Chapter 83. Size Is Power
As soon as filming wrapped up, another meeting of agency representatives was held.
Everyone there had contributed at least one ingredient to the table called 〈Rebooting〉.
"Is Scale Media's CEO not coming?"
A few companies only had the same managers and division heads I'd seen every time, so I asked.
The Scale Media division head nodded.
"Yes. The CEO has another schedule during filming."
I hadn't expected much, but Pantheon was the same.
Only Kim Dae-hyuk had come and taken a seat.
"Am I the only one with a knife at my throat right now? The possibility that one of your trainees has some weakness because you failed to manage their private life applies to everyone here except me. Why does nobody seem to feel any sense of crisis? Is it because your companies are too big?"
I didn't even need to see their internal operations to know.
Far too many second-rate agencies protected their popular idols as carefully as if they were flying them around in private jets, while barely caring what happened to their trainees.
Their only thought was probably that even if this show collapsed, as long as the mentor idols they'd sent along didn't take any damage, everything would be fine.
Fine.
Let's be generous and say trainees like Lee Eun-ji brought the controversy on themselves.
Let's even say they deserved the criticism they were receiving.
Then what about all the other trainees who had practiced seriously?
While moving to the meeting room, I'd checked the internet.
There were already endless comments like:
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ You guys seriously didn't know? Nine out of ten kids who act up saying they want to become celebrities are the same empty-headed idiots every classroom has one or two of.
Because of the whole they're all the same mentality, the ratings from the next competition onward would probably be worse than some obscure local-party candidate debate during election season in a rural county.
First, Riven Entertainment's CEO briefly explained what they'd learned.
It looked like trainee Lee Eun-ji really had been involved in that kind of relationship with the manager.
They would investigate more thoroughly, then fire the manager or take whatever other measures were necessary.
That was it.
Did he really think firing one manager would suddenly make smiles bloom across the faces of viewers who were currently doing nothing but cursing the show?
It was frustrating.
I already knew perfectly well that the broadcast would fail if things continued like this.
But escape wasn't the answer.
If escaping were the solution, then the future video I'd received last time would have been completely useless to me.
I'd already decided to borrow Park Jong-moon's strength to turn this disaster into an opportunity without running away.
I'd even scheduled the trip to America.
"Just like CEO Shin said before, I guess Universe never really belonged at this table in the first place. You all know how much trouble we went through when Turb and Universe clashed, right? Maybe the rest of you can use a strategy of simply enduring until this blows over, but a small company like ours can't afford that."
"No, we're not just going to endure it. We'll respond properly!"
Riven's CEO protested.
As if.
I wasn't actually planning to leave the show.
I was just trying to scare them.
"How am I supposed to know whether you're really going to respond properly or just say that and endure it? At this rate, I think I'll have to withdraw with the Univ trainees."
"No. You can't. That's not how business works."
Shin Hyung-geol, who had been listening, finally stepped in.
"What do you mean that's not how business works? Business is still business, isn't it? A deal only happens when both sides give and receive something. What exactly is Blue Moon getting out of this right now? We're basically suckers who do all the work of pulling in ratings and get none of the ranking benefit. Is that proper business?"
Shin Hyung-geol studied me before answering.
"If the numbers don't add up, you can negotiate. If you pull out the second you start losing money, how is anyone supposed to make money?"
"So you're saying you'll at least listen to what I propose?"
"I'll listen first, then decide."
I immediately stated my objective clearly.
Riven was already being torn apart over the Lee Eun-ji issue.
If they continued controlling all the projects for the trainees after debut, then a ratings collapse was the least of our problems.
The debut itself would almost certainly fall apart.
I, on the other hand, was confident I could successfully debut those trainees and bring in profits far exceeding the investment.
Riven's CEO couldn't do it.
I could.
After hearing that, Shin Hyung-geol fell silent again with a cold expression.
He looked as though he were deeply disappointed in me.
Then a text message arrived.
[Title: 2/5]
[Recorded: 2023.08.28. 22:18]
One glance told me it was probably another spam video.
I stood up.
"I'll go wash my face for a moment."
The moment I reached the restroom, I played the video.
The background was extremely dark.
Judging from the interior and bedding, it looked like a hotel room somewhere.
But it was too dark to tell which hotel.
A long-haired woman wearing a bathrobe was crouched on the bed, crying.
It was dark.
But when it came to idols, I possessed divine sight.
I recognized her immediately.
One of the trainees Root Entertainment had put forward this time.
Ha Yoo-jin.
Was she actually suffering from depression?
Some people liked to claim pretty people couldn't be depressed, but of course they could.
Seeing her genuinely sobbing like this made it look quite severe.
I thought that was all the video had to show.
Then, near the end, someone crawled out from underneath Ha Yoo-jin's bed.
I stared closely in surprise.
There was no way I'd recognize this man.
He was some middle-aged guy I'd never seen before.
He wore a black windbreaker and had a shiny bald head.
Once he had crawled all the way out, he turned on the light.
The instant he did, Ha Yoo-jin's reddened eyes widened and she screamed so hard she nearly fainted.
Then the video ended.
If I'd been Ha Yoo-jin, I probably would've fainted already.
At least the meaning of the footage seemed clear.
Ha Yoo-jin either had severe depression...
Or she'd experienced something extremely upsetting.
And on top of that, she was still being stalked as of at least August 28.
The culprit was a bald man who looked to be in his early forties.
Ha Yoo-jin had come out under Root Entertainment, but her actual original agency wasn't Root itself.
It was Root Entertainment's subsidiary, Route Entertainment.
Having multiple companies from the same corporate family participate would've been unfair and defeated the purpose of holding a trainee flea market in the first place, so she'd entered through Root Entertainment instead.
Her visuals alone were enough to qualify her as everyone's ninth-choice bride.
She had pale white skin and a small face that looked especially good with her hair tied back.
Her skills were excellent too.
Her current vote ranking on 〈Rebooting〉 was high enough that her debut was practically guaranteed.
She'd been quite popular during her idol career at Route Entertainment.
She hadn't even gone down the failed-idol route.
Her group had been doing well.
Ha Yoo-jin alone had left early.
Her skin was fair and her face looked gentle, so fans had nicknamed her Soft Tofu.
Unfortunately, her mentality had apparently been soft tofu too.
Still, apart from her fragile mental state, she had all the qualities of a top-tier idol.
That was why she was basically treated as an overpowered contestant on 〈Rebooting〉.
I'd wanted her when we first selected trainees.
But there was no way someone like her didn't already have an agency lined up, so I'd reluctantly let her go.
This video had arrived the exact moment I first started openly confronting Shin Hyung-geol.
Almost as though it were trying to stop the two of us from fighting.
Then at the very least, it should contain a clue that would either let me end this fight smoothly or win it successfully.
Well, sitting inside a cramped little room...
No, a toilet...
and giving myself a headache wasn't going to magically produce an answer.
I put my phone away and returned to the meeting room.
When I came back in, Shin Hyung-geol spoke in a somewhat calmer tone than before.
"While CEO Do Jun-hyeok was in the restroom, I thought about it more calmly. Hmm. You're right. Either way, we're no longer in a position where we can keep leaving everything to Riven Entertainment."
"..."
"But I also can't let CEO Do Jun-hyeok take complete control of the debut group, nor can I allow you to leave with those three trainees. Under the contract, I doubt either option would even be possible."
If he wanted to start talking about the law, I had ideas too.
I'd assumed that if I pulled in strong ratings and improved Univ's reputation among fandoms, they'd eventually take the hint and raise our ranking.
But they kept refusing to do that.
At this point, we were slowly reaching the stage where I could start raising suspicions about vote manipulation.
Of course, that was still a last-resort option.
"Instead, we can review whether there's some structural issue behind the fact that Universe's trainees aren't getting many votes. You said yourself that you felt wronged, didn't you? I'm sure nothing like that happened, but we can check whether the conversion formula was wrong, or whether the person in charge is simply terrible at arithmetic."
The other representatives all turned toward Shin Hyung-geol in surprise.
I was a little surprised too.
I'd already been almost certain that the voting numbers were being manipulated.
But Shin Hyung-geol had just indirectly told me that there would be no more manipulation.
So far, Univ had been overwhelmingly first in the audience evaluations.
If the final vote was genuinely fair...
They might even take first place in the debut rankings.
"For now, Root Entertainment will handle management of the debut group. There's also the issue of funding. That's the correct solution. CEO Do Jun-hyeok is an intelligent man, so I trust you understand."
I felt a little irritated that things were once again moving exactly the way Shin Hyung-geol wanted.
But for now, I had no choice but to accept it.
First, if Shin Hyung-geol refused to hand over the authority, there was no way for me to take it.
Even if it took time, I'd have to slowly win him over before I could swallow the debut group.
Second, a fourth competition without vote manipulation was an extremely good opportunity for me too.
Creating the story of failed-idol trainees who had barely received any votes suddenly scoring highly in the final competition wasn't something you could manufacture easily.
And most importantly...
If I dug into the video I'd just received, I might find a clue powerful enough to grab Shin Hyung-geol by the belt and shake him around.
Future information had always been sweet nectar to me.
And this spam message had arrived at the exact moment I started arguing with Shin Hyung-geol.
"Ah~! Yoo-jin unni carried us so hard. Too bad we couldn't get first place this time."
"Seriously. It's such a shame."
Even though the Riven trainees had missed first place, they were still showering Ha Yoo-jin with praise.
She was their most skilled member.
And she also had such a fragile personality that everyone instinctively treated her carefully.
"No, no. I got confident and took the center position for no reason. I made a lot of mistakes today. I think we lost first because of me."
Ha Yoo-jin rejected the praise like that.
Everyone knew she hadn't made any mistakes.
Ha Yoo-jin had high self-consciousness but rock-bottom self-esteem.
Everyone around her knew that this was the only way she knew how to reject compliments.
Ha Yoo-jin had realized early on that life in the entertainment industry didn't suit her.
She'd even quit once.
But while everyone else had been studying, Ha Yoo-jin had done nothing but practice singing and dancing.
Society didn't make you a prosecutor, judge, or doctor just because you had a pretty face and talent.
If she wanted to make a living from what she had, no matter how she twisted and turned, her only real path was being an idol.
That realization had sunk into her bones.
So she'd crawled back to Route Entertainment.
At first, she'd felt a quiet sense of self-loathing for having returned to this world.
Once again, she had to stand on stages in front of huge crowds.
Once again, she had to work alongside other idols who, more often than not, had high self-esteem and would psychologically overwhelm her without even trying.
The stress from obsessive fans would continue too.
But whenever things became difficult, there were colleagues who spoke warmly to her and managers who gave her real, practical help.
Because of them, she could endure.
That was why, regardless of appearing on the show, this was probably the happiest period Ha Yoo-jin had experienced in quite some time.
[Black Widow Oppa: You can give up anytime, Yoo-jin. I don't want you to suffer too much.]
Apparently he'd realized filming was over, because a text had arrived.
Of course, "relatively happy" didn't mean she was so happy she couldn't contain herself.
Appearing on the broadcast had also made some things harder.
Moving from Route Entertainment, a mere subsidiary of Root Entertainment, into Riven Entertainment's larger-scale management created a housing problem.
That problem was solved quickly.
Riven Entertainment rented them a fairly nice hotel.
But it was still a hotel.
Not a secure agency building.
Meaning there were no real countermeasures against obsessive fans.
And by now, Ha Yoo-jin's location had already been completely exposed to them.
[Ha Yoo-jin: I'll still keep trying. Thank you for always supporting me.]
After sending the message, she stood up to return to the hotel.
She was the last person to leave the waiting room.
The moment she opened the door, she found seven girls standing directly across from it as though they'd been waiting.
They were the members of Blue Moon and Univ.
Blue Moon in particular had once been an idol group that struggled in the entertainment industry just like her.
Now they were enormously successful.
They weren't personally close at all, so Ha Yoo-jin lowered her head and tried to pass quietly.
Then Youngchae called out to her.
"Filming's over. What are you doing now?"
"Huh? Me?"
"Yes."
Why was she suddenly talking to her?
Usually, they only exchanged greetings in passing.
Ha Yoo-jin didn't have any schedule afterward except sleeping, so she answered that she wasn't doing anything.
Youngchae immediately made an offer.
"We're having a chicken party to celebrate seventh place. Want to come with us?"
"Chicken... to celebrate seventh place?"
Apparently, the Blue Moon members used the word celebrate rather casually.
"If I eat at night, I'll gain weight..."
Ha Yoo-jin, who was bad at refusing people, muttered hesitantly.
Then Aran laughed and linked arms with her.
"Hehe, unni, you're pretty. Then there'll be eight of us, so we can order nine Hodori chickens. Our CEO gave us his card, so let's eat until we're full!"
"Nine chickens...!"
And just like that, Ha Yoo-jin was helplessly dragged away with them to a chicken restaurant.
Apparently, a trainee named Lee Eun-ji had recently been caught doing something bad with a manager from her agency.
Because of that, people were saying failed idols and trainees were basically delinquents.
Ha Yoo-jin herself had been both a failed idol and a trainee.
Still, she couldn't help nervously wondering whether maybe these Blue Moon girls were delinquents too.
At the same time, however...
Their warm, friendly attitude was melting her heart.
And her happiness level was rising shamelessly fast.
