Episode 150: My Lord (3)
It was truly a chaotic storm of shock and awe.
Of course, in the best possible way.
When the rehearsal ended, not a single person in the room was sitting without clapping. Ryu Je-hoon especially pulled me into a hug and kept patting (more like thumping) my back nonstop.
That was probably why.
“Seol Nari.”
“PD Han-nim?”
The moment my ice-cold voice called Nari’s name in the waiting room after rehearsal, the Project Trinity writer reacted even before Nari did.
Of course, the writer couldn’t react any further than that.
“I’m going to give a quick evaluation.”
I said it with a smile, but anyone could tell my clear intention was “don’t interrupt.”
“…Yes.”
Especially after he finally noticed the kids’ faces, which looked downcast even though they had just received such loud applause.
“Tell me in your own words what the problem was.”
Of course, it wasn’t that big of a problem.
Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange for someone to think, “They did well, so why are you scolding them?”
But Nari was quite smart.
“I’m sorry… I couldn’t control myself…”
So she immediately understood what I was about to say and gave a clear answer instead of something vague.
That’s right.
Going all-out during rehearsal wasn’t the problem.
Disobeying orders wasn’t that serious either, since it was only rehearsal and not the actual stage.
“Because you went on a rampage like that, Ro-a, who faithfully followed the order, ended up floating in the air. And Ro-a’s part is only that one verse in the first section to begin with.”
Strictly speaking, there were also dance parts in the interlude and bridge.
No matter how much idols are also performers, singers are still singers.
The importance of the singing parts is impossible to overstate.
“Chae-kyung and Soyoung lack experience. Because they got swept up and raised their pitch dramatically following you, Ro-a looked even more out of place. Su-jin tried to control it a bit, but it wasn’t enough.”
“We can go back up and do it properly this time…”
“No, that’s not the issue.”
Jin Ro-a immediately tried to shield Nari and the two vocalists, but I cut her off cleanly.
“The problem is that the balance broke. Throw away that complacent thought that it’s okay because it’s only rehearsal. Problems created in rehearsal can appear again at any time.”
In the end, even Jin Ro-a’s head drooped.
I didn’t particularly enjoy seeing the atmosphere grow this heavy either, no matter who I was.
So the whipping part ends here.
“Well, the biggest problem was that I gave the wrong order. No matter that it was rehearsal, telling you to hold back your power was the main mistake. I’ve never taught you how to hold back in the first place.”
“Teacher?”
At the sudden change in tone, the heads that had dropped shot back up like a reverse domino effect.
“Nari, and Chae-kyung and Soyoung too. Even though you got swept up, you didn’t completely run wild, so it’s fine. Still, it shows that all your hard practice paid off. Ro-a and Su-jin also did well by sticking to the order.”
“……”
“You are a team. Even if it’s only for one year before you go your separate ways, during that one year you have to stick together whether you like it or not. Don’t enjoy it alone. Enjoy it together. Only then will the songs I make for you become even more perfect.”
Well.
I didn’t expect them to understand this kind of talk right away.
But at least one thing should get through to them.
The fact that I believed without a doubt in their victory.
“One year…”
“Writer-nim. When can the stylists come?”
“They’ll finish with Team H first and come right after.”
I turned my gaze away from the kids, whose eyes were now sparkling with relief, and confirmed with the writer before turning to leave.
“You sweated a lot, so rest for now. Don’t skip image training. …And the rehearsal was good.”
“Yes!”
Leaving behind the unified answer that shot up to the sky, fully restoring the tension that had dropped earlier, I stepped out of the waiting room.
“I thought you were discriminating against our kid, but I guess that wasn’t the case.”
The moment I closed the door, a somewhat dejected voice flew in over the high-pitched squeals and screams that I couldn’t quite make out.
It was Kim Heung-rok.
“Anyway, I’ve confirmed that Yujin-ssi’s skills are trustworthy regardless of age, so I feel a little less worried.”
If it were anyone else, I would have responded with humble words like “You’re too kind” or “It’s an overstatement,” but I felt that wouldn’t work with Kim Heung-rok, so I simply bowed my head silently in reply.
Kim Heung-rok shrugged once and continued.
“By the way… what happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you really going to pretend you didn’t already show everything? I don’t think we need to play mind games at this point… I’m talking about the vocal skills.”
Ah, that.
Well, from Kim Heung-rok’s perspective, the vocal line’s ability must have been his biggest worry, so it made sense.
“I didn’t deliberately hide it, but I did know they would do well. …Would you believe me if I said that?”
Even after I said all that, did it still look like I was trying to win a power struggle?
For a brief moment, Kim Heung-rok’s brows furrowed slightly, but fortunately they quickly returned to their usual calm.
“If you say so, then I have to believe you. We’re already on the same boat anyway—what else can I do? …But still. Even if I believe you, do you think other people will?”
He started with a smile, but by the end the laughter had completely vanished from his voice.
This time, I was the one who smiled.
“That depends on how we show it, doesn’t it?”
There’s no way they would stab us in the back after hugging me like that.
I already showed the impact.
I gave them the focus.
I did everything I could.
***
[Is it just me who feels uncomfortable with Project Trinity?]
The three major agencies are obviously treating the others like trash, it’s so blatant.
Especially Overwhelm— they only normalized relations with Music On Net less than two years ago and they’re already backstabbing them?
Then why did they even leave in the first place?
- Yeah, next Overwhelm fanboy
└ For real lol
└ It’s not just Overwhelm, Sunshine and JWY are doing the exact same thing (OP)
└ It’s so obvious they’re pushing MyWay (OP)
└ If I were the PD I’d push Team Y too
└ Moon Myung-guk completely ruined Overwhelm’s image by forcing kids who don’t fit at all
└ Isabella and Kim Gun aren’t any better lol
└ M, I, K all have way too much major-agency syndrome. Just look at Heo Yul-bok—he made a stage that actually suited all five members
- I agree with “why did they even leave,” the skill gap is too huge lol
└ No, Han Yujin pulled some dirty tricks. How are those main vocal and sub vocal D-Class? (OP)
└ Honestly I agree
└ Anyone can see those main and sub vocals are at least B-Class, dropping them to D-Class is really too much..
└ Right? I’m not the weird one, am I? (OP)
└ So Han Yujin put a knife to the other producers’ throats and told them not to take those kids? Han Yujin gets a pass and takes them while the producers you’re sucking up to are the ones who rejected them
└ No, that’s because they’re D-Class (OP)
└ Even if the majors took those two, they wouldn’t have shown this level of skill lol
└ Class manipulation was done by all three major agencies too lol
└ Anyone agreeing with this post probably only watched their own team. All the practice footage came out anyway
.
.
.
***
The day after the second episode of Project Trinity, which contained the first stage, aired.
Ryu Je-hoon was carefully reading the hottest post on the community dedicated to Project Trinity.
The fiery reactions, already over a thousand comments, were the very coliseum created by Ryu Je-hoon’s own hands.
Of course, he had no regrets.
While Isabella, Kim Gun, and M2K had forcibly injected their own colors and ended up creating stages that were neither here nor there,
Heo Yul-bok, despite showing some shortcomings in teamwork, had delivered a stage that clearly showcased the individuality of each of the five A-Class trainees, living up to his nickname as the “debut broker.”
As for Han Yujin’s Team Y, there was nothing more to say.
Even the slight awkwardness that had appeared during rehearsal was nowhere to be found on the actual stage.
Han Chae-kyung and Kim Su-jin showed skills befitting S-Class,
Jin Ro-a, who had seemed a little lost earlier, flew across the stage as if that had never happened,
And the vocal line—which had been the hole that dragged down Team Y’s scores in the member voting—proved on the main stage that their passionate singing during rehearsal had not been a one-time fluke.
It was hard to believe it was a hastily formed team. The stage was truly perfect in every way.
The result far exceeded what Ryu Je-hoon had expected, and it allowed him to clearly decide which direction Project Trinity should take from now on.
‘The competition between Team Y and Team H.’
Unlike the other three teams, where neither the producers nor the trainees seemed willing to give up the colors they had been using until now—leaving almost no room for a comeback—Han Yujin’s Team Y and Heo Yul-bok’s Team H had already clearly set their course for what kind of image they would show in this program.
However, not everyone would be happy with that decision.
The online arena currently open in front of him was proof of that, and so were the countless people in the industry watching it.
“Ryu Je-hoon. Come in for a moment.”
“Yes.”
The CP’s summons came the moment he returned from an outside schedule.
From the moment he heard that the CP had a lunch appointment outside, he had already been prepared for this situation.
Everyone knew that Kim Gun was his high school junior, so there was no need to ask who the other person at that lunch had been.
‘Huu…’
Of course, no matter how prepared he was, he couldn’t stop his eyes from tightening for a moment,
Screech.
But when Ryu Je-hoon finally stood up from his seat, his eyes were shining brightly even within the deep dark circles.
‘I had no choice if I wanted to save the program.’
Sunshine, Overwhelm, and JWY.
He had zero regrets about stepping on the nerves of those three companies, which also carried considerable influence inside the broadcasting station.
Still, he needed some excuse.
Thinking about what to say inside, Ryu Je-hoon followed the CP into the office.
“I just came back from having lunch with Kim Gun and the producers from the three major agencies. They had a lot of complaints.”
As expected, the moment the CP brought up the topic, a scolding rained down.
“Those arrogant little shits. Who do they think they are, telling us how to edit?”
What Ryu Je-hoon hadn’t expected was that the anger wasn’t directed at him.
His firmly prepared resolve became meaningless, and he couldn’t hide the surprise on his face.
“Ryu Je-hoon. What’s with those eyes? Why, did you think I’d take the three majors’ side?”
“Ah, no. That’s not it.”
The CP was someone with plenty of experience fitting his position.
He immediately caught Ryu Je-hoon’s mistake in that short moment. Ryu Je-hoon tried to deny it belatedly, but the moment the words left the CP’s mouth, denial was pointless from the start.
“You idiot. Do you think I got this CP seat by playing poker? If I were going to do that, I wouldn’t have approved this in the first place.”
Fortunately for Ryu Je-hoon,
The CP decided to generously forgive the displeased gaze of his junior and subordinate, which would normally be unacceptable.
“Even I thought the three major teams’ stages were a mess. Isn’t that why you focused on that ridiculously young kid?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Of course, the tone wasn’t gentle, but
Ryu Je-hoon, who knew that the atmosphere coming from the CP right now was like a gentle spring breeze compared to usual, gathered every ounce of military discipline he had left from his reserve forces days and answered firmly.
‘What did this guy eat? Why is he acting like this all of a sudden?’
Regardless of the answer, he still couldn’t understand the current situation.
But the CP paid no attention to Ryu Je-hoon’s inner thoughts and continued his “advice” (which was really just nagging).
“Ryu Je-hoon. Remember this clearly. Between the broadcasting station and the agencies, we are the ones in power and they are the subordinates. It’s necessary to grease them a bit and keep them in line, but if they don’t know their place and try to climb all the way up, you have to know how to step on them.”
Ryu Je-hoon listened with one ear to the long speech that ended with “Your problem is that you’re too soft,” and after a while the CP finally moved on.
“Anyway. What can they even do? All they can do is come crying to me. Are they going to boycott or something? Boycott? Even if they look united right now, the moment one of them boycotts, the other two will immediately stab them in the back to fill the gap. They know that very well. So Ryu Je-hoon, just do whatever you want from now on. Fairly. According to skill. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go do your work. …Honestly, they should at least put on a decent show if they want me to cover for them. Calling me out after making such a mess—do they have a conscience or not?”
The CP finished his lecture by asking and answering his own questions without even being asked.
Since what Ryu Je-hoon had thought was a deep tackle turned out to be proper blocking, there was nothing bad about it from his perspective.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, but…’
There was still a lingering uncomfortable question, but whatever.
He had known for a long time that the CP was the kind of person he would never fully understand.
So he tried to shake off that uncomfortable feeling and was about to turn around and leave the office when—
“Ah, I almost forgot. Ryu Je-hoon.”
“Yes.”
At the voice that caught his ankle, Ryu Je-hoon answered obediently even while thinking ‘What now?’ inside.
The CP grinned and said,
“That guy from MyWay… what was his name again…”
“Han Yujin.”
“Yeah, that friend. If you have some room, give him a little more screen time.”
Even though it wasn’t a difficult instruction, Ryu Je-hoon couldn’t answer right away,
Because he suddenly remembered how the CP had stubbornly objected to Han Yujin’s selection during the producer recruitment, saying “Do we really have to use this friend? Isn’t he too young?”
“Je-hoon-ah, Ryu Je-hoon…! Didn’t I just tell you to think? The broadcasting station is a company too. We have to consider the client’s intentions! Why do you think Our Electronics put sponsorship into our program? Voyager is already being called an old-person phone. Would it be better to show old people using it, or young blood using it?”
The CP seemed to have misunderstood Ryu Je-hoon’s brief silence, but it didn’t matter.
Thanks to those words, Ryu Je-hoon was able to shake off all the remaining uncomfortable questions.
‘So that’s why he pushed out the major agencies.’
The only way agencies, who were closer to the subordinate position, could exert meaningful influence on the broadcasting station was because they were the source of advertising money.
The “Lords” who could turn the broadcasting station—which was usually the superior—into the subordinate could change who got the cake at any time according to their wishes.
‘Really… he never changes.’
Ryu Je-hoon found himself strangely liking the man’s transparent (he wasn’t sure if “transparent” was the right word) ugliness that always made him frown.
Even if they were drawing perfectly parallel lines that would never meet, at this moment it was clear they were heading in the same direction.
“Now that I think about it, I heard Han Yujin has been using only Voyager for a long time.”
“Really?”
“I’ll try to make a good picture with that.”
“Well, that’s up to PD Ryu. You’re good at your job.”
At this point, being called “PD” instead of by name didn’t feel bad at all.
***
And then,
[September 1st Week Real-time TOP 100]
[(-) 1 . Shooting star (ver. Team Y) – Project TRINITY]
Autumn had arrived.
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