Chapter 925: We are, well... uh... henchmen. (15)

Content uploaded by the HBS MyTube account.

[HBS Old TV Rewind]

It was a format that had become common lately.

Perhaps realizing that MyTube was profitable, broadcasting stations had suddenly started saying, “We’re on MyTube♡.”

Terrestrial networks were uploading old dramas and past clips that had once gone viral.

“It’d be nice if they uploaded Fairy Commi or something.”

“What’s that?”

“Jiho, didn’t you watch it when you were little? A kids’ drama?”

“A kids’ drama...? I watched Full Moon Angel.”

What was that?

Something like Sailor Moon?

Feeling the generation gap even at a five-year difference, I turned my attention back to the screen.

What mattered now was this.

“Um...”

Junghyun spoke.

“I’m a little embarrassed.”

“It’s fine, Junghyun. No need to be embarrassed.”

“No...”

“Come here. Hurry.”

An old clip that seemed certain to contain Junghyun’s dark history.

It was a rare opportunity.

“You don’t get chances like this often.”

Ri Hyuk snickered.

“For us, every tiny little thing from the past is already online.”

“Exactly.”

Footage from when I was a trainee at TJ.

Ri Hyuk winning a children’s song contest.

Biju already standing out on a middle school retreat stage.

Eight-year-old Wang Jiho throwing a tantrum at an amusement park and getting immortalized on the news.

Compared to that, Junghyun had relatively little old footage.

Biju stared at the thumbnail.

“It’s honestly amazing no one knew until now.”

“Seriously.”

“Maybe because Grandpa was the main focus?”

Since the broadcast centered on Junghyun’s grandfather, people might not have noticed Junghyun was in it.

And it was from the early 2000s.

Even the 2002 World Cup was already sixteen years ago.

“I’m not watching.”

“Hey.”

“.......”

We sandwiched a squirming Junghyun between us and played the video on the hotel TV.

“You’ve got to watch something like this on a big screen.”

“That’s true.”

The video began.

A logo typical of early 2000s television appeared.

<Oh My, There’s Something Like This!>

A strange bell ringing throughout a village every midnight.

A grandfather strolling on a cow while wearing medieval armor.

A program that investigated unusual reports from everyday life.

Text appeared at the top of the screen.

[The Muscular Grandpa of Goesan County]

A playful narration typical of the era played.

Stock footage of cosmetics and agricultural products flashed by.

[In this so-called well-being boom, people’s interest in their bodies is steadily rising!]

A unique tip had come in to the production team.

A staff member awkwardly acted while holding a phone.

[What? There’s a muscular grandpa in Goesan County...?]

Then a caption showed the specific township.

Villagers gave interviews.

[Ah! That man’s strength is incredible! Incredible!]

[There’s no one in our village who doesn’t know him~ His body’s so strong, even young folks can’t keep up.]

[He’s something else entirely.]

Curiosity about the protagonist built.

The staff ran.

[Th-There he is!]

Pretending to find him, they rushed toward a man riding a bicycle through the fields.

As the camera approached, Junghyun’s grandfather asked awkwardly,

[Uh... camera... what’s going on?]

The acting was so clumsy it was obvious he’d been handed a script.

We burst into laughter, and Junghyun nodded.

“Our family trait is that we can’t lie well.”

The name [Kim Taekman] appeared onscreen.

By today’s standards, he looked somewhere between middle aged and elderly, but back then he was simply called Grandpa.

The program continued in typical fashion.

[Let’s arm wrestle a young man!]

Even when several local young men rushed him, Junghyun’s grandfather defeated them in one second.

[We reveal photos from his youth, when he even fought wild boars.]

Then came the mandatory old photo album segment.

We gasped at how handsome he had been.

“That’s why he’s still handsome now.”

“Wow, looking at this, Junghyun hyung really resembles Grandpa.”

“Grandpa’s features are a bit sharper than mine.”

We admired the youthful photo of Junghyun’s grandfather with thick eyebrows and bright eyes.

Now it was time to dig into why he became muscular, what story lay behind it—

[Well, I was just born like this....]

That was it.

There was no dramatic backstory.

He had simply been strong from birth.

It seemed the production team wanted to force some narrative.

[But even this muscular grandpa has a big worry....]

Junghyun’s grandfather sat on the wooden floor with a troubled expression.

“That’s the face he makes when he’s hungry.”

“...I see.”

Sad background music played.

[What could possibly be the hidden concern of this praised muscular grandpa?]

Junghyun’s grandfather answered in an interview.

[My grandson is quite weak.]

We turned to look at Junghyun.

[He’s so frail, I worry every day. I brew herbal tonics for him and feed him everything that’s good for the body, but he’s still so delicate.]

And the moment Junghyun appeared—

We all burst out laughing.

[Kim Junghyun / Grandson (8 years old)]

Little Junghyun lay under a blanket with a damp towel on his forehead.

It wasn’t funny because we knew his backstory.

It was just absurd.

Even at eight, his body looked like that of an upper elementary school student.

He looked extremely healthy.

“Was I really sick then, hyung?”

“No... Grandpa said since he was going on TV, I should act as sick as possible. I did use the towel sometimes because herbal medicine made me feel warm, but that day he told me to really pretend.”

Junghyun’s grandfather looked down at him with concern.

The caption read:

[His gaze upon his especially frail grandson]

We clapped and laughed.

Then came an interview with first grader Junghyun.

The staff asked,

[Are you very weak?]

[Yes....]

His baby fat still slightly round, but clearly destined to grow into a handsome man.

His grandfather walked him to school.

That alone looked fine.

But—

“How tall is Grandpa?”

“About 188? He says he’s shrunk a little with age.”

When holding his grandfather’s hand, Junghyun looked small and cute.

But once he stood among his elementary classmates, he suddenly looked like a giant.

His head was a full size taller than the others.

His grandfather watched him with a wistful expression.

“Hahahaha!”

“Ha!”

We could see the production team’s struggle.

‘We need some kind of story...’

It felt like they had tried hard to create a tiny, frail grandson.

As with such programs, the ending showed Grandpa making a [Special Health Tonic Dish!] and promising to gradually get his grandson into exercise.

Grandfather and grandson walked hand in hand.

The narration played.

[Junghyun must grow up healthy and strong~]

We clapped and laughed.

Junghyun covered his eyes with the back of his hand and let out a sad laugh while we checked the comments.

-Sir... the kid is literally a head taller than the others??ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-It’s so ridiculous it’s funnyㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-When those two walk together the perspective changesㅋㅋㅋㅋ Everyone else looks tiny

-How is that a first graderㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Fraaaaaaailㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-The 2-liter water bottle in Grandpa’s hand looks like 500ml

-They look like a bear familyㅋㅋㅋㅋ So cute

Memes had already spread online.

Junghyun said with an embarrassed face,

“I’m staying off the internet for a while.”

“Hahaha!”

“No one is listening to me....”

“Hahahahaha!”

While we changed our messenger profile pictures to the “His gaze upon his especially frail grandson” meme—

Jiho laughed.

“We were the ones who went on variety, but Junghyun hyung became the issue. I’m jealous~”

“Seriously jealous.”

“He didn’t even appear properly and became the hottest one.”

Junghyun glared at us with triangular eyes while I laughed.

Ri Hyuk getting slapped by a carp.

Junghyun, frail from birth.

Each of my younger brothers had brought back something embarrassing.

I smiled.

“Hehehe.”

That’s right.

Adorable Wooju had passed through safely without generating a single meme.

“Look at Wooju hyung’s face. So smug.”

“He’s happy he got through unscathed.”

As he grinned—

A post from the fan café caught my eye.

A post calling me.

[This guy looks like oppa but dresses better than him]

Feeling competitive, I clicked.

A photo appeared.

It was the WooJunghyun Bot.

I commented:

-He’s not wearing anything though?

Replies flooded in.

-Holy!!!!

-Yeah, he’s literally wearing nothing

Resisting the urge to hit the [Ban] button, I typed again.

-Where do you live?

-Are you planning to become famous like Squid Princess?

As I scrolled the café—

“Hmm....”

“What’s wrong, hyung?”

“The fan café’s getting harder to manage. How do I explain it... it’s getting too massive.”

It felt overloaded.

The volume of daily posts was enormous, scattered everywhere, making it hard to grasp the overall flow.

Maybe because we had so many fans.

“It’s like how direct democracy works in a city state but not in modern society.”

“I have no idea what you just said, Ri Hyuk hyung.”

“Fifty tables at a chicken restaurant but five hundred customers.”

“Ah.”

Exactly.

Fan cafés weren’t built to handle millions.

“Hmm....”

But nothing was better for communicating with fans.

It was different from Instagram posts or live streams on Y app.

If we could improve it somehow—

“You guys feel it too, right?”

“Yes, a little.”

“Before, posts came slowly. Now you’d have to check all day.”

“There’s a lot of English now too.”

Overseas fans without other gathering spaces often found their way here.

Late at night, when moderators were asleep, trolls spammed insults.

Ri Hyuk said,

“I think it’s time for a new platform.”

That sounded promising.

“A new platform?”

“One that satisfies needs current communication can’t.”

We nodded.

“Yeah, that’d be good.”

“Fans could communicate more directly, and it’d be easier for us to reply....”

“Hey, that’s actually a good idea.”

As everyone liked it—

Biju fidgeted.

“I still kind of like the fan café vibe more....”

“...That’s true.”

“Chatting about fan stuff, writing long posts, reading them together. There’s something special between fans.”

“From the fans’ perspective?”

“Y-Yes! From Souffle’s perspective.”

He smiled.

“But the café’s gotten too big... it probably needs improvement.”

With Biju agreeing—

We widened our eyes and brainstormed.

Ri Hyuk filled pages with features and ideas.

“This is amazing.”

“These ideas are really good.”

“Hyungs, let’s tell the team leader!”

“Should we?”

“We’re already developing it.”

“....”

“There’s a project underway.”

“....”

We closed our eyes.

‘They were already on it.’

‘Our TF team is competent....’

The team leader adjusted his glasses.

“If there are issues obvious enough for you to notice, of course we knew first. That’s our job.”

“I see....”

“We’ve been discussing it internally for seven or eight months.”

Manager Hong nodded.

“Even increasing staff couldn’t keep up.”

We were shocked to hear daily users surpassed many mid sized communities.

No wonder hundreds of posts appeared in a minute.

“People really think alike.”

“We thought the same. Just earlier.”

Manager Hong reviewed our paper.

“This will be included.”

“Oh.”

“This feature could be abused by trolls, and this one is being discussed with app developers....”

“App?”

“Yeah?”

“Not a website?”

We’d imagined an online community.

Manager Hong said,

“Think of it as a community accessed through an app. Like Y app, it’ll have live streaming too.”

“What about Y app?”

Seokhwan answered.

“They’re accumulating losses.”

“....”

“At this rate, maybe two or three more years.”

“What about our live content?”

“It disappears.”

“....”

We hadn’t considered that.

“That’s why we’re planning an independent platform.”

“I understand.”

“The market’s big enough now. Worth the challenge.”

Jiho said,

“Wow. That’s impressive.”

“Not really. All major agencies are working on it secretly.”

Including TJ.

“The K-pop pie is different now. Much bigger.”

“When the pie is small, exchange is free. When it grows, everyone builds walls. We’re just building ours.”

It was exciting.

“How far along is development?”

“It hasn’t started. Planned for late next year or early the year after.”

Late 2019 or early 2020.

Felt distant.

“One final stage remains.”

“What stage?”

“Your input.”

“Oh.”

He smiled at our proposal.

He seemed even more pleased than usual.

“This is perfect.”

“It is!”

Ri Hyuk tilted his head.

“Is one of our ideas especially good?”

“The best one.”

They pointed.

“The name.”

“The name?”

We had proposed something like an official Lemon Entertainment site—

Not just for NewBlack, but for all artists.

“That name?”

“Not ordinary. There’s been controversy over the current one.”

“?”

“The CEO named it.”

“...!”

We swallowed.

“What’s the current name?”

Another TF team at Lemon Entertainment.

Working day and night to build the app.

They returned from lunch and sighed.

A sign on the office door read:

[Newtopia Development Team]

“Ha....”

“Whew....”

CEO Park Gyuho had personally named it.

-New from NewBlack! Combined with utopia! Newtopia! Hahaha!

After naming a broadcast NBS using NewBlack and Scarlet, he had regained confidence.

Everyone had swallowed their words.

‘It’s tacky.’

‘How is it this tacky.’

‘Sounds like nutria.’

But no one could object.

CEO Park Gyuho was legendary.

Especially to new TF members.

Director Jo Gyuhwan had said:

-Don’t worry too much. There will be a chance to fix the name.

They wondered what he meant.

Bang!

An employee burst in.

“Big news!”

“What?”

“Our app name is changing!”

“Really?”

“What is it?”

“Ade!”

Like lemonade.

Under a lemon-shaped logo, it would say [Ade].

Normally decent.

‘An angel.’

‘Such a beautiful name...!’

Employees were moved.

“Why did it change?”

“Well....”

She whispered.

“I’m not sure, but...”

“Yes...?”

“NewBlack said it was tacky.”

“....”

“Especially Wooju. He said absolutely no to Newtopia and just use Ade.”

“....”

Someone raised a hand.

“And CEO Park just accepted that?”

“Yes.”

The legendary CEO.

But above him were the true powers.

A rumor among employees:

-All of Lemon Entertainment’s power and wealth comes from Wooju.

“!”

“!!”

Only then did the new employees realize where the true power lay.