Chapter 73
<The KMA Ceremony Will Ultimately Be Held Remotely. Available to Watch on Various Platforms on January 15>
The news that the KMA had given up on holding an in-person ceremony, amid all the turmoil caused by the epidemic, was more than enough to get the various music communities buzzing after there had been absolutely nothing to talk about since Seo Siyeon’s full-length album.
[So this is how it ends…]
The year-end stages were all canceled, and so were the showcases for albums scheduled for release. Now the KMA is being held remotely, too.
-Can’t be helped. Yeah.
-There are even rumors that a ban on gatherings is about to be issued. If they hold an awards ceremony anyway, people will definitely talk.
-If an awards ceremony on the KMA’s scale is held, COVID will spread all over the place. How could they go ahead with it?
-They say they’re going to proceed quietly without any performances ㅠㅠ I wanted to see Siyeon perform.
[So who do you predict for Musician of the Year?]
Honestly, everyone already knows, yeah.
-The elementary school singer GOAT lol
-Unless they rig it, they have to give it to Seo Siyeon…
-Honestly, after listening to this full-length album, there’s no way they can’t give it to her. There’s a Korean pop singer using country music?
↳And she used it insanely well.
↳She didn’t just imitate it halfway. The way she interpreted it in her own style was seriously something else.
-The critics all praised this album, too.
↳Honestly, I thought Seo Siyeon’s popularity from Singer Star was just inflated hype, but this album completely blew my mind.
↳Honestly, I don’t know about the other songs, but PODIUM has an incredible vibe.
↳There isn’t a single song worth skipping, yeah. It’s unbelievable that this came out with less than half a year of preparation.
[But if Seo Siyeon keeps growing like this]
Can she become the GOAT of Korean popular music? Honestly, I think it’s possible.
-If she wins a Grammy, she’ll definitely be the GOAT.
↳Will she be able to make it overseas?
↳Honestly, if she seriously sets her sights on going abroad, there’s nothing she can’t do.
-Her impact in a single season is already almost at GOAT level.
↳At least she’s definitely the GOAT of the twenty-first century.
↳Seriously, no singer has ever stayed at number one on the charts for this long.
↳And her first-week sales were 160,000 albums ㄷㄷ She’s number one among female soloists.
-But what if her voice changes badly?
↳Then… she can just become the producer GOAT.
↳She even said in an interview that being a composer suited her better than being a singer in the first place.
“That’s what they’re saying, anyway? Siyeon.”
“…This is embarrassing.”
I muttered that while looking at the community’s reactions on Jo Nayeun’s phone.
At the same time, I was a little curious about how they would react once they heard my acceptance speech at the KMA.
The people around me, having heard those thoughts, showered me with boos.
“Boo… trash!”
“Don’t toy with your fans’ hearts!”
“…Siyeon has a bit of a mean streak, doesn’t she?”
“No, does it really go as far as saying she has a bad personality? She’s just curious. There’s never been a case like this before.”
It wasn’t unheard of for someone in the entertainment industry to reach the peak of their career and suddenly stop working. However, there were almost no cases of someone stopping while their future looked as promising as mine did.
I grumbled as I picked up a can of cola and…
“Open it for me.”
“Heh… Say, ‘Please open it for me.’ Try it.”
Sadly, Seo Siyeon was still an elementary schooler with a slender frame, and her hands weren’t strong enough to open a can of cola.
“…Open it for me, unnie.”
“Hmm? That’s awfully stiff. Is that how you ask for a favor?”
“Oh, unnieee…! Siyeon wants to drink cola!”
“Hahaha!”
Jo Nayeun laughed brightly, took my can of cola, popped it open with ease, and handed it to me.
I lowered my head to hide my flushed face and whispered in a small voice.
“…I’ll get my revenge for this someday. Be prepared.”
“Hehe. Siyeon is so cute.”
The place we were in was a fairly large private room at a barbecue restaurant.
There were six tables in the room, and we were using four of them.
At one, the two managers were quietly grilling meat and knocking back soju.
At another, three trainees and the boss were grilling meat together.
At the remaining two, the members of Blooming, me, and Lee Hyena were divided between the tables and scarfing down meat.
As you could probably tell from everyone gathered there, we were finally holding the Blue Sky Entertainment company dinner that we hadn’t been able to have because of the hectic year-end atmosphere.
“Come to think of it, why is Hyena unnie here?”
“Because I signed with them yesterday!”
Lee Hyena answered Jo Nayeun’s question with a shrug.
“Hehe. I’m living thanks to our Siyeon…!”
“I told you I didn’t contact you because of our personal connection.”
I had continued to keep up with news about Lee Hyena, and we had also remained in personal contact.
That was why I was able to contact her as soon as she left her agency and bring her over to our side.
“Your skills aren’t anywhere near the level where you could be looked down on.”
“That company was a mess in so many ways…”
From what I heard, she had really gotten caught in a terrible situation. A mid-sized entertainment agency where the various divisions were constantly engaged in power struggles… It sounded horrifying just hearing about it.
“Anyway, now that things have turned out this way, let’s do our best from here on.”
For about the next year, I would have to focus on Blooming and the new group we were going to create rather than my own activities.
Of course, I had no intention of giving up my solo activities entirely.
Someone might ask how I planned to continue my solo activities without singing, but I had a method in mind.
There was no way I would simply stop Seo Siyeon’s activities without thinking things through.
“Ah! Right. We need to add one more person to the debut lineup now.”
“…Yes, I suppose so.”
The issue Lee Hyena had brought up was a problem that had recently been troubling Lee Hajin and me, but given the season, it had become difficult to hold auditions to recruit trainees.
In that case, we would have to scout someone from somewhere… The most likely option was to recruit a trainee who had been dropped by a major agency.
However, none of the major agencies were releasing trainees right now.
Since we were planning to debut around the middle of the year, we were in a difficult situation.
Lee Hajin and I had prepared everything from the songs to the concept, but there was no one to sing those songs and dance to them.
“I heard this in passing…”
“Yes.”
“Try contacting Haruka.”
“…? Didn’t she already have a destination lined up?”
It hadn’t even been a week since I’d heard that Haruka had signed with Neon Entertainment, a mid-sized agency.
There were also two former Starlight trainees there, so I thought it could be a pretty good choice.
“I heard that fell through.”
Maybe it was because she was still in contact with the people there. Lee Hyena had brought me the news faster than Lee Ha-jun, despite his experience as a manager.
If Haruka was willing to come here…
We might be able to complete a lineup that was almost at dream-team level.
* * *
What was the most important thing for an idol?
Vocal ability? Looks? Variety skills? Dancing?
Haruka had worked as an idol for six years in Japan and two years in Korea. That was why she could say this with confidence.
The most important thing for an idol was their agency.
And the most important ability an agency needed to possess was production.
No matter how talented an idol was, they couldn’t leave a lasting impression on the public without proper production. Conversely, even an idol with only average skills and looks could work as a top-tier idol if they received the right production.
That was why the most important thing for Haruka when choosing an agency was its capabilities.
After all, aside from the major agencies, she was in a position to choose where she wanted to go.
She first negotiated with Neon Entertainment, where some of her former Starlight colleagues were. They accommodated almost all of her requests, and she liked their terms quite a bit, but…
“I can’t agree to a ‘pure and delicate’ concept.”
The moment the producers said they intended to use the outdated pure-and-innocent concept in this day and age, she ran for the hills.
She negotiated with several other agencies afterward, but none of them really appealed to her.
In that situation, the person who came to mind was, naturally, the young girl who had been the subject of so much talk in the industry lately.
“Blue Sky Entertainment…”
Haruka knew Winter Girl well. It had been at its peak when she was most passionately interested in K-pop, after all.
That meant she had also been able to get a fairly good grasp of the abilities and limitations Blue Sky Entertainment had displayed at the time.
Excellent business sense and promotional strategies, along with songs that had benefited from perfect timing.
In exchange, dreadful choreography and styling with no sense of taste.
However, the latter were problems that could be solved with money. She had heard they had received a substantial investment this time, so those aspects could probably be resolved through discussion.
“If Siyeon is there… we won’t have to worry about the songs, either.”
In Haruka’s eyes, that child was highly ambitious when it came to producing and composing. If she joined them, Haruka was certain she would end up singing songs made by Seo Siyeon.
Seo Siyeon’s abilities had already been proven.
What more was there to scrutinize about the abilities of someone who had won both the Composer Award and the grand prize at the WMA?
That was why, when Blue Sky Entertainment contacted Haruka to ask if she would like to have a meeting, she readily accepted.