Chapter 4
“Wow, you’re fast. I barely managed to find you!”
The woman hurried over to me and started talking as if we were already acquainted, a bright smile spread across her face.
…Who is she?
She sounded so friendly that for a second I thought we knew each other.
But I had never seen her before.
Oddly enough, I didn’t feel any caution toward her.
Maybe it was because she looked so pitiful.
She looked completely exhausted, wore thick blue-light-blocking glasses, and had her hair tied back tightly.
An office worker crushed by work.
She reminded me of myself during my night-shift part-time job days.
For a moment, I felt an unexpected sense of kinship.
…Wait, this isn’t the time for that.
I quickly snapped back to reality and forced an awkward smile.
“Sorry, but who are you?”
“Ah, one second!”
The woman immediately began rummaging through the giant eco-bag hanging from her shoulder.
“Oh dear, where did it go? Sorry, just a moment!”
“…”
She looked incredibly clumsy.
After what felt like much longer than “just a moment”—
“Found it! My business card!”
She finally pulled out a single business card.
“…!”
The name printed on it made my eyes widen.
Baek Hyun-jung
Head of Rookie Development Team
Dream Entertainment
…Dream Entertainment?
Surely not the Dream I knew?
As I stood there frozen, the woman pushed up her thick glasses and asked excitedly,
“So, student!”
Her eyes, barely visible behind the lenses, were sparkling.
“Have you ever thought about becoming an idol?”
It was the first casting offer I’d received since returning to the past.
* * *
Baek Hyun-jung.
Head of the Rookie Development Team at Dream Entertainment.
That’s how her simple business card introduced her.
While I stared silently at the card in shock, she laughed awkwardly.
“You’ve probably never heard of our company before, right? We’re still pretty new.”
Never heard of it?
That was being far too modest.
I shook my head.
“No, I know it.”
“No way! You can’t even find us if you search online, hahaha!”
…Dream Entertainment is so unknown that it doesn’t even appear online?
“Still, give it a little time and everyone will know our company! So you don’t need to be polite just to spare my feelings!”
Baek Hyun-jung declared that with complete confidence.
I smiled awkwardly.
No, seriously. I actually know it.
Unless someone lived deep in the mountains without internet access, how could they not know Dream Entertainment?
…Wait.
Just as I was about to say more, I suddenly realized something and shut my mouth.
I’d forgotten.
At this point in time, most people wouldn’t know Dream Entertainment.
Because Radiance hadn’t debuted yet.
Radiance.
The girl group under Dream Entertainment.
Interestingly, the group wasn’t famous because of the name Radiance itself.
They were famous because of another title.
The Miracle of a Small Agency.
A group that started in a basement practice room without even a sign and eventually built a seven-story company building.
They were one of the groups I had always admired.
I couldn’t remember their exact debut date, but I remembered the debut year.
Which meant that in this timeline, seven years in the past, Radiance didn’t exist yet.
And Dream Entertainment was still unknown.
For now, pretending not to know was probably the correct choice.
While I was organizing my thoughts, Baek Hyun-jung continued talking nonstop.
“I promise we’re not scammers. We have proper investors, and we’re preparing to launch a girl group right now… Ah, right! The reason I approached you in the first place is because I absolutely fell in love with your singing earlier. If you joined our group—”
…She sure talks a lot.
“Oh right, before that. Are you signed to a company right now?”
“No, currently I don’t—”
“Currently? Ah, so you used to be a trainee! Great. How old are you?”
“Uh… eighteen.”
“Wow! That’s perfect! Absolutely perfect!”
Not only that, but she fired questions at me so quickly that I barely had time to breathe.
The conversation spun me around before I could process it.
Maybe I’d gotten swept up in her pace.
Before I knew it, I was telling her all about myself.
“You don’t have any plans today, right? Let’s do a short audition! Our company is nearby. I’ll even buy you meat afterward!”
I finally came back to my senses when she started pulling me somewhere by the hand.
Wait.
Hold on.
“Team Leader Baek.”
“Hm?”
When our eyes met, she smiled as if asking whether there was a problem.
…At this rate, I really was going to get dragged to an audition and sign a contract on the spot.
That wouldn’t do.
Radiance wasn’t a bad option, but I couldn’t make such an important decision carelessly.
First, I needed to politely back out.
“Team Leader, thank you for thinking so highly of my singing, but…”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t easy either.
“No! What are you talking about?!”
She immediately cut me off and launched into another barrage of words.
“When I heard you singing earlier, I got goosebumps all over my body! Your vocal tone is amazing. For a second I thought I was listening to a pop song instead of a ballad!”
“…”
“You said you used to be a trainee, right? It must have been for quite a long time. Just listening to your vocal technique—wow! I could tell your fundamentals are incredibly solid!”
“Ahem.”
So she’d switched strategies.
Now it was nonstop praise.
…She’s really complimenting me a lot.
I desperately suppressed the corners of my mouth from rising.
Honestly, hearing such enthusiastic praise didn’t feel bad.
Still—
“Sorry, but I don’t have any plans to audition right now.”
“…Tch.”
No meant no.
* * *
“You absolutely have to call me! Absolutely!”
Only after repeating that over and over again did Baek Hyun-jung finally leave.
I wasn’t exaggerating.
She probably said it about a hundred times.
I’m going to develop a complex from hearing her voice.
Even now, her words echoed in my head.
To be honest, I couldn’t really understand it.
What exactly had she seen in me to become that desperate?
Well, regardless of the reason.
I had at least obtained a business card.
I played with the card Baek Hyun-jung had given me.
Normally, it would just be a business card.
But for me, it was different.
Because I had found a strategy guide in the shop that required one.
[Agency Strategy Guide] – 5 KP
Description:
For any agency whose business card you possess, all information necessary for debuting is provided, including the concept of currently planned idol groups, member count, debut probability, and more.
It was the strategy guide most suitable for clearing my main mission.
Putting the rewards aside, the mission’s condition was simple:
Debut.
No explanation was necessary.
It was an incredibly difficult goal.
And debuting wasn’t even the hardest part.
The real problem was the time limit.
[Condition: Join an entertainment company and successfully debut.]
[Time Limit: 365 Days]
Exactly one year.
One year is cutting it really close.
Considering the time required to form a debut team, I needed to join a company as quickly as possible and secure a position.
That made the Agency Strategy Guide the obvious choice.
Without hesitation, I pressed Purchase.
[You have purchased ‘Agency Strategy Guide’.]
[You currently have access to information on 2 agencies.]
“…Huh? Two?”
I only had Dream Entertainment’s business card.
[Dream Entertainment]
[Signal Entertainment]
“Ah.
Damn it.
So that’s what happened.
I barely swallowed the curse rising in my throat.
Signal Entertainment.
The agency I had belonged to until a few months ago.
Or rather, seven years ago.
…I must still have an employee’s business card in my wallet.
I had absolutely no interest in Signal’s situation.
Pretending not to see it, I selected Dream Entertainment.
A flood of information appeared.
[Dream Entertainment]
CEO: Seo Jun-won
Established: 20XX
Location: Seoul, XX District…
Number of Employees: 7
Hmm.
So that’s how it worked.
It looked like a company’s profile page.
I quickly skimmed through information that could be found through a normal search, such as establishment dates and financial status.
Then finally—
The information I had been looking for appeared.
Expected Debut Group Name: Radiance
Debut Team Exists: Yes
Planned Number of Members: 4
Planned Debut Date: August 20X8
Planned Concept: Cheerleader-style Bright Teen Concept
“Oh.”
I was honestly surprised.
It really is accurate.
Everything matched the Radiance I remembered from the future.
Of course, a system capable of sending me back in time was obviously mysterious.
Still, seeing it with my own eyes felt different.
This was practically giving me the answer sheet to my future.
…Good.
I liked that very much.
No matter how much more experienced I was now, having a clear answer dramatically reduced the chance of failure.
I couldn’t afford to fail a third time.
Never.
Feeling reassured, I nodded.
Then the important question became how to spend my remaining five points.
<Shop (Lv.1)>
[Agency Audition Strategy Guide] – 5 KP
[Street Casting Strategy Guide] – Discount! 10 → 5 KP
I looked through the shop again.
My immediate goal was joining an agency.
Since I had already been scouted, joining Dream Entertainment immediately wouldn’t be terrible.
But it was too hasty.
There are still some concerns about Radiance.
More options were always better.
Signing with the first company that approached me could cause major problems later.
The audition guide is out.
Most auditions only open during specific recruitment periods.
For someone who needed to debut within one year, that was far too inefficient.
To enter a company and debut quickly…
This was the correct choice.
[You have purchased ‘Street Casting Strategy Guide’.]
Through street casting, I’d be able to collect more business cards.
Then I could use the Agency Strategy Guide to check each company’s detailed information and choose the best option.
“Perfect.”
I nodded in satisfaction.
And since it was discounted, buying it felt even better.
Like I’d gotten a great deal.
Anyway.
Now it was time to prepare properly.
I removed my cap and fixed my hair.
Then I checked my reflection in my phone’s black screen.
Hmm. Not bad.
I’d stopped taking care of myself as much after quitting the trainee life.
Even so, I was confident I could easily pass any casting evaluation.
“Open the Street Casting Strategy Guide.”
Now then.
Let’s go get scouted.
