Chapter 14: The Stage of Departure (1)

  The first update!

  It's possible that I'll update again tomorrow morning or noon, the stuff I've collected is too intense, and it seems like even when I'm not in a good state, what I write doesn't look good... I'll make some slight modifications and send it out again!

  =============

  External reports about sales are still circulating, but as the focus of the report, Ahn Jun-hee doesn't pay much attention to them. For him now, his main energy is focused on the stage of his debut.

  The three major TV stations, regardless of whose music program, are still live broadcasts. Generally, large-scale live programs have 15 seconds, 30 seconds or 1 minute buffer time, but small programs like this do not. Everything is real-time recording and broadcasting in real-time. This can indeed reflect the fairness of the singing competition without any behind-the-scenes manipulation, attracting audiences to watch. However, for the singers, the pressure has undoubtedly become very great - they cannot make a single mistake, and any slight error will be clearly presented to the audience. Similarly, it also means that if you fail, there is no chance to start again from scratch.

  He wasn't one of those seasoned seniors, and he had never had any experience performing on stage before. As the debut date approached, neither from a personal perspective nor from the company's interests could he afford to be distracted by other things at this time. Recently, he has been hiding in the company, rehearsing over and over again, hoping to make up for the gap in experience with hard work.

  He certainly didn't know either, this time he might not have a smooth debut.

  "Bang!"

  In the office on the fourth floor, Quan Baogen slammed down the newspaper in his hand with a look of discomfort. He took a few rapid breaths before finally losing his temper and pounding the desk: "Damn it! Why did it have to happen at this time?"

  The thin desktop vibrated with his forceful pounding, the air was stirred up, and the newspaper that had been slammed on top of it slightly lifted, a line of enlarged and bold headline font quivered, as if piercing into his eyes like needles.

  "Ballad Prince Returns!"

  Simple seven words, yet as heavy as a mountain on his heart.

  The title of "Prince of Ballads" is only suitable for one person in the entire music industry - Cao Chengmo! His debut album achieved a terrifying sales record of 10 million, and now his 5 albums have reached 80 million. He is undoubtedly the King of Ballads, and has surpassed national singer Jin Jianmo in single album sales.

  For any singer, releasing an album during this time is a complete disaster.

  Especially those newcomers without deep accumulation.

  Kwon Bo-geun couldn't imagine how awkward it would be if Jun-hyuk's heyday and he collided. With such a huge mountain on his head, he could almost predict that Jun-hyuk might not even get one win in each music show program.

  No one had any wind of it beforehand, and no one knew that Cao Chengmo, who sang the OST for "Parisian Lovers" last year and hasn't been active publicly since then, suddenly released an album. But what's making Quan Baogen anxious and regretful isn't just this point, he's even more annoyed that someone is secretly hyping up this matter.

  Not long ago, the company's high-level executives called him over and handed him this newspaper. From their mouths, he learned that Cao Chengmo's debut was very sudden, and his brokerage firm had no promotional or public relations plans in place. As a result, not only did the music industry not know about the news, but even the media didn't receive any wind of it beforehand. Only one portal website reported on it briefly earlier.

  If that's the case, Quan Baogen wouldn't be afraid of him. Now isn't the era where "good wine doesn't fear a deep alley". Even if he is the Prince of Love Songs, without promotion, his album sales won't be good. However, it seems someone doesn't want to see him keep a low profile. In just a short while, news about "no promotional and public relations plans" has been prominently featured on the headlines of various newspapers.

  Behind the scenes is JYP company.

  "This damned orangutan!" Kwon Baek-ho gritted his teeth, filled with resentment for a moment. There is no wall that doesn't leak in the world, and the black orangutan didn't think of hiding it either. The company found out as soon as they asked around that the channel where the news first spread was several media outlets close to JYP.

  If it were someone else, they might have to think twice about why Park Jin-young is doing free advertising for them, but for S.M. and Quan Baogen, it's almost a no-brainer that he's targeting this side.

  Whether it was the previous feud between the two houses or the conflict between Ahn Jun-hee and JYP's ace Rain at the end of last year, Park Jin-young had enough reason to intervene.

  Just this once, the attention of many media outlets suddenly shifted away from An Jun-he, and the intense promotional efforts of the past two days suddenly weakened. If such a situation continues for a long time, it may even affect the sales of "Memory". Due to the relationship between promotional costs, the company cannot maintain its investment in hard advertising and soft advertising all the time, otherwise, the income will not fill that bottomless pit. After the debut stage, the company will start to withdraw advertisements and hand over subsequent promotions to TV stations' music programs and media reports.

  The best effect of relying on these two is to win an honor.

  But...

  Quan Baogen smiled bitterly. If Cao Chengmo was just low-key and released a single, with insufficient promotion from the start, he might still have had a chance to win first place. But with JYP behind him pushing the waves, what hope did Junhe have?

  The upper echelons are also quite worried about this. An Junhe's recent achievements have been very good, not only contending for the domestic weekly chart champion, but also having a chance to compete on Japan's Oricon chart. According to the original development, domestic sales of 200,000 were entirely possible, but now due to this impact, the outcome is uncertain.

  Several directors asked him to think of a way to slightly counter Cao Chengmo's influence, but what could he do?

  After staying in the office for a while with no progress, Quan Baogen went to the practice room to see An Junhe.

  He is still working hard to practice for the debut stage, in a dimly lit room with several lamps emitting a faint yellow glow. In one corner of the room, a CD player is playing a 1-minute and 1-second accompaniment track, repeating softly spoken rap that flows from his lips, echoing gently.

  Standing outside the door, looking at him from afar with a serious expression, listening to his emotionally rich singing voice, Quan Baogen's anxious heart suddenly calmed down a bit. Originally, he didn't plan to tell Junhe about this matter, mainly to avoid distraction, but now he feels that maybe telling him wouldn't be a bad idea after all.

  So when An Junhe finished another round of practice and smiled at him to greet him, he hesitated for a moment before telling him what had happened.

  After listening, An Junhe fell silent for a moment, then smiled and said: "There's nothing to worry about, can only blame bad luck!"

  He's actually quite optimistic, although he collided with a senior just after his debut and was blocked by the senior, feeling a bit regretful. However, this is an unavoidable crime, and the influence of both parties is not on the same level at all. It can only be said that Park Jin-young made a good move at the right time.

  See off the sighing Quan Baogen, An Junhe who is temporarily lazy to practice again, sits in the singing room, thinking silently about his thoughts.

  The deeper you get into this circle, the more you feel a sense of powerlessness that can't be controlled. This is a completely different field from the business world, where many things can't be settled with money and power. Popularity is the standard by which everything is measured. Yesterday, a singer would back down in front of his popularity, and today, he has to avoid someone else's sharp tongue.

  Although he seems very open-minded, he doesn't like this feeling of powerlessness!

  Lying on the floor, he raised his hand, and through the gaps between his forked fingers, threads of light leaked in, casting faint light and shadows on his face. In the interplay of light and darkness, he whispered "JYP", "Park Jin-young" with a slight cold smile.

  He is An Junhe, who never backs down in either dreams or reality.

  If someone thinks they can play with him at will in the applause, then that's a miscalculation.

  But now is not the time to pursue these, soon it will be the stage of debut, no matter who he faces, even if he is difficult to deal with, he has no habit of retreating without a fight.

  Perhaps his influence is indeed inferior to that of the other party, but after all, the outcome will only be known after the fight.

  ……

  On the other hand, although the company didn't have any good solutions, they wouldn't let him fight alone either. So on Thursday, March 3rd, the day before Music Bank recording, Ahn Jun-hee practiced in the practice room for a whole morning and was slightly tired. As he was drinking orange juice to soothe his overused throat and preparing to go to the cafeteria to rest and eat, Baek-ho appeared at the door with a dusty face and a bright smile.

  "How did the company agree to let you come back?"

  After a moment of surprise, with their relationship, they didn't need many pleasantries. They casually greeted each other and walked downstairs together, with An Junhe asking in puzzlement.

  "Of course I'm back to support you!"

  She indeed came back with a vengeance, and on the very day she returned to Korea, news from Japan once again exploded in the entertainment circle.

  "Bao Er's first Japanese best album was released less than a month ago, and sales have already exceeded one million copies. It continues to top the GfK chart for another week, and may create the best record of the year!"

  Before the news was reported by the media and drew widespread attention, SM Entertainment and KBS Music Bank released a statement through their respective channels: "BoA rushed back to Korea from afar to support her junior labelmate Ahn Jun-hee and will attend his debut stage."

  This news is clearly great, by the 3rd, Ahn Jun-hee's "Memory" with sales of nearly 120,000 in three days, stayed at No. 3 on the Oricon chart, plus BoA who topped the chart for two consecutive weeks, the two Korean singers who have achieved their best results in Japan, are also siblings and will perform together on stage, as soon as the news was released, it drove people crazy.

  The music bank program team opened an application channel on the internet, and in just one night, more than 6,000 supporters of An Jun-hee submitted their applications, which means that there were 6,000 people who were willing to spend money to buy tickets and sit in the audience seats during the live broadcast of the show to support An Jun-hee.