Chapter 71
In truth, as with most other industries, the cultural industry is one where the power wielded by a particular person or group’s fandom can be formidable.
This isn’t limited to the idol industry. Professional sports, actors, internet broadcasting, and even the gaming industry are all subject to the same phenomenon.
But among them, the idol scene is especially driven by the power of fandoms.
No matter how large an entertainment agency is, it can’t help paying attention even to the garbage posts written on Twitter, and it runs events and promotions while watching those fans’ reactions.
In that sense, Seo Siyeon’s pointed remarks this time sent quite a shock wave through the industry.
Everyone already knew that the WMA awards ceremony had long since become a playground for the Big Three entertainment agencies.
That was why the same complaints came up every year.
Wasn’t this an awards ceremony that favored the Big Three entertainment agencies far too much?
Yet every year, whenever people raised that complaint, it was buried. Because there were far more people in the idol scene who liked idols from the Big Three than those who didn’t.
That was why most people in the idol scene, aside from fans of Big Three idols, harbored complaints about the WMA, whether large or small.
The reason they had never been able to speak with one voice until now was simply that they lacked a catalyst.
But then Seo Siyeon dropped a bombshell at this year’s ceremony, didn’t she?
The most outstanding artist at present, and the nation’s beloved daughter.
Even knowing that it might damage her image, she accepted the WMA grand prize and raised questions about the judging process.
[Seo Siyeon Takes Aim at Today’s WMA]
[Let’s Look at the Disadvantages Suffered by Small Agency’s Gijeobisters in the Past]
[The WMA Was a Playground for the Major Agencies from the Start]
[Why Winter Girl Failed to Win a Grand Prize During the Third Generation]
So they squeezed every last bit of power from their fandoms and gathered every suspicious incident of rigging in the WMA’s history, along with every obvious case of favoritism toward major agencies, then spread it throughout online communities.
Unlike before, their efforts had the potential to cause a major controversy.
The biggest reason was that the traditional media outlets helped them.
RTC News, a broadcaster owned by the RJ Group, got things started, and once its edited YouTube video hit two million views, the terrestrial networks joined the trend as well.
It also helped enormously that the male-dominated communities, which normally dismissed such things as idol fangirls fighting among themselves and paid them no attention, actively stepped forward to curse out the WMA because it involved their own pick, Seo Siyeon.
Music-related YouTubers had also mostly harbored doubts about the criteria used to select the WMA grand-prize winners, so they quickly made videos and raked in the views.
[Seo Siyeon’s No-Holds-Barred Statement? Does the WMA Have the Right to Represent Popular Music?]
[Views: 1.3 million] [Likes: 9.1K]
[Narubina][Subscribers: 520K]
One week.
That was how long it took the WMA to issue a statement.
The gist of the statement was simple.
They more or less claimed that there had been no outside interference in their judging process, while promising that in the future, for the sake of fairer judging, they would disclose the process and the reasons behind their decisions with proper justification… That sort of thing.
In other words, they had basically bowed their heads.
The WMA, which had been so stiff-necked.
It wasn’t a perfect apology, but it was suitable for calming the enraged public, and just as the situation was beginning to settle down somewhat…
[Seo Siyeon’s First Full-Length Album 「First, story」]
1. platonic love story
2. Flutter, and You
3. havana
4. PODIUM
5. shape of trip
6. A Letter to __
7. Running Through Time
8. Peach-Faced Lovebird
9. Scenario
Seo Siyeon’s first full-length album was released.
* * *
When I made my comeback with this full-length album, I didn’t bother appearing on music shows.
So even as the release date approached, I could sleep in and leisurely prepare for the day.
Ah, obviously, I just bailed on school.
As I grew more and more famous, people from other grades started coming to my classroom just to see me, which was a little burdensome.
In any case, I had long since fulfilled the number of attendance days required for this year, and with less than a month left until vacation, there was no reason to force myself to go to school just to get my attendance stamped.
“Ah. You arrived already.”
“Yes.”
“Did you have to wait long?”
“Not particularly.”
My dedicated manager, Kim Jun-hyung, still treated me with the same stiff, unfailingly polite attitude.
Honestly, from my perspective, his attitude wasn’t bad. There was no need to grow particularly attached to a manager, and such affection often came back as betrayal later on.
Though he didn’t seem like the type to do that.
“Are we heading straight to the company today?”
“Um… I’m still deciding.”
In truth, there wasn’t much to do at the company at this hour.
I’d loaf around on the sofa for a while, then go into the studio and fiddle with the MIDI instruments, and once Blooming arrived, I’d probably play on my phone while watching them practice.
I wasn’t appearing on music shows, and I had already filmed all the promotional variety programs, so despite having just made a comeback, I had far more free time than before.
“Hmm. Is there anywhere you’d recommend?”
“…I don’t really know much about that sort of thing.”
“Then…”
I showed him a place I had just found on my smartphone.
“Muiido…? It’s an island I’ve never heard of before.”
“That’s understandable for an outsider. I’m from Incheon, so I’m familiar with it.”
In fact, unless you were from Incheon, most people didn’t know about Muiido, an island next to Yeongjongdo.
It wasn’t particularly worth going out of your way to visit, nor did it have any local specialties.
That was why it wasn’t very crowded if you went on a weekday around lunchtime.
“There’s a café on a hill there with a fantastic view of the sea. Let’s have some coffee, then go to the company.”
“Understood.”
Apparently, the Muui Bridge connecting Yeongjongdo and Muiido had only recently been completed. I realized belatedly that if it hadn’t been, we would have come all the way to Yeongjongdo for nothing.
Anyway, I went to the café I had bookmarked and found a decent table.
“Hmm. First, please order a matcha roll cake and a matcha Einspänner… and a matcha cream bun, too.”
“You like matcha. That’s a mature taste.”
“Hmm? I like it because it’s sweet. I don’t drink ordinary bitter green tea. Just think of me as having a child’s palate.”
“……”
He immediately took out his smartphone and jotted something down.
Seeing that, I immediately realized what he was doing.
“Are you writing that down?”
“As your manager, I need to know the preferences of the person I’m looking after.”
“I can handle pretty much any café drink. As for food, I like Japanese dishes—things like katsu and sushi.”
“…I’ll write that down, too.”
If Kim Jun-hyung started out as a road manager at his current age and kept working his way up, couldn’t he become a management team leader at our company by the time he was over thirty?
Well, that could only happen if every group I put out from now on achieved some degree of success.
‘If there are no results, I won’t have anything to say at the shareholders’ meeting, either.’
Those were the words I had heard the last time I spoke to Yoo Sanghun on the phone.
There was no longer any option of succeeding without relying on him at all. I had to use every available resource to somehow make Blooming and the idols who would debut in the future succeed.
That was the best I could do right now.
“Ah. You’re back already.”
After gazing out at the sea for a while and listening to music, I saw Kim Jun-hyung arrive carrying a tray filled with green treats.
My face lit up at the sight.
“Wow…! That looks so good.”
At that moment, Kim Jun-hyung’s smartphone camera made a sharp clicking sound and flashed.
“It came out well.”
“Oh my? Hehe… Thank you.”
These days, most of the pictures I uploaded to Instagram were his work. Apparently, he had honed his photography skills thanks to an ex-girlfriend he dated before going into the military.
After uploading the picture he gave me to Instagram, I immediately began inhaling all the matcha treats.
“It’s good. The flavor’s nice.”
“Is that so?”
“You should eat something too, Mr. Jun-hyung. We’re charging it to the company card anyway.”
“I’m exercising, so an Americano is enough.”
“Exercising? Oh, could you teach me some during my hiatus?”
At those words, Kim Jun-hyung’s movements came to an abrupt stop.
“…Your hiatus?”
“Ah. I haven’t told you yet?”
I scratched my head awkwardly and spoke to him in a low voice that wouldn’t carry to anyone nearby.
“I’ve entered puberty, so my voice is changing. I’ve decided to take a break from vocals for a while.”