Gut Feeling
I had a feeling.
"Love Connect is my favorite. When I listen to it, I feel like a girlfriend racing out of the subway station because she can't wait to see her boyfriend waiting at the cafe." Cha Soyeon put on an adorable expression and perfectly mimicked an eager girlfriend.
"There were so many comments saying the choreography looked weird back then, and it really upset me. So I rearranged it with just a few simple moves. It's easy to follow, so why don't you all give it a try?"
Yeoreum gently pushed Cha Soyeon's shoulder and stepped into the center of the frame. "I've never danced in front of a camera before…."
Cha Soyeon stared at the lens with a shy expression, the very picture of loveliness.
"Half the live comments were just people begging to see you dance, unnie. If the viewers are that desperate, imagine how they'll react when you actually appear. They'll lose their minds the second you show up."
"R-really?"
The natural push-and-pull between them was flawless. Their perfect banter left viewers hanging on every word, and then the bright, upbeat intro kicked in as the newly arranged choreography began.
The shocking news that Cha Soyeon had danced in front of the camera—shaking her chest and hips with adorable charm—exploded across MeTube, social media, and every online community. As expected, the reaction wasn't just explosive; it burned so hot that not even ashes remained.
The appearance of the new face, Chie, created an equal amount of buzz.
"Um… hello, my name is Matsuoka Chie. I've been a trainee for two years, but some things happened and I had to leave my agency. I'm currently staying with Sera unnie. I thought the housewarming performance would be fun, so I joined in. I haven't officially debuted yet, but this is my first stage, so I hope you'll watch it kindly…."
Yeoreum’s girl-group cooking segment brought the housewarming video to a spectacular close.
"It runs fifteen minutes on the show, but since the recipes are simple I cut it down to ten. Manager, please keep a close eye on the timer. Sera can help me from the side while Soyeon unnie, Lina, and Chie act as the tasting judges. At least two out of the three have to approve for it to pass."
Yeoreum stood in front of the timer with a solemn expression, knife in hand. The grand BGM and crisp editing made the whole thing pop. True to her word, dishes flew out one after another in just ten minutes, and the three judges delivered reactions so heavenly they turned the screen into a furnace no mukbang had ever seen.
No one knew exactly how many times it had been shared, but the video hit ten million views in just four days. Pulling that kind of number with a live housewarming video was an insane record—even first-tier girl groups struggled to reach it. A week later, the video created an unexpected butterfly effect that flipped the executives of Pine Entertainment upside down.
Pine Entertainment Chairman’s Office
"This is unbelievable…." Chairman Park Beomjun stared at the screen with a dumbfounded expression. Love Connect sat at number ninety-two on the Melon chart.
"Does reverse charting like this even happen?"
"It never has. When does a girl group song that’s been dormant for nearly a year suddenly chart?" Division Director Yun Sangho was looking at the same screen. The song had climbed three more spots since yesterday.
"Even with Soyeon covering it, this doesn’t make sense. How are we supposed to interpret numbers like these?"
"The concept was wrong last time and it got buried, but the song itself is genuinely good. If listeners weren’t drawn to the track even with Soyeon’s cover, it never would have reached this ranking."
"Who’s the girl dancing at the end?"
"She introduced herself. Matsuoka Chie. She’s Japanese."
"Why is a Japanese girl on our show?"
"She was locked up together with Sera when we rescued her. Team Five Leader didn’t even know because Juwon never mentioned it."
"She doesn’t look like an ordinary person. Her dancing doesn’t lose to Sera or Lina at all."
"Should I look into her background?"
"No… that’s fine. I’ll hear it straight from Juwon. For now, call AR Team Leader Baek Hagyeong up here."
Chairman Park Beomjun’s intuition had begun to stir.
*
"This is crazy! It’s really on the charts!"
The girls clapped like excited seals, jumping up and down in front of the screen. Even Chie, who had no idea what was happening, clapped along with them.
"Seventy-six! We’re at seventy-six! We never even reached this high when we released our second album!"
Yeoreum’s eyes glistened with tears. They had been a group of failed idols who spent every day waiting to escape the dorms; they never dreamed something this miraculous could happen.
They had only hoped uploading the housewarming video would spread the name Red Blossom a little further. Charting had never even crossed their minds.
"This… counts as reverse charting too, right?"
"Of course it does! I knew the view count would explode the moment unnie started dancing, but I never imagined the song would blow up like this. This is a legendary moment!"
Even Sera—who had stayed so calm in the hospital—was losing her mind with excitement. Chie got scared and backed away a few steps.
"Manager. With results like this, won’t the company reconsider? The YouTube channel and social media are thanks to unnie and you, but the song charting means a lot of people have started to like us, right?"
Yeoreum’s eyes were desperate. She didn’t want to miss this chance.
"I think so too. Opportunities like this don’t come often. I’ll head into the office tomorrow, read the atmosphere, and tell the team leader to bring it up."
The next day—
I was summoned to the chairman’s office the moment I arrived.
"Why do you think I hired you?"
After a month, Chairman Park Beomjun’s eyes looked different. It was the gaze of a man who had spotted something on a supermarket shelf that he simply could not leave without buying.
"Wasn’t it because I saved Soyeon?"
"If that was all, I would have just paid you off. Do you have any idea how much trouble the company goes through just to add one employee? Besides, you have zero experience in this industry."
"That’s true."
"Yet I still hired you. Because I got a feeling. My gut spoke to me."
"A… feeling?"
"The feeling that you were going to cause one hell of an incident."
I roughly understood what he meant, but I couldn’t tell whether it was praise or an insult. Was it like the saying that failure is treason while success is revolution?
"I felt it the moment you blocked that knife flying toward Soyeon. So I hired you, and sure enough, my intuition was spot on."
"……."
"Soyeon follows you around like a little puppy now, and the Red Blossom girls are completely smitten with you, aren’t they? You’ve elevated a group of failed idols this far, so the rest is obvious."
He didn’t give me a single opening to speak.
"You made the company eat dirt over the Red Blossom dorm situation, then caught those cult lunatics and got it splashed across the social news section. And now this reverse charting—you know how ridiculous that is, right?"
"I was actually planning to talk to you about that…."
"When exactly did you win over Team Leader Baek?"
"Sorry?"
"I called him in yesterday and his eyes were bloodshot while he sang your praises—and Red Blossom’s too. I’ve never seen Baek compliment anyone like that. Once that guy gets fired up he charges at me or the director without hesitation. Are you his lifesaver or something?"
I am, actually.
"Well, that’s between the two of you… As long as the work gets done, I don’t care. So tell me. Red Blossom—do you think they can make it?"
He had spoken those words after only a month. Of course it was just the beginning, but having the company’s support would make everything far easier.
"The real incident won’t be me—it’ll be when Red Blossom makes their comeback. So if you’ll allow me to start recruiting members, I’ll run until I collapse. I’ll bring you people who will win your approval, Chairman."
"What does my approval matter? Team Leader Baek and the producers underneath him have to say yes."
"I’ll make sure they do."
"That Japanese girl who appeared in the video—you brought her to make her a member too? Her name was…"
"Matsuoka Chie."
"Right, Chie. How did you even find her?"
I told him the story from the moment I discovered Chie at the Sky Palace until now, embellishing the details in a way that worked in our favor. Chairman Park listened with a deeply interested expression.
"An SN trainee, huh… We’ll have to resolve the contract with them first."
"That’s already been taken care of."
"Yes, the contract needs to be resolved first… Wait, what?"
Chairman Park Beomjun’s eyes widened into perfect circles. He clearly never imagined a rookie manager would be able to poach an ace trainee from a major agency.
"SN has terminated Chie’s trainee contract."
"What about the penalty fee?"
"There wasn’t one."
"……."
He looked like a man who had stumbled upon an emperor penguin in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
"There’s no way those people would do that. What kind of connections do you have that let you pull a trainee so easily?"
"It wasn’t connections. I simply asked Executive Geum Taesang, and he granted the request."
"He did what?"
*
After Shin Juwon left the room, the director stepped inside.
"You look like you’ve seen a ghost."
"That Japanese girl… She’s an SN trainee. Apparently an ace who was close to debut."
"No wonder her dance lines stood out."
"But Juwon got her contract terminated and brought her here. She said she’ll audition if we give the okay."
"How the hell did he pull a trainee? What about the penalty fee?"
"They said they wouldn’t take a single cent."
"Who said that?"
"Geum Taesang."
"Executive Geum Taesang?"
"That’s what I said."
The Geum Taesang that Director Yun Sangho knew was a man possessed of demonic talent. A planner who excelled at everything from entertainment projects to company management, an outstanding producer, yet someone who treated his own celebrities like garbage and carried terrible rumors in his wake—the worst villain in the entire industry. That man had released a trainee simply because a rookie manager asked? Without any conditions whatsoever?
The director stared at the chairman with an expression of pure disbelief.
"Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know how to react right now either."