Chapter 205
Chapter 205
“I believe you all can do well enough on your own.”
At first glance, it sounded like a heartwarming statement filled with trust and faith. However, when heard from a superior, it usually meant one of two things.
‘Figure it out yourself’ or ‘If it fails, it’s your fault.’
And this guy, the Management Office Chief, was making a statement that contained both meanings without even realizing it.
‘He just gave the General Manager a perfect excuse to swoop in if TeSTAR doesn’t achieve global results during this promotion.’
It was obvious. The General Manager would say something like, “See? You have to do it my way for it to work in the global market.”
‘Naturally, TeSTAR’s say in matters will become weaker than it is now.’
We had barely managed to grow our influence to this level, so in a shitty company like this, a situation like that was nothing short of a landmine.
On the other hand, backing out by saying TeSTAR wasn’t confident about achieving a global hit with this album was also a problem. That, too, could be used by the General Manager as a justification for intervention.
In short, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
‘This bastard got played by the General Manager.’
I shouldn’t have expected much from a parachute hire, but it was still infuriating.
“Of course, we are working hard to achieve good results, but we can’t guarantee a hit every single time…”
“Huh? No, no! Just do what you’ve been doing! Don’t worry about it!”
This meant the Chief, only concerned with his own standing, had arbitrarily decided that TeSTAR would naturally continue their usual upward trend. He hadn’t even considered that telling a singer, “Just do what you’ve always done,” would be a burden.
Not knowing what it was like to struggle on the front lines—he truly was a textbook parachute hire.
“…I see.”
Ryu Cheong-woo eventually fell silent as well. He had realized that if he seriously insisted they couldn’t do it here, the group would look pathetic.
‘Dammit.’
For this single, we had already finished the arrangement and choreography with a light, public-friendly direction. The plan was to capitalize on the domestic recognition we gained through the reality program.
‘I even made the point choreography for the chorus easy to follow.’
With only a few weeks left until the comeback, it looked like we’d have to tear down and rebuild our entire direction. It was going to be the hellfire of our debut days all over again.
“…”
Was there no way out? I racked my brain quickly.
‘TeSTAR is slowly moving past the rookie stage, so if I play this right…’
Just then, Kim Rae-bin suddenly raised his hand and threw a straight ball.
“Excuse me, but this single was structured with a focus on domestic popularity; we did not aim for a global hit.”
“…!”
‘Hey.’
For a moment, I thought about covering his mouth, but then I saw the Chief’s flustered face and realized something.
‘Actually, this might be more effective.’
Kim Rae-bin had an expression full of pure curiosity, devoid of any ulterior motive. When Ryu Cheong-woo made eye contact with me, he gave a slight nod.
“…”
Fine, let’s see where this goes.
“Uh, well, if it does well domestically, there will naturally be a good response overseas too.”
“That is not necessarily the case. The discrepancy between domestic hits and global hits in K-Pop has steadily intensified over the past few years, creating various precedents…”
Kim Rae-bin earnestly began explaining everything from songs that were hits in Korea but had no response in the global market to the opposite cases. He finished his speech with a proud face, as if satisfied with his explanation.
“Therefore, a global hit is a situation that is even more impossible to guarantee!”
“…”
The Chief seemed a bit overwhelmed by the bombardment of harmless background knowledge. However, sensing that Kim Rae-bin wasn’t trying to talk back, he started babbling in a lukewarm tone instead of getting offended.
“There are still a few weeks left until the comeback, so why don’t we try changing the course a bit? The General Manager is quite a bulldozer right now… You guys know that, right?”
There it was. I found the opening.
I interlaced my fingers.
“Then you’re saying we need to overhaul our entire plan for this group promotion right now to match your words, Chief.”
“…!”
It wasn’t like our performance was bad; surely we could say this much to a parachute hire.
“Of course, I know you’re saying this for our sake, and it makes me feel like we should work even harder, but…”
I made sure to add a layer of cushioning.
“Since this is the opposite of our original intention, I’m worried the General Manager might see this as not being ‘artist-centered’ either.”
“…”
I was pointing out the contradiction between the orders to ‘respect the artist’s wishes’ and ‘change whatever the artist planned to focus on global performance.’
A flash of embarrassment crossed the Chief’s face.
Sounds plausible to you too, doesn’t it?
The thought of the General Manager changing his tune and finding fault even after the Chief had ‘won’ would surely bring a surge of stress.
“That’s true~ Since we already had a direction we were planning to go in! It might look that way.”
“Since we don’t have big ambitions for the US yet, we’d like to continue preparing for the comeback by focusing on working hard on domestic promotions first.”
Backup fire poured in. It meant: We’re going to keep doing what we prepared, so you deal with the mess you made.
Naturally, the Chief’s complexion worsened.
“Well, if that’s the case, it’ll be a bit difficult for me to support you all in the future…”
How embarrassing. He didn’t want to take back what he said and end up sounding pathetic.
‘Hmm, if I push him any further, this guy might get his feelings hurt and do something stupid.’
The Chief’s arrows should be aimed at the General Manager, not TeSTAR. Still, pushing him into a corner like this had many benefits.
‘It makes it easier to squeeze things out of him.’
Then, just like this… Ah, right.
‘…I decided to proceed only after getting the team’s consent.’
I made eye contact with the other members and gave a rough signal with a nod.
‘Let’s just do what he says. If we don’t, a bomb might go off.’
‘Sure, sure~’
‘I’ll work hard either way…!’
‘I’m hungry!’
It felt like a strange signal had slipped in at the end, but I ignored it. Anyway, no one was shaking their head or desperately opposing. I answered the Chief slowly in a serious tone.
“Hmm… Then how about we do this?”
“What… what is it?”
“We’ll say that after seeing how well the reality show did, the company decided to invest heavily, so we scaled up the project before the comeback.”
In other words, pour in more capital.
“That would make the context look natural. What do you think, Chief?”
Since time was short, the strategy was to fill the gap by pouring in as much money as possible.
‘Since he’s a parachute hire, he should be good at pulling funds from the headquarters.’
Sure enough, the Chief’s face brightened.
“That sounds good to me.”
Done.
Since it didn’t look like TeSTAR was the one asking for more money, there would be less gossip even if the results were just average. Now, let’s try to… revise the arrangement, choreography, and MV in four weeks by dumping a massive amount of capital into it.
‘Fuck.’
Suddenly, it turned into a forced march.
*
That day, we postponed our recording schedule and holed up in the meeting room.
“Global hit…”
“Mmm.”
Surprisingly, the first one to speak was Bae Se-jin.
“…How about doing it in English?”
It was a fairly reasonable suggestion. However, looking at the global ecosystem of K-Pop, it was a premature proposal.
“Using English is aiming for the general public in English-speaking countries… but shouldn’t they know who we are first for that to work?”
“Ah.”
Exactly. It was a strategy to use only once the fanbase there was solid. If we weren’t careful, we might just end up with a negative label like ‘trying too hard for the US.’
Then, what should we do to solidify the people who came in through US memes into a fanbase?
“I think it would be good to look at the concepts that existing overseas K-Pop fans liked.”
“Oh, that’s for sure~”
At Ryu Cheong-woo’s murmur, Keun Se-jin raised a hand.
“Cool choreography, good beats~ Don’t they like it when the music video comes out looking awesome?”
“Wo-wouldn’t people in Korea like something that cool too…?”
“Well, yeah. But how should I put it? In Korea, for dance songs where the beat is heavily emphasized… if it’s a boy group song, there are many people who don’t really listen to it?”
He was right. That was why, out of our two debut title tracks, we pushed ‘Magical Boy’ more—it was easy to listen to and the beat wasn’t too noisy.
‘That one definitely ranked higher on the digital charts and had a longer run than “Hi-five.”’
In the same vein, a song like ‘Haengcha,’ which was extremely conceptual and intense, had slightly weaker digital rankings than the previous title track. And that was during a promotion period where we were entering the top tier, with a visible and massive influx of fans after hitting a career high.
Still, it was as Keun Se-jin said.
‘It’s a waste to give up the domestic popularity that’s just started to swell, but if we need a global response, this is the right way.’
Of course, even if we decided on a direction, revising everything overnight wasn’t easy.
“Choreography and things like that can all be revised, so it’s not a big problem… Se-jin, you’re okay, right?”
“…Of course.”
Bae Se-jin replied to Ryu Cheong-woo steadfastly. Ryu Cheong-woo continued with a slightly apologetic face.
“Right. Well, I think we can gradually revise the rest toward a cooler direction… but I’m worried the arrangement will be difficult.”
At those words, everyone looked at Kim Rae-bin.
“……?”
Kim Rae-bin looked around with a puzzled expression, then spoke up as if he had just realized.
“Once the concept is decided, I will bring several arrangement drafts to match the atmosphere! Please give me four days!”
It was a gallant declaration.
“W-will it be okay…? Won’t it be very hard…?”
“Actually, this title track has a good melody top note that can be combined in various ways, so I am quite excited to be able to try something new!”
“…”
It seemed Kim Rae-bin was… actually excited that he could try things he couldn’t do before because he had to follow the formula for domestic success.
‘Well, I’m glad at least one person is happy.’
I spoke up.
“I understand, Rae-bin. Then shall we quickly talk about the concept so our Rae-bin can start working soon?”
“Sure.”
“S-sounds good!”
“Moon-dae, do you have anything in mind? You’re an idea bank, after all~”
Originally, we were going to release a season song suitable for spring, with a moderately refreshing and polished look without any special fixed image. Now we had to change it to a concept with a scale that would allow for an ‘awesome’ music video…
At the same time, it had to suit the tastes of the English-speaking world so the General Manager couldn’t talk shit. And if I were to be greedy, I’d like to keep as much domestic popularity as possible. Since it was a digital single and we weren’t selling albums, the digital charts were important.
‘…Hmm.’
Something that goes well with cool choreography and intense beats, and is good for fans to consume?
‘…Ah.’
I opened my mouth.
“Let’s expand the worldview this time.”
“Our worldview? Which one?”
“Haengcha.”
A short while later, after intense brainstorming, the revised plan—including the arrangement—was passed unanimously.
‘But make it as easy to listen to as possible!’
And then, three turbulent weeks passed.
*
TeSTAR fans all knew that this comeback was a single. This was because the news of the comeback was quickly spread to the media in conjunction with the encore concert. It was part of maintaining the hype.
And from the phrases added to each article, fans were even guessing the atmosphere of the song.
[TeSTAR, Comeback Revealed Along with Cherry Blossoms]
[TeSTAR Comeback Warming Up… Challenging the Spring Carols?]
[National Stock TeSTAR, Returning as Men with Refreshing Spring Sentiments]
These were press releases that the agency’s working-level staff had diligently induced to set the mood after checking the planning for this TeSTAR promotion. Thanks to that, fans all expected an easy-listening song that was public-friendly, similar to ‘Picnic,’ the title track of the previous repackage album.
Of course, it wasn’t just the fans.
As much as the reality program was a hit, there was almost as much interest in TeSTAR’s comeback as there was during their debut, and thanks to that, many people were feeling salty.
Fans could pass over those reactions with a moderate amount of annoyance and mockery. Because looking at the current momentum, there was no way this comeback would fail…!
At the same time, they also hoped that this stage would be fun and flashy enough to make those people shut their mouths, but basically, everyone trusted TeSTAR.
‘They’ve never failed so far!’
And on the day TeSTAR’s comeback teaser was released.
Fans saw an incredible 30-second video they hadn’t even imagined.
‘W-Wilderness??’
The concept TeSTAR chose was… Steampunk Joseon.