Chapter 159. Plan × Plan = 0
I quickly switched Jang Dae-chang's phone to silent mode.
The man called him, so my butt started lighting up a little from the screen in my back pocket, but fortunately it wasn't dark enough around us for anyone to notice.
"Anyway, isn't that how it is? Even if it isn't the official fan café, if a fan café that large suddenly appears, the company is obviously going to monitor it. Will you really be able to sell merchandise there properly?"
I calmly changed the subject.
The two men nodded, though they didn't look particularly pleased.
"We won't. That's why we'll only do as much as we can with Blue Moon, make our money quickly, and pull out. After that, we'll move on to another fandom. We can keep the factory running."
"What? Ah, I see..."
A short-term hit-and-run operation.
Of course.
No wonder the factory looked so new.
Apparently, their counterfeit luxury business had been the same kind of short-term operation.
They probably imported a massive amount of goods at once, dumped them on retailers in places like Myeongdong, got caught in a crackdown, and pulled out of Korea.
Probably the same thing in China too.
When all you did was short-term businesses like that, it was easy to completely abandon any sense of social responsibility.
Which meant ethics became even more important...
The painful memory of buying a fake Choux Cream bag for five hundred thousand won in Myeongdong during my rookie days suddenly resurfaced, making my blood boil.
That was when it happened.
The warehouse door suddenly burst open, and a group of men poured inside.
"Whoa, shit. You scared me."
Yanbian Hyung turned toward them.
"W-Who are you people?!"
I shouted.
No one answered.
Yanbian Hyung looked over each of the newly arrived men, then turned back toward me.
"Anyway, that's how it works. By the time we finish the business and pull out, the fandom will probably be completely wrecked, but that's none of our concern. Mr. Jo Yang-hoon doesn't seem particularly loyal to your company either. You can just keep working with us. Right?"
"R-Right. But I'm not Jo Yang-hoon. I'm Do Yang-hoon."
"Ah, yes. Mr. Do Yang-hoon."
Yanbian Hyung repeated the corrected name.
Then he suddenly started chuckling.
"Do Yang-hoon... Hahaha. Let's stop now, Mr. Do Yang-hoon. No, CEO Do Jun-hyeok."
"What? CEO Do Jun-hyeok?"
"Even if we're only doing this as a quick operation, do you really think we'd start a business involving Blue Moon without knowing what the CEO looks like?"
Damn it.
So they'd recognized me from the moment we met.
The men who'd just arrived were hired muscle they'd called in later.
No wonder Yanbian Hyung had spent dozens of minutes running his mouth about the business.
"I-I wasn't surprised at all. Everything has gone exactly according to my plan."
"Oh, really?"
Pretending to remain calm, I pulled out my phone and started photographing the stolen and counterfeit goods one by one.
The newly arrived men burst into loud laughter.
Yanbian Hyung spoke.
"What are you going to do with those pictures? It's not like you're getting out of here with them."
Yanbian Hyung walked toward the corner of the warehouse.
Then he pulled out a machete and a bright-red axe.
What the hell?
Was he planning to chop me into pieces?
"Unfortunately for you, I served in Marine Corps Class Three Hundred... Fifty-Seven. I have mastered combat techniques that allow me to create one-on-one situations no matter how many opponents I'm facing. Let's avoid bloodshed and settle this through conversation."
"Conversation sounds good. Go ahead. Let's talk. Come on, say something."
I hadn't actually prepared anything else to say.
"If you pay me a small copyright fee, I can let you continue this business long-term. That's my plan. You wouldn't even need to create a separate fan café. You could sell directly through Apollo."
"That's it? Then I suppose it's my turn to tell you our plan."
Yanbian Hyung spoke.
"Our plan is to beat you half to death here, then immediately call Kwon Dae-hun. You got the name Do Yang-hoon from your road manager Jo Yang-hoon, right? I almost died trying not to laugh when you first introduced yourself."
"You know quite a lot."
"Of course. Anyway, to continue explaining the plan, we'll call Kwon Dae-hun and demand tens of billions of won. Honestly, CEO Do Jun-hyeok, isn't that about how much you're worth to Universe? Even Kwon Dae-hun will think losing tens of billions right now is better than losing you."
Thank you for valuing me so highly.
"Do Jun-hyeok dies, then the planned concert falls apart. The halftime show goes to hell too. That's enough upside to justify taking the risk of killing one person, isn't it?"
"As I said earlier, I am a Marine of Class 357..."
I tried to keep talking.
Yanbian Hyung roared so loudly the entire warehouse seemed to shake.
"Shut the hell up, you XX! You're here alone, aren't you? Can't you count? There are twenty guys standing behind you alone..."
He was so worked up that the dialect he'd been trying to hide started pouring out.
Some of the men behind him even mocked me by imitating the famous line from 〈Lawless Village〉.
"You came alone?"
"Sorry, but I'm not single."
"What the hell is he talking about?"
Exactly what I said.
I wasn't single.
Hadn't I already told them everything was going according to plan?
The door that had burst open once already flew open again.
This time, men in suits rushed inside.
"Move aside!"
"Look at all these skinny little kids. They look like they'd snap if you tapped them. Did you all hear me? They'll break with one tap. One tap. Everyone, give them one tap."
Before coming here, I'd contacted the security company first.
All they could tell me was that if I expected a full group fight, I should call the police.
But police weren't something you could summon at the exact perfect moment.
Still, I had to protect myself somehow.
So I called the Masan president.
"Aigoo~ What a shame. I should've come a little later. It would've been more entertaining if Mr. Do Jun-hyeok was already dead."
"You don't joke about someone's life."
At my response, the Masan president shook his head and scratched his hair, looking genuinely disappointed.
"Then, Yanbian Hyung, let's try that counting exercise you're so good at again. Which side has more people now?"
At the same time, back at the Blue Moon office.
PD Seo Hoe-dong had called together the other producers to discuss the "variety-style documentary" Do Jun-hyeok had requested.
Kwon Dae-hun was there as well.
"I heard Director Kwon Dae-hun already discussed this separately with him. This time, including the solo concert, we need to reinforce Blue Moon's roots in Korea as thoroughly as possible. That way, even while they're in America, the fans will continue to have content to consume."
Kwon Dae-hun and the PDs focused on Seo Hoe-dong.
"That's why CEO Do proposed a variety-style documentary. Technically, we could probably classify it as pure variety, but I'm sure he meant for us to preserve the strengths of a documentary. I want this program to keep generating long-term interest in Blue Moon. The show itself should feel like a new kind of variety program, but it should also give us material we can continuously develop ourselves."
Do Jun-hyeok had told Seo Hoe-dong that fans would eventually get tired if they kept producing documentaries in the same format.
So he'd suggested adding variety elements.
Whether it was a variety show with documentary strengths or a documentary with variety-show strengths, the point was to do something new right now.
But every kind of content and every format eventually became stale.
Seo Hoe-dong was thinking about something that could continue evolving.
"So the program I came up with is..."
Seo Hoe-dong opened the PowerPoint file.
A title appeared on the screen.
〈Secret Royal Inspector Is Here〉
"Once ticketing for the solo concert begins, scalpers will naturally appear. Since our tickets are cheap, it'll probably be even worse."
Scalping was one of the biggest cancers of fandom culture.
It exploited sincere fans, stole revenue away from the company, and emptied fans' wallets.
They couldn't eliminate every scalper before the concert happened.
But they could at least try reducing the problem bit by bit.
"Wouldn't it be fun if the Blue Moon members disguised themselves as scalpers and met fans? Then we could use those situations to talk about scalping and why it's a problem. Fans who get caught trying to buy scalped tickets might feel embarrassed, but the real bad guys are the people selling them."
Every PD agreed when he asked whether it sounded fun.
Na Young-seok did raise an additional question.
"But then isn't that just a variety show?"
"It is."
Seo Hoe-dong switched to the next slide.
"So instead of dividing it into normal episodes, we'll structure it as an ongoing series of incidents. We'll give each member a secret royal inspector's badge. Every time they catch someone, they gain another horse. On the third day of the concert, we'll tally the results onstage and give the members prizes according to their rankings. We'll also make donations."
In other words, the entire project would run observationally from the start of the program until the concert ended.
There was a meaningful reason he was calling it a variety-style documentary rather than an observational variety show.
Most of the time, it could seriously explore the problem of scalping.
At other moments, the members could simply joke around.
And the incidents that occurred while meeting fans trying to buy scalped tickets would be endless.
"If this format works, we could develop it in all sorts of directions afterward."
Yoo Jong-hak added while looking toward Kwon Dae-hun.
Kwon Dae-hun let out a thoughtful hum and began giving his opinion.
"With scalping, the people selling tickets are obviously a problem. But the people buying them are also part of the problem. I understand they're doing it because of fan devotion, but purchasing scalped tickets is what creates the sellers in the first place. That's not just my personal opinion. A lot of fandoms think the same way."
"Then my idea might actually damage fandom culture. I got too focused on making it provocative. That was a mistake."
"Hmm... But if you adjust your idea just a little, I think it could become really good."
The PDs watched Kwon Dae-hun carefully.
Normally, he was playful.
But when he worked, his opinions were sharp.
It was easy to understand why Do Jun-hyeok worked so closely with him.
"Albums come with photocards, but you don't know which photocard you'll get until you open the album. That means some fans buy multiple albums just to get one card they want. I've been checking the fan communities recently, and there are a lot of posts offering to trade ten photocards for one specific card. Why don't we build the program around those people?"
"Oh, now that really would be a project for true fans. The theme of Blue Moon's love for their true fans would work too. It'd be a special event, but it could also encourage album purchases."
"Merchandise trading has become really active because of the concert. People are also bartering photocards. We could personally visit fans who are offering one hundred, fifty, or ten cards in exchange for the one card they really want, and thank them directly."
The PDs kept staring at Kwon Dae-hun.
Dae-hun looked confused, as if he'd already said everything he wanted to say.
Eventually, he opened his mouth again.
"There is one more thing that's still lacking."
"What is it? We can revise the plan right now."
Dae-hun answered.
"Whether it's observational or documentary-style, the longer the cameras keep rolling, the more exhausted the members get. CEO Do has always said that. Everyone here already knows it too. So before we go any further, we should call the members in and get their agreement."
"Ah. That's true. You're right."
Seo Hoe-dong and the other PDs nodded in agreement.
"...We can ask CEO Do himself for anything more."
"Should we? But he said he's out on business in Gangwon Province today. We don't know when he'll be back."
Tak Hyun-mo objected.
At that, Dae-hun lifted his phone with a grin.
The screen showed an incoming call from Do Jun-hyeok.
"Our CEO relies on me quite a bit. There isn't a single day my phone gets to rest."
"Ahem."
Yoo Jong-hak gave a joking cough that sounded vaguely jealous.
Dae-hun put the call on speaker.
"Yes, hyung. I'm with the PDs right now, and you're on speaker!"
"Oh, really? Perfect timing. Hah... Hah... Is the meeting going well?"
He sounded out of breath, as if he were jogging somewhere.
"Uh... Yes, of course. Very smoothly. I think we might create a whole new wave in the variety genre."
"That's good. I trust all of you. The concert, the s-solo concert, has to be the best possible gift for the fans. Isn't peace wonderful?"
"Of course."
The PDs started getting nervous.
It was obvious Do Jun-hyeok had gotten himself into some kind of unusual situation.
Dae-hun asked,
"What are you doing right now? Did you get tangled up in another murder case or something? No, more importantly, why is it so noisy around you?"
Through Do Jun-hyeok's voice came the sound of metal crashing and people shouting.
It sounded almost like a protest from before the Assembly and Demonstration Act existed.
Do Jun-hyeok answered.
"Nothing is going according to plan. Hah... Hah... I thought if we just overwhelmed them with numbers, it would end quietly. Haa... It's complete chaos here right now. The Yanbian gang and the Masan gang are having an all-out fight!"
