Chapter 266: Chapter 267:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 267

The members of New Black walked up to the camera and stopped.

-There has never been a light stick like this before.

-Bong bong.

-Pfft, hey. Kim Junghyun. You made me forget.

Bijoo said with a laugh. Soon, all five of them giggled.

-Turn on the light, Hyung.

The conference room light came on and the Soufflés regained their composure.

-Ah… finally ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Guys, that light was not realㅠㅠㅠ

-Let’s say goodbye to the monster from our memory

-Phew…

The fans felt relieved to see their bright faces.

The members leaned in closer to read the comments, and their eyes, noses, and mouths filled the screen.

They spent some time chatting and laughing with the fans.

Then, Woojoo smiled brightly.

-Yes. We’re going to introduce our light stick to you now. How do you feel? Are you excited?

-Yes!

-No, not you guys, the fans…

-Wow!

The Soufflés laughed at the sight of them cheering more than the fans.

The members sat around the table and chatted, while the manager handed them a box of light sticks.

-Well, then, let’s get to today’s product! Shall we?

Woojoo lifted the box with a show host vibe.

-This is the official~!

-Light stick!

-Yes. Everyone. It’s a must-have item when you cheer for us on music shows or concerts, right?

-That’s right. It’s an essential item to support my singers.

Bijoo and Woojoo had great chemistry.

They matched each other’s lines like a show host duo. One would say something, and the other would respond with a witty remark.

The other members also joined in the light stick introduction.

From the box to the actual light stick.

As they listened, they felt like they had to pick up the phone and ask, ‘Is it still available?’

-So excitingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-I turned it on to see their faces and now I’m hooked

-Why is it so funㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Our kids should go on home shopping, they’ll sell out

-I’m watching it with my mom next to me, peeling orangesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ She said she’ll buy one too

-It feels like I’m watching home shopping;

-So where do I call now???

Soon, the Soufflés also asked, ‘What’s the free gift?’ and played along with the concept.

-Free gift?

-Oh, the free gift is very important. Don’t you get a bonus when you buy something at the market? It’s disappointing if you buy a salad and there’s no dressing. That’s why we, Lemon Home Shopping, prepared this.

-Ta-da!

The New Black members pulled out photo cards from their pockets.

The fans’ desire to buy was ignited by the pictures of them holding the light stick in different poses.

-Kyuho is doing his job…

-Kyuhoㅠㅠㅠㅠ I trusted you

-The light stick is so pretty… ㄹㅇ루

-Wow… The night sky design is crazyㅠㅠ

-What did the designer studyㅠㅠ

-They know our fandom ㄹㅇ

-Are they a Soufflé?

Especially when they explained the night sky of June 19th, their debut date, the Soufflés smiled warmly.

Everything was perfect.

And that was not the end.

-Oh, there’s one thing I forgot to tell you. There’s a system that’s applied for the first time to our light stick.

Woojoo showed his phone screen.

It was a sleek black application called ‘Fireworks’.

-You can adjust the brightness and color of the light stick with this app. It’s a Bluetooth feature, and the staff said it’s this IoT? Right, Rihyuk? Yes. We’re the first ones to apply the Internet of Things.

-You just have to adjust it like this.

The Soufflés also stopped commenting and exclaimed, ‘Wow…’

Some people were already searching and downloading the Fireworks app from the app store.

-Fireworks means fireworks in Korean. We suggested naming our debut single title after it.

The fans bombarded them with questions.

-Uh, the name? We haven't decided yet. We don't even have a consistent name among ourselves.

-I'm Dalbong!

Bijoo's smile sparkled brightly.

-You know how Soufflé has a moon shape in the night sky? That's why I call myself Dalbong. Hyung said he's Wonbong, right?

-Yeah. Wonbong.

-I'm simply Soufflébong.

As they each had different opinions, ‘Dalbong' gained overwhelming support from the fans.

They thought it was cute.

-Then, shall we go with Dalbong for now?

Woojoo suggested that they should have an official vote, since the opinions of the absent fans were also important. They all agreed.

While Bijoo was enjoying himself with his hands on his cheeks, the youngest proposed.

-While we're at it, let's add a surname too. A surname.

In a few minutes, with the fantastic teamwork of the members and the Soufflés, ‘Kim Dalbong, the 32nd descendant of the Kim clan who cheers for us' was born.

They all laughed and joked together.

Then, Woojoo blinked at someone's question.

-Do you think it's too bright? Oh, others agree too.

Many people said it was good, but too bright.

But the New Black members just laughed as if they found something funny.

‘Why are they like that?'

They opened their mouths.

-Actually, this is very dimmed. The original brightness was about twice as much as this, but I lowered it a lot.

-You’re surprised that this is dimmed? Yes. It’s really dimmed.

-Ah! I’ll show you the King Bong.

King Bong?

Woojoo got up from his seat and disappeared off the screen, then came back with something in his hands.

‘…?’

At that moment.

All the Soufflés’ minds stopped at once.

‘What is that…?’

He was holding a one-meter-long torch.

Come to think of it, Woojoo had brought something in his arms earlier, and it seemed to be that giant light stick.

Both the person explaining the production background and the listeners laughed out loud at the absurdity.

Woojoo said he would show them how bright it was before.

-I’ll show you the maximum level. Please be careful with your eyes, especially the elderly.

The leader of New Black held the light stick with both hands and made a serious expression, as if praying.

-Lord. Please allow me to be a righteous thief today.

Everyone laughed at the line from a magical girl anime that the 90s kids used to watch.

Then, light burst out from the screen.

Whaaaaa!

The screen turned white as the light that seemed to benefit the whole world spewed out.

-Aaah!

The manager’s hand holding the camera shook and trembled.

-What the hell…;;;

-Is this real? It’s not painted white?

-Are you guys okay?

-I can hear the sound but my eyes are blinded

–ㅋㅋㅋㅋno wayㅋㅋㅋㅋwhat is thisㅋㅋㅋㅋ

–ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋI’m spinning I’m real

-Are you kidding meㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-The light is insane

-What is thisㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Did I… kill them?

Then, click, the light went off and Woojoo, who was standing in the center, opened his eyes slightly and asked.

-Does anyone still think the light stick is too bright?

No one answered.

[The idol who captured legendary beauty in today’s light stick review video.gif]

(An animated image of Woojoo turning on the giant light stick and the screen turning white in an instant)

My boy is so beautiful

Because all I see is light

–ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋI’m dying

–ㅋㅋㅋㅋkidding

-What’s going on there??ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ? I have no clue

–ㅋㅋㅋㅋI’m crazy I haven’t laughed like this in a while

-I want to see the original charcoal give me the link

–ㅋwhen he brightens up and the screen shakes like he’s screaming, that’s a spoilerㅋ

-The dialogue is even funnier, you have to listen

–ㅋㅋif you watch it as a gif, his expression looks serious but the dialogue is hilarious

New Black’s lightstick review became one of the best posts on the idol community in no time.

At the same time, the lightstick’s visual and function received rave reviews.

-Awesome… there’s an app too???

-I saw overseas that they changed the colors of the concert seats, is that possible?

-No no, it only has basic functions, they said the technology is not there yet

-Crazy, why does Lemon work so hard

-It’s not why do they work so hard, it’s why do they workㅋㅋ

-My eyesight is going to get worseㅋㅋ

-New Black’s staff should get paid a lot, seriously

-The design is so prettyㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-What is the night sky, it’s a legend, it’s a heart attack

But the most talked-about thing among them was the legendary giant lightstick.

-It’s like a cartoonㅋ

-How is this true;

-It looks like a photoshopㅋㅋ

-Today on the live broadcast, they declared that they would bring it out for every important eventㅋ

-I’m really curious about the real thingㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-But if you have that, it would really set the mood

-If you’re a fan of them, you have to watch from afarㅋㅋ

-Guys, you have to see the gif of our kids making the lightstick self-generate. It’s my cure for Monday blues

-But that’s not for sale, even if they sell it, it would be pretty expensive???

-No no, it’s so good that the production cost is expensive; they said it wouldn’t make a profit at a reasonable price

While New Black’s lightstick was a hot topic in the idol community.

The giant lightstick gif and the monster-like appearance scene were exported to various communities.

It also appeared on SNS’s ‘Today’s Laugh Page’.

Even people who were not interested in idols noticed New Black and soon laughed and called them ‘Again Black’.

Meanwhile.

“Huh…?”

Some people tilted their heads at the app ‘Fireworks’ that appeared on the app store’s real-time popularity ranking.

‘Lightstick app…?’

An application related to a boy group was on the real-time popularity ranking.

It was because the Soufflés had downloaded it in advance.

‘How many fans do they have to have the lightstick app on the ranking?’

At the point of recruiting the second Soufflés.

New Black’s fandom, whose exact size had not been known until now, was gradually revealing its bulk.

“This is unexpected. This.”

“…Shouldn’t they have just done the concert at the gymnasium?”

Lemon Entertainment’s PR Team was flustered by the statistics.

On the table, there was raw data that had not been processed yet.

“And, this is also weird.”

“What?”

“The data from overseas. There’s this much demand for lightsticks overseas? This is…”

“It’s ten times our estimated forecast.”

They thought there was some reaction from overseas, but they never imagined there would be this much actual demand.

And not only in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, but also in various countries.

“Should we send out a press release?”

“No. They’ll just bash us for being arrogant. They’re just a handful of overseas fans, and you’re bragging about that.”

“First of all, we need to review these numbers. We need to investigate when our kids started getting reactions.”

“Yeah.”

The PR Team members moved busily with a feeling that was not ordinary.

Among them, Hong Seoyoung, the assistant manager, tapped the paper with a pen.

‘There’s something.’

When she planned New Black’s first live broadcast.

She felt something again that she had felt since she added foreign language subtitles to YouTube.

She reached for the snacks as she thought and thought.

Then she looked at the snack in her hand.

‘I have to work hard.’

She smiled and put the snack that New Black members gave her as a gift in her mouth.

The domestic schedule was still busy.

They split the time by minutes and went to events, then went to the advertising shooting site and repeated.

Especially, there were a lot of things to do because the advertising shooting that had only been requested had been delayed.

“New Black is very popular in the advertising industry these days.”

TJ New Media.

Two employees who worked with them on the Magic School CF last summer were gossiping.

“Every time we have a meeting with the clients, they mention New Black at least sixteen times. They say they are the celebrities that appeal to the 2030 generation who use SNS. We even got a phone call about them yesterday.”

“Wow… That’s amazing.”

They didn’t even realize that they had become hot blue chips in the advertising world.

It was less than a year since they had to decide whether to do the electric blanket ad or not.

Meanwhile, the attitude of the advertising agency staff had changed.

They asked them cautiously if there was anything uncomfortable for them, but it was somewhat burdensome.

The friendliness they had shown before was gone, and now they treated them like popular stars.

They were the same as before, but the people around them had changed.

The on-site staff also treated them like princes. They brought them whatever they needed.

They could have caught the celebrity disease.

Rihyuk whispered to Woojoo, “It’s a good thing that we’re a group.”

“Why?”

“We don’t have to worry about getting the celebrity disease. We treat each other so poorly.”

That was a wise saying.

It was burdensome, but they decided to be happy that they were working in a comfortable atmosphere.

Of course, not all the ad shoots were good.

“Oh, my, our New Black folks. You all have such good luck. Haha!”

It was a director of some company that came out as the advertiser.

He praised them for a while and then casually asked, “How about a drink after this… Oh, there are minors too. You must be hungry after a long day. How about having dinner with us? The director will join us, and our president said he would come too.”

“What should we do? We’re really sorry, but… We have another schedule right after this.”

“Come on, you can have a meal if you’re not too busy.”

“Sorry. Haha.”

Seokhwan Hyung kept refusing, and the other person frowned.

“You’re so stiff. Tsk.”

He turned his body and disappeared, and their manager politely saw him off.

“What’s going on?”

“The president that the advertiser is talking about is the granddaughter of that chairman.”

“Oh…”

“It’s just a meal, but, well… It’s not going to be good.”

“Hyung did well to refuse.”

Woojoo thought it was better not to know.

Woojoo nodded at the story that the girl group Scarlet had many more requests like this.

He always felt that there were too many people in this business who were not mature enough for their age.

Good people close, bad people far.

Woojoo kept his usual resolution with his siblings and went through each schedule.

Among them, there was the first TV ad shoot.

“Wow…!”

They visited a real university to shoot a lens ad that would be broadcast on the three terrestrial channels.

“Geez… These are all people…”

“They seem to be filming us all the time, right?”

“I don’t know if we can get out of here.”

Even if they just stood still, sweat dripped down in the middle of the day, and the college students who came out to watch were bubbling.

They hid in the shade and cooled themselves with a mini fan, their eyes wide open.

There were only a few smartphone cameras.

While they were wandering around the campus, the director came with a script.

“The concept is the same as I told you before, college freshmen.”

“Yes!”

“You just have to give the feeling that you’re enjoying the campus life together. Most importantly, the comfortable feeling! The comfortable feeling should be strong. Because…”

“The catchphrase is that the lenses are comfortable even if you wear them all day long.”

“The directors I know praised New Black, and there was a reason for that.” The director asked with a smile, “Are you ready? I heard you don’t have any group life experience other than high school, let alone college life.”

“I have military experience.”

“Yes. Military experience… What? Military?”

He looked at him with a ‘you?’ expression, and Woojoo answered with a ‘yes’ expression. They smiled at him as if to reassure him.

“Don’t worry. We prepared a lot.”

They had prepared hard by watching movies, dramas, and American high-teen movies that featured college students.

And their preparation paid off in the field.

“Okay! That’s it! That’s it!”

As they walked with refreshing expressions in their campus look, the director looked very satisfied.

A staff member who checked the footage joked that it looked like a collection of everyone’s first love, and laughter filled the scene.

After the group shot, it was time for Woojoo’s solo shot that would decorate the ending.

It was a scene where Woojoo sat on a bench in the middle of the sunbeams that leaked through the leaves and smiled at the sky.

He was lucky to get the OK sign on the third try.

“Good job.”

“Thank you.”

The staff’s faces were bright because they finished the shooting faster than expected.

After bowing to each one of them.

“Hello, we are New Black!”

They approached the college students who had been watching them and had some fan service time.

“History Discovery! Are you having fun watching it? Will there be a season 2?”

“Did you enjoy it? I’m glad.”

“Photo! Can I take a photo with you?”

“Yes. Of course. What pose should we do? V? Oh, both hands? Then, let’s do it.”

Unlike the elders who said ‘New Black of the Legendary Song!’, the college students seemed to be impressed by History Discovery.

The crazy concept seemed to hit the taste of the 20s.

But the most popular among their shows was not the variety show, but the drama.

“Officer Heo!”

“Wow, I’m a huge fan of Slip. Really. A maniac.”

“I heard season 2 rumors are coming out. Will you really be in season 2 as a supporting or a main role?”

It was like their youngest’s personal fan meeting.

Officer Heo, Officer Heo, the sound of his name made his mouth reach his ears.

He looked like a puppy who arrived in heaven full of snacks.

The teaser video of Officer Heo waking up in the reed field with a ‘huh!’ in Slip episode 10 was still a hot topic.

Even after the broadcast, the hints for ‘season 2’ were still warm.

In reality, the chances of it happening were low due to the busy schedules of the actors and the lack of material for the sequel, but the production team’s trick to attract the viewers seemed to work well.

“…You guys really made it big.”

Minki Hyung, who rescued them from the crowd, wiped his sweat and spoke.

Someone said ‘Huh? That Legendary Song! LisaLover!’ and Minki Hyung’s steps hastened as they laughed.

He said, “Let’s move quickly. We have to go to the next schedule.”

“Can’t we go slowly, Hyung.”

Woojoo begged him to let him see the college, but the younger ones dragged him away as if it was impossible.

“Nooo…”

“Don’t copy my voice.”

“Naaa…”

They were dragged into the car by the younger ones and the managers.

Unlike the younger ones who had a cheerful expression, rain fell in Woojoo’s heart.

It was because of his personal schedule.

Twinkle-

A new message notification popped up on his phone screen.

[User not registered as a friend.]

Do Joongi [Woojoo]

Do Joongi [I’m waiting for you. Take your time^^*]

Woojoo’s schedule for today was a pre-meeting with the production team of ‘Men on the Go’.

Do Joongi [Do Joongi sent you a gifticon.]

Do Joongi [It’s hot today, so have a cup of coffee with the members.]

He couldn’t drink coffee, he thought.

Do Joongi [You like chocofine, right? rgrg]

Do Joongi [This is an iced chocolate gifticon ㅎ.ㅎ]

“…”

Well, Woojoo should enjoy what he gave him.

“Dowon Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I buy some coffee on the way? I got a gifticon from the PD, so I’ll treat the managers too.”

“Sure.”

The manager smiled as he held the steering wheel.

“There might be a crowd when you guys go in. I’ll get it for you.”

“Okay. I’ll order then.”

“‘Kim Deoksoon’s Man’ who ordered through Siren Order! Your drink is ready!”

“…”

“‘Kim Deoksoon’s Man’! Your drink is ready!”

“…”

As the cafe customers started to look for ‘Kim Deoksoon’s Man’, Seok Dowon closed his eyes slightly.