The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 22

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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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A Former Idol’s Hard Carry of an Indie Band
Episode 22
“She’s a trainee, that’s right. You heard Cha Seo-ha talking about the concept earlier, didn’t you?”
The head writer nodded at Yi Yun-jeong’s confirmation.
“Yes, and it seems Moon Ga-yeong doesn’t have much connection with her either. Only Yi Do-yeong has any overlap from school life, and the rest are practically strangers?”
“Yeah. It’s business.”
“Should we look into it? Was she really a taekwondo athlete? It sounded like a slip-up.”
“No. That doesn’t matter.”
Whether the band was created with that kind of backstory or whether they were actually packaging people like that—it made no difference.
What was certain was that Okhtop belonged to TM and they were currently pushing Moon Ga-yeong hard alongside them.
“But why did they hold back? Is TM’s funding situation not great these days?”
“TM has always had a bit of a thug mentality. Don’t you remember when Moon Ga-yeong debuted?”
“Oh, right—they made that image about Yu Ra being a young mother and milked it while she grew up?”
“Exactly. A twenty-six-year-old actress playing a mother? Because of that, Yu Ra’s work dried up.”
Child actress Moon Ga-yeong became a household name when she appeared in the film Young Mother, which dealt with the bittersweet romance of an unmarried college student.
The lead role was played by a successful actress in her twenties at the time, and though the film did well at the box office, her acting career was ruined.
TM pushed Moon Ga-yeong so aggressively with endless viral campaigns and image making that it destroyed the other actress.
The behavior itself is something anyone might do, but the degree of it was excessive even by industry standards.
“TM might be in the process of creating something like a band label. Debuting them as an indie band first, then recruiting them later?”
“What matters now isn’t why TM is doing this. It’s how we act.”
“What should we do?”
“We can’t cut Okhtop from the broadcast, right?”
“We could cut them if we wanted. They wouldn’t really get cut just because the broadcast isn’t entertaining.”
“If Okhtop gets in?”
“Wouldn’t it be interesting?”
“Then we can’t cut them.”
Yi Yun-jeong thought for a moment before speaking.
“Not now—around 11 p.m., contact Cha Seo-ha and say we need some additional filming.”
“Just Cha Seo-ha?”
“Yeah. He seems to want attention and his mouth’s pretty loose. Plus, he’s technically the composer for Moon Ga-yeong’s original song, right? We can pull an interview.”
“So what do we do then?”
“Tomorrow, get that solo interview and poke around a bit. Whether to apply pressure or sweet-talk him, I’ll leave that to you. Can you do it?”
“Of course. How much broadcasting station water have I drunk so far?”
“I’ll do some rough editing and decide whether to report it to the director.”
“Why the director?”
“Payment isn’t only upfront, right? There’s payment on the back end too.”
Pump up Okhtop first, and once they eventually go under TM, we’ll collect the money—that’s what he meant.
A single PD couldn’t make that kind of deal, so he was saying he’d get the entertainment director’s backing.
“Well, before that, it’d be only right to contact TM one more time, wouldn’t it?”
Yi Yun-jeong was standing to check on how much progress had been made recovering the filming equipment set up at the school when—
“Hey, hey, Jung. Look over there?”
At the Main Gate, Okhtop was climbing into Moon Ga-yeong’s van.
“Interesting.”
In truth, Cha Seo-ha had asked if she could drop him and his heavy instrument at the practice studio, which is how it happened….
But Yi Yun-jeong’s eyes saw it differently.
Of course, this was all part of Cha Seo-ha’s plan.
* * *
TM never did find out about Okhtop.
When Jung, the writer, returned from conducting Cha Seo-ha’s solo interview, he brought back some useful information.
“He said he’s received a business card from TM but hasn’t officially joined yet.”
“Yet? He said ‘yet’ specifically?”
“Yes. And then during the interview, he also said they need to be careful about what they say.”
“Who told him to be careful?”
“He just kept saying it was people around them? It definitely seems right. The kid wouldn’t give a straight answer, but you know how nuance works.”
Yi Yun-jeong nodded.
“How did you feel, Director?”
“I did some rough editing. Okhtop is definitely necessary. What’s funny is, the more we push them, the more alive the broadcast becomes.”
There was no need to wait until the festival scene for Okhtop to get involved.
We could put the scene with Cha Seo-ha’s directing at the forefront and introduce him first as Moon Ga-yeong’s musical collaborator.
Then create a format where that collaborator clashes with them at the school festival.
That’s how character narratives come alive.
“Oh, who’s that friend of Moon Ga-yeong’s? The one who’s always with her?”
“Yu Yeong-eun?”
“Yeah. They watched our busking together, right? Send Team B to get that on film.”
“Oh, the busking happens every Saturday, so the timing works out perfectly.”
“Good. Then I’ll… go meet with the director.”
* * *
It had been two weeks since the school festival ended.
“Grandma, wasn’t it good that you went to the hospital?”
“Yeah, thanks to our little dog here, Grandma doesn’t get sick and all is well.”
Grandmother had gone for a health checkup yesterday.
They’d removed two large polyps, and the doctor said leaving something like that untreated would be dangerous.
One screening and it would all be over.
I was foolish enough not to know that in my past life, and I lost my precious grandmother.
And I lost my youth along with her.
On the day of the checkup, she had no energy, but today she looked just fine.
“What’s this, anyway?”
“Grandma likes samgyetang. I bought some.”
“These things should be made at home, not bought outside. What a waste of money.”
“It’s okay, Grandma. I have money.”
The composition fee from Moon Ga-yeong was almost all still there.
All I’d spent it on was clothes and cosmetics for the kids for the festival.
There was a lot I should be doing with it right now, but for now I wanted to use it for Grandmother.
“And I have something to show you.”
“Something to show?”
That thing Grandmother loved so much in my past life.
Just seeing it, even with a pained body and misspelling everything, she’d somehow manage to text me.
I laid out the samgyetang on the table and immediately turned on the TV.
Soon the tedious commercials ended, and Star Observation Cam began.
It was predictable without even watching.
Just from what the broadcast crew had shown us while they were coming and going, I could roughly tell how it would be edited.
Sure enough, the broadcast opened with Moon Ga-yeong’s challenge to become a singer.
And then I appeared.
In a scene directing Moon Ga-yeong’s song Diving.
“My goodness, my grandson. You have such talent?”
My screen time was longer than I expected.
It could have been handled lightly, but they included scenes of me adjusting the MIDI on the spot, playing guitar, and even recording the chorus.
The crescendo was directing Moon Ga-yeong herself.
The panelists watching the VCR gasped dramatically for broadcast effect, and then Moon Ga-yeong’s interview followed immediately after.
-How did you two first meet?
The interview was clearly much later in chronological time.
It was from days after I’d directed Moon Ga-yeong.
But for broadcast purposes, it appeared to follow right after.
The next scene that appeared was Yu Yeong-eun and Moon Ga-yeong watching our busking.
-To be honest, I’m the only one who sees them as rivals. I doubt they’ve even heard me sing.
Then came the introduction of Okhtop.
Whether the writers had scraped the internet clean, clips from busking videos and vlogs were included as reference footage.
My interview as the composer of Diving was woven in appropriately too.
That’s how Moon Ga-yeong’s singing practice began.
Originally it was Moon Ga-yeong challenging to become a singer and then performing at the school festival, but on broadcast, it seemed like she was practicing the song in order to perform at the festival.
The reason for festival participation was to beat the rival Okhtop.
‘This is pretty serious.’
It was more than I’d expected.
Is Yi Yun-jeong’s style more bold?
Or was Moon Ga-yeong’s footage just that uninteresting?
I couldn’t know the exact facts, but I didn’t feel bad about it.
At least Grandmother was happy.
“Those broadcasting people really know something!”
“What are you talking about, Grandma? It’s just because my grandson is so talented.”
“That’s not it, our little dog.”
Yi Yun-jeong was shrewd.
Rather than just showing Okhtop constantly, she occasionally highlighted students from the Practical Music Academy where Moon Ga-yeong was studying.
-Honestly, I’m really anxious. I’m not even studying properly, so what will I do if I can’t become a singer?
-You’ll definitely debut and become an amazing singer!
-I’m releasing a single next month. The academy is helping me with it.
The theme of this episode, ultimately, was “Youth’s Challenge Toward a Dream.”
That’s how the festival became.
On broadcast, Moon Ga-yeong and Okhtop appeared to have a very close relationship.
They’d inserted a scene of casual conversation after an interview as if it were before the performance, and there were quite a few scenes of Yi Do-yeong and Moon Ga-yeong talking.
In particular, they nicely packaged the part where Yi Do-yeong, who liked Diving, was idly plucking bass by herself, and made it look like she was keeping time for Moon Ga-yeong.
Wow, it’d been a while since I felt this, but broadcast people really are something else.
They pulled off devilish—no, angelic editing to this degree.
The broadcast pressed forward and arrived at Okhtop’s performance scene.
Actually, looking at the flow of the broadcast, there was a high probability that viewers would have twisted feelings.
The public admires genius more than anything, yet they also envy it.
So when people who aren’t geniuses pretend to be, they won’t stand for it.
And even more so if they love the craft in question….
Yet Star Observation Cam made Okhtop look like an amazing band.
If Okhtop’s performance had been mediocre, there would be no avoiding criticism.
Of course….
-Waaaaaaahhhhh!
-Kyaaaaaah!
We performed brilliantly.
Though Okhtop’s performance was only about four minutes, you could tell how much care went into the editing—it felt like a highlight reel of an imported artist’s set.
Scenes of Moon Ga-yeong watching us and reacting with amazement and awe were woven throughout.
-Ga-yeong, are you nervous?
-I think I might die right now. Should I say I can’t go on stage even now?
-Don’t be scared. You need to go out there and beat your rival.
-I’m only now realizing what kind of nonsense I was spouting….
And so the broadcast moved into its proper highlight—Moon Ga-yeong’s song.
At its center was Diving.
The song I composed.
-Damn, why is this song so good?
-Is Moon Ga-yeong debuting as a singer with this song?
-That high school band made this?
-Sniff sniff I’ve been an idol fan for 1n years, sniff sniff I smell it. The scent of success from Okhtop…!
└Get out of here, sniff sniffer
-Isn’t that Moon Ga-yeong’s agency or something? Otherwise they wouldn’t push like this.
└What can you say ㅋㅋ
-But Moon Ga-yeong’s song is really good though. Diving, right? Is it on a music site?
-Can we see the full version without those stupid panelists’ reactions?
-I want to see Okhtop’s full version
As expected, the viewer forum was split exactly in half.
Half the opinions on Moon Ga-yeong.
Half the opinions on Okhtop.

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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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