Thud.
“Hmm…?”
The reporter was getting into his car but jerked around irritably at the hand blocking him.
“Ugh, what the….”
And then….
“…Huh?”
“……”
“……”
He froze when he saw two men in black suits glaring at him.
“……”
One of them was a hulking figure with a bald head, and he had a scar on his forehead. The man behind him looked like a handsome but very intimidating black leopard.
The reporter realized immediately from their appearances.
These guys…
Gangsters…
While it was hard to believe that gangsters still existed in 21st century South Korea, they perfectly fit the role at that moment.
W-what do these gangsters want from me…?
He thought he had seen it all in his reporter’s career, but this primal fear was something he couldn’t handle.
Feeling like prey in front of a predator, he nervously asked the men, “W-who are you…?”
“……”
The man who seemed to be in charge shot him a fierce look before stretching out his hand.
“Business card.”
“…Eh?”
“I said, give me your business card.”
“…Ah, y-yes….”
Rustle.
With no clue why, the reporter hurriedly pulled out his business card and handed it over.
The man took the card, glanced at it, and then ominously continued speaking.
“Entertainment Daily’s Kim Cheol-soo, is it…?”
“Ah… Yes, that’s me…”
“If an odd article regarding Ha Ye-rin comes out today… we’ll meet again.”
“…Huh?”
Suddenly hearing Ha Ye-rin mentioned, the reporter felt momentarily dumbfounded.
Then….
Crinkle.
Eek!
The man placed his hand heavily on the reporter’s shoulder and started applying immense pressure.
“And if you ask another dumb question, I won’t hold back any longer.”
“Urrgghh…!! I-I understand…!!”
Before overwhelming violence, the reporter’s sense of duty meant nothing.
He quickly nodded in submission.
Only after that did the man remove his hand from the reporter’s shoulder and gesture towards the reporter’s car.
“Got it? Now, scram.”
“Yes, yes…!”
At that, the reporter hopped into his car in a panic.
However, even as he got in, his curiosity, which was one of the main reasons he became a reporter, was kicking in.
So, he gathered his courage, rolled down the window, and asked the man, “B-but… what do you two do?”
“…Us?”
The man chuckled at the question and replied.
“We’re huge fans of Rookies, especially Ha Ye-rin.”
“…Huh?”
“Fans. I said fans! Why can’t uncles be fans of idols?”
“Ah, no… that’s not it…! Y-yes, yes! I understand!”
Rookies fans are wild.
They looked like they came straight from an 80s nightclub.
But of course, the reporter couldn’t say that out loud, so he drove off quickly.
And….
“If an odd article related to Ha Ye-rin comes out today… we’ll meet again.”
Shivers.
The gangster’s words haunted him, and he couldn’t bring himself to publish any articles about Ha Ye-rin’s parents.
Phew…
Kang Hyung-man sighed as he watched the reporter’s car disappear, barely managing to control his anger.
Ye-rin was already in a very sensitive state.
Out of all the questions…
“So, Ha Ye-rin, what do you think about your parents being charged with fraud, document forgery, and child abuse?”
…they had to bring up the most vulnerable topic.
The news about Ye-rin’s parents getting mixed up with the law was recent.
And Kang Hyung-man hadn’t told Ha Ye-rin this news.
He planned to keep quiet about it forever.
Bringing up her parents again while she was struggling to prepare for her debut would be way too cruel.
But how dare that reporter…
Kang Hyung-man wanted to smash the reporter’s face in, but he held back, fearing it would trouble Ye-rin.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah, Sang-gu.”
“By now, the showcase should be almost over. Do you have to leave without at least seeing Ye-rin’s face?”
Kang Hyung-man shook his head at Sang-gu’s question.
“You know? During the contract with NAS, we can’t interfere with Rookies’ activities at all. We might raise misunderstandings at NAS if we just go to say hi.”
“……”
So they had come to the showcase with tickets they bought to see Ye-rin.
Both of them desperately wanted to meet and talk with Ye-rin, but they had to endure.
“Still, it looks like the showcase was a success. That’s a relief. We should head back since we’re busy. Let’s secretly come to see Ye-rin sometimes.”
“Yes.”
Actually, with a lot of work on their hands, the two men decided to return to the company after dealing with the reporter.
The reason they had so much to do was…
Brotherhood Planning had started to recruit new trainees aside from Ye-rin.
Until now, the company seemed like it existed solely for Ye-rin, but in reality, Brotherhood Planning had grand dreams of becoming the top entertainment company in South Korea.
Thus, they hurried along to create a company that they’d be proud of when Ye-rin returned in a year.
Two days.
To be precise, we had been given a total of 42 hours of vacation, and during this holiday, we dedicated most of our time to…
“Zzz…”
…sleeping, of course.
After two weeks of only sleeping three hours a night while working like crazy, we crashed and slept like the dead.
Sleeping… sleeping, and then sleeping some more….
Waking only briefly to munch on the salad provided by the company before dozing off again.
But even amidst our two-day slumber, there came a time when we had to wake up, like so…
“Guys, hurry up and get up! Our music release is soon!”
It was the moment when the “Secret Girl” track would be released.
“Ye-rin, Yoo-jin. Huh? Get up already~.”
“Ughhh…”
At Lee Hye-jeong’s call, I rubbed my eyes as I got out of bed where I was snuggled up with Seo Yoo-jin.
The time was 11:30 PM.
Only 30 minutes left until “Secret Girl” would be released.
As I took the still half-asleep Seo Yoo-jin to the living room, all the members were waiting with a tense expression for the release time at midnight.
I joined them, and Park Yoo-jung shouted with excitement.
“Hey…! Our music video has over 6 million views!”
“…Really?”
“Exactly 6,687,561!”
Hearing Park Yoo-jung, I rushed over to the YouTube Rookies channel.
“Whoa… it’s true.”
It had only been around 27 hours since the music video was uploaded, and it’s at 6.6 million views…
‘Na Ah Ah really does have incredible popularity.’
To think that a newly debuted girl group’s music video would get that many views… I suddenly realized the deceit of the audition program as I entered the comment section.
– This is insane!
– What’s with Lee Hye-jeong’s voice at the start?
– Wowㅠㅠ Why do our kids sing so well ㅠㅠ
– Clearly, Rookies are full of talented people.
– Put it on my playlist immediately. I love the song so much ㅠㅠ
The comments, just like during the teaser, were very positive.
“Secret Girl” was worked on by the top producer in Korea, Han Si-woo, after all.
Even the few Rookies haters couldn’t just bash the song without merit.
Among the clean comment section, two comments stood out to me…
-Yerin ♡♡♡♡♡
-Rookies so good ♡
While still few, there were occasional comments from foreign fans.
‘I didn’t think there would be so few overseas fans, but I guess we do have some after all.’
Whatever the case, it was a positive sign.
I felt satisfied with this and moved on to check the online news articles.
The headline read: “So, Ha Ye-rin, what do you think about your parents being charged with fraud, document forgery, and child abuse?”
“…They are no longer my parents.”
The answer I had given during the showcase could be perceived negatively based on how it was written.
I worried that I might be the reason for any negative articles about Rookies… but…!
“Hmm…?”
In the online articles, not even one of the small newspapers had a negative view of us Rookies.
If I had to pick out something negative…
[Opinion: Ha Ye-rin’s uncle fan controversy]
“……Huh?”
There was this absurd article.
“What do they mean by uncle fans…?”
It wasn’t precise statistics, but from what I had seen at the showcase, the main fan demographic for Rookies was young women in their 10s and 20s, followed by young men in 10s and 20s.
Uncle fans, huh…
There might be a few, but is there really enough to call them a nuisance?
Perhaps the other fans knew this as well, as they seemed to treat this online article as gossip and ignored it.
Just as I was about to move on to the next internet article…
“It’s exactly the time.”
“……!”
At Yoo Seol’s gentle remark, all the members who had been distracted gathered in one place.
Then soon….
“Ohhh!”
“Our song is up on the music streaming site!”
We confirmed through various music platforms that “Secret Girl” was searchable.
Just then, Lee Hye-jeong spoke up, sounding anxious.
“B-but why isn’t it showing up on the chart?”
“Sis, what are you talking about? The chart is updated every hour! Our song was released exactly on time, so it’ll be updated at least by 1 AM!”
“Ah, r-right…”
There was no way Lee Hye-jeong wouldn’t know something so basic… She must have been really anxious.
In fact, she wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
Seo Yoo-jin, Park Yoo-jung, Na Han-na, even the normally calm Yoo Seol.
And…
Shivers.
…me too.
Our Rookies members shivered as we quietly streamed “Secret Girl.”
Of course….
“…Let’s not get our hopes up. The ‘Watermelon’ Top 100 chart only counts your 24-hour views at dawn. There’s a chance we won’t chart.”
“……Yes.”
Just as Yoo Seol said, there was a high possibility we wouldn’t appear on the midnight chart.
The Top 100 chart of the largest domestic streaming platform, ‘Watermelon,’ was calculated by adding 50% of 24-hour views and 50% of the last hour’s views.
But to prevent chart manipulation, they counted only the 24-hour views during early dawn.
In other words, while every song would have its 24-hour views counted, our Rookies would have to go into battle with only one hour of views.
No matter how popular our Rookies were, there was no guarantee our song would make it onto the Top 100 at 1 AM with just that one hour’s views.
So, we all kept reminding ourselves to manage our expectations.
And when 1 AM finally hit…
“It’s 1 AM now….”
“Everyone gather around. Let’s check together.”
We all huddled around Yoo Seol’s phone, the effective leader (I’m just a scarecrow), ready to check the ranking together.
And the moment we refreshed the charts…!
“……!!”
We couldn’t help but widen our eyes at the sight of the results.
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