Chapter 190

Chapter 190

I’d guessed, of course, that the new idol group debuting from the fourth season of Idol Inc. would be joining our agency, but the current situation was very interesting.

I expected them to hire a new team of dedicated staff for them. TeSTAR was only in its second year, and they were already trying to take staff from our team. And for a group that hadn’t even proven themselves yet?

“Wow! So we’re finally getting more idols at our agency? But they’re taking our employees, instead of recruiting new ones? That sounds like too much work for them!”

“They’ll be recruiting as well, but I think they’re planning to split some of the more experienced staff. Don’t worry, I won’t be leaving! I’ll send the second manager over!”

“Haha!” Big Sejin laughed at the manager’s playful tone, but he had his fair share of experience with agencies, and no doubt had an idea about what was going on.

The director has jumped ship and is throwing himself behind the new group entirely. To be more precise, he was sick of dealing with TeSTAR’s fans. From his perspective, two of his predecessors had been replaced rather quickly, and it was easy to just assume that TeSTAR’s fans were far too sensitive. The fans were actually very angry with the agency at the moment.

Even the members are against his vision for the group—namely, his obsession with America. The new group had gotten through the absurd survival show that was Idol Inc. and already built a fandom. It wasn’t all that strange that he wished to focus the key personnel on that group, nor that he was setting out some new goals.

“Our agency’s been doing really well lately! The new hires will be great. Don’t worry about it too much!” the manager said.

“Okay!”

As for what I thought about this…

This is perfect. I loved it. The agency wouldn’t want to make more pointless trouble with the fans, so they’d take care of us properly. This would allow us to use the agency’s capital without the director’s meddling. The situation couldn’t be more ideal. We were more than capable of planning everything ourselves, anyway. So the approval bot is basically back.

One thing did bother me, though. There was the risk that he might not invest money in new albums and try to get us to focus on just doing tours instead.

He might treat us like cash cows. Just one look at the revenue after our upcoming tour was likely to see him doing just that. He had another group he could focus on, so he might as well use TeSTAR as a quick cash grab. I couldn’t let that happen. The solution was simple.

I’ll just make sure he has no choice but to keep investing in us. There were three and a half years left until our contracts ended. We’d continue to grow in fame until then, satisfying both the financial craving to grow the prospective audience at our tours as well as the man’s desire for fame, since he could lay claim to our success.

And based on what I knew of the current director’s personality, he won’t be able to pass on any of that. This meant the reception we received from fans during our upcoming tour was important. It would be our first long-term period of inactivity, and we needed to make sure people were talking about us just as much as they would when we were showing up at the end-of-year awards ceremonies. However, the schedule was already tight, and we couldn’t fit any more events within Korea. That left only one option.

The reality content will have to be better than we planned. It just meant creating more content from our preexisting schedules, anyway.

I’ll have to go hard. I hadn’t tried this strategy since our Idol Inc. days, but I’d aim to put on a more provocative personality and create stronger content.

“We’ll get to meet the new idols?” Eugene asked.

“Not right away,” Chungwoo responded.

He was right. We were leaving the country to start our tour tomorrow.

***

TeSTAR left for the US after the Seoul concert, which had been met with great reviews. Awards ceremony season was in January, and at that time they’d be touring in Japan and making frequent trips back to Korea. The tour in the US would be smaller and shorter, which was why they were getting it out of the way now.

Having consumed every possible piece of content dropped at the concert, the fans were eager for more. It was around this time that the fourth season of Idol Inc.’s final episode, which had drawn fire at the TeSTAR concert, went live.

[The controversial but hot Relisted! Idol Incorporated 2 reaches its Season Finale]

[Group debuting from Season Four of Idol Incorporated set to be called “Miry-nay”]

[The winners of the new season of Idol Inc. to share the same agency as TeSTAR?]

Tnet decided to navigate carefully around the touchy TeSTAR fans, and the concert itself was only mentioned briefly in complementary tones.

But even without that issue, season four was having trouble separating itself from various disputes. The third season had been such a success that comparisons were constantly drawn between them. This meant they were constantly trying to one-up themselves every episode.

- I’m a survival maniac, but I can’t stand this season. I’m not watching anymore

- Who knew season three would turn out to be so easy-going in comparison

- LOL what the hell is this? I need TeSTAR as a palate cleanser

The show’s reputation had hit rock bottom as people criticized it for being far too cruel and crushing the contestants’ hopes and dreams. Testimonies from the contestants who’d been eliminated from the show midway only made this worse. As a result, the public felt subtly displeased about the new group debuting from the show, regardless of how many people had watched it.

Naturally, the TeSTAR’s fans didn’t want to be linked to this new group, either. This was all the more true since the older boy group had been forming a reputation and universe all its own since their debut.

- Just don’t get TeSTAR involved

- I don’t think these new idols deserve it, but I don’t like them very much

- We taught the agency a lesson, and now it’s all quiet. I love that for us. Violence was the answer

Still, the agency didn’t make any glaring mistakes other than a few articles meant to test the waters, so the fans weren’t all that opposed to the new group.

The fans were far more concerned about the lack of news about TeSTAR.

- They seem to have pre-recorded their performance for Gayo Daejeon before leaving the country. It feels like it has been so long since I saw last them (photo of TeSTAR leaving the recording studio)

- Go live on W App, please, guys T_T There’s no content from the group these days. I’m bored...

- 12/21/XX - preview of concert in New Jersey (photo)

- Moondae’s solo performance has been changed to him sitting on a chair and being pulled up. It’s safer that way, but it’s also a bit disappointing... Praying the Seoul VODs release quickly

TeSTAR would be gone from Korea for the entire month of January, excluding an end-of-year national TV show and one large awards ceremony. And beyond the short W Live they did for Park Moondae’s birthday, there was nothing else to occupy the fans outside of news from the tour.

No self-produced content was uploaded or seemed imminent, either, and behind-the-scenes content from the concert all seemed to have been channeled into the VODs. Naturally, people began to worry for no reason. Experience living as devoted K-pop fans had taught them well.

- Looking at the way things are going, I have a feeling there’s going to be absolutely no content for the entirety of the tour

- The f*cking agency is busy rerouting manpower to their new group. New content isn’t even on their radar. It’s hardly surprising

- Enjoy the awards ceremony season while you can. This year is the last one when we get to see them in Korean music shows three weeks at a time after every comeback LOL

- F*ck they’re only two years old. They’re not doomed to do only tours now, are they? Tell me I’m wrong, you sons of b*tches

- It’s about time they started focusing overseas. TSuns have gotten too big

Some people took this mentality even further.

- I hope their next album doesn’t get a good reception overseas. That way they’ll focus on domestic audiences.

└ Don’t say sh*t like that when your profile image is of them

└ Why not? I’m not one of the TSuns members. Getting any more popular now won’t help us fans. They won’t focus on Korean fans, the fansigns will become harder to get into, and they’ll lose their spark. The early-day fans will drop away fast

It was too early, actually, for people to be saying such things, since they hadn’t been quiet for more than a month or two. The problem was that TeSTAR had been extremely diligent so far, and provided new content for their fans every single day.

They’d even provided updates during their vacations through videos and social media, but now there was none of that. The short silence was enough to shake some fans.

- They just began the tour, and there’s an end-of-year show that overlaps. They’re busy. Cut it out

└ What are you saying? We’ve all seen the posts of TSuns having fun LOL. I think they just wanted to travel around and sightsee, not perform

- I’ll only say it here, but... is it so hard to upload a single photo while they’re having fun? I’m a little upset, to be honest

└ Yeah, I mean there was that birthday celebration for PM after the concert... They had nothing more to show us, and I was really disappointed T_T

- What a mess. I guess they’ve been too good to you all so far. Or maybe you’re all new fans? Of all the things to be upset about…

Their upcoming appearance on a TV show at the end of the year gave the fans something to look forward to, at least, and similar comments didn’t gain much traction in December. On the last day of December, as the fans were disappointed that TeSTAR had only taken part in the MBS Gayo Daejejeon via pre-recorded footage, a notification appeared from TeSTAR’s official WeTube channel.

Ding!

[(Trailer) Happy New Year! TeSTAR’s new reality show, coming to you in the new year!]

The thumbnail contained the seven members sitting on a beach.

Finally! Yes! We deserve a reality show. They’ve been silent for too long! They’re on tour, so it’ll be boring documentary-type stuff, but that’s okay! It’s better than nothing! Relieved and happy with their New Year’s gift, the fans quickly clicked on the thumbnail and were confused by what they saw.

The first thing they heard was the sounds of a variety of imposing brass wind instruments and the high notes of a vocalist.

[“Whoa!”]

[“Yikes!”]

[“Wow.”]

[“Oops!”]

[“Ugh!”]

In time to the beat, clips of the TeSTAR members shouting or groaning flitted past.

At the end was Bae Sejin, frozen stiff as he held his hands in the air. It paused on this scene, which dragged out longer than the others. The floor was covered in ice cream.

- What the?

- LOL whut

- What is that? LOL

As the real-time chat displayed the fans’ confusion, the video suddenly took on a calmer note. TeSTAR was shown sitting in a peaceful interview, spliced with footage of them going about their daily lives.

The questions they were being asked were simple, too.

[“Have you ever had a part-time job?”]

[Lee Sejin: Yes!]

[Chungwoo: I helped out at my parent’s shop.]

[Bae Sejin: No... (tense) Why do you ask?]

White letters appeared on a black background.

[※Oh, no reason in particular :)※]

The scene changed again. TeSTAR was ready to leave the country, pulling suitcases behind them. The production team shouted,

[“Guys! Are you ready to film for the reality show? This time the concept is traveling wherever you want!”]

[Lee Sejin: Wow!]

[Seon Ahyeon: Really?]

[“Of course! Go wherever you please!”]

Quick cuts of TeSTAR enjoying themselves on exotic beaches or in restaurants in groups of two or three, or even all of them together, flashed past.

They were accompanied by a red caption.

[※Costs won’t be covered by the production team.※]

White letters appeared on the black screen again.

[※Will TeSTAR... be able to make enough money to fund their trip?※]

[Eugene: I want to go home.]

[Moondae: Please. Let’s just go...]

Park Moondae and Cha Eugene had their eyes covered with both hands, making for a hilarious shot.

[※TeSTAR’s Reality Show-Show-Show※]

[※Idol Working Holiday※]

[※First episode live Thursday, January 9!※]

Naturally, this was the delicious content the fans were not ready for.

***

“Our profit today finally surpassed a thousand dollars. We can finally go to the theme park tomorrow free of debt.”

“Wow!”

Clapping could be heard all around. The members looked proud of themselves as they stretched and gave each other high-fives.

“W-want to drink this?”

“Thanks.”

I gulped the plum juice Ahyeon handed me. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, too.

We all worked really hard. At this rate, we’d have plenty of money to fund our travels.

Hold on. It’s almost like this isn’t even just a variety show anymore. Everyone was far too serious about it. I began to sweat, realizing that we were focusing too much on paying off our bills rather than having fun.

How do we save this? This won’t do. I decided to splurge.