'Midas Touch' | Aespa Winter x Male Reader

Act 4 | Year 2024: Unmute! IZ*ONE reunites!

February 2024,

Youtube.  A media platform where you can post content for people to view. Pledis Entertainment, SEVENTEEN, Babylon Garden all have their own youtube channel. Our group has a respectable subscribers of 21 million. It's not a deniable fact that being a content creator can be a gig for people to earn money.

Within the members, we made a quite significant of money for ourselves. Not by a big shot compare to those with a bigger agencies, but Pledis is going up the ladder and sat as the 5th largest kpop company.

I always taught the members to buy only when needed and always save more. To make sure when we're old, we have enough money to live securely. I also taught them to hustle more and not waste any of their time doing nothing.

Our members divided the paycheck and send some of it back to our families. Repaying them back for when they supported us to get to where we are now. People asked if we wanted to move out from our old dorm, but for us the place held so much memory.

Pledis had split our paycheck into a 65/35 where the majority chunk will be paid to our staff members who worked hard and earned everything. The 35% of it will be split between us 5. Each of us will take 5% making 25% contributed to us. And the remaining 10% is for the dorm usage whether for groceries, paying bills and etc..

It looks a small chunk but usually.... it's not. 5% for each of us equivalent to a flat $500k per year. From achieving multiple awards to the tour and our outstanding album sales, we can only credited to those who helped us.

People say the artists should be paid more, I disagree to it. Yes, we deserve it. But the unsung heroes are always those that supported us and they deserve it as well. Pledis is a growing company therefore they needed newer staffs, and more staffs meaning they need more money to pay them.

SEVENTEEN and Babylon Garden helped injecting cash to the growing company, more so when the new group of trainees came in with high expectations. Our hyungs taught us that, being rich doesn't mean you can spend it on nonsense stuff. 

Within the members, they will surely say I was the only person who doesn't spend a lot. Even when I taught my members to not spend, there will be times that I will be lenient with them and let them buy luxury stuff from watches to rings and necklaces. We're only human after all.

But for me, I still buy stuff that I really need and only repurchase it when needed. If you asked the members, they know that I have very minimal stuff. I only shop with local brands to support them. Even I used my old watch and shoes since they're still usable.

Upon asking where did all my money go, I said it was sent back to my family and my siblings education. The others went to charity and animal shelter. I even made savings for myself when I grow old. Therefore, all my money was spent for others.

But, for the past month I opened up a youtube channel for a side gig. I realized I can do this side job in my free time. Upon requesting with the company, they cleared a studio room where I can use to record any songs that the fans requested.

It was a small gesture but a meaningful one. For the first two months, my youtube received a massive followers of 3.2 million subscribers. That only already gave me a massive amount of paycheck. But like always, I sent it to my family and made savings for myself.

Mom always nagged me saying she can't take the money but I insisted. She worked hard to raise me and my siblings therefore it's the least I can do. When Liz heard that I'll be funding her tuition fees to study at Seoul National University, she broke down in tears.

She will start her medical school this year and she received a partial scholarship from the government. To give her the best environment, I pitched in allowances for her and paid for her dorm.