In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe
Chapter 37:

Chapter 37 [Who is ‘New Black’, the No.1 trending search term?]

[Entertainment IN = Reporter Oh So-hee]

New Black is attracting the attention of netizens by topping the real-time search term rankings.

This is the second time they have made their name on the search term list.

It has been only two months since their collaboration song Something with Jang So-won was released in February and topped the music chart.

This is an unprecedented feat for a rookie group that has not yet officially debuted.

What is the reason behind their popularity?

The direct reason is their appearance on PBS’s ‘Ha Seung-ju’s Music Cafe’ that aired yesterday (10th).

In the broadcast, New Black showed various charms along with the stage of Something. In particular, member Woojoo’s piano performance and Between performance highlighted the appeal of all the members, and revealed their strong side as a talented boy group that had been hidden behind their visuals.

The stage, which received high praise from MC Ha Seung-ju, recorded a high number of views on the Music Cafe clip, ranking in the top 10 of the entire clip, and the song also briefly topped the music chart.

But the most talked-about thing in the broadcast was the personal story of the leader Woojoo.

The member, who showed his charm with his outstanding visuals and the story of composing with Jang So-won, revealed that his father was Seon Myungjoo during the talk.

The audience in the episode all had expressions of speechlessness. It was a relatable reaction for anyone who remembered Seon Myungjoo, the legendary star of Korea in the 90s.

This story spread to various online communities and became a bigger issue. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Netizens reacted to this by saying things like ‘The one who sang Something was Seon Myungjoo’s son, wow, amazing’, ‘He must have inherited his talent from his dad since he composed too’, ‘He must be making a fortune from royalties. I’m jealous.’

The agency said, “We are cautious because there is a lot of interest in New Black and member Woojoo after the broadcast.” and added, “We will all work hard to live up to the interest shown by the public.”

Regarding their future activities, they said, “There is nothing decided yet, and except for some events, New Black is officially done with their activities.” and avoided direct comments.

New Black is aiming to debut in June this year, and the agency said, “The debut album will also include member Woojoo’s self-composed songs.” and expressed their gratitude for the support.

***

The excitement of Between’s ranking was short-lived.

As the rush hour ended, the music chart plummeted vertically.

From 1st to 9th, from 9th to 23rd.

But it still stayed in the upper ranks of the daily chart.

We were happy with this unexpected result.

We had already achieved a tremendous success with Something, and we appeared on Music Cafe as a way of wrapping up our activities.

None of us thought we would get anything more from there.

And we also achieved our original goal of ‘showing the public New Black’s skills’.

Before the Music Cafe started, the comments that were mixed with doubts like ‘Huh? New Black only has one main vocal singing?

The rest of them just add harmonies. Aren’t they unprepared kids if you look closely?’ disappeared.

The comments on the articles showed that atmosphere.

For example, the comment on the Entertainment IN article ‘Who is ‘New Black’, the No.1 trending search term?’, which had the highest number of views, was like that.

-They were really good lol They must have been so wronged all this time

-I was a bit annoyed by how they kept talking during the talk, but the stage was impressive. Woojoo, I think his eyes were drawn to him a lot.

-I was shocked when I watched the broadcast yesterday;; I didn’t know they were the ones who sang Something

-They seem to be the top level among the rookies these days

-Lemon really likes talented groups. Scarlet was like that too. They put a lot of effort into it.

Most of the comments praised New Black’s vocal skills.

Even if we sorted by recommendations, the majority of the atmosphere was favorable to us.

That alone was enough to satisfy me, but there were also many comments that remembered my dad.

-Seon Myungjoo… He was the person I liked since elementary school… I don’t know about the young kids these days, but he was a great source of strength when it was hard during the IMF. His last memory was heartbreaking, but it’s nice to see his son grow up and appear on TV. I hope you show good things in the future ^^

-My mom was teary-eyed watching it yesterday.

-My father was amazed to see how much he resembled his facial features.

There were also many comments that warmed my heart just by looking at them.

Of course, not all comments were friendly.

If 30 out of 100 people liked it, about 70 were indifferent, and there were some cold reactions.

To be honest, they were close to hate comments.

They were disliked and disappeared on the portal articles, but I saw a lot of them when I looked around various communities.

-Who the hell is Seon Myungjoo? Am I the only one who doesn’t know?;;

-Do rookies these days have to sell their parents to promote? I turned it off because it seemed like they were selling their emotions too much yesterday

-They haven’t even debuted yet and they’re doing media play

-Why do you keep saying they’re pitiful, they’re pitiful? What’s so pitiful? The most useless thing in the world is worrying about celebritiesㅋ He must have made billions from royalties. I don’t know what’s so pitiful about him. Our lives are the most pitiful.

But there were also people who defended us.

-There are people who don’t know who Seon Myungjoo is; it’s something you can find out with a little search, what’s the psychology of saying I don’t know, so listen and see? If you don’t know the US president, is he listen and see too?

-Honestly, his musical talent is definitely inherited from his dad, but isn’t it more ridiculous to hide it? If they wanted to do media play with that, they would have done it sooner. Something is already at the end.

-I didn’t care, but I think I should cheer for them after seeing the hate comments

-They’re venting their anger at the kid because their lives are not going well;;

The arguments went back and forth like this.

I didn’t care much about the hate comments, but they were annoying to see, so I warned the kids whenever they looked at their smartphones.

It would be a loss if they got a crack in their mental state.

But from another perspective, this was a good sign.

When we went around the music shows with Jang So-won, there was no one who hated us.

What would New Black say?

If Jang So-won was the strawberry on top of the cake, we were like the whipped cream.

We were so invisible that most people didn’t even know we were the singers of Something until we appeared on Music Cafe.

But this opportunity seemed to have engraved our three-letter name in their minds.

Although the interest in us would fade away in an instant, as seen from the chart performance of Between, they would at least remember us later as ‘Oh, there were those guys called New Black.’

The scariest thing for a celebrity is indifference.

You have to be known to be hated. And right now, we had more people who liked us than hated us.

“Hyung!”

The youngest opened his eyes wide and pointed at his smartphone screen.

“What’s up?”

“Look at this. Our fan cafe membership has increased a lot! See? Until yesterday, it was less than 200. But now…”

“Eight hundred?”

The welcome board was filled with posts marked ‘new’.

The upgrade board was also glittering.

The fan cafe, which had been like a dying amusement park, was moving.

We looked at each other with wide-eyed faces and cheered.

Like a bunch of minions.

Mr. Jo was right.

It was the easiest for a singer to attract fans with the stage.

Just a week ago, we were wondering how to increase our fan base, thinking we had to go on some military variety show or something, but we didn’t expect things to work out like this.

The fan cafe membership gradually increased to about 1,200.

The influx stopped after that, but it was still a huge influx.

It was hard to believe, and that’s why that day was like a festival.

Everyone we met at the company congratulated us, and our families were busy bragging to their surroundings.

Jung-hyun’s father even sent a list of names of elders like ‘Yoon Gil-do nim, Son Byeong-ok nim’ from the next village, saying he had to send them autographs.

I had to sign with him too, because he insisted he needed Seon Myungjoo’s son’s autograph.

The situation where our popularity soared overnight.

But we didn’t get complacent or lazy.

We had experienced it once before, so we knew.

How quickly interest cools down.

We knew that we had just taken one step, and how important the next step was, so we went back to square one.

To our debut album track, ‘Untitled’.

***

I told Jung-hyun the idea I had while watching Music Cafe.

A way to find out New Black’s musical color.

He agreed to my idea of comparing the music we each liked, and we stayed up for several nights to complete the plan.

All that was left was execution.

Finally, Monday.

It was easy to work since it was officially our day off.

Or rather, a day without a schedule?

As Between achieved a modest success, the company called us together and asked for our opinions.

How many schedules could we handle in a day?

How much rest did we need?

“Events are just a side thing. We’re trying to make hay while the sun shines, and we want to make you a lot of money by booking them. But if we prioritize, it’s the debut album. So we need to know how much you can handle so we can plan.”

Under the leadership of Manager Yoon Seok-hwan, we gave our opinions. And finally, the CEO approved.

A maximum of three schedules per day. Monday is a rest day.

Well, not really a rest. It’s just that we don’t schedule anything, so we have to practice hard.

So we did.

While the younger ones were at school, three men in sweat-soaked tracksuits sat down at a shabby restaurant.

“Ugh, tough.”

Jung-hyun grabbed his chest and shook his T-shirt to cool off his sweat.

As we sat down, the owner lady came over with a bright smile, holding a water towel and a kettle.

“Oh, my, New Black is here.”

“Auntie. We’ll have the bulgogi set.”

“What about the kids?”

“They’ll be here soon. They’re coming from school.”

The lady, who always gave us generous side dishes and meals, walked briskly to the kitchen.

She glanced at me as she did.

What should I say, she looked at me like a young head of the household.

It was a change that happened after the Music Cafe appearance, she looked at me like a poor orphan.

I was going to say I was fine, but I didn’t.

The lady gave us generous side dishes and meals with a wistful look in her eyes.

“Hyung, look at this.”

“What is it?”

“Dad sent it.”

It was an MMS message from Jung-hyun’s father.

In front of a banner that read ‘Congratulations! Kim Jung-hyun’s first broadcast after joining New Black!’, elders and men were cheering and shouting ‘fighting!’ in a photo.

Why do I feel like my empathy level is dropping?

But the person in question looked satisfied, smiling and stroking his chin.

“Hyung, I feel like that. Like I’m wearing a gold necklace and going into exile.”

“It’s a flower necklace and a homecoming, Jung-hyun. If Ri-hyuk heard you, he would have said something, man.”

Our rapper laughed peacefully.

Then he pointed at the restaurant door and said.

“They say the tiger comes when you talk about it. The kids are here.”

The door opened with a clang.

It was as if Ji-ho was saying ‘Ji-ho is here!’ with his whole body.

The youngest, who was whining about something, and the main vocal, who was rubbing his ears and showing his displeasure, came in.

I asked Ri-hyuk, who sat down.

“What’s wrong with him again?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. He just says he’s unhappy.”

“Woojoo hyung, tell Ri-hyuk hyung something. I’m telling him I had a hard time, but he doesn’t even pretend to listen.”

“I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you. You ordered bulgogi for me, right?”

But my interest was elsewhere.

The word ‘hard time’ made the hyungs’ faces grim in an instant.

What? Who messed with our kid?

When I looked at him with that eye, the youngest said.

“The kids…”

The kids?

“They keep teasing me about my runny nose!”

Oh, what?

As soon as he got to school, he was bombarded with all kinds of teasing he had been waiting for over the weekend.

The youngest, who was sociable, was friends with almost everyone in the school.

That meant there were hundreds of people who teased him.

What? It was nothing.

I smiled it off and thanked for the hot bulgogi set and the generous side dishes.

…Something was weird?

I felt a different sense of discomfort than usual.

A feeling of misalignment.

The puzzle pieces were all in place, but there was a sense of distortion somewhere.

I didn’t need to worry about what it was.

There were five of us, but one audio was missing since earlier.

Jung-hyun was talking, Ri-hyuk was talking, Ji-ho was talking, but one person was silent today.

What’s wrong with Bi-ju?

He usually smiled and chimed in with the kids’ stories, or stroked Ji-ho’s head.

He didn’t say anything.

He didn’t react even when the food came out.

His eyes were looking at the food, but they were out of focus. He seemed to be thinking about something else.

But where did I see that expression on his face?

I imitated the expression that came to my mind on his refined face, and I remembered it right away.

…Oh!

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