Tapiest’s head of A&R, Jeong Sohyeon, climbed the stairs.
She stopped on the fourth floor of the company building, where the CEO’s office was located.
Jeong Sohyeon walked up to the door and knocked.
—Knock knock.
Then came the voice of CEO Kim Widong from beyond the door.
—Yeah, come in.
Inside the CEO’s office sat the company president in the seat of honor.
No—the expression on her uncle’s face was so impassive that it seemed he had already made up his mind.
“So, you’re here?”
“Yes, Uncle.”
Her uncle rose from his seat and stood in front of the coffee machine.
“Want some coffee?”
“No, I’m fine. I’ll tell you what I have to say and go right back down. I still have work to take care of.”
“…You’ll ruin your health at this rate. Take it easy. Your mother already nags me about making my niece work overtime every day.”
“Yes, I’ll finish the important things first.”
“You’re so stubborn.”
Her uncle sighed, took the coffee he had brewed, and sat back down.
“Of course, we need to examine everything carefully… but first, Sohyeon, what do you want to do?”
Jeong Sohyeon took out her tablet and handed it to Kim Widong, her uncle and the company’s CEO.
A graph showing Seven’s projected profitability trends was displayed on the screen.
“First, the graph…”
But her uncle’s expression as he looked at the screen was indifferent.
Kim Widong took a sip of coffee and tapped the graph.
“Clearly, selling out Gocheok Sky Dome brings the highest expected returns. They’re doing better than most male idols.”
Jeong Sohyeon began by annotating the graph.
“Yes, because it’s Gocheok Sky Dome. And it’s even more meaningful because they’re the first girl group to sell it out. No matter how much the market has grown, it’s something impossible for any existing girl group unless they’re on Coral Blue’s level. The value of our girls—and the other Seven members as well—must have shot up.”
“Sure, that’s probably true. More importantly, do you think Coral Blue could sell out Gocheok Sky Dome?”
Jeong Sohyeon calculated the figures in her head before answering.
“…Yes, I think it would be possible. Though there would need to be some additional significance attached to it. Like how this Gocheok Sky Dome concert is being presented as Seven’s final concert, or as a way to gauge the fans’ purchasing power before deciding whether to extend their contract.”
Of course, that was LE’s sales tactic.
They were dangling the hope that the Seven project would be extended if Gocheok Sky Dome sold out.
“Yeah. Those thugs at LE, a company that’s only a conglomerate in name—the people at the top haven’t changed the way they do things at all. There’s no such thing as growing alongside the fans or the agencies. They only care about padding their own performance figures.”
But because of that sales tactic, each agency had no choice but to start calculating.
Whether they should agree to an extension or not.
Whatever the case, Gocheok Sky Dome had sold out.
Jeong Sohyeon pointed to another graph.
“Anyway… the important thing is that Seven’s popularity is steadily rising not only throughout Asia but in the West as well, including the United States. Here, on the Spotify trend—”
But she could not finish.
“Director Hwang Hyeonman came by earlier.”
CEO Kim Widong had flipped over the tablet displaying the graph.
“He said this. That it might not be a bad idea to leave the two of them in Seven as they are.”
Jeong Sohyeon felt an immediate impulse to argue, but she remained silent for the moment.
Even if he was her uncle, he was still the CEO.
“First, because we have two members in Seven, our share of the money Seven earns as it grows is substantial. Think about Jeodol Season 1. Yoo Ahyeon, who became a hit and even ranked first in individual girl-group brand reputation, ended up becoming just another celebrity when the derivative group failed. Do we really have any reason to give up a guaranteed source of income like Seven?”
“Uncle, comparing Yoo Ahyeon and Dohee is absurd…”
“Listen to the end. I still have more to say. If Seven’s extension falls through because the other agencies refuse, then what determines how much money we earn afterward will be the derivative group’s performance. So why not debut the two of them as actresses or solo singers instead?”
The CEO and the head of A&R met each other’s eyes.
Watching Jeong Sohyeon’s lips twitch, Kim Widong said,
“Put the graph away and get to the point, Sohyeon. If I make you work overtime again, your mother will hound me.”
But Jeong Sohyeon flipped the tablet over again and brought up the graph.
“Uncle, comparing the Yoo Ahyeon and Dohee cases, as Director Hwang said… No, let’s move past that. Fundamentally, I see three reasons why the previous derivative groups failed.”
Kim Widong sighed.
“Maybe you take after your mother. You’ve got quite a stubborn streak. You have to pick apart every little thing.”
“First, the lack of appeal among members who didn’t come from the survival show. Fans brought in through survival programs have become accustomed to watching only the aces, so their standards are high. Naturally, they also have high expectations for the derivative group’s non-survival-show members.”
She turned the page, and the profiles of three trainees appeared on the screen.
“Naeun. She placed eighth in the finals of Jeodol Season 3. All the members follow her well as their leader.”
“Uah. Before Dohee joined us, she was the key member we had selected for our next-generation girl group. Even now, since she fits the image we’re planning, we’re considering her for the center position alongside Dohee.”
“Chiyo… She has the most distinctive personality among the foreign members, while still being a singular character the public could love.”
She turned to the next page.
Profile photos of Seven members Seoyun and Dohee appeared on the screen.
“Most importantly, the two who will serve as the gateways are unmistakably outstanding.”
The following page displayed a profitability graph for the derivative group from Jeodol Season 1.
“Second, the fandom split. Since Seven is a survival-project girl group, the fans are still concentrated around individual members. And because the group began under a competitive system, they’re accustomed to having to push the girl beside their favorite down so that their own favorite can rise. That makes them highly likely to turn into toxic solo stans.”
There had been meaningful profits only at the time of their initial debut.
And as time passed, the curve sloped steadily downward.
“Of course, there are still many people saying they’ll continue supporting all the members even after disbandment. But that will only last in the early days after debut. As time goes on, a large proportion of the fans will become toxic solo stans—so-called akgaes. In other words, disbandment wouldn’t just mean that the fandom failed to transfer completely. It would also mean starting out with the toxic antis they brought with them.”
Kim Widong, who had been listening in silence, finally spoke.
“Exactly. And if the extension falls through, LE will start scattering articles recklessly to milk Seven for the last time, then refuse to take responsibility for the sales tactics they used. They’ll try to shift the blame onto the members’ agencies. You know we’re the most likely target, right?”
Jeong Sohyeon nodded.
“Yes. Kwon Hana and Park Yeeun’s agencies are small to mid-sized, so they’re probably likely to agree to extending Seven in the first place.”
That meant there would be no grounds for blaming them.
“And the agencies representing Eun Sera, Jeon Harang, and Gong Chaerin will oppose the extension. But JS, HARU, and ZY are all enormous agencies.”
They were agencies large enough that even the conglomerate LE would hesitate to make enemies of them.
“From LE’s perspective, Tapiest will be the easiest target. And since we have two members in Seven, they can easily claim that we had more influence in the negotiations than the other agencies.”
“Right. Rumors that the group disbanded because of us will spread beneath the surface. As a result, even the fans who strongly support all the members will feel especially hollow about the disbandment, and they’ll want someone to blame. There’s a high chance that target will be us. In other words, our girls will be the ones saddled with the most toxic fans from the very beginning.”
CEO Kim Widong’s voice had remained calm as he spoke, but by the end it was trembling, and his face had reddened.
Watching her uncle, Jeong Sohyeon turned the page on the tablet with practiced ease.
“There are some countermeasures, at least. To begin with, Dohee has the largest number of individual fans among the Seven members, and Seoyun has quite a lot as well.”
On the screen was a schedule report on JS Entertainment obtained from a securities firm.
“JS has a new girl-group launch listed for the first quarter of next year. Of course, since it’s only a rumor, we can’t verify whether it’s true yet. But considering the reports that JS has recently been making discreet contact with Kwon Hana’s and Park Yeeun’s agencies, it seems they’re trying to buy out the two members.”
A buyout meant paying the member’s agency to purchase the member’s contract.
“Given the timing, JS’s girl-group launch is probably a certainty.”
In other words, they intended to pay a huge sum, debut the girl group soon, and earn even greater profits from it.
“Yes. So we can keep spreading this information through the online communities. JS was already planning to launch a girl group centered around Eun Sera, so the story that Seven disbanded because Tapiest’s two members refused should die down to some extent. Of course, there will still be toxic fans who believe whatever they want to believe.”
CEO Kim Widong gave a faint, thoughtful nod at his niece’s words.
“Fine. I understand the first and second reasons. What’s the third?”
At the same time, a clear sense of purpose appeared in Jeong Sohyeon’s eyes.
“The lack of planning ability at incompetent agencies. In the end, concepts and songs are overwhelmingly more important to a group’s success than the members themselves.”
Jeong Sohyeon had started as a new hire on her uncle’s A&R team and risen to become its head.
She had proven that she had earned her position through ability, not nepotism, by creating solo singers and groups such as Xten and Pastel Love.
Her goal had always been to create her own group, one she had planned perfectly from beginning to end.
Not as the head of A&R, but as a producer.
“This is your first time handling overall production. Are you confident?”
And she planned to begin pursuing that goal with this girl group.
She was also scheduled to become an executive director after receiving shares from her uncle.
“Yes. And…”
Jeong Sohyeon thought of Dohee.
Director Hwang Hyeonman’s comparison of Yoo Ahyeon and Dohee seemed somehow laughable.
Their star quality was not even remotely comparable.
“Dohee is the kind of girl who’ll manage to produce herself even if I can’t do it for her. I’ll just direct her when the time comes.”
The CEO stared at his niece, Jeong Sohyeon, the head of A&R who rarely showed her emotions, then gave a short laugh.
“Right. In any case, I had no intention of extending Seven only to split the money fifty-fifty with those bastards at LE. Even if we just brought the two of them over and debuted them, our income would probably be similar. Why bother?”
“It’ll exceed that by a wide margin, so you may have to give me more stock options.”
The CEO gave another short laugh.
Then her uncle pretended not to hear her.
Watching him, Jeong Sohyeon rose from her seat.
“Then I’ll be going. I still have work to take care of.”
As she was leaving after seeing her uncle nod, she heard him mutter to himself.
“We’re going to be on bad terms with LE for a while. Whew.”
“I’ll make sure LE comes looking for us first later anyway.”
“That’s right. You should.”
“Oh, Sohyeon.”
“Yes?”
“Stop working so much and bring me a nephew-in-law already.”
Jeong Sohyeon left the CEO’s office without another word.
“Your mother’s going to curse me out again for making you do nothing but work!”