Chapter 168: Chapter 169:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 169

“Do you have any notes or something that you studied before?”

“Yes, I do!”

Bijoo quickly took out a notebook in response to Woojoo’s question. He examined it carefully.

“Hmm.”

Woojoo pretended to be calm, but he was amazed inside.

When did he study this much?

The things that Bijoo wrote in his notebook were at a higher level than he expected.

“When did you have time to study this?”

“Well, I didn’t have much time, so I did it whenever I could. I also watched you work from behind when you were working.”

“Since when did you do that?”

“I think it was when you first worked on Fireworks.”

Bijoo recalled.

“You looked so tired then. I thought I should help you somehow, and I started doing it, but then I got interested and worked hard.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Ugh, don’t say that. Hyung. I get embarrassed when you praise me.”

“No, really. You’re amazing.”

Woojoo sincerely admired him.

Bijoo’s level was that of a beginner who had thoroughly learned the basics for three months.

But the important thing was the process of getting there.

He did this with only bits of time left over.

When everyone else was asleep after practicing all day, he spent 10 or 20 minutes more reading, memorizing, and studying.

It sounded easy.

But how many people could do this without missing a day for six months?

Woojoo felt a human respect for he who was in front of him.

“So, you did this by yourself?”

“Yes,” Bijoo answered readily, then looked around and asked, “Is it a bit lacking?”

“No, it’s more than enough. You must have had a lot of questions, you should have asked me.”

“I wanted to ask you at first.”

Bijoo scratched the back of his head.

“But you were always busy except when you were lying in the dorm. The last time I tried to ask you, you were reading a script…”

“What about in the waiting room?”

“You were always reading fan letters. Or you went to the fan cafe and read the posts that the fans uploaded.”

“What about in the car?”

“You were listening to music and writing something on your notepad.”

“…The timing was off.”

They looked at each other with regretful expressions and Woojoo continued, “We can match the timing from now on, right? Right?”

“Right.”

“Hmm, before we start, let me compliment you a bit.”

Woojoo smiled at him as if to say he did well.

“You must have had a hard time studying by yourself, but you did this much. You’re really good. The Director would have praised you if he saw this.”

“Uh…”

“Really, you did a great job.”

“No, I didn’t do it alone. Junhyun helped me a lot too.”

"Helped you? I know what he would say if you asked him. ‘Hmm, ask Woojoo Hyung. He knows that stuff.’ "

Woojoo imitated him perfectly and Bijoo covered his mouth and giggled. Woojoo said to him who was laughing comfortably, “From now on, I’ll help you, so ask me anything you want. I’ll answer everything.”

“Okay. Hyung.”

They smiled brightly at each other.

They started working right away.

They put an A4 paper on the table and started brainstorming ideas.

“What should we do for the next album concept?”

“Can we decide that ourselves? The Director…”

“That’s okay. I talked to the Director last night. He said we have autonomy for the next album too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, as long as it’s not something ridiculous like a bread mask or a crab costume.”

Thanks to the success of this title song, Woojoo had a reward.

It was the producer’s authority.

Of course, he didn’t have full power. The company could interfere at any time.

But his position was very high because he hit consecutive home runs from Something to Masquerade.

He wondered if the A&R Team recognized him as the producer of New Black.

Whenever he gave his opinion, they would accept it as long as it wasn't too absurd.

Woojoo asked Bijoo, who was clapping his hands and happy as if it was his own success, "Tell me what you've always wanted to do. You're the star of the next album, right?"

"Um…"

"Don't worry about the others. I can tell you're thinking about them right now."

"…Oh, can you?"

"Yeah, so be honest with me."

Woojoo wanted to know what Bijoo was thinking as an artist.

What kind of music he wanted to do normally, and what he had to say this time.

Bijoo finally opened his lips after some hesitation.

"I… I want to sing, Hyung."

"Sing?"

"I want to do a dance song, but with a lighter color this time. A song that has more vocal color than dance."

"You want to reduce the dance?

Woojoo asked him suspiciously, sensing something fishy.

"Are you trying to be considerate of Rihyuk?"

"No. It's not that."

Bijoo waved his hand and denied it strongly.

"I really want to sing."

"I feel like you're being weird. You're a dancer, right? You're going to ignore your talent and go for vocals?"

"Yes. I want to try singing properly this time."

He nodded his head.

"Actually, there's not much difference. Both Fireworks and Masquerade are dance songs, right? Something is a vocal song, but it was a duet."

It was a fresh and good idea.

They had sung as five in a music cafe once, but except for that time, they had never sung properly as a group.

Woojoo thought it wouldn't be bad to try something new this time.

But.

"Can I ask you why? I find it a bit surprising."

"I had a dream of being a singer, too."

Bijoo started to tell his story calmly.

"I love dancing, too, but what I wanted to be since I was young was a singer. A singer who can sing confidently in front of people."

It was a bit unexpected.

"When I was young, I was so timid that I couldn't say a word at kindergarten. Whenever there was a time to speak up, the teacher always left me out. I would cry while talking."

Woojoo imagined the little Bijoo crying at kindergarten, and he felt a pang of pity and cuteness.

Bijoo reminisced about his past.

"I couldn't say a proper word until I graduated from kindergarten. So my mom sent me to a dance academy during the winter break to boost my confidence."

"Did that help?"

"Yes, I took classes with adults, and they all looked at me kindly. I was the best one, so I had to teach others when the instructor wasn't there. That's when I started to talk more."

He said that dancing had been his life and passion for 14 years, from the winter of his seventh year to now.

"I had a lot of opportunities for dancing. I could join a dance team. When I was in middle school, some unknown guys came and asked me to join a b-boy crew. That was tempting.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“They were too scary there. They had skull necklaces.”

Woojoo burst out laughing, but Bijoo said seriously, “I’m serious, Hyung.”

They were the ultimate scary Hyungs who had the appearance of Street Boys and the inner spirit of Teen Spirit.

Bijoo smiled and said, “My dream is to be a singer, but I also love dancing. I want to do both on stage.”

“So that’s why you became a trainee.”

“If I had to choose between a dancer or a ballad singer, I would have to focus on one of them. I want to do something that lets me dance brightly and sing at times.”

“I can relate. I became a trainee for the same reason.”

When Woojoo was young, he watched the first-generation idol seniors on TV and thought he had to do that.

Sometimes they would stand together and sing an emotional song, and other times they would dance more energetically than anyone else on stage.

The ability to try different genres of music was the charm he felt from the idol profession.

Sometimes rough, sometimes smooth, and sometimes beautiful.

“So what kind of song do you want to try this time?”

“I want something that has a popular appeal.” Bijoo said earnestly, “Something that everyone can enjoy, like the songs of the first-generation seniors. I wish we could make a song that anyone can hum along, like ‘Fate’ or ‘Sunshine’ that we did with Street Boys.”

“That would be really hard to make.”

“I know, right?”

“Yeah.” Woojoo said with a smile, “But it sounds like a fun challenge.”

Woojoo turned on his laptop and created a new file.

The title was ‘Untitled No.2’.

“Hyung, what’s wrong with your face?”

“What?”

“You look like a deflated bun.”

“Wow, you’re so polite to say that right after meeting me for the first time in six hours, Junghyun.”

Rihyuk said, “That’s sarcasm, by the way,” and then Junghyun smiled sheepishly and said, “Oh.”

Rihyuk put down his ‘Practical Spanish for Beginners’ book on the table and asked, “But seriously, why do you both look like that? Bijoo Hyung and you look like wet tissues.”

“Shut up. It was really hard.”

“I, I did okay…”

They both sprawled on the living room sofa and breathed out ‘phew’.

Rihyuk shook his head at the sight of them.

Junghyun, who sat down next to Woojoo, offered him a water bottle.

“Do you want to drink this, Hyung?”

“What is it?”

“Protein shake. The boss said I can have it, so you can too.”

“Is it good?”

“Um, chocolate-flavored tofu? Tofu-flavored chocolate? Something like that.”

Woojoo declined with a gesture of his hand.

He had showered and was fluffy, but his muscles were more pumped than usual from the intense workout.

And he had a protein drink on top of that.

Woojoo wondered if he would turn into a Terminator by the time they left here.

“Junghyun, lend me your knee.”

Woojoo rested his head on his hard leg.

The TV screen that filled the front of the living room came into my view.

There was a logo of HBS MTV on the top right corner, and Teen Spirit was doing their reality show ‘I’m Gisingggotto!’ on the screen.

“…”

There was a moment of silence.

“Am I hallucinating? Why do I hear ‘Jon’ in front of me?”

“Are you Jonna Gisingggotto?”

“Don’t worry. It’s not just you. I hear ‘Jon’ as a silent letter too.”

As someone who knew the true identity of the senior idols who were ‘lovey-dovey’ with their sisters on TV, Woojoo felt nothing but awkward.

Rihyuk said, “Just bear with it a little longer. We’ll be on after this.”

The reason they gathered in one place after working in different places was because of the idol show.

January 2nd, Friday, 6 p.m.

It was time to monitor their first appearance on an idol program.

They were half excited, half anxious.

They were finally entering the idol program with their New Black, feeling the excitement, and the anxiety about the memes that would be produced afterwards.

Woojoo’s phone started ringing then.

Ring-

As he answered the call, his grandmother’s face appeared on the screen.

“Who is this?”

-It’s your granny. You good-for-nothing brat.

“How dare you curse at me, you’re such a Kim Deoksoon. I love you so much.”

-Stop talking nonsense. Are you only showing your face? Let me see the others too. You have no sense.

“Oh, you’re nagging again.”

Woojoo turned the phone around while lying down and the kids smiled happily.

“Grandma! Hello! How have you been?”

-Yeah, I’m fine. I’m glad to see that Bijoo and Rihyuk are doing well too. Oh my, what happened to your body, Junghyun?

“I’m in good shape, right?”

-But you should hide that kind of thing. It’s not good to show it off like that. It’s shameful.

“Yes…”

They chuckled as Junghyun pulled down his sleeves with a sullen face.

His T-shirt had almost turned into a sleeveless one, so it was a relief that it was back to normal.

Grandma also complimented Bijoo and Rihyuk.

-Yeah, Rihyuk is studying hard and doing great. I saw him last New Year’s too.

“Oh, on Chuseok?”

-He was studying some Chinese thing when I saw him on Chuseok.

“It was Japanese.”

-Switch to someone else. I get a fever when I talk to him. He’s a world champion in spitting out nonsense.

“…I’m sorry.”

They all burst into laughter as Rihyuk was humiliated again after Junghyun.

-Where’s Jiho?

“He’ll be here soon. He’s lost in his game.”

-Really?

“Why did you call me all of a sudden, Grandma?”

-I called you to scold you. Why didn’t you tell me that you’re on TV today?

Woojoo’s heart and lungs thumped and thudded as he jumped up from the sofa.

“What, what? How did you know that, Grandma? I didn’t tell you.”

-You can’t fool me, I know everything. These days, there’s a lot of talk on that backside group chat.

“…I’m screwed.”

The kids held back their laughter next to him.

-What’s wrong with you? Tell me. Let me laugh with you.

“Grandma, listen to me. You can’t watch that show. There’s some embarrassing stuff on there.”

“Woojoo Hyung has a lot of dark history on there.”

“Ah, you little punk.”

Jiho had come down and joined the testimony. Woojoo covered both sides of the phone with his hands as the kids tried to testify one by one.

-That’s not my ears, you can’t block them.

“Oops.”

-You’re worse than a butterfly, you jerk.

Just then, Woojoo saw a cat rubbing its body against Mrs. Kim Deoksoon’s lap and meowing.

Woojoo glared at Nabi and then said to his grandmother, “Anyway, you can’t watch today’s broadcast! Grandma! Especially, Nabi. She can’t watch it even more.”

-What’s that? You’re making me curious.

“Don’t watch it! If you watch it, we’re done!”

-Hey, you…

Woojoo hung up the phone.

Rihyuk shrugged and asked Woojoo, “Why didn’t you just tell her the truth? The more you do this, the more curious she’ll be and watch it.”

“Could you say that you sent a video letter of a cat to your grandmother?”

“If it were me, I wouldn’t have sent a video letter in the first place.”

“Right, instead your electric shocker would break down.”

“…This is my win. Not a tie.”

“I said the last word, so I won.”

While they were having a rock-paper-scissors battle, Jiho looked at them with pity and sucked on a chupa chup.

“How old are you guys, really?”

“Jiho, your HP is red right now.”

Junghyun pointed at the laptop screen, and Jiho shouted into his headphones.

“Oh, wait a minute. Namu Hyung, don’t use a bow there. You’re on fire, you know? Yeah! Your base is burning right now. Ah, damn it!”

“…?”

“Hey, hey, hey! Aaah!”

They blinked their eyes at the sight of a middle schooler who was pounding his mouse and keyboard like a broken cat.

Junghyun glanced at the laptop screen and explained, “He’s playing a game with the Street Boys. It’s a clan war, and he’s losing. His clan is Mint Choco.”

“Who’s the opponent?”

“Guryong Elementary School, 5th grade, class 3.”

They all laughed so hard that they didn’t notice that they fell to the floor.

5:58 p.m.

Woojoo read the posts that our fans posted on the fan cafe and idol community, trying to calm his nervousness.

-I’m so excitedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-I’m so looking forward to it and nervous. What will come out today?

-If our kids go on a past life show, Conan or Kim Jeonil will definitely come out

-I’m nervous… At this point, it’s not fangirling, it’s a random box territory

-Congratulations! You won the SS-grade black history card ‘Oh, really?’ LOL

These people are really…

From his grandmother to the world, how could there be no one on his side?

He could already see the posts that would pop up everywhere after the idol show.

He would have to cut off the internet for a while.

“Oh, it’s starting!”

The dark screen brightened and the idol show finally began. Jiho covered his mouth and exclaimed.

“Wow! The logo song you made really came out.”

“Oh, really?”

As the scenes for today’s episode flashed by like a trailer, the logo song that he had made was playing in the background.

Woojoo smiled briefly at the catchy melody and the cheerful faces.

“Pfft!”

Woojoo burst out laughing.

The first thing that appeared on the screen was a pig’s head on a tablet PC.

It was the quiz that they had taken on the day they arrived.

There were subtitles at the bottom.

-How many times do I have to bow, Hyung?

-Just do it as you feel.

The microphone was so good that it picked up their conversation.

And their awkward bowing.

The internet was laughing at them from the first scene.

Then the MCs introduced them and showed them running around.

Their impressions of being on an idol program.

The stories they shared while exploring the police station set.

And then the generation gap between the first-generation and the new-generation idols, and Bijoo’s hilarious misunderstanding of ‘love at first sight’.

And then.

“Ugh…”

The thing that Woojoo wanted to avoid the most.

The corner where he had to write a love letter to a cat and get an electric shock.

That was on the screen.