Chapter 141

Chapter 141. Shouting K-Pop at the Heart of Jinju

These days, I'm in the best mood I've been in all year.

Jo Tae-hyung finished the music video, which means Blue Moon can make their comeback immediately.

I even met with Choi Joo-hong again after a long time, finalized the album cover, and sent everything off for printing.

The schedule is nice and clean.

We make the comeback, release the music video, and as soon as the albums finish printing, we put them on sale.

Just thinking about releasing the new song makes my heart pound.

The composition.

The lyrics.

The concept.

The music video.

There isn't a single thing I dislike.

I'm reasonably confident it'll succeed, and honestly, if it reaches the level of getting invited to United Talenet Live, that isn't just ordinary success.

Still, I can't sit back just because I saw it in future spam.

That result will reflect all the effort I put in during ordinary life too.

As long as I'm involved, there's no such thing as, It's destined to succeed anyway.

The song itself is already complete.

Which means this is the point where promotion strategy matters most.

And the first step in promoting a new song is traditionally a showcase.

Last time, we borrowed the 〈Rebooting〉 stage for our showcase.

It saved us a lot of money and worked extremely well, but it wasn't exactly a normal showcase.

Should we do something unusual again this time for an even bigger promotional effect?

Or should we hold a proper traditional showcase and give our members that bit of romance?

I gathered the managers together to discuss it.

"There's that concert hall in Gangnam, right? It can accommodate a hundred press members on a regular basis, and when people think of an idol showcase, that's the place that naturally comes to mind. We should probably reserve it quickly."

Jin-hee argued for the conventional route.

Ordinary wasn't necessarily bad.

Fans already had a fixed image in their heads of what a showcase was supposed to look like.

Holding a showcase at an actual showcase venue helped spread the message far and wide that the group had officially made a comeback.

"The biggest advantage is that it can't really fail. There's no major burden either. If we do it in a concert hall, we'll definitely earn back whatever we invest."

That sense of safety was exactly why major entertainment companies had never abandoned showcases.

And safe didn't mean low returns.

Jin-hee's core argument was that we already had a proven method for generating strong profit, so there was no reason to experiment until after the showcase.

Dae-hun thought differently.

"We can make money anytime. If profit were the goal, we wouldn't have been holding back individual activities in the first place. If we perform with other singers at a concert hall, everyone in the audience already has a favorite artist, don't they? I'm not sure those people will become Blue Moon fans that easily."

Jin-hee immediately pushed back.

"They're already familiar with fandom culture, so it's not impossible. Just because there's a goalkeeper doesn't mean you can't score."

Dae-hun firmly shook his head.

"Sure, but there are goalposts without goalkeepers all over the world. Why deliberately shoot at the one with a goalkeeper?"

"And where exactly are all these empty goalposts?"

"On the street. Instead of targeting fans of other idols, we should hold the showcase for ordinary listeners who don't care about idols yet. That would be much more efficient for bringing in new people."

If we performed on an outdoor street stage, people could hear the music from far away.

Passersby would stop simply because they were curious about what was happening.

And if, later that night, they searched and found an article saying Blue Moon had premiered their comeback song on a street stage, they might even feel like they'd accidentally witnessed a historic moment.

In short, Dae-hun wanted as many people as possible to see Blue Moon perform.

"The sound quality might be a little worse outdoors, but that's true for any live stage. We just need to make them want to look the song up afterward."

"Then what about showcase revenue?"

"Revenue is... uh... something we give up."

Dae-hun answered.

This was still a business.

Saying we should give up profit entirely was the sort of thing people would normally criticize.

But I was seriously considering his idea.

Honestly, a stage at a conventional showcase venue might be effective for immediate revenue, but it wouldn't have much explosive reach.

If we followed Dae-hun's suggestion, we might sacrifice short-term profit, but there was no telling how large the later benefits could become.

And among the current top-tier girl groups, Blue Moon was probably the one most suited to outdoor stages.

When I thought about how many fans we'd already picked up through open-air performances, Dae-hun's proposal didn't sound unreasonable at all.

"I like it. If it's an outdoor stage, we can ask permission and film it ourselves too. Then upload it to Nutube and at least make some money through views."

"That's true."

Only then did Jin-hee take a step back.

"Then we'll need to look for an outdoor stage."

At that moment, Jo Tae-hyung spoke up.

"Actually, the timing is good. It's not a stage exclusively for idols, but Jinju is currently preparing a festival along the Namgang River called World K-Pop. You know the Jinju Lantern Festival, right? The place where they install huge sculptures and lighting displays? They're redeveloping part of the riverside area this time, and several institutions joined forces to promote the city by inviting artists. Since press outlets from all over the world are coming, they even prepared plenty of seating for reporters."

"World K-Pop?"

"Yes. Lee Woong-jae was originally scheduled to participate, but that fell through."

Apparently, it wasn't only trot singers like Lee Woong-jae.

Idols.

Traditional folk-performance groups.

Korean traditional music.

B-boying.

Almost every type of musical culture you could experience in Korea would have someone appearing onstage.

The local government was strongly backing it too, so the event was being organized on quite a large scale.

Then wasn't this one of the best possible outdoor-stage opportunities?

"Let's call Jinju City right now. It's been a while since Lee Woong-jae dropped out, so who knows? They may already have found a replacement."

"Ah, understood."

Jo Tae-hyung took out his phone, searched around for a moment, then called Jinju City Hall.

"Yes. Ah, yes, yes. That's correct. I'm calling about the stage... Ah, I see. Understood."

He ended the call.

"What did they say?"

"Registration is closed."

"Damn."

That opportunity was gone.

"Why didn't they ever contact us about casting?"

I muttered in disappointment.

Dae-hun answered.

"They did."

"What?"

"They contacted us before. But the event didn't line up with our new-song schedule, so I declined on my own. Their event ends before our comeback. It's scheduled from July 1st through July 4th."

"Hey. An event that big, you should've at least told me. We could've moved the comeback up."

"That's unfair. Since when have you ever finalized a schedule based only on the size of the stage? This was about how thoroughly we prepared the new song too. The comeback just happened to finish earlier than expected. Honestly, even if I'd told you when the offer came in, you would've rejected it."

That's true.

Even so, it was a painful opportunity to lose.

I started thinking about whether there was some way to absorb the attention surrounding World K-Pop anyway.

It didn't feel completely impossible.

"What if we ask them to leave the stage standing for one extra day after the festival ends? If we offer to pay the dismantling cost ourselves, wouldn't they agree?"

"Maybe. It's tied to a city government project, so I don't know whether their schedule will allow it."

That was when it happened.

Bzzzzt.

A text message arrived.

Definitely spam.

"Let's all take five minutes to think individually. I need to use the bathroom."

"Why are we suddenly taking five minutes to think?"

[Title: 4/10]

[Web Message]

[Vehicle Violation Penalty Notice Sent]

[https://nully.do/AHmnZ]

A golden spam message arriving right before I finalized the showcase strategy.

Perfect timing.

I calmed my excitement and tapped the link.

Once again, three videos appeared.

The first thumbnail showed a news studio.

News footage was practically a guaranteed success if I chose it.

Behind a female anchor wearing a white vest, supporting footage was displayed.

It looked like a riverside landscape.

But half the trees were underwater, as if the river had overflowed.

Flooding...

Something about the thumbnail made me tense.

The second thumbnail showed a female idol dancing on an outdoor stage.

There was a river nearby, a castle-like structure, lanterns, and a large crowd.

From the circumstances, it looked like the World K-Pop stage.

I couldn't immediately tell which girl group was performing.

The third thumbnail showed some middle-aged man wearing summer outdoor clothes and raising both hands in celebration.

He was standing in front of a building.

There was a sign on the building.

I zoomed in enough to read it.

Jinju City Hall.

After a quick search, I learned who the man was.

Jinju Mayor Park Se-won.

Naturally, my attention went to the second video, since it seemed directly related to what I was doing.

But if I used a little imagination, that clip was probably simply showing how successfully the World K-Pop festival had ended.

If so, the third one was easy to understand too.

The festival succeeded, Jinju made a lot of money, and the mayor was celebrating.

But the first video?

A rooftop barely sticking above the water.

When I searched for it, it looked similar to the canopy structure over the outdoor performance venue on the Namgang riverside in Jinju.

The riverside area looked almost like Venice now.

Maybe that actually was the Namgang location where World K-Pop would be held.

Of course, that possibility seemed extremely low.

The other two videos appeared to show the festival succeeding perfectly.

I clicked the mysterious first video.

It immediately began playing.

"Record-breaking rainfall, the worst in more than a century, has struck Gyeongsangnam-do, causing widespread flooding damage. Unprecedented rain has forced riverside residents to evacuate. Reporter Kim Go-hyun is currently at an evacuation shelter."

"Yes. I'm currently near the area where the Namgang Lantern Festival is usually held. As you can see, rain is still falling. And if you look to the right, you can see that the newly constructed riverside performance grounds, designed to improve the environment and attract more tourists, are completely submerged."

So somehow, the actual venue for World K-Pop really was going to flood.

"Even through the footage, the situation looks severe. Are there any casualties?"

"Fortunately, a heavy-rain advisory was issued in advance, and public access to the riverside was prohibited. There are no confirmed deaths or missing persons. However, the World K-Pop festival being prepared at the same site has suffered a major disruption."

"Could you explain what this means for the festival...?"

The date 6/28 was displayed on the news footage.

It looked like the broadcast date.

At least nobody had been hurt.

That was a relief.

But July 1st was supposed to be the opening day of World K-Pop.

"When do you expect flood recovery to be completed?"

"The river level will gradually fall once the rain stops. However, rainfall is currently forecast to continue until the early morning of July 3rd. As a result, postponing the originally scheduled festival appears unavoidable."

If the rain continued until early July 3rd, then even if they immediately closed the upstream dam gates again, the water level wouldn't fall enough to rebuild the stage until that night.

July 3rd at the absolute earliest.

Realistically, July 4th.

By July 5th, they could definitely hold performances.

But that raised another question.

The other two thumbnails I'd seen earlier.

If rain poured from the 1st through the 3rd, how could the festival stage look so clear and beautiful in those clips?

There was only one possible answer.

They postponed the entire event by exactly as long as the rain lasted.

Meaning it was a festival flexible enough to be delayed.

As if proving my theory, the reporter and anchor in the spam video continued talking.

"The highly anticipated World K-Pop performance is expected to begin as soon as the flooded venue has been restored. The local authorities involved are currently predicting a start date of July 5th."

Of course.

They only needed to coordinate the schedules of the foreign reporters.

It wasn't even a ticketed event.

I returned to the conference room and got the city contact number from Jo Tae-hyung.

I told the person handling the call that I wanted to pay for dismantling the stage.

That was enough to get me connected directly to the mayor.

"You want to cover the cost of dismantling the stage?"

"Yes. Not just as a donation, though. After World K-Pop ends, leave the stage standing until the next day and let us use it for one performance slot. Then we'll cover the cost of dismantling it ourselves. From your perspective, you save the budget for removing the stage in exchange for keeping it up one extra day. Sounds profitable, doesn't it?"

The current plan had the event running from July 1st through July 4th.

I was offering to let Blue Moon reuse the stage on July 5th and pay for its removal afterward.

From the mayor's perspective, he wouldn't need to spend time or money dismantling it himself.

"Hmm..."

The mayor thought for a moment before asking,

"It should probably be possible. But why do you specifically want that stage?"

"The stage is large, there are plenty of tourists, and Blue Moon has never personally visited our fans in the Gyeongsang region. There is one condition, though. We absolutely need access to the stage on the 5th. Whatever happens, the date cannot be postponed. Even if a typhoon comes through, we'll tie iron balls to our ankles and dance."

They couldn't cancel a festival that had already been fully planned and booked.

The spam had shown me that.

The event wouldn't be canceled.

It would be delayed until July 5th.

That was exactly why I scheduled Blue Moon's showcase for July 5th.

Before World K-Pop even began, Blue Moon's showcase date would already be locked.

Then once the festival was delayed, the first major event tied to the festival's renewed opening would effectively flow straight into Blue Moon's showcase.

We would absorb the momentum of a festival being heavily promoted by Jinju City and Gyeongsangnam-do.

"Yes, yes. We'll guarantee that."

The mayor accepted it as though it were nothing.

Of course he did.

He couldn't possibly imagine what was going to happen.

"There's one more point. We're paying the stage-removal cost because our event is delaying the dismantling. If another performance organizer decides they want to use the stage after us, pushing removal later than the 5th, then I don't think we should be responsible for that cost."

"What? You're saying that if it stays up beyond the 5th, Jinju City should pay the dismantling cost itself? Hmm... yes. That would be fair. Otherwise, we'd be exploiting your offer."

When I agreed, the mayor inhaled slightly as though finding the condition strange, then accepted.

From his perspective, he could simply refuse to permit any event after the 5th.

So he probably thought there was no way he'd lose.

And just like that, it seemed we'd peacefully secured the showcase.

Then the mayor spoke again.

"In exchange, I'd like you to help us with one more thing."