Chapter 161. Do Jun-hyeok's Duty
For 〈Secret Royal Inspector Is Here〉, the interview portions with the buyers were edited into separate clips and uploaded to Nutube.
They performed far better than Seo Hoe-dong and I had expected.
As word spread about the concept, celebrities even appeared from time to time.
But the clip that exploded the most wasn't one featuring a celebrity.
It was about a fan who had posted an offer to trade ten photocards from Blue Moon's very first pre-recording, back when they had just debuted, for a single photocard from their latest album.
That fan was none other than Oh Soo.
"Gasp! President...!"
Aran covered her mouth in shock as though she'd just seen a dead man come back to life.
I had followed the shoot again this time, and even I was surprised enough to walk over to him.
"I came half-doubting it was real, but I actually got caught. This show's really fun."
Oh Soo smiled.
He looked far more relaxed than before.
Aran looked like she might burst into tears at any moment.
"Ten photocards... From the pre-recording where we couldn't even fill the audience and had to use staff members... You still had the leftovers from back then?"
"I've got plenty of these, but I couldn't get your photocard from the new album, Aran."
Oh Soo said he was incredibly happy watching Blue Moon succeed like this.
These days, he'd left Universe and returned to his hometown of Chuncheon, where he was farming.
I'd already heard that much.
Apparently, he had also started learning composition software as a hobby.
I told him that if he grew into a proper composer, we'd definitely hire him for something at the company.
"Please come visit often! Only after the snow melts do you realize it was winter..."
Aran spoke in a voice thick with emotion.
"Isn't that supposed to mean something bad?"
"It means something good! I like winter too. We definitely became more popular after CEO Do Jun-hyeok came, but I liked the days when President Oh Deok-soo was here too! You carried the cross for us!"
Aran declared.
Right.
Even when I'd worked under Oh Soo, there had been plenty of times when I realized his choices had been unavoidable.
One thing was certain.
Without Oh Soo, Blue Moon would never have existed at all.
I had started this business as a consumer of Blue Moon myself, after all.
"Hearing you say that makes me feel good. Hahaha. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying I carried the cross."
Maybe the cross was an exaggeration...
Though he had literally been nailed down in the Philippines.
Apollo was currently divided between a small number of old-timers who knew Oh Soo and the much larger number of newer fans who didn't.
The Nutube comments reflected that divide.
[That old guy was Blue Moon's original producer?]
[┗ Yeah. The cyberpunk concepts for albums 1, 2, and 3 came out of that guy's head.]
[So he's the person who ruined Blue Moon.]
[Even a useless father is still a father.]
[I heard once Do hyung started leading Blue Moon with a normal concept, he just handed over the CEO position.]
[┗ Okay. I admit that's cool.]
[Hopefully he had talent for growing cabbages...]
The truth was, I had never properly confirmed how talented Oh Soo actually was as a producer.
Even if he'd failed as a businessman, those very limitations may have prevented him from ever fully showing his ability as a planner.
Whether as a composer or a producer, I hoped we'd get the chance to work together again someday.
The Oh Soo clip was the most popular, but episodes featuring ordinary fans also received an equally passionate response.
During the segments where we searched for fans trading photocards, we sometimes encountered people selling merchandise too.
Every single one of them was selling it for exactly what they had originally paid.
That was because Apollo members who verified official photocards or merchandise were given priority access to concert ticketing.
The fans selling their photocards or goods all had their own stories.
A niece had suddenly been hospitalized.
A family member had passed away.
Things like that.
Of course, morally speaking, giving up your ticket in those situations was perfectly understandable.
If you bought a movie ticket and your schedule suddenly changed, didn't you sometimes give it to a friend?
It was the damned scalpers reselling tickets for dozens of times the original price who made everyone look bad.
Thanks to 〈Secret Royal Inspector Is Here〉, Blue Moon's love for the fans and the issue of merchandise reselling became major topics of discussion.
Other entertainment companies gradually began trying similar programs too.
More fans also began trading merchandise because they wondered whether selling or exchanging goods might give them a chance to meet their favorite celebrities.
As a result, people who had bought merchandise purely to gain ticketing priority and then tried to resell it at inflated prices were forced to lower their prices.
And that naturally dragged scalped ticket prices down as well.
A slogan began spreading through the communities:
"Blue Moon is watching us."
Apollo fans joined hands and started starving out the fake Apollos.
Unexpectedly, this placed enormous pressure on both ticket scalpers and merchandise resellers.
They could travel all over Seoul, Busan, Chuncheon, Daejeon, and still fail to sell a single item.
"Agh! I have the fewest!"
Aran clutched her head and groaned while the members gathered in the practice room to tally their royal-inspector badges midway through the project.
Anna had given out the most concert tickets to fans.
Serin was second.
Youngchae came next.
"I'm saying this as the person who handed out the most tickets, but I think the tiny number of seats is part of the problem too. Whenever a listing goes up, it gets taken immediately."
Anna spoke.
"There are tons of people who want to see the show, but the number of seats is way too limited. It can't be helped, but it still sucks."
Most fans wanted to attend at least two of the three concert dates.
But ticketing had been so brutal that even securing one day was difficult.
Fans with priority access had been able to buy for all three days, so on the surface it didn't look too bad.
But once general ticket sales opened, it was going to turn into absolute chaos.
"Then should we extend the concert schedule? As long as you girls can handle it. We're the only act using the venue anyway, and they'll tear the stage down afterward. There aren't any games scheduled right after us either."
When I suggested it, silence fell for a moment.
"It's not like none of us thought about that... But can we really do it?"
Serin asked.
"Of course. Although if we do, we won't be able to attend the Asian Music Awards."
After the concert, we were scheduled to appear at the Asian Music Awards, or AMA, the country's largest idol music program hosted by ZJ.
We would be performing 〈Hippie〉.
But AMA was also a symbolic stage on par with our solo concert in its own way.
None of the members had ever experienced it, so they'd probably been looking forward to it.
"Ugh! It'd be such a shame to do it, but also such a shame not to do it...!"
The members still longed to appear at AMA with the same pure excitement they'd once had for 〈Music Bang Bang〉 during their unknown days.
In that case, I couldn't force this decision.
I'd leave it to them.
Youngchae, who had been thinking quietly for a while, spoke.
"AMA is the same no matter when we do it. It happens every year anyway, right? But a solo concert isn't like that. How many Apollo members could even come to AMA? I think adding one or two more days to a five-thousand-seat concert is obviously better."
"That's true, but..."
The others grew thoughtful after Youngchae's suggestion.
Youngchae pressed the point again.
"Let's extend the concert. At AMA, we're guests. At our concert, we're the main characters. And I think the fans want that more too."
Youngchae and I had been unusually in sync lately.
Our goal was to give fans the greatest possible satisfaction before heading to the Super Bowl.
Appearing at AMA would certainly make them proud.
But no matter what anyone said, what the fans truly wanted most was the concert itself.
"I'm in favor."
Serin declared, then fixed her gaze on Anna and Aran.
And just like that, Serin's gymnasium election...
No.
The practice-room election began.
"I like the concert better too. The fans need time to adjust their schedules, so let's decide right now."
"What? Then I'm in too."
And with that, the members reached a unanimous decision.
In the office of the Joint Performance Committee for Peace Between North and South, working-level officials from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Unification sat together discussing plans for the event.
Among them was Hong Sang-hyeok, who had been selected as a planning advisor for the peace concert by the Association of Broadcasting Planners for the Creation of Healthy Culture.
"I think it'll be difficult to book Blue Moon. Looking at Universe's history, they've never accepted events where fans can't properly access the performance. So a performance in Pyongyang..."
"Even so, shouldn't we at least make an offer?"
The officials debated intensely over how to recruit Blue Moon.
Hong Sang-hyeok stroked his beard, which had grown out like that of a wandering scholar, and listened to their discussion.
His real position was with KBC's Cooperative Production Department.
He had recently been promoted to Head of Production Division 1, giving him the freedom to pursue more aggressive outside activities.
His position on the Pyongyang performance advisory committee was one of those activities.
His planning ability had certainly helped him rise to his current position.
But his skill at navigating relationships had played just as large a role.
"We're not ordinary producers. This is a committee jointly supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Unification."
The room quieted after Hong Sang-hyeok spoke.
He had built connections throughout several government institutions, so everyone paid attention when he said something.
Hong Sang-hyeok continued.
"〈The Stranger〉 was submitted for the Foreign Language Film Award this year, correct? Then naturally they'll also be considering the Grand Bell Awards. And since Blue Moon has enough international buzz to promote overseas, they'll surely be expecting recognition at the Popular Music Awards too."
"Naturally."
"But the Grand Bell Awards are hosted by the Korean Motion Picture Association, which receives overwhelming support from the Ministry of Culture. And what about the Popular Music Awards? The Korean Singers Association, the Korean Entertainment Producers Association, the Korea Music Copyright Association, even the Federation of Korean Popular Culture and Arts Industry. You've all heard those names at least once, haven't you?"
Hong Sang-hyeok argued that if they used the influence of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Unification to pressure Do Jun-hyeok, they could bring Blue Moon to the Pyongyang performance.
"But we shouldn't pressure CEO Do Jun-hyeok like that. We could end up like those other entertainment companies..."
"Those companies collapsed because they committed crimes. Is refusing to give someone an award illegal? And our backing isn't exactly ordinary, is it?"
The committee's backing was the country itself.
If the country called, wasn't it Do Jun-hyeok's duty as a citizen to wake up even from a dead sleep and come running?
"I'll handle the booking. Let's plan the stage with Blue Moon included."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Rotten bastards."
"Why are you suddenly acting like an old man?"
Dae-hun had stepped outside for some air and returned while clicking his tongue at his phone.
"Look at this."
Dae-hun showed me the message he'd received.
It said that a stage called the Joint Performance for Peace Between North and South was being planned and that Blue Moon was expected to participate.
Except they weren't simply asking us to attend.
The real point was that in exchange for letting us participate in the peace concert, they wanted Blue Moon to postpone the solo concert and appear on a program called 〈Idol Athletics Championship〉.
Filming for 〈Idol Athletics Championship〉 overlapped directly with our solo-concert schedule.
The times were technically different, one during the day and the other at night.
But physically, it would be impossible for both the members and the fans to handle both.
"What the hell is this? Hong Sang-hyeok? With the way this message is written, I thought he was at least a minister."
"Exactly. So I called and rejected him just now. And get this... He says he has influence over the Grand Bell Awards and all kinds of arts-industry award ceremonies, so he can make sure we get excluded."
It was, quite literally...
Absurdity arimasen.
What did we gain by going to 〈Idol Athletics Championship〉?
And what did we gain by going all the way to Pyongyang, other than stories to tell while drinking?
One military trip had been enough.
Why were they trying to send me to Pyongyang too?
I understood that South-North peace was a good cause.
But would it kill them to show some good intentions toward us first?
If they'd asked politely, maybe I would've seriously thought about the dream of our people and decided whether or not to go.
But if they tried to conscript us like this, all desire to participate disappeared immediately.
"So what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean? If they say they won't give us awards, then we have to go."
We couldn't keep getting pushed around by some bastard named Hong.
My view was different from Dae-hun's.
"Reject it. What, are we going to lose fans because we don't win awards?"
"They're saying we won't get the Grand Bell or the Popular Music Award."
"Don't need them. We don't even have room in the company for more trophies. Tell them unless they're making some giant trophy out of pure gold, we're not going."
Hong apparently didn't understand something.
If people wanted to give us awards, there were plenty of glittering ones overseas.
We already had an Academy Award practically locked in, and that was on a completely different level from the Grand Bell Awards.
"Enough, enough. Stop thinking about it. The Super Bowl stage alone is already making my hair fall out. My capacity is still too small to think about reunification too."
"Got it. Then I'll reject them."
They weren't going to give us the Popular Music Award?
Fine.
Once they saw how incredible Blue Moon looked on the Super Bowl Halftime Show, their jaws would drop so hard they'd be drooling.
And it would be a group that hadn't even won a Popular Music Award in Korea.
