Free Web Novel“Whatever you do, you have to say you’re sorry.”
In the car heading to the airport, I said.
“Even if you had a hundred mouths, you’d have nothing to say. I’m sorry. We’re not human. We’re bad people. That’s how you have to do it.”
“That’s right. You must never make Viju angry, hyung.”
When Jiho reminded us that one should never mess with the feelings of the person who cooks the meals, we all nodded.
After practicing our most pitiful “I’m sorry” faces under the maknae’s direction, Junghyun spoke.
“Maybe from the moment we walk in, we should crawl on our bellies. Like that.”
“If you want to become known as the Korean idols who bow in Japanese airports, you can do that, hyung.”
“You’re telling me not to do it?”
“Yes.”
Whispering that back and forth, we arrived at the door of the lost-and-found holding room at Kansai Airport. The maknae gestured like a conductor.
“Ready.”
At his cue, we burst into the room, panting.
“Viju!”
“Viju hyung! Are you okay?”
Viju narrowed his eyes at our heavy breathing and pretended sweat wiping.
“Stop faking your breaths, everyone.”
“...”
“Just from the sound of panting, I can tell how hard you ran.”
When Viju glared at us, we all cleared our throats and looked away. While the holding-room staff stared at us, murmuring “Heeey?,” Viju crossed his arms.
“No.”
When we clasped our hands and stood in front of him, Viju said with a hurt look:
“From the moment we got on the bus, I was checking to make sure everyone got on properly, but really....”
“I’m sorry, hyung.”
The maknae gave a sheepish laugh.
“It’s all because your presence is too big, hyung. Even when we were sleeping, it felt like you were next to us going, ‘Jiho, do you really fall asleep with that dance?’ and stuff.”
“Haha!”
“I’m sorry, hyung~”
Our second brother, who was easily amused, laughed brightly, then quickly cleared his throat to regain composure. But though he tried to look stern, the corners of his eyes softened—he’d forgiven us.
“If you do this again next time, then for real...”
“Then what?”
“...Well, I’ll do something.”
Because none of us were good at punishing each other, he fumbled, and we laughed.
Then we apologized again.
“I’m sorry, Viju.”
“It’s okay, hyung.”
“The bus was so big that we split up and sat in empty seats all over the place.”
Jiho turned and said:
“Huh? We all sat together, though?”
“Junghyun.”
“Waaah!”
After shooing away the maknae, I explained to Viju why things had gone that way: so many fans had swarmed us that we had to board like we were being chased, and we split up into company shuttles in the chaos.
Fortunately, Viju smiled gently and let it slide.
“In any case, I was really upset, hyung.”
“I’m sorry.”
“The fans were even more surprised. When I was left behind, they ran over, yelling ‘Viju! Viju!’ but....”
We burst out laughing. No wonder the Japanese fans had stared at us with wide eyes and gone “beep—beep—” and we’d thought it was strange.
While the managers recounted the incident amongst themselves and laughed, we sensed someone staring at us from a bench across from the holding room.
“...?”
A five-year-old girl holding a pink balloon stared at us with her mouth agape. Viju spoke in Japanese:
“This is Mio. Five years old. Her mother’s coming right now.”
“Hello.”
Mio—the girl who’d been staring so intently—said to Viju:
“I think you should forgive them.”
“Really?”
“They’re handsome, these oppas.”
It seemed Viju had been debating with the little girl whether or not to forgive us before the others arrived. When we laughed, the maknae, reading the mood—“Is this funny?”—joined in.
I crouched down to meet her eye level.
“Thanks for keeping me company so I wouldn’t be bored, Ms. Lost-and-Found.”
When the girl locked eyes with me, she hid her face behind the balloon. She was truly adorable.
“Do you like sweets?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll give you this as a gift.”
I took a soufflé bread from my eco bag and handed it to her. As the little girl carefully unwrapped it, we held our breath and watched.
The five of us crouched down in front of her.
“Mio, Mio, let’s see your stickers.”
“These?”
“That’s right. Those.”
Unfortunately, they were common Lv. 7 Black Goat Rider stickers. If she’d had anything Lv. 10 or above, we would’ve traded with her. Such a pity.
When the girl took a bite and exclaimed, “It’s so delicious!” we all nodded.
“Then, Mio, when you meet your mom, tell her about us.”
“When you’re older, go on MTube and subscribe to NewBlack TV, and hit Like.”
“Now that you have soufflé bread, you’re a soufflé, too.”
She didn’t seem to fully understand what we were saying, but she nodded vigorously. As the five of us rose to leave—
“Um, can we take a picture!”
We took photos and signed autographs for the holding-room staff. As we prepared to leave the airport again with the managers—
“Hey, Viju.”
“Yes?”
“Was everything okay while you were waiting?”
Viju thought for a moment, then said “Yes!” with a bright smile—until his face suddenly clouded over.
“Why the long face?”
“It’s a small thing, really. I mixed up words when talking to the fans.”
“Words?”
“I got ‘kowai’ and ‘kawaii’ mixed up. ‘Kawaii’ means cute, right? ‘Kowai’ means scary.”
Ri-hyeok nodded.
“So ’kowai’ is scary, ’kawaii’ is cute.”
“Ah...no wonder....”
No wonder? Viju covered his face with both hands and let out a sobbing sound, and we had no idea why he was so distressed.
One hour earlier.
Outside the arrivals hall at Kansai Airport.
“Wha—?!”
The Japanese fans who’d been chasing after NewBlack were flabbergasted. The bus carrying NewBlack had sped away, leaving the main dancer behind.
“Viju! Viju!”
“Vijuuu!”
“They’re leaving Viju behind! Viju’s getting left!”
They waved frantically at the departing vehicle, but it disappeared in an instant with the accelerator floored. freeweɓnovel.cøm
“....”
The soufflé fans were stunned.
“This isn’t what I meant.”
“Where are they going, leaving ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) a member behind?”
“What should we do?”
Then their gaze fell on the brown-haired member running after the bus. The fans who’d been cheering suddenly became panicked.
“Hyung, the bus is gone!”
“...The bus? It is gone. Unbelievable.”
As the two of them spoke in Korean, the fans around them slowly backed away, forming a circle. They would have chased after NewBlack shouting “Stay safe!” but as soon as they realized a member was left behind, they snapped out of it.
“Ah—!”
Everyone sighed toward the disappearing bus, wiggling their fingers as if begging it to return. They didn’t know what to do with the forlorn Viju standing there.
“What do we do? What do we do?”
“They’ll call us, right?”
The members of NewBlack and their manager phoned desperately, but no one answered.
Viju forced a bright expression:
“They’re not picking up....”
It was funny but heartbreaking to see him so upset and hurt. As the fans dug in their bags and handed over snacks or maps of airport rest areas, Viju bowed deeply.
“Thank you.”
Then, looking out at the dozens of people, he determined he must say something warm to them. He tapped the toe of his sneaker thoughtfully, as if searching for the right Japanese words.
And then he brightened.
“You are really scary.”
When Viju smiled and said “kowai,” the Japanese fans blinked in surprise.
“Did we scare you too much?”
“Uh-oh.”
“Scary....”
Thinking he’d misspoken, someone tried to laugh it off:
“Did you mean to say ‘kawaii’—cute?”
“Huh? Cute?”
Viju waved his hands as if to say, “Absolutely not!”
The fans looked as if a dagger had been plunged into their hearts. Then, as if to confirm it, the main dancer smoothed back his hair, pointed at the fans, and with the confident tone of Conan identifying a culprit, uttered another possibly cute Japanese phrase:
“You people are scary!”
A sudden chill fell over the soufflé fans.
By the time Viju’s apology—“I’m so sorry, eeeek ㅠㅠㅠ”—was posted on NewBlack’s SNS, the video was already spreading through Korean idol communities:
[Idol who called Japanese fans “scary”]
(Video shot by Japanese fans of Viju smiling and saying “You are scary!”)
Is NewBlack’s main dancer Viju.
He mixed up kowai and kawaii LOL
Then as the story of Viju being left at the airport spread—“Truly NewBlack behavior”—comments appeared:
Japanese infotainment programs also quickly covered the story with video clips:
They devoted entire segments to our arrival alone. A bold subtitle read: [Kansai Airport Paralyzed by NewBlack’s Arrival!], showing footage of throngs of fans.
But the coverage wasn’t flattering. They mocked the soufflé fans’ cheering and crying as ridiculous, implying that fans obsessed over idols irrationally. Split-screen panels sneered:
Audience laughter.
They laughed at a male fan clinging to NewBlack’s hands and sobbing. The professional commentary was similar online:
A middle-aged panelist leaning back and dismissing it all.
Online news showed the same negativity. On Japanese portals, malicious comments flooded the NewBlack arrival posts—and naturally, they were translated back into Korean and re-exported. Idol communities erupted in anger, but general forums were even fiercer:
Perhaps thanks to MTube and variety show appearances quietly building our positive image, even the most outraged fans—which boasted of burning down portals—saw the reaction online and found themselves calmed:
“Please, calm down. Calm....”
It felt like everyone was about to grab pitchforks. Ordinary netizens hurled such wild curses that the soufflé fans were left bewildered.
Alongside offline reactions at the airport and fan signs, we also monitored the tone of Japanese media coverage on TV and news and then—
“We didn’t even know we were so hated.”
I said, and my brothers and the staff chuckled. In our Osaka hotel room, the NewBlack TF Team gathered around the spacious table to discuss today’s schedule.
“It does feel like the fans here are incredible. The fan sign reaction was amazing.”
“They’re so passionate.”
Section Chief Hong Seo-young, in charge of promotions, tapped her pen and said:
“The Japanese agent told us that holding a first concert at this scale without any promotion is a miracle.”
Over the week-long concerts, the mobilization would total 60,000–70,000 people. That’s four to five times the 15,000 we drew over three days at the handball stadium last year.
Typically, Japanese concerts draw five to ten times the Korean numbers; TeenSpirit reportedly drew 350,000 last year. Still, to mobilize this many without any local promotion—that’s unprecedented.
“NewBlack has been positioned as a ‘very famous foreign artist,’” Hong said.
“It’s perceived like a Hollywood star coming to Japan, without any separate promotion.”
“Is that good, Deputy—er, Section Chief?”
“There are pros and cons. You secure a baseline audience, but in the long term, building a fandom in Japan is tough. They like idols who grow like their domestic groups.”
Like a famous American singer touring Korea: you get a good turnout due to name value, but fandom growth is limited.
Hong frowned.
“To really grow a fandom here, you need to do activities beyond TV appearances....”
But all avenues—variety shows to small events—were blocked by the local industry.
Manager Mingi said:
“They’ve practically colluded to exclude us. Even the program that said they wanted to book us suddenly changed their tune.”
“It’s the same everywhere. Everyone’s trying to shut us out.”
Someone laughed:
“I’d be scared, too, if an idol group that’s dominated Japan came knocking on our door.”
“You’ve done a great job educating foreigners about Korean history via MTube, so maybe they’re wary of that, too.”
“It’s like they think we’re coming to install underfloor heating in a tatami room.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“But we’re not quite ‘national idols’ in Korea yet—isn’t the caution excessive?”
“They believe you’re Korea’s national idols.”
Though our recognition grew, we weren’t at the “national” level yet. But no idol case like this exists. Japanese media took note, sensationalized everything from the soufflé bread to my hometown, and even the media themselves began to believe those exaggerations.
Ri-hyeok said:
“I still can’t believe we’ve been on terrestrial Japanese TV over 400 times.”
“Same here.”
“Reminds me of The Truman Show—just doing our Korean activities, only to find out millions were watching without us knowing.”
We all laughed at Jiho’s comparison. Meanwhile, we stared at our blank schedule sheet in despair.
“The general vibe is: don’t let them get any bigger....”
Of course, it wasn’t all bad.
Our TF Team Leader sipped his water and said:
“Honestly, this is sweet. The Japanese media are doing our promotion for us.”
Because they covered us so much, Japanese fans got curious—“Who are they? What’s their music like?”—and that curiosity created this mass of soufflé fans.
What would take months of grassroots work for other artists happened by pure TV exposure. We’d probably owe them our lives.
The downside: once TV exposure has brought in all the potential fans, there’s nowhere else to grow. That makes achieving our original Japan tour goal—gathering even more soufflé fans—difficult.
“What did they say were the reasons for our popularity here?”
“That constant TV presence and the MTube videos with Japanese subtitles. Those are the two pillars.”
“Oh, that was our debut year subtitles project.”
Hong glowed with pride. It seemed the initiative we launched early on had paid off splendidly.
I thought for a moment, then said:
“If the TV won’t invite us anymore, how about we create TV on MTube ourselves?”
“On MTube?”
“Yes—tweak the project you mentioned last time....”
Everyone perked up at my idea, blending the company’s plans with a NewBlack twist. Excited, Viju and Ri-hyeok chimed in, while Junghyun and Jiho set out snacks.
“By the way, didn’t you say there was another project prepared for this Japan promotion?”
“That’s right. It’s nothing special....”
I’d heard the promotions team prepared a “Gather Overseas Soufflé Fans!” project. Hong turned her laptop and showed us the screen.
“Tada!”
We stared at the homepage’s fantastic logo in disbelief. The title read:
“Survive at NewBlack Academy...?”
“What is this?”
We gaped.
Japanese fans clicked the link on NewBlack’s official SNS:
“A game where the first people to clear it get prizes?”
Did they make a simple mini-game? Excited, they opened the site, scrolled the Language menu, and clicked 日本語. Then they hit START.
[Chirp-chirp—]
An elite high school bathed in sunlight appeared. It seemed to be an illustrated story-game with choice-based progression.
“Hey—hey—”
A handsome figure appeared on screen. NewBlack’s maknae, in school uniform, looked down at the protagonist in a cute illustration.
“Only I can lie there. What are you doing on the lawn, anyway?”
▷ “I was just...resting.”
▷ “I was watching over you.”
Fans giggled.
“Let’s try the second.”
Expecting “What, you know you’re handsome too!” with a pout, they clicked—
[Clank—]
...Clank?
Bars of a cell snapped into view.
“Please choose your words carefully.”
“You have been accused of stalking by ‘King Jiho.’”
“Hint: False evidence planted by the ‘black goat’ led to your conviction.”
“Injected with a mysterious drug in prison, you have now transformed into NewBlack Academy’s ‘Black Goat.’”
What’s with the transformation?
[CHAPTER II: The Life of a Goat Is...]
“Meeeh—”
With a goat’s bleat, the Black Goat POV stunned players into laughter.
“What kind of game is this?”
It was truly a NewBlack game.
And soon, by word of mouth, “the NewBlack game” trended on Twitter in both Korea and Japan.
