Friday lunchtime.

NewBlack’s fan café was more crowded than ever. Posts were at least double the usual number, and the real-time chat room buzzed with excited fans. They were all waiting for one thing.

“It’s coming, I can’t wait.”

“They said around twelve, so the guys should be showing up soon.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“I wish I could go so badlyㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ”

It was the first-place candidate promise NewBlack had made to their fans.

“I really wanted to go, but why am I stuck at work?”

“Why am I a grad student?”

“Let’s all cry togetherㅠㅠ”

“If only it were on the weekend I’d be there in a heartbeat, but Kyuhō handles things so... lol”

“I asked Lemon’s PR team and they said they wanted to do it on the weekend too but got denied by the district office;;”

“Oh... I see.”

As everyone nodded and swallowed their disappointment, someone asked:

“Anyone in Myeongdong right now?”

“I am.”

“I work nearby, slipped out on my lunch break lol”

“Is it crowded?”

“They’re setting up barriers and amps, so yeah. But nobody seems to know what’s happening. They all look like ordinary passersby...”

“Oh, there aren’t many fans there?”

“Noㅠ Since it’s a weekday.”

“What if there’s no reaction? It’d be so embarrassing...”

The supples worried about the public’s reaction. They wanted to dash over to cheer, but everyone had jobs and could only bite their lips.

“Hey? A notice just went up.”

“They posted a MiTube link.”

Fans clicked the link someone shared in the chat. Soon, a low-res feed showed the streets of Myeongdong. Security guards in suits stood behind semi-circular barricades.

“What’s this?”

“A busking session?”

“Some show, maybe?”

Murmurs echoed over speakers. Passersby stopped to watch the empty mini-stage, curious about what might happen. Fans swallowed hard.

“Eeeek...”

“I’m shaking.”

“The guys are doing it, but why am I more nervous?”

“I’m fasting lunch in case I choke...”

“Me too.”

Just then, dramatic BGM began to play in the stream. The chat fell silent. Doors opened and NewBlack appeared.

“???????”

“Penguins?”

“lol what is THAT lol”

After a moment of shock, the chat exploded with laughter. Penguins with different expressions and distinct personalities waddled down the steps.

“lol I can totally tell who’s who”

“Definitely Wang Jiho is the fluffy one”

“Giant penguin is Kim Junghyun lol”

“Who are the other two?”

“Biju and Rihyeok...”

As a spontaneous “guess the member” began, one penguin stole all the attention.

“Emperor penguin...?”

The emperor penguin stood out. Unlike the awkward waddles of the others, its wings flapped as it walked, exuding pure professionalism.

“lol that’s Woo-joo”

“Woo-joo”

“Absolutely Woo-joo”

Then the five penguins broke into a K-pop medley dance. Each wing flap made the chat ripple, and every step produced new reaction GIFs in the forum.

“lol now that they’re dancing I get it”

“Yellow feathers are Biju for sure”

“Rihyeok is so cute lol”

“Rihyeok’s personality ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ shows even in the dance lol”

With the dance underway, fans could distinguish Kim Biju from Seo Rihyeok. Once their curiosity was satisfied, the chat quieted again. Everyone watched NewBlack’s penguin transformation spellbound.

At last the dance ended. Staff approached to remove the suits, and fans held their breath.

pop

One by one, the masks came off. The silence left by the missing BGM was replaced by the live crowd’s gasps of amazement. Fans nodded eagerly, recalling their own shock when first seeing NewBlack, and sympathizing wholeheartedly.

Finally it was Sun Woo-joo’s turn.

pop

A soft filter seemed to settle as he emerged alone in high definition. The idol member peeled sweat-soaked hair from his face. Unfiltered “wow” sounds emanated through the speakers.

And then:

“WOO-JOOOOOO”

“Guysㅠㅠ it’s really themㅠㅠ”

“Hurry, say you’re NewBlack, guys”

“Calm down, everyone...”

Behind their screens, fans erupted in cheers.

Time with fans is always a joy. It’s even more joyous when they’re happy—and today I felt at my peak.

“Oppa, I wanted so badly to come see you perform in the penguin suit, but I couldn’t because of academy classes, so I’m so sad.”

“You did the right thing. Studying comes first.”

I signed her CD and said, “Since you couldn’t see it, I’ll show you a bit of what I did that day. Which penguin move do you want to see?”

“The breakdance you did.”

“That’s tough, but I’ll try.”

For the high school fan, I stood and performed the exact dance I’d done that day. Muscle memory kicked in. It was the routine I’d cobbled together from watching penguin videos on MiTube. The fan in front of me collapsed in laughter.

click click

The cameras of those in the front row clicked, and I wiped sweat from my cheek with an embarrassed smile. The heat must have been getting to me—any movement brought out a sweat.

After all the conversation, as she reluctantly prepared to leave, I shook her hand and waved.

“Phew, so hot.”

Fanning myself with a mini fan, I looked around. We were under a tent set up in front of a department store in Daejeon for our fan signing—part of our first nationwide tour. We’d done Gwangju, Daegu, Daejeon, Busan, Ulsan in order, filling gaps left by our music show schedule.

Because it was public, curious passersby often stopped, peered in, and even snapped photos. Then their keyboards clicked as they posted, “Saw NewBlack the idol—aren’t they those guys?” I felt strangely unmoved. A month ago, any gaze or phone camera would have unnerved me, but now I was used to the attention. My confidence had grown. And though I was still awkward with fans, I’d come a long way from trembling at first meeting.

“Hello. It’s so hot, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, really hot.”

“Sorry—we should have met in an air-conditioned room.”

I handed my fan to a fan fanning herself. She laughed and brushed her hair away. Our chat was warm.

She had a gift—a sketchbook page torn out with a drawing of the five penguins dancing. She said she’d studied art, and indeed the talent showed.

“Amazing—you’ve golden hands.”

“Golden hands?”

“Jiho taught me slang yesterday. People call talented artists ‘golden hand.’”

Biju whispered, “It’s ‘geumson,’ not jewel.”

“Golden hand?”

“I looked it up yesterday because it sounded odd.”

“...Wang Jiho, you brat.”

The fans in front of Biju and me laughed. Jiho, on the left, perked his ears and soon made a heart with the cutest expression. The whole room broke into laughter.

“Honestly, you’re so adorable I can’t even scold you.”

I continued chatting with the fan in front of me, lamenting, “That’s why I can’t punish him.” We talked mostly about the first-place promise. Every fan we met mentioned the penguins, which taught me a lot: that many fan café usernames now include “penguin,” that fans jokingly formed a fictional group “Penguins” with the most popular member “Emperor Penguin,” born in ’93, and that PD Koo Jaeyoung’s “battle penguin” comment was actually about the gentoo penguin—a delightful twist.

And these stories always ended with the question:

“But how did you actually do it?”

“Emperor Penguin?”

“Yes, experts were amazed too.”

“Experts?”

That was new to me. The fan showed me a screencap from an SNS page titled “[Today’s guaranteed fun^^]”:

—“I’m an Antarctic ecologist. A friend sent me the link and I was wowed. This guy must have studied penguins hard. Penguins can’t shift their center of gravity smoothly—they tilt the body to pivot as they move. Despite that, the performer—actually idol—recreated it perfectly. How did he do it? [336 likes]

└ Suddenly idols lol

└ lololol

└ Professor’s in for a surprise”

I couldn’t help laughing too.

“Well, I’m good at imitation, so I wanted to do it properly. I studied penguin movements for days.”

“Can you really?” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Yeah, when I tried, it worked.”

Frankly, I had no good excuse. Explaining my ability was awkward. I couldn’t say, “Wanna hear? I got a weird skill after a head injury during last year’s CSAT—I can mimic any movement I see.” And I never expected it to work on animals. I even thought about testing snakes or insects, but gave up—I don’t want to lose human dignity.

I decided to schedule a proper experiment soon and asked the fan, “Want me to show it again?” I sat and waddled like a penguin, and she burst out laughing. It shifted the attention of a skeptic elsewhere.

As I signed CDs, she asked the final question: “What’s next for your activities?” It was the most common question after the penguin dance. Everyone wore the same hopeful-anxious look. When we were on music shows, we appeared on TV daily, so it was fine, but now, without an announced plan, fans were worried we’d disappear, touring only 지방 events.

“We’re preparing various things—external schedules and internal talks with the PR team. A reality show is coming, and we got permission to post on the fan café, so we’ll visit you all very often.”

At that, fans beamed, grabbed their CDs, and left. It tickled my heart every time. Because I had two things I wanted to share: the two projects we’re secretly preparing.

After five days touring the metropolitan cities, we finally got a real break.

“Take tomorrow off. Rest as much as you want.”

Seok-hwan hyung’s words sounded so sweet. It felt like heavenly harmony. I hugged Rihyeok and we practically bounced around. Then we realized and stopped.

“Hyungs, let’s not think about work today.”

With that decree, that night the maknae queued up a movie on his laptop for us to watch together. He’d begged to go to a midnight screening in theaters, but we all refused. Rihyeok said he was too tired, Biju said only if we all went, Junghyun said he didn’t care, and I said my body ached from the emperor penguin dance. Perhaps feeling sorry, Biju peeled an apple and kept feeding me pieces.

Meanwhile, the spry 17-year-old insisted on doing something else and kept nagging us old hyungs. Eventually we compromised: we’d watch at home—well, at the dorm. Disaster looming.

I wanted to shower and sleep, but if we did, the maknae would pout for days. So we watched the popular Admiral Yi Sun-sin movie on VOD. It was strange that films showing in theaters could be watched at home so soon. I remarked how wonderful the world had become, only to be teased as an old man by the kids. Damn.

Anyway, that’s my last memory—I fell right asleep, as did everyone else. Even the one who vowed to party that night was out cold first, waking intermittently with fish eyes mumbling, “I’m not sleeping.” Really, Wang Jiho was hopeless.

When I woke—my laptop dead—I found us all tangled under one blanket in the living room. The bedcovers had flown and the room was a mess. I hadn’t seen such chaos since that elementary school retreat in fifth grade. It felt strange and surprising.

I opened my eyes to see Junghyun’s face inches away, startling me. Maybe his bushy eyebrows made it more shocking—like seeing the presidential mountain carving from my English reading passage. I was so spooked I slipped out silently and boarded the village bus without noticing my bus card had been swapped. Only when I tapped did I realize.

beep

“Child fare, please.”

The driver and I were both shocked. Then I resolved: today I would eliminate Wang Jiho. Because why else did a kid’s bus card end up in my wallet?

“Lots happened this morning.”

I thought, I’ll have to ask him later why there was a child’s bus pass in my wallet, as I headed to the office. On the way to get the practice room key, office staff in the management team looked at me wide-eyed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be off today?”

“I’m here to practice.”

“Take it easy. Why are you practicing on a day off?”

I forced a smile and took the key from them. I noticed someone I expected to see wasn’t there.

“Looking for Director Yoon?”

“Yes.”

“He’s out at a meeting for your ad deal. He’ll be back after lunch.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“He’s so diligent, coming in even on his day off.”

They laughed and I nodded, not bothering to correct their impression. It wasn’t wrong from one perspective: I had come to practice. But today’s purpose was no ordinary practice. I intended to test the change in my body that started last November—this ability I’d only vaguely understood. I planned to conduct various experiments all day.