Chapter 80

Chapter 80. Everyone, Assemble in America

After hearing my request, Park Jong-moon fell into thought for a moment.

Then he told me that his second son, Park Gwang-cheol, would contact me soon.

After returning to Seoul, I spent several days waiting for Park Gwang-cheol's call while refining my plan.

Before long, another meeting was held for the agency representatives participating in 〈Rebooting〉.

Since I had effectively inherited Turb's share, I was allowed to attend as well.

"The Univ team CEO Do Jun-hyeok put together is doing extremely well. First place was something none of us expected."

The moment I arrived at the meeting room, Shin Hyung-geol showered me with praise.

Once he started complimenting someone, the other CEOs followed along with applause and approving comments.

I knew the praise was sincere.

But what good was succeeding on 〈Rebooting〉?

The CEO of Riven, who was also responsible for managing the program's debut group, was destined to start whining about being broke no matter how well the ratings did.

The first competition had been the introduction stage, and as everyone knew, nearly half the trainees had been eliminated.

In the second competition, Univ had successfully revived the cyberpunk concept that Blue Moon had once failed with and even reached first place in the real-time ratings.

It had been such an overwhelming success that it almost seemed impossible to do any better.

Only the third and fourth competitions remained.

The fourth was destined to fail.

But I was optimistic about the third because we could fully capitalize on all the attention Serin was currently receiving as a top actress.

On top of that, the third competition was planned as a joint performance between the mentor group and the trainee group.

Meaning it was the perfect opportunity to transfer as much attention as possible from Kim Serin of 〈Good Pro〉 to Univ.

My plan was to make the program a success before the fourth competition even began.

Which meant the third competition had to decide everything.

Blue Moon and Univ would put on the best joint performance possible and push viewer reactions to the absolute limit.

By the time the fourth competition started, I wanted everyone to start trembling the moment I so much as cleared my throat.

After the third competition, only twenty trainees would remain.

After the fourth, only the final eleven-member debut group would be left.

From the fourth competition onward, we'd only need to manage eleven talented people.

It wasn't exactly an impossible task.

And if we needed money, I'd just ask Park Gwang-cheol.

I got him out of prison.

Surely he could help me a little more.

"By the way, Universe. I noticed Univ's members have been following Blue Moon around as backup dancers during their promotions."

Riven's CEO suddenly brought it up.

When I said yes, Shin Hyung-geol tilted his head.

The moment Shin looked doubtful, the Riven CEO checked his expression and continued.

"Isn't that a little unfair? They're gaining popularity through activities outside the program. The trainees' contracts exist through this program in the first place. If they're allowed to gain popularity through outside schedules, then couldn't we just spend the entire two months putting them into more influential activities?"

"That's a fair point."

Shin Hyung-geol nodded at Riven's words.

Riven, you bastard.

I'd already felt a little bad about planning to steal the management rights from you.

This is convenient.

Was this like the male lead in a romance novel becoming cold toward the heroine after learning he was terminally ill?

If so, don't let anyone find out until the very end.

"The contracts we signed when the program began may be short-term, but they're proper contracts. There was never any agreement saying the trainees could only be shared freely within the program."

While appearing on the program, the trainees signed short two-month contracts and promoted under those.

Once those two months ended, they wouldn't return to their original agencies.

They would become free agents.

In other words, joining the program meant terminating their old contracts by mutual agreement.

Otherwise, what would be the point of developing someone for months only to have them return to their old agency?

And there was no clause forbidding outside activities either.

"I haven't violated a single rule. Let's keep things fun and cool."

"Even if there's no written rule, there's still business ethics."

The Riven CEO protested.

"Business ethics?"

Sang-do was the name of our composer.

"Ever since I entered the entertainment-management industry through Universe, I haven't seen much of this so-called business ethics. Don't we all spend our time thinking about how to crush competing groups and step on unknown idols?"

"..."

"CEO Shin Hyung-geol. I didn't steal trainees from another agency. I just picked three trainees nobody even looked at and have been working desperately with them. Do I really deserve to be criticized over 'business ethics' for that?"

I asked Shin Hyung-geol in a firm tone.

Unlike the Riven CEO, there was no reason to flatter him.

At the very least, he was the kind of older man who could place a hand over his conscience and think about what was right and wrong.

Shin Hyung-geol answered.

"Now that I think about it again, CEO Do Jun-hyeok is right. Stop interfering over nothing. If you don't like it, then do the same thing yourself. Assuming your members have enough passion and stamina to handle outside activities too."

"...Understood."

"Let's get back to discussing the rest of the program."

At Chairman Shin's words, the Riven CEO immediately pointed toward his grand blueprint for the debut group, acting as though he'd never been scolded.

"After debuting and beginning promotions in Korea, the group will hold a concert in the United States around the six-month mark, before releasing their second new song."

The Riven CEO immediately continued.

"There are plenty of K-pop fans in North America, but very few groups go to America right from debut. Fans over there only get to see groups already chosen by the American music market. There's no way they won't love a group that attacks the market with concerts from the very beginning."

The other executives nodded along at Riven's grand plan.

From their perspective, the plan required minimal investment from them while still sending the group overseas.

There was no reason to object.

"America all of a sudden? Does that even make money?"

This was the first I'd heard of it.

At my question, Riven's CEO clicked his tongue and snapped at me.

"We've already been judges for two weeks. How do you still not know that? The program's slogan is 'From Unknown Idols to Global K-pop Artists.'"

"Ah..."

From Unknown Idols to Global K-pop Artists!

〈Rebooting〉.

I'd seen that slogan plenty of times.

I just hadn't expected it to represent the program's serious actual goal.

Honestly, wasn't it practically a law of nature that slogans were just empty words?

And "global K-pop artists," no less.

What entertainment company seriously made plans for foreign expansion just because it claimed to dream of global K-pop artists?

Fine.

It was written there in plain sight, and I hadn't believed it.

That was my fault.

No wonder that Riven bastard seemed especially fond of trainees who'd spent time in America.

Considering he was destined to fail later, it was practically a typhoon-level case of getting carried away.

"If you're going to America, you'll need more than just logistical preparation. You'll need American-style songs and things like that too."

"It's going well. Of course, this is the first time the major agencies have come together to seriously challenge the American market, so everyone needs to cooperate properly. Including Universe."

Of course he had to single out Universe.

At the Riven CEO's words, everyone's gaze turned toward me.

Since I had their attention, I decided to ask one more question.

"What happens if, after the program ends, Riven Entertainment doesn't have enough money to manage the debut group?"

"Excuse me?"

The Riven CEO looked startled before answering.

"That won't happen, so you don't need to worry."

"I'm sure it won't. I'm just curious. There's no harm in knowing."

The Riven CEO belatedly glanced at the other representatives before replying.

"Then I'd have to take responsibility and resign. And the management rights for the group would go to another company."

That was a rather confident pledge.

The other executives seemed reassured and nodded in satisfaction.

"If another company takes over, would that company have to reimburse the previous company's investment?"

"Of course not. The one who screwed up should bear that loss. The new company would be rescuing the project."

People really shouldn't make resignation promises so casually.

It reminded me of how I'd staked the company's future during the school-violence allegation and suffered a fair amount of stress because of it.

Of course, my worries had been unnecessary.

For Riven's CEO, though, his would become reality.

"Today's 〈Music Bang Bang〉! Adding digital points, viewer preference points, album points, and broadcast points together... Blue Moon's 〈Homesick Girl〉 scores 5,587 points! Congratulations!"

The instant the MC mentioned 〈Homesick Girl〉, Aran and Anna burst into tears as if someone had started a round of the rice-barley game.

"Ueeeh...! I really thought I wouldn't cry today... but over there, our fans started shouting for us, and..."

Aran sobbed so hard through her acceptance speech that half of what she said was impossible to understand.

Serin and Youngchae had been relatively calm, but hearing Aran's trembling voice made even them turn their heads toward the back of the stage.

It was already their fourth consecutive week at number one.

And they'd cried all four weeks.

They'd spent two years longing for this stage.

If they planned to cry every time until they'd made up for those two years, we had more than a year left.

Once the awards segment ended and the encore stage began, I headed toward the backstage waiting room.

Kim Jin-hee would already be there.

But Blue Moon would inevitably come backstage shouting about how emotional it had been, hug her, and bounce around.

Then Jin-hee would turn bright red and start sweating like a hornet trapped inside a swarm of honeybees and about to be steamed alive.

The members had no idea how much their body temperatures rose after coming offstage.

As I moved backstage, I noticed someone strange mixed in among the staff.

Park Gwang-cheol.

When I'd seen him in detention, he'd looked exactly like a highly educated criminal.

Now he looked fairly normal.

Though he still had a bit of that recently released prisoner atmosphere.

Mostly because his anxious eyes kept darting around.

"You're not going to find me like that. Why are you looking around so much?"

"What? Ah...! You! Mr. Do Jun-hyeok, there you are. I wasn't looking for you. I was worried someone might recognize me."

Even as Park Gwang-cheol began walking with me, he didn't stop glancing around.

"You're worrying for nothing. I was once treated like a criminal and practically lived on the nine o'clock news, but surprisingly, people didn't recognize me much."

"Really? ...But that's not why. I've worked at broadcasting stations a few times before."

Well, his father was the chairman of Talent Holdings.

He probably had worked at the company in his early career.

And before growing his academy all the way into Cheongdam, he'd apparently done some broadcasting work too.

So he wasn't merely a rich man's son.

He was a rich man's son who was reasonably capable as well.

First, I got the members into the car.

Then Park Gwang-cheol and I walked a little way out of the parking lot so we could talk.

"My father told me a little about your request. My health hasn't been great, so it took me longer than I expected to come see you. What exactly was it you wanted?"

Park Gwang-cheol said that after spending only a few days in detention, his condition had completely collapsed.

"Right. I asked to be introduced to the best American record producers at Talent Holdings headquarters."

"American producers..."

Good thing I'd brought up America to Park Jong-moon in advance.

At the time, I'd asked for American producers simply because I wanted to receive the greatest help possible from him.

I hadn't known the 〈Rebooting〉 executives were seriously dreaming about entering the American market.

In that case, Talent Holdings could be even more useful than I'd expected if I ended up taking over 〈Rebooting〉's management rights.

"Right. America would be good. So you want us to prepare the whole process? Composition, arrangement, choreography, staging, styling, everything?"

"You can do that much?"

"It's not that I can. It's my obligation. My lawyer said I was looking at at least ten years as the baseline sentence... Even now, I can't sleep properly whenever I look in the direction of the Seoul Detention Center."

Tsk, tsk, tsk...

Even if someone had built a business on his own once, could you really call it completely self-made?

He'd probably lived comfortably in a house Park Jong-moon had provided while repeatedly trying different businesses until one succeeded, then described that as never asking the company for help.

And then that same Park Gwang-cheol had suddenly found himself sleeping on the cold floor of a detention center.

No wonder it had been hard on him.

A song had to be good above all else.

I would've liked to participate more directly in the core song planning, but I didn't have much experience with the overseas entertainment industry.

And the promotional effect of simply attaching famous foreign producers' names would be enormous too.

"Would that be enough to succeed in America?"

"According to our company's experts, yes. And you've already prepared a foothold for overseas expansion."

"A foothold?"

At my reaction, Park Gwang-cheol glanced at my face once before showing me his phone.

It was Austin River's 〈Homesick Girl〉 challenge video.

The exact video I'd received months ago through the future GIF.

I remembered that GIF clearly.

The same framing.

The same expression.

The same angle.

The same movements.

Not one tiny detail had changed.

I took the phone and checked the video's response.

At the very top of the countless foreign comments, I saw a link to Youngchae's original version of the challenge.

The video had been uploaded today.

And in less than a day, it had already reached ten million views.

Apparently, this was the kind of achievement we'd probably be summarizing at today's briefing meeting.

The global 〈Homesick Girl〉 craze was finally beginning through Austin River.

"He's an artist under our company. But this was uploaded to his personal account, so the company wasn't involved."

"I see."

"Right. Anyway, after watching Austin River's challenge video... you know Billy Aaron, right? The composer? Apparently, he's become very interested in Blue Moon. He even said he'd like to see them in person."

Billy Aaron?

He was a British-born American singer-songwriter who didn't merely compose and perform across multiple genres, but had also created a completely distinctive atmosphere of his own.

His representative songs included 〈Shame on You〉, 〈Subtraction〉, and 〈Bed Guy〉.

Especially 〈Bed Guy〉.

It had remained on the U.S. Billboard chart for forty-nine weeks and the U.K. Official Chart for sixty-eight weeks.

An absurd record.

Even in Korea, a non-English-speaking country, Billy Aaron was so famous that even spies supposedly knew who he was.

And he was interested in 〈Homesick Girl〉.

"I'd love that. But Blue Moon isn't going to America."

At my answer, Park Gwang-cheol's eyes widened in surprise.