Chapter 1160: Artist of the Year (3)

The final performance of the Mango Chart Awards.

Viewers gradually turned up the volume on their TVs.

Are they finally about to start?

The highlight of today’s awards show was about to begin.

The captions the organizers had been flashing on-screen all night as though trying to brainwash everyone appeared yet again.

[NewBlack’s performance will begin shortly.]

[The global stars who have received cheers from around the world! NewBlack’s performance will begin shortly.]

[NewBlack’s performance…]

The viewers watching at home stared at the screen with the dead eyes of Tibetan foxes.

What kind of awards show starts advertising a Part Three performance during Part One?

On the other hand, it also showed just how important NewBlack’s stage was.

After all, NewBlack was the act that had brought the awards show’s recently declining ratings back up.

[NewBlack’s performance will begin shortly!]

With only the Grand Prize presentation remaining, the darkened stage was revealed.

Finally.

As viewers adjusted their posture on their couches, the venue erupted in cheers as well.

The rookie idols attending the awards for the first time this year watched with shining eyes.

It’s NewBlack’s performance now!

The members of Street Boys and TeenSpirit each spoke to their juniors.

“Watch closely. You don’t get opportunities like this often.”

“Pay attention. An insanely good performance is about to start.”

As their juniors nodded, black silhouettes rose onto the stage.

Their fellow idols also watched with interest.

What kind of stage will they do this year?

A group on NewBlack’s level would ordinarily bring out a concept around the end of the year that represented everything they had done that year.

Simply put, a message.

They would present what they had accomplished that year in a unique way.

“The reason you need to study those guys’ performances is…”

Yeonhu crooked a finger at his juniors, motioning for them to lean closer, then whispered.

“They’re good at putting a stage together. So…”

Yeonhu tried to summon the explanation inside his head.

—Their ability to powerfully convey what they wanted to express onstage.

The 2014 Mango Chart Awards was one example.

NewBlack had been rookies at the time, and they had wanted to establish themselves as skilled performers.

So, to display their exceptional choreography, they had hidden among the backup dancers before suddenly emerging, shocking countless idol fans at the time.

It was a level of skill other rookie groups might have shown during a simple dance break, but NewBlack had staged it with far greater impact.

And that was not all.

—Their ability to embed a message into the performance.

Every year, NewBlack’s performances carried a message.

In 2015, when they were rising stars, they used ascending stage platforms and energetic choreography to announce themselves as the new leading trend. In 2016, they showed that they had become one of the greatest acts among all the major groups.

In 2017, they declared that they had reached the very top.

They possessed an astonishing ability to shape a performance so that anyone could understand what they were trying to say.

“Uh…”

Of course, all of that existed only as a complicated, unrefined image inside Yeonhu’s head.

Explaining something like this was far too difficult for someone whose vocabulary had always been lacking.

“So…”

He raised a finger toward the members of Flawless, who were watching him with sparkling eyes.

“So…”

“?”

“It’s fucking awesome.”

“??”

“Just watch. You’ll get it.”

While his juniors tilted their heads, Yeonhu scratched the back of his head.

The delicately handsome boy beneath the green hair shrugged at them.

They’ll understand once they see it. If they can’t even recognize something like that, they should quit the business.

If a singer could not perceive even that much from another singer’s performance, did that not mean they lacked ability?

People were often fooled by their young ages and boyish appearances, but they were veterans who had already spent more than seven years in this industry.

They need to watch and figure it out themselves.

With that thought, the senior singer turned his gaze back toward the stage.

Sensing that the performance was about to begin, the audience roared.

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

Stage props could be dimly ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) seen beneath the darkness.

There were desks and chairs.

A blackboard as well.

A classroom…?

As the singers craned their necks for a better look, a VCR began playing on the enormous screen.

The footage had the grainy quality of a camcorder recording.

It felt as though they were looking back into the past.

【 1 】

Archival footage began playing alongside the number one.

[Congratulations! NewBlack’s …!]

[The Rookie of the Year award goes to… NewBlack!]

[We’ll work hard!]

Scenes of NewBlack winning Rookie of the Year and taking first place on a music show during their debut year in 2014 appeared.

They looked so fresh and youthful that it was difficult to compare them to the NewBlack of today.

【 2 】

[Thank you so much for coming to our first concert.]

[The winner of Masterpiece Group is…!]

[Song of the Year! Wind Flower! Congratulations!]

The numbers began changing rapidly, the pace growing faster and faster.

【 3 】

[Please welcome them! Hailey Blue and NewBlack with Blue Moon!]

【 4 】

[Gabi gabi dotgabi odokkabi]

[Please welcome NewBlack to their Billboard debut stage!]

As the numbers and archival footage continued to stream past, online reactions grew noisy as well.

Most of the positive commenters expressed amazement.

But negative commenters existed as well.

They already disliked how NewBlack behaved as though they were the protagonists of the entire awards show, and they were unhappy with the video too.

Even as they wrote such things, they trembled with frustration.

This is so irritating.

Because they knew no one would agree with them.

Of course, quite a few people disliked how NewBlack was treating the awards show as though it were their own concert.

But no one thought the video itself felt unnatural.

Because it’s NewBlack.

What other group had achieved that much by its fifth year?

They had achieved unprecedented success, and there were not many heights left for them to climb. It therefore seemed entirely natural for them to look back on the past and declare at an awards show, “We really made it.”

Everyone was watching the VCR with that thought when—

【 4 】

It was time for the number to change from [4] to [5].

Fans of other idols looked bored.

Obviously, it’ll just be more of the same. Something about Pyeongchang and blah, blah, blah.

Then something about reaching number one on Billboard.

It’s always the same routine. They even did this at the encore concert that aired on TV. Here’s what we accomplished this year, and so on.

But every one of their predictions was wrong.

At the precise moment the number changed from [4] to [5], the footage cut away from the VCR and switched to the actual stage.

【 5 】

“…?”

“?”

The number was written on the enormous blackboard set up onstage.

What is this?

At first, no one quite understood what was happening.

What they could see was…

A blackboard? Chalk?

Those are desks.

The stage had been decorated to resemble a classroom.

Students in school uniforms were studying, apparently during a self-study period.

The camera zoomed in on the space where the class motto had been posted, revealing the class designation [5-5].

Oh. Does that mean fifth grade?

Beneath it was the class motto.

[5-5]

We Will Live Forever

At that exact moment, opening captions appeared before the viewers watching on TV.

= 2018 Mango Chart Awards =

WE WILL LIVE FOREVER

(The New Black)

We will live forever.

As everyone watched curiously, the dancers onstage continued studying.

They appeared intensely focused.

A solemn mood hung over the classroom, as though nothing could possibly disturb them.

Thud—

A crumpled wad of paper flew in from somewhere.

The ball of paper, which looked like a carelessly crushed test sheet, struck someone in the back.

“…?”

The dancer frowned and looked around, but he could not identify the culprit.

Then, the very next moment—

Another paper ball flew from somewhere and hit him in the back.

“……!”

He tore a page out of the book he had been studying, crumpled it up, and hurled it at the student he suspected of throwing the first one.

And then—

Chaos broke out.

The students began hurling objects at one another and fighting, becoming tangled together in a complicated mess.

What a disaster.

Yet smiles appeared on the faces of everyone watching.

The students bickered and scuffled.

Their eyes had looked dull and lifeless while they were studying, but now their faces had come alive.

Meanwhile—

“Whoa…”

Someone let out a cry of admiration.

At some point, as though they had entered a scene from a musical, the dancers had begun moving in perfect formation.

What? When did this turn into a dance?

Holy shit.

Are those dancers signed under Lemon too…? If they aren’t, Biju will soon drag them away himself. Heh heh heh.

The dancers’ movements flowed so naturally that they captured everyone’s attention.

The music gradually intensified.

Rock sounds began blending into the track, and the dancers spun around as they cleared the desks from the stage.

As though preparing to welcome the protagonist who was about to arrive.

The lighting grew increasingly extravagant.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Someone rose onto the stage aboard a lift, and the Souffles screamed.

The first to appear was the leader.

The handsome man swept back his ebony hair, flashed the camera a mischievous grin, and raised one hand.

He repeatedly tossed the crumpled paper ball in his hand into the air and caught it.

So Wooju was the one who threw it earlier!

As the person responsible for the previous chaos grinned at the camera, the Souffles could only scream in delight.

School uniforms! They’re wearing school uniforms!

How long has it been since we got school uniforms?!

His tie hung loosely over his uniform shirt.

The shirt was not even tucked in properly, its hem jutting out in a way that would undoubtedly earn him a disciplinary teacher’s glare.

Yet Wooju’s outfit, atmosphere, and expression did not make him look like a simple school delinquent.

He gave off the air of a free spirit instead.

Like the rebellious student who often appeared as the protagonist of a comic, he radiated the freshness of youth.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Wooju, a red electric guitar slung around him, flicked his wrist, and the audience erupted.

A rapid guitar run.

It was the melody of .

While the dancers moved behind him, the melody of the villain-themed rang out in a rock arrangement.

Wooju smiled lightly and moved with the rhythm as he played the highlight melody of .

Then he set down the guitar, and the fully arranged rock version of began.

The other four members of 4Black rose onto the stage aboard lifts as well.

Hello, it’s me

Once again today, as though you can’t see me

You keep your eyes closed

Like their leader, they wore loose shirts and undone ties.

As Biju walked forward with a microphone, moving to the rhythm, an enormous cheer shook the venue.

It was different from the usual , but the Souffles could not have cared less.

This is insane.

Sun Wooju must be a genius. How did he arrange it like this?

They look like a high-teen band.

The difference was clearly minor, yet it transformed the entire feeling.

The villain song that normally sounded as though it belonged to someone who rode a motorcycle now felt like the rebellion of youth.

And at the same time, everyone began to understand what NewBlack wanted to convey through this performance.

Why had NewBlack shown footage covering their first four years, only to skip everything that had happened in their fifth?

—We are still only in our fifth year.

That was the message they felt.

NewBlack could easily have performed the kind of stage everyone expected.

They could have listed the unbelievable achievements of their fifth year and overwhelmed everyone in the venue.

Instead, NewBlack appeared in school uniforms.

As though the fifth grade represented by [5] was not yet the graduating class, and they still had a long way to go.

As though the phrase “We Will Live Forever” meant that this was only the beginning.

Of course, all of that might have been nothing more than the Souffles and viewers reading too deeply into things…

Cause we’re so young

There’s nothing we need to fear

This is our time

But when the original lyric, “You’re a villain,” changed to “Cause we’re so young,” everyone became certain.

And so…

This is good.

It was fresh, and it was good.

It felt as though they were connecting the message to the VCR from moments ago.

Just as the people who disliked NewBlack had pointed out.

—You might look at us and say we’ve already accomplished everything…

Those who had sneered, “What are they, ten-year veterans?” and “You’d think they were some legendary senior singers.”

—But we’re only getting started.

Every one of them fell silent.

Only then did even those who had assumed NewBlack had reached the top and would never change again remember the obvious.

That’s right.

They’re only in their fifth year… They’re still in the prime of their career.

As had always been the case, NewBlack appeared to be saying that they had no intention of behaving like senior veterans, because they were not senior veterans.

That was why they did not try to make the performance feel weighty or make themselves look grand.

They simply ran around and enjoyed themselves exactly as they were.

Jiho bounced wildly across the stage, urging the audience to respond, his uniform tie flapping so violently that it looked ready to come completely undone.

Cheers swept through the venue.

Meanwhile—

“……”

“……”

Several singers watching from the audience wore faintly appalled expressions.

The TeenSpirit members felt slightly dizzy.

Because NewBlack’s message had been translated differently inside their heads.

—Our dear little bastards.

—You know we’re only in our fifth year, right? Exactly. We’re going to fucking dominate this industry for a very, very long time.

It was terrifying to imagine what else they intended to dominate.

Scarlet, Serenity, Street Boys, and the other idol groups with considerable standing in the industry all looked sick of them.

School rock in their fifth year. Ruthless. Absolutely ruthless.

That lunatic… He’s my friend, but he really is a lunatic.

People say those who already have everything are the greediest. Those guys are making this business too filthy to stay in.

Meanwhile, NewBlack’s performance continued in high spirits onstage.

WAVE by WooBiju, a NewBlack unit, appeared as a refreshing summer song.

Ri Hyuk recreated the competition stage that had shaken both the music charts and the broadcasting industry.

Then came Junghyun’s solo stage, followed by Overcook, which was currently taking the world by storm.

After all the songs that had thrilled the audience came to an end—

The final performance was the exact song everyone had expected.

Wooju sat before a grand piano and began playing beneath lighting that resembled the sun.

-Like The Sun (Sound of the Sun OST)

The OST from the film that had surpassed ten million admissions and was now approaching eleven million began to play, moving everyone deeply.

I can’t believe I’m hearing this live…!

This is insane.

It was a masterpiece capable of making any Korean cry the moment they heard it.

Perhaps Wooju had thought it would be difficult for the audience to sing along in English.

For the audience, he sang the Korean version.

Wow…

It’s so beautiful.

Unlike the English version, the lyrics seemed to strike directly into their hearts.

Wooju’s voice, calm as he sang the song honoring his parents, gradually grew more powerful.

Then the time came for the chorus.

Uh…

What were the lyrics again?

The audience hesitated because they had mainly heard the translated English version.

The Souffles hurriedly tried to recall the chorus, and everyone desperately opened their mouths.

The… The…!

They felt pressured to sing along.

The first lyrics they could remember burst from their mouths.

“Behold!”

“Your fucking awesome sun—!”

The massive chorus thundered throughout Gocheok Dome.

A smile filled with pure happiness and delight spread across Wooju’s face as he played the piano.