Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: I'm Not Satisfied with the Rankings
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Not satisfied with the rankings.
The silent car interior.
Maybe because it was morning rush hour, the roads were packed with cars, and the sound of wind rushing past and tires humming along softly filled the air.
A-yeon was using those noises as a lullaby, snoring softly beside me.
She must have been utterly exhausted, mentally and physically, to fall asleep so obliviously next to someone she was hostile toward.
She'd looked tired, so I'd told her to catch a quick nap on the way to the Mafdu exclusive lounge, and she'd actually passed out.
Well, after we'd clung to each other in bed all night, this was hardly surprising.
Just as we were almost there, A-yeon slowly opened her eyes.
"Yawn..."
She let out a big yawn and peered out the window.
Confirming we were nearly there, she straightened her disheveled posture, but her body ached with every little movement, making her flinch and pause.
As expected, the aftermath of being grabbed by me and rolling wildly on the bed lingered in her body.
"Your body hurting all over, right?"
"Mind your own business."
"Doesn't your womb feel all tingly? It's probably because my dick..."
"Shut up."
"..."
She froze my mouth like the embodiment of cold itself.
I'd wanted to reminisce about the passionate night we'd shared, but it left a bitter taste instead.
A brief silence followed. To break the awkwardness, I started chattering away.
"Oh, right, we're almost there. So no more sleeping..."
"I know."
"...Want some water?"
"No."
"Did you sleep enough? Feeling okay?"
Even her short replies had stopped coming, and A-yeon just stared out the window without a word.
For reference, she'd been in that position since morning.
More precisely, ever since she'd come out of the shower in the morning and I'd pretended to apologize before suddenly grabbing her breasts and sucking her nipples like I was trying to pull them off—she'd been treating me like I didn't exist as a person.
She probably thought I'd treated her like a toy. But if she kept acting like this, she'd only taste even greater humiliation later...
Getting off Mafdu and surviving were two different things.
For now, I held back my words and tried to lighten the mood.
"Don't you want to talk to me? I was really sorry this morning. It wasn't just playing around; I genuinely felt bad, but your tits..."
"Focus on driving."
"..."
A-yeon was punctuating her responses so curtly now that it was getting hard to even keep talking to her.
Her prickliness made my eyebrow twitch a bit, but since I'd done wrong, I decided to put up with this much.
We didn't exchange another word until we got out of the car. The moment we arrived, A-yeon headed straight upstairs to change and start her Mafdu training—without so much as a greeting.
"Her personality suits that attitude better, but damn, it's suffocating..."
I muttered to myself and headed to the monitoring room.
I'd originally planned to drop A-yeon off and head straight to the station, but something made me feel like swinging by.
The monitoring room, operated much like the control room, had PD Kim clicking away as he checked the feeds from the cameras.
Shooting hadn't started yet, so he was probably running pre-checks.
"Hello, PD Kim."
"Oh, Director, hello."
PD Kim started to stand up when he saw me, but I gestured for him to stay seated and plopped down next to him.
"Don't mind me—keep doing what you were doing."
"Ah, got it."
The trainees' training was about to start, and I didn't want to distract him.
PD Kim refocused on the screens, absorbed in his broadcast planning, while I checked the footage and the current online cumulative voting rankings alongside it.
1. Han Seo-hyun (T-String)
2. Kim Sarang (T-String)
3. Kang Ye-rin (Faya)
4. Seo Ah-hyun (Faya)
5. Luna (NHJ Entertainment)
6. Aria (Demon Entertainment)
7. Sua (Enric Entertainment)
'Hmm...'
I didn't bother checking all 90 spots, just glanced at the debut zone up to 7th place, and it left me more disappointed than I'd expected.
Were people's tastes really this off?
Or maybe it was unavoidable.
The top four were trainees from Faya and T-String, big agency hopefuls.
The Faya trainees, who'd held 1st and 2nd early on, were sliding down as their agency's drug scandal blew up.
T-String Entertainment had risen as a major player by debuting a successful girl crush girl group, so their trainees had a vibe aimed more at female fans than males.
They'd been producing their junior group in the same girl crush vein as their seniors, scouting and training girls to match, then sending them to Mafdu.
Honestly, I wished they'd just drop out midway, personally speaking.
The Mafdu project girl group, Seras, was going to squeeze every last drop of male desire with maxed-out femininity—no girl crush bullshit.
So on a grand scale, T-String trainees felt off-brand...
Anyway, the top 1-4 from major agencies were coasting on their company halo for easy ranking spots.
5th and 6th were the type whose popularity baffled me sometimes, but their stage names gave it away—they weren't Korean. Profiles showed Southeast Asian origins, so they were riding blind votes from K-pop fans in that region to high ranks.
And finally, 7th was our cute little Sua.
It was proof my eye for talent wasn't wrong.
A trainee from no-name Enric Entertainment who'd already debuted once with Celia, yet here she was in the debut zone of a survival show.
Well, pretty face, great dance and vocals.
Under that sweet, demure look, her massively swollen breasts added killer reversal charm—men had no choice but to vote.
Plus, I'd pushed her screen time from episode 1.
Right on cue, the screen PD Kim was watching showed training starting, and Sua popped into frame perfectly timed.
'Phew... Sua, let's push all the way to debut like this.'
Suddenly, I craved her puppy-like fresh scent.
Wanted to grab her wrist right now, drag her out, pin her against the wall, and take her from behind...
No, snap out of it.
I shook my head hard and returned to my original thoughts.
Looking at the debut zone now, we were screwed.
1st and 2nd had some reggae-head vibe, baggy pants style, like they'd spit lyrics about being cool and different.
3rd and 4th from Faya had decent style, honestly. But the drug scandal stigma hung over their agency, leaving their future rankings unpredictable.
5th and 6th were propped up by mindless bloc voting from Southeast Asian fans—a prime example of voting system flaws.
Hell, they could barely speak Korean, and their dance and singing sucked... Should've cut them at auditions if I'd known.
Ha, excluding Sua, the entire debut zone was flawed.
As project director, this gave me a splitting headache.
I turned to PD Kim to share my thoughts.
"PD Kim."
"Yes, Director."
"What do you think of the current debut zone lineup?"
"..."
"Be honest and straightforward."
PD Kim glanced at me cautiously, then spoke heavily.
"Sorry to the trainees, but at this rate... won't they flop? The show itself is already a success, but the girl group it produces looks grim. Too many landmines, and the decent ones are unstable in holding ranks."
"As expected... What did In-PD say?"
"Senior was way blunter. Said the votes bend toward their own agencies, so we might as well rig it. Of course, we can't, haha."
The PDs thought the same as me. The debut lineup sucked except for Sua.
Only episode 1 had aired so far, but survival shows tended to lock in early rankings, so we needed countermeasures.
Rigging was a no-go, so we'd have to get way more biased and discriminatory with screen time allocation.
Hmm... But looking at the rankings, something felt missing. Ah.
"Wait. Where's Yoo A-yeon in the debut zone? I remember she was 5th right after episode 1."
"Ah, she's probably dropped out of the top 10 now? That... drug rumor keeps circulating, so she's in freefall."
"Hmm... I see."
At that, I fought back the lewd grin creeping onto my face.
"But Director, shouldn't we drop Yoo A-yeon? The noise around her is too much."
"Oh, that. I looked into it—she's clean. As a former Premist member, it's just a formality investigation. Nothing like what people imagine, so rest easy."
"Still, the damage until her innocence is proven..."
"True, but it's a shame. The situation's unfair enough to end her idol career... Dropping from Mafdu now would just paint a target on her back. As an idol specialist broadcaster, let's think of her future, take the hit, and keep her."
"Whoa... Director, you're such a warm-hearted guy."
"Haha..."
Thanks to the warmth inside A-yeon's pussy, I'd become a warm person too...
Anyway, setting that aside, where was A-yul's ranking? She'd bombed the vocal evaluation but gained traction later with that sleek face after crying once...
There—21st. Decent for an indie, but not enough.
Where's Sihyeon... 18th? Higher than expected. Dahyeon at 26th... That Japanese girl, Yukika... 37th.
My plans in my head were crumbling.
Dahyeon and Sihyeon were iffy, but Sua, A-yul, Yukika, and A-yeon were must-haves for Seras...
As I racked my brain, PD Kim suddenly exclaimed.
"Huh? Hey! What happened?!"
He even radioed the on-site staff to get the situation.
I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at the screen with him. A trainee was clutching her wrist in pain.
The crowd around her said it all—it was serious.
And amid the worried onlookers was Yukika, exuding a fresh image with her light green hair.
"What? Twisted wrist? How? Anyway, send her to the hospital first!"
...! This was my chance.
I'd been quietly eavesdropping, and seized the moment, grabbing PD Kim's shoulder as I stood.
"PD Kim, perfect timing. I had someone to take to the hospital anyway—I'll drop her off."