Chapter 262:

Chapter 262:

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.

K-pop is reaching out to the world. Do you know how much its market value is?

“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.