Chapter 138
K [Steel Blue(스틸블루)│Live Start]
K [Album Preparation Team Members (5/5)]
Gasp.
Blue Duck clutched her heart at the newly arrived notification.
A K-App live broadcast—Steel Blue did them so often that she had gotten a bit used to it.
But today, the title seemed unusual.
Album… preparation…?
Already? Already?
Blue Duck clutched her heart and entered the live broadcast.
As soon as she entered, she saw tens of thousands of people clinging to their hearts just like her.
‘Of course.’
K [Notice: Mint Choco Preferences│Baek-young: Dislike Cheong: Ice cream is not good for your body Bo-ra: Eats if given Geum: Extremely loves it Juhong: Why would you eat toothpaste?]
K [Notice: MBTI│Baek-young: ISFJ Cheong: ENTJ Bo-ra: INFJ Geum: ENTP Juhong: ENFP ※The members’ MBTI may change periodically and is not perfectly accurate※]
K [Notice: Perilla Leaf Debate│Baek-young: It might be okay if it’s among members? Cheong: Just don’t eat perilla leaves Bo-ra: I’ll break up with my lover and help my friend with the leaves Geum: Whether you take the leaves or not, perilla leaf pickles are delicious Juhong: I’ll just help with everyone’s leaves]
‘The notices have been updated!’
Blue Duck was happy to learn new information about the members but also felt bitter.
The reason they put those notices up right from the start was because those were the only questions asked during live broadcasts.
She wanted to see the members chat amongst themselves, but people kept asking the same things, which was getting incredibly frustrating.
Still, it was a relief they put those notices up.
[Geum: Hi. We ditched practice and flew here today.]
[Juhong: We kidnapped Cheong, who was going to stay up all night practicing for <Dear My Diva>. Didn’t we do well!]
[Cheong: What on earth are you guys thinking?]
[Geum: Let’s leave tomorrow’s worries to tomorrow’s us.]
[Bo-ra: You need to take care of your body while working, unnie.]
[Baek-young: Right. Our eardrums are bleeding from listening to Cheong practice 24/7.]
[Juhong: She practices so much in the car that we can almost sing it instead of her!]
Judging by the comments, everyone was crying.
Why?
Because this was already Yoon Cheong’s third survival show.
<Dear My Diva> was a highly polarizing survival show among fans.
Positive reactions were about how they were glad to hear Yoon Cheong’s singing.
Negative reactions?
No… personal activities noooooooo
Stop overworking her ㅠㅠ She barely recovered her vocal cords and now you’re grinding her again
She’s going to become a professional survival show idol^-^(not funny)
Shouldn’t they be preparing for an album instead of doing another survival showㅠㅠㅠ Die, you heartless producers
And on top of that, I heard ㅇㅇㅇ’s rookie is coming out… Their main vocalist, right? It’s going to cause a massive stir
The reasons were varied.
Whatever the case, it was clear many fans disliked it.
Originally, there weren’t many positive responses to <Dear My Diva>, but after the article about Inleven’s Dahin participating, the negative responses grew.
[Geum: Anyway, it looks like we’re going to release our next album soon!]
[Baek-young: It’ll probably be a single. Around March.]
[Juhong: Our song is really good! Guaranteed to make your ears happy.]
[Cheong: Geum and I are working on finishing the song together.]
Crazinessㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
A single in March????? Time to save upㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
I’m so happyㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Geum and Cheong co-composing? I can’t resist this
[Baek-young: It’ll probably come out around my birthday. Haha.]
[Bo-ra: I’m thinking about what to get Baek-young unnie this time.]
[Cheong: Why do you have nothing you want?]
[Baek-young: I’m not materialistic…. The members’ love is enough for me.]
[Geum: I want to express my love with material things. Tell me what you want right now.]
[Juhong: That’s why I decided to just give everything I want to give!]
Let us give gifts tooㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
I also want to nail Baek-young’s tasteㅠ.ㅠ
Even though I know why they banned gift support,, I still want to give,,
Our babies who don’t accept support are so admirableㅠㅠ
It was already sad enough that they didn’t accept any support.
Blue Duck swallowed her tears.
Thanks to the members’ pre-declaration that they wouldn’t accept anything but letters, all the support for Bo-ra’s previous birthday was rejected.
I also want to give… Baek-young a present… Don’t just give to Steel Blue, include me too….
[Cheong: Everyone, how did you like our year-end performance and the stage at Top Idol? The year-end stage idea was suggested by Bo-ra, and for the Top Idol stage, as I mentioned before, Geum contributed a lot to the concept.]
[Juhong: Right! We’re curious about your feedback!]
[Baek-young: Is there any other concept you want to see~?]
Cute things cute things cute things cute things cute things
Do a strong concept, powerful Steel Blueㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Since it’s spring, how about something fresh!!!! Honestly, I love anything you doㅠㅠ
Just do what you want!!!!!!!
[Cheong: Oh, everyone has different opinions. Let’s take notes.]
[Geum: Yes, yes.]
Seeing Steel Blue pull out notebooks and pens all at once to read the comments, Blue Duck burst into laughter.
They were truly a group that listened well to their leader.
***
And then came the recording day for <Dear My Diva>.
I went to work earlier than usual.
To warm up my voice in advance.
“Did you see the article about Inleven?”
While we were moving by car, the manager spoke to me.
Since Director Kim was completely ousted, the manager had been utterly loyal to us.
Honestly, given what he had done, it was hard to trust him.
“Yes. They debuted yesterday, and their initial sales are said to be amazing.”
“Judging by the first-day sales, they surpassed our initial sales. I don’t know if those numbers are even believable. They didn’t even go through a survival show.”
“Well, nothing is impossible. Besides, I heard their members were famous even as trainees. Even though they didn’t officially debut, they did some activities here and there, so they have individual fandoms to some extent.”
“I heard one of their members is popular overseas. But still, it’s too much.”
Honestly, it looked like chart manipulation, but I didn’t bother to say anything.
Our activities didn’t overlap with theirs anyway.
What was the point of telling the manager?
“Their concept is somewhat similar to ours… Are you okay with that?”
“Well, that’s been quite the topic of discussion.”
Indeed, the internet had been buzzing about it.
Isn’t this a bit much? ‘Savior’ concept? It’s too obvious they took inspiration from our ‘Mutual Salvation’ concept…
And then they insist it’s different because it’s a warrior conceptㅋㅋㅋㅋ Sure… very different…..
Just because we’re princesses and you’re warriors doesn’t change the keyword of salvation
If it’s so different, why didn’t you call it a ‘Guardian Knight’ concept instead of ‘Savior’?
That’s how it was.
The debut concept of ‘Inleven’ was inspired by medieval knights.
A ‘savior’ concept, ready to fight for their fans at any time.
Of course, the overall costumes and stage vibes were different from ours.
They came out wearing chainmail-like outfits.
But by blatantly overlapping the keyword ‘salvation,’ it sparked conflicts between the fanbases.
And it didn’t stop there.
Because of the unbelievable initial sales figures, questions arose among all idol fans.
★
From the first-day sales, this is..? A bit..?
It’s not even a boy group, and a girl group’s debut album sold 290,000 copies on the first day……..? Without any prior activities…….??
I wouldn’t say anything if they had done a survival show like Momo Groupㅋㅋ Don’t fool around with us. Fans are sensitive about these things.
No matter how big the agency is, do these numbers make sense?
Well.
Originally, such suspicions would have surfaced a bit later.
In my previous life, these suspicions didn’t come out into the open until next year.
However.
This time, CEO Hong’s support and our much greater growth made the difference.
Inleven’s blatant attempt to keep us in check made their chart manipulation noticeable.
To earn the title of the best new group, they had to achieve absurd sales figures.
Because we had already achieved unbelievable sales numbers.
Moreover, the idol group that just released their album was- All Colors.
Some time ago.
Before Inleven’s debut schedule was announced.
CEO Hong Yeonseo
All Colors has also agreed to come back this month.
Originally, they were thinking of February or March, but they said pulling it up by a week or two to late January would be fine.
Actually, it would be better to have a clear schedule before their overseas tour.
They are okay with it.
In return, they want you to give them a song next time.
Hmm.
They are certainly meticulous.
CEO Hong Yeonseo
Yes.
We should give them that much.
But is there a specific reason why it has to be now?
There is.
First, we had planned our comeback for around March and didn’t want it to overlap.
To make Inleven’s chart manipulation more noticeable, there had to be a comparison.
All Colors’ first-day sales: 1,510,000 copies.
Inleven’s first-day sales: 290,000 copies.
Although the gap was incomparable, it was true that the two teams were vying for the top two spots on the album chart.
Thus, Inleven’s sales figures stood out even more.
It prompted reactions like, ‘Who are they to suddenly sell 290,000 copies?’
“Don’t worry too much about them. We just need to do well on our own.”
“Oh, right. We should.”
We were already busy setting up a new concept.
“We’re here. Let’s get off.”
“Yes.”
I slowly entered the broadcasting station with my manager.
Since we arrived a bit early, I planned to head to the waiting room and warm up my voice.
However, as soon as I arrived at the waiting room, I realized that might be difficult.
“Hello, sunbae-nim. I’m Dahin from Inleven.”
An unexpected guest had arrived.