Chapter 286

Chapter 286

“Shall we talk it through first?”

“Yeah. Let’s.”

“All right!”

Big Sejin began to write down the topic of our emergency meeting, which had been called urgently even though it was past midnight, on the whiteboard to one side of the meeting room.

[TeSTAR’s comeback date]

Our comeback date was about to overlap almost perfectly with VTIC’s.

This is supposed to be something the agency decides on, and idols with only a few years of experience like us are supposed to have no say…

But after everything we’d been through, we’d ended up involving ourselves in just about every part of the process when it came to our jobs. This was what I’d wanted, anyway, and it left me feeling more at ease. If someone called the shots for us and our album flopped, I would lose my mind.

“First of all… This is our comeback date.” Big Sejin drew a long timeline and marked a tick that represented July.

Monday, July 5th. That was the date we’d been originally planning for.

“This date would allow us to get a week’s worth of sales on the music shows, a month’s worth on the July charts, and sales from July, August, and September in the third quarter! Whoever picked this date sure knew what they were doing, huh?”

The agency and the members alike had unanimously voted for this date. I nodded.

“VTIC probably had the same idea.”

“…!”

Of course, they had. If they were having a comeback in July, they would have gone with the most efficient choice available to them.

Ahyeon cautiously spoke up. “I-in that case… do you think they chose the exact same date?”

“They’ll be releasing their album to suit SongBoard, so it won’t be the exact same.”

The day that would get them full representation on the SongBoard charts would be… Big Sejin was already writing it out on the whiteboard.

[VTIC’s comeback date]

[SongBoard is Friday!]

“Friday! So that means it’s July 2nd.”

“Hmm.”

That was exactly a three-day difference between our comeback and theirs—July 2nd and July 5th, respectively. The two ticks on the timeline Big Sejin had marked were far too close for comfort. The others stared gravely at the whiteboard, except for one.

“Is there a problem? Do we have to avoid them?” This was, of course, Eugene.

And in the next moment, another of our members was shooting him down.

“Eugene, this isn’t a personal issue! He’s talking about how both teams will lose out in many of the evaluation categories, which are based on relative market share!” Raebin proudly explained the calculation method that he’d only learned during our most recent comeback preparations himself.

He’s only known about all that for less than a month, and he’s already putting the info to good use. Put in easier terms, even if both groups sold as many albums as possible, they would still be sharing the same pie, percentage-wise, because they had released albums in the same timeframe.

That’s a net loss for both impact and short-term performance. Eugene didn’t seem impressed.

“Not true! We got first place last time! There’s no problem here. We can just focus on doing our thing!”

“Last time?”

“With our debut album!” Eugene said in English.

Oh, you mean the album we managed to get first place with digital track sales by dragging things out for several weeks? That was only possible because VTIC was away on a tour. The timing had been extremely lucky for us. It wasn’t the usual way of things.

The others seemed to share my thoughts.

“We were just lucky.”

“That’s right. We didn’t get first place as soon as we released the album, so that’s different!” Big Sejin said.

Chungwoo gently soothed Eugene. “Raebin’s saying that we don’t have to force ourselves to go down a difficult path if we can avoid it. It’ll make things more difficult for us as well as VTIC.”

It seemed I wouldn’t need to say anything.

“Ugh…” Eugene reluctantly gave in to the majority opinion.

So everyone wants to change the date… except for Eugene. I looked around at them, organizing my thoughts. What could we do?

“First of all, we can’t do our comeback any earlier. There’s the music video schedule to consider, as well as everything else.”

“Yes. And we’re supposed to drop a separate teaser, too. The way I see it, the earliest we can go is about a week prior to our planned date.”

And a week would make no difference. After we had our week on the music shows, VTIC would roll in and wipe us out.

“Yeah. So we should probably consider pushing it back…” Chungwoo began carefully. “The agency said that we could try August or September.”

“Hmm.”

That would be at least a month of potential sales and streams lost before the end of the year.

That seems dangerous. We’ll find it hard to beat VTIC with performance even as-is. But still, it was a relatively safe choice in that we would avoid taking a greater risk. We could stay at the top of the ranks of the music shows for two or three weeks, at least. This did not suit me, however.

I need to avoid making any choices that could prevent us from getting a daesang. I wanted to choose a date that benefited our chances for a daesang more, rather than one that would help us with the music shows. But I could only speak up if I had a clean alternative.

The standard choice would be to move to August and be done with it. I tried to think of something I could say before the others decided this was the way to go.

“But I don’t want to delay it that long,” Chungwoo said.

“…!”

“What? Really?”

“Wh-why not?”

“We could easily get first place with the music shows, yes, but in the long term, we should stick to our original plan.” He grinned. “We should try for a daesang this year.”

Don’t tell me… Is he trying to…

“Wow, Chungwoo!” Big Sejin said.

“An admirable goal!” Raebin said.

“I like it!” Eugene said.

Everyone reacted strongly, since he seldom said things like this. I became certain after he locked eyes with me.

He’s giving me all the help he can. He’d taken me seriously when I’d told him I needed the daesang.

Good. This would make things easier for me, to be sure.

“In that case, if we try to preserve our original schedule as much as we can… Let’s analyze the potential results,” I said. I grabbed a pen and paper instead of the whiteboard, which Big Sejin was using. “First of all, VTIC will have a shorter timeframe than us when it comes to physical albums, and it’s a repackage album. I don’t think their numbers are going to be dramatic.”

I didn’t have to add that the group was also getting along in years.

“Then let’s estimate it at 1.93 million sales, based on the previous album.”

That was a scary number.

“Yes. And as for us…”

If we managed to do well in our first week, we could potentially aim for 1.3 million—though, to be honest, that number was pretty nuts, too.

A million is no easy feat. There was still a gap we could not overcome.

“If we stop at 1.3 million, we won’t be able to catch up when it comes to album sales,” I said.

“Hmm.”

But there was more than just physical sales to consider.

“But with digital sales, we tend to do better than them.”

“Oh, right.”

TeSTAR had an advantage over other male idol groups in this regard. We had mass appeal on our side. We liked to do concept-rich work, but we also produced easy-listening songs with every other release and often secured exclusive appearances on popular variety shows.

I can’t deny it’s also thanks to our roots in Idol Inc. In any case, we could count on securing long-term sales when it came to digital sales.

“So if no other major group decides to compete with us, and we release at the same time as VTIC, the second week will be…”

Wait a second. At this rate…

“…!”

“What is it, Moondae?”

I looked over what I’d written and realized something.

I see. The double release during our debut had been so harrying, it had blinded me from seeing something. We weren’t debuting anymore.

I found myself saying, “Let’s let VTIC take the lead.”

“Huh? Wh-what?”

“We only need to delay for a week. And then—”

Bae Sejin interrupted. “Wait. That would be exactly the same that happened when we debuted.”

That’s the point.

“No. The timing might be the same, but the situation isn’t.” I turned the paper around to show Bae Sejin. “When VTIC’s first week is over, they’ll be in their second week, and we’ll have just started our first. There’s going to be no contest there. We’ll win that week.”

“…!”

“And the digital charts, too… Once we get in and things stabilize, our sales will start to grow similarly. We might even be a little higher.”

I wrote down the comparisons on the paper.

- Albums

VTIC (second week) < TeSTAR (first week)

- Digital tracks

VTIC (second week) ? TeSTAR (first week)

(Graph suggests we’ll be able to hold our own)

It was clear we’d win when it came to the music shows.

And that can’t be flipped, even with broadcast scores. Our music would hit the radio as soon as we did our comeback on Monday. The mentions on social media and the views on our music video would not be less than VTIC’s, since we’d be on our first week. We were top-tier idols ourselves now.

“It’ll be the same situation from when we debuted. The only difference is, we’ll definitely take the win in the first week.”

That was a massive win for us, reputation-wise.

“And it doesn’t matter if things even out by the third week. In fact, we stand to benefit no matter what, as long as we’re not completely smashed by them.”

Big Sejin nodded. “Hmm. So it’ll look like we’ve grown to the point where we can hold our own against VTIC, right?”

“That’s right.”

Following our simultaneous release with Youngrin in January, we would be really cementing our position. It would show that we could release at the same time as a competitor who usually won a daesang and still be able to hold our own.

And comparing this situation to our debut will make for a good story. People are going to talk about this. Social media and articles would talk endlessly about how a generational shift was on the horizon. This is the best take we could have hoped for.

It’s close to impossible to beat VTIC in physical album sales this year, anyway. And as for digital tracks, we have Youngrin to contend with. Our group’s advantage was we did well in both, so the only daesang category we could aim for this year was Artist of the Year. It would come off as though the awards ceremonies were giving us the award because everyone thought we deserved it—we’ll have been the most popular group, after all.

Our performance in albums and digital tracks will be top tier, so there will be no complaints. It was a bit of a gamble, but a reasonable one.

“The VTIC fans are going to be pissed, though. You know that, right?” Big Sejin said.

“Y-you think so?”

“Yeah. They’ll think their group was given the short end of the stick because of the timing!”

This was something we’d have to live with. When people talked about a confrontation like this, there was bound to be backlash and drama.

“Yes… The f-fans are going to have a hard time…” Ahyeon said.

“Hmm.”

It wouldn’t really matter, actually, if we did as well as I expected we would. The rush the fans got from winning would overpower any fatigue they got from fighting VTIC’s fans online.

It’ll also help with fandom solidarity, won’t it? The new season of Idol Inc. was slowly drawing to an end. More internal strife was bound to begin. In my mind, designating VTIC as the common enemy, so to speak, was a good plan. I received some unexpected help by the time I’d reached this point in my chain of thoughts.

“All that matters is that we do well! We don’t need to worry. Let’s do our best! The fans love us!”

Of course, this was Eugene. He seemed only to be agreeing with the arrangement because we wouldn’t have to delay our promotional cycle, but even so.

“What do you think? Aren’t we good?”

“Y-yes. W-we’re good…” Ahyeon said.

“That’s exactly it!” Eugene exclaimed in English.

I doubted anyone was as good at pushing stubbornly ahead with something as he was. I watched as Eugene somehow had Ahyeon on board before the soft-spoken man had even realized what he was doing.

That might be useful, but this is something all of us need to think through carefully before we make a decision. We couldn’t leave room for disagreement after we’d had our comeback.

“I was stating my opinion, but I’m sure some of you don’t agree. Why don’t we think it over, then have a vote?” I said.

“Not a bad idea.”

I suggested a vote, and the members readily agreed.

After some time mulling it over, we had our vote.

“It’s unanimous,” Big Sejin remarked.

Shockingly, not a single member had opposed the idea.

I did not expect that. I’d thought they’d take some convincing, but the members whom I’d expected would be against the idea slowly began to explain their reasoning.

“I-I didn’t think it was necessary to be scared already… I mean, for the fans, all we need to do is give it our all!” Ahyeon said.

“I have reached the conclusion that if the song releases at the end of summer, it won’t reach its maximum appeal, given the concept. You made a great call, Moondae,” Raebin said.

Then it was Bae Sejin’s turn. “Thinking about it, delaying our schedule because of them feels like we’ve already lost.”

Uh… is that right? He evaded my gaze.

Chungwoo laughed and explained, “He knows listening to you has never led us astray.”

Well, right. Haha. I rubbed the back of my neck, then nodded.

“So we’ll go with this date, then?”

“Yes!”

And so the date of our comeback was decided.

There was still a question in my mind, however, about Cheongryeo’s dyed hair and the secrecy.

What is VTIC bringing to the table, exactly? And I would soon find out the answer to this question, even if I didn’t want to.

VTIC released their first teaser after only two weeks.

***

[Shocking changes coming to the music industry in July… Huge boy idol group is after the throne!]

It was mid-June, and social media had gone nuts when TeSTAR also revealed they were coming back in July. The office worker who was a fansite master for Moondae and Lee Sejin was keeping track of how things were going behind enemy lines, so to speak.

- LOL, they’re trying to actually release in the same month!

- They’ll be a dead group after five years. I guess they’re stupid jealous that VTIC renewed their contract and kept going

The usual bullsh*t. The office worker, having logged into an anonymous VTIC fan site, tutted. It was going to be a tiresome month.

Why are they both so eager for July? Did they have some amazing summer song ready?

They’re catering to their fans, anyway. Why obsess over seasonal music? She decided she’d film VTIC whenever they appeared at the same time as TeSTAR—at least she’d make some extra money on the side selling VTIC fancams.

I think every company has lost its touch nowadays. I mean, T1 has never been very sharp to begin with.

VTIC’s teaser came out later that day.

[VTIC – “H.E.L.P” Official Music Video Teaser]

“…!”

She was shocked by what she saw.

Wait… This was a summer concept, that much was true. But the key point was a bit… unconventional.