translation by mourningmoor
Among the many stages that L.I.T. has shown so far, please choose the one you want to see again.
Ten days ago, when this post was uploaded to the official SNS, everyone had a hunch.
Could it be… are they planning to show it at the concert?
And then, all hell broke loose.
No way, they can't do that. That would be unfair to domestic fans.
If they do that, they have to hold another concert in Korea. A nationwide tour of the metropolitan cities is a must.
└ This is the correct answer. Staff, you're seeing this, right? We're expecting a nationwide tour!
At that time, the performance that ranked third in votes was this <Mask> stage.
The fact that they included it in the Japan tour setlist meant that the other two songs would also be performed, and that meant the possibility of a re-performance in Korea had opened up.
His heart pounded with anticipation.
* * *
The video of the first day of the Tokyo Dome concert spread on NewTube, and the fan community was buzzing.
Korean fans didn’t hide their disappointment with the company, but at the same time, they were pleased, saying this gave them an excuse to request additional concerts.
Everything was going exactly as planned.
“Director-nim, you’re smart.”
We had just arrived at Incheon Airport and were on our way to the dinner venue.
Starting from this tour, an additional van had been provided.
Because of that, it was just me and Kim Chanyeong Director-nim, who had become my road manager, riding in the van together.
Ah, of course, the driving was done by another staff member from the management team, who had brought the car to the airport.
Still, since the other members weren’t around, Kim Chanyeong Director-nim answered more casually than usual.
“It’s not that I’m smart, I just have good business sense.”
“Either way.”
Honestly, this was all Kim Chanyeong Director-nim’s doing.
To quell the fandom’s dissatisfaction with the overseas tour, he launched a voting event. At the same time, he made sure fans could guess the intention behind it and then proceeded exactly as they had expected.
After all, things you already know are always more fun.
And just like that, fans started saying, “Huh? We were right? They’re actually putting all of these on the concert stage?”
Since it was the fans themselves who had picked the performances, they naturally became more attached to them, and that attachment led to excitement.
On top of that, because each concert’s setlist was slightly different, fans who missed certain performances started feeling regret.
And that regret, of course, led to a scramble for overseas tour tickets.
We’re going to carry this mix of complaints, regrets, and anticipation all the way through the North American tour, and then—bam—drop the South America, Europe, Osaka, Busan, and Seoul concert schedules.
Plus, up until the Osaka concert, we’ll keep changing up just one or two stages at a time, and then wrap everything up in the final Korea concert with a grand compilation.
Along the way, we’ll release a few new digital singles and continuously refine the setlist.
That way, the last Seoul concert and the previous Seoul concert will seem similar at first glance, but in reality, they’ll be completely different, so fans won’t feel like they’re losing anything.
For now, PD Pyo was very fond of Kim Chanyeong Director-nim’s idea. The members hesitated for about a day or two before slowly expressing their agreement.
The reason for the hesitation was that, if we went through with this plan, this entire year was going to be extremely exhausting.
But in the end, everyone agreed—because their passion was burning.
And that was something Kim Chanyeong Director-nim seemed to like as well.
“Your team… your members are quite decent.”
Kim Chanyeong Director-nim, sitting in the front passenger seat, spoke in a rough voice without even turning his head. Somehow, his voice carried a hint of emptiness.
This guy wasn’t a bad person from the start.
He was just a passionate manager who ran around tirelessly to make his artists the best.
After working day and night like that, he eventually became a director at HS, one of the four major agencies. Before he knew it, he was living the life of a factory manager churning out idols who were destined to make it big.
At first, he was thrilled, as if he had become a god or something. But that feeling didn’t last long. It became hollow, meaningless.
The trainees entering HS were all the same.
There weren’t any kids with outstanding talent or a natural brilliance.
Whenever he suggested to CEO Jang Myungwoo that they should pick some proper talents, he always got the same response.
[Pick proper kids? Why? You can just make them into proper kids. You’re the expert at that, so you can do it as much as you want. I trust you, that’s why I’m running this company with you. You get what I mean, right?]
In the end, Jang Myungwoo was just selling spots in the trainee program for money.
The whole trainee system wasn’t about discovering talent—it was just a business.
It was common for trainees to debut after their parents paid a hefty sum. Of course, Jung Yoobin was one of those cases.
As time went by, ethics became blurry, and his conscience? He couldn’t even find where it had gone.
By the time he came to his senses, he realized he had lost Kang Ichan.
How could legendary manager Kim Chanyeong fail to recognize such a talent and let him go? How could he have been deceived by someone like Jung Yoobin and done something so unforgivable?
How could he have turned a blind eye when Kang Ichan was being tormented so brutally, whether at school or at the company?
Standing by and doing nothing is worse than the violence itself.
Kim Chanyeong Director-nim deeply regretted the past.
“PD Pyo Cheonhee really put together your team well.”
His bitter smile and the way he spoke carried a mix of emotions.
Honestly, the first emotion Kim Chanyeong Director-nim felt was guilt toward Kang Ichan. That guilt outweighed the fear he had toward me now.
That’s why I accepted him.
"What are you saying. What do you mean ‘your team.’"
I scolded him and leaned lazily against the back of my seat before speaking again.
"Don't you know by now that you're part of our team too, Director-nim?"
Kim Chanyeong's hiring decision had been finalized fifteen days before the Japan tour. It's already been days since then, yet he still says ‘your team.’
This guy sure is stubborn.
"You should make your identity clear, Director-nim."
At that, Kim Chanyeong grumbled.
"Then you should make yours clear first. Am I still a director to you?"
Well, technically, he wasn’t a director here. He wasn’t even at the level of a team leader—just a road manager. Considering he accepted that and took my hand, I guess I should commend him for it.
"Then should I call you hyung?"
"Are you crazy?"
"Why? I call our company’s management team leader hyung too. Besides, Director-nim is Kim Wooyoung hyung. Kim Wooyoung and I are friends."
At that, Kim Chanyeong turned around with an utterly shocked expression.
"You two, when did you even become friends?"
"What do you mean? We got along pretty well back then. We still keep in touch even now."
Kim Chanyeong’s eyes widened.
This guy still doesn’t know. That Kim Wooyoung was the first one to tip me off about the stage lighting accident.
"Since he's my friend hyung, I should call you hyung too."
"You’re dead."
Guess he really doesn’t like that.
Yeah, well, I don’t like it either.
"Let’s just stick with Director-nim. It rolls off the tongue nicely."
Since I call Kim Chanyeong ‘Director-nim,’ the other members will probably follow suit.
Now that the titles were settled, there was one more thing to make clear.
"Anyway, are you wearing the shackle I gave you properly?"
At that, Kim Chanyeong gave me an exasperated look and gestured toward the driver’s seat with his eyes.
He was scolding me, as if asking how I could say something like that in front of another person.
What’s there to worry about?
"Whatever we say, this person is only focusing on driving, so don’t worry about it."
The moment we got into the van at the airport, he had already been mentally conditioned.
I had commanded him to focus solely on driving, so even if he heard our conversation, he wouldn’t remember it.
"So, the shackle?"
At that, Kim Chanyeong nonchalantly glanced down at his ankle.
"Where else would a shackle be? On my ankle, of course."
"Director-nim. You still don’t seem to realize that lies don’t work on me. You could fool a ghost before you fool me."
It had already been eight months.
Back when Kim Chanyeong was on the brink, I had gifted him a magic-infused anklet.
Since it was an anklet infused with my magic, I was well aware that it wasn’t here right now.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to take that off?"
There had been quite a big accident back then.
Assemblyman Jung Euicheol had orchestrated it—probably because he was displeased that Kim Chanyeong had slipped through his grasp.
"There’s no guarantee that something like last time won’t happen again. You need to wear it so you don’t get as badly injured."
"Injured, huh?"
"Do you think you wouldn’t get hurt? You got pushed from the fourth floor."
Kim Chanyeong only survived because I happened to be nearby at the time.
"Well, you can just swoosh over and heal me again. Like last time."
These people, always saying I ‘swoosh over.’
Do I look like an airplane? Do I just fly around like that?
"That time was just luck. It happened to be the day you were coming to meet me."
His leg had been broken, his internal organs ruptured, and even his head had been split open, yet his consciousness had remained strangely clear.
[Oh dear, oh dear. Who would do such a terrible thing right after you became mine? Do you have a death wish?]
I had immediately started using healing magic.
His life had been hanging by a thread, so I had to pour a considerable amount of magic into him.
After that, I had created and gifted him an anklet.
He had nearly been attacked multiple times since then, but he hadn’t been injured.
Because the physical enhancement spell within the anklet had been protecting him.
It even had teleportation magic, so if he was ever in danger, I could rush to him immediately.
And yet, this guy wasn’t wearing the anklet today.
"Hey. How old do you think I am? Why would I wear something like an anklet?"
Seriously, is that what’s important right now?
Without it, you’re just a regular human, which means you’ll get hurt if someone attacks you.
"And besides, whenever you use that weird power of yours while I’m wearing it, everything turns all blue and—ugh, anyway, I can see it, and it’s just…"
"Scary?"
"Yeah. It’s scary. You’re not a ghost, you’re not a goblin, but you turn all blue. What even is that?"
"If it’s scary, then shouldn’t you be wearing it? That’s exactly why you need to wear it. That’s an order."
Right then.
A surge of mana rippled through the air, sharpening my senses.
An enormous energy was charging straight toward us.
"I warned you. If you don’t wear the anklet, you’ll get hurt."
Raising my hand, I summoned my magic.
"Enhance."