Peninsula's Life Begins in 2016

Chapter 115 Kim Jisoo's Contrasting Personality

Jiang Yan nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping calmly over the four girls' faces: "No need to be so polite. I was born in 96, so I'm about the same age as you. We'll have a long time to get to know each other, so just relax."

"Daebak—unnie is younger than you." Lisa widened her eyes slightly and turned to look at Kim Jisoo.

Jiang Yan smiled slightly, trying to use this to bridge the gap between them, "Yes, Lisa is right, I am a year younger than Jisoo, and the same age as Jennie."

Teddy, who was standing to the side, understood what Jiang Yan meant and did not interrupt. Just as Jiang Yan himself said, they would have a long time to get to know each other in the future, and the sooner they became familiar with each other, the more beneficial it would be for their future work.

The atmosphere in the practice room also relaxed considerably at this point.

Seeing that Jisoo was ignoring her, Lisa nudged Jennie with her elbow and whispered:

6

Unnie, he's the same age as you.

Jin Zhenni looked Jiang Yan up and down and replied in a low voice, "So, once we get to know each other better, does that mean we don't need to use honorifics anymore?"

As the two were whispering, Kim Jisoo coughed lightly and asked, "Senior, how should we address you from now on? Should we always call you 'Senior'? Or should we call you 'Producer-nim'?"

Upon hearing this, Jennie and Lisa immediately understood what this unnie meant and quickly shut up.

Jiang Yan saw all of this, but didn't say anything. Instead, he thought about Kim Ji-soo's question seriously and then replied, "You can call me whatever you want. Just call me whatever you think sounds good. I don't care much about these things."

Teddy watched the scene unfold for a while, then finally put his cup on the mixing console, clapped his hands, and interrupted their conversation.

"Alright, alright, you guys can talk about whatever you want to talk about later. Now you guys go eat first, you have dance practice this afternoon, don't be late."

"Yes." The four girls bowed in unison and then turned to leave.

Lisa walked to the door, then turned back and waved to Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan raised his hand in a gesture, watched the four figures disappear through the door, and then turned back to look at Teddy.

Teddy stretched, and his bones cracked twice.

"Let's go eat."

He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair, slung it over his shoulder, and tilted his head toward the door. "I told you last night that YG's cafeteria has the best food. I'll show you today."

Jiang Yan tucked the rating sheet into his notebook and followed him outside.

As the elevator descended, Teddy leaned against the elevator wall and suddenly chuckled.

"When you told them to relax a bit, Jisoo's gaze towards you changed."

"Um?"

"That girl is shy around strangers," Teddy said casually, pulling his coat up a little. "When she meets a new producer, she's polite, but she never asks how to address them. The fact that she asked you how to call me means she has a good first impression of you."

Jiang Yan recalled Kim Ji-soo's expression when she asked that question, but didn't find anything amiss.

Teddy seemed to sense his confusion, stepped out of the elevator, and pushed open the glass door leading to the cafeteria. "I brought this up to you because I wanted to tell you that among these four girls, Jisoo is the oldest and has a more mature personality. So after the debut, she will definitely be the leader. If she approves of you, the others will also respect you."

At this point, he hesitated for a moment before adding, "Once you get to know her better, her personality might be quite different. How should I put it? She's a bit quirky, a bit childish, and her thinking is also quite unconventional."

Hearing him say this, Jiang Yan was very surprised. Looking at his dignified and proper demeanor just now, he really couldn't imagine what kind of scene he would be like if he were so out of line.

The two took their food and found a seat by the window.

Just as Teddy picked up his chopsticks, he caught a glimpse of four familiar figures walking into the cafeteria.

Kim Jisoo walked at the front, carrying a tray in her hand. She glanced around and paused noticeably when she saw their table.

Lisa followed behind her, peeking and looking in this direction.

Jennie Kim was quite straightforward; she simply carried her tray over and bowed with a smile.

"Oppa, can we sit here?"

Teddy pointed to the empty seat next to him: "Sit down, the cafeteria isn't mine."

Four girls sat down at the long table next to them.

Lisa sat on the outermost side, Jennie sat diagonally opposite Kang Yeon, Jisoo sat next to her, and Rosé sat on the innermost side.

At first, the atmosphere was quite quiet, and everyone ate their meals properly.

Less than two minutes later, Lisa couldn't hold back any longer and asked Kang Yeon in a low voice, still with a slight Thai accent, "Kang Yeon oppa, may I call you that?"

"OK."

"Kang Yeon oppa, can I ask you a question? What month were you born in 96?"

As soon as Lisa said this, she felt a light kick to her foot, and she knew without thinking who it was.

Unaware of their subtle maneuvering, Jiang Yan casually replied, "Born in April."

"April?" Lisa's eyes lit up, her chopsticks stopping in mid-air. "Jenny unnie's birthday is January 16th, so you're three months younger than unnie."

Jisoo rubbed her forehead, while Jennie looked excited, "From now on, we'll be classmates and friends."

Kim Jisoo coughed softly beside her, signaling her to tone it down a bit, but Kim Jennie pretended not to notice and continued to look at Kang Yeon with a smile.

Jiang Yan didn't care about that; he didn't have high expectations of others. He nodded and said okay.

Jennie put down her cup with satisfaction, while Lisa puffed out her cheeks and muttered, "I want to be friends with her too."

Park Chae-young, who had been eating quietly, finally couldn't help but smile when she heard this.

Jiang Yan noticed her smile and casually asked, "Is Caiying usually not very talkative?"

When Park Chae-young's name was called, she was visibly taken aback for a moment, then put down her chopsticks and answered seriously, "Yes, I'm a bit slow to warm up, but I'll get better once we're familiar with each other."

Teddy picked at his kimchi fried rice on the side, watching Jiang Yan being surrounded by four girls asking him all sorts of questions, and chuckled gloatingly: "Now you know, being a producer isn't just about writing songs, sometimes you also have to be a psychologist, a life mentor, and a mediator in arguments."

Jiang Yan, without changing his expression, picked up a piece of stewed pork rib and put it in his mouth: "I know, brother, you've worked hard."

"Hey, you don't sound very sincere at all," Teddy said with a laugh, picked up his soup bowl, took a big gulp, then put the bowl down and stood up. "Alright, go back to the studio after you finish eating. We have a lot of things to do this afternoon."

Jiang Yan also stood up, picked up his plate, and prepared to go to the recycling area.

Seeing this, Lisa quickly swallowed the food in her mouth and mumbled, "Bye-bye, Oppa!"

"Okay, good luck with your practice this afternoon." Jiang Yanchao and the other three nodded slightly and followed Teddy out of the cafeteria.

After the two walked away, Kim Jisoo put down her chopsticks, turned her head and glanced at Kim Jennie, "You were unusually talkative today. We don't know his personality, you were too abrupt just now."

"Really?" Jennie casually picked up a piece of pickled radish and put it in her mouth. "Unnie, I think he has a great personality, he's easy to talk to, and he's interesting too."

Lisa nodded vigorously in agreement, while Rosé added quietly, "I agree, his songs are great too, both of them are really good."

Seeing her three younger sisters each preoccupied with their own thoughts, Kim Ji-soo sighed softly and said nothing more.

She picked up her water glass and took a sip, her gaze unconsciously drifting towards the figure that had already disappeared at the entrance of the cafeteria.

That man did seem different from the other producers, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

But she had a vague feeling that after this person joined their debut project, BLACKPINK's path might be different from what she had imagined.

Meanwhile, Teddy and Jiang Yan had already returned to their studio on the fourth floor.

Teddy took off his coat and threw it on the sofa. He walked to the mixing console, turned on the equipment, and the large screen on the wall lit up, displaying the project file of the "BOOMBAYAH" version that he had set up yesterday.

"Tell me your overall impression of today's assessment first." Teddy pulled up a chair and sat down, his fingers swiping across the touchpad. "Don't hold back, just say it."

Jiang Yan sat down on the chair next to him, opened his notebook and found it filled with comments, each one marked with a specific vocal range and rhythm reference value.

"All four members are very strong, that's the premise." He opened his notebook on his lap, organized his thoughts, and then looked up. "But that's also where the problem lies. They're all very strong, and they're strong in completely different ways. If the distribution of the debut song isn't done well in this situation, it will become a patchwork of four solos instead of a group."

Teddy's finger stopped sliding on the touchpad.

This statement pinpointed the problem that had been troubling him the most lately.

He knew, of course, that each of the four members was capable on their own, but precisely because of this, how to create a chemical reaction between them in a song instead of canceling each other out had always been his biggest concern when repeatedly revising the arrangement.

"Go on," he said, turning his chair around to face Jiang Yan.

"BOOMBAYAH is fine in terms of its EDM hip-hop direction. It has a strong rhythm and fast BPM, full of impact, and establishes a musical personality from the very beginning."

Jiang Yan stood up and walked to the big screen. He picked up the stylus next to him and drew two lines on the timeline of the project file. "But the division of labor for each segment needs to be redesigned. We can't just divide them by lead singer and rapper."

He drew a rough segmented structure diagram on the screen with a pen.

"Jennie opened the show. She walked in from the dark and said BLACKPINK in your area. The words coming from her mouth were more intimidating than the other three. She could fill the stage with presence in the very first second."

Teddy nodded slightly without interrupting.

"Then Lisa immediately cut in and used her high-speed rap to ignite the tension at the beginning. Her sense of rhythm and pronunciation are different from Jennie's. The transition between the two creates a contrast, one is restrained and the other is unrestrained."

The two of them plunged headlong into composing music, not even noticing the passage of time; four hours seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye.