Chapter 99
“It… it’s true.”
The members looked at me with wide eyes.
“Our MV views… are rising much faster than the Burn Ash teaser video.”
I didn’t bother to respond.
I told you so.
“It’s because the competitive structure increased our buzz.”
What’s the most important thing in the entertainment industry?
It’s buzz.
Without buzz, nothing works.
Even if your skills are great, your visuals are stunning, and your song is fantastic.
If no one notices, it’s all useless.
Whether it’s good attention or bad attention, you need attention to gain popularity.
Of course, honestly, I don’t prefer this kind of atmosphere.
This way, we also attract a lot of antis.
Probably, many Burn Ash fans have started to dislike us.
Of course, they would know logically that it’s not our fault.
But if people could always act rationally, the world wouldn’t be such a mess.
[Burn Ash VS Steel Blue, is a family feud starting?!]
[The rising girl group VS the top boy group, who will be the winner?]
[Burn Ash, who broke the record for the fastest initial sales of 1 million copies, will they defend their title this time?!]
[Colors, strange movements… are there internal conflicts?]
Portal site articles,
▶ [12 reasons why Burn Ash can never beat Steel Blue]
▶ [Steel Blue? Burn Ash will crush them]
▶ [The reason Burn Ash hurriedly released a teaser.bunseok]
▶ [Comparison of the number one scores in music shows for the first half of the 2Xth year (boy group VS girl group edition)]
▶ [Burn Ash’s popularity is a bubble VS Steel Blue is a one-hit wonder]
▶ [Steel Blue’s title will inevitably fail]
YouTube cyber wrecks,
★
Damn, but those guys are in their second year and these guys just debuted, why are they always starting fights?
I mean, it’s not even between girl groups, why pit a girl group against a boy group? They are different genres, don’t you know? Do you think all idols are the same?
Stop it, damn it, they’re just trying to get mentions by clinging to our kids. First, let your group sell over a million copies of their album^^ Oh, can’t you?^^
└Seriously lolololol we are the first to hit a million in initial sales in our second year, who would have expected less? This album is definitely going to be a big hit.
SNS,
But why is Colors managing the situation so poorly?
They always operate weirdly, but why release both at the same time?
Is it some kind of marketing?? Do other agencies do this too?
I’m asking because I’m new to this.
Why release them together when they can easily get first place individually?
Only Colors knows… their management is good at finding talent but bad at management.
According to stock market rumors, there’s internal conflict in the company.
└Internal conflict?? Isn’t CEO Hong the only one running the company?
└└It was like that at first, but now it’s grown too big for her to handle alone.
└└└No way, how big could it be?
I heard this rumor too lol, the directors there are really something…
[Workplace app]
Don’t ask your employees why your company works weirdly.
Colors
We are the most frustrated.
It’s because the higher-ups are fighting over their own interests that it turned out like this…
It’s not that we don’t want to properly care for our artistsㅠㅠ
We have a lot of affection for our artists too… they are all nice and gentle kids…
But we have no choice but to follow the decisions made by the higher-ups.
Communication is nonexistent here.
A lot of people think entertainment companies are horizontal, but no company is more vertical than entertainment companies.
Colors is the top of the vertical structure.
The higher-ups in the company are very famous lol
└HaㅠㅠㅠI’m the most frustrated reallyㅠㅠ the emperor’s ears are donkey ears…
I used to be at Colors but now I’ve moved on, the higher-ups at Colors are something else, whatever you imagine, it’s worse.
└Oh why…??
└└The CEO’s interest in management is random.
└└└lololololol
ㄱㄹㅇ What’s the internal thought on the situation in the company?
└That… no comment, afraid of being suedㅎㅎ
└└Wow, there must be something.
Even the community.
Everyone was talking about us.
Unintentionally, we became a topic of conversation.
…I thought about this since the Make a New Color.
We strangely attract scandals.
“Hmm.”
I was looking at our schedule again.
Originally… our first music show performance was supposed to be in two weeks.
But given the current situation.
There was no need to delay.
We’ve already gathered all the buzz, so let’s seize this opportunity.
“Senior.”
“Yeah?”
Lee Sol rubbed her eyes and answered.
It was understandable.
It was 4 AM.
Both Lee Sol and I had barely slept for two days since the news of Burn Ash’s comeback.
“Let’s release it right away.”
“What?”
“The album teaser.”
Lee Sol paused for a moment, as if trying to understand my words.
“What?”
She seemed to finally get it.
“I made a new schedule.”
I handed Lee Sol the revised schedule with only the dates changed.
Everything was moved up by 3-7 days from the original plan.
“…”
Lee Sol looked at the schedule and seemed lost in thought.
“If we do this… we can come out at least ten days before Burn Ash. At least a week earlier.”
“Yes. This way, we can maximize the gap.”
“We will start music shows on the Wednesday before Burn Ash’s comeback, right?”
Avoiding clashing with them as much as possible.
Some might ask why we should avoid them….
The weaker one has no choice but to avoid.
“It’s doable. Let’s go with this.”
“The problem is that we need to reschedule all the broadcast schedules… is that okay?”
I had no choice but to rely on the manager and Lee Sol for the broadcast schedules.
Our current manager was Lee Sol’s group, Grayish’s, former manager.
A manager who practically raised Lee Sol.
“It will be fine. We’ll have to butter up some people… but we need to do that too.”
Lee Sol smiled.
“Don’t worry about this side, you should worry about yourselves.”
“Huh?”
“Cheong, you might not know, but if you have to perform on stage starting next week….”
Ah.
A chill ran down my spine.
“Will your members be okay?”
I hadn’t thought of that.
***
“…so, we’re thinking of moving up all the schedules to next week.”
I watched the four of them for reactions.
“What do you all think?”
We agreed to use formal speech during official meetings.
Business is originally conducted formally.
“Today is Wednesday… so that means releasing individual teasers tonight at 12 AM, Thursday, the teaser video on Friday, the highlight medley on Saturday, and the group teaser photo on Sunday, right?”
It was already complicated.
I could see the members’ eyes spinning.
“And then on Monday, we’ll release the MV, the music, and the album… and on Tuesday, we’ll have the showcase, and from Wednesday, we’ll start the music shows, right?”
“Yes. And the Tuesday showcase will be broadcast live on K-App. We’ll perform the pre-release song, the title track, and two other tracks.”
Even just listening to it, it was a daunting schedule.
“And we’ll do a live broadcast once a week. We also need to shoot our vlog, which will be released every two weeks.”
I felt guilty while explaining.
But I couldn’t not explain.
The manager took over the explanation.
“We also have radio schedules. Except for next weekend, almost every day is packed. But don’t worry, not all of you will be on every show. You’ll go out in groups of two or three. Only one or two shows will have everyone together.”
“But there are two broadcast recordings next week…?”
“Not next week, but tomorrow. The schedule change was just finalized. We have two idol-targeted variety show recordings on Thursday and Saturday.”
Everyone started to fall silent.
Even Ryu Bo-ra, who was used to a tough schedule thanks to drama filming, looked pale.
“It will be tough, but we adjusted the schedule to avoid overlapping with Burn Ash as much as possible. We compressed a two-week schedule into one week….”
I felt sorry for the members.
But… there was really no other choice.
If it were an album I was preparing alone, I would have pushed even harder.
But these are people who have never handled such a schedule before.
I had coordinated with Lee Sol as best as I could.
“I’m grateful.”
At that moment, Seo Baek-young quietly spoke.
“The more schedules, the better. We should be grateful that there are people inviting us.”
“Right!”
Yeon Juhong nodded enthusiastically.
“I think having a lot of schedules will be fun. It will be exciting. But can we have a lot of fan signings?!”
“If we add more, you might die of exhaustion.”
“Okay….”
Kim Geum was pale at first, but now she seemed to have adapted.
“It’s tougher than I thought, but I’m fine. Don’t we have any events? I like performing on stage.”
“…what events would we have already.”
“Pity.”
The last one was Ryu Bo-ra.
I turned my head to her…
“Bo-ra.”
“…I don’t know why you look at me like that.”
Ryu Bo-ra’s voice was cold as ice.
“What do you see me as? I became an idol with this level of determination.”
“Is that so?”
“Stop treating me like trash. Do you have a problem with me?”
No….
I just can’t tell you that your expression is scary during practice….
“I also want to repay the fans. Honestly, looking at how the company operates makes me want to break the contract and run away immediately, but I’m grateful to those who chose me, so I’ll keep my mouth shut and do my best for now.”
…for now?
I felt a slight unease.
How long is “for now”… exactly….
But I didn’t want to upset Ryu Bo-ra by bringing it up.
“So, our teaser photo will be released tonight, right?!”
Yeon Juhong jumped in.
“Yes.”
“I have to call my mom.”
“Oh, me too….”
“I should do that too.”
Finally, we could relax.
We reached an agreement.
Now, the remaining task-
Ding!
★
Steel Blue
1st Mini Album
Concept Photo #RyuBora
#SteelBlue #Light_Steel_Blue
#Blue #SteelBlue_Blue #1stMiniAlbum #DebutAlbum
20xx. 11. 23 MON 6 PM (KST)