Force Versus Force

Dream Girls, Episode 5.

The content was judgment.

A culling — deciding who among the existing contestants would continue, and who would not.

It was inevitable for a survival program. Even so, the viewers had no choice but to swallow their disappointment.

Farewell.

No matter how many times you experience it, it never gets easier. Everyone was praying their favorite contestant wouldn't fall.

The contestant once called the greatest ace. And yet the judge's voice calling her name carried a weight that was somehow ominous.

"Min-seo, you were the center, weren't you?"

"Yes!"

"If you can't do it, why did you take the center position?"

"……."

It was serious. That kind of program. Even knowing that, just thinking about what the words meant and what they would lead to made people swallow hard.

"You can't sing well. Your dancing is half a beat too fast. And yet you're the center. Right now, everything is falling apart because of you, Min-seo. Do you understand?"

"I'm sorry."

"It seems urgent that you learn to do at least one thing properly."

"I'm sorry."

The judge poured out the venom without so much as a change in expression. The viewers understood that the words were necessary — and still.

This wasn't going to end as mere harsh criticism. Everyone watching the broadcast knew it was directly tied to the results of the evaluation.

Drip. Drip-drip.

The person at the center of it all knew even better. Tears streamed from both her eyes — a testament to how sincere she had been.

None of that mattered. Only skill. Only results. The reality of it settled in.

It began before the aftertaste had even faded. The evaluation of the other contestants. And among them, the one drawing the most attention was—

Yoon Sora.

With her striking looks and the judges' glowing reviews, she had become the contestant with the largest fandom. But when it came to raw skill, questions were inevitable. Even Jang Min-seo had just been eliminated.

"You know your singing is lacking, right?"

"Yes."

"Your dancing too."

"Yes, a bit."

"So you don't really excel at anything……."

It wouldn't have been strange if she — and every other contestant — drank the bitter cup of elimination. A moment that could only be called a crisis.

"Why do you keep making me so curious about you?"

"Pardon?"

"I want to see Sora's next performance. I want to see how far you've grown."

A twist no one had expected. The judge's face lit up, and applause poured in from every direction.

For the first time, she cleared the evaluation. A non-trainee. A girl who had been dismissed and looked down on — which made it all the more meaningful.

Drip. Drip.

It was the same for her. The hardships she'd endured flashed past like a revolving lantern.

The fans knew better than anyone. How hard this non-trainee had worked to reach this stage. Their devotion only grew thicker. More fans arrived.

But her true inner thoughts—

Right, aiming to be the greatest idol……. Fuck, this isn't it at all!

—were known only to Sora herself.

Pre-reflection.

In the stock market, it was practically common sense. The reason you always had to invest with suspicion.

Sometimes it really was right. A surprise that exceeded all expectations.

Episode 5 had aired. Its content sent massive ripples through the fanbase.

The fandom had been split. This evaluation was more than enough to trigger a seismic shift — because it had divided them into those who passed and those who were eliminated. Outside of the hardcore base, fans switched allegiances.

"It's only been two weeks, and yet……."

"That's talent. Pure talent."

"Can I take her under my wing?"

She was rising as the biggest beneficiary. Her story — climbing up from the very bottom — struck a chord with the fans. She passed, and her skill was recognized. The judges' praise kept pouring in.

Other information came to light as well. Viewers curious about her personally multiplied. Deeper fan devotion. Higher evaluations. And that inevitably produced a result.

Huh……?

A moonshot, that is.

Kim Geun-seong had no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠choice but to panic. He had been stacking short positions, pressing the stock down hard.

It was suddenly springing up like a coiled spring. The momentum was at a level that simply could not be ignored.

Ordinarily, he could control it. Given the money he had and the weight of his name, it should have been more than enough.

The situation was different. He was being ignored, if anything. People assumed a foreigner wouldn't know about Korean issues.

…….

In truth, that was fair. Honestly, he didn't know it well. But he was checking the broad strokes. The fact that Sora was drawing attention — it showed up in the technical analysis and trading trends too.

There were things the numbers alone didn't show. Watching the related articles pile up, Geun-seong chewed on his fingernails.

What is this that it's reaching Billboard.

A simple music program. That was not a frame you could put around this. Being non-Korean made it hit even harder. As an American, there was no way he wouldn't know — the authority and value Billboard held in the music industry.

That would be why the foreign buying was coming in. Other foreign institutions were taking interest too. The aftershocks were spreading like wildfire.

Whew…….

Yuseong Investment Securities. Manager Lee Tae-hak wiped his chest in relief. A bad feeling had made him scoop up and cover his short positions on Pharmacy Entertainment.

"Manager, the short covering is almost done!"

"Good. Once the remaining volume is finished, don't even look at it for a while."

It was turning into a masterstroke. Low-price buying forces sitting at every support line — it overlapped with what had happened to 3M Entertainment.

Stocks are best done safely after all!

Safety first. Never shoulder the risk. That was how Korean institutions traded.

These cowardly bastards…….

Geun-seong ground his teeth. Fellow foreigners and even Korean institutions were scrambling to buy. The way institutions played stocks — it all came down to how much you could move the price flow the way you wanted.

That was what mattered. The mere 1% loss stamped on his account right now carried meaning far beyond what it appeared to be.

God damn!

The shares he'd bought weren't some ant's eye-crust amount. Sell even a tenth of it and the price would buckle hard. Dump the entire position? It wouldn't be 1% — it'd print a loss of over 10%.

That was why you sold stocks when good news hit. On any other day, there was no liquidity to absorb the volume.

Short more? Press it down harder? Or…….

Excessive liquidity. He'd checked late, but articles were flooding out and the community reaction was scorching hot. It might grow even bigger. If she truly became a star, that value wasn't something you could calculate.

Gulp.

Like a growth stock. With growth stocks, PER didn't matter. They moved on a single thing — expectation psychology about the future.

For a while, short covering alongside a further climb in the stock price wouldn't be strange at all. If his position got figured out—

I, of all people, made a mistake like this.

Covering now was the best option. Geun-seong decided, through gritted teeth, to lock in the loss. Judging the situation by numbers alone had been the fatal error. He had no choice but to acknowledge his own mistake.

In the stock market, it was received as the material running dry.

But for the fans, it was not an ending — it was a beginning.