Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 284
They decided to postpone their trip or amusement park visit for later.
Their schedule was too tight.
It wasn’t that there were no gaps, but after subtracting dance and vocal practice, song production, personal training, and foreign language study, they barely had any time to sleep.
The only place they could go was dreamland.
But they weren’t unhappy with the current situation.
Rather…
“I wish we had one more schedule.”“Is there nothing else?”
“There’s a water park event near here, can’t we stop by one more place on our way back?”
They were thirsty for more schedules.
They wanted to do more of anything.
It was because they were growing continuously.
Why was that important? Because when their growth slowed down and the position of their group ‘New Black’ was fixed in the idol world, it would be hard to make any changes no matter what they did.
It was all about timing.
Simply put, they were riding an escalator to the top right now.
They were going up and doing well no matter what they did, so they had to go up one more step while they could.
When the escalator stopped, they would have to walk up from then on.
That was why they devoted themselves to schedules, practice, and work more and more as time passed after their debut.
And of course, the most important thing was the album.
“So we have to pour our body and soul into our new title ‘Nine’, you get me?”
“…”
“Hey, kids. Are you listening?”
“Y-yes…”
Woojoo clicked his tongue as he looked at the kids sprawled on the sofa in the studio.
“Geez. You guys are so weak. You’re like this after just a few hours.”
“We did 11 hours, you crazy person. Who else works on production right after dance practice?”
“Me.”
“…”
They narrowed their eyes as Woojoo smirked.
“…Hyung, I’ll give you 500 won if you punch him for me.”
“No.”
“I’ll give you 500 million.”
“…”
Junghyun’s pupils shook as he lay down. He glanced at Woojoo and whispered to Rihyuk, “I’ll do it if you pay in advance.”
“…Junghyun, is that all our brotherhood is worth?”
“I’ll split it with you.”
“Yeah, we’re brothers forever.”
The kids giggled and Woojoo laughed too. Then Woojoo walked over to the sofa and reached out his hand.
“Come on, get up. We have to finish ‘Nine’.”
“Ugh…”
“Quick.”
They got up quickly as Woojoo mimicked the stern expression that Bijoo made when he nagged.
They were struggling because of their drained energy, but they soon joined the work seriously.
Junghyun already knew how to compose, and Bijoo, who had studied on his own, helped out, so it was much easier.
The youngest line worked on the lyrics.
They divided the work like a cottage industry and completed their new title song ‘Nine’.
When they finished, they sent version 1 to the composers, and when version 1.1 came back, Woojoo sent 1.1.1.
Every time a reply came, the version number went up to 2, 3, and so on, so Woojoo also raised the version to 33, and then the answer came back as 33.1.
Woojoo felt they were getting closer to completion.
“It’s a good song.”
Director Jo, who came down to the studio from time to time to check on their progress, also praised the song.
“The verse changed nicely. If you just trim a little bit of the excess here, it’ll be perfect.” He pointed to a part of the song and said, “I like this part. I think it’ll get a good reaction when we reveal it at the concert.”
“I think so too. The members were saying that too.”
“It’s a nice surprise.”
Woojoo smiled.
Then he asked their director, who was famous for his nickname ‘fortune teller’.
“What do you think? Will our song do well?”
“Well, you never know until the song comes out. But…”
“The release date for our song is around late August or early September. And looking at the current situation in the music industry, there won’t be any famous groups or popular singers making a comeback then. Unless TNT or Teen Spirit suddenly come back…”
Come back?
“Well, I think we can easily get the first place.”
“Wow…”
“That’s considering your fandom’s mobilization power. Of course, this is just an assumption, so there might be some deviations depending on the situation… Why are they so happy?”
Director Jo chuckled at the sight of their younger members who were already moved by saying ‘Thank you for the first place!’ while sitting on the sofa.
They then talked about the final version of ‘Nine’, the music video, and the concept photos, which Director Jo gave them the OK sign.
“By the way, what about the budget this time?”
“Just use it as much as you want. I’ll talk to the President.”
“Thank you!”
They smiled brightly and greeted him, and Director Jo smiled back.
Rihyuk took out his notebook and immediately circled ‘computer graphics cost’, ‘special location rental fee’, and so on.
Woojoo silently apologized to the President, who would tear his hair out, no, stroke his hair, in advance.
“Right.” Director Jo said to them as he came out to see them off, “The Promotion Team was looking for you. Do you want to go and talk to them?”
“Talk?”
“They’re preparing a new project, and they seem to have written a lot of proposals. They said they’ll decide what to do after hearing your opinions.”
They tilted their heads and asked, “A new project?”
Promotion Team’s internal meeting room.
Deputy Nam and Assistant Manager Hong handed them the proposals like a pair of partners.
“It’s the summer of 2015.”
“The season of reality has returned.”
They clapped and laughed, and the other side gave them an awkward smile.
Nam Seokwoo, who was in charge of Scarlet, laughed.
“Hey, why are you laughing? Do you know how hard we prepared this?”
“Aw, embarrassing.”
Assistant Manager Hong Seoyoung fanned herself, and Rihyuk brought a paper cup of water and handed it to her.
‘Your face will cool down if you drink cold water,’ he advised, their expert in embarrassment.
They immediately sat around the table and looked over the proposals that the Promotion Team had made.
“Wow, there’s a lot of stuff here?”
“Do we have to do all of this?”
There were almost dozens of different activities and games.
Assistant Manager Hong shook her head.
“No, of course not. You just have to choose a few that suit your taste.”
“You must have worked really hard to write this. Coming up with ideas and all that.”
“No, it was actually easy.”
“…?”
“Other idols have to consider their concept or image when planning, but you don’t have that… No, I don’t mean your image is weird or anything.”
“No, it’s not. We have a cool image…”
“…Uh, yeah, sure!”
At first, they were a little sulky, but soon they accepted it after recalling their past behavior.
They smiled warmly and sent each other a teasing look, saying ‘It’s because of you that our image is like this.’
They told them as they looked over the proposals, “You’ve finished History Discovery Team, right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s time to prepare something new.”
The behind-the-scenes were still coming up, but they had finished the History Discovery Team with the ‘March 1st Movement and the Provisional Government’ episode a while ago.
The program that raised their recognition to the first place.
The direct reason why they recently got the praise from the advertising industry as ‘the first third-generation boy group with good popularity among the 2030s’.
“These are the plans we prepared for the people who want to see your content after History Discovery Team.”
“Our content?”
“Yeah, there’s a habit in variety shows or TV programs. At first, people watch them for fun, but later they get used to them and keep watching them.”
“Do people really want to keep watching us?”
“Trust me. That’s for sure.”
They seemed to have some solid evidence.
By the way, a new content for New Black that could appeal to the public after History Discovery Team…
Woojoo asked while the younger ones were looking over the proposals, “How’s it going with HBS?”
“HBS?”
“I heard they’re investing a lot in their YouTube channel. Did they not react when we said we’re making our own content?”
“Uh…”
The two employees exchanged glances.
It was as if they were thinking, ‘We didn’t want to tell you that…’
But it was an obvious thing to consider.
Since their History Discovery Team had attracted all the subscribers in the situation where HBS was actively jumping into MeeTube content.
There was no way they would say ‘Bye! Hahaha!’ when they were leaving now.
It bothered Woojoo that the other party was a terrestrial broadcasting station.
Assistant Manager Hong smiled awkwardly and answered, “Well, there is some discord from that side.”
“They said they wanted to collaborate with us if we’re making a reality show. And they would take all the clips and copyrights.”
Nam, the other assistant manager, added, “There were various conditions, but we refused them because they were all favorable to them or weird.”
“Are you okay? What if it affects our appearance on music shows or something…”
“You don’t have to worry about that at all. It’s only the New Media Department that handles SNS that’s making a fuss.”
It meant that there was no problem with the relationship with the field departments like Drama or Variety.
He said it was possible because their company was in the top 3 among the actor management agencies.
If it was K-net, a music channel, it might be different, but he said they could go to other places and say ‘Don’t you need our actors?’
“That’s good.”
“You don’t have to worry about this part either, as I’ve told you many times.”
“But it’s good to know these things.”
While the two employees were quietly smiling, the youngest one who was looking at the proposal widened his eyes.
“But what is this, assistant manager?”
“What?”
“This thing that says ‘Y app’ here.”
He turned his eyes to the proposal at that remark.
It was true.
There were phrases that said ‘Y app Side Support’ on every major reality proposal.
“Y app?”
“What is that?”
They all gathered around Rihyuk’s smartphone, which he tapped quickly with his finger.
“Don’t blow your nose on my ear.”
“…”
They all put their hands in front of their faces to block the nose breath.
As they were gathered like raccoons with their hands up, Rihyuk clicked on an article.
[Star and fan’s two-way communication, ‘Star Live’ Y app launched]
In the poster that said ‘Ask the star what you’re curious about. whY app!’, Teen Spirit showed a bright smile and a wink.
“…”
The tiny text that said ‘Curious?’ kept reading as ‘Fucking curious?’
“…But what is Star Live app?”
The staff explained to them, who were curious about the new project.
It was a live app that connected stars and fans, developed by the largest portal site in the country.
It would be launched on the app store in early August, next month.
“We’ve been hearing about it for a while, and we finally decided to join in.”
“So it’s similar to what we’ve been doing individually on live broadcasts, right?”
“Yeah. It’s the same. Only the platform is different.”
They looked at the Y app poster with subtle eyes.
Was it okay to join this?
It would be different if they were rookies, but they already had followers on the existing SNS. They were a bit worried about moving to a new platform.
There was a similar app made by a big company that failed in no time.
“Don’t worry, it’s not a weird place.”
“We were also worried about going in with Scarlet and you guys. We were ready to back out if things went wrong…”
“But the conditions were too good.” They said, “They need to promote the new app, and they chose Teen Spirit and you guys as the main models.”
“…Us?”
“Yeah. They divided it into two tracks, one for a group with a lot of fandom and one for a group with a lot of popularity.” Assistant Manager Hong said, “They said they wanted to attract your content.”
“So that’s what the Y app support meant.”
“Yeah. They said they would support the budget for whatever you do, whether it’s a reality show or something else. And the conditions were the best.”
“Wow…”
Budget guaranteed for whatever they did.
They looked at the list of reality show ideas with shining eyes. And something caught their eye right away.
“Travel!”
“Travel! There’s travel!”
“Awesome, there’s a trip to Jeju Island!”
It was a domestic travel reality show plan.
The content was to travel to Jeju Island for three nights and four days and upload the footage in short segments.
Assistant Manager Hong smiled and answered, “I was thinking of that as the first priority.”
“Really?”
“When I surveyed your fans about what kind of reality show they wanted to see, travel came out as the first place. They said they wanted to see you guys resting.”
“Wow…”
They smiled happily at each other.
It was touching.
They joked among themselves that next time they should ask their fans to write a luxury cruise trip.
“At first, I considered going abroad, but the image of overseas travel is…”
“Yeah. It’s not very good.”
Overseas travel reality shows had the image of groups who had accumulated years of experience and were going to take a break for once.
In fact, rookies rarely did travel reality shows because of their image.
By the way, this was awesome.
Woojoo had almost given up on the idea of traveling, but then this opportunity to take a break legally came to them.
He could already see the stone statues saying ‘Welcome’ in his mind.
“I can see the lava cave with my own eyes…!”
“Lava cave!”
They shouted in excitement at Rihyuk’s words, and the staff laughed.
They also laughed at Junghyun’s joke of ‘Diving experience, anyone?’
“But we won’t be able to film the travel reality show until fall, right?”
“Yeah. We’re busy with the concert and the album right now…”
“I think we should just plan what we can do in the current situation. We’ll think about the travel later.”
“Yes!”
They immediately got excited and started looking at the reality show and program proposals.
They prepared the content for YouTube as usual.
And they were looking for something that would suit the new live app that was launching soon.
And before long, they found something that appealed to their taste.
New Black’s rest period while preparing for the album.
It was when the Soufflés were wandering around the fan cafe and the community, feeling unsatisfied with the lack of breadcrumbs.
-I miss them…
-Kyuho-ya… Weㅜ miss you guys
-I heard from Kyuho’s barber that we’ll get some breadcrumbs soon
-Kyuho sees them every day
-I want Kyuho’s eye
-Are they busy with the album preparation these days…?
-I wish they would do a V Live soon; I want to capture Woojoo and Junghyun in black suits
Of course, the members visited the fan cafe regularly and posted things like ‘Do you think I’m cute, do you think Woojoo Hyung is cute. There’s a correct answer [3 points]’.
But the fans always wanted to see more.
Then someone came and asked for news like a reporter.
-Awesome! They’re on Star Live!!!
-Calm down, Soufflé.
-Awesome!!! Soufflé, no, wait a minute
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋCalm down first
-They’re on Star Live!!!
It seemed like they were on the internet live show that was hosted by the largest portal site in the country for the stars.
They were recently calling famous stars to promote the launch of the Y app.
The Soufflés gathered and buzzed at the rare breadcrumb.
The live broadcast started at 8 pm.
Yoo Changhyun, a comedian, sat on a cozy sofa in a cafe decorated with soft lighting and spoke to the camera.
[Yes, this is Real Time Star Live! Today’s guests are the ones who are making the music scene hot these days. They are New Black!]
New Black members came in from outside the screen.
They followed Woojoo like chicks following their mother hen, and their careful steps made them laugh already.
[Two, three. Hello, we are New Black!]
New Black members sat on the plush sofa and relaxed.
Woojoo pointed to the side of the camera with his finger and said.
[That’s the comment window, right?]
[Yes. You can communicate with the viewers there.]
[Can you make the font a little bigger? Like the size that adults use when they look at their phones. Oh, thank you… Who was that who said Woojoo=grandma just now?]
[There’s a visual face below that says mysterious visual too.]
[Hehehe!]
It was a live show that started with a baseless joke.
Yoo Changhyun threw witty remarks as an MC, and New Black also responded skillfully and lifted the mood.
They continued the live talk show like that.
[New Black, I heard you’re also preparing for the Y app content.]
[Yes, we are.]
Woojoo clapped his hands and looked at the camera.
[The Y app is where you ask why about what you’re curious about, right? So we prepared something. The name is…!]
[Ask us anything! ‘Black List!’]
They all stretched out their palms at the same time and made a ‘Bam!’ sound.
While the fans looked curious, Woojoo said.
[Anything is fine. If you have something you’ve been wondering about, feel free to ask us.]
As soon as he finished speaking, the Soufflés started to buzz.
-Does God exist?
-I’m a 7-year-old child. I want to know about the future of quantum mechanics!!
-Who made the first fried egg in Korea?
-What are the chances of survival if you sleep with a fan on? By the way, I survived.
-Who would win if a squid and an octopus fought?
-They say you can survive if you enter a tiger’s den and regain your senses, but do tigers really live in caves? There are tiger dens in games too.
As the jokes and questions continued, the members of New Black made stunned faces and then burst into laughter.
The MC also shook his body while covering his mouth with a cue card.
The main dancer with good flexibility almost fell backwards while laughing, but luckily he was saved by the rapper’s help.
Woojoo spoke with a voice full of laughter.
[You guys are really witty. Those questions are good, but we would appreciate it if you asked us something you are curious about us.]
Soon, a comment from a Soufflé sparkled.
-Anything?
The members answered with a smile.
[Anything.]
[We like everything. We are planning to prepare some content based on the questions you sent us. You can ask us anything.]
[We trust you. Our Soufflés.]
[Who can hold their breath the longest? This is not allowed.]
After the explanation of the Y app content.
The members of New Black smiled brightly and said to the screen.
[Then, on August 1st, the day of the Y app launch, we will see you with new content~]
[We will!]
[Please give us a lot of love and watch!]
As the members smiled brightly and raised their hands to the camera, the Soufflés behind the screen also smiled like a picture.
It was a smile that resembled their favorite singers.
With that warm smile, the fingers in various places started to move right away.