Chapter 358

Chapter 358

By the end of May, TeSTAR had undoubtedly become the perfect top-tier idol group on the global stage. Miry-nay, who was their immediate junior at the same agency—or rather, Park Minha, who was their leader—did not spare a thought for TeSTAR very often at all.

They’re just our seniors. Besides, the two groups hadn’t even seen much of each other lately. Even though they were from the same company, the agency had created a separate office space for TeSTAR’s new label, and there had been little opportunity for them to run into each other. She did feel a very particular kind of way about the older group, however.

God, I envy you! Though it had been rather cheeky to escape the hands of the director all by themselves, they were actually the perfect role model. There was a specific member among them who was mainly responsible for her feeling this way.

The way he announced the label at the award ceremony ahead of time… He probably did that on purpose, too.

Indeed, her role model was the main vocalist in the group, also known as “Apple Bun” or “Puppy”—Park Moondae. She gave a silent scream.

Puppy, my ass! He basically had complete control over the agency, and he seemed to be everywhere at exactly the right time—he had to be some kind of genius.

Thinking about it that way, I guess he’s perfect idol material. In any case, he was a little scary. As a result, she always broke out in a sweat whenever she had to stop the other members in her group from trying to cultivate a friendship with the successful senior group.

What if he does away with the other members of my group because he doesn’t want his own members to have friends who are from the opposite sex potentially threatening their career? She had no idea how he was still able to seem so harmless and innocent in front of a camera.

In truth, he’s a little bit unapproachable. Through many years of self-development and—though Park Minha was unaware of this detail—careful distribution of stats, Park Moondae had become a flawless celebrity. It gave her chills to see that the puppy image still suited him perfectly in videos she saw of him online. He was such an inspiration.

He’s amazing. He really is. This thought prompted her to resolve something to herself.

We’re going to make it big once our contract renewal comes around! She would ensure that no detail escaped her, making certain that her group would not lose out in any way. She was going to protect them.

Park Minha had been deep in thought when the devil himself had gotten in touch—and with something seemingly very significant to say.

“Is nothing bothering you these days?”

The moment she heard those words, all sorts of disastrous outcomes came to mind.

Huh? What? Wh-what is he thinking? She reacted automatically, giving him a generic answer.

“We have all the usual concerns. The sort of stuff everyone worries about. Still, I’m very happy that I can work as an idol and be a source of happiness for my fans—”

“Hmm. Right.”

Park Moondae did not cut her off, just listening. As a result, she quickly ran out of safe things to say.

Ugh! The pressure was on. She really needed to say something, but she didn’t know what.

Come on, please! I’m too old for this sh*t! You’re not my therapist! Thankfully, Park Moondae gave her a hint before she passed out from stress.

“I’m glad to hear that. I’m wondering if there’s something more specific bothering you.”

“Uh… More specific? Like what?”

“How are things going with the agency these days?”

“The agency?” she asked.

“Yes. After my group went independent, we haven’t been working as closely with the agency, and I’m not as well-informed as I used to be,” Park Moondae said calmly. “But it seems to me that there still seems to be a focus on the US. We happen to be targeting the American market these days as well, and I was wondering about you.”

“Ah.”

That. She began to speak almost automatically. This was a topic she had genuinely been concerned about for quite some time now.

After she’d said her piece, however, she realized that she’d been baited, but it wasn’t a trap that Park Moondae had in store for her. In fact, he was about to bring her group an offer that was almost too good to be true. Of course, this did not mean that he had not lured her in.

***

“…and so we’re still working hard promoting!”

“Hmm.”

Park Minha provided a detailed summary of her group’s current situation. I took that and combined it with what I had gathered from reading between the lines.

Miry-nay’s current position is… rather uncertain. They had hit a plateau. She was too smart to talk bad about the agency, and had been vague to make everything seem positive, but she seemed aware that most of the popularity and momentum surrounding their debut had already died out.

This wasn’t surprising. They kept on making music that was geared toward overseas audiences and their promotions were all focused on overseas markets as well. Of course, their connection with the Korean public had grown weak.

Still, things seem all right with their fandom. Because they produced high-quality content on their own and had a lot of financial backing, their fandom continued to grow consistently.

They’ve settled into a pattern. In other words, their digital sales had grown weak because the public had lost interest, but their physical album sales were still rising because they had a strong fandom behind them.

I guess you could say that they have successfully carved out a spot for themselves. If they could earn the public’s attention just one more time, things could really work out for them. No doubt she was frustrated that the agency seemed incapable of thinking about anything other than the US. This had been the situation when Youngrin’s agency had released their new female idol group, which was experiencing massive success.

“Y-yes! There are so many talented artists these days. We’ve realized that we need to work harder…”

She was basically saying that she felt threatened because this new group and her own were targeting similar markets. They were both aiming to be trendy female idol groups with global reach, especially in the west. They even had similar vibes. The problem was that this similarity did not only exist in the American market but also in the Korean market, which made Miry-nay generally less attractive in comparison.

It was usually the newer group who made a stronger impression and ended up taking their predecessor’s place most of the time. In a sense, it was the perfect time to do something since the new group was about to take all the buzz for themselves. I crossed my arms, the phone held against my ear using one shoulder.

Things aren’t that bad. Miry-nay already had a reputation as a top-tier idol group, and they had strong physical album sales. Powty, the new group, was stronger in terms of digital streaming overseas, even if their album sales were not as high. Their current popularity was due to a rise in digital streaming, even in Korea. Both groups had their pros and cons.

This will make strategizing even easier, since they are so equally matched. Few things were more fun than watching similar opponents struggle against one another. I’d come to a conclusion, but there was another hurdle that needed to be overcome first.

I don’t have the final say in this. Miry-nay did. I listened quietly to Park Minha’s words, nodding every now and then.

By the time she was done, I told her, “Yes. Thank you for telling me all this. I have another question.”

“Yes?”

My words came slowly. “Would you prefer that more people take an interest in your group even if things get a little… noisy?”

She was silent for a long time. She probably knew exactly what I meant by noisy.

I’m saying that people will criticize her group. Naturally, being on the public’s radar less meant being criticized less. I was asking whether she preferred the stability of the status quo or being bothered by all sorts of silly rumors about the way they spoke and their gestures, plastic surgery suspicions, photos from the past, and so on.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a little traumatized by the idea of public scrutiny, since she was on Idol Inc. Saying nothing more, I waited.

Before long, however, she said in a firm voice, “Of course.”

Good. She’s brave. Satisfied, I told her my conclusion.

“How would you feel about the agency doing this?”

“D-doing what?”

I proceeded to explain.

The very next day, celebrity news articles began to pour out in the dozens.

***

[New group Powty is on a roll, and headed to global audiences… Will they set a new girl group record?]

[Powty beats Miry-nay and Blue Rain to the top of the search rankings]

[Miry-nay announces a comeback. Are they worried about the popular new group?]

Some of the articles were more in your face than others, but the main message was the same.

Powty defeated Miry-nay the moment they debuted! These articles subtly predicted that Powty would continue this trend. Naturally, this prompted a variety of extreme reactions from readers.

- Goddamn it, stop tormenting them

- Just let Youngrin come back already… Everyone’s so crazy for new groups. Those assholes, it’s Youngrin who made all that money so that you could move into your own building

- Objectively, though, it’s true that the new group is doing better. Why all this fuss LOL

└ Get lost, you troll

└ Okay… I guess you’re desperate to believe that I’m a troll, huh? T_T

There was a common undercurrent to all of this. Everyone naturally believed that Youngrin’s agency had been responsible for all of these cookie-cutter articles. Targeting an older group with a similar concept through the press had been proven many times over to be effective in raising one’s own reputation.

Youngrin’s agency had already been intending to do such a thing, since they were not idiots, and I had confirmed that this was actually the case. An employee from our label had contacted the press and was told that the Youngrin’s agency had already promised them some promotional material. This had made things easier.

“So everything went great. All we had to do was tweak a few words,” the staff had reported to me, sounding a little excited.

So… we’re helping them. I nodded to myself. We were essentially donating to them. Youngrin’s agency had been intending to do this anyway, but I had beaten them to the chase and given them a little nudge, so to speak.

They should be grateful to us for this. No doubt they had every intention of targeting us instead of Miry-nay, but that was none of my business.

I put down my phone. All sorts of press agencies were running articles with the same information, and it was making a lot of noise.

“Nice buzz,” I said.

Miry-nay’s fans would be stressed out, but this was better than the group having no coverage at all. Rivalry tended to be a very good source of motivation for all parties involved.

What’s more, Miry-nay will be having a comeback soon. I hoped that this would lead to even more buzz domestically.

“Yes! The music is good!”

Park Minha had seemed confident. I grinned and tossed my phone away. Now all I had to do was wait for the results following Miry-nay’s comeback.

By the time this plan comes to fruition, the agency will release something to the press about our own record… So I should have the results of the mission in two weeks, at the earliest. If nothing went wrong, this most recent hurdle would be a thing of the past.

Neatly done. I stretched lightly and stood up.

“Ah.”

There was one more thing I needed to turn my attention to. Until the results were out, my group had to make sure it remained visually separate from Miry-nay in every way. We needed to involve ourselves in some kind of independent activity that would generate buzz that could help Miry-nay, but also make it clear we were doing our own thing.

A popular variety show, obviously. As it happened, the production team of the variety show which had forced us to sell hotteok in America had gotten in touch with us again.

Perfect timing.

***

“Hello!”

“Hi!”

“Oh, TeSTAR! Welcome! Please have a seat. My goodness, are we glad to see you!”

A few days later, we were invited to a meeting about the new variety show.

“Firstly, here’s the name…”

We were given some slides to look through, and it seems that they had already made a logo.

[The House Next Door’s Grandson]

The title alone gave me hints about this show.

It’s going to be random as f*ck. It was very clear that we were going to be thrown into some unconventional situations, and I welcomed it.

A few of the writers, who we’d grown familiar with, excitedly explained the plan to us.

“You’ll head down there, do some cooking, grow some vegetables… You know, stuff that’s very peaceful and relaxing.”

“Hahaha! Right!”

They were merely laying their trap for us, of course. The members looked at each other and nodded.

What is this really going to be? I think it’s going to be some kind of boot camp. That doesn’t sound out of the realm of possibility. I wondered if we would be forced into debt in the countryside this time and have to recoup costs by jumping onboard a fishing vessel. The writers seemed very sure of themselves.

“By the way, we are not baiting you at all! There will be some fun mini-games… In any case, it’s not anything you need to be nervous about.”

Right. I decided I’d pretend to believe them.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes!” said one writer emphatically.

We tried to smile and nod, but the writer added with eyes that burned with indignation,

“You can sue us if it turns out not to be the case! I mean it!”

Sue you? A confused smile appeared on Ryu Chungwoo’s face. The others were reacting similarly.

Hey, I think they mean it. Were they really after a relaxing, rural program that would help the tired working adults of the modern era unwind?

“Since you’re idols, we can bring in aspects of your profession and impart more meaning that way! We can also have you perform for people living nearby…”

Raebin exclaimed, “Ah! I think that would be very meaningful!”

“Hmm. You’re right. I like the premise.” Bae Sejin looked a little relieved as he shuffled through the material again, and Ahyeon was writing something down.

Everyone seemed at peace.

“Right…”

I turned to Big Sejin. He was doing his best to maintain a cheerful smile, but his eye twitched as soon as he made eye contact with me.

Yeah. We were in trouble.

Relaxing, my ass! The production team had completely lost its touch as far as variety shows were concerned.