Damned Idol, Episode 4
Moreover, Han Sion’s appearance stood out even to Seo Seung-hyeon, whose eyes were accustomed to seeing celebrities.
Humans are ultimately animals that rely on sight, so outstanding looks lead to a better first impression.
‘Judging by his age and attitude, he seems to be a low-level employee.’
His business card listed no position, just STAFF.
“Mr. Han Sion. Excuse me, but how old are you?”
“By Korean age, I’m twenty now.”
“Twenty? But you were sent here as a representative of HR?”
“Ah, this isn’t an interview at the company level. It was a request from a manager interested in K-pop.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
“Yes. And originally, I wasn’t even supposed to come. I mentioned it out of personal desire, and the manager gave me permission.”
Seo Seung-hyeon didn’t know, but Han Sion was aware that the lies he was telling now would be exposed someday.
Therefore, excessive lies could evoke feelings of being deceived.
Even if all the facts came out, he had to maintain the line where it ended as nothing more than a slightly absurd but pleasant anecdote.
“If this is unpleasant, I can speak to the manager again.”
“No, no. It’s fine. Actually, it’s easier for me to talk this way too.”
As Han Sion intended, Team Leader Seo Seung-hyeon nodded with a slightly more comfortable expression.
“You said you wanted an interview with the A&R team, right?”
“Yes. The production environment for K-pop has many unique aspects.”
After that, Seo Seung-hyeon and Han Sion began exchanging various questions and answers regarding Korean agencies.
At first, Team Leader Seo Seung-hyeon was explaining things unilaterally.
But as time passed, the conversation between the two gradually became equal.
‘This kid, it looks like he’s really worked in the industry.’
Being the A&R team leader of BVB Entertainment, he could get a sense of things after just a few exchanges.
Whether this person had really worked inside the music industry, or merely around it.
To Seo Seung-hyeon, Han Sion was someone who had properly worked inside it.
The casual talk about the American show business industry that flowed out naturally was far too detailed.
The anecdotes about famous singers that he shared as jokes were also incredibly interesting.
While he was at it, he asked about American production methods too, and stories that would be hard to know unless one were a current industry insider poured out one after another.
“Mr. Han Sion, are you really staff? Not someone on the recording side?”
“My manager took great care of me. I received many opportunities that were more than I deserved.”
Just as the interview was coming to an end, the words Han Sion had been waiting for came from Seo Seung-hyeon’s mouth.
“Mr. Han Sion. You said you came to Korea, right?”
“Yes. I’m already here. I’m not going back to America anymore.”
“You look like you want to work in the music industry. Aren’t you interested in A&R?”
“I’m very interested. But… honestly, I want to try being a player at least once.”
It was something Seo Seung-hyeon had inwardly suspected as well.
He didn’t know about his musical skills, but his visuals passed.
“Then shall I put in a word for a BVB trainee position?”
“No, it’s fine. That sort of thing should be earned with one’s own ability.”
“Connections are ability. Me taking a liking to you is also your own ability.”
“Then could I send you some songs I’ve made? If you contact me after listening to them, that would be sufficient proof of ability.”
“Ah, sure. Send them to the email on my business card.”
“Thank you.”
Han Sion nodded with a pleasant smile, but in truth, he had no intention of sending the songs.
Relationships are not easy to change from their initial setting.
If BVB had taken the hand Han Sion offered, no matter how great a success Han Sion achieved, BVB would think this: that Han Sion succeeded thanks to their magnanimity.
Therefore, he had to make BVB send a love call. He had to make Seo Seung-hyeon come looking for him desperately.
Han Sion was thinking that.
* * *
Refusing Team Leader Seo Seung-hyeon’s offer to give him a tour of BVB Entertainment, he slipped out of the office building.
He was in quite a good mood.
The first button toward debuting at BVB Entertainment had been fastened quite well.
Of course, someone might tilt their head hearing his words.
Because all he did today was visit the company under false pretenses and become acquainted with the A&R team leader.
But before long, Seo Seung-hyeon would do things for him. Though he would think he was doing them for himself.
Thinking that, as he came out to the front entrance of the building, a group of people suddenly blocked his way.
“Excuse me.”
There were about five or six girls.
No, was the right term high school girls rather than women?
They weren’t wearing school uniforms, but they all looked like minors.
“Are the NOP guys in the company today?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know.”
“You’re a trainee, how do you not know?”
“I’m not a trainee.”
It seemed like the conversation would end there, but suddenly the high school girls’ eyes sharpened.
“Don’t tell me a new boy group is coming out?”
He could sense an aggressive nuance filled with anger.
“…?”
It had been well over a hundred years since he had last been active in Korea.
Saying this made him sound like a confabulatory patient, but it was actually true, so whatever.
That was why America was more familiar to him than Korea.
There were many times he subtly diverged from the emotions and common sense of Koreans too.
But it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t follow a conversation in Korean….
Just how could such a question come up?
He said he wasn’t a trainee, and suddenly they were asking if a new group was debuting?
And even if one was, why show such discomfort?
He could ignore them and pass by, but to him, what fans were thinking was the most important factor.
Fans buy albums. For that reason alone, they were his saviors.
Now then, what should he answer?
He didn’t know the reason, but it seemed they didn’t like a new boy group debuting?
If he poked at them slightly, would he be able to hear the reason?
“It’s not like they can’t debut, right?”
He had really just lightly poked them.
But the fans’ reaction to that….
“Ahhh! Fuck!”
“I knew this would happen!”
“You CEO son of a bitch! His damn launch addiction is flaring up again!”
“Concept! What’s the concept! Don’t tell me it overlaps?”
Wh-what had he done wrong…?
* * *
He bought snacks for the high school girls who had been chased away under the charge of causing a disturbance in front of the company and asked about the industry.
As it turned out, they had mistaken him for a member of a new boy group from BVB Entertainment.
They said he looked like a trainee no matter who looked, so when he said he wasn’t, that suspicion had immediately popped into their heads.
“You’re really not?”
“I visited the BVB building for the first time today.”
Interestingly, once he explained that he wasn’t a trainee, they all suddenly became docile.
“It’s not easy to show your true nature in front of muggles….”
“The more handsome a godlike being is….”
He didn’t know what they were talking about.
He was near-native not only in English but also in Spanish and German; to think he couldn’t understand Korean.
Had he lived in America too long?
Anyway, the stories of the high school girls were quite shocking by his standards.
The reason they had been angry was very simple.
It was that idol group fandoms dislike their company debuting the next group.
In this narrow strip of land where everyone desperately scrambles to divide the pie, what good is a competitor coming out, they said.
Moreover, if it’s the same company, they’d steal the company’s human and material resources.
“Moreover, now is the time to push NOP with all our might! They haven’t even been around that long!”
“….”
“Why that expression?”
“Is that really the reason?”
“Yes?”
Yes, he understood what they were saying.
Logically, he understood.
Korea didn’t have a domestic market as large as America.
But what he couldn’t understand was….
“Why do consumers worry about that?”
That was it.
There were fan protests about promotions in America too.
He didn’t know idol culture well, but in some ways, that side was probably worse.
But those protests were about things that had happened.
Not things that could happen.
Wasn’t this something outside directors, monitoring company management with their arms crossed, should be doing?
Just in case, he asked if NOP fans were particularly extreme.
“No? We’re relatively well-mannered, actually.”
“…
Really?”
“Really. Objectively.”
Good Lord. Just what kind of board had he jumped into?
“Thank you. That was informative.”
After paying for the snacks and leaving, he organized his thoughts.
His mind had briefly gone blank, but this was extremely important information.
The most important things in a disposable run are speed and boldness.
Otherwise, one might run out of patience and regress without realizing it.
Thus, the original plan to debut at BVB had become ambiguous.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t debut just because NOP’s fandom disliked it, but there was a possibility that fan protests could delay the timeline.
Of course, he wouldn’t decide based on a few fans’ words alone and would have to look into it in detail, but….
‘It’s probably the truth.’
Every field had its own rules that outsiders didn’t know.
Just as Charlie Angus, a legendary manager in the band industry, had told him when he first challenged being a band player.
“Even if times have changed, a band player’s identity is a porn star.”
“Why else would they wear tight-fitting skinny pants and sling their guitars in an inverted triangle? You know what that metaphor means without me saying it, right?”
“A handsome nerd band? A multinational band with an Asian vocalist?”
“You might gain popularity. You might increase album sales, tour across America, and attract countless groupies.”
“But you cannot climb to the peak and look down on everyone.”
Of course, his words weren’t 100% correct.
Because in his past life, he had led a band with an Asian vocalist to the top.
But they weren’t 100% wrong either.
If he hadn’t kept that advice in mind, GOTM would not have reached the highest position.
The moment he arrived home, he checked the public opinion of NOP’s fandom.
As expected, what the fans he met today said was right.
They weren’t being unusual.
The majority of the fandom held a strong rejection toward the launch of the next group.
Wondering if it was just NOP, he checked other places, and it was the same.
Except for groups that had been around for quite a long time.
‘Don’t tell me Prime Time is the group right after NOP?’
He didn’t know exactly, but Prime Time would probably debut roughly four to five years later.
Was it 2021, or 2022?
At worst, it meant he might have to be a trainee for four years.
Of course, if it really came to that, he wouldn’t be able to endure it and would regress.
He would have to debut at a company other than BVB after all.
This was always the problem when challenging a new field.
Until finding the optimized route, it felt like banging his head against bare ground.
“…
I should just sleep.”
When his head grew complicated and he felt his mood dropping, he hurriedly went to sleep.
For a regressor trapped in shackles, depression and disappointment were poison.
Especially when he thought of his damn ‘regression rules.’
Was it because he had forced himself to sleep?
That night, he dreamed.