If I had the ability to stop time, that would be great.

Then I could pause time for a moment and calm my mind.

“Puhahaha!”

And there are some of them I’d like to give a playful flick on the forehead once time’s stopped.

“Surprise success!”

“Wow, so much fun.”

“There really is no fun like this. Did you see his face just now? He froze, blinking his eyes in shock.”

“...Hyung, Woo-joo hyung. Are you okay?”

Surrounded by my younger brothers, I stood there dazed.

You know that meme from dramas where everyone’s laughing and chattering but the long-haired guy is just tossing his hair around by himself?

That was my exact expression.

I shot a glance at the chatting members, then looked at the phone screen.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Woo-jooyekㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅌㅋㅌ

If I counted all the “ㅋ”s in the chat right now, wouldn’t they match the number of grains of sand in the world?

I grabbed the phone from Biju and brought it close to my face.

At that moment, the chat stopped dead.

What’s this?

I checked my face on the screen for anything weird, then broke into a broad smile and greeted them.

“Nice to see you, everyone. How have you been?”

After a long silence, a comment finally blinked into view.

-We’re happy too..☆

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Glancing again at the exploding chat, I passed the phone to Jung-hyun.

While his long arm captured all of us in one frame, I quickly replayed the situation in my head.

Did I slip up anywhere?

Was there anything that could cause trouble?

Thankfully, there wasn’t.

Seok-hwan hyung’s relaxed expression beside me was reassuring.

Now the real problem was—

“Before we have a fun chat with our fans, I need to have an honest talk with my brothers.”

It was time to punish the traitors.

“Where’s our second youngest?”

“Me, me?”

I smiled at Biju, who flinched, then draped my arm around his slender neck.

“They say a trusted axe hurts the foot that wields it. Did you betray me?”

“Hyung, that’s a misunderstanding.”

“What misunderstanding?”

“I didn’t volunteer because I wanted to...”

Trailing off, Biju looked down. I offered him a friendly smile.

“Well, our second wouldn’t do it just because he wanted to. Now, spill it. Who told you to do it?”

“Well...”

Biju’s eyes darted to the others, then he shook his head as if he couldn’t say.

“I can’t. I can’t tell you.”

“Ri-hyuk and Ji-ho egged you on, didn’t they?”

“Huh?”

“I saw it just now. Your eyes flicking over to those two.”

My mimicry ability is really handy in moments like this.

I can see even the direction of someone’s pupils.

As expected, those two tried to deny it.

“It wasn’t us.”

“Exactly. How could we doubt our adorable dongsaengs?”

Yep, it was those two.

When they normally growl at each other but then team up, they’re definitely in it together.

Grinning, I said,

“Okay, whoever confesses first among you two gets a pardon.”

“Uh...”

“I’ll count to three. One, two...”

“Sorry, Ri-hyuk hyung!”

Ji-ho blurted it out.

“Ri-hyuk hyung suggested it would be fun.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Ri-hyuk protested.

“He was the one who suggested it first.”

“True, I brought it up, but hyung made all the ideas. Like saying a time capsule would be fun.”

“Wow, you say don’t betray me, then you betray me.”

“I have to survive somehow. You know how petty and unforgiving Woo-joo hyung is.”

Watching my brothers bicker cutely, I suddenly got ambushed.

“Hey.”

Everyone burst out laughing.

I looked at the phone in Jung-hyun’s hand in disbelief, but the chat was once again flooding with “ㅋㅋㅋ.”

“This is slander, everyone.”

They didn’t believe me.

“Nothing I say will convince you, right?”

Seeing comments like “ㅇㅇ” in the chat, my heart sank like rain.

Damn.

My image is ruined, now.

No.

Has my image ever not been ruined?

Resigned, I continued to chat happily with the fans, while Seok-hwan hyung briefed me on what had just happened.

An SNS live.

It was after our music show, something the company set up so fans curious about us could see us.

Fresh content.

Typically idols communicate with fans by posting in fan cafes or chatting.

Doing it like an internet broadcast was a strange new format.

But apart from its novelty, satisfaction with the live broadcast was extremely high.

-What are you doing now?

-I want to see the uniforms up close!!

-Guys ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Aaaaahhhh

-What’s for lunch today??

Even though we couldn’t meet face to face, being able to interact with fans like this felt amazing.

All fans are fans, after all.

Whether they come out in person or cheer us on from afar, they’re all precious to us.

That’s why I’d felt a lot of regret until now.

Surely there were fans who wanted to talk with us but had to watch from a distance for personal reasons.

We had no way of knowing what they thought or wanted to say.

So having this broadcast felt like an opportunity.

Fans who only watched online could now join without burden and chat with us.

To the fans furiously typing in the chat, I said,

“We did well at the shoot, and we have some spare time before standby, so we have plenty of time to chat. So if you’ve been curious about anything, ask away. And...”

Laughing together, we said,

“Let’s have fun together today.”

“Let’s!”

Following our first fan signing, we continued this session titled “Ask Anything 2” and chatted merrily.

About thirty minutes in, something surprising happened.

At first, the audience was tiny.

As a rookie group, few viewers were natural.

But then a curious phenomenon began.

The number of viewers started creeping up, and comments poured in.

There came ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) a point when we couldn’t read all the comments.

Well, it wasn’t that they piled up beyond legibility.

Rather, it was true that we simply couldn’t keep up reading them.

I could still catch a fair few, but the younger members often tilted their heads at certain comments.

Biju whispered in my ear.

“Hyung, it’s the chat room.”

He wore a look of confusion.

“Why are there comments in Japanese and Chinese?”

[Idol leader unknowingly spilled his heart during today’s live broadcast]

(Collection of captures)

Subject: NewBlack’s Woo-joo!

He didn’t know about today’s first company live.

He said he hasn’t checked the fan cafe in days because he’s been practicing for the ad shoot.

The reaction is so real I had to share it lol

[9 comments]

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Really a hidden camera??

-It might be staged, but to fake an expression like that you need Oscar-level acting ㅇㅇ

-His stunned face was hilariousㅋㅋ

-So funny ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-But he must not swear much normally. It’s hard to hide a live prank like this

-Since “Sixty,” agencies have hated doing live streams

-[OP] In reply to above, Woo-joo is very careful with slip-ups. At a fan sign, he got scolded hard by the director once before debut, so everyone’s cautious even offstage ㅇㅇ

-I think it’s all set up, lol

Lemon Ent PR team.

Assistant Manager Hong Seo-young scrolled her laptop mouse.

But the comments stopped at nine.

Considering how fresh they were, it wasn’t a bad response.

Unlike the penguin dance last time, it hadn’t exploded across communities, but it was a modest topic of interest.

She felt proud.

This was the plan she prepared when told to create content for NewBlack to communicate with the fandom during our break.

A live broadcast via SNS app.

The first platform considered was an internet broadcast site, but after meetings it didn’t fit NewBlack’s image.

So they decided to go live on SNS and post highlights later for fans who couldn’t join.

And.

The result was excellent.

“What are you watching?”

Her coworker Nam, fresh from brushing his teeth, sat beside her.

“Monitoring the fan cafe.”

“Oh, that live broadcast? The response was good. A reporter called earlier asking if Scarlet had plans like that too.”

“Scarlet’s going to do it?”

“No. They have plenty of appearances.”

Assistant Manager Hong forced a wry smile.

It was true.

Scarlet was a first-tier group often invited to variety and other shows, so they didn’t need this企劃.

This was unique to NewBlack’s situation.

After successfully wrapping up first-album promotions, our fandom had grown substantially, and communication was needed—but we still weren’t getting many invites.

“And the team manager won’t approve it. Live chats require artist capability backing it up; without Woo-joo, NewBlack wouldn’t have gotten permission.”

That was true too.

From an agency perspective, live chat isn’t ideal.

You can edit prerecorded broadcasts, but a real-time stream is irreversible.

“They don’t slip up much.”

Nam said.

“Ji-ho and Jung-hyun can be risky sometimes, but usually within acceptable bounds. If something might cause trouble, Woo-joo cuts it. Remember when we cut that primate costume bit? That was Woo-joo.”

“...”

“If they’d worn that costume, we’d have been in big trouble.”

Recently a boy group on a variety show painted themselves black as a joke and got slammed by overseas K-pop fans—almost 3,000 comments on foreign sites.

If NewBlack had worn that costume, who knows what would have happened.

Hong, still wryly smiling, changed the topic.

“By the way, speaking of overseas, something came to mind.”

She called her coworker.

“Take a look at this?”

“What is it? That live video from earlier?”

“Yeah, something odd caught my eye.”

She pulled up the recording on the screen.

“Doesn’t the chat look strange?”

“Uh, I don’t know... hmm?”

Nam soon spotted the oddity and tilted his head.

“Why are there Japanese comments?”

“I kept noticing it too. I talked with Director Yoon earlier, and they mentioned it.”

“It’s not time for overseas reactions yet. Unless there was a big trigger.”

“I have a guess.”

She searched and showed him.

“When we did that penguin dance promise in Myeong-dong, some tourists posted it on SNS. It seems to have spread.”

“Wow. Look at the retweet count—there’s a K on it.”

Just then, the penguin dance video autoplayed.

They burst out laughing at the unexpected appearance of the Emperor penguin dropping its crown mid-dance.

“This is driving me crazy.”

“It’s a direct cure for when you’re down. I saved it on my phone for gloomy days.”

As Nam scrolled through SNS posts with AI translations like “Found a handsome guy inside a penguin box in Myeong-dong today,” he asked,

“So that drew foreign viewers?”

“We don’t know for sure.”

“It’s fascinating. Japanese people I get, but Chinese fans can’t use foreign SNS, right? How did they join?”

It was full of mystery.

But one thing was certain.

In a live broadcast企劃 meant to connect online-active fans with NewBlack, they’d found an unexpected lead.

It might seem trivial, but Hong felt there was something to it.

Before long, she was tapping away at her laptop. Her coworker asked,

“What next?”

“I’ll request subtitles in foreign languages.”

“Do you think that’ll work?”

Regardless, she drafted a proposal.

To add English subtitles—and Chinese and Japanese as well—to the agency’s own reality and live highlight videos.

Honestly, it was unlikely to be approved.

The previous album’s massive budget had agencies grumbling, and this was asking for more.

But she believed in the PR team’s philosophy: strike while the iron’s hot.

“I bet they’ll say no.”

She thought that as she submitted the企劃.

Less than a day later, after passing through the team manager, Producer Jo Gyu-hwan himself approved it.

And instructed to include not just English but Chinese and Japanese.

Today we, too, are immersed in events.

Since morning we’ve been at a beach song festival in Busan, then a local festival in Gyeongsan, where we performed a spectacular fireworks number before heading back to Seoul.

And not to the company, but to a youth cultural festival for a congratulatory performance.

It’s absolute madness.

A relentlessly packed schedule.

Even as one of the more in-demand rookies, it’s a bit much.

All thanks to that one day’s events.

The day the Teenspirit performance saved the gig, and the event agency manager promised to recommend us in return.

I thought it was empty words.

But they kept their promise, and whenever organizers wondered about filling a gap with a rookie, they’d say, “We have some good ones.”

It was all good for us.

If there was one regret, it was that practice time for other things was tight.

A few days from now we’d film the school uniform CF. I looked at the storyboard.

The paper trembled from the car’s vibrations, but my gaze was unwavering.

#12.

[VIDEO]

A teacher stands at the podium holding chalk.

[AUDIO]

Teacher: The magic we’ll learn today is levitation, which makes the body feel light.

The concept was simple.

Through magic, showcase the practical aspects of the EverDream uniform—its lightness and stretch.

Five students practice on their own, accidentally casting magic on their uniforms—something like that.

It was a fun premise.

But with one very interesting twist.

“Hyung, what are you looking at?”

Ji-ho thrust his face in front of mine as I focused on the storyboard, and I just stared blankly.

I rubbed my eyes, suddenly overcome by fatigue, and answered.

“I was looking at the ad storyboard.”

“What’s with the eye-rubbing as soon as you saw me?”

“Ah, my eyes dried out.”

“...”

“That just means I shine so bright for you, Ji-ho.”

“Really?”

Watching us two banter, Ri-hyuk shook his head while browsing “Japanese for Beginners.”

The car was quiet.

Biju had his earphones in and was dozing.

Jung-hyun had even taken off his shoes and was sleeping.

Naturally, after two events since morning, exhaustion set in.

Seeing my tired-smiling face, the youngest massaged my shoulder.

“Refreshing, right?”

“Super refreshing.”

Ji-ho glanced at the storyboard and asked,

“Is something not working?”

“Well, our lines are more than I expected, so I’m worried.”

“That’s good, no?”

“A double-edged sword. It looks like there are a lot of extras too, and if we mess up in front of them...”

“I know what you mean.”

I can imagine the director’s and staff’s faces souring and the extras sighing heavily—horrifying.

Ji-ho said,

“But the lines aren’t heavy or anything. If we practice, it’ll be totally fine.”

“What’s with you comforting me today?”

“I might not know much about singing, dancing, or rapping, but I’m the best at acting.”

“True. Our maknae is the acting senior.”

As I patted the prideful acting senior’s head, he suddenly asked as if recalling something.

“Wait, maybe I’m not the best at it.”

“Huh?”

“You might be better than me at acting.”

“No way.”

I gave a disbelieving look, and Ji-ho said,

“Don’t you remember last year? When you joined as a trainee, you said you couldn’t dance. And that you couldn’t really sing, and you lied to us.”

“...I wasn’t lying.”

It was just a misunderstanding.

Ji-ho asked me,

“Hyung, are you good at acting, by any chance?”