Chapter 135 of 150

Chapter 135

Chapter 135. Surviving Among Rockers

[Deleted Video]

While I was watching the first video, the other two had become unavailable.

I couldn't tell whether choosing one video automatically deleted the others, or whether they'd been actually deleted while I was watching.

Well.

I supposed this was all part of the spam's intention.

It was a little disappointing, but at least I remembered the thumbnails.

An unknown resort with an old man.

And a failed theater company in Hyehwa-dong called Elephant Theater Company.

Even if I'd known it was a choose-one situation, I would've picked the first video anyway.

An interview was obviously going to contain the most information.

Which meant I had to learn everything I could from that interview.

The first video seemed to remain endlessly replayable until some unknown point, just like the old spam videos.

I went back and rewound it.

When I checked the video information, the recording date was June 3, 2025.

I searched the name Jo Tae-hyung in the present, but only information about businessmen came up.

There was no music video director by that name.

Meaning he was going to appear out of nowhere like Moon Hee-jung and produce incredible results.

Then that meant one billion views in under a year.

Moon Hee-jung was also planning to release 〈Come Out of There〉 shortly before that future awards ceremony.

How many music videos could one director realistically make in a year?

Even if he worked constantly, maybe four.

That would average around 250 million views per music video.

Even that alone was absurdly impressive.

When I searched Jo Tae-hyung online, all I could find was his name, birth date, and affiliated organization.

It was only a tiny amount of information, without even a photograph.

Still, the fact that he appeared immediately in search results meant he had at least some level of public influence.

His affiliation was Daehan Entertainment.

It wasn't a particularly famous company...

I checked its website.

Apparently, it survived by managing a single trot singer named Lee Woong-jae.

There were no other singers signed under them.

Still, Lee Woong-jae was a fairly profitable trot singer.

He had taken first place on a trot competition program called 〈Street Trot Fighter〉 and was currently enjoying explosive popularity.

He'd spent some time doing group activities with the contestants who made the Top 12, and now it looked like he'd signed with Daehan Entertainment and started his solo career.

Searching Lee Woong-jae brought up plenty of unbelievable stories too.

There was even an article claiming that when Watflix, where Seo Hoe-dong had joined, exclusively released a movie related to Lee Woong-jae, Watflix subscriptions increased by one and a half times.

At that level of popularity, the man practically deserved to be in textbooks.

Anyway, the company Jo Tae-hyung had referred to in the future video as his father's business was clearly Daehan Entertainment.

Meaning Jo Tae-hyung wanted to make music videos, but was currently working as Lee Woong-jae's manager.

"Dae-hun, are you still looking for a music video director?"

Dae-hun, who was organizing materials for the PD planning meeting, nodded.

"We're still asking around, but it's not going well."

"Stop looking. I think I can find one."

"Yes, sir."

Dae-hun immediately nodded.

Right when I desperately needed a music video director, the spam showed me someone destined to succeed with music videos.

I should probably meet Jo Tae-hyung.

Daehan Entertainment was located in Namyangju.

I had a feeling everyone would have gone home by the time I arrived, so I contacted them in advance.

I introduced myself as Do Jun-hyeok from Universe and said I wanted to discuss a possible collaboration.

Jo Tae-hyung readily agreed.

Since the company was located on the outskirts, its office was fairly large.

But it felt empty.

They only had to manage Lee Woong-jae.

Still, when they'd built such a large office, they had probably intended to keep expanding their roster.

Meaning this business had been started with quite a lot of capital and a long-term plan.

There was a reason Jo Tae-hyung's father hated his son's side projects so much.

"A music video collaboration between us and Universe? You do look like the Do Jun-hyeok, at least."

"You know our Blue Moon, right? We have more artists now with Heenari and Dessault, but fans still see Blue Moon as Universe's true original group. No matter how well Heenari and Dessault do, and even if Blue Moon makes mistakes, every new Blue Moon song still has to be released at the absolute highest quality."

"Exactly. That's why I'm confused. If it's that important, why ask me to direct the music video? Actually, how did you even know I make music videos?"

I made up a story about stumbling across his social-media account while casually browsing.

"Honestly, there's a big advantage to securing your music videos early. We can bring in professionals to reinforce the technical quality. But that freshness and originality you have isn't something we can buy from professionals."

Universe was already past the stage where I needed to convince people that we were capable.

Now, what mattered was proving we didn't have some hidden agenda.

Which meant I needed Jo Tae-hyung himself to understand how valuable his work was.

And as far as I knew, nobody hated having their work praised.

"Well... if I wait until I can make music videos through our own company, it'll probably take forever. And I can't experiment much with Lee Woong-jae's music videos. Older fans can't handle anything too flashy."

I didn't know exactly what happened in the future.

But Jo Tae-hyung did end up making music videos.

I'd seen the evidence.

"You look extremely busy. If you're producing work at that level while carving time out of a schedule like this, you're seriously talented."

"You think so?"

Jo Tae-hyung and I looked over his desk.

When I first entered, I'd only noticed piles of paper and assumed they were work documents.

Looking closely, though, almost all of them were storyboards for some kind of video.

Faint music leaked from headphones plugged into his desktop.

"I've always liked this kind of thing. I don't know if you've ever experienced it, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok, but when I hear a sound, images that fit it just appear in my head. It's been like that since I was a kid. And I don't mean something simple like hearing waves and imagining the ocean. Not logical images. More like something purely sensory... You know what I mean, right?"

"I've never experienced it myself, but I understand what you're saying."

"Everyone probably has something like that. Maybe someone reads a story and automatically imagines what happens next. For me, I wanted to develop this into an actual talent. What could possibly fit better than music videos?"

A lot of his future music videos had apparently used highly abstract sets and stages.

Now I understood why.

If that was Jo Tae-hyung's creative gift, then yes.

It was genius in its own way.

"Hmm. Still, I think I'll have to refuse for now."

"What? Why?"

That wasn't the answer I'd expected.

"I don't have the courage yet to turn a hobby into a full-time profession. And right now, I'm responsible for Lee Woong-jae's schedule. We also have a very important schedule coming up."

"Really? What schedule?"

"I can't tell you that."

Lee Woong-jae's elderly fanbase was terrifyingly dedicated.

If it was an important enough schedule, I could probably grab some random elderly person on the street and ask them, and they'd tell me immediately.

If Jo Tae-hyung still couldn't reveal it, then it had to be something even the fans didn't know.

What, was Lee Woong-jae appearing as a secret cameo in a movie?

"A schedule secret enough that you can't talk about it? Interesting. What, is he appearing on 〈Mask Singer〉 or something? Anyway, if it's confidential, I won't pry."

"..."

Why did he suddenly stop reacting?

Don't tell me.

Was it actually 〈Mask Singer〉?

"Is it 〈Mask Singer〉?"

"Ah...! You absolutely cannot tell anyone."

So it was.

All right.

I'd keep the secret.

"Then what if that schedule ends early?"

"Ends early? He's absolutely going to become the Mask King...! Ahem. No. Even then, it would probably still be difficult for a while. We're putting a lot of effort into this."

You really had no hesitation about lying, huh?

Even from the future interview, it was obvious Jo Tae-hyung had plenty of resentment toward his current situation.

At least once, he'd probably even had a music video project forcibly canceled.

"You can't properly make the music videos you love because of this job. If I were you, I think I'd resent my father. You seem very responsible."

"Ah, no, it's not really..."

Even if he desperately wanted to make music videos, there was no guarantee he could work with us immediately.

I could take my time and persuade him gradually.

For some reason, I had the feeling the answer would become clear once this round's Mask King title defense concluded.

I looked into Lee Woong-jae.

After taking first place on 〈Street Trot Fighter〉, he had become a massive star.

Before that program, he had been so unknown that searching his name online barely returned anything.

He had majored in musical theater at university and performed in small productions at tiny theater companies in Hyehwa-dong.

That was why his current profile listed him as both singer and musical actor.

Still, there wasn't much information about which musicals he'd actually performed in.

This week was the 〈Mask Singer〉 semifinal.

The semifinal winner would face Serin in the Mask King match the following week.

Serin was one thing.

But public interest in this week's semifinal matchup was also enormous.

The semifinalists were contestants using the aliases Jujube Tree Got Busted and Yeoksam-dong Drunken Vagrant.

Of the two, Jujube Tree Got Busted was widely predicted to be veteran rocker Joo Ho-jun, famous for his powerful vocals and long career.

Seo Myung-tak's 〈Friendship That Never Wilts〉.

Aquamarine Castle's 〈Footprints〉.

KK's 〈A Castle of Many〉.

And Kim Kyung-hyuk's 〈People Who Make Me Happy〉.

He'd used his specialty and covered one powerful rock song after another, making it all the way to the semifinal.

Even to my ears, Jujube Tree Got Busted was definitely Joo Ho-jun.

That refreshing, thick voice like an off-road vehicle engine couldn't belong to anyone else.

On the other hand, Yeoksam-dong Drunken Vagrant was also an excellent singer, but nobody had been able to identify him yet.

Based on his previous song choices and his vocal technique, the prevailing theory was that he was a musical actor.

In the most recent round, he'd performed 〈The Time for Han to Be Released〉 from the musical 〈Dongpyeonje〉.

People were saying it was the best and most moving cover anyone had ever performed of that song.

There were even plenty of comments saying his semifinal against Joo Ho-jun was basically the true Mask King match.

A trot singer, Lee Woong-jae, who had once performed in small musical productions.

And an incredibly skilled contestant whose identity nobody could figure out, Yeoksam-dong Drunken Vagrant.

After testing Jo Tae-hyung enough, I was now certain they were the same person.

And there was more.

He'd said he'd lived the small-theater musical life around Daehangno.

The second now-deleted future-video thumbnail had shown the closed Elephant Theater Company.

I didn't know what the video itself contained.

But whether it mattered immediately or not, Lee Woong-jae had probably come from Elephant Theater Company.

[Kim Serin noona! Joo Ho-jun is way too strong. Noona needs to go rock too!]

[Nooo, Serin will hurt her throat ㅜㅜ. She needs to do a calm, refreshing travel-theme song that's totally Kim Serin.]

[Are you planning to lose? She has to fight head-on if she wants to succeed in her second title defense!]

Apollo fans were fully committed to devising strategies against the challengers.

Serin had comfortably won her first title defense after becoming Mask King, and everyone had been excited ever since.

Yeoksam-dong Drunken Vagrant was also absurdly talented.

But unlike Joo Ho-jun, he didn't have the extra weight of a famous name attached, so many fans were actually cheering for him.

They simply wanted whoever looked weaker to reach the Mask King match.

I typed one message into the chat.

[Everyone. Cinderella Who Missed Curfew is not Kim Serin.]

The response was immediate.

[Do hyung, stay out of this!]

[Even the veteran fans unanimously agreed Cinderella is Serin, though?]

These people were too much.

Everyone had lost all reason.

Eventually, the fans calmed down and asked me how I planned to approach the title defense.

I'd kept denying it was Serin, but I hadn't expected both possible challengers to be this strong.

We actually needed a strategy.

Which meant I first had to figure out which one of them was likely to win.

I went to the practice room to hear Serin's opinion.

She said she had already been thinking about it because it was almost time to report her song choice to the network.

After watching both Joo Ho-jun's and the Drunken Vagrant's performances, Serin looked genuinely impressed.

"Seriously... I saw them during filming, but this is a real problem. They're both so good. We need to start promoting our new song soon anyway. Maybe it's time for me to step down."

"They're really that good? They sound good to me too, but are they on a level you absolutely can't beat?"

Serin pointed at the video of Yeoksam-dong Drunken Vagrant, Lee Woong-jae.

"Joo Ho-jun is obviously amazing too, but this person is unbelievably skilled. Everyone says he seems like a musical actor, but his vocal techniques are way too varied and all of them are solid. There's honestly a huge chance he isn't a musical actor... And you can't predict what he'll sing next at all, can you?"

Serin was right.

Joo Ho-jun was a veteran singer who had been singing for decades.

But Lee Woong-jae was also ridiculously skilled.

I supposed there was a reason he'd won a trot competition.

Trot was a genre where your raw voice had to be so strong people practically described it as having achieved enlightenment in singing.

"So I don't really have a strategy. I'll just do it in the way I'm best at and accept the result."

"Yeah. Good. That gives you the highest chance anyway, and it'll promote your own voice best."

As expected, Serin was wise.

I went back to the Apollo messenger room.

[If Cinderella really were Serin, I think I'd tell her to compete with the song that feels the most like Serin.]

[Oh. Do hyung says to go with the most Serin-like song~!]

[But what even counts as Serin-like?]