Chapter 124. I'll Eat With My Own Hands
We had only just finished filming when another spam message arrived.
[Title: 8/10]
[Recorded: 2024.05.10. 17:29 (GMT -5)]
[Free Opt-Out: +1-xxx-xxxx-xxxx]
The number format was unfamiliar.
I called immediately, but it didn't connect.
Of course it didn't.
A Korean-style spam call coming through while someone was in America would look suspicious at first glance.
I sent Seo Hoe-dong and the staff ahead, then checked the video.
The location was someone's room.
A Black man was sitting in front of a computer, muttering angrily to himself.
"Number one in ratings? Selling the show's format all over the world? You yellow monkey fking Asian man. You think it succeeded because of you?"**
That was roughly what he was saying.
I couldn't see his face clearly, but he seemed to work in broadcasting.
Apparently, he'd clashed with an Asian PD involved with the program.
The man struggled to suppress his anger, then began typing something on social media.
No.
If you're a celebrity, angry social-media posts are one thing you should absolutely avoid.
If Americans had been paying attention to the Korean entertainment industry, they could've learned something from the Jo Chae-won incident.
"Narrow-minded 〈I Got Talent〉. I'm done going along with your racist bullshit. I'm quitting!"
I didn't understand.
Unless I'd misheard him, yellow monkey f**king Asian man was an unmistakably racist insult against Asians.
If 〈I Got Talent〉 itself was supposedly racist, then this guy seemed like he'd fit right in.
The man's username was Hiphop_nick.
At least that part was easy to figure out.
His account name was visible on the monitor.
Fame aside, if this program was big enough for a controversy like this to become such a major issue, it had to be doing extremely well.
He'd even said it was number one in ratings.
The format had also been exported overseas.
And he said he couldn't tolerate it anymore and was quitting.
Then...
Could we slide our ass into the seat he was leaving behind?
First, let's investigate calmly.
Hiphop was probably his profession.
Nick was probably his name.
When I searched Hiphop_nick, a famous rapper named Nick Allen came up.
I'd only seen the back of his head in the video, but it was definitely him.
I checked his long list of awards, followed by his recent news.
One piece of information stood out.
Nick Allen had recently joined a program called 〈I Got Talent〉 as a judge.
"Mr. Do Jun-hyeok!"
I was slowly walking uphill while investigating the spam when the extremely friendly Hailey Swift called out to me.
I knew she was grateful, but she was laying it on a little thick.
I was benefiting plenty from this too, so I couldn't help feeling somewhat guilty.
"The Universe girls are incredible! You got that in one take. I practiced that performance for an entire month!"
"Our girls are good dancers."
"Exactly! And that's why... ah, I was really impressed. I'd heard their names before, but I had no idea they were this good! I'm getting so much inspiration right now. Maybe not the whole team, but I'd love to work with one or two of them. Would that be possible?"
Work together?
Obviously, she didn't mean in Korea.
If I said yes here, I could probably send at least one of our groups to America.
I thought about everyone except Blue Moon.
Heenari wasn't ready yet.
Dessault didn't need to use this opportunity.
Which meant...
Blue Moon.
It really felt like the whole world was telling me to send them to America.
Participating in Hailey's music video would probably help promote both Blue Moon and Heenari's new songs.
That alone had already secured plenty of buzz in Korea.
But Hailey Swift's fans around the world would watch the music video and probably wouldn't care at all about the Asian girls dancing in the background.
If we wanted to gather overseas fans without fully entering America, we'd still need to keep building connections.
If Blue Moon truly entered the American market, their concept would be difficult to preserve as it was.
Then should I send only one member?
We'd canceled almost every individual activity that interfered with group promotions, except Serin's film.
Still, if there was an activity that directly helped promote the new song, there was no reason not to do it.
It wasn't as though we'd reject every individual interview request just because it wasn't a group activity.
I'd send one member.
The other three could continue activities together until that member returned to Korea.
And thanks to the spam I'd just received, I had already more or less decided who to send.
"How about Diana? We'd have to ask what Diana thinks too, of course, but personally, I think she'd be the best fit."
"Diana? MC Maralak! I'd love that! Could you ask her?"
"Of course. But I have one favor..."
I gave Hailey the Free Opt-Out number, which seemed to belong to someone connected to an American broadcasting company.
If I called it myself, I'd probably have a hard time figuring out exactly who the person was.
While Hailey looked into it, I could ask Anna what she thought.
If Anna went to America, we could handle both the Hailey collaboration and the Nick Allen matter at the same time.
That would be the most efficient way to make overseas fans curious about her.
"What? I still don't really want to do individual activities."
"It's only for about a week, mainly for promotion. Here, look."
Hailey was proposing that Anna feature on one of the tracks from her album.
Anna would record the feature, follow Hailey around for several performances in America, support the stages, then return.
If she showed off her skills properly there, people would have no choice but to become curious about who Anna was.
Then they'd search for Blue Moon.
And if we released our new song at exactly that timing, we could efficiently create overseas fans we didn't have before.
There was one more thing I couldn't tell her yet.
If Nick Allen was the problematic figure in the spam, then Anna, as a fellow rapper, would be the easiest person to connect with him.
Noise marketing wasn't exactly my favorite strategy.
But if the noise already existed, was there anything wrong with riding it for attention?
"Ah, so me doing the feature would actually help?"
"Of course! An Asian rapper nobody knows suddenly appears and features on a Hailey Swift song. Wouldn't people get curious and look up Blue Moon?"
Anna considered my words seriously, then nodded.
"I think I would."
The plan was settled.
Blue Moon would continue practicing their new song without Anna for a short while.
Heenari would continue as usual.
Dessault would go back to Moon Hee-jung.
My immediate objective was to get a broadcasting station out of Jung Jun.
The means I'd been given for that was the Brown Tower West Stage.
But that opportunity had one hidden trap.
Jung Jun himself probably hadn't realized it.
The opportunity wasn't actually something Universe had earned.
Any group that performed on that stage would naturally grow much more afterward.
Unless someone was an idiot, no one would look at that success and think Universe itself was extraordinary.
What mattered wasn't merely standing on that stage.
What mattered was having enough public influence to be invited onto a stage of that level.
If we appeared there first, then no matter what achievements came afterward, people would say they happened because of Brown Tower.
Anna and I called the organizers of Brown Tower Stage.
Anna held the phone and tapped the speakerphone icon.
A representative's voice came through.
"Thank you for calling. This is the New York Brown Tower Service Center."
After the representative finished speaking, Anna glanced at me.
I wrote something in a notebook.
Anna read it exactly as written.
"This is Do Jun-hyeok, CEO of Universe. I'd like to cancel the stage plan."
"The stage plan? Do you mean the Brown Tower Stage?"
"Yes. Something came up with our schedule."
The representative probably didn't have the authority to decide that alone.
After speaking briefly with someone else, they returned.
"Ah... Understood, CEO Do Jun-hyeok. We hope we'll have the opportunity to host you another time."
Anna ended the call and asked,
"But why? Isn't this an amazing stage? Is something happening that day?"
"No. But if we give this up, we'll get a better opportunity."
I needed to refuse this opportunity and prove our influence another way.
Only then could I beat Jung Jun at his own test.
The Hailey feature was the tool I intended to use.
Add Serin's 〈The Stranger〉 wrap party and our participation in Hailey's music video, and we'd already built a respectable amount of momentum.
It wasn't enough to guarantee anything, but getting onto a Brown Tower-level stage through our own strength wasn't impossible anymore.
But if I could also use the Nick Allen incident from the new spam?
It was a gamble.
But I rejected Brown Tower Stage.
Part of me desperately wanted to let the members experience the emotion of standing on such a massive stage right away.
Still, it wasn't an opportunity that offered much long-term value.
Ring.
"Hello, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok? This is Jung Jun."
How did he already know I'd refused?
The old man called as if he'd been watching like a ghost.
"Yes, Chairman. Have you been well?"
"Of course, I've been well. Tae-jin told me CEO Do Jun-hyeok turned down the Brown Tower Stage. Is that true?"
"Hahaha. Yes. That's how it turned out."
Jung Jun stammered for a long moment like a mathematician facing a problem he'd never encountered in his life.
"W-Why? I thought I was showing my support by giving you a shortcut. Was there something about it you didn't like?"
"Not at all. It was actually too good an opportunity. No matter how great the result we achieved there, I felt like people would attribute it to Brown Tower itself. And it wasn't an opportunity I'd earned through my own ability."
"Why wouldn't that count as something you earned? I gave it to you, didn't I? Getting support from someone willing to give you an opportunity is also ability. Are you going to shoot every music video yourself and compose every song alone like some genius?"
Ah.
Right.
I had decided to become more like Pang Tong.
Yes, Jung Jun was right.
But if I was taking Jung Jun's test, shouldn't his own help be treated as an exception?
Parents don't cook rice for their child and then say,
"Look at our kid preparing food all by himself already! Being born to good parents is a skill too~."
Not unless the child grabs the spoon and says, I'll eat with my own hands.
Then it isn't really the child's own ability.
For now, it was better to remove Jung Jun's help from the equation and focus on earning the public's choice myself.
That was the only way to satisfy a suspicious man like him one hundred percent.
"I heard Brown Tower is divided into East Stage and West Stage. If I were going to do it, I wanted the East Stage. That's why I refused. I'll earn another opportunity myself in the near future. If I want to build a global entertainment IP, shouldn't I have at least that much influence?"
"You're absolutely right, but... I really can't predict what you're going to do. Still, I trust you, CEO Do Jun-hyeok. I was just curious, so I asked. Can I keep looking forward to it?"
"Blue Moon and Heenari are preparing their new songs with renewed determination. And Dessault, who are still number one on the charts, still have three more music videos ready to release the moment their ranking starts dropping."
Jung Jun really didn't know much about entertainment yet.
He assumed a bigger stage was always better.
To be fair, when I first received the Brown Tower offer, I also thought I'd hit the jackpot.
And it really was a jackpot.
It was something worth celebrating.
But that stage was an achievement in itself.
It wasn't particularly useful for creating a larger ripple effect afterward.
Honestly, it would be far better to appear on the 〈I Got Talent〉 show from the spam and show something impressive there.
