Free Web NovelHailey was right.
Normally they wouldn’t treat an unknown foreign singer like this, but apparently we were getting special treatment.
Perhaps because of that, we felt no real inconvenience during the stage rehearsal.
“That was an amazing rehearsal!”
“Thank you.”
We smiled and returned the applause to the staff as we finished the run-through.
Hailey, sipping tonic water, narrowed her eyes and said,
“These dummies didn’t clap for me.”
She let loose a colorful string of English curses that made us laugh.
I didn’t catch every word, but I did learn that America has a lot of animal species.
I didn’t know armadillos live here too.
“But why did you come to our green room, Hailey?”
“I was bored.”
The American singer flopped onto our green-room sofa like a child and began tearing into the Korean snacks on the table.
We laughed and hurriedly gathered up the rest of the snacks meant for us.
Just then, a staffer knocked and poked his head in.
“Is there anything else you need?”
“No.”
He smiled and closed the door again.
While Hailey gave a crooked grin, my brothers and I exchanged slightly awkward looks.
“This is too much.”
“They don’t even do this for us in Korea.”
At the same time, we felt something subtle.
We knew the reason they were treating us so well was that they had no idea who we were.
A foreign singer of unknown identity whose fans—numbering thousands—had filled the street just to see her arrival.
Though they wore polite smiles, we kept feeling their eyes flicking over us, appraising us from head to toe.
“It feels like we’re on Luxury or Authentic. But I feel like the product.”
“Exactly.”
I’d seen scenes like that before.
When a host and panelists make a big deal about some ceramic piece—“Wow!”—only for the experts to step in and say, “It has no real value.”
Ri Hyuk said,
“They’re treating us like this because they don’t know us yet. If they find out who we are, their attitude might change.”
“We should be prepared for that.”
So we stayed grounded.
At rookie-era events, we’d been fawned over until people realized we were missing Sasangwon senior—and then treated coldly.
“What are you talking about?”
Hailey asked.
When we explained the whole story, she burst out laughing, shaking her blue hair with peals of laughter.
“......Why?”
“You adorable idiots.”
We smiled at being called cute, and she said,
“You don’t know what it means that thousands of people gathered to see you.”
“What do you mean?”
Before we could ask for more detail, there was a knock.
“Come in.”
A man entered the green room.
“Oh......!”
A handsome man in a suit and glasses—Larry Gordon, the host of today’s show—stepped in, beaming.
“Hailey~!”
He opened his arms as he approached, and Hailey held up a hand.
“I don’t hug.”
“Oh, right. How have you been? How’s Chris?”
“Okay. My husband’s working on a movie now.”
“The new Kroft film?”
“That’s right.”
There’s an old saying: you can’t spit on a smiling face. Hailey gave him a suitably polite reply.
As he greeted Hailey, Larry Gordon turned to us.
“NewBlack!”
“Hello.”
“I heard there were an incredible number of fans outside. Two thousand? My source in publicity said they gave up counting.”
He winked at us.
“You must be very popular.” fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
“Oh.”
“I look forward to your performance later.”
He shook our hands firmly, then said “Whoa!” in surprise when he got to Junghyun’s turn, and hurried off—to get his makeup done, it seemed.
Hailey’s expression fell again as she nodded toward his departing back.
“He has a nose for success. He treated me well when I was a rookie too.”
“Oh.”
“So don’t worry about anything like that.”
As we chatted, Biju asked,
“By the way, Hailey, why do you dislike him?”
Though he’d exchanged only a few words, he didn’t seem like someone with an obnoxious personality.
Hailey answered,
“He’s super nice to people on the rise, but awful to everyone else. That’s why I can’t stand him.”
At that moment, we saw his assistant hurriedly hand him some snack box.
Then we heard a voice:
“Damn it!”
“I said turkey, not chicken! This sandwich is all wrong!”
We all nodded, watching a talk-show host throw a tantrum over a wrong sandwich. The showbiz world really is the same everywhere.
By then, Larry Gordon’s first impression to us had solidified as “Sandwich Man.”
At the same time.
Producers and writers of The Larry Gordon Show were huddled together, trying to solve a mystery.
“What on earth is happening?”
On the screen appeared the show’s Twitter feed: a tweet announcing the Blue Moon performance with Hailey Blue and NewBlack.
But the number of likes was off the charts.
One producer asked,
“When did this tweet go up?”
“A few days ago.”
“Hmmm......”
It was ten times more engaged than any other guest announcement.
Naturally, the production team had noticed.
At first, they thought it was Hailey Blue’s fanbase, the Blovers.
They’d assumed Korean fans tweeting likes from home.
But then...
‘What about that crowd outside...?’
From the studio window, the street was packed from here to the next block. Even the parking lot was full. Burbank police estimated over a thousand—and no one knew how many more were coming.
A writer said,
“If it’s two thousand, that’s 2% of Burbank’s population of 100,000.”
“......”
“That’s terrifying.”
Of course, the crowd wasn’t just local. Fans of this K-pop group had come from all over the U.S.—and yet...
“Has this ever happened before?”
“No.”
Even devoted fans rarely gather in such numbers just to see a guest’s arrival. And today’s show wasn’t a concert—it was just the red-carpet moment.
A thousand fans had shown up purely to glimpse their faces. If they were performing, the crowd would have been even bigger. Considering their spending power...
“This is clear.”
One staffer said.
“They may not know who they are, but they’re profitable.”
That was the crux: they could make money.
“If they can draw this many fans without any promotion, they have huge potential.”
The producer nodded.
‘They signed with World Music, right?’
Even a global label saw potential in these unknown foreign singers. With no promotion, fans were already gathering. Imagine what would happen once they really pushed their exposure.
“Should we try to bring them in for a chat segment?”
“That’s tough.”
“Right—nobody knows them yet.”
They hadn’t prepared any background material, and it was already too late to alter Hailey’s full-day schedule.
‘What a shame.’
Though it felt like letting a valuable asset slip to another network, there was nothing to be done.
‘Maybe a short comedy clip... no, that’s too hard.’
They had five or six days until broadcast, but not enough time to prepare anything substantial.
“It’s a pity, but we can’t,” the producer said.
It was only potential for now. With Hailey Blue as the draw, there was no need to take risks.
“Just treat them well. We don’t want any regrets later.”
With that, the meeting ended. Soon, the talk show would begin.
At 5:30 PM, when recording started, the studio action streamed on the green-room TV.
“This is a lot like Korea—there’s a pre-MC.”
Junghyun pointed at the screen, where a young comedian in a baseball cap held a microphone.
The pre-MC’s intro drew cheers from the audience.
I wondered if a foreign TV show would feel different, but the atmosphere was the same, if unfamiliar.
Moments later, the live band struck up and Larry Gordon appeared in a suit, making comical entrances.
I thought they’d call the guest on immediately, but instead he cracked jokes about current affairs—people laughed their heads off at each punchline.
“What are they saying?”
“They’re talking about the recent election.”
Ri Hyuk explained: they were riffing on the presidential race held on my birthday—Democrats and Republicans and so on.
When politics came up, I grabbed more snacks.
“I guess they’ll edit out the weak parts.”
“They’ve got reasons to record this.”
Like Korean variety shows, boring bits get cut. They tape two hours, trim to thirty minutes, then add fun segments to make a forty-or-fifty-minute show.
After the political banter, it was time to introduce the guest.
Holding up a digital single cover with “Blue Moon,” the MC shouted with a grin,
Amid applause, Haley stepped out in a leather jacket and shook hands, then sat gracefully on the sofa.
“Hailey sat properly.”
“This is an amazing show.”
“Wow, Sandwich Man is a great host. His English is so good.”
They talked about her husband Chris, daughter Summer, and other topics—then mention of us came.
At that moment—
A cheer rose from the crowd. It looked like a dozen of our Soufflés had infiltrated the audience. Viewers turned to look, murmuring in surprise.
“They’re strong.”
“That’s our Soufflés.”
Our formidable, powerful fans.
Larry Gordon paused and laughed.
Hailey shrugged.
“Woooo!”
My brothers giggled as they patted my shoulder, while Haley said,
“S.O.N.G.!”
Their noisy excitement made me laugh.
After a brief mention of us, the talk went on. Then—
Knock knock.
“Ready in five!”
A staffer with an intercom told us to prepare to go on in five minutes.
It was time for today’s performance.
On the talk-show stage.
Under dazzling lights, two celebrities sat behind a desk and on a sofa, chatting amiably.
After shaking Larry Gordon’s hand, Haley adjusted her hair and moved to the adjacent performance area.
The audience’s gaze shifted to the darkened stage.
In front of the live band tuning their instruments, five figures held microphones and stretched casually.
‘Are those NewBlack?’
The audience, startled by the presidential-motorcade–like crowd outside the studio, watched in surprise. Fans holding placards with unreadable writing—hidden in darkness, they looked almost mystical.
The host held up the Blue Moon cover again and called out.
Amid cheers from our covert fans, he continued,
“Woooooo!”
The cameras rolled and the stage lights came up.
Haley Blue bowed slightly.
Behind her stood a pale-faced boy band, microphones in hand.
‘Oh.......’
Their cute looks made female audience members’ eyes widen, while men crossed their arms, impressed.
But beyond that, all eyes were drawn to one member wearing a violet headband, whose face seemed to glow.
That was the Sunny composer Haley had raved about.
As unfamiliar Eastern instruments chimed in the BGM, the five-member group bent their bodies.
“Woooooo!”
Supported by a dozen fans’ cheers, their doll-like, precisely angled moves drew murmurs of admiration.
‘I thought they were a pop group...?’
The audience’s eyes grew wide. They expected long-haired pretty boys dancing and singing, but saw choreography as sharp and synchronized as dancers’.
‘They’re good.’
Members stepped forward one by one to sing, and their voices were pleasant—sometimes even better than the recorded track. Dressed like a rock band in leather, NewBlack took the mics and sang.
‘Oh.......’
The choreography wasn’t overly complex, but each angle was so precise it lingered like afterimages. At first they looked similar, but each had a distinct style. One member held a high note, winked at the camera, then the deep-voiced rapper took over; on the next beat, another delivered crystal-clear vocals, and then the Sunny composer looked into my eyes again. Even the member with the prettiest face kept drawing my gaze with every dance break.
‘No wonder they have so many fans.’
Having seen thousands of fans before the show made the performance feel magical—or maybe they were genuinely that good.
After the final note of Blue Moon, Blue Black smiled, waved, and exited coolly.
“Woooooo!”
The audience’s cheers swelled again. The crowd looked awestruck, as if witnessing a legendary act, and our Soufflés in the studio cheered even louder.
‘Time for brainwashing.’
‘NewBlack are amazing singers... amazing singers...’
‘We’ll make them stars.’
North American fans were putting the Seo-Dong-Yo technique they learned ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) from our home Soufflés into practice.
After the recording ended, NewBlack exited the studio and the crowd dispersed. Finally, the police breathed a sigh of relief.
But the commotion wasn’t over.
Reporters arrived, and NewBlack appeared on the evening news across California.
Clips of the boy band stepping out to flashing cameras and roaring crowds played on various news channels.
[Today, crowds gathered at Burbank Studio to welcome the five-member K-pop group NewBlack from Korea.]
[...their collaboration with Haley Blue, “Blue Moon”...]
[With an estimated crowd of thousands, this group demonstrated astonishing popularity...]
Watching the news, people might have thought some kind of riot had broken out. The fervent intensity on fans’ faces—
Viewers were riveted.
‘Who are they...?’
In California’s trending searches, “NewBlack” soared. As this news spread back in Korea, another group was paying close attention.
“This could be lucrative.”
“We need to seize this.”
Producers of The Ellen Dale Show, eyeing the news of NewBlack’s appearance on the upcoming talk shows, watched with bright eyes.
