The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 124

Producer Park Soo-Chul sat in the waiting room of the production team and looked over the daily filming schedule. He had written the plan himself and all the information was already stored inside his head, but he couldn’t let go of this piece of paper.

Live broadcast. The end of the competition. The day when the final winner was decided. There were a lot of phrases that could describe today, and each phrase was heavy and critical for the show. Was it because he was too nervous? His neck felt stiff.

“Ahhh. I’m dying. I want to quickly finish this and go to a sauna.” Park Soo-Chul said and briefly let go of the daily filming schedule. He rubbed his neck, massaged it, and stretched for a bit.

“It’s all going to work out. Let’s not worry.” He said self-affirmations outloud to get rid of his nervousness.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked outside. It was probably one of the writers or one of the on-the-scene set crew.

“Come in.” Park Soo-Chul stretched his neck and replied half-heartedly, and the person who came inside was—

“Hello, Mr. Park.”

“...?”

It was not a set crew or even a writer.

“I’d like to tell you something. Would you be able to spare some of your time?” But it was Siren’s maknae, Bong Tae-Yoon. There had never been a time when a cast member entered his space first; it was because he had never called anyone here and when someone tried to greet him here, he immediately sent them away.

“If you’re here to say hello or ask for something, please just leave. I’m not someone that great for you to greet me separately.” Thus, Park Soo-Chul responded in the same way as usual, but despite Park Soo-Chul’s dismissal, Bong Tae-Yoon didn’t move from his seat.

“I didn’t come here to greet you, but you are right about asking for a request.”

“...A request?” Park Soo-Chul straightened up and looked at Bong Tae-Yoon again. Usually, he would have refused right away, saying he didn’t accept requests, but—

Sigh. “...I’ll hear you out first.” The person in front of him was from Siren, one of the main cast members of The Showcase 2. It was the day of the final performance. Since he had been doing well so far, Park Soo-Chul thought it would be okay to at least hear him out.

“Go ahead.” However, Park Soo-Chul couldn’t help being flustered by the words that came out of Bong Tae-Yoon’s mouth next. Because—

“You should take this to court instead of talking to me about this.” The whole conversation seemed beyond his authority.

* * *

I met with Park Soo-Chul and brought up what I wanted to say one by one. Originally, I hadn’t intended to also visit Park Soo-Chul. The day I first learned about Yoon Tae-Hyung’s plan through Precognitive Vision, my plan at that time was to call CEO Kim Dong-Hyun as I just did, and that was the extent of my plan.

However, Yoon Tae-Hyung moved faster than I expected, and as a result, I had no choice but to revise my previous plan. According to my conjecture, Yoon Tae-Hung would probably be called by the CEO and then return to his office; and after finding the whistleblower, he would try to aim for a second opportunity. Thus, it was only right for me to eliminate that second opportunity.

“Sir, when a joint venture is established with Jaeil Group, please help me rule out any intervention from a person named Yoon Tae-Hyung.” Therefore, I cut straight to the chase and asked Park Soo-Chul what I wanted.

“Isn’t Yoon Tae-Hyung the head manager of your agency?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re asking me to exclude him? Doesn’t he have to take the lead when transferring and establishing legal contracts?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a reason why you’re telling me this?”

“I have files that I can show you.” I quickly showed him the materials when he asked me why. Frankly, they were not evidence of any crime and were merely negligence, but I wasn’t doing this because he didn’t work a day or two—no, more than a few days.

“The materials I’ve shown you are worth about three weeks, and there hasn’t been a single day he arrived at work in the morning for those weeks. He doesn’t even come to work early in the afternoon but way past lunch.”

So far, Producer Park Soo-Chul’s face didn’t look too fazed or surprised by the information as there weren’t many people in the entertainment industry who came to work on time. Of course, in the case of Yoon Tae-Hyung, who did not run around the set, he should go to work on time.

When Park Soo-Chul didn’t show much reaction, I moved on to the next materials—a picture of Yoon Tae-Hyung sleeping on the sofa, a picture of him playing games, and a video of him drinking beer. Evidence of negligence kept coming out one after another.

Even Park Soo-Chul looked quite surprised when he saw the picture of Yoon Tae-Hyung sleeping on the company sofa as soon as he went to work. Park Soo-Chul frowned, seeing Yoon Tae-Hyung use the company like his own living room.

Then he said, “Stop showing these to me.” He asked me to clear away the files and continued, “First of all, I can clearly see that he doesn’t work, but I can’t help you out separately. The establishment of a joint venture and transfer of contracts are between companies, and I don't have the right to intervene.”

Producer Park Soo-Chul sighed deeply and said, “And you have to solve this within WD. Even if you tell me this, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

It seemed like he planned to draw a line, and it was only expected as the files I showed him weren’t crimes.

“If Siren experienced a loss due to his negligence, you should go to the court and talk to him.” Park Soo-Chul was right, and I had expected this reaction from him.

However, I was not over yet. “I asked you to exclude Yoon Tae-Hyung from the joint venture earlier, but honestly, I’m not here to ask you a big favor.” I didn’t know Park Soo-Chul as a person too well, but I got a rough idea of what type of person he was while doing the broadcast together. He was fundamentally a person who tried to work hard only on his job, and he found anything besides that cumbersome and annoying.

The reason why producer Park Soo-Chul wanted to reject my request and thought of this situation as bothersome was because he considered this work outside of his job. If so, then I needed to make him recognize the work related to Yoon Tae-Hyung was ‘related’ to his work.

“If we win, Yoon Tae-Hyung will likely make all The Showcase-related schedules more difficult and tiring in the future.”

“The Showcase-related schedule...?” Park Soo-Chul gave a stronger reaction than before. He asked, “What’s your basis?”

“Do you think that someone who didn’t let us debut for years because he didn’t want to create work for himself and drank beer at work would be cooperative?”

“....That’s true.” Park Soo-Chul was finally beginning to recognize that this problem was related to him.

“He would be uninterested in not just The Showcase-related schedules but all of our schedules. Since the person in charge of communication and being the middleman is like this, there’s no way that work would be done properly.”

“Hmm.”

“Haven’t you planned to continue The Showcase with a reality show of the winning team from today’s final performance?”

“...How did you know that? That’s confidential information.”

“I overheard the staff talking about it while passing by.” I appropriately rehashed the information I heard from Kang Hyun-Sung. “I don't know whether we’ll win, but if we win, there would probably be a lot of problems during the reality show shooting because of him. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be able to air on time.”

“...”

“From my calculations, isn’t the filming schedule tight right now? If someone who can’t do their job ruins the schedule right now, won’t you have to go on a break, sir? And put up something like a special instead.”

“...Ha.”

“So, sir, if you help me exclude Yoon Tae-Hyung from work related to the joint venture, these problems won’t happen.” At this point, Yoon Tae-Hyung’s work ethic would not appear as an external matter but an internal matter that needed to be addressed inside The Showcase.

Finally, I said, “As I said earlier, I’m not asking you to do anything big to help me exclude Yoon Tae-Hyung, sir.”

“...Then what is it?”

“Sir, people from the Jaeil Group are arriving today, right?”

“...How did you know that? That was also confidential.”

“...Ah, I also overheard that from the staff as well.”

Sigh. “I’ll have to tell them to keep their mouths shut.”

I suddenly felt sorry for the staff.

“All you have to do is tell them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tell them if they want to work as a joint venture company, they should talk to WD Entertainment not through Yoon Tae-Hyung but directly with the CEO. And it would be even better if you let them know that Yoon Tae-Hyung’s way of working is strange.”

“Then would things work out if they directly contacted the boss?”

“The CEO wouldn’t act very assertively either.”

“...Just what kind of agency is WD Entertainment?”

“Still, if the Jaile Group gave them financial compensation or a stake from the joint venture in their favor, I think they would probably delegate the Jaeil Group with full power so that Jaeil Group can do all the bothersome work.”

“...Are you sure?”

“I can’t be 100 percent sure, but I think the odds are high.”

Sighh.

Park Soo-Chul sighed and said, “All right. If all I have to do is tell the people at the Jaeil Group headquarters that, then I’ll try.”

He accepted my request.

“But.” However, he put a condition next to it as he said, “I’ll only deliver the message if you win today as it would be all meaningless if Siren loses.”

“Of course.” I had expected this condition as a given.

“Then please go back now. The final stage is just around the corner, so you should go and practice more.”

“Yes, sir.” I bowed to producer Park Soo-Chul and came out.

* * *

In the place where Bong Tae-Yoon left, Park Soo-Chul, who had been simulating today’s schedule inside his mind, slapped the papers on the table with a loud sound. Then he looked at where Bong Tae-Yoon left and fell into thought. He had thought a young guy like Bong Tae-Yoon didn’t act like a child at all, but—

‘What the hell’s with that punk?’ He never thought Bong Tae-Yoon had such a shrewd side to him. He wondered if Bong Tae-Yoon really was his age. The way he acted just now seemed like a seasoned negotiator in his 30s.

‘I’ve seen all kinds of people, but I’ve never seen anyone like that before.’ He didn’t know if it was good or bad that such a young child matured so fast.

‘There are serious problems with the agency.’ Park Soo-Chul was aware that there was something wrong with WD Entertainment. Since there weren’t any major problems with Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna or the working-level officials, he expected the problems to come from the higher-ups.

‘But I didn’t expect it to be this bad.’ It was far worse than his expectations, and it was an agency that didn’t even seem like an agency. It was a toxic and crazy collaboration where the higher-ups all held each other’s back.

‘But if Siren came up all the way here with an agency like this, how strong is their potential?’ After knowing how awful their company was, his rating for Siren improved further. If they had an agency that properly supported them and pushed them forward, he thought they would make quite a pretty picture.

‘Hmm.’ Just in time, someone called him outside the door.

“Mr. Park, are you here?” It was an unfamiliar, middle-aged man’s voice.

Park Soo-Chul answered, “Ah, Director, you’ve arrived.”

“It’s been a while since I last saw you. Shall we sit down and talk?” The man was the director of the entertainment business division of JI ENM, an affiliate of Jaeil Group. He was also nominated as the CEO of the joint venture between Jaeil Group and the winning team’s agency.

* * *

Outside the concert hall where the final was being held, the fans of The Showcase 2, who had been giving out free goods and participating in offline meetings, were beginning to gather one by one towards the entrance of the concert hall.

“Please enter from here!”

“Please don’t use the stairs, but just go straight!”

“There are stairs inside! Please use those stairs!”

This was because entering the concert hall began at 4 pm. The fans knew that the actual broadcast didn’t start until 6 pm, but—

“Wow, why am I so nervous?”

“Please, Hyun-Sung. Let’s win.”

“Please let our idols go to a big company. Ahhh....”

All of the people who began entering were in a state of anxiety as if the broadcast would start right away. The seats started to fill up one by one. As the air time approached, one could already feel the heat rising from the scene.

“I should have bought a telescope from outside.” Sigh.

“Wow, I can hardly see anything.”

“I have to step on the person in front of me to go to the bathroom...”

“Um, could I ask who you are cheering for today?”

“Ah, I’m, um, Only One.”

“....I’m cheering for Siren.”

“Ah.”

“...”

“Would you like to eat this?”

“Ah, thank you.”

While the scene was becoming more and more like a concert hall, the back of the concert hall was also raising its energy to match the heat of the audience.

“We can do it! Don’t be scared!” contemporary romance

“Ahhhhhh!”

“We can do it, Siren!”

The especially loud place was the waiting room where Siren was. Was it because the live broadcast was now just two hours away?

“Guys, dust is flying so please sit down.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

“I’m not scared!”

“We can do a really great job!”

“Yesss~”

All four members except Bong Tae-Yoon were having an adrenaline overdrive.