Chapter 80:
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 80
The Time That Has Passed
Friday lunchtime.
New Black’s fan cafe was busier than ever.
There were twice as many posts as usual, and the real-time chat room was buzzing with fans chatting.
They were all waiting for one thing.RêAd lateSt chapters at novelhall.com Only
-Ah... I’m so excited
-They said it would be around 12 o’clock, so they should be coming out soon, right?
-Yeah, probably
-I wanted to go tooᅲᅲᅲᅲᅲᅲᅲ
It was the promise that New Black had made to their fans for being the first-place candidate.
-I really wanted to go, why do I have to work
-Why am I a graduate student
-Let’s all cry togetherᅲᅲ
-I wish they did it on the weekend, Kyuho is so consistent with his workᄏᄏᄏ
-I asked the Lemon PR team and they said they wanted to do it on the weekend too, but they got rejected by the city hall;;
-Huh... I see
They all accepted it and swallowed their regrets.
-Is anyone in Myeongdong right now?
-Me
Someone answered.
-I work nearby, so I sneaked out when I went to lunchᄏᄏ
-Is it crowded??
-They’re lining up and setting up the amp right now, but there are a lot of people... But they don’t seem to know what’s going on. They all look like ordinary people.
-Huh, are there not many fans??
-Noᅲ I guess it’s because it’s a weekday
-What if there’s no reaction? It can’t be embarrassing...
The Souffles were worried about the citizens’ reactions.
They wanted to run to them and cheer them on, but they all had their own lives to live, so they could only suppress their anxious feelings.
-Oh? There’s an announcement up
-I brought the YouTube link
The fans moved to the link that someone posted in the chat room.
Soon, a low-quality screen showed the Myeongdong street.
A security line was set up in a semi-circle, and security guards in suits were standing there.
[What is this?]
[Are they busking?]
[Is this some kind of broadcast?]
The sound of murmuring came from the speakers.
The pedestrians stopped one by one and looked at the empty mini stage, wondering what was going on.
In that atmosphere, the fans swallowed their dry saliva.
-Ugh...
-Ugh, I’m shaking...
-It’s their promise, but why am I nervous;;
-I’m afraid I’ll vomit, so I’m on a forced fast for lunch...
-Me too
Just then, a majestic BGM started to flow from the broadcast.
The chat room went silent.
The door opened and New Black appeared.
-???
-Penguins?
-ᄏᄏᄏᄏWhat is thatᄏᄏᄏ
After a moment of confusion, the chat room was flooded with laughter.
Penguins with different expressions, different characteristics, were waddling down the stairs.
-Lolᄏᄏᄏᄏ I can tell who’s who
-ᄏᄏᄏᄏThat fluffy penguin is definitely Wang Jiho
-Giant penguin is so Kim Junghyunᄏᄏᄏᄏ
-Who are the remaining two?
-Bijoo and Rihyuk, right?
When they started to guess the members, everyone’s attention was drawn to one person.
-Emperor penguin...?
An emperor penguin that stood out from the rest.
It looked like a real penguin was inside, not a doll suit.
Unlike the other penguins who walked awkwardly, the emperor penguin waddled and flapped its wings.
It exuded a professional aura that was hard to miss.
-ᄏᄏ, that’s Woojoo
-Woojoo
-Definitely Woojoo
The penguins gathered in one place and started dancing to a K-pop medley.
The chat room was buzzing every time the five penguins flapped their wings, and someone captured their funny poses and posted them online.
-ᄏᄏ, I can tell by their dancing
-The yellow feather is Bijoo
-Rihyuk is so cute ᄏᄏᄏᄏ
-Rihyuk’s personality shows even in his dance ᄏ
As the penguins danced, the fans could tell Bijoo and Rihyuk apart.
With that small mystery solved, the chat room quieted down.
Everyone was mesmerized by New Black, who had transformed into penguins.
Finally, the dance was over.
The staff came over to take off their costumes, and the fans swallowed their saliva, waiting for their reaction.
Pop-
One by one, they took off their costumes.
The sound that was empty without the background music was filled with loud noises.
He couldn’t say this:
Do you want to hear it? I got a weird ability when I hit my head during the college entrance exam last year. I can imitate anything I see.
Of course, he didn’t know it would work for animals too.
Woojoo was curious and thought about looking at snakes or insects, but he gave up. He didn’t know if it would work, but he didn’t want to lose his human dignity.
He thought he should set a date and experiment properly again, and he told the fan, “Do you want me to show you again?”
As Woojoo sat down and showed her the flapping of his wings, the fan across from him cracked up.
Thanks to that, Woojoo succeeded in diverting the attention of the person who was tilting her head at his awkward explanation.
While Woojoo was signing the album CD, the fan asked him the last question.
“What are you going to do now?”
It was the most common question along with the penguin dance.
They all had the same expressions.
Eyes filled with anticipation and anxiety.
It was fine when they were active on music shows, because they were on TV every day, but now that there was no talk of what they were going to do, the fans seemed anxious.
They wondered if they would be hard to see because they were going around the local events.
“There are various things we are preparing for. There are external schedules. Internally, we are talking with the company’s PR team. There will be a reality show too. We also got permission to write on the fan cafe, so we will be visiting you very often soon.”
When Woojoo said that, the fans smiled brightly and took the CD and went back to their seats.
Every time he saw them, he felt a tingling in his mouth.
He had two things he wanted to tell them.
About the two plans they were preparing right now.
***
After finishing the five-day fan signing tour around the city, they finally got some rest.
“Tomorrow, you can rest as much as you want.”
Seokhwan Hyung’s words sounded so sweet.
Woojoo almost thought he was listening to a heavenly harmony.
He unknowingly hugged Rihyuk and ran around the room. They soon realized the situation and glared at each other.
“Hyungs, don’t think too much today.”
With that threat, they spent the night watching a movie that their maknae played on his laptop.
They originally wanted to go to the theater and watch a late-night movie, but they all rejected the idea.
Rihyuk said he was tired, Bijoo said he didn’t want to go unless they all went together, Junghyun said he didn’t care what they did and ruined the maknae’s enthusiasm, and Woojoo said he couldn’t go because his body was sore from the emperor penguin dance.
Bijoo felt sorry for him and kept putting sliced apples in his mouth.
Meanwhile.
The energetic 17-year-old Nangrang kept nagging them to do something else.
They ended up compromising and watching a movie at home, or rather, at the dorm. Like this.
Woojoo wanted to wash up and sleep as soon as possible, but if he did, their maknae would nag him for days.
So they watched a movie that was popular these days.
It was a movie about Admiral Yi Sunshin, who was about to hit ten million viewers.
It was amazing.
Woojoo heard that nowadays you could watch movies that were in theaters right away on VOD.
Woojoo said it seemed like the world had become a better place while laughing, but the kids teased him for being old-fashioned.
Damn.
Anyway, that was all he remembered.
He fell asleep right away.
Not just him, but everyone.
Even the guy who said he was going to burn the night with the Hyungs fell asleep first. He kept waking up and saying ‘I’m not sleeping’ with his fish eyes.
Really, there was nothing he could do about Jiho.
Anyway, when Woojoo woke up from the scene where Admiral Yi Sunshin was in trouble, everyone was sleeping together with the drained laptop.
The blanket was thrown away and the living room was a mess.
When was the last time they went to a training camp?
Woojoo thought it was in fifth grade, but it was the first time he saw such a sight in a long time, so he felt strange and surprised.
Woojoo opened his eyes and Junghyun’s face was right in front of him.
He was really shocked.
He didn’t know if it was because his eyebrows were bushy, but it felt like he was watching them right in front of him.
The mountain with the president’s face carved on it that he learned in the English exam.
He was so surprised that he didn’t even notice that his card wallet was switched until he got on the village bus.
He found out after he tapped it.
-Beep
-Child.
He was surprised and so was the driver.
And he decided.
He was going to get rid of Wang Jihyo today.
“What a day, starting from the morning.”
Woojoo wondered why there was a child’s bus card in his card wallet and decided to ask him later as he headed to the company.
When he stopped by the office to get the practice room key, the staff in the management team’s office looked at him with surprised eyes.
“Aren’t you off today?”
“I’m going to practice a bit.”
“Take it easy. Why do you want to practice even on your day off?”
The staff clicked their tongues and gave Woojoo an awkward smile as he took the practice room key.
He looked around the office and didn’t see the face he was looking for.
“Are you looking for Director Yoon?”
“Yes.”
“He went to a meeting because of your ad deal. He’ll be back after lunch.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“Sure. You’re so diligent, even coming on your day off.”
The staff smiled at Woojoo.
Their satisfied smiles seemed to misunderstand him as ‘he’s really diligent’.
Woojoo bowed and didn’t bother to correct their misunderstanding.
It wasn’t a lie.
From a certain point of view, it was true that he came to practice.
But today’s purpose was not normal practice.
It was to check what he had been putting off because of the activities.
The change that happened to his body since last November.
He had been vaguely thinking about this ability, what it was, and today he was going to do some experiments to find out.