Chapter 62
Chapter 62
A few days earlier, in PD Lee Wi-yeon's workspace.
[Han Neuti's fansite admin posted a Cha-Baek preview too ㄷㄷ]
(Photo)
(Photo)
Comments
―Whoa
―LMAOOOOO
―Legendary
(Excerpt)
―Are those comment numbers for real?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I've never seen anything like this
―Ah, my shrine is overflowing, if you're done praying please leave
―I saved 20 pics to my gallery but I keep coming back to this post because I want to relive the feeling of when I first saw them,,
"The ones who were supposed to blow up didn't, and it's these two again?"
Click!
Lee Wi-yeon slammed the internet window shut with a loud noise.
Then he irritably snatched up the stack of documents on his desk. It was none other than the profiles of the "pre-selected members."
'What's wrong with these kids?'
He'd tipped them off about the mission content and song selections in advance, handed them the best songs, and given them the most favorable editing treatment.
He thought he'd given them every privilege a PD could offer—maybe not perfectly, given the need to avoid the eyes of trainees and day staff who weren't in the know—but everything.
And yet these bastards who were crawling around at rock bottom, just what the hell...
'No, I can't pin this entirely on them.'
Through the contract negotiation process and the editing and packaging process, Lee Wi-yeon had unwittingly grown attached to them.
They had literally become "PD picks."
As they say, blood is thicker than water, and thanks to that, Lee Wi-yeon's arrows flew squarely at the viewers instead.
"Honestly, people with no eye for talent."
Lee Wi-yeon clicked his tongue once more, and just then, a message arrived.
It was from a writer.
[PD-nim, when will we announce trainee Mun Jeong-jin's withdrawal?]
Lee Wi-yeon replied instantly without a moment's hesitation.
[Morning of the next episode's broadcast day]
Mun Jeong-jin's withdrawal had been decided midway through the Third Competition, but discussions had been underway since before the Ranking Announcement Ceremony.
From what the company said, it seemed the trainee had told them he wanted to quit voluntarily.
'Once a company kid's got his foot in the door, he should see it through. What a coward.'
In any case, the production team kept Mun Jeong-jin's withdrawal completely under wraps.
They were already on guard against the possibility that, if he left, the votes he'd held would migrate to his fellow "I Want to Give All This Spring to You" teammates.
Mun Jeong-jin's fans' weeklong ordeal of voting and anxiety would be for nothing, but Lee Wi-yeon, now pushing his mid-forties, figured calling that an "ordeal" was laughable.
Really, how hard was it to just access an app and cast a vote?
"Still, the situation's improved thanks to it."
Mun Jeong-jin's withdrawal had vacated one spot in the debut lineup.
This meant it was now safe to leave Seo Cha-gyeom—whom they hadn't been able to tank no matter what they tried—alone.
'So what's left now... is him, I guess.'
Lee Wi-yeon recalled a conversation he'd had with the Youth team manager not long ago.
—Regarding Gyeon-woo, we're planning to pull him back to the company as I mentioned before. But his last ranking was...
—He was 5th.
—Ah, really. That's still a bit ambiguous. ...The grade evaluation has a big impact, doesn't it?
Lee Wi-yeon understood the hidden meaning behind those words.
'Looks like they weren't happy I put him in Tier 1.'
Baek Gyeonwoo's grade had already been set as Tier 2 during the pre-meeting with Youth.
However, when it came time for the grade readjustment, Park Hyeong-tae argued that Baek Gyeonwoo was the only option to bump up if they wanted to drop Seo Cha-gyeom to Tier 2, and Lee Wi-yeon had reluctantly accepted the plan to raise Baek Gyeonwoo to Tier 1.
Because at the time, checking Seo Cha-gyeom's rise had felt more urgent than managing Baek Gyeonwoo.
—Would you consider a voluntary withdrawal, by any chance?
—Ah, no, that would hurt our company's image... Fans are smart these days. They can all tell when it's voluntary or when the company forced it. And survival show fans are notoriously vicious, you know. If you want to cut him down in advance, elimination is better than withdrawal.
"Ugh, this is rough..."
Lee Wi-yeon let out a deep sigh.
'As expected of a major agency, they're stubborn as hell, too.'
But he'd already taken in too many kickbacks to back out now. With bloodshot eyes, Lee Wi-yeon clicked on something.
[3rd_Bom-da-nege-giving-you]
This was the footage for the "I Want to Give All This Spring to You" team—originally due for editing much earlier, but pushed to the very last slot under the excuse of Mun Jeong-jin's withdrawal.
'So. How to get Baek Gyeonwoo eliminated.'
Lee Wi-yeon replayed the footage over and over, deep in thought.
Back when the writer had contacted him to say that Joo Yeonhee's solo maneuvering had landed Seo Cha-gyeom in "I Want to Give All This Spring to You," and that Baek Gyeonwoo had even ended up on the same team.
Lee Wi-yeon had thought it was actually a good thing.
Because of course Seo Cha-gyeom would outshine Baek Gyeonwoo.
He figured that by putting Seo Cha-gyeom front and center as the main character, he could naturally lower the visibility of Baek Gyeonwoo and the rest of the team.
But...
'Baek Gyeonwoo's buzz is too big right now.'
The situation had gone sideways once Baek Gyeonwoo's preview blew up.
Seo Cha-gyeom, mentioned alongside him, already had high buzz, so he was basically maintaining the status quo, but Baek Gyeonwoo, by contrast, was drawing a steep, upward-trending graph.
He had surpassed the level where he could be buried through total screen-time erasure.
In fact, when voting opened, Baek Gyeonwoo's ranking—which had been struggling at 8th—had turned around from the moment the preview dropped, and he was currently re-entering at 4th place.
Yet this wasn't a situation where they could evil-edit Baek Gyeonwoo, either.
Lee Wi-yeon brooded over it deeply.
'Tampering with the vote count has become a necessity.'
The only remaining question was how to make it look natural.
A method to put Baek Gyeonwoo on a downward trajectory without using an evil edit.
"Hmm."
After finishing his deliberation, Lee Wi-yeon sent a message to the writer.
* * *
"The broadcast was fun today. You were on a lot, hyung..."
While Kim Sanho had returned home and was chatting away comfortably as he took off his shoes, Jeong Sowol, who had quietly drawn close to my side before I'd even noticed, asked me something.
"But hyung, what if you really debut there?"
"......"
"Then we won't be able to debut together?"
Had he only just thought of that now?
At Jeong Sowol's appearance, Kim Sanho, who had been dawdling in the entryway, gaped for a moment before speaking in a barely audible, crawling voice.
"He won't... debut there... not... he said he won't..."
He probably won't even be heard.
Just as expected, acting as though he hadn't heard a thing, Jeong Sowol's attention shifted to Han Neuti, who was sitting vacantly in front of the TV.
"Hyung! If you don't debut there, come here."
"...Huh?"
Hey, that was the line I'd been saving...
Jeong Sowol's unannounced directness stirred up an unexpected tension in me.
Still, I was curious. How would he react?
I didn't want him to spit out polite, empty words out of awkwardness, so I pretended to be indifferent and stared into empty space.
A moment later, an answer came.
"Well, I should at least see it through to the end."
'...That's a bit vague, isn't it?'
I had been trying to squeeze the most positive signal possible out of Han Neuti's answer when I spotted the clock. It was late, just shy of the clock ticking over to the next day.
For now, let's just send them off.
"Hyung, let's go. I'll walk you out."
"Oh, sure."
Walking him out just meant going as far as the parking lot right out front, but I tried to sound a little friendlier than usual. Maybe I'd unconsciously gotten a bit impatient...
I shoved the fidgeting Kim Sanho further inside and headed outside with Han Neuti.
The alleyway in front of the dorm. Han Neuti, who had climbed into his car, rolled down the window.
"Hey, Chaegyeom-ah."
"Yeah?"
Han Neuti took a long pause choosing his words, then suddenly let out a hollow laugh.
"We probably won't get to debut together."
"We can make it happen."
It was truly sincere, but separately, I had to admit it was a thoughtless remark with no rhyme or reason.
Thanks to that, Han Neuti, who took my words as a generic, encouraging statement, let the worry fade from his face and gave a small smile.
"See you tomorrow."
With those words, Han Neuti drove off.
Leaning against the brick wall, I stood perfectly still until Han Neuti's car rounded the corner and disappeared.
'Tomorrow, huh.'
A few months ago, the reason I'd thrown myself into this reckless gamble of an operation.
And the final destination.
The day of the Third Ranking Announcement Ceremony was finally just around the corner.
'For that hyung, maybe it'll be his last filming.'
In a double sense. Because of elimination, or because the broadcast would crash.
I returned to the dorm and ran back through the current situation.
Since I couldn't judge it alone, naturally, I did so with my phone in hand.
[Airplane-z fandom fracturing... summarizing both sides' positions]
Baek Gyeonwoo fans: We were so excited that the preview finally blew up the reaction meter and thought he'd finally get some real screentime, but turns out on the broadcast they're saying it's all thanks to Seo Cha-gyeom and Seo Cha-gyeom stole all the screentimeㅋㅋㅋ
Seo Cha-gyeom fans: Every single competition he runs himself ragged carrying the bus, but on the show he gets treated like leftovers every time, and just when he finally gets a little decent screentime, Baek Gyeonwoo fans get possessed by a persecution complex and start whining, and I'm feeling turned off in real time
Comments
―Why so excited?
―Mun Jeong-jin fans: Enjoy it while it lasts you fucks
―Good, take this chance to disband
"......"
Reading the screenshot that had floated over onto Wit, I replayed this week's broadcast in my head.
The "I Want to Give All This Spring to You" team's sequence had begun lightly with PPL.
Watching it through the screen, I looked even more robotic, but I couldn't even get around to agonizing over my acting skills because what came after was far more shocking.
[Mun Jeong-jin: I didn't really pick this song because I thought it suited me. I just... wanted to do it together with Chaegyeom.]
At this point, Mun Jeong-jin's reaction from Episode 1 was brought back.
[(During trainee Seo Cha-gyeom's first appearance)]
[Mun Jeong-jin: Trainee Seo Cha-gyeom. If this hadn't been a broadcast, I would've confessed.]
And then it returned to the interview scene.
[Q. Was your confession a success?]
[Mun Jeong-jin: Ah~ I have way too many rivals. Regrettably, I'll be conceding to my fellow contestants....]
After that, Hyun-i hyung's interview came up.
[Jeong Hyeon-i: You know, Chaegyeom really taught me well, ever since Tier 1.]
Here, that scene was replayed.
The scene where I was helping Hyun-i hyung during the <AWAKE> rehearsal, that is.
That's right. The very scene they'd used to try and drive a wedge between Hyun-i hyung and me—this time, they'd recycled it as a scene to highlight my selfless side.
Yielding my part to Jo Woo-jin... calling that "yielding" was laughable in itself, but even that scene had been dutifully inserted.
Jo Woo-jin had been interviewed, too.
[Jo Woo-jin: This is my second time being on the same team (as Chaegyeom) in a row, and, ah, really, I came to think of him as a really helpful friend... There were a lot of those moments (during this rehearsal process).]
And the scene where Joo Yeonhee scolded me didn't even air.
[Joo Yeonhee: (In your performance) there's nothing that really hits you.]
To be exact... they had changed the personal feedback I'd received into feedback directed at the whole team.
And then, as if following on naturally, the scene of me pondering over the feedback led into me redistributing parts to my teammates.
[Seo Cha-gyeom: In the highlight, it could feel like each team member is appearing one by one to cheer on Gyeonwoo, who's making his confession... (marking the lyric sheet with a highlighter) I think dividing it like this would be good.]
If you were a Baek Gyeonwoo fan, you probably felt a chill around this point.
The broadcast was saying that 'that part' of Baek Gyeonwoo's—the one the entire internet was going crazy over—wasn't because Baek Gyeonwoo had done it well...
It was 'thanks to Seo Cha-gyeom's excellent part revisions.'
In other words, it was an edit that attributed the entire success of the "I Want to Give All This Spring to You" stage to me.
I turned off my phone and lay down on the bed.
Only then did Mun Jeong-jin's words—that he was sorry—come back to me.
Not "I'm sorry," but "I was sorry"...
"Ha."
Now I understood what those words meant.
We'd been swapped, Mun Jeong-jin and I.