Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 143

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

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Chapter 143.

A sudden doubt flickered through my mind.
Why had I assumed I was the only one who’d signed a contract with the Cotton Ball Entity?
The phrase “furry bundle” wasn’t exactly a major clue. It was just a thought that had struck me out of nowhere.
The thought that the Cotton Ball Entity couldn’t possibly have contracted with only me.
In fact, now that I thought about it, there were plenty of strange things.
The Cotton Ball Entity’s peculiar demeanor.
The fact that someone else besides me was a rookie with a stat of 99.
Did that even make sense?
It seemed like she was picking up on that strange feeling too.
The way she kept glancing at me.
Maybe I should test it.

“Da-hwin, you don’t seem like a rookie at all. You seem like someone who’s debuted before.”
“!!!”

Da-hwin’s hands clenched together as her lips trembled.

“S-senior… you too…! For someone who’s only been debuted for two months, you have… such a different… composure…!”
“Could it be…?”
“Could it be?!”

Our eyes met.
Da-hwin’s eyes held an enormous amount of shock and a hint of relief.
The feeling hit me strongly.

“On the count of three, we show our phones at the same time. What do you say?”

The feeling that there was another unfortunate comrade…

“Yes, yes!”
“One, two,”
“Three…!”

We cautiously extended our phones to each other simultaneously.
Oh no.
After checking each other’s screens, we both fell into a panic.
On our phone displays,

[!Sudden Mission!
Win the semi-finals of 【Dear My Diva】!]

The exact same message appeared on both.

“….”
“….”

I had a feeling this was going to require a very long conversation.

***

“So… you crossed over to a different world just like me, didn’t you, Da-hwin?”

We could only have this conversation after the VCR recording had finished.
Before heading to the Dormitory, I asked my Manager for permission and borrowed her car.
Sitting in the Underground Parking Lot of the Broadcasting Station like this made it seem like we were plotting something incredibly sinister.
Though I did have to turn off the dashcam the moment we got in.
There was nowhere safer than here.

“Yes…!”
“Then… do you happen to know who Baek Nok-ha is?”

I asked because I wondered if she might be from the same world as me.
After all, it was possible she might not know Baek Nok-ha….
But contrary to my concerns, Da-hwin’s eyes held a look of obvious bewilderment.

“Yes! Of course I know… her! But why are you asking about her…?!”
“!”

There’s someone who knows me!
I nearly cried out in joy at that moment.
But I barely managed to regain my composure.

“I… I am Baek Nok-ha.”
“What?!”
“I was originally Baek Nok-ha, not Yun Chung. That Cotton Ball Entity threw me into Yun Chung’s body.”
“Whaaaat?!!”

Da-hwin’s face had gone pale with shock.

“N-now that you mention it… B-Baek Nok-ha senior… didn’t…”
“Debut. She doesn’t exist.”
“R-right… Originally, Yun Chung senior should have been…”
“Failing by now.”
“!!!”

Da-hwin’s face had gone completely ashen from the shock.
She seemed to be the fragile type after all.

“So you, Da-hwin… were Da-hwin in your past life too, and you’re still Da-hwin now?”
“Y-yes…! I… I came here to change my fate…. No, wait. More precisely, to change the fate of me and my group….”

I see.
Da-hwin explained at great length how she had come to be here.
The moment Enliven was branded as a sajaegi group, Moment had essentially abandoned them.
After barely fulfilling their contract period that way, they didn’t renew it.
Enliven’s members only performed for the first one or two years, and couldn’t perform at all after that.
They had to survive day by day with part-time work and help from their families.
But even that became impossible when Moment’s side forbade part-time work, claiming it would tarnish the ‘idol’ image.
Enliven’s members begged for contract termination, but Moment stubbornly refused.
They said it was impossible unless the members repaid the money their agency had invested.
The debt Moment demanded was 700 million won per person.
But of course, it was impossible for members who had neither the money nor the ability to repay such a massive debt.
So they barely survived on the minimum salary Moment provided, until the day their contract was finally terminated.
Da-hwin had been walking home that day, crying her eyes out.
Then suddenly, a puff of fur appeared right before her eyes.

-You seem to have some talent too. Would you like to make a contract with me?

It said.

“…The way you said ‘you too’….”
“It seems I was the second person to sign a contract after you, senior.”

So that’s why Cotton Ball Entity had been so busy.
The pieces were slowly clicking into place.

“Then, what were Da-hwin’s contract conditions?”
“Huh?!”
“What did you receive in exchange for coming back?”

Da-hwin looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“I… I didn’t receive any compensation….”
“…What did you say?”

She signed a contract without any compensation?
That’s completely different from my condition—winning a rookie award and then being allowed to return.

“Cotton Ball Entity didn’t set any conditions? Like winning a rookie award or something?”
“Oh! There was one. When I go back… I absolutely must revive your group. For me, they said I had to win the ‘Grand Prize’ within three years.”
“….”

It was slightly different from mine, but almost the same condition.
It felt like Cotton Ball Entity had deliberately made our conditions different.
To give both of us a chance to succeed in our missions.
But… if there’s no compensation….

“What happens to Da-hwin if you achieve that condition?”
“They said I’d be allowed to stay in this world… permanently.”
“!”

It was a complete shock.
So there was also a condition to remain in this world.

“Da-hwin, don’t you want to go back?”
“Me?”

Da-hwin tilted her head with a genuinely confused expression.

“Oh, no. I… I like this world because it can fix everything.”

Ah.
Only then did I begin to understand, piece by piece.
If I return, a life as the happy Baek Nok-ha awaits me.

“No matter what happens… in this life, I really want to… keep working as an idol. That’s why I want to stay in this world…”

If Da-hwin returns, an unhappy life as Da-hwin awaits her.
Da-hwin spoke through tears streaming down her face.
Then she gripped my arm tightly with both hands.

“Senior…!”
“Yes?”
“Please… please help me…!”

Oh no.
Another strong premonition washed over me.

“I really want to escape this stigma of bulk-buying…! But I don’t know how… how to do it. Sob. That Cotton Ball Entity keeps telling me every day… ‘Why can’t you solve this on your own? Other kids figure it out just fine on their own.’ They just say things like that without helping, and… waaaaahhhhh.”

I’d just acquired another small creature I’d have to feed and care for.

***

I could only console Da-hwin after feeding her an entire tub of ice cream.
I should remember that cherry-flavored ice cream always works.
…Sigh.
I think I finally understand what that Cotton Ball Entity said back then—those meaningful words.

-You’ll find a way somehow, Baek Nok-ha.

You’re done for, Cotton Ball Entity.
Did that mean you were telling me to find a way since you’d be handing over the kid I need to look after?
Da-hwin had gotten a second chance, but she said she couldn’t see any way to defeat Moment, a major entertainment company.
She questioned how she could suddenly succeed in this life at something she’d failed to do in her previous one.
She truly couldn’t see a way forward.
In truth, that seemed like a normal reaction.
Either way, I promised to help her as much as I could within my means.
It was partly for Da-hwin’s sake.
But long-term, it was for us.
If Moment kept engaging in blatant bulk-buying and fraudulent schemes like this, the damage would eventually reach the music industry.
And then it would reach StillBlue.
We could even lose the rookie award to Moment.
That had to be prevented.
Da-hwin’s goals and mine… happened to align in some ways.
It seemed better to cooperate and defeat Moment together.
…And the kid was a bit pitiful, too.
Being the only person who knew Baek Nok-ha provided some comfort.

‘S-Senior… Baek Nok-ha Senior was…? I had a feeling you were incredible…? The songs you released felt familiar…? So that’s why…’

Treating me almost like a deity was a bit much.
Still, I’d take good care of her.
I told Da-hwin to start by eliminating everyone Moment newly recruited.
Since I’d essentially handed over the punk compilation to them, I told her to try getting those people out no matter what.
Da-hwin asked how she could possibly do that herself, but I told her she had to figure that out alone.
I couldn’t spoon-feed her everything.
I was in a position of ‘cooperation,’ not part of the same group.
Everyone had to do their own part.
Anyway, if Da-hwin had also regressed like me, that incredible stat made sense.
A main vocalist with almost no schedule, practicing day and night for seven years—Seo Rin.
…It might actually be strange that her stat wasn’t 99.

“Unni.”

Ugh.
At that title that made my neck bristle, I spun around sharply.

“What.”

It was Yeon Ju-hong.

“Why are you spacing out?! When I call you ‘unnie,’ you lose focus, but when I call you ‘oonie,’ you snap to attention… Is that a hint that you want me to keep calling you ‘oonie’ from now on?!”
“No.”

I shuddered and pushed Yeon Ju-hong away.
That startled me.

“Enliven took first place.”

We were all gathered together watching a music broadcast.
We were brainstorming our next album while also observing how the idol industry was currently operating.

“It seems like a rival dynamic is forming, doesn’t it?”

Kim Geum asked me.

“…The media will want that. Two rising rookie girl groups. And both groups are being praised for opening a new generation.”
“Plus, both belong to major entertainment companies.”

Ryu Bora supplemented my words with her agreement.

“We need to show that we’re taking a ‘different’ path from Enliven.”

Currently, Enliven was pushing a relatable idol image by appearing on variety shows obsessively.

“Moment is giving Enliven such massive promotion that there’s barely a broadcast they don’t appear on.”
“Thanks to that, their recognition is rising rapidly.”

They’re good at variety shows, relatable idols.
They appear so frequently that you’d think they’re on TV constantly—it’s actually starting to have negative effects.
We can’t go down that path.
Enliven has their strategy, and we have ours.
We survive.

“But how do we do that? Gain recognition without appearing on broadcasts…?”
“Is that even… possible…?”

The members all began clutching their heads in distress.
Was it even possible?

“There are plenty of media outlets beyond broadcasting.”
“?!”
“Print media like magazines exist too.”

For instance, what about advertisements?
I looked at Yeon Ju-hong.

“Ju-hong. Are you… interested in luxury brands?”
“Huh?!”

Yeon Ju-hong looked back and forth between me and her own clothes with bewildered eyes.
….
This girl.
The comfortable clothes she wore around the Dormitory were… Louis Vuitton, of all things.
That was right.
What I was currently thinking about was.
A luxury brand ambassador position.
By now, each luxury brand would be searching for new models in South Korea.
Why did I suddenly think of luxury brands?
StillBlue had reached a point where we needed to advance beyond merely securing a concept.
We needed to become StillBlue itself as a brand.
But how should we approach that branding?
In truth, branding is an incredibly difficult endeavor.
We had to solidify our image and concept, then imprint them upon the public consciousness.
However.
What if we subtly borrowed the image of an already-established brand and layered it onto ourselves?
Especially if those brands were already proven?
The brands we represented could, in turn, become the image that represented us.
We didn’t need to completely overlay the luxury brand’s image.
We simply had to calibrate it so that it became one of many images that constructed us.
In my assessment, the people most suited to the image each brand was currently seeking were Yeon Ju-hong and Ryu Bora.
And among them, Yeon Ju-hong especially.

Yeon Ju-hong

Singing: 70/100
Dancing: 71/100
Appearance: 94/100
Charisma: 97/100
Entertainment Sense: 90/100
Personal Special Abilities:
Celebrity (90/100)
Fan Service (86/100)
? (?/100)
Recommended Development Stats:
Celebrity
Fan Service
Singing
Dancing

So this one’s personal ability is actually ‘Celebrity’.
This time, let me try developing Yeon Ju-hong Princess.

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

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