Chapter 146

# 147

Today, not tomorrow (1)

***

“I Kay You Kay!”

“let’s go!”

“K-K!”

The six KK members put their hands together and shouted slogans in loud voices.

It was 1 minute before the performance started.

Starting with Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Sapporo Dome, Nagoya Dome, and Fukuoka Yahoo Japan Dome.

After performing in four places, the KK members finally entered Tokyo Dome.

From the moment they stood at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, the KK members were already captivated by the large stage, the audience filling up the stage, the colorful lights, and the sound of music that would make their hearts flutter.

They were all people who came to see KK.

Even on a big stage in Korea, it was bound to be overwhelming, but on a big stage in a foreign country, it was a different kind of emotion.

Although we don’t speak the language properly and live in different cultures, we listen to K.K.’s music and become crazy about K.K. They shout out the names of the Korean members and pronounce ‘I love you’ in broken Korean.

It was such an amazing feeling when I saw overseas fans. However, with more than 40,000 fans gathered together, it was inevitable that it would be overwhelming.

Tokyo Dome will be the finale of this Japan tour.

Tokyo Dome’s symbolism alone was enormous.

This meant that the phrase ‘conquering Japan’, as stated in the article’s headline, was not an exaggeration.

Even in Japan, there are ten singers who can sell out Tokyo Dome. One of those ten fingers became singer K.K. from Korea.

Moreover, the reason why KK’s entry into the Tokyo Dome was meaningful was because KK did not erase their nationality as ‘Korean’.

Most singers who entered the Japanese market tended to release songs with a strong Japanese flavor on separate Japanese albums.

However, KK only changed the language to Japanese, arranged the song as it was sung in Korea, and included it in the Japanese regular album.

Additionally, whenever a sensitive question was asked on a variety show or in an interview, I answered directly rather than avoiding it. Even when comparing Korea and Japan, I never answered that I liked Japan unconditionally.

In fact, because of this, it was criticized by anti-Koreans who were anti-Korean and the Korean Wave, but KK’s position was clear.

As a Korean singer, I did not want to stop or bend the path I had taken to gain Japanese fans.

However, at the same time, he showed that he was always grateful for the warm love from Japanese fans, embracing them. Actually, it was sincere.

KK’s hard work, corresponding skills, KK’s unique music, and sincere heart.

All of this worked in the end and KK was able to go up to the Tokyo Dome stage.

“楽しいですか?”

Hyungseo Ahn picked up a towel prepared on the floor, wiped away his sweat, and asked the audience in poor Japanese if they were happy. When the fans answered yes in unison, Ahn Hyeong-seo smiled brightly, feeling overwhelmed.

Fans cheered even more as Ahn Hyeong-seo’s cute, smiling squirrel-like face appeared on the screen broadcasting on stage.

The performance of ‘Windy Day’ had just ended. As the blue lights moved, the members disappeared from the stage one by one, leaving Ahn Hyeong-seo alone in the spotlight.

The next stage was that of the hip-hop unit OK.

Then, an interlude was played along with Ahn Hyeong-seo’s comment to enjoy it better.

Hyungseo Ahn began singing the chorus of OK’s first album, ‘Don’t Go Back’.

‘Don’t Go Back’ was a song where Ahn Hyeong-seo’s high notes stood out. Ahn Hyeong-seo’s voice entered the middle and latter part of the performance and divided the audience’s enthusiasm.

Hyungseo Ahn worked very hard since the preparation period for the concert to perform a perfect live performance during this dome tour.

The dazzlingly bright key ring lightstick waved.

The members did their best to perform ‘Blue Sky’. Since it was the last song, my whole body was already wet with sweat and I was so exhausted that I wanted to lie down on stage right away, but I gathered all the energy I had left in my feet.

I was out of breath, but I was also very moved.

The members’ eyes were already moist as they passionately sang ‘Blue Sky’ in front of 50,000 spectators.

***

[KK embroiders Tokyo with six stars!]

[Registration up to Tokyo Dome completed! KK filled the Tokyo Dome]

[(Exclusive) Now it’s America! KK goes to the US to work with LIL]

[KK is getting on a plane to the US! Meeting with world-class pop star LIL]

[Love call to LIL KK... Kang Do-wook grows once again as a composer]

While the members were returning to Korea after the Tokyo Dome performance, articles about KK were reported one after another in Korea.

KK’s Tokyo Dome performance meant that Korean singers were popular even in Japan, which has the world’s second largest music market, and was even briefly reported on KVS 9 o’clock news.

It was rare for an idol to appear on the 9 o’clock news. When the news of KK’s entry into the Tokyo Dome was reported on TV news, real-time search terms were soon dominated by KK.

Even people who had no interest in the music industry or idols started looking into it out of curiosity because they heard that it promoted national prestige.

In such a situation, as the news of the collaboration with LIL was again exclusively reported, KK’s real-time search word ranking, which had been declining, rose to first place again.

The community reaction to the news that the collaboration with LIL was confirmed was on the verge of explosion.

It wasn’t just a community where stories about idols were mainly posted. Even in the community of people who like foreign pop stars, they were dumbfounded by the meeting of their favorite pop star and a Korean idol.

Overseas

– Why on earth is LIL collaborating with an idol from an unknown country like Korea? Does KK’s agency have a lot of money?

-You’re Korean too? Haha. You’re heard of in Korea too;

– Listen to KK’s song first. It’s way ahead of the debut song.

– Nowadays, it’s not something to ignore because it’s an idol song. Please think again.

-LIL must have listened to it and said he would accept the song because it was good hahaha How much money do you have so you think it

would be worth the money? haha – I heard you contacted me because I liked Last Dance. Listen to Last Dance. It’s surprising that among Korean idols, there was someone capable of producing songs of this quality. -If

it’s LIL. It’s really awesome ᅲ I’m jealous of KK when I see

LIL – I suddenly see him sucking on idols when I hear he’s working with LIL

– If it’s a pop song, it’s more problematic to cover it up and criticize it -_-;

-It seems like a dream that there is music in our country that follows trends faster than most pop music. In the old days, I couldn’t have imagined it.

Opinions were divided in the community, which tends to be tonitarian due to envy of pop culture, but it was a moment when even those people had no choice but to acknowledge KK.

At the moment when the Internet was hot with their story, the KK members were packing their bags again as soon as they returned to Korea.

In order to record with LIL, I decided to visit LIL’s studio in person.

Production director Kwon Heung-jo’s idea was to go to the United States and experience the bigger world by seeing the working environment there.

The first word of the reply from LIL began with ‘Sorry’. Because of this, Do-wook thought he was being rejected. However, he said he was sorry for making you wait so long.

After much consideration, LIL decided to try something new as Do-wook intended. LIL’s honest answer was that the song itself that Dowook sent was so good that he didn’t want to miss it.

‘LIL’s choice must be correct... the outcome must be successful...’

Do-wook zipped the suitcase with a half-worried, half-anticipated heart.

The sound of the suitcase being zipped was clear.