Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 215 A New Beginning (2)

[Performance Goal]

[- Sell 300,000 copies of Climax’s regular album in the first week]

‘Is this… even possible…?’

It seemed like others were easily hitting 0millions or half-millions, but that was only a tiny fraction of the whole market.

I sighed as soon as I saw it, but Climax’s popularity was incomparable to half a year ago.

I had to try it first and see if it was feasible. Until the regular album was released, I had no choice but to stake my life on raising the awareness with unit singles.

[Achievement Reward]

[- Special Item> ‘Foresight’ acquired]

[- Data Transfer Right]

What is a data transfer right? I asked the system, but it only gave me a brief explanation that it was an item that prevented data loss in case of an error.

[Recommended Deadline for Quest Completion D-180]

At least they gave me half a year.

I closed all the system windows and right before I went to sleep, I entered the news section with a mind to check the entertainment news. I was startled by an unexpected situation.

￣￣￣￣￣

[Today’s Stock] Jo Young Food’s stock price falls for consecutive days, reflecting the expected poor performance in the 4th quarter

￣￣￣￣￣

Falling for consecutive days? I had nothing to do with it anyway, so I tried to keep my mental health by ignoring the company-related news.

The company was basically run by the system, but Jo Young Food was a brand that built trust by having me, the representative, participate in the planning and development stages.

The pillar of the company was pulled out from the root, so I thought it couldn’t be normal. But when I saw my half-brother who had the title of the new representative, the sleepiness that was slowly creeping up on me disappeared.

￣￣￣￣￣

After the death of former representative Lim Hyun-seong, new business development ALL STOP, most of the sales generated from selling off business units, shareholders’ anxiety leads to EXIT intensification.

￣￣￣￣￣

To summarize, the new business development department was drastically reduced after my half-brother took over the management.

He must have thought that there was no need to invest in research and development when the parts that were already making good sales were decent.

The answer is obvious. Food and beverage is the most sensitive to trends and fashions change quickly.

It is most important to catch and utilize the theme that will be popular in the future and secure the factory capacity that can be used.

But if you push for expansion too hard, you might lose out if the trend ends sooner than expected.

‘It’s a field that requires foresight in many ways, so there aren’t many companies that last long…’

How would he know that? I clenched my fist as I saw the company’s situation collapsing.

[<Warning> You cannot interfere with any events related to [Lim Hyun-seong’s Wish] until you complete the preceding quest.]

I know. I know.

I had nothing to do, but I couldn’t even watch. I quickly turned off my phone screen.

In the night when everyone was asleep. I was the only one staring at the ceiling of the bedroom with a blank mind, feeling restless.

It had been half a year since I lived in this world. From the time when summer was just beginning to now when the year was ending.

So many things had happened that it was hard to recall them all at once. I became friends with the kids who I thought would never fit me when I was Lim Hyun-seong, and I even meddled in their affairs.

Moreover, I had spent so much time on Floss, a group that I didn’t even belong to, that it made me laugh at my own meddling.

‘Let’s focus on finishing the quest now.’

I didn’t know what kind of quest would be waiting for me after I achieved my wish of becoming a successful idol.

But I had to get rid of the things that needed to be done first.

As I barely calmed down my excitement and pulled the blanket up to my chin, I felt annoyed again.

‘Why can’t he just sit in his seat and stamp the approval? The company wouldn’t go bankrupt.’

I was furious at what he was doing. What were the employees who had worked hard with me and entrusted me with the fate of the company thinking now?

I buried my face in the pillow to stop myself from worrying about one thing after another, and my mind became restless.

I forced myself to close my eyes, and I felt sleep creeping up on me.

Yeah. The direction I was going to take was already decided. All that was left was to run with my body.

“Wow, I’m so happy to be able to work again!”

The editor, who wore glasses that were too thick to see his face properly, fiddled with the height adjustment pin of his chair, as if he was still uncomfortable, and greeted me brightly.

“Thank you for accepting the hiring offer so readily.”

“Oh, you gave me such a good deal, I should have bowed to you.”

I smiled politely and shook the editor’s hand lightly, then exchanged brief greetings with the rest of the staff.

It had been two weeks since Floss joined Composition. The new group name of the Floss trio and the eight-member unit’s activity name were decided. They were ‘Sweep’ and ‘OFFBits’.

I wanted to choose a name that could remind me of Floss, so I had a hard time choosing between ‘Sweep’ and ‘Flood’.

It was because of Yu-geon’s refreshing remark that it became ‘Sweep’.

‘I wonder if it would sound like a Floss rip-off if I say hello, we are Flood, from tomorrow.’

I had nothing to say when he said that he would be active with that group name.

I was surprised by the huge response that was more than I expected, right after the official article of Sweep’s debut.

I didn’t know whether to call it luck or not, but a big drug scandal broke out in a competing agency, so I was able to get over it without much controversy.

Hwijin was a member who had bought sympathy cards from the manipulated members, saying that he must have been wronged.

Yu-geon hadn’t confessed his father’s affair yet, but the public opinion was more welcoming when he heard the news of his upcoming activity.

Of course, it also helped that he hadn’t shown his face yet, and as soon as he started his activity, he would be flooded with hate comments like, he pretended to be pitiful and went into hiding, but he’s fine after all.

‘The problem was…’

Of course, it was Naru. Naru, who had been bashed everywhere like a neighborhood book before the official article of joining Composition, enjoyed the glory of ranking first in the popularity ranking as soon as the activity notice came up.

[- Where did Shim’s conscience go? He didn’t even show up at the press conference and announced his activity right awayㅋㅋㅋ He has a thick face.]

[ㄴ His face was always thick.]

[- When Shim debuted twice, the other trainees who lost their chances because of Shim gave up their dreams.]

[ㄴ The investigation team officially acknowledged that there was no vote manipulation, so I don’t understand why this keeps coming up.]

[ㄴ Yeah, stop shielding him. Is it normal for Shim to have more than 10 minutes of screen time out of 60 minutes of broadcast?]

[ㄴ The members who received the favor also ended up disbanding and being branded as manipulators. The production team was the one who did wrong, and the members had no veto power in the situation. I don’t see the point of just cursing them.]

[ㄴ Everyone is sick of the victim narrativeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Some couldn’t even debut and only sold their faces, and some hit millions as soon as they debuted. How are they the same victims?

In fact, there were some members who benefited the most from the initial grade evaluation and the opening filming, but…

Naru’s early editing of Angel was so impressive, and his image of catering to the fans’ needs excessively made him hard to sink.

Naru would cry out dozens of times a day that he wanted to retire because his mental state was torn apart. It was not an easy task to comfort him by taking turns among the seven of us.

‘Some of them even made fun of him instead of doing their job properly.’

I did not blindly console Naru by saying that the people who cursed him were bad. There was also a person next to me who resisted the temptation and debuted on his own. If Naru, who had such a high level of popularity, had refused to sign the pre-contract, he would not have suffered such blatant disadvantages as Yu-geon.

So I told him that this was the price he had to pay for choosing the easy way, knowing what the right direction was.

That did not mean that he had to accept the excessive criticism and personal insults. I also added that he had no choice but to show his improved skills in the future to prove that he was not a person who relied on manipulation.

‘Well… I don’t know how he took it.’

He seemed to be stimulated by the fact that he did not leave the practice room all day, holding onto the vocal trainer.

And so the sun set and it was already January 2022.

In the meantime, Composition increased its staff from four to ten.

People would say, ten people…? Isn’t that barely out of the small business category?

It was a bold choice for a label that had no significant achievements yet.

From my experience, it was natural to choose investment over profitability in the early stages of business.

‘But still… there has been no clear revenue since the label’s launch, except for the cosmetics ad model fee.’

If it weren’t for the capital of Cheon Soo Group, I would have had a lot of trouble.

‘Chairman Cheon won’t keep supporting a business that doesn’t produce results, so I have to turn it into a profit soon.’

To do that, the members had to earn income from broadcasting appearances, ad model activities, and other entertainment activities, and the external sales team had to bring in PPL and other self-produced content.

It was a sales battle after all. To have aggressive sales activities, I needed employees to support me.

I divided the departments into planning, support, and content, and each had four, four, and two small ministries, and I felt that the operation was more stable.

“It feels like the system is in place with a lot of experienced people.”

Jinkyung, who had become more neat, looked at the partitions divided by department and spoke to me.

“Jinkyung, you’ve worked hard.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen anyone as meticulous as you, Director. If it weren’t for you, it would have taken longer and been more troublesome.”

That was true. I had to put a lot of effort into giving them their roles and making the company run properly, as they had worked in their own ways.

At first, the senior staff who doubted if I, who was only twenty-four, knew how to manage, changed their minds after working with me for two days.

The expression of the young entertainer who had just inked his birth certificate was wary of what he would say, but it became more friendly as he saw my meticulous and clear work.

And on top of that, I had a faster document review speed than others. I was fast and caught every typo and number error that others made. Even Woo, the team leader with the longest career, was impressed.

“That’s not true.”

“No, it is. You’re really a rare breed, Director.”

“Yeah. What kind of idol works overtime until dawn to list up the companies for collaboration proposals?”

They seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that I stayed and worked until the latest and went home.

‘I’ll have to take it to the dormitory from now on.’

When I came to the dormitory, I was distracted by the furry beasts of the members, so I stayed in the office for a long time, and it felt like they were giving me a hint.

It was similar to when Director Lim Hyun-seong was here, so I just had to adjust to them.

“I’ll try to take it easy. Starting tomorrow, it might be hard to come to the office because of the shooting… There’s a lot to do in the future, so I’d appreciate it if you could help me out.”

“Yep!”

Since I wouldn’t be able to come here every day from tomorrow, I decided to finish the office work check and head to the dorm.

“Hey! Ise hyung, you came early today!”

Seon-woo, who was busy packing his stuff, greeted me first.

“Yeah. Did you pack everything?”

“Um~ almost?”

I ruffled Seon-woo’s hair and looked around. The other members were also preoccupied with packing their bags.

“Let’s do well tomorrow.”

For the first time in a while, I was about to resume my official activities as the idol Cheon Ise.

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