In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

There are two kinds of winter in this world.

One is winter.

The other was the winter of Gangwon Province.

“Achoo—!”

“Huh-heh, huff huff...!”

“Ah! Don’t start sneezing weirdly right in my ear. Wang Jiho!”

“It’s... it’s cold, what can I do!”

At the parking lot near the sea.

While the younger members bickered, Viju and I, shivering, crawled into the padding Junghyun had spread open.

My nose kept running.

“Ugh, why is it this cold. Seriously.”

“I feel like I’m tasting a whole new world of winter today, hyung.”

I laughed at Viju’s red-tipped nose, then, still bent over, looked up at Junghyun.

“Junghyun.”

“Yes, hyung.”

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m a bit tough against the cold.”

Junghyun, whose hair was whipped by the winter wind, smiled warmly.

“That’s a relief.”

Feeling reassured, I squatted down.

Viju and I crouched there, fidgeting with the hand warmers the managers handed us, while Junghyun held his padding open and covered us with it.

Wonseok hyung, who had been shivering nearby, came over and said, “Hey everyone, look at this. Junghyun’s hugging Uju and Viju.”

“Pahaha!”

“Ah, Wonseok hyung......”

The staff carrying equipment burst out laughing at the sight of us all trembling together.

We puckered our lips, then when the manager showed us the photo he’d taken, we couldn’t help but laugh.

It looked like a giant Ogolgye brooding over two white eggs.

“Oh. Got the background picture.”

Someone, pleased, saved it as their desktop, and Viju and I, composing our faces, looked at the manager.

“Take it again, please.”

“Yeah, this time let’s make our faces look more egg-like.”

Viju and I ducked into Junghyun’s padding, hiding our hair while only our faces peeked out.

Then, when we tried to make a gentle, egg-like smile—

“What are you doing. Copy the CEO?” the maknae said with deadpan timing, and everyone around burst out laughing.

Ah. We weren’t supposed to laugh at stuff like this.

The maknae, who’d been puzzled until then, said to us, “That really looks warm. I’m coming in too.”

“Ah. Don’t.”

I shoved the maknae away as he tried to wedge himself in, and Rihyeok walked over, hunched up tight.

“Viju hyung. I’m going to sit next to you, so make a little room.”

“Yeah. Come on in.”

The maknae twirled his head. “Uju hyung should learn that kind of mindset from Viju hyung. You’re old enough—ah!” A small commotion followed, but the new tenants were successfully installed.

While the five of us crouched, cramped, inside Junghyun’s huge long padding, Mingi hyung asked, “Why don’t you just stay inside the car? It’d be warmer. You look even colder out here.”

“No. The staff are working; it feels weird to sit inside and get the heater while they’re freezing....”

For many of the music video locations, we’d picked the spots ourselves.

This place, known even in Gangwon Province for its pretty sea, was one of them.

We’d said, “Let’s shoot here!” and then felt guilty about the staff trembling while we lolled around in the cars.

“Thanks so much for braving the cold, everyone!”

“Love you, director.”

“Thank you! After we finish we’ll buy you a piping-hot spicy fish stew!”

The staff, exhaling white breath and shivering, flashed awkward smiles and thumbs-up at that last line.

Their faces looked frozen so that even smiling seemed like a struggle.

While we huddled and sent as grateful a look as we could, the managers checked on the situation.

“You handed out all the hand warmers, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you give them the ones you stick to your belly too...?”

“We already put ours on, so don’t worry. Go warm up in the car a bit.”

Mingi hyung said with a smile.

“Taking care of the staff like this, but if you get sick it’ll all be for nothing, you know?”

“Don’t worry, hyung. During album prep, we hardly ever get sick.”

Rihyeok nodded in agreement.

“Really, when we’re preparing an album, even if we push ourselves, we don’t seem to get sick. Maybe because we’re tense the whole time.”

“Yeah. It’s usually after music shows that you feel a bit off.”

“You don’t need to worry too much.”

The younger brothers’ words were true.

When a comeback was approaching, even chronic ailments seemed to fly away. Maybe due to being in an extreme state of tension, even small colds were treated like an afterthought.

“Hold on.”

Wonseok hyung, who had been looking at us with a pang of sympathy, strode toward the car.

“I’ll go see if there’s a warm drink.”

“Thanks, hyung.”

While we beamed, Mingi hyung—who at first had looked sympathetic—narrowed his eyes.

Then, approaching the four of us huddled cosily, he said, “Why is this weird. You’re not the sort to refuse a drink. If I call you over for tea you’d stay for a meal...”

Guilty.

“Hey, can I put my hand in there for a bit?”

“No!”

The person who stuck their hand into Junghyun’s padding with a laugh of disbelief pulled out a steaming hand.

“Hey! How many hand warmers did you put in there?”

“Aww, it had such a sentimental vibe......”

Unable to help himself, the person stuck his hand back in, then sighed as if melting.

“Ahhh......”

“Warm, right?”

“Heaven isn’t far away. This is heaven.”

We nodded warmly while Wonseok hyung, who had brought canned drinks, stared, eyes wide.

He gestured to come closer. Mingi hyung, watching, followed his lead and let out a heartfelt exhale.

“Wow......”

“Nice and warm, right?”

“It feels like my hands turned into ice cream.”

We nodded like, yes, yes.

The sight of five idols and two managers all tangled together, smiling happily, passed by the staff, who looked somewhat bemused.

“All right, we’re rolling! Ready! Action!”

With the director’s hearty voice, filming began.

Swish—

Waves rolled onto the winter beach.

We wore coats and scarves and left footprints in the sand as we walked.

The camera director moved in step with me.

“Hoo—.”

I blew out a white breath and turned my gaze toward the sea.

Remembering the cue marked “lonely acting,” I relaxed the area around my brows.

I pictured a bare tree—no chirping birds, no leaves—and looked off into the distance.

Whee—.

Just then a mad gust of wind sent my scarf flapping up, plastering it to my face with a slap.

“.......”

It felt like standing in front of an air conditioner blowing a gale, tissue stuck to my face.

The wind died down and the scarf unrolled.

“Pahaha!”

I tried to continue the acting, but laughter burst out around me and I couldn’t help but laugh too.

Next to my brothers doubled over laughing, the director watching the monitor also laughed.

“Someone fix Uju’s scarf! If you leave it like that it’s going to keep flying off!”

“Got it! Coming!”

While the costume team quickly secured the scarf, I looked around and smiled.

The staff, amused by the moment, were openly laughing too.

It was a good atmosphere.

More importantly, since we kept laughing, the mood on set improved.

“...I wonder if the orderly felt like this.”

I thought of the orderly’s face during military days and laughed, looking at the far eastern sky.

Then the director came over and said, “That expression was really good just now!”

“Thank you.”

“More or less, exactly like that. Let’s do the scene exactly the same. Okay?”

“Yes. Got it.”

We nailed the same scene in one take.

While we prepared for the next scene, the younger members gave us thumbs up as if to say we’d done well.

Except the maknae, who sighed softly.

“Jiho, what’s with you? Was it no good just now?”

“Hyung.”

“Yes?”

“That acting was mine. You’re stealing Rihyeok hyung’s singing and Viju hyung’s dancing too—now my acting too......”

“Junghyun. Take him away.”

The two who were about to protest using dance and song as keywords at the suddenly removed troublemaker froze.

Viju smiled and said, “I think your acting’s improved a lot, hyung.”

“Really? I thought the director was just trying to be encouraging.”

“No. It’s gotten a lot better. It’s way better than when we shot the magic school CF.”

Viju, delighted as if it were his own achievement, widened his eyes.

When I looked to Rihyeok, he raised his index finger as if to show a tiny increase.

I smiled brightly, and that gap kept narrowing.

“You really have improved.”

Going through various variety shows and broadcasts, we’d learned what angles worked on camera.

Practicing facial expressions in spare moments had clearly paid off.

I’d suspected it a little once filming started, but it was really true: my acting had gotten better.

But...

“The mood’s so good I didn’t notice.”

“That’s true.”

Saying that, Rihyeok looked around.

“The vibe on set is....”

After the hit single and the broadcast, and the album’s success, treatment on set had gradually become better, but never as generous as this time.

It felt like being a top star you see in dramas.

Just as, back in military days, the orderly’s expressions determined even Eunseong’s breathing volume, I felt an illusion that we were clutching this set’s atmosphere tightly in our hands.

The younger members and I exchanged glances.

“Nice....”

“Now let’s use this to create the dreamlike vibe. Minions.”

“Yes yes.”

The days when a word from a director or PD would dampen the mood were over.

We decided the atmosphere now.

I’d always wanted that—once we made it big, to make the on-set mood so good that everyone would enjoy working.

I was pleased that wish had come true.

“Hahaha!”

We gathered and, with a stick, wrote ‘Happiness’ in the sand; everyone around laughed.

Then we played a name-compatibility game with ‘NewBlack’ and ‘Soufflé’ and got a compatibility of only twelve percent, so we quickly scraped it off.

While shooting the caption ‘NewBlack+Souffle=☆’ to post on SNS later—

“Sky lanterns!” the maknae cried, excited.

I turned my head and saw a few sky lanterns prepared for the shoot.

It was one of the final scenes for the title track MV.

The five of us would make wishes together and release sky lanterns into the distant sea.

The music video would end on our backs watching the lanterns ascend.

“Wow......”

“If there are any lanterns left later, let’s take one and make a wish, yeah?”

“Sure, let’s do it.”

After finishing the lantern-release scene, while the staff prepared to pack up, we wrote several wishes on the lanterns.

“Next album a total smash. Let’s put that.”

Just as we were about to write the most important wish and send it up, Junghyun hesitated and said, “But what if the Dragon King sees this and thinks, ‘Ah, this is a bit much,’ and it might be hard for him to grant our wishes?”

“That’s true. The Dragon King might not be skilled in the entertainment field.”

“If we write a bunch, maybe he’ll grant at least one.”

We agreed that was a good idea.

“I hope Mrs. Kim Deok-soon gets into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest person in the world.”

“I hope all the members and our families are happy and healthy.”

“I want to eat and not gain weight.”

“I want many of the secrets of the universe to be revealed in my lifetime... not Sun Woo-ju’s, the real universe’s.”

“Please make me a better son to my parents, a better brother to my sisters.”

“......?”

Everyone paused at the last wish and burst out laughing.

“Hey. That’s something you have to work for.”

“No idea. I want to get it for nothing.”

We smiled at the array of wishes, and at the managers’ request we also added the office worker’s perennial wish: winning the lottery.

“All right. Let’s send it.”

As soon as the fire was lit, hot air rushed in and the lanterns drifted upward.

We clapped and cheered as they rose.

Crackle!

One lantern caught too much flame and started burning in the sky.

A passing staff member commented, “That’s burning nicely.”

“Of course.”

“We sent up a lantern, but what came back is ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) a fire arrow.”

“We should have expected this by now, right?”

At Rihyeok’s line we smiled warmly and all waved toward the falling lantern.

While NewBlack went around shooting various MV scenes—

“.......”

The Soufflé members were silently staring at the numbers on the scale.

Tears burst out here and there.

-Weight... weight... ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Soufflé bread launched and I already gained 4 kg..

-(That gif where the cartoon pig’s parents eat food)

-I was supposed to just collect the stickers, why is the bread so delicious ㅠㅠㅠ frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

-My grandma used to worry I was too thin but yesterday she eyeballed me and gave me an extra scoop of rice lolol

Amid cries of weight gain, someone posted, “I went to the convenience store today and it wasn’t even there,” sharing an experience.

The media called it the “NewBlack bread frenzy.”

Some stores limited purchases to one loaf per person, yet demand outstripped supply.

Even the 9PM terrestrial news covered it under the headline “K-pop industry now moving into food markets.”

The news showed footage of NewBlack—me dropping down with a ‘Hyaaah!’ or Junghyun being chased by a black goat—juxtaposed with character seals.

[This expansion of industry using idol characters shows new possibilities for K-pop industry,] the reporter concluded grandly, and the Soufflé members smiled warmly.

‘That’s not what happened...’

What started as a fanservice bread that got lucky word-of-mouth was being presented in the news as if it were a systematically planned project.

“Is that bread really that tasty?”

“If it’s on sale at the supermarket later, I’ll pick one up. They modeled it, so it must be amazing.”

“My family laughed at that TV segment where they ate samgyetang so heartily last time.”

Watching the family’s favorable reaction on the news, I quietly smiled.

‘Another day of dynamic fandom.’

I browsed the internet with a calm smile.

Everything was going smoothly.

Malicious comments, which had popped up frequently before winning a major award, were now sparse.

Whenever I went out, NewBlack’s songs played.

The nostalgia OST ‘Thousand Dreams’ still lingered on the Billboard Hot 100.

‘I hope we can comeback soon.’

The last news about the album was that MC Ha Seungju from the music cafe would participate; aside from that, there’d been silence about the album.

I’d heard it was a special album.

Although Y-app live and MiTube content continued to come out, we were curious about other album news.

“Hmm......?”

A new notice from Lemon Entertainment caught my eye.

『 A Letter from NewBlack to You: We Have a Special Performance! 』

A pastel-toned handwritten letter from the members was scanned, followed by the same content.

They asked in simple terms: how have you been lately, and said they were planning a special performance soon—words that made hearts flutter.

The notice requested something simple.