In addition to handling the hectic schedule from the contract signing to debut preparations, I was also working on something else on the side.
“When I call, pick up before the third ring. If I tell you to come out, come out immediately.”
The plan was to get the information about RH Entertainment by robbing Park Sangjoong.
Yes, the trainee from RH Entertainment who pushed me down the stairs.
As soon as the program ended, I constantly pressured Park Sangjoong to keep me updated on the internal atmosphere of RH Entertainment.
“I really can’t do anything. I won’t do it again. I’m really reflecting on my actions. Please forgive me now.”
“Yeah, no.”
“Are you really going to keep doing this?”
“Yeah.”
Unfortunately, I wasn’t a good enough person to forgive someone who nearly sent Han Seungbeom to his grave, and I was dedicated to squeezing every last bit out of people once I had a hold of their weaknesses. Our relationship would last forever, forever.
‘Why should I be nice to someone who did something like that to me? I’ll work him to the bone until he dies.’
I was already aware that Park Sangjoong had been abandoned by Kang Hyukwoo and kicked out of RH Entertainment. I also knew that there wasn’t much information a mere trainee could obtain. However, I didn’t care and urged him to squeeze out any information he could, using the connections he had left inside.
‘Even if it’s trivial information, no one knows how it might be useful later. So, I’m not going to just discard him.’
RH Entertainment was an especially secretive company, with not only trainees and affiliated artists but even regular staff were mostly unaware of the activities of Kang Hyukwoo and his associates. Therefore, I never imagined that Park Sangjoong would provide me with any significant information.
What I wanted from Park Sangjoong were pieces of information that only a trainee could know, things like changes in the number of internal trainees or the status of company employees.
“There was a trainee named Kim Saemyeong who unfortunately didn’t make it into the final debut lineup, despite always being in the top rankings. Someone said they saw him going in and out of RH Entertainment.”
“Everyone’s on edge. They’ve released several trainees who were in the debut team.”
After listening to Park Sangjoong, I immediately realized that this Kim Saemyeong was planning to sign a contract with RH Entertainment after terminating his current contract.
The tactic Kang Hyukwoo devised to lure Kim Saemyeong, who already had significant recognition and popularity and was receiving love calls from various agencies, was obvious.
‘He probably showed him a new group that was about to debut and offered to put him in right away.’
Kim Saemyeong mentioned that he’s an older trainee who had experienced multiple failed debut attempts at his previous company. Given his age and the fact that he had missed out on another debut opportunity, he must be desperate to debut as soon as possible, especially with the military issue looming over him.
Kang Hyukwoo seemed to have noticed his desperation and reached out to Kim Saemyeong.
‘The reshuffling of trainees was likely because the selection of members for the group Kim Saemyeong is joining has already been finalized. There’s no need to keep trainees who didn’t make it into the group. Once the group debuts, they won’t be able to launch another one for several years, so they’re letting go of the older trainees.’
And the change in the number of trainees was a typical behavior of the agency before debuting a new group.
I deduced from the various clues provided by Park Sangjoong that RH Entertainment was preparing a new group and that there wasn’t much time left until their debut.
‘If the new group is debuting soon, their promotion period might overlap with Pantheion’s. It seems they’re planning to strike while the iron is hot as well.’
In that case, there was a high possibility that one of Kang Hyukwoo’s close associates would be assigned to the newly debuted group. Kang Hyukwoo would want to avoid the situation where he couldn’t control the members in the early stages, like with Prism.
If I just kept digging deeper, whether by coaxing that person or finding their weakness to blackmail them, I could eventually find out who hid my suicide note and gradually infiltrate RH Entertainment’s internal affairs. Or perhaps I could befriend the group members and continuously gather information from them.
The starting point was there.
I will slowly bring it down from the bottom.
I will do it before Kang Hyukwoo even notices.
‘….It seems like things have to be quite complicated.’
You might think that if I wanted to get insider information on RH Entertainment, I could get it through the members of Prism, but it wasn’t that easy.
From the very beginning, Prism was a group full of people who prioritized my words, not Kang Hyukwoo’s, and placed the most trust in me. It was very likely because of this reason that he tried to find the members’ weaknesses and continuously gaslight them. Since he didn’t have the confidence to control the Prism members without going that far, he felt compelled to continually make risky decisions.
Kang Hyukwoo understood this all too well.
He understood that the members of Prism would never follow anyone other than
Seo Yutae
.
‘That’s why he’s been hiding his business from the Prism members all this time.’
Kang Hyukwoo, who was highly distrustful, would never reveal his weaknesses to the Prism members who refused to follow him until the end. If the members of Prism discovered his weaknesses, they would quickly overturn the situation and try to gain the upper hand—except for Jo Inchan, who had been psychologically unstable after his injury.
‘Just as Kang Hyukwoo intended, the members of Prism are only aware that he operates a club. They’re completely oblivious to his illegal business dealings or ties to the gangsters.’
“…….”
Then, I realized there was something strange.
Just like the other uncooperative Prism members, Kang Hyukwoo tried his best to conceal the details of his business from me. And since I had never been interested in the illegal things Kang Hyukwoo sold, I had no memories of ever entering his establishment or sought any information about it.
So, how could I have known about the existence of gangsters and illegal transactions?
I wanted to recall who I had heard that story from, and whether that person was safe and sound, but once again, there was a blank in my memory.
I closed my eyes, fighting back the throbbing headache.
***
After a brief rest to recover my body and mind, I headed to the conference room of POX Entertainment, the company that had signed a contract with Pantheion. Currently, a meeting was in progress, discussing the general direction of the concept before moving forward with debut preparations.
“Actually, group names related to specific concepts tend to make activities monotonous and shorten the group’s lifespan, so it’s generally better to avoid them. However, since you are a project group with a set duration, we thought it might be worth taking a risk, which is why we chose the name Pantheion. You were probably surprised when you first heard it, right?”
When the person wearing glasses among the agency’s planning team sitting across from us started talking, Lee Danbi replied straightforwardly.
“Yes, actually, I think a casual concept is essential to gaining mainstream popularity. But with a group name like
Pantheion
, it seems like we can only promote with a more consistent concept.”
The employee who heard Lee Danbi’s words chuckled softly. Then, after making an expression of “
Well, aren’t you clever
” for about 0.01 seconds, she adjusted her glasses with her index and middle fingers and began explaining with a charismatic gaze.
“What Danbi said is true. For easy listening, a focus on the music itself, rather than the concept, is undoubtedly more appealing to the general public. However, here’s what we think. With girl groups already dominating the easy-listening market, we’re not sure if a casual concept will be enough to set us apart and attract the attention we hope for from the public.”
‘…It’s strange. It’s really strange.’
Actually, I came into this meeting room with my guard up, having dealt with a lot of nonsense from employees at RH Entertainment. I was ready to shut everything down if anyone said something ridiculous … but for some reason, the employee seemed even more overly invested than us and was giving very enthusiastic suggestions.
I should have noticed when a higher-up came in and said, ‘
Haha, I won’t be of any help here
‘, and just left.
This company was different. I should have recognized it when I saw all the idol merchandise on the employees’ monitors.
“Rather than staying in an ambiguous state, we believe it’s best to properly prepare and continue promoting with a unique concept that can generate hype, attract new fans, and also satisfy the existing fanbase.”
I had a question about why the woman was adjusting her glasses at the end of every sentence, but I decided to put that aside for now and opened my mouth.
“Since the activity period is short, I think it’s fine to approach the activity as a sort of project. However, to reduce monotony, I think it would be nice if we could include songs with a completely different concept from the title track in the album, and even if it’s not a double title, we could still create music videos and stage performances for some of these B-sides.”
‘What do you think? Would you object to that?’
It was a statement made after thoroughly considering any potential objections from the employees. However, the employees….
“I think that’s a good idea.”
“We will try our best to proceed in that direction, but for the stages, since it requires consultation with the broadcasting station, I will check and get back to you with a more definite answer. As for the music video, we can proceed with that on our end.”
“How about giving a specific name to the sub-concept? It would help differentiate it from the main concept, and the fans could also enjoy it as a fun element.”
‘Eh.’
They quickly agreed with my suggestion and even went a step further.
I was taken aback by the unexpected force and barely managed to hold onto my scattered thoughts.
Now that I think about it, there was something I had overlooked. If every agency was filled with nothing but incompetent people, there’s no way the K-POP industry could have developed this much. I shouldn’t have been so quick to assume that only people like me were passionate about this industry.
These people, in their own way, were also sincere about this industry.
‘Yeah, this is what an agency is.”‘
I suppressed my urge to applaud and asked, “When you say properly prepare, are you referring to the Greek-Roman concept?”
“Yes, that’s right. And if it’s alright with the members, I’d like to discuss the Mythology concept with all of you today.”
Following those words, a neatly designed PowerPoint presentation was projected onto the screen.
“Since the group name was announced, fans have been posting a lot of speculative posts about the concept. Among them, there are several that many fans agreed with or that multiple people mentioned, so I compiled them. However, these are just for reference, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts if you think anything doesn’t quite fit. First, let’s start by checking the center, Seungbeom-ssi.”
At the same time as she said that, screenshots of SNS posts appeared on the PPT.
— The Captain is Zeus.
— Wouldn’t the King of the Gods position obviously be given to the cult leader?
The god that most people pointed out when talking about me was Zeus.
I guess it was because our positions had already been revealed to the fans, and the image I presented on Survive IDOL reinforced that perception.
As I was nodding along, finding the response quite convincing, the employee flipped to the next slide and continued speaking.
“Next is the god that came in second place for most mentions and received the hottest response.”
— It’s clearly Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, right? What are you guys even talking about?
— Let’s go with Seungphrodite haha
— Doesn’t Han Seungbeom’s face make sense for the role?
“…Aphrodite?”
A silence descended between the members.
“But hyung, you’re a man…..”
Do Yuda’s wistful voice echoed through the conference room.
Why on earth is he saying something so obvious with such a lack of confidence?
“If we go with Aphrodite, he’ll need to keep his hair blond, right? In that case, we should let the salon know about the concept in advance.”
“Aphrodite has numerous famous paintings, so don’t you think there are plenty of references to work with for the concept?”
Without a hint of panic, the employees were adding realism to the preparations to transform me into Aphrodite. I gaped in astonishment at their calmness.
‘Is this … the principle of withholding judgment? Is this okay?’
The sudden appearance of the world’s first male Aphrodite made my head spin.
……Oh my God.
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Translator’s Corner:
omg i went out to buy food at 7 PM earlier and the street already gave off creepy feeling … since I still stay at an area near campus, every house here is rented by college students, so during holiday times like this where everyone went home for xmas and new year, it’s almost like a dead city … it’s so quiet i’m starting to get paranoid bad humans will appear. every house around here already had all their lights turned off djvhjkzfhvjkfhfjkvhj let’s just hope there’s no a serial killer nearby
also i’m going to turn off my laptop since i’m scared to stay up too late in this situation, so you guys who read too early and familiar about greek myth, maybe you can give your prediction on which God each member will be assigned to, so you can confirm if your guess is right or not tomorrow ^^