Chapter 57. Good Fortune Brings Trouble
After finishing the call with Yoo Jun-seok, I rushed straight back to Universe's practice room.
I needed to tell everyone this good news.
When I entered Practice Room A, Kim Jin-hee, Yeo Eun-joo, and the members were gathered around Serin.
Apparently, they'd been practicing acting.
Girls, I have good news!
Guess who just called me?
I inhaled, ready to begin.
Youngchae shouted first.
"CEO! We have amazing news! Guess who Manager Dae-hun just got a call from?"
"Huh?"
She stole every word I'd planned to say.
Before I recovered, Aran continued.
"They said Serin unnie got praised like crazy during her first shoot! All the staff applauded!"
Youngchae looked annoyed that Aran stole the reveal.
Aran pretended not to notice and turned away.
I looked around the practice room.
Two cake boxes were stacked neatly in one corner.
Celebration cakes for Serin's first filming day.
"Congratulations, Serin! You practiced so hard, and they already recognized you there too."
"It's not me. CEO always finds roles that suit me!"
Serin smiled with the corners of her eyes stretched happily.
We needed to capture that expression as much as possible.
I should probably tell Go Won-jun to film every Serin solo scene in close-up.
The remake of 〈Good Pro〉 would eventually rank first at the 59th Video Culture Grand Awards.
Now Serin was part of it.
And once Jeong Un-young's web drama began becoming popular, that would create even more buzz.
The future version should perform even better.
Thinking about 〈Good Pro〉 made me completely forget the opportunity Yoo Jun-seok had just given us.
"Cake! This is definitely a cake moment, right?"
Anna hummed as she carried the cakes over.
Kim Jin-hee looked unhappy.
"They'll gain weight... Do they really eat cake for every single event? One slice of chocolate cake is about 340 calories. They'd need to run the choreography five times in a row."
The Blue Moon members froze.
Before I came to Universe, they hadn't exactly had many events worth celebrating.
"People who usually eat enough are the ones who gain weight easily. This much won't do anything. Eat, eat."
The members carefully watched Jin-hee.
But although they watched her expression, their hands didn't slow down at all while preparing the cake.
"Did you buy two cakes because there are more people now? Good timing. I also brought good news."
"Gasp! What is it?"
Aran asked.
"Yoo Jun-seok called me. He said your reaction last time was excellent and he wants to see you again."
"Whoa."
This wasn't another appearance on 〈The Sixth Sense〉.
It was a variety program called 〈Meme Quiz〉.
They invited people who had become hot topics online, talked with them, then held a quiz at the end.
Naturally, most guests were celebrities.
Maybe because Yoo Jun-seok was involved, the casting power was incredible.
Almost none of its clips had fewer than five hundred thousand views.
"He thinks you're extremely good celebrities to work with. Your ability to create buzz is ridiculous."
Yoo Jun-seok didn't know how Blue Moon had actually formed.
He'd even asked whether the group had been deliberately designed to generate viral moments.
That was a huge misunderstanding.
The members' greatest advantage was always their skill.
Without that skill, even if I'd seen the future a hundred times, they never would've risen this far.
So on 〈Meme Quiz〉, I asked them to focus heavily on Blue Moon's success story.
Their appearance on 〈Live Singing Contest〉.
The incredible singing Anna displayed on 〈Yeo Eun-joo's Two O'Clock Date〉.
Their overwhelming dance skill at Kim Yoon-ja's 〈I Love Party〉 concert.
The Chuseok special of 〈Music Bang Bang〉.
At every turning point in Blue Moon's growth, the members' own performance had been essential.
"Manager Jin-hee."
"Yeah, Youngchae?"
Youngchae listened carefully to my explanation, then looked at Kim Jin-hee.
"We should order fried chicken too."
"No."
While preparing for 〈Meme Quiz〉, the members constantly moved in and out of the office, planning scripts about what they wanted to say.
If they went on television and only stammered, everything would be edited out.
Meanwhile, I investigated Turb Entertainment in detail.
There were many scandals.
Things I already knew.
Things that had once been famous but forgotten.
Things I'd never heard about.
Even failing to pay managers' wages wasn't unusual for them.
Still, investigating the people around Turb didn't seem likely to reveal the truth behind Kang Sang-do's situation.
The more I searched, the stronger my vague suspicion became.
Several days passed.
Then the filming day arrived.
The date and schedule had been sent to us through the 〈Meme Quiz〉 writer.
"Mukbang meme queen, SNS fashionista, the Nation's First Love who appeared like a comet, and even our Thai Korean-language expert! The group filled with every kind of viral character... Blue Moon! Welcome!"
"Hello, we're Blue Moon!"
The 〈Meme Quiz〉 set looked simple, just like on television.
But because Yoo Jun-seok sat there, the tension still felt intense.
The members, however, showed no nervousness.
They spoke energetically.
"I heard you spent a very long time unknown. Was there a particular turning point behind this sudden rise?"
Serin answered Yoo Jun-seok's question.
"I think the first major event was our appearance on 〈Live Singing Contest〉. One day, our manager at the time, who's now our CEO, Do Jun-hyeok, suddenly told us we were going to film 〈Live Singing Contest〉. He'd heard the show urgently needed a replacement."
"Oh. Then without your manager, you might've missed that opportunity."
"That's right."
The rest of the talk continued in the same pattern.
When Yoo Jun-seok asked about Youngchae's fashion SNS account, she said she'd reactivated it because I instructed her to.
Serin's drama opportunity had also been something I'd obtained through a coincidence.
I'd also suddenly suggested Anna take Korean history and Korean-language exams.
A manager giving instructions that help members succeed wasn't unusual.
Most managers directly contributed to developing their artists.
But every one of my contributions sounded strange when the members described them.
Sudden.
Extremely lucky.
Perfect timing.
Unexpected.
"Wow... hahaha. At this point, we should've invited your manager too."
"Good idea! We even played a quiz together on 〈Idol of the Week〉."
"I watched that too. Seriously, what the hell was 'Top Blade'? Top Blade~!"
What else?
A toy I played with as a kid.
Yoo Jun-seok stared straight at me beyond the set.
A camera immediately swung toward me.
I made an exaggerated gesture apologizing to the members and took another step backward.
The camera returned to the stage.
Then the head writer approached me.
"CEO Do Jun-hyeok? You're being mentioned constantly. Could we film a separate interview with you?"
"Me?"
The writer looked serious.
The main guests appeared in a talk-show format speaking with Yoo Jun-seok.
The program also inserted separate interviews with people connected to them.
"Come on. Viewers hate seeing criminals on television."
That was my own special way of politely refusing.
The writer kept pushing.
"Criminal? Anyone who knows the case knows you were falsely accused. Did you see the comments after your appearance on 〈Idol of the Week〉? People were saying you were extremely handsome."
"Really?"
"Yes. And the better this episode performs, the better it is for Blue Moon too. What do you think?"
If it helped the members, I had no reason to refuse.
I followed the writer to a nearby set.
Before turning on the camera, the writer asked,
"First... is there anything else you'd like to explain about the Pantheon incident? You were a private citizen at the time, so you probably didn't get many chances to speak. If you want, we can begin there."
"I don't mind. Ask whatever questions will create the strongest episode."
The rumor that I'd been involved in drugs and prostitution had spread fairly widely.
But it never became a gigantic scandal because the evidence clearing me was overwhelming.
People who wanted to attack me over it mostly did so alone in dark corners of the internet.
Was it right to bring up that old issue again and give people something new to use against Blue Moon?
Or should I turn that absurd past into one entertaining story?
I decided to trust the head writer's instincts.
The moment the camera began rolling, she asked without hesitation.
"About a year ago, there was an incident that appeared on the nine-o'clock news even more often than entertainment news. The Club Area case. In some ways, you were the biggest victim. What happened to you afterward?"
As expected.
No brakes.
"It hurt. I was relieved to clear my name, but my company never fully accepted that. They pushed all the responsibility onto me. Still, I don't think I suffered as long as people might imagine."
"How did you endure it?"
"I worked as an idol photographer. Since I already knew the entertainment industry pretty well, I felt I needed to keep at least one foot inside it."
I told parts of my story through the interview.
"After doing that work, I realized being an idol photographer isn't very different from being a manager."
"In what way?"
"Idols need to look attractive everywhere, right? Agencies care deeply about little things like lighting and camera angles. But from a photographer's perspective, even agencies still miss a lot."
In the end, idol photographers watched the members even more closely than the company did.
Take lighting.
Once rehearsal ended, the most active people weren't always managers or production staff.
Sometimes they were photographers.
If the stage lighting was so strong that the idols looked washed out, photographers might pull chairs slightly forward.
If sound equipment blocked the camera angle, they might personally ask the directors to adjust it.
"When you say photographers, you mean the people who take those idol photos we're all familiar with?"
"Yes. There are a small number of paparazzi who work illegally, but most do it out of genuine affection and fandom. You can't take photos like that without passion. I think both agencies and photographers need that kind of fan heart."
The writer nodded.
Then she moved to the next question.
"Listening to the members, you've encountered an amazing number of lucky opportunities. Were all of those really coincidences? Or were you using connections from your former agency?"
And there it was.
The question I least wanted.
"Ah... almost all of my industry connections disappeared after the false accusation. I mainly work using the knowledge I learned about how the industry operates."
"Really? Still, knowing the industry doesn't magically create opportunities. There are plenty of managers from major agencies constantly receiving information too."
"Hmm..."
When a question became difficult, vague answers could usually carry you through.
"At my previous company, even members I trusted betrayed me. The company's CEO completely abandoned me. Every day, I dealt with reporters. Losing eight years of my career at once was difficult. I started thinking I had unbelievably terrible luck. Then I entered Universe and began again from zero."
"Yes."
"I had this superstitious hope that if I'd suffered one enormous piece of bad luck, maybe something equally lucky would eventually happen to compensate. Things should balance somehow, right? Save today, live richly tomorrow. So when I searched for activities for Blue Moon, I often made fairly risky bets. And somehow... I really did become lucky. Hahaha."
That was how the interview ended.
I didn't know why, but the writer seemed convinced it would become extremely popular.
Except for 〈Idol of the Week〉, this was almost my first real television appearance.
It was also the first time I'd publicly talked about the old case.
I simply asked them to edit me well and returned to the waiting room where the members were.
But when I entered, the atmosphere was unusually quiet.
"Huh? Why is everyone so quiet? Did filming go badly?"
"No, it's not that..."
Anna trailed off.
I slowly checked everyone's expressions.
Youngchae looked furious as she stared at her phone.
Serin rested her chin on one hand and stared at a wall as if nothing mattered.
Aran anxiously moved her eyes between everyone.
"Ms. Jin-hee. What happened?"
Kim Jin-hee was also looking at her phone.
At my question, she stood and showed me the screen.
"This is Serin's PeopleStar account."
It was the comment section.
[Kim Serin from Ara Arts High in Mapo. Seeing her pretend to be nice on television makes me sick.]
[Whoa... Is this the same Kim Serin who blocked off the bathroom every lunch break and smoked with the delinquents?]
[I heard from a friend who went to Ara Arts High that her family was poor, so she constantly extorted money from other students.]
Nothing but malicious comments.
And they were aimed at Serin of all people.
I looked toward her.
Serin must've been worried about what I thought after reading them.
Her eyes shook slightly as she looked back at me.
There was no reason to ask whether it was true.
I immediately called Dae-hun.
"Hey, Dae-hun. What are you doing?"
That was all I asked.
He answered instantly.
"Yes. I've already figured out the situation. We can respond to this, so don't worry. Come back to the company first."
"Give me the short version."
"You know Turb Entertainment, right, hyung?"
Next.
