Chapter 125

Chapter 125. Anna vs.

The documentary 〈Blue Moon〉 kept gaining viewers as time passed.

Normally, once a program reached a certain point, its average ratings more or less settled into place.

The Blue Moon documentary was different.

Its ratings kept climbing little by little, and after repeated discussions with Jung Tae-jin, its broadcast run continued to be extended.

I had no idea what happened to the programs that had originally been scheduled afterward, but the extensions kept coming.

Then, after the 〈Blue Moon〉 documentary format was sold to China and Japan, we ended up securing the entire year's slot.

Only for that specific day and time, of course.

Which meant we suddenly needed a lot more content.

Having a broadcast slot without anything to air would be a disaster.

So I started looking for PDs who could create suitable content with me.

I contacted practically every PD I'd gotten to know and went about it almost like headhunting.

I figured maybe one or two of them would accept.

"Are you going to tell them about the broadcasting station too? It would definitely make recruiting easier if you could give them that certainty."

"I don't know for sure whether we'll actually be able to establish one. I'm personally confident, but objectively speaking, it's not one hundred percent. I only told them that Universe is going to produce original content professionally and that I need them."

Seo Hoe-dong and I discussed how best to persuade the PDs.

I'd asked them to visit Universe.

The first person to show up was PD Na Young-hwan.

"Huh? PD Na Young-hwan? What brings you here?"

I hadn't invited him.

He was Jung Tae-jin's man.

"For now, this is still airing on MVN, so I can participate too. President Jung Tae-jin sent me over."

In other words, he'd been dispatched here.

After Na Young-hwan came Tak Hyun-mo, Kim Gyu-sam, and Yoo Jong-hak.

Each of them had their own thoughts about the offer.

I asked what had made them consider accepting.

In PD Yoo Jong-hak's case, he still hadn't made up his mind.

"Broadcasting stations interfere too much with planning, so I came to hear you out. But honestly, I'm not sure I'll be good enough."

"Why? You made 〈Friday and Saturday Are for Singers〉 a success. Aren't you pretty capable?"

Yoo Jong-hak looked around at the other PDs gathered nearby before answering.

"Look at them. Every one of those people has worked with Blue Moon before, right? I feel like I'm a little lacking when it comes to making content centered entirely around Universe. I'm also worried people might say I'm smearing gold with shit. 〈Fri-Sat Singer〉 was an experimental attempt that just happened to succeed, wasn't it?"

For something that had just happened to succeed, it had been an absurdly huge success.

Even I'd ridden on its momentum.

I reassured Yoo Jong-hak.

To him, our members could basically be treated like actors.

The only limitation was the cast.

We even had Kim Min-jun.

As long as he kept the cast within Universe, he could try almost anything else he wanted.

And the number of idols and singers under us would only keep increasing.

I decided to personally cover Anna's American schedule.

The Starius had finished its free airbag replacement, and we'd already left it at the airport last time.

I'd also driven American cars before, with the steering wheel on the left side.

More importantly, this involved future spam, so it made sense for me to come.

That didn't mean Anna and I were the only ones who came to America.

Tak Hyun-mo came too.

Tak Hyun-mo would be in charge of developing a program around Anna's activities as a rapper.

Of course, my relationship with Tak Hyun-mo, the former executive PD of 〈Rebooting〉, wasn't exactly good.

Even so, I had called him because of his personality.

Back when he had practically been Shin Hyung-geol's secretary, Tak Hyun-mo had shown that he would do almost anything Shin Hyung-geol told him to do.

If I only made reasonable demands, he had the ability to carry them out most of the time.

And naturally, his basic ability as a PD was quite high too.

That didn't mean I was going to hand him an important position immediately.

"It might sound obvious, but Universe really is impressive."

"Is that so?"

Tak Hyun-mo broke the silence inside the plane.

"Yes. Just look at Dessault. They were rookies with a debut song, yet their first-week album sales were enormous. Everyone was shocked with Heenari too, and before that Blue Moon. I don't understand how you keep breaking your own records."

"Technically, Dessault isn't Universe."

"Ah, right. That's true. Strictly speaking, they're New Dimension. That's what comes up when you search too."

While Tak Hyun-mo and I talked, Anna sat by the window with her arms crossed, staring at the dark window even though there was nothing to see.

She rarely showed much expression, so I couldn't tell exactly how she felt.

Still, she definitely wasn't pleased to have Tak Hyun-mo here.

"I heard ZJ even helped you get a building. How did you end up connected with them?"

Connected?

"...Well, I helped President Jung Tae-jin with a few things at MVN. That's how it started. We didn't get this broadcast slot because of ZJ. I helped President Jung Tae-jin, and that led to both a connection with ZJ and the slot."

Anna closed her eyes as if she were trying to sleep.

But apparently she wasn't sleepy.

Her head kept turning from side to side.

"That's why we really have to work hard this time. I trust everyone because you're all highly capable."

"Of course we'll work hard. That's why I came all the way to America without complaining, isn't it?"

That seemed like enough conversation.

I wrapped it up because I didn't want to disturb Anna's sleep.

But Anna opened her eyes completely and looked toward Tak Hyun-mo.

"PD-nim, you humiliated me."

"E-Excuse me?"

Tak Hyun-mo and I were both caught off guard by Anna's sudden accusation.

"What do you mean?"

"We even revealed a new song there. How could you do that to us? You pushed our stage all the way to the front too."

Anna's sense of humiliation was justified.

Of course, I had been the one who ultimately decided to put us on the very first stage.

But Shin Hyung-geol had been the one who placed Blue Moon first among the mentor performances.

Tak Hyun-mo had known that and hadn't said a word.

"That... yes. I can't really make excuses. The broadcast was extremely biased, wasn't it?"

"Extremely! We were only participating for fun, but there were people whose debut depended on that program. You even manipulated the vote totals...!"

Tak Hyun-mo squeezed his eyes shut as Anna shot each word at him.

Anna used an incredibly powerful tone while rapping.

But when she was actually angry, she strangely reminded me of Kim Serin.

She wasn't very good at expressing anger.

She'd probably hate hearing this, but honestly, I thought it was cute.

"Haa... People misunderstand that, but there was no direct manipulation of the vote totals. The broadcast was definitely biased, though. Editing alone has a huge effect on rankings. You can tell just from how badly we scored in viewer voting, right?"

"You're saying the vote manipulation wasn't real?"

"Of course not. I saw it with my own eyes. If we were going to manipulate everything anyway, why would I have gone out of my way to recruit Universe?"

Anna stared at Tak Hyun-mo in disbelief, then looked at me.

Tak Hyun-mo was wrong.

But he hadn't told a single lie.

What did that mean?

It meant Tak Hyun-mo genuinely believed what he was saying.

I'd never properly investigated it, but Tak Hyun-mo probably only knew that the trainees had been divided in advance through prearranged agreements before Episode 1.

And that his own editing authority had been interfered with, but he'd obeyed because he was conscious of Shin Hyung-geol.

Beyond that, he was actually someone who had taken a direct hit from the strike and had plenty of reason to feel wronged himself.

"There's no way. Lying is bad. I heard the president of Root Entertainment said right before the final competition that they should stop manipulating the votes."

"What?"

Tak Hyun-mo's pupils shook in shock.

I'd only passed that story along to boost Heenari's morale.

If I'd known this would happen, would it have been better not to say anything?

No.

Tak Hyun-mo needed to reflect too.

And planting a little guilt in him wasn't exactly bad for me.

Tak Hyun-mo had lost a great deal because of 〈Rebooting〉.

Ever since joining the company, he'd worked steadily and honestly.

His achievements had come slowly but surely, and he'd approached everything with a positive attitude.

Along the way, he happened to build connections with people in the entertainment industry.

Whenever he needed famous idols, he could often get them cast at the right time.

There was no denying that his career began receiving far more attention after that.

Then, early last year, CEO Shin Hyung-geol offered him responsibility for planning 〈Rebooting〉.

It was a much larger project than anything he'd ever handled before.

He had to accommodate a few unfair requests, but nothing severe enough to greatly violate his conscience.

Whether the trainees were divided through prior agreements or divided on camera, weren't they still ultimately being judged on ability?

You could even argue that dividing them beforehand was more careful.

Either way, Tak Hyun-mo had worked on the program with pride.

And as everyone knew, it failed spectacularly.

Because of allegations of manipulation.

Once he was branded as a manipulation PD, he couldn't even make his next program.

At first, he'd felt wronged.

But little by little, he'd begun accepting it.

After all, it was true that he had stood by while the editing became biased enough to create those suspicions.

It hadn't reached the level of malicious editing, but some groups' stages had definitely been made to look subtly more spectacular than others.

But it had actually been manipulated?

How did that make any sense?

"I-Is what Diana said true?"

Tak Hyun-mo asked.

After thinking for a moment, Do Jun-hyeok nodded.

"Yes. It's true. Entertainment companies don't plan debut groups so casually that they'd leave the final lineup to an uncertain system like voting. They need to carefully design the debut group in advance if they want them to succeed after the broadcast. What if the voting suddenly goes in an unexpected direction? That's part of why the issue developed into broader distrust toward competition shows."

"Then CEO Shin Hyung-geol really did say they should stop the manipulation? Meaning it had been manipulated right up until then?"

"Yes. That was right before the final competition."

Tak Hyun-mo had clearly been part of Shin Hyung-geol's line.

And Do Jun-hyeok was now quietly at odds with Shin Hyung-geol.

That was why Tak Hyun-mo had found it surprising when Do Jun-hyeok first approached him with this offer.

Their relationship had become somewhat awkward because of Shin Hyung-geol.

Because of that, Tak Hyun-mo had already assumed Do Jun-hyeok wouldn't entrust him with anything important.

Even being hired at all had been surprising enough.

But if the manipulation had really happened...

Then Do Jun-hyeok had hired him despite knowing the truth?

"No wonder... When you said you'd ignore the voting results and hold another audition yourself, I couldn't understand why you were going that far. You still hadn't let go of your suspicions about manipulation until the very end."

"It was meaningless anyway."

While Tak Hyun-mo looked back on his memories from filming 〈Rebooting〉, Anna quietly studied his expression.

It was the expression of someone who genuinely hadn't known.

"Ah... You really didn't know. Sorry. I thought..."

"No. I'm the one who should apologize. So I really am a manipulation PD..."

Do Jun-hyeok looked worriedly at Tak Hyun-mo, who had fallen into a slump before they'd even started filming.

"Why get so depressed over something in the past? Your situation is still better than mine. I used to be a prostitution-and-drug offender. Cheer up."

"Ah... I think listening to Anna's rap might make me feel a little better."

"We're on an airplane..."

Anna said that, but still began flipping through her notebook.

Then she opened to a rap section titled 〈Revenge Pro〉.

I'll hand you your fail in advance, I'm the Revenge Pro.

You keep trying, but there's nothing you can do.

The moment I catch fire, you're the one eliminated.

Even next month's losers' revival round won't be your stage.

Those were Anna's lyrics.

How did she know so well?

Could Anna see the future too?