Chapter 100

Chapter 100. Their Stage That Stirred the Heart

As soon as we arrived at the company, Anna and the other members grabbed the USB and rushed straight back to the dorm.

There was practically a gold bar inside it, so of course they wanted to open it immediately.

Honestly, I felt the same way.

"Dae-hun. Give the trainees selected for the debut group a brief outline of their debut schedule. Leave plenty of time."

"Got it. I'll tell them to come record tomorrow."

"Good. Let's all go down together."

Their debut had been delayed a little because I was so busy.

But I was going to debut them no matter what.

And once I did, I'd make them so successful they'd be desperate to find a way down from first place.

The only ones who would suffer were the other agencies planning to split up the debut group after six months.

They'd survived on sheer size until now.

They could keep doing that in the future too.

I heard Choi Gyu-sik was waiting in the meeting room.

After briefly discussing the debut schedule with Dae-hun, I headed inside.

"Ah, CEO Do Jun-hyeok! You must've had a tiring trip. These gentlemen are from the production companies XX Studio and Hunter Pictures, and this is the president of the distributor, Roppon Entertainment."

The moment I entered, Choi Gyu-sik sprang to his feet and introduced the older men sitting across from him.

Until then, he'd been sitting there with a blank expression like someone who'd been kidnapped.

Honestly, seeing all these film-industry people gathered in our company conference room felt strange to me too.

According to the articles I'd checked, when Choi Gyu-sik first raised the copyright issue, XX Studio had responded pretty aggressively.

They insisted there was no way Park Min-jung's screenplay wasn't hers and announced that they would fight it legally to the end.

Then Choi Gyu-sik presented his registered copyright.

They immediately tucked their tails between their legs.

To be fair, if someone like Park Min-jung had acted that confidently, most people probably wouldn't have thought to personally verify the copyright registration.

Not me, though.

"We almost got ourselves into serious trouble, didn't we? Thanks to all of you, we survived. We nearly got fooled completely. Still, thank you for allowing the production to continue like this."

The XX Studio executive smiled warmly.

Right.

If we're making the movie anyway, let's do it peacefully.

We should film happily together, hold a wrap party afterward, stay on good terms through 2025, and then go collect some Academy Awards.

"No way you didn't know. Didn't I spend days reviewing this screenplay with you? You definitely knew. You knew I was a professor at Daeyoung University of Foreign Studies, and you knew Park Min-jung was my student..."

"That...! My memory has always been terrible..."

In the end, Choi Gyu-sik voiced his hurt feelings.

Apparently, he and the XX Studio executive had been classmates in college.

Choi Gyu-sik must have been grateful when the man helped critique the script back then.

Which probably made the betrayal feel twice as bad now that the same man had known everything and still pretended otherwise while supporting Park Min-jung's version.

I'd been nervous someone would bring it up and kill the mood.

And sure enough, here we were.

Everyone looked as gloomy as if someone had died.

"All right, all right. We're working together now, aren't we? Honestly, I was worried about filming this with someone who had zero directing experience, so this is actually a relief. Everything needed for filming is already prepared. Is there anything you're curious about?"

The CEO of Hunter Pictures awkwardly tried to break the mood.

But nobody immediately responded.

"...If it weren't for CEO Do Jun-hyeok, we probably would've ended things with nothing but bad blood."

Choi Gyu-sik said that despite the fact that the bad blood seemed thoroughly established already.

"No, it's nothing."

"But it's true, isn't it? The film industry may be small, but looking at how things were going, I probably wouldn't have found out until filming was already finished. Maybe right before distribution. Then we'd have changed a few scenes, added a couple characters... and tried to resolve it that way."

The Roppon Entertainment president lowered his head.

Anyway, Choi Gyu-sik said I had played a major role in saving the project, so if I had any requests, I shouldn't hesitate to make them.

I'd been wondering how to bring it up.

Perfect.

"Let's redo the actor auditions."

At my words, the XX Studio representative exhaled like he'd just been struck by lightning.

A movie that would win four Academy Awards.

If this movie was supposed to become an opportunity for me, then obviously the point was to put our Serin into it.

And while I was being generous, Kim Min-jun too.

Of course, I wasn't going to pull any strings beyond getting them auditions.

I trusted Serin's acting ability.

But if she failed the audition, I'd accept that too.

I couldn't keep forcing her through every door forever.

If she had the skill, she'd pass.

If she didn't, she'd fail.

...Please pass.

"That feels like too small a request. Is there anything else?"

"What?"

Choi Gyu-sik, who was clearly still sulking, spoke.

"Honestly, without CEO Do Jun-hyeok, this movie probably couldn't have been made. I think your name, or at least Universe's name, should be in the credits."

"Ah. I'd appreciate that."

Apparently that request wasn't difficult at all.

The XX Studio executive let out a sigh of relief.

"Ah, and one more thing. I just came back from America, right? I think we can do location shooting there."

"Location shooting in America?"

"Yes. You know those downtown streets in Hollywood movies where someone like Raven Boy races through on a motorcycle? Places like New York. We can film there too. And there's a massive set over there that we can rent."

At my suggestion, they exchanged looks as though they were silently discussing something only they understood.

"We'd love to do that if we could, but there's the cost issue. And Hollywood doesn't exactly hand filming permits to small countryside production companies like us."

"I've already rented the set."

"...What?"

"Arabia Pictures Urban Set."

Everyone looked shocked when I mentioned the Arabia Pictures set.

Apparently its schedule was so packed that productions had to reserve it at least two or three years in advance.

It wasn't cheap either.

And as they'd just said, the place was mostly used by Hollywood studios.

But what could they do?

I'd already rented it.

〈Furious Drive〉 had booked the set with plenty of buffer time.

If they finished early, they had planned to move another production forward.

I'd taken that newly opened slot immediately.

At this point, shouldn't my face be watermarked across the whole movie, not just my name listed in the credits?

Everyone was too busy watching Choi Gyu-sik's thoroughly soured mood to raise even a minor objection.

So preparations for the new auditions moved incredibly fast.

Meanwhile, I passed the time looking for locations for the debut group's music video.

A few days later, it was time for another 〈K-Hip-Hop Star〉 shoot.

They were filming Episode 2.

It had been a while since the first shoot, though Episode 1 still hadn't aired.

Still, the teasers had already made the program's atmosphere obvious to everyone.

During Season 3 of 〈I'm Pretty Rapstar〉, idol rappers had mainly existed to make underground rappers look more skilled.

This time, things might be different.

Everyone was balancing precariously between superiority and tension.

Either way, for underground rappers, this was one of the only major television opportunities available.

So naturally, they didn't look too kindly on idol rappers.

The basic mindset was:

They can't even rap, but they still get called rappers.

The public has never even heard my insanely good rap, yet they listen to those trash idol verses and love them.

Anna obviously knew how they viewed her.

Yet her expression remained calm and peaceful.

She probably understood how important 〈K-Hip-Hop Star〉 was for her.

Aran had formed a connection with variety-show king Na Young-hwan.

Youngchae had built one with fashion powerhouse Hong Young-hye.

Serin was already thriving as an actress and would soon enter film with a famous director.

Anna now needed to create and walk her own path too.

That was probably why she was trying not to care about anyone else's gaze.

Just a few months ago, she'd lost sleep because of anxiety.

She'd grown a lot.

Really.

"The next battle is Kaiser versus MC Maralak!"

The moment the host announced the next diss battle, everyone erupted in cheers.

There wasn't anyone stronger than Anna on the idol side.

Everyone had been quietly wary of her.

And now the strongest underground rapper, Kaiser, had stepped forward personally to break her.

Still, the current rules didn't eliminate one of the two immediately.

Everyone received an overall evaluation, and eliminations were decided later.

So both of them could survive.

Or both could be eliminated.

Kaiser and Anna walked onto the stage and faced each other.

If we were judging purely by beauty, Anna obviously won by a landslide.

But when it came to experience on hip-hop stages, Kaiser had far more.

She'd been active since I was in high school.

She was even one or two years older than me.

Anna stood there looking slightly intimidated.

Kaiser, meanwhile, stared down at her like a cat watching a mouse.

I could hear cameras rapidly moving around.

Everyone wanted to capture that exact composition.

The beat started.

Kaiser went first.

"Aww, poor little baby. Trash your agency threw away! Univ came along and dumped you, so now you're crawling onto K-Hip-Hop Star!"

A dirty mental attack right from the opening.

That's not true at all, Anna.

Seriously.

The debut-group trainees complained because I was delaying their debut.

And now here, Anna was being told she'd been abandoned because of Univ.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

"I spit over O.D Producer beats, while you shit bars over your cheap one-source handmade beat, wuh!"

As Kaiser's rap intensified, the two moved closer together.

Their faces were almost close enough to kiss.

The cameras caught every second.

Veins stood out along Kaiser's neck.

Anna stood there with her hands politely clasped together like a student being scolded by a teacher.

"You'll always be a notebook rapper! Confiscating your memo app for three weeks! Say Jun-hyeok, Sang-do, Seung-tae! What're you doing? Come get your daughter! Little brat, get lost, this is the holy hip-hop st temple! No more idol cult! Get out, around here it's Idol Cut!"**

When Kaiser's fierce verse ended, the other rappers and audience burst into satisfied cheers.

Even someone like me, who barely knew anything about rap, could tell she was good.

But nobody should relax yet.

Anna was really good too.

Still, I felt a little upset.

Because Anna actually looked somewhat discouraged.

Honestly, anyone would.

The hostile atmosphere alone was rough.

And she couldn't exactly repeat the same notebook-related speech she'd made two years ago.

"Don't cry! Don't cry!"

The audience began jeering at Anna under the guise of concern.

These bastards.

Once the jeering started, Anna, who had been looking down, actually wiped at the corner of her eye.

And this was a diss from Kaiser, a young veteran rapper.

Even I'd listened endlessly to Kaiser's signature song, 〈Killing Life〉.

Hearing that voice attack Anna directly...

...Forgive me for only being able to cheer silently because we're filming.

If our eyes meet, I'll at least give her a fighting gesture.

With that thought, I focused on the stage again.

The beat was about to start when Anna suddenly turned and spoke.

"Ah, I'll change the beat. Number three, please. Number three."

The audience began murmuring.

Wasn't she crying?

I'd thought she'd been completely intimidated.

But changing the beat now meant she'd thought of something.

Even for freestyle, switching beats right before starting was unusual.

Could it be?

Was Anna about to pull out her ultimate card?

Then the beat began.

The one Revick had given her.

"Hearing unni's old-school rap made me tear up from nostalgia. Reminded me of my mother."

Anna spoke over a rigid kick pattern and a chaotic, rough piano riff.

Laughter started leaking through the room like water escaping from cracks in a dam.

But it hadn't exploded completely yet.

Everyone was too busy whispering about the beat.

They'd never heard it before.

Yet somehow, it sounded familiar.

Obviously, it wasn't some cheap handmade beat.