Chapter 15.1
I wanted to run up to Cheon Tae Rim and bombard him with a barrage of questions about how the hell he did it. Heâd been sticking to Myeong In Woo for days like he was persuading him about something. Did he convince him to request the transfer to Ciel? Because if he did, I really respected him.
Even after returning 13 years into the past, I hadnât considered R&Mâs trainee trading system.
Mainly because every single transferred trainee had ended up quitting anyway.
But Myeong In Woo was different. Unlike the usual B-Class trainees, he was basically a guaranteed debut. If a top-tier trainee was volunteering to leave, Ciel mustâve jumped at the chance. No way they knew he was dating their golden girl, Twinkleâs Sera.
On paper, Myeong In Woo was a jackpot. Ciel had probably only seen his profile and test footage before accepting the deal. They had no idea what kind of person he actually was. Iâd never seen a trade happen this smoothly before.
R&M wouldnât just hand over a valuable trainee without getting something worthwhile in returnâ
So they had chosen Hwang Eui Jae, the best trainee Ciel had. There was no one else to bring in.
I couldnât help but feel deeply grateful for this turn of events. Because Hwang Eui Jae, unlike Myeong In Woo, was not a womanizer, and after about four years, his potential would explode.
Cielâs first boy group, Daycrush, had been a complete disaster. They debuted a year before Reverb and crashed hard after releasing just two albums.
The sales model for boy groups and girl groups was fundamentally different. Girl groups focused on general public appeal.Boy groups? They targeted idol otakus.
Thatâs why boy group music was often⊠more difficult to sing. Theyâd start off with a bright, fresh concept, then somehow end up doing dark fantasy sexy. A thousand failed boy group concepts flashed through my mind in an instant.
Daycrush also debuted with some bizarre dark fantasy concept. Instead of playing to Cielâs strengthâmass appealâthey threw it all away and debuted with vertical slit contact lenses.
Of course, they succeeded perfectly in creating core fans. After all, aren’t there always people who enjoy things like, “Darkness of shadows, awaken the black flame dragon sealed in my left hand!”âthat kind of concept?
There will always be fans who get excited simply by seeing slightly-above-average-looking guys wearing colored contacts, heavy makeup, and dressing up like fantasy novel protagonists. Since Daycrush was also from a big agency, it wasn’t like they would collapse completely because of their concept alone.
Their real problem was drugs. One of the trainees had already been involved in drug distribution before debut, and that issue blew up spectacularly right after their debut.
If he had just been using drugs, maybe it couldâve been salvaged, but noâhe was an actual dealer.He was on the front page of the news. He was an idol during the day and sold drugs at night.
And with boy groups, when one member goes down, the rest tend to fall like dominoes. Sure enough, A school violence scandal surfaced immediately after.
One of the members had been bullying classmates. To make matters worse, that same guy had been bragging about doing weed with the drug dealer.
Now they werenât dealing with one drug offenderâ they had two.
Daycrush had started with five members, then they were down to three.
Reverb had nine members. If two got caught in scandals, weâd still have seven left. But with a five-member group, this kind of thing was devastating.
Hwang Eui Jae, he was the last survivor of Daycrush. If that alone doesnât tell you how bad it got, let me spell it out: The group kept imploding like some kind of battle royale. While his teammates were self-destructing, Hwang Eui Jae was the only one who came out clean.
Thatâs why Ciel started pushing Hwang Eui Jae as a solo artist. Eui Jae! Youâre our last survivor!
And Hwang Eui Jae, as if waiting for this moment, successfully launched a hit song as a solo act.
That happened in Daycrushâs fourth year. The group had completely collapsed, but Hwang Eui Jae survived, went solo, and became a success story. In doing so, he proved to me that going solo was a viable path.
Iâd never personally met Hwang Eui Jae, but Myeong In Woo leaving and Hwang Eui Jae arriving was like trading a busted old truck for a brand-new Mercedes. Now, if Myeong In Woo ended up debuting with Daycrush, that group was going to be a landmine field.
Sure, Myeong In Woo wouldnât do drugs, but he would date.
I turned my head and locked eyes with Cheon Tae Rim, he was standing calmly across the room. But before I could get a good read on him, he looked away first.
Whenever I pretended not to know, Cheon Tae Rim was secretly watching me. “You got something to say?”
I strode over to him, closing the distance between me and him. If he was going to keep looking, why the hell did he tell me not to act close?
Or had he finally started suspecting that I was a regressor too?
“No.”
Cheon Tae Rim shook his head like a brick wall. Then, as if actively avoiding me, he disappeared into the crowd of trainees.
A few steps away, Go Ha Ram had been watching. He slid up next to me with a knowing look.
“Did you guys fight?”
“No? How do you fight when you canât even have a conversation?”
“Ye Jin hyungâŠ.”
“What?”
“I can tell you’re totally pissed.”
