episode_0169

Empty.

“Hmm… ?”

The reporter was about to get into his car when a hand stopped him and he nervously turned around.

“What the heck… .”

and….

“… … Huh?”

“… … .”

“… … .”

He became polite as he saw the two men in black suits looking at him with sharp eyes.

“… … .”

One of them was bald and huge. He even had a scar on his forehead… and the man behind him, who seemed to be his superior, had a black panther-like appearance. He was handsome as a man, but he had a very ferocious impression.

The reporter realized this as soon as he saw the two people’s external appearances.

These people… .

‘He’s a gangster… .’

It was hard to believe that there were still gangsters in 21st century South Korea, but judging from their external appearance, they were truly perfect gangsters.

‘What the hell are those thugs doing to me…?’

I thought I had experienced everything while working as a reporter, but there was nothing I could do about this primal fear.

The reporter asked the men in front of him, feeling like he was prey to a wild beast.

“Who, who are you…?”

“… … .”

In response to his question, the man who seemed to be the superior of the two looked at the reporter fiercely, then extended his hand and said.

“Business card.”

“… … Yes?”

“Give me your business card.”

“… Ah, yes… .”

Ssss.

When asked for a business card, the reporter quickly took out one and handed it to him without even knowing what was going on.

The man took the reporter’s business card, glanced at it, and then continued speaking in a fierce tone.

“Entertainment Daily Reporter Kim Cheol-su… ?”

“Ah… , yes, that’s right… . I’m Kim Cheol-su… .”

“If there’s a strange article about Ha Ye-rin today…, you’ll have to face me again.”

“… … Yes?”

The reporter was momentarily dumbfounded when the story of Ha Ye-rin suddenly came up.

hereto….

Kkugit.

‘Eek…!’

The man put his hand on the reporter’s shoulder as if he could no longer bear it and began to press down with incredible force.

“And if you ask me that question one more time, I won’t tolerate it anymore.”

“Ugguggguggeuk…!! Ah, I understand…!!”

In the face of overwhelming violence, a reporter’s sense of mission was of no importance.

The reporter gave in to the man and nodded quickly.

Only after seeing that did the man let go of his shoulder and gestured toward the reporter’s car with his chin.

“If you understand, then get out now.”

“Yes, yes… !”

At those words, the reporter got into the car in a state of panic.

But even as he rode in the car, his curiosity, one of the biggest reasons he became a reporter, came into play.

So he mustered up his courage, rolled down his car window and asked the man.

“But, what do you two do…?”

“… Us?”

When asked what his identity was, the man smiled and answered.

“Rookies, especially Ha Ye-rin’s biggest fans.”

“… … Yes?”

“Fan. I said fan? Why can’t uncles be idol fans?”

“Ah, no… , that, that’s not it… . Yes, yes… ! Got it! ”

Rookies fans are fucking crazy.

Those things look like they would be 8090 night guards.

But of course, the reporter couldn’t put that thought into words and just got in his car and ran away.

and….

‘If there’s a strange article about Ha Ye-rin today… you’ll have to face me again.’

For fear of what the gangsters would say, they were unable to publish an article about Ha Ye-rin’s parents.

**

“Hoo… .”

Kang Hyung-man barely managed to suppress his anger by sighing as he watched the reporter’s car leave.

Yerin is already very sensitive these days.

Why would it happen to that kind of kid… .

‘Then, Ms. Ha Ye-rin. What do you think about the fact that Ms. Ye-rin’s parents were booked by the police on charges of fraud, document forgery, and child abuse?’

…bringing out the most vulnerable story.

It was only recently that Yerin’s parents were reported to the police.

And Kang Hyung-man didn’t tell Ha Ye-rin this news.

I had intended to not speak to you at all, if possible.

It was too cruel to once again bring up the topic of her parents to Yerin, who was already having a hard time preparing for her debut.

‘But how dare that little rag… .’

Kang Hyung-man wanted to beat up that reporter, but he didn’t do it because he thought it would be a burden to Ye-rin.

“Brother.”

“Yes, Sang-gu.”

“The showcase is almost over, but can you leave without seeing Yerin’s face even once?”

Kang Hyeong-man shook his head in response to Sang-gu’s question.

“You know, right? During the contract period with NAS, we can’t get involved in any Rookies activities. If we go to say hello for no reason, it could cause misunderstandings with NAS.”

“… … .”

So, the two of them had personally purchased showcase tickets to see Yerin.

Both Kang Hyung-man and Sang-goo desperately wanted to meet Ye-rin and talk to her in person, but… they had no choice but to hold back.

“Still, I think the showcase was a success. That’s fortunate. We’re busy, so let’s go back. Yerin said to come see us secretly like this often.”

“Yep.”

In fact, the two people who had a lot of work to do… decided to return to the company while they were there to give a talk to the reporter who had left early.

The reason why two people have a lot of work is….

This was because Brother Planning had also started to select new trainees other than Yerin.

Up until now, it seemed like a company just for Yerin, but in fact, Brothers Entertainment was also a company with a grand dream of becoming the best entertainment company in Korea.

So the two of them moved quickly to create a brotherhood project that Yerin would be proud of when she returned a year later.

**

Two days.

To be exact, we were given a total of 42 hours of vacation time, and the thing we spent the most time on during our vacation was… .

“Cool… .”

… of course it was sleep.

We had been working like crazy for the past two weeks, sleeping only three hours a night, so we slept like we had passed out.

Sleep…, sleep, sleep again….

I woke up for a moment, chewed on the salad the company had given me in advance, and then went back to sleep.

But even we who slept for two days had to wake up and rub our eyes at times… .

“Guys, wake up. Our music will be released soon.”

It was the very moment when the sound source for was released.

“Yerin, Yujin. Huh? Wake up quickly~.”

“Woong… .”

At Lee Hye-jeong’s call, Seo Yu-jin and I, who were sleeping tightly hugging each other in bed, woke up, rubbing our eyes.

The time is 11:30 p.m.

There were 30 minutes left until the release of the song.

So, I took Seo Yu-jin, who was still half-asleep, out to the living room, and all the members were waiting for midnight, the release time, with more nervous faces than ever.

As I was sitting there, Park Yu-jeong shouted in a joyful voice.

“Wow…! Our music video has over 6 million views!”

“… Really?”

“To be exact, 6,687,561 times!”

After waking up to Park Yoo-jung’s words, I quickly went to the YouTube Rookies channel.

“Wow… , it’s true.”

It’s been about 27 hours since the music video was uploaded and it’s already reached 6.6 million views…

‘Oh, wow, it was really popular.’

Now, a girl group that just debuted has this many views on their music video… I realized the fraudulent nature of audition programs once again and went into the comments section.

-This is crazy, this is crazy

-First of all, what is Lee Hye-jeong’s voice?

-Wow ㅠㅠ Our kids sing so well ㅠㅠ

-It’s true that Rookies is made up of only talented people.

-I put it in Flie right away, I really like the song ㅠㅠ

Just like the teaser, the comments were very positive.

is a song that Han Si-woo, a top producer in South Korea, put a lot of effort into producing.

Even a small number of rookies have ears to hear, so they can’t just carelessly criticize the song.

What stood out to me in that clean comment section was….

-Yerin ♡♡♡♡♡

-rookies so good ♡

These were comments from foreigners that were frequent, although still few in number.

‘I thought there wouldn’t be many overseas fans, but I still see them here and there.’

Whatever the case, this was a positive sign.

I was satisfied with this part and next I looked at the Internet articles.

‘Then, Ms. Ha Ye-rin. What do you think about the fact that Ms. Ye-rin’s parents were booked by the police on charges of fraud, document forgery, and child abuse?’

‘…They are not my parents anymore.’

The answer I gave at the showcase back then could have been seen as negative depending on how it was written.

So I was worried that maybe there were negative articles about Rookies because of me…!

“Hmm… ?”

Internet articles… even articles from very small newspapers, there wasn’t a single one that looked down on our rookies.

If I had to pick one negative thing… .

[Controversy over the extreme popularity of Ha Ye-rin’s uncle fans]

“… … in?”

There was this weird article.

“What are uncle fans….”

Although I don’t have exact statistics, from what I’ve seen at showcases, the main fans of Rookies are women in their teens and twenties, followed by men in their teens and twenties.

Because we are fans of my uncle….

Of course, it’s not like there aren’t any, but I don’t think there are that many to the extent that you could say they’re that extreme.

Other fans also seemed to know this and simply treated the internet article as a flyer and did not read it carefully.

At that time, I was also moving on to the next Internet article.

“… It’s exactly on time.”

“… … !”

At Yoo Seol’s gentle words, all the members who were doing other things gathered in one place.

And soon… .

“Oh!”

“Our song is on the music site!”

We were able to confirm that was being searched on various music sites.

At that time, Lee Hye-jeong spoke in an anxious voice.

“But why doesn’t it show up on the chart?”

“What are you talking about, Unnie! The charts are updated every hour. Our song came out at the top of the hour, so it has to be updated at 1AM at the latest.”

“Ah, that, that’s right… .”

There’s no way Lee Hye-jeong wouldn’t know such a simple thing… I guess she was really nervous.

In fact, Lee Hye-jeong wasn’t the only one who was nervous.

Seo Yu-jin, Park Yu-jeong, Na Hanna, and the world’s Yoo Seol-do.

and….

Shiver.

…me too.

Our Rookies members each quietly streamed while shivering.

of course….

“… Everyone, don’t expect too much. The ‘Watermelon’ Top 100 chart only calculates 24-hour views at dawn. We might not make it into the chart.”

“… … Yes.”

As Yoo Seol said, there was a high possibility that we wouldn’t be able to chart at 1 a.m.

The Top 100 chart of ‘Subak’, the largest music site in Korea, is calculated by adding 50% of 24-hour views and 50% of 1-hour views.

However, to prevent hoarding and chart lining, charts are determined by calculating only 24-hour views in the early morning.

That is, while other songs are calculated based on 24-hour views, our Rookies’ “Secret Girl” has to be compared to only 1-hour views.

No matter how popular our rookies were, they wouldn’t have been able to enter the Top 100 chart at 1 a.m. with just 1 hour of views.

So we repeated to ourselves not to have high expectations.

And at 1am… .

“It’s 1 o’clock… .”

“Come here, everyone. Let’s check it out together.”

We decided to gather in front of the phone of the real leader (I am a puppet) Yoo Seol and check the rankings together.

And the moment I refreshed the chart…!

“… … !!”

We couldn’t help but open our eyes wide when we saw the results.