In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe - C.137:
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 137
After the jacket photoshoot, they returned to their normal lives.
Ever since that day, his siblings started to observe him closely, but Woojoo had no idea why.
Were they planning to do something for his birthday?
So Woojoo warned them in advance that he hated surprises, but they said they had no such thoughts and that they wanted to live.
How rude.
They asked Woojoo if he was some kind of great drug lord when he said that, and when he denied it, they questioned him back.
Those brats.
But his thoughts about his birthday were soon pushed aside by various new pieces of news.
At the end of October.
The track list for their second album was finally confirmed.
A total of five songs.
Because Heysion and Junghyun’s work pace was slower than expected, they decided to include only one song, Outro, in the mixtape, and the fan song they made, Starlight, became the fourth track.
After a meeting with the A&R team, the name of the title song, which had been debated between Masque and Masquerade, Masquerade Party, etc., was also finalized.
Masquerade (Title)
Fireworks
Look at
Starlight
Outro: For You
They examined the contents of the album cover design that came out with the track list in the practice room.
“Wow…”
The youngest, who was lying on Woojoo’s murpak, turned his head quickly.
“Hyung, how do you feel?”
“About what?”
“Your pig dream came true, right? That mascara thing?”
“Masquerade.”
“Yeah, anyway, that’s our song now.”
He made a face that said he had been through a lot, and Woojoo laughed.
“Jiho, we haven’t even started our activities yet. Don’t be so sentimental already.”
The other siblings chimed in.
“Yeah, Wang Jiho. Get a grip.”
“Jiho. We have a long way to go.”
“A very long way.”
“Wow, you guys are all ganging up on me for one word… You Hyungs have no sense of me?…”
He couldn’t think of the word ‘dry’, and he jumped up.
“Hey, let’s practice!”
He ran around the room, stretching his legs all the way to his head, and they laughed as they watched him. Then he lost his balance and they burst out laughing.
Bijoo ran over and caught him.
Then he glanced at them who were chuckling.
“…”
He scolded them for five minutes, no joke.
What are you doing, making him get hurt? Kim Junghyun, how can you swallow those gummy bears so easily? You know Hyung laughed the loudest, right? And so on.
“When something like this happens, you have to run over quickly. Got it? Especially you, Woojoo Hyung and Junghyun.”
“Yes. I understand…”
As Junghyun and Woojoo answered, Rihyuk asked with a sullen face.
“Hyung, what about me?”
“Rihyuk, you’re too weak… It’s okay if you can’t help.”
“Oh, you’re weaker than me, Hyung?”
Jiho burst out laughing with a hahaha!
As Bijoo turned his head with a smile, the youngest took a step back with a gasp.
“Jiho.”
“…”
“Jiho, sit down here. Everyone’s inside.”
Stupid Wang Jiho.
Woojoo want to write it on his tombstone. Wang Jiho, digging his own grave.
A fairly long scolding followed.
Especially, Jiho had a history of spraining his ankle a month before his debut album, so their main dancer looked at him with worried eyes.
But it was unfair.
When their youngest stumbled, Woojoo saw the movement of his muscles, but he just blinked and decided to regain his balance.
If he was really about to get hurt, Woojoo would have moved first.
And then Woojoo would have been teased by the younger ones for two weeks, asking if he was the ghost of the Shinsadong practice room.
“Alright, let’s practice!”
Woojoo clapped his hands and practiced the choreography to the title track Masquerade of their second album.
Every now and then, Woojoo watched the video that the choreographer sent them and corrected their posture or explained the principles to the younger ones.
They practiced for an hour and rested for ten minutes, then repeated the cycle.
But if one person made a mistake, they stopped right away.
Today’s winner was Rihyuk.
“Ah, shit, I messed up.”
“Come here! Hurry up!”
“Rihyuk, come on!”
As the youngest and Woojoo waved their hands like twin penguins, Rihyuk sighed and said, “Ha…”
“Ah. This is so unfair. Of course I’m the worst at dancing, so I make mistakes…”
“Stop making excuses. Red ears.”
“Hurry! Come here.”
His displeased face kept spitting out complaints.
“Really. I’m going to expose this injustice to the fans later. This tilted playground that I’m going through…”
“Hmm? Isn’t it flat here?”
“Just hit him, Hyung.”
Then the Indian bread that hit his back with a bang followed.
It was a punishment that Woojoo came up with after much deliberation.
There was something like that when you practiced choreography.
When one person made a mistake, the atmosphere got sour, even if no one cursed or said anything.
In the silence, a shaky voice says, “Let’s do better” or “It’s okay! It’s okay! As long as you don’t make a mistake next time… Oh, you messed up again…?” and their lips tremble. That kind of thing.
It was torture either way.
Woojoo knew it well, having gone through it for six years.
That was why they made this punishment game, to make the wrong person feel less guilty and to keep up the fun atmosphere during practice.
The problem was, it was too much fun.
“Hahaha! This is hilarious.”
“Right? I hope someone else messes up soon.”
“But Hyung, what if we get caught?”
“Junghyun, why are you thinking like that?”
Woojoo smiled warmly and said, “We just have to not get caught.”
“Wow. You’re right, Hyung.”
“Wow, our Hyung is a genius. That’s true. We just have to not get caught.”
The three of them laughed in unison, while Rihyuk sighed.
“If I ever have to leave a dying message, I’m naming those three. Seriously.”
“Rihyuk, I’m on your side.”
“I don’t need you. I’m going to walk my own path.”
He showed his dance moves with a confident look that said ‘no one can stop me’.
“You got the hand gesture wrong…”
As soon as Bijoo pointed out his mistake, his face was drenched with rain.
After their main dancer’s coaching, Woojoo clapped his hands and drew everyone’s attention.
“Okay, shall we try again?”
They resumed their practice.
The sweat that poured out of them cooled down by the air conditioner, and new sweat covered it up.
Their bodies were tingling and they felt dizzy, but no one asked for a break.
Even their youngest was practicing silently.
No one said it out loud, but it was because of the pressure of their second album.
They felt restless when they sat still.
They wondered ‘is this okay?’ when they rested.
They felt like they had to do something.
There were many reasons for feeling that pressure.
First, there were the articles that the entertainment reporters wrote whenever they had a chance.
-New Black’s second album comeback, ‘Another self-composed title track?’
-‘New Black’, the legendary rookie, will they succeed again? Three points to watch
-Who will be the owner of this year’s Rookie Award? Ten experts answer
Then, there was the interest from the idol community.
-Oh, their next album is self-composed too??
-Fireworks was such a bop, I’m looking forward to it ?
-I wonder if the title track is good?? I saw their reality video and they were praising it like it was Korean Mozart level ??
-Mozart?
-But they must be feeling a lot of pressure ? Their first album was a huge success.
-Honestly, just charting is an achievement
Of course, the internet articles and the idol fans’ interest were only a small part of it.
To begin with, no one really cared about a rookie singer preparing for their second album, except for Soufflés.
They felt it deeply.
And as Woojoo walked around the company, he heard some whispers.
“They poured a lot of money into this one.”
“I heard there was some talk from the actor team. They said the singer team spends too much money ever since Scarlet. They don’t say it openly, but the team leaders seem to have had a big fight recently.”
“But the New Black kids are worth the investment, right? They were amazing at the Fireworks show.”
“Well, yeah. They’ve been hitting it big so far.”
Entertainment news, internet comments, and the company people’s stories all reached deep into Woojoo’s heart.
Of course, the most burdensome thing was the last one.
The President and the Director were sparing no expense for our album, and the best experts were involved in the production.
That was the source of the pressure.
They had to show their best in the next album.
But after the producing meeting was over, all they could do was their job as singers.
That was why they were doing their best.
Practice, and more practice.
As their hearts pounded hard, their dance moves in the mirror were different from each other.
But their expressions were the same.
Faces full of ambition to do better than now.
“Oh, right. Hyung.”
Break time again.
As Woojoo gulped down the ion drink in the plastic bottle, Bijoo told him an interesting story.
“I heard from the office earlier, they’re coming to our practice room tomorrow to film a reality show.”
“They’re filming our practice?”
“I guess so. And they’re also bringing a mentor to help us…”
“Really?”
Woojoo smiled involuntarily.
Woojoo didn’t know who it was, but he hoped they would come soon.
He put down the empty bottle on the floor, thinking that.
“Alright, let’s start again!”
“Go go!”
“Fighting!”
Theywere still thirsty.
***
Incheon International Airport, first floor, arrival hall.
The door opened and a group of arrivals came in with their carts.
“Mom!”
“Wow, it smells different as soon as I get to Korea.”
“Here! Here!”
The passengers from the US plane greeted their relatives in various ways, and among them, an African-American man walked out.
A handsome face with sunglasses.
He was wearing a tracksuit, but his body shape and movements were somehow eye-catching.
He admired the neat airport interior for a moment, then looked around.
Behind him, his assistant followed him with a cart.
‘He said he would come to pick me up… Oh, there they are.’
They caught his eye right away.
Three men and women.
A man with sharp features and glasses, a woman who looked like an interpreter, and…
‘…What the hell.’
A huge man was standing there.
He had seen plenty of giants in LA, but seeing such a physique on a Korean was startling.
Clay Tyler, the name written on the welcome sign, waved his hand lightly and approached him.
“I’m Yoon Seokhwan, the director of Lemon Entertainment. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“Was your flight comfortable?”
While the interpreter relayed the conversation between them, Tyler pointed at the one following him with a chin gesture.
“By the way, who is that guy? A bodyguard?”
“Ah… He’s a new manager I hired.”
They got into the car that was waiting for them at the transportation center.
On the way to the hotel in Gangnam, Tyler looked out the window.
The blue sea came into view beyond the Incheon Bridge.
‘Is this my fourth time in Korea?’
Clay Tyler, a dancer and choreographer who ran a dance academy in LA and performed all over the world, recalled his past visits.
The last three times.
He had come once for a workshop and a competition where dancers from different countries gathered, and the other two times were for K-pop idol choreography.
They were not good memories.
He had made choreography for big companies that paid him a lot of money, but he was not satisfied with the final product.
Of course, the ones who received the choreography did their best, but they fell short of his expectations.
It might be unreasonable to ask for that much skill from singers who had to sing as well, but he was still disappointed.
If only they could do a little more.
If they could go a little further, it would be splendid.
He always had that regret.
‘New Black, huh…’
He didn’t have high hopes.
They had only been singers for about four months.
He played the video he had seen once on the plane on his phone again.
New Black’s cover stage of Gunflower.
He recognized the moves he had made for Teen Spirit.
“Hmm…”
He scanned the video.
Then he noticed the loss of balance when shifting the center of gravity, the wrong muscle movement when doing the wave, the wrong footwork, and so on.
Minor details.
He made a comprehensive judgment based on them.
‘With this level of skill… Did they practice for a month and a half?’
In reality, it was half of that, three weeks, but Clay Tyler had no way of knowing that. He stroked his chin.
As he tried to remember the names of the members he had memorized beforehand, his gaze naturally lingered on one of them.
The HBS MTV production team came in the morning and installed a bunch of cameras in their practice room.
“What’s this?” Woojoo muttered.
“Yeah, Hyung. Who’s coming?” Jiho asked.
There were mini cams everywhere, plus a director with a camera on his shoulder.
“I’ve seen this before.”
“Really?”
Junghyun nodded at Woojoo’s words.
As Woojoo was about to speak, Jiho interrupted him.
“I bet you 10,000 won he’s going to talk about the army.”
“I’ll take 5,000.”
“Can I join?”
“No way. This is only for minors.”
“Junghyun, do you want to play?”
“Huh? What?”
“Never mind.”
They drummed and clapped, then looked at Woojoo with sparkling eyes.
Tell us, they seemed to say.
“Usually, when the army prepares something like this, it’s either a general or a congressman…”
“I got it! I was right, so Hyung, give me 10,000 won.”
“I want 5,000.”
“Why do I have to pay you?”
The conversation had gone to Andromeda.
Woojoo rubbed his sore neck and snorted.
Ah, he needed some red ginseng.
Woojoo ignored the robbers who demanded 15,000 won and continued.
“Anyway, they said we have a mentor who will help us with our practice, but with so many cameras…”
It meant that someone they should call ‘teacher’ rather than ‘senior’ was coming.
Who could it be?
They debated over their identity.
“Maybe it’s Yoon Chanhyuk Sunbaenim. He could coach us on our song every day.”
“Or the crew members who work with Heysion Sunbaenim…”
“What about Han Ayoon choreographer-nim? She’s been on a lot of shows lately.”
They were talking about their own wishes.
The camera director checked his phone and turned the angle to their faces.
The door opened with a click.
The reality show crew with cameras, their managers, and a foreigner they had never seen before came in.
His kids hid behind Woojoo in surprise.
“Hey, guys.”
A man in a black outfit and a fedora smiled cheerfully.
Who was he?
Woojoo paused for a moment, then he took off his sunglasses.
“…?”
Three seconds. Two seconds. One second.
“…!”
As soon as they realized who he was, they all gasped and widened their eyes.
“Wow…!”
Clay Tyler.
He was the choreographer they paid almost a car’s worth for and a world-famous dancer.
Especially, Bijoo and Woojoo reacted strongly.
For Woojoo, he was someone he often referred to when he learned to dance by watching videos on YouTube.
The choreography for Cold Brown’s song that they practiced hard last year was also his work.
On the other hand, Bijoo was even more excited.
He was the person who showed Woojoo an animation motion capture dance video before.
He was like a cat who met the god of churu.
“Yo…!”
It was the first time Woojoo saw his face light up.
As he fanned his face and spoke, the other tilted his head.
“Yo… You are my new!”
“New?”
“God is shin, Bijoo.”
“No no new! God!”
Everyone in the room burst into laughter.
How about angel instead of god, the other joked, and Bijoo nodded seriously and said ‘okay, angel.’ Then they laughed again.
They all greeted the famous dancer one by one.
As Woojoo said that, he looked at the people standing behind him.
Their usual trainer, Juye Hyung, had a girlish face like Bijoo, and Seokhwan Hyung was smiling as he watched them chewing gum.
And there were two new faces.
A scary-looking big man and a woman who looked tired.
The latter seemed like an interpreter by her vibe.
And the one next to her, could he be their new manager?
…Probably not.
Even a ghost from a horror movie would run away barefoot if it went to his house. He had that kind of impression.
The only thing that softened his scariness was the yellow rubber duck smartphone cover in his hand.
While Woojoo was thinking that, he chatted with Clay Tyler, who was constantly talking cheerfully.
He could communicate in English, but he deliberately asked for the help of the interpreter.
Because the cultures were different, he was afraid that what he said might be misunderstood or misdelivered.
He trusted that the interpreter, who was familiar with American culture, would convey it well.
He would have to ask him a lot of things later.
“As the person who created the choreography for Masquerade, I’ll help you for three hours every day for five days. During the coaching, my time is yours. If you have any questions about dancing, feel free to use it.”
“Wow… awesome.”
“Awesome, really.”
The interpreter repeated ‘Oh my god, oh my god’ in a businesslike voice as they exchanged words among themselves.
“Okay, guys.”
Clay Tyler clapped his hands and spoke in English.
“First, show me your stage. How much have you practiced so far?”
The managers left the room, and only their choreographer and the reality show crew remained in the practice room.
“Let’s do well.”
“Let’s go!”
As they cheered each other by clapping their hands, Juye Hyung pressed the play button.
While enjoying the melody of Masquerade, they showed the results of their practice from the first one to the last night without holding back.
Without a single mistake.
During that time, their choreographer and the American choreographer whispered to each other.
After the performance.
“Phew…”
When the five of them gathered and breathed heavily, Clay Tyler nodded his head with his arms crossed.
Then he parted his lips.