Chapter 62. Star of Asia
I had no idea what Serin and Hae-won had talked about, but a few days later, Hae-won really did record an apology video and upload it to her personal Nutube channel.
Apparently, she'd seen enough celebrity apology videos to know how it was done. She appeared without makeup, dressed entirely in black, and spoke with extreme politeness.
The gist of it was this.
Most of the allegations currently being made against her were true, with only a few exceptions.
But since most of them were true anyway, there was hardly any point in bringing up those exceptions.
However, she had personally gone to each person claiming to be a victim and apologized to them. If there were things she deserved legal punishment for, she would accept that punishment without complaint.
She apologized for causing everyone concern.
She also admitted that Serin had actually been one of the people she used to bully.
Hae-won said she knew pretty much everyone at Ara Arts High School who had been considered a delinquent, but Serin had never been one of them.
She even added that since there obviously wouldn't be any convincing victims claiming Serin had beaten them, any former classmates who remembered Serin positively should feel safe stepping forward and giving testimony.
After that, stories praising Serin began pouring out.
Even ridiculously trivial ones.
Apparently, she'd once taken two friends who'd had a huge fight to Neverland in order to help them reconcile.
Since she'd been one of the top students in practical vocal performance, she often stayed late at school to help other students practice.
And despite constantly helping people here and there, she had never once been late to her part-time job.
Even the owner of the pet shop where she'd worked said Serin had been unusually good with dogs, and the dogs had all been in excellent condition during the three years she worked there.
Dogs knew good people when they saw them, didn't they?
While Hae-won's video was drowning beneath countless hate comments, Serin was becoming an even bigger top star than before.
Even Theory of Unrequited Love had become hugely popular overseas, completely unrelated to this controversy.
That would also have a positive effect on Good Pro, which Serin was currently filming.
The other members were amazed by the frankly absurd number of good deeds Serin had apparently done.
At the same time, they couldn't help but envy how rapidly her popularity was rising.
Clip Quiz aired properly as well.
The final broadcast edited together the members' variety-show talent and my serious interview quite effectively.
Fans found it amusing that the episode had been filmed before the school-bullying controversy broke.
The version of me and the members shown on TV had absolutely no idea anything like that was coming.
That time gap seemed to reassure the fans even more.
Meanwhile, the police announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Turb's CEO over the drunk-driving accident from several years ago.
Public outrage had grown intense.
And considering how Turb Entertainment had repeatedly reduced punishments or buried problems whenever scandals arose, investigators judged that the company had enough influence to destroy evidence.
Just as expected, the relationship between Turb and Fever Music ended there.
Afterward, Sang-do apparently had a long conversation with Jeong-yeol.
After all, even though Fever's CEO didn't know who had leaked the information, Jeong-yeol himself knew the truth.
How could Sang-do possibly have known there was a dashcam application that automatically uploaded recordings to the cloud?
Sang-do pretended not to know anything and carefully manipulated Lee Jeong-yeol.
Apparently, he did it so well that he managed to make Homesick Girl completely his own song.
Lee Jeong-yeol withdrew entirely from the track.
It hadn't really been his song in the first place, so there was no reason for him to cling to it and make himself look pathetic.
As for Ha-do, once the investigation into Turb's CEO was completed, he would be released without needing any complicated retrial procedures.
Sang-do officially joined Universe's new-song project and began arranging Homesick Girl.
It seemed like every event predicted through those two GIFs had finally been resolved.
Still, hadn't I learned one painful lesson from all this?
Even someone as obviously kind as Serin could suddenly become the target of baseless school-bullying allegations.
If we could resolve every problem as perfectly as we had this one, then fine.
But what if we couldn't?
Then Universe needed to become large enough to go into hiding and survive, just like Turb.
In other words, we couldn't remain a company being fed by Blue Moon.
We had to become a company capable of feeding Blue Moon.
Before something like this happened again, I needed to increase the company's size.
Broaden our reach.
Expand our position in the industry.
Make Universe look stable to anyone who saw it.
"Wow... I've never even been to an airport before."
"You've never been to an airport at all? Not even for a domestic flight?"
"No. I've lived in Seoul my whole life..."
Serin sat in the Gimpo Airport lounge, staring at the flight schedule board as she spoke.
Filming for Theory of Unrequited Love had completely wrapped up, and while her popularity was still surging, the cast had been invited to China for a fan-signing event.
She had become a star of Asia.
Even if she'd never traveled as far as Jeju Island, surely one trip to Busan could have given her an excuse to fly at least once.
I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her.
Technically, either Kim Jin-hee or Kwon Dae-hun could have accompanied Serin on an overseas schedule like this.
But I also needed to personally handle the copyright paperwork for Serin's merchandise.
And even after becoming CEO, I wanted the members to see that I was still willing to roll up my sleeves and take care of them myself.
Any selfish desire to satisfy my fanboy heart by traveling abroad with Serin was absolutely nonexistent.
Seriously.
Hand on my conscience.
I was even thinking about forming another team these days.
A company that relied entirely on one group would never be as stable as Turb.
Just look at them.
They'd taken beating after beating and still weren't even close to bankruptcy.
They could cut out a rotting section, sew on some patches, and keep functioning because they still had one or two popular celebrities under contract.
Universe needed to become like that.
That was how I planned to explain it to the members, anyway.
Still, personally showing them through my actions would be far more effective than explaining it a hundred times.
After boarding the plane, I was waiting for takeoff when Dae-hun sent me a message.
[Here's the number for the executive PD of Rebooting, one of the programs you mentioned. Have a nice trip. Bring me some Sichuan jajangmyeon. / Tak Hyeon-mo: 010-xxxx-xxxx]
"Was that Manager Kwon Dae-hun? What did he say?"
Serin, seated in business class and curiously looking around, asked me.
"Yeah. He told me to bring back Sichuan jajangmyeon. Idiot. Beijing and Sichuan are nowhere near each other."
Still, he'd gotten the number properly.
After MoCube completely collapsed, I'd started checking whether there was anything worth picking up from the wreckage.
That was how I learned about a program called Rebooting.
The MoCube members themselves weren't appearing.
Instead, producers from various entertainment companies participated as judges, evaluated unknown idols, and created a project group.
In other words, the person who had originally been scheduled to appear wasn't MoCube.
It was Turb's CEO himself.
But with him currently under investigation, that was obviously impossible.
Tak Hyeon-mo, huh?
I planned to call him and ask directly for the vacant spot.
It would be nice if he accepted immediately.
Of course, there was no way it would be that easy.
Blue Moon and Serin might have gained a great deal of public attention lately, but there were plenty of entertainment companies and producers besides me capable of replacing Turb.
Like always, when nothing was guaranteed, all I could do was plant as many seeds as possible.
I called the number Dae-hun had given me.
He picked up soon after.
"Hello?"
"Hello. This is Do Jun-hyeok, CEO of Universe Entertainment. Am I speaking with PD Tak Hyeon-mo, who's working on Rebooting?"
"Ah, Universe's Do Jun-hyeok...! Yes, that's me. I've heard quite a lot about you from Jun-seok hyung. Didn't expect you to personally call me."
The moment I introduced myself, Tak Hyeon-mo sounded genuinely pleased.
Jun-seok hyung probably meant MC Yoo Jun-seok.
Apparently, after I'd made a good impression on him last time, he'd been saying nice things about me here and there.
"Yes. I'm calling because I'd appreciate it if you could consider Universe as one of the agencies participating in Rebooting."
"Hmm? So you're making an offer, right? You want to appear?"
"Yes. If you give us the opportunity, we'll work hard."
"Wow, Universe really strapped a rocket to itself lately, huh? Hmm."
Tak Hyeon-mo paused as though carefully choosing his words.
"CEO Do Jun-hyeok, your interview on Clip Quiz became quite a hot topic, didn't it? You look good on camera too. So personally, we wouldn't mind. The only thing is, people associate you pretty strongly with the Turb Entertainment CEO who just dropped out. I'm not sure how that would look on screen."
Since Universe had played a large role in pushing Turb out, having me take Turb's vacant seat could create a strange image.
"I'm not saying it's impossible. It might actually help the ratings. We are currently choosing someone to fill Turb's spot... But I think the production team needs to discuss it before deciding."
They hadn't found a replacement yet.
Just getting myself onto the candidate list was already progress.
