nycdaug Chapter 176: Downfall (2)
Chapter 176: Downfall (2)
By morning, Kang Rojun and the members of ‘Vanguard’ were at GN Entertainment. Today’s schedule was set to begin in the late morning, and before that, ‘Vanguard’ was preparing inside the recording studio booth.“Everyone, warm up your voices. Let’s start in five minutes-”
It was for the Japanese version recording of ‘GreenBee’, ‘Windveil’, and ‘Flying Bell’. As a result, Rojun and the members were quietly murmuring the Japanese lyrics they had practiced while doing vocal warm-ups.
The producers outside the booth chatted as they looked at ‘Vanguard’.
“I’m not worried about Rojun or Si-hoo, but Kang-min and Do-kyung might be a concern.”
“Still, they said they’ve been training hard in Japanese, so I’m sure they practiced a lot.”
“But is it okay to have the kids touring Japan this quickly? I’ve never seen a lineup come together this fast.”
“I don’t know, but seeing how ‘Vanguard’ has been doing lately, it seems totally doable.”
Inside the booth, Kang Rojun was relaxed.
‘There’s a subtle thrill when something I made becomes reality.’
It was natural since he had written the lyrics himself. The first track to be recorded was ‘Flying Bell’.
-♬♪
As expected, more corrections came from Kang-min and Do-kyung’s parts compared to Rojun and Si-hoo. But the two didn’t get discouraged and steadily followed the directing, continuing the recording. An hour flew by. A break was given during the session, and ‘Vanguard’ stepped out of the booth to sit on the sofa and catch their breath.
At that moment, Si-hoo glanced at the time and let out a small sigh.
“Phew, if we go into SBC this afternoon, we’ll probably see the ‘Neos’ sunbae-nims again, right?”
‘Vanguard’ had a scheduled appearance on a public broadcast music show at SBC this afternoon, and once again, ‘Neos’ was one of the top candidates for first place. So, like during ‘Music Beat’, the chances of running into them were quite high.
Kang Rojun crossed his legs and shrugged his shoulders.
“Probably? Why?”
Si-hoo’s expression darkened, still bothered by yesterday’s incident.
“I mean, it’s kinda stressful. I’m gonna try to hide in the waiting room as much as possible.”
“Why hide? It’d be more fun to just straight-up bump shoulders with the ‘Neos’ sunbae-nims and laugh it off as a joke.”
“......Rojun. You’re not serious, right?”
“Yeah. Just kidding.”
At that moment, one of the producers looked at his phone and widened his eyes.
“Huh? Huhh?? This is insane.”
He spun around in his chair to show his phone to the ‘Vanguard’ members.
“Guys, things are getting really interesting.”
Rojun and the members looked at the phone and all responded in unison.
“What? Is this for real??”
Meanwhile, in the ‘Neos’ van.
The atmosphere was pretty rowdy. While moving between schedules, some of the six members of ‘Neos’ were busy singing to warm up their voices, checking their social media channels, or reviewing upcoming events.
The gray-haired member who had bumped Si-hoo’s shoulder was asleep wearing an eye mask.
The leader of ‘Neos’, who had been watching him for a moment, shook his gray hair to wake him up.
“Jae-chan.”
The gray-haired member groggily woke up and pushed his eye mask up to his forehead, and the leader gave him a warning.
“If you see ‘Vanguard’ at SBC today, just ignore them, okay? Don’t pull the same crap as yesterday.”
“......I won’t.”
“Team Leader also made it very clear, don’t stir up trouble during our comeback.”
“I said I won’t.”
“But seriously, why are you sleeping so much these days? You’ve been late to practice, too.”
The gray-haired member lowered the eye mask again without a response. The leader sighed in frustration, and other members chimed in.
“Can’t we skip SBC today? Judging by the mood, ‘Vanguard’ is gonna win again anyway. Feels like we’re just there to be background props. It’s annoying.”
“I was whatever about ‘Vanguard’ before, but after seeing how rude that Rojun guy was yesterday, I’m totally put off now.”
“Even if Jae-chan was kind of in the wrong, that guy had his head held high in the hallway of a music show, like who does he think he is?”
As expected, the members of ‘Neos’ were not fond of ‘Vanguard’. The leader didn’t particularly like ‘Vanguard’ either, but he didn’t want the group’s mood to sour.
“Enough. We were the ones who started it, remember? Just ignore them.”
That’s when it happened.
“What!! Damn it! What the hell is this!!”
The manager sitting in the passenger seat suddenly had a seizure-like reaction. His voice was so loud that all the members of ‘Neos’ in the van turned their eyes to him.
“Jesus, what is it, hyung?”
“What? What is it??”
The ‘Neos’ members were looking on with question marks in their eyes. But the manager.
"Crazy!! Fuck, what is this!!"
Without answering the ‘Neos’ members, he urgently dialed a number somewhere, and sensing that something was off, the ‘Neos’ members looked at one another. At that moment.
-Buzz.
-Buzz.
-Buzz.
Each member’s phone gave off short vibrations. Messages from fellow celebrities and acquaintances. Before long, the ‘Neos’ members also realized why the manager had gone ballistic.
《[Breaking News] ‘Neos’ title track ‘Bloom Me’ on fire in online communities over plagiarism accusations / Photo》
All of the ‘Neos’ members went.
“......Huh?”
Completely blank.
A few dozen minutes later.
What had been a plagiarism controversy lurking in the shadows around ‘Neos’ quickly emerged into the spotlight, and thanks to countless journalists’ fingers, it was being hurled nonstop into the public sphere.
《Sudden eruption of ‘Neos’ plagiarism scandal, comparing ‘Bloom Me’ with foreign song shows shocking similarities…》
《[Issue Talk] “It’s really similar!” Netizens focus on plagiarism allegations of Neos’s title track ‘Bloom Me’》
《‘Neos’ title track high on music charts… turns out to be plagiarized?》
It had exploded fully starting from the late morning, and now, everything was about ‘Neos’.
《Plagiarism scandal right after comeback, is ‘Neos’s carefully built tower collapsing?》
In particular, since ‘Pineon’ was a famously well-known composer in the idol industry, the media was going at it with even more fire.
《[Issue Pick] Famous composer ‘Pineon’ behind ‘Bloom Me’, unable to be reached》
《In response to ‘Neos’ plagiarism scandal, Big Star Entertainment says “We are trying to grasp the situation”》
By this point, Big Star Entertainment had, of course, gone into emergency mode.
“What the hell happened here!! Pineon still unreachable?!”
“He’s not answering calls since earlier!”
“I’m gonna lose my mind! Postpone all ‘Neos’ schedules and turn the van around!!”
“Should we cancel the music show too?!”
“Obviously!! Keep calling Pineon! Someone get to Pineon’s studio!! Have you checked the foreign song it’s supposedly similar to?!”
“......Yes, we’ve cross-compared it dozens of times. Except for the intro, it’s mostly similar.”
“Team Leader! The CEO is calling everyone in!!”
The famous composer ‘Pineon’ had gone completely off the grid.
Regardless of that, nuclear bombs were dropping by the second, and not only Big Star Entertainment but various broadcasting companies, advertisers, and others had all hit red alert.
"Ah- damn, they just made a comeback and plagiarism?? Stop all appearances for ‘Neos’ immediately!!”
Whether the plagiarism was confirmed or not, the scandal had erupted, and ‘Neos’ had taken a hit to their image. Broadcasting stations, advertisers, and others tied to ‘Neos’ naturally began cutting ties.
While ‘Neos’ fans continued to defend the group, most of the general public was ice-cold.
-I knew I’d heard it somewhere. It was plagiarism…
-Disappointed in Neos
-And it had to be the title track… They’re probably gonna have to halt promotions
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ good riddance
-I listened to that foreign song ㅋㅋㅋ it’s 100% identical
-Wow… didn’t Neos surpass 1 million sales in their first week? They’re done
-Plagiarism right after comeback ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They just set the record for shortest promotion period ever
-They were already causing low-key drama lately, now this big scandal finally exploded…
-The composer’s clearly the idiot here, but Neos has been off lately too
Just as things began to spiral completely out of control, GN Entertainment’s CEO Ha Seo-hwan was surprised for a different reason.
“...Huh-”
At the same time, Kang Rojun’s face came to mind. More precisely, Rojun’s words during the meeting to decide Vanguard’s title track.
‘I’d like to exclude composer Pineon, please.’
Back then, despite CEO Ha Seo-hwan and many staff being present, Kang Rojun had confidently insisted that Pineon should be removed. His reason? The song was good, but he just had a bad feeling about it.
What he said next was a masterpiece.
‘Aren’t there a lot of good songs that don’t do well in the market?’
In the end, CEO Ha Seo-hwan had sided with Kang Rojun and dropped Pineon. So the result?
“That song turned out to be plagiarized-”
A plagiarism ending. Well, it was still just an allegation for now.
“Same thing with EY, and now this. Saying his instincts are good doesn’t even cut it anymore.”
Originally, CEO Ha Seo-hwan had already acknowledged Rojun’s foresight. But now, it was to the point of giving him goosebumps.
“When coincidences pile up, that’s just skill. Is he really blessed by the gods.”
At this point, Rojun wasn’t just saving ‘Vanguard’.
“He saved our GN.”
It was no different from saying he had saved CEO Ha Seo-hwan and GN Entertainment.
“This can’t just be overlooked.”
Furthermore, the GN Entertainment teams, including the A&R team who had participated in the title track selection meeting for ‘Vanguard’, were all at a loss for words.
“P-plagiarism?? ‘Bloom Me’ was first pitched to us, wasn’t it??!”
“That’s right! But then Rojun-nim said he didn’t like it, and I think that’s when the CEO scrapped it???”
“Wow...... if we hadn’t listened to Rojun-nim, we’d be in the same boat as Big Star right now!”
“Goosebumps. Weren’t most of the teams against Rojun-nim’s opinion back then too??”
“If we had pushed through with Pineon’s track... we would’ve been totally screwed.”
The same was true for the ‘Vanguard’ team who had arrived at the photoshoot location. From the management team to the coordi team, talk about ‘Neos’ didn’t stop. Wearing their photoshoot outfits, Si-hoo, Kang-min, and Do-kyung clung to Kang Rojun and chattered non-stop.
“Rojun! Are you like God’s cousin or something??”
"What does that even mean."
“No, seriously... it’s too spot-on. EY Entertainment went under after you said they weren’t it, and this time you also said Pineon’s song didn’t feel right when we were picking our track.”
“I did?”
“Don’t play dumb! That’s why the CEO passed on Pineon’s song! And now the plagiarism blew up!”
With a blank expression, Do-kyung grabbed Rojun’s right hand. Kang Rojun frowned.
“What are you doing, Do-kyung-ssi.”
“Trying to get some of your energy.”
“Get off.”
Kang-min joined in, grabbing Rojun’s left hand.
“If you ever see lottery numbers in a dream, make sure to tell me, hyung.”
“You too. Get off.”
Suddenly, Si-hoo, who was sitting next to Rojun, started massaging his shoulder.
“Rojun, I’m always proud of you. Let’s stay together forever.”
“Why are you doing this too, hyung.”
Even so, Kang Rojun was deep in thought. The plagiarism controversy surrounding ‘Neos’. Or more accurately, the famous composer Pineon.
‘So this is why 'AI Automation' gave Pineon an 18.’
Though it wasn’t officially confirmed yet, even the allegation alone was enough to get ‘Neos’ beaten down like this, with suspended activities and various industries distancing themselves. An 18-point rating was more than justified.
‘If it really is plagiarism... whew, that’s terrifying.’
What if he hadn’t run 'AI Automation' before choosing the song? Then ‘Vanguard’ could be in the same position as ‘Neos’ right now.
‘Anyway, I get the 18 for Pineon, but did Big Star Entertainment get a 28 because of this? Or is there more to it?’
As Kang Rojun quietly pondered to himself, among the bustling ‘Vanguard’ team, Manager Kim Ki-baek stood with his arms crossed, observing Rojun.
‘Man- it really feels like the world revolves around that kid. Sometimes there are people who succeed no matter what. But is it really possible for someone to have everything like him?’
What was strange was that even Manager Kim Ki-baek felt the same.
‘At this level of momentum, global domination is just a matter of time.’
The entertainment industry had become a whirlwind overnight due to the plagiarism scandal surrounding ‘Neos’, and in the chaos, ‘Vanguard’ continued to steadily carry out their schedule.
Before long, it was the afternoon.
After Vanguard’s ‘GreenBee’ played on SBC’s public broadcast music show ‘Stage On’.
-♬♪
Kang Rojun, the members, and countless idols stood on stage for the live broadcast. It was time to announce the winner. What was interesting was that ‘Neos’, who had originally been a 1st place nominee, had been removed and hadn’t even appeared on today’s ‘Stage On’ broadcast.
Whatever the case.
“This week’s 1st place!! Congratulations! Vanguard’s ‘GreenBee’!!”
Following ‘Music Beat’, ‘Vanguard’ received their second 1st place trophy.
Two-time winner on music shows.
Thankfully, this time Si-hoo and Kang-min didn’t cry.
“Thank you!!”
Just as a shower of celebratory confetti and cheers poured down on ‘Vanguard’.
《Composer of ‘Neos’ title track ‘Bloom Me’, Pineon, admits to plagiarism: “I am truly sorry.”》
Pineon admitted to the plagiarism.
*****
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