Chapter 266:

Chapter 266:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 266

“Welcome back!”

As soon as they arrived at the PR Team’s office, the staff greeted them warmly.

“How was Japan?”

“Great!”

“I heard from Director Yoon that you guys hit it big there. What did Woojoo do on the show?”

“...That’s a secret.”

They did all kinds of things for 500,000 yen.

They handed out gifts to the PR Team staff, and they all received them with happy expressions.

When the staff returned to their work, they followed Assistant Manager Hong to the meeting room.

“Deputy Manager, please take this.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“We couldn’t give you a proper gift earlier because there were too many people. We brought you something extra.”

They had prepared more gifts for her, since she was in charge of New Black in the PR Team.

“Oh, thank you.”

She smiled as she took the wrapped gift box.

She looked down at the box and fiddled with it, then lifted her head and looked at them.

A genuine smile flashed across her business-like smile.

She muttered that she felt motivated to work and left the meeting room.

“Can you wait a moment? I’ll bring the light sticks soon!”

“Okay!”

They bounced on their feet and imagined the possibilities, while she came back with an intern carrying a huge box.

What?

Why was it so big?

It was the size of an air purifier.

“...It’s huge.”

“The box is really big.”

It looked like a Gulliver’s Travels edition.

They were momentarily stunned, but then they focused on the small box that she took out of the big box.

A black box.

The black color faded as it went down, creating a gradient effect.

On the front, there was New Black’s logo in silver, and on the back, their names were written in English.

They were moved by the sight of the ‘Official Fanlight’, which meant the official light stick.

“Wow...”

The light stick they had been waiting for finally appeared before their eyes.

They felt warm in their chests just by looking at the packaging.

“A real light stick...”

The younger ones had similar reactions.

They smiled as they looked at the light stick case in the middle of the table.

Bijoo raised his hand to his mouth as if he liked what he saw, and Jiho took pictures with his phone from all angles.

Junghyun also grinned with his chin propped up.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Woojoo turned his head and saw Rihyuk tapping his phone hard.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m recording how I feel at this moment. It’s a moment I want to remember.”

They nodded.

It was a moment they wanted to remember, as Rihyuk said.

Was it when they debuted?

They used to imagine what they would be like a year later.

Whether they would be successful, or just getting by, or even struggling to release an album.

There was a time when everything was uncertain.

But now, they were feeling so happy, and they were celebrating the birth of their light stick around their first anniversary.

They exchanged glances and smiled with each other.

The youngest, who was taking pictures with flashes, tilted his head.

“Huh? But the box size is a bit odd.”

“Yeah,” Woojoo said. “I’ve seen a lot of light stick boxes from other seniors, but they were much smaller than this.”

“It looks like a birthday cake box. Hyung.”

The usual light stick boxes were slim, but this one was a bit wide.

Assistant Manager Hong smiled quietly, and Woojoo noticed the secret as he looked closely at the box.

“Oh, I get it! You matched it with our album size, right?”

“Yes.”

“Ah...!”

Then the younger ones realized it too.

The height of the light stick box was the same as their album.

Lemon Entertainment was the most praised in the field of idol fandoms for its standardization.

All the goods were arranged neatly on the bookshelf with the same specifications.

Whenever a post titled ‘Goods display that makes you feel comfortable as you look at it’ came up on the internet, it was 99% their company.

Woojoo didn’t even know they would match the specifications for the light stick boxes.

“Standardization! I love it...!”

Woojoo smiled quietly as he saw someone on their team blush with joy.

After letting them examine the box for a while, she nodded her head and asked, “Shall I show you now?”

“Yes!”

Woojoo clasped his hands and prayed, ‘Please be pretty!’ while he did the unboxing.

Soon, the stick that came out of his hand.

“Wow!”

“Wow! Wow!”

“Wow...”

It felt like a heavenly background music and a glitter filter were applied to his eyes.

The luxurious handle that was designed to fit in the hand.

The round sphere on top of it.

It looked like a new black ice cream cone that the Creator had carefully crafted.

And there was something very pretty inside.

“Wow...!”

They all stretched their necks at the same time at the light stick on the table.

There was a round moon inside.

At first, Woojoo thought it was a cute sunflower or a sun, but now he saw it was a moon and stars around it.

There was a star on each of the rings that surrounded the moon like sunflower petals.

“It looks a bit like a flower from a distance, right? The designer reflected the opinion of Woojoo.”

“That’s why it’s so pretty! Our light stick is so cute.”

“...”

“...I’m sorry.”

Woojoo bowed his head at the contemptuous gaze of his younger siblings.

He laughed.

“Remember, Woojoo said the reason why the petals are five is because of the five of you who surround the Soufflé.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“That’s why there are five stars.”

“Ah.”

Then, Rihyuk raised his voice as if he had found something.

“But the circle doesn’t seem to be a perfect circle. The curve is a bit...”

“Right.”

“...?”

“It looks like a moon from the front, but if you look at it sideways, it will look like a Soufflé pancake.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yes. The designer reflected the idea of Bijoo.”

They all stuck their chins to the table like dogs sniffing.

“It’s true!”

“Really?”

It really looked like a double-layered Soufflé pancake when they looked at it sideways.

The concept was that the five stars were spinning around the Soufflé.

“It’s pretty...”

“How did this come out of our horrible design?”

“Right. Did they really make it based on the design we gave them?”

“Yes,” Assistant Manager Hong answered. “He gathered all the ideas you gave him and made it.”

“Wow... He’s not a pro for nothing.”

They gave him ideas like the people who participated in the world’s most useless item contest.

This was...

It was like a flower that bloomed from rotten soil.

Woojoo praised the designer who sprouted the bud.

“We have to pay a lot of design fees to the designer, right?”

“...We paid a lot.”

“This is what my dad always said, the power of money.”

The light stick was really luxurious.

It was the prettiest after their Lady Deoksoon.

Woojoo admired the light stick that had the touch of the designer everywhere, and Junghyun looked at the surface of the sphere.

“Manager. But what are these dots on the surface?”

“Huh? Really! There’s something like a stain here!”

“Is it defective?”

Assistant Manager Hong was struggling to pull something out.

“Assistant Manager?”

“...Just a moment. Ugh, this won’t come out.”

Something was popping out of the huge air purifier box that they had wondered about at first.

Seeing the two of them grunting, Woojoo winked at Junghyun.

Their strongman walked over and plucked something out like a cabbage.

“Wow...!”

It was like a giant sweet potato.

“Wow...?”

It felt like the Lion King soundtrack was playing.

They were shocked by the sight of Junghyun holding something in both hands like Simba.

“No, that is...”

They were speechless.

Assistant Manager Hong, who had prepared the thing, also burst out laughing.

“This...”

“Is that a light stick?”

“It looks like a light stick no matter how I look at it.”

It was almost identical to the light stick we had just seen.

Except for the size.

It was about a meter long.

It was like a torch that the Olympic torchbearers carry. It was the size that Junghyun had to hold with both hands.

Junghyun looked at what he was holding and said, “Wow.”

That one word summed up their feelings.

What the hell was this?

They were looking for someone to explain because it was so unreal.

“What, what is this?”

“Snort. Snicker.”

Assistant Manager Hong snickered for a while and then said, “This is... When I tried to reflect the performance that Rihyuk asked for at first, it had to be this size to be possible. It was a mock-up that I made as a joke at the planning meeting...”

“The President saw it.”

“Yeah.”

Woojoo imagined the scene behind it.

“The President said it would be fun to make this version too, so I made two.”

One was in the President’s office, and the other was given to them.

“This is the real one and only light stick.”

“So this is the thing that I... mentioned at first.”

“Right.”

Woojoo said to Rihyuk, who had a blissful expression, “Rihyuk. Can you lift this?”

“I can lift this... Aaargh!”

“Pfft! Hahaha!”

It turned out he couldn’t.

They laughed for a long time. The thing in front of them was too absurd.

It was like a siege weapon, not a light stick.

If a picture of it went online, people would react like ‘How is this real...?’

Woojoo decided to show it to the Soufflé fans when they did the light stick review later.

“It can generate its own power.”

“Wow...!”

As they turned the small handle at the end, the light stick flickered.

“Hahaha!”

Everyone laughed except for Rihyuk, who was moved to tears.

It was a light stick that condensed the romance of men, no, of all children.

Every time they tested the performance, Assistant Manager Hong and the intern also watched with curiosity.

After testing for almost 30 minutes, the meeting finally ended.

“Okay. Then let’s see each other again when we film the light stick review video.”

“Yes!”

“Don’t mess around with that big... stick.”

They nodded at the Assistant Manager’s words.

“Hey, Assistant Manager. Do you think we’re kids?”

“Yeah. The fans said I looked mature on stage.”

“Okay. See you later.”

They shook hands with Assistant Manager Hong and the intern bowed as they left the room.

They smiled politely as they saw them off.

One. Two. Three...

After counting calmly to ten, Junghyun peeked his head out and gave them an OK sign.

“Are they gone?”

“They’re gone.”

They jumped up with excited faces.

“Hey, let’s do it. Let’s do it.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

“Come on, gather up.”

Deputy Seo Pilgeun of the A&R Team walked down the hallway, loosening his stiff shoulders.

“Is it because Woojoo came to Korea? Why are my shoulders so tense...”

He walked cautiously, hoping not to run into anyone.

-Hahaha!

“Ah!”

Woojoo’s laughter sounded like a devil’s howl.

Deputy Seo Pilgeun, who had unknowingly stuck to the wall, turned his head around, looking for the source of the laughter.

‘The conference room?’

The voices of the New Black members were coming out of the conference room.

-Let’s try again. Junghyun. Again!

-Lumos!

At that moment, a flash of light that seemed to brighten the whole world burst out of the conference room.

Along with the frivolous laughter.

-Hahahaha!

-Kyaa!

-Hehehe!

The bright hallway darkened again.

-Let’s try the Statue of Liberty this time! The Statue of Liberty!

-The Statue of Liberty? Um... not Junghyun. Hyung! Woojoo Hyung, do it for us.

-Just a sec.

Then, with Woojoo’s voice saying ‘Welcome to New York’, the conference room lit up again.

The sound of clapping like seals and the giggling laughter leaked out.

“...”

He had no idea what they were doing.

He wanted to open the door and ask, but Deputy Seo Pilgeun shook his head.

‘I can’t get involved. It’s work if I do.’

He ran away desperately.

【TheNewBlack.Official has started a live broadcast. Watch it now!】

As the SNS notification popped up on the phones scattered across the country, the Soufflés opened their eyes wide.

‘It’s them...!’

Lemon Entertainment had announced that the members would introduce their light sticks live today.

The Soufflés turned on the live broadcast with a pounding heart.

‘Huh?’

It was pitch black.

A dark screen.

The live broadcast had started, but all they could see was darkness. The Soufflés tilted their heads.

-Is there a broadcast error?

-Guys???

-???

-What is this

-Say hello to brazil!

-Why is it black

And as they were thinking that, someone grabbed the camera and the camera angle spun around.

Slowly to the right in the darkness.

It was like a horror movie.

As the Soufflés looked on with ‘...?’, someone appeared with a flash of light in the distance.

Five people showed their faces.

‘What, what is this.’

They followed Woojoo, who was clutching a giant torch, as the other members of New Black walked behind them.

They were walking like models, but the lighting was terrible.

The torchlight only illuminated the bottom of their faces, making them look like they were playing ghost pranks with flashlights.

Or rather...

-They’re monsters

-Monsters, huh

-They must be from the legendary homeland

-Is it Halloween in Korea??

-The kids are crying. Guys...

-I’m a film student. That’s a cinematic way of showing the duality of human nature.

-They look like monsters;

They thought they were making cool expressions, but they looked like five monsters in a strange scenery.