Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 178

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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 178.

While everyone slept, I slipped into the Living Room alone.
I watched the music video on my laptop, rewinding and replaying it endlessly.
Actually, I started with the color film first.
Then I moved on to the teaser, followed by the music video itself.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched it.
I watched until I was sick of it, then watched some more.
They’re beautifully produced videos.

Ryu Bora

Vocals: 80/100
Dance: 77/100
Appearance: 98/100
Charisma: 90/100
Entertainment Sense: ?/100
Individual Special Abilities:
Acting (92/100)
(New!) Direction (76/100)
Recommended Abilities to Develop:
(New!) Direction (76/100)
[Your member has awakened a new ability.]
[Why not nurture this newly discovered talent?]

The production quality was so exceptional.
It was enough to trigger this notification window.
A talent that had just blossomed, starting at such a high score of 76.
This could only be called a true gift.

‘By the way, when you were working on Make a New Color.’

I had asked her about it not long ago.

‘Yes.’
‘You were always glued to your phone.’
‘That’s true.’
‘What was that all about? What were you watching that made you cling to your phone like that?’

Ryu Bora fell silent for a long moment at my question.
She simply focused on eating the cucumber slices in front of her.
Then.

‘I was watching dramas and movies.’
‘…What?’
‘Surprising?’

Of course it was.
Who would have thought she was watching dramas during such a grueling, chaotic survival competition?

‘Yeah.’
‘It was the only way I could endure it back then.’

Ryu Bora looked up at me with her characteristically detached yet piercing gaze.

‘If I didn’t lose myself in different stories, different worlds… if I only looked at my own reality, I couldn’t breathe.’

I couldn’t describe how shocked I was by those words.
Who would have guessed that Ryu Bora, who always seemed so strong, harbored such thoughts?

‘There was too much I had to do. Too many people watching me. People with expectations, people hoping I’d fail… so many. And I didn’t want to do any of it.’

Ryu Bora picked out a cucumber slice and put it in her mouth.

‘That’s why I did it. To endure.’

Ryu Bora let out a soft laugh and met my eyes.

‘But after you… bought me that tuna kimbap.’
‘Hmm?’
‘I realized I didn’t need to escape into other worlds as much. Different worlds.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you yourself were such a different world to me. You were such a different person than anyone I knew.’

Ryu Bora spoke with a steady voice.
That’s why.
That’s why I set the concept for this Colors film that way.
Someone so different from me, someone who seems like they could vanish into another world at any moment.
I made this video for that person.
Vaguely, watching Ryu Bora.
I suspected that her talent might lie in direction.
But I never thought it would be real.

‘She’s grown so much, Ryu Bora.’

Ryu Bora’s abilities, confirmed after such a long time, were truly remarkable.
So people could grow to this extent in such a short span of time.
That’s what I thought.
Anew.
I realized just how many traces I’ve been leaving in this world.
If I said I didn’t notice anything while acting, that would be a lie.
I knew.
What the members were preparing.
What they were getting ready for me.
Still, I pretended not to know.
There were several reasons.
Seeing the members so joyfully preparing, it felt like I should let them have that.
And these videos… they seemed to be showing me my current situation.
The future I’d been desperately avoiding was drawing near.

[Every winter, I dream of something I can never return to.]

The subtitle on the screen.
And my reflection above it.
Everything was awakening me to reality.
You are not a person of this world.
You must eventually return, don’t you?
And.
Won’t you… long for this world forever?

-You’re thinking hard about this, Baek Nok-ha?
“!”

At that moment, Cotton Ball Entity popped out from behind my shoulder.

“You…!”

I called out to Cotton Ball Entity in a hushed voice.

-No need for that. Your members won’t hear anything anyway.
“So this is still my subconscious right now?”
-No. This is your reality. I’ve just blocked the sound, that’s all.

Sound blocking too?
It really can do anything.
I laughed despite myself.

-Why are you laughing?
“Just because.”
-You’re truly incomprehensible.

Cotton Ball Entity circled around me restlessly.

-How is it, Baek Nok-ha?
“How is what?”
-Seeing the affection your members have for you—how does it feel?

I didn’t answer.
How does it feel, it says.
I missed Baek Nok-ha’s life.
The fans who loved me.
In this world, we call our fans Ever Blue.
But in Baek Nok-ha’s world, my fans were called Greenlight.
There was no such thing as one being more precious than the other.
Because they were equally precious, I missed them equally and was equally grateful.
In this world, there are my members, and people I’ve newly met.
The honor I built as Baek Nok-ha? Wealth? I could give up such things anytime.
But there’s one person.
I could never give up on Mother.
What was the reason I came this far in the first place?
Why have I struggled so desperately all this time?

-But here’s the thing, Baek Nok-ha.

The Cotton Ball Entity grinned widely, its enormous mouth stretching open.

-Why haven’t you searched for Baek Nok-ha in this world?
“You said I didn’t exist.”

Did it lie to me?

-That’s right. You don’t.
“Then there’s no reason to search-”
-‘Not yet,’ I mean.
“!”

What in the world does that mean?
I seized the Cotton Ball Entity by hand, unable to comprehend its cryptic words.

“What are you talking about?”
-Originally, I was just going to let things play out and wrap this up naturally… but you’ve been doing such an excellent job that I thought maybe I should give you a hint or two.

Even as I held the Cotton Ball Entity captive, it maintained an air of perfect composure.

-Don’t you think a hint at this level is fair game?
“Forget the hints. Just tell me straight.”
-I don’t like that. I prefer children who figure things out on their own!

This insane sociopathic Cotton Ball Entity.

“You…”
-Normally, I wouldn’t even have an obligation to tell you this. Consider it a bonus service.

The Cotton Ball Entity gradually faded, slipping from my grasp.

-You should be grateful to me just for telling you this much. Understood?
“Grateful my ass.”
-You really do have a terrible personality… but that’s exactly what I like about you!

The Cotton Ball Entity dissolved into giggles before vanishing completely.
Yet the questions lingering in my mind refused to fade away.

***

StillBlue’s music video is adorable

These goddesses… is it because there are actually three high schoolers mixed in? It’s so youthful…

StillBlue’s music video is totally that, right?

It was summer…

StillBlue’s album specs and merchandise this time are so cute

Album comes in 2 versions
Ver. Beyond All Time
Ver. Beyond All Worlds

Album specs
-Photobook
-Member name badges (high school badges for the Time ver, employee IDs for the Worlds ver)
-EVEL StillBlue exchange diary pages from June-July (decorated with members’ handwriting)
-Member mini standees (high school version for Time ver, adult version for Worlds ver)
-Photocards
-Lyric sheet
-Poster

Merchandise
-Badges (featuring each member’s club specialty ex. Seo Baek-young’s wooden sword from kendo)
:Can totally pass off as normal wear, so incredibly cute
-Member school uniform film photo cards
-Member symbolic color LPs
:Limited edition but sold out in 1 second…Colors fans, hurry and release more
Plus lots of other cute stuff

This is really making me want to stan
Ugh… my bank account won’t survive this month^^

***

The music video finally dropped.
The album release was complete.
Just before checking the first-day initial sales figures.
Everyone understood how crucial this album was, so we all watched the screen with bated breath.
Until now, I had deliberately instructed everyone not to check real-time trends.
I only occasionally checked myself to see if anything was amiss.
I wanted them to focus entirely on comeback preparations.
But now it was finally time to check.

“Don’t get your hopes too high, everyone.”

At my words, the members nodded.

“The love our fans have shown us so far is already more than enough. You all know what matters far more than these numbers, right?”
“Ugh! We all know already—just show us the results already!”

Kim Geum tugged at her hair in frustration as she spoke.
Such an impatient one…
I finally tapped on the real-time album chart tab.

“….”
“…Is… is this really our score?”
“Yeah. I think we accidentally clicked on another idol group’s results.”
“This can’t be real….”

Everyone’s eyes reflected disbelief.
Because the numbers were too bad?
No.

“It’s definitely ours.”

The numbers were absurdly, impossibly good.

“Is… is this even possible?”
“Wow. This is for real…!”
“Isn’t this a new record among Colors female idols?!”
“You all worked incredibly hard for this.”

Day one initial sales.
A staggering 410,000 copies.

“Wait, at this level…? That’s almost…?”

Even I found myself doubting for a moment at such an astronomical figure.

‘Could Moment have already processed pre-orders from the reissue…?’

That’s what I thought.
But no matter how much I denied reality, reality remained reality.
And it was such a wonderfully, gratefully beautiful reality.

[StillBlue Mini Album 2 【Forever Blue】, Achieves 11th Place in All-Time Girl Group Day One Sales!]
[Writing a Legend… StillBlue Day One Sales of 410,000 Copies]
[This Year is the Year of ‘StillBlue’, 【Forever Blue】 Achieves 410,000 Copies on Day One]
PUBBLE
Jungri♥
No, thank you all so muchㅠ.ㅠ

It wasn’t too much, right…?

Jungri♥
All I need is the love of EVELs….

PUBBLE
Buy before it’s too late
1st place promise?

Buy before it’s too late
Hmm

What are you wanting to see????

Buy before it’s too late
You want me to wear the music video volleyball team uniform? Hahahahahaha

PUBBLE
Debut Mom^^
Kendo uniform? Going live in full kendo gear and protective equipment?

EVEL members really want to mess with me, huh

Debut Mom^^
Then I guess I have to roll with it

PUBBLE
Yun Chung
Since I’m student council president, the top pledge sounds way too easy

Yun Chung
?

You want Ju-hong to do a piggyback ride live?

(playing dumb)

Yun Chung
Fine…fine…I’ll do it…

PUBBLE
Ryu Bora
Act without rolling up the script?

Ryu Bora
Yeah, I’ll do that

Is there anything else you want?

Ryu Bora
Oh, is that the one where Geum gets hit?

Ryu Bora
Isn’t that too easy?

Thanks to the insane momentum, articles kept pouring in.

Is StillBlue’s first-day sales real?

A female idol group with 410,000 copies??
This is huge, absolutely huge

New groups really need to do survival shows…

With Top Doll and DiMadi, the momentum is going absolutely insane lolol
It practically doubles every time an album drops

Looks like StillBlue picked up international fans

The Chinese group orders are absolutely wild lolol
There’s still 300,000 copies not counted yet…

You’re telling me another 300,000 receipts are coming from here…? Is this real…?
Album sales usually come from overseas anyway…
Southeast Asian fans, Latin American fans, Japanese fans—they all jumped in lol
Colors must be thrilled

They’re going to make back a hundred times what they invested…

Just from browsing the internet, I could tell how well the album was being received.
Hmm.
The album sales skyrocketing was good and all.
But when things go this well, there’s something that starts to make me uneasy.
Ding!

[Hong Yeon-seo President]

As expected.
Right on cue, a message came from Hong President.

Hong Yeon-seo President

Want to take a quick look?

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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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