Volume 1 2009 Chapter 36: Clearing the Clouds and Seeing the Sun
In the middle of the night, the clock pointed to half past one, and the door of the apartment slowly opened. Sun Enxi, who had been running around all day, dragged her tired body and moved heavily into the room.
"Sister, you're back." Yi Haoyan, who had been sitting on the sofa waiting, stood up and walked to the door and took the small backpack from his cousin.
"Haoyan?! Why haven't you gone to bed yet?" Sun Enxi was surprised to see her brother, who always went to bed early, still watching TV in the living room at this time.
"I have something to talk to you about." Yi Haoyan handed over a glass of water and said calmly.
"What's wrong? I've been too busy with work lately and haven't paid attention to you. What happened?" Seeing that her usually sensible brother wanted to talk to her so late at night, Sun Enxi suppressed her fatigue and cheered up.
"Your recent work troubles are because of TVXQ, right?"
"Oh! You know," Sun Enxi drank some water, smiled helplessly, and sighed: "Yes, all the previous plans have to be scrapped and started over again. It's a mess and it's quite difficult at the moment."
"What is the crux of the matter?"
"The main reason is that TVXQ is currently unable to fulfill its contract. Even if it can, advertisers are unwilling to use artists with damaged images to endorse their products. Currently, more than a dozen brands have to replace artists, which makes it difficult to coordinate for a while."
"Is it mainly because it's difficult to coordinate the schedules of artists of similar status?"
"Big Bang, the male idols of comparable status, don't have the right image, Super Junior doesn't have the right status, and the current top girl group Wonder Girls are in the United States and don't have time. It's really difficult to find a suitable idol to replace them at the moment." Sun Eun-hee answered with a headache.
"Can't we consider other stars besides idols?" Yi Haoyan tried to come up with other ideas.
"Actors? There is still a gap between idols and actors. If you use big-name actors as endorsements, on the one hand, the cost will increase significantly, and advertisers will be unwilling to accept it; on the other hand, actors will also consider their own image positioning and will not accept some endorsements." Sun Eun-hee has obviously tried it.
“What about sports stars?”
"I already have endorsements, so I can't do both. It would be more appropriate to find an idol."
"So how are you going to solve this problem now?"
"We can't find idols with the same status as TVXQ at the moment, so we tried to split the dozen or so endorsements and look for suitable idol groups to take over. But it happened so suddenly, how can we split them up? What kind of idols should we look for? We need to communicate with advertisers and agencies separately." Sun Eun-hee held her forehead with one hand, "But advertisers are very cautious now, and the agencies that were asked to take over are taking advantage of the situation and asking for sky-high prices, so the progress of this work is very slow."
After saying that, she let out a long breath and threw herself onto the sofa in frustration.
"So the main problems now are the difficulty in satisfying everyone and the lack of trust, right?" Yi Haoyan concluded.
“It can be said that there is currently no idol artist who can replace TVXQ and solve these two problems at the same time.” Sun Eun-hee sighed frustratedly.
There was silence in the living room for a moment.
The atmosphere was as dark as the night outside the window, without a single glimmer of light.
"Actually, there is." Yi Haoyan's steady voice broke the silence.
"What?"
Sun Enxi suspected that she had heard it wrong.
“It’s possible to find a combination that solves both problems.”
Yi Haoyan looked at his cousin and said with certainty.
"who?"
"Girls' Generation."
"Them? They're very popular recently, but they haven't reached that level yet, right? Wonder Girls are the number one girl group in Korea." Sun Eun-hee denied it immediately.
“But this number one girl group in Korea is no longer in Korea!”
Yi Haoyan stared into Sun Enxi's eyes and said something meaningful.
Sun Eun-hee's eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized, "What do you mean? SM has a backup plan to push Girls' Generation to the top?"
Yi Haoyan nodded confidently: "I might not have been sure before, but after the TVXQ incident, and Wonder Girls being far away in the United States, it was a foregone conclusion that SM would desperately push Girls' Generation to the top and seize power."
"Why?"
" From , boy bands have reached their peak and then their decline. The traditional boy band market represented by TVXQ has actually reached its peak."
"The market needs new types of idols, and the popularity of alternative idols BigBang has proven this."
"Girl groups have been silent for many years since SES and Finkl. After the bad times have passed, the girl groups are recovering. The phenomenal popularity of Wonder Girls proves the market's recognition of girl group planning. The launch of Girls' Generation is just in time."
"From SM's performance, they have also seen signs of a revival in girl groups. Girls' Generation members are of similar age and well-structured. Many of them have long-term trainee experience and strong professional skills. They are talented in singing, dancing, variety shows, and hosting. I don't believe that SM has no plans to push them to the top."
"They have survived the rookie period and the trials of the 'Black Sea'. The team has become more mature and has a stable fan base."
"The popularity of 'Gee' at the beginning of the year gave them the wings to soar, but Wonder Girls' US tour made way for them to reach the top, and TVXQ's incident caused SM to lose its leading group, and it fell into the dilemma of having no pillar!"
"Combined with several reasons, SM will definitely invest a lot of resources to help Girls' Generation reach the top. If nothing unexpected happens, I predict that Girls' Generation will succeed in reaching the top and become the number one girl group in South Korea, and will be SM's flagship group for at least the next five years."
"I guess in a few days , SM will recover and start to take action. At that time, SM will probably take the initiative to contact you to discuss replacing TVXQ with Girls' Generation. Right now, they need resources to expose Girls' Generation in large quantities. SM will not miss this opportunity."
"As for the previous two issues, Girls' Generation, who have reached the top, can solve them. SM will take the initiative to prove it to the advertisers. There is no need for you to communicate with them."
"Sister, you can wait for SM to come to you and take a good rest yourself. Don't exhaust yourself."
After saying that, Yi Haoyan yawned and said in a relaxed manner: "If you don't believe it, you can contact SM tomorrow and try to find out what they think. There shouldn't be any deviation."
"Go to bed early! You must be exhausted lately." He said as he staggered back to the bedroom.
It was not easy for him to wait so late as he had never been able to stay up late.
Sun Enxi was left lying on the sofa in the living room, carefully thinking about Yi Haoyan's words. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that it was very possible, as if it could really solve her current predicament!
After finding the direction, she suddenly felt the world in front of her became clear, and the stone in her heart fell to the ground, and she was no longer worried.
Once a person relaxes, all the fatigue accumulated before bursts out at once, and Sun Enxi suddenly feels tired and sleepy.
She hurried back to the bedroom, without even washing up, and threw herself on the big bed and fell into a deep sleep.
