LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 20
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 20
Lemon Entertainment’s PR Team.
As the collaboration song Something by Jang Sowon and New Black was about to be released, the PR team of Lemon Entertainment was busy moving around.
“Are our kids in the music video?”
“Which one, Something? That’s not the title track, so they’re not.”
“That’s too bad.”
“They would have only shown their own kids anyway.”
“Probably. Seunghee?”
“…Yes?”
A voice came from the corner of the cubicle.
The person who peeked out her head looked like she had pulled an all-nighter for several days, with dark circles under her eyes.
“Did you call me?”
“How’s the video production for the company’s YouTube channel going?”
“Yes.”
She answered, “Well, I’ve mostly finished editing the video of Jang Sowon and New Black working on the song that I got from Wang Jiho, I just need to add the subtitles.”
“Okay. Upload it as soon as you can.”
The PR team leader turned his gaze.
“Did you create the official Twitter and SNS accounts for the group?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Just post some promotional phrases related to the song for now, and if the reaction is good, we’ll also upload some videos of the kids practicing. We might be able to attract some fans who are curious about the song.”
“Yes.”
“We have to catch the wave when it comes.”
That was the philosophy of the PR team of Lemon Entertainment.
“We have everything ready to send to the media.”
“Team Leader, do you think we can do it with just us?”
“Why?”
“Well. I heard that there’s no promotion at all from Hwai’s side. They said we’re more passionate than them, promoting a non-title track.”
“Why are they like that?”
“They’re a weird company, really.”
“Right. I heard from some reporters at a drinking party the other day.”
“What did they say?”
“They said Hwai Entertainment is really bad at handling things. Other companies at least pretend to do something when something happens, but they just stay still. They said they come out only after the situation gets worse, no matter what the reporters expose.”
“Didn’t they go bankrupt because of that when Sugarfish happened?”
“Right.”
“But I guess I understand why they’re like that. Their main is Girls on Top, right? I heard Jang Sowon’s album investment was reduced, so she’s releasing a single.”
The team leader clapped his hands to calm down the noisy atmosphere.
“Alright, let’s stop the chit-chat for now. Let’s start with the press releases that we’ll send out tomorrow morning…”
“Team Leader!”
The PR team member who was monitoring the internet shouted.
“Team leader, I don’t think we can do any promotion tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Look at the internet.”
“Where on the internet?”
“Anywhere.”
Anywhere?
It sounded like nonsense, but his expression was so serious that the team leader turned on his smartphone without a word.
The entertainment news section.
As soon as he saw the main news there, he furrowed his brows.
He could see why Hwai Entertainment was so quiet and not doing anything.
No, they couldn’t do anything.
-Popular boy group ‘Sixty Seconds’ shocking profanity recording
-In the recording, ‘Sixty Seconds’ member and ‘Girls on Top’ Joo Hana’s dating revealed
-KM Entertainment silent, “checking the facts”
A huge scandal had erupted.
***
-Sixty Seconds’ ‘profanity’ recording shockwave… Agency “checking the facts”
[Popular boy group ‘Sixty Seconds’ was caught up in an unprecedented controversy.
It was because of a profanity recording that was posted on an internet site this morning. The nickname ‘King Night Bread’ who identified himself as an anonymous insider posted a recording of about a minute on the bulletin board.
The recording seemed to have been recorded in a vehicle that Sixty Seconds was moving in for a broadcast shooting. The members were talking behind the backs of their fellow celebrities, or using vulgar and abusive language. The recording spread rapidly through SNS, and was currently heating up various communities.
Netizens reacted with comments such as ‘Wow, Sixty Seconds’ character is crazy’, ‘That’s not something a human would say’, ‘They’re immature’. All the broadcast boards that Sixty Seconds was scheduled to appear on are currently flooded with requests for them to step down.
The agency of Sixty Seconds, KM Entertainment, said, “We are currently verifying the facts and we are not sure if the recording is really from the members of Sixty Seconds.” They also warned, “We may take legal action against malicious comments without evidence.”
The comment section was fierce with nearly 5,000 replies.
-These crazy bastards, I thought my ears were rotting from listening to them.
-What do you mean by verifying the facts? LOL. You can hear them calling each other by their real names. Are you trying to deny it? LOL. Are you crazy?
-The problem is not them leaving the group. These guys should be kicked out of the entertainment industry.
-I was a fan of Sixty for four years, damn it.
-The only one who was quiet, Juhwa, got screwed the most. LOL. How many people did they hurt with their recording? Seriously.
The summary of the incident was simple.
Sixty Seconds.
A popular boy group.
Sixty Seconds, a group created by KM Entertainment, one of the four major agencies, was known for their unique musicality and hip vibe.
They were a huge sensation from their debut, as they were personally trained by Producer Heo Kangmin, who had the nickname of idol maker.
They were enjoying the highest popularity among the boy groups, along with TNT.
Until yesterday.
The problem was that their swearing, vulgar jokes, and backbiting in the car were leaked.
You might think, so what? But the content was more shocking than you could imagine.
They all couldn’t stand it and turned it off from the first line.
Things that were too hard to say out loud.
It made the whole country boil with anger.
Sixty Seconds became the biggest villains in the world, and their fandom was completely shattered.
One of the members managed to avoid the crisis with a low-level remark, but the internet was lumping him together with the rest.
New Black were scared every time they saw the articles and the harsh comments that poured out every minute.
They all had the same thought as they read the articles in our dorm.
‘You guys don’t know because you haven’t experienced it yet. The entertainment industry is a place where a casual talk in the car can spread to the whole set the next day.’
It was the foresight of Yoon Seokhwan, who warned them of this situation beforehand.
“So the manager was serious when he scolded us.”
“That was close. We could have been like them later.”
“That’s nonsense.”
Seo Rihyuk retorted.
“Do you think we would be so dirty even if we talked nonsense? I get dizzy just reading the text.”
“True.” Seon Woojoo answered, “We are generally polite among our peers.”
“Hyung, people don’t use the word peers these days.”
Oh.
“Seriously. Woojoo Hyung. You would have been in trouble if it wasn’t for us.”
“Yeah. No one would have played with you if you were old, but these young people are so nice to you.”
Seon Woojoo ignored the teasing of his younger brothers and read the articles on his smartphone.
They were doomed.
Seon Woojoo just laughed bitterly.
Was this another prank from God, after the college entrance exam day?
A huge scandal broke out the day before the album release.
The materials that the promotion team worked hard on must be shredded by now.
There was no point in promoting the album in this situation.
Well, there was nothing he could do.
Seon Woojoo just thought of it as an honorable death.
He was doomed anyway, might as well get an excuse.
***
The day of the album release.
The Sixty Seconds incident was still dominating the real-time search terms.
-Sixty Seconds recording
-Sixty Seconds Baek Yujin
-Sixty Seconds Joo Hana
-Baek Yujin Joo Hana
Somehow, the attention seemed to go to the girl group members who were involved in the dating rumors with Sixty Seconds member, Baek Yujin, rather than the content of the recording.
The media and the netizens’ interest turned to the strange side.
-Joo Hana’s past remark that she ‘dates fans’ highlighted
-Baek Yujin’s side ‘Sixty Seconds dating? NO. Will take legal action’
-Girls on Top’s comeback in jeopardy
The people’s attention was drawn to Baek Yujin and Joo Hana, who was mentioned as his girlfriend, as they were put on the chopping board.
The media started to gossip about the girl group members’ personal lives.
Various communities started to upload maliciously edited materials, and some deleted their posts after spreading dirty rumors and getting threatened with legal action.
On top of that, there was a rumor that there was more provocative content behind the scenes, and ‘recording full version’ rose to the search terms, creating a mess.
At this point, the netizens started to say ‘isn’t the uploader also a problem?’
Not long after, the identity of the person who caused all this chaos was revealed.
There were stories that it was a manager who harbored resentment, or a stylist, but the culprit was an unexpected person.
It was a car repair technician.
The outline of the incident was like this.
After the schedule was over, the manager noticed something wrong with the car and took it for maintenance.
The repair shop employee who was fixing the SUV that looked like a celebrity car at a glance, took the black box memory out of curiosity and copied it.
And the employee who listened to it was surprised and shared it with his friends.
That was the root of the problem.
Someone posted it on an internet community for fun.
That was the fact that the repair shop employee confessed.
“Wow, I can’t see any articles related to Jang Sowon Sunbae.”
They muttered as if they were bored, looking at the newspaper that was filled with Sixty Seconds related articles from page one to twelve.
Seon Woojoo changed the laptop screen to the music site Mango.
-February 3rd
Jang Sowon’s album was scheduled to be released in five minutes, at 12 pm.
One minute before.
They clicked the download button as soon as the song appeared, after refreshing for a long time.
They downloaded all three songs from Jang Sowon’s single album Wishful Thinking and clicked them with a nervous feeling.
Something.
The first thing that caught Seon Woojoo’s eye was the album art.
The back view of two men and women sitting at a bus stop.
They shared one earphone each.
The background was a gentle beige pastel tone.
The eyes of the men and women were fixed on the blue sky that looked like it was drawn with colored pencils.
[Jang Sowon X New Black – Something]
Composer : Jang Sowon, Woojoo
Lyricist : Jang Sowon
Seon Woojoo smiled faintly when he saw his name attached to the composition.
It was really their song.
And as soon as the acoustic guitar sound came out, they exclaimed.
It was a big mistake to think that mixing and mastering wouldn’t matter much.
It was a world of difference from the final version that they recorded and listened to.
Just like a slight difference in a person’s face could make or break the overall impression, Something was perfectly refined into a sophisticated song.
It was the moment when they realized the greatness of the sound engineers.
Seon Woojoo closed his eyes and enjoyed the song.
It was really good.
It made him feel ticklish and somehow reminded him of the past.
It was fresh and warm.
That was the impression he got.
I reached for your hand that seemed to slip away every time.
I wanted to close the gap between us.
As Seon Woojoo listened to the chorus of Jang Sowon’s sweet voice, he smiled.
They did a great job with the song quality.
They listened to the song like they were mesmerized until it ended.
They couldn’t believe it was their voice.
It was thrilling.
And it also reminded them of all the work they had done.
Yes, this was it.
Their song was out in the world.
In this moment, when the Sixty Seconds issue was sucking everything in like a black hole, they decided to focus only on the fact that New Black’s first song was released.
The album release date.
The title track ‘Boy, and Girl’ barely made it to the 90th rank, but the other songs failed to enter the chart.
But none of them were disappointed.