Superstar From Age 0

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: AgRoseCrystal

Chapter 533

“Still, the fact that you applied to our company means that you still want to work as a manager, right? Are you going to leave that rumor alone?”

Kim Su-ryeon asked Choi Tae-woo, who shook his head and answered.

“No. I’m trying to solve it in my own way. I did an interview right after I left the company. It didn’t get much attention, though.”

Ahn Da Ho and Kim Su-ryeon nodded.

He lacked the power to solve the problem, but his method was not bad.

If the rumor of embezzlement became an issue later, this interview article that didn’t get much attention would be quite helpful.

At first, he looked like a fool, but he had a trick up his sleeve, and he thought and executed a solution using the article afterwards. Choi Tae-woo grew on them more and more.

“If you give up the interview today, are you going to quit the entertainment industry?”

“No. I’m going to work as a manager again after I solve the rumor.”

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be at Cocoa Entertainment.

Choi Tae-woo answered Ahn Da Ho’s question and swallowed his regretful words.

Ahn Da Ho and Kim Su-ryeon nodded with an unreadable expression, and Choi Tae-woo prepared to get up with a lightened heart and a bitter feeling. Just as the interview was about to end, President Seo Eun-chan opened his mouth.

“Is the contract with those idol members completely over?”

Choi Tae-woo was a little flustered by the unexpected question, and nodded.

“Yes. I did my best to resolve it without any problems.”

He didn’t know much about the contract that was made before he joined the company, but when he checked it on the day the parents of the kids handed over the money to the president, it was a completely unfair contract.

Even he, who was not a lawyer, could point out the problematic points, and he remembered the president’s face that twisted. It was obvious that the contract was over, since there was no contact from the members who packed their bags and left for months.

“But it would be better to talk to a lawyer. You never know how it will affect the lives of the kids later.”

Choi Tae-woo nodded at Seo Eun-chan’s words.

“Yes. I understand.”

Choi Tae-woo knew well about the story of the president of Cocoa Entertainment. He was the uncle of top actor Lee Seo-jun, so people were interested in him, and there were quite a lot of related articles and materials.

‘He used to be a manager, and he took over the failing Cocoa Entertainment, so there must have been a lot of problems in between.’

That’s why he gave such advice to him, who was in a similar situation.

“And this is something that will be announced soon, but you can know it a few days earlier.”

As if he was talking about the main point now, Seo Eun-chan spoke in a serious voice.

“We are planning to recruit new trainees as we move to a new building.”

Choi Tae-woo’s eyes slowly widened.

“Of course, since Blue Moon debuted only two years ago, the group that will come out this time will be a girl group, and it will take a little longer for a boy group, but…”

Ahn Da Ho and Kim Su-ryeon smiled and said.

“If those kids still have the courage to challenge, tell them to apply. It doesn’t mean that today’s matter will affect the audition evaluation. The evaluation should be cold.”

Choi Tae-woo looked at Seo Eun-chan, who said it half-jokingly and half-seriously, with a blank expression.

This was Cocoa Entertainment, which had Brown Black, White, Red Crown, and Blue Moon.

When they start recruiting trainees, new faces with outstanding talents will flock from all over the country, no, from overseas.

“…Can those kids… Can the second-hand idols pass among those competitors?”

In Choi Tae-woo’s eyes, they were more talented than anyone else, and they could succeed if they had the support of the company, but,

‘They’re doomed.’

That one word that remained as a scar for both the kids and Choi Tae-woo.

The image of having debuted and failed seemed to prejudice the judges.

“I promise not to look at their previous careers, and to judge them solely on themselves.”

Choi Tae-woo closed his eyes tightly and sighed deeply at Seo Eun-chan’s sincere words.

***

“If those kids pass, will you go to the singer team, Mr. Choi?”

Kim Su-ryeon asked, and Ahn Da Ho, who was looking over the applicants’ documents again, raised his head with a flash. Seo Eun-chan broke out in a cold sweat at the sparkling look in his eyes. Ahn Da Ho seemed to like Choi Tae-woo quite a bit.

‘And as Seo-jun’s manager.’

Kim Su-ryeon smiled slightly.

“No, no. It will take four years until the boy group comes out. And there’s no guarantee that those kids will pass anyway… Besides, Mr. Choi said he wanted to be an actor’s manager from the beginning. Right, right? Team Leader Ahn.”

‘I’m his uncle, I’m the president.’

For some reason, Seo Eun-chan felt like he had to watch Ahn Da Ho’s mood when it came to Seo-jun. He was so impatient that he spoke informally.

“Yes. His own mind is the most important thing.”

Even if Ahn Da Ho liked him, it would be a big problem if Seo-jun and Choi Tae-woo didn’t like each other. It was even more so because they were the actor and the manager who would stick together all the time.

“But there’s still something to be solved, right?”

That rumor.

Kim Su-ryeon nodded at Ahn Da Ho’s words.

“Yes. We need to find out if Mr. Choi’s story is true… And I think Team Leader Kim will have to help us a lot.”

“Of course! We have to get rid of those bad guys.”

“And maybe we can get revenge for Mr. Choi and the kids, who might become our family.”

The team leader of Lee Seo-jun’s exclusive actor team 2, the public relations team leader, and the president looked at each other and smiled.

***

Lately, it seemed like he only read books, Seo-jun thought.

He read in the library, chose the next work at home, and read the books of life at the Library of Life.

He liked reading scripts, but it was a bit boring because he couldn’t find a work that he liked and wanted to do next.

So he came out to play.

“Wow! Ice cream! Let’s go in before it melts!”

Korea National University of Arts. Building A.

Yang Ju-hee, who came out to greet him, smiled brightly and took one of the ice cream bags that Seo-jun was holding and walked ahead. Seo-jun laughed at the sight and quickly followed him so that the rest of the ice creams wouldn’t melt.

“Is the preparation going well?”

“Yeah. Our team and the other teams are all working really hard.”

There were many acting students and they liked different works. So the acting student council prepared the festival by dividing into teams.

“A lot of people come to the K-Arts festival, not just ordinary people, but also related people.”

It was not a strange thing that an acting student who caught the eye at the festival appeared on TV a few months later.

“Our team’s script is a work by a senior in the playwriting department, and we’re making the stage with the stage department right now. Of course, the acting department can’t make big things, we only make small things.”

Yang Ju-hee opened the door of one of the acting practice rooms. Kim Haun and Jung Bo-ram, who were participating in the festival play with Yang Ju-hee, and the students greeted Seo-jun.

“Ice cream!!”

No, they greeted the ice cream.

“I bought some for the other teams too.”

“Oh! No wonder Ju-hee counted the number of people in the other teams. I’ll go and give them out!”

Seo-jun handed over the ice cream for the other teams to the senior student council member and headed to his friends with the ice cream.

“Did you have a good trip?”

“Your violin performance was really cool!”

Jung Bo-ram and Kim Haun stretched out their hands while sitting in their seats and took the ice cream from Seo-jun. Seo-jun also sat next to them and bit the ice cream. Yang Ju-hee, who came back after giving out the ice cream, also took an ice cream and sat down.

“Ah, this is refreshing…”

“It’s hot even with the air conditioner on.”

“That’s because there are so many people.”

Not only his friends, but also other students were eating ice cream with satisfied expressions.

Seo-jun, who had a bite of ice cream, looked at what was in front of his friends. It seemed like they were sticking pink paper pieces on a large wooden model.

“What is this?”

“It’s a cherry blossom tree for the play. It’s an important prop, so we’re attaching the petals one by one.”

“We’ve been doing this all day.”

Following the sighs of Jung Bo-ram and Kim Haun, Yang Ju-hee handed Seo-jun a pink paper and glue with a grin.

“It’s perfect for doing without thinking.”

Seo-jun burst into laughter as he alternately looked at the pink paper piece and glue in his hand and Yang Ju-hee’s face.

The hot August.

After eating all the ice cream, the acting students made small props in the place where the air conditioner was on. Seo-jun also sat down with his friends and attached pink paper pieces to the wooden model. As Yang Ju-hee said, it was a good thing to do without thinking.

As they talked about what happened during the vacation while attaching the petals, the tree that was sparse soon became full of petals. Yang Ju-hee, who was looking for gaps to attach petals in between, said.

“By the way, did you see that? The article about the evil agency.”

“Yeah, I saw it. I knew there were such companies, but it was worse than I imagined.”

Jung Bo-ram nodded repeatedly.

“The kids who debuted were younger than us…”

“Their parents must have suffered a lot too.”

The students nearby also joined the conversation about what Seo-jun and Kim Haun said. Since the topic started with child actors and there were many students who appeared in the preview, there was a lot to talk about.

“They’re broadcasting it today, right? I wonder if they’ll show the manager’s interview.”

“Yeah. The manager was amazing. He cared for the kids so much that he even spent his own money, and he exploded when he found out about the money problem.”

Seo-jun, who didn’t know that the manager he was praising was the one that Ahn Da Ho had chosen as his manager candidate, enthusiastically talked with his friends and attached paper petals to the tree.

***

The day he gave up the Cocoa Entertainment interview.

Choi Tae-woo contacted the kids right away. At the words of Cocoa Entertainment and try again, the kids burst into tears.

“Tae-woo hyung. Can we really do it?”

“What if we fail again?”

“My mom and dad told me to stop…”

“But I’m scared of being rejected by Cocoa Entertainment audition. I’m afraid I’ll find out that I have no talent.”

Choi Tae-woo swallowed his tears and asked the kids who were sobbing.

“What do you want to do?”

“…I want to try.”

“Then you should! You’re still young! You can keep going!”

The kids cried and smiled at Choi Tae-woo’s words.

‘Can we do it? Can we try again? Can we keep going?’

“What about you, hyung? You said you wanted to be an actor manager.”

“Did you fail the Cocoa Entertainment manager interview?”

Why did he say try again, not let’s try together?

Choi Tae-woo forced a smile at the puzzled looks of the kids.

And two days later.

The internet was not good.

The first thing was the child actor issue.

The article came out saying that the behaviors that had decreased after the appearance of child actor Lee Seo-jun, such as the treatment of former child actors, hard filming, and unfair contracts, had reappeared one by one after Lee Seo-jun became an adult.

-I’m a staff member and it’s true that the treatment of child actors improved after Lee Seo-jun appeared.

=22 People paid more attention to child actors because of Lee Seo-jun, and they would get articles if they did something wrong.

There was a lot of related data since they had been investigating for a long time.

In the near future, Choi Tae-woo would find out that it was the blacklist data of Lee Seo-jun’s dedicated team 2, but now he didn’t know anything and just thought, ‘The actor side is serious too.’

The article became a big issue with the name of ‘actor Lee Seo-jun’.

And the next day.

The stories of child actor hopefuls who had not yet debuted and idol trainees who had been in the entertainment industry since they were as young as child actors came out.

If only they could debut!

They were willing to endure anything, and the stories were more serious.

Among them, there were stories of unknown idols who were stuck in the same company for a long time because of unfair contracts. It also included the story of a singer who became famous after debuting in another company after the contract period of 10 years was over.

Choi Tae-woo felt a chill down his spine, thinking that the kids he had taken care of could have been like this.

Contrary to such contracts, some agency’s contracts were partially disclosed as examples of fair contracts. Choi Tae-woo would also find out in the near future that it was Cocoa Entertainment’s contract.

He also had an interview.

Unlike the past, when there were no comments, there were many comments praising him as a great manager. And he kept getting calls from people who wanted to interview him. Choi Tae-woo responded to the interview with a flustered expression at their reactions.

“…What’s going on…”

It seemed like something huge was happening.

And now, a week after the interview day.

A short corner of a broadcast showed Choi Tae-woo’s interview. The back of a stand-in was shown and Choi Tae-woo’s distorted voice was heard.

-Did you see that earlier? That’s our company and boss, right, hyung?!

-Boss(X) Bastard(O) Anyway! Embezzlement! Tae-woo hyung embezzlement! 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

-Because of the rumors, hyung couldn’t be a manager??

-But now everything is revealed? Can’t you contact Cocoa Entertainment again? Hyung?

Among the messages pouring from the kids, he saw a familiar and unfamiliar sender.

-Cocoa Entertainment: Hello. This is Cocoa Entertainment. We congratulate Choi Tae-woo on your final acceptance to the actor manager team and inform you of your admission.

“…Huh?”

Choi Tae-woo unknowingly looked back and forth between the TV and the phone.

Was it a coincidence that the broadcast came out after the Cocoa Entertainment interview and the acceptance message just arrived?

Somehow, Choi Tae-woo felt like he had felt the power of Cocoa Entertainment.