Chapter 114: Financial Crisis
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 114: Financial Crisis
The atmosphere wasn't bad, at least while we were meeting to prepare for the 1st Competition.
As seniors who had debuted several months ahead of us, Parte had released quite a few albums—minis, singles, the works.
They were different from Spark, whose entire discography consisted of one mini-album and one single.
Since we had more options than the other side, and I’d already scouted some concepts in preparation for appearing on Idol Dynasty Annals, things seemed promising.
The only thing to worry about was how to squeeze "youth" into a song by Parte, the kings of concepts who were usually armed with flashy capital.
That was, until the manager brought in the budget proposal.
"This is... the total available budget?"
"Yeah, that’s what they said."
"Not for one stage... but for the entire program?"
"...Yeah."
I read the numbers again, slowly.
I checked meticulously to see if a comma had been misplaced or if a digit had been omitted, making the total look wrong.
But nothing changed. There was no money—far too little of it.
The amount was so absurdly lower than expected that I struggled to find my voice.
"Manager, is the company preparing to launch another idol group or something?"
"It’s not that. Actually... the company is currently undergoing an internal audit. It’s become difficult for every department to get approval for expenses."
To summarize: because the evidence of Yu Han-su and the Production Team Leader’s embezzlement attempt had been discovered, UA had entered a massive review of all expenditures.
But even considering those circumstances, this budget made no sense. At this rate, Spark wouldn't even have enough to alternate between Idol Dynasty Annals and local festivals.
No matter how much Spark had yet to break even, UA wasn't the kind of company to under-invest to this extent.
Something was wrong. I couldn't wrap my head around it.
It was then. The System, which had popped up a few days ago just to annoy me, reappeared.
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[SYSTEM] A work directive has arrived from the ‘Person in Charge.’
▶ Assistant Manager Kim, do you think the company pays for your transportation so you can go around doing useless things? If you want to do whatever you want, why don't you go start your own business? Why bother coming to work?
[SYSTEM] ‘Party B’ is being notified of an ‘Internal Regulation Violation.’
▷ ‘Party B’ has a ‘Duty of Fairness’ to use the benefits gained from information asymmetry fairly.
▷ If actions excessively different from the original history are discovered, ‘Party B’ will be considered to have violated the Duty of Fairness.
▷ Depending on the extent to which ‘Party B’s’ actions have altered history, sanctions using ‘Party B’s’ environment are possible.
[SYSTEM] Sanctions for ‘Internal Regulation Violation’ are being notified to ‘Party B.’
▷ Content: Reduction of the available budget provided by UA.
▷ Reason: Appearance on ‘Idol Dynasty Annals.’
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Motherf—! You’re the one who told me to get first place!
Who’s going to die just because Spark goes on Idol Dynasty Annals? Is the flow of the universe going to change?
It’s okay to overhaul an album we were going to release anyway, but if I do something I wasn't "supposed" to do, I get divine punishment?
I felt the blood rushing to my head. My eyes burned.
If they were going to tie my hands and feet while applying such vague standards, what exactly was I supposed to do?
I couldn't say I understood the System even now, but I couldn't understand its intentions here in the slightest.
"I-wol, what’s wrong all of a sudden?"
The manager asked me as I stared blankly into the air.
I made an excuse that I was just thinking for a moment and looked back at the budget proposal.
If it was imposing sanctions by manipulating my environment, it meant the System had rigged the situation to look natural by exploiting the fact that I’d reported Yu Han-su.
I had been naive.
Even though I knew the System could interfere with the outside world and not just me, I thought as long as I kept my mouth shut and acted, no major problems would arise.
If it could influence people's thoughts and manifest them into reality this easily, how simple would it be to let my sister die or make me walk into Hanpyeong Industry with my own two feet?
The future looked bleak. For the first time since the day I’d turned young again, a sense of helplessness washed over me.
But even if I felt helpless, a worker ant has to work. I couldn't just lie there.
I needed a countermeasure. And a massive change of plans.
Sometimes I find myself wishing a day was 48 hours long.
Now was one of those times. No, I wished it were 480 hours.
We had two weeks until the 1st Competition.
Originally, the plan was to decide on the song and concept within a day or two, develop it on the third day, do an intermediate check in the first week, and finally, have the six of us tear up the stage together...
But it was all ruined.
From the moment I saw the budget, I hadn't slept a wink, becoming one with my laptop. Thanks to that, Choi Je-ho was the one "baking bread"—cursing up a storm—yesterday and today.
"Phew..."
"Hyung, are you okay...?"
While I was staring at the ceiling to cool my head, Park Ju-woo entered the room.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Did the others go to school?"
"Yeah."
"Right. Let's go to practice too."
I didn't like the fact that we had to go practice even though nothing had been decided yet, but the bad luck didn't end there.
Within three minutes of stepping into the UA building, I ran into Yu Han-su loitering in the hallway.
If the atmosphere in the company turned to shit because of him, he should at least have the decency to stay out of sight.
He really had a talent for getting on my nerves in every possible way.
After reciting the fact that Korea is a Confucian society like a mantra and politely greeting Yu Han-su, half of my stamina was drained. I wanted to throw everything away and go back to the dorm.
Still, there’s always a way out. With some advice from the Planning Team, I managed to settle on a theme: "Friendly Competition."
Parte’s third single title track, Desire, which we had chosen, was a song about the greed for a divine relic.
They had filmed a visually stunning music video where all the members wore uniforms with epaulettes and capes, making a knight’s oath before a giant statue and charging forward with swords...
But since we weren't even in a position to attach pipe cleaners to our shoulders, we ruled out the method of overwhelming the audience with fancy costumes. Instead, we focused on reinterpreting what Spark would "desire."
What is valuable in a competition?
If it’s a value pursued by "casual players" who are running wild toward first place, it would be victory. We made this our main keyword.
Next, we considered the means.
How would we show victory?
There’s nothing like sports to show something familiar to everyone while capturing the feeling of sweating for a goal—competing without being dark. Therefore, we set the overall concept to sports.
So, what did we want to say with this stage?
The answer could be defined in one sentence.
Fight fairly, win, and gain honor.
This message received a passing grade from all five members. Everything was going well up to this point.
"We’re short on money."
I had set the grand goal of establishing the Bulkkot High School Volleyball Club to match our numbers, but the problem was money.
Unless I found a seller on the Hongdangmu App listing six identical outfits, there was no way to save.
It’s not that you must wear expensive clothes on stage, but that’s only true as long as the clothes actually look like clothes.
If we sent them out wearing nothing but neon green T-shirts just because they were a "volleyball club," we’d get roasted by people saying even an early morning hobbyist club dresses better than us.
This was a competition program; we couldn't just send them up in plain uniforms.
I let out a sigh.
It wasn't that there were no solutions at all.
I could just... use my own money.
I just really, really didn't want to.
I had vowed never to use my own money for work again after pre-paying for Department Head Nam’s package tour.
And this was money I truly had no hope of being reimbursed for!
But since I was the one who dragged them into this program, and the budget had been cut because of me, I didn't have the heart to tell them, "Let's just do our best with what we have!"
Before the stock market closed, I went straight to the manager to get my phone. Then, I sold a few shares of a stock that had been rising nicely.
Once the cash was available for withdrawal, it looked like I could get about half of the items on my shopping list.
If only Department Head Nam’s daughter could see me now. What a shame.
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[SYSTEM] A work directive has arrived from the ‘Person in Charge.’
▶ Assistant Manager Kim, are you a silver spoon? You seem to have a lot of money. What did you say your parents do again?
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The System mocked me before I even had a chance to get misty-eyed. I wanted to smash that window, but I didn't even have the energy for that, so I let it be.
It’s a joy to see a colleague grow.
A colleague’s growth means the workload for our team decreases.
However, it seems not all growth is beneficial.
"I kept talking it over with Je-ho hyung, and it seems like you should be in the center a lot this time, hyung."
I say this because of disasters like today, where that brat Kang Gi-yeon, whom I trusted, was trying to take away my cozy spot on the periphery.
"For what reason?"
I asked, hiding my bewilderment and displeasure.
These guys must have found out the budget was cut because of me and were definitely taking their revenge.
They were planning to use me as a shield in the head-on battle against Parte and brand me with the dishonor of a poorly fought fight. Their meticulous plan was almost admirable.
Unaware of the storm brewing inside me, Kang Gi-yeon remained calm.
"You know the part where we applied volleyball moves to the choreography? I kept watching, and the other members just can't capture that feeling like you do, hyung."
"Really?"
In my eyes, everyone seemed to be dancing well, but in Kang Gi-yeon’s eyes, it must have looked better to have someone more realistic.
"If you move to the side, it feels a bit like... a teacher joining in at the edge of a daycare talent show."
"Just insult me instead, Gi-yeon."
But I understood what Kang Gi-yeon meant.
As luck would have it, almost no one in Spark had ever played volleyball. The only one with experience was me, who had been dragged into games here and there during university and the military.
It had been embarrassing enough trying to explain the motions to the dance line with my clumsy movements. To think I’d end up in an even worse situation.
I couldn't refuse since it was to improve the quality of the stage, but I felt uncomfortable.
It would be much better if the five of them handled the planning, arrangement, lyric rewriting, and choreography creation, but now I was not only wedged in among them but also expanding my territory.
"The members all learn the formations quickly... so let's just practice together a bit more for now. If it still seems better for me to be the center, I'll move then."
I gave a vague answer and sent Kang Gi-yeon back to Choi Je-ho. And if there was a god—specifically a god of volleyball—I prayed fervently that they would possess one of the members in the next few days.
Perhaps because my ulterior motives were seen through, the god of volleyball did not descend even by the deadline I’d set with Kang Gi-yeon.
And so, one day, while practicing over and over with the feeling of being abandoned by the world...
The broadcast of Idol Dynasty Annals began.