Chapter 739: Interruption (1)
[Everyday V13]
[Date: March 14, 2021]
-08:00 p.m. [NEW. Kim Sae-Ri]
Project I.O.A's first broadcast postponed to next week due to entry bans on Chinese and Japanese teams. (Emergency meeting: Chinese preliminary contestant Wang Lina listed on the Ministry of Justice's entry ban roster.)
-08:30 p.m. [NEW. Yoo Eun-Ah]
Preparing interviews with the three major broadcasting stations following Project I.O.A's cancellation. (Emergency meeting: Japanese preliminary contestant Minamoto Aoi also listed on the Ministry of Justice's entry ban roster. All others received entry approval except Wang Lina and Minamoto Aoi. A joint task force will be formed with the company's legal team and external counsel to respond alongside SBC.)
The schedule entry in Everyday was so absurd that I could hardly believe it. Because it was only belatedly confirmed that Wang Lina and Minamoto Aoi were on the Ministry of Justice's entry ban list, both chartered flights would be barred from entering the country until 8 p.m.
The first episode of Project I.O.A was scheduled to air tonight at 10 p.m. If the entry wasn't granted until 8, there would be no avoiding a cancellation. However, that wasn't even the biggest problem.
I had already completed background checks on all 33 Chinese and 33 Japanese contestants who passed the preliminaries for Project I.O.A. They all spoke Korean and visited often, so I wanted to make sure none had been involved in incidents or crimes during past trips. Just yesterday, I received confirmation from the Ministry of Justice that all 66 had cleared.
And yet, here I was faced with an entry ban on a Sunday.
At that moment, I became certain someone had deliberately tried to sabotage Project I.O.A. There was no way a civil servant would update the entry ban list on White Day and on a Sunday, without someone pulling strings.
On top of that, of all people, it had to be Wang Lina and Minamoto Aoi. They were the strongest candidates to debut. Targeting just those two made it painfully obvious this was calculated.