Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 210

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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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Episode 2.

While all the members trembled in anxiety.
I was suddenly summoned to the Company by Label 1.
It felt particularly ominous that they called me separately right when Baek Ju-ha had gone to pick up Kim Geum’s parents….
Still, I stepped into Label 1 without resistance. After all, I was confident I could handle whatever they had to say.

“We’re preparing a new girl group at Label 1.”
“!”

StillBlue had debuted three years ago now, so I’d expected them to start preparing. Colors typically released idol groups on a five-year cycle.
If they started preparing now, it would probably debut within a year or two.
I’d already anticipated that much, so I didn’t think much of it.
But then.

“They’ll debut this year.”
“!”

This year?
My brow furrowed instantly. Wasn’t that timeline a bit too tight?

“Don’t worry. It’s not coming from Label 3 where StillBlue is—it’s from Label 1.”

Label 1 originally managed two groups: Greysh and a newly debuted boy idol group called Greenery.
However, Greysh, fed up with Label 1’s incompetence, ultimately refused to renew their contract and terminated their relationship with Colors, leaving the internal situation quite chaotic.
Rushing this debut was likely an attempt to make up for Label 1’s poor performance.
As my expression darkened, having grasped the situation, the head of Label 1 immediately stiffened.
The current head of Label 1 was Nam Gyu-yong—now demoted to department head after Baek Ju-ha became the representative of Colors.
Representative Nam naturally harbored very negative feelings toward StillBlue and Baek Ju-ha.
It was obvious he was itching to start trouble, and now he’d gone and caused a scene like this.

“Surely you don’t think the Company should abandon an already-decided matter because of your selfishness? Colors has already been considerate enough toward your situation. You know better than anyone that Label 3, where StillBlue is, receives the largest budget allocation, don’t you?”

It was a jab at StillBlue, who spared no expense in album preparation.
But hearing such words left me speechless.

“You do realize that money isn’t just for us—BurnAsh uses it too, right?”
“….”

Representative Nam fell silent, unable to counter that argument.
Did he even know how much BurnAsh spent? Those who’d tasted money spent it best, and they’d squandered fortunes across multiple lifetimes—their wastefulness was practically pathological.

“And your phrasing is rather odd. Does Label 3 only spend money? We bring in several times what we spend. Isn’t it the subsidiaries Label 1 established to recover their losses that are actually bleeding funds?”

When the Greysh contract began falling through, Representative Nam had desperately leveraged his existing connections and started expanding into every conceivable business sector to boost revenue.
Among those ventures were metaverse projects and NFT businesses.
Did they succeed?
Of course they failed spectacularly.
If you’re going to do something, at least do it properly. He had no competence, yet he talked endlessly about his failures.

“Anyway, we’re launching a rookie girl group this year. We need your cooperation, so keep that in mind.”
“….”

Even a polite request would have been insufficient, but this was how he approached it.
I sensed it was time to reorganize Colors once again.

***

“How are Geum’s parents doing?”

After bringing Geum’s parents to the Dormitory where she was staying, Baek Ju-ha returned to the Company.

“They were quite shocked, naturally. They said they’d stay at the Dormitory for now and look after Geum.”
“That’s a relief. I think that’s better for Geum too.”

It was reassuring news, at least.

“Did Geum come out of her room?”
“At first she didn’t want to…”
“Didn’t want to…?”
“Her mother just opened the door and went in.”
“?!”
“Now I understand exactly who Geum takes after.”

Baek Ju-ha laughed softly. She couldn’t forget the scene from earlier. Her father standing respectfully in the background… and her mother, without hesitation, opening that door and patting Geum’s back….

“Ah, when I opened the door, Geum was eating beef porridge.”
“Really?”
“She was crying while eating the beef porridge so earnestly. I don’t think there’s anyone else who eats that well while crying like that.”

At Baek Ju-ha’s words, I let out a small laugh.
Imagining that scene, it seemed a bit cute… or maybe… and also kind of funny…

“But Geum’s parents said they can’t stay for very long. Since they both have jobs…”
“That makes sense. But once they leave, we can take care of her, so it’s fine.”
“Right. I’ll arrange a meal with the members soon.”
“Thank you, unnie. I think Geum’s heart will feel a bit better thanks to you bringing both of them here like this.”
“Of course I should. Who else would do it if not me?”

Honestly, now that she’s the representative of Colors, she could delegate these minor tasks to other managers—but Baek Ju-ha seemed to only be satisfied when she personally handled anything related to StillBlue.

“By the way. Nam, the executive director, called you separately?”
“Ah, yes.”

I explained the earlier meeting to Baek Ju-ha.

“Is that guy out of his mind?”

The moment she heard the situation, Baek Ju-ha let out an angry shout first.

“He was so confident about it. He kept saying everything was already decided, so why keep raising objections.”
“What? I never decided anything like that. What the hell is he talking about?”

Baek Ju-ha spoke in an angry voice.

“You didn’t know about it, unnie?”
“You didn’t know, unnie?”

If she didn’t know about this, it could only be seen as an independent deviation by Label 1.
If that was something Baek Ju-ha didn’t know about, it could only be seen as Label 1’s independent deviation.

“They’re talking about debuting without even picking a title track? So they’ve already finalized the debut lineup?”
“You know how Colors is. They really keep changing the member composition until the very end. I heard that while there are some members who are somewhat decided, the lineup keeps changing back and forth.”
“You know Colors. They really keep changing their member lineup right until the end. I heard that even though there are some members who are somewhat decided, they keep shifting things around.”

I know well enough….
StillBlue was picked through survival shows anyway, so it didn’t matter for us, but the other groups said they couldn’t let their guard down until the very last moment.

“According to Representative Nam, it sounded like everything was already decided. He just demanded we cooperate out of the blue.”
“What cooperation could you possibly provide? They’re debuting their own artists—why would they tell our artists to cooperate or not? They have nothing to do with us.”
“It’s basically ‘bundling and selling.’ So we’re supposed to just accept it gracefully. Of course, the way he asked for cooperation was quite forceful.”

I was starting to get the picture.
Clearly, he didn’t have the confidence to stand up to Baek Ju-ha and win, so he latched onto me instead—relatively polite as I am—and spouted whatever nonsense he wanted.

“During the Greenery thing, Label 1 was desperate to ride BurnAsh’s coattails, and BurnAsh cut ties with them just recently. It’s ridiculous.”
“I think Label 1 is probably the only company in history to get caught doing reverse viral marketing with a senior from the same agency.”

If they’d just quietly ridden the wave, BurnAsh would naturally have cooperated. But Label 1 didn’t stop there.
When they ran the viral campaign for Greenery, they created headlines like 【Colors’ new male idol with far better skills than BurnAsh’s debut era】, 【Colors’ new male idol with better initial sales than BurnAsh’s】, and spread those around.
Of course, pulling attention like that generated plenty of buzz….
But naturally, the existing Colors fanbase had a terrible reaction. Even longtime Colors idol fans were so appalled they practically disowned them.

“This is why idol entertainment companies need to hire people with actual experience in the industry. But they keep bringing in people from completely different fields…. When you put someone in charge who doesn’t know a damn thing about how this business works, of course they run things like that.”

Baek Ju-ha shuddered once more.
I watched her and fell into thought. I should have purged Representative Nam completely back then….
The contract we used when hiring Representative Nam had clauses so unfavorable to Colors that we couldn’t terminate it—a regret that would haunt me forever.

“Do you know what Hong President is doing these days?”
“Last I heard, he’s been making music in Los Angeles. Though it doesn’t seem to be going well.”
“Hmm.”
“Why?”
“Oh, nothing. Just checking in on how he’s doing.”

I said it casually, but Baek Ju-ha knew perfectly well that wasn’t the real reason.

“What are you plotting now, Chung?”
“Me? No way.”

I simply smiled.
Though as they say, “no way” is what gets people killed.

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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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