In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

“I quietly called in the managers in the waiting room after returning.

Since it wasn’t something to spread around, I explained the whole story quietly to just the two of them.

“...What?”

Minki hyung narrowed his eyes.

Wonseok hyung, who was usually soft and warm, looked like an angry teddy bear, his eyes forming V’s.

“Why did they ask you guys for that?”

“We don’t know either.”

“Strange people abound. What on earth is going on here?”

We wanted to say the same thing. It was odd that the event organizers would ask another performer to recruit performers.

Of course, on a TV variety show that can happen. A PD asking a performer, “You’re close with So-and-So—could you invite them?” is natural.

Performers are part of the program, after all.

But at an awards-scale event, saying, “Securing that global pop star is difficult, so could you reach out?” was a bit...

Minki hyung let out a hollow laugh.

“Unbelievable.”

We chuckled softly in response.

“Anyway, hyung, could you call Team Leader Yoon and confirm what’s going on?”

“All right.”

“I just thought we need to know the details first.”

Then we’d know how to handle it. It wasn’t a pleasant task, but unless the other side showed outright hostility, it’s best to let it slide. In any industry, avoiding enemies is more important than making allies.

“Phew...”

Rihyuk thumped his head against the wall, narrowing his brows.

I asked with a smile, “What’s up?”

“Just distracted. I cleared my mind this morning, but now I have something to think about.”

The fourth member, who always had too many thoughts, pouted.

Jiho grabbed Junhyun hyung’s arm and asked, “Want a flick on the forehead? One flick and your thoughts will vanish. I tried it as punishment so I know.”

“Hmm, Rihyuk. Want me to help?”

Rihyuk’s face went pale.

“N-no, I’m fine.”

“You said you have too many thoughts?”

“They’re gone.”

“Oh...?”

“Get that arm away from me!”

Rihyuk flailed his hands at Junhyun’s arm as if it were a gun pointed at him.

A small laugh escaped, and the mood flipped back quickly. Erasing the absurd incident from our minds, we checked our lyric sheets and ticked off today’s tasks one by one.

“I’m gonna build an empire~”

“Woo~”

At the chorus, Bijoo stood up and quietly rehearsed the choreography, then spun around a few times for fun. He staggered to his sides and collapsed on the floor.

“Bijoo hyung. Are you okay... huh?”

Rihyuk leaped up to help, eyes glassy, then slumped back onto the sofa.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“...I have orthostatic hypotension.”

The staff around us burst into laughter, watching the usual chaos. Somehow it felt heartwarming.

Meanwhile, Minki hyung, who’d called Seokhwan hyung, returned and explained the full story of what happened earlier.

“He exchanged emails with Haley Blue’s agent, but they said they never got a booking request.”

“What? They didn’t?”

“Nope. They’ve never been contacted.”

“...”

“But when K-Net was asked, they said they’re definitely processing the request.”

Jiho blinked.

“So what happened?”

“Well,” Rihyuk whispered, “they asked K-Net to phrase it nicely to us first, then planned to proceed with the booking.”

“Oh...”

The ingenious recruitment method inspired awe. It felt like the “In Korea, singers recruit for awards” thumbnails floating around on MyTube.

Bijoo blinked and whispered, “Isn’t K-Net a major company...?”

“It is.”

“Wow...”

Seeing Bijoo marvel at how even a major corporation works like this made me smile.

I asked the managers, “What did our team leader say?”

“He said there’s no need to call back and explain. We have justification on our side.”

“What do you two think?” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Same here. It’s annoying, but we should just let it go. What can we do?”

We nodded in agreement. Having seen so much abnormality on site before the talk of being the national idol in the media, this was just something to laugh off.

“Thanks, hyung.”

“I’m not thanking you. I’m worried you’d lose sleep over something like this—showing up uninvited at someone else’s celebration...”

“It was just embarrassing.”

We laughed, erased Haley Blue’s KMA booking from our minds, and refocused on the comeback showcase.

We ran through first rehearsal, second rehearsal.

Soon the full-length album’s release on music sites would arrive.

“Hmm...?”

A video call came in from overseas.

We blinked at the name [Haley Blue]. Junhyun said excitedly, “Even Haley comes when you call her like a tiger.”

“I know, right? Perfect timing.”

We accepted the call and greeted her brightly.

“Hey~!”

“Yo!”

Her blue hair fluttered gently, clear eyes looking at us.

She greeted the two towering bodyguards behind her.

“Jo, Tony. How are you?”

The guards, with pure eyes, offered wan smiles—like kids dragged to the dentist.

Come to think of it, Haley’s outfit was peculiar, like a scuba suit.

“Haley, where are you now?”

“I’m in South Africa.”

When did she get to South Africa again?

Haley grinned.

“I dreamed of a great white shark a few days ago. I wanted to see one in real life.”

“...”

“If I die without seeing one, it’s unfair.”

“I don’t think it’d feel unfair at all...”

It sounded as if Jaws were approaching, theme playing in our ears.

Haley shook her head.

“Did you know? Great whites are actually warm-hearted sharks. They’re endangered, and the man-eater label is prejudice.”

Our maknae’s eyes grew wide.

“Really? So Jaws was all a lie?”

“Yeah. Although sometimes they mistake a seal for food, take a bite, then spit it out. It’s not on purpose.”

“...”

Rihyuk, teary-eyed, said his beach plans were ruined when Haley pointed at the guards.

“I asked Jo and Tony to come with me. Oh, and here comes my husband, Chris.”

“Hey...”

A handsome man wearing a puzzled expression waved after planting a kiss on her cheek.

He was coming in, too.

As we burst into laughter, Haley suddenly remembered her business.

“I got an email from my agent. KMA? Some Korean awards show invited me.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Is this like an indie concert or something?”

She said she told her agent to research what K-Net is, but called us because, as Koreans, we’d know best.

“Usually agents put it off, but they said you guys wanted to perform together.”

“We did...?”

“Yep. You don’t look like you’d want to, so I was curious.”

We blinked, and Haley tilted her head.

It didn’t take long to decide. Smiling brightly, we explained the whole story exactly, just in case she eavesdropped.

A few minutes later.

“Shibal!” began to flow from Haley Blue’s mouth.

The call ended.

“Hum-hum-hum~”

We hummed and laughed with the younger members.

‘Happy ending.’

‘Nice.’

Thinking of the pop star who, offended, wore hanbok and revisited Narita Airport, we smiled fondly.

Someone else smiled, too, in a different way.

“Shark cage...”

“Junhyun.”

“You know, we should do that someday.”

“No.”

Bijoo and Rihyuk shook their heads, too—absolutely not.

Junhyun, who had been gazing outside at the thought of us in cages, nodded.

“All right, everyone.”

I clapped my hands to change the subject.

“There’s one hour left until the music goes live.”

“Waaaaah!”

At 5:00, one hour before the MV and song release, our lips were dry and palms sweaty as we gathered around the tablet.

For some, preparation had taken months; for others, up to a year of work. Now it was time to introduce the full album to the public and fans.

Like people waiting for concert tickets, the supples watched the screen with pounding hearts.

59:57.

‘It’s up!’

Refreshing revealed the elegant black album jacket with the words Deep Black.

Our hearts pounded.

Our mouse-holding hands and fingers hovering over our phones trembled.

‘Let’s make the streaming playlist first.’

The album’s title track Empire flowed into our ears, just as fans predicted—a powerful vocal over an intense trap beat and grand sound.

‘...Insane.’

It felt different from any song so far. It gave the sense of many becoming one—seamless, no disjointed parts; it flowed like water.

From the opening, it pulled you in. And the part that seemed to foreshadow a dance break in the latter half made our hearts pound.

‘You did it. Universe, you did it again.’

Imagining the leader’s sense of responsibility and burden—six title tracks plus a full album—yet the New Black style made it feel like easy listening on any beat.

-From the old New Black live mtb event

-New vocal technique?

-How’s the part distribution in this new song?

-This one is a little disappointing

-I’ve loved New Black since Fireworks, but Empire felt odd at first

-Repertoire seems similar... change composers plsㅠ

-I don’t really get their talent, they just silence fans praising them

-Composer members writing title tracks makes it hard to criticizeㅇㅇ

Seeing harsh comments on forums, the supples sighed relief.

‘It’s a hit. Another hit.’

Usually haters react oppositely to quality—no reaction means a bad song.

Of course, not only criticism emerged.

-The wait was worth it

-Savage love is awesomeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Rihyuk’s voice is truly a treasure

-Now I know what it means for the genre to be New Black—unique with autotune

-Whoa, they really came preparedㅋㅋㅋ

-The chorus is insanely well chosen

While comments poured in, the realtime chart on music sites updated.

And.

‘...Oh my.’

Through five minutes of data, Empire rocketed past songs in 2nd to 4th place in a near-vertical climb.

The next time slot’s “predicted #1” appeared before our eyes.

‘Can anything beat this next time...?’

It rose with a gap so huge that the thought naturally came to mind.

-Immediate roof kick

-Go easy..

-So jealousㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Congrats congrats

-Thanks to song quality and fandom streaming, this graph happens..

-Normal people stream well

Predictions for #1, #2, #3 all showed New Black’s tracks.

Our minds reeling, the supples opened New Black TV and clicked the MV.

[New Black – ‘Empire’ Official MV]

The longer video suggested an opening sequence.

And.

At the moment the music video played, the supples’ eyes widened at the two stars.

‘Gwak Shihyun and Lee Geonu...?’

Then we remembered the two top actors who appeared in the MV opening.

Stars earning about 100 million won per episode, appearing in an MV—it felt surreal.

“Wow...”

A live voice of awe escaped.

Like gods of myth, a man and woman in antique garb faced each other against a white background.

A chessboard stood between them. Gwak Shihyun in black moved a piece languidly; Lee Geonu in white responded the same.

Like they’d played for centuries, their bored movements ended with the white-clad deity’s victory.

Tap.

At a gentle tap from a finger, the black king fell.

The game over, the two deities vanished, and the camera closed in on the fallen black pieces on the board.

‘Oh....’

The supples’ eyes went wide.

Though it felt like we looked down from the sky, the close-up showed the pieces turning into people.

Five dark-haired beauties lay on the floor. The intro we heard played again as they rose and formed a line as New Black.

The leader’s face was close-up, then the choreography formation spread out.

Watching the Empire MV, the supples stared blankly.

‘Amazing....’

Until the final close-up of the five members seated on the ruined throne.

They replayed it without commenting.

‘What is this?’

Refreshing, the view count’s leading digit changed.

At this rate, it’d hit nearly one million views by the showcase’s time.

Probably because it’s MyTube, viewers overseas were wildly excited.

-My mood right now: The king of K-pop returns

-From the first scene I laughed like crazy

-The best five minutes of my life

-Anyone trying to comment “who” should search “woojoo” now

-When does Jiho become an adult in Korea? Waiting to know when I can love him

Seeing excited foreigners, the supples nodded.

‘Keep ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) gushing somewhere else.’

Scrolling down, down, yet no Korean comments—fans gave up sadly.

Meanwhile, 18:59.

Thanks to last night’s final episode’s impact, competition songs from On The Stage and OSTs like Walk Again mixed on the chart.

The supples clicked, and from #1 down, the album chart was all black.

“Wow...”

It truly was a king’s return.

As New Black’s album exploded in response, singers who avoided overlapping comeback schedules breathed sighs of relief.

‘I almost died.’

While industry figures and singers gaped, some watched the chart and applauded.

“They’re strong. So strong.”

“I told you—overlap is death.”

“True.”

“But if you fall against these guys, at least it’s an honorable death.”

We boys living next door felt proud of our strong neighbors.

At the K-Net Broadcasting studio in Sangam-dong, staff voices echoed to the supples.

“Please lower the light on the light sticks!”

They fiddled.

Setting the light sticks to minimum, they glowed just enough, lighting up the fans’ faces.

‘Finally, the stage...!’

It was 8:00.

Empire’s MV was racing toward one million views, and the charts flew black flags.

The song was, of course, excellent.

Every aspect showed a green light for the full album.

Plus, the five-month hiatus made fans more excited.

“It starts...!”

K-Net’s exterior appeared on the stage’s front screen.

The name The New Black flashed on the building’s billboard with the caption “The day everyone’s been waiting for.”

‘Always global. Those K-Net guys.’

After the global-obsessed caption passed, the VCR for today’s order played: fan events, special behind-the-scenes, and so on.

And.

“Waaaaah!”

Finally, the members’ personal VCRs began.

Dressed in black uniforms with gold embroidery, Jiho strode to the stone throne and sat. Then Bijoo, Rihyuk, Junhyun, and Wooju in turn, each sat on a throne.

As they sat, someone reached from behind and placed a different crown on each.

After the coronation, the full shot showed the members seated on their thrones, gazing coldly at whatever lay before them.

The stage lights went dark.

On the screen the fans watched appeared the song title with the caption “Composed by Wooju.”

As the lights brightened, cheers erupted.

“Waaaaah!”

The curtain rose, lights shone on the five members standing on the stairs, and the first stage of the full album Deep Black began.