“What?!”
Director Seo Joong Won’s voice got louder.
“That b…”
Cussing under his breath, Director Seo Joong Won got up from his seat and grabbed his jacket. The secretary, who had been standing in front of the desk, moved quickly and opened the door of the Director’s office.
“Get the car ready.”
“Yes, sir. Where should we take you…”
After briefly frowning and contemplating, Director Seo Joong Won answered the secretary’s question,
“To Yang Jae Dong.”
“Yes sir.”
The secretary responded and contacted Director Seo Joong Won’s driver, who was probably waiting downstairs.
Director Seo Joong Won’s main house was in Han Nam Dong. In Yang Jae Dong, he was probably referring to one of the studio apartments there.
That was where Director Seo Joong Won’s entertainment was. For a while, he used to come and go from there like it was his house.
However, with Valentine’s debut and the board of directors’ appointment of the President coming up, he practically stopped going there recently. He was busy for one thing, but he also had to watch his behavior.
Having contacted the driver, the secretary immediately contacted the owner of the Yang Jae Dong studio apartment next.
“I think the Director will arrive at Yang Jae Dong within 30 minutes. Yes, yes.”
While the secretary was on the phone, Director Seo Joong Won was standing in front of the elevator, thinking about Do Wook.
“Offensive bastard…”
At this point, it seemed like he was deliberately messing up his business.
However, he was still just some kid who was the same age as his son. There was no way that a kid like that could harm him.
It seemed coincidences overlapped, turning into bad luck. But if coincidences turn unfortunate, it’s simply bad luck.
“I have to nip this in the bud…”
Tisk. Director Seo Joong Won clicked his tongue. It wasn’t worth his time at first. However, now it was horribly irritating.
He didn’t want to see uncut buds grow, so he joined forces with other large agencies to use broadcasts to suppress them like he had done in the past, but KK stopped going on broadcasts completely. Instead, they pioneered a different Internet platform.
In fact, because the meApp that KK grew got so big, even Ara Entertainment celebrities had no choice but to appear on meApp.
‘If it doesn’t work, I’ll just set it on fire or something.’
He couldn’t just let them continue being a nuisance.
With that thought in mind, Director Seo Joong grit his teeth. He had another simultaneous thought. He couldn’t let Valentine fall behind Young Women, just as M2M had done to KK. This time he had to be victorious early on.
Once the secretary was done with his call, Director Seo Joong Won gave him another order.
“Set up a meeting with Manager Jin tomorrow too.”
“Yes, sir.”
The secretary responded as politely as possible to avoid offending Director Seo Joong Won.
Ding―
With perfect timing, there was a cheerful alert signaling that the elevator came.
***
[‘Young Women’ Da Hye “so full of emotion the moment of debut, shed tears…tears of joy”]
[Valentine and even Young Women…is the heyday of female idol groups coming?]
[Young Women’s uprising! From the rookie nobody had any expectations for to this year’s rising star!]
[‘Our Time’ climbing the music chart…pushing forward with outstanding music]
[The sharp* choreography of Young Women, who is the hot topic lately…MyTube view count is exploding!]
(TL Note: perfectly in sync, cutting edge)
-They have so much energy haha. It’s nice to see haha
-Our Time, let’s get 1st place on the music chart! ~~~ Wishing you big success!!
-Da Hye is really so adorable T.T She looks like a rice cake T.T T.T T.T T.T T.T
-I could just eat her up♡♡♡
-Da Hye! This big sis che! rish! es!* you a lot!
(TL Note: “Cherishes” but separated by syllable. It doesn’t look as odd in Korean.)
-Da Hye crying was so incredibly cute…I can’t get enough of the GIFs…
-Please tell me the name of the member that was third from the left, the one with the long straight hair
-that’s the leader Yoon Ji~
-Goddess Yoon Ji, please take me…
-They all look kind of plain yet unlike anyone you’ll find just walking down the street
-Plain hahahahaha
-Calling them plain is a bit overboard…they’re beyond the level of an ordinary person
-I’m a soldier on leave. On Sunday I was watching Life Song at the barracks and I couldn’t stop smiling…I really really want them to come to our barracks to perform.
-Come to our barracks first
-I’m old enough to be called ajusshi, but I was so into it when watching that I forgot about my age. I feel rejuvenated hehe
-You could tell that they rehearsed really hard.
-Hye Sung Entertainment? It’s the first I’ve heard of them, but the performance quality is good lolol
-They definitely have a pure and innocent charm
-Is Valentine better or is Young Women better
-There are always people like this who compare, tisk tisk
-Young Women wins by a landslide
-Valentine is prettier, aren’t they? lol
-It’s true that they’re pretty, but their performance was more boring than I expected
-They’re pretty but it’s too Ara Entertainment-style so it’s not as novel lol
Some time after the Life Song debut performance.
Young Women’s debut song ‘Our Time’ showed a steady rise on the music charts, achieving tremendous results settling in top 3.
It helped a lot that people became interested when they made it in the trending searches and listened to their song.
Since the song was exceptionally good, it spread by word of mouth and their music chart ranking went up.
Even without them doing any special media management, this level of climbing the charts left reporters no choice but to react to it.
Unlike articles on Valentine, who released formal press releases at the request of Ara Entertainment, the reporters personally covered the articles on Young Women.
Thanks to the popularity, the younger generation of fans, who mainly use the Internet, was also firmly secured.
The people who first realized Young Women’s potential spread videos of their performance online, and Hye Sung Entertainment also steadily answered the fans’ demands by posting many photos and videos related to Young Women on their social media accounts.
Since they were the talk of the town, other than Life song, they were able to immediately schedule music broadcasts that they had had trouble getting on because they were overshadowed by other singers.
Several cable music entertainment shows even contacted them requesting interviews.
Actually, Valentine was busily doing activities, appearing on almost every rookie-targeted program within their first week.
Despite that, with their online popularity and the power of their song, Young Women was a threat to Valentine’s fandom, which had already grown to a certain degree.
Considering that this was only the beginning of Young Women’s full-scale broadcast activities, you could clearly tell that Young Women’s popularity would rise even faster without change.
The KK members had finished all their events in America and had arrived at Incheon International Airport. They were waiting at baggage claim for their luggage to come out.
Everyone looked exhausted from the long flight and had hats pulled low, but people who recognized members kept glancing at them.
If Manager Oh Baek Ho, who was standing next to them, didn’t have a particularly grim look out of exhaustion, they definitely would have approached them for an autograph.
Being surrounded by gazes was all too familiar now. Unfazed, Do Wook was looking at entertainment articles online as he waited for his luggage to come out. A faint smile was on Do Wook’s face.
‘The reactions are definitely coming in quicker…’
Even originally, Young Women was a group who climbed their way up little by little and got pretty far.
However, with Do Wook’s investment, their quality went up a level and they were racking up popularity like no other. At this rate, they would be able to easily surpass Valentine and win Rookie of the Year.
Seeing Do Wook smiling while looking at his phone, Ahn Hyung Seo glanced suspiciously at his cellphone.
Ahn Hyung Seo said jokingly about the Young Women article on Do Wook’s phone,
“Are you looking at articles about Young Women instead of articles about us?”
“Ahhh…”
Ahn Hyung Seo giggled when Do Wook became a little embarrassed.
“Hey Tae Hyung. I guess even for Do Wook, rather than friends he cares more about…what should I call it…since he’s an investor, money? I guess he cares more about money than friends? No, girls more than friends?!”
It wasn’t often that they had an opportunity to tease Do Wook, so Ahn Hyung Seo said it excitedly. Park Tae Hyung, who was next to him, laughed at what Ahn Hyung Seo said with an ambiguous expression.
“It’s not that. Tae Hyung has already seen all the articles.”
“Ahh…”
When Do Wook answered, it was Ahn Hyung Seo’s turn to say ‘ahh’ and he made a disappointed sound.
“He’s already seen all of them?”
“Yes. He read it as soon as he took his phone off airplane mode after landing. Everyone is praising you, Tae Hyung.”
Ahn Hyung Seo stayed silent, speechless at Do Wook’s sharp remark.
The reason articles about Park Tae Hyung were published was that yesterday was the first broadcast of < Dancing Dancing >.
While KK was in America, the < Dancing Dancing > broadcast was halfway through. The < Dancing Dancing > ratings exceeded expectations. It was thanks to KK creating a lot of buzz in the first episode.
Even the few so-called ‘attention seeking’ participants who said in their interview that they couldn’t accept Park Tae Hyung as a judge drew in viewers.
It was true that people who liked Park Tae Hyung were angry, but they wrote rave reviews about Park Tae Hyung’s performance.
The next episode also caught the eyes of viewers with unbelievable performances.
The confrontational structure of the team competitions made the broadcast more exciting with every passing day as fans cheered for their team.
Yesterday, the quiet Park Tae Hyung demonstrated his leadership on the broadcast and led the team performance, leading to Park Tae Hyung’s name being on the trending searches all morning.
“Man, there were so many compliments. It was worth the hardship of going back and forth,”
Jung Yoon Ki added.
There was filming for < Dancing Dancing > every other week, so Park Tae Hyung pushed himself going back and forth between Korea and America.
Thankfully they were able to film the rest in Korea.
“Starting next week, the broadcast of the competitions is live, right Tae Hyung?”
“That’s right.”
Park Tae Hyung, who was embarrassed by the sudden praises for him, responded to Suk Ji Hoon’s question.
< Dancing Dancing > was Park Tae Hyung’s individual activity and they were already busy with group activities alone, but the KK members were meticulously taking care of each other.
“Oh, I see the luggage!”
Kim Won yelled as he pointed to the luggage that was released as KK fan club KeyRing merchandise that had stickers all over it. The luggage Kim Won pointed out was Ahn Hyung Seo’s.
Starting with Ahn Hyung Seo’s luggage, the other members’ luggages came out on the conveyor belt one after another.
The members quickly gathered their belongings.
Then they left the arrival gate.
“It’s KK!”
As soon as they stepped out of the arrival gate, someone yelled out to them.
Along with that, an incredible flood of flashes poured towards the KK members.
They had been told there would be reporters, but it was indeed a surprising number of people.
Despite the fact that a separate press conference was scheduled to discuss their thoughts on their American activities and plans for future activities, the media’s desire to share news about KK as soon as possible was tremendous.
“Please look this way!”
“This way too!”
It was an unexpected, over-the-top welcome, but instead of frowning, the KK members responded the best they could to the reporters who were calling out to them.
They felt they knew what the title of the reporters’ articles that would be posted immediately would be. KK, who had returned after achieving great success in America, received a true ‘golden welcome’.
***
It had been a really long time since they’d been back at the dormitory.
As soon as they arrived at the dormitory, the members put off unpacking and dropped to the floor one after another.
The press conference was the day after tomorrow. They planned on resting plenty and adjusting to the time difference until tomorrow. Do Wook, of course, had put off unpacking until tomorrow.
Do Wook finished showering and went back to his room. There was one message waiting on his cellphone.
It was a message from Reporter Choi Sung Joon.
[I think I got it.]
[(Photo)]
Reporter Choi Sung Joon sent a total of five photos.
Director Seo Joong Won was in three of the photos. Him entering a studio apartment, standing in front of apartment 1101, and entering apartment 1101 was captured.
And in two of the photos, it was Ju Min Ah.
There were two photos of Ju Min Ah coming out of apartment 1101.
Next chapter: KK holds their first press conference in a long time