The next day.
The LS Entertainment company building was truly noisy, as if the entire building had been turned upside down.
Right, that was understandable.
After all, CEO Jeon Namil had uploaded a mukbang through LS Entertainment’s official YouTube channel.
“Couldn’t the video have been leaked?”
“It really doesn’t make sense….”
“But can we even call this a mukbang?”
It was not anyone else. Wasn’t it that Jeon Namil?
Right.
He was the person who had turned the current LS Entertainment into the undisputed number one agency in South Korea.
For someone like that…
A video of him eating “lemon tanghulu,” not even a neatly prepared nineteen-side-dish meal.
This was not something they could have expected.
No.
It could be called something so impossible that they denied it because they could not believe it.
Especially because, fitting for “tanghulu ASMR,” he had been silently and stubbornly eating only tanghulu, then suddenly added, “Condition fulfilled,” which made people even more curious.
What were they saying again?
Things like, wasn’t it some kind of code sent to a secret organization, or wasn’t he being threatened by someone who had hold of some enormous corruption?
He was already someone whose mere existence was far from ordinary, and now ominous rumors followed him as well.
Of course.
No one spoke about it openly in front of him.
On the contrary, when executives like team leaders or department heads passed by, the atmosphere became hushed, as if people were worried they might overhear.
Everyone was probably being careful in case it reached Jeon Namil’s ears.
‘But what is it really?’
Department Head Han Ingyu walked past the employees who were pretending not to be interested while watching the situation.
He was a department head in his own right, but even he did not know the behind-the-scenes story of that video.
He had asked the employees who had helped film and upload the video, but the answer that came back was:
“He asked me to help film a short video to upload to NewTube, so I thought he was going to officially announce something and finished preparing everything perfectly. But then he just silently finished off one lemon tanghulu and left, you know?”
That was all.
And so, Jeon Namil’s “lemon tanghulu mukbang” incident was wrapped up without a clear reason being revealed.
No.
It only looked as if it had been wrapped up inside LS Entertainment.
[ [LS] Tanghulu ASMR ]
LS ENTERTAINMENT
9.29 million subscribers
3.01 million views, 1 day ago
In just one day after upload, the views had skyrocketed.
ㄴ ???: What am I looking at…? Where am I…?
ㄴ This is my first time seeing Jeon Namil’s face outside of official event photos;
ㄴ If you are being threatened, please eat green grape tanghulu next time.
ㄴ But did lemon tanghulu do something wrong?
ㄴ Turns out I liked older men,,
ㄴ Is LS Entertainment’s CEO also starting NewTube activities in earnest now?
ㄴ Is he getting nervous because H-S left? Trying to draw attention with anything?
ㄴ A bunch of LS artists are supposed to be coming back soon. Is this also marketing, by any chance,,
The public reaction was heated.
Well, of course.
He was someone whose private life was exposed no more than HS’s.
Other than occasions like official events, he never participated in any external appearances, and he hid his private life to an almost extreme degree.
So much so that inside the company, there was no one who knew exactly whether Jeon Namil was a married man or a bachelor.
Creeeak.
Han Ingyu set aside his curiosity and went to the engineers’ room.
Perhaps because of the heat rising from all kinds of equipment, the inside was beyond warm and had become humid.
‘What is that smell…?’
Since it was a space used only by men, a musty smell stabbed his nose.
But when he saw the engineers absorbed in their work with towels around their necks, unable even to dry their hair, he could not nag them at all.
Right.
Seeing them like that, it would have been stranger if there were no smell.
“Oh, you’re here….”
At that moment, the youngest engineer, Gi Yeonseon, acknowledged him with eyes shadowed in darkness.
‘Has he ever experienced something called deep sleep?’
He looked so haggard that such a question came to mind.
And it was not only him. Everyone was like that.
How should he put it? They looked like skeleton soldiers on the verge of death.
‘Pitiful.’
Their work intensity was originally on the high side, but not to this degree.
Since the special situation had suddenly come up where no fewer than six HS songs had been delivered, they too must have had no choice but to choose this hardship.
Right.
These people liked “sound” itself from the start, but they especially liked the sound HS created.
“Are you at least sleeping while doing this?”
“Yes, with the dolphin sleep method….”
“All of you should go to a sauna or something.”
But wasn’t work something that was more efficient when one took breaks while doing it?
Han Ingyu pulled out around five fifty-thousand-won bills from his own wallet and held them out.
“Wash up and get some sleep too.”
But Gi Yeonseon stared blankly at the wad of money, then smiled weakly and continued.
“It’s all right. There’s only one song left now.”
“Huh? Then the other five songs are already all done?”
“Yes. We already handed them over to the distribution team this morning.”
At those words, Han Ingyu let out a sigh mixed with awe.
To finish all of that in only a few days….
He could not even estimate how much energy they had poured into this work.
“Using the skill of clinging to their pant legs, we got the distribution dates confirmed in a short period.”
“Did HS ask for them to be released quickly?”
“That’s not it, but 4WAY, who received a song from HS, is also getting good reactions right now, and The Moon is hurrying their release too.”
“And?”
“We can’t be later than them, and we can’t be lacking compared to them either. We all received HS songs equally.”
At Gi Yeonseon’s words, the other engineers also added, “That’s right, that’s right!” in agreement.
The skeleton soldiers who had seemed on the verge of death just a moment ago had their eyes shining brightly again, as if they had revived after drinking potions.
“Now there’s only one song left, so let’s hurry up and finish only the parts each of us is in charge of.”
“Yes!”
“Let’s quickly finish it off and go to the sauna. Swimming bet, call?”
“Sounds good.”
Han Ingyu watched them and suddenly became curious.
These people…
Since they had been shut inside the studio, they must know absolutely nothing about the “tanghulu ASMR” incident, right?
“Instead, you guys missed something else.”
“Pardon? What do you mean….”
“You’ll probably be the slowest in the company.”
Before questions could pour out, Han Ingyu left the workroom with a playful smile on his face.
And as he looked at the closed door, he thought.
To these people….
Just how much meaning did the existence known as HS have?
No matter how much he thought about it, it was simply difficult to measure.
A few days after that.
Lee Sol was so happy that she would have no regrets even if she died right now.
The reason was…
For the first time in her life, she had watched senior singers’ pre-recorded stages backstage at a music show, and 4WAY, including herself, had also gone up onto that stage.
How moving was that?
They had tried so hard to break through, but even the very first slot had always been fiercely competitive, and it had always been canceled, so they had never once gone up.
They had only performed at things like local university festivals or regional event stages.
‘Wow…’
It was the first time in her life that she had stood on a stage perfectly equipped with dozens of cameras sparkling toward 4WAY and complete settings.
Was that all?
She had been happy just for the song to be registered on music platforms….
But when she came to her senses, it had entered the real-time chart.
[ 89th, Luv, Luv, Luv – 4WAY ]
It could be called barely making it in, but even this moved Lee Sol enough to make tears come to her eyes. Though there were not many members, a fan cafe had also been opened.
It was not a regular broadcast, but they had received an offer to appear on a variety show, and yesterday they had also gone to a visible radio show.
Gradually, everything was beginning to change.
This was all thanks to HS, who had listened to their rude request.
— ♪ ♪ ♪
That was why she did not neglect practice either. When the members were about to grow exhausted, she raised them up.
— Luv, the sound toward you.
And that was why she could now stand on the stage she had only dreamed of.
— Luv, the wink toward you.
Once the pre-recording began, Lee Sol threw herself into the stage as if she would pour everything out in front of the camera.
— Luv, the hand gesture toward you.
Since she was finally able to show her face on a music broadcast, even if only for a few minutes, she had to show everything about 4WAY within that short time.
That time passed like an instant.
It was so short that, even though she was out of breath all the way to her chin, she still felt regretful. If she followed her heart, she wanted to grab the director and beg him to let them do it just five more times.
“Girls, you worked hard.”
With her heart full of regret, she came down from the stage.
Right.
It was regrettable, but they could slowly make themselves known like this.
Herself, and 4WAY….
Contrary to Lee Sol’s hopes, 4WAY’s song did not rise any further on the music chart.
Not only that, even the public’s interest cooled quickly.
Unfortunately…
It was because the army of artists under LS Entertainment had made their comebacks faster than expected.
Not all of them, but Seo Jini and Kang Hajun opened the first salvo.
Since they were centered on activities in Japan, they quickly succeeded in charting not only on domestic platforms, but also on the Oricon Chart.
That alone was perfect for drawing the public’s attention.
But to make matters worse, after all the Worlds play-in matches ended, and with the quarterfinals ahead, Revolution Games pre-released the theme song.
They had usually released it around this time, but this time it was a few days earlier than before.
“Oh.”
For Hyunseung, it could be called a good thing…
But for 4WAY, it was not particularly welcome.
Of course.
Hyunseung was not delicate enough to take that point into consideration.
“Wow….”
Kim Woohyun shook his head as he watched Hyunseung sitting in front of the monitor like an ARMY, repeatedly exclaiming in admiration while watching the game theme song MV.
‘When he’s like that, he really is just a child…’
Then he pressed the space bar and stopped the video.
“Ah, why did you stop it?”
“Your eyes will get worse.”
“What am I, a kid?”
“You are a kid. What else?”
He had also watched it once or twice himself for monitoring purposes, but wasn’t it a bit much to watch only that for two hours?
“More importantly, 4WAY’s song performance is lower than expected. You may not care either way, but since your name is attached to it, it bothers me.”
Kim Woohyun held out a clearly organized analysis report of Korean music platform performance and added an explanation.
“Of course, compared to their previously released songs, it can be said to be an absurdly good number, but for something with your name attached to it, it’s too low. Of course, it’s also true the timing was bad because it overlapped with the other kids’ comebacks….”
“I knew it would be like that.”
However, Hyunseung dismissed it in one sentence, as if he had little interest.
“That group won’t last long anyway.”
“What?”
“I’m saying they’ll definitely fail before long.”
Kim Woohyun could not understand the part about them failing.
Hyunseung was someone who only gave songs to “instruments” that seemed like they would succeed.
Of course.
He said he did it for fun, but not a single singer he chose had ever failed.
A guy whose ear and selection standards were that strict had given a song to a group he was certain would fail….
“Then why did you give them a song?”
“To try working a miracle?”
“What on earth does that mean?”
Kim Woohyun asked again what he meant.
“They didn’t have a small but solid fandom like The Moon, and they also don’t have a powerful agency like LS Entertainment.”
“That may be true, but there’s no way you’d give a song to someone who couldn’t make it….”
“Just one person. I did see potential in Lee Sol.”
“Really? Then that means they could do well, doesn’t it?”
“No. Their foundation is too weak, so no matter how much Lee Sol tries to work a miracle by herself, they’ll shatter before long.”
Hyunseung explained, point by point, the reasons they would fail.
But since Kim Woohyun did not know much about 4WAY in detail, he could not ask anything more.
Probably…
Seeing Hyunseung declare it to that extent, it must be certain that they would fail.
“Well, who knows? Maybe that really won’t be the case?”
“Easy for you to say.”
“They might work a miracle.”
After ending with those abstract words, Hyunseung suddenly became serious and looked down at his phone.
“Ah, but no matter how I think about it, this is too much…”
Was it because 4WAY’s performance being too low was bothering him after all?
“Considering your name value, it was pretty bad.”
“Right? At this point, shouldn’t they at least contact me?”
“They haven’t contacted you since then either?”
“Yes, not even one call. I even gave them my number and told them to contact me first.”
“The song’s been released for how long, and they haven’t contacted you even once? Wow, I didn’t see them that way!”
As if matching Hyunseung, who was growing increasingly worked up, Kim Woohyun even hit the table as he added that.
“Looking at their character, they have no choice but to fail!”
“Hey, they shouldn’t fail.”
“Huh? Just now, you said they were going to fail.”
“Me? When?”
“No, you said 4WAY would fail before long….”
Kim Woohyun trailed off as he sensed something strange.
“No, I mean Duel.”
Then Hyunseung pointed at the character in the paused video.
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