“Seriously, what an absolute son of a bitch. The concept photos, the song, the choreography—everything was killer, and now it’s about to evaporate into thin air...”
...True.
With every fan already on edge because the project group’s debut had fallen through, if the first-place winner came out at this exact timing with a song titled ...
Drift through the school’s front gate
Is this a diss at Choi Whatshisname?
He ran off to K-Dom by himself and now he’s pouring oil on a house fire, lmao.
Fuck, our Eumyul’s debut is about to fall through for the second time, lmao. So the friends who did the survival show with him don’t give a damn anymore, right?
Kids like this always end up drunk driving later too and becoming a new meme themselves.
What? Gowon drove drunk?
Besides those, he would probably be hit with all kinds of anger and speculation my poor imagination couldn’t even reach.
“But there’s a more serious problem.”
“...More serious than this?”
It already felt like an indoor fireworks show had gone off right in front of us.
“Believe it or not, we uploaded the debut teaser last night without knowing this would happen. Hahaha.”
“Wow.”
So it wasn’t a fireworks show. It was a volcanic eruption.
Team Leader Shin switched screens and showed me the social media account.
It followed the current trend, made up of ambiguous photos and a short phrase.
But these two lines were written so clearly there was no fixing them.
Go one @Go.one.official
Debut
202X. 02. 14 (KST)
That meant they couldn’t even buy time by pushing back the date.
“Still... at least the title isn’t written there. Do you not have any other title-track candidates?”
“No. Because we spent so much money on the penalty fee to pull out the winner, we couldn’t even get a proper budget.”
“......”
“So we planned a digital single with just one song we poured everything into. And by luck, it turned out amazing.”
“......”
He raked a hand roughly through his hair.
“Ha... The demo was good, and I came in after giving up work with another team partly out of loyalty, but now that things have turned out like this, I’m starting to get pretty pissed. I know it’s not Director Kwon’s fault, but emotions don’t work that way...”
The person in question didn’t cause the trouble...
Only now did I understand what Kwon Taeyoung had meant.
The entertainment industry was full of cases where you stepped in someone else’s shit and got the back of your head smashed for it, but having a debut song ruined like this was still cruel.
My eyes naturally drifted toward the front of the table.
Toward the kid sitting silently among the adults talking around him.
As if he noticed my gaze, the head that had been lowered all this time slowly lifted toward me.
At the same time, my eyes met his black ones.
The moment did not last long. His head dropped again, and his long lashes covered the corners of his eyes.
I would have understood if he cried and caused a scene, but the kid, whose hands were clasped so tightly they had turned white, was doing nothing but crushing his emotions down.
Leaning crookedly against the backrest, I searched on my phone. It wasn’t hard to find the name of the first-place winner.
Gowon.
A single-word name.
Its neutral sound suited the atmosphere he carried rather well.
“Hanje.”
Kwon Taeyoung called me from the front of the meeting room.
“If Team Leader Shin has finished explaining, let’s throw some ideas around together. First, I’ll play , so listen to it too and—”
“Has Division Five already gathered to start scheming?”
Just then, a voice laced with sarcasm barged into the meeting room. Displeasure appeared on the faces of the Division Five staff seated inside.
“Executive Director Choi. You’re here.”
The person who appeared was Choi Dongjin, executive director in charge of Division Four at K-Dom Entertainment.
Executive Director Choi strode inside without permission and came to stand beside Kwon Taeyoung.
One of them looked exactly like what most people would imagine when they thought of a company executive, while the other was a young, handsome director who seemed more likely to appear in a romance novel.
“Kwon Taeyoung. No—Director Kwon. No matter how urgent it is, how many busy people did you call here? So? Aside from scrapping it, have you come up with any answers?”
“This happened at dawn today, and Division Five, where the person involved belongs, has only just begun discussing countermeasures. I’m not sure why you’re in such a hurry, Executive Director.”
“I wonder if there can even be such a thing as countermeasures. Is this a problem with an answer?”
“Then we’ll have to make one.”
“......”
At that firm attitude, Executive Director Choi tapped Kwon Taeyoung’s shoulder a little too hard.
“Fine. In your eyes, it might look like I’m praying for your downfall, but do you think I don’t understand? The concept photos came out well, and even the music video shoot was scheduled. Of course it must feel unfair for this to happen now. But what can you do? He’s an outsider who rolled in from somewhere else, so you have to accept the noise that comes with him. Right?”
Even without any answer of agreement, Executive Director Choi continued without caring.
“I’ll tell the press team to handle the articles in the direction of, ‘The person who caused the incident is someone else, but this side also feels a sense of responsibility and will postpone activities.’”
“......”
“It’s a shame about the delay, but there’s no helping it. Ask the publishers to pull together a good song with a refreshing concept and prepare for a summer debut. I already thought this song was a little too difficult for a rookie to handle. Newton happens to be sourcing songs right now, so I was thinking we might review it on our side. From the beginning, this whole thing was far too greedy.”
Ah. So that was the point.
Executive Director Choi was the head of Division Four, where his own line was firmly established.
Division Four was home to the boy group Newton.
The members were around Gowon’s age, so it would be convenient for them to steal the concept and song outright.
If another division was acting like this, the song must really have had the scent of a hit, just as Team Leader Shin had insisted.
“Even if we can’t use it for his debut stage, was selected by the A&R team to fit Gowon’s image, so it will be difficult to hand it over.”
“So you’re saying you’ll push ahead in this situation? Good grief. Even after seeing a huge problem explode because of greed?”
“I don’t know. Gowon himself hasn’t directly caused any trouble yet, so I’m not sure. Compared to the incidents Young Ace members caused during their rebellious phase, isn’t this hardly serious?”
Kwon Taeyoung, who had stood as the representative of six members for twelve years, was no pushover either.
But Executive Director Choi, who faltered for a moment before raising the corners of his mouth again, was also a man with plenty of experience in this industry.
“Do you think an answer that doesn’t exist right now will pop out after a few hours of meetings?”
Resting my chin on my hand, I watched the scene and thought.
What a mess.
For the record, I wasn’t evaluating the two executives.
Entertainment work was originally a job where people cursed each other to death, fought, and grabbed each other by the hair. This much was ordinary.
The real mess was the situation that “Gowon” over there had been placed in.
Outside the company, an old colleague had blown his concept to pieces. Inside the company, some middle-aged man had appeared and was trying to steal his song.
Starting from the whole incident, the path to buttoning the first button of his idol career was certainly full of thorns.
“You there, Gowon, was it? Answer me yourself. Do you want to prepare a different concept even now, or do you want to foolishly cling to one song and get cursed to hell from the moment you debut?”
Suddenly, pressure disguised as a question was aimed at Gowon.
Why don’t the adults fight among themselves? Why go after the kid too?
The thought came to me, and at the same time, I grew curious.
At this moment, driven to the edge of a cliff, what kind of expression was Gowon making?
How about it? Your debut isn’t just being delayed. The song prepared only for you is about to be handed over.
“Come on, Executive Director. Saying that to the kid is a bit much.”
Team Leader Shin came to Gowon’s support.
“I’m not saying anything wrong, am I?”
As a new war of words began, Gowon clenched the two hands hanging before him a little tighter.
Over the backs of his hands, where the joints stood out, the pale ridges of his knuckles rose even whiter than before.
That was the only change.
His lips, which had briefly parted, could not make a sound.
“......”
Does he have nothing to say, or are there too many words being held down?
That was when it happened.
Bzzzt—
......?
Something grayish-white wriggled faintly before my eyes, then soon formed into the shape of a square window.
Ding—
Another person’s wish has been registered.
...Huh?
Processing the wish into its optimal form.
“What?”
Beginning Quest Scenario: .
Wish: ■■■ ■■■■■ ■■.
Quest Scenario:
A Senior Paving the Road to Glory
Final success reward: ■■■ ■■
Failure penalty
① Gowon: ■■
② Baek Hanje: Confiscation of all rewards obtained from previous scenario quests
Confiscation list
—Creative ability: 4,811,390 pt
—Dance, vocals Lv. MAX
—Fame of affiliated group Young Ace
—Unity among Young Ace members
......
A familiar shape.
A familiar format.
“...Wait a second.”
But the contents...
What the hell was this?
A Senior Paving the Road to Glory Part 1
Make “Gowon” debut as a K-pop singer in South Korea.
Stage 1 Goal: A flawless debut
Q1-1. Crisis on the Brink!
A major crisis has struck the debut prepared with the utmost effort.
Overcome the situation and safely release the precious debut album.
Success: Successful solo debut, obtain title [Rookie Singer]
Failure: Forced termination of quest scenario
Time limit: 527h 15m 49s (D-22)
While I was still unable to pull myself together from the sheer amount of text pouring before my eyes, a window containing a bright-red warning appeared at the very front.
Part 1 Additional Penalty — Kwon Taeyoung’s death
“What the hell, you bastard?!”
Footnote
Digital single
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