Chapter 9.2
“Youâre going to debut really fast.”
“âŠâŠ.”
“Yeah. No wonder Manager Min was so excited.”
If this were the past, I wouldnât have felt anything hearing those words. I already knew how talented I was, and I thought fake humility in situations like this was even more obnoxious than arrogance.
“Oh no, not at all. I just became a trainee, so I still have a long way to go.”
But if I wanted to stay alive twelve years from now, I needed to adjust my attitude.
Since I had already decided to work hard this time, I might as well go for the “naturally gifted yet humble” concept.
This HR employee probably wouldnât stay at R&M long-term, but I couldnât be sure. If I brushed him off now, he might quit later, ignore his NDA, and start posting things like, âWasnât Sun Ye Jin a rude bastard? Youâre so full of yourself.â Youâll get in trouble if you write things like that, when theyâre in a certain mood.
[S.Y.J? You mean the guy from Reverb?]
[That dude was so full of himself, lol. People only hyped him up for his skills during his debut, but now there are plenty of better vocalists. Doesnât he even feel a sense of crisis?]
â [Yeah, heâs cringe, but dragging his vocals is a reach. He won âMasked Singerâ multiple times.]
â [That was just because his fans recognized him and spammed votes.]
â [Why is this guy so overrated? Talent doesnât excuse a shit personality.]
[LMAO, isnât he the narcissist whose members completely ignore him?]
The moment those thoughts crossed my mind, I instinctively recalled the flood of hate comments I had received in my past life.
It had started when a former R&M employee anonymously posted an exposé about Reverb.
And, of course, it happened right before our contract renewals, when half the members had completely lost motivation.
Naturally, as the leader, none of them listened to me. I wasnât about to nag people who didnât care anymore, so I left them alone. And thatâs exactly when some former staffer decided to air everything online.
R&Mâs PR team went into full-on crisis mode. Not only the Director, but even the CEO, who rarely got angry, was furious, and the executives were scrambling.
Ultimately, we were forced to renew our contracts, since the scandal clause in our contracts meant breaking them would come with huge penalty fees. If not for that, Reverb wouldâve disbanded in year seven.
Honestly, it would have been better if we disbanded then. Instead, we managed to win back the fanbase we had lost by promoting the whole thing as a “full-group contract renewal”âa bullshit marketing move. Our most diehard fans, the Echos, went all out defending us.
Online communities were flooded with posts urging people not to believe the rumors, saying the exposé was just temporary noise.
But the truth was, Myeong In Woo really had been dating someone. That wasnât something a former employee needed to exposeâit was bound to come out eventually. Even his sasaengs and top-tier homepage masters [1] already knew about his girlfriend. In the end, the guy even rushed into marriage out of nowhere.
And that was just one of many issues. Plenty of our members were messing aroundâfrom partying at clubs to casual flings with girl group idols. The worst of them? The guy who did drugs at a club. But aside from him, the group was a magnet for problem cases.
Bad influences, reckless behavior, casual affairsâReverb shouldâve never been a nine-member group.
A couple of them shouldâve been cut for safety reasons.
“You donât have to be that modest. Youâre seriously impressive. Itâs rare to find someone whoâs got the looks, the dance skills, and the vocals all at once. You should be confident.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Itâs crazy that a kid like you only joined a company at nineteen. Didnât anyone ever tell you to become an entertainer?”
I had only been faking humility for the sake of my future, but it seemed to be working just as well as it did on Manager Min. âHuh. Maybe I really could get people on my side just by acting a little nice,â I thought.
In my past life, I had lived with a constant “So what?” attitude, but maybe my pretty face made people assume I was kind when I wasnât talking.
I ran the numbers in my head. Might as well keep this up and be somewhat nice to people.
Not because I was suddenly turning over a new leaf or anything. But for some reason, Grandmaâs words kept lingering in my mindâtelling me to work hard if I was going to do this.
I didnât want to be fake, but if acting decent meant avoiding another sasaeng with a knife, Iâd take the trade-off.
That sasaeng had spat those exact words at me like a curseââIf you had just worked harderâŠ.â
Maybe if I really put in the effort this time, I could reduce my chances of dying.
“Iâll work even harder from now on. Since this is my first time as a trainee, I still have a lot to learn. Please take care of me.”
Even I felt weirded out by my own words.
People like me were supposed to coast along effortlessly, so others didnât feel inferior.
But instead of saying that out loud, I just gave a shy smile, pretending to be a little embarrassed.
Those acting lessons I had to take for music video shoots before my death? Finally coming in handy.
Translatorâs Notes:
Note/s:
[1] â©
