A Small Counterattack
Before the WMA even began, there were two awards everyone was most certain about.
Album of the Year and Artist of the Year.
Song of the Year might shift depending on the judges’ final votes, but these two were considered locked in. RPS and Seo Siyeon had posted such overwhelmingly dominant numbers that no one thought they could possibly change.
Yet here they were. The song that should have taken Song of the Year by default—Glassy Sky—had lost. Of course Seo Siyeon had still won, but everyone watching the WMA live couldn’t help feeling a creeping sense of no way…
Once someone rigs the game, who’s to say they won’t do it again?
Yoo Sang-hoon watched the live chat descend into chaos and lifted a wine glass to his lips. As the sharp scent of the vintage enveloped his mouth, he spoke quietly to his wife seated beside him.
“What do you think about Seol-ha not winning a daesang?”
“Hmph. I have no interest in what happens to a girl who ran away from home to become some cheap entertainer.”
“Haha. And yet you followed her all the way to Gangwon-do that time?”
“…I only did it because I’m her mother.”
Truthfully, Yoo Sang-hoon didn’t have strong feelings about his daughter missing out on an award. From his perspective, a daughter who would have been nothing more than a decent marriage alliance card if she’d lived an ordinary life had instead become a nationwide star. That alone was more than enough.
He also didn’t entirely agree with the world calling his daughter a genius. After all, there was an even brighter, truer genius standing right beside her.
“…Are you really planning to keep expanding that entertainer company?”
“Probably. It wouldn’t hurt for our company to have a decent-sized subsidiary in that sector. If we can grow it to major-entertainment level, there will be plenty of ways to make use of it.”
Yuseong Semiconductor was a company whose public recognition lagged far behind its actual size. That was precisely why he found it rather pleasing that his daughter was making the name Yuseong Semiconductor known to the masses like this.
Even though we’re not a company that leads exports on the front lines…
The public paid close attention to semiconductor firms that spearheaded exports, but they showed almost no interest in the equipment manufacturers that made it all possible. Yuseong Semiconductor ranked among the top in Korea as a single company, yet public perception kept it stuck in the mid-tier category.
From his standpoint, the capital required to enter the entertainment business wasn’t all that significant. Besides, there were separate people handling day-to-day operations, so he didn’t need to worry about the details.
And yet, simply because of Seo Siyeon and his daughter, a company that had been scraping the bottom was seeing its recognition skyrocket. It really was like his daughter had brought home a golden honey pot.
“There may be no profit, but there is honor. And if we want to protect Seol-ha’s activities, isn’t it better that we manage her directly?”
“Still, the things that child asked for will require quite a bit of effort.”
“Even so, when you consider the benefits we stand to gain, it falls well within the range of good cost performance.”
“If we’d just left her alone, she could have married into a good family… That girl really is ruthless.”
“I imagine you’re the only one who would describe our daughter that way.”
After all, why had only Yoo Seol-ha been so obsessed with success compared to the friends she made music with? It was because, unlike the other children, she could be used as a card in a marriage alliance. She had known that all too well, which was why she had worked so desperately to escape that fate.
“It seems her eye for choosing friends takes after me,” Yoo Sang-hoon’s wife said, watching the television.
On the screen was a girl with a slightly stiff, nervous expression. Yet that very tension made her look strangely endearing, enough to tickle the hearts of adults. Her adorable face showed no shame even in a typical close-up shot. And even more astonishing was the genius she had displayed at such a young age.
—And now, we will announce the winner.
In that moment, the left side of the screen showed Seo Siyeon, the right showed RPS, and the host stood in the center. The blatant composition implying that one of the two would take the daesang made Yoo Sang-hoon tilt his head with interest.
The artist who brought us the greatest joy for our eyes and ears this year is…!
Congratulations——
“As expected, my investment wasn’t wrong,” Yoo Sang-hoon murmured with a satisfied smile.
“Congratulations! Seo Siyeon.”
Unlike before, the moment I heard my name I rose from my seat. Applause poured in from all around me. When I looked around, the Blooming members were congratulating me with brighter expressions than ever.
I slowly walked up the stage I had already climbed countless times tonight, one step at a time.
“Siyeon, you’re the best!”
Jia from Bad Monster—who had also been nominated—beamed at me and gave a thumbs-up. Joo Jin-woo, dressed in a suit and clapping for me, offered a small word of congratulations as I passed. I exchanged brief eye contact greetings with the Starlight members. Even Lee Seung-hyun, the balladeer I had briefly connected with through Even If It Hurts, quietly raised a thumb to congratulate me.
Finally reaching the podium, I accepted the small trophy the host handed me. Even though it was called small, it was still quite large and heavy for my body. I took the microphone he offered, let out a light breath, and spoke.
“I’m not sure how many times I’ve come up here today.”
Soft laughter rose here and there.
“Honestly, winning a daesang at the WMA… at least until half a year ago, I never imagined it. Back then I was just an ordinary girl.”
“And lately I had even started thinking it would be fine if I didn’t win. Because I believe the value of music isn’t something decided by an award someone gives you. Well, you can just think of this as the arrogant opinion of a little kid who’s caught the art disease.”
I took a sip of water through the straw in the bottle, moistened my throat, and continued.
“But it feels better than I expected. I wonder if this honor will reach my parents in heaven… I don’t know.”
At the same time, a small stir rippled through the audience. It was because the previously unknown fate of her parents had now been clearly revealed.
Originally, I had planned to end my speech there and step down from the stage. After all, the WMA hadn’t crossed the minimum line, and in the end I had received the glorious honor of winning two daesangs.
But I’ve always been the type who can’t feel satisfied until I say what needs to be said.
If I ended things on such an uneasy note here…
I might regret it.
Because there was no telling when those people might try to disadvantage our mid-tier company again. Making sure that wouldn’t happen while I had this chance… was surely the right thing to do.
So after a brief silence, I opened my mouth once more.
“However, as glorious as this award is, I can’t help wishing the criteria for winning were a little clearer.”
With those words, I handed the microphone back to the host and returned to my seat with quick steps. The pointed remark—clear enough for everyone present to sense my intent—left them all speechless.
“What were you thinking?!”
“It pissed me off. Anyone could see the results were unfair.”
“…We were fine with it.”
“I wasn’t. The unnies are the group I’m producing, and I have no intention of standing by while you suffer disadvantages.”
Of course, I hadn’t said those acceptance speech words without thinking. The WMA was an awards ceremony operated by the music streaming site Watermelon. But there was no way they could prepare a stage and event of this scale on their own. There were countless partner companies and sponsors involved, some of which were deeply intertwined with various corporations.
One of them was the performance planning company Siref. Considered the top planning agency in Korea, it handled everything from domestic concerts and events to overseas pop stars’ visits to Korea and Japanese bands’ dome tours. In this field, it was a first-class company.
And the president of Siref was the second daughter of Korea’s cultural conglomerate, the RJ Group. In other words, Siref could essentially be considered an affiliate of the RJ Group.
“I’ve already finished talking with Seol-ha unnie’s father. He said he would help.”
“…Already?”
“It was predictable, wasn’t it? We were certain they would disadvantage us in some way.”
And Yoo Seol-ha’s mother was the fourth daughter of the RJ Group. Moreover, the WMA’s biggest sponsor, Samyeon Securities, was an affiliate of the Samyeon Group, whose cash cow was Samyeon Electronics, which manufactured memory semiconductors. Since they couldn’t produce semiconductors without the photolithography equipment made by Yuseong Semiconductor, they had no choice but to pay some attention to Yuseong’s side.
“They used corporate power, so… it’s not against the rules for us to use corporate power too, right?”
I said this with a grin. Unaware that my smile somehow looked rather wicked.