Chapter 1143: The Warmest Season, Winter (15)

The US promotion came to an end with the premiere screening of .

There was nothing left for me to do now.

Everything else was up to the film company.

"There’s a saying: too much is as bad as too little. It means that everything should be done in moderation."

"A wise saying."

I spoke to Ri Hyuk, who agreed.

"But I think that saying is wrong when it comes to promotion."

"!"

"Hohohohoho. If there’s something I can do, I do more."

"Wasn’t bringing in around 17 million people just through the live broadcast enough?"

Ignoring Junghyun’s comment, I looked up at the sky.

"Can you see it? My filial devotion…?!"

Biju burst out laughing.

Everyone listening to me laughed happily.

The atmosphere had been similar for everyone since yesterday’s premiere screening ended. Even without doing anything, smiles kept appearing on our faces.

Director Kim Bora said,

"Thanks to Wooju, we don’t have to worry about the box office score anymore. There were 17 million live viewers alone. And they were people who cared enough about Wooju to watch his live broadcast in real time."

It seemed like she meant that if those people went to theaters or brought their acquaintances along, the numbers would only grow.

Yeo Eunseon, who played my mother in the film, chimed in as well.

"And yesterday’s performance wasn’t just good either, right? I almost cried while singing ……."

Everyone nodded.

"It was incredible. When Souffle sang along, I almost cried too."

"Now that I think about it, I feel like crying again. Goodness, I’m being ridiculous."

"The moment the Empire State Building lit up, didn’t you get chills? I think I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my life."

I agreed.

Even I, someone who had experienced countless stages, had almost shed tears yesterday. How moved must the people who were actually standing on that stage with me have been?

When I saw Biju’s teary eyes, the tears that were about to come out disappeared immediately.

"Biju. Why are you crying?"

"Because I suddenly remembered that moment. It was so moving……."

I simply smiled while patting my second youngest member, whose eyes had turned red.

Anyway.

As we and the entire team boarded the plane back to Korea, everyone wore pleasant smiles, satisfied with what we had achieved in America.

"Hoo."

After greeting the Studio Lemon staff who boarded the plane last, I asked,

"Did everything wrap up well?"

"Yes. The person in charge of promotion was smiling so widely their mouth was practically reaching their ears. They said we don’t have to worry much about the first week numbers in America either."

Everyone looked surprised at the news that Rebecca Cassidy, a person who usually showed little emotional change, had been smiling brightly.

I smiled and asked,

"That’s a relief. By the way, is there anything else we can do for promotion?"

"Wooju."

"Yes."

"Is there really nothing else you can promote anymore…. You already did everything possible with that 17 million person live broadcast."

"I see……."

It was disappointing, but I was also proud.

The fact that a promotion staff member who always happily gave me more work whenever I asked, "What can I do?" had actually said, "There’s nothing left to do."

I smiled while patting my own head.

"Ah. I worked hard. Sun Wooju."

"Good job, good job."

I lightly tapped the youngest member’s forehead after he patted me like he was teasing me, then glared at him.

I was bickering with the members while waiting for the captain’s announcement when—

"But..."

A Studio Lemon staff member smiled and spoke to us.

"Don’t you think NewBlack should stop smiling right now?"

"Us?"

"Don’t you know?"

"??"

While the company staff laughed and said, "Ah~", we and the production team became interested.

"What happened?"

"You said you were releasing a song in December, right? I heard you’ve gained an incredible competitor for that now…."

"……You mean we gained a competitor?"

Countless faces flashed through my mind.

Junghyun said,

"Since it’s the Christmas season, is the Christmas queen making her appearance? Has she arrived?"

"Wouldn’t it be someone else? I think it would be more like… for example, Moon……"

For a moment, Moonlight appeared in everyone’s minds.

Haha! Moonlight is here to—

We immediately pushed the thought aside and nodded.

"I don’t think they’re really a competitor anymore."

"Right."

They were competitors, technically.

But since we had widened the gap enough with , they were no longer an overwhelmingly strong rival.

If we were talking about truly powerful competitors, it would be the famous veteran American singers known as the "Christmas royalty" thanks to their endless stream of holiday songs.

Or...

Haha! Listen to my insanely amazing Christmas song, losers!

A blue-haired goddess who was incredible at writing songs.

Or—

We prepared a Christmas collaboration song.

Famous singers like Mandy Spice or Logan Smith releasing collaboration tracks.

While countless names passed through our minds, we noticed something strange.

Normally, if someone told us we had gained a competitor, they would say it with a serious expression.

But everyone was smiling and joking.

"……"

I realized it and asked,

"Is it Rabbit Uncle?"

"No."

The staff member laughed.

"You know the carol from yesterday. The one you performed, . That’s doing unbelievably well right now. You didn’t know?"

"It became a hit…?"

"You really didn’t know? The view count is insane."

I had expected a good response.

Our youngest had told us that people’s expressions were good, and I had felt there was something special about it too.

But what had happened yesterday?

There had been spectacular musical numbers.

When we performed , all of Manhattan had been dyed orange.

Compared to that, had been performed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and no stage effects.

"How long did it take to modify the song?"

"About an hour, I think. You were just eating pizza while working on it roughly on your laptop."

The entire process had been Wooju casually working on the song while eating cheese pizza.

And the lyrics...

"How long did the lyrics take, Ri Hyuk?"

"Thirty minutes to write. Around twenty one hours for small revisions."

Even the lyrics had not been something we agonized over.

It was a song where Ri Hyuk had simply taken the concept I requested and translated it into English while preserving the feeling and rhythm in about thirty minutes.

Translator-nim.

What?

Can you roughly write something about sending Christmas to the people we love?

A song made through a commission, promising the best part as payment.

So hearing that a song we had not put much effort into had become such a massive hit that it could surpass the other songs left me confused.

But the moment we all opened MyTube together, we rubbed our eyes while staring at the view count.

[10,179,124 views]

It was not the 10 million views itself that surprised us.

Our performance videos usually reached 10 million views easily.

The problem was the upload time.

It had only been a short while, yet it already had 10 million views.

"Wow... the views are insane. It’s twice as high as ."

"Look at the comments. Wow."

At the actors’ words, I looked at the comment section with trembling hands.

The response was overwhelmingly positive.

So positive that it could threaten both the film and our December release.

"……"

"……"

As the members looked at me as if demanding an explanation for what had happened, I stared into empty space.

But even empty space wasn’t safe.

It felt like my mom and dad were somewhere asking, "Wooju...?" while narrowing their eyes.

Lowering my head, I muttered,

"Th... this is probably just temporary attention. Something like this can’t possibly affect our release."

I said that while refreshing the page.

"See? The views are……"

[11,038,254 views]

"...Huh? It went from 10 million to 11 million??"

"……"

"Huh? Why is this happening??"

"……"

The members’ eyes began turning cold.

I had to admit it.

I didn’t know America very well.

-NewBlack shakes Times Square, America responds passionately to ‘October Christmas’

-‘Overcooked global sensation’ NewBlack, now it’s a carol?

-[International Topic] NewBlack’s new song surpasses Rabbit Uncle to reach 50 million views in the shortest time ever... When will Lemon Entertainment go public?

had truly become a massive hit.

A super hit.

"No... this..."

Looking at the news coming from North America, I could only click my tongue.

I hadn’t known.

We Americans are serious about Christmas!

Really?

When Souffle had said that, I had simply thought, They really celebrate Christmas enthusiastically!

But their passion for Christmas was beyond my imagination.

"When I lived in LA, it was like that too."

Ri Hyuk said,

"Once November comes, people start putting up Christmas decorations one or two months in advance to create the atmosphere. The really passionate people prepare all year round. There was a man named John who lived next door, and he actually cut down a tree himself and made it into a Christmas tree."

"So... that’s how it is."

"You didn’t know?"

"I didn’t. I just thought of it like Lunar New Year or Chuseok."

I only knew that people listened to more songs around Christmas to create the holiday atmosphere.

So when we released , I had thought, I hope these people like it, and considered it just an additional bonus for the promotion.

But...

"...Why did this become such a huge hit?"

"I wonder. Why?"

Our song was causing chaos in the carol industry right before the holiday season.

When it had been released in Korea, it had been a small and modest child.

In America, it had suddenly transformed into King Kong.

Even now, the video views were rising crazily.

The problem was that we never expected it to do this well, so we had not even recorded it properly.

Therefore, our first schedule after returning to Korea was recording .

"Let’s move quickly, guys."

"Yes."

"Let’s go as fast and efficiently as possible. Sing it with a happy feeling."

Because the view count was growing at a ridiculous pace, we immediately began working.

I adjusted the song.

The producing team stayed up all night working on mixing and mastering.

The TF team prepared the release.

During that time, I also received various updates through Seokhwan hyung.

"We fixed your New Year performance schedule."

"That actually happened?"

New Year celebration performances held annually in New York and various other places were inviting us.

Various Christmas schedules.

While I was surprised to learn there were this many Christmas events in America, Seokhwan hyung said,

"And this is just my opinion... but I think this song might last longer than any song you’ve ever made."

"Why?"

"I have a feeling."

I was half doubtful, but I agreed with our TF team leader’s prediction that this could become a legendary seasonal song.

Because of the sudden popularity of the carol and the fact that there was no official release yet, even the original song , the performance video we had sung at the year end stage in 2015, began seeing its views rise rapidly.

There were English comments underneath.

-I’m shocked this video has such a low view count. Didn’t Korean people know this was such a good Christmas song?

-I can’t believe I didn’t know this song existed.

-If this song had been released in America back then, NewBlack would already have been global stars.

-Korean, you guys were the only ones seeing something this good.

└What do you mean only us saw something good lol. These foreigners who didn’t even know the name NewBlack are suddenly acting all smug and it’s annoying.

I laughed while reading the intense Korean reply and continued scrolling through the comments.

The song was so good.

Why had such a song been overlooked?

Seeing the reactions, I could understand why Seokhwan hyung thought it would last as a seasonal song.

"It’s good, but……"

In truth, every singer dreamed of a seasonal song becoming a hit.

Whether it was a spring song or a winter song, having even one seasonal hit could become a lifetime asset.

From that perspective, creating a song that would enrich our career was a wonderful thing.

The only problem was that I was worried about the success of our new song coming out in December.

The movie was separate from the success of a Christmas song, so it did not matter.

But if was already receiving this kind of response before release,

★ ★

then , scheduled for December, would obviously struggle.

"Don’t worry too much, hyung."

Jiho placed his hand on my shoulder.

"We have someone like Doraemon. Manager Hong Seoyeong will definitely have another idea."

Hearing that, I nodded.

That was true.

Just like Nobita had Doraemon, we had a genius of promotion.

The legendary genius who had come up with the brilliant plan of targeting South America ahead of the holiday promotion!

"...A solution?"

When we gathered for the meeting, we looked at her with sparkling eyes.

"Yes. We thought Manager Hong might know some kind of solution."

"I actually found one. A way to promote without letting it get buried under the current carol."

"!"

"That method is……"

Manager Hong Seoyeong declared.

"We delay until January."

"Excuse me...?"

"There’s no answer in December. Guys. Your song is too strong."

"Wouldn’t South America be okay though?"

Another TF team member turned his laptop around and showed us the screen.

The search results for in South America were enormous.

It turned out that being serious about Christmas was not limited to North America.

South America was the same.

"It’s usually a ridiculous thing to say that a singer would delay their own song to avoid competing with it... but somehow, you managed to do that."

Manager Hong Seoyeong spoke with a warm expression.

"Sorry."

"No. It actually worked out well. I think it would be better to do carol promotions in December instead. Releasing in January is actually the better choice."

"That makes sense."

Hearing that would be delayed until January, I also thought it was probably for the best.

Honestly, releasing a non carol song during the holiday season had been an overly ambitious plan from the beginning.

We finished the meeting after deciding to match the sudden popularity of the carol and focus on activities around it.

While organizing documents, Manager Hong asked,

"What’s your schedule from now on?"

"We’re going to Japan following Wooju hyung. There’s a premiere screening there too."

"Ah."

"After the Japanese premiere, we’ll go around European screenings and promote ."

The manager smiled faintly at that and looked at me.

"By the way, Wooju must be nervous today."

"Yes."

"Are you checking people’s reactions?"

"No. I’m too nervous, so I haven’t looked yet."

She was talking about the reaction to .

Today was the college entrance exam day.

And today, when students across the country were taking the exam, was also the domestic release date.

Messages from actors and staff were continuously appearing in a group chat called [Line 4 Group Chat], but I still had not checked them.

"I’ll look later once I’m mentally prepared."

It was the evaluation of actual viewers, not premiere attendees.

Even if reactions at premieres were good, there were many cases where responses became negative after the official release.

So I was nervous.

Looking at the reactions from people around me, it seemed like things were not bad...

That was when I quietly lifted my phone and accessed the portal.

"Hm?"

I turned my head at the sound from the seat beside me.

"Why? Ri Hyuk?"

"It says we appeared on the college entrance exam."

"Huh?"

At Ri Hyuk’s words, we blinked.

"There’s apparently a real-time Twitter trend saying ‘Failed the college entrance exam because of NewBlack’."

"??"

College entrance exam room.

Students waiting for the English test opened their eyes wide.

Stay focused!

It was the third period.

After pouring all their energy into the first and second periods, eating lunch, and now fighting against the wave of sleepiness that came with digestion.

Everyone concentrated, clicking their mechanical pencils and swallowing nervously.

"Hooo……"

The supervisor entered, and the test papers came out of yellow envelopes.

The papers were distributed.

Finally, the English listening test began.

As each question passed, students solved them with focused expressions, until their ears suddenly perked up.

Through the slightly crackling speakers, a conversation between a man and woman played.

A restaurant.

The woman complains about a dish and makes a request, and the man says he will bring her a new one.

It was an easy question.

But...

[This dish is too overcooked.]

One word in the woman’s sentence was the problem.

Overcooked... overcooked... I only cooked it a little...

Overcooked... overcooked...

A song suddenly began playing in their heads.

When the question ended, someone unconsciously let out a small sigh.

"Ah..."

Everyone smiled faintly in agreement.

The laughter quickly disappeared because of the next question, but the faces of students who now had to begin solving the reading section started filling with despair.

Because of the melody stuck in their ears.

「I only cooked it just a little~♪」

「I guess my love for you was too much~♬」

The students squeezed their eyes shut.

Nooooo! Stop!

Stop it, brain. Stop.

Damn it...

The advice teachers always gave.

"Don’t listen to songs while studying."

It was, as always, a saying that could not be more correct.