Little Pink Starfish

Moreover, their trump card hadn’t promoted the group as a whole.

It was more like promoting Han Sion personally, while also offering some explanation.

Watching the video, it looked like they were preparing a song called Resume, but getting it officially released on streaming sites would be difficult.

Of course, not forever.

The music copyright association and music distribution federation wouldn’t leave clear evidence of unfair practices.

But they could delay registration as much as possible.

Sometimes for one month, sometimes as long as four months.

By then, the buzz generated by this issue would have long died down.

Thinking this way actually put Choi Daeho at ease.

From a producer’s perspective, the hardest part of idol marketing isn’t creating buzz.

Short-term buzz can always be manufactured.

What matters is continuity.

It doesn’t matter what the source is.

A viral fancam leads to a viral variety show appearance, which leads to a viral makeup-and-hair look, which leads to a viral fan-edit video, and so on.

It’s better to have a steady stream of smaller viral moments than one huge explosion.

That’s what creates true stardom.

So Sedalbaekil’s current issue wasn’t a huge problem.

It would end as short-term buzz and eventually turn into “Drop Out VS NOP.”

Having made his conclusion, Choi Daeho called his closest aide, Team Leader Park.

“Tell the media to focus only on Han Sion. Not Sedalbaekil, just Han Sion. Especially avoid bringing up the self-content.”

“You want to narrow the scope of the issue? To just the composing?”

“Exactly.”

“We’re getting a flood of questions from Sedalbaekil fans, asking about the contract status.”

“Hm…”

That must be because of Han Sion’s subtle comment in the self-content.

‘Since both are my songs. As you know, we don’t have a company, so royalties are important to us…’

The nuance was tricky.

It could sound like they were in a tough spot because they had no agency.

But that’s as far as it went.

Smart people are usually also cautious. Han Sion hadn’t crossed the real line.

If he were going to go full offensive, he would’ve mentioned how Ryan Entertainment was oppressing them.

In other words, Han Sion was still leaving himself an exit.

“Anything else?”

“Those big YouTube channels, especially the ones influential among teens and people in their twenties.”

“Yes.”

Unlike TV variety shows that pay appearance fees, these big YouTube channels often charge promotional fees instead — that’s how powerful they are now.

They had to be monitored.

“Check if any of them are negotiating appearances with Sedalbaekil.”

“And once I find out?”

“Offer to substitute Take Scene instead. If they hesitate, raise the promotion fee. If that still doesn’t work, ask if there’s any other celebrity they’d like to feature. We’ll arrange it.”

“Understood.”

Of course, this couldn’t block all Sedalbaekil’s promotion.

Even with all of Choi Daeho’s skills, he couldn’t control independent creators.

But at least, he could prevent them from popping up on major channels like weeds.

After sending Park out, Choi Daeho made one last call.

He dialed the CEO of Double M.

He could understand Selfish was a huge hit.

But helping the composer of an already released song seemed a bit much.

They weren’t strangers to each other’s circumstances.

He wasn’t calling to argue—he just wanted an explanation.

“Ah, Mr. Koo.”

Surely, the Double M CEO would give him an answer.

---

The response after our self-content went public was intense.

Of course, most of the buzz was consumed through the Drop Out and NOP angle, but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was generating buzz.

The next step was to sustain it.

That’s what the self-content was for.

Honestly, Choi Jaesung played a big role in its creation.

I wasn’t very familiar with idol self-content.

While preparing for it, I watched some videos and felt that most didn’t fit us.

Being tangled in a sensitive issue with Drop Out, watching us laughing and playing games together might not sit well with viewers.

When I voiced these concerns, it was Choi Jaesung who suggested a new direction.

“Self-content usually answers what fans are curious about, right? Like, how we hang out, our real personalities, how we handle horror movies, what snacks we like, and so on.”

“And?”

“Instead of answering existing questions, wouldn’t it be better if we created new ones?”

“Like what?”

“Well, for starters… Why do we have so many bodyguards?”

“You think we have a lot?”

“Yes. It’s a detached house, there’s no need to guard it like a military post.”

“Really?”

Honestly, I thought we had too few.

Korea’s public safety allowed for this. In the US, I would’ve hired way more.

Especially for me.

There were extreme racists who went crazy every time I made headway into the American mainstream.

They’d actually posed real threats before.

I think it was right after COVID.

It was a difficult time for Asians living in the US.

Remembering that, I asked Jaesung.

“You want to show the bodyguards in the self-content?”

“No, I mean we could cut back. Maybe just one person like a building security guard.”

“We’ll discuss that later. What do you want to show?”

“Let’s keep generating curiosity. Why is the dorm so nice? Which agency are they with? Stuff like that.”

And then, show the main content afterward — that was Jaesung’s proposal.

I agreed, and designed the self-content to be fast-paced and filled with question marks.

We rushed through the song production and the live performance.

Even viewers who weren’t invested couldn’t get bored.

By the way, the studio that made our self-content was Create X.

Initially, they agreed not to put their name on it.

They were worried about Ryan Entertainment noticing, since they got a lot of work from the idol industry.

But less than two hours after the video was released, they called.

They wanted to use it in their portfolio.

And from episode two, they wanted their logo in the intro.

We welcomed it.

The more moles to absorb Ryan Entertainment’s hammer, the better.

As I was thinking this, Goo Taehwan looked up from his smartphone.

“We’re number one on real-time trending.”

“Yeah?”

“Also number one on the search rankings.”

“That, I know.”

“Never thought it would blow up like this…”

This time, Oh Saemi spoke up.

“Sion, how much of this did you actually plan?”

Well, actually, all of it.

The only thing I didn’t predict was Drop Out and NOP releasing songs on such overlapping schedules.

While filming Coming Up Next, I’d heard from Team Leader Seo Seunghyun about the two groups’ release schedules.

At the time, it seemed NOP would delay by about a month.

But then NOP got a sudden overseas schedule, and BVB Entertainment pushed ahead with the release.

They had to promote domestically for only four weeks before leaving.

Thanks to that, two top-tier boy groups ended up releasing ten days apart.

“So everything else was planned?”

“More like I had multiple plans prepared depending on how things unfolded.”

I had monitored Fall Detector from episode one to the most recent.

I figured out their questioning patterns.

Fall Detector liked asking guests about their rivals.

They’d ask athletes about competitors, actors about competing films, and singers about rival groups.

So I scheduled filming after Selfish was released.

I was sure it would be sitting at number one by then.

As someone with no past controversies, I suspected the producers would definitely ask about the current number one.

“I didn’t expect them to directly compare Drop Out and NOP, though. That was unexpected.”

“…”

But since the nature of the question was similar, answering wasn’t difficult.

This issue then gave me the idea to create the self-content.

I even timed renting the dorm and practice room for this.

“As you all know, Jaesung’s idea made the self-content possible.”

“…So? Do you have more plans?”

“I do, but for now, it’s fine to stay quiet.”

“Why? Shouldn’t we strike while the iron’s hot?”

“Drop Out and NOP are about to go head-to-head. I mean, Drop Out seniors and NOP seniors. Right?”

“Yes. Even casual conversations should maintain honorifics.”

“Yes, teacher.”

Typical of someone raised in a teacher’s family — even his analogies were sophisticated.

“Anyway, with those two groups fighting it out, anything we do would get buried.”

“Hm. True.”

“Besides, others will create the next wave of buzz for us.”

“Others?”

Drop Out and NOP weren’t the only K-pop groups who had bought my songs.

There were a few more.

They’d create the next wave.

Some of them were probably already planning how to promote “This song was also written by Han Sion!”

Once that wave passes, we’ll release episode two of our self-content.

Of course, there are further plans after that.

But it’s too soon to reveal them to the members.

They might oppose it.

So I kept it to myself, but even what I shared surprised the others.

“How do you even think of these things?”

“Live long enough, you gain some insights.”

Goo Taehwan laughed in disbelief.

But it was true.

“Sion hyung. So what do we do now?”

“What else? We need to practice Resume. You all made mistakes while filming…”

I stopped mid-sentence.

I’d dug my own grave.

“Oh right, we got distracted by talking about NOP seniors.”

“Forehead flicks.”

Damn it.

---

YouTube was flooded with videos about Sedalbaekil, Drop Out, and NOP.

Not just idol content creators.

“Hey guys, did you see that Sedalbaekil video?”

Even casual YouTubers, gaming channels, and information channels joined in.

Their audiences skewed young, and almost everyone knew about Drop Out and NOP.

Of course, since the topic was sensitive, no one directly compared the two songs.

So—

“Wow, Han Sion seems insanely talented.”

“Both songs are so good, aren’t they?”

In the end, wrapping up by praising Han Sion’s name was the cleanest way to conclude.