Chapter 22

Chapter 22 — Idols Who Are Strong in a Crisis

While heading toward the control room with New Eight’s manager on one side and Youngchae on the other, we ran into PD Seo Hoedong.

There wasn’t really any reason for him to be all the way out here.

He had probably finished watching the rehearsal and come down because he was worried about New Eight’s costumes.

“Ah, Mr. Do Junhyeok. I saw Blue Moon’s costumes earlier. They looked great. By the way, where are you headed?”

He spoke to me first.

PD Seo Hoedong.

He was a veteran producer with eighteen years of experience working on music shows, and I had known him since my days managing Victory.

Despite his seniority, he was strict enough to personally walk around the waiting rooms and check on performers.

But he was also kindhearted enough to want to buy even one extra piece of candy for anyone who worked hard.

There was no reason for me to pretend to be humble.

I was an extremely hardworking person, so I had caught PD Seo’s attention early on.

It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say that he might have given Victory a few Music Bang Bang schedules simply because he liked me, rather than because he liked Victory.

Of course, that opinion of me probably wasn’t the same anymore.

In the end, I had failed.

“By the way, did you manage to solve the costume problem?”

PD Seo asked the manager beside me, who looked completely defeated.

“We still haven’t found another outfit…”

“Then what are you going to do? You don’t have any spare costumes?”

“No.”

The manager answered miserably.

We were running out of time.

So I stepped in.

“The Blue Moon hanbok outfits you saw earlier were redesigned on the spot by Youngchae here. She can redesign New Eight’s torn costume too, but she’ll need some time.”

“Redesigned…?”

Seo Hoedong thought back to the rehearsal before asking.

“You mean those hanbok outfits two of the members were wearing earlier? Those were just redesigned here?”

“Yes. That’s right. By the time we get to the actual broadcast, the other two hanbok outfits will be redesigned too.”

Seo Hoedong looked at Youngchae in surprise before quickly returning to the issue at hand.

“Can she redesign the torn one too? Wouldn’t it be better to just sew it back together?”

“It’s not cotton, so the stitches will stand out quite a bit. I suppose another option would be to avoid giving that member any close-up shots.”

I said that, but I knew perfectly well we could never actually do that.

Maybe it would be possible with a girl group.

But in boy-group fandoms, where everyone had very clearly defined favorite members, even the smallest difference in screen time could result in the person in charge of filming—Seo Hoedong himself—being buried under endless criticism.

Back when I managed Victory, I had regularly visited recording studios and argued with composers over line distribution.

If we had divided the parts exactly the way the composer wanted, I probably wouldn’t have survived either.

So I constantly pressured them to make the distribution as fair as possible.

New Eight’s manager, who had been listening, grabbed his hair with a face full of despair.

“We can’t do that. If we put only that guy in rags… The fandom is already furious because they say he’s the only one working like a servant for the team because of his dancing.”

“I understand.”

Seo Hoedong nodded at the manager’s desperate appeal.

“Then I guess we’ll have to trust Youngchae’s skills. But how long will it take? There isn’t much time before the broadcast starts.”

“If you move New Eight’s performance closer to the end of the show, that should be enough. Right, Youngchae?”

Youngchae nodded.

“No… Can’t you hurry a little more? Changing the stage order isn’t easy. The MCs already have scripts.”

“It has to be done. Otherwise, New Eight either has to drop out completely or go on stage in a torn outfit with his nipple showing. We can’t exactly do that, can we?”

“H-His nipple?”

Seo Hoedong’s eyes shook.

“You said yourself that we don’t have time, so please decide quickly. Should she start redesigning it, or should I run outside and buy him some padding?”

If a nipple appeared on a broadcast, it wouldn’t just be New Eight who ended up in trouble.

Seo Hoedong would be in serious trouble too.

These days, anything involving inappropriate behavior by public figures became an issue in no time.

And they couldn’t simply put him in an ordinary T-shirt either.

Their only option was to trust Youngchae’s redesign.

“Absolutely no nipples during a holiday special.”

Seo Hoedong thought quickly for about five seconds before speaking.

“I can’t move them all the way to the final stage, but I can put them right before the end. I’ll move them back, so hurry.”

“Understood. Also, since Youngchae has to do the redesign, Blue Moon probably won’t be able to perform at their original time either. You’ll have to move Blue Moon’s stage too.”

Seo Hoedong, who had already turned around to hurry away, sighed.

“This is driving me crazy. Fine. Just hurry up already.”

—Leading global culture with K-pop, the center of the Korean Wave! The premium music program created together with our viewers, Music Bang Bang!

The broadcast finally began with the MCs’ opening greeting.

The two idols currently hosting Music Bang Bang had been extremely popular around the time Victory first debuted.

As far as I knew, they had already been hosting together for almost five months.

Their agencies had probably placed them here because they wanted to transition them into acting later.

But judging from the way they spoke, they clearly hadn’t received any acting training.

Their delivery was overly stylized and painfully typical.

Youngchae kept redesigning New Eight’s outfit right up until shortly before their performance.

Only after New Eight’s stage began could she finally prepare for Blue Moon’s performance.

Because of that, Blue Moon was placed directly after New Eight.

Aside from the special stages by the two most popular groups, Blue Moon had now become nearly the final act.

—You’ve just watched New Eight’s amazing performance! Now, which group will be taking the stage next?

New Eight’s redesigned stage received thunderous cheers from their fans.

Before Youngchae worked on them, the hanbok outfits had looked like simple props.

After she redesigned them, the members looked like a gang that had spent several years traveling around traditional five-day markets, performing street shows.

I had no idea what kind of magic she had used, but the colors looked deeper now.

Even from a modern perspective, the style looked cool enough that someone might genuinely want to try it.

After making another round through the waiting rooms, I went around the filming staff and repeatedly informed everyone about the changed stage order.

If they heard it once from Seo Hoedong and forgot, we would obviously end up with a broadcasting accident.

As long as those awkward idol MCs didn’t mess up, everything would be perfect.

While New Eight was performing, I approached the MC area and even checked their scripts myself.

It wasn’t like those guys actually practiced beforehand anyway, so changing the script wouldn’t cause them much trouble.

I mainly wanted to confirm that the script, camera team, stage team, and lighting team were all properly synchronized.

Everything had been corrected perfectly.

As expected of Seo Hoedong.

He had answered me as though everything was annoying, but when it came to actual work, he handled the changes properly.

—Yes~! Coming up next is a stage that I’m sure so many of you have been waiting for. The group everyone has been talking about lately…!

It was finally Blue Moon’s turn.

This wasn’t a prerecorded broadcast.

It was live, which meant they couldn’t afford even a one-minute error from the original timing.

A moment earlier, I had left Blue Moon’s entrance and exit management to Daehun and moved in front of the stage with my camera.

It was camera time, just like always.

But today, I wasn’t alone.

“Everyone ready?”

“Of course. I’ll take Kim Serin. He’ll take Anna, this one’s on Aran, and our most skilled Mr. Do will take Youngchae, right?”

“That’s right.”

I had called in three veteran fansite photographers I had met during my own years as a photographer.

They had experience shooting Four Boys performances too.

More importantly, their equipment was practically cheat-level.

This was a rare opportunity.

I was going to capture four incredible fancams and squeeze every last drop of attention out of them.

—The talented idol group Blue Moon performs, Shooting!

The intro began.

Considering Blue Moon’s popularity, they naturally should have performed earlier in the show.

Their original place in the pamphlet had also been near the beginning.

So some fans were confused when they suddenly appeared this late.

“What? They didn’t come out earlier. Why’d their turn get pushed back?”

“Exactly. New Eight too. Our oppas got pushed back because of them.”

“Yeah. But their outfits are really pretty.”

Watch what you say.

Everything’s being recorded.

Leader Serin sang the opening line.

Her movements were soft and controlled, almost like a dance performance, while her naturally thin and clear voice filled the stage.

Seeing Serin sparkling under the stage lights made the fanboy spirit buried deep inside my heart start boiling over.

Blue Moon was performing Shooting!

I was actually watching Blue Moon dance beautifully to Shooting!

And it was happening live!

Whether on stage, in vlogs, or anywhere else, Serin had always shown impressive acting ability.

Now, she swept across the stage alone with a seductive gaze.

Once Serin finished the opening section, Youngchae and Aran’s parts began.

From that moment onward, it became a full-scale dance performance.

Most of the audience inside the Music Bang Bang studio consisted of fans of the performing teams, along with Astra fans who had shown up anyway because they were disappointed their group had dropped out.

Apollo’s older fans didn’t have much ticketing experience.

Even if some had managed to get inside, they were probably standing blankly at the very back of the audience.

In other words, this was like a boxing match being held in a foreign country with no fans on your side.

While everyone else shouted the names of other groups, Blue Moon had to stubbornly perform their own stage.

While Serin was dancing alone, most people were probably thinking,

Fine. Let’s see how good they really are.

Serin’s performance worked.

The public image of Blue Moon was that of a group that only performed bizarre choreography.

Simply seeing them sing and dance like proper idols must have been shocking enough.

And once Youngchae and Aran joined the dance, it stopped being merely “proper.”

It became perfect.

Then came Anna.

The member who had suffered the most stress.

Anna slid smoothly into the center and began her solo section.

That part.

The troublesome part.

She switched legs and struck near her chest.

The hanbok whipped outward with a powerful motion.

At that exact moment, the camera captured Anna’s expression.

She looked fragile.

And sexy.

Watching her naturally made me remember Anna practicing alone in the training room at dawn.

Thanks to Youngchae’s redesign, her outfit looked much cooler now.

And with proper stage makeup, her beauty couldn’t even be compared to how she had looked during practice.

Anna had looked incredibly miserable while training.

She had constantly tortured herself by comparing herself to the members who were better than her.

But all of that suffering had probably been part of the process needed to create a stage this impressive.

I couldn’t help feeling disappointed that I was probably the only person in the audience who knew the story behind it.

She said she planned to use it for rap lyrics someday.

But if she took too long, I almost felt like stepping in and writing her autobiography myself.

“Her movements are huge. That looks amazing! Are you sure this team only practiced for two weeks?”

The photographer beside me, who was filming Aran, quietly exclaimed in admiration.

That incredible dance combined with the rap.

Every time one of the members reached her own part, she turned herself into the main character of the stage.

“Wow… They’re seriously good dancers. Did they record the vocals themselves too?”

Even the fans standing nearby who had been complaining about the changed stage order were now completely absorbed in the performance.

My job was to bring opportunities to Blue Moon.

And unlike Victory, Blue Moon had been born with the talent to seize those opportunities.

“Couldn’t they just keep covering boy-group songs from now on? Since when was Blue Moon this good?”

That was exactly what I had asked of the members.

Girl-group choreography tended to make movements more comfortable so performers could focus on finer details, like delicate hand and finger movements, except during specific highlight sections.

Of course, that wasn’t true for every girl group.

But when girl groups covered boy-group choreography, they often changed the movements that way to show their own unique style.

Blue Moon was different.

They needed to show the fans that they could do far more than just weird cyberpunk concepts.

The disappointment of having to perform someone else’s song instead of their own had to be turned into an opportunity.

In Anna’s case, she had preserved the powerful feeling of Shooting by slowly controlling her shoulder movements.

The other members had also created their own methods and successfully reproduced as much of the original song’s atmosphere as possible.

Back in the waiting room, I had handed each member a wrist guard made from hanbok fabric so their arm movements would stand out more.

And I had told them this:

“For this Music Bang Bang stage, imagine you’ve been reborn as men. Show them all the girl crush you’ve got.”

Right now, the members were doing exactly that.

Their performance was flawless.

And from the audience, the cheers of Four Boys’ fandom kept growing louder and louder.