In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Lunar New Year vibes filled every corner of the country.

The smell of oil from pan-fried pollock fritters and meat patties drifted through houses while elders lazed on sofas.

Kids tore around shrieking at the top of their lungs.

Holiday scenes varied house to house, but they all had one thing in common: Jusehan was on TV.

“They’re on again.”

“There’s nowhere they aren’t~”

They poked at their teeth with toothpicks while chatting like that, but the eyes of those elders were clearly pleased.

The familiar “Gabi gabi dokkabi~” song from TV lasted only a moment.

To snatch the show’s gold coins, the members of NewBlack lit up with fierce determination and started pulling off the wildest stuff.

“...What?”

It was NewBlack’s leader, acting out a brutal keyword with his whole body for a “Speak with Your Body” game.

“What is that? How do you do that?”

“Red blood cell? How are you supposed to...”

The leader mimed jabbing a syringe into his own arm, then flitted around like a round disc flying through the air; Ri Hyuk got excited.

[Uh... red blood cell!]

Wooju flashed an OK, then twisted his face into something wicked, pretended to heft a trident, crossed to the other side, and blew an imaginary police whistle.

“I can see the whistle...”

“So that’s the one that fights germs, right? You know, the hospital posters where germs carry spears.”

“Right.”

Ri Hyuk jumped up, fired up, and after thinking hard, shouted:

[Red blood cell fighting a white blood cell!]

[Correct.]

Viewers watching on TV, online and offline alike, were amazed.

The TV even said, [Viewers, try to guess along], and in most homes people were nailing it the same way.

Wooju wiggled as if swimming and pretended to blow water from his back.

“Whale!”

This time he bared his teeth—Kwaaang!—and swam to the Jaws BGM beat. Then he made a plus sign like “combine.”

“Shark? ...Whale shark!”

“Insane!”

“So that’s how you win five million won in Japan...”

According to the caption, NewBlack had won five million won with this in Japan.

Even with complex keywords, they tore through the quiz faster than the Jusehan cast, drawing involuntary admiration.

Then shots of NewBlack munching on tteokbokki made everyone chuckle.

“They’re pure, those kids.”

“But it’s cloudy over there... yikes. Look at Ye Huiyeon with the horns.”

Soon Jusehan’s team launched a solid counterattack and the game turned neck and neck.

Biju, lacking arm strength, placed second in the cube steak grilling challenge.

Jiho lost by a single kick against shuttlecock master Teacher Woo Jaeyong and sprawled on the floor.

[Aaaargh! I lost! Ah! I lost!]

The maknae in thick hanbok pants and a puffer jacket plopped down and wailed, cracking everyone up.

With teary eyes Jiho shook the shuttlecock.

[Uuuuuu—!]

While he shook it with that aggrieved face and the staff and cast howled,

Jiho kept going “Auuu” while shaking the shuttlecock,

Biju came over and popped a sweet hotteok in his mouth, and Junhyun slung the maknae over his back—commotion over.

And then...

[Germanium.]

[East.]

For a moment the main vocal made waves by knocking out the Jusehan cast in a word chain round with shameless words.

Still, a win is a win: the little goblins gleefully bought snacks with the coins Ri Hyuk had sneakily stolen.

Each time, the Jusehan cast’s faces went darker and darker.

The camera cut to PD Gu Jaeyoung smiling with deep satisfaction.

At first the Jusehan cast had promised to save their coins, but they lost their minds and started eating tteokbokki.

After a string of scenes that made everyone crave winter snacks,

A mini-game to disentangle a knotted metal ring came up. NewBlack’s challenger: Junhyun.

He solved it in under thirty seconds.

“Look at that... whoa. He pulled it apart.”

“He actually ripped it. Junhyun.”

“Strong as an ox. Kids like that should be in the wrestling ring.”

As the elders clucked in amazement—

[I solved it.]

“......”

Junhyun lifted the ring, eyes bright, looking into the camera as if addressing the viewers.

The ring was cleanly apart.

[I solved it. Really...]

[Verification! We have to verify this!]

“Right. Verify.”

The replay rolled at once. Junhyun stared at the ring, and then—tororok, tororok—he unwound it.

It was like watching a bear twist off a Pepsi cap, roll-roll-roll.

“Incredible. Junhyun... used his head...?”

It felt somehow unreal.

While everyone reeled from the twist by NewBlack’s rapper,

At last, the leader’s turn came.

The shot of Jusehan’s cast losing their minds—“we can’t beat this!”—had everyone nodding along.

Live watch threads across communities reacted the same.

But the moment a game-console event was announced, the knock-offs and Souffle went “Huh?”

“Wooju is terrible at games, though...”

As their eyes went round,

Even ordinary viewers who didn’t know about Wooju’s game ineptitude sensed something off in his face on screen.

“His face looks a bit... suspicious.”

“He’s hiding something.”

He’s a national idol—people have seen his face too much—so they caught it right away: the expression wasn’t normal.

That easy, poker-faced smile felt strange.

The Jusehan cast noticed it, too.

“What is that.”

“He must be awful with that kind of console, huh.”

With reactions popping up everywhere, Souffle smiled like the inevitable had arrived.

“Our boy only ever works—he doesn’t know games...”

He had lost to fans in online games, sure—but probably because he never had time for that kind of game.

They kept watching Jusehan thinking just that when—

[Oof...!]

“Wow. He fell right there?”

“Oh boy.”

The groans from the TV made perfect sense.

Every time people thumped their chests beside Wooju holding the controller, the game character went byoong and sky-dived off a cliff.

Song Jinu finally asked, unable to watch.

[...You’re doing that on purpose, right?]

[No!]

It was a skill level like he’d been cursed by the god of gaming.

Nationwide, the leader of NewBlack had his weakness exposed.

As viewers logged the data point “Wooju’s weak spot... games...” into their brains,

“Damn. I could do better than that.”

“If you handed the controller to Nabi the cat, she’d do better.”

“Meowww.”

“Right, Nabi? Oh my, why are you all scrunched up like that again. Are you Raincoat Boy?”

“I don’t know. Leave me alone...”

In one house in Gunsan, a young man with his hoodie yanked low had a storm cloud parked over his head.

After NewBlack went “Gabi gabi dokkabi” and left—

[Huh?]

[Where did all the coins go?]

Like they’d been literally bewitched by goblins, the Jusehan cast had burned through their coins, and PD Gu Jaeyoung reached out with his devil’s hand.

They spun the “gold-rush chance!” wheel for a brutal off-grid expedition mission.

“Next week!” The Jusehan teaser rolled—and straight into Part 2: People Are Going.

“Huh?”

“They’re here too?”

Viewers who were about to change channels after Jusehan froze.

“NewBlack again?”

They put the remotes down.

While People Are Going inherited Jusehan’s ratings wholesale—putting smiles on the master control room staff—

“Finally!”

Idol fans watched with pounding hearts.

“At last...!”

Idol fans’ hearts raced at the special: NewBlack would become managers for Street Boys.

It was the first bait of its kind.

Aside from Hanjo and LB and Giwon having popped up on Jusehan, it was effectively their first variety in seven months.

“Thank goodness we at least have this.”

The overseas tour was about to start.

You could barely see their faces on TV, and the agency kept shipping them overseas; complaints were brewing.

“Oof. They’re being dragged in...”

From the start, NewBlack had been conned and hauled in by PD Do; it was funny already.

Then came scenes of them moving to DNS Media and MOP Entertainment for training.

Idol communities exploded into another fight.

Watching antis stir by bringing up Wonder Child (audition-debuted), the Concrete fans hefted their hammers.

“Like street buskers—antis respawn every cooldown.”

As usual, the Concrete smacked antis down.

They swung their hammers—bang, bang, bang—attacking hard; Souffle, watching, thought, Should we help? and joined in.

And in that instant—

“Huh?”

Kuwaaang! A giant bomb went off, and it felt like the antis became stars in the sky.

Squeaky-clean boards.

Like an enormous loaf of bread with shining eyes waved and vanished beyond the clouds.

“...We should stay friends.”

While the Concrete smiled faintly like that,

Manager Joo Sunwoo appeared on TV.

He’d even changed outfits; people burst out laughing.

While idol fans traded gags, the long-awaited reunion of the mint-choco squad happened on TV.

In a slightly... dramatic way.

[Aaaaagh!]

[Hyaaa!]

Wooju scaled walls like an assassin and woke Hanjo, setting fans laughing.

Going between the salon and the station, even the little things with S-bo and NewBlack were hilarious.

While the scene played where Junhyun hid his identity to do a public-broadcast attendance check, idol fans watched with keen focus.

“This is fun.”

It wasn’t some special chase or an unusual gimmick.

But the hands-on variety shone a light on what people were always curious about—managers and agency workflows.

Especially since variety focusing on managers is rare.

“Man, music TV isn’t easy. That’s an all-day thing?”

“Fascinating.”

Even non-fans were giving it good marks.

Meanwhile—

Since the early build-up ran long, it felt like they planned to push the meat of the music-show arc to Episode 2.

Fans were watching, tantalized, when

The S-bo × NewBlack team’s ending scene rolled.

“Everyone.”

Manager Joo Sunwoo whipped his coat and laughed “Hah-hah-hah.”

“I brought a schedule.”

News broke that he’d secured a booking with HBS’s hit variety Inc., and viewers’ eyes widened.

“Next week!” The teaser for Part 2 of the manager special ran.

As idol fans blinked wide at a first-ever situation,

Right on cue, HBS’s hit variety dropped an official press release.

While idol fans collectively gasped, the Concrete stared at their phones, dazed.

“Holy.”

Goosebumps.

Variety.

After scraping one variety in seven months, they had another within a day—and it was a group booking.

“...Felt like there was something else, too.”

Even in the teaser, it looked like Manager Joo Sunwoo brought something else.

Concrete’s hearts thundered. They ran toward where Souffle gathered.

Parched for variety, Street Boys’ fans came to bow; Souffle smiled bashfully.

“It’s nothing, really...”

They typed shyly and smiled.

They each posted just one note—

And immediately, pages and pages of “there’s nothing between us...” shyposts piled over five pages, and the Concrete got washed away.

“Hey, hey! Friends! Where are you going!”

“Aaaagh!”

Another heart-warming day in idol world.

That night.

Online was still buzzing about People Are Going.

Seo Ri Hyuk woke from a nightmare.

“Ri Hyuk hyung! Look at this! I found a rock! It’s glowing!”

“Ri Hyuk! Look at this! The rock is shining!”

“Bwahahahaha!”

In the dream, the leader-and-maknae duo rejoiced with a glowing stone.

“That’s radiation! You lunatics! You’ll get exposed!”

If something glows in nature, it’s bad!

He shoved the two away and jolted awake—finding himself on the floor.

“Phew...”

Once again, I saved the members in my dreams.

Calmly brushing back sweat-soaked hair, Ri Hyuk got up and left his room for water.

1 a.m.

He crept down the dark hallway, lighting his way with his phone.

“Meooowwww—”

“♪ ♪ ♬”

“Meooowwww—”

A room where a cat’s cry and faint piano notes leaked out, mixed together.

“Huh?”

Seo Ri Hyuk walked toward the door with the faint light. What he saw inside made his eyes go wide.