Chapter 75

Chapter 75

All the stages were over.

The judging panel of six had to watch a total of 37 performances put together by 100 trainees.

There were countless talents and personalities. Among them, there was even a kid who could be called top-notch among active idols in terms of talent and skills.

Yet, the one that stuck most in Lee Eunji’s mind was Han Gyeoul from TwoBear Entertainment, who performed third.

“I can’t get that kid who performed third out of my head… She was truly amazing.”

Seo Woobaek nodded in agreement.

“You’re talking about the kid who did ‘Dress Up,’ right? I couldn’t believe she’s only practiced for about a year. That’s incredible.”

“Exactly! ‘Dress Up’ by Triple X has won many awards and is a monumental track in K-pop history, but being such an experimental song, it also receives a lot of mixed opinions, right? Yet that kid…”

“Was perfect.”

Just then, Kanola, a second-generation idol, who was getting ready to speak up, chimed in.

“I’m not saying this just because it’s a song from my generation, but ‘Dress Up’ is truly amazing. It’s like a musical packed with everything from high teen pop, punk, R&B, to electronic dance tracks. I never imagined a younger generation kid would express it perfectly.”

Kanola spoke with a joyful expression, reminiscing about her days as an idol, rather than her current career as a seasoned solo vocalist.

“Today’s K-pop isn’t like back then, where trainees had to endure performances that were brutal in difficulty.”

“Right. It’s a song with a ridiculous level of difficulty due to such complex track combinations, yet she nailed it.”

“Both of you are right. Especially when the R&B rhythm ended and the third variation began, even I, as an audience member, couldn’t help but be left speechless.”

Timing her entrance into the conversation perfectly, Enji, who had been waiting for an opportunity, finally spoke up.

“That performance by that friend Han Gyeoul was incredible… but I also felt something oddly peculiar.”

“Oddly peculiar, you say?”

Seo Woobaek raised an eyebrow and asked.

“What do you mean by that?”

All the judges’ gazes turned to her.

In the center of those watchful eyes, Enji rested her chin on her hand and tilted her head slightly.

“At that moment, I couldn’t quite grasp it, but looking back, I wonder if it felt a bit too over the top? The entire stage had an exploding vibe that almost rendered my ears numb? …Oh, that’s a bit too aggressive a description.”
Enji, who had been groaning like she was in pain, finally sorted out her thoughts.

“…Hmm, even I think it’s a vague expression. It must be because Han Gyeoul is exceptionally talented that I got that impression.”

At that moment, James Oh, who seemed uninterested in their conversation and was busy sorting something on his tablet PC, chimed in.

“That was intentional.”

Enji, startled, asked, “Intentional?”

“To be precise, it’s the arranger’s intention.”

“An arrangement? So that was an arranged version?”

While Enji tilted her head in confusion, Lee Eunji nodded as if she had just realized something.

“Ah, I see, it was an arrangement. No wonder it felt different.”

Lee Eunji, who had been praising consistently, suddenly looked at James Oh and said, “Wait a minute, now that I think about it, that arranger might be a bit crazy.”

James Oh, pleased with Lee Eunji’s reaction, asked with a satisfied smile, “Why do you think that?”

“Because, it’s not just any song, it’s ‘Dress Up’ created by the prestigious agency SS! What producer would dare to arrange that?”

Seo Woobaek asked, looking puzzled, “Well, isn’t it possible to arrange it? It’s not like the song caused any social controversy.”

“On the contrary, it’s a highly regarded song socially. But the evaluations are so extreme that it becomes a problem,” Enji replied.

“What do you mean…?”

“As you know, the key descriptors of the song ‘Dress Up’ are ‘a mix of more than four genres, structured like a musical’. Usually, a typical song might use one or two genres, but this track uses four—it’s a dinosaur of a song. Because of this, people who underestimate ‘Dress Up’ use expressions like ‘it’s made of ragged pieces of wood’.”

Having built an impressive career as a vocal trainer, Lee Eunji had quite a bit of knowledge about composition and arrangement. To her, this was utterly ridiculous.

“This ragged piece was forced to fit together by a multinational composing team called Revolution. There were so many people involved, it was said one person was assigned to each divided part, track, sector, and genre. It was an unprecedented scale of collaboration, even at that time.”

James Oh nodded in agreement.

“It was impressive. Such a collaboration in composition is still extremely rare.”

“Exactly. It’s a song crafted with every single person pouring their effort into bridging genres. And yet, it received the label of being ragged. What producer would even think of arranging such a song? Just a slight wrong move, and those forced-together tracks would fall apart completely.”
“I got the track that was received until now. What kind of producer in the world would think of arranging such a piece? If you touch it a little wrong, those forced assembled tracks will be shattered into pieces.”

At Lee Eunji’s lament, James Oh chuckled awkwardly.

“A producer would definitely know that, so the one who tries it must be a madman. Seriously, to make those forced genres stand out even more? Is that arrangement done in one’s right mind? …But since they succeeded at it, they must be even more of a lunatic.”

James Oh’s intense statement, which they had never seen from him before, drew the attention of the judges.

Unfazed by their stares, he casually stuffed the tablet PC into his bag and stood up, saying, “And there’s no lunatic I know who would try such a gamble. Even without performing such difficult acrobatics, there’s an overflow of attractive original songs. It’s definitely not conventional.”

Kanola couldn’t hide her bewilderment and asked, “…Then who on earth arranged that?”

“It’s not conventional, so it must be a newbie from Han Gyeoul’s agency, who doesn’t fear the sky and has connections throughout the industry but is unknown to me.”

James Oh smiled faintly as he faced the stunned judges and said, wanting to give them a little hint. It felt a shame to keep this interesting fact to himself.

“Didn’t you say Han Gyeoul’s agency is TwoBear Entertainment?”

“Yes, that’s right. You definitely said TwoBear Entertainment.”

Feeling a gentle thrill of creativity stirring after a long time, he remarked, “It seems that TwoBear Entertainment must have at least two geniuses.”

*

The broadcast was doomed.

This was not an exaggeration.

In the recording of the first episode, where they had to showcase 11 talents among the capable trainees, there were 31 trainees rated as F class, while only 3 made it to A class – a disaster had occurred.

Due to this shocking result, PD Kim Seon-ye screamed, “I asked these people to just get 11 in! Even after saying that, they totally ignored it? Aaaah! How am I supposed to deal with this afterward!”

“…C-Calm down! PD Kim!”

This was not the picture PD Kim Seon-ye had envisioned at all.

Her envisioned format was to uncover talented girls, each equipped with outstanding skills and charm but buried in mud because of timing, lack of promotion, or not having debuted yet, through the “Girl 100” show.
With her tongue out, it was the format through which Girl 100 was discovered. That was the picture painted by Kim Seon-ye.

But due to the current horrific results, that initial picture was about to be ruined.

Well, viewers who sympathize with the cold-hearted evaluation panel while looking at these harsh evaluation criteria will see most of the trainees from Girl 100 as kids who have every reason to fail.

It’s not about picking the best gemstone; it turns into a hunt for usable antiques among defective items.

It was completely different from the original plan where one entertainment character would display a silly side to bring laughter while saving all the other trainees.

Now, there were 31 entertainment characters.

Among them, there were even two members she had planned to debut.

This was a disaster. An extremely tragic one.

Surprisingly, if she had known that exactly 11 people received an A-Class rating during the first impression test of Girl 100 before Han Gyeoul’s absence, Kim Seon-ye, the producer, would have grabbed Gyeoul by the collar. But the only person who knew the truth was Seon Taeyang. It was truly a lucky break for Taeyang.

Still, Kim Seon-ye thought of Seon Taeyang. She couldn’t blame the high-ranking judges.

“That girl was definitely an entertainment character, right? Why is she showing such a side?”

The fundamental problem was that the evaluation panel ignored the broadcast guidelines and set excessively harsh evaluation criteria, but the starting point was Han Gyeoul unexpectedly displaying overwhelming talent. Since that stage, Kim Seon-ye felt that the way the evaluation panel viewed performances had completely changed.

“…Exactly. Even during our pre-meeting, we were worried about the atmosphere turning too serious in the competition, so we wanted to cast this girl, right? When I watched that video, I thought at least we could get a scene that would crack us up. …Well, in another sense, we certainly did get a scene that made us crack up. It’s just that instead of the trainee, our mental state is what cracked.”

“Ack! Is this really the time for such wordplay? Do you know what I did to boost our broadcast ratings? Do you know what kind of nonsense I had to deal with to get support and investment from the agency heads? But now, thanks to that girl, that precious rating is about to be destroyed!”

Despite her words, AD Jeon Dong-baek thought inwardly, ‘If Han Gyeoul’s appearance aired, the ratings would probably spike,’ but in front of Kim Seon-ye’s fiery anger, he bowed his head.

It didn’t seem like a moment to be playful as usual.

“So, what should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do?”

Kim Seon-ye chewed on her artificial nails and said.

“Call Han Gyeoul’s manager.”

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