In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 367

“I have to apologize, no matter what.”

These were the words I muttered to myself in the car heading to the airport.

“No matter how many mouths I have, there’s nothing I can say. I’m sorry. We’re not human. We’re the bad guys. That’s how it should be.”

“You’re right. We can’t ever make Bijoo angry.”

Jiho’s words, an old saying that one should never upset those who serve you food, had us all nodding in agreement.

After practicing our most apologetic expressions, as instructed by our youngest member.

Junhyeon broke the silence.

“Maybe we should just prostrate ourselves as soon as we enter, how about that?”

“If you want to be known as the Korean idol who bows at Japanese airports, go ahead, brother.”

“That means don’t do it, right?”

“Yes.”

Whispering such plans, we found ourselves standing in front of the lost and found at Kansai Airport.

The youngest gestured like a conductor.

“Ready.”

On cue, we burst through the door, gasping for air.

“Bijoo!”

“Bijoo hyung! Are you okay?”

“We knew immediately after losing you, but the airport exit was one-way, so it took a while to get here.”

Bijoo squinted at us as we pretended to wipe non-existent sweat, panting.

Then he spoke.

“Stop faking your breaths, everyone.”

“...”

“You can tell how hard someone ran just by the sound of their panting.”

We all coughed awkwardly, avoiding Bijoo’s disapproving gaze.

While the shelter staff looked on in wonder, murmuring amongst themselves, Bijoo crossed his arms.

“No.”

As we clasped our hands together in front of him, Bijoo’s face filled with a sense of betrayal.

“As soon as I got in the car, I checked if everyone was aboard properly, and really, everyone...”

“We’re sorry, hyung.”

The youngest said with a sly grin.

“It’s all because your presence is too strong, hyung. Even when you’re sleeping, it feels like you’re asking, ‘Jiho, does that dance help you sleep?’”

“Ha ha ha!”

“Sorry, hyung~”

Our second youngest, with a low threshold for laughter, burst into giggles before quickly coughing and composing himself.

But the softening around his eyes suggested he was letting his guard down.

“If this happens again, next time...”

“Next time?”

“...Well, I’ll do something.”

Perhaps it was because he had never really retaliated before.

Unable to think of a suitable comeback, our second youngest’s evasion made us all laugh.

And then we apologized.

“We’re sorry, Bijoo.”

“It’s okay, hyung.”

“It was a big bus, and we ended up sitting scattered all over.”

Jiho turned his head.

“Huh? But we all sat together, didn’t we?”

“Junghyun.”

“Aaah!”

After dealing with the youngest, we explained the situation to Bijoo.

The fans had swarmed us, and we had to board the bus in a rush.

We had split up with the company staff, which added to the chaos.

Fortunately, Bijoo smiled softly and let it slide.

“Anyway, I was really upset, hyung.”

“I’m sorry.”

“The fans were more shocked. When I was left behind, they ran shouting, ‘Bijoo! Bijoo!’”

We all erupted in laughter.

It made sense now why the Japanese fans had looked at us with wide eyes, making ‘beep-beep’ sounds in confusion.

Even the managers were sharing the funny incident among themselves, laughing.

That’s when I felt a gaze from across the bench at the lost and found.

“...?”

A little girl, about four or five years old, holding a pink balloon, was staring at us, her mouth agape in wonder.

Bijoo spoke to her in Japanese.

“This is Mio, she’s five. Her mother is on her way.”

“Hello.”

The child named Mio, who had been staring at us, finally spoke to Bijoo.

“I guess it’s okay to forgive them,” I mused aloud.

“Really?” came the reply.

“They’re handsome, these oppas.”

Before the other members arrived, it seemed I was debating with a little kid whether to forgive them or not.

When we burst into laughter, the youngest, sensing the humor, joined in with a hearty “Ahaha!”

I crouched down to meet the child’s eye level.

“Thank you for keeping this directionally challenged oppa entertained,” I said gratefully.

The child, locking eyes with me, shyly hid behind a balloon.

So adorable.

“Do you like sweet things?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then, as a gift, I’ll give you this.”

I pulled out a soufflé bread from my eco-bag and handed it over.

The little one carefully accepted the bread, and we all held our breath as he unwrapped it.

The five of us crouched in front of the child.

“Mio, Mio, can we see your stickers?”

“This one?”

“Yes, that one.”

Unfortunately, it was just a common Level 7 Black Goat Rider sticker.

We had hoped for something above Level 10 to trade with ours, but it wasn’t to be.

As soon as the child tasted the soufflé bread and exclaimed, “It’s so delicious!” we all nodded in approval.

“Now, Mio, when you see your mom, tell her all about us.”

“And when you’re a bit older, join MyTube and subscribe to NewBlackTV, and don’t forget to hit ‘like.’”

“Since you’ve received bread, now you’re a soufflé too.”

The child didn’t seem to fully grasp our conversation but nodded earnestly nonetheless.

As we were about to leave, the child piped up, “Can we take a picture?”

We took photos and signed autographs for the shelter staff.

As we were about to leave for the airport with our managers.

“By the way, Bijoo.”

“Yes?”

“Nothing happened while we were waiting, right?”

Bijoo pondered for a moment before beaming a bright “Yes!”

Then, suddenly, his expression clouded over like a sky filled with dark clouds.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s a trivial thing, really. I got a bit confused with the words when talking to the fans.”

“Words?”

“I mixed up ‘kowai’ and ‘kawaii.’ ‘Kawaii’ means cute, right? And ‘kowai’ means scary.”

Rihyuk nodded and clarified, “Kowai is scary, kawaii is cute.”

“Oh, that explains it...”

“Those guys are probably acting up because of the history exploration show; there was a special on the independence movement.”

Was it thanks to NewBlack’s quiet rise in popularity through YouTube and variety shows?

The Soufflés cooled down as much as they had been heated up, seeing the comments and thinking, “Huh...?”

“Calm down, everyone. Just calm down...”

The atmosphere was as if people were grabbing tools and farm equipment.

Ordinary people were hurling extraordinary insults, shocking the Soufflés.

Monitoring the tone of Japanese media, including newspapers and TV programs, alongside offline reactions like those at the airport and fan signing events.

“We’ve become quite hated without realizing it,” I remarked, prompting laughter from my siblings and staff.

In a hotel room in Osaka.

The NewBlack TF team gathered around a spacious table, discussing today’s schedule.

“It seems we do have a lot of fans in Japan. The response at the fan signing was indicative of that.”

“It was incredibly heated.”

Hong Seo-young, the TF team’s PR manager, tapped her pen as she spoke.

“The Japanese agent emphasized that pulling off a concert of this scale without any promotion is a miracle.”

Our week-long concert series was expected to draw between 60,000 to 70,000 people.

That’s 4 to 5 times the 15,000 we gathered over three days at a handball stadium last year.

Typically, concerts in Japan draw 5 to 10 times more people than in Korea.

I heard Teen Spirit drew 350,000 last year.

Anyway, drawing this crowd size for our first concert without any promotion was unheard of.

“NewBlack’s position is set as ‘a very famous foreign artist,’” explained Manager Hong.

“It’s perceived as if a Hollywood singer is performing in Japan without any separate promotion.”

“Is that a good thing, Manager, I mean, Chief?”

“There are pros and cons. We can secure a basic level of attendance, but... it’s harder to build a fandom in Japan in the long run. They prefer artists who grow like domestic idols.”

It’s similar to when a famous American singer holds a concert in Korea.

They gather an audience thanks to their name value and recognition, but growing a fandom is challenging.

Manager Hong furrowed her brow.

“For now, our kids, I mean, you guys need to be active here to grow the fandom...”

Paths to attract Japanese fans, from TV variety shows to minor events, were all blocked.

Minki-hyung said, “It’s as if there’s a conspiracy to exclude us at all costs. Even the program that said they wanted to cast us suddenly changed their tune after hearing something.”

“It’s mostly the same everywhere. They try by all means not to include us.”

Someone laughed and said, “From the perspective of the broadcasting world here, it’s quite intimidating. It’s like we’ve conquered the Japanese archipelago! An idol group with such influence coming to Korea, what are they planning to do?”

“You guys have done a great job informing foreigners about Korean history through MyTube. It seems like they’re even more wary because of that.”

“It’s like they treat us as if we’re coming to lay floor heating in a tatami room,” I joked, and everyone laughed.

“But we’re not yet called ‘national idols’ in Korea. Isn’t this vigilance a bit excessive?”

“The people here believe you are Korea’s national idols, that’s why.”

We had indeed gained public recognition, but not to the extent of being adorned with the ‘national’ prefix.

Since there was no other idol group like us, the Japanese media exaggerated our every move, from the soufflé bread to my hometown, as if they were thinking, ‘What is this? What exactly is this?’

The sad part was that in the process, they seemed to have believed their own exaggerated tales.

Rihyuk spoke up, “I still can’t believe we’ve appeared on broadcast, even on terrestrial TV programs, over 400 times.”

“We feel the same way.”

Jiho added, “It reminds me of The Truman Show. We were just active in Korea, but unbeknownst to us, millions of people were watching.”

Everyone laughed at Jiho’s comment.

Meanwhile, we all looked at the empty schedule with a sense of dread.

“The overall atmosphere is that they won’t allow us to grow any bigger...”

It wasn’t a bad situation, though.

Our TF team leader sipped his water and said, “To be honest, it’s a blessing in disguise. The media in this country is doing the promotion for us.”

The media’s extensive coverage had piqued the curiosity of Japanese fans, wondering, ‘Who are these guys? How’s their music?’

And that led to the current scale of the soufflé.

For any other artist, it would have taken months of groundwork to break into the Japanese entertainment industry and achieve such results.

Frankly, we should be bowing in gratitude for this situation.

However, since all potential fans who could be attracted through simple TV exposure had already been drawn in, it was difficult to grow any larger.

That’s why it was challenging to achieve the original goal of the Japan tour, which was to gather more soufflés.

“What did they say was the reason for our popularity in Japan?”

“It’s the continuous TV appearances that sparked public curiosity and the MyTube videos with Japanese subtitles. These two are the main pillars.”

“Oh, you started that subtitle project in our debut year.”

Manager Hong smiled proudly.

It seemed he was very satisfied with the success of the plan initiated in the early days of NewBlack.

After some thought, I said, “If TV won’t invite us, why don’t we create our own TV through MyTube?”

“On MyTube?”

“Yes, with some modifications to the plan you mentioned before...”

Everyone seemed intrigued by my idea.

An idea that blended the staff’s prepared plans with NewBlack’s style.

As Bijoo and Rihyuk excitedly contributed their thoughts and Junghyun and Jiho busily set up snacks, I asked, “Didn’t you say there was something else prepared for the Japan promotion?”

“Right. It’s nothing special, but...”

I had heard that the PR team had a project prepared as part of the ‘Gathering Overseas Soufflés!’ initiative.

Manager Hong turned his laptop around to show us the screen.

“Ta-da!”

We were taken aback by the fantastic logo on the homepage.

The title was odd.

“Surviving NewBlack Academy...?”

“What is this?”

We all stared blankly.

Japanese fans clicked the link on NewBlack’s official SNS.

‘A prize for those who clear the game first?’

Had they created some simple mini-game?

Excited, they entered the homepage and scrolled down the Language window until they found 日本語 and clicked it.

Then they pressed the START button.

[Tweet-tweet-]

The scene opened to a prestigious high school bathed in bright sunlight.

It seemed to be a game where you progress through an illustrated story and make choices.

“Hey— Hey—”

Soon, a handsome face appeared on the screen.

The youngest member of NewBlack, clad in a school uniform, turned into a cute illustration, gazing down at the protagonist.

“That spot is reserved only for me. What on earth are you doing on that lawn right now?”

▷ Just... taking a rest.

▷ Watching over you.

The soufflés giggled among themselves.

‘Should I try the second option?’

I knew that pressing it would prompt a cheeky response, ‘What? I know I’m handsome~!’ followed by a triumphant laugh.

[Clang-]

...Clang?

Bars appeared before my eyes.

[Please be cautious with your words.]

[You have been sued for stalking by ‘Wang Jiho’ who has deemed you a stalker.]

[Hint: Due to fake evidence planted by the ‘mastermind’, you have been found guilty.]

[After being injected with a mysterious drug in prison, you transformed into the ‘Black Goat’ of NewBlack Academy.]

What? Why am I transforming all of a sudden?

[CHAPTER II: The Life of a Goat...]

“Meeeh—”

As the protagonist turned into a black goat, the players burst into laughter, more from shock than amusement.

‘What kind of game is this, anyway?’

It was indeed a game befitting NewBlack.

And then...

Before long, word of mouth made the ‘NewBlack Game’ climb the real-time trends on Twitter in both Korea and Japan.