Chapter 26

Volume 1 / Chapter 26
TL: LightNovelCafe
As soon as Jun Hyuk entered the cafe the day after he participated in the preliminaries, there were two men waiting for him.
“Hello. We are from MV channel’s legal team.”
“Legal team?”
“Yes. We came to go over your contract.”
They passed a packet over the table. Yoon Kwang Hun did not pick up the contract and waited for them to speak.
“There isn’t much to it. There will be some issues with the digital tracks once ‘Tomorrow’s Star’ starts, dealing with copyrights and arrangement fees. Lastly, it explains how the digital sales will be handled. Since you’re Jun Hyuk’s guardian, all you have to do is sign it.”
“Okay. I’ll look over it and get back in contact.”
Yoon Kwang Hun spoke without touching the contract on the table.
“Excuse me?”
“I can’t just sign a contract, can I? I said I’ll look over it and let you know.”
“Sir, there really isn’t much to it. And it’s hard to continue with the broadcast without this contract.”
“That means Jun Hyuk can’t participate, right?”
“Yes because copyright issues are always very sensitive.”
“Exactly. It isn’t possible for the information to be simple if it’s such a sensitive issue, is it? I’ll look over it and call you again tomorrow.”
The contract surely contained a lot of unfair points. Kids who were desperate to become stars signed these contracts without looking at it because they would not be allowed to appear on the show without it.
The broadcast’s legal team could never have anticipated that Jun Hyuk was not one of those kids who were desperate to become famous and that Yoon Kwang Hun was not an ordinary cafe owner.
“Sir, you don’t have to sign right away. However, if you read it now and have any questions, we can go over them with you. Wouldn’t that be better?”
Yoon Kwang Hun skipped the general information on the contract and read carefully through the section concerning revenues.
The contract contents were abominable. The best way to make sense of it was to say that their intentions were to stick a straw in Jun Hyuk.
“What is this here? Is it saying that after the broadcast ends, 20% of what Jun Hyuk makes for the next two years goes to the station?”
“Ah, yes. If Jun Hyuk becomes a star, it would be because of our station.”
“Outside of music as well? This is saying that even if he shoots an advertisement, 20% of that will also be shared?”
“Yes. Wouldn’t that also be attributed to our program?”
That was not the end of it. It also said that the station would hold distribution rights to Jun Hyuk’s songs for three years after. Yoon Kwang Hun did not say more about this section.
They would need a distributor anyway and MV channel was top-tier.
However, he could not help but ask when an unforeseen item appeared.
“What are arrangement fees? Jun Hyuk will end up improvising existing songs to sing or play. The station will be taking all of the royalties?”
The legal team answered as if they had been waiting for this.
“Ah, let us explain that part. What goes on air is the contestant arranging the music to sing, but really, professionals are assigned to them. The experts are the ones who arrange the songs perfectly to fit the contestants. Consider it for a moment. Without being a genius, it would be impossible for them to perfectly arrange their mission songs in a matter of hours.”
“So that means pre-selected songs have already been arranged and the contestants only practice them?”
In other words, it meant that the contestants only sang what the station ordered them to.
“Ha ha. Well the song selection isn’t something that our legal team deals with, but it is true that specialists are used in arranging the songs.”
The man on the legal team spoke quickly as he saw Yoon Kwang Hun’s disapproving countenance,
“Excuse me, sir. All contestants of ‘Tomorrow’s Star’ signed this contract over the last five years without exception. Jun Hyuk passed the preliminaries, but he will be edited out completely and we’ll make it as though none of this had happened if this contract isn’t signed.”
“Okay, do that.”
“Excuse me.”
“Didn’t you say that you would make it as though none of this had happened? I’m telling you to do it.”
There is a weak party when negotiating a contract. If MV channel has approached Jun Hyuk with a contract the day after the audition, it means that they were resolved not to lose him.
Tomorrow’s events were unpredictable with Jun Hyuk. He did not want this contract to put Jun Hyuk in a situation where the station was reaping all of the profit for his skill.
Yoon Kwang Hun was also not in a place to sign the contract because he was not Jun Hyuk’s guardian by law.
Will Jun Hyuk sign? Will the MV channel get their evil way? What will happen now?!