Chapter 53
Se-rang remained calm.
No matter how Chairman Yeon glared at her with his face turning red and blue, Se-rang did not so much as blink.
She already knew that this greedy old man was not truly angry enough to lose his reason.
She had heard plenty about it back when she was Kang Iwon. She had rarely met Chairman Yeon one-on-one herself, but there had been plenty of rumors.
They said that when Chairman Yeon openly showed his anger, he was actually never truly angry.
He was merely putting on enough pressure to break your spirit.
So there was no need to be afraid.
But if Chairman Yeon was strangely kind to you and did nothing but laugh warmly, then you were fucked.
It had actually happened to her.
After founding Undefeated, Iwon had once run into Chairman Yeon by chance at a conference attended by executives from entertainment companies.
At the time, Chairman Yeon had looked at Iwon with more pride than anyone else and had even patted her shoulder.
‘I’m truly proud of you. It pains me to think that Imperial let such an outstanding talent slip away.’
He really had said that.
That crazy old bastard had pretended to be the nicest man in the world while scheming behind everyone’s backs.
Se-rang remembered Chairman Yeon from that time.
She remembered everything about the smile he had worn when he approached her.
That’s the kind of smile I need to be wary of. Threats like this aren’t scary at all.
“It hasn’t been that long since the Fair Trade Commission designated us as a large business group, Grandfather. Don’t you understand the tragedy of being an entertainment company? Whenever politicians need something to distract the public with, we’re always among the first to be investigated. You’re already in a bad mood because the political situation is unstable and you’re worried someone might start digging into us soon. Do you really want to give them something to use against us?”
“…….”
A strange look flashed across Chairman Yeon’s face.
Se-rang deliberately ignored it and continued.
“You need to give up a little flesh to take the bone. Isn’t that how you built Imperial in the first place? Is Imperial going to collapse because we accept a few contract terms? Will the stock price fall? No. Absolutely not. This could actually improve our reputation. It’s a chance to correct our past mistakes and regain the trust of our other artists.”
“Reputation? There is no entertainment company in this industry with a better reputation than Imperial. Even now, there are plenty of stars willing to sign with us if I so much as lift a finger.”
“That’s only true for people who haven’t debuted yet or stars in somewhat ambiguous positions. You know perfectly well that the people who’ve genuinely made it are all trying to become independent one way or another, so why do you keep pretending otherwise?”
“Idols have short careers. Let them go. We’ve already squeezed all the sweetness out of them. It’s better to use what we extracted from those bastards to raise new ones than to hold onto people who are already past their prime, only for them to forget what they owe us and make noise. We don’t need them.”
When Chairman Yeon spoke of having “squeezed out” all their sweetness, Se-rang felt another surge of disgust at the narrow twist of his mouth.
“Don’t say things you don’t mean, Grandfather. You’re always the one saying that knowing how to handle people is the entirety of business. You said it isn’t enough to discover talent—that the most important quality in the entertainment industry is maintaining trust with those people until the very end.”
Se-rang knew that Chairman Yeon was still testing her.
He was pretending otherwise and continuing to spew greedy words, but if Se-rang had tried to appease him by agreeing with him, she would actually have failed his test.
Chairman Yeon preferred people who could say what needed to be said to his face over those who merely catered to his mood.
As long as they were his people.
If Chairman Yeon had been nothing more than a short-sighted man without that degree of nerve, Imperial would never have grown this far.
“Fine.”
As expected.
Se-rang silently cheered.
“You’re right. In this business, if you don’t know how to hold onto people’s hearts, you won’t last long.”
Chairman Yeon crossed out several clauses in the contract Se-rang had presented, then began writing in several others.
“Offer them these terms.”
“!”
“This contract is far more favorable to Twenties than the one you wrote, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I didn’t expect you to go this far—”
“In exchange, make me one promise.”
Chairman Yeon looked at Se-rang with colder eyes than ever before.
“If Twenties fails to produce the same level of revenue they did at their peak, you will take full responsibility.”
“Pardon?”
Something feels wrong.
I have a very bad feeling about this.
“If they fail to bring in that much revenue, forget the Succession Competition and everything else. Marry CEO Baek quietly and spend the rest of your life supporting your husband.”
You son of a—
“…Anyway, I definitely received the Chairman’s approval, so you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”
“Really…?”
“Yes.”
Se-rang nodded firmly once more, then studied their expressions.
She quietly added, “However, since Imperial and I are showing this much sincerity toward you, I also need you to make me one promise.”
“…What kind of promise?”
The members looked at Se-rang with expressions that said, I knew there would be a catch, and So you’re finally showing your true colors.
“You need to work harder than ever before.”
“!”
“Get rid of every trace of the kind of ‘top-star syndrome’ that sometimes appears in veteran top idols and throw yourselves into this with the same attitude you had at the beginning. You need to release albums regularly. You need to work hard on overseas tours and domestic tours. Events, broadcasts—whatever it is, you need to do all of it.”
“Come on, we’re not rookies. Who at our level would—”
“You have to.”
Se-rang immediately cut off the protest.
“If you intend to coast along, let your peak pass, make a reasonable amount of money, then decline until you’re forgotten by the world as one of those idols people say, ‘They used to be huge back then,’ then you’re welcome to walk out right now. I promise you, even if you go to another company, we won’t lift a finger against you.”
“…….”
“But the moment you leave this company, you’ll realize something. Imperial has been providing you with far more than you think. As long as you carried the Imperial name, being placed in the final slot of a music show was a given. That won’t be the case anymore. From now on, your manager will have to run their feet raw visiting PDs just to maybe secure you a decent slot.”
“…Is this a threat?”
“Of course not. I’m not saying we’ll block your path. I’m only telling you that leaving us also means leaving behind the benefits we ran ourselves ragged to provide you.”
After saying that, Se-rang brought out all of Twenties’ albums, which she had prepared on her desk in advance.
Every album, from their earliest debut release to the most recent one.
“Why don’t we start with the music and concepts? This is a little awkward for me to say myself, but let me be blunt. There are very few companies in this industry willing to invest enough money to give you photographs of this quality, songs and concepts of this quality, and this level of visual sensibility. At best, only the other major entertainment companies could do it, and they’re not going to take you in. Why? Because that would create a bad precedent.”
“…….”
“Even something as ordinary as a photobook is different. The scale of personnel involved is entirely different. And what about broadcasts? We own an entire broadcasting station, so we were able to put your solo reality show on television, even if it was only on cable. But from now on? That would be impossible. Self-produced content would probably be the best you could manage, but even then, you’d struggle to make it with the same budget as before.”
All right. That was enough of the stick.
Se-rang knew it was time for the carrot.
“If your attitude was simply to make some money, retire at an appropriate time, and enjoy the rest of your lives, I wouldn’t be saying any of this. But that isn’t who you are. Imperial was never a place that merely trained idols. It trained ‘artists’ themselves. You were artists from the beginning, and even now, you are still ‘artists.’”
Chairman Yeon might not think that way, but every producer, director, and staff member working under him approached their jobs with that mindset.
Kang Iwon herself had spent her life living and struggling alongside artists with precisely that attitude.
“By working with Imperial, the best entertainment company in the industry, you have already seen nothing but the best and worked only with the finest artists. You grew while surrounded by those good things. It’s the kind of environment where it’s impossible not to grow. And now all of you are pursuing individual growth as well. You want to create your own art, stand on stages that belong to you, and continue this journey with your fans.”
“Hmm.”
The moment those brief sighs escaped the members of Twenties, Se-rang knew.
“For ambitious artists, is there really any partner better than Imperial?”
This is going to work.
“Then let me ask you one thing.”
Just when everyone seemed to be falling for Se-rang’s argument, someone raised a hand.
“What are you planning to do about CEO Yeon Si-ho?”
I was wondering when that question would come up.
Se-rang grinned.