The Sacred Manager Life - Chapter 28

“Love Connect is my favorite. When I listen to it, I feel like a girlfriend running through the subway station to see her boyfriend waiting at a café.”

Cha Soyeon mimics a girlfriend with a cute expression.

“There were a lot of comments saying the choreography was weird back then, so I was a bit sad. I made a few simple changes, so try it out. It’s easy to follow.”

Yeoreum gently pushes Cha Soyeon toward the center of the camera.

“I’ve never danced in front of a camera before…”

Cha Soyeon, looking at the camera with an embarrassed expression, was the very definition of lovely.

“Half of the live comments were saying they wanted to see you dance. Just imagine how much they must have wanted it. The moment you step in, everyone’s going to go wild.”

“R-Really?”

Their playful back-and-forth was effortlessly natural.

Just as they were making viewers impatient with their teasing, the upbeat intro of the song played, and the new choreography began.

Uwaaah!

Cha… Cha Soyeon is dancing!

This looks so natural??

Let’s just recruit her already.

This is my first time seeing Cha Soyeon dance.

Why is this song so good?

If this didn’t blow up, it’s definitely Pine Entertainment’s fault.

The old choreography was absolute trash.

Now she looks like an angel.

Is the song still available?

You can find it on Merong if you search for it.

Who’s the one dancing at the end?

So cute!

A five-member lineup is perfect.

The shocking news that Cha Soyeon cutely shook her chest and hips in front of the camera spread like wildfire across You tube, SNS, and online communities.

As expected, the reaction was explosive—so much so that not even ashes remained.

The appearance of new face Chie also became a massive topic.

“Uh, um… My name is Matsuoka Chie.

I was a trainee for two years, but I left my agency due to some circumstances.

Right now, I’m staying with Sera.

I thought joining this housewarming performance would be fun.

It’s not an official debut, but since it’s my first stage, I hope you’ll enjoy it…”

Holy sht, her face is baby-like, but her body is insane! I’m heading to the bathroom.

She’s Japanese?

No wonder her “smbvement” is on another level.

In Asia, Indian and Japanese girls are the biggest.

Bruh, comparing size in Asia is meaningless.

Someone please ban the guy above.

She’s the ultimate bias-wrecker.

Hurry up and sign her already.

Yeoreum’s “Girl Group Edition of Please Take Care of My Refrigerator” ended with a spectacular finale.

“They get 15 minutes on the show, but since these are simple recipes, we’ve cut it down to 10 minutes.

Manager, keep track of the time.

Sera, you’ll help me on the side, and Soyeon, Rina, and Chie will be the taste testers.

At least two out of the three have to approve for the dish to pass.”

Yeoreum grabs a knife in front of the timer, her expression determined.

The dramatic background music and slick editing instantly grab attention.

One by one, the dishes are completed within ten minutes, and the three taste testers put on a legendary display of reactions that could rival any mukbang.

This… is fcking sx.

I got hard watching a mukbang .

I want to eat everything. Ah, I mean the food.

They really made dishes like that every 10 minutes?

Yeoreum might be the best cook among all girl group members.

Forget being an idol, just open a restaurant.

This is way more fun and thrilling than Green-Red Chef—it feels truly fresh.

The video was shared so much that it reached 10 million views in just four days.

For a live video to achieve that kind of view count was an unbelievable feat, something even top-tier girl groups would struggle to accomplish.

A week later, this housewarming video unexpectedly caused a butterfly effect that flipped the Pine Entertainment executives upside down.

Pine Entertainment Chairman’s Office…“This is just… unbelievable.”

Chairman Park Beomjun stared at the screen, looking dumbfounded.

On the Merong chart, Love Connect had climbed up to rank 92.

“Do songs even go viral like this?”

“That’s unheard of. A girl group that hasn’t been active for nearly a year suddenly making it back onto the charts? That never happens.”

Yoon Sangho, the head of the department, was also staring at the screen.

The song had climbed three more spots since yesterday.

“No matter how popular Soyeon is, this ranking makes no sense. How do we even interpret this?”

“The concept back then was a miss, but the song itself was always good. Even if Soyeon covered it, it wouldn’t have climbed the charts if the song wasn’t appealing.”

“…Who’s the girl dancing at the end?”

“She introduced herself—Matsuoka Chie, a Japanese trainee.”

“A Japanese trainee? Why is she here?”

“She was stuck in the same situation as Sera when we brought her in. Team Leader Juwon didn’t mention it, so even Team 5 didn’t know about her.”

“She doesn’t seem like a regular trainee. Her dancing is on par with Sera and Rina.”

“Should we look into her?”

“…No, never mind. I’ll ask Juwon directly. For now, call Baek Hakyung, the head of the AR team, to my office.”

Park Beomjun’s instincts were kicking in.

*

Red Blossom’s Dormitory…“We’re going crazy! It’s actually on the charts!”

The girls clapped like seals, jumping up and down in front of the screen.

Even Chie, who didn’t fully understand what was happening, clapped along.

“We’re at 76th place! 76th! Even during our second album, we never got this high!”

Yeoreum’s eyes welled up with tears.

They had been waiting for the day they’d be let go, believing their careers were over.

No one expected such a miraculous resurgence.

When they uploaded the housewarming video, they only hoped to spread Red Blossom’s name a little more—they never even dreamed of re-entering the charts.

“…This counts as a viral comeback, right?”

“Of course! Honestly, when Soyeon unnie danced, I knew the views would be crazy, but I never expected the song to blow up like this. This is a historic moment!”

Even Sera, who had been calm through everything, was buzzing with excitement.

Meanwhile, Chie backed away, saying she was scared.

“Manager… do you think the company will reconsider us now?

The Youtube channel and SNS got popular thanks to you and unnie, but the fact that our song re-entered the charts means people actually like us.”

Yeoreum’s eyes were filled with desperation.

She didn’t want to let this chance slip away.

“I think so too. Opportunities like this are incredibly rare. I’ll check the company’s mood tomorrow and talk to the team leader about it.”

The Next Day ,As soon as I arrived at work, I was called to the chairman’s office.

“Why do you think I hired you?”

It had been a month since I last saw Chairman Park Beomjun, and his eyes looked strange.

It was the look of someone who had just spotted something irresistible on a store shelf.

“…Because I saved Soyeon?”

“If that were the only reason, I would’ve just given you a payout.

Do you have any idea how much effort a company has to put into hiring just one new employee?

And let’s be honest, you had no experience in this field.”

“That’s true.”

“But I hired you because I had a gut feeling. A hunch.”

“A… hunch?”

“I had a feeling you were going to cause a big stir.”

I could more or less understand what he meant, but I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or an insult.

Was this one of those ‘If you fail, it’s treason; if you succeed, it’s a revolution’ kind of things?

“I knew it from the moment you blocked that knife flying at Soyeon. That’s why I hired you, and—just as I thought—I wasn’t wrong.”

“……”

“Soyeon follows you around like a puppy, and the Red Blossom girls are completely taken with you, aren’t they? You’ve revived a dying idol group—do I even need to guess?”

He wasn’t giving me a chance to speak.

“You embarrassed the company over the dorm situation, then made headlines by taking down those cult bastards.

And now, this miraculous comeback?

You know this makes no sense, right?”

“I was actually going to talk to you about that…”

“When did you sweet-talk Baek Team Leader?”

“…Excuse me?”

“I called him in yesterday, and his eyes were red from praising you and Red Blossom.

I’ve never seen him praise anyone like that before.

If he loses his temper, even I and the department head have to tread carefully.

What, are you his lifesaver or something?”

Well… I actually am his lifesaver.

“Whatever. That’s between you two. As long as the work gets done, I don’t care. So, tell me—do you think Red Blossom has a shot?”

I had gotten Chairman Park to say those words in just a month.

This was just the beginning, but if the company backed us, things would move a lot smoother.

“The real game-changer won’t be me—it’ll be Red Blossom’s comeback. If you approve new members, I’ll do everything I can. I’ll find someone who even you will approve of.”

“What’s the point of impressing me? Baek Team Leader and the producers are the ones you need to convince.”

“I’ll make sure they approve.”

“…That Japanese girl from the video—did you bring her in with the intention of making her a member? What was her name again…?”

“Matsuoka Chie.”

“Right, Chie. How did you even find her?”

I gave him a carefully adjusted version of how we discovered Chie in the Sky Palace, making sure the story worked in our favor.

Chairman Park listened with genuine interest.

“So, she was a trainee at SN Entertainment, huh…? Then her contract needs to be sorted out first.”

“…That’s already been taken care of.”

“What? You need to handle the contract issue firs—wait, what?”

Chairman Park’s eyes widened in shock.

He clearly never expected a rookie manager to snatch away a top-tier trainee from a major entertainment company.

“SN has already terminated Chie’s trainee contract.”

“The Penalty Fee?”

“There isn’t one.”

Chairman Park’s expression looked as if he had just encountered an emperor penguin in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

“That doesn’t make sense. SN Entertainment would never let a trainee go that easily. What kind of connections do you have to pull something like that off?”

“It wasn’t about connections. I just asked Executive Director Geum Taesang, and he agreed.”

“…What?”

*

After Shin Juwon Left,As soon as Shin Juwon stepped out, the Head of the Division, Yoon Sanghyun, walked in.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“That… Japanese girl. She was an SN Entertainment trainee. Not just any trainee—she was one of their top contenders for debut.”

“No wonder. Her dance movements were on another level.”

“But Juwon got her out of her contract and brought her here. She even said she’d be willing to audition if we approve it.”

“…How did he even manage that? What about the penalty fee?”

“There was none.”

“…From who?”

“Geum Taesang.”

“…What? Executive Director Geum Taesang?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

The Geum Taesang that Yoon Sanghyun knew was practically a devil with talent.

A brilliant planner and an exceptional producer, he was a powerhouse when it came to talent scouting and managing an entertainment company.

However, he treated his artists like garbage and had such a notorious reputation that he was considered one of the most ruthless figures in the industry.

And yet, this ruthless man had let a top-tier trainee go just because a rookie manager asked him to?

With no conditions?

The division head turned to the chairman with a bewildered expression.

“…Don’t look at me like that. I have no idea how to react to this either.”