Chapter 105
Living a second life and spending two lifetimes in the entertainment industry, there was one thing I had learned the hard way: people loved stories about growth.
In survival programs, it might be a trainee who started out utterly unimpressive and showed clear improvement after receiving coaching.
Or an idol who had originally been judged incapable of singing honing their vocal skills through grueling effort.
Young, beautiful, or handsome people working hard to train and improve themselves.
That sort of universal sentiment appeals not only to the general public but also to otaku.
Even if a top-tier band like Blooming worked hard and achieved growth?
There was no way people wouldn't react favorably.
Especially since they had come from Singer Star 5, a show watched by practically the entire country.
It was even more so because everyone remembered how awkward and bumbling they had looked during the audition.
“It was a success, unnis. Are you satisfied?”
“O-of course! I’m just glad…”
“This is exactly the kind of reaction we wanted.”
Blooming’s plan had been a complete success.
I was a little annoyed they hadn’t given me any warning during the process… but regardless, I was genuinely happy that they had acquired the ability to produce their own work.
Well, their ability wasn’t complete, so they still needed my assistance.
The fact that the artists known as Blooming had gained the ability to express their own world was quite a landmark event.
Any artist ought to have that ability, after all.
Apparently, to show just how thoroughly they had prepared this time, Kim Seol had even written a novel matching the lyrics and the song’s theme.
They were planning to publish it alongside the album…
‘They sure do things in an innovative way with their music.’
What had she planned to do if I refused to approve it? Maybe it was because she was young, but her drive was remarkable.
In all my years making music, I had never once thought of releasing a novel alongside an album.
However, now that I had experienced it firsthand, I also thought it might be a better idea than I’d expected.
‘It could draw fans into the world they’ve created, and attract people who don’t know much about them… She really thought this through.’
As they say, many hands make light work, and it seemed a pretty good idea had emerged from within Blooming.
“So, did you call me here today because the arrangement is finished?”
“That’s part of it, and I also had something to discuss.”
“Something to discuss?”
Yoo Seol-ha wore a puzzled expression.
I lightly scratched my cheek and narrowed my eyes.
“…You don’t happen to know what season it is right now, do you?”
“…Season?”
Apparently, since not a single one of them had gone to college, they hadn’t understood at all even after I had explained it this much.
I let out a small sigh, shook my head, and announced the answer.
“It’s college festival season. Seriously, don’t you have any friends in college?”
Surprisingly, none of them did.
Apparently, the five of them had stuck together exclusively during their school days, so they didn’t have friends in other circles.
Well, maybe that was why there had never been a school-bullying controversy involving them.
If they hadn’t paid attention to people outside their group, they wouldn’t have gotten entangled in something like school violence.
In fact, every story about Blooming’s school days circulating online was positive.
“We can’t go to all of them.”
There were countless places that had contacted us.
Whether the invitations were directed to me or to Blooming, it was the same.
“So choose.”
Still, there were obvious limits to our time and stamina.
We had to choose the festivals that would raise our brand value and provide a satisfying return, and go to those.
* * *
“No, but why do they hold festivals during exam period?”
Go Hye-na was wasting away at home, grumbling.
After retaking classes semester after semester, she was now a fourth-year student living through the hell of taking eighteen credits in a single semester.
Regretting that she should have studied properly instead of playing around so much, she had been diligently poring over her books when she eventually turned on her smartphone, exhausted.
“Maybe I’ll check Everytime…”
Everytime, which effectively reigned as the universal community for college students.
Go Hye-na habitually tapped the popular posts, but, as expected, the place was a total mess of assorted conflicts and politics.
It was supposedly one of the SKY universities, so if even its Everytime was this bad, what on earth were other schools like?
Pondering that question, she scrolled down.
“What? The lineup’s already out.”
The dates when festival lineups were revealed varied, but sometimes they were announced a little early like this.
Having become well versed in idol groups and popular singers through her devoted fandom of Seo Si-yeon, all the names on the lineup were familiar to her.
“It’s insanely flashy again this year.”
Every single name on the lineup belonged to someone who could be called top-tier, enough for people to say each year’s lineup kept setting a new all-time high.
It had reached the point where people even said festival lineups affected admissions results, so the university had no choice but to care about them too.
“…Is Si-yeon not on it?”
However, there wasn’t a singer Go Hye-na particularly liked.
She was a little disappointed, but felt like skipping this year’s festival and studying instead.
But when she scrolled down,
“Special lineup?”
There was only one.
One artist whose identity had not been revealed.
Go Hye-na knew instinctively.
Setting someone aside as “special” was clear evidence that they were on a higher level than the other people whose names were on the lineup.
Still, every person on the lineup was formidable.
They were practically all singers who were regarded as being among Korea’s very best.
And one of them was Seo Si-yeon.
The commenters seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because even the most upvoted comment mentioned Seo Si-yeon’s name.
-Probably Seo Si-yeon. Both Bemon and Noiris are preparing for world tours. And it obviously won’t be RPS.
The names of the current peaks of K-pop.
Though Seo Si-yeon had stopped activities for two years, Hye-na felt a little proud to see her standing confidently among them, then suddenly found herself strangely depressed.
“When on earth is she going to release a song?”
Even after returning, she hadn’t said a single word about her own music.
Her attitude, almost as though she were avoiding the subject, had left Go Hye-na feeling a little hurt.
Recently, she had started listening to songs by other singers as well, betraying Seo Si-yeon.
The one she was most hooked on was a Japanese singer named Mikansei.
After accidentally hearing the opening of The Empress on the Ice on a Reel, she had been devouring the singer’s songs.
The drawback was that there were only two songs?
That was quite a small number for someone who had debuted a year ago.
With those thoughts in mind, she opened Instagram,
[Mikansei’s Comeback Teaser?]
(An illustration uploaded to Mikansei’s YouTube)
Mikansei has teased a comeback through her YouTube community!
No exact date has been announced, but the illustration’s beautiful colors are sure to catch your eye.
Expectations are already running high!
“Oh.”
She soon encountered the news of Mikansei’s return in her feed.
* * *
In the end, I decided to appear at festivals for two universities.
It wasn’t any kind of exclusivity strategy; I simply thought two stages was the number I could realistically handle while maintaining my stamina.
Things might have been different if I could focus solely on Seo Si-yeon’s activities, but I was also raising my alter ego, Mikansei, so it couldn’t be helped.
“I’ll let the agency know for now.”
“Yes. Oh, but how many festivals are the Blooming unnis planning to attend?”
They’d probably be going to more than I was, right?
Blooming had a comeback coming up as well, but they weren’t as busy as I was.
I had to keep an eye on Blooming and Mikansei too, so naturally my schedule was denser.
“Eleven.”
“?”
“I told them it might be better to limit themselves to a reasonable number too… but it seems they’d all been holding it in for quite a while.”
At its core, a band was a genre built around interacting with its audience.
That was why bands placed such importance on live performances.
The past two years.
Because of the pandemic, Blooming hadn’t performed live in front of people even once.
I was starting to feel restless myself, so how must Blooming have felt?
They must have been going crazy wanting to perform live.
Since the company was currently concentrating its resources on Noiris’s world tour, Blooming’s concert inevitably had to be pushed back.
The company wasn’t large enough to handle two projects at once.
“…Ah, no matter how you look at it, I guess they really wanted to perform live…”
In fact, there were people online who questioned Blooming’s actual live-performance ability.
Because they had never proven it.
Having watched them up close, I knew their live performances had improved tremendously, but they hadn’t had a chance to show it over the past two years.
“After this, those comments will disappear.”
Because Blooming’s live skills had improved by leaps and bounds over the past two years.