Chapter 79
When Kim Ryeo-yu completely gave up on the stage, the trainees were bewildered.
But there was no time to be flustered. Someone had to cover the parts Kim Ryeo-yu wasn’t singing.
And in that moment, the trainees’ cooperation shone.
“Just look at my light
Forget the shadow I try to hide for a while”
Without hesitation, each of them sang.
First, Seo Baek-young,
“Because you are my light”
Then, Lee Kyunga,
“I will also become your light”
Next, Yoon Cheong,
“Because we’ve both gone through the prism of the same summer”
Then Kim Geum, Bang Suin, and Ryu Bo-ra….
Fortunately, they exchanged glances and matched their parts whenever Kim Ryeo-yu’s line came around, without any overlap.
Even though it could have looked awkward if just one person had overlapped.
But based on the practice they’d done together, the trainees could read each other’s minds.
“This time, you?
Next time, me.”
Even in this inexplicable situation, they all kept singing without losing their smiles.
“We will shine forever
You and I, sparkling”
As soon as they finished the last line.
Kim Ryeo-yu hurriedly left the stage.
Only then did the trainees see the audience below the stage.
Only then did they see the people’s eyes.
Only then did they understand.
Why Kim Ryeo-yu had run away.
Even though they didn’t know what was happening, something was clearly very wrong.
***
“Thank you for waiting. We will now begin the countdown. From now, you have exactly one minute to paint the dreams of the trainees with your colors. One minute left. Please give your final support.”
Do Hee-young smiled at the camera as if nothing had happened.
However, the trainees on stage couldn’t maintain their poker faces.
Each of them showed clear signs of confusion.
Right after the stage ended, they had been informed.
What was happening outside this seemingly large yet small studio.
‘No matter what, don’t let on that you know. Act like you have no idea about this incident. That’s the best way for everyone.’
An employee who had hurriedly come from headquarters explained.
We’ll handle the situation, so don’t say anything carelessly.
If you do, you’ll just get dragged into the mess too.
Those words left a shadow in the trainees’ hearts.
They didn’t like Kim Ryeo-yu, but they couldn’t feel good either.
Because they knew what was happening wasn’t just any small controversy.
So, even though it was a time when they should have been looking at the camera and promoting their numbers earnestly,
They were too stiff to promote properly.
They barely managed to force smiles and wave their hands.
“Please send your support to these desperate dreams. Add new colors to Colors, the blank canvas. Send the number of the trainee you support to #16XX. You can send up to five names. The time to color freely with the colors you want is now… 10 seconds. 10 seconds left. 10. 9. 8….”
3.
2.
1.
The audience shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Thank you. Thanks to your passionate participation, the voting for <Make a New Color> has ended with an incredible number of votes. The next-generation dream colors that will lead the future of K-POP. Who will be the five trainees to fill those new colors? We will now take a moment to tally the votes. The results will be revealed in one minute.”
A one-minute commercial break.
The internet was still buzzing.
★
Wow, we’ll finally see who gets in.
Whoever gets in, this will go down as the wildest idol survival show….. Historically the noisiest idol survivalㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Current Make a New Color status
: 1 voluntary withdrawal
1 everyone hopes would quit
I’ll support whoever among the ten gets in
You can vote for up to five, but honestly, I wanted to vote for all ten…
In a situation where neither fans, Colors, nor trainees could only smile.
There was one person who was grinning from ear to ear.
It was PD Oh.
“Wow. What good karma did I accumulate in my past life for the kids to draw so much attention all by themselves?”
“….”
In fact, PD Oh had nothing to lose from the trainees being embroiled in controversy.
Of course, Colors was frantic because the trainee they had worked so hard to nurture was about to be ruined.
But Mnet?
It was a stroke of luck.
The more controversy there was, the higher the real-time viewership ratings soared.
“When we first planned this, we wondered if we’d even get 1%. Right, Writer Kang? What was our last episode’s rating?”
“…2.1%.”
“I’m betting we’ll surpass 2.5% this time.”
With idols pouring out every day, idol survival programs were actually hard to get high ratings.
Especially a program to pick a group from just one agency.
The reason was simple.
The fewer trainees there were, the narrower the fanbase.
The more people there were, the wider the fanbase naturally became.
People have varied tastes, after all.
The “one of these is surely your type” strategy existed for a reason.
But Make a New Color only had a maximum of twelve trainees. Now, there were eleven.
It was naturally hard to expect high ratings.
Of course, Colors was a big agency, almost one of the top ones, with a highly loyal fanbase.
So they expected it to be boring, with no incidents at all.
What a surprise.
One incident after another happened.
Of course… most of them were caused by Kim Ryeo-yu.
But the others weren’t just pushovers either, making it interesting to watch.
“If one more person causes a stir, it would be fun.”
“One more…?”
Writer Kang, unable to hold back, spoke up.
“Yeah?”
“Do you know what you just said? The oldest of these kids is barely over twenty.”
“What?”
PD Oh was flustered.
Writer Kang had never reacted like this to her words before.
“I’m not saying I feel sorry for Kim Ryeo-yu. I think she’s reaping what she sowed. But what was that just now? Shouldn’t you be hoping there’s no more school violence at all? Do you see school violence as an easy issue that should happen for your promotion? Saying it would be fun if another controversy broke out, do you think that’s okay?”
“Wow, Writer Kang, you really say some funny things.”
“A PD who wishes for young kids to fail for his own benefit is saying funnier things, don’t you think?”
PD Oh’s eyes widened in anger.
“To be clear, did I report it? Was I the one who revealed her school violence? No, right? It was the YouTubers, wasn’t it?”
“But you were the one who gave them the source.”
That was true.
The one who originally gave the cyber leakers on YouTube the information about Kim Ryeo-yu’s school violence was PD Oh.
PD Oh had known about Kim Ryeo-yu’s school violence from the beginning.
There was a lot of money involved in the program, after all. Wouldn’t they have checked the records of the mere twelve trainees?
It was just that Director Kim told him to cover it up, so he did.
PD Oh was just observing the situation.
He had actually debated whether to reveal it or not.
Initially, he didn’t intend to expose it.
There was no guarantee that Kim Ryeo-yu wouldn’t debut even if it was revealed.
If Colors strongly denied it, it could get buried, or the public might just lose interest.
Moving incorrectly could result in only earning Colors’ animosity and failing.
If he was going to expose it, Kim Ryeo-yu had to definitely not debut.
So he needed someone more ruthless than himself.
Thus, PD Oh watched.
PD Oh thought the situation was similar to a sandcastle game.
The participants were Colors, Mnet, and… Yoon Cheong.
Could a mere trainee be a player in the game?
PD Oh thought Yoon Cheong could.
Anyway, one of the three had to collapse for the ratings to explode.
How could the ratings explode if PD Oh collapsed?
The production team could manipulate the situation to set the internet on fire.
But PD Oh had no intention of letting his turn be the one to collapse the sandcastle.
Why should he manipulate it and risk going to jail?
So, it had to be Yoon Cheong’s or Colors’ turn to collapse.
First, someone ahead had to make the sandcastle unstable by removing a large amount of sand.
Then, he would take over and make sure the next player collapsed.
Then.
Yoon Cheong removed the sand.
A lot of it.
PD Oh instinctively realized it was his turn now.
The best time to reveal the controversy was when it would most effectively boost the ratings.
PD Oh was an opportunist and a safety-first person at his core.
He never intended to be the frontrunner.
If there was a leading runner, he would lightly step in—PD Oh’s style.
When Kim Ryeo-yu’s reputation was shaking, he would trigger the decisive event.
It was best to make a lot of money from paid text votes—
Right now.
People would vote just to drop Kim Ryeo-yu.
The way to increase the number of text votes wasn’t to rely on one trainee’s popularity.
It was far more efficient to make that one trainee the enemy of the entire nation.
Lifting someone up was hard; bringing them down was easy.
So PD Oh handed over the source.
And it worked very well.
“Yes, I handed over the source. And Writer Kang turned a blind eye to her past and put her on the show.”
“…!”
“It was obvious that people would get hurt when she appeared on TV, yet you ignored it, didn’t you? Whatever your goal was, at least I accomplished some justice. What did you do? Weren’t you just a bystander under the guise of neutrality?”
PD Oh never thought he was wrong.
He was indeed selfish and opportunistic.
It was also true that his goal was a bit self-preserving.
But the means weren’t that bad, right?
He reported a bad deed done by a bad person.
Isn’t that what broadcasting is about?
What’s wrong with that?
“Isn’t it hypocritical to criticize others while pretending to be neutral, having turned a blind eye and kept silent to avoid getting fired? If I had made up something and reported it, fine, criticize me. But I handed over real facts as they were. Isn’t that what a broadcaster should do?”
“If that were so noble, you should have broadcast it yourself.”
For the first time, PD Oh was at a loss for words.
His mouth, which never stopped running, was now shut.
“If it was such a noble act, you should have done it yourself. But you didn’t want to dirty your hands, didn’t want to make enemies of Colors or Kim Ryeo-yu’s family. So you handed over the source. You wanted all the benefits. That’s not a broadcaster. That’s just a coward.”
“Writer Kang, have you lost your mind?”
“And yes, I’m a coward working under a coward. But at least I’m a coward who knows shame!”
Writer Kang huffed and turned away.
It was time for the vote count to end.
Writer Kang regretted her words.
She wasn’t usually a courageous person.
If she had been brave, she would have done something long ago.
But Writer Kang chose silence.
That’s why she felt more ashamed.
Yet, at that moment, she couldn’t suppress her anger, probably because—
[Thank you for waiting. The vote count has just been completed. First, the total number of votes. Wow, it’s a huge number. The total text votes are 1,244,728. One million two hundred forty-four thousand seven hundred twenty-eight votes.]
Her heart had moved a little toward those kids on that stage.