Chapter 170

Chapter 170

Is he out of his mind, calling so late? I knew that in our field, working late hours was common, but it was already past midnight. I’d considered him to be a sensible person, but apparently, I was wrong.

I picked up the phone reluctantly.

“Hello?”

“Oh, Moondae,” came Goldie #1’s voice, sounding kind of dumb.

“Uh... Oh, are you available to talk right now?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Okay. Uh...” Goldie #1 hesitated for a long moment, then finally continued slowly. “I heard.”

“What?”

“My agency... hasn’t been treating you right, has it?”

He was bringing this up so openly? Things were no doubt hectic at his agency after the mess they’d made, so it probably wasn’t strange that he’d figured out what had been going on. But it was strange he’d decided to call me all of a sudden.

What are you going to do about it? This question was answered in the very next moment.

“Uh... I’m sorry.”

So he called to apologize? There wasn’t much I could say to him.

“It wasn’t your fault. Don’t worry about it.”

If the agency had told him to call me, then my reassurance was wasted, but if he was calling of his own volition, it would make him feel better.

That should be enough. What he said next surprised me, though.

“Actually... I think I was pretty much aware of what was going on. I just chose to ignore it. I sometimes overheard talk about you guys at the agency.”

I could hear him sighing over the phone.

“I didn’t know things were this bad... but I guess I told myself it wouldn’t be a problem since you guys were doing so well.”

“Uh...”

“But I thought about it some more today, and realized I’d have been pretty angry in your shoes.” His voice was shaking a little. “So I called to apologize. I was going to call Chungwoo, but you seemed to be the biggest victim in all this, so I called you first.”

Huh. I guess his agency has been pretty much turned upside down if he’s telling me all this. People didn’t just start feeling guilty for no reason. Apparently, things were bad enough over there to force one of their artists to be a little retrospective.

But it’s commendable that he chose to apologize instead of getting angry. A large part of his call probably had to do with easing his conscience or helping out his agency, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. This guy was only just old enough to be a college student. That he’d worked up the courage to apologize assured me that he was a pretty good guy.

I accepted his apology without fuss. “It’s all right. I was a little taken aback by the whole thing, but it’s all over now.”

It was their agency that was in trouble, not mine. I had no reason not to accept. Words didn’t cost me anything.

“Yeah, thanks.” I heard Goldie #1 sighing with relief through the phone. “Oh, and Seulhwi wanted to apologize to you too, and thank you. You were good to him when you were filming together, right?”

Who’s that? Oh. It was the Hankuk University student. Maybe I’ll just call him Goldie #3.

I accepted without much enthusiasm. “I didn’t do much... but all right.”

“Yeah. Holy sh*t, it’s one in the morning right now?”

“Yes.”

Goldie #1 gave a strange-sounding groan. It immediately did away with the gravitas of the situation. “Crap! I’m so sorry. I was in the middle of checking out reactions online, and—”

“Hey, I was, too. It’s fine.”

Apparently, they’d watched the episode of The Past Calls together as well.

“I guess it’s about time we slept, though,” I said, hoping to put an end to the conversation.

Goldie #1 was perceptive enough to take the hint. “Oh, yeah. Uh, have a good night. Good luck with your future activities.”

“Yes. Thank you. Hope you guys continue doing well.”

Our conversation ended on a friendly note, but I had the feeling that they would no longer approach us as casually or easily as they’d done right after they’d debuted.

Can’t be helped, I guess. That was the way it was when you were in competition. I shrugged and set my phone to silent just in case someone else decided to bother me while I was trying to sleep.

I should go to bed. Ahyeon and Bae Sejin came into the room later, but I was already so deeply asleep that I didn’t notice. This meant I only saw the text that arrived in the early hours of the morning after I woke up.

***

[Looks like you made good use of your time preparing for the civil service exam. Congratulations :)]

What the hell was wrong with him? I nearly spat out my breakfast.

When did he send this text, anyway? I checked the timestamp, which read 4 A.M.

He must have been on his way to get his makeup done. He was so rude. I glared unpleasantly at the words “Cheongryeo (VTIC),” accompanied by a profile picture of a baby golden retriever from the insurance ad.

Come to think of it, I told him that I studied for the exam, didn’t I? I’d inadvertently placed some trust in him, it seemed. I quickly sent him a thank you and tried to exit the app, but a new text arrived faster than I could.

My phone buzzed.

[(Image)]

It was a... gift voucher. I clicked on it and found a chocolate set meant for test takers sold by a franchise cafe.

Was this his idea of a joke?

[This is just a good luck gift. It’s about time you released a new song, right?]

He was right. We would soon be releasing a repackage album. The new song that would be included on the album had been selected from one of the ones created by Golden Age’s composer, as planned.

The arrangement turned out really good. Almost everyone had agreed that Kim Raebin’s arrangement was great, but he still seemed unsure of himself. What was hilarious to me though was that he was more worried about the trends in the industry than his own skills.

“We’ve chosen a genre that will stand out on the charts, but what if a new trend sets in by the time we release the song and the public’s tastes change completely?”

“That won’t happen, Raebin. Don’t worry about it.”

We’d had this same conversation several times recently. I held back a sigh.

He should be more worried about his foot. The doctor had declared Kim Raebin’s foot completely recovered, to the point that he no longer needed to take it easy. Our choreography practice was going very well as a result.

We could have started at least a week sooner if he hadn’t insisted on joining in on the indoor climbing. I could understand his passion for participating in the various events on our schedule, but he was very obstinate.

“Perhaps we set our target audience too broadly, and the reviewers will say it’s a dud—”

“Nah, Raebin. Don’t worry about it so much and just eat.”

He was questioning everything even as we ate. Regardless, our album preparations were going smoothly.

If we were going to muzzle Golden Age’s agency like this, maybe I didn’t need to get in contact with the composer after all. I’d gone ahead and shared the composer’s information with Youngrin and Cheongryeo as well.

I put some rice wrapped in dried seaweed in my mouth and considered this as I chewed. Hmm. Youngrin did pretty well on her latest comeback, too.

I’d shared the contact information of Golden Age’s composer with her very intentionally, and the new song she’d released two weeks ago was pretty high in the music charts. She’d even thanked me again a few days ago.

Oh, maybe that was why they were so upset. If Golden Age’s agency had somehow learned that I’d been the one who’d told Youngrin about the composer, it was easy to understand why they’d been so insistent about targeting me of late.

Things probably went even better for us because they got overly emotional. Though it seemed a little silly that they’d gotten so angry over something so trivial when they’d planned a whole reverse viral marketing campaign against us.

It’s all over now, though. My actions hadn’t gone far enough to be an ethical issue, and they wouldn’t be able to keep their grudge alive for long. They already had their hands full dealing with T1.

And we’re next, after Youngrin. VTIC would be the last to debut their song from the same composer.

Crafty son of a b*tch. Cheongryeo had backed off, citing tours and a busy schedule, but he was basically waiting until he was sure he would succeed based on how our songs did.

He’s making such a huge fuss when he’s using the song as a B-side, not even the title track. It seemed in character for him though, given that he was a perfectionist and chronically reset his life. On the other hand, that he was going along with my idea at all might be an attempt at cooperation from someone like him.

If he keeps this attitude up, I’ll be able to put up with him. Sighing, I placed my thumbs over the keyboard on my phone.

[Yes. We’re doing our best. Thank you for the chocolate. Have a great day.]

[You, too.]

Our interaction had been pretty clean this time. He seemed to like the composer’s music, too, so maybe he was being a little easier to work with in gratitude.

And even if Golden Age doesn’t try anything shady anymore, it’s still best not to leave any openings. Our current situation was pretty good, in more ways than one. Nodding, I turned back to my food—or tried to.

My phone was buzzing again. I stared down at it.

[Oh, my birthday is next month, by the way. The 27th.]

Why should I care? Shaking my head, I turned the screen off. I wanted to get back to eating.

“You all put your dishes in the sink, right?”

“Yes!”

Someone came in and did the cleaning for us, but we thought it best to put in a little effort, at least. Now we had some free time on our hands.

“Ahahaha!”

Most of the time we hung out in our respective rooms when we weren’t working, but Eugene was playing some kind of weird dancing game today, and the living room was crowded with the members, who’d gathered to watch.

I wonder if I should just go back. I’d come out since it didn’t seem right to stay locked away in my room all the time, but it was far too noisy out here. Too lazy to move, however, I soon found something else to focus on.

It’s about time I opened it up and took a look. Noisy moments like this might be better for this since my mind wouldn’t wander.

Status window. For the first time in a very long while, I began to sort through my status window.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Geonwu)]

Level: 17

Title: None

Singing: S-

Dancing: B

Physical attractiveness: A-

Charm: B+

Trait: Infinite Potential, International Student (A), Energy Drink (B), Catch-All Ears (A)

Status abnormality: Grow Your Audience or Die!

Points Remaining: 2

The first thing I noticed was my Singing stat, which had now risen to S level.

Now that makes me feel a little proud of myself. I’d done well to invest points in my singing since I’d utilized it in everything from variety shows to our promotions. Then there were the points I’d gained by leveling up, but something else concerned me more.

What happened there? I wasn’t sure why, but my Charm stat had naturally increased from B to B+.

I... don’t think I did anything to warrant that… Since I hadn’t accessed the window in a while, I had no idea when it had happened.

“Hmm.”

But it was a good thing, nonetheless. I calmly crossed my arms over my chest. Now all I had to do was distribute my points and be done with the window for today. Our new album was about to drop, so this was the perfect time to do so.

I suppose Charm... might be the best one. It was the most efficient one to invest in since a single point would let me reach A-.

“Good.”

“What’s good?”

Oops. I’d been so focused on the status window that I’d spoken out loud. Eugene was staring at me with his big eyes, having just finished another round of his game.

I didn’t say anything incriminating, so it’s fine. There was no problem here. I was about to tell him nothing was wrong when it suddenly occurred to me that I should ask for their opinion.

“Uh, this is just a random question,” I started.

“Yes?”

“What do you think the most important trait is in our career as an idol?”

“Hmm? Like... personality, maybe?” he said, breaking into English momentarily.

I supposed this suggestion would roughly translate to Charm. It was exactly what I’d expect him to say—he had more charm than almost any other idol I knew of.

Raebin, who was right nearby, also chimed in. “Hey, try to sound a little more professional! Moondae! I think what matters most is the ability to perform a song properly. One’s expressiveness, if you will.”

Right. This also translated to charm, though, just the same as Eugene had said.

“I’m a pro! You’re boring!”

“No! Your response was lazy!”

As I watched the two of them quarrel, a glum voice interrupted. “A good grip of the basics.”

It was Bae Sejin, no doubt describing what he believed he lacked. In the meantime, Big Sejin was adding his two cents to the squabble that had broken out between Eugene and Raebin.

“It’s important to be good at everything! There’s no need to differentiate.”

“But still, we’re trying to determine what’s most important...”

The conversation was a mess.

Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. I decided to just wait until they came to a conclusion. Shaking my head, I took the opportunity to check something else—an event pop-up I’d received.

True Taste of Fame!

10,000,000 people have taken notice of you!

: Pick a legendary trait ☜ Click!

Ten million? I couldn’t picture that amount of people together in one physical space. More frightening still was the fact that this pop-up was pretty old. I was probably working my way toward... fifty million by now.

I felt accomplished, but the feeling was accompanied by chills. In any case, I clicked to draw a new trait. The familiar slot machine appeared and began to spin.

The hero trait draw had a minimum rank of B... so I guess for legendary, the baseline is A? Ten million people knew me, so maybe a draw like this wasn’t surprising. I could see gold mixed amongst the tiles, however.

Huh? The chance to acquire a higher-ranked skill had been added, without raising the minimum guarantee, apparently.

It’s like one of those crappy phone games. I glared at the slot machine as gold, platinum, and rainbow tiles mixed.

I don’t care what I get, as long as it’s something useful. It was about time I got rid of the International Student trait. Something that would make me better at selecting concepts would be good—even something that strengthened my hair texture would be nice at this point.

The tiles slowed, then came to a stop. It was a platinum tile, thankfully. There was a burst of confetti.

[Trait]

“Words of Persuasion (A)” obtained!

“...!”

This was a trait I’d seen once before. The only difference was that the rank was now very different.