The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 21

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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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The Former Idol’s Indie Band Carries Hard
Episode 21
“Moon Ga-young, are you very nervous?”
“I, I think I’m going to die. Should I tell them I can’t go on stage right now?”
“Don’t be scared. Go out there and beat your rival.”
“I’m only now realizing what a reckless thing I said…….”
Moon Ga-young treating Octop as a rival had been entirely Cha Seo-ha’s script.
But that didn’t mean all of Moon Ga-young’s feelings were false.
It was only natural for Moon Ga-young, who dreamed of being a singer, to think, “I have to show the best stage today!”
And the best stage today meant defeating Octop.
So Moon Ga-young’s reckless words were sincere too.
‘How am I supposed to beat that!’
Of course, Octop’s skill as seen at Banwol Park had been formidable, but it didn’t seem quite like this…….
Standing on the same stage, she felt the wall between them.
‘Can I really be a singer?’
With such thoughts swirling, Moon Ga-young took to the stage at the emcee’s call.
The previous performance had warmed up the crowd well, and the celebrity halo effect meant the students’ reaction was no joke.
Meanwhile, the PD spoke with the head writer.
“Contact TM Entertainment right now.”
“Moon Ga-young’s agency? Why?”
“Jung. Doesn’t something seem off? Are they really ordinary people? Are they really just a bunch of kids from the neighborhood who can play some instruments?”
“Honestly…… they’ve surpassed that level.”
Both this PD and Jung had rolled around in the entertainment industry long enough.
In the eyes of such seasoned professionals, the probability that “a stage this excellent” could be truly independent hovered near zero.
They must be people who’ve benefited from capital.
They’re probably trainees somewhere.
Or maybe an idol band about to debut.
If so, who’s their agency?
“It’s definitely TM. They’re naturally exposing themselves through Moon Ga-young to the public.”
“But didn’t TM dislike Moon Ga-young’s challenge as a singer?”
“They probably did at first. But they’d figure it out while monitoring the previous episodes too, wouldn’t they? That the broadcast can’t flow any way but as a singer’s story.”
“Ah……! So they attached their own trainee right next to Moon Ga-young’s story?”
“That’s right. If Moon Ga-young takes a hit, they need to gain something on their end.”
“But why didn’t they inform us?”
“Looking at it charitably, they handed the choice over to us. If it looks good to you, air it; if not, don’t. That’s how the picture stays natural anyway.”
“And if we look at it less charitably?”
“Maybe they just didn’t want to pay fair compensation for the product placement.”
It was common for broadcasters and entertainment companies to exchange gifts under the guise of sponsorship anyway. They probably thought it’d be wasteful to invest in a trainee.
“Send the junior writer right now to lock down this Octop group. I’ll interview them myself. Jung, you call TM and communicate openly with them.”
“How openly should I go?”
“Just lay all the cards out. Tell them we’ll make them stars, so show some sincerity.”
“The Director would love that.”
“Just write a thank-you letter about today’s envelope on the paper I was about to use for a resignation letter, right?”
And so things proceeded according to broadcast logic.
Soon after, the junior writer succeeded in setting up an interview with Octop, and Jung succeeded in contacting a TM Entertainment Executive.
Meanwhile, Moon Ga-young, like Octop, performed two cover songs and then took to the stage for her final performance.
It was the Diving song she’d mentioned in the interview.
“Hmm…….”
The song was too good.
Believing that Cha Seo-ha wrote this would be something only an idiot would do—clearly a professional composer was behind it.
‘They’re probably trying to give off a self-producer image.’
While Lee Yun-jung the PD calculated how far she could adjust the broadcast picture according to sponsorship fees.
Jung returned, having finished the call with the TM Entertainment Executive.
“What did they say? How far are they willing to go?”
“PD.”
“Yeah.”
“They asked who Octop is……?”
* * *
After all the performances wrapped successfully, we proceeded with an interview together with Moon Ga-young at the request of the broadcasting station.
Truth is, I don’t much care for interviews.
I’ve had too many bad experiences with them in my past life.
But the first interview with Octop did carry a certain thrill.
And so the formal interview began.
“Well, first of all, thank you for working hard on the performance.”
We clapped along with the production crew and exchanged encouragement.
“Moon Ga-young, could you share your impressions now that the performance is over?”
“Well, I was really worried about whether I could do well. But the response was better than I expected, and I think I performed the live as well as I’d prepared, so I feel so relieved. On stage…….”
As her long answer wound down, the PD looked toward us.
“Your rival band Octop—what did you think of Moon Ga-young’s stage?”
At the PD’s question, Moon Ga-young’s face flushed and she hurriedly jumped in.
“Oh, PD. The rival thing—that was just me alone…….”
Good acting.
Even knowing that I’d asked her to treat us as rivals, it was convincing enough to fool me.
Or maybe she really did want to beat us?
Thinking that, when I looked at my friends, their gazes were all fixed on me.
“What are you doing? Not going to answer?”
“What did Ga-young’s stage look like?”
“L, leader should answer.”
Oh, Heo Jun-sung is stammering.
A rare sight.
Suppressing the urge to tease him, I laid out my impressions of Moon Ga-young’s performance.
In all honesty, I think Moon Ga-young’s skill is above amateur, below professional singer.
When the stage atmosphere and song align well, she can show her singer side, but on average, it’s a little lacking?
But I couldn’t say that directly, so I packaged it appropriately.
Seeing me navigate the interview smoothly, it seemed Heo Jun-sung relaxed, and he even threw in a joke about seriously considering a vocal change.
The interview continued from there.
Naturally, most of the questions thrown our way were about Moon Ga-young.
What was her first impression?
What was her school life like?
How did you end up writing Moon Ga-young’s song?
How did you feel when she said she wanted to be a singer? And so on.
It couldn’t be helped, really. From the perspective of a star observation show, Octop wasn’t a complete person.
We were merely a symbol representing keywords like “ordinary school days,” “dreams of being a singer,” “youth,” “the festival of youth.”
In other words, we were just supporting players meant to express Moon Ga-young’s narrative smoothly.
In the original history, there was no element tying such keywords together.
So they showed boring school festival scenes right up to the moment people would change the channel.
They packaged a boring festival stage as something grand.
And they grabbed a few Jeongwoon High School students to tack on their impressions of Moon Ga-young’s performance.
But in this life of mine, all of that gained validity as Octop fulfilled its role as a device.
Actually, more than that.
We performed very well, and our faces were broadcast-ready too.
I was thinking about this when the interview began to take on a strange tenor.
“Did we talk too much about Moon Ga-young? How were your impressions of the performance, Octop members? Keyboardist?”
“Well, our Octop has only been busking until now. Getting the opportunity to perform on a stage with such an energetic atmosphere with my friends was incredibly gratifying, and I’m happy the performance went well.”
“Oh, thank you for that canned answer. Sounds like a student council president victory speech.”
“Ah, this friend really is a student council president.”
“Huh? You’re Jeongwoon High’s president?”
“No. He goes to a different school…….”
As my friends, now less nervous, were rambling on confusedly.
I noticed something—the interview’s flow seemed odd.
The PD, who should have cut us off cleanly and steered things back, was instead oddly harmonizing with our tangent, letting the interview continue.
Not about Moon Ga-young, but about Octop.
“You won the national Drums competition? As the youngest ever?”
“Yes. I was the youngest at the time. It’s not that grand—I just kept at it because I loved it, and good results came naturally.”
Kang Min’s restrained otaku-speak was funny, but I couldn’t just laugh.
Because I didn’t understand the PD’s intent.
‘But there’s no way she’s planning to do Devil’s Editing on us, right? What source is she digging for?’
Devil’s Editing needs a role to work with anyway.
Plus, this is a public broadcast variety show—there’s no reason to do that kind of thing in the first place.
‘Is she trying to actively assign us an image within the show?’
But the direction seemed unclear for that.
It felt more like she was just extracting every interview source worth using.
However, my question was answered quickly.
“So you’re doing this without an agency? Just among yourselves?”
The PD asking the question wasn’t actually looking at us.
Her eyes were on us, but her consciousness was directed at Moon Ga-young and Moon Ga-young’s manager.
With a very suspicious gaze.
‘Ah, so that’s what it was?’
The PD was suspecting that we weren’t TM affiliated.
‘My mistake.’
I knew that Octop was a broadcast band.
If so, it was obvious the PD’s thoughts would reach that conclusion, yet I’d paid it no attention whatsoever.
My mind started spinning rapidly.
Lee Yun-jung the PD, having misidentified our true nature, must have contacted TM demanding something.
TM would have responded in bewilderment.
Because TM and Octop had no connection.
Yet Lee Yun-jung the PD is probing our affiliation again.
Which means…….
‘She’s suspicious.’
I understood her sentiment.
Had we done that well?
This isn’t the kind of quality a few high schoolers can knock together.
Especially with original compositions.
Of course, if Lee Yun-jung the PD makes proper contact with TM, her suspicion would be resolved quickly.
When that happens, I’ll get exactly the result I originally aimed for.
The footage will air at just the right length—not too much, not too little.
Perfect for the beginning of my plan to introduce Octop’s name to the band scene.
But…….
Wouldn’t it be better if it went a bit further?
‘Should I add a little more?’
After all, we have nothing to lose.
Let’s get more broadcast time.
Right then, I performed like a high school boy stealing the spotlight and jumping in.
Introducing a “character trait” that surpassed both the student council president and the competition champion.
“I was a Taekwondo athlete.”
Before Kang Min’s DMC story even finished properly, I cut in abruptly, and my members’ faces filled with question marks.
This wasn’t my usual style.
“A Taekwondo athlete?”
“Yes. I was on track to become a national representative…… but I quit because I wanted to do a band.”
“Oh, so you had good results?”
“Of course. But that’s not all.”
I didn’t give my members a chance to react and kept talking.
“Like I said, this one’s student council president, and this one dropped out and won the Drums competition, right? Plus this one’s class president, and this one’s the kind of flashy character you find exactly one of in every school. Though his personality’s actually good, so he’s not a delinquent.”
“Hey! Flashy character!”
“We’re that kind of concept—no, World View. No, we’re just students.”
At the sudden emergence of “World View” and “Concept,” my members stared at me in bewilderment.
They were genuinely bewildered, but to Lee Yun-jung the PD’s eyes, it would read differently.
Wouldn’t it look like we’re startled to have said something we shouldn’t?
After all, people generally find it hard to deny their own first impression.
An interesting situation had just been created, it seemed.

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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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