Entertainers

Final vote.

Vote for your girl right now!

That was the Dream Girls way.

The debut lineup was decided by pure viewer votes alone. A little chaos was only to be expected. Season 3 had been planned from the start, just like Seasons 1 and 2.

Something was different this time.

The communities exploded. The vote results simply made no sense.

It wasn't just one or two people. Every viewer who had watched the show had a giant question mark floating over their head.

The contestant who had drawn the most attention from the very first episode. That Yoon Sora had been eliminated.

The fans had every right to lose their minds. Everyone had treated her debut as locked in. Just one fandom's denial of reality. If that had been the whole story, it might have blown over quietly.

The whole thing was rotten. Once the spark of doubt caught, it refused to die. It spread like fire through a dry autumn reed field.

Thoughts people had been holding inside.

Communities were the one place you could just spit it out. Posts were flooding in at several times the usual volume. Public opinion was one-sided. Even the troll fandoms that usually thrived on chaos spoke with one voice this time.

Even the Love Rioters, veterans of every online riot, piled in, and the situation turned far uglier. The communities' public sentiment had gone thoroughly foul.

"Dream Girls Gallery just exploded."

"The viewer boards are completely locked up too."

"Hmm……."

MusicNet had already grasped the situation. Dream Girls producer Park Osan knew exactly why the viewers were furious.

Did we go a little too far this time?

Fixing. In the broadcasting industry it was practically custom. Stakeholders' interests were tangled together. Filming a show burned through massive capital. Cooperation from the big agencies was indispensable. You couldn't just ignore their demands. Looking the other way a little was the path of mutual convenience.

"If we leave it like this, the live broadcast itself is going to take a hit."

"Sponsors and partner companies will start filing claims too."

"Ahem!"

It wasn't even bad for the viewers. Capital flowing in and famous faces getting cast made the show more entertaining.

The only reason you get to watch high-quality broadcasts is thanks to that.

They couldn't even tolerate a little inconvenience and were raising hell. Ordinary people who didn't know the first letter of art or entertainment.

"Execute the smokescreen operation."

"Ah, that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one?"

"Uh…… what's that?"

Burying it was simple. Producer Park Osan had been through every kind of battlefield and was a master at handling viewers.

Counter-fire operation. They had prepared in advance, just in case.

The public are pigs and dogs, after all.

Redirect the direction of the discontent and they would start fighting among themselves. Without ever noticing the dissonance.

This wasn't the 1980s. Viewers weren't as naive as when they had to call in ARS votes one by one. So you simply built methods that matched the era. Conflict was a simple but effective tool.

The issue blurred. Viewers who had been angry about the vote results redirected their anger. Only the broadcasting station knew the real vote numbers. And so the controversy evolved.

There was no way the embers would completely die out.

Market manipulation.

It wasn't a story exclusive to the stock market.

It's got a K in front of it, after all.

This is how we do things in Korea!

Unfortunately, reality was reality.

The incident would explode later. The broadcasting station's influence had indeed shaped the Dream Girls vote results.

It only came to mind a bit late.

A minor incident. I wasn't free enough to remember every little thing. It had surfaced while I was trading entertainment stocks. Why the me of that time hadn't bought them. Why it had taken so long for their value to be recognized.

Ding-a-ling~♪

It was easy to get confused. Having future information wasn't always a good thing.

They're so overwhelmingly dominant that nothing in the world compares.

Premium. The number-one company in any industry always received a higher stock valuation. All the more so if they were number one in the world. And yet entertainment stocks had never drawn attention.

"Thank you for waiting. I'm Gwak Jin-bae, CEO of JPG Entertainment."

"Yes, I've been waiting quite a while."

Because the industry ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠itself had never earned trust. These days such things rarely happened.

In the old days they called them ttantara.

A derogatory name for singers. It wasn't simply because Korea was a conservative Confucian society.

"I already explained over the phone, but shall we confirm once more?"

"Just hit the main points briefly."

"JPG Entertainment deeply regrets Miss Sora's elimination, and so……."

What singers did was that vulgar. No—they had been driven into a corner where they had no choice.

They barely paid appearance fees, after all.

Royalties went without saying. Agencies barely paid their singers any salary. The only way a singer made money was performing on night stages—nightclubs, clubs, and the like.

The meme that still floated around the internet had its origins there. In the old days it had really been like that.

"If Miss Sora is willing, JPG Entertainment would like to recommend trainee activities with a debut guarantee."

"Hmm."

"Our agency has strong girl-group results, so……."

Night stages themselves weren't the problem. The problem was that those night stages were the business territory of gangsters.

That was just the era.

Celebrity? You trying to become a real thug? The things adults said weren't completely without context.

"It's rare for me, the CEO, to personally recruit trainees. That's how highly we regard Miss Sora."

"Ah~."

"Honestly I thought she would make the debut lineup, so when she didn't, it felt like I'd seized an opportunity."

Even these days there were unusual people. Like the man sitting right in front of me—Gwak Jin-bae, CEO of JPG Entertainment.

How does a man walk around in mesh that shows his entire chest?

Those black nipples were extremely burdensome. Yet he was a completely different person from the image he projected.

"I've heard you out carefully."

"But."

"?"

"Would it be correct to assume this conversation will be passed on to Trainee Sora?"

The reason I had met Gwak Jin-bae at the café was simple. He said he seriously wanted to recruit Sora.

She herself has zero interest.

How am I supposed to tell Dad! I had decided to explain the situation that bitch was in on her behalf.

"There probably won't be any major change."

"I hope Trainee Sora doesn't let her talent rot."

"I deeply agree."

She was also an investment target I viewed favorably. I had spoken of entertainment stocks in a roundabout way.

Investing in a company means believing in its sustained growth.

The other entertainment stocks simply weren't trustworthy. One pharmacy was dealing drugs; another company's CEO was immoral.

Ttanttara.

The derogatory name for singers had been born because the industry was crawling with people like that.

JPG Entertainment had changed that. It was the first agency to emphasize the morality of its celebrities.

"True talent isn't skill or aptitude. It's sincerity. Trainee Sora is the talent JPG Entertainment has been desperately searching for."

"Is that so?"

"Please let me make that talent bloom."

"Ah, yes."

The slight cringe was a drawback. Yet that very quality landed perfectly in Japan and exploded into a mega-hit.

He's saying lines straight out of a manga.

He had sniped Japanese sensibilities dead-on. He appeared not only on TV but in manga and anime as well. Currently the smallest of the Big Three agencies. That was why it would later grow larger than the other two combined.

"I'll pass the message along for now. Don't get your hopes up too high."

"Only I can make Miss Sora bloom."

"Setting that aside—do you happen to need any capital investment?"

"Pardon?"

"I'm this kind of person, you see……."

I made the investment early.