A call came from the restaurant.

The event we had requested had gone smoothly, just as promised.

“Ri Hyuk and his family must’ve loved it, right?”

“I’m sure they did.”

A beautiful time where they shared feelings they hadn’t been able to express to each other, speaking honestly and exchanging love.

The family’s intense love and war unfolding beneath the moonlit restaurant.

The more I thought about it, the more brilliant the plan seemed.

“Hmm......”

The maknae suddenly looked troubled, so I asked,

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m thinking about how we should show off about it when Ri Hyuk hyung gets back. He’s definitely going to thank us.”

“Oh... that’s a nice kind of problem.”

We were huddled together, discussing how to milk the credit—

Beep.

“Huh?”

A sound that shouldn’t be heard at this hour echoed.

Beep! Beepbeepbeep! Beep!

The sound of the door lock keypad being pressed—and whoever it was, they were pressing it with serious irritation.

“Who.......”

The memory of sasaeng incidents made us flinch for a moment, but thinking about the dorm security, we relaxed.

It would take a legendary master thief to break in here.

Just as we were wondering who on earth would come at this hour, the door flew open.

“......Ri Hyuk?”

Ri Hyuk stood in the doorway.

Seeing our main vocal, we brightened and rushed over.

“Ahem.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Jiho and Junhyun cleared their throats, ready to boast about the event.

But Biju and I sensed something strange and stepped back.

“Why does it feel cold.......”

“Ri Hyuk’s area-of-effect ice skill.......”

A boss monster emitting frost in all directions.

Behind his slender figure, it almost looked like a dark aura was rippling.

Goooooo—

“Hyung......?”

The maknae took a step back.

Ri Hyuk stepped inside.

“This......”

If a vengeful spirit appeared in real life, it would probably look like that.

A trembling body.

Bloodshot eyes.

And the smell of wine pouring from his mouth like toxic gas.

“Hyung, are you drunk?”

“Yeah! I’m drunk!”

Ri Hyuk roared as he entered.

“You bastards.......”

“W-what’s wrong?”

“Who! Who prepared that kind of event and embarrassed me and made my family explode and society collapse and—!”

He rambled incoherently, shaking.

In that instant, I knew.

Things hadn’t gone as planned.

And we knew exactly what to do in situations like this.

“Jiho suggested it.”

“Wooju hyung led it!”

“Actually Kim Biju made us do it.”

“Kim Junhyun slipped the idea in.”

We lovingly deflected responsibility—

It didn’t work.

“Gyaaah!”

Ri Hyuk spat fire.

“I don’t care! You guys, I’m going to—!”

At that moment—

Ri Hyuk, charging forward in rage, tripped over the entrance threshold and fell.

“Oof!”

Before Junhyun could react, I stuck out my foot and grabbed the back of Ri Hyuk’s neck.

Thank you, MyTube.

“Uphupup!”

He only inhaled dust instead of smashing into the floor and flailed wildly.

Like a flounder dropped at Noryangjin Fish Market, he thrashed and shouted,

“Nothing works out!”

“Why?”

I crouched in front of his flushed, drunken face.

He seemed very drunk, so I deliberately smiled gently.

“What happened? Did something go wrong?”

“No! I just wanted to have a normal dinner with my family!”

“And?”

“The atmosphere... suddenly got all warm and stuff, and my stomach felt weird. And we had to talk sincerely and it was so embarrassing!”

“Why is that embarrassing?”

“Because it is!”

He kicked weakly. I dodged.

Looking at the flailing Ri Hyuk, I turned to the others.

“He says he just wanted to eat quietly without communication, but because of us the communication went too well and now he’s embarrassed?”

“Ah.......”

“That’s not it!”

“Not?”

“I mean... it is, but.......”

Apparently he’d tried to have warm, heartfelt conversations—but the words wouldn’t come out, so he relied on alcohol.

“Hic!”

“He’s even hiccupping. Junhyun.”

“Yes.”

“Take him.”

Junhyun slung the now-snoring Ri Hyuk onto his back and headed upstairs.

We watched him go.

Biju and Jiho stared blankly.

“Does this count as a happy... ending?”

“I guess so?”

Ding.

A text notification.

It was from Ri Hyuk’s mother.

[Thanks to you, we had a joyful and happy time today. Because of the event, we were all happy together. Thank you.]

“His mom texted just fine.”

“So only Ri Hyuk got drun—”

We burst into laughter.

Under the message were ten identical copy-pasted texts.

For some reason, the message itself seemed to smell strongly of alcohol.

The next day.

Ri Hyuk remembered nothing.

“I said something while drunk?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t remember that......”

Anyone could see it was a lie.

But since he ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) wanted to stick to the “I don’t remember” concept, we decided to play along.

“Did your parents get back safely?”

“Yeah. They got to the hotel fine. They even had breakfast at the hotel buffet this morning.”

“Your dad too?”

“Yeah. The atmosphere’s good.”

We didn’t ask for details, but it seemed things were very good.

Ri Hyuk’s expression was subtly bright.

“Yein went back to LA and will come again for our concert. She has school.”

“Oh right. She’s a student.”

I nodded and checked the schedule.

The last schedule of the month.

The Seoul finale concert closing out the world tour was set for Saturday and Sunday.

Venue: Sangam World Cup Stadium.

Because of the scale, we arrived two days early—Thursday—for rehearsal.

“It’s huge.”

“Wow, it’s massive.”

As soon as we arrived, giant letters greeted us.

[SEOUL WORLD CUP STADIUM]

The very place where Korea and Germany faced off in the 2002 World Cup semifinals.

Recently, we’d only known it as a venue for joint events like Dream Concert.

Suddenly I remembered standing here as first-year rookies at Dream Concert.

It’d feel amazing to hold a concert somewhere like this....

Right? Maybe someday we’ll do our own here?

Probably.

That was just three years ago.

I wondered if they remembered too, when the maknae spoke first.

“We said it during Dream Concert rehearsal. That doing our own solo stage here someday would be insane.”

“You remember?”

“I remember everything we talk about.”

“Except the bad stuff.”

“Yep. Only the good.”

We smiled warmly and looked around inside the stadium.

Capacity: sixty thousand.

We walked around the seats checking sightlines.

“The acoustics feel better than Gocheok... but sightlines are definitely unbeatable at Jamsil.”

It was a bit worse than Jamsil Main Stadium.

After checking even the so-called “God seats” far up in the sky, we talked with the director.

“The movement routes are longer than we practiced.”

“Sangam’s long. We set the stage to fit you as much as possible, but......”

“We’ll adjust during rehearsal.”

Because the stage was at one end of the long stadium, we built an extended stage wrapping like a fence.

“It looks like a fish farm.”

“Souffle farming.”

We’d run around the wraparound stage to communicate with the audience.

We’d use moving stages.

We’d even bring in the latest American stage equipment we’d envied at Billboard and the VMA.

“This stage has to be perfect.”

I emphasized to the director and staff.

“The reason we’re doing a finale concert is to show the most perfect performance possible.”

The reason was simple.

After finishing last year’s overseas tour in Japan, something had felt incomplete.

Concerts are like sports.

The more you do them, the better you get.

By the end of a tour, you’re fully accustomed to the stage and performances are at their best.

It becomes easier to communicate with the audience.

Assuming live quality is strong, what determines a concert’s quality is whether the artist and audience become one.

So the later the tour, the better it gets.

But ending in Japan last year felt like—

Like you ate the meat but didn’t get the cold noodles after.

Like the stew was just about to come out and the restaurant closed.

Our first concert is always in Korea.

Freshness is nice—but we wanted to show our most perfect performance in our home base.

So the solution was simple.

Start in Seoul. End in Seoul.

That was the purpose of this concert.

[2017 Hello, WOrLD Tour : Grand Finale (Seoul)]

We finished a one-hour final meeting while the documentary crew filmed.

“Shall we inspect?”

“Yes.”

Wearing safety helmets, we inspected stage pyrotechnics.

At the opening, fireworks would shoot into the sky across the entire stadium.

We’d purchased equipment from the U.S.—apparently used in the Super Bowl halftime show.

“Testing sequentially from one to ten.”

Confirmed.

We checked fireworks and stage devices.

For wires, since Korea lacked certain technology, we brought British equipment and technicians.

“But......”

The director asked,

“I’m not interfering, but no matter how I look at it, this concert seems like a loss. Even with sixty thousand seats... factoring ticket prices and merch, I don’t think it’ll profit.”

“That’s right. It’s a loss.”

Almost zero after plus and minus.

But we believed it would be a plus overall.

Not all profit is financial.

After I briefly explained, the maknae shrugged.

“And it’s fun.”

The director laughed.

After finishing inspection, we moved for rehearsal.

“Oh, right.”

I asked,

“What about the finale guests? Are they arriving in Korea?”

“Yeah. They’ll arrive by tomorrow.”

Even with expensive equipment, sixty thousand seats wouldn’t normally result in a loss.

The reason was the guests.

The next day. Incheon Airport.

Office worker Lee Deokhun checked the departure board.

“Too much time.”

After texting his wife, he looked around.

“Where can I eat.......”

He headed to the first floor.

NewBlack ads were everywhere.

“They’re everywhere.”

Then he saw an old man.

White sparse hair. Piercing blue eyes.

If not for the Hawaiian shirt and shorts, he’d look like Dumbledore.

Somewhere familiar.

Their eyes met.

“Excuse me, young man.”

“Yes?”

“May I ask something?”

“Yes.”

He pointed to a NewBlack ad.

“Those boys.”

“Ah! NewBlack?”

“Are they famous?”

“Not just famous. They’re like a symbol of our industry. Korea’s mascot.”

“Ho.”

The old man’s eyes gleamed.

“Then they must be rich?”

“I... guess so?”

“They told me they didn’t have money. Hmph.”

He laughed.

“Anyway, thank you!”

Later—

Lee Deokhun froze.

“Shit.”

He remembered.

Glenn Davis.

Guitarist of legendary Australian rock band Devil Grills.

“Excuse me!”

He ran back.

“Are you Glenn Davis?”

“Do we know each other?”

He took a photo.

Ten bodyguards waited nearby.

“What brings you to Korea?”

“Tourism.”

But clearly not just tourism.

Lee Deokhun uploaded a photo.

Soon—

[I’m at Han River and I saw Hailey Blue]

Photos in hanbok.

Why are you here?

Why did she come?

“Tourism.”

Then—

[I saw Nostalgia musical cast]

Sharp people noticed.

Legendary guitarist.

Billboard-top singer.

Broadway stars.

All saying “tourism.”

And NewBlack’s concert was tomorrow.

“......!”

Eyes widened.

“No way......!”

“Should I get tickets now?”

As more people caught on, real-time searches exploded.