Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 167

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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 167.

“Bora.”

I knocked on Ryu Bora’s door.

“Can I come in—”

The door swung open.
Before I could finish speaking, the door was already open.
Her hair was tousled, as if she’d just gotten out of bed.

“Were you sleeping?”
“No. I was just watching a movie.”
“A horror film?”
“It’s not.”
“Hmm….”

Yet the television screen visible behind her was far too dark and tinged with blue for that to be true.
I stepped into Ryu Bora’s room anyway.
True to form, her room was immaculate and honest—devoid of any decoration.
While one might call it minimalist, wasn’t this a bit too austere?

“There’s something I wanted to discuss with you.”
“…Is it a family matter?”

Her intuition was sharp.

“Yes.”
“What do you want to do?”
“What I want doesn’t matter. What matters is what you want to do.”

It wasn’t my family—it was Ryu Bora’s family.
It wasn’t my life—it was Ryu Bora’s life.
Now I held hundreds of pieces of evidence and clues in my hands.
But whether I used them or not depended entirely on Ryu Bora’s decision.
With a single word from Ryu Bora, I could bury all of this and move forward.
Or I could overturn everything.

“What do you want to do?”
….

Ryu Bora avoided my gaze.
Instead, she stared at the television screen, frozen and silent.
The same screen that had once confined her because of her family.

“I never hated acting.”
“…I know.”
“Working as a child actress… it was difficult, but I still loved it.”

I simply listened to Ryu Bora’s story in silence.

“What I hated was my family, not that period of my life. The money I earned back then going to them… well, I could bear that. I just wanted to act—I didn’t care about making money.”

I see.
She loved acting far more than I’d anticipated.

“When I developed dyslexia, my family was angry with me, but… the one who really wanted to be angry was me.”

Because I could no longer do the acting I loved so much.
I understood that feeling.
If I could no longer sing, I would feel exactly the same way.

“Do you know what emotion I feel toward my family now?”

I didn’t answer.
It wasn’t an emotion I could dare to imagine.

“It’s like… my first management company. Not family, but my first agency. I went in knowing nothing, only to discover it was a corrupt company. Still, I’m grateful they discovered me, so even if they took a portion of my earnings… well, I can accept that much. But that’s all.”

Ryu Bora let out a small laugh.

“I eventually signed with a new Entertainment Company and found a new profession. So no matter what kind of bad blood existed with my previous company… shouldn’t it be time to end it now? I’m grateful they discovered me, but in return, they earned plenty of money too. I just… even though I’m upset about a lot of things, I want to call it even and move on.”
“So you don’t want to see them again.”
“Right. I don’t care if my family takes all the money I’ve earned. I have no intention of claiming it. But… just….”

Ryu Bora picked up the remote and turned off the television screen.

“I want us to be people who never existed for each other.”

Ryu Bora handed me the remote.

“Sister….”

Ryu Bora paused, as if carefully choosing her words.

“You’ve always… always solved the problems in front of us.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is. You hide it from us all the time, but I know you’ve been handling everything for us.”

It really isn’t.

“…I have eight months left until I become an adult.”
“Yeah.”
“But you’re already an adult.”
“That’s right.”
“Seo Baek-young said that adults should help minors. Because they all received help when they were minors too.”

It seems Seo Baek-young and I talked about more than I expected.

“That’s right.”
“Did you receive help when you were young, sister…?”

Did I?
I tried to recall my memories.
But no particular memories came to mind.
Whether as Baek Nok-ha or as Yun Chung, I don’t think I received help.
But I nodded anyway.

“Yeah. I did.”

Because.
I actually received help after becoming an adult.
Let’s call it similar.

“Then, unnie.”
“Yeah.”
“Just for eight months…. Could you help me a bit?”

How difficult it had been to say those words.
I gripped the remote control that Ryu Bora handed me tightly.

“Sure. But you have to pay me back after you become an adult.”
“How? With money?”
“No.”

I turned the television back on with the remote.

“Later, make a documentary about Yun Chung. The Great Achievement of Yun Chung…!”
“Me?”

Hmph.
I knew she liked it despite what she said.
I dodged the remote Ryu Bora threw and hurried out of the room.

***

“The information leak was because of BurnAsh’s side and your manager?”
“Yes.”
“BurnAsh won’t replace their manager right away. Are you going to replace yours immediately?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll look into finding someone new.”
“May I make a recommendation?”
“Huh?”

Hong President asked back with a bewildered expression.
But I was serious about this.
This was truly a critical period from here on.
I needed to work with someone I could trust.

“Who are you thinking of?”

I handed a phone number to Hong President.
When I was Baek Nok-ha, this was the Manager who worked with me for ten years.
The only person from the Company I truly trusted.
A good person.
Skilled at their work, reliable.

“Could you contact this person and have a conversation with them? Just… please don’t mention that I introduced them. If you simply call it a scout offer, they’ll understand everything.”
“…Are they trustworthy?”
“They have experience. You can trust them.”
“Got it. I’ll try to recruit them.”

Last I heard, they were working in actor management now.
I hoped Hong President would handle it well and successfully bring them on board.

“By the way. You’re going on that new WBN variety show?”
“Ah, yes.”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while.”

What is it?
I tensed at Hong President’s serious expression.

“You’re in good enough condition to perform on stage, right? You’re not pushing yourself too hard?”
“….”

Suddenly, tears began to fall.
But that wasn’t what mattered.

“What happened with the request I made of you?”
“Ah. That. I looked into it, and you were right. They’re using Bora’s name to raise investments.”

As expected.
I let out a sigh.

“I’m gathering information. I’m also looking into lawyers.”
“Thank you for helping me.”
“No. It’s something I should have done from the start.”

Hong President gazed down at the documents on his desk with a look of regret.

“What will you do if that family refuses to accept it?”

Hong President looked at me with worried eyes.

“I suspect what that family fears most is losing their investment capital. Now that the money pipeline called ‘Ryu Bora’ has dried up, that business is probably their only remaining source of funds.”

Detective Mode didn’t reveal much.
It simply listed names and amounts.
A staggering total exceeding three billion won.
There wasn’t a single line of explanation about what this meant, but I could easily infer it.
This was money that family received.
By trading on Ryu Bora’s name.
I could only sigh.
Call it investment if you will, but what’s the difference between this and taking on debt under Ryu Bora’s name?

“That makes sense. Without investment capital, they can’t run the business.”
“Then we simply take back the investment funds.”
“…!”

These are the investment funds obtained by trading on Ryu Bora’s name.
Amounts invested with the assumption that if the investment failed, Ryu Bora would repay it instead.
But what if they learned that Ryu Bora had severed ties with her family?
If I were an investor, I’d withdraw my capital immediately.
The collateral has essentially vanished.

“Bora has made her decision.”
“Yes.”

I nodded.

“If Bora alone is resolved, the problem actually becomes simple. That family can’t do anything without her.”
“They need to come to their senses quickly. If they reject this proposal, they’ll lose everything. Tell them that if they don’t return the investment funds, I’ll make sure they cough up every last penny that family embezzled from the settlement Bora received from her former agency.”

Over the years, Ryu Bora has filmed several advertisements.
How does it make sense that there wasn’t a single won in Ryu Bora’s account?
That was money we could have recovered through a lawsuit.
The issue was overlooked because Ryu Bora chose to turn a blind eye—not because the money was unrecoverable. That’s the point.
Before contacting the investors, that family needs to repay first.
That’s the only path for that family to survive.
If they can’t grasp that, we’ll have to make them understand.

“Whether your assets drop to zero or debts pile up to 5 billion won—that’s your choice to make.”

***

WBN’s new variety show that’s bound to generate record-breaking buzz among idol fans

Calling idols from the three major entertainment companies to perform cover stages against each other
Colors vs Moment vs All Season
Casting announcements so far

Episodes 1-2 Cast
Colors: BurnAsh, StillBlue
Moment: NextGen, Enliven
All Season: Wick Start, X Days

Episodes 3-4 Cast
Colors: All Colors, White Noise
Moment: Phoenix, Double Seconds
All Season: Summer High, Winter Kill

For episodes 5-6, we’re predicting the oldest members from each group will appear
Though full group appearances seem unlikely—probably just a few members as soloists

All three entertainment companies have tons of devoted fans, so the buzz is going to be insane
+The casting is also bound to stir up plenty of drama and conflict

No, I feel like episodes 1-2 are gonna be crazy with the drama lol
A coed music variety show… I’m already getting a headache
Ugh, my Tamla live comparison posts are gonna start wars for a while
But honestly, I’m so hyped
It’s actually gonna be fun lol
I hate being paired up like this though

We’ve been doing fine without being connected, so why are they doing this all of a sudden
They kept pushing the “we’re family because we’re under the same company” narrative, but just don’t pair us up at all

Both fandoms hate this
I’m so disappointed;; they were doing so well, you guys
But it’ll probably be entertaining

I’m not even a fan of those groups, I just love supporting mid-tier artists, and this looks hilarious
Their skills are guaranteed to be solid

For real lol, no worries about their abilities
The Stage performances should be fun to watch
The international community is going crazy over this

They’re already shipping male and female idols like crazy
The overall reaction seems to be that it’ll be entertaining
Other people’s love lives are fun to watch, after all
But our girls aren’t dating, okay!!!!!!

They really love shipping male and female idols over there
BurnAsh Eon PUBBLE? lol

PUBBLE
Eon
So, how do you feel about going out with your juniors?

Eon
I’m already getting shy…

We’re both shy around each other, finding it awkward

Eon
Not family? Not close?

Eon
We are family, sure.

But it feels more like we’re sixth cousins or something.

You know what I mean?

Eon
They’re technically relatives.

But we only see each other during holidays, so we don’t really know each other…

We exchange greetings and think, “Oh right, this person is family,” but that’s about it.

We’re not close… and sometimes I forget their age, so I don’t even know what to call them…

Eon
You think we’ll get closer now that we’re going out together?

Do you guys actually get close to your sixth cousins just by meeting them once during the holidays?

These two groups really do seem far apart lol
Peace of mind complete.

Peace of mind complete.
Even StillBlue’s kids kept their distance lol peace of mind complete.

***

And so the program began, brimming with buzz: 【Three Kingdoms Era】.
Everyone was shocked by the hopelessly outdated name, yet they still picked up the remote.
Why?
Because it seemed like it would be fun.
But there was one person watching with an anxious heart.
It was Bleduck.

‘Our kids are still recovering, and who keeps making them work…!’

At least it was only two episodes, but Bleduck’s heart was torn to shreds.
Still, she couldn’t help but watch.
Our kids were going to be on it.

[MC: Do you know the three major entertainment companies responsible for South Korea’s pride, K-POP? Colors, Moment, All Season. These three entertainment companies, each called a dynasty of idols, have presented South Korea’s greatest idol groups.]
[MC: Skill is a given, visuals are guaranteed. The program to shatter the prejudice that idols might lack talent is 【Three Kingdoms Era】! In today’s first episode, we’ve invited the next-generation idol groups from each entertainment company.]

The MC turned their body toward the large display screen behind them.

[MC: Each group will show you two stages. One is a cover of the rival group’s signature song. The other is a collaborative stage by position for each group. Boy groups collaborate with boy groups, girl groups with girl groups.]

“A collaborative stage?”

Yun Chung would definitely collaborate with Da-hwin, no question about it.
…I wonder if the two of them have gotten closer.
At least it was a relief that she wouldn’t be doing a collaborative stage with the boy groups.

[MC: Now, let’s watch Colors’ stage first. The entertainment company Colors chose to cover is-]

The moment the MC flipped the cue card, a smile appeared on their lips.

[MC: Moment.]

Then the camera focused on the display screen.

BurnAsh: KILL ME (NextGen)
StillBlue: LOVE SAVE (Enliven)

[MC: Both BurnAsh and StillBlue participated directly in the arrangement for this stage, I hear. Truly befitting Colors, a company that pursues self-producing.]

Caption: Colors, sharpened and ready.
Caption: So, what will the stage bring?
Caption: Let’s look forward to it!

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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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