Chapter 301: Chapter 302:

The first stage was denial.

“No way.”

“This can’t be happening… It’s weird.”

“There’s no way it could rise this fast.”

But it was inevitable.

The previous comeback song, Wind Flower, had done much better than expected.

And then.

“Didn’t they make a big fuss last year when Marker hit 500,000 views in 24 hours?”

“I think so.”

When I searched online, I saw articles with headlines like ‘A million views in just 48 hours, what a remarkable rookie you are?'1

That was four times faster than before.

“…”

The most viewed MV of the first half of this year, TNT’s ‘Kingdom’, had reached 1.5 million views in seven hours, right?

Taehyun and his gang had sent me the link on KakaoTalk. They urged me to admire it quickly.

“We got a million views in 11 hours…”

We looked at each other with dazed faces.

We didn’t know how it happened, but we felt good. Rihyuk looked prettier and more special than usual.

And even the black sheep of the family, the youngest one, looked cute.

We were happy to see that we got a million views in such a short time.

“Wow, there are so many comments.”

We gathered around the tablet PC at Bi Ju’s words.

“There’s a lot of English.”

“It’s all English. Hyung, can you translate this?”

“Press translate, Junghyun.”

Junghyun pressed ‘translate’ and read it.

“Woojoo is an arsonist, he set my heart on fire.”

“Pfft!”

The younger ones laughed and I smiled awkwardly.

Then I pressed another ‘translate’ and asked Junghyun to play the voice.

“Look at that blue guy’s legs. His legs are longer than my life.”

“Puhaha!”

“And his face is brighter than my future, by the way.”

While Rihyuk was embarrassed, we read the comments that the foreigners left.

There were a lot of funny ones.

‘There I slept (1987-2015)’ was there, and ‘Pigeons, go away. From now on, the symbol of peace is New Black’ was a witty comment.

‘Woojoo’s dance is more stable than our country’s economy.’ was another comment.

We laughed for a while with the younger ones.

“…”

Until we saw some comments.

-I’m getting confused. I watched the New Black video that YouTube recommended. What is their main job? Korean comedians? Singers? Actors? I can’t figure it out.

┖Of course they’re singers. What are you talking about?

┖Go and watch the weird things in the recommended videos.

┖I did. Sorry. I was short-sighted. I agree with you completely.

We quickly switched to the recommended videos.

-‘Deoksoon-ah’ National Singing Contest remix. 3 hours

-How to store apples for a long time (It’s not hard~)

-Growing cacti day 10

-Three unknown facts about King Sejong

-[Soufflé TV] Why Wang Jiho is a lovely maknae

We smiled warmly at each other’s tastes on the shared tablet.

Then we looked at the bottom of the recommended list and realized what that comment meant.

“Why is the History Exploration Team here…?”

“Wow. Look at the dynamic thumbnail. Junghyun-hyung and Daegil are fighting with a lot of tension.”

“Wow. Really.”

“…Wow or not, this seems like a big deal.”

Rihyuk said seriously.

“People all over the world are watching our… this stuff.”

“…”

At the moment when Nine’s MV surpassed 1.1 million views, we were screaming in our dorm.

By the time it was 5 p.m., the views had gone up even more.

-New Black’s ‘Nine’ MV hits it big… ‘2 million views’ in 17 hours

-‘Nine’ breaks 2 million views, “New Black is hot”

-New Black posts a proof shot on their official SNS “We never expected this… Thank you so much”

It was a staggering increase in views.

“We might hit 10 million views before the end of this week at this rate.”

“Wow…”

“Congratulations in advance, guys. Your music video is a huge hit.”

The other staff members of the promotion team, including Mr. Hong, greeted us with ‘congratulations’.

I swallowed hard.

“Are we really that successful right now?”

“No.”

“I knew it…”

“It’s more than that.”

Mr. Hong glanced over the Excel data and said.

“If this trend continues, you’ll definitely make it to the top 10 most viewed K-pop music videos of the year.”

“Wow…”

“My guess is that you’ll be at least fourth.”

“Us?”

He nodded.

“And you might even go higher. The word of mouth is spreading fast, and there’s a lot of influx from overseas fans.”

“Like when we did Masquerade?”

“More than that. Back then, it was like a spoonful or two, but now it’s… like a sack of rice exploded?”

I remembered the breakfast scene of Rihyuk and Junghyun.

If Masquerade was like scooping out some cereal, Nine was like pouring out a whole box.

The trend was alarming.

We became global superstars with one music video! Well, not really, but it was still exciting.

It was the first time we got such a big response from across the ocean.

“Wow…”

I still felt nervous when I returned to the practice room.

I couldn’t imagine it.

It was a success at an unexpected point, and I was rather flustered.

“Hmm…”

I opened the world map on my laptop and looked at it.

“So, people are watching our music video here, and there, and everywhere.”

“That’s right.”

“It feels like a soufflé spreading over the world.”

I had a vision of a red graphic covering the world map like in the beginning of an apocalypse movie.

Breads popping up all over the map, saying ‘Hi!’ and bouncing around.

I picked up my phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I have to send a thank you message to the music video director.”

The youngest joined me as I wrote a long text.

“I want to send one too.”

“Let’s wait a bit and send them separately. It’s weird if we all send them at once.”

“Okay.”

I sent the text and soon got a reply from the director, congratulating me and saying he was happy for me.

There were other messages piled up as well.

It was quiet until we hit a million views, but after we hit two million, the news spread and I got a lot of contacts from people I knew.

Jang Sowon, my senior, called me to congratulate me, and Taehyun sent me a gift card along with a congratulatory message.

Do Jun Ki [Woo Joo]

Do Jun Ki [Are you ready for our hot and real overseas deployment…?]

I decided to answer the PD of ‘Men Go’ later.

Eun Sung [Congratulations on becoming a global superstar]

Eun Sung [Are you going overseas now?]

Me [Yeah]

Me [You go, I’ll stay]

He sent me a rude message back, saying how could I say that to him when he was in the army.

Han Jo [Haha congrats]

I replied with a shy emoticon to Han Jo, who congratulated me awkwardly.

The younger ones were also busy replying to their acquaintances.

“Are you all done with your replies?”

“Yes.”

I smiled and said to the younger ones who nodded.

“Let’s practice more until we release the song.”

We practiced the choreography of ‘Nine’ in a serious atmosphere, preparing for the comeback stage on Thursday.

The music video views were one thing, and the music shows were another.

Especially this time, the music shows were only two weeks long, considering the fatigue of the concert and the overseas tour schedule.

I wanted to pay more attention to the details of each stage, since there were only a few of them.

“I tried changing my hand gestures slightly at the concert, and I got a better reaction when I did it this way.”

Under the guidance of the main dancer, I tweaked the minor movements of my hands and feet in the choreography.

It was a subtle difference that anyone would ask, ‘What changed?’ but it was a big difference for us.

“Huff… Huff!”

After repeating the high-intensity moves dozens of times, Durumi, whose energy was already drained, collapsed on the floor.

His tearful eyes looked at me.

“I have one wish.”

“What is it?”

His pitiful face came into my crouched eyes.

“Now that Junghyun hyung is done, the next album is mine, right? Blue.”

“Yeah.”

“…Please, let me go in the direction I want for the next album concept.”

I tilted my head.

“Well. If we went in the direction you wanted, our third album title would have been Dark Matter instead of Wind Flower.”

“I’ll give up the right to the title.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Is it because the dance is hard?”

“…”

“Yeah. I know, even if you don’t say it. I know how you feel.”

It was a word of comfort from me, but he snapped at me, saying, ‘What do you know, you dance monster?’ and I had to calm him down for a moment.

Bijoo, who was practicing the dance break in the corner, came over and squatted down.

“Hmm? Hyung. What’s wrong with Rihyuk?”

“He says the dance is hard.”

“Rihyuk. Is the dance hard?”

Bijoo opened his eyes wide and patted Rihyuk, who was lying on the floor.

“It’s okay if you can’t do it. You just have to practice.”

“…”

“Look at me. I thought I couldn’t do it at first, but now I’m doing great. Everything is solved by practice.”

“Aaaah!”

He rolled on the floor as if he had a trauma, and Bijoo blinked his eyes. I smirked.

“Come on, it’s the final stretch. Rihyuk. Let’s cheer up.”

“Hoooh…”

“When we finish this activity well, let’s go for a vocal song that you want next time.”

“Really?”

I nodded, and Jiho said, ‘Oh.’

“That’s the thing, when Woojoo hyung said he would buy me pork cutlet and went to the dentist, that was his expression.”

“…”

“Uh, I had stir-fried pork.”

Rihyuk narrowed his eyes at the testimony of the two clueless guys, and I coughed and turned away.

Then I practiced again.

He said he couldn’t do it with his mouth, but when he actually started practicing, he lit a fire in his eyes.

It was admirable to see him shaking and practicing with no strength to stand.

One of the most dramatic changes in this Nine was Rihyuk.

His dance improved a lot.

He must have done a lot of research on his own, and instead of trying to dance well vaguely, he was now bringing out his own characteristics.

He found a way to stand out between me, who showed a heavy and orthodox dance, and Bijoo, who showed a flashy and flexible dance.

He changed his stiff dance moves to pop dance-like moves with angles in his body, and filled in the gaps with facial expressions he learned from the youngest.

“…Hoooh.”

Well. His stamina was weak, but that was a flaw.

I smiled as I watched the other members loosen their bodies or nod their heads.

Not only Rihyuk, but everyone’s skills had improved.

With the addition of the concert, a real experience, there was confidence in every move they practiced.

I could see that each of their colors, which had not been noticeable until now, were reflected in their performances.

I smiled as I watched the younger ones build their own domains.

I was always worried about them as if they were fish on the market, but now I felt like I could worry less.

When Jiho, who was standing in front of the mirror, waved softly with a serious face, I felt proud.

The youngest turned his body and smiled at me.

“How is it, hyung? Pirarucu dance. It’s like a fish, right?”

“…”

“Hahaha! Junghyun hyung, don’t do it separately, do it together!”

I smiled warmly as I watched the younger ones dance the Amazon freshwater fish dance around Rihyuk, who had collapsed.

Maybe…

Maybe it was too soon…

Before 6 p.m.

People started to gather in the lounge of Lemon Entertainment.

“Hello!”

“Hi.”

The ones who smiled at New Black’s friendly greeting were the composers who participated in ‘Neon Black’.

“Come and eat.”

“Oh?”

When they arrived at the lounge, they saw various kinds of food spread out.

The A&R team staff who were eating with wooden chopsticks seemed to urge them to come closer.

“Our kids ordered this for you.”

When they turned their heads, the New Black members smiled and said, ‘Enjoy~’.

Na Sang-yoon asked.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“We’re on a diet right now… We’ll eat anything after the comeback. You go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

They felt grateful to see them smiling and offering food, even though they must be annoyed by the smell of food while on a diet.

“Come on!”

The A&R team smiled pleasantly and handed them wooden chopsticks.

Why were they in such a good mood? The New Black and Lemon Entertainment staff looked at each other and smiled happily.

‘Is it because the song is about to be released?’

As they thought of the title and tracks of ‘Neon Black’ that would be released soon, their thoughts stopped at a certain point.

“Oh, right. The music video was a hit.”

Yu Chang-seok, a composer who used the alias Saltman, said while munching on food.

“Congratulations. Guys.”

“Thank you!”

“Right. The reaction to Nine was no joke. I saw an article on my way up that said it might get over 10 million views this week. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

They all said ‘wow’ as they saw the members smiling happily.

They didn’t know how well the song would do, but the music video views were a huge success.

New Black, who had not been very popular overseas until now, was getting a hot response.

It was worth it.

‘They really did a great job.’

The neon signs and night view, and the dance that unfolded in them, looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie.

The ones who worked on ‘Nine’ felt proud.

They chatted about the music video and the composers busily moved their chopsticks.

‘It’s so good.’

‘Where is this bossam place? I need to know the name.’

‘I was going to eat cup noodles.’

Then, Seo Pil-geun, the deputy of the A&R team who was next to them, said.

“Don’t eat too much. Woojoo said he’s going to treat you to a beef place in front of here later.”

“Huh…”

The young composers’ eyes became hazy at the word beef.

They moved their chopsticks slowly with happy smiles, and the staff nodded and smiled.

Soon.

Before 6 p.m., the composers and staff gathered around the members who were sitting in front of their laptops.

“Here it comes! Here it comes!”

“It’s… I

The staff tapped the shoulders of the members who were swallowing their dry saliva, trying to ease their tension.

Rihyuk closed the window with his trembling fingers.

Woojoo opened a new window with a stable tremor.

“Wow!”

They all clapped to celebrate the release of the new album.

The album cover had a green neon sign that said ‘N’, and the tracks were listed.

‘…I

The composers who were sandwiched between the congratulating people felt a bit dazed.

It was their first time to participate in a proper album work.

Before they applied for the project, most of the composers here had not been able to get a decent job.

They often had their names dropped at the last minute, or had their work taken by senior composers.

That’s why working with New Black was meaningful.

They could work well in a good environment, get recognition for their work, and the process…

‘Are you tired? I brought a mattress to the studio.’

“Are you having fun? I learned something when I went to the special forces. I can’t be the only one who’s happy. How about you? Isn’t this melody exciting?”

“I love working more than anything in the world~ As much as the sky and the earth~”

There were hardships, of course…

But somehow, I overcame them all and finally released my album.

I smiled proudly every time I saw my name on the credits for ‘composition, lyrics, arrangement’ for each track.

The members came up to me and said.

“You’ve worked really hard.”

“Well, it’s not like we’ve made it to the charts yet…”

“The process is more important than the result. We’re really grateful that you worked with us this time.”

“…”

I felt a strange feeling as I saw the members thanking me one by one.

Soon after.

“We’ve entered the 5-minute chart at number one!”

“Wow!”

“Guys!”

Everyone hugged and celebrated.

Above Teen Spirit’s ‘Feel So Good’ at number three and Cha Woo-hyun’s ‘Heavy Rain Warning’ at number two, there was New Black’s ‘Nine’ at number one.

The composers also rejoiced with them.

‘Nice…’

Was this the right word to describe this exhilarating atmosphere?

With this performance, we were expected to stay at number one until the 7 o’clock chart.

As we prepared to head to a barbecue place together, Woojoo approached us.

“By the way, can I ask you something?”

“Hmm…?”

“Do you have any new projects after this album?”

The composers looked at each other.

Their toes twitched.

‘No.’

‘It feels like they’re asking if we got a job during the holidays…’

‘As if.’

They had skills, but they were still relatively new and inexperienced. There weren’t many places that would hire them.

As they wondered how to answer.

“Would you like to keep working with us?”

“Here?”

“Yes, I talked to the boss a while ago. He said he liked your work and wanted to keep working with you…”

Woojoo asked cautiously.

“He said it would be nice to create a producing team.”

It was tempting.

“The A&R team also thinks positively. But I can’t tell you without asking your opinion first. So I wanted to ask you in advance. Are you interested?”

“As a producing team member…?”

“Yes, you’ll have to talk to the team leader for more details.”

The composers looked at each other.

They didn’t hesitate for long.

Woojoo nodded his head with a bright smile as he heard their opinions.

As he left, the composers revealed their excitement.

“So we’re going to work here more? More?”

“I think it would be good enough to work under these conditions, but it sounds even better after hearing Woojoo’s words.”

“I’m glad we applied. Really.”

But the composers didn’t know.

That behind them, the A&R staff and the members were high-fiving.

‘We got them. Nobi.’

‘Good job. Dobi.’

It was the moment when the producing team was created under the A&R team of Lemon Entertainment.

At the same time.

A street in Gangnam was filled with loud laughter.

On the top floor of a nearby building, a bald middle-aged man was shedding tears of joy.

Soufflés from all over the place were cheering, ‘We did it!’

There were only those who couldn’t smile.

“Damn it…”

The pretty boys who were checking the charts on their phones looked at each other.

“Hey. What are we going to do? We’re screwed.”

“These guys were freaking strong.”

“How do they always top the charts like this?”

“I know, right? We’re on fire too.”

“…But how do we beat them, huh? They’re the public’s favorite whenever they come out.”

The members of Teen Spirit were worried as they faced the competition for the first place with New Black.