Free Web Novel"Looks like the kids had fun, right?"
"Yes. They look extremely excited."
KJ Entertainment’s CEO office.
There, CEO Sanghyeok and producer Raon were watching a video together.
It was none other than Iam’s vacation in-house content that had been uploaded two days ago.
[Iam Showdown Trip]
"-No money, no justice! The filming crew, respect the losing team’s human rights!
Lee Sion out on the second-floor balcony of the pension building, waving a clenched fist and shouting like she was practically protesting, and next to Lee Sion, Geum Shinyu and Im Yunkyung doing the exact same thing.
-Everyone! Let’s come out of the pension first and talk!
-No! If we go out, you’ll kick us out into our tent!
-No! You lost the games!
-We didn’t lose! We merely got defeated!
-Isn’t that the same thing?
The filming crew tries to persuade them any way they can to get them to come outside, but seeing Lee Sion and the youngest line packed full of determination to never come out and just hold out, the filming crew waved a white flag they must have gotten from somewhere and put on an agonized expression."
↳I’m going insane lol I never imagined they’d sneak into the pension
↳After they won thigh wrestling and got the kids into the water, the second they went to wash up they went straight in to occupy the pension lmaooo
↳Lee Sion, from now on you’re not allowed to call Ryujin “Ryujin-scrub” lol
↳Isn’t this all scripted?
↳If that’s scripted, then Lee Sion, Yunkyung, and Shinyu shouldn’t be idols, they should go into film
↳If you look at the filming crew’s faces you can tell they’re genuinely flustered
Iam’s in-house content had been getting more and more views lately.
Maybe because their official album promotions were over, so they weren’t doing broadcast activities, and a big reason was that this was the only place people could see Iam’s members.
On top of that, one of the reasons was that the recent Iam in-house content had been getting extremely good reviews.
Starting with Lee Gahyeon’s extreme part-time job content, where she filmed alone for the first time, and up through this Showdown Trip that got uploaded this time.
-Please, any show at all, give us an Iam self-made variety show!
↳Come to think of it, there used to be a lot of variety shows with idols, but you don’t really see them these days
↳Honestly they were kind of seriously no-fun
↳It’s fun for fans but if regular people watch it, it’s kinda...
↳Iam is different
↳For real, these kids seem like they’d actually be funny
It had gotten to the point where people were going crazy in the comments saying they wanted to see an Iam variety show.
"At first, I didn’t understand why PD Raon put so much effort into in-house content, but it really feels like the day when this becomes an idol’s core isn’t far off."
Watching that hot reaction to Iam’s YouTube self-made content, Sanghyeok suddenly remembered Raon insisting fiercely, back when the company was founded, that they absolutely had to create a content team.
In truth, back then, KJ Group—the parent company—had reacted to Raon’s opinion with a very uneasy response.
-Not sure if we really need that.
And that was understandable, because to produce in-house content, you had to hire a writing team and a filming crew and more people than you’d think, and you also had to buy equipment, so it required a pretty big investment.
Still, the content team was approved because Sanghyeok argued that they should think of it as the cost of borrowing Raon’s top-star name value, and that this level of demanded conditions absolutely had to be accepted.
Now, before anyone realized it, it had grown into a core pillar you couldn’t leave out of KJ Entertainment.
[A typical Korean girl group’s scream]
(Kurosawa Yuri, Seo Ryujin, and Ryu Ayeon getting their thighs forced open by Lee Sion, screaming one after another)
↳Delete this right now, kid... there’s no way our Ayeon would scream like “Kkieeeek!”!
↳Look at how ruthless the content team is lol honestly they could’ve edited this out
↳But they show no mercy, huh? I love it because if it’s funny they just put it out
↳Watching Iam feels like watching the friends in my class mess around
↳Yeah, except there just aren’t any kids who look like that
↳Why are they taking thigh wrestling that seriously, seriously
Was it because they were from MPlay?
Mixing what idol fans want and what the general public wants in this exquisite way, Iam’s in-house content—evaluated as “devil-level directing” by viewers—was definitely helping Iam’s upward momentum a lot.
"I heard there are more overseas fans translating our in-house content and uploading it than you’d think."
"Yes, I got the report last time. At first I debated whether we should crack down, but I think it’s better to just watch for now."
"Yes, most of them aren’t doing it to monetize, it’s literally to promote us, so leaving it alone might actually help more."
"Overseas... That’s a goal that’s too far removed from us."
Iam, who achieved the record of being the first rookie girl group to get a Grand Slam.
Amazingly, Iam already had an overseas fandom, even if it was still small.
How shocked had they been when they found out that out of the 200,000 debut album sales, about 40,000 were sales overseas?
If they built up a stronger base domestically and then went overseas, they could look forward to those results.
But—
'We have to think that all that’s left in our contract period is, at most, about two more promotions.'
They couldn’t forget that Iam was a project group.
Their remaining contract period was already just a little over nine months.
No matter how diligently they promoted during that time, at most, it meant only about two more rounds of promotions would be Iam’s activity period under KJ Entertainment.
Of course, around the time Iam’s contract ended, the project group from Idol Ground 100 2—currently being prepared on MPlay—was supposed to take over that baton.
And through the experience they built while supporting Iam, KJ Entertainment was also preparing to produce an idol group in-house.
"It’s a shame. If the contract period were just a little longer, there would’ve been more things we could’ve tried."
"It can’t be helped. By any chance... no."
"By any chance what?"
"No. Even thinking it, it was too absurd."
Sanghyeok had just assumed a ridiculous situation for a moment—like maybe the members’ original agencies would, in a big-picture spirit, extend the contract—and then immediately erased it.
Because there was no way something that absurd would happen.
"Anyway, what we have to do is decided. The success of the second album."
At Sanghyeok’s words, Raon nodded.
"As a matter of fact, we’re in the final stage of work right now. We actually finished preparing while the kids were promoting, but you know, sir?"
"Yes. If we don’t prepare properly, it won’t be easy."
To keep promotions moving fast, Raon had started preparing the follow-up mini album the moment the debut album work ended.
Thanks to that, the follow-up album was already completed to a certain extent, but Raon had asked for more time.
The girl group Three Kingdoms.
The public comparing these three girl groups—SY’s VYNNIA, TSP’s LYNX, and Iam, who all debuted around the same time—to the Three Kingdoms.
To compete with them, they needed more thorough preparation.
[VYNNIA achieves 200,000 first-week album sales, first among girl groups—can they break the 300,000 wall by the end of promotions?]
[TSP girl group LYNX follow-up album in July? VYNNIA and Iam also scheduled to come back in July!]
[The Summer Queen showdown that unfolds in summer! Who will be the winner?]
↳Wow, this time the three groups are coming back at the same time? freewebnovel.cσ๓
↳If it’s those three, even most boy groups would avoid it
↳Girl groups’ album sales have gone up like crazy these days, back in the day you couldn’t even compare them to boy groups
↳To be honest the first showdown was kind of ambiguous
↳LYNX and Iam overlapped, but the win was subtle, and VYNNIA didn’t overlap at all, basically
↳This time it’ll be decided for sure
Coincidentally, the three groups’ comebacks overlapped in July, which was also Iam’s comeback schedule.
With the rumor that the hottest rookie groups in the idol scene would clash at the same time, not only idol fans but even ordinary people with no interest were paying attention to their comebacks.
"TSP and SY will absolutely not come back half-assed either."
"I already heard the rumors—people are saying both of them are sharpening their knives, like they’ve got some grudges built up against us."
The first showdown of the girl group Three Kingdoms had been ambiguous to pick a winner, but if you had to, there were a lot of people who counted it as Iam’s win.
LYNX’s digital rankings were slightly higher, and if you went by album sales, VYNNIA’s were slightly higher, but—
-Which group got the first rookie girl group debut-song Grand Slam?
↳The great Iam!
↳King-god Iam!
↳Their hit-and-run was insane!
↳These bastards’ footsteps are just different lol
↳If you want to survive a survival show, you need this much luck, you know
In the end, the one that took both buzz and visible results was Iam.
Because of that, there was no way SY and TSP could have good feelings toward KJ and Iam, who grabbed only the sweet fruit and disappeared.
It was obvious they were thoroughly preparing for next time, like, let’s fight properly then.
'Normally we’d want to avoid it, but.'
The best plan wasn’t to fight angry waves, but to wait until they calmed down.
But because KJ Entertainment had a limited activity period, they couldn’t do that.
More than anything, the moment they delayed their comeback to avoid this head-to-head clash, there was a high chance Iam would get stuck with the label that they ran away the entire time.
If that happened, even if they got better results than VYNNIA and LYNX, they’d still end up stuck with the label of third place.
They couldn’t allow that.
So KJ Entertainment and producer Raon were doing supplement work on the follow-up album for this head-to-head clash.
"By the way, do you think the kids arrived by now?"
"I think so. We accounted for traffic, so by now..."
While the company was writing out plans for Iam’s future activities like this, Iam’s members, who had finished their rare vacation, weren’t sitting still either.
Events.
Iam had finally started what was called the flower of ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) idols: doing events.
***
Kang Doil.
Stage name Doil, a popular rapper who’d been gaining popularity lately.
'Iam? That’s rough for them.'
Recently, because of hip-hop audition programs, hip-hop’s popularity in Korea was hot enough that you could call it a hip-hop craze.
Doil was also from that audition program, and since last year, he’d been sweeping up all kinds of festivals.
In particular, the song Doil performed in the competition had become a huge hit, and a lot of people were still enjoying it to this day.
"Make some noise!!!"
"Woooaaah!!!"
Because of that, Doil was famous for having a great crowd response at events compared to other rappers.
Even now, after being invited to a huge event called the Incheon Culture Festival and finishing his stage, Doil was busy waving at the crowd that kept screaming their cheers at him.
Was it because the people who came to this festival were younger?
With an even better reaction than usual, Doil thought the singer who would perform after him was pitiful.
After a stage like this with such fervent reactions, sometimes the sudden shift made the atmosphere go cold, and there was nothing more miserable than that.
"The next stage is the stage of the talked-about rookie girl group Iam! Please welcome them with a big round of applause!!!"
As Doil finished his stage and came down to leave, he ran into Iam’s members coming in to perform now.
"Hello!"
When their eyes met, Iam’s members greeted him lightly, but Doil ignored their greeting easily and kept leaving.
'Hmph.'
Doil hated idols.
And that was because he didn’t like how they got popularity off pretty looks rather than songs.
The Iam members he’d just run into, honestly, were pretty enough that even Doil had stared at them without realizing it, but his belief was that a singer should speak with skill.
'They’ll obviously just play AR and dance.'
Coming off the stage, Doil glanced over at Iam’s stage that was just about to start from the staff seats.
The crowd’s mood had gotten hot thanks to Doil doing a live with everything he had.
Imagining Iam lip-syncing and ruining that heated mood, Doil didn’t want to miss that sight, so even though his stage was over, he decided to stay and watch.
But—
"Woooaaah!!!"
The crowd welcomed Iam’s members with even more intense cheers than when Doil came out.
"···Small."
"Huh?"
"What?"
"You’re talking too quietly."
Facing that crowd, Lee Sion came out at the very front, held the mic, and started whispering something, and murmurs began rippling through the audience.
"The cheering is too small!!! Louder!!!"
"AAAAAH!!!"
At Lee Sion’s shout, the crowd screamed like they were going through extreme military training.
'Wh... what is this?'
That booming sound wasn’t even comparable to Doil’s stage from a moment ago.
If they’d happened at the same time, Doil’s stage would’ve felt like a library.
"Say my name!!!"
"Lee Sion!!!"
"Who are we?!"
"Iam!!!"
On top of that, Lee Sion’s mic work was so skillful you’d wonder if she was a WWE pro wrestler rather than a girl group member, and the crowd’s atmosphere was getting even more heated.
"First song! You all know it, right?"
"Spotlight!"
When the intro for the first song started playing, it was like people couldn’t hold it back anymore and started hopping in place.
Then Iam’s stage began.
'Live?!'
Amazingly, Iam was singing live.
At first, it seemed like precise AR, but there was no choice but to know this was live.
Spotlight, the song Iam was singing right now, was so famous as Agbaek’s theme song that even Doil knew the lyrics.
'They’re changing the lyrics as they sing.'
They were changing the lyrics on the spot to fit the event stage.
And yet, Iam’s members were performing the song and choreography so steadily it was hard to believe it was live.
"Next song is our debut song, ‘Feels Like Something’s About to Start.’ If you all know it, please sing along with us!"
While Doil was still in shock, Iam’s first stage ended.
But like they weren’t even tired, Iam immediately went straight into the next song.
(Oh) In that split second our eyes met
(Yeah) Like the whole world stopped for a moment
A heartbeat that wasn’t in the plan
This moment right now is vivid
It was a miracle-like sight where the entire crowd sang their song together with Iam. fгeewebnovёl.com
Getting the mood up at an event was never easy, and among that, getting people to sing along was something that was hard even for veteran singers.
Yet Iam was doing it with incredible ease.
"Like I said, it’s Iam."
"Aren’t they supposed to be basically impossible to book these days?"
"If they’d started doing events a little earlier, Iam would’ve swept up all the university festivals. People just love them so much they’re desperate to bring them."
"Well, we worked really hard to book Iam too. I heard the department head kept going back to the agency three times."
"Right. That’s why we even have to pay more, so we also brought some cheap-pay rapper too. That Doil guy?"
"Assistant manager... over there."
"Ah..."
Listening to those event staff talking, not recognizing him at all, Doil had to quietly roll up his sleeve and wipe away tears.
