Chapter 19. Eat Up, Pigeon!
Daehoon quietly watched the team leaders give their briefings.
“How can a reporter know about something when two whole team leaders don’t?”
“We’re sorry. But the other members said they had no idea Zeus would do something like that either…”
“Of course they didn’t know! That’s why this disaster happened! Who doesn’t understand that? I’m asking why you didn’t know! Why?!”
Oh Su and the other team leaders clutched their heads as though they were in physical pain.
The past two weeks had already been stressful enough, with Solis making messes and Blue Moon cleaning them up.
And now Astra had gotten dragged into trouble too.
It was like building every barracks in the front yard only to have your main base destroyed.
On the other hand, look at Do Junhyeok hyung.
Even taking into account that Team 2 had been producing the exact opposite results, Do Junhyeok looked far too relaxed.
His expression said he'd already experienced something like this before.
After all, no one in the world had expected Wonwoo from Victory to do drugs.
He even seemed calm enough to understand that the team leaders must feel unfairly blamed.
The real bastard was Zeus, who had disappeared like lightning.
Not them.
Junhyeok's expression seemed almost merciful toward the team leaders.
“Fine. Let’s say Zeus simply ran away by himself. Then what the hell is Team 3 doing?”
Oh Su turned his attention toward Cheon Gihong.
“I watched Happy Counseling Center, and it looked like the girls went on that show planning to say those things from the beginning. Don’t tell me you didn’t even discuss what they were going to talk about before they went on air?”
“Ah, well…”
Who didn’t know what Solis’s members were like?
Even if he'd tried talking to them, they probably would've ignored him among themselves anyway.
“It was my mistake…”
“Your mistake…? Are you saying you didn’t discuss it with them at all?”
“…Yes.”
At Cheon Gihong's answer, blood vessels visibly rose in Oh Su's eyes.
“Does that make any damn sense? They were going on a weekend terrestrial broadcast, and you didn’t discuss anything with them? Then what exactly is your role?! Are you just a road manager? Do you even think about—”
Without realizing it, Oh Su reached out and grabbed his nameplate.
Then he suddenly stopped speaking.
The nameplate refused to move.
It was stuck firmly to the desk.
…
That nameplate…
Do Junhyeok hyung had said he'd glue it down with a hot glue gun.
Daehoon hadn't actually expected him to do it.
When he glanced sideways, Junhyeok quickly looked away from Oh Su's confused face and pretended not to know anything.
“Must be nice. Those people really hit the jackpot twice over. Seriously…”
Seo Hoedong PD of Music Bang Bang had called an emergency meeting over the sudden four-minute-and-thirty-eight-second hole in their Chuseok special.
Articles about Zeus had exploded everywhere, and he'd already called CEO Oh Deoksu and given him an earful.
Seo PD had been flustered at the time and had gotten angry at CEO Oh.
But honestly, losing one member wasn't exactly unheard of in this industry.
From the Music Bang Bang production team's perspective, the best-case scenario was for Astra to somehow fill Zeus's position and still appear.
There would be some negative attention around the broadcast, but attention was still attention.
Unfortunately, the backlash had grown far too ugly to dismiss as simple publicity.
The reason the criticism had become this intense was Universe's marketing strategy since Astra's debut.
They had emphasized the members' human and approachable sides, which had attracted a particularly devoted fandom.
Now those fans felt betrayed, making the backlash even worse.
Of course, even without that strategy, it never would've been a minor issue.
Boy groups were often built around the idea of fans experiencing a pseudo-romantic connection with the members.
Once things had grown this serious, Oh Deoksu had no reason to force Astra onto the show.
While public criticism remained this intense, keeping Astra away from broadcasts as much as possible was probably the right move.
There were only two weeks left until the Chuseok special, but getting back at least half the music-show appearance costs would still be better.
In the end, the production staff had been left holding the bag.
“So… how many groups can we realistically book right now?”
At Seo PD's question, the youngest PD brought over a document listing the current schedules of major idol groups.
“If we exclude groups that aren’t currently promoting and groups whose schedules overlap with other broadcasts, there aren’t any major names available.”
“Then can't we somehow drag in one of the inactive groups on short notice?”
“That would be difficult.”
For the PDs, all they had to do was roll the cameras.
For the agencies, however, suddenly preparing an idol performance would be a much bigger burden.
If they called TOP Entertainment, they could probably convince Iblis to appear somehow…
But Pantheon's planned group Silky Red had nearly collapsed already, leaving Pantheon furious.
TOP Entertainment would probably want to keep their head down for now.
“There are plenty of solo singers we can contact, but backup dancers are the issue. Technically, they can perform without them. Should we do that?”
“Ha… Keep that option for now, but let’s see if we can come up with something better. It’s still a Chuseok special. It’ll feel dull without backup dancers.”
Everyone sank into thought.
After the silence continued for a while, one of the PDs cautiously spoke up.
“What about Blue Moon?”
“Blue Moon?”
They had been getting a little attention lately, but they were definitely not a popular group.
Their latest song was already over a year old too.
And they belonged to Universe, which was currently dealing with one headache after another.
It wasn't even clear whether the company had the capacity to prepare them.
“Yes. Right now, they’re still buried under the backlash against Astra and Solis, but by Chuseok, I think their fandom could have grown quite a bit.”
“Why do you think that?”
At Seo PD's question, the man turned on his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it over.
Universe's homepage was open.
“They recently changed Blue Moon's main banner to hanbok photos. Apparently, a lot of female fans went to Universe's website to curse at Astra's Zeus, saw Blue Moon's hanbok pictures, and became interested in them.”
He pointed at the screen.
“And as you can see, they’re ridiculously pretty.”
Everyone in the industry who knew Blue Moon knew they were often called pretty trash.
That was exactly why it was difficult to expect much from their current popularity.
They had members who were that pretty and that talented, yet Universe had failed to properly grow them.
And even now, they were still under Universe.
Seo PD also checked the social-media reactions.
Posts like—
The proper patriotic idol group.
The hanbok quality of Universe's junior group while the company gets attacked over its Chinese runaway member.
At this point, there was hardly a community that didn't have the keyword Blue Moon appearing somewhere.
When Seo PD started looking interested, the PD who supported Blue Moon pressed harder like he was throwing a counterpunch.
“Right now, if Blue Moon fails, Universe dies.”
“While Astra and Solis are lying low, Universe has no choice but to push Blue Moon aggressively.”
Seo PD nodded slowly.
“So it looks like they really are planning to push them.”
Their looks were one thing.
But the quality of those photos was no joke.
They were night outdoor shots, yet the lighting looked controlled like a studio shoot and the image quality was crystal clear.
They looked better than the profile photos of many idols from major agencies.
At the very least, it was obvious that Universe was starting to fix even the basic things properly.
And in terms of activities alone, Blue Moon was a strange group that stood out.
Where else in the world could you find an idol fandom where more than half the new fans had entered through Live Singing Contest?
What idol had ever temporarily hosted Live Singing Contest in place of Mr. Kim Song?
On Live Singing Contest, they had shown legendary wit and approachable charm.
Then on Yeo Eunju's 10 O'Clock Date, they'd shown live singing skills far beyond the usual idol level.
And although it was still under embargo, hadn't they even been invited to Kim Yoonja's Super Concert?
An idol group that did everything except idol music shows.
“Blue Moon really must have the gods helping them.”
Seo PD stared at the homepage.
“How did they even think of using hanbok photos as their main profile pictures? At this point, you'd think they predicted Astra was going to get bombarded by patriotic backlash.”
“I was wondering the same thing.”
“…So you're saying we should try using Blue Moon?”
The PDs nodded.
Seo PD nodded too.
Then continued nodding to himself.
If they followed the option they'd already settled on and booked a solo singer, the special would probably perform decently.
Blue Moon, on the other hand, could either be a huge hit or a complete miss.
That made him nervous.
