Chapter 50

Just as the conflict was about to escalate into a fight, executives from another division passed between them.

The flames that had flared up abruptly died down when the Division Four employees rose from their seats first. Of course, they made absolutely no effort to hide their displeasure as they stormed out of the cafeteria.

“What the hell is wrong with those people?!”

Back at the office, Assistant Manager Kim vented his fury. Manager Yoon, who regained their composure as quickly as they had snapped at the other group, analyzed the situation.

“That division has middle-aged executives who are so invested in the company that they act as though it’s part of their own body.”

Executive Director Choi Dongjin was the most obvious example.

“Looks like it rubbed off on the employees too.”

“Ah....”

“Let’s not become like that. A company is just a company. In the end, that makes us the winners.”

Now that they thought about it, they were all corporate serfs working for the same company. Squabbling over whether Division Four or Division Five was better was... rather pathetic.

Before long, everyone calmed down and returned their attention to work. Around that time, Kwon Taeyoung received a brief report about the lunchtime incident.

“They’re not children. Why are they fighting over food...?”

With his fingers pressed to his temple, Kwon Taeyoung’s thoughts were as follows.

I understand that they were acting childish, but do we really have to sink to their level over a cheese pork cutlet?

As someone who had never been particularly interested in food, Kwon Taeyoung could not fully sympathize with Assistant Manager Kim’s sense of injustice.

Is pork cutlet really that important...?

The man muttering this was someone who had continued to manage his own diet all this time despite no one asking him to.

Even so, Kwon Taeyoung did his best to empathize with the employees in his division.

“...I’ll buy everyone a snack around three.”

“Director, you do realize that handing out something like poke bowls would make the backlash even worse right now, don’t you?”

“.......”

“It has to be aggressively unhealthy carbohydrates. Something that’ll spike their blood sugar and gently melt away their anger.”

“Understood....”

Kwon Taeyoung let out the deepest sigh he had breathed since becoming an office worker instead of an idol.

“I’ll leave the menu to you, Team Leader. Please order something suitable. The marketing team needs to be in good condition today.”

“Right, of course.”

It was not an especially major event, but it was a small occasion that they could not afford to take lightly.

Today was the day Gowon, Division Five’s golden boy, would hold his first Meverse livestream.

Fans had been requesting a livestream for some time. However, after realizing how painfully oblivious Gowon was to internet memes and fan jokes, they had continued postponing it.

Gowon’s fans seemed to enjoy the fact that he did not act like a typical twenty-year-old, calling it his “quaint old-fashioned charm.”

Still, they had to prevent dead air or an awkward atmosphere during a livestream he would be hosting alone, without any group members.

For that reason, the marketing team had spent an entire week making Gowon study livestreams by other singers.

After all, during his previous promotions, he had relentlessly recycled only the cheek-heart and back-of-the-hand V poses he had learned on <Debut Chart>....

After leaving the director’s office and returning to their desk, the team leader asked the person in front of them,

“Where’s Gowon right now?”

“He’s doing correction recordings in Hanje’s studio. He said he’d work out, shower, and be in the conference room by six.”

“Oh, honestly. I should have given birth to him myself. How can he be this admirable?”

He was the perfect model of an idol preparing for a seven-o’clock livestream.

Before the broadcast, the marketing team spent some time checking online reactions once more.

Naturally, Gowon’s fans were eagerly anticipating it. They had secured plenty of prominent fan accounts that would not merely find minor mistakes cute, but squeeze every possible drop of charm out of those moments and upload them to social media.

The next-largest group consisted of people who passed their affection down through K-Dom’s idol lineage.

People who had loved one generation of K-Dom idols after another, beginning with Young Ace, planned to drop in and see for themselves who this Gowon was that had caused such a stir during the first half of the year.

There were also people who wanted to see the first livestream by the idol famous for using Boggle in such a funny way, viewers who missed <Debut Chart>, and many others who pressed the heart button on the livestream announcement.

Naturally, there were negative reactions as well. Most were complete nonsense, but the one criticism with at least some substance was the “preferential treatment” that Newton’s fans had been consistently alleging.

They argued that the support Gowon was receiving in his first year was on an entirely different level from the push Newton had received during theirs.

Of course, fans had no way of knowing internal circumstances such as the differences between each division head’s management style or how Hanzel had become attached to Gowon as his producer.

From the outside, it could easily appear as though Gowon, who had come in from elsewhere, was being favored over Newton, K-Dom’s legitimate homegrown group.

“Looks like we’re going to attract some trolls. Let’s not show Gowon the comments in real time.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea. We’ll review them first and only put selected ones on the screen.”

Whatever people said, they could simply ignore it.

Astonishingly, their artist was a unicorn who barely used social media at all.

All the marketing team had to do was keep their talented boy’s ears firmly covered during the livestream.

That afternoon, doughnuts and sweet drinks were suddenly distributed throughout Division Five. The employees worked with slightly greater enthusiasm than usual as they waited for seven o’clock.

“Hello.”

Oh, look how admirable he is.

The marketing team members once again had a thought they had already had countless times that day.

Gowon had promised to arrive by six, an hour before the livestream. Determined to keep even that promise perfectly, he arrived at 5:50.

“Your skin is already so good that we should just put on a little lip balm. Let your hair fall naturally... It would be better to take off the jacket.”

“All right.”

Gowon obediently removed his windbreaker and set it down beside him.

The camera installed by the marketing team displayed a handsome man in a light sky-blue T-shirt. Gowon checked the self-view, gave a small wave, then lowered his hand in embarrassment.

“Gowon, once the broadcast begins, fans will start coming in after receiving the notification. Wait until a decent number of people have joined, then greet them and say something like, ‘Thank you for coming.’”

“We’ll put suitable comments and questions on this tablet. Just react to them naturally. You can skip anything you don’t want to answer.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Preparations went smoothly thanks to their gentle, cooperative artist. As Gowon listened to the employees’ instructions and warmed up his voice, the scheduled starting time of seven o’clock rapidly approached.

The number of viewers surged the instant they began the broadcast.

“Hello. I’m Gowon.”

Gowon calmly greeted the fans, waving both hands.

His introduction and the brief update he gave about his recent activities proceeded just as calmly.

As expected, trolls began pouring in about five minutes later. People obsessed with <Debut Chart>, accusations that he was a parasite clinging to Baek Hanje, and comments related to Newton appeared throughout the chat.

However, the marketing team blocked them with lightning speed and sent only pleasant messages that would not fluster Gowon to the tablet in front of him.

“Lunch? I had Chinese food for lunch today. Someone else paid, actually.... I really want to buy him a meal at least once, but every time I offer, he says it’s fine and only makes fun of me.”

They had told him that the fans had come to hear about him, so he should avoid talking about Baek Hanje whenever possible.

Following that advice, Gowon referred to him vaguely, but most viewers immediately realized he was talking about Hanje.

Since it’s already come up, we might as well use it.

“Gowon, how would you feel if an elementary school student passing by offered to buy you ice cream? ...Hmm. I think I’d tell them to save the money and buy two for themselves later. That must be how Hanje feels...? No, I’m an adult. I work too. Wait, how did you know I was talking about Hanje...?”

The chat filled with laughter.

“A cute pose I learned recently.... Oh, this one. They told me these were cat ears.”

Gowon formed an upside-down V with each hand and raised them above his head.

There was no need to lament how old that trend was or ask why he had only just learned it. The chat was already in complete chaos.

“Baby Demon King black cat....”

Gowon looked bewildered.

Fans sent messages such as, “Babies hate being called babies. You have to call them big boys,” and the marketing team enthusiastically passed those messages along, well aware that there was also considerable demand for his visibly flustered expression.

Ah, unlike a certain other division, the future here is shining with every color of the rainbow.

The thought crossed one employee’s mind, the resentment from the cafeteria still lingering.

But then, in the middle of a livestream that had been proceeding perfectly well, a strangely large number of viewers suddenly left.

What is this?

One employee exchanged glances with the person beside them.

He’s talking reasonably well, and this is a pretty entertaining part. There’s no reason for people to leave.

An employee turned away, took out their phone, and began investigating.

They immediately frowned.

Every member of Newton had started a group livestream.

Are they out of their fucking minds?!

This was when the phrase “no professional ethics” was actually appropriate.

No matter what, this was their junior artist’s first livestream. Gowon’s broadcast would not even last an hour, and only twenty minutes had passed. Yet Newton had jumped in at the same time?

As a full group?

The first people to leave were presumed to be the Newton fans who had been disrupting the atmosphere, along with people who liked both Newton and Gowon.

Once that happened, the trolls became even more excited.

They’re sitting down over here, but over there they’re standing up and having a huge challenge party lololol

Whoa, they spoiled the follow-up song

Gowon’s fans, dragged into the chaos, furiously demanded that people stop talking about another livestream.

The comment section had become a complete mess. The employees did their best to pick out positive messages and send them to Gowon, but there was no way someone as observant as he was could fail to notice their reactions.

“Did something happen...?”

An employee hurriedly smiled and signaled that everything was fine.

Displaying the results of all his practice, Gowon safely finished the livestream without incident.

“Good work, Gowon! Go home and rest!”

After sending Gowon home, the employees erupted in fury.

“Why did they suddenly barge in like that?!”

“Apparently, when someone complained, they said they started at 7:17 because it was ‘Hyeonsol o’clock.’ You know, because of his birthday. And the livestream was supposed to be a surprise....”

“Then do it at dawn! It’s nineteen hundred hours right now!”

After shouting as loudly as their frustration demanded, one of them suddenly remembered something.

“Come to think of it, didn’t they also copy us by prereleasing one song and then revealing the second as a double title track?”

“Whoa, you’re right!”

In reality, it was a strategy that had become fairly common in the idol industry, but at that moment, Division Five was not prepared to listen to reason.

“They have no professional ethics, and they’re shameless on top of it....”

“That’s Division Four for you....”

Thus began Division Five’s own descent into corporate tribalism.

***

We Are the True Heirs to yACE! Newton Unveils Teaser Images for <New Moon>

The legitimate lineage of K-Dom boy groups continues with Newton. Follow-up track with a dark hip-hop mood begins rollout...

No matter how one looked at it, this was an attack aimed at Gowon for being close to Young Ace.

“Wow, seriously...! They’ve never even exchanged a single word with the Young Ace members, yet they’re calling themselves Young Ace’s heirs? Hanje, you’d be completely justified in suing them over this, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, well....”

The atmosphere inside the company had been alarming lately.

Division Five already needed twice as many bodies just to prepare Gowon’s comeback, yet they were also engaged in a war of nerves with Division Four.

Even people who knew that labels such as “the next yACE,” “the girl-group version of yACE,” and “yACE’s younger siblings” were dragged out every time a rookie debuted were acting like this....

It seemed they really had reached the point just before grabbing each other by the collar.

“Everyone, please calm down for now....”

“They’re right, though. Young Ace and Gowon are both in Division Five. They can’t use Young Ace to take an indirect shot at Gowon. Can’t we complain to central management about this?”

“We already filed a protest! I’ll tell them to respond quickly!”

The department responsible for press responses across Divisions One through Five dragged its feet for quite some time. Only after repeated demands did it finally issue a response.

Please, seriously, save me....

How is this anything other than getting caught in the crossfire?

We’re struggling too. Every division tells us something different, and we have to watch everyone’s mood.

Even so, the people they were most careful around were those in Division Four, where Executive Director Choi worked.

Despite their complaints, they were ultimately disregarding Division Five’s objections.

Gowon’s status.

Gowon

Appearance Lv.105

Vocals Lv.102

Dance Lv.119

Stamina 67%

Recognition ♥♥♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

(Inactive) -

Current Status: Practic■.

Current MAX LEVEL: 120

The situation definitely isn’t good.

Gowon’s Recognition, which had been rising steadily, had come to an abrupt halt.

The fact that the flood of promotional support from K-Dom had shifted to Newton was unavoidable, since Newton was currently promoting.

But—

That guy is the fake, and we’re the real thing!

If media campaigns like that continued, the attention that had been directed toward Gowon would be unfairly pulled away from him.