Chapter 205

Chapter 205

I’m sure you’ll do just fine on your own. While this message might have seemed nice and implied he believed in us at first, hearing it from someone higher up in the hierarchy meant one of two things— You’re on your own or Make a mistake, and it’s your fault. The head of the Management Office, as it happened, was saying both things without realizing it.

He just gave the director a reason to intervene if TeSTAR doesn’t have any global impact during our upcoming promotions. It was obvious what the director would say. He would claim that it was necessary that we follow his lead to make headway in the global market.

Naturally, that will reduce TeSTAR’s say in things. It had been hard enough to gain as much control as we had now, and this new situation would be a minefield in a small agency like this.

It would also be a problem, however, to say that TeSTAR wasn’t capable of making the next album a global hit, since that was also a tidy excuse the director could make use of. There was no way out of this, it seemed.

The bastard let the director fool him. We couldn’t expect much from a nepotism hire like him, but I was pretty upset all the same.

“We always do our best to produce good results, of course, but we can’t guarantee that we’ll be successful every time…”

“What? No! Please don’t worry. Just carry on as usual.”

This meant that the head of the office had simply assumed that TeSTAR would continue its upward growth in popularity, too intent on making sure he had his say. He didn’t seem to realize that asking us to just carry on as usual might make us uncomfortable. Of course, someone like him had no idea how hard the work really was.

“Uh… right.” Chungwoo had nothing to say for the time being, realizing that responding seriously and saying what he was asking was beyond us would just make us look bad.

Sh*t. Our upcoming single had already been arranged, and the choreography had already been created. It was a light song with mass appeal, meant as a response to the domestic popularity we’d gained from our reality show.

We even made the key moves in the chorus easy to dance along to. The comeback was only a few weeks away, but now we needed to take on completely new goals.

Looks like the hell we went through at our debut is back. I quickly thought on my feet, frantically trying to find a way out.

TeSTAR isn’t a rookie group anymore, really, so if I can just…

Raebin suddenly raised his hand and said bluntly, “But our upcoming single is focused on being appealing in Korea. The goal isn’t to make it a global hit.”

Hey! I wondered for a moment if I should intervene and make him shut up, but the confused look on my group mate’s face made me realize something.

This might actually be a better approach. There was nothing but pure puzzlement on Raebin’s face. Chungwoo nodded when I made eye contact with him.

Fine. Let’s see where this goes.

“Uh… If the song performs well in Korea, the overseas fans will like it as well, of course.”

“That’s not always true. The gap between domestic and overseas hits in K-pop has broadened over the past few years, and there are many examples to illustrate this point…” Raebin explained at length, describing songs that had been a hit in Korea but not anywhere else, and the opposite as well. He looked proud of himself for the explanation as he concluded, “That’s why it’s even less likely that we’ll put out a global hit this time!”

The head of the office looked somewhat cowed by this barrage of information, delivered without even a hint of malicious intent. He seemed to know that Raebin had no intention of talking down to him or anything. Instead of seeming offended, he said wryly, “There are several weeks remaining until the comeback. Why not change the direction a little? The director is being so obstinate right now… You’re aware of this, right?”

There. We had our opening. I intertwined my fingers.

“So you mean to say, sir, that we should rearrange our entire comeback because of what you told us today?” I said.

We were performing well as a group, so I reckoned a few criticisms aimed at a nepotism hire wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“I understand you want the best for us, and we are motivated to try our absolute best, but…” I cushioned the blow slightly, nevertheless. “But this is the opposite of what we were hoping to achieve with this release. The director will probably think this isn’t really an artist-centric approach. And that has me worried.”

The head of the office realized suddenly that respecting the wishes of the artist and asking them to focus on global success no matter what they might have been planning originally were two very different things. Confusion flitted across his face.

Pretty convincing argument, huh? He was probably stressed at the idea that the director might turn the tables on him following his recent victory.

“Yes. We’ve already got things planned out for the album, you see! The director might see things that way,” Big Sejin said.

“We don’t have much interest in the US at the moment, so we’d like to focus on the domestic market for our comeback.”

The other members chimed in, providing supporting fire. We’d continue doing things our way. The man would have to cover his own ass.

His face fell, of course. “Uh, well, that will make it difficult for me to support you in the future…” He didn’t want to embarrass himself by taking his words back and pleading with us.

If we push any further and hurt his feelings, he might do something unpredictable. He was supposed to turn against the director, not us. However, there were many benefits to driving him into a corner like this.

It makes it easier for us to get what we want out of him. Why don’t I just— Oh, right. I agreed to consult the team’s wishes, too. I made eye contact with the other members, nodding and having a non-verbal conversation.

Let’s just do as he asks. We’ll have trouble on our hands otherwise.

Sure thing!

I’ll go along with it, whichever you choose to go with.

I’m hungry!

I thought Eugene’s look was slightly odd, but ignored it. None of them had shaken their heads or displayed disapproval. I spoke slowly and gravely to the head of the Management Office.

“In that case… Why don’t we try this instead?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll say the agency invested more money following our successful reality show, and so we widened the scale of our comeback as a result.”

Just give us more money.

“I think this sounds like a natural explanation. What do you think, sir?”

The strategy was to make up for our lack of time with massive capital. He’s a nepo hire, so he’ll have no trouble using the agency’s money.

As expected, the man brightened. “That sounds good to me.”

There. Technically speaking, TeSTAR wasn’t asking for more money, so there would be fewer repercussions even if our comeback turned out to only be average. Now all that remained was to pour money into our music, choreography, and music video and revise them all... in four weeks.

F*ck. This is going to be hard.

***

We holed up in a meeting room that same day after finishing our recording session.

“A global hit…”

“Hmm…”

Surprisingly, it was Bae Sejin who spoke first. “Why don’t we sing in English?”

It was a reasonable suggestion, but too early considering the global state of K-pop at the moment.

“That would mean we’re aiming for appeal in English-speaking countries… but that would only work if the public there knew about us to begin with.”

“Oh.”

Indeed, this was a strategy that would be worth trying if we already had an established fan base. If things didn’t go well, we might simply be accused of trying too hard to target the US. So what could we do to turn people who’d learned about us thanks to the American meme into fans?

“I think we should take a look at the concepts that existing K-pop fans liked,” Chungwoo muttered.

“That seems to be a surefire method!” Big Sejin said, raising his head.

“Don’t they like songs with good choreography, a nice beat, and an amazing music video?”

“Y-yes, but won’t they like that sort of thing in Korea, too?”

“Yeah, for sure. But in Korea… lots of people will avoid dance music with a strong beat if it’s coming from a male idol group.”

Big Sejin was right. That was why we’d put more emphasis on “Magical Boys” when we debuted with two title tracks, since it had a more subdued beat and was easier to listen to.

That song ranked higher on the music charts and stayed there a lot longer than “Hi-five.” In a similar vein, songs that were extremely intense and concept-oriented like “Present” had performed slightly less well than the previous title track, even though we’d hit a career-high and become top-tier idols, with a noticeable growth in fandom.

We’ll be missing an opportunity to make use of our massive increase in popularity in the country, but that would be the way to go if we need overseas audiences to react. Not that changing everything was easy, even after selecting a direction.

“The choreography we can overhaul, so there will be no problem—are you all right with that, Sejin?”

“Of course…” Bae Sejin replied to Chungwoo stolidly.

Chungwoo looked slightly apologetic as he continued, “All right. I think we could start changing the rest little by little… but I’m worried arranging will be difficult.”

Everyone turned to Kim Raebin.

Raebin looked around him, puzzled, then seemed to realize what he meant. “If we decide on a concept, I’ll produce a few drafts. Give me four days!” he said bravely.

“A-are you sure? W-won’t it be hard?”

“The title track has a lot of nice high notes in the melody that I can combine in various ways. I’m actually quite excited to be trying something new!” Raebin actually seemed eager to try something he hadn’t been able to previously because of their focus on domestic popularity.

Well, at least one of us is happy.

I said, “All right, Raebin. Why don’t we discuss the concept first so Raebin can start working?”

“Sure.”

“O-okay!”

“Can you think of anything, Moondae? You’re so creative, after all!” Big Sejin said.

We’d originally intended to put out a pleasant, innocent spring song without focusing too heavily on any concept in particular. We needed to transform this into something impressive enough to base a good music video on. At the same time, it needed to be appealing to English-speaking audiences so the director couldn’t find fault.

And if I was honest, I wanted it to still be attractive to Korean audiences as well. This was a digital single, with no physical albums being sold, so our placement on the charts was important.

Hmm… Something with impressive choreography, a powerful beat, and palatable to the fans… Oh!

My lips parted. “Why don’t we expand our universe while we’re at it?”

“Our universe? What do you mean?”

“‘Present,’” I said simply.

After some intense brainstorming, we all agreed to a series of changes to all aspects of our comeback, including the arrangement.

But we’ll also make sure it’s as easy to listen to as possible! A dynamic three weeks flew by after that.

***

TeSTAR’s fans all knew that the next comeback would be a single since news of it had made its rounds through the press around the time of the encore concert. It was a strategy employed to keep the fans excited. The keywords included in each article meant the fans were even able to guess the mood of the song.

[TeSTAR reveals comeback amid cherry blossoms]

[TeSTAR gearing to return… Is their next attempt a spring ballad?]

[Korea’s favorite stock, TeSTAR, is coming back as refreshing spring boys]

The staff at the agency had inspected TeSTAR’s plan for the promotional cycle and eagerly prepared the press kits to set the stage. As a result, the fans all expected an easy-listening song like “Picnic,” the title track from their past repackage album.

It wasn’t just the fans who thought this.

- They set a new record with “Picnic.” I guess they’re playing it safe.

- I’m slightly disappointed. Songs like “Magical Boys” and “Present” seem more up their alley

- “Better Me” was out of this world. I’m bummed they keep doing easier songs

- They’re pretty crafty, already easing up on the choreography when they’re such a new group LOL. Though I suppose the fans must like that since they’re doing it.

Following their hit reality show, there was almost as much interest in the comeback as there had been during their debut. Many people were upset as a result.

- People are making such a fuss over a song that hasn’t even been released yet LOL. They must be so scared. I pity them T_T

- It’s strange. No one is making any sense.

- It’s a digital single, guys… You know they’ll go all out on their full album. I hate these idiots who complain to the fans like this

- Enough lecturing, please. We don’t need your help supporting our group, regardless of what they do

- LOL TeSTAR is so successful, this is the only way they can try to grate on us now. They’re so pitiful haha

The fans, moderately annoyed, laughed off such reactions from the general public and other K-pop fans. At the rate TeSTAR was going, the comeback couldn’t fail. The fans also thought to themselves it would be nice if the song was so engaging and intense that the haters would be forced to shut up, but they trusted TeSTAR.

They’ve never failed us so far!

On the day TeSTAR released their comeback teaser, the fans were greeted with an incredible thirty-second video they hadn’t foreseen.

Is... is that a wilderness? TeSTAR had chosen steampunk Joseon for their concept.