I Spent a Night with a Top Star Actress Chapter 10 - Crisis into opportunity.

I scratched my chin slowly and thought it over.

“Raise the stakes, huh…”

I left instinct out of it and weighed it on reason alone.

Right now Twenty is a girl group riding the classic flop-group track.

‘The member handling main visual and main vocal and the general director both got wiped out over a sponsorship.’

Even the god of music would have a hard time saving a girl group like this.

And I’m going to pull it off, starting now.

“Youth Journey,” the song the message from the future told me about.

I mean to take flop-group Twenty to number one on the charts with it.

Having finished weighing it, I took a deep breath and muttered.

“Right…. If it’s this much.”

The bet with the Division Head. Wouldn’t it be fine to get greedy?

No.

Shouldn’t I be getting greedy?

‘And the pieces line up front to back.’

The situation looked plausible too.

This chance, right now.

Look at it on reason alone and you’d be an idiot not to take it.

‘The problem is how to raise the stakes….’

I couldn’t just blurt out a request for a bigger bonus.

After rolling it around in my head, I ended up clicking my tongue.

“I think I need to watch this a while.”

It was still early.

Meaning the board wasn’t set yet.

But looking at the way things are flowing, it seems I don’t need to go out of my way to set it myself.

The chance will come on its own, and all I have to do is catch it properly.

“Right, well…. let’s leave it there for now.”

What matters right now is the Twenty girls.

Thoughts in order, I started walking again toward Practice Room 3.

---

I threw open the door of Practice Room 3.

There was Twenty, deep in dance practice.

“!”

Four girls stopped dead, shoulders jerking.

Meeting the eyes of the Twenty girls naturally, I thought.

‘Not the welcoming sort…. the uncomfortable sort?’

Fair enough.

My face isn’t a particularly good one.

My skin’s dark, the outer corners of my eyes turn up a little, and overall it makes for a sharp impression.

And I haven’t seen them since the first day, so being welcomed would be stranger.

That left an awkward current circling between me and Twenty, but I laid on the iron plate and greeted them.

“You’ve seen me before, right? Us?”

We’d be rubbing along together for a while now, and even if we couldn’t get close, awkward wasn’t allowed.

Luckily, one member noticed the effort.

A girl with short hair and a piercing in her ear raised a hand.

“Chief?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m Chief Kwon Chan, Manager Lee Ye-ji’s supervisor.”

I introduced myself briefly and asked the Twenty girls a question.

“Could you introduce yourselves? Starting from over there, in order.”

The short-haired girl who’d spoken to me first answered with energy.

“I’m Nova!”

“Stage name?”

“Yes, a stage name. My real name is…. it’s embarrassing, so I’m not saying!”

Piercing, short hair, Nova, filed.

I turned my head to look at the brown-haired girl beside her.

“Helloooo.”

I tilted my head before I could stop myself.

This brown-haired girl….

Her speech is a little halting?

“I, I came from Osaka in Japan… I’m Reii!”

Ah, she was Japanese?

‘Japanese, brown hair, Rei, filed.’

The fastest way to memorize names is to memorize them along with a feature.

With Nova and Rei stamped into my head, I looked at the two remaining girls.

“My stage name is Ga-eul, and my real name is Park Ga-eul too.”

The one with waves in her hair and round glasses is Ga-eul.

Her name and stage name are the same.

“Seol Chae-i.”

The one with long, straight black hair and a freeze pop in her mouth is Seol Chae-i.

Having learned the Twenty members’ names naturally, I thought.

‘Looking again, the visuals really are good.’

I’d felt it before, but they didn’t get the title of Baekhak’s last girl group for nothing.

Center visual Park Gyu-ri is gone, but the girls’ looks are more than decent.

‘If only that center visual Park Gyu-ri were still here, the picture would come right to life.’

But that one, well…. she’ll probably be hard to meet in this industry as a girl group member.

Wiping Park Gyu-ri’s existence out of my head, I gestured.

“Shall we sit down and talk first?”

The four girls sat down, hesitant, watching my face.

I took off the jacket I was wearing and dropped the opener I’d prepared in advance.

“It’s been hard, hasn’t it?”

“…?”

“A member of your own group had something like that blow up with the director. It would be strange if it weren’t hard.”

“!”

Brown-haired Rei, the Japanese one, covered her mouth in surprise.

Nova, the one next to her, blinked at me.

The other two looked at me pretty startled as well.

Fair enough, they wouldn’t have expected the sponsorship to come up in the very first thing I said.

But it’s a problem that had to be addressed once.

If it’s a problem that has to be solved anyway, I’m the type who prefers to handle it fast.

“So I heard you’ve been worrying a lot that the debut would fall through.”

Ga-eul, real name and stage name alike, raised a hand.

“Um…. is our debut falling through, Chief?”

“No.”

“Th, then?”

“I came to tell you the debut is confirmed. The timing got pushed back some, but the debut itself is confirmed, so don’t worry too much.”

“!”

The eyes of the Twenty girls shook wildly.

“…. Hhaaaah.”

Short-haired Nova let out a sigh of indeterminate kind and collapsed where she sat.

Across from her, Seol Chae-i dropped the freeze pop out of her mouth.

The Japanese one, Rei, went red around the eyes. It wouldn’t have been strange if she’d burst into tears at any second.

Then Nova, who’d collapsed, shot up and grabbed Ga-eul by the shoulders.

“…. No way.”

“….”

“No way!! Ga-eul!! They say we’re debuting!”

Ga-eul spoke without quite losing her uncertain expression.

“I heard it too…. could you let go of my shoulders?”

“How could I let go! We’re debuting, debuting! Kyaaaaah!”

Nova hugged Ga-eul and screamed at the top of her lungs.

I slid my eyes over to look at the other members.

“U, unnie!”

Seol Chae-i, who looks like the maknae, was watching Ga-eul, and the Japanese one, Rei, was watching Ga-eul too.

It was our first meeting, but I could see the members leaning on Ga-eul.

‘Leader is confirmed as Ga-eul.’

I’d have to look into their ages a bit more, but for now my own top pick was decided: Ga-eul.

Meanwhile the rookie road Lee Ye-ji, who’d gone to the cafe, appeared.

“I’m back! Coffee! Cake! Who wants some!”

The Twenty girls swarmed onto Lee Ye-ji, shouting.

“Unniiiie! Our debut is confirmed!”

“What!? Really?”

“Yes! Real real real confirmed debut! They say we’re debuting soon!”

“Kyaaaaah! That’s wonderful, girls!”

The truth of life is that if you’re pretty, anything can be forgiven.

Girls with faces like that jumping around and celebrating made a picture all by itself.

‘I should tell Ye-ji-ssi later to keep moments like this as photos or video.’

For girl groups these days, fan service matters most.

Twenty’s fandom would love this scene to death later on.

Then Lee Ye-ji lifted up the armful of cake slices she’d brought.

“Let’s have a cake party instead of a meat party! I picked one of every kind, so help yourselves as much as….!”

I raised a hand and stopped the runaway.

“Before the cake, could I see you dance once?”

“…?”

“It’s hard to move on a full stomach, so I’d like to see it before the cake.”

That one line froze the mood solid.

I could feel the Twenty girls’ eyes on me pulling away, but…. nothing for it.

‘I’m getting tired, is the thing.’

I wanted to finish today’s work before my stamina ran out.

Luckily Lee Ye-ji cleared the air at the right moment.

“R, right, girls! The Chief is busy, so let’s show him the stage before we eat cake.”

The Twenty girls shot up from their seats.

Each straightened her clothes, and then they started sorting out their positions skillfully.

“Nova, go a little more to the left…. Chae-i, fix your hair a bit. It’s a complete mess. Rei, come further this way.”

Real name Ga-eul.

Under stage name Ga-eul’s lead, the positions were set quickly.

I was watching that whole process with interest when Lee Ye-ji called out.

“Playing the backing track, girls!”

Intense beat music rang through the practice room.

It was Twenty’s title track, “Attention.”

-Attention, every eye is on me,

Attention, this moment I’m the lead.

The shining spotlight, when it lands on me,

Attention, I’m the star in your heart.

Retro and newtro (Retro & Newtro)

Over the intense melody of a genre that’s in fashion in the idol market these days, the Twenty girls danced with crisp control.

At the addictive hook I found myself nodding along.

-Don’t let this night end,

You and I, feel this moment.

Take my hand, come closer,

This moment we’ll remember forever.

The highlight part had its own flavor too.

The main vocal is gone, but Ga-eul’s clear, open tone, apparently the sub vocal, tickled my ear.

Which left me tilting my head.

‘What’s this?’

Is it because I have a tin ear?

This song “Attention,” sung by Twenty.

It was much better…. than I’d originally expected.

No.

Thinking about it, it wasn’t that “Attention” is a good song.

‘Well, look at this.’

These Twenty girls.

Their fundamentals are awfully solid for a girl group?

---

The stage itself was ragged.

With one member suddenly gone, you could see holes in the positioning and the part distribution.

But even allowing for all of that…. it was quite good.

For a start, these Twenty girls.

Their fundamentals were awfully solid.

Considering how girl groups these days suffer over singing ability, this lot wouldn’t lose anything next to a first-tier girl group.

A little anticipation rose in me and the Twenty girls looked different.

Meanwhile the Twenty girls, having finished the whole song, looked at me, panting.

A chief is still just a manager in the end, and the girls’ eyes on me were still stained with fear.

A bit of mischief kicked in before I noticed.

“Hmm….”

I trailed off on purpose.

At that, the girls’ shoulders started twitching.

This is…. kind of fun?

Holding down a mouth that wanted to twitch upward, I gave my assessment.

“That’s good.”

“!”

“Honestly, I was a little…. surprised. The song’s good, and your dancing and singing are far more solid than I expected too.”

Short-haired Nova cried out in surprise.

“Huh? Don’t tell me this was a mock test?”

“No? I just watched.”

“…Really, Chief?”

“Of course.”

Nova’s eyes narrowed.

“Please be honest with us. It was a mock test, right? Judging by your air, Chief, it looks like a test.”

“What test would a chief be giving? I’ve just been put in charge of all of you, so I watched the stage once.”

I explained, and they don’t look like they believe it.

So I decided to let it go.

Instead, I brought out the most important reason I’d come to the practice room today.

“I’d like to see ‘Youth Journey’ performed too. Is that possible?”

Real name Ga-eul.

Stage name Ga-eul tilted her head and raised a hand.

“‘Youth Journey’ is…. a vocal song, though, Chief?”

“Ah, right. It’s a vocal song, isn’t it? Could you go to the recording studio and sing it now?”

“…”

Ga-eul’s expression wavered sharply.

The other girls looked at me with wide eyes as well.

‘Hm?’

At the completely unexpected reaction, I tilted my head.

‘The mood’s odd.’

Is there some problem with singing “Youth Journey”?

Ignoring the sense of trouble rising in me, I asked.

“Is it a song you can’t sing right now, by any chance?”

Ga-eul answered again this time.

“…. We can sing it, but.”

“But?”

“Um…. would tomorrow be possible, Chief?”

“Is there a reason?”

“It’s a vocal song we sing without dancing, and we practiced so much today that our throats are all gone.”

“You want to sing it when your condition is good?”

Ga-eul nodded hard.

I swept my long bangs up and back.

‘That isn’t the reason.’

There’s something more.

I wanted to press further, but…. judging by the way the mood was going, it was hard to ask carelessly.

‘Should I stop here for today?’

Push in carelessly and the girls could get uncomfortable.

Besides, since they can sing it tomorrow, it doesn’t seem to be a serious problem.

In the end I decided to take a step back and wrapped things up.

“Good work, everyone. I’m heading home, so what will you do, Lee Ye-ji-ssi?”

“I’d be grateful for a ride, Chief!”

“All right, let’s go.”

While Ye-ji-ssi said her goodbyes to the Twenty girls, I headed to the smoking area.

-Kssh!

I lit up and pulled hard on the filter.

“Ugh… I’m dying.”

Smoking didn’t wake me up, it brought the sleepiness on.

Yawning, I stared blankly at a sky that had started to turn to sunset.

Ten minutes like that.

Lee Ye-ji, finished saying goodbye to the Twenty girls, appeared.

“Chief, I’m here!”

I put out the cigarette and got up.

“How are the girls getting home?”

“They say they’ll wait in the practice room until their parents come.”

I nodded and headed for the parking lot.

Once it sank in that I was going home, the fatigue rolled over me again.

Ah, I’m not going to end up driving asleep, am I?

Please let my mind hold out until I get home.

“By the way, Chief.”

“Yes.”

“Why did you ask about that song ‘Youth Journey’ earlier?”

Why did I ask?

Because it’s the song that makes Twenty’s debut number one.

But I couldn’t say it straight out, so I answered around it.

“The title is a bit unusual. Why do you ask?”

“Ah, it’s nothing much….”

Ye-ji-ssi trailed off and grinned.

Meanwhile I took the wheel.

“Ga-eul was worrying about it a lot.”

Ga-eul was worrying?

Why would she?

Ah, more than that, I’m really tired.

Should I just close my eyes and call a designated driver?

“That song ‘Youth Journey.’ Ga-eul wrote the lyrics and the music.”

My hand on the steering wheel jerked.

…. Hm?

What did I just hear?

“So when the words ‘Youth Journey’ came out of your mouth, Chief, she must have gotten scared.”

The sleepiness rolling over me fled instantly.

I whipped my head around to find the rookie road, Lee Ye-ji, shrugging.

“She thought you were going to cut the song or something. Such a girlish way to think, isn’t it? That Ga-eul?”

My mouth opened slightly.

“Youth Journey”…. was written, words and music, by a girl group member who hasn’t even debuted?