Top East Entertainment’s Artist and Repertoire team, commonly known as the A&R Team.
The A&R Team was responsible not only for scouting, signing, and training trainees, but also for their eventual debuts, determining their promotional direction, and scouting, signing, and producing songs suited to the company’s existing artists.
In other words, they were involved in everything from artist production to the album business.
And then there was Jeong Sohyeon, the general team leader of A&R.
In practical terms, she held the position directly below the division head. As an executive of the company, she was entrusted with the important responsibility of determining the direction of its artists.
Top East Entertainment had originally been famous as an agency for actors, but after beginning with a few solo singers and succeeding with Pastel Love and the X-One idol group, it had become one of the major entertainment companies in the music industry.
And now, it was time to select the next-generation idol group.
Since X-One was still active, there was still time before the launch of a new boy group. But Pastel Love was a girl group entering its eighth year after passing its seventh.
Even if their contracts had been extended, Top East Entertainment clearly needed a next-generation girl group.
That was why the people occupying Jeong Sohyeon’s thoughts these days were the prospective members of that next-generation girl group.
Jeong Sohyeon had stayed late at the office.
In the monitoring room of Top East Entertainment’s headquarters, she was watching the broadcast projected onto the screen directly in front of her.
Episode five.
The episode featuring the ranking announcement ceremony.
She knew that Kim Naeun, Kim Seoyun, and Lee Dohee had not been eliminated, since they had not returned to the company, but she did not know their exact rankings.
Normally, someone in her position would have been able to learn the contents of the production process in advance.
Yet the Jeodol 3 production team must have sealed off the filming site so thoroughly that not a single piece of news had reached her.
‘It’s not as if I wasn’t planning to watch it anyway, but I need to establish their direction in advance.’
She was watching the broadcast in order to determine the image composition, character concepts, and promotional direction for the three trainees who would form the members of Top East’s next-generation girl group.
Above all, although the debut team had fallen through at the beginning of the year, it had already been decided, judging from the internal atmosphere, that the debut team would continue as it was.
In fact, that was the direction the entertainment industry had been taking lately.
In the past, agencies operated under a system of taking in trainees indiscriminately, like fishing, whenever they found someone who seemed decent. Recently, however, the trend had been to identify rough gems at the casting stage and devote intensive effort to training a small number of trainees. Unlike in the days when agencies recruited twenty or thirty trainees, many now selected only around ten.
Thus, the five members of the disbanded debut team were jewels that the Rookie Development Team under the A&R Team had polished from among those rough gems.
Of course, they still needed further refinement.
In any case, the three Top East Entertainment trainees who had appeared on Jeodol 3 were destined to become members of Top East’s next-generation girl group, as well as the members who would draw fans in. They needed to be watched carefully.
Their image consumption would have to be managed as well.
—Pssht.
As she opened the beer can in front of her, episode five began on the screen.
‘The girls should be preparing for the second evaluation by now.’
On the screen, Su-a—a vocal trainer and popular singer—stood on a podium, lecturing the trainees. She comforted the exhausted trainees, offered advice, and filled them with renewed motivation.
In the middle of it, Lee Dohee’s face appeared on the screen as she sat listening to the lecture.
Without realizing it, Jeong Sohyeon tightened her grip.
—Crunch.
The beer can in her hand crumpled.
‘Why isn’t this girl wearing makeup again?’
Of course, Dohee was naturally pretty enough even without makeup.
She had been the visual member of the five-person debut team, all of whom had faces that could hold their own.
Moreover, Dohee was versatile, so Jeong Sohyeon had expected her to make the final debut without much difficulty.
But whether she debuted in first place or in a lower position was another matter entirely.
Among the members who would debut together in the Jeodol Season 3 project girl group, the trainees from the three major agencies would eventually become her competitors.
Debuting in first place would make it easier to win over the fandom in the future.
With every single vote precious, she was appearing without makeup?
That was not something Jeong Sohyeon could simply overlook.
Jeong Sohyeon let out a deep sigh. Her head throbbed for some reason, and she closed her eyes.
‘Do I need to make her take makeup classes, too…?’
Come to think of it, Dohee’s tomboyish streak meant she needed a surprising number of unnecessary classes.
Selfie lessons, aegyo lessons, and so on.
While she was lost in such thoughts, Su-a’s lecture ended. At last, the main segment—the ranking announcement ceremony—was about to begin. The screen filled with the Jeodol Season 3 logo.
Along with the caption, the show displayed the empty set with the ranking seats that had appeared in the first episode.
Then the trainees entered the set one by one, striking poses as they approached the ranking seats.
Lee Dohee pretended to hit Kim Seoyun, while Kim Naeun entered the set posing as if she were trying to stop Dohee.
‘They’ve all gotten much better at acting.’
If not for the poses, it would have looked genuine.
Come to think of it, Dohee was wearing makeup for the ranking announcement ceremony.
That was a relief, at least.
After all the trainees had taken their seats in the chairs facing the ranking seats, the MC stepped onto the stage.
[Welcome, everyone. What day is it today?]
[All trainees: The ranking announcement ceremony!]
[That’s right. Combining the online votes cast through Netflix over the past three weeks, the on-site votes from the team battles, and the benefits earned by the winning teams—]
[The first rankings of your Jeusers have been decided by your votes.]
[Those ranked from first to fifty-ninth will survive, while those ranked sixtieth to ninety-ninth will be eliminated.]
[Before we begin the ranking announcement in earnest, we have prepared a video to watch together with our Jeusers. Let’s take a look!]
Filming intended to fill out the first episode.
Various small behind-the-scenes moments from the production were shown.
Of course, it had been filmed simply to fill airtime, but there was no better way to showcase each trainee’s individual image than production footage.
The first behind-the-scenes segment was a long-distance race.
It was a behind-the-scenes feature designed to show each trainee’s stamina, perseverance, and fighting spirit.
Because hardworking trainees were always characters viewers liked, this filming had been included consistently since Jeodol Season 1.
The rules were simple. All the trainees began running at the same time, and any trainee who was lapped by the leader was immediately out. They continued running for thirty minutes.
At the sound of the MC’s whistle, the trainees on-screen began running around the track all at once.
Before they had even completed a few laps, the trainees were being overtaken by Kwon Hana, who had taken the lead.
As if to prove that she had been a competitive athlete, Kwon Hana’s running speed, backed by her stamina, was extraordinary.
By the time fifteen minutes had passed, most of the trainees had been eliminated, leaving only a handful.
Lee Dohee was among them.
It was already a known fact that Dohee had good stamina.
Even before entering the agency, she had apparently exercised regularly on her own by jumping rope and working on her fitness.
But even Dohee eventually failed to last the full thirty minutes. Kwon Hana lapped her, eliminating her, and Dohee collapsed flat on her back where she stood.
Still, she had come in second.
If not for Kwon Hana, who possessed such abnormal stamina, Dohee would have taken first place.
Although only Kwon Hana, who had endured the full thirty minutes, received an individual interview segment, Jeong Sohyeon was more than satisfied.
The image of a cute youngest member and visual center who was also athletic and hardworking was a classic that appealed to men and women of all ages.
Kim Naeun and Kim Seoyun had also lasted quite a long time.
The stamina they had built by being put through their paces every day during their debut-team days seemed to have paid off.
‘We’ll have to work them hard for the next two years as well. We might even be able to give them a girl-crush image.’
The small behind-the-scenes segments, made up of trivial games between the trainees, passed by.
Then, accompanied by tension-inducing background music, the MC appeared with a solemn expression, the ranking seats behind him.
[We will now begin Jeodol Season 3’s first ranking announcement ceremony.]
The screen showed several trainees muttering as they voiced their anxiety and concern about the ranking announcement.
[First, we will reveal the trainees ranked from fifty-eighth to fifty-first, who narrowly avoided elimination.]
It seemed that the trainee ranked fifty-ninth, the very last, would be called at the end.
In any case, they were all in the lower ranks.
They were of no interest to Jeong Sohyeon.
She was interested only in the Top East trainees and the trainees from the three major agencies.
According to the indicators visible online, all three Top East Entertainment trainees appeared to be ranked within the top fifteen.
Of course, ideally, she hoped all three would be within the debut range—the top seven.
The ranking at the first announcement ceremony was what built a solid core of fans.
She watched the trainees’ rankings being announced with composure.
Before she knew it, they had passed fifteenth place and reached the single-digit rankings, with the announcement of tenth place.
[Now, tenth place. We will announce the trainee ranked tenth.]
None of the three Top East trainees had been called yet.
Jeong Sohyeon had thought that at least one of them might receive a low ranking in the first announcement, but all three had done better than expected and made it into the top ten.
‘They’ll have the next-generation girl group’s recognition in the bag.’
Jeong Sohyeon clenched her fist.
[The trainee ranked tenth is… a trainee from Top East Entertainment.]
The screen split into three, showing Lee Dohee, Kim Seoyun, and Kim Naeun.
[She received a great many votes in the random team battle! This trainee is Kim Naeun!]
Tenth place.
It was a fairly good ranking.
Although it was not within the debut range.
Kim Naeun might have been disappointed with her ranking of tenth, but she smiled brightly, hugged Kim Seoyun and Lee Dohee in the seats beside her, and then went up onto the platform.
On the platform, Kim Naeun recited a textbook acceptance speech that revealed her exemplary personality: “I’ll show you how I improve,” “Thank you,” and “I’ll always do my best.”
‘Naeun’s kindness is a good thing, but…’
At times, she needed to show a more lively side, like Kim Seoyun and Lee Dohee.
Of course, that gentle nature was precisely what made her perfect as a leader.
The single-digit rankings were announced one after another, yet Kim Seoyun and Lee Dohee still had not been called.
Instead, ninth place went to Yun Seowon of Zy.
Despite belonging to one of the four major agencies, with its large core fandom, it was a somewhat low ranking.
‘Her skills seemed rather disappointing for someone from a major agency.’
Of course, she was quite pretty, but there was no way a major agency would send out someone lacking in ability solely on the strength of her looks.
So, in Jeong Sohyeon’s view, Yun Seowon was likely related by blood to a Zy executive who had already decided she would debut within the company.
That was probably why she had come on the show—to build recognition.
In any case, before long, debut-range trainees Kwon Hana in seventh place and Kim Seyeon in sixth place were called one after the other, and sweat began to gather in Jeong Sohyeon’s palms.
[Now, the trainee ranked fifth. Ah, this trainee performed the song “Mudeowi” wonderfully in the first evaluation’s random team battle.]
The five trainees remaining were Lee Dohee, Kim Seoyun, Jeon Harang, Eun Sera, and Gong Chaerin.
Among them, the members whose evaluation song had been “Mudeowi” were Kim Seoyun, Jeon Harang, and Eun Sera.
[It’s Top East’s trainee, Kim Seoyun!]
Kim Seoyun stood up from her seat, seemingly disappointed, while Lee Dohee, sitting beside her, clapped enthusiastically, apparently delighted that Seoyun had beaten her.
“Haa…”
Jeong Sohyeon downed the rest of her beer in one gulp.
Thinking about it again, General Team Leader Jeong Sohyeon decided that it was tremendously fortunate that Naeun, who would become the leader, had such a gentle personality.