Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 138

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

Chapter 138.

K-App
[StillBlue │ Live Stream Starting]
K-App
[Gathering of People Who Bounced While Preparing an Album (5/5)]

Gasp.
Bleduck clutched my heart at the notification that had just popped up.
K-App live streams—StillBlue did them so often that I’d grown somewhat accustomed to them.
But today, the title itself felt unusual.
Album… preparation…?
Already? Already?
Bleduck clutched my heart and entered the live broadcast.
The moment I entered, I could see tens of thousands of people clutching their hearts just like me.

‘As expected.’

K-App
[Notice: Mint Chocolate Preference │ Baek-young: Dislike │ Yun Chung: Ice cream isn’t good for your body │ Bora: I’ll eat it if someone gives it to me │ Geum: Love it │ Ju-hong: Why would you eat toothpaste, Ju-hong?]
K-App
[Notice: MBTI │ Baek-young: ISFJ │ Yun Chung: ENTJ │ Bora: INFJ │ Geum: ENTP │ Ju-hong: ENFP ※The members’ MBTI types actually change periodically and are not perfectly accurate※]
K-App
[Notice: Perilla Leaf Debate │ Baek-young: Maybe it’s okay if it’s the members? │ Yun Chung: Just don’t eat perilla leaves │ Bora: I’d abandon my lover and peel perilla leaves for my friend │ Geum: Whether you peel perilla leaves or not, pickled perilla is delicious │ Ju-hong: I’ll peel everyone’s perilla leaves myself]

‘The notices have been updated!’

Bleduck felt both joy and bittersweet emotion learning the members’ new information.
The reason those notices were pinned from the very start was because those same questions dominated the entire live broadcast.
I wanted to see the members chatting among themselves, but people kept asking the same things over and over—it was maddening.
Still, I was grateful they’d written it out like that.

[Geum: Hey. We skipped practice today and flew here.]
[Ju-hong: Yun Chung was going to stay up all night for “Dear My Diva” practice, so we kidnapped her. We did good, right!]
[Yun Chung: You guys, what are you trying to do?]
[Geum: We can leave tomorrow’s problems to tomorrow’s us.]
[Bora: You have to take care of your body while working, unnie.]
[Baek-young: That’s right. We’ve been hearing Yun Chung practice 24/7, and our eardrums are bleeding.]
[Ju-hong: She practices even in the car every day—we’re at the point where we could sing it for her!]

Looking at the comments, everyone was crying.
Why?
Yun Chung was already on her third survival show.
“Dear My Diva” was a survival show with extremely polarized opinions among fans.
The positive reactions were simply that they were glad to hear Yun Chung sing.
The negative ones?

No… seriously nooooooooo
Kids, stop acting like this ㅠㅠ Are you teasing a kid who barely got better vocal cords again?
She’s becoming a survival show specialist ^-^ (not laughing)
I need to prepare an album, why are you doing survival again?
Oh, and I heard there’s a rookie there too… I heard there’s a mebo in there too ㅠㅠ I’m sure it’ll be really attractive.

The reasons were varied.
Regardless, it was clear that many fans disliked it.
There had never been much positive reception for “Dear My Diva” to begin with, but after the news about Da-hwin from Enliven participating, the negative reactions grew even stronger.

[Geum: Anyway. It looks like our next album is coming out soon!]
[Baek-young: I think it’ll be a single. Around March.]
[Ju-hong: Our song is absolutely amazing! StillBlue fans are guaranteed to be satisfied.]
[Yun Chung: Geum and I are putting the finishing touches on the track together.]

I can’t translate this as it’s not a valid Korean word or phrase – it appears to be random consonants repeated.
Single March?????? Collecting bulletsㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Oh I love it so muchㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Geum and Yun Chung co-composing? I can’t resist this

[Baek-young: It’ll probably come out around my birthday. Haha]
[Bora: I’m thinking about what to get Baek-young for a gift this time.]
[Yun Chung: Why don’t you want anything?]
[Baek-young: I don’t have material desires… The members’ love is more than enough for me.]
[Geum: I want to express love through material things too. Just tell me what you want right now.]
[Ju-hong: That’s why I decided to just give her everything I want to give!]

Please let us give you a gift tooㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
I also want to try targeting Baekyoung’s taste.
I know why they blocked gift support,, but I still want to give something,,
My kids are so special about not getting support ㅠㅠ

It was already so sad.
Bleduck swallowed hard.
Because the members had declared in advance that they would accept nothing but letters, all support had been rejected at Bora’s birthday before as well.
I want to give too… Baek-young’s gift… Don’t let only StillBlue give, let me join in too….

[Yun Chung: EVEL, how was our year-end stage and the one we did at Top Doll? The year-end stage was where Bora came up with the storytelling idea, was it okay? For the Top Doll stage, as I mentioned before, Geum contributed a lot to the concept.]
[Ju-hong: That’s right! We’re curious about your feedback!]
[Baek-young: Is there any other concept you’d like to see~?]

Cute stuff cute stuff cute stuff cute stuff cute stuff
Please give me a really strong concept, Jjangtil Blueㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
It feels fresh because it’s spring!!!! No, actually, it’s okay to do anything.ㅠㅠ
Do what our girls want to do!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Yun Chung: Oh, everyone has diverse opinions. Let me write them down.]
[Geum: Yes, yes.]

At the sight of StillBlue pulling out their notebooks and pens in unison at Yun Chung’s words and peering into the comment section, Bleduck burst out laughing.
They really were a group that listened well to their leader.

***

And then came the long-awaited recording day for Dear My Diva.
I arrived at work earlier than usual.
To warm up my voice beforehand.

“Did you see the article from Enliven?”

As we drove, the Manager spoke to me.
Ever since Director Kim was completely ousted, the Manager had been devoting herself entirely to us—literally.
To be honest, given what she’d done in the past, I didn’t trust her much.

“Yes. They debuted yesterday, and people are saying their first-week sales are remarkable.”
“Just looking at the first day, they’ve already surpassed our initial sales. I don’t even know if those numbers make sense. And they didn’t even go through a survival show.”
“Well, you know, nothing’s truly impossible. Besides, I heard those members were famous even during their trainee days. They haven’t officially debuted until now, but they’ve been doing activities here and there, so apparently they have some individual fandoms built up.”
“I heard one member has recognition overseas. Still, this is too much.”

Honestly, it looked like bulk buying at first glance, but I didn’t bother saying anything.
It’s not even overlapping with our activity period.
What would be the point of saying anything to the Manager now?

“Their concept overlaps a bit with ours too… is that okay?”
“Well, people have been talking about that.”

The internet was already buzzing about it.

Isn’t this too much? A ‘Savior’ concept? Clearly taken from our ‘Mutual Salvation’ concept…
And then they keep insisting it’s different because it’s a warrior concept lol lol lol yeah… very different…
You’re princesses and they’re warriors, but that doesn’t change the keyword ‘salvation’ at all
If it’s really that different, why not call it a ‘Guardian Knight’ concept like you say, instead of pushing the ‘Savior’ concept?;

That was it.
Enliven’s debut concept was inspired by medieval knights.
A ‘Savior’ concept—always ready to fight for their fans.
Of course, their overall styling and stage aesthetic were different from ours.
They came out wearing something like chain mail wrapped around their bodies.
But because they overlapped the keyword ‘salvation’ so blatantly, conflict arose between both fandoms.
That wasn’t even the end of it.
Because of the absurd first-week sales figures, questions arose among all idol fans.

★
From the first week…? A little…?
290,000 copies on the first day of a female idol’s debut album…? And they haven’t even done any activities before…??
I wouldn’t say anything if they went through a survival show like MomoGroup lol don’t play with people, otaku are sensitive about this kind of thing
Even for a major group, do those numbers even make sense?

What.
Under normal circumstances, this suspicion would have surfaced much later.
In my past life, it wasn’t until next year that such talk openly rose to the surface.
But.
This time, Hong President was supporting us, and the difference was that we had grown far more than we expected.
Because Enliven was so openly wary of us, they engaged in bulk purchasing to a degree that was noticeable.
To claim the title of the best rookie currently debuted, they needed to achieve absurd numbers.
Since we had already achieved absurd numbers.
And on top of that, the idol group that happened to have released an album right now was none other than All Colors.

Not long ago.
Before Enliven’s debut schedule even surfaced.

Hong Yeon-seo President

All Colors agreed to their comeback this month

We originally planned for February or March

But they said moving it up by one to two weeks to late January would be fine

Actually, their schedule opens up nicely before the overseas tour

So they said it works well for them

In return, they asked if we could give them one song next time

Hmm.
They certainly know how to calculate.

Hong Yeon-seo President

Yes

That’s the least we should give them
But is there a reason it has to be now?

There is.
First of all, we had already scheduled our comeback for around March, so we absolutely didn’t want it to overlap.
For Enliven’s bulk purchasing to stand out more, we needed a comparison point.
All Colors’ first-day initial sales: 1.51 million copies.
Enliven’s first-day initial sales: 290,000 copies.
The gap was incomparable, but it was true that the two groups were competing for first and second place on the music charts.
That’s precisely why Enliven’s trajectory stood out so much more.
Reactions like “Who are they to suddenly sell 290,000 copies?” inevitably emerged.

“Don’t worry too much about them. We just need to do our best.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s right.”

I was already busy enough establishing our new concept.

“We’re here. Let’s get out.”
“Yes.”

I entered the Broadcasting Station slowly with my Manager.
Since we’d arrived a bit early, I’d planned to head to the Waiting Room first and warm up my voice.
But the moment I arrived at the Waiting Room, I realized that would be difficult.

“Hello, senior. I’m Da-hwin from Enliven.”

An unexpected visitor had come to see me.

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————