Damn Idol Episode 120
* * *
I voluntarily appeared before the Fair Trade Commission.
They hadn’t sent me a summons yet, but since we’d be starting fan club recruitment soon, I figured it would be better to deal with it quickly.
The FTC seemed flustered when they got my call, but they also seemed pleased, saying this would allow them to handle things more quickly.
Well, that was only natural.
This place was just a group of civil servants.
They wanted noisy issues resolved as quickly as possible, and they hoped no extra work would fall on them in the process.
So I gave them what they wanted.
“No, this is……”
The FTC employee looked completely dumbfounded.
“Go ahead.”
“So you’re saying the funding source for all of these actions was your personal money, Mr. Han Sion?”
“Yes. What I gave you earlier are documents that can prove the facts. They were prepared together with my legal and tax representatives.”
“R-right. Let’s take a look first.”
The FTC employee began skimming through the documents.
In truth, there was no need to review documents today.
No one had been assigned to the case yet, and no formal investigation had begun.
Should I call it a kind of preliminary consultation inquiry?
So his review of the documents right now was purely to satisfy his own curiosity.
But instead of being satisfied, his curiosity seemed to grow even stronger.
“Is the income listed here correct? You really made this much in investment returns?”
“That’s correct.”
“No, how?”
“I worked hard.”
“Was I not working hard enough……?”
The employee, who had muttered without realizing it, startled and quickly composed his expression.
“We’ll have to verify the facts once more, but if this is true, an announcement should go out soon.”
“Thank you.”
It was the natural result.
If we had ignored Lion Entertainment and signed with another company, there would have been room for the dispute to turn into a battle over legal interpretation.
It wouldn’t be a fight Lion could win, but if they dragged things out with media play, it would become quite annoying.
Because it would damage the group’s image.
But we became independent.
Who could possibly take issue with that?
The only ones who say, “If you don’t sign with us, you’re in big trouble,” are the mafia or the yakuza.
Since a battle of logic is impossible, Lion Entertainment will only be mocked if they keep clinging on.
This fact will probably reach Choe Daeho’s ears soon.
He must have connections in the FTC too.
“Will I be contacted once an investigator is assigned?”
“Of course.”
“Understood.”
There was no room for the investigator to come out crooked.
Because behind me was Attorney Choe Jiun.
Thinking about it again, betting half of my assets on Choe Jiun was the right choice.
That was where I buttoned the first button.
Just as I was about to leave the office, I saw the employee hurrying over.
“Excuse me……”
I looked at him, wondering what it was, and he whispered in my ear.
“Do you perhaps know any stocks with good prospects?”
Ah.
Well, Attorney Choe Jiun said something similar yesterday too.
He knew I’d made money through investments, but he hadn’t known it was to this extent.
In truth, from my perspective, I’d earned it while adjusting things moderately.
If I built up a trading record on a level that made no sense, it could be dangerous, so I deliberately included some stocks where I took losses.
Anyway, I should give him an answer.
“Wouldn’t 2017 be decent overall? The market’s good.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. But there are stocks you absolutely shouldn’t buy.”
“What are they?”
“Lion Entertainment.”
* * *
The Coming Up Next manipulation issue triggered by Han Sion showed no sign of dying down.
It was only natural.
Coming Up Next was a program that had surpassed 11% in viewership ratings, and online, its influence was even greater than that.
That meant there were an enormous number of viewers who could each add a word.
It had now passed the point where a specific faction could manipulate public opinion.
The raw reactions of the public that poured out began to drive the issue.
And that public opinion was one-sided.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋNo, so after all that, Take Scene lost?
-Exactlyㅋㅋㅋ So patheticㅋㅋ
-Still, didn’t Take Scene win?
-If it was biased to this extent, you can’t trust the judges’ evaluations.
-ㅇㅇㅇ True. The only thing you can trust is music chart performance, and can they even compare?
-Under the Streetlight looks like it’ll make it into the yearly chart top 30ㅋㅋㅋ
-Résumé is basically confirmedㅋㅋ
Of course, it wasn’t as if Choe Daeho had just sat back and done nothing.
He did make efforts to somehow muddy public opinion.
[Lion Entertainment to Take Strong Action Against the Spread of False Information.]
[Coming Up Next: “There Was Absolutely No Favoritism Toward Any Specific Contestant.”]
On the surface, they released rebuttal articles.
[The Story of How Yi Ion Left His Former Agency]
[Gu Taehwan School Violence Controversy (+ Evidence Attached)]
[Do You Guys Know Who Choe Jaeseong’s Parents Are?]
Under the surface, they tried to create other noise.
They knew it was a stretch, but public opinion was too strong for them to simply sit by and do nothing.
But the public wasn’t stupid either.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋDo they think people are idiots? Where’s the evidence in any of this?ㅋㅋ It’s all just brain-fantasy.
-Li-on, how 추하군.
-Lion PR team’s keyboards are gonna breakㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Do they think the idol scene is easy?
If the order of the attacks had been reversed.
No, if Han Sion’s attack had been even a little less sharp, it wouldn’t have come this far.
But Han Sion’s attack was sharp enough to pierce the lungs.
He shifted the tampering suspicions to the planning intent behind Coming Up Next, then dribbled that all the way into suspicions of manipulation.
Of course, because he used numerous PR agencies, there were plenty of awkward spots if one looked closely.
But the public no longer cared about those details.
What they were curious about was whether Take Scene had proceeded through the program with a song prepared in advance.
Of course, there was no way to explain that away.
-Look at Lion keeping their mouths shutㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Isn’t it obvious when they can’t say anything?
-I bet they’re frantically changing the title of their debut song right now.
-Liar-n Entertainment.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋYou killed it.
-Liar-nㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Because it was true that Take Scene had gone through Coming Up Next with a song prepared in advance.
In the end, Lion Entertainment had no choice but to release a statement.
-Hello. This is Lion Entertainment.
We are releasing our company’s position regarding the false information currently spreading indiscriminately online……
-To summarize, it was this.
All of these stories are false and misunderstandings caused by exaggerated facts.
The final mission of Coming Up Next was a free-choice song, and there were no restrictions whatsoever on song selection.
Accordingly, Take Scene merely selected a song they had made during their trainee days.
It is true that the song was produced in the past, but it was not a song into which company capital was invested.
The Take Scene members made the song for fun with an in-house composer they were close to, and they simply performed a song containing memories in a way suited to the Coming Up Next stage.
The posts being spread online are false agitation using the recording file from that time.
We will absolutely identify the distributor and respond strongly through legal action.
It was not a good explanation.
Because the message contained in the clarification was closer to, “Believe it if you want, don’t if you don’t.”
But that didn’t mean it was a bad explanation either.
It was all fiction, but there were no problems with the logical structure.
Choe Daeho’s thinking was simple.
Issues on the internet blaze as if they’ll devour the entire world, only to quiet down in a week.
So all he had to do was stall for time.
In the future, it would be remembered as “an incident where they even gave an explanation for baseless slander that didn’t need to be explained.”
It actually seemed to be working.
They blocked all additional reporting, activated their viral lines, and spread positive public opinion about the explanation, causing the buzz volume to begin decreasing.
Of course, Han Sion would continue clinging to this issue.
Because once you somehow got on top, you had to rain down the ground-and-pound.
But the public does not react sensitively to the same issue over and over.
If there was no greater stimulus, they would soon lose interest, and it would quickly become stale bait.
“That son of a bitch……”
So even if his insides were boiling with rage, for now, he had to endure.
Because at this very moment, even Choe Daeho couldn’t attack Three Months and a Hundred Days.
Until Take Scene debuted, no noise could arise that tied Take Scene and Three Months and a Hundred Days together.
It was at the moment Choe Daeho was thinking this.
Bzzzt—
His phone vibrated and spat out a message.
The sender was Han Sion.
[President, wouldn’t it be better to stop here? There’s no need for both of us to get hurt, is there?]
It was the exact same message as last time.
He was definitely mocking him.
Filled with rage, Choe Daeho was about to call Han Sion, but stopped.
Suddenly, one possibility occurred to him.
‘What would have happened if I’d said I understood last time?’
Take Scene was a team produced with an enormous amount of money.
They had produced an entire variety program for them; that said it all.
So if this team failed, Lion Entertainment could temporarily stagger.
But because of Han Sion, the situation had become quite unstable.
They could no longer postpone the debut schedule, but they had no idea how the public would react.
At the same time, the words the CEO of Double M Entertainment had said came to mind.
“You should make peace now instead. Just let them go. Before it comes back as an even bigger disaster.”
If that really had been the case……
At that moment, Choe Daeho flinched in surprise.
It was an absurd thought.
He had competed with others his entire life, but never once had he thought like this.
Then why……
Why had such a thought occurred to him?
‘I have been tired lately.’
His anger cooled, and Choe Daeho sent a message similar to last time.
[Go ahead and try. If you’re confident.]
There was no reply.
As he looked at the silent phone, his anger disappeared, and another emotion rose in its place.
But he didn’t know what this emotion was.
Displeasure? Uneasiness?
It was similar, but it seemed a little different.
With those thoughts, Choe Daeho left the office.
But the next day.
When Choe Daeho saw another issue covering the entire internet, he realized the true identity of the emotion he had felt.
It wasn’t displeasure……
[Take Scene’s Fade, Apology Video Leaked.]
[Why Did Fade Apologize to Han Sion?]
[Behind-the-Scenes Filming Revealed Through Coming Up Next Staff.]
It was fear.
* * *
The apology video Fade sent me was something awkward to use.
To be precise, if I revealed it carelessly, it was perfect for getting backlash.
Fade was rather cunning, and he apologized in a perfectly humble posture, so if things went wrong, it could look as if I was bullying him.
But didn’t I say this not long ago?
That the cruelest public reaction was “Of course.”
This is exactly that timing.
The time when Lion Entertainment’s PR department is desperately trying to maintain silence.
The time when they’re staring with bloodshot eyes, hoping the hot potato cools down.
If even a single negative issue goes up then.
-Of course, fuck. The idiots saying Choe Daeho did wrong but Take Scene is pitiful are thoughtless too. You think they didn’t know?
-What the hell did he do for them to say he caused controversy by expressing unpleasant feelings?
-A staff member posted that Fade threw a tantrum after losing to Han Sion in the missionㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah, they say it was during that karaoke missionㅋㅋㅋ
It turns into this.
Do you know what happens next?
[(Entertainment Zoom-In) Manipulation and Personality Controversy. The Dark Shadow Following an 11% Viewership Audition Program.]
[The Public’s Stinging Gaze Pouring Down on Take Scene’s Debut.]
[A Deformed Structure Destined for Controversy? MShow & Lion Entertainment’s Production Shares in Coming Up Next.]
Choe Daeho’s control over the media disappears.
At this point, even the show business industry has no choice but to notice.
That now, it isn’t Choe Daeho pressuring Three Months and a Hundred Days……
They’re fighting in the ring.
Watching a fight is always fun.
And if you can make money by broadcasting it, it’s even more fun.