Chapter 100:

Chapter 100:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 100

Woojoo’s siblings stared blankly at the TV. Then they turned their heads to him.

“A reality show? Not a documentary...?”

“Yeah. You remember when the documentary team came with another team? They were the writers who wanted to film our reality show.”

Woojoo asked them back, “Didn’t you find it strange? That two teams came to film one scene for a documentary.”

“...How are we supposed to notice that, you idiot.”

While Rihyuk glared at Woojoo, Jiho pointed at the screen.

“Oh? Bijoo Hyung is on.”

“Ugh...”

“Hyung, why are you like that?”

And the protagonist of the screen was burying his face in his knees, bending his waist.

He looked like a herbivore hiding from its natural enemy.

Woojoo whispered in his ear, “Bijoo, you can still hear it even if you do that.”

“Ugh, I don’t know.”

He covered his ears as well.

He soon realized how funny his posture was and returned to normal, but his expression was gloomy as he looked at the screen.

“I said so many cringy things...”

“It’s not just you, Hyung. Me too.”

Rihyuk’s ears had turned red like Rudolph’s nose. It seemed like his face would soon light up like an LED lamp.

“Anyway, this is it, right? Revenge for the prank we played on you during the school uniform ad.”

“No, I didn’t do it for that...”

“That’s right. That’s right.”

The youngest chuckled.

“I know. I learned it when I acted with you, but Woojoo Hyung has a habit when he says something different from what he feels.”

“Be quiet.”

While Woojoo said that, Bijoo on the screen was lost in thought after hearing the production team’s question.

He had a lot to say, but his expression showed that he couldn’t organize his thoughts well.

The person watching it, as well as the other siblings, had agonized faces.

What did he say that made them react like this?

Woojoo expected the members to give a polite compliment.

It was an interview with a broadcasting station, so he wanted them to say something simple like ‘Woojoo is a very diligent person who lives a life that inspires others...’ A textbook-like and exemplary comment.

His goal was to capture them feeling embarrassed while saying those cringy lines, but somehow their reactions were too much.

It was like middle schoolers who had their diaries opened by their parents.

Then, Bijoo on the screen answered with a calm face.

-Woojoo Hyung is... I think he’s a very warm person. I’ve known him for a while as a singer, but when I first found out, we were very surprised. ‘What? That person...?’

He smiled.

-Because it was right after our year-end evaluation, like a test. He led us very well then, so he had an image of a smart and capable Hyung.

Woojoo did.

-But... as time passed and we got to know each other better, I felt that he was a very warm person. Now, even if I hear that Woojoo Hyung did something good, I wouldn’t be surprised.

-Can you give us a specific example?

-There was a time when I was personally very struggling, and I made a snack for Woojoo Hyung. He was working on his debut title song and stayed up all night for almost a week.

That was right.

-I brought him a snack at the dorm where he was resting. But after a few bites, he asked me if I had any more dough left.

-He did?

-Yeah, so I said I was going to give it to the other members. But he said he wanted to eat it all by himself because it was so delicious.

-By himself?

The production team asked as if they didn’t understand.

How was that considerate?

Bijoo on the screen nodded and smiled.

-Yes, so I was like, what? It was weird... But later I found out that I had put salt instead of sugar.

-Ah...

-After a while, I asked Woojoo Hyung about that time. Why did you do that, Hyung? When I asked him that, he said he didn’t want me to get stressed over something like that because I looked so tired.

-It was his way of being considerate.

-Yes, I think I felt it then. He stayed up all night for a week, and he ate that... with a smile.

The other members looked amazed as if they didn’t know that happened, and Bijoo and Woojoo felt very awkward.

Woojoo didn’t know how to describe this feeling.

Awkward and embarrassed.

He felt like hiding behind something whenever Mrs. Kim Deoksoon was around.

While he was feeling that way, Junghyun asked Woojoo with a puzzled look, “Hyung, there’s something I’m curious about.”

“Yeah.”

“Usually, when people do this kind of thing, they’re embarrassed and the purpose is to watch others.”

“That... right?”

“But aren’t you embarrassed by this too?”

“...”

Junghyun hit the nail on the head.

That was exactly what Woojoo was feeling.

No, this was supposed to be a surprise camera that he planned.

He realized he made a mistake from then on.

“Ugh...”

As the video continued, the members covered and uncovered their faces with their hands like a cuckoo clock.

And in between, Woojoo’s hollow scream echoed.

“PD-nim, can we stop this...?”

But the camera light kept blinking.

***

While the hidden cameras captured the members’ reactions, the main writer and the main PD were laughing in a separate room.

-PD-nim, writer-nim... are you there?

It was because of a member who was desperately calling out to the camera on the screen.

The main writer said with a smile, “He’s unstoppable, really. He looks so smart, but he’s actually a goofball.”

“Right? How did he not see this coming?”

The essence of a hidden camera was that one didn’t get caught and someone else did.

“Think long-term. It’s about image management,” Seokhwan Hyung said. “Ads are the same as acting works for actors. You can’t just do everything that pays. You have to do something that matches your image. There are plenty of cases where the image gets worse because of a wrong ad.”

Everyone agreed with that.

There was someone who got scolded for doing a debt relief ad, and someone who got a bad image for doing an ad for a company that had a problem with history.

Of course, they didn’t get such ads, but they couldn’t do absurd ads either.

For example, it would be weird for Woojoo, a twenty-something, to sit on a massage chair and say, “Ah, this is so refreshing.”

“That suits you perfectly.”

“You and Hyung are perfect for it.”

“Huh? It seems like it would suit you well.”

“They must be trying to use you as an exclusive model.”

There were some ridiculous opinions.

So Woojoo muttered, “Let’s see how we divide the parts for the next song,” and they all said no, and told him that Hyung suited a school uniform ad.

Woojoo totally agreed.

Anyway, for the sake of long-term image management, the company decided to sign contracts with two of them after reviewing them.

There were better companies, but some of them tried to negotiate the price through a model agency, and they lost the deal.

According to the testimony of their road manager Seo Minki, who was involved in the process, “It was like a robbery, they only didn’t use knives.”

The ads that were selected after such a difficult process were two.

One was a low-cost airline, which was small in scale but had a solid financial structure, and the other was a domestic sports clothing brand that had recently gone public.

To be honest, Woojoo was flustered.

Woojoo felt like they hadn’t done anything other than the first album, and suddenly they got an ad request.

He heard it was for the same reason as Everdream.

They thought it would be better to buy it cheaply in advance, because it seemed like it would do well.

Woojoo hoped they could live up to their expectations.

He had been feeling that way a lot lately.

It was like a balloon that’s inflating.

Every time something went well, it felt like air was rushing into the balloon.

It was getting bigger and bigger, but you were afraid it would pop if someone poked it with a needle.

Maybe it was because the interest had increased a lot.

They even put up a clip of the scene that Woojoo appeared in for two seconds on the internet and made articles about it.

-Who is the idol group ‘New Black’ that appeared in the documentary teaser?

-New Black “Thankful for the popularity of the ads... We don’t know the rest either”

-[This week’s entertainment focus] Newcomers are always hungry, boy group New Black

Woojoo saw the captured screen and the members agreed that it was understandable, but it was burdensome for him.

He was a show-off, but the speed of the interest growing was beyond his expectation.

It was like depositing a bean-sized amount of money in the bank and getting a lot of interest very quickly.

Well.

Woojoo had a lot of thoughts, but for now he decided to focus on the schedule.

“Wow...”

It was the ‘wow’ that he heard again since the day they visited TJ Entertainment.

And this time, Woojoo was also participating.

“Wow, it’s really huge.”

It was the weekend before the final recording.

They gathered under the giant stage, each holding a placard with their name on it, and looked around.

Sangam World Cup Stadium.

Woojoo couldn’t help but admire the size of the venue that could accommodate more than 60,000 people.

Today’s schedule was ‘Find Your Dream Concert.’

It was an event organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, where they gathered about thirty idol groups.

Since they were rookies, their rehearsal was almost the first in order, so they entered early and checked out the seats.

But the expressions of the younger ones who were looking around the place were strange.

Woojoo probably looked the same if he looked in the mirror.

There was a fact that only three rookie groups, including New Black, participated in this concert out of the twenty-five groups that debuted this year, but there was another reason.

“It would be awesome to have a concert here...”

Even the always calm Junghyun said that, so the other members didn’t need to say anything.

“Right? We’ll be able to do it here someday, right?”

“I guess so.”

Woojoo answered.

“Someday.”

“I want to do it now. With our Soufflés sitting down.”

“That would be hard. Even if our Soufflés were cloned five times each, they wouldn’t fill this place.”

They all laughed.

And they enjoyed looking at the concert hall.

Even if it wasn’t this place, they thought of the scene where they would sing in front of their fans someday.

“But it’s a shame.” The youngest said, “I think we won’t be able to watch the documentary because it overlaps with the concert finale.”

“Well, you can watch it on rerun. And I won’t be on it much anyway. How many heroes are there in there?” Woojoo said that and went up to the stage.

They only cared about the documentary, but they didn’t have high expectations.

There were so many heroes in the world.

As if Woojoo would be on it a lot.

****

While the performance was in full swing on the special stage of the World Cup Stadium, PBS was starting a documentary.

Peaceful scenes flowed along with the calm background music.

A mother pushing a stroller, a young man helping an old man pulling a cart up the hill, a quiet scene in front of a boarding house, and a view of a port city.

The static scenes slowly connected.

Then.

The atmosphere changed dramatically with the tense music.

The mother lost her balance on a rock and let go of the stroller down the hill, a car rushed at an old man, a fire started in the boarding house, and an oil tank exploded in the port.

And the people who threw themselves at those places without hesitation were captured like a movie.

The words that appeared on the black screen.

[Hero]

“A person who is wise, talented, and brave, and does what ordinary people find difficult to do.” – Korean Dictionary

“A person who does something great or courageous.” – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Soon after, the word hero was focused on with an explanation of its origin.

[The Birth of a Hero: Born or Made]

That was the title of the PBS 50th Anniversary Special Documentary.