I'll Even Kneel If I Have To
The production company and Cha Soyeon seemed to have gone back and forth on the edited version several times. The PR team asked for the final cut so they could upload it themselves, but they were turned down flat.
“Did you do something to make Soyeon hate you? Why is she insisting on uploading the Red Blossom video herself?”
I sighed and answered, “Ask her yourself.”
That was why I only got to see the moving video after it had already been uploaded.
“She wouldn’t budge when we asked her to appear on a variety show, but she’ll go on something like this? It’s not even centered on her. It’s basically just a video praising Shin Juwon the whole time.”
Park Beomjun, the chairman, watched the video with a dumbfounded expression.
“If I’d known in advance, I would have stopped it. Apparently even the manager had no idea. He said he was just going to meet a friend.”
Yun Sangho, the division director sitting on the sofa, was watching the video with clear interest.
“They must have used a decent production company. This is good enough to air on television.”
The quick cuts, punchy direction, perfectly timed subtitles, engaging lines, BGM, and sound effects—nothing was wasted.
“Director, was there a production proposal submitted? It couldn’t have been cheap.”
“Juwon started it with his own money, but later Soyeon apparently pitched in. I gave that kid a bonus and he’s spending it on something like this.”
The chairman’s eyes narrowed.
“What the hell is that guy? Does he have some kind of relationship with Red Blossom?”
“It’s in the video. His goal is to make Red Blossom shine. I asked Soyeon directly and she said he’s completely serious. She finds it fascinating too, so she keeps watching it.”
“Good grief. Is he some kind of saint?”
Red Blossom was a painful thorn in their side, but they couldn’t keep dragging something that wasn’t working. No one knew better than they did how much harder it was to revive a failed group than to launch a new one.
“How on earth did he seduce Soyeon? Not only did he get her to buy him an officetel, now she’s even making a video like this for him?”
“It’s the opposite. She’s the one who keeps wanting to do more and is hovering around him. Saving her in the parking lot must have left a huge impression.”
“If that was all, she wouldn’t be going this far. She would’ve just given him some money and called it a day. Don’t you know what kind of person Soyeon is?”
“Is that so…? Then… it seems she’s developed an interest in Juwon.”
“Hmm. Interest, you say…”
When the video ended, the director picked up the coffee cup in front of him.
“Because of Juwon, my workload keeps increasing. I don’t know what that rookie is doing, stirring up so much trouble.”
Thanks to the old dorm, the PR team had already issued several press releases. There were floods of demands for clarification about the Cha Soyeon attack incident, claiming the full story hadn’t been revealed. Calls were pouring in from everywhere wanting interviews with Shin Juwon. It was chaos.
“Who’s going to believe you if you say it with a face like that? You look like you’re having the time of your life.”
“It is fun, though. The company didn’t do anything, yet I managed to blow it up all by myself. Did you see the subscriber count?”
The channel that had barely scraped past a thousand subscribers had shot past one hundred thousand in just a few days. You needed millions to even rank, but for a failed group like Red Blossom, one hundred thousand was an unimaginable number. And they had achieved it without adding new members, making a comeback, or releasing an album.
The comments racing by at the speed of light were just as intense.
“At least the group name got out there properly. The vibe isn’t bad…”
“Have you changed your mind?”
“No. One video isn’t going to change anything. This blew up because of Soyeon, not Red Blossom. If a few more hit, maybe. But for now…”
“You look like you’re hoping for more to blow up.”
“I like fun things too, just like you, Director. Especially since I told you that guy gives off a different feeling. If he shows me something more, I’ll call him in and talk. Ask him if he really wants to save them.”
“Juwon really is something else. If even the chairman is thinking like this…”
“I bet on him from the beginning. An ordinary person could never give off that kind of aura.”
With that, he went back to reading the comments. He wanted to see the reaction for himself.
I downed the rest of my half-empty beer and lay down on the wooden bench. I pulled out my phone and played the video again. I had no idea how many times I’d watched it today.
“It looks like it’ll hit ten million soon. Is that a lot of views?”
‘It is. Most videos struggle to get a million in three days…’
“Then your goal of letting people know the group’s name has been achieved, Master.”
‘It’s more than achieved. I didn’t expect the reaction to be this big. Cha Soyeon really is incredible.’
“It doesn’t seem like it’s only because of that girl. Looking at the comments, about half of them are about you, Master.”
I’d been glued to the comments for days, but the Divine Spirit read through all of them in an instant and even summarized them. Its analytical ability rivaled cutting-edge AI.
“It’s been hundreds of years since I descended to the surface. Humans have created so many entertaining things. Please show me more of these.”
It was like a superhero waking from hibernation and relearning human civilization. Even though the Divine Spirit had organized it, it was clear that more than half the comments were about me.
From “Where else would you find a manager this devoted to a failed group?” to “Blocking a guy with a knife with your bare body doesn’t make sense,” there were plenty of skeptical comments.
I didn’t feel much about it, but Cha Soyeon would probably feel bad if she saw. She’d put so much effort into praising me, only to get this kind of reaction.
I tossed my phone aside and stared blankly at the night sky. A single streak of light stretched out a long tail and sliced across the darkness. It was a shooting star.
‘It looks similar to the one I saw back then. That was God passing by, right?’
“It seems so. Is God feeling bored these days?”
Even God gets bored sometimes, apparently. Watching it made a question suddenly pop into my head.
‘Let me ask you something.’
“Go ahead.”
‘After receiving the Grace, I feel like I’ve changed a bit, but I don’t know why.’
“How have you changed?”
‘I’ve become more desperate, I guess? Before, if I helped someone, I’d stop at a point where I thought, “This should be enough.” But now that “enough” is gone. I end up giving everything without even realizing it. Even now, I’m constantly thinking about what more I can give to make Red Blossom shine.’
“That is salvation. You received it from God.”
‘Back then you called it Grace.’
“Grace is the means. Salvation is the goal. If you were ordinary, how could you save others? Salvation can only flow when Grace overflows.”
‘Is that how it works?’
“Yes. People whose lives feel too heavy will continue to gather after seeing your Grace. You will lift those heavy burdens from them. So they can fly freely. That is the salvation you can offer people.”
I had thought it was just helping others, but the direction was completely different. Could I really handle it?
“Of course you can handle it. You received the greatest Grace God could possibly give. As I told you before, you think far too little of yourself. That isn’t humility—it’s arrogance.”
I got scolded again.
“Receiving Grace created that desperate heart inside you. Humans don’t throw themselves into something unless they’re desperate. That’s why an endless spring of desperation keeps welling up within you. It’s telling you to work hard.”
I’ll give you tremendous power, so use it desperately with good intentions. That was the mission God had given me.
Ever since the moving video went up, we gathered in the conference room every day to check the situation. Maybe because they hadn’t received this much attention in a long time, the entire team was buzzing with excitement.
“This would be the perfect time to announce a comeback and introduce the new member. The water’s flooding in, but we don’t have a single oar to row with. Damn it.”
Both the team leader and the senior staff looked genuinely regretful. It was such good timing, but they didn’t have the one big move needed to seize it.
“If the AR team would help us out, we could do something. But trying to handle everything on our own leaves us with almost nothing we can do.”
“The AR team?”
“You don’t know what that is?”
“No.”
I had vaguely heard about it during the company briefing, but I didn’t know exactly what they did.
“It stands for Artists and Repertoire. The scope varies by company. Some only handle album production, while others take charge of everything from discovering artists to planning, production, promotion, and marketing. Whatever the case, they play the most important role in bringing idols to market.”
So they were the department that created the content the company sold. The core of the operation.
“Then if we can get them to push Red Blossom, it’ll be much easier to talk to the director or the chairman.”
“Obviously. Our AR team has so much influence in the company that even executives can’t push them around. If they throw their weight behind us, things might resolve surprisingly easily.”
“Please tell me who I need to talk to. I’ll go beg if I have to.”
There was a path after all. It was better to somehow create an opportunity inside the company than to keep struggling outside.
“Sigh. You think I haven’t tried? But there’s no room for Red Blossom to squeeze in.”
“What do you mean, no room?”
“Besides Red Blossom, there’s one boy group and two girl groups. All of them are at least mid-tier. They take turns with comebacks, so everyone in AR is focused on them. There’s no capacity left to look at us.”
“Isn’t that too much when we’re on the same team? If it won’t work internally, we can always outsource. The AR team can just manage the final product.”
“It means they don’t see any value in doing that for Red Blossom. Since they’re a practical team, their evaluation is actually harsher than the executives’. They only look at the possibility of success in the market.”
It made sense, but you still needed something to begin with if you wanted any chance of success or failure. At the very least, they should give us an opportunity.
“You look like you’re about to kill someone.”
“I’m not going to kill anyone, so just tell me who I need to talk to. I’ll go kneel if that’s what it takes.”