thefictionvixens Chapter 16 | Weekly Meeting
Chapter 16 | Weekly Meeting
Pledis' weekly meeting is scheduled for 9:00 AM, half an hour earlier than the usual start time.
Cao Yisen had just arrived at the office and put his bag down when Park Ji-eun walked over with a folder in her arms.
"Let's go."
She glanced at Cao Yisen and said, "Newbie, today I'll show you what our group calls 'hell'."
"Is it that serious?" He picked up his notebook, grabbed a pen, and asked in surprise.
"It's definitely a bit serious today."
Park Ji-eun lowered her voice, "Representative Han will also be here."
"Han Shengshou?" he asked.
"Yes." She nodded. "This time it's specifically to set the tone for the project fromis_9. I heard that the parent company will also send a very capable person over."
The elevator doors opened, and the two followed a group of people inside. Planning, PR, and A&R all rushed in the same direction.
"A very capable person?"
Cao Yisen casually asked, "Which branch?"
"Have you heard of the former visual director of SM Entertainment?" Park Ji-eun turned to look at him and asked in return.
Min Hee-jin.
The name immediately struck him from the depths of his memory.
Of course I've heard of it.
He was once the soul of SM Entertainment's concept, single-handedly creating the visual universe of f(x) and Red Velvet. Later, he moved to Big Hit Entertainment, where he worked under ADOR. After creating NewJeans, he once again revolutionized the entire market.
This name appeared quite frequently in the financial reports, investment briefings, and industry articles before its rebirth.
"Isn't she with Big Hit?"
He pretended to have only vaguely heard about it, "How did you end up in PLEDIS?"
"Do you think we're some small company next door?"
Park Ji-eun smiled and said, "Now that we're all part of the same group, fromis_9's project is a key focus within the group, so of course the parent company has to send people to keep an eye on it."
She paused for a moment, then added, "And I heard that Representative Fang dug it up himself, and the amount of money he spent was extraordinary."
Bang Si-hyuk – the big boss of Big Hit.
Anyone involved in K-pop in South Korea would find it hard not to know this name.
"Didn't you used to work in another industry?" she asked. "You know a little about this line of work too?"
"I've read some of the news." He didn't rule out any possibility.
The elevator stopped at the conference floor, and as soon as the doors opened, there was a lot of noise. Several department heads were already standing at the door, chatting and waiting for people. The atmosphere was noticeably more tense than usual.
"In short, remember two things."
Park Ji-eun walked ahead, speaking a little slower, "One is that Representative Han will personally listen to fromis_9's project today. You may see a lot of internal codes that you don't understand. It's okay, just remember the names first."
"Another one?"
"The other thing is—"
She pushed open the conference room door. "Don't get distracted in front of Director Min."
The meeting room wasn't large, but it was packed with chairs today. The front row was reserved for representatives and senior executives from the parent company, while the back row held the group leaders and key executives from each team. The support team sat on the sides.
"Sit next to me."
Park Ji-eun moved her folder to the middle and pressed him down into the chair next to her. "If there's anything you don't understand, I'll translate it into plain language for you."
Cao Yisen opened his laptop and glanced at the agenda on the table.
First item: background of the fromis_9 project.
The second item: Discussion on brand and visual direction.
The third item: Content planning and data forecasting.
He roughly knew what was going on.
This was a true "setting meeting".
There was a moment of silence at the doorway.
Someone whispered, "The representative has arrived."
Han Shengshou entered first, walking slowly with a blank expression. He nodded and greeted the several internal managers before taking his seat in the center. His demeanor was similar to his usual image in front of the media, but up close, he exuded a composed ease that allowed him to seamlessly switch between the public eye and behind the scenes.
Immediately afterwards, another group of people came in.
Walking at the front was a woman with medium-length hair, wearing a simple shirt and black pants. Her makeup was light, but her eyes were sharp, and one glance told you that she was someone who was used to looking at the whole picture.
She didn't sit down immediately, but stood behind the chair and greeted Han Shengshou and several senior executives one by one.
Someone whispered, "Director Min."
"It's her."
Park Ji-eun whispered in his ear, "The former visual director of SM Entertainment, who was later poached by the CEO, is now in charge of the overall concept for the new girl group. Isn't it always said on the forums that Big Hit Entertainment is going to create a new group that can crush SM Entertainment's Aespa? This is one of the key figures."
"The rumors have spread like this on the forums."
Cao Yisen continued her words, a slight smile playing on his lips.
He knew, of course, that this wasn't just about "trampling them underfoot" as fans claimed; it was about the struggle for market dominance over the next few years. SM Entertainment was betting on the virtual universe and charging forward; Big Hit, having built its reputation on BTS, couldn't be content with just being a boy group company, and would inevitably have to enter the girl group arena sooner or later.
He originally thought he would stay away from these things, but now it seems that not only can he not leave them, but he will also be watching the show from a relatively prominent position.
Before the meeting even started, Han Shengshou flipped through the documents in his hand, while Min Xizhen casually drew a couple of lines on the agenda and glanced at the screen on the wall.
You don't need to speak later.
Park Ji-eun then instructed him, "When the representative calls your name, just say you're here. Don't say anything else. Today, the main thing is to listen."
"I understand."
He nodded, "Newcomers shouldn't steal the spotlight."
"There's one more thing."
She leaned closer and said, "When you see fromis_9's data, if you think there's anything wrong, write it down first, and don't interrupt on the spot. Our group's experience is—complain after the meeting."
"When you guys are complaining, do you ever complain about me?" he asked in a low voice.
"It depends on how you perform."
She chuckled in a low voice, "Maybe you'll be the one leading the吐槽 (tu cao, meaning to criticize or complain) in the future."
He said it so casually, but a thought flickered in his mind.
In my past life, I was the one making decisions in the meeting room. In this life, I sit in the corner taking notes and am regarded as a "newcomer who can see two steps ahead." My identity is completely different, but that familiar feeling is slowly returning—projects, games, future directions, everything will slowly take shape in these closed-door meetings.
The host cleared his throat, signaling the start of the meeting.
The lights dimmed slightly, and the screen lit up, displaying a prominent title on the first slide:
fromis_9 Rebranding & Big Hit Collaboration Project
"Welcome, representatives and Director Min."
The host's voice rang out in the room, "Let's start with the project background."
The atmosphere felt a little off from the very beginning of the meeting.
The screen had just finished showing an overview of fromis_9's current situation, and before the host could even finish speaking, someone at the main table started talking.
"The data was organized fairly well."
Han Shengshou looked at the first slide of the PPT and said in a low voice, "However, if we change the phrase 'declining potential,' it sounds too depressing."
The speaker immediately nodded in agreement and hurriedly took notes.
Min Hee-jin, who was standing next to her, chuckled softly but didn't reply. She simply flipped to the next few pages of the document, her finger pausing on a line that read, "Visual positioning: youthful/refreshing/girlish."
"This part also needs to be changed."
She looked up and said calmly, "The word 'youth' has been overused and is no longer effective. 'Refreshing' is now synonymous with low budget, and anyone can write 'girlishness,' but the audience no longer believes it."
As soon as she said that, several people on both sides of the table lowered their heads at the same time.
The host quickly said, "Director Min, which direction do you think we can go...?"
"Think carefully about what you believe in first."
She closed the document. "Let's talk about the direction later. Otherwise, it's just changing the wording to make it sound nice, but the essence remains the same."
Han Shengshou made a dot on the paper with his pen, looking at it with a half-smile: "You've been the same all these years, always trying to scare everyone first."
"It's better than everyone deceiving themselves."
Min Hee-jin responded smoothly, her eyes still sharp, "I'm too old to afford another round of conceptual hollowing out."
When she said "the concept is hollowed out," her tone was indifferent, and no emotion could be heard. But those familiar with this circle know that she was alluding to some SM Entertainment projects back then—the visuals were touted as amazing, but the music, team, and resources couldn't keep up, and in the end, it was all the fans who had to hold on.
There was a brief laugh in the meeting room, which quickly fell silent again.
Cao Yisen sat on the side, not saying a word, but jotting down a few words in his notebook. He roughly understood the relationship between the two people.
They came from the same company.
One is a producer and manager who worked his way up from artist management.
One is a concept queen who emerged from visual appeal and discourse power.
They show respect on the surface, but deep down they don't take the other person seriously.
He had read some interviews and industry reports in his previous life and had an impression of the resumes of both sides. Now, matching the people with those fragments of information, it felt like watching a workplace movie whose ending he already knew.
Han Shengshou leaned back, as if asking casually, "So, what's your opinion on the fromis_9 line now?"
"They all have excellent natural endowments."
Min Hee-jin said, "But they used to portray fromis_9 as 'cute + variety show'."
She paused for a moment, looked at the photo on the screen, and said, "Now that we're bringing you back to be a key girl group, do we need to add a worldview or a sense of realism? You guys need to decide that first."
"Aren't you best at creating worldviews?"
Han Shengshou smiled and said, "Back when I was at SM Entertainment, I could write an entire book about a single worldview."
"That's an SM method."
She replied directly, "And back then you were still a manager, grabbing people outside the practice room every day to schedule their activities."
Some people in the conference room couldn't help but chuckle to themselves.
That's not a very polite way to put it.
"What's wrong with the agent?"
Han Shengshou smiled but didn't get angry. "Your manager carries the artist's suitcase every day so you can have so many good photos to publish in the news."
Now it was the other side's turn to laugh.
Cao Yisen watched the two toss the ball back and forth, feeling that the tension was so strong it was hard to pretend he hadn't smelled it. He knew a little industry gossip—when BoA first debuted, Han Shengshou was one of the first managers to fly all over the country with her, someone who actually carried suitcases and ran errands for the artist.
Min Hee-jin has always been described by the media as a "conceptual genius" and "the soul of SM's visuals," so her position is naturally different. As a producer who comes from a management background, she is likely to have a sense of superiority.
Conversely, people with an artist management background might also feel that this "conceptual approach" is just good at creating hype and generating buzz.
These kinds of words aren't said openly, but there's always a hidden meaning in the tone.
The host quickly switched the PPT to the next page: "This section is our preliminary analysis of the girl group landscape, and we'd like to hear the opinions of the two representatives."
Several lines of keywords appeared on the screen:
Top boy groups: BTS / SEVENTEEN
—Girl Group Landscape: SM (aespa), YG (BLACKPINK), JYP (Twice, ITZY) – Multiple Groups Running Simultaneously
HYBE: Currently lacking its own top-tier girl group
"Boy groups go without saying."
Han Shengshou glanced at it and said, "BTS is there, SEVENTEEN is there. As long as they don't ruin their own careers, they won't have to worry about food and drink for ten years."
The problem is girl groups.
Min Hee-jin continued, "The fact that you're still discussing 'Future Girl Group' shows that the entire system actually knows where the gap is."
She didn't mention a specific name, but everyone knew that the "future girl group" she was talking about was Bang Si-hyuk's long-standing goal internally—to create a girl group that could directly compete with SM's new brands in the market, and to make people think of more than just aespa when they mention "the next generation of girl groups".
"PLEDIS has SEVENTEEN."
She said, "This is your greatest source of confidence."
"But you don't have enough good female trainees."
She put it very bluntly.
Several managers in the conference room exchanged subtle glances.
"Representative, I'm not saying you don't have anyone," Min Hee-jin added, "it's just that your pipeline isn't girl group-oriented enough."
"You're used to training boy groups with strong singing and dancing skills, and you're used to spending time on stage performance and live performance stability, but for girl groups, the audience wants to see something different."
"If you want a girl group that can stand at the forefront of the market, you have to start from the very beginning of recruiting."
Han Shengshou tapped the table lightly with his pen, looking at the screen as if he were thinking, or perhaps waiting for her to finish speaking.
"So what are you planning to do?"
He asked, "You already have a new girl group lined up in your pipeline, right?"
"That's another line."
Min Hee-jin said, "It's impossible to put all your ambitions in one bowl."
She paused for a moment and put the pen cap back on.
"Fromis_9, what we need to do is prove one thing—"
"The Big Hit system can take on a girl group that has potential but wasn't built from scratch, and then push them from 'what a pity' to 'what a pity to miss'."
"What do you mean?"
Someone in the back row asked in a low voice.
Park Ji-eun gently kicked Cao Yisen's chair leg under the table with her shoe, leaned closer and whispered to him, "Simply put, we want to make fromis_9 into the kind of case that was almost left behind by the times, but later turned around and became 'those we almost missed back then'."
"How do I do this?"
Cao Yisen also lowered his voice and asked.
"Isn't this just our job?"
She shrugged. "You'll find out soon enough how late our group will be filling out these documents."
Min Hee-jin had already flipped to the data page, looking at fromis_9's past online performances, stage reactions, and fan age groups.
"You're using these data too conservatively."
She said, "Now, from the platform to ordinary people, everyone knows better than you what's good about them and what's a pity about them."
She paused for a second and looked up at the back row.
"Are you from your planning support team?"
Park Ji-eun immediately raised her hand: "Yes, we're here."
"Break the data down into smaller parts."
Min Hee-jin said, "Don't just give me the total and the average."
"I want to see when people watch them repeatedly, when someone edits them into fan art, and when someone criticizes them, saying, 'It's a pity they work for so-and-so's company.'"
"The more fiercely you criticize, the greater the chance of success."
Han Shengshou chuckled softly and glanced at her: "Scolding you counts as an opportunity?"
"You can insult me too."
She said, "At least it shows that someone cares."
Upon hearing this, Cao Yisen had already written a line in his notebook—
Emotional density = Opportunity density
At this moment, he doesn't need to offer any opinions. Just writing down everyone's thoughts is enough for him to learn a complete crash course in "top-level entertainment industry meetings".
Previously, he sat on the side of capital, calculating whether the company was worth the price.
Now he's sitting here on the executive side, watching—how this game will be played, who will make the first move, and who will make the first mistake.
fromis_9 is just an entry point.
There are even bigger things in line behind them.
He looked up at the row in front of him.
One is a producer who fought his way up from SM Entertainment's management team, and the other is a concept director who rose from the visual department to the decision-making level. Behind them stand BTS, SEVENTEEN, and Bang Si-hyuk's ambition to "create the next generation of girl groups."
He was just a new employee in the planning support team, sitting in the corner, quietly taking notes.
It sounds good, doesn't it?
Halfway through the discussion, someone couldn't help but speak their mind.
He was a mid-level manager in the publicity department. He wasn't very old, but he spoke quite directly.
"Representative, I have a concern."
He flipped through the documents. "Regarding fromis_9, the general perception online is still that they are a 'small company girl group.' A widely circulated saying is—it's such a pity that they come from a small company."
He paused, then lowered his voice slightly: "Would bringing them over actually harm PLEDIS' own brand? After all, SEVENTEEN is here, and fans are very sensitive to the 'company's image'."
The meeting room fell silent for a moment.
This is definitely not a question he's the only one who's thought about; he just said it out loud first.
Han Shengshou didn't rush to express his opinion, but instead twirled his pen and looked to the other side: "What do you think from your side?"
Sitting opposite the PR team were colleagues from the data and operations departments. A younger colleague flipped through his notes, looked up, and spoke fluent Korean, interspersed with a few English phrases.
"Let me say something first."
He looked at the middle manager. "Small company? Mnet is a small company? What?"
As soon as he said that, someone in the back row chuckled, but then quickly stopped laughing.
"fromis_9 came from idol school."
He continued, "The show's ratings weren't explosive, but Mnet's resources, instructors, and stage setup can hardly be considered a 'small workshop'."
He turned to a page of information and pointed to the training background marked on it: "After the show, the people who taught them were all quite influential—veteran idols were the teachers, top-tier vocalists were teaching vocals, and the dance teachers were the kind who choreographed for top girl groups. The overall training was conducted by the PLEDIS system. To call it a 'small company system' is a bit of an exaggeration."
Some people nodded.
"Let's talk about fans."
He flipped down two pages. "They weren't an airborne regiment."
"The show's ratings were average, but even average ratings are still television media, with thousands or tens of thousands of people watching each episode. Some of the viewers from Idol School were retained by them, and these people later became the first core fans to buy albums and line up for autograph sessions."
"Many talent show groups debut for several years, and while the general public knows them, their fans don't support them. Fromis_9 is the opposite; the show's popularity is average, but their fans are very loyal."
He pointed to a set of bar charts in the sidebar: "You can see the activity data from the early stages of their debut. They did a lot of promise meetings, small fan meetings, and frequent live streams on social media, switching between Facebook, V Live, and various other platforms. In total, several thousand people watched the live streams. This number isn't amazing, but it's solid."
"These are the people who later supported their physical sales."
He paused here, then looked at the colleague who had raised the question:
"So rather than saying that their company is a pity, it's more accurate to say that they turned a show with mediocre ratings into a group that can support itself."
"This is quite remarkable for someone who came through a talent show."
Min Hee-jin had been listening quietly without saying a word, but when she heard this, she nodded slightly.
"I agree with his statement."
She began, "Many people only remember the words 'small company' and forget the work they did in the early days of gradually building up their workforce."
She glanced at the photo of fromis_9 on the screen and said in a softer tone than before: "Their problem has never been a lack of ability or a lack of fans, but rather that the system has failed to provide them with a clear path."
"What we need to do now is to take over what they have left, not to redefine who they are."
Han Shengshou then spoke up: "A drag on PLEDIS? I don't think so."
He closed his pen. "SEVENTEEN has built this brand, but it's dangerous if there's only one name forever."
"If fromis_9 can run smoothly under our system, it will prove that PLEDIS is not just 'one boy group with good luck,' but has the ability to bring girl groups from other places to success as well."
The meeting room fell silent for a moment.
The middle manager nodded, his tone softening: "I understand. I'm just worried that if we take over, we might not do a good job, and the fans might think that switching companies was a bad thing."
"Then don't do it badly."
Min Hee-jin said it casually.
She picked up the pen again and looked at the back row: "Are the planning support and data teams ready?"
Park Ji-eun straightened her back: "We will compile all the traceable data from Idol School to date, including platform activity, the amount of fan-made content, the types of negative comments, and the time points."
As she said this, she glanced at Cao Yisen and added, "This time we have a new colleague helping us. He has seen many 'undervalued assets' in other circles before, and he is very good at analyzing data."
Han Shengshou followed her gaze and looked over, his eyes lingering on Cao Yisen for a second.
"Oh?" He smiled. "Then I'll have to trouble you."
Cao Yisen bowed slightly: "I will try my best to see what I should see first."
He sat in the back row, near the edge, and as Park Ji-eun had instructed, he basically did only two things: listen and take notes. Occasionally, he would look up, but only glance at the screen in sync with the page turning, his expression controlled like a "newbie," neither trying to steal the spotlight nor fidgeting.
Although Cao Yisen had been keeping a low profile, there was still someone at the main table watching the entire room.