Make Myself A Legacy (Another Stray Kids Member)

SKZ - Replay: Dinner (Leon ft. BTS Jimin)

Music was a platform people fought tooth and nail on. Many awards were laid out on the floor, broken and unclaimed due to the standards set when someone decided music shouldn't be for everyone. It was a concept created for unity. But industralizing it made division apparent and money schemes to control the said system.

As once listeners and fans before debut, Stray Kids understood the struggle. People had to pay for a song to save them. But only those who found therapy and other healthcare models unreachable would resort to the arts like music to be their lifeline. After all, even health was fueled by money.

Hence, the creation of SKZ Player and Record on YouTube. Song covers and original tunes by members. Freely given to their fans or people who needed solace and thought they were the best place to find it at. And it brought out the sincerity washed away by the manufacturing set-up of Kpop. They were songs done despite the heavy schedules and absence of free time.

It took them years to debate releasing it on other platforms. The members always spoke out against it because on the other side of the screen, they knew fans might have to cash out money in order to gain access to the album. And that was the whole counterargument of its creation. Leon remembers himself banging his fist on a company convention once. The new JYP heads wanted them to take advantage of the fan's yearn. But as someone whose been in the game longer than many of their company staff, he had something to say.

Once his anger was made known, silence bestowed in the room. Their eyes were on the taller boy who had his eyes closed and shoulders hunched forward. The lines on his figure were like a statue of silenced rage. The position he was falling into was not the ball to hide in. Rather, it was a supernova ready to explode and grab everyone near because of the black hole his heart wanted to move forward as. "Easy money is what you want with that. It'll foolishly break the reputation we built for the brand of the series." As a business man, he rarely spoke without his company executive beside him. But to wait and call for another meeting would mean that the company could've already pulled moves without hearing his resistance. Or hear his threat.

"You only sat in those seats for what, a few days, on a company you climbed. But it's not a company you built. So don't do things that'll make it fall just to satisfy the insatiability you have from gaining that high held authority."

It was true. With the new appointment and resignation of figures, these people were quite new to their positions. Even if they were familiar with JYP itself, they were new to the positions they now held. Yes, vice might be similar to first in command. But it was still not that seat. And as a boy who built his company from scraps with people as young as himself, he knew better.

As an idol too, he had a closer connection with the fans. The loyalty of their fanbase was built on the persona they knew them to be and the branding of the group itself. And Stray Kids was meant to detest the system for the sake of their authentic music. But if they conformed to the trends right now, abruptly. It would look out of place and they'd lose the trust between the supporters and the group.

"Eventually, we'll give in to their yearnings. But just like any other decision made for any group, we don't do things impulsively. So stop asking us to do that album release now because we already have ODDINARY lined up then its second part. Do your staff meetings and give us a better timeline to also tease the fans."

Most companies would punish him for his talking. Because often, idols were puppets. They followed orders and folded themselves into the mold needed for each season, comeback or occasion. But JYP held Stray Kids in another model, one that can't be duplicated. They were the outcasts of the system that needed to make noise quite a bit before establishing the image. And they acquired that after a few years.