Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 229

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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 21.

And so, Busan.

“Oh, the sea.”
“Doesn’t it feel like forever since we’ve seen the ocean, Chung-chung?”
“It has been a while.”

Between concert preparations and composition work, I hadn’t had a moment to breathe.
All five members gazed out through the car window at the dazzling, glittering expanse of the sea, their excitement barely contained.

“Today we’ll do a light rehearsal, and tomorrow we’ll take the stage properly.”
“You’re not doing it all on the same day?”

At Baek Ju-ha’s words, Yun Chung asked. Typically, festival stages like this almost never held rehearsals the day before.
Just looking at the two-day schedule they’d arranged for all the performing artists, you could tell how much ShowShow! MusicMusic! cared about this festival.

“Apparently there’ll be such massive crowds tomorrow that there won’t be time for rehearsal. They said all their time will go to traffic management.”
“True. Just looking at the Han River Fireworks Festival….”
“Seriously, I’ve never seen that many people in my life!”

Yeon Ju-hong’s eyes sparkled as she recalled just how overwhelming it had been.

“It really drained my energy….”
“I couldn’t do that twice.”

The introverts among us grew visibly exhausted just thinking about it, while

“Wow, so there’ll be that many people this time too? There’s definitely something fun about seeing crowds like that.”
“I love it! A stage is always best when it’s big!”

the extroverted members’ reactions were starkly different.
In the middle of it all, I quietly inserted an earbud into one ear and listened to a single song on repeat.

“Chung-chung, you’re still listening to that? They said the arrangement turned out great.”
“If we mess up this stage, I can’t even imagine how many people will criticize us. I’ll end up listening to this a hundred million times….”

For entirely different reasons, this stage made me deeply anxious.

“True. When you think about BurnAsh’s international fanbase, it’s no joke. The trends lately have been absolutely insane.”

Kim Geum nodded in agreement.
At that, the other members’ expressions gradually darkened as worry began to creep in.
Why had BurnAsh suddenly come up?
Well, that was because tomorrow’s special stage was a BurnAsh song cover performance.

“If Greenery goes down, we might get dragged down with them.”
“…Don’t say such ominous things….”

Yun Chung let out a truly deep sigh.

“Kim Geum, are you really going to be okay?”
“Are you worried, Chung-chung?”

Of course I was worried, damn it.
You haven’t fully recovered yet.
But I couldn’t bring myself to say that to Kim Geum, so I simply nodded.

“Don’t worry, Chung-chung.”

The moment the car stopped—we’d arrived at the Dormitory.
Kim Geum grinned and placed one hand on my shoulder while giving a thumbs up with the other.

“I’m originally a master at boy group stages.”

***

“Wow, an ocean view hotel. That’s incredible.”
“Colors really spent some money!”
“Colors didn’t spend the money—the broadcasting company did.”

At the members’ excited reactions, Baek Ju-ha poured cold water on their enthusiasm.

“Colors is always trying to cut corners on places like this—I’ve had huge fights with them about it. This sponsorship is from the broadcasting company.”
“Why does our Company have so much money but won’t spend it on us, and instead wastes it on ridiculous things!? Didn’t anyone teach you that you should be punished for doing stupid things~?”

Here comes Yeon Ju-hong’s innocent, blunt truth bomb….

“You’re determined to fix everything and move to Label 3, aren’t you, Ju-hong?”
“Can we even fix it? Nam Director’s obsession with business was absolutely insane.”
“If he only had that one obsession, it’d be fine. But he’s caught every possible plague imaginable, so the Label 1 staff are quitting left and right, and now they’re even pulling people from Labels 2 and 3.”

At those words, the members’ brows furrowed involuntarily.
We’d divided the labels precisely to prevent talent from bleeding away like this, yet Nam Director was trampling all over those principles.

“If we’re going to work like this, we should’ve just merged everything, honestly.”

Baek Ju-ha let out a long sigh, then handed Ryu Bora a small camera for broadcasting.

“Since this hotel is a sponsor, they’re asking if we can get some exposure on places like self-content platforms. It’s not mandatory, but they asked nicely, so let’s cooperate.”
“Isn’t self-content Ju-hong’s specialty?”

Ryu Bora asked with a puzzled expression as she took the camera.

“Ju-hong always carries around that personal camera of hers.”
“Oh.”

In other words, she’d definitely pull plenty of content from that side anyway, so we should pay a bit more attention to this one.

“And your vlog has been getting an insanely hot response lately, Bora. Especially overseas.”
“Can you even call that a vlog, though?”

Kim Geum shot back at Baek Ju-ha’s comment.

“It’s more like a visual photo essay of the human Ryu Bora. You literally did nothing and just sat still for twenty minutes.”
“I didn’t do nothing.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I read a book.”
“Right. You read for twenty minutes and occasionally recited passages you liked—that was the entire vlog. That’s literally doing nothing.”
“…I don’t want to talk to a barbarian anymore.”
“What did you just say?!”

While the two same-aged members bickered, Yun Chung quietly slipped out toward the hotel balcony.
From the balcony, Gwangan-ri Beach spread out in full view, its vast sandy expanse completely filled with stages and folding chairs.

“Is that the stage for tomorrow?”
“Yeah. We need to head to rehearsal now. Everyone’s unpacked, right? Let’s go.”

At Baek Ju-ha’s words, the members nodded.

“Yes!”

***

“Ju-hong, don’t skip the choreography details. The key to this stage is nailing the hand movements with precision.”
“Bora, put more power into your movements.”
“Geum, you’re falling behind the beat.”
“Baek-young is showing exactly where she should be positioned on stage right now. Everyone needs to match her timing.”

On stage.
While the members rehearsed, the staff continuously gave feedback to the StillBlue members.
Normally, rehearsals didn’t involve this level of detailed feedback, but it was the members’ request.
To be as perfect as possible.

“You worked hard.”

As the members came down to the backstage area breathing heavily, the staff handed them water.
They’d rehearsed the “Ghost Story” and “Fairy tale?” stages twice each, and on top of that, they’d done the special stage three times, so it was inevitable they’d be exhausted physically.
Even though Ghost Story wasn’t performed in full by everyone.

“Is it Greenery’s rehearsal next?”
“Yeah. The reason you’re after them is—”
“Because they make so many mistakes, right? I already know.”

At Baek Ju-ha’s words, Yun Chung nodded as if to say she knew without being told.
That was right. Despite being a Colors idol group, Greenery’s skills were quite unstable.
Originally, five members were supposed to debut, but Nam Director had forced two more members in, throwing off the balance.
If those two members who joined hastily had been skilled or had good character, it might have been different, but that wasn’t the case.

‘Until now, they haven’t performed on stage much, so their true skill level hasn’t been completely exposed.’

The fans naturally knew their skills weren’t particularly strong, but the general public had no way of knowing.
Greenery was a rookie who had released only one digital single.
They’d only appeared on music broadcasts for two weeks, and even then, not on every single one.
Greenery’s fans criticized Label 1 for not doing enough work, but from Colors’ perspective, it was an unavoidable decision.
It was simply the best choice to prevent their lack of skill from being exposed.

‘Since we did media play claiming they’re more skilled than BurnAsh… many people must be sharpening their knives.’

That’s why I’d tried even harder not to get caught.

“Choosing BurnAsh was a good decision.”

At Baek Ju-ha’s words, I smiled slightly.
I couldn’t help it.
The sight of Greenery covering BurnAsh’s song on stage right now was—

“I knew this would happen.”

Nothing short of a disaster.

“Did you know they’d fail if they did a BurnAsh stage?”
“Well, to be precise….”

I knew that covering BurnAsh was extremely difficult for any idol group to pull off successfully.
I laughed bitterly.
They had a tendency to make both choreography and vocals intentionally difficult to the worst degree possible.
Dan-ha and Han Jae-i’s perfectionist attention to detail was something that couldn’t be properly executed without extensive practice over a long period.
That’s why I deliberately set this special stage’s concept as a ‘Colors senior cover.’
And I’d laid all the groundwork by saying, ‘Greenery is also from Colors, so you wouldn’t skip this, right?’
Since a same-agency senior cover stage was practically a rite of passage for rookies, Greenery couldn’t refuse.
…Of course, they would have desperately wanted to avoid BurnAsh specifically.

‘We’re female idols too and we cover BurnAsh, so they couldn’t possibly back out.’

“Setting aside the fact that I predicted they’d fail….”

Baek Ju-ha marveled while watching the rehearsal stage we’d filmed earlier.

“Did you already know the members would do this well?”
“Yes.”

Yun Chung answered with conviction.
Of course I did.
They’re my members.

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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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