Chapter 138

Chapter 138. Tarzan or Cosplay

Choosing trot in the previous round to defeat Joo Ho-jun had ultimately become Lee Woong-jae's own mistake.

If he'd entered the Mask King match without anyone knowing he was Lee Woong-jae, he wouldn't have needed to make a mistake like that.

After the reports came out, Lee Woong-jae stood onstage for the Mask King match while pouring all his attention into the reactions of every single audience member.

If even one person looked slightly uncomfortable, he probably assumed they'd read the article about him and immediately became nervous.

Every whisper from the audience.

Every cough.

Every little noise must have sounded like thunder to him.

In the end, his voice never opened up properly.

He focused only on making it through the song as though reciting it.

Then he even got the lyrics wrong.

The mistake rattled him so badly that he started mumbling afterward.

Anyone who hadn't seen the articles probably thought Lee Woong-jae, who hadn't even looked nervous against Joo Ho-jun, had completely lost his nerve in front of Kim Serin.

Once things reached that point, the result was obvious.

Serin successfully defended her Mask King title.

[But are we absolutely sure Cinderella is Kim Serin? Isn't she just a singer who sounds like Kim Serin but sings even better?]

[Among singers in that category, Kim Serin is the best one.]

[Anyway, Lee Woong-jae is incredibly lucky trot doesn't have a seniority culture. Please stay there forever.]

┗[Won't he eventually get juniors there too?]

┗[Ah. Then please move somewhere with no hierarchy at all.]

[My mom was a huge Lee Woong-jae fan, but she dropped him instantly over this. There's no defending beating juniors.]

Normally, after the Mask King match, the losing contestant had to remove their mask, reveal their identity, and do an interview.

But by the time the episode aired, Lee Woong-jae had practically been expelled from television.

So they couldn't do that.

They filmed an interview with him on the day of recording, but none of it was broadcast.

The episode simply announced that Serin had won and ended there.

Beyond verbal abuse and physical assault, they even uncovered incidents where juniors had been stripped and had filthy mop water poured over them.

That added allegations of sexual violence too.

Even if the lawsuits went as smoothly as possible, it didn't look like Lee Woong-jae would ever appear on television again.

Once the situation settled down, I bought a traditional Korean sweets gift set and visited Daehan Entertainment.

Jo Tae-hyung, who had failed to defend Lee Woong-jae from the public backlash, looked like someone at a funeral.

No.

It basically was a funeral.

It reminded me of my own past.

But there were far too many incidents, and they were all true.

What could Jo Tae-hyung possibly have done?

Still, don't worry.

Just as I'd made it through everything with future spam helping me...

This time, I'd become your spam and help you.

"Just like you said, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok. His schedule really disappeared."

Jo Tae-hyung spoke with a self-deprecating laugh.

I did feel a little bad for him.

Still, Daehan Entertainment probably had enough capital to start again someday.

While exchanging words of consolation and slowly getting him talking, a man who looked like Jo Tae-hyung's father suddenly threw open the office door.

The moment he saw my face, his expression twisted.

"You bastard! So this is how you're going to play it? You think if we dig into your people, there won't be even one speck of dust?"

I was dumbfounded.

Did he really think I'd caused this enormous scandal just to let Serin stay Mask King for one more round?

If Serin was good enough, she would've beaten Lee Woong-jae anyway.

And if not, she would've lost.

Anyone with even a tiny sense of justice would say Lee Woong-jae needed to be removed from 〈Mask Singer〉 as quickly as possible.

I opened my mouth.

"The victims called Lee Woong-jae a demon. A demon. There are so many decent people in the world, and you wanted to make money off someone like that?"

"You've got some nerve talking like you're the victim here!"

He looked ready to grab me by the collar.

Jo Tae-hyung quickly stepped between us and separated us.

I had plenty more I wanted to say.

But for the sake of Jo Tae-hyung's decent face, I decided to let it go.

Jo Tae-hyung left his father in the conference room to calm down, then led me to his office separately.

"Please forgive him. Of course, I'm in an extremely difficult position right now too, but I know everything you're saying is true. And my father probably understands that deep down..."

Jo Tae-hyung glanced toward the conference room where his father was sitting, then continued.

"We were planning to move forward with a new song, but the album and investment hadn't progressed far enough for us to take an immediate loss. The event and advertisement penalties are another matter, though. I think we'll probably have to close the business."

"What? A company this big? Or are you planning to move into another business instead...?"

Jo Tae-hyung shook his head.

"We poured everything we had into making one big move, and it collapsed right at the beginning. I thought Lee Woong-jae would be an incredible first piece for us. I had no idea he had that kind of history. Haa..."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No. Anyway... I'm in a difficult position now, so let me ask. Is the music video offer you made still valid?"

Jo Tae-hyung asked whether he could shamelessly request his father's severance pay from me.

The penalties related to Lee Woong-jae came to around seventy million won.

We agreed on roughly one hundred million won for his father's severance pay.

Once they sold the office building, they should have enough to live without difficulty.

In return, I wasn't a chaebol either.

So I tied Jo Tae-hyung into a contract that allowed me to employ him for three years at a somewhat lower salary.

He accepted without complaint.

If anything, he seemed secretly excited that he could finally begin working seriously on the music videos he loved.

I hurriedly left Daehan Entertainment before Jo Tae-hyung's father could hit me with a club.

A few days later, Jo Tae-hyung immediately started working at Universe.

I'd told him he could take a few weeks to wrap up the company and rest.

He refused.

He'd employed people himself before, so he knew there wasn't a single boss in the world who liked employees taking time off.

That's not true.

I always wanted Blue Moon to rest properly.

We already had Sang-do.

We had Moon Hee-jung.

And now Jo Tae-hyung had joined too.

After thinking about how to restructure the company, I decided to expand the publicity team first.

The idea was to place small studios under the publicity team where we could compose songs and produce music videos.

The company was bigger now, so we had plenty of space.

I immediately expanded the publicity team and prepared a place for Jo Tae-hyung.

"No way... Is this a music video or a movie?"

"It's a music video."

Jo Tae-hyung stared in amazement at Dessault's current serialized music videos.

He asked whose idea it had been.

I decided to save Moon Hee-jung some face.

"Not that I'm trying to brag, but even if an employee suggests something completely ridiculous, I let them try it. I hired that employee because I trust them in the first place. When Moon Hee-jung said she wanted to shoot multiple music videos like this, I approved it too. So if you have a good idea, don't hesitate to ask me for what you need and take the business budget."

After watching all four 〈City Heart〉 music videos, he began watching 〈Come Out of There〉.

A huge gate made of scrap metal shook with repeated bang, bang sounds.

Then it finally collapsed with a thunderous crash, revealing the Dessault members standing behind it.

The location kept changing throughout the music video.

The number of backup dancers changed too.

But conceptually, it was a long take.

The Dessault members danced while moving from location to location, and the camera continuously followed them, filming the choreography.

When I explained that this music video had played a major role in getting Dessault invited to United Talenet Live, America's biggest music festival, Jo Tae-hyung looked stunned.

"You could only make a music video like this if you had absolute faith in the members' skills and the editing team. Without that level of trust, it'd be difficult even to plan something like this."

I lowered my voice.

"Blue Moon, the group you'll be handling, is much more skilled."

Jo Tae-hyung lowered his body like a farmer who had just realized the yellow ox worked better than the others, then looked around carefully.

Moon Hee-jung and the Dessault members weren't there.

"Actually, I already listened to 〈Hippie〉 you sent me and started thinking about music video concepts."

"You had time for that?"

"I was going to wait until I finalized the plan before showing you, but I think I can just show you everything I've come up with and trust my own confidence. Of course, I'm only going to make one."

Jo Tae-hyung and I hurried into the Blue Moon team office.

He sat at my desk, logged into his online account, and showed me one proposal.

"When people hear 'hippie,' they usually imagine nature away from the city. And they think of people who don't care about how others see them. Clothes that are a little Eastern, a little ethnic, almost gypsy-like."

"Right."

"But if every hippie dresses in the same bohemian gypsy style just because that's the stereotype, it stops feeling hip."

So he wanted to take it one step further.

A female Tarzan kind of style.

Something like roughly cured animal skins thrown over the body.

"Isn't that the kind of outfit that truly says you don't care what anyone thinks? So I designed the clothing too... Here. This one. What do you think of this concept?"

"I don't think it's very good."

"Ah..."

Sexy and savage were separated by a paper-thin line.

The only advantage of Tarzan clothes was that you could naturally show a lot of skin.

But it hadn't even been that long since Youngchae had cut Serin's skirt.

I didn't exactly feel like turning that into a massive company-wide concept.

And just imagine it.

A bunch of pale girls swinging around from drooping vines.

There were few concepts less suitable than that.

"I was imagining a rougher, more aggressive kind of leopard style... Anyway, you're right, CEO Do Jun-hyeok. Then how about this?"

Jo Tae-hyung showed me his second proposal.

His second interpretation of the word hippie was far more interesting.

He wanted to research the jobs each member had once dreamed of and dress them in costumes based on those professions.

He still didn't know what careers the members themselves liked, so the planning wasn't detailed yet.

Instead, he'd filled the document with examples of jobs he thought suited them.

Businesswoman Youngchae in a suit.

Aran as an airplane pilot.

That kind of thing.

What should I do?

The hip in 〈Hippie〉 was fundamentally about not caring about other people's eyes.

Tarzan had been a simple interpretation of that idea.

The profession cosplay, however, was a cleaner and more subtle reinterpretation.

At least it looked better than Tarzan.

But could it guarantee success?

Couldn't some future spam just drop out of the sky right about now?

No.

I'd already decided that even if I used future spam, I wouldn't sit around waiting for it.

I had to think carefully, but I also needed to trust my own instincts.

I needed to become someone who could make Blue Moon succeed even without spam.

Only then would Blue Moon have a reason to remain by my side.

"Ah, I think this one's good. We can use a lot of different outfits, and if it's you, I think you'll be able to make each one blend naturally into the music video. It seems to suit the mood of the song too."

"Understood. Honestly, I thought this one was better than Tarzan too."

Jo Tae-hyung opened the memo function and began writing several things down.

"How long will it take until filming?"

"Starting from now? Hmm. The planning is nearly finished, so if we move quickly, I think we could have it out within three weeks."

Three weeks.

A music video could normally be completed within a month if everyone moved aggressively.

It wasn't an impossible deadline.

"Then if I finish early, is there any chance we could get invited to United Talenet Live?"

"No. That opportunity has already passed..."

Naturally, Moon Hee-jung was fully responsible for Dessault-related business.

I only received occasional progress reports.

From what I'd heard, United Talenet Live had originally been scheduled a little earlier but got postponed.

The event had been planned for June, but a mass shooting occurred in the area, so it was delayed.

They needed time for mourning and cleanup.

"That's actually reassuring. It feels like you're looking pretty far ahead with Blue Moon."

"Of course I am. I just traded a rowboat for a cruiser."

That was when another spam message arrived.

I let Jo Tae-hyung keep using the computer for a moment and stepped out of the office.

It contained an image related to Blue Moon.

And from the thumbnail alone, it looked like I'd made the right choice when selecting that music video concept.

You could tell immediately just how enormous Blue Moon's success was going to be.