Damn Idol, Episode 85
In the end, Producer Kang Seokwoo had no choice but to throw up both hands and feet in surrender.
He didn’t know how it would look from M Show’s perspective, but from his own, proceeding as Han Sion had suggested would make for the prettiest picture.
“Han Sion. What on earth are you?”
“The leader of Sedalbaegil.”
“Huh. Really.”
“At most, you’ll probably only have to side with Sedalbaegil for episodes eight and nine. In episode ten, you should side with Take Scene and leave room for possibility.”
“Good grief……”
Kang Seokwoo let out an incredulous laugh and continued.
“Han Sion, do you remember what we talked about last time? A close relationship.”
It was the conversation they’d had around the time negotiations for Chris Edward’s appearance were running into difficulties.
“I heard you even talked about appearance fees with Producer Go. What is it you want?”
“A close relationship.”
“Us? We’re already close. To be honest, I never imagined I’d be having this kind of conversation with a twenty-year-old contestant.”
“I’m talking about something beyond that of program director and program contestant.”
“Ah…… You want to put me in your debt.”
“That isn’t necessarily it.”
“What do you mean, it isn’t? But Sion, you know this, right? A debt of the heart only works on someone you’d feel uncomfortable ignoring.”
Han Sion grinned.
“Of course I remember.”
“I’m cashing in that debt this time.”
“I’d have thought Sedalbaegil and I still have a long way to go before we reach the level where you’d feel uncomfortable ignoring us.”
“Objectively, yes……”
But subjectively, no.
The thought of turning his back on Han Sion like this left him feeling uneasy somehow.
But Kang Seokwoo did not add anything more, and Han Sion nodded as if there was no need for him to say it.
“Contact me anytime once I’m removed from M Show’s blacklist. If it’s a program directed by you, Producer Kang, I’ll appear no matter what.”
“No matter what? Bungee jumping? Skydiving?”
“……
Within reason.”
“Haha.”
Kang Seokwoo laughed heartily, took a swig of beer, and asked.
“When are you meeting CEO Choi?”
“I’m scheduled to see him tomorrow evening.”
“What are you going to say to CEO Choi?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to hear what he has to say first.”
“Han Sion, do you know that? In situations like this, most people say they’ll try to talk things out.”
He was a person who consistently liked to seize the initiative.
The two shared one bottle of beer, then got up from their seats.
Kang Seokwoo watched Han Sion’s departing back with a strange feeling.
The two of them, who had met by chance, had made an implicit contract on Coming Up Next.
The result had been good.
He had placed Han Sion at the center of the program, and Han Sion had increased the program’s buzz to an astonishing degree.
And now, that contract was over.
Starting tomorrow, Han Sion would be on M Show’s blacklist, and Sedalbaegil would have to survive under pressure from M Show and Ryan Entertainment.
Even so, the reason he found himself hoping Han Sion would do well
was probably because, before he was an employee of M Show, he was a program director.
Coming Up Next had been the best program he had ever directed.
Thanks to Han Sion.
* * *
I had met Producer Kang Seokwoo privately, but not CEO Choi Daeho.
The place for my appointment with Choi Daeho was Ryan Entertainment.
And when I arrived at Ryan Entertainment—
“Are you sure you really have an appointment with the CEO? What did you say your name was?”
The security guard at the entrance looked me up and down, eyeing me with suspicion.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
CEO Choi Daeho really did like playing petty little tricks like this.
It was possible the security guard didn’t know me.
Just because he managed an entertainment company didn’t mean he had to be sensitive to every piece of content out there.
But at the very least, there was no way he would treat someone who claimed to have an appointment with the CEO like this.
If I had really looked like a sasaeng fan or a fraud, he would have chased me away, and if not, he would have contacted someone upstairs.
But what was the security guard’s attitude right now?
He seemed to doubt me, but it was obvious he had no real intention of driving me out.
In other words, this was an attempt to cow me.
Don’t get the wrong idea and think the whole world belongs to you just because you got popular on some TV program.
The world is big.
That was what he was trying to say.
If Producer Kang Seokwoo had done something like this, I might have let it slide once.
Kang Seokwoo and I had made an implicit contract and faithfully carried out our respective roles, but I was the one who broke the contract first.
Besides, there had been many convenient aspects to Kang Seokwoo being the producer of Coming Up Next.
He was the type to respect someone if he thought their social intelligence was similar to his own.
But CEO Choi Daeho was not.
CEO Choi Daeho’s existence meant nothing to me.
Even if the person sitting at the judge’s table had been the CEO of Double M or the CEO of NT instead of Choi Daeho, nothing would have changed.
So, without hesitation, I greeted the security guard and turned around.
“Uh, wait! Han Sion!”
I heard the security guard calling from behind me, but I didn’t turn back.
Even when he ran over and grabbed me, my mind did not change.
That said, I didn’t want to cause trouble for a security guard who had simply carried out orders from above, so I gave him a suitable excuse.
“I must have mistaken the date. I’ll make another appointment and come back.”
Of course, there would be no next meeting for us.
To be honest, I didn’t really need to talk to CEO Choi Daeho.
I had only been trying to sort things out in case he continued to put pressure on the Sedalbaegil members.
As I left Ryan Entertainment, I sent Choi Daeho a text.
[Thank you for all your hard work until now. We may be in opposition for a while, but if that is based on business logic rather than personal hatred, I believe a day will come when we can greet each other with smiles. Please take care of your health.]
Still, I was the adult who had lived longer, so I ought to treat him with composure and tolerance.
The reply came faster than I expected.
I had just reached the main road and was about to call a taxi when my phone vibrated.
But was CEO Choi Daeho always this type?
[Don’t act arrogant. Come up.]
[Whether you’re going to atone or get on your knees, do it while looking me in the eye.]
Uh…… I don’t think I did anything that wrong.
I could understand a businessman retaliating according to business logic, but this attitude was a bit much.
Come to think of it, I didn’t know much about CEO Choi Daeho.
I had never had the chance to talk with him privately after he took off his broadcast mask.
So it was a little unexpected.
Judging by how he treated Blue, an artist from his agency, and Lee Changjun, whom he called his junior, I had thought he was the generous type toward his subordinates.
Was he only generous to people whose opinions matched his own?
Or did he have a strong threshold when it came to social status?
There were CEOs like that from time to time.
People who would laugh off a department head making an out-of-line joke, but turn dead serious if a manager made even a small joke.
For people like that, the threshold started at department head.
Anyone below that should not dare joke with them.
Like a caste system.
Choi Daeho somehow gave off that feeling.
As I was thinking that, a call came in from Choi Daeho.
The moment I answered, I heard a voice sunk low.
—Han Sion. If you’re acting arrogant because you think your current popularity will last forever, you’re making a mistake. Come up.
Hmm. I think I was right.
People like this are not persuaded no matter how valid a reason you give them.
Either things go according to their will, or they don’t. Those are the only two options.
So whether I apologized here or showered him with curses, unless I returned to Take Scene, it would make no difference.
Still, I had my dignity as a regressor. I couldn’t just hurl curses at him.
I wanted to piss him off a little.
Was there anything appropriate I could say?
That was when one phrase came to mind.
It wasn’t a phrase used now, but in three years? Five years? Around then, it would start being used, and even I didn’t know what it meant.
I had just seen Koreans use it a lot.
“Whatever-TV.”
I told him about a trend from a few years in the future, so he should be grateful, right?
* * *
There is a truly endless amount of content dealing with regression.
Novels, movies, comics, and so on.
In the early days of my regression, I watched those things very diligently too.
To get ideas about a regressor’s life.
And because I wanted comfort.
There was no one in the entire world who could understand me, but I could feel a sense of kinship with the regressors inside those works.
There were also quite a few things I took inspiration from in those works and tried to realize myself.
But there is one point I have complaints about in most regression content.
Investment.
In those works, people make money so easily, but that isn’t how it works in reality.
The most absurd plot is when someone puts several billion won into a stock that will rise dozens of times over and makes an enormous profit.
Realistically, it makes no sense.
Stocks have a limited number of issued shares, and the number of those shares circulating in the market is even smaller.
If a stock is going to rise dozens of times, the accumulation forces already have all of it in their hands.
Of course, you can try pouring in an enormous amount of money every day to buy it up.
I’ve tried it too.
Do you know what happens then?
The manipulation forces wonder what the hell is going on, dump all their shares on you, and leave.
Because those people are also afraid of situations they can’t control.
So if you don’t adjust the quantity appropriately, you can end up in a ridiculous situation.
For reference, I’m someone who has even been summoned by the FBI.
Because I used future knowledge to rake in a huge capital gain without realizing it was a stock some very important people were playing with.
Crypto is the same.
Bitcoin, traded by people all over the world, is a bit of an exception, but still, if you accumulate too much of it……
“……
Ahem.”
Maybe I got a little too immersed.
In any case, what I want to say is that money can’t increase that quickly.
Because you have to spread an appropriate amount of money, one that won’t affect the market, across an enormous number of assets.
Still, my wealth was increasing smoothly, and it was more than enough to fund Sedalbaegil Crew’s activities.
After a year, there would be more than enough.
But there was something I had to do before then.
Meeting Attorney Choi Jiwon.
I had something to give, and something to receive.
“Have you been well?”
“I’ve been well, of course. As for you, Han Sion, I see you on TV every time, so I’m not curious about how you’re doing.”
“Haha.”
After exchanging the appropriate greetings, I brought up the main topic.
First, what I had to give was the legal fee.
I had agreed to give Attorney Choi Jiwon half my assets as her fee, but the money from the sale of my real estate had been delayed because of the selling period.
“Your house sold already?”
“No. I didn’t sell it.”
“Then what is this money?”
“I did some investing and made a large profit. I withdrew from that to give it to you.”
“……
Don’t tell me you invested all your assets in one place?”
“As if I would. I diversified. I just got lucky.”
“Huh. Really. This isn’t an amount you can earn through luck.”
Saying that, Choi Jiwon checked the account and widened her eyes.
Because an amount far greater than what she was originally supposed to receive had been deposited.
“……
Judging from your expression, it doesn’t seem like you sent it by mistake.”
“Yes.”
After that, I explained the relationship between Sedalbaegil, Ryan Entertainment, and M Show.
Choi Jiwon, who had been listening carefully to my story, asked,
“You’re trying to ask me for something, aren’t you?”
“Yes. It’s simple.”
“This isn’t an amount of money you give for a simple request.”
“Could you think of it as a celebration of opening our business relationship? I’d like to borrow your influence from time to time.”
Yes, what I wanted from Choi Jiwon was help.
Attorney Choi Jiwon had such tremendous backing that even a major law firm managed her win rate.
Her father was a chief prosecutor, and her maternal grandfather was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. That said it all.
If we limited it to the entertainment industry, CEO Choi Daeho might have greater influence, but social structures are connected.
If Attorney Choi Jiwon became my ally, I could avoid the pressure from Ryan and M Show and achieve what I wanted.
“What is the request?”
“I need a social affairs reporter at department-head level or above who can ignore a cooperation request from the entertainment desk.”
“……
Are you asking me to publicize the truth about Coming Up Next?”
“No. That isn’t what I want.”
That was not something to do now.
It was only something worth aiming for after Sedalbaegil Crew’s music had been perfectly imprinted in the public’s minds.
“Then what?”
At my ensuing explanation, Choi Jiwon’s eyes widened.
“……
You’re saying you’re going to do that?”