Chapter 115

Chapter 115. Win First, Fight Later

I felt a little uneasy, like I'd used my finishing move right at the start of solving this spam mystery.

Still, it definitely felt like I'd found a shortcut.

Who would've guessed the presenter saying "Hee-jung Moon" was actually referring to a woman named Moon Hee-jung?

Then again, "Hee-jung Moon" would've been a strange Chinese name anyway.

I briefly introduced myself and suggested we meet.

She readily agreed.

Before meeting her, I searched her name online.

Naturally, there was no proper profile page, but I found a few articles.

The information was limited, but I pieced together her career from them.

She had first joined a famous entertainment company in Japan and achieved fairly good results.

Then, somehow, she'd convinced the president there to let her establish a label in Korea.

That meant she'd become a company head at a fairly young age.

After that, however, there was almost no news about her.

Did the label fail?

When I searched the name she'd used on the phone, New Dimension, the company website was still active.

That should be enough information to steer the conversation once I got there.

When I arrived at New Dimension's office, a woman I assumed was Moon Hee-jung came out to greet me.

"Oh... You really are CEO Do Jun-hyeok. Nice to meet you. I'm Moon Hee-jung. Sorry the office is so shabby."

"It can't be worse than our company. Hahaha."

She recognized me instantly.

After the documentary 〈Blue Moon〉, I seriously needed to reduce my media exposure.

Inside Moon Hee-jung's office was a household dining table that didn't match the interior at all.

Apparently, they were using it as a conference table after grabbing it from a nearby secondhand furniture place.

The company must really be struggling.

"By the way, where are your artists?"

"Artists? Ah, trainees? We don't have any trainees. Other than the five who are preparing to debut."

"Really? Then where are those five?"

There was obviously no practice room or dormitory in this tiny office.

Moon Hee-jung said the trainees scheduled to debut were renting practice rooms individually.

Sometimes, she couldn't see them even once during an entire week.

"There's nothing more to plan at this point. We've already secured all the songs, and the album is going to be digital anyway. All that's left is gathering enough money."

This was the woman who would win a world-class award less than a year from now?

"If you know about Universe, you'll probably understand, but I've actually been thinking about trying some project investment too. Did you see PD Na Young-hwan wearing a swimsuit?"

"Yes. Hahaha. It became really famous."

"That happened because Blue Moon decided to reduce individual activities, so the variety show fell through. Which means our average company revenue will probably drop from now on. I'm thinking of making up the difference through investments."

Her success was basically guaranteed.

So there was no problem entering into a temporary financial relationship.

Sorry, No Ji-hye.

"I heard you were extremely capable even when you worked in Japan, President Moon. So I hurried over to stick my spoon into your success. That's what I'm thinking. What about you?"

"Investment... You mean you'll let us debut immediately?"

Moon Hee-jung clearly couldn't hide her excitement.

But in the end, she refused.

"I heard Admiral Yi Sun-sin once said something like this somewhere. You should win first, then fight. That's how I want to do things too. That's why our debut keeps getting delayed. We've already spent enough on planning that a normal idol group would've debuted long ago. But with our group, 〈Dessault〉, even if debut costs more, I want to prepare everything perfectly so success becomes inevitable before we enter the market. I'm not sure I can meet the expectations you'd have as an investor."

She preferred certainty, even if it was inefficient.

If this were a school exam, she wanted to memorize the entire textbook from cover to cover.

That was certainly one way to do it.

A manager's ability was usually about identifying exactly what would be on the exam and memorizing only those parts efficiently.

I could work especially fast because I also had future spam helping me.

But she wasn't Do Jun-hyeok.

I had no intention of forcing my methods onto her.

Either way, she was saying she didn't want the investment.

"If I wanted everything done exactly to my taste, I'd just plan the group myself. I'm saying I want to rely on you, President Moon. If that's what you want, I can literally just give you the money and never even look at New Dimension. I've worked under an incompetent boss before, so I understand how that feels."

"No! I'm absolutely not saying you're incompetent, CEO Do! But an incompetent boss... You're talking about your Pantheon days, right?"

I hadn't expected Pantheon to come up that quickly.

"Right. I saw all of it back then. You were framed over that club incident and thrown away. And despite that, you grew Universe this quickly. I've actually thought of you as a role model for a long time. It's embarrassing to say, but that's why I was so shocked when you called."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes."

Moon Hee-jung fidgeted with her hands for a while, then cautiously asked,

"But really, just the money...? You're saying that even though you're funding us, I can do everything my way? You're not going to change your mind later, are you?"

"If I lie, my nose gets longer. Does my nose look longer? I've been working like Lu Bu until now, but from here on out, I'm planning to be more like Pang Tong. I told you, didn't I? I think you're going to succeed, so I just want to put my spoon in."

The Pang Tong part was a little exaggerated.

But I was serious about simply riding along.

Moon Hee-jung thought over my words.

Then she slowly started grinning.

She took out her phone and called someone.

"Ji-hee. Can you gather the girls and come to the office? We're debuting now."

After talking things through, I ended up practically taking New Dimension itself under my wing.

That hadn't been my original intention.

But after meeting the five-member girl group Moon Hee-jung had planned, Dessault, I realized she wasn't someone I should just make a quick profit from and leave.

The spam probably hadn't come just to help me make a little money in the first place.

The members, in age order, were Ji-hee, Jung-hye, Hae-na, Joo-won, and Mi-yeon.

All five were minors.

They weren't dressed up, probably because each of them had their own way of earning money during the day.

Still, they were all attractive and had friendly personalities.

They worked part-time during the day with their guardians' permission.

Practiced together at night.

Then waited until Moon Hee-jung called them to debut.

That kind of lifestyle was impossible without an extraordinary level of trust.

I'd need to observe them more carefully to know for certain.

But at least one member, Min Ji-hee, immediately felt unusual.

She wasn't overly childlike, but her face was small and her features were sharp.

Her eyes were especially large.

The kind that made me widen my own eyes just by looking at her.

The more I studied her speech, gestures, and habits, the more she seemed like someone born to be an idol.

If the Blue Moon members were a hundred points, Min Ji-hee was about...

Nine...

Points?

That was actually pretty excellent.

The others weren't bad either.

I'd already felt it when I heard they had continued practicing while trusting Moon Hee-jung, but none of them seemed guarded or pretentious.

They were all straightforward and easygoing.

Still, one thing bothered me, so I asked Moon Hee-jung.

"I'm absolutely not criticizing you. I'm just curious. Usually, when a group has five or more members, planners tend to diversify their personalities a little, right? Not always, but that's generally the trend. Looking at Dessault, though, it feels like you're going with one consistent concept across all the members. Is there a reason?"

She had said she absolutely wanted the group to succeed.

So I'd assumed she'd choose the safest possible strategy.

But Dessault's members weren't especially diverse.

For example, with Blue Moon, Serin was the sweet one, Youngchae was the cold beauty, and so on.

Targeting multiple different preferences at once was usually the safest strategy for success.

"If a group has more than six members, it should always focus on performance. There should be no more than one member with short hair. If there's a short-haired member, avoid adding too many bob cuts. If there isn't a short-haired member, then bob-cut members should make up no more than thirty percent of the team. Styling should rotate between comebacks whenever possible. Personality-wise, if a member looks cold onstage, she needs to be energetic on variety shows or show some unexpected eccentric charm. At least one member should be timid. If one member becomes known for being down-to-earth, then within two years she needs to demonstrate overwhelming performance ability and visuals to establish professionalism..."

In response to my question, Moon Hee-jung rattled off idol success formulas one after another.

It wasn't like these were written in some famous academic paper.

And I doubted there were many managers deliberately memorizing them while working in the industry.

But every single point was correct.

After listing formulas for a while, Moon Hee-jung summarized everything.

"But there's one absolute principle that overturns all those formulas."

"..."

"An idol that succeeds must be irreplaceable."

She stopped there.

Her refusal to explain further was actually a sign of respect toward me.

It meant she acknowledged me as a capable planner too.

Either way, that was what convinced me about her.

I could work with Moon Hee-jung for a long time.

If I ever hired a team leader and gave them complete authority over planning, Moon Hee-jung would be my first choice.

So I generously revised our original agreement.

At first, I'd planned to support her only until New Dimension earned back the cost of Dessault's debut.

Now, Universe would continue supporting New Dimension's business until Moon Hee-jung herself decided she no longer needed it.

After finishing the contract and returning, I was now sitting in Universe's office.

Moon Hee-jung had studied art in college.

Apparently, she'd been taking on illustration commissions nonstop to earn money for the members' debut.

What if I hadn't received future spam right after getting fired from Pantheon?

The more I thought about it, the more Moon Hee-jung's current method seemed exactly like something I would've done.

You had to carve out a path into the entertainment industry first before you could use veteran instincts or anything else.

And Moon Hee-jung didn't even have any connections in the Korean industry.

There was also one quality outside all those formulas that was absolutely necessary for judging an idol's chance of success.

Fanboy passion.

If you couldn't understand the feeling of being a fan of the members you planned, creating an irreplaceable idol was impossible.

But Moon Hee-jung would win an award next year.

Which meant she had that passion too.

A fan's eyes could see success.

Ah.

Was I going through some kind of transition period in my history of managing Blue Moon?

Another thing to reflect on.

I'd been doing all this work through my love for Blue Moon.

But I was realizing that maybe that passion had become slightly distorted.

I absolutely had to make Blue Moon successful.

That was why I'd kept waiting for spam that could give me useful clues.

And now that the members had decided to reduce individual activities, success felt even more urgent.

That urgency had actually made me hesitate to start proper group activities.

I just kept waiting for the next spam.

And what happened?

Instead of spam about Blue Moon, I kept getting messages about New Dimension, Dessault, and other people's business.

I needed to go back to my original mindset.

Back to when Dae-hun had called me to Blue Moon's fan-signing event.

I couldn't keep sitting around waiting for future spam anymore.

The only thing I truly trusted was my fanboy instinct.

Spam was only there to help.

My motivation suddenly caught fire.

I immediately began playing the new-song proposals that had been sent to Universe one by one.

After all, among seven billion people on Earth, there were only five people who truly knew what kind of song suited Blue Moon best.

Not the Flashman team.

Me and the four members.

"Keep on, chase me, chase me.

Coming like you're hypnotized.

Move, move, move away.

Hippie, hippie, hip."

Hmm.

This song was good.

It had a hip-hop feel, but somehow sounded mysterious at the same time.

Blue Moon had never tried anything quite like it before.

Yet it was still completely Blue Moon-like.

As expected, there were so many talented people out there...

Wait.

What was this voice?

Come to think of it, the guide vocal sounded strangely familiar.

I listened more closely.

That was unmistakably Serin's voice.

What?

Had the studio hired some talented impersonator just to catch my attention?

I was about to reopen the proposal window to check which studio had submitted it when the rap section began.

The rap voice was unmistakably Anna.

Was I hearing things?

I checked the proposal.

The song title was 〈Hippie〉.

And the composer was listed as:

Anna Maralak.