Chapter 1161: Artist of the Year (4)

At that exact moment—

The viewers watching on TV and the audience inside the venue burst into laughter at the same time.

Everyone understood.

After became a massive hit, a comment posted by an overseas netizen had turned into a meme—especially the part translated into Korean as “fucking awesome sun.”

It had been so memorable that people could no longer even remember the original lyric.

What was it again? I’ve only ever listened to it in English.

If someone asked them to sing it in English, they could probably do it.

But whenever they tried to translate it into

★ ★

Korean, “fucking awesome sun” kept popping right out of their mouths.

As the audience laughed awkwardly and the broadcast cut to Han Taehyun roaring with laughter—

How is Wooju reacting?

Everyone was dying to know how NewBlack’s leader had responded.

Had he burst out laughing like usual?

But Wooju, seated before the grand piano, merely smiled in happiness.

His eyes were filled with affection as he looked out at the audience.

Then NewBlack’s lead vocalist sang as though gently correcting them.

I am like the sun—

Behold

Your newly born sun

Only then did the audience begin singing the correct Korean lyrics.

When Wooju, who had sung alone while playing the piano through the first verse, entered the instrumental break—

The other NewBlack members joined him one by one with microphones in hand, and beautiful harmonies rang out.

Meanwhile, the broadcast showed Souffles clutching and shaking Dalbong as tears welled in their eyes.

It was understandable.

It was because of the singers’ ability.

Sometimes, just as people could be moved by the individual voices of the singers rather than the history contained in a performance—

This is insane. They’re too good.

Biju’s smooth voice slipped in as Wooju paused briefly to breathe.

Junghyun’s voice supported them solidly from below, like the bass holding up a band arrangement.

Jiho’s voice cut sharply in at just the right moments.

And then there was the main vocalist, singing his older brother’s song with more sincerity than anyone.

There was an invisible harmony that could be felt even if it could not be seen.

Whenever one person took a step back, another stepped forward, and the breathing and voices of all five members became intricately intertwined.

As Wooju entered the final chorus and began playing the piano with passionate intensity, the other instruments joined in.

And then—

[Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!]

The curtain concealing the space behind NewBlack dropped away, revealing a choir.

A caption identified them as students from the Department of Applied Music at Korea University, where NewBlack had previously filmed the Newniverse college special.

Under orange lighting, all their voices intertwined.

Behold

Forever—

For all eternity—

Their resonant voices filled Gocheok Dome, and the camera caught the singers seated in the audience staring in amazement.

Then Wooju looked into the camera and sang the final line.

Forever—

Our sun that will burn

Wooju had specially rewritten the ending for today’s performance.

The viewers nodded.

At that moment, the title attached to the stage—“We Will Live Forever”—made sense.

At the beginning, it had sounded like NewBlack declaring that they would continue embarking on adventures just as they always had.

But in , it seemed to mean that the star who had passed away would live forever in people’s hearts.

Of course, whichever interpretation they chose—

“……”

There was no doubt that the audience was deeply moved.

As the final notes of the piano faded away, the audience filled the silence with cheers and applause.

Amid that atmosphere, the Street Boys members flexed their biceps and clicked their tongues in amazement.

“Hyung.”

The youngest, Giwon, covered his mouth as he checked the mood around them.

He whispered to Hanjo, who leaned closer to listen.

“Don’t you think they’re taking all three Grand Prizes?”

“Hmm…”

Hanjo turned and examined the expressions of the audience.

It was not only the Souffles. Most of the other spectators were cheering for the performance as well.

Hanjo turned back and said,

“I think they have to. If they don’t give them the awards, there’ll be an uproar.”

For some reason, that was how NewBlack’s performance sounded to the other singers.

—You heard us, right? Now hand over the awards.

It was time for the awards show to respond.

“Whew.”

The moment we came offstage, I collapsed onto the floor.

“Wow…”

“Waaah…”

My younger members leaned against the wall and gulped down water.

After performing without a break, our vocal cords felt strained as though we had just run a hundred-meter sprint.

Ri Hyuk pushed back his sweat-soaked hair and said,

“Do you know what the best thing about today’s performance was?”

“What?”

“We have a lot more solo stages now. If we didn’t, we never could’ve filled nearly thirty minutes.”

“Agreed.”

It was already daunting enough trying to figure out how to fill twenty minutes of stage time, let alone thirty.

Fortunately, we had done a lot of solo and unit activities this year, so it had been easier than expected.

Jiho agreed while drinking water.

“Rih. Noh so hahd.”

“Jiho. Water’s running down your chin.”

“’S fine. Stage is… gulp, over now.”

I wiped the water dribbling from our careless youngest member’s mouth with my hand.

“Ugh. Hyung, your hand tastes salty.”

“Congratulations. That’s my sweat.”

“Ew.”

I grinned at his disgusted expression, then dusted myself off and stood.

It was almost time for the Grand Prize presentations.

“All right. Now…”

I was about to gather the others and leave as usual when I realized Biju was missing.

“Junghyun. Where’s Biju?”

“Kim Biju’s over there.”

Biju was talking to the dancers.

They were the dancers who had played the uniformed students during today’s stage.

At a glance, the dancers with their heavy eye makeup looked intense, while our Biju appeared gentle and harmless, but…

“The dancers look like they’re avoiding Biju hyung’s eyes.”

“Y-Yeah…”

Biju was gripping the dance-team leader’s hand and speaking passionately, while the team leader merely laughed awkwardly.

I approached and bowed.

“You all worked incredibly hard today.”

“Oh, not at all.”

Jiho greeted them brightly.

“Hyungs! Noonas! Great work today~! Should we take pictures later? We have to go now.”

“Yes, yes. See you later. And good luck!”

The dance team waved at us.

They had appeared in our documentary film released earlier that year, and we had worked together for quite a while during concerts and other major performances.

After seeing them off, I asked Biju,

“What were you talking about?”

“Oh, well… I guess you could call it a personal wish.”

“?”

When I tilted my head, Biju looked shy.

He resembled a child who had found a toy he wanted and was about to ask his parents for it.

“Hyung. There’s something I’d like to try.”

“What is it?”

“I realized it when we promoted as WooBiju too. Every time we perform, we contract a different dance team.”

“That’s true.”

I might make the music, but the choreography changed each time.

Once a song was selected, we chose a choreographer suited to it, and the dance team also changed depending on the color of the performance.

“But matching up with a new team every time is a lot of work. We have to adapt to each other’s styles because we’re always working with new people. Especially since Ri Hyuk gets nervous around strangers.”

“Me?”

“Mhm.”

“…I’m sociable too.”

Ri Hyuk’s words echoed emptily as I continued listening to Biju.

“So I was wondering whether we could have an exclusive choreography team…”

“Oh.”

He must have been extremely satisfied with today’s performance.

Then again, I had also been impressed by the way the dancers in school uniforms moved in perfect unison during .

“An exclusive choreography team sounds good.”

“Right?”

“But you don’t need to ask us for permission, Biju. When it comes to choreography, whatever you think is what we think.”

At my declaration that we would follow whatever decision he made, Biju’s eyes filled with emotion.

Ri Hyuk said,

“Translated, that means you’re responsible for everything.”

“Thank you, Ri Hyuk. Until you spoke, your eldest and second-eldest brothers were exchanging happy, affectionate looks.”

“Heh heh. Don’t mention it.”

I glared at him, then smiled at Biju.

“I mean it. If you think we need an exclusive choreography team, put one together.”

“Yes!”

“Of course, you need to ask what they think too.”

“They all said they’d like it.”

“Really?”

Just as I wondered why the atmosphere had felt so strange earlier—

Our youngest asked the question for me.

“Then what were you talking about before?”

“Oh. They said they’d like to join us exclusively, but they weren’t confident they could meet my standards… Every dancer has a different specialty, you know. They said they weren’t confident they could excel at everything.”

“Ah.”

I understood what they meant.

Perhaps they were worried because Biju’s personality demanded perfection in every area.

“So…”

Biju smiled radiantly.

“I told them they didn’t need to worry. We can just practice together.”

“Hic!”

Ri Hyuk hiccupped.

The rest of us reacted similarly.

As Biju talked excitedly to himself, we whispered so quietly he could barely hear us.

“They say the scariest kind of crazy person is someone who doesn’t realize they’re crazy…”

“I think that hyung is the most insane member of NewBlack.”

“Heh heh. So it isn’t me.”

“Oh, right. You were here.”

“!”

Biju, who had been smiling like a happy Alpine girl while imagining all the things he could do once they had a dance team, turned his head.

“…? What are you talking about?”

“Oh.”

I said,

“We were wondering what the team name would be once we had an exclusive choreography team.”

“That’s true. Lemon Crew?”

At that moment, Junghyun offered a good idea.

“Since it’s Lemon, how about the VCS Crew?”

“Oh. What does it stand for? Something like Victorious?”

“No. It means glacial acetic acid.”

We all burst into laughter, and Ri Hyuk laughed through his hiccups.

“Hic! Hic! Hic!”

…He would stop before the acceptance speeches, right?

When we returned to the artists’ seating area, the singers around us welcomed us back.

“That performance was seriously good.”

“Thanks.”

I bumped fists with Hanjo and nodded to Taehyun.

We had returned to the artists’ section after roughly drying our sweat-soaked hair.

There had not been enough time to change back into our suits, so we had simply thrown suit jackets over our school-uniform shirts.

[Next, we will present the Song of the Year award.]

The nominee lineup video began playing immediately.

The result was exactly what the company had predicted and what we had quietly sensed ourselves.

[Congratulations! NewBlack’s !]

As the highlight melody of thundered throughout Gocheok Dome, the singers around us rose as though they had been waiting for it.

We shook hands with those who reached out, then walked onto the stage together and accepted the trophy.

The section the presenter had been holding only moments ago was still warm.

“Thank you so much.”

People who claimed they became numb after receiving too many awards must have thought very differently from me.

Awards always felt good.

After calmly delivering the speech we had prepared in advance, we returned to our seats.

Because we had won all three categories at last year’s Mango Chart Awards, we were carefully controlling the pacing of our speeches today.

Since we were strong favorites for two of the Grand Prizes, we had divided up the people we needed to thank among the different speeches.

[Next is Album of the Year!]

[Congratulations! NewBlack!]

Album of the Year was ours as well.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

We waved to the Souffles, who looked as delighted as though they had won the award themselves, then gave our acceptance speech for Album of the Year.

Junghyun stood before the standing microphone and recited the names almost like a rap.

“Thank you. CEO Park Gyuho, Director Jo Gyuhwan…”

After naming every staff member who had contributed to making the album—

It was time for the final award.

[Artist of the Year.]

[Yes.]

The actor presenting the award smiled into the camera as though saying, “You all knew already, didn’t you?”

[NewBlack. Congratulations!]

Just like last year, we had swept every Grand Prize.

But…

How should I put it?

Last year, when we held all three trophies, I had felt nothing but joy.

This year, however, the trophy somehow felt slightly heavier.

Rather than becoming excited, I felt strangely calm.

“First of all, thank you so much.”

I did not intend to say everything in my heart, but since this was the final Grand Prize speech, I decided to speak a little more honestly.

“This trophy feels a little heavier today.”

It was probably something anyone thought after reaching a career high.

Would I be able to maintain this next year?

Would we be able to achieve even better results?

Just as I had told my friends, my goal now stood somewhere far higher than before.

But…

Even as I said that, I must have felt uncertain deep down.

Could we really do it?

“So many things happened this year, and thanks to the help of so many people, we were able to come this far.”

Could we truly climb any higher?

What if this was our limit?

“…The more new challenges we take on each year, the more there are times when we lose confidence and begin to worry. I’m sure everyone feels the same way, but even as we look forward to the approaching new year, part of us also wants to remain in this one.”

Sometimes, I wished time would simply stop here.

With NewBlack exactly as we were now.

But that was impossible.

And it should not happen.

“If I had been alone, I think I would’ve had that thought often. That we should simply stay exactly as we are.”

When I turned and smiled at my younger members, they smiled back.

“…But because the members are here beside me, I think I’m able to take on new challenges and make up my mind to set new goals.”

I addressed the fans.

“We will climb higher.”

A tremendous cheer rang out.

Unlike usual, I did not ask for the Souffles’ support.

The places we needed to challenge from now on were not places we could reach through the fans’ help alone.

That was why…

“Just as all of you have always been a great source of happiness to us, next year, we will become a great source of happiness to you. Thank you.”

So that from now on, we could accomplish something and bring it back to the fans.

I ended the speech with that resolve.

As my younger members took the microphone and spoke about their families, I also sent a message of love to Ms. Kim Deoksun.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

Before leaving the stage, I looked into the camera.

“There are other family members I need to thank.”

Until now, I had always spoken only of my grandmother.

But standing here today, there were names I wanted to say aloud.

Names I had always been unable to speak because they hurt too much.

Names I could finally say now.

Names that would be spoken with pride from this moment onward.

I raised the trophy.

“I dedicate this award to my father and mother, Sun Myungjoo and Lee Myungeun.”

I love you, Mom and Dad.

Amid the flood of cheers, I lifted the trophy high.

So they could see it clearly, even from very far away.