Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 149

—————

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

—————

Chapter 149.

Ryu Bora Dating Rumor? We’ll Set the Record Straight_★StarPatch★

Weekend night, midnight.
When everyone becomes the hungriest hyena.
An article surfaced.
A media outlet that receives the most criticism on average, yet simultaneously draws the most attention.
It was from StarPatch.

OMG StarPatch Ryu Bora dating rumor trending
OMGlolololol gotta check it out

An article from that media everyone despises yet finds most captivating.
And it covered the dating rumor of Ryu Bora, currently the hottest topic.
The article boasted astronomical view counts the moment it dropped.

Everyone.
Do you know the emerging entertainment company, ‘WowHot’ Entertainment?
This agency has only one artist under contract—a male idol group called ‘TerraByte’.
At first glance, it looks like a startup, but in reality?
It wasn’t a startup at all—just an old company with a rebranded name.
Then what was this agency’s original name?
It was.
‘MidBless’.
Does that name sound familiar? Have you heard it somewhere?
That’s right. You’ve all definitely heard this name before.
Where?
On the 9 o’clock news!
Reverse viral campaigns and corruption are just the basics.
Assault, embezzlement, fraud, and extortion—everything about the notorious ‘WowHot’ Entertainment.
From now on, we at StarPatch will expose every single detail of this suspicious agency.
First.
The dating rumor about Ryu Bora of StillBlue that you’re all so curious about.
Or rather.
A nationwide fraud scheme.
Shall we start with that?

(1) A dating rumor? Or reverse viral marketing? Or perhaps just attention-baiting?

***

This is insane.
It was literally a nationwide scam lolololol
Ryu Bora must have felt so wronged
What even is MidBless doing..? They’re seriously vicious
They slap a dating frame on a successful female idol so they can blow up while Ryu Bora gets destroyed lololol What else would you call this if not vicious..?
Now that I think about it, the evidence was really flimsy… people kept talking about it though…
But it’s not just the fake dating rumor that’s the problem—what about the assault allegations

Public opinion shifted in an instant.
If we had simply denied the dating rumor, people wouldn’t have paid it any attention.
They would have said Colors was using its size as a major agency to throw money at the problem and sweep it under the rug.
That’s why we didn’t focus on the dating rumor.
We focused on the perpetrator: MidBless.
If muddying the waters and wallowing in chaos was their hobby, then so be it.
We’d just muddy the waters right back.
Digging up MidBless’s misconduct wasn’t difficult.
They were already a well-known entertainment company, and besides, all these scandals had been exposed in my past life anyway.
Of course, I received “a little” help with the specific details and evidence.

[【Detective Mode】 purchase complete!]
[Current Points: 900 Points]
[Using 【Detective Mode】 on ‘MidBless (Entertainment Company)’!]

It was an item worth a whopping 900 points.
I managed to purchase it by spending every point I’d carefully accumulated.
But I didn’t regret it one bit.
Thanks to it, I learned exactly where to find MidBless’s misconduct.
The 【Detective Mode】 item provided me with a list of former MidBless employees who had been pushed out in power struggles, as well as companies that had handled their cleanup work on a one-time basis.
The problem was how I would use that list.
I couldn’t directly expose their misconduct myself.
No matter how long I’d survived in the entertainment industry, I was fundamentally an idol.
…There’s no way I’d know how to investigate others.
But I know who does.

“Could we cooperate with StarPatch?”

At my words, Hong President looked genuinely flabbergasted.

“You do realize that the director there is Kim Mo-gyeong’s relative, right?”
“That’s precisely why things might actually go more smoothly.”

Currently, Kim Mo-gyeong was standing trial for the accumulated crimes he’d committed over the years.
I hadn’t known, but it seemed what he’d done to us wasn’t the extent of it.
Apparently, he’d even instigated assaults against people he’d worked with.
It looked like things had escalated to that point when they couldn’t agree on costs while orchestrating some scheme together.
I had no interest in what villains had done to each other.

“StarPatch is making every effort to shed the Kim Mo-gyeong label. Have you seen the articles they’ve been publishing lately?”
“…I haven’t.”

As Hong President narrowed his eyes, his secretary handed him a list of articles that had been prepared in advance.
I was the one who’d printed those out.

“If you look at them, you’ll see they’re all articles condemning Kim Mo-gyeong. The director has stepped back from operations, though of course we can’t say he’s completely withdrawn. You could say they’re cutting off the tail to save the body.”
“So they’ll listen to our request to rehabilitate their image?”
“That too, but… our request will actually be something they welcome. Because.”

I handed Hong President the list that the 【Detective Mode】 item had provided.

“This article is definitely going to become a massive sensation.”

This was exactly the kind of material StarPatch desperately needed right now.
Hong President reviewed the list while listening to my entire explanation, then looked at me with a peculiar expression.

“Where exactly do you keep finding things like this?”
“…A journalist I know gave it to me. You understand that information sources are supposed to remain confidential, right?”
“Remarkable… I’d say you have quite the impressive network.”

Hong President regarded me with suspicious eyes.

“Is there perhaps a journalist among your relatives that you haven’t mentioned to us, or something like that?”
“I’ll have to decline to comment.”

I was grateful he’d misunderstood in that direction.
I deliberately feigned ignorance and focused only on the documents.

“So, what do you think?”
“Socially speaking, since we’re exposing misconduct, it’ll help refresh our image. And since we’ve uncovered something difficult to reveal, it also proves our capabilities.”
“In fact, we’d be doing them a favor.”

Hong President nodded in agreement.

“You’re right. We don’t even need to send it under our name. They’ll snap it up readily if we just slip it in anonymously.”
“I think it’s better to submit it anonymously too.”
“Good. This will get resolved faster than expected.”

There’s no need to get deeply entangled with them.
I do need a blade to pierce MidBless.
But that doesn’t mean I have to be the one wielding it.

***

And so.
The dating rumor that I thought would burn hot quickly fizzled out.
TerraByte members released a statement saying they had posted on SNS under their Entertainment Company’s orders but had no idea it would be used as evidence of the dating rumor.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Exposés followed, containing various allegations including assault during their debut process and unfair contract clauses.
While not explicitly stated, the closing of their statement contained sentences hinting at contract termination.
I wonder if MidBless will actually comply so willingly with the members’ wishes.
Da-hwin couldn’t terminate her contract either and was only freed after being forced to complete the entire contract period.
Since TerraByte is closer to being victims, I hope things work out well for them.
Well, that’s their situation anyway.
We need to wrap up our side properly too.
I had no intention of ending things here.
Since it involved the members, I wanted to cut out the problem at its roots entirely.

“Then shall we move on to the next item?”

Ding!

StillBlue Diary being uploaded in real time

January and February diaries are trending too lol
Days that have trended so far

1.01: Seo Baek-young made tteokguk. Ryu Bora burned all the egg strips while making them, so Yun Chung made them again.

1.13: Members rushed to see the ocean at dawn (Yun Chung drove)
But since Yun Chung has poor night vision, we barely made it to the nearest West Coast beach
Yeon Ju-hong: Isn’t this mud flats, not the ocean?!
Ryu Bora: (Searching eagerly for fireworks)
Kim Geum: I can’t see any water?
Seo Baek-young: (Laughs cheerfully, seems to be enjoying it anyway)
Yun Chung: Just enjoy it, you unlicensed drivers

Wow, that egg dish the members had was the tteokguk scene
Right, the outfits match too
No, it’s the West Coast haha. Did the members go there as a group? ㅠㅠ
└No seriously, our girls just bonding together and these idiots spread dating rumors, may you all be cursed

Until now, I had told the members something.
To capture everything in photos and videos.
Of course, that was to activate SNS uploads and to enrich the content for this album….
I never expected it would be used as evidence like this.
With evidence in hand, why wouldn’t I use it?
I give the fans some bait.
And use it well as evidence.
Two birds with one stone.

This is really frustrating but the girls are so pretty

Phew..
I can’t tell you how lucky I am that they left it all in a video like this.
By the way, StillBlue really has foresight
I kept everything on video lol

(Additional) Continuing StillBlue Diary posts

1.22: The day members went to shoot for Yeon Coral pictorial, they packed lunch boxes (crab mayo sandwiches)
But Kim Geum put wasabi in one sandwich, so Yeon Ju-hong got upset

2.02: The day we all went to volunteer building houses for national merit awardees

2.14: The members decided to make chocolate for each other, but each chocolate turned out different
Seo Baek-young: Strawberry bark chocolate
Yun Chung: Marshmallow cocoa bomb
Kim Geum: Mint chocolate
Ryu Bora: Green tea pavé chocolate (what she wanted to become)
Yeon Ju-hong: Almond chocolate bar (the lump she wanted to become)

The foreshadowing is exploding

Seriously, they’re too busy just playing around with each other—how are they supposed to date?
lol right, they’re too busy building friendship~!~!~!~!
“If it’s not dating rumors between members, then nothing makes sense lol”
They said they’d keep posting even after this album ends
└Wait??
└└Yeah the members said they want to keep posting

But there was something important.
If I had cut off the sprout of dating rumors, dug up the ground, and burned the seeds themselves—
Then I had to erase the very existence that those rumors ever happened.
Now the focus had to shift.
To the next album: [Paper Dol].

“Now let’s turn their reverse viral campaign to our advantage.”

At my words, all the members wore sinister smiles.

“You mean we should release everything while their attention is focused on us, right?”

Kim Geum understood perfectly.

“Exactly. Let’s transform that attention into love instead.”

Not the ‘fake’ StillBlue created out of malice.
It was time to show what the ‘real’ StillBlue truly was.

—————

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

—————