In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Every time I look, it feels magical.

“Wooooow.......”

Each time I pull my eye back and then bring it close again, the geometric patterns inside the trophy change.

They call this a kaleidoscope.

“If you break down the old Sino-Korean, it means ‘ten thousand splendid mirrors.’ It’d make a perfect song title later.”

“Then if people ask why the title track is called ‘Kaleidoscope,’ how do we answer?”

“Just fudge it well.”

I said that and smiled at the younger ones.

“Besides, we’re going to have to fudge a few things in the interview anyway.”

“True.”

“Okay. In that spirit, let’s rehearse. My little brothers, why is the group name The New Black?”

They chanted in unison.

“Because it means we lead the next trend, we became The New Black.”

“Correct.”

Biju raised his hand.

“Hyung.”

“Go ahead, our precious second.”

“I feel a tiny bit guilty. Keeping the backstory of NewBlack’s name a secret......”

“We have no choice.”

I gazed up at nothing with dewy eyes.

“We can never tell them we cribbed it from a cheap sweatshirt from K Mart that said ‘Chicken Is The New Black’......”

“......”

“......”

The younger ones and I hugged each other and wailed.

I finally get how Hong Gildong felt, unable to call his father “Father.” It’s truly pitiful that we can’t reveal how NewBlack’s name was born.

In the middle of that, Ri Hyuk clicked his tongue.

“You should’ve picked a good name at the start. If we’d chosen something cool from the beginning, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Exactly.”

“You share about one gram of the blame.”

Junhyun and Jiho switched sides in a heartbeat to pile on, and I smiled warmly.

“You remember your team name before I joined the company was Lemon Boys, right?”

“......”

“And what were the names you submitted back then? Devils, Yellow Green, Five Star......”

“Aaaargh! We’re sorry!”

“Don’t mess with someone who has a good memory.”

Especially Mr. Jungmo, who’d insisted on Five Star—he confessed his sins and offered me a bag of gummies.

But my mouth didn’t stop.

“And you know it wasn’t me who suggested NewBlack, it was Jiho, right? He pointed at my sweatshirt and......”

“Okay! Okay!”

“Someone stuff snacks in his mouth!”

“Mm! Mmph! Mmph!”

Just like me, the younger ones hate hearing hard truths most of all.

When we climbed out of the van with the members who hadn’t even broken even in the tease, a group of people greeted us.

“Welcome!”

They were staff from the kids’ magazine that had booked today’s photoshoot and interview.

We went into the studio, shook hands with the editor and photographer, and headed straight into wardrobe fitting.

“Wow. How do I look good in this color too.”

Our maknae cooed at his reflection, wearing a red sweatshirt and jeans.

I slipped on a denim jacket over a T-shirt and looked in the mirror.

The overall concept felt like retro high-teen youth stars. Stylish outfits with red, yellow, and blue all tangled in bright combos.

“Must be a kids’ magazine—the colors are bold.”

“To be precise, it’s a low-teen magazine.”

“Low-teen?”

“Late teens are called high-teen, and early-to-mid teens are low-teen.”

“So... that means kids, right?”

“W... well?”

“......?”

“......?”

Something about that exchange felt off.

Tilting my head with Ri Hyuk, I finished changing and stepped onto the set.

A fashion shoot is universal, anywhere.

“Great! One more! Big smiles.”

“Please pose like, ‘I am the new dream and hope for children!’”

“This is a kids’ magazine. Don’t smile like that!”

We gave languid, concept-photo smiles and got stopped.

They wanted model smiles for children.

During a short break we held a powwow.

“The brief is a little tricky. A model smile for kids......”

“Let’s just smile however it comes out.”

We laughed the way we usually do, not a fashion-face.

The photographer’s expression lit up.

“Exactly! That’s it! Truly childlike!”

“......”

We decided to take it as meaning we have pure, spotless smiles.

After a few more outfit changes and an hour or two of shooting, it was interview time.

Our interview would run in a column that features major girl groups and boy groups.

Maybe that’s why the editor’s questions were detailed and deep.

“If a reader is meeting NewBlack for the first time, which song would you recommend?”

We answered in chorus.

“Of course, ‘Firework.’”

“‘Firework’?”

“Yes.”

The maknae replied calmly in English.

“It’s our debut song and, in a way, the start of NewBlack. It’s bright and refreshing, so it fits first-time listeners. The theme is literally a first meeting.”

While the editor adjusted the recorder, Biju continued.

“Our albums carry a continuous story as they are. There’s a full beginning-middle-end within an album, and externally there’s a story that connects album to album.”

“Interesting. What’s the story?”

“First, our five-part series we call Five Colors deals with meeting and parting.”

It starts with a first meeting in “Firework,” then shows how they slowly grow close, and ends with a farewell that promises reunion.

Explaining that arc made the editor’s eyes sparkle.

“And after that?”

“We planned a three-part series called Black & White. If meeting and parting were the previous theme, this time it’s conflict and reconciliation.”

Junhyun said,

“‘Empire’ explores that conflict, and ‘Dokkaebi’ interprets the cause of that conflict in our own way.”

“I looked up ‘Dokkaebi’ in advance. Among your fans the response is tremendous.”

They praised it as fresh for holding a minority metaphor, which made me a bit bashful—we hadn’t set out with anything that grand.

“So is the new title track you’re preparing about reconciliation?”

“Right. Peace, harmony. Things like that.”

I waved a hand with a smile.

“It sounds big, but our songs are always simple. We turn the things we worry about among ourselves into songs. Like any family anywhere, sometimes we bicker, sometimes we adore each other. We put those everyday moments into songs.”

Meeting and parting.

Conflict and reconciliation.

We stressed that it wasn’t about lofty intentions—just translating what we felt in daily life into music.

“Just like a teacher should know the subject they teach, I think a singer should understand the lyrics they’re saying.”

“You can’t teach economics if you don’t know economics.”

At Ri Hyuk’s analogy, the editor smiled.

“Now I’m really excited for the next song ‘Coin.’ I’ll wait for it.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s been just over an hour since I met you, but you strike me as a truly unusual group.”

The editor tapped their pen.

“Different from what I expected. A full group of singer-songwriters who can all write and compose......”

“He mainly composes. We contribute.”

“Even so, it’s definitely rare. Truly.”

There was a light of fondness in their eyes.

Who knows how they’ll write the piece, but it was clearly positive.

After that serious talk about music, the editor moved to the next segment.

“Within this column there’s a small section called Fun Facts.”

“‘Fun facts’?”

“Yes. Share stories the readers would find fun—surprising incidents, for example.”

“Hoo.”

The younger ones and I traded looks.

Then we beamed at the editor.

“How many should we give you each?”

“Is there a per-member limit?”

“......Pardon?”

We smiled at the puzzled editor.

“About those ‘Fun Facts.’ We have a lot of those.”

That night.

Melinda McMurray, editor at the low-teen magazine, stared at her laptop.

‘What do I keep, what do I cut.’

A screen full of Fun Facts seized her attention.

[Fun Fact]

That was just the start—there were 73 items.

And that was where she stopped them, only because she cut them off even though the members said they could go on.

Truly outlandish things, one after another.

‘I figured at least a few would be tall tales......’

Every time she searched one, there was a linked video.

Even number 1 had a Korean cable news interview with a “righteous citizen.”

The unbelievable black-goat battle and the dairy-cow “Communist Party” declaration were right there.

The bulgogi lunchbox was so popular it basically turned a highway rest stop to ashes.

“......What do I even do with this.”

Melinda paused, trimming the interview and trying to cap the count of Fun Facts.

A bit of thinking.

The short dilemma ended; she got up and went to the editor-in-chief’s office.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Come in.”

She handed printed pages over.

“I wanted to discuss this.”

“What is it?”

“The NewBlack interview slated for the next issue.”

“Oh. The slime ninjas?”

“Yes, in the Fun Facts section I received these. They all look fake, but......”

The editor-in-chief took off their glasses and held the paper up to their eyes.

Then burst out laughing.

“These are all true?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a crying shame to cut any of this. My god, how did they do a chase with a black goat?”

“They were good at it. Anyway, that’s not the point. I had an idea while reading this—can I pitch it?”

The proposal that came out of the editor’s mouth got an immediate okay.

They’d add a few more pages than usual, but it was worth it.

Even though the interview had been rushed through, fast-moving advertisers had piled on, probably because this was NewBlack’s only magazine interview.

“Let’s run it as is.”

The editor-in-chief and editor exchanged smiles.

In that moment, a Fun Facts section that normally takes one page ballooned to four.

While NewBlack were wrapping schedules and departing from LAX—

The ripples of the Kids’ Choice Awards were still circling the globe.

[Mr. Eto, did you hear? NewBlack won at an American children’s awards.]

[Right. I’d say this looks like the fruit of the Korean government’s long-time policies to nurture K-pop. Recently the Tourism Board even stepped in to push ‘Dokkaebi.’]

[Meticulous. And NewBlack had already aimed for a global push through the Mytube World account.]

[Still, seeing comments like ‘slime ninja,’ you can tell Japan’s soft power—samurai and the like—is still beloved worldwide....]

On Japanese lifestyle-and-current-affairs shows, they slapped panels on and off, talking about NewBlack’s connections with the Korean government.

While kids around the world lamented that only America got the privilege—

A few people in Australia were feeling the effect too.

“Huh?”

Dave, the owner of “Love Shark,” a shark-cage outfit that lets you experience great whites, cocked his head at customers’ comments.

They were pointing at photos of two handsome young men on the wall.

“They’re famous?”

“They’re all over Mytube. A group called NewBlack......”

“Really?”

He’d framed the photos because good-looking people help sales.

Wooju and Junhyun in scuba gear making a heart.

It was a small framed photo, yet several local customers recognized them.

“Famous?”

Dave’s rough hands booted the computer.

He typed “NewBlack” in the search bar, and a staggering number of videos popped up.

And then—

“Uh......?”

In the latest photos, the two handsome youths were beaming, arms slung around Hayley Blue.

Dave’s gaze bounced between the two young men in the frame and Hayley Blue.

He suddenly recalled their words.

—We’re friends with Hayley.

He’d interpreted it as a strong sense of inner closeness; now it hit completely differently.

Just as he was thinking he should enlarge the frame—

The real shock started.

‘Huh?’

Ding!

Ding!

Ding-a-ling-a-ling!

Ding!

“Whoa-whoa-whoa?”

Customers started exploding in like crazy.

At first it was local customers.

“This is the place.”

“Hffff. You can still feel their breath lingering.”

“Don’t say creepy things like that in a sacred place.”

People poured in, chattering. They varied wildly, but behaved the same.

They inhaled with loud sniffs—

Then struck the exact same heart pose in front of the frame with NewBlack’s photo.

“......”

Dave asked,

“Um......”

“Hah!”

“......”

“It’s the guy from Mytube! Dave!”

As he asked what on earth was going on, the answer came fast.

Those young men who’d come with cameras were real famous singers, and their travel vlog from that day was apparently going up on their Mytube.

Australian fans grinned.

“So we came to try it.”

“I see.”

“We have to claim a spot first. Before everyone else swarms.”

“Everyone else?”

“Yeah. Where we’re from, fans can’t rest until they copy whatever NewBlack does.”

And it was true.

A few days later, the phones started ringing off the hook with “Korean honeymooners” and “Korean tourists.”

If he used the stock line—“How did you hear about us?”—the answer was the same.

—We watched NewBlack’s Travel Diary! The owner seemed really kind, and the price looked reasonable.

Dave patted his chest in relief.

‘Good thing I’ve been decent.’

If he’d price-gouged even a little or been rude to NewBlack, something very unpleasant would surely have happened.

No—

Even without that, there’s no way customers would be flooding in like this.

“......They really were something.”

He’d already upsized the frame once, after seeing the shot with Hayley Blue online.

Now even that looked small.

“Hello, is this the fabrication shop?”

—Yes.

“I’d like to place a special order.”

The shop owner placed a record-sized frame order, wearing the happiest face in the world.

While the shark-cage operator enjoyed a mysterious windfall—

All across Australia, people were basking in the NewBlack boom.

“Good grief.......”

“Customers are duplicating.......”

“Is this a dream?”

From small souvenir shops to historical experience centers.

Each time the reality show dropped a new video, local fans moved en masse, and the routes of Korean tourists shifted.

—Yes, next up is a park near Sydney Harbour. NewBlack recently busked there. They say they performed with a world-class guitarist. I studied in Australia too, and Devil Grills is legendary......

“Oh wow, they performed there.”

“How do they get around so well.”

“Let’s take a photo too.”

Package tours, backpackers, Korean expats, Korean students—

The footsteps of Koreans were nonstop.

Tourism Australia was practically shrieking with joy—welcome, welcome.

‘NewBlack TV is legendary.......’

Tourist board staff, overcome, set their desktops to NewBlack.

Meanwhile pilgrimages to NewBlack spots didn’t stop.

From Sydney to Brisbane.

“That’s right! This is the very shop NewBlack visited! See the photo here?”

“Are you a Souffle? Ten percent off.”

“Come on in! Magic Wand Shop visited by NewBlack!”

Merchants started pasting NewBlack photos and Travel Diary screenshots, hawking “original shop,” “hit shop.”

They practiced Korean phrases like “We love you, «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» thank you.”

In the midst of jammed tourist sites, there was exactly one place that couldn’t smile.

“......”

“......”

The restaurant strip in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.