Chapter 72. That Is All
That night, two posts under Anchor Shin Seok-hee's name appeared on the social media account connected to KBC's integrated newsroom.
Shin Seok-hee was the head of the news division, a man said to wield even more influence than KBC's president.
The first post contained his thoughts, as news director, on the union strike.
He wrote that he too considered the manpower shortage in Production Division 2 and the slow pace of hiring to be serious problems, and that he hoped the agenda proposed by the head of the Production Division 2 union would be accepted.
The second post was the shocking 〈Homesick Girl〉 challenge.
Its title was:
[Director Shin's Struggle for His Long-Lost Hometown]
It was nothing more than a fifteen-second clip.
But that was more than enough to become a huge topic.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He's suffering so much because of Rebooting.
-Your dancing is terrible. But you moved fast, so I'll let it slide.
-Honestly, having an actual criminal record for eating government rice would be less embarrassingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Aran-chan never lets even a polite comment pass by.
-Isn't Anchor Shin's hometown the Stone Age?
┗ Not funny.
-Is Seok-hee hyung debuting?
The ultimate entry route had been created.
People came because they were interested in the labor strike, watched Shin Seok-hee dance to 〈Homesick Girl〉, and left.
A man who normally showed nothing but a stiff, serious face on the news had uploaded a dance so clumsy that you could barely tell what dance it was supposed to be.
Of course it became a hot topic.
He probably thought that doing something like this would attract more attention to the strike and help resolve the situation.
That was probably true.
But regardless of his noble intentions, he probably wouldn't be falling asleep early tonight.
I wasn't getting much sleep either.
Only two days had passed since the 〈Rebooting〉 performance, yet filming for Episode 2, the judging episode, had already begun.
We had to interview all ninety-nine contestants.
This shoot would definitely go through the night.
They had started early with that in mind, of course.
"All right. Our next trainee is Lee Eun-ji, formerly of Livning Girls."
Lee Eun-ji walked onto the platform and greeted us energetically.
It wasn't as if the judges were supposed to applaud every trainee, but even taking that into account, the response was cold.
It had been like this from the very beginning.
At least I had no preselected trainees.
I had to use my brain at full power and choose people properly on the spot, which made the process somewhat entertaining.
But from the perspective of the other agencies, all the dark horses had already been decided.
All they had left was choosing supporting pieces.
How boring must this be for them?
"Eun-ji, I watched your introduction stage carefully. I suppose experience really does make a difference. There was almost nothing to criticize. You were excellent."
"Thank you."
A manager from Riven Entertainment openly praised her.
Behind us, a close-up replay of Eun-ji dancing onstage was playing.
Whoever had hired those cameras had really brought excellent equipment.
"It must have been difficult to show everything you can do during the introduction stage. I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll show us in the second and third rounds."
The other producers nodded along.
Then Tak Hyun-mo asked,
"Producer Do Jun-hyeok, do you have another differing opinion?"
I'd already clashed with the Riven side several times.
It couldn't really be helped.
Because most of them had already decided which trainees they wanted, their evaluations were often either exaggeratedly generous or strangely harsh.
"Lee Eun-ji's performance was good, but I don't know if it deserves that much praise. Didn't you criticize another trainee who performed very well earlier?"
"Who are you talking about?"
The Riven producer played dumb.
"I understand that you feel especially attached to her because she's a Riven trainee. But if you're acting as a producer, shouldn't you point out weaknesses too? Everyone, look at this footage."
Eun-ji's dancing was merely decent.
More importantly, her effort level fluctuated.
Even during the same performance.
Whenever she moved toward the front and danced where cameras could see her, she worked harder than anyone else.
But whenever other trainees blocked her from view, she merely went through the motions.
She didn't even bother managing her facial expression.
What happened behind the spotlight was more important.
A producer built the concept.
The idols prepared the song.
And the actual stage lasted only a few minutes.
"Whether the camera is on you or not, whether you're visible or not, giving your best should be the absolute minimum, shouldn't it? A veteran should understand better than anyone that even from the back, people can still notice you. In that sense, I'm not sure Lee Eun-ji should really be considered an experienced idol."
Livning Girls had spent even longer in obscurity than Blue Moon.
But my members had never let go of their positive energy until the very end.
At my criticism, both Eun-ji and the Riven producer's expressions twisted.
But what could I do?
It was true.
Pretending to be nice when cameras were around and acting like trash when nobody was watching was something people like Won-woo, who was currently eating government rice, did.
And so the already exhausting overnight judging became even more tiring because I kept clashing with Riven's producer.
It continued well past midnight.
Even my thoughts were starting to become foggy.
Still, the end of filming was slowly approaching.
"Our final trainee. She's also a former idol. Song Eun-bin, formerly of Angel Eleven."
Come to think of it, Song Eun-bin still hadn't appeared.
The moment I heard her name, I became fully awake.
I'd been curious about her personally, so yesterday I'd watched her performance footage several times.
As expected, she had tremendous stage presence.
It was almost hard to believe that I had once interviewed her for a manager position.
"This time, let's hear Producer Do Jun-hyeok's evaluation first."
Tak Hyun-mo said.
Exactly what I wanted.
Since I had spent the whole night disagreeing with everyone, people might have started thinking I was doing it deliberately.
"I found her extremely impressive. Most trainees focused entirely on showing off their individual charm so the cameras would notice them. But Song Eun-bin was the only trainee who seemed to be thinking about how to make a stage with ninety-nine people look harmonious. Let's watch the footage."
I pointed out that the size of Song Eun-bin's movements kept changing slightly.
Whenever she danced from the back, she watched the trainees in front of her and tried to match the overall average of their movements.
If the trainees around her raised their arms higher, she raised hers higher.
