Chapter 74
Chapter 74
The place I was at right now was the exact same meeting room from the <MAKE100%> pre-meeting.
As for why I was here... well, you know.
For the past week, not a single day went by without Haru columns criticizing the network's public deception and manipulation of contestants plastered all over the main portal sites.
I was here as a proven victim to receive an apology.
Across from me sat PD Lee Wi-yeon, and on the opposite side sat me, Han Neuti, and the President.
Lee Wi-yeon parted her lips with an uncomfortable expression.
"I am filled with regret that things have come to this."
It didn't look remotely sincere, but.......
Honestly, I hadn't cared about an apology even before coming here.
'The compensation is what matters.'
A few days ago, while Haru was boiling over with <MAKE100%> talk all day, I came across a post titled 'How much compensation can a manipulation victim receive?'
Now that I was the person in question, my curiosity got the better of me. I clicked on it.
To summarize the contents:
Since it was caught before the final mission and the actual debut team wasn't rigged, the compensation based on expected debut revenue was... nothing.
Also, since all the victims were trainees with no career, there was no damaged reputation to speak of, making defamation-related compensation difficult.
It concluded by saying mental damages could be received, but that would require waiting for a court ruling.
The conclusion... was a totally useless post saying we'd have to wait and see.
However, QTen was a place that calculated fast.
It seemed they had looked at the viewership graph for this season, which had been plummeting, and decided <MAKE100%> had run its course.
They quickly cut off the related production staff and chose to restore their image with sufficient victim compensation.
Articles flooded in stating they would soon return all the money they had taken to the victims and actively support their future activities.
'Though that last part sounds like just words.'
So, the amount of compensation we ended up receiving was.......
I checked the number at the very bottom of the paper held out before my eyes.
"......."
I'd expected it to be in the tens of thousands of dollars at most.
'Just how much did they take?'
Maybe I should say thanks, given how it turned out.
......No. Even as a joke, that was such a snobbish thought. Let's cancel that.
Anyway, if I invested all this money, a debut flashy enough to soothe the fans' hearts was definitely possible.......
"Are you not going to apologize to the trainees?"
The President's voice yanked me back to reality.
Putting aside my embarrassment at having been lost in the money, my honest feelings at this moment were this.
'Why bother with an apology.'
Even if it was a sincere apology, I didn't know what meaning it would have. I just wanted to go back quickly and lay out a debut plan.
But stopping the President here... would probably look like I was siding with Lee Wi-yeon, so I was keeping quiet.
Lee Wi-yeon stared at us with a blank face. In a situation where she couldn't frown, it looked like she was making the most uncooperative expression possible.
After a moment, the sound of a chair scraping was heard.
"I'm sorry. Seo Cha-gyeom, Han Neuti."
Lee Wi-yeon bowed her waist so deeply that her forehead nearly touched the desk.
And she froze in that exact posture.
"......."
"......."
How long was she planning to stay like that?
I glanced at Han Neuti, and right then, Han Neuti was glancing at me too.
Han Neuti motioned toward Lee Wi-yeon with his chin and mouthed at me.
'Why is she like that?'
It wasn't an act; his eyes genuinely didn't know.
Whether she lacked core strength, Lee Wi-yeon's whole body began to tremble. And even after a long while... I mean, just when it started to feel so excessive it was becoming a waste of time.
I realized.
'It's a power struggle.'
She intended to stay like that until we said it was okay.
"Um."
I broke the silence.
"Then I have something to ask of you."
It must have been an unexpected response.
Lee Wi-yeon flinched, her body shaking, and moved only her head to look at me.
"Could you release our final ending song?"
I was talking about the song we made at the music camp.
For some reason... at that moment, Ahn Jiwon suddenly came to mind.
We hadn't been able to perform together in the end, but wasn't the song we made together quite similar in texture?
It was a sort of token of appreciation toward him for wrapping up the situation with his confession.
After hearing my request, Lee Wi-yeon straightened her back as if she'd forgotten all about the power struggle. She furrowed her brow in thought.
"Posting it on the network channel might trigger bad public opinion."
"Yes."
"The music video is already complete, so we could send it to each agency....... I'll explore various options."
"Yes."
With that conversation, the apology session came to a close.
And as soon as we stepped out of the meeting room, before I even had time to process anything, another incident piled on.
Baek Gyeonwoo was coming out of the office next door.
"......."
And at this point, I had to admit I had underestimated Youth.
Youth was a company more shameless than I could have imagined.
Not content with merely expressing outrage toward the rigging production staff, they even put out articles that made me laugh in disbelief—promising to do their utmost for the mental recovery of our wounded trainees.
'They must be confident they won't get caught.'
At this rate, I almost hoped they wouldn't get caught. Just imagining the backlash if they did was draining enough.......
Well, Youth was Youth and Baek Gyeonwoo was Baek Gyeonwoo, so Youth's actions didn't affect Baek Gyeonwoo's image in my head.
There was a separate reason things were awkward between me and Baek Gyeonwoo right now.
[The ones hyping Sorasum's next group, this is your first time stanning an idol, right?]
Or you've just never gone through a broke-ass company?
You're gonna put out one budget music video, loop 500 fan signs instead of concerts, barely land a music show slot, and you're still gonna stan that group?ㅠㅠㅠ
The only answer is a project group
Baek Gyeonwoo Seo Cha-gyeom Han Neuti Jeong Hyeon-i Song Se-ho Hwang Jae-hyeon let's go
Baek Gyeonwoo is from Youth and it's not time for their next group yet so it's totally possible, the rest are trainees from broke-ass companies with no cash or no trainees
You'll probably call me a chemistry-obsessed freak for this but I swear on my ultimate bias this is absolutely not that, aside from my bias here I don't care about anyone and there's a landmine included
Comments
―Ha... the project group freaks show up right on cue
―Those broke companies are greedy as hell, they'll never let them go
―Regardless of project group potential, you gotta push for it first, that way even when they launch their own group the fans will be watching
―Why Hwang Jae-hyeon though? He's 3rd round pure drop material
―I told you Song Se-ho is the pre-selected one lololol
―Wow this is such a ridiculous take I thought I was dreaming for a sec ㅡㅡ;;
―Sorasum would probably welcome it though
└What nonsense, Sorasum's next team already has four of them
―Shut up and wait for the next group, failed idol Seo Cha-gyeom? Honestly, that's better, fan sign cut will be lower and if I show up every day maybe we can date eventually
└Huh...?
└What are you on about, if there's a survival show alumni on the team the fan sign cuts are 10x harder
Gathering the trainees from the survival show that fans deemed too good to lose and debuting them as a project group was a suggestion that came up every season.
This time was no different, and the reality was that hundreds of emails were already flooding Sorasum's inbox daily on Haru, demanding 'Seo Cha-gyeom and Han Neuti to be merged into the project group.'
I understood. There were that many companies that couldn't even handle the basics.
But understanding it aside, seeing Baek Gyeonwoo right now.......
Yeah, 'awkward' was the perfect word.
"Hey."
Still, I had to say hello, so I greeted him first.
As soon as the President heard my awkward greeting, she must have sensed something because she hurriedly left.
"......Have your talk. I'll wait downstairs."
With those words, even Han Neuti stepped back.
I had wanted to at least move to another spot, but Baek Gyeonwoo, who had been staring intently at Han Neuti's back, quickly parted his lips.
"You two ended up at the same company."
"Oh, yeah."
Ah.
One more reason why seeing Baek Gyeonwoo felt needlessly awkward resurfaced.
'I had guaranteed him they couldn't rig it as long as we performed well.'
Even if Baek Gyeonwoo had made a "what bullshit" face when I said it, didn't those words come out of my mouth regardless?
It was a moment where the weight of words was painfully felt. A little guilt.......
"Hey."
"Yeah."
"That thing, back then."
I had a guess at what was coming.
Let's prepare an excuse first.
"Sor......."
"I didn't say anything because there was really no need to say it, not because I was trying to hide it. I've never been ashamed of living with my grandmother."
"......Huh?"
"I told you. It's something I can clear up quickly."
Baek Gyeonwoo's words cut off.
At the same time, a swinging sound rang out, and the door of the meeting room Baek Gyeonwoo had been blocking swung open.
And Youth's team leader revealed himself.
"Gyeon-woo, I told you to head back in... Ah, it's the trainee Seo Cha-gyeom."
"......."
"Hm, things must be deeply upsetting for you, turning out like this."
I just gave a nod in reply, without words.
Youth's team leader left the parting remark that they would keep cheering for us, then took Baek Gyeonwoo and left.
Even after their figures had completely vanished down the hallway, my feet wouldn't move.
Because I genuinely didn't get it.
What Baek Gyeonwoo had suddenly been talking about.
* * *
I never knew I had this light of a personality.
The moment I stepped out of the broadcasting station and climbed into the President's car, my mood lit up exactly like a light switch turning on.
'It's finally over.'
Of course, there was still a ton left to deal with.......
But just knowing I no longer had to play power games with the production crew brought an immense wave of liberation.
'Maybe I'll film a cover video today.'
Hm, posting on the agency Inheart asking for cover song recommendations didn't sound bad either. We needed a mood refresh, urgently.
"Hey, Chaegyeom."
"Huh?"
I turned my head toward the voice.
Han Neuti, phone in hand, rolled his eyes for a while before asking.
"You think you could... be friends with a guy you had a bad first impression of?"
......We weren't so awkward that we needed to fill the silence with small talk topics like this.
This felt like a question with some intention behind it. I shrugged and answered.
"Depends on how bad the impression was."
"What about someone you cut ties with in the past?"
"Depends on why you fought."
Han Neuti nodded with a dissatisfied look, like someone who came for counseling and left with zero answers.
'Was that a question that had a right answer?'
I tried to give a more detailed response, but I failed.
That really was all there was to it.
"The card's with Sanho. Buy yourselves dinner."
"Ah, okay."
We had arrived at the company in the meantime.
The reason we hadn't gone to the dorm was, of course, because the other two were in the practice room.
Ah, right. I should mention this too.
Since Jeong Sowol officially signed a trainee contract, there had been a change in the company's lesson system.
We finally brought in an instructor.......
I felt touched and a little wry at the same time.
To think I was getting emotional over the company simply doing its job.
'Better than having a ton of complaints.'
Let's gather my positive thoughts again.
The company was filling in the basics, and we had collected five members.
We were also scheduled to secure funds from QTen, so now I could seriously start drawing up a debut plan.
It was a bit of a shame we hadn't been able to find a proper rapper, though.
'.......'
Wait a sec.
"Hyung, have you ever actually seen this trainee Sanho talks about?"
"Huh?"
"You haven't?"
"Uh......."
'Let's just pretend it doesn't exist.'
I gave up cleanly.
In the first place, one of my goals for joining MAKE100% had been to promote Sorasum.
It would be way easier to recruit now than back when all we had was a folding cot, so let's not despair too much.
Let's not.......
"Hey, hold on."
We had reached the practice room door, just as I was about to open it.
"I'll open it."
"Why?"
"Just 'cause."
As I stepped aside, Han Neuti opened the door just a crack and peered inside.
In the meantime, I deliberately stepped one pace further back.
'He prepared something.'
I'll pretend I didn't notice.
Then Han Neuti, instead of opening the door... closed it again.
He must have thought that move looked unnatural himself. He stole a glance at me and stammered.
"Ah, um, er, I'll open it now."
"Sure."
And at last, the door opened.
Inside, just as I'd expected.......
Sorasum Return & Welcome Party