“A traitor has appeared.”

“What are you talking about out of nowhere? Yuri’s right here.”

“Yuri isn’t a traitor!”

I looked at Ryu Ayeon and Yuri, who were still joking around without realizing the seriousness of the situation.

“What? Is there really some kind of problem?”

“Yuri betraying us is as natural as breathing, so there’s no way I would have gone out of my way to mention it.”

Only then, perhaps realizing from my serious expression that something had happened, the members sprawled around the dorm began turning their eyes toward me.

“Lee Sion, let us rest a little. What are you trying to do even on our day off?”

“Commander, don’t you ever get tired? I feel like I’m about to collapse right now.”

“Sion, you even did two special stages this time, and you truly are amazing! I was so exhausted just from doing one.”

Our Iam had been forced to get through every year-end special stage, to the point where I had wondered whether this schedule was really humanly possible.

Because it had been such a grueling schedule that even I could barely remember how exactly I had been going around performing for the past few days, the other members were already in a half-dead state.

For our main stages, we had to show newly arranged versions of our songs that were different from what we usually did, and on top of that, the members were split up by each broadcasting station to put on special stages. Honestly, it was a blessing our heads had not exploded just from memorizing the choreography.

-Sorry, I made a mistake.

Even the choreography ghost Ryu Ayeon had gotten confused and made mistakes during the last stretch of practice, so finishing the stages without a broadcast accident was a miracle.

Anyway, after those eventful year-end stages wrapped up, we were able to rest for a while before the Korean Music Awards ceremony early next year.

Of course, even then, we had to stand onstage at the awards ceremony too, so we would be going into preparation again soon. Still, since it was a rare break, all the members were resting in the dorm without even going home.

However,

“I received top-secret intel from a spy I planted. Aren’t you really curious?”

“Top-secret intel?”

It was still too early to rest.

“What is it this time? Where does Lee Sion keep finding this stuff every single day?”

“I made a new friend when I went to SY to practice this time.”

“Other than Kaella?”

“Yeah. Kaella’s unexpectedly sharp, so she doesn’t give up much information.”

When I said I had obtained information from the SY side, the members finally seemed interested, and one by one, they began stealthily gathering toward the sofa where I was.

“What is it? Hurry up and tell us.”

Sluggish Ryujin, who was the first to come closer and urge me on after ignoring me.

“Listen carefully.”

I recalled what had happened yesterday.

Yesterday, while returning to the dorm after the UBS Music Festival special stage, I had exchanged messages with Hyeyeon, the trainee I had newly befriended at SY.

Normally, I would have fallen asleep the moment I got in the car because I was tired, but I could not ignore contact from a comrade who had helped me trap Hyeryeong in a booby trap.

Most of it was me explaining that what happened to Hyeryeong was something I had done, and Hyeyeon had unknowingly joined in, but the important part came later.

-But these days, a strange rumor is going around the company.

-What might it be?

-I happened to hear people saying a new producer is joining our company, and that new producer is Raon.

-What?

The shocking news of Raon’s transfer burst out of Hyeyeon’s mouth.

Of course, I could not just believe that as it was, so I hurriedly called Kaella to double-check.

-What? Sion, how did you hear about that?

When I pressed her as if I already knew everything, Kaella, whose mouth was heavy but who still had an innocent side, fell for it immediately and smoothly spilled the information. Thanks to her, I learned that the rumor was not tabloid garbage, but the real thing.

“That makes no sense! Producer Raon is our producer!”

“That’s right! She’s been with us from the beginning until now, so she cannot suddenly go somewhere else!”

“She was so excited last time, saying our company’s share value went up because of us···.”

After hearing the story, the members reacted just as I had when I first heard the news, as if they could not believe it.

‘It makes sense.’

After all, until now, Producer Raon had shown no sign of leaving, and if anything, we had only seen her excited every day because our third mini album had become a huge hit.

In that situation, Raon transferring to SY was just too absurd.

“It’s not that strange.”

“Huh?”

But Ryu Ayeon stayed calm, saying the shocking news of Raon’s transfer was not only strange.

“Did you forget where Producer Raon used to promote?”

“Ah.”

“Even before, and now after she retired, her nickname is SY’s Daughter. Honestly, it’s stranger that she’s working as a producer at KJ Entertainment.”

At Ryu Ayeon’s words, I and the rest of the members had no choice but to nod.

‘Come to think of it, even I knew Raon was SY.’

Now that I was active, my knowledge about idols had increased quite a lot, but the old me had been someone who had no real interest in the entertainment industry, let alone idols.

But even I knew the relationship between Raon and SY.

From the moment of her debut, SY had promoted her so much that even Madam Sukja knew she belonged to SY, though she did not know Raon’s songs.

“That’s true···. Producer Raon going to SY isn’t strange.”

“Producer Raon certainly complained every time she worked that there was no equipment and no place. SY must have plenty of things needed for work, so perhaps she is going there because of that.”

“If I ask my mom to bring in all of SY’s equipment, wouldn’t she change her mind?”

“Yunkyung, that’s a good idea!”

The youngest ones began guessing all kinds of reasons, perhaps because they were very sad about Producer Raon transferring to SY.

However,

“This isn’t something we should interfere with.”

At Seo Ryujin’s words, who had been silent until then, the two lowered their heads with expressions that looked like they were about to cry at any moment.

“We’re not trainees anymore. We’re idols who have actually debuted and are active now. We’re professionals, not amateurs.”

Seo Ryujin also seemed displeased by the news of Raon’s transfer, judging by her dark expression, but she continued speaking firmly.

“We renewed our contracts with KJ Entertainment because KJ Entertainment promised us treatment that was that good, and Producer Raon probably wants to go to SY because she was promised better treatment too.”

I agreed with Seo Ryujin.

‘No matter how much we’ve grown recently, if someone asks whether you want to go to SY or KJ Entertainment, you’d go to SY.’

Although we were doing well, in terms of scale, history, or anything else, SY was the top agency in Korea, incomparable to us.

If an office worker at a small-to-mid-sized company received an offer to transfer to a major corporation, who could refuse that?

“Still···I want to stay with Producer Raon until the end! We’ve been together from the beginning until now, and I thought we’d stay together from now on too. I don’t want her to just disappear like this!”

But even after Seo Ryujin’s explanation, Shinyu, unlike usual, did not accept it and instead shouted loudly that she could not understand.

It was the first time good-natured Shinyu, who would jump into a fire if the members told her to, had shown such an emotional side, so not only Seo Ryujin but the other members as well were so surprised they could not say anything.

‘Shinyu did follow Producer Raon especially well.’

After debuting, Shinyu had followed Raon around and learned producing from her.

The other members had built many memories with Producer Raon too, but for Shinyu, she must have been even more special.

“You said something right, Shinyu. It would be too sad to let her go like this.”

“Sion!”

“Hey! Lee Sion, this isn’t something that’ll work just because we throw a tantrum···.”

When I agreed instead of stopping Shinyu, Seo Ryujin looked flustered.

I held up my index finger at her, signaling for her to be quiet.

After all, I had not finished talking yet.

“We cannot let her go peacefully like this.”

Blocking someone who was going to a better place went against my principles.

But if we just let her go, wouldn’t that be too cold and sad?

What I had in mind was a discharge beating···no, a discharge ceremony.

***

“The division head’s arrival has been canceled?”

“Yes, I handled it separately.”

“How? How did you stop someone from headquarters from coming down here?”

“Would you like to hear it? It likely won’t be especially pleasant.”

Raon shook her head as she saw Sanghyeok dodge the answer with a slightly sinister smile.

-Producer, did you hear? Apparently headquarters is sending someone down this time.

Originally, when something succeeded, flies were bound to swarm around it.

KJ Entertainment, which had initially been established half in doubt as a way to put a foot into the entertainment industry, achieved unexpected major success, and now the hands of the jackals were beginning to reach for it in earnest.

‘It didn’t seem like it would be easy to get past.’

A rumor had begun spreading among employees that KJ Media, KJ Entertainment’s parent company, would be sending down a new division head in the name of company growth and new projects.

They called it a division head, but now that KJ Entertainment had become promising enough for headquarters to pay attention, no employee failed to understand that it meant dispersing the power structure concentrated in Sanghyeok.

Thanks to that, unease had recently been circling among KJ Entertainment’s employees.

-There’s no CEO like him.

-Exactly. A higher-up who trusts you and leaves things to you is seriously rare.

After all, the reason KJ Entertainment’s employees stayed motivated despite the heavy workload and salaries lower than major agencies was none other than Sanghyeok and Raon.

Autonomous work and authority that would be unimaginable at a major agency.

Usually, in companies operated that way, there was a possibility they could become what people often called the typical small company of this peninsula, dumping even responsibility onto the employees.

-I’ll take responsibility.

Amazingly, however, under Sanghyeok’s lead, where the person above took responsibility, they had been able to freely unfold the things they had thought of until now.

“What are you really doing behind my back?”

“I’m doing what I can do. Making sure the members and Producer Raon can each do only their own work in the positions they’ve taken on. That is my job.”

In that situation, if the newly arriving division head from headquarters had appeared, KJ Entertainment would definitely have changed from before. Yet Sanghyeok had somehow made it as though it had never happened.

‘Is he some chairman’s hidden son or something?’

KJ Entertainment was Raon’s first time living as an office worker, but even so, after many years in the entertainment industry, she at least understood how society worked.

Overturning something headquarters had decided once was generally never easy.

“This past year really flew by like madness.”

“It must feel even more that way for you, Producer Raon. You participated as a producer starting from Agbaek.”

“Yes, back then, I never imagined I’d be producing the girls at KJ Entertainment.”

It was true.

Raon had only intended to help once because of a request from Hyeryeong, a younger colleague she was close to. She had not planned to produce a girl group in earnest.

But she had eventually chosen to go to KJ Entertainment after being lured by the idea that she could produce a girl group under her own name, no longer hiding behind a pseudonym while composing.

Before she knew it, Raon liked KJ Entertainment too much.

Although they bickered every time, it had reached the point where things felt boring without Sanghyeok’s nitpicks. The employees working with overflowing motivation were also there, and so were the Iam members, who were often far too annoying, but who recreated exactly the image Raon had drawn whenever they stood onstage.

“You should really be grateful.”

“I am always grateful to you, Producer, but what are you referring to this time?”

“There’s something.”

Raon paid Sanghyeok back for dodging her own question.

‘I wonder if he even knows how huge an offer I turned down.’

The producer position she had been offered by Seyon, the CEO, when she stopped by SY just yesterday.

It was a massive offer to entrust Raon with producing their new boy group.

It was probably an offer any Korean producer would salivate over and leap out of their seat for.

After all, giving her a producer position over Yoo Hyunsoo and Tenji, who were called the heart of SY, was truly an enormous matter.

However, Raon had refused the offer.

-You’re rejecting it without even thinking it over?

-I’m sorry, CEO.

-Haa···can I at least hear the reason?

-Succeeding at SY would be too boring.

-What?

SY was a place like a utopia for producers, where everything from human resources to equipment, sponsorships, and outside personnel could all be used.

That was why it guaranteed unconditional success, but ironically, it was also a place where the producer’s name was hidden behind the enormous castle called SY.

Raon had been greedy since her singer days.

SY?

It was certainly enormous and seemed like a wall that could not be crossed, but nothing in the world was eternal, and no one knew the future, so she wanted to surpass it.

And the place where she could unfold that dream was KJ Entertainment.

“Anyway, there is something like that, so you need to treat me well.”

“Japanese activities will begin soon, so we’ll need your strength greatly, Producer Raon. I’ll treat you even better.”

“As long as you know. Are the girls resting at the dorm?”

“Probably, aren’t they? The members have been so busy lately, they must be tired.”

“I should go check on their condition.”

After finishing her words, Raon rose from the sofa in the CEO’s office.

The sofa had been so comfortably occupied that the spot where Raon had been lying was deeply sunken.

Raon waved to Sanghyeok and opened the CEO’s office door, and,

“Cover her!”

“What?!”

The moment she opened the door, something flew over Raon’s head.

Startled, Raon flinched without meaning to and raised her hands over her head. Soon, her vision was covered with something like cloth, leaving her unable to see anything.

“Producer Raon, even if you go to SY, you can’t forget us!”

“Trying to leave without telling us! We’re so sad!”

“Teacher Raon! Thank you so damn much!”

And the familiar voices came.

“What are you doing! Hurry up and take this off! Why are you suddenly acting like this! Have you gone crazy?”

Realizing at once that this was something the Iam members had planned, Raon shouted as the anxiety closing in on her rose, but it was useless.

“Sixteen years ago, the mission to execute Raon if she was a traitor. I will now carry it out.”

“What bullshit is that!!!”

Because the devil’s voice had arrived.