Chapter 17 — Justice Prevails
First, I needed to find out which schedules would become impossible once Astra could no longer promote.
After thinking for a moment, I went into Team 1’s office.
Manager Kim Sunyoung, sitting in front of her monitor, noticed me and gave a small nod in greeting.
Every time I came here, the office looked chaotic and overloaded with work.
The incident would happen early in the morning on August 28.
That meant I could assume Zeus wouldn’t be present for any schedule after that.
I checked the schedules written on Team 1’s calendar.
There was something marked for the very next week.
Music Bang Bang Special.
Right.
Come to think of it, Chuseok was coming up soon.
Every holiday season, Music Bang Bang made all the performers dance while wearing hanbok.
Back when I managed Victory, the Music Bang Bang holiday special had been important enough for us to prepare a separate project just for it.
Serves them right.
“About this Music Bang Bang Special… this is the Chuseok special, right?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. We managed to get into the lineup this time.”
Kim Sunyoung answered with an expression that showed she had absolutely no idea what was going on between the members.
“What’s the theme this time?”
The holiday special wasn’t special only because of the hanbok.
It was tradition for every special to have a unique theme.
Sometimes the songs had to be rearranged in a traditional Korean music style.
Sometimes they had to invite a special guest for a featuring performance.
Once the theme was announced, preparations began immediately.
It was the kind of stage that third-rate agencies, unable to meet deadlines, couldn’t even dream of appearing on.
“This time, it’s exchanging songs.”
“Exchanging songs?”
Astra was already included in the Music Bang Bang Chuseok lineup.
Since the stage equipment had to be prepared in advance to fit the special, they were probably already finished preparing by now, even if they hadn’t gone as far as Victory used to.
But Astra wouldn’t be able to attend.
Then the production team would have to find a replacement at the last minute.
Did that mean I could put Blue Moon into their spot?
On top of that, rumors had already spread throughout the industry about Pantheon’s monstrous rookie group, Silky Red.
Most companies would have adjusted their debut and comeback schedules to avoid that period.
Which meant there probably wouldn’t be much competition.
And the moment I heard the theme was exchanging songs, I became certain.
This was an opportunity made specifically for Blue Moon.
It was a little disappointing that they wouldn’t be able to perform one of their own songs again.
Then again, their older songs had such bizarre concepts that we would have needed to rearrange them anyway.
And wasn’t covering other idols’ songs one of Blue Moon’s greatest strengths?
There was no reason to worry about their vocals either.
Still, I couldn’t let my guard down until the very end.
Astra dropping out did not automatically mean Blue Moon would replace them.
There were probably plenty of companies that had wanted a spot on the Chuseok special.
And with Silky Red’s debut delayed, even more agencies would probably be eyeing this broadcast.
In other words, if I simply sat still and waited, a more popular idol group would take that empty spot.
I returned to the office and sat down in front of the computer.
The person who knows in advance and waits is always the winner.
Who could possibly predict that Astra would collapse right before Chuseok?
Only Zeus and I knew that future.
There was no reason not to start working on securing their replacement spot ahead of time.
Fortunately, I had something perfect.
I opened the folder containing the hanbok photos I had taken at Gwanghalluwon.
There was nothing better for replacing the profile pictures on our website.
If Blue Moon suddenly flew off to China right before Chuseok, Universe would probably get torn apart by patriotic netizens.
But if I uploaded these beautiful hanbok photos first, we could stir up some patriotic hype.
And if we rode that wave properly, perhaps the Music Bang Bang PDs would notice them too.
It was an insane setup.
A divine move.
Other than basic nighttime correction, I hadn’t edited a single thing.
And yet every one of them looked literally perfect.
After separating the group shots and individual shots, I zoomed in on every member’s face to choose their new profile pictures.
I had actually been there when these were taken…
Had I been dreaming?
The photos currently on Universe’s homepage had been taken around the time of Blue Moon’s debut.
At the time, those had been the highest-quality photos the company possessed.
But by today’s standards, even the makeup looked outdated.
Of course, the biggest problem was their costumes and hairstyles, which looked like something from a cyberpunk movie made in the seventies or eighties.
I replaced each member’s profile picture with one of the photos from Gwanghalluwon.
I also completely replaced the slideshow of group shots with the Gwanghalluwon photos and activity photos I had taken during their recent schedules.
I had thought the same thing back then, but Blue Moon really was the best.
Considering these were the prettiest and highest-quality photos I had ever taken, maybe Blue Moon were simply the kind of models who looked beautiful no matter who held the camera.
While I was at it, I changed the agency’s main banner to a group photo of Blue Moon.
Now, the very first thing anyone would see when entering Universe’s homepage would be that picture.
Then I posted a message in Apollo, Blue Moon’s fandom open messenger chat.
“We’ve updated the homepage photos, so please give them lots of love.”
Done.
Now all I needed was for word to spread.
If I had a thousand friends, I would have sent these photos to all one thousand of them.
Their beauty alone was enough to make them go viral.
There wasn’t another set of hanbok photos this beautiful anywhere on Earth.
Any broadcasting producer who saw them would probably go crazy trying to book Blue Moon.
After uploading the profiles, I checked the office calendar.
I had deliberately written Blue Moon’s schedules in detail, but compared to Team 1’s calendar, ours was practically blank.
For Blue Moon, renewing their contracts had been a bigger issue than a presidential election.
But it wasn’t something the public knew much about.
People were still sharing GIFs of Aran acting cute in front of Mr. Kim Song or leaving comments under Youngchae’s fancams.
No one was digging deeply into Blue Moon’s everyday life yet.
In other words, renewing their contracts didn’t mean their schedules would suddenly become packed.
Still, the number of fan club members had increased dramatically.
Even if they went to the exact same regional event as before, Blue Moon had now become a group local governments would have to pay at least a little attention to.
There was a certain charm to supporting a group without concerts.
You got to personally experience the suffering of members traveling around the entire country on tour.
I remembered the oldest seed I had planted.
The fact that I had met Jang Taek.
He had clearly told me to come back only after Blue Moon successfully renewed their contracts.
He had said he would wait until then.
I wrote September 28 on the calendar.
Kim Yoonja’s I Love Party.
“Kim Yoonja’s I Love Party?”
“Don’t you know I Love Party? Dating is optional, marriage is essential.”
Daehun asked as though the entry had come out of nowhere.
