Free Web NovelThe managers sitting behind the camera were the first to lose it.
“Puhahaha!”
Mingi hyung and Wonseok hyung merged into one laughing mass, and the PR team held their stomachs from laughter.
Like an upside-down waterfall, “ㅋㅋㅋㅋ” flooded the chat without pause.
We ourselves burst into laughter as if we’d choke.
“.......”
Meanwhile, our main dancer, dangling mid-air, fluttered his legs.
Even his flailing looked graceful.
But he had both hands over his face, mortified.
“Ugh......”
You could feel his embarrassment even from the back of his head.
Only our bear mascot wore a serious expression, declaring, “Mission accomplished.”
“Hey. Put me down.”
“Hold on.”
When Junghyun looked at me, I nodded.
“Hey, hey! Kim Junghyun!”
Rather than lowering me gently, Junghyun carried me as I was and plopped me into the chair.
“Puhahaha!”
As Viju slumped embarrassingly into his seat, Rihyuk fanned him with the script in sympathetic solidarity.
Meanwhile the comment window sparkled.
We protested.
“You’re laughing... pfuh... spitefully.”
“We’re not laughing at all... hehheh... we are!”
“Why are you all making Viju so embarrassed? Right?”
But even Rihyuk—who scolded us—was twitching his lips and couldn’t stop dancing.
Our faces on the tablets were full of laughter.
When Viju ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) narrowed his eyes in a glare, I, as DJ, wrapped up the segment.
“Let’s clip this highlight and post it. Mingi hyung?”
“Okay.”
“And add the movie OST underneath, please.”
The younger ones applauded and laughed.
Viju himself, imagining it, broke into laughter.
Then he rummaged under the table and pulled out Dal-bong.
“Why are you taking that out?”
“You know that famous movie scene where they erase memories with a sparkling device? Now you all will see this light and forget.”
His cute idea made us laugh.
Flash!
Dal-bong’s light swept across the screen, and together with our Soufflés, we desperately tried to forget.
In truth, we laughed from warm feelings—like kinship between an artist and their fans.
A comment suggested that, to erase memories, someone should bonk me on the back of the head with a cheering stick. Viju toyed with the stick.
We all chimed in, “Put that down.”
“All right, let’s drop the memory-erasing bit. Oh, time’s flown by. We barely did any Q&A.”
“We’ll do it in Part Two. Part Two.”
“Then let’s move on to Part Two... Rihyuk-ssi, have you finished searching the lyrics?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll play your requests.”
Except for Viju, who didn’t know what was happening, the rest of us exchanged serious looks.
“It’s the OST of a masterpiece animation.”
“.......”
“Shall we all sing along~?”
When I tapped the piano keys, the others stretched both hands into the air, singing “Naju Plain~.”
As laughter erupted in the chat—
By the time we finished “Jibababa,” Viju was chasing us as we fled.
From 7 PM to 9 PM.
After NewBlack’s first Y-App live with the fans ended, the Soufflés were screaming with joy.
‘New content...!’
When the live ended, new content had already been uploaded.
‘Wow. So much.’
Whether planned or not, a flood of content appeared.
The first was a video titled “Looking Back at NewBlack: When I Was a Boy.”
There was one per member.
Each showed the member seated in the center, the others gathered around looking through photo albums and talking.
They introduced their backgrounds and how they came to dream of being a singer.
Photos or old essays appeared at the bottom of the screen, with the members’ comments.
“Rihyuk hyung. What’s this?”
“A photo of me singing at the kindergarten recital. The kid holding hands with me is my little brother.”
In the photo, little Rihyuk wearing a crown dances with a girl wearing a flower necklace.
“How cute. You looked so innocent back then.”
“.......”
After watching one per member—each explaining why they wanted to become a singer in childhood—the Y-App content that NewBlack had teased, “Blacklist,” appeared for viewers.
“Kim Junghyun vs. everyone else. Someone asked what would happen in a tug-of-war. Curious?”
“If he had navigation aid, would Viju still get lost?”
“How many floral outfits does Sun Wooju own? We’ll test only the first one. Looks like a trap.”
“Is it true that Rihyuk’s favorite is King Sejong?”
“If the maknae became the eldest... ooo... I’m curious about the maknae's world reverse.”
Just the preview made our hearts race.
They upload two episodes a week, testing one thing per episode.
Plus behind-the-scenes for videos posted on MyTube.
Soufflés’ eyes sparkled at these quality projects.
The “NewBlack Radio” highlights also uploaded.
Because of copyright, epic BGM played instead of the anime OST, and CG showered a golden halo over Viju’s raised form.
The caption read “Our pride shining brilliantly.”
Soon fans had overlaid the anime OST on the short clip and spread it across SNS and idol forums.
“Idol who gave me the biggest laughs on today’s live”
With highlight clips and screenshots of Viju sweeping his hair back:
As worried commenters asked why we joined such a strange app, our Soufflés laughed:
Not only Y-App, but content for the general public went up on MyTube.
Perhaps pre-filmed when “History Expedition Team” was popular, members wore long sleeves, unlike this midsummer.
They visited masters of dance or song to learn tips for becoming great idols.
Like breathing lessons from Cha Woo-hyun for ten minutes.
Meditation techniques from Clay Tyler to erase worries trending among Hollywood actors.
Content for regular people, not fans.
Indeed, so much NewBlack content flowed it made one wonder how we did it all.
Every time I checked the fan café, I laughed.
Our once-skinny Soufflés were now plump, rolling around in the NewBlack world.
They were happy about the content, and we felt like we kept feeding them, “Have more... more....”
The PR team told us a post saying “the act whose fans are exploding in number” had gone up online—we laughed so hard.
And we felt proud.
The content we’d made here and there since “Meister Group” and “History Expedition Team” was finally paying off.
“General public reactions are good too. NewBlack2TV’s subscribers are growing fast.”
“Ooh.”
We’d created a channel called NewBlack2TV separate from our main NewBlackTV.
It catered to general audiences who discovered us through History Expedition Team but might not want choreography videos or fan content.
If they warmed to us, they could naturally flow to NewBlackTV.
Because if they expected more Explorers-style content but got choreography alerts, they might unsubscribe.
Thanks to that, NewBlack2TV’s subscriber count climbed rapidly.
“Whoa! Hyungs, look. Refreshing changes subscriber digits every time.”
“Wow......”
Each check showed real-time growth in subscribers.
It was the moment the MyTube reputation built from History Expedition Team shone.
Comments on the videos also showed high satisfaction.
Of course, not all were positive.
“Hm... it’s good, but we might need to moderate comments now.”
“But MyTube’s been fine so far... now it’s not somewhere to stay.”
I’m not sure how to phrase it, but there were more hostile comments—like demanding proof of permissions for filming.
As fame rose, weird people appeared too.
It’s part of a public career, but I felt no need to read them all with my own eyes.
Plus, we were busy.
“All right, let’s sync up again!”
“Faster!”
“When we part like waves to both sides, you’ll walk through. OK?”
We met with the dancer team who’d help at the concert to coordinate our movements onstage.
The live band’s arrangement collaboration was nearly complete.
All that remained were the Olympics and the concert.
As time passed, we all felt our comeback was right around the corner.
And...
The second part of “Men on the Go” aired.
“Puhahaha!”
“I hope they turn that expression into a GIF! Hyung grabbing the boomerang, eyes wide—it’s too funny!”
“It’s not dog; it’s hound. That coach’s tone is so funny. Try it, Junghyun hyung.”
“It’s not Uju; it’s Zenmin.”
“Puhahaha!”
My members howled with laughter on the sofa, gasping and rolling around.
I... wasn’t enjoying it, but everyone else was.
The whole variety world seemed to shake.
“Men on the Go” hit record ratings with this special, overturning its previous ups and downs.
Praised as a masterstroke, it earned opportunities to expand beyond police specials.
It freed the show from repeating the same Army-Navy-Air Force content.
On the day Part Two broke its own rating record, the PD and cast got drunk and called me in turn, sobbing—I was taken aback.
It was evidently meaningful to the regular cast.
I resolved to block the PD for real.
Still, the PD kept mentioning “shrimp fishing... fire station...” so the response really was positive.
Usually, even when we appeared on variety, it didn’t cause a huge stir outside idol circles.
This time was different.
[ “Are you laughing nowwwww!” .gif ]
[ “Wow... the culprit won.” ]
[ “It’s not dog; it’s hound.” ]
Catchphrases from the police Special Forces were trending in communities.
Especially the Snake Instructor’s absurd quips and the Detection Captain’s philosophical tone were cult hits.
Their unique characters proved nearly as popular as the cast.
And one figure held the most unique share.
“Hyung. Did you see this?”
“I’m not looking.”
“Hyung, hyung! What about this?”
“I’m not looking.”
That was me.
Every moment I’d appeared in Part Two was circulating online.
I never expected so much material from just two episodes.
“Ranked #1 Idol Who Picked the Wrong Career (Brain Theory)”
Communities had posts cataloging my antics at the Special Forces: turning a frisbee into a boomerang; PT and rappel moves; mediating a fight in Chinese and Japanese which escalated it; subduing the instructor with unique martial arts; plus last time making bread at Partyco and Zenmin’s and Jusehan’s basketball shots.
When we did Body Motion Game in Japan, “Kim...!” was uploaded as a clip.
“You really have a lot going on, hyung.”
Junghyun exclaimed, scrolling through the internet.
“Soufflés joke your body is 80% incidents and 20% dark history.”
“There’s even our docs in some encyclopedia.”
I spotted an entry titled “NewBlack/Unusual Incidents.”
Reading through it, from the Galhyeon-dong Hero in November 2013 to now, August 2015, almost once a month something happened.
“.......”
“Why are you all staring so fearfully? You’re NewBlack too.”
My younger members edged away like I was the eye of a storm drawing accidents.
I demanded they change their reactions.
“Don’t look at me in awe.”
“Wow......”
“Don’t gasp either.”
“Ooh...”
Their “oohs” like beholding great nature gave me a headache.
All the individual highlights, unified by someone’s summary, made me look like some strange phenomenon.
Even the rarely seen staff from business support would pass by and go “Oh,” marveling.
Our Ms. Deoksun even fussed she’d write a talisman to ward off these attachments.
“...... We must think positively.”
It truly was positive: my name and “NewBlack” planted firmly in people’s minds across every site.
My name trended in real-time search for over a day.
Many already knew me, but now I felt people might recognize me on the street for months.
Because of that, after Part Two aired, ad requests poured in.
“Carrier commercials?”
“From carriers to... every kind of ad. If you do well we might even get a phone ad.”
“......Wow.”
We could guess the gist of those ads.
After that single variety appearance, everything accelerated as if it sucked the life out of us.
While sitting in the practice room working on choreography and vocals, outside a frenzy was unfolding.
The atmosphere was a bit overheated; once it settled, we’d review what we’d gained.
“For now, let’s not get carried away—practice calmly. Viju, stop saving those GIFs.”
“Yes......”
It was a good thing, but at times like this you must stay centered.
Though we’d etched our name in people’s minds, fleeting fame requires caution.
I calmly comforted my younger members, who were more excited than I.
And when the rain of variety popularity finally eased,
We received a call from Seok-hwan hyung that left us slightly stunned. freewebnøvel.com
“Huh?”
“What event?”
While we’d been diving into practice, we had an unexpected schedule come in.
