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Chapter 165




After talking to the event agency employee, Team Leader Yoon rushed over to me.
“Um, Chief Jung. You said that Neptune has to film Making Film after, right?”
“They are filming it right now to be exact. We plan on having an interview after the event.”
I replied while nodding.
Team Leader Yoon licked his lips. His eyes shifted quickly within his plump frame.
“Could we perhaps extend Neptune’s performance?”
“Extend it?”
I thought about it.
How could I make the best use of this sudden situation? My mind wandered to the people I left behind in the waiting room, the cameraman filming this current situation, and the screaming fans outside.
Just as I began to draw an outline of my plan, Team Leader Yoon couldn’t wait and said in a desperate manner,
“I’ll be forever grateful if you could help me this once. You probably overhead, but, sigh, it looks like Babel will be a little late. It just happened that they were our finale…! The crowd is full of people who came to see them. On top of that, their fans are famously hardcore.”
It was rare for a boy group fandom to not be hardcore.
As girls who came early in the morning to see ‘their oppas’, they would grow more dissatisfied the longer Babel delayed. While they might not throw stones, they might throw trash.
“If Babel…”
Team Leader Yoon stopped and glanced at the cameraman. The cameraman turned his camera off and took a step back. As he gestured as if to tell Team Leader Yoon not to worry, Team Leader Yoon continued,
“While they might complain less if they hear Babel got in an accident, it seems Babel’s company wants to ensure the reporters don’t hear about this until the situation is settled and they send out a press release.”
Seeing as they said they would still make an appearance, it didn’t seem like they were at fault, and the members seemed to be fine. However, if they let thousands of fans know about the accident, it would immediately spread online.
Then reporters would swarm in and write even more provocative articles.
It was difficult for the event agency to ignore a request from a group like Babel in order to maintain a good relationship for future events.
“Please, please help us, Chief Jung.”
Team Leader Yoon begged.
“If Neptune’s on stage, then the crowd shouldn’t be too dissatisfied by the delay..!”
“How much time do you need?”
I asked while glancing at my watch. Team Leader Yoon held my hand like it was a lifeline. I asked again to the man profusely expressing his grat.i.tude,
“You’ll have to keep the delay to a minimum. They don’t have a wide repertoire so it’s impossible to extend their performance for long.”
“H-how long can you extend it?”
Normally, we would have four songs – Satellite and Pisces from their mini-alb.u.m, their other hit track from their other alb.u.m, and Lee Taehee’s solo OST. With greetings and some light talk, we could hold on for 30 minutes.
“If we want to add more, it would have to be their missing track from Next K-Star, but I’ll have to check with the girls since these songs weren’t planned for today. We can’t let them make a flawed performance since tons of fancams will be posted after the event.”
“Yes, that’s true. Pl-please take care of us.”
I smiled and turned around.
The cameraman had started filming at some point.
“The team leader asked me to give this to you…”
One of the event agency’s employees handed me a box. It was full of sandwiches, salads, chips, and drinks. Lee Songha jumped to her feet and accepted the box. Having seen Lee Songha up close, the employee left the room with a red face.
Our meeting continued.
The always reliable Lee Taehee calmly said,
“The two mission songs we frequently performed at events. We can do those since we’ve been practicing them for events. What do you think, Songha?”
Lee Songha nodded
“I practiced them yesterday.”
“I think we can do an encore on top of that.”
Im Seoyoung counted on her fingers.
“If we talk with the audience a bit longer. Oppa, what if we talk with the host longer?”
“No way.”
I immediately shook my head.
“We don’t have any comments prepared. You’re in the public’s eye. It’ll be big trouble if you say something bad because you’re excited.”
Also, the host, who was a comedian, was the frivolous type. The type who made provocative comments to drag out the audience’s reaction and cause controversy. How could I send them out there with no idea about what he might ask? No matter how much we plead the host to be moderate, there was no guarantee on what would happen on stage.
Im Seoyoung smacked her lips in regret.
“Then if we just introduce our songs and do an extra performance, I think we can extend it by 15 minutes.”
“If we add it with our original performance, it’ll be almost 30 minutes long. That’s like a concert.”
LJ said after licking her lips. Having calculated the length of their performance, Im Seoyoung flinched.
“C-concert?”
“Though, Babel fans will probably be glaring at us at the front.”
Im Seoyoung, who was jumping up and down at the thought of a concert, stiffened.
“I-it’ll be fine though, right? There are people who came to see us! Right?”
“That’s right. Uh, we’ll join them too! We even bought glowstick bracelets!”
Oh Yeondu, who particularly followed Im Seoyoung after confessing she was her role model, took out a bracelet. Each of the other goldfish took one out as well and shook them like tambourines. They mentioned how Oh Yeondu paid for them out of her own pocket.
I calmly looked at Pretty Girls.
At the three goldfish waving their hands and Jung Jae, who was clapping.
“chief Jung!”
Team Leader Yoon entered after knocking hurriedly.
“Um, I asked about other teams’ situations and barely managed to get one team to do an encore.”
“We probably can’t fill the gap with just that though.”
“That’s why we decided to do a giveaway event with the host. It seems we’ll be able to hold on for another twenty minutes with the encore performance. Then we have forty minutes remaining…”
Team Leader Yoon trailed off, knowing this was far-fetched.
Then Neptune’s performance would be an hour long in total. As LJ said, this was a concert. Maybe it would be different if they were experienced artists with lots of hit songs, but Neptune didn’t have the repertoire or experience to pull off an hour long on-the-spot concert.
I went over to Team Leader Yoon and said,
“That’ll be difficult.”
“Is there nothing you can do?”
“There is nothing else we can do. At most, we can hold on for twenty minutes. I think you have to look elsewhere for the remaining twenty minutes.”
I said while staring at Team Leader Yoon. He also looked at me.
Then, as though he had a sudden thought, his shoulders jumped.
“What if you came on stage…!”
“What will I do up there? Should I sing a lullaby?”
The waiting room was filled with suppressed laughs and coughs.
There were only two people who didn’t laugh, Lee Songha and Team Leader Yoon. Rather, Lee Songha seemed more into the idea than Team Leader Yoon. It felt like she would give me the mic as soon as I agreed. I waved at her, indicating to not have any thoughts, and looked back at Team Leader Yoon.
He looked elsewhere with anxious eyes. At Pretty Girls.
“Chief, it’ll be more difficult for Pretty Girls, right?”
The goldfish and Chief Lee Taeshin were shocked.
Even the Making Film staff, who were laughing about me singing a lullaby, quickly focused on filming.
“Pretty Girls?”
“Of course, we’ll definitely make it worth your while if they do perform. If we introduce them at a leisurely pace, even if they only do one song…!”
Team Leader Yoon mumbled before sighing as though he had already been refused.
That was because Pretty Girls currently didn’t have their stage outfits, makeup, or music.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that their preparations were non-existent.
“Then…”
I glanced at the girls before saying,
“I guess we need to talk with them this time.”
The aquarium froze.
The goldfish stiffed like frozen fish and simply looked at me.
Multiple cameras focused on them. Producer Yoo Sooyoung had a short discussion with me before immediately gathering the production staff and writers. Then she started an on-the-spot meeting with a bright smile.
After Neptune went to a different waiting room to practice, I spoke,
“While it would be good if you did it, you don’t have to if you think you can’t.”
The girls’ eyes shook like there was an earthquake.
Yoon Sol cautiously raised her hand and asked,
“It’s good if we do it?”
“It’s a sudden situation, and normally, I would refuse since there are a lot of variables. However, we are filming right now,”
I gestured to the cameras.
“It’s a bit of a waste to throw away such a dramatic situation like this when it came so naturally. You were already preparing for your showcase performance anyways. If you can perform well, there’s no showcase that’ll be better than this.”
The girls’ faces turned more serious.
They talked amongst each other for a while before Jung Jae said,
“We’ll do it. Please let us perform.”
The other goldfish gathered around and blinked.
“We practiced every day like it was our showcase performance.”
“I’m confident that I won’t make a mistake!”
“The audience might not react favorably. More than Neptune’s performance.”
The mood chilled at my words. The goldfish simply blinked.
I observed their reactions while continuing,
“Although your popularity has been rising at a sharp rate these past few weeks, the people outside aren’t here to see you. You’ll be part of an unexpected event, and there will be many people who won’t welcome you. Babel fans will be particularly unhappy.”
They gulped and mumbled,
“Wo-would they boo and jeer, saying stuff like they’ve never heard of us?”
“Or maybe throw water bottles…?”
“They won’t all be like that. Nor will they all leave.”
Jung Jae said in a quiet yet firm voice.
“There were times when the spectators all left when it was our turn to perform. Saying that there’ll be nothing to see. We also performed a lot in front of people pa.s.sing us on the street. “
Oh Yeondu fiddled with her glow-stick bracelet before holding it tight.
“There were people that asked us to wear more racy outfits to gain people’s attention. That we needed to at least show them that much since we were unknown.”
“That’s why Jae unni alone wore short skirts. Ones that revealed her thighs.”
“They weren’t that short. It only looked that way because my legs are long.”
Jung Jae joked awkwardly before saying,
“Now is different from then. There will be people outside who will be happy about our surprise performance.”
“That’s right. There will. At least a few.”
“There could even be a few dozens of people since there are thousands outside!”
The goldfish chatted amongst each other as they became livelier.
Chief Lee Taeshin, who was thinking about joining their conversation when the mood was down, was relieved. Then he exchanged a happy glance with Jung Jae. Soon, Jung Jae turned to look at me.
Maybe it was because of the past incident, but she always looked hesitant.
But she was resolute right now.
Enough that I could trust her.
I got up and said to Chief Lee Taeshin,
“Chief Lee, I already reported the situation to our superiors, so please call the stylist team for their outfits. As well as the instrumentals. Whether you get them to deliver or you go get them yourself, go with the quickest method.”
“Ah, understood.”
I left Pretty Girls under the makeup artists’ care and left the waiting room.
Then I told Lee Kwanwoo, who followed me out after seeing my gesture,
“Find out Babel’s chief.”
“Babel’s?”
I looked at the crowd of people outside and said,
“Their fans are gathered here. We have to hope that some of them will listen to reason.”
Even as he made an odd expression, Lee Kwanwoo quickly took out his phone.
When I returned after confirming Pretty Girls’ performance with Team Leader Yoon and receiving his thanks and promise of some compensation, Lee Kwanwoo already had the number of Babel’s chief in his hand.
I found an empty waiting room and called.
-h.e.l.lo?
The voice was very hoa.r.s.e. He sounded nervous and irritated.
“This is Babel’s chief, correct? My name is Jung Sunwoo, the one in charge of Neptune.”
-Pardon?
“I heard that you got in an accident on your way here. Are you alright?”
-Ah, we-we’re fine. But why did you…
His fl.u.s.tered voice questioned.
It was the same for Lee Kwanwoo, who was watching me.
“About today’s university event. We decided to fill the empty time slot under the agency’s request. It will be Neptune and Pretty Girls’ special performance. But because we are currently filming Making Film, there will be cameras filming them.”
-Pr-Pretty Girls? Pardon? Cameras?
“It seems like there are a lot of hardcore Babel fans in the crowd. I think things may get ugly if they learn that Babel’s performance will be delayed. I’m also worried that something bad might happen when Pretty Girls go up on stage. The broadcast is one thing, but there are a lot of people here filming fancams.”
-Ah, d.a.m.n it. This is driving me crazy.
Don’t go crazy.
-Please wait!
His voice became quiet before he came back.
-Our fan manager will figure out who went to the event and explain the situation. We can’t control the young ones either, so I don’t know if telling them that they could be banned from the next event will be effective…”
I exchanged a few more words with the groaning chief before hanging up.
In front of me, Lee Kwanwoo looked at me with fervor.
“What?”
“I just thought that you always act with insurance.”
He replied, shrugging lightly.
“This is just insurance. It’s not a perfect countermeasure. Do you think hardcore fans are hardcore for nothing?”
“Then, after all this, what if they really throw water bottles…”
“Then we need to spin that in a positive way.”
The moment Lee Kwanwoo’s eyes widened, the ground suddenly collapsed.
*
“… Married into a Chinese conglomerate. That the person was being treated for anxiety. That the person was pregnant. That the person retired in Korea and went on to do theater in the States. There were all sorts of rumors.”
What the heck?
I was in the office again. The office of my future self.
Like always in this future, Director Park and Reporter Song were in front of me.
However, there was something else same about this.
“She started when she was a child, so she was great at acting.”
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Director Park looked in my direction and added,
“I wonder what Son Chaeyoung’s doing now.”
Why was I seeing this again?
This had never happened before.
Why?