Chapter 127

Chapter 127. Broadcast Shopping

If possible, I had hoped Kevin would contact me while Anna was still staying in America.

If he had, I was planning to at least get her onto 〈I Got Talent〉 as a special guest.

But what could I do if he never called?

For now, it was a strategic retreat.

I left Moon Hee-jung and the Dessault members in America and boarded a flight back to Korea with Anna.

We hadn't gotten anything out of Kevin, but Hailey had still helped us tremendously.

Her new album hadn't even been released yet, but she'd accommodated Anna's schedule by releasing their track first and performing it at several of her concerts.

After building word of mouth like this, once the full album came out, the chances of the name MC Maralak gaining recognition would rise dramatically.

On the flight home, it was Tak Hyun-mo who had his eyes closed and looked half-dead.

"You know, before you came to the company, CEO? Back then, the Astra oppas once took three flights in a single day."

Astra.

The guys who used to be in Team 1.

Anna continued.

"They said it was so exhausting they felt like they were going to die. Back then I thought, 'Seriously? What a spoiled complaint.' But even taking two flights in one week is exhausting for me."

"Really? Well, back then you were probably jealous of them. So what do you think, Anna? If you get the chance, want to try four flights in one day?"

"Ugh, absolutely not. My heart pounds during takeoff and I get dizzy."

Our pale Snow White, Anna...

With your low blood pressure, I guess even charging headfirst into airplanes is difficult.

"What's that in your hand? Isn't that your lyric notebook? You say you're exhausted, so why are you holding it? Put it in your luggage and sleep."

"Come on. I can still write lyrics!"

Anna waved the notebook around with a smile.

"Give me that for a second. Let me take a look."

"Want to? Here."

When I held out my hand, Anna readily handed it over.

"Tsk! You just hand it over because I ask? That notebook could be worth tens of billions someday. Didn't you see Director Choi Gyu-sik suffer over copyright issues last time? You should say, 'How much are you going to read? If you're going to look, let's sign a contract first.'"

"Sure. Please read it."

Anna narrowed her eyes and grinned as she played along with my joke.

Ah...

She really was different from Dessault.

Different indeed.

Anna was probably the easiest target among the Blue Moon members, too.

And yet I'd already lost my will to fight.

"Fine. I'll delay public release for three days."

"I really don't care, but okay."

Anna confidently opened the notebook and started scribbling again.

By the time we arrived in Korea, it was early morning.

About three hours before landing, Anna had checked the Korean time and suddenly tried desperately to sleep.

The members would soon be starting practice.

If she wanted to join them, she said she needed to sleep immediately.

So she slept with desperate concentration.

Then from the moment we left the airport for the company, she started doing her makeup just as intensely.

Her reason was simple.

She couldn't let herself look tired.

"Anna, you already fainted once before. If you're planning to use it for lyrics, it'd be more efficient to try something different this time."

"Humans can survive on only three hours of sleep. It was in the Johns Hopkins academic journal too."

That was absolutely not true.

When Anna and I entered the practice room, the members greeted her energetically.

"Kyaaa! Global artist Anna unni!"

"Not a global artist. Just a worldwide hip-hop loser."

"I missed that cynical sentence-ending style!"

Anna began laying out the souvenirs she'd bought in America.

She wasn't particularly creative when it came to gifts.

Most of them were things like badges reading I NEWYORK YOU or Statue of Liberty magnets.

"Did you guys practice the new song a lot?"

Serin suddenly lifted her head from the souvenirs and answered.

"No! We didn't practice at all. We can start together now that Anna's back."

Oh.

As expected of thoughtful Serin.

Maybe because she'd recently gone through individual activities herself, she understood Anna's anxiety well.

With a personality this good, how could anyone not follow Serin?

During the morning, I received a brief weekly work report from Dae-hun.

After lunch, I called in the PDs to conduct an interim review of our content plans.

As soon as the current 〈Blue Moon〉 documentary ended, Tak Hyun-mo's fake documentary about MC Maralak's growth story would immediately begin airing.

After that, the PDs needed to coordinate the schedule among themselves.

"I've been thinking about it, and Blue Moon and Heenari each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Blue Moon is better for appealing to existing fans, while Heenari is the better choice if we want to attract an entirely new audience. So I think we need to do both in parallel."

Yoo Jong-hak made that argument.

Seo Hoe-dong shook his head.

"We're still in the early stages of Universe's original content. First, we should solidify the fanbase. Expansion should come afterward. I'm not saying we should only make Blue Moon content, but strengthening our existing fans should be the core strategy."

This time, Tak Hyun-mo stepped in.

"Fans already have high loyalty toward content involving their idols. We shouldn't become complacent because of that, but if we want people to trust Universe's content from the beginning, don't we need clear performance numbers? Heenari is the group capable of rapid growth right now, so I think we should focus more heavily on them."

"That makes sense."

Seo Hoe-dong agreed.

So what was happening here?

Were they saying the next content project would focus on Heenari?

I had no intention of canceling our original-content push just because I wanted more Blue Moon content right in front of me.

Still...

I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

"I think both strategies are valid. Want to flip a coin?"

Na Young-hwan jokingly pulled out a hundred-won coin.

Seo Hoe-dong burst out laughing.

"A hundred won? That's so half-hearted. If we're doing it, let's use a five-hundred-won coin."

"No. I heard heads comes up more often. Let's decide with rock-paper-scissors."

This was content.

These PDs saying insane things right now?

That was content.

"Seriously, though, in situations like this, hearing a completely different person's opinion can actually help. Should we ask the members?"

Na Young-hwan suggested.

"Heenari is out filming right now. They're skipping their break this time. Only the Blue Moon members are here."

"Then let's ask them."

I brought the members over.

Secretly hoping they'd be at least somewhat biased.

Of course, I already knew our girls weren't like that.

I briefly explained what we'd discussed so far, then asked for their opinions.

Aran thought for a moment before speaking.

"Do you actually have content ideas? I'm curious!"

"Hmm."

Na Young-hwan chose his words before answering.

"Yes. Any concept that doesn't look capable of getting tens of millions of cumulative views through Nutube clips earns the person responsible a written apology."

"We write formal apologies too? PD Na, your writing skills are going to improve a lot."

"That's not happening. I'm taking Aran with me no matter what."

The PDs who had been calmly debating immediately became excited.

"What? We were allowed to decide that already? Then I'll take Serin and Anna. Ah, no. Youngchae too. I'll be in charge of Blue Moon content."

"You can't decide it like that! Serin and Anna weren't enough, so you're taking Youngchae too? PD Yoo, please put your hand over your conscience for a moment."

"Anna is already filming with me... You people can take Heenari."

For a while, the meeting became noisy.

Once silence finally returned, Aran spoke again.

"I don't really understand how broadcast slots should be divided, but if gathering new fans is important, shouldn't we go work outside at other broadcasting stations?"

"Work outside?"

"If we want people to know we're actively promoting, we should appear on terrestrial variety shows and other broadcasters and show our faces."

That would make gathering all these PDs here rather pointless.

Still, MVN's schedule was already packed anyway.

We had agreed to listen to an outsider's opinion, so we needed to seriously consider Aran's suggestion too.

While the PDs were thinking, Serin raised her hand.

"This might be a different topic, but I want to go on 〈Mask Singer〉. I feel like I haven't shown people my singing much lately."

"〈Mask Singer〉?"

〈Mask Singer〉.

It was a program where celebrities hid their identities behind various masks and competed purely with their singing ability.

"Yes. It's popular, and there's a specific purpose behind it, so that level of individual activity is okay, right?"

Of course.

Of course it was.

There was nothing wrong with it at all.

More importantly, the fact that Serin had suggested it herself meant she wanted to do it.

That alone made it great.

Serin and I immediately became absorbed in discussing 〈Mask Singer〉.

"It seems you've already decided to focus on outside programs."

Seo Hoe-dong asked with a helpless smile.

Serin grinned.

"Our main job is singing. There's nothing better for promotion than showing people our singing, like when we went on Senior Yeo Eun-joo's radio show."

No matter how smart these PDs were, they couldn't beat our members' momentum.

What an ingenious and creative idea.

Serin was a singer, so she wanted to appear on a program where she could demonstrate her singing ability.

How revolutionary.

"Yes, this is PD Park Bo-ram from KBC Entertainment!"

I called immediately.

According to Seo Hoe-dong, PD Park Bo-ram was in charge of casting for 〈Mask Singer〉.

"Ah, hello. This is Do Jun-hyeok from Universe Entertainment."

"D-Do...! Hello! I never expected to receive a call from you."

I briefly passed along Seo Hoe-dong's regards.

According to Seo, she'd always followed him closely, so she'd probably been worried about him.

Judging by her reaction, she didn't seem worried at all.

Or particularly interested.

"So what are you calling about?"

"Blue Moon is going to make a comeback soon. I was wondering if some of our members could appear on 〈Mask Singer〉."

"They can!"

〈Mask Singer〉 had to cast new celebrities every week, so getting an opportunity wasn't particularly difficult.

"What I'm thinking right now is... let's see. Serin participates as a contestant, and Youngchae joins as a panelist. Would that work?"

"It can!"

She was an impressively positive yes-woman.

"We don't usually do it that way, but there isn't actually a rule against it. Just send me the dates they're available, and we'll coordinate the schedule."

"All right. Thank you for your hard work."

And with that, the call ended.

Youngchae spoke up.

"Now you schedule broadcasts over the phone like you're ordering jajangmyeon. That's kind of amazing."

"It's all thanks to you girls becoming superstars."

Back in the day, forget 〈Mask Singer〉.

Even arranging one ordinary schedule meant running around personally and spending all night analyzing spam messages.

Now, all I had to do was ring the bell and they'd invite us in.

I could afford to relax a little.

"Anyway, that's settled. I'll look for things Heenari and the remaining Blue Moon members can do too. Other agencies will probably be wary of us now, so group activities might be difficult. We'll mostly look for individual appearances like 〈Mask Singer〉."

"Understood."

"And this weekend, take Friday off too and get a proper long weekend. You can all go somewhere together if you want. You didn't get to rest properly in Jeju last time."

The members nodded.

Even if I wasn't there, our members needed time together to strengthen their bond.

Hadn't I watched Moon Hee-jung's team in America and promised myself I'd return to that original mindset?

And, well...

It'd be nice if they invited me too.

Professors happily attend MT trips when students invite them, after all.

Bzzzzt.

At that moment, a text message arrived.

I assumed Park Bo-ram had sent me something like the 〈Mask Singer〉 filming schedule, so I casually pulled out my phone.

[Title: 9/10]

[Recorded: 2024.05.22. 01:27]

[Free Opt-Out: 010-xxxx-xxxx]

It hadn't even been ten seconds since I'd decided to relax.

Another spam message had arrived.