In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 298:

It’s huge.

“It’s bigger than I thought, right?”

“Really? I saw a lot of posts on the internet saying it was small, but I don’t know.”

“Wow…”

We were looking around the empty handball stadium from the stage.

It was cool inside, unlike the hot weather outside.

We felt the cool air conditioner breeze and turned around.

“The VCR comes out from here.”

There was a huge screen in the middle of the stage, and another screen on each side.

“So from here to there, it’s all standing, right?”

“Yeah.”

There was a fence installed below the stage.

“…And there’s the second floor.”

Somewhere there, our fan club president and our members’ families would be sitting.

We stuck together in a lump and turned our bodies left and right repeatedly.

“So from here to there, it’s all filled up, right?”

“It’s sold out, you know.”

Rihyuk answered.

“It’s empty now, but tomorrow, there will be 5,000 people here.”

“Wow…”

“Well, I don’t feel it either.”

We huddled together again and looked around the stadium, saying ‘wow’.

It was big and majestic.

It felt bigger than the gymnastics stadium we visited last year for the awards.

“Is this really going to be filled up?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you believe it either?”

“Yes…”

Our first concert, with 15,000 people in three days.

We heard that it was sold out in a flash as soon as the ticketing started.

But I don’t think I’ll feel it until I see it with my own eyes.

We had performed in front of 1,000 fans at the fan meeting, and 2,000 fans at the showcase, but 5,000 was a different level of feeling.

We scanned the seats with our siblings.

Filling up one seat with one person, and imagining the cheers at the same time.

The performance hadn’t even started yet, but I already had goosebumps on my arms.

I started to feel it as if the waves were coming and wetting my toes.

“We’re really doing a concert.”

“Actually, compared to other debut peers, we’re doing it fast, but it feels like we’ve been waiting for a long time.”

I nodded at Bi Ju’s words.

Of course, we’ve been waiting for this since before our debut.

It was nice to be a singer and appear on music shows, and perform on big stages, but the concert was what we’ve been looking forward to the most.

“It feels like a package that’s been spinning around in the Bermuda Triangle for years has finally arrived at home.”

“Bermuda HUB?”

“So the box opening is tomorrow?”

We joked with each other, trying to ease the tense atmosphere, as we practiced opening the box today.

“Ah! Five hundred won, five hundred won~”

“Ahhhh~ Ahhhhhh!”

We loosened our stiff necks and stretched our bodies, while Seok Hwan hyung and the concert staff came into the stadium.

The staff with intercoms checked around and started the lights and lasers for testing.

We held the mic and stood in the middle of the stage and greeted them.

“Two, three-”

“Hello! We are New Black!”

We bowed and smiled at the staff who were looking at us.

“Please take good care of us for our first concert rehearsal!”

The day of the concert.

-This stop is Olympic Park, Korea National Sport University Station. The exit is on the right. This stop is…

The door opened, and the footsteps of the people getting off the subway on line 5 echoed in the station.

‘A concert.’

From the second basement floor to the Meeting Plaza in Olympic Park, there was a line of people dragging their feet.

There was a clear pink air swirling in the air.

It was like the air had a component that made people’s mood flutter.

Every time I breathed, my heart fluttered.

The cafes and restaurants around me were bustling with people.

Friends and acquaintances were chatting happily everywhere, having made plans to meet up.

“Hey, can you take a picture of me here?”

“Oops, I need to take it again. The wind blew the poster of Junghyun and it looks like he’s picking his nose.”

“Ahh…”

On the way to the concert hall, there were concert flags hanging on every pillar.

They had the concert title ‘The New Black: In Wonderland’ and individual poses of each member.

Photo zones were formed here and there.

As they walked through the heat that made them sweat profusely, they saw the handball stadium in front of them.

There were people taking pictures in front of the huge concert poster on the stadium.

It was like a festival site, with tents lined up on the open space.

The staff of Lemon Entertainment were busy running around the goods and event booths, and the fans were waiting in line or resting in the shade. Their voices echoed from all directions.

Someone who was reading the real-time reviews on the internet said to their friend.

“It’s awesome. They say they have enough stock this time.”

“Really?”

“They took online reservations, so I guess the goods are okay.”

“…!”

Lemon Entertainment was notorious for drawing the goods quantity as thin as an ant’s leg hair, but this time they had prepared a lot.

The fans’ wallets became lighter as they bought the goods with the New Black logo, such as eco bags, t-shirts, postcard sets, key rings, and light stick pouches.

The fans who got the goods blinked their eyes as they looked at the event booth.

“But why is the line so long there?”

“Excuse me, what are they doing there?”

The fans who came out of the event booth answered.

“They’re playing a mini game.”

“Oh.”

“It’s called ‘Beat Junghyun’… It’s really hard. The staff said ‘Difficulty: Space’ earlier.”

They laughed.

It felt like they were doing rock climbing or something in that tent.

Soon, they heard that the prize was a limited edition photocard, and they ran to join the line.

‘Oh, my back…’

‘Oh, man. Am I getting old now…’

‘I want to ride a moving walkway to get in.’

Of course, most of them quickly ran out of energy and just laughed in the shade.

Fortunately, the entrance soon began.

“Wow…”

The standing A and B sections were the first to fill up with people who had bracelets on their wrists.

The seats started to get crowded like water filling up a cup.

Gradually, the heat of the people overpowered the wind from the air conditioner.

‘Wow!’

‘That person! That person!’

‘They’re real.’

There was someone who caught the attention of the Soufflés in the second floor seats.

It was an old lady who wore a summer floral dress under her hat.

Her pretty face and chubby expression contrasted.

‘That’s the King Deoksoon…’

‘The one and only.’

‘It feels like seeing a celebrity. Amazing.’

Next to her was a lady who looked similar to Bijoo, whispering nonstop.

Kim Deoksoon smiled and answered every time.

‘They’re all family.’

It seemed like the members’ families were gathered in one place.

They hesitated to approach them and talk, feeling the atmosphere.

They soon followed Kim Deoksoon, who went to the bathroom.

“Excuse me…!”

“…?”

“We’re fans, ma’am!”

She blinked at the random words they said.

“Th-thank you. But how do you know me?”

“Uh. Well.”

The Soufflés answered sincerely.

But as the conversation continued, her cheeks started to tremble.

‘Did I say too much?’

She grinned her teeth at someone who was in the waiting room.

They coughed at Kim Deoksoon’s expression.

And then they decided.

I decided to pretend I didn’t know him if Woojoo ever asked me on a live broadcast, ‘Who was that at the concert? Who?’

“Of course. I’m more grateful that you like my grandson.”

As he said that, he disappeared gracefully, muttering ‘You black sheep, you’ll see…’ The Soufflés laughed as they watched him go.

After everyone had taken their seats.

The Soufflés who had been waiting for the main show killed time eagerly.

“Seon Woojoo! Kim Bijoo! Kim Junghyun!”

“Woohoo!”

They chanted along with the music video that played on the giant screen and waved their light sticks.

“Look over there. There are foreigners too.”

“Really?”

“That’s amazing. Are they exchange students?”

They were amazed by the sight of people with exotic looks holding pamphlets.

Meanwhile, the sound had gradually changed to the concert sound.

As the lights flashed in all directions for the pre-show test, the fans’ hearts raced.

And the distinctive smell of the concert hall.

Every minute, every second, they held their light sticks tightly as if counting down.

Then.

As soon as the clock struck, all the lights in the concert hall went out at once.

“Wow…”

The excitement that had built up exploded at once.

As their bodies floated and their hearts felt like bursting from the screams of the audience in the dark hall.

In that hot atmosphere, a VCR appeared on the screen.

“Come on, everyone!”

As I reached out my hand in the hallway, the younger ones put their hands on mine first. And around us, dozens of hands gathered.

“You guys worked really hard for a month, our session hyungs.”

“You too.”

The band members nodded. The drummer hyung spun his drum stick and smiled.

“And the dancers, you guys worked hard to match our picky main dancer.”

“I admit, he’s picky.”

“It was like going to the army again. It was hellish practice.”

The dancers who had practiced the choreography with us agreed, and Bijoo tapped them and grinned.

“And our staff.”

I looked at Seokhwan hyung and the managers near me, as well as the stylists who took care of the costumes, and the publicity team staff.

They smiled back.

“Thank you all for working hard to prepare for today’s show. When we say concert, you all say fighting, okay?”

We shouted together with the younger ones.

“Concert!”

“Fighting!”

We all clapped and cheered for each other.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

We walked briskly after checking our outfits.

As the security company staff guided us, the steel structure finally came into view.

“Don’t be nervous! Don’t be nervous! Relax!”

Seokhwan hyung followed us and told us not to be nervous with a more nervous face than anyone.

“New Black! You can do it! Fighting!”

The staff clapped and cheered us on, and the manager hyungs handed us water bottles and clenched their fists.

“Don’t be scared, fighting!”

“Fighting!”

As we heard the staff say ‘Watch your head! Watch your head!’ we quickly moved under the steel structure.

The sound of the walkie-talkies vibrated everywhere.

With the VCR audio coming through the in-ear, the screams of five thousand Soufflés shook our bodies.

Gulp.

We laughed at the sound of Rihyuk swallowing his saliva and looked at each other.

‘Fighting!’

The five of us huddled together on the lift.

I was nervous.

I didn’t know how to calm my trembling heart.

The sound of the amp from the concert hall seemed to turn my body upside down.

“…”

As I reached out my hand, one by one they reached out theirs.

And then we held each other’s arms.

We calmed our breathing and swallowed our dry mouths in the cold air conditioner wind.

Wow!

It seemed like the VCR had reached its end, and one by one, our faces appeared on the screen.

Each time, the screams of the Soufflés grew and subsided like thunder.

When the countdown was over.

Wow!

The lift went up and the curtain in front of us lifted.

And at that moment.

Wow!

With a tremendous roar, thousands of stars twinkling in the darkness poured down on us.

In the thrilling sensation, the waves of light sticks caught my eye.

We were so stunned by the sight that we almost missed the first beat of our mini album’s ‘Look at Me’.

Open your eyes-

As Rihyuk’s clear voice stretched out the sound, the audience cheered.

In the midst of that, we held the microphones and took in the scene in front of us with a slight daze.

It was beautiful.

Some might say that the stars in the sky are the most beautiful, but the stars on the ground were no less beautiful.

From the vocal song ‘Look at Me’ to the dance stage ‘Flower Dance’.

I didn’t know what kind of spirit I had to finish the opening stage.

It felt like I had amnesia like the protagonist in some movie, and my memory was reset every 10 seconds.

All I remembered was the deafening applause and the bright lights that burned my eyes.

I think I sang the lyrics with my mouth. But I wasn’t sure if I sang them right.

“Ugh, huh…”

Even when the lights went out after each song, we just gasped for breath and stared at each other blankly.

No, we didn’t even have time to stare blankly.

We had to move quickly to different places after singing one song because of the various movements.

My stomach was empty.

I don’t think I was this nervous even when I faced a bigger audience at a joint concert or an end-of-year stage.

Now, I felt so dizzy and numb that I could vomit if someone pressed my solar plexus.

“Wow!”

Thankfully, I was able to relax a bit after finishing the last choreography of ‘Flower Dance’.

“Ugh, huh…”

We looked at each other in the same pose as we held hands. Then we let go and looked at the audience.

“Wow!”

Our screen was on the big screen.

I wiped the sweat off my face with a handkerchief and looked at the audience. The audience with thousands of starlights.

When I sweated a lot, the tension finally ebbed away like a low tide.

What filled its place was excitement.

We exchanged glances and smiled at the sight of the Soufflés who were still cheering and welcoming us.

‘Did you see?’

‘Did you see?’

I casually threw away the handkerchief soaked with sweat and grabbed the microphone and shouted happily.

“Everyone! How have you been?”

The stadium echoed with a ‘yes’ scream. Our youngest grabbed the microphone and looked at the audience.

“Did you miss us?”

“We missed you so much too.”

We laughed at the sight of our siblings who were sweating and smiling. I did the summary before the individual comments.

“Shall we say hello first? Two, three.”

“Hello! We are New Black!”

We bowed and greeted them, and another loud cheer came to us.

“Yes, Soufflés who came to our first concert ‘The New Black: In Wonderland’! Sincerely-”

“Welcome!”

“We’re so glad to see you. Really. We’ve been waiting for this day so much.”

I didn’t know how well our feelings of joy were conveyed, but when I heard the rumbling cheers, it seemed to be well conveyed.

“Yes, I’m Woo Joo, the leader and lead vocal of New Black.”

“I’m Bi Joo, the main dancer!”

“Rap rap rap, I’m Junghyun, the rapper.”

“I’m Seo Rihyuk, the vocal.”

“Yes, and I’m Jiho, the cutest maknae and the visual of New Black!”

We laughed at his grand finale.

He even took off one earpiece and closed his eyes and said ‘My popularity…!’ and the cheers exploded.

They even cheered for this. Today, it seemed like the fans would clap for anything we did.

Of course, we didn’t intend to take it for granted.

“Everyone. Do you know that? Jiho practiced that since the rehearsal.”

“That’s right. It’s pretty clumsy, right? He really wanted to do what the senior singers do.”

“Actually, Woojoo hyung does it better.”

When he told me to show him an example, I took off one earphone and closed my eyes, imitating the video of the senior singer I saw on Mitube. Cheers erupted.

It was a bit embarrassing, but I liked it.

Our youngest looked at me like I was a big corporation that harassed the alley market.

I briefly introduced the session members and gave a short opening remark about today’s concert.

Then I made a closing remark to the stars that surrounded us in a semi-circle.

“Thank you so much for joining us for our first concert. I heard the ticket price was about 100,000 won. Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s a lot of money. There’s so much you can do with 100,000 won. You can take the village bus seven times…”

Rihyuk whispered to me, “It’s 900 won now.”

It went up.

“You can take it more than 110 times. There are so many things you can enjoy with 100,000 won, like movies. But you skipped all that and came to see us.”

It might be a realistic story, but 100,000 won is a lot of money.

I wanted to tell them how much they did for us.

And I said I would do my best in the performance so that they wouldn’t regret spending the money.

“Then we have to have fun, right?”

“That’s right!”

“Let’s have fun.”

I smiled brightly with my brothers as I heard the cheers in response.

“Well, then, shall we go to the next song with excitement?”

I had already adapted to the first concert.

The performance went by quickly.

“Wow…!”

The souffles screamed and waved their light sticks as each stage passed by.

‘It’s so good.’

The people who came from far away also felt that they made a good choice. It was a quality concert.

Above all, the songs were so good.

‘There were so many famous songs by New Black.’

The duet of Woojoo and Rihyuk, ‘Night Sea’, that came out on the radio.

The gems like ‘Life’ that they did on the hit song stage.

The songs that swept the charts for a while with the OST of Slip, ‘A Poem About Yesterday’, and ‘Something’ that was arranged in a five-member version.

They were rookies in terms of years, but their set list was veteran.

In addition, there were various stages of the album tracks that they had only accessed through sound sources.

‘Good…’

They also jumped around as the members sparkled on the stage.

And.

The stage that both the singer and the fan had been waiting for came in the latter part of the concert, which was slowly approaching the encore.

-Yes, now it’s time to reveal the stage of our next album title! ‘Nine’.

-Do you… do you feel nervous?

-We’re the most nervous.

The members who were nervous fiddled with their microphones, making everyone laugh.

The members who participated in the producing briefly explained the concept of the album.

After the VCR came out.

The lights went out and turned green, and the members appeared in street concept outfits.

‘Oh, cool…’

It was a hip-hop style song that came in strong from the beginning.

The outfits were also jackets or hoodies.

It was a fresh feeling to listen to the song because it was a concept that New Black had never tried before.

“Huh…?”

After the intense first parts passed by, the members moved to the side.

The spotlight was on the leader in a black jacket with a microphone.

And the souffles stared blankly at the individual part that followed and burst into cheers.

It was a rap part.