Chapter 206:

Chapter 206:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 206 PBS New Hall.

The audience began to take their seats.

‘Wow...’

Those who came to the studio for the first time looked around with wide eyes.

On the stage, there was a panel that said ‘Challenge, Legendary Song Discovery Team!’ and behind the spacious stage, the sound team was checking the instruments.

The recording hadn’t started yet, but they already felt excited.

“This is amazing. This is a broadcasting station.”

“Who’s coming out today? Cha Woohyun and who else?”

“There are so many instruments. Is that microphone for the chorus? People dancing with their shoulders and singing ooh-ooh.”

The audience chatted with their friends with elated faces.

“Wow.”

One of the front-row spectators opened his mouth wide and whispered to his friend.

“Awesome. Dude. There are so many people.”

“I saw some high schoolers without tickets earlier, they said they would come in as soon as there’s a vacant seat.”

“...For the first recording?”

‘Challenge, Legendary Song Discovery Team!’ was a new program that started this time, so it wasn’t very well-known.

But this number of people?

There were groups of visitors here and there, but it was surprising that so many people came to see a show that hadn’t aired yet.

“Hey, look here. It says what they’re doing today.”

“Where?”

“Page 3.”

Putting aside their phones for a moment, people started to flip through the pamphlets they received when they came in.

It said who was singing what song today.

“The lineup is amazing... Cha Woohyun doesn’t usually come out on this kind of program, does he?”

“They’re all famous singers.”

“But I don’t know the songs. I don’t know any of them.”

Most of them talked about the singers because of the unfamiliar songs.

People who were interested in musicals talked about Lisa, and people who liked indie bands paid attention to Jo Yuri Band.

Older people who had a certain age group recognized Song Bohyung’s face.

Cha Woohyun was the representative vocalist of Korea that everyone in this place knew.

But...

“Who are they?”

People tilted their heads as they saw the pamphlet text and photo that said [New Black: Noh Jaehyun ‘Life’].

Then they turned their eyes.

The singers’ pictorials passed by on the stage background screen like a slide show.

Five idols sitting on chairs in casual outfits.

“New Black?”

One of the people sitting in the seat blinked.

‘Who are they?’

They seemed familiar somehow...

But their memory was vague.

Someone who was searching on their smartphone said, “They’re the ones. Around the World With Dice!”

“Oh...”

“They were on the Chuseok Special, right? The ones who fought with the goat and did the filial piety feast.”

People who remembered Around the World With Dice’s Chuseok Special, which was called the national variety show, appeared here and there.

A slight smile crossed some of the audience’s faces.

But unlike recognizing their faces, the question remained.

“But aren’t they rookies? Do they deserve to be here?”

“Right.”

They understood that they left a big impression on the variety show, but they wondered why they appeared on a competition program.

They knew that there were idols in it.

They just thought that it would be either Daydream or Playlist, who were famous for their singing skills, even if they weren’t as well-known as TNT.

‘Is there something?’

Someone covered their mouth with their hand and whispered a joke, “What if they’re really good at singing? Harmonizing like crazy and going up to the end of the octave.”

“No way.”

The one who heard that snickered and turned their eyes to the stage background.

New Black’s pictorial passed by again between the calm music.

‘They’re handsome.’

They had attractive looks that caught their eyes, but their thoughts about New Black were only that.

They felt a bit glad to see the faces they had seen on the weekend variety show again, but they didn’t know much about New Black as singers.

And then someone came up on the stage, and the focus quickly shifted.

A man with a mischievous expression.

He walked up to the stage with a microphone in his hand, drawing everyone’s attention.

-Hello~!

He greeted the audience with enthusiasm and introduced himself.

-You must have been surprised, right? Some unknown guy comes up and says hello. Is he the MC? You might think so, but you’re half right and half wrong.

He spoke in a funny tone, like a quack doctor, and made the audience chuckle.

-I’m Kim Chul, a comedian from PBS’s open audition, and I’m in charge of the pre-recording MC today! Nice to meet you!

He then delivered some precautions on behalf of the production team and started to liven up the atmosphere.

-Come on, everyone! Let’s hear some cheers~! Hey, that’s too weak. Too weak. That won’t do! Louder! One more time, scream~!

“Woo-hoo!”

-Out of 10 points... 9 points. I’ll give you 9 points. You’re still far from 10 points.

“Ah!”

He encouraged applause and cheers, and the air in the studio gradually heated up.

The pre-recording MC played some games with the audience, such as rock-paper-scissors, and gave out prizes.

They were the autographs of the singers who participated in today’s show.

And...

‘New Black?’

The one who had just made a joke about New Black’s singing skills with his friend looked closely at the autograph he had received as a prize.

There were five signatures in different styles.

He moved his eyes from the calligraphic ‘Seo Rihyuk’, which was alone in a corner, to somewhere else.

Soon, a snicker escaped his lips.

“What is this? What... pfft!”

His friend next to him also laughed.

It was because of the signature in the center.

Next to the English letters ‘Seon Woojoo’, there was an appendix attached.

A spaceship flying away with fire spewing from its tail.

[ ̆ᗜ ̆ ]

It was a cute expression that was somehow unfamiliar.

***

7:30 p.m.

-I didn’t think it would be arranged like this when I first heard it was a children’s song. It was a very difficult challenge, but you succeeded perfectly.

There were praises.

-It was a stage that made people say, “That’s Cha Woohyun.” Thank you.

There were also rave reviews.

-Jo Yuri Band did really well. But there are a few things that I regret. The arrangement felt too focused on technique. Vocal skills can surprise the audience, but they don’t necessarily move them. You know, when you see an acrobat walking on a tightrope, you clap because it’s amazing, but you don’t get emotional over it, right?

There were also sharp criticisms.

As the singers went down with happy or relieved faces, the next performance preparation continued.

Meanwhile, New Black looked at the lyrics sheet, listened to the MR with earphones, and warmed up their throats.

“Five hundred won, five hundred won...”

“Five hundred wooooon...”

As they all warmed up their throats under the lead of the main vocal, a staff member with an intercom knocked and poked his head in.

“New Black, stand by!”

“Yes!”

On the TV screen, they left the waiting room after Song Bohyung sang ‘The Flower of Betrayal’.

Woojoo was nervous.

The way to the backstage felt so long. It felt like time was moving slowly.

While Song Bohyung’s song ended and the celebrity panels chatted, they loosened up their bodies behind the dark stage.

“Whew...”

The production crew with an ENG camera filmed them.

The writer asked, “Are you nervous?”

“Yes, very.”

They huddled together and made a fuss, saying “Eeeeh!”

Woojoo took a deep breath and said, “I really hope we don’t make any mistakes.”

“Me too. We practiced so hard for this, but if we mess up, I feel like I’ll cry and be so frustrated.”

They relaxed their tense mouths as they did an interview in front of the camera.

They also loosened their lips like horses, saying ‘Prrrr’, drank water bottles, and massaged each other’s shoulders.

Dowon Hyung asked, “Aren’t you guys drinking too much water?”

“It’s okay. Hyung.”

They kept drinking water because they were thirsty.

After their manager Hyungs and their staff cheered them on by clenching their fists, the FD who was standing on the stairs to the stage gave them a signal that it was time to go up.

Woojoo’s heart started pounding.

As his body was dyed with anxiety and nervousness, he reached out his hand.

His younger siblings also reached out their hands with serious faces.

“Guys, let’s cheer up before we go up. We’ve been practicing for two weeks...”

“Let’s go. New Black.”

“Let’s just do what we always do! Fighting!”

They quickly cheered and went up the stairs to the stage.

The sound of the wooden stairs creaking made their hearts race.

***

New Black started to go up on the stage.

Five idol members in neat and tidy winter outfits, such as sweaters, jackets, and turtlenecks.

“Woah-!”

As they went up, there was a customary scream and applause.

It was a heated atmosphere, partly because of the lingering effect of Song Bohyung’s passionate stage.

As the smell of gunpowder from the fireworks that exploded on the previous stage gradually faded.

The stage went dark and the New Black members scattered and took their places, and soon the VCR started playing.

-Yes, this is my studio.

The idol leader with a beautiful appearance took the production crew somewhere.

A gentle interior of the studio.

In it, Woojoo clicked the mouse and started to explain the arrangement intention to the production crew.

Next to him, Seo Pilgeun, an assistant from the A&R Team who was working with him and was called for an interview.

-Woojoo...?

A brief silence of sadness.

-He’s a friend who is really sincere about music. So much so that our team members joke that he should be less sincere.

There was laughter in the hall.

Then the scene changed.

The image of the New Black members practicing passionately, sweating even though they were only singing.

-Ah, my throat hurts. Hyung, can you give me some throat candy?

-It’s mine.

As he casually handed one to him, the image of the member also appeared.

The interview VCR that was filmed in the waiting room today played after the rehearsal scene.

The leader calmly continued to explain the song along with the greeting.

-As you may have seen in the previous video, the song we are going to sing is ‘Life’ by Teacher Noh Jaehyun.

While the rapper held the recording microphone like a subordinate serving the boss.

-We are a group with an average age of 20.4, and I’m only 21 years old.

He added ‘only. only.’ as a response to the sharp eyes around him.

-Since we haven’t lived even half of our lives yet, we were very worried if we could digest it at first. Life is not one path, but there are many branches, so it’s diverse.

The leader said seriously.

-We did our best in arranging and practicing to bring out the weight and emotion of the song. We may be lacking, but we will do everything we can as we have the opportunity to participate in this competition.

-Please look forward~ to it!

After greeting the viewers and the audience together, the curtain rose as the VCR turned off.

The members scattered around.

The main vocal, who was standing alone in the front, received the main spotlight.

He closed his eyes slightly and nodded his head as the piano melody flowed.

But he was not singing.

When the piano melody gradually faded.

As if another wave followed behind the receding wave, a voice penetrated the spot exquisitely.

It was the leader standing behind him.

A soft humming echoed through the hall as a faint blue light colored his face.

That was the start, and the blond member next to him added another sound.

And the rapper and the youngest grabbed a microphone each.

Like the faint blue light, the four members moistened the audience’s ears with harmony and instantly drew attention to the stage.

It was a warm feeling of harmony.

But was it because the members gave strength and weakness to the sound?

Something seemed to be visible.

Strangely enough, the eyes began to move along with the sound.

To stop somewhere as they gave strength and weakness.

The natural place where the audience’s eyes stopped was the main vocal who was standing in the center with his eyes closed.

Piano melody. Harmony.

As various sounds gradually tempted the audience step by step, the harmony began to fade again.

And.

Finally, the main vocal’s lips opened.