A Bet
On my way to the training center in Sangam, I called Ye-ji.
"What are you doing right now?"
"How are they holding up?"
The rookie road manager.
Ye-ji’s voice sank.
I clicked my tongue softly.
They were only days away from debut. If they were struggling mentally, that was not a good sign.
But given how much weight this incident carried, it made sense too.
That Kim Jang-hun director scandal made the nine o’clock news too, didn’t it?
Honestly, after going through something like that, it would have been strange if To.Any were still in perfect shape.
I clicked my tongue again and asked, "You’ll head to the practice room after lunch, right?"
"That’s the one from last time. I’m on my way to the training center now, so I’ll see you later, Ye-ji."
I hung up and dug through my contacts.
There it was, the new total director’s number that Team Leader Ma Seok-du had given me.
"Choi Jeong-eun... Choi Jeong-eun. I’ve never even heard that name before."
If I didn’t know her name, that meant she was still an unknown rookie director.
Hmph. Smells like a stopgap.
Even if the Kim Jang-hun director situation had blown up out of nowhere, wasn’t a complete rookie a bit much?
My temple throbbed.
I rubbed the back of my neck and emptied my head.
"Easy. Take it slow."
After shaking off the useless worry, I called Director Choi Jeong-eun.
After a few rings, a voice weighed down by exhaustion came through the speaker.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Director Choi Jeong-eun. This is Chief Manager Kwon Chan from Team 5."
"Team 5... Chief Manager Kwon?"
"Yes. I’m the manager assigned to To.Any."
"...Oh, that Chief Manager Kwon?"
Fortunately, I didn’t have to introduce myself at length.
Maybe Team Leader Ma Seok-du had already passed the message along, because Director Choi Jeong-eun already knew who I was.
"Nice to meet you. What brings you to call?"
"Nothing major. I’d like to meet you sometime today, if that’s all right."
"I do have some time today, but..."
"I’m on my way to the Sangam Training Center right now."
"Ah! Perfect timing. When will you get here?"
I checked the navigation. Ten minutes.
Once I added in time to grab coffee, I figured I had at least thirty minutes.
"You’re coming pretty soon. When you arrive, please come to Recording Studio 2. I’ll be waiting there."
After hanging up, I focused on driving.
Before long, the Sangam Training Center came into view.
I parked the car, stopped by the 24-hour cafe, and bought two coffees and a slice of cake.
On the way to the studio, I sorted out what I needed to do.
First, I had to confirm whether there really was a song called Youth Travel, and after that, I’d probably need to start properly getting face-to-face with the To.Any girls.
After spending so long stuck in office work, I’d suddenly landed in a rush of assignments, and a faint fatigue began to creep in.
"After going this far, it’d be a real shame if there weren’t a song called Youth Travel."
...No.
Come to think of it, shame wasn’t the real issue.
I had told Park Yu-hyeon, with total confidence, that I’d push them into the top five of the charts. How was I supposed to clean that up?
But if there is a song called Youth Travel, isn’t that a problem too?
If Youth Travel really existed... then the future messages I’d been receiving were real.
A chill ran up my arms, and I rubbed them hard.
It’s a problem either way.
With a short click of my tongue, I knocked lightly on the door to Recording Studio 2 on the third floor, where Director Choi Jeong-eun was waiting.
"Director Choi Jeong-eun. Chief Manager Kwon from Team 5."
I waited for a reply, but instead the door opened.
A woman in her early thirties, bare-faced and wearing glasses, gave me a slight nod.
"Chief Manager Kwon?"
"Yes, I’m Chief Manager Kwon."
"Ah, nice to meet you. I’m Director Choi Jeong-eun."
I held out the iced Americano and cake I’d prepared in advance.
Director Choi Jeong-eun startled and cried, "Oh my. What’s all this?"
"I couldn’t exactly show up empty-handed, so I grabbed these on the way."
"Well... thank you, but if I drink this too, it’ll be my fourth large coffee already today. Is that really okay?"
Even as she grumbled, Director Choi Jeong-eun stuck a straw into the iced Americano I’d bought.
While she did that, I stepped into the studio and looked around her workspace.
What a mess.
Plastic coffee cups were stacked up like a tower.
Sheet music and documents were strewn everywhere.
It looked less like a recording studio and more like a college club room after a drinking party.
Director Choi Jeong-eun watched my expression and said, "The studio is a disaster, isn’t it?"
"...Yes, well."
"Wow. That was brutally honest."
"I’m not the type who can lie."
Director Choi Jeong-eun burst out laughing.
"Chief Manager Kwon, how do you make a joke with such a serious face?"
It wasn’t a joke, though.
Still, I let it slide.
After a brief pause, I got to the reason I’d come here.
"The thing is, I was sent here on the director’s orders."
At the mention of the director, Choi Jeong-eun’s pupils widened.
"Ah... you mean Director Park Yu-hyeon?"
"Yes. I was told to start taking proper care of To.Any, so I came by..."
My voice trailed off, and I could hear the tension in it.
"Could I take a look at the track list for To.Any’s first album, Director Choi Jeong-eun?"
***
Tension, excitement, fear.
With all those emotions tangled together, I unfolded the track list Director Choi Jeong-eun handed me.
In that instant, my heart dropped with a heavy thud.
There it is.
Youth Travel.
It’s there.
The debut song that would turn flop-group To.Any into a number-one girl group.
Youth Travel was on the track list!
Without meaning to, I held my breath.
But it isn’t the title track.
To.Any’s title track was a song called Attention.
That was a little disappointing, but it didn’t dull the current running through my body one bit.
...Zing!
The thrill was impossible to explain, and the corners of my eyes trembled.
If Director Choi Jeong-eun hadn’t been standing there staring at me blankly, I might have collapsed on the spot.
...Should I be relieved about this?
So it really had been a future message, not spam?
I was a little scared.
My spine tingled at the sight of an event that defied common sense.
If I had to compare it to something... yes.
It felt exactly like winning the lottery.
I couldn’t quite believe it, I was dazed, I was scared, and I also wanted to throw my arms up and cheer.
Then Director Choi Jeong-eun called out to me.
"...Chief Manager Kwon? Your face looks terrible."
I turned, startled.
Choi Jeong-eun was looking at me with her eyes wide.
Feeling my wits snap back into place, I answered quickly.
"Ah, sorry. I haven’t been sleeping well lately."
"Want a Tylenol? Your face is really red."
"No, I’m fine."
"..."
Even after I waved her off, her gaze didn’t leave me.
At this rate, she looked ready to drag me to a hospital, so I forced the topic elsewhere.
"By the way, have you seen the girls’ stage, Director?"
"You mean To.Any?"
"Yes. Were they okay without the main vocal and main visual?"
Director Choi Jeong-eun stroked her chin.
"Like red bean buns without the sweet red bean filling?"
"...Empty inside?"
"Yes. To be honest, the girls’ visuals? Their singing? Not bad. Better than I expected, actually. But because the main visual and main vocal were missing, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was lacking."
I think I knew what she meant.
So basically, they lacked charm.
In a market like this, if an idol group right before debut was already being judged as lacking charm... that was a death sentence.
That was exactly what people said about flop groups.
But what if they had an attractive title track?
In the end, singers speak through their songs.
Idols were no different.
Visuals, dance, the glow of a giant agency.
A good song could swallow all of that whole.
And I knew exactly which song could do it.
Youth Travel.
At that moment, my head cleared all at once.
The tangled situation suddenly seemed simple.
Right... why was I even overthinking this?
I was the only one who knew that To.Any, headed straight down the flop-group path, had a song that could take them to number one on the digital charts.
That was all there was to it.
The moment I realized that, my tension shot up sharply.
At the same time, I finally understood what I needed to do next.
"Could I listen to Youth Travel?"
"Huh? Not the title track?"
A convincing excuse came out easily.
"I want to see To.Any perform the title track first."
Director Choi Jeong-eun shrugged and handed me the headset.
It seemed like a good headset; it fit around my ears comfortably.
"I’ll play the song, Chief Manager Kwon."
At her signal, a buoyant melody began pouring through the headset.
Youth is here, our own journey
With hearts full of excitement
And days soaked in sunlight
Enjoy this moment, right now.
One verse passed, and the second began.
On this night of shining stars,
You and I can be together.
We’ll ride the sea of youth,
And drift along like waves.
My impression after hearing the second verse was simple.
It’s plain.
For a song that hit number one, it was surprisingly subdued.
Then again, most idol songs sitting at the top of the charts these days were packed to the brim with stimulation.
And yet, for some reason, I liked the plainness of Youth Travel.
First of all, I like that the lyrics are all in Korean.
This was the Korean music market, but these days songs were full of more English than Korean.
But Youth Travel was Korean from beginning to end.
Let’s go traveling, carrying all our youth.
Bright drums.
Clear bass.
A distinctive voice dancing over it all.
And then I understood.
So that’s why it hit number one.
I’d wondered what kind of song had topped the digital charts, but there was nothing mysterious about it.
Youth Travel was simply pleasant to listen to.
***
Number one on the digital charts.
After unraveling the secret of Youth Travel, I talked a little more with Director Choi Jeong-eun.
"I think we should prepare for another internal evaluation, Director."
"At the director’s order?"
"Yes. He said a mid-cycle check is necessary."
"Jeez... looks like I’ll be pulling another all-nighter. I still have music video revisions and part changes backed up too."
I’d been a little worried because she was a rookie director, but she turned out to be better than I expected.
She complained with her mouth, but she was the type who gave everything she had to the work assigned to her.
Of course, whether she was just diligent or actually capable remained to be seen.
"That’s everything I came to report on today, so I’ll come by again tomorrow or the day after."
Director Choi Jeong-eun bowed while sipping the iced Americano I’d brought her.
"Thanks for your hard work, Chief Manager Kwon."
"You too, Director."
I left Recording Studio 2 and headed for Practice Room 3, where the To.Any girls were.
It was only a ten-minute walk, but during those ten minutes, all kinds of thoughts raced through my head.
Unlike before, though, they weren’t thoughts that tightened my throat with anxiety.
They were choices, spread out before me with wings of possibility.
At this point, I’m the only one who knows To.Any will hit number one.
For a girl group missing the main vocal and main visual to reach number one on the charts, they’d need pure divine luck.
And I already knew the event where that divine luck would come through.
I know the future of the idol market?
That was practically a cheat code.
Whatever I chose, I couldn’t fail.
The corners of my mouth twitched before I could stop them.
Then I suddenly remembered the bonus money Park Yu-hyeon had given me.
...
I stopped walking for a moment and pulled out the envelope I’d received from him today.
A million won in fifty-thousand-won bills.
Just as Park Yu-hyeon had said...
There was a pretty hefty amount in there for a cash gift.
My fingers slid over the stack of fifty-thousand-won notes as I thought it through.
It’s clear now. To.Any isn’t a flop group. They’re a girl group that’s going to hit number one.
And I had made a bet with Park Yu-hyeon over To.Any’s debut performance.
The prize was a bonus.
I didn’t know exactly how much that bonus would be, but if a director had been confident enough to make that kind of claim, it definitely wouldn’t be a small sum.
And yet, for some reason, it still felt insufficient.
"It’s not that I feel it’s insufficient. It really is insufficient."
I was about to turn a record-breaking flop-group girl group into a success from this point on.
And not just any girl group, either, but one that was already on the flop track.
Before I knew it, the words slipped out of my mouth.
"My bet with the director..."
I think I need to raise the stakes.
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