Chapter 185:

Chapter 185:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 185

“Is there a problem?”

They looked tense. Especially the youngest one, who opened his eyes wide and asked anxiously.

“Are we not allowed to go out? Is that it?”

“No, that’s not it.”

Assistant Manager Hong lowered her hand.

“There’s nothing wrong with your appearance. That’s something that the CP on the other side and our side have agreed on perfectly.”

“Oh, thank goodness...”

“What I’m worried about is the entertainment reporters. The articles and public reactions that will come out soon.”

They moved to the conference room and continued the conversation.

“Do you remember the Around the World With Dice special? When the news came out that you were appearing.”

“It’s still vivid.”

How could they forget?

The national variety show’s Chuseok Special had a rookie idol as a guest, and it got a lot of hate comments.

Woojoo never saw them himself, but he could guess from the expressions of their managers and the likes and dislikes numbers on the articles.

She gave a bitter smile.

“It’s a similar situation. The time slot for this Challenge, Legendary Song Discovery Team is the weekend golden time.”

“...”

“You might not get a feel for it because you’re mostly guest appearances, but this time it’s a really big deal. It’s also a project that the PBS Entertainment Department is working on with all their might.”

It was probably because they were envious of the rival TBC’s hit competition show ‘Patisserie Korea’, but this time PBS was ambitiously preparing a music competition called ‘Challenge, Legendary Song Discovery Team’.

Woojoo spoke as the representative.

“We know it’s an important opportunity.”

This time, five teams would appear on ‘Challenge, Legendary Song Discovery Team’ and show their skills.

It was a competition where they competed with each other’s skills, but the content was a bit different from the usual survival shows.

There were no eliminations here.

Instead, it was a seasonal system where the ‘first-generation’ members led the broadcast for almost two months.

In other words, for two months, their faces would be on terrestrial TV, and on public broadcasting PBS’s weekend time slot.

An amazing opportunity to stamp their eyes on the general public, not just idol fans.

“Right, it’s very important. But it’s not only important to us, but also to the broadcaster. The publicity size is also big. The amount of press releases will be similar to a decent drama.”

They had a calm expression as they guessed what would come next.

“There will be a lot of hate comments.”

“You have to be prepared.” Assistant Manager Hong said with a stern face, “Unfortunately, you’re relatively less famous because of your seniority. The rest of the participants are quite well-known to the public. There will be some unfair things in that regard.”

“We think it can’t be helped. We have to accept it.”

The younger ones nodded.

The singers who participated in this competition were mostly people who the public would say ‘oh, that person’.

On the other hand, they were the rookies of the year, who were making a name for themselves in the idol world, but still lacked public recognition as second-year idols.

And considering the prejudice that the public often had about idol skills...

Woojoo didn’t have to see it to know what reaction it would be.

“Before we go into recording this week, the press release will be released together, and your name will be in there too.”

Assistant Manager Hong gave them a warning.

“We’ll try to avoid press interviews as much as possible, but if you see any reporters or anything, be careful. Don’t say anything wrong and jeopardize your program appearance.”

She then told them what to answer when they were asked questions by reporters.

“We’ll be careful with our mouths.”

“Right, and don’t look at the comments. You promise?”

“Yes, assistant.”

They nodded vigorously at her, who looked at them with worried eyes.

“You don’t have to worry, we really won’t look at the comments. We didn’t even look at them last time during Around the World With Dice.”

“Okay, then let’s leave the talk I brought up out of spite here.”

She changed the subject as if she had relieved a burden.

The rest was about the projects and external events that the publicity team was preparing.

The mood was dampened for a while because of the concern about the hate comments, but it brightened up as they talked about something else.

“...Yes?”

They showed curiosity.

“Emoticons?”

“Yeah, the fans call you meme kings. Especially Woojoo, you’re the tycoon of the meme world.”

“I wish I could be a different tycoon... That’s a sad nickname.”

Woojoo smiled miserably and Assistant Manager Hong them messenger emoticons on her phone.

Emoticons of Scarlet members dancing shoulder to shoulder with ‘Dongshil Dongshil~’ written on them, or Daisy pointing her finger and saying ‘Do you get money if you dig the ground!’.

“Girl groups seem to release them quite a bit. These are animated emoticons when you press them.”

“Oh.”

“So you’re selling yours too... I mean, ahem.”

The other person coughed awkwardly as their eyes narrowed.

“We’re making them to give joy to our fans. We’re also in talks with the messenger side. Hmm, there’s one thing that’s unfortunate though.”

“...?”

“We have to write funny texts for the emoticons, but right now 80 percent of the funny memes are about Woojoo.”

“Ah, oh...”

“We have to balance it out for the fans. We can’t favor a specific member. We’re adjusting it according to the proportion.”

The members said with repentant faces, “We’ll try to make more embarrassing history to help you out.”

“We were too careless, weren’t we?”

“I guess we were relying too much on Woojoo Hyung. We should have made them without being pushed back.”

At that, the assistant manager looked flustered and said no, that’s not it, you’re celebrities who have to manage your image, and kept saying that.

They decided to set a separate day for the emoticons and shoot them at the studio.

“What else is there?”

“There’s also the promotion event we discussed with the children’s education program side. And the cat food ad. And especially the press conference for the Challenge, Legendary Song Discovery Team...”

Wait a minute.

Woojoo had been distracted by the music variety show until now, but there was something strange in there.

“...A cat food ad?”

“Yeah.”

“A cat?”

“Yeah.”

“The one that meows?”

Assistant Manager Hong nodded.

“That’s the cat food.”

“Why do we have such an ad...?”

“The advertiser said they really liked the cat video letter you used on the idol show, Woojoo.”

“...”

Woojoo had a guess of what the ad content would be, so he closed his eyes slightly and put on a resigned expression.

Some time later.

A large mart in Gunsan.

He was itching to know what kind of view the public had of them, but he held back.

It was because of what Seokhwan Hyung told him.

-Most of the actors at Lemon Entertainment, who are known for their strong mentality, are shaken by a single malicious comment. It’s human to shrink even if the insults are about the role, not yourself.

An actor played a villain so well that he got a lot of malicious comments about his role, and after seeing that, he shrank when he acted.

Woojoo decided not to look at it.

Anyway, it wasn’t like he could change anything right away by looking at it, or control what people thought.

Woojoo just thought he would let it go as it was.

“We’re almost there.”

Friday morning.

They entered the PBS Broadcasting Station in Yeouido, shaking off the fatigue from the award stage the day before.

They arrived at a spacious large conference room after passing through a rough and old corridor.

“I guess we’re the first ones here.”

They were supposed to meet and greet the other participants before the filming.

They hadn’t met the other cast members yet, as they only had pre-meetings with the production team.

“I hope they’re all nice people.”

“Me too.”

Being the youngest among the cast, they were both excited and nervous about what kind of people the senior singers would be.

They were huddled in a corner of the conference room, killing time by eating dumplings and chanting “dumplings, dumplings, dumplings”.

Suddenly, the door opened and they turned their heads.

“Excuse me...”

A woman peeked her head in cautiously.

She had a gentle face with slightly drooping eyes.

She was wearing a very thick padded jacket, as if she was very sensitive to the cold.

She reminded Woojoo of the tire man drawn on the stack of tires on the shelf that he sometimes passed by.

As soon as their eyes met, they widened them.

“Oh...!”

New Black all got up quickly and greeted her.

“Hello! Sunbae-nim!”

“Oh, hi... hello.”

She greeted them awkwardly as she entered the room.

Woojoo spoke to her as a representative.

“I heard from Jang Sowon Sunbae yesterday.”

“Oh, me too...”

She smiled faintly.

“I heard a lot about you from Sowon.”

Then she brushed her hair back with an awkward expression.

Lisa.

She was a former member of the disbanded girl group Sugarfish.

While Jang Sowon was active as a singer-songwriter, Lisa was working as a musical actress.

She had originally gone to Belgium for a break, but she had recently returned to Korea and was actively working.

Woojoo had seen an article yesterday that said she had entered her second heyday after her comeback, as the musical she starred in for the first time was a huge hit.

He remembered the favor that Jang Sowon had asked him at the award ceremony yesterday.

-My sister is very shy. Please be friendly to her. She’s a very timid and kind sister.

...Woojoo had heard that beforehand, but it felt a bit strange.

When he saw her on TV or musical clips, she acted with confidence and sang with power, but her real personality was the opposite of that.

Maybe Jang Sowon had said something nice to her, because she quickly let go of her guard around them.

They chatted in a comfortable atmosphere.

“...Kind?”

“Yes.”

“Sowon is kind?”

“Yes. She’s very good to me.”

She looked at the air as if she had heard something unbelievable and said, ‘That can’t be...’

They laughed at her expression.

She lowered her eyes and said, “I’m having a hard time because of her.”

“...Yes?”

“I just want to rest at home, but she always comes over and drags me to shopping, or to walk in the park, or to feed me weird lunch boxes. If I say I don’t want to go out, she teases me for being a homebody.”

They held back their laughter.

“And lately, she’s been nagging me to make a duet song with her.”

Woojoo pictured a playful younger sister tormenting an introverted older sister in his head.

So Jang Sowon had that side to her.

They seemed to be very close.

Even though she complained, Lisa’s face was full of affection.

Then Woojoo said, “By the way, Sunbae-nim.”

“Hmm?”

“There’s a fan of yours among our managers.”

“Really?”

There was one person who had cried and rejoiced when Jang Sowon won first place with Something.

He had sobbed, ‘My favorite is Lisa, sob!’

How happy would he be to meet his favorite singer? Woojoo wanted to introduce him to her, but he couldn’t see Minki Hyung.

“Where did he go?”

He looked at Dowon Hyung, who was sitting in the staff seat by the wall.

“Hyung, where did Minki Hyung go?”

“He said he had something to do and left.”

“That’s weird. There’s nothing going on today...”

He had been trying to leave the room with an awkward face since earlier. Maybe he was embarrassed to meet his favorite.

Woojoo asked Lisa for her permission and made a video call.

Minki Hyung’s face appeared on the screen, standing in the hallway of the broadcasting station.

-Hello.

“Hyung, it’s me.”

-Oh, what’s up?

Woojoo explained the situation.

“Right now, I’m with Lisa Sunbae that you like. Maybe you can say hello to her face to face...”

-No way!

They laughed as they handed the phone to Lisa, wondering if he was too shy to talk.

The singer coughed and smoothed his hair nervously, trying to greet her fan face to face.

-...

“...?”

Lisa blinked her eyes in confusion and looked startled.

“LisaLover?”

-...

“Why are you there, LisaLover?”

They burst into laughter at the silence that filled the screen.