Genius Idol’s Strategy to Conquer the Entertainment Industry

Chapter 100

In the midst of the commotion, the atmosphere in the practice room subtly sank.

Representative Ban Ga-eul noticed the shift and firmly reminded the trainees.

“Guys. Everything will pass in time, so just focus on what you need to do now. Remember, you did nothing wrong.”

Even as Representative Ban Ga-eul said this, her face was noticeably strained from recent fatigue.

Soon after, an article was published stating that the agencies of the Breaker members were discussing disbanding the debut group.

“In light of clear evidence that the debut group was rigged, public opinion about the group ‘Breaker’ is overwhelmingly negative. This negativity is so severe that it will significantly hinder their future activities. Disbanding quickly would be beneficial for everyone,” a source said.

Naturally, Breaker fans were furious, questioning who this “everyone” referred to.

Alt soon released a rebuttal article, stating, “There are no plans to disband Breaker. We will respond to this false report,” causing quite an uproar.

One day, as fans and trainees were growing increasingly anxious, another headline appeared:

[Breaker’s Debut Schedule Postponed Indefinitely… Will They Disband?]

Due to the controversy over the ‘expert evaluation’ manipulation, all activities, including the debut of the group Breaker, were postponed indefinitely.

…

The members expressed their desire to continue group activities. Although ALT stated their support for Breaker’s activities, they couldn’t bridge the gap between the agencies’ positions.

…

Meanwhile, the debut group Yours from ‘Pick Your Heart Season 2’ is nearing the end of their activities this year.

– Shut up, Amte, and properly investigate the truth.

– Seriously, are there still members who want to continue? Even though a whistleblower came out with evidence???

┗ Alt’s media play is just using the trainees as shields.

– But is disbanding them even realistic or legally possible?

┗ Who knows… But if they do, they’ll get a lot of hate and Alt will profit.

┗ Alt benefits from pushing ahead no matter what. It’s only the members wasting their time, the manipulated trainees, and the fans who suffer.

In the meantime, the executives were busy.

They demanded Alt to clearly identify the victimized trainees and provide proper compensation, pouring out their long-held grievances.

Simultaneously, they had to deal with trolls who were now bringing up the boss and attacking other trainees.

They also had to push Seed to do more than just post daily selfies of trainees on their agency’s social media account since they had yet to create an official account or do a V-App live.

– Seed still hasn’t done a V-App live. They don’t even have an official account. Are daily selfies on the agency’s account all we get?

┗ (Photo) Of course, that’s all. Haha, Gyun Seong-ha is so handsome. Seong-ha, could you teach the other members, especially Raon, how to take good selfies?

– With a face like Boss’s, there’s no way he hasn’t received offers for photo shoots or ads. Seed is doing nothing despite numerous magazine and industry picks (photo).

– An advertising industry insider said that multiple CF model requests for cosmetic brands, beverages, fast food, and dairy products would have been made to Alt for On Raon, given his clear and upright image overcoming tough times. Why is there no news?

– But isn’t the current content we get similar to what we got from Pick Heart? I’m just happy about that. Is this normal?

┗ Totally normal. The best part is we escaped that other scene.

– In-soo, even if you go to jail, spill all the details first.

– So what about the reality show? They won’t get to do it on Music Box, but could they do it elsewhere? Even a web variety show would be great.

Nevertheless, fans were slowly adapting.

Not to the individual trainee, but to Seed trainee On Raon.

Not to Boss, but to Orca.

* * *

Thanks to the hellish training directed by Director Joo Yeol-eum, we were too busy to pay much attention to the various turbulent events happening around us.

During the peak of the manipulation scandal’s backlash, the company refrained from scheduling any external activities, allowing us to fully concentrate on our training.

Sometimes, the peaceful basement felt like an isolated island, far removed from the outside world.

However, the Breaker members seemed to be struggling with the delay in their debut.

“Damn Music Box. Damn Alt.”

Every day, I cursed Music Box and Alt, the root of the problem, in my mind.

Then, a staff member called out to us as we trudged by.

“Hey, guys. Your logo is ready. Come take a look.”

Upon hearing that the logo, whose completion had been delayed due to various issues, was finally ready, my teammates and I eagerly gathered around the monitor.

“Wow….”

A sleek, thin black line drawing of an orca greeted us.

Overall, the orca looked stylish, neither dull nor heavy, with no fully colored areas, giving it a transparent feel.

From its tail, musical staves naturally extended like waves.

Beneath the image, the group’s name, ‘ORCA,’ was neatly written in a modern font.

The staff kindly explained to us.

“As Raon suggested, effects will be added to the back section during album promotions or concept changes. The overall design will vary accordingly, but this is the basic form.”

“Wow!”

“Your official account and B-App channel will also open soon, so keep that in mind.”

“Okay!”

“Oh, and we’re still finalizing details, but it looks like you’ll be doing a reality show too.”

“A reality show?”

From what I knew, shooting even one episode of a reality show required a considerable budget.

For idols, the production costs were mostly covered by the agency, especially for new rookies.

For a small agency like Seed, even small-scale shoots were a burden, so I hadn’t held high hopes.

“Quite a few sponsors have come forward, and we’ve managed to secure the production budget, so you can consider it almost confirmed.”

After explaining, the staff sent the others to the practice room, leaving me alone.

“Raon, are you sure you want to decline all the CF offers?”

Ah, so that’s why they left me alone.

Having already discussed this with Representative Ban Ga-eul and Director Joo Yeol-eum, I nodded without hesitation.

“Yes. I think it’s still too early.”

“But I think accepting at least one would be okay.”

“Yo-han hyung and Gyeol hyung also declined all offers.”

If only the trainees from Pick Heart took on individual activities, they could quickly gain recognition, but in the long run, it could create imbalances within the team. This was something I could easily foresee without much thought.

Representative Ban Ga-eul and Director Joo Yeol-eum had understood this and supported my decision, so why was this person…?

[Seed staff member Han Yu-rim regrets not being able to proudly show off your face to the world right now. Han Yu-rim’s favor +1 Current favor +44]

Is that why?

* * *

Today seemed to be a day full of good news.

“Your debut song is out!”

“Wow! Finally!”

We had started to talk among ourselves about when we would begin practicing our debut song.

“Representative Ban worked really hard for this.”

The debut song was composed by both Composer Jung Ha-neul and Representative Ban Ga-eul.

It wasn’t until a bit later that I found out these two, who were college seniors and juniors, had been working together for a long time as a composer duo called ‘Sky Fall,’ which sounded quite prestigious.

At this point, I became curious about the extent of Representative Ban Ga-eul’s connections.

I had a feeling that Director Joo Yeol-eum and Composer Jung Ha-neul were not the end of Representative Ban’s network.

Within the company, there was an opinion that since Seo Moon-gyeol had composed ‘Rewind,’ the biggest hit from Pick Heart 3, it would be a good idea to use Seo Moon-gyeol’s self-composed song as the title track for our debut album.

But I heard that Director Joo Yeol-eum opposed it.

He argued that pushing an unpolished song as the title track just to use the term ‘self-produced’ would be counterproductive, especially when there was a better song available.

It seemed that Director Joo Yeol-eum had a bit of a perfectionist streak.

However, he didn’t oppose members’ self-composed songs in general and encouraged us by saying he would promote any song that met a certain quality standard.

I wasn’t sure what Director Joo Yeol-eum’s ‘certain standard’ was exactly.

Wouldn’t ‘Rewind’ be good enough?

Of course, I knew that creating a song of that caliber wasn’t easy.

Seo Moon-gyeol, who usually had a relaxed attitude towards most things, was very particular about the quality of his songs and performances, so he accepted Director Joo Yeol-eum’s decision without complaint.

Come to think of it, the trainee who silently endured the hellish training the most was Seo Moon-gyeol.

The two of them seemed to get along surprisingly well.

“Let’s listen to it.”

The staff played the file.

Three minutes and thirty seconds later.

After listening to the guide recording of our debut song, I felt a refreshing chill, as if I had plunged into a cold mountain stream or thrown myself into a snowfield with snow up to my knees.

Representative Ban Ga-eul had confidently promised that they would deliver a great song, and they had.

With sparkling eyes, Kang Ji-woo asked.

“What’s the title of this song?”

The staff answered.

“Liberation.”

* * *

Before we began practicing our debut song in earnest, Director Joo Yeol-eum called us together.

“The training schedule itself will be much easier from now on. You all worked hard keeping up until now.”

Wow, finally…!

Even though no one said it, I was sure everyone was thinking the same thing as me.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen trainees as diligent as you guys. And I’ve never seen anyone stay as lively as you did despite all the hard work.”

At the start, it felt like we were going to die, but recently we had all more or less adapted to Director Joo Yeol-eum’s hardcore training schedule.

The person who had the most ease during this time was Kang Ji-woo, the one who endured the most stoically was Seo Moon-gyeol, the one who worked the hardest was Gyun Seong-ha, and the one who saw the most results was Ban Yo-han.

With a proud tone, Director Joo Yeol-eum praised us, and we responded with awkward smiles.

To be honest, what got us through wasn’t some grand sense of purpose.

It was more of a petty competition among ourselves, thinking, ‘At least I’m better than them…’ or ‘If that person can do it, so can I…’

As we continued, we became more motivated and competitive with each other.

I’m not sure if this was the result Director Joo Yeol-eum was hoping for, but in any case, a bond of competitiveness had formed among the five of us.