Chapter 9. The New Employee I Can't Stand
Contrary to my worries, the members performed at the Lee Mongryong Night Market Festival exactly as they had prepared.
The event itself was small, so there weren't many people watching.
Even so, it was an incredibly valuable performance.
A small group of Blue Moon fans had taken the very front spots and cheered loudly for them.
Blue Moon's fandom, also known as Apollo.
They might have been few in number, but they were the elite of the elite.
After Blue Moon's performance ended, they personally came over and congratulated the members, saying they'd enjoyed watching Live Singing Contest.
While the members chatted with their fans, I called Daehoon.
On the way down to Namwon alone, I had already received ten missed calls from him.
—Oh, Team Leader Do. So, after stealing the company car and going off to eat ginseng, did you manage to recover some of your energy?
I haven't even eaten a single root yet, you bastard.
He must have been seriously upset, because he was suddenly acting like my superior when that role didn't suit him at all.
“Yeah. We just finished the Lee Mongryong Festival schedule. How's Oh Su?”
Daehoon let out a deep sigh, releasing all his frustration at once.
—He's seen everything, including the recording from the broadcast. I can't tell whether he likes it or hates it, though. Still, the result was good, so there's no reason for him to think badly of it.
With the results-first Oh Su I knew, I had been certain this method would work.
And it probably had.
The members and I had suffered physically.
Daehoon had suffered mentally.
“Yeah, yeah. It must've been awkward as hell sitting alone with him in that meeting room. Thanks.”
—I'm not asking for much. If you're going to do something like this again, let's switch roles just once. I was terrified he was going to throw his nameplate at me.”
“Next time Oh Su isn't around, I'll glue it to the desk for you.”
I didn't know exactly what had happened, but Daehoon must have worked hard to calm Oh Su down.
I gave him a quick word of thanks and ended the call.
“Girls?”
The members, who had been chatting with their fans, all turned toward me at once.
Since we'd come all the way to such a scenic place, I planned to spend a little time here before leaving.
It would also give Oh Su some time to reflect on his actions.
“There's a famous historical site called Gwanghalluwon right nearby. Let's go check it out. We came all the way to Namwon. We can't just eat tteokgalbi and go home, can we?”
Even though they'd already done two events since morning and had to be exhausted, the members still looked full of energy.
Maybe they simply didn't want to show their fans that they were tired.
Their mindset was already that of professionals.
So what if they were unknown right now?
Oh Su might have eyes, but apparently he wasn't using them properly when it came to Blue Moon.
We left the event grounds and headed straight into Gwanghalluwon.
“Wow! It's so pretty!”
Gwanghallu could be seen in the distance.
Bathed in beautiful lights and reflected brightly across the surface of the water, it almost looked like a mirage.
“Huh? Looks like they rent hanbok over there. Do you girls want to wear them?”
“We'd love to!”
There were plenty of people walking around Gwanghalluwon.
Most of them were young couples.
Nearly all of them were wearing hanbok.
They seemed to have come here for dates during their vacation.
The members each changed into hanbok that suited them.
“How do I look? Don't I look like a young lady from a noble family?”
They were beautiful...
Gorgeous.
Pretty.
Moving...
Blue Moon's naturally elegant looks and calm atmosphere matched hanbok perfectly.
I didn't regret a single won of the 120,000 won I'd paid out of my own pocket for the rentals.
If I replaced the homepage profile photos I'd been meaning to update with pictures from today, that alone would make the 120,000 won worth it.
Once again, I understood why fans paid photographers to take pictures of idols.
“Please take some pictures of us.”
Serin, who had already positioned herself across from Gwanghallu, called out to me.
I was planning to do that anyway.
There wasn't a Korean alive who hated hanbok, so hanbok concept photos were bound to get attention at least once.
If I outright replaced their profile photos with hanbok pictures, that alone could increase interest in them.
Especially when they looked this good.
The members tried all kinds of poses.
They hugged trees, reached their hands toward the Gwanghallu pond, and kept coming up with new ideas.
I had pretty good stamina when it came to taking photos, but the members never seemed to run out of poses.
After running around and playing for a while, Serin suddenly spoke in a calm voice.
“Maybe... we might actually be able to renew our contracts.”
At those words, all the members became quiet.
Come to think of it, they must have been worrying about the end of their contracts too.
Other than when they'd argued with Solis, this was the first time I'd heard them directly mention it.
Ah!
The miserable life of contract workers.
“Let's not get our hopes up. We've failed too many times already.”
Youngchae, already exhausted from hoping, poured cold water on the mood.
But the others' hope wasn't extinguished that easily.
“But this time we even trended on Twit. That's never happened before.”
“Hey. Do you know how promising you girls are? Were you seriously worried about whether you'd get renewed?”
I waved my hand dismissively.
“Don't worry. The CEO is probably happy about it too.”
Serin gave a small sigh.
“I don't know whether he's happy or disappointed. He's the kind of person who wants to give every good opportunity to Solis.”
Then Serin started telling me about the new song Blue Moon had lost.
Apparently, Solis's debut song, Strong Love, was originally supposed to be Blue Moon's fourth album.
It was the song I'd heard in the practice room hallway before.
The members had all been excited because the quality was higher than any song Blue Moon had received before.
Apparently Oh Su had also thought highly of it.
So highly, in fact, that he'd immediately created a new group and changed it into their debut song.
“They said it was a song the director had worked really hard to get. But after the CEO listened to our recorded version, he apparently changed it to Solis's song. I heard they even used our recording as Solis's guide track. I don't really know the details...”
Now I understood why he'd launched a junior group with the same concept while treating Blue Moon like a failed idol group.
Still, this was the first time I'd heard about any of it.
If he'd known how excited the girls had been when they first received that song, would he really have taken it away so easily?
That bastard Oh Su.
I hadn't thought he was that bad, but apparently he really was heartless.
“Even if they offered it to us now, we wouldn't take it. Forget about it.”
I looked at the members.
“From now on, I'll bring you much better opportunities, and a lot more of them. So don't be so pessimistic.”
“That's right, unnie! Team Leader even got us onto the real-time search rankings this time!”
Aran, who couldn't stop talking about the search rankings, smiled brightly as she lifted the mood.
Youngchae seemed to smile a little too before suddenly pointing toward my pocket.
“Huh? Team Leader, I think your phone is ringing.”
I'd switched my phone completely to silent mode after ignoring Daehoon's calls earlier.
Now its screen was glowing brightly inside my pocket.
—Oh Deok's
The CEO.
What perfect timing.
It was a call I was actually happy to see.
“I'm going to take this call, so keep having fun. And be careful not to fall into the pond. There are man-eating carp in there.”
At those words, Aran covered her mouth like a beautiful woman who had just spotted Jaws.
“What did he say?”
The moment Deoksu finished his call with Junhyeok, Team 3 Leader Cheon Gihong immediately asked with interest.
The online response to Blue Moon was so heated that everyone had stayed awake until dawn monitoring it.
“He said he'll report it immediately whenever they receive an appearance offer from now on.”
Deoksu hadn't exactly wanted him to go that far.
Still, the real issue this time had been the lack of reporting.
So there wasn't much more he could say.
Was this some kind of passive attack?
Whether it was a passive attack or an active defense, the fight would be decided within two months anyway.
“By the way, Team Leader Cheon, why are you so interested in another team's schedule?”
“Ah, well...”
The first person who had informed Deoksu that Blue Moon had appeared on Live Singing Contest was none other than Team 3 Leader Cheon Gihong.
Junhyeok had stood Deoksu up during the weekly work report meeting and rushed out of the company, so Deoksu had naturally been paying attention too.
He had simply wanted to see just how much Gihong liked interfering in other people's business.
Of course, Solis's members had probably told him to do it.
“They got lucky and things worked out this time, but shouldn't he at least report it to you, CEO? I think he's acting a little arrogant because he came from a big agency. I heard he even scolded our girls the other day.”
It wasn't as if Deoksu had never dealt with the Solis members himself.
Those girls didn't even bow their heads to the CEO.
Most likely, they had acted rudely first.
“Still, when such a good opportunity suddenly appeared, Team Leader Do probably lost his head too. Hahaha. Anyway, you see all kinds of things.”
Kwon Daehoon, who had remained quiet until now, finally joined in.
He clearly intended to laugh it off as though it was no big deal.
One man was doing everything he could to tear Junhyeok down.
The other defended him unconditionally.
With things like this, it was difficult for Deoksu to discuss Blue Moon objectively with anyone.
At this point, he might as well tell them to do whatever they wanted.
“Director Kwon. What did you say about those outfits earlier?”
“Ah. Hmm... From what I heard during a short phone call earlier, they belonged to the broadcasting station. You told them to return immediately after the performance, so I'll make sure he includes everything in the briefing once he's back.”
It was a lie.
They had said the opening had appeared suddenly.
There was no way a set of spare outfits would just happen to fit every member that perfectly.
Besides, Live Singing Contest didn't even use a fixed filming location.
It wasn't likely that the staff would carry spare outfits around indefinitely just in case.
Team Leader Do had obviously obtained them from somewhere.
Perhaps even the claim that he'd told them to return immediately was a lie.
Blue Moon had occasionally been mocked online before.
But this was the first time they'd received this much positive attention.
In fact, the current interest was even causing people to look back at Blue Moon's previous activities.
Things like—
The dark history of an idol group that was actually this talented.
They had originally debuted Blue Moon with such an extreme concept because ordinary idol concepts were already oversaturated.
Since Universe lacked the power to keep pushing them for a long time, their only chance had been to stand out with something unique.
But even after their second year, people had continued to mock them.
Deoksu had thought it was already too late.
They had already been branded a failed idol group.
They were at the point where even the Lee Mongryong Festival had barely been secured as an opportunity, never mind something like Live Singing Contest.
Just how the hell is he handling their work?
The outfits were understandable.
They were props you could obtain if you invested enough money.
But how had Junhyeok managed to generate this much attention through Live Singing Contest?
It wasn't something that could simply be explained by saying he'd worked at a major agency.
Was it really just luck?
“He could've at least reported beforehand. Was that really so difficult? He must've known that the CEO would understand it was a good opportunity. It's not like reporting would've taken ten or twenty minutes.”
Daehoon laughed.
“Hahaha. Team Leader Cheon, Solis became successful right away, so you don't know what it's like managing unknown idols. Team Leader Do ran out the second he got that phone call. That's how last-minute replacement requests usually work.”
“Even then, saying, ‘I'll be back,’ before running out would've taken less than five seconds. Seriously...”
Gihong seemed determined to keep talking about how arrogant Junhyeok was.
But honestly, Deoksu found Junhyeok's attitude more fascinating than irritating.
He'd apparently worked at Pantheon for eight years.
That was more than enough time for someone to fall into a rut.
Yet he could still push forward with that much energy and confidence.
Wasn't that impressive in itself?
“You know Blue Moon's contracts are ending soon, right?”
“Yes.”
“What does everyone think? About renewing them. No, before that... Does it seem like any other agencies are interested in them?”
At Deoksu's question, Gihong's eyes widened in surprise.
“You're considering renewing them?”
“I'm only saying we should consider the possibility. Nothing in this world is absolute.”
Until two days ago, it had been absolute.
He had practically nailed it down when speaking to Junhyeok.
Besides, if Junhyeok, who had a strong career record, took charge of Team 3 instead of the indecisive Gihong, Solis might be managed far better.
Gihong pretended to think carefully before answering.
“I think it's time to let them go. Even someone like me, who isn't in charge of them, knows those girls have a lot of talent. But if being idols isn't working out, shouldn't we let them find another way to survive before it's too late? They could prepare for auditions or find some other path.”
He was speaking as though he cared about their futures.
But from Team 3's perspective, whose promotion periods overlapped with Team 2, Blue Moon was probably an eyesore.
Like a slow truck driving in the fast lane.
It wasn't as though Blue Moon was especially popular.
Nor were they taking Team 3's opportunities away.
“What do you think, Director Kwon?”
“Team Leader Cheon has a point. We can't keep holding onto them because of the company's greed just to make them spend more years as unknown idols.”
Deoksu wondered why Daehoon was suddenly speaking as if there was no reason to keep Team 2.
Then Daehoon continued.
“But that's the girls' problem, isn't it? If they think there's another path where they're more likely to succeed, they'll walk out of the company themselves. Other than Aran, they're all adults. Surely they can make that much of a decision for themselves.”
“Is that so?”
“For now, leave the possibility of renewal open and let the girls choose for themselves.”
Whether it was Gihong or Daehoon, both men had become experts at dressing up their preferred outcome with pleasant-sounding words.
“Director Kwon.”
“Yes?”
“Come to think of it, you always seem to see the Blue Moon girls in an unusually positive light. People out there call them failed idols, and even their original Team 2 staff abandoned them and ran away. So what's the reason?”
Deoksu asked him directly.
Gihong turned toward Daehoon with a satisfied expression, as though expecting him to finally get scolded.
“I'm just saying we should keep thinking about profits like we always have. You wouldn't throw away an expensive shirt just because you buttoned the first button wrong, would you? And after what happened this time, they might start getting a lot of good offers.”
Daehoon's problem was that he'd say something perfectly reasonable and then ruin his credibility by adding an empty line he didn't even seem to believe himself.
At that moment, Deoksu's phone, which was sitting on the desk, vibrated.
A text message had arrived.
After checking it, Deoksu rubbed his forehead several times.
“Did something happen?”
“Ah. It's Team Leader Do.”
Thinking another offer might have arrived, Gihong and Daehoon both immediately reacted.
“He says they received an appearance offer.”
At those words, Daehoon smiled.
Gihong looked miserable.
Apparently, neither of them had any intention of hiding how they felt.
