Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 262
Woojoo had a dream for the first time in a while.
It was a dream about going to school, and he was in the same class as the President.
He had a strange way of speaking, saying ‘Kyuho is kyu’ all the time, and he was ostracized by his peers.
The homeroom teacher, Bijoo, told him to take care of him since he was the class president, and he did his best to do so.
Especially from the gang of bullies led by Rihyuk, who would torment him by saying ‘show me your attitude, posture, and paragraph’.
-Kyu, kyu…!
When the President was grabbed by the collar by Jiho, Woojoo showed up.-That’s enough.
The President cried ‘kyu!’ and shed tears at Woojoo’s appearance.
But unlike the easy fight with Jiho, Woojoo had a hard time with the mid-boss, Junghyun.
As they were rolling around on the floor…
“Hyung.”
A mouth appeared on the classroom floor and started to speak.
“Hyung, wake up.”
“Huh…!”
Woojoo was startled by the face of the youngest, who was looming over him.
“Ack!”
When Woojoo came to his senses, he saw the youngest being held down with a jiu-jitsu technique.
Jiho was pounding the bed as if to surrender, coughing and choking.
“Hey, let go of me!”
“Uh, sorry! I’m sorry!”
Woojoo apologized profusely to the youngest, who was pouting his lips, as he scolded him for treating him so rudely.
Wow. That was a shock.
Woojoo guessed he needed to take a break, as Rihyuk said. It felt like a dream caused by stress.
When he regained his sense of reality from the cool air conditioner breeze and the cold touch of the blanket.
Bijoo, who had finished brushing his teeth, asked Woojoo, “What happened?”
“Well…”
Woojoo explained the dream to him, and they both laughed like crazy.
Woojoo told them to keep it a secret from the President, but he doubted that Jiho’s mouth, which was as light as helium, would stay quiet.
When they went back to Korea, he bet that half of the company staff would know about his dream.
Woojoo turned his gaze to the youngest, who was lying on his bed and idling.
“By the way, what’s up with our youngest? Why are you up so early?”
“Well, I was bored, so I got up early. They say the early bird sings well, right? And I wanted to film some videos, too.”
“Videos?”
“Assistant Manager Hong gave me a camera and told me to film a lot of daily vlogs in Japan. For our YouTube content.”
“I see.”
The youngest had a small camera in his hand.
“I was going to go with the concept of a diligent youngest waking up the lazy brothers, but I think I already failed. Bijoo is awake, and you are…”
“…”
“I think you came out really weird just now.”
Woojoo checked the video on the camcorder and saw himself blinking awake from a light sleep, then the camera shook violently.
It looked like a scene from an accident where a beast attacked.
“…”
“Let’s do it again. Jiho.”
Bijoo and Woojoo lay down and posed as if they were sleeping, and the youngest came over and woke them up.
They both smiled and pretended to wake up, but it was so unnatural that they all gave up laughing.
They changed their plan and got dressed and left the room.
“Well, shall we go and wake up Junghyun and Rihyuk?”
“Let’s go!”
They walked on the soft hotel carpet and entered the room nearby.
They giggled and stood in front of the door.
“…”
Woojoo realized something important.
“Hey, how do we get in?”
“…Oops, this is a flaw.”
“Jiho. How did you get into our room?”
“Bijoo Hyung opened it for me.”
“…”
They blinked and looked at each other, then nodded seriously.
Then.
Knock, knock.
-Korean history?
“69 points.”
As Jiho trembled, the door opened and the bear greeted them with a toothbrush in his mouth.
“Oh, welcome.”
“You were up.”
“Yes, Rihyuk is still sleeping…”
“Really?”
It was when they sneaked into the hotel room. They went to the bed and lifted the blanket, but there was nothing there.
It was there, but it wasn’t. What was that?
As Bijoo cautiously felt the empty bed to check for Rihyuk’s presence, Junghyun raised his finger.
“He’s over there.”
“Where?”
They turned their heads following his finger and saw Rihyuk indeed.
But his position was a bit odd.
“…Why is he sleeping there?”
“I saw that at school. You know, the earthquake evacuation method.”
Rihyuk curled up under the corner table with a blanket rolled up.
He looked like a picture from a drama, where the protagonist was humiliated because of a lottery and sat miserably with his face buried in his hands.
He must have snored quite loudly, because he made a hat out of the blanket like an Eskimo.
“He’s alive, right?”
“He’s only weak in physical strength. He’s actually quite tough, so he’ll be fine.”
Bijoo bent down and tapped Rihyuk on the shoulder.
“Rihyuk.”
“…”
“Rihyuk. It’s me, your brother.”
“…Huh?”
Rihyuk, who was shivering like a fish that had just woken up from a deep sleep, opened his eyes with a bewildered expression.
Bijoo asked him, “Why are you here like this?”
“I tried to sleep, but the snoring was too loud… This was the quietest place.”
“I see…”
“I guess I shouldn’t have slept here. I’m so cold…”
As Bijoo comforted him with a pitying look, Rihyuk’s gaze turned to Woojoo.
He looked wide awake.
“You…!”
“Good morning.”
“You… I’ll get back at you…!”
“Want some red ginseng?”
Woojoo took out some red ginseng from his pocket and offered it to him. Rihyuk reached out his trembling hand.
“Give me, give me.”
“What about revenge?”
“I’ll do it after I eat, so be quiet.”
Woojoo smiled as he watched him suck on the red ginseng for survival. Rihyuk glared back at him.
Rihyuk finished the red ginseng and started to complain to Bijoo, who was patting him gently.
Bijoo smiled and listened to him calmly.
Stupid Rihyuk.
It was his idea to switch rooms.
They were originally going to have breakfast at the hotel buffet.
But the hotel staff asked them if they could serve them breakfast in their room, so they couldn’t go.
They said it would bother the other guests if they came in while the fans were crowding around.
It was something that had never happened before, so it was a bit embarrassing, but it was a better deal in many ways.
The room service that the hotel provided with an apology was of good quality.
“Wow…!”
Omelets and bread, grilled fish and rice, etc.
They ate like pigs in the morning with a variety of mixed dishes.
Maybe it was because they had a good meal and slept until the morning was bright for the first time in months.
Their condition was the best as they headed to the concert venue.
The destination was north of Tokyo.
It was a concert hall called Super Arena in Saitama Prefecture.
Rihyuk told them what he had searched on his tablet PC.
“The capacity is up to 40,000 people, but this K-pop concert is between 15,000 and 20,000 people.”
“Wow…”
“It must be similar to the gymnastics stadium we went to last year.”
It was similar to the Mango Chart Awards, where they won the Rookie Award.
Woojoo’s heart thumped at the number of 15,000.
It was half excitement and half nervousness to perform without mistakes.
They had become more relaxed with their fan service and attitude towards the fans thanks to their accumulated experience, but their tension for the stage had not changed much compared to their debut.
Should he say it was always new?
The tension that used to make his mouth dry and dizzy had now changed to his heart pounding hard. The tension before the stage was always the same.
“15,000 people is three times our concert.”
“That’s right.”
“Ugh, I’m nervous. How did we do it at the gymnastics last year? I’m more nervous than then.”
They all agreed with the youngest.
They thought they had improved after performing at a few big places, but they were back to square one.
They all rolled their feet and muttered, ‘We have to do well today…’
The concert didn’t start until half a day later, but they didn’t know why they were so nervous and shaky from the morning.
They each tried different ways to relax while Rihyuk read the script for the special MC.
Junghyun and Jiho ate snacks, and Bijoo and Woojoo shared earphones and listened to YouTube’s ‘Music Collection to Calm Your Mind’.
-Are you nervous? You look very nervous.
Woojoo was trying to listen with his eyes closed, but he opened them at the sound of someone’s familiar voice.
It was a YouTubead in the middle.
Han Taehyun from TNT smiled smugly and looked at the screen. It was a phone ad.
Woojoo was startled by the ad that seemed to promote a camera’s anti-shake feature.
Of course, he immediately pressed skip.
“TNT Sunbae-nims seem to have no ads that they don’t appear in.”
“I know, right. They just pop out without any warning.”
As he was talking to Bijoo, a new ad came on.
This time, it was them.
“…?”
Scenes of different boy groups and girl groups performing, including New Black who sang Windflower, appeared on the screen. Then a narration followed.
- K-pop is reaching out to the world. Do you know how much its market value is?
It was a public service ad from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
An ad that explained the economic value of the so-called Korean Wave, such as webtoons and K-pop. Woojoo pressed skip on the ad that said ‘These kids are earning dollars! Hot!’ and the original calm piano music came back on.
The music that calmed him down.
But after seeing the ad that said ‘Are you nervous? ㅋnervous?’ and the ad that said ‘Hey, guys! You are the national representatives of K-pop!’ Woojoo was not calm at all.
“I might really buy the ad blocking feature if it comes out.”
“Me too.”
As he listened to the song again and tried to soothe his anxious heart, a few large buildings appeared.
Then the concert hall revealed itself.
“Wow…”
Woojoo opened his eyes wide and looked at it.
The phrase ‘2015 K-Pop Concert in Japan’ was hung on the wall of the concert hall.
It was the biggest concert they had ever done overseas.
Woojoo spoke seriously to the members who swallowed their saliva.
“…Let’s do our best today.”
Junghyun nodded.
“We have to.”
“Let’s do so well that when the fans are asked why they like New Black, they say it’s because we perform well 90 percent of the time. We.”
“If we do that well, people will only talk about us after the concert.”
They laughed at Rihyuk’s words.
They joked with each other that they would stamp their faces on the Japanese K-pop fans.
After they arrived at the waiting room, other singers arrived one after another.
Most of them were people they had met at the convention hall yesterday, but there were also many who had arrived today.
“Hello, we are New Black!”
“Yeah, hi.”
There was also Jo Aena, a solo singer who was a candidate for first place with them at the Fireworks show and whom they had met at Around the World With Dice.
“Oh, it’s New Black! Nice to see you! It’s been a long time since the Dolympics.”
“Have you been well?”
They also greeted Ace, a second-generation senior group that was famous for their popularity in Japan.
The rehearsal was done in the order of the main stage, and they were right before Ace and Jo Aena, who were the last.
They had to wait for hours for the rehearsal, as they were almost at the end of the cue sheet.
Waiting, waiting, and more waiting.
No matter how much they greeted the performers today, walking around the waiting room or other waiting rooms, time didn’t pass.
“I’m bored.”
“Me too. It would have been nice if Street Boys were here too.”
This Japanese K-pop concert had a lot of idols who overlapped with the music show activities.
It would have been nice if Street Boys were here too.
Woojoo heard that they were originally planning to come, but DNS Media pushed back their comeback date to avoid them on the music shows, and their schedule got messed up.
They said they were doing well with this album, and they might get first place soon.
Woojoo was looking forward to it, as they said they would text them as soon as they got a phone.
Woojoo should give Hanjo’s talk ID to the PD of Men Go.
“New Black, we’re going to do the rehearsal!”
“Yes!”
They did the rehearsal in the empty concert hall.
At the same time, they checked the two most important things.
The first was the floor material and the movement.
“The floor material is similar to the music show, fortunately… Guys, be careful here. It’s a bit shaky.”
“Yes.”
Their main dancer checked the protruding stage for the choreography.
“I’ll adjust the gap a little bit.”
“Okay.”
“You guys have to come in a little tighter than the original choreography. If you do it as usual, you might trip on that light.”
After matching the timing a few times, it was done.
As Woojoo memorized the rough key points with his eyes, the sound check was up to him and Rihyuk.
“Doesn’t the mic sound… a bit muffled?”
“I think so.”
“Let’s ask them to adjust it later.”
The sound quality varied depending on the floor material and size of each venue.
They carefully conveyed some requests to the managers, and the site director gladly agreed.
Meanwhile, there was also something very exciting.
“It’s the lift!”
“The lift…!”
“What do we do? I’m so nervous. We’re finally using the lift…!”
The lift that they planned to use for their stage entrance was something they had never tried before.
It was amazing.
Woojoo wanted to keep riding it like a slide at the playground.
‘Awesome.’
‘We’re going up. Up.’
As they slowly ascended, they made the expressions that they had practiced for the stage.
Woojoo had seen the senior idols appear from below with a cool swoosh on TV, and he really wanted to try it.
This time, he finally fulfilled his wish.
“I want to ride it too…”
Bijoo, who had no chance to use the lift for the stage direction, looked envious.
Junghyun grabbed Bijoo and lifted him up with a ‘Here, lift’ and ended with a back slap.
“Junghyun. Don’t do that to Bijoo…”
“Ah. Do you want me to do it to you too, Hyung?”
“Hey! Hey…! Heyyy!”
Woojoo became the second victim of ‘Here, lift’ while Dowon Hyung, who was holding a handycam, laughed.
Woojoo had to ask him to edit that out.
He couldn’t show the fans his dignity-less legs flailing in the air.
After finishing the rehearsal, they had to wait again.
5 p.m.
They fixed their makeup and changed their outfits for the red carpet event before the concert.
“Woojoo! Look here! Here!”
“Jiho! Here!”
“Rihyuk! Rihyuk!”
They posed with their hands on each other’s shoulders in front of the reporters on the photo wall.
“Two, three, hello. We are New Black!”
They also had a short interview with the two MCs who hosted the red carpet event, and shared their feelings about today.
They greeted the fans who were watching them and announced, “We prepared some special stages for today. Please look forward to them. And until now…”
“We are New Black!”
They waved their hands to the live camera and the Soufflés, and returned to the waiting room with nervous faces.
The only thing left was the main stage.
When the empty seats were filled with more than 15,000 spectators, and the air conditioner was running non-stop to cool down the heat they emitted.
“Woahhh-!”
After the opening VCR ended, all the performers appeared in front of the audience and greeted them.
Woojoo was very nervous because there were more people than he expected.
He felt overwhelmed by the crowd.
As he watched Rihyuk, the special MC, skillfully lead the show with the other MCs from backstage, time flew by.
And when the performances of nearly ten idol groups were over, it was finally their turn.
Woojoo turned on his in-ear monitor and widened his eyes.
The screams of the people at the scene were clearly heard.
-Wow!
“…”
They nodded at each other without saying a word, because the microphone was on, and the lift started to work.
It was time to go up.
Saitama Super Arena.
Nearly 18,000 spectators shouted from their seats.
The heat left by the previous performance of La Vi en Rose was heating up the venue.
‘It’s so fun…!’
A spectator who came to the K-pop concert with her friend, who was a fan of the boy group Ace, waved her light stick.
‘I like all the songs that come out.’
She thought it would be a boring show, because most of the singers were unknown to her, except for a few.
But it got more and more fun as time went on.
At first, she just watched with a blank expression, but gradually she straightened her back, which had been buried in the chair, and soon she was jumping and humming along with the chorus.
Everything was a new world to her, because she rarely went to concerts.
The lights. The music. The cheers.
And as the show went on, she heard some familiar Korean songs.
She asked her friend.
“Who’s next?”
“What?”
The screams of the people in the venue were too loud.
“Who’s next?”
“New Black!”
She didn’t know the name.
She wondered if they were a famous group in Korea, when the lights in the venue went dark again.
Perfect darkness.
Then, a golden light spun around counterclockwise, and a strong drum sound accompanied the BGM.
When the fog, which covered the floor like a cloud, soaked in the light.
The door behind the stage opened and someone appeared.
‘…Solo? Is his name New Black?’
A handsome boy with fine brown hair and a soft line behind his headset microphone came into view.
The cheers grew louder at the singer’s face, which filled the screen.
He bowed his head slightly and walked down the stairs, drawing everyone’s attention.
Every movement was elegant, and if it was a video, she would have pressed the rewind button over and over.
“Wow…”
She couldn’t take her eyes off him, even though he hadn’t done anything yet.
The fog and the backlight on the stage made his hair, face, and clothes look like they were surrounded by a golden glow.
As he reached the center of the stage, the music changed, and he lifted his head and stared straight ahead.
“Wow-!”
His dance was smooth yet rough.
He leaned his body as if he was about to collapse, but he rose up gracefully.
His hair and clothes swayed with his movements as he waved his hands or did a wave.
When his solo dance ended and he stretched his hand towards the sky, the background music naturally intensified and the lights started to flash and flicker.
And then, he turned around and walked away, shaking off his clothes.
In the background, four people on a lift were slowly rising.
As their faces appeared on the screen one by one, the audience’s screams grew louder and louder.
The singer who walked leisurely towards the lift and the speed of the rising lift matched perfectly.
When the five of them became one, the dancer of New Black twisted his body elegantly.
‘Wow…’
In front of her wide-eyed gaze, the members of New Black began to move their hands.
It was the stage of Flower Dance.