Chapter 194

Chapter 194. You’re the Only Ones Who Should Know

After organizing my thoughts, I called the World Dizn Korea distribution manager again.

"About Sarah Pullen. Is there anything wrong with her?"

"What? Ah... well. Nobody in this world is perfect. She's just a little..."

The manager hesitated for a moment.

"I'm only telling you this, CEO Do Jun-hyeok. Personality-wise, she doesn't get along very well with Director Even Favreau. And it seems like she throws her weight around a little too."

I pressed him for more details.

Surprisingly, he told me quite a lot.

Apparently, he'd spoken with her several times himself.

He said he'd never met anyone who looked down on people quite that badly.

"Recently, she even went back to a production company after filming had already finished and demanded more money. She threatened them, saying they couldn't use her footage if they refused."

"Can she actually do that?"

"I'm not sure. She probably wouldn't demand it if she thought she couldn't get away with it. She's extremely calculating... Anyway, I'm not exactly praying for Sarah Pullen's downfall. The American version needs to succeed too. Sarah Pullen is good at singing, so she can sing. Anna is good at acting, so she can act. They're beautifully making up for each other's weaknesses. Hahaha."

The manager hurriedly dressed it up afterward.

"Well, she's talented, so of course people are going to keep trying to recruit her. If you're good enough, that's what matters."

"Right. Though I wouldn't say Sarah Pullen is the absolute best. More like... nine out of ten? Anyway, CEO Do Jun-hyeok, you need to keep this between us."

Not a perfect ten.

More like a nine.

So she was genuinely talented, but her current reputation had a little bubble mixed into it?

Well, if you disliked someone, even their small flaws tended to look bigger.

What had happened to me back when I was in Pantheon?

I kept getting praised as perfect until everything blew up.

Then some fans claimed they'd known I was rotten from the very beginning.

I guess they'd been watching me pass by ever since I was a kid.

Idols in particular tended to have plenty of reputation bubbles around their abilities.

After all, one of the basic strategies of idol management was making fans fill in whatever the artist lacked with affection.

That was why, the moment some school-bullying scandal or other controversy broke, people immediately started saying things like:

She wasn't even that pretty.

She sang like garbage anyway.

It's only makeup. I saw her on 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 and she looked terrible.

Of course, nothing like that would ever happen to our members.

They were like Americanos with no foam whatsoever.

Sarah Pullen was going to face criticism soon.

Because of her son's college-admissions corruption.

And once that happened, the bubble surrounding her popularity would act as a catalyst and magnify the criticism enormously.

Eventually, she'd probably get photographed by paparazzi while eating bread alone at some Starbucks tucked inside a random house in an obscure Eastern European tourist town, looking completely haggard.

Whether the Korean distribution manager was criticizing Sarah Pullen because he personally disliked her, or because her actual ability fell slightly short of her reputation, one prediction was easy enough to make.

Soon, everyone else would start seeing her the same way.

Ah.

Then 〈The Three Duchesses〉 was screwed.

Dizn animations usually succeeded through their OSTs, which meant the singer performing the main songs mattered more than almost anyone else.

But that singer was going to be implicated in a college-admissions corruption scandal?

Who would want to listen to 〈Let's Go〉 sung by someone who cheated her son's way into college?

Who would love 〈Speechness〉 from a singer whose overrated talent had just been exposed?

Nobody.

"I like the offer, but I'll need to talk it over with Anna too."

"Of course."

Now I had two reasons to remove Sarah Pullen immediately.

First, for the sake of 〈The Three Duchesses〉, which Anna might be appearing in, we needed to get Sarah Pullen out of the cast before the scandal exploded.

Second, for Kim Gyu-bong to successfully win the Olympic bid, the admissions scandal had to break before the vote.

According to the dates in the future-spam footage, the college-admissions corruption announcement happened after the Olympic host city was chosen.

All I had to do was reverse the order.

Then the ending would become happy.

Which meant...

The easiest route was to ask Kim Gyu-bong for help.

He was one of the people powerful enough to influence when a corruption scandal got exposed.

Through him, I could get Sarah Pullen removed and protect 〈The Three Duchesses〉.

And helping Anna succeed as a voice actress in the English-speaking market wasn't the only rabbit I could catch.

If I helped Korea win the Olympic bid, I'd be repaying the patriotism debt I'd built up after missing the Pyongyang performance, several times over.

And I'd also turn Kim Gyu-bong into a successful Olympic committee chairman, proving even more strongly what an insanely capable planner I was.

Don't give me money equivalent to one sports team.

Make it two.

Of course, before setting all of that in motion, there was one thing I absolutely needed to do.

"So, this casting offer from American Dizn came in for Anna too. I brought it over just in case. Anna, take a look and think about it. I don't really know much about this stuff."

I handed her the American proposal while hiding my personal enthusiasm as much as possible.

"Whoa, I really showed off for nothing...! Anna went and won an international championship!"

Serin exclaimed from beside her.

What she meant was that since her own casting offer was for Korea while Anna's had come directly from America, Anna had surpassed her by a mile.

No, no, no.

Absolutely not.

The people who ultimately approved both Serin and Anna were all from World Dizn in America anyway.

Anna looked over the proposal.

Other than the language, it was identical to the one I'd given Serin before.

"Me? Why would I get an offer like this?"

I told her exactly what the distribution manager had explained.

American headquarters generally respected World Dizn Korea's casting decisions, but the process required final approval before anything was confirmed.

That was why the American staff had listened to the entire recording I'd sent.

And while doing so, they became interested in Anna's voice as Serin's scene partner.

Lottery tickets were best bought on a whim.

That was exactly what had happened to Anna.

"And they said your acting was outstanding too, Serin. So basically, you can just go there and do exactly what you're already capable of doing."

Everyone could simply travel to Korea or America according to their recording schedules.

Serin's acting had already been tested plenty of times, so I wasn't worried about her.

The problem was Anna.

Like before, she tended to become extremely tense whenever she tried something new.

She had sounded good to me, though.

I subtly studied Anna's expression.

She didn't look particularly happy.

She didn't look nervous either.

Nor excited.

Trying to read Anna's emotions from her face had been a mistake.

Still, she was normally good at expressing happiness.

So if she was hiding anything right now, it was probably nervousness.

"I'll do it. Do I sing too, like Serin unni?"

Anna made her decision.

"No. They already have someone for the singing part. You know Sarah Pullen, right? She's an extremely famous musical actress and voice performer. She's doing the songs for your character."

Apparently, Serin knew the name.

The moment I finished speaking, she got excited and started telling Anna just how famous Sarah Pullen was.

She said she'd once gone to see one of Sarah Pullen's performances when she toured Korea.

The musical had been entirely in English, so Serin hadn't understood much of it, but she remembered Sarah Pullen being extremely good.

And famous.

Anna simply listened in silence and nodded.

I decided to help Anna the same way I'd helped Serin.

We'd make a proper recording and send it to the people in charge.

Then I'd show Anna their reaction.

If she was nervous, hearing their praise might help her relax.

Serin, Anna, and I moved to the recording studio so Anna could record properly.

Anna entered the booth alone.

Serin and I watched her acting from outside and occasionally offered a comment or two.

"Anna would probably be good in theater too. Her pronunciation is really clear, her acting's good, and she has a strong voice."

"I know. I didn't realize Anna was this good at acting."

Maybe Anna was starting to think she could actually do this.

The blank expression she'd been wearing earlier gradually softened.

Serin relaxed too.

Before, she'd seemed like she was worrying on Anna's behalf.

But once she saw how naturally Anna could express a variety of emotions, she looked reassured.

Then, as usual, Serin fell into deep thought.

"What are you thinking about so seriously again?"

Serin answered.

"I was thinking that I want to try a musical."

"Really?"

This dubbing project was technically musical acting, but more precisely, it was for a musical film.

That was different from a normal stage musical performed in a large theater.

I'd visited quite a few theaters while looking for actors and stage planners, and both the singing and the acting seemed completely different there.

The acting had to be more dramatic.

The voice had to be projected differently.

Facial expressions obviously mattered, but compared to screen acting, physical movement mattered even more.

On film, an editor could cut together your best takes and turn them into something decent.

There was no such luxury in live theater.

Come to think of it, the only advantage of theater might be that you didn't have a camera making things uncomfortable.

"Honestly, I haven't even done that many projects, but I feel like the evaluation of me right now is a little inflated. People seem to think I'll be good at anything I try. There's no guarantee I won't be, but there's no guarantee I will either, right?"

"No. Serin, you'll definitely be good at everything."

"Really...?"

Serin continued.

"CEO-nim cheering me on does give me strength. But... I'm still not sure. There has to be something I'm bad at."

"Yeah. That's true. But don't put too much pressure on yourself. Even if you're a little lacking at something, your fans will still support you."

Blind praise would only make Serin feel more isolated.

"I want to audition for musicals."

"What? Really? Why all of a sudden?"

"Just... I think I want to start again somewhere people aren't already overestimating me. I've always wanted to try it too, of course."

It might look like she had impulsively gotten the idea after watching Anna act.

But Serin wasn't someone who made impulsive decisions.

She had probably been thinking about this for a long time.

"All right. I'll look into some auditions."

If that was how Serin felt, then it would probably be best for her to go all the way to Broadway and start from the bottom.

Of course, even in America she wouldn't truly be starting from zero.

People who knew 〈The Stranger〉 would recognize her.

Still, Broadway was the heart of musical theater, and she was less famous there than in Korea.

So that seemed like the right place.

Besides, we'd have to visit America for Anna's recording anyway.

Before going to the United States, though, I had one private matter to take care of.

So I visited Sriver headquarters.

There's an old saying.

When you're in a hurry, take the straight road.

The fastest and easiest way to deal with Sarah Pullen was to meet Kim Gyu-bong and ask for his help.

I entered the Sriver headquarters building.

It was enormous and busy, but the moment I walked in, employees started making a fuss as though they'd seen someone who wasn't supposed to exist.

I'd contacted the chief secretary of Chairman Kim Gyu-bong's office before coming.

The moment I entered the lobby, he hurried out to greet me.

"You've arrived. The chairman is wrapping up his schedule early and will return shortly. Please follow me for now."

The chief secretary came with several female employees and guided me inside.

Even the elevator had been held on the first floor so I could board immediately.

This wasn't quite presidential treatment.

But maybe city-council-member level.

The chief secretary led me to the chairman's office.

As soon as I entered, a young man stood and greeted me.

"Hello, CEO Do Jun-hyeok! I'm Kim Gi-jun, the corporate president."

Kim Gi-jun laughed and introduced himself as a figurehead president.

I'd seen him a few times in writing during the investment proposal discussions.

He was much more cheerful than I'd expected.

"This isn't my first time waiting here, but I've never seen the chairman meet an outsider in his own office before. Not even politicians receive this level of treatment. Chairman Kim Gyu-bong really must like you a great deal."

"Surely not. When would the chairman ever listen to idol music?"

He was probably only saying that because they wanted to keep using Blue Moon as models.

"It's true. Whenever he travels, he always listens to Blue Moon. He keeps saying their music has the power to captivate people."

The corporate president said.

He was wearing a suit, but he looked like he'd rushed over in a hurry.

The chief secretary hadn't even mentioned that he'd be here.

He must have heard I was coming and rushed over too.

Probably just to tell me how much Kim Gyu-bong supposedly liked Blue Moon.

Whether it was true or not, the fact that they were going this far to create the right atmosphere made one thing obvious.

Kim Gyu-bong really was showering me with special attention.

Kim Gi-jun took out several Blue Moon photos.

Some had been taken by fans.

Others were photos from 〈Live Singing Contest〉 and the time they wore hanbok in Namwon while eating tteokgalbi.

"Serin really had an elegant aura even back then. She was unknown at the time, right? How could that possibly have been the case...? It's hard to believe."

"Right? There was absolutely no reason for any of them to be unknown. Everyone says Blue Moon succeeded because I was good at my job, but that's not true at all. They were all girls with obvious potential to succeed."

The moment we started talking about the members, I got excited and talked far too much.

Kim Gi-jun had clearly researched me thoroughly.

I somehow pulled myself together after the familiar wave of embarrassment that followed excessive fanboying and changed the subject.

"By the way, where did you get all these photos?"

"From Apollo."

Kim Gi-jun opened the Apollo fan café and showed me his account.

He wasn't an elder member, but he'd clearly joined quite a long time ago.

His rank was also far too high to have been hastily manufactured.

His username was K-standard.

That couldn't possibly belong to anyone other than Kim Gi-jun.

And on our café, usernames could never be changed after registration.

So it wasn't a purchased account either.

Maybe embarrassed now that he'd been exposed, Kim Gi-jun chuckled awkwardly.

Then the door opened and the chairman entered.

"I kept you waiting, didn't I? I'm sorry. I wrapped things up and left the moment I heard you'd contacted me."

"Not at all. I only just arrived."

Kim Gi-jun stood with me and bowed politely to Kim Gyu-bong.

This was my first time meeting Kim Gyu-bong face-to-face.

He definitely felt more like a modern businessman than Chairman Jung Jun.

"You have no idea how happy I was to hear from you! So, is there something you'd like my help with? Just say the word. Anything at all! I can bring you anything except the stars."

An overwhelming declaration of support right from the start.

I could only be grateful.

"No. I came because there's something I'd like to help you with."

"You want to help me, CEO Do Jun-hyeok?"

Exactly.

"You're serving as chairman of the Olympic bid committee, correct? And your strongest rival city is Washington in the United States."

"That's right, but why do you ask...?"

Kim Gyu-bong and Kim Gi-jun both leaned toward me.

"I'm only telling the two of you this... From what I've looked into, a lot of people think you're going to lose the vote to Washington and fail to win the bid."

I paused.

"I can make you win."