"

Min-soo became a little nervous, it was not like he could reveal the fact that this man alone had created a global phenomenon, so he said the first thing that came to mind, "Oh, I saw his name in an old article and I became curious is all. Also, my gut tells me this is the man we need."

Uncle Sun put on a bemused expression, he could clearly tell there was more to the story, but he chose not to pry. "I believe the only one who would know where he currently is would be Park Jin-young. Those two have always been as thick as thieves, in fact it was because of Park Jin-young that Bang Si-hyuk left for America, I believe."

"Hm? Park Jin-young? Do you know how and where I can find him?" Min-soo asked with a little excitement.

"Well, after the industry collapsed here, Park Jin-young decided to move to America to try his luck there, I believe he has a company over there that has focused on solo artists and trying to crack the market there. I think his company is in Los Angeles and he has had middling success, well, enough for him to still exist. But if you really want to find Bang Si-hyuk then I am sure Park Jin-young will know."

Min-soo could barely conceal his excitement, meeting both Park Jin-young and Bang Si-hyuk would be quite the experience. JYP artists were incredibly memorable to Min-soo and to meet the man behind them would be interesting to say the least.

"Uncle Sun, will it be okay if I leave things here to you, while I go find Park Jin-young and Bang Si-hyuk?"

"Of course, I will make sure by the time you come back we have a fully functional company, I will make sure to keep you in the loop over how things will be set up. How long do you think you will be gone for?"

Min-soo thanked Uncle Sun, "Thank you, Uncle Sun, I don't know what I would do without you. I don't know, but hopefully I can get everything sorted within a month. I will let you know if anything happens, of course. Oh, please do look out for talented scouts and start finding trainees, otherwise even if we have great songs, we won't be able to make them a reality without the idols."

Uncle Sun contemplated for a little bit, before he nodded, "Right, leave things here to me and Hyun-jung, do you need her to arrange your travel?" he asked with a little hesitance.

Under normal circumstances, wealthy heirs such as Min-soo would definitely not book his trips personally, but he was not the same Min-soo as before. He shook his head, "No, that is okay, I can do it. Well, I won't keep you any longer, the earlier I leave, the earlier we can get started on reviving the industry."

Uncle Sun once again nodded, "Okay, Min-soo have a safe trip."

Min-soo left the building and returned home.

Logging onto his computer, he did a quick search for Park Jin-young and Bang Si-hyuk. The former had quite a few news articles and web results, whereas the latter only had a small Wikipedia article with a few paragraphs.

There was nothing about his current whereabouts apart from the fact he had left for the US back in 2004. He really did need to find Park Jin-young then.

As for him, he actually had a company website and just like in Min-soo's last world, his company was called JYP Entertainment. However, this JYPE was much, much smaller. From the website it seemed there were only three active artists in the company currently and they were in various stages of their careers.

One, an American-Korean named Kelly Lim was their most popular artist, having managed to crack the Billboard Hot 200 at 160 with her latest album and was currently floating at about 99. The other two, a rapper and singer duo were doing okay, they had a solid internet presence.

From the looks of things, it had been these three artists that had managed to keep JYPE afloat all these years since Park Jin-young left Korea.

Min-soo had a listen to their songs and could instantly tell why they were not breaking records. There was a slight dissonance between the singer and the listener, that made it go from good to average. Being average was not the formula for success.

What made it more disappointing to Min-soo was the fact that these were not K-pop songs, they were all generic pop. It seemed Park Jin-young had truly given up on K-pop or he was merely being pragmatic. As the old adage went, when in Rome do as the Romans do.

However, Min-soo had no experience when it came to making good music, so perhaps he was just being an armchair critic. But he still trusted his gut and he believed that with the combination of his previous world's experiences and those venerable experts in the industry, it would not be long before the world would experience the joys of K-pop once again.

Min-soo checked his personal bank account and was stunned by the figure. There were far too many zeroes in his balance. He truly was a wealthy young master.

As for how he had so much money, it was the accumulation of the monthly allowances he had been given over the past twenty-odd years. Even with the wastrel habits of his former self, it had made barely a dent in the bank balance.

Wealthy people truly had it well.

Min-soo could not be bothered to be frugal and booked for a first-class flight to Los Angeles.

Park Jin-young, Bang Si-hyuk, if Min-soo could convince at least one of them to join him, then the trip would be worth it. If he could get both, then he would not need to worry about the future of his company.