Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 266
“Welcome back!”
As soon as they arrived at the PR Team’s office, the staff greeted them warmly.
“How was Japan?”
“Great!”
“I heard from Director Yoon that you guys hit it big there. What did Woojoo do on the show?”
“…That’s a secret.”
They did all kinds of things for 500,000 yen.They handed out gifts to the PR Team staff, and they all received them with happy expressions.
When the staff returned to their work, they followed Assistant Manager Hong to the meeting room.
“Deputy Manager, please take this.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“We couldn’t give you a proper gift earlier because there were too many people. We brought you something extra.”
They had prepared more gifts for her, since she was in charge of New Black in the PR Team.
“Oh, thank you.”
She smiled as she took the wrapped gift box.
She looked down at the box and fiddled with it, then lifted her head and looked at them.
A genuine smile flashed across her business-like smile.
She muttered that she felt motivated to work and left the meeting room.
“Can you wait a moment? I’ll bring the light sticks soon!”
“Okay!”
They bounced on their feet and imagined the possibilities, while she came back with an intern carrying a huge box.
What?
Why was it so big?
It was the size of an air purifier.
“…It’s huge.”
“The box is really big.”
It looked like a Gulliver’s Travels edition.
They were momentarily stunned, but then they focused on the small box that she took out of the big box.
A black box.
The black color faded as it went down, creating a gradient effect.
On the front, there was New Black’s logo in silver, and on the back, their names were written in English.
They were moved by the sight of the ‘Official Fanlight’, which meant the official light stick.
“Wow…”
The light stick they had been waiting for finally appeared before their eyes.
They felt warm in their chests just by looking at the packaging.
“A real light stick…”
The younger ones had similar reactions.
They smiled as they looked at the light stick case in the middle of the table.
Bijoo raised his hand to his mouth as if he liked what he saw, and Jiho took pictures with his phone from all angles.
Junghyun also grinned with his chin propped up.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Woojoo turned his head and saw Rihyuk tapping his phone hard.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m recording how I feel at this moment. It’s a moment I want to remember.”
They nodded.
It was a moment they wanted to remember, as Rihyuk said.
Was it when they debuted?
They used to imagine what they would be like a year later.
Whether they would be successful, or just getting by, or even struggling to release an album.
There was a time when everything was uncertain.
But now, they were feeling so happy, and they were celebrating the birth of their light stick around their first anniversary.
They exchanged glances and smiled with each other.
The youngest, who was taking pictures with flashes, tilted his head.
“Huh? But the box size is a bit odd.”
“Yeah,” Woojoo said. “I’ve seen a lot of light stick boxes from other seniors, but they were much smaller than this.”
“It looks like a birthday cake box. Hyung.”
The usual light stick boxes were slim, but this one was a bit wide.
Assistant Manager Hong smiled quietly, and Woojoo noticed the secret as he looked closely at the box.
“Oh, I get it! You matched it with our album size, right?”
“Yes.”
“Ah…!”
Then the younger ones realized it too.
The height of the light stick box was the same as their album.
Lemon Entertainment was the most praised in the field of idol fandoms for its standardization.
All the goods were arranged neatly on the bookshelf with the same specifications.
Whenever a post titled ‘Goods display that makes you feel comfortable as you look at it’ came up on the internet, it was 99% their company.
Woojoo didn’t even know they would match the specifications for the light stick boxes.
“Standardization! I love it…!”
Woojoo smiled quietly as he saw someone on their team blush with joy.
After letting them examine the box for a while, she nodded her head and asked, “Shall I show you now?”
“Yes!”
Woojoo clasped his hands and prayed, ‘Please be pretty!’ while he did the unboxing.
Soon, the stick that came out of his hand.
“Wow!”
“Wow! Wow!”
“Wow…”
It felt like a heavenly background music and a glitter filter were applied to his eyes.
The luxurious handle that was designed to fit in the hand.
The round sphere on top of it.
It looked like a new black ice cream cone that the Creator had carefully crafted.
And there was something very pretty inside.
“Wow…!”
They all stretched their necks at the same time at the light stick on the table.
There was a round moon inside.
At first, Woojoo thought it was a cute sunflower or a sun, but now he saw it was a moon and stars around it.
There was a star on each of the rings that surrounded the moon like sunflower petals.
“It looks a bit like a flower from a distance, right? The designer reflected the opinion of Woojoo.”
“That’s why it’s so pretty! Our light stick is so cute.”
“…”
“…I’m sorry.”
Woojoo bowed his head at the contemptuous gaze of his younger siblings.
He laughed.
“Remember, Woojoo said the reason why the petals are five is because of the five of you who surround the Soufflé.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“That’s why there are five stars.”
“Ah.”
Then, Rihyuk raised his voice as if he had found something.
“But the circle doesn’t seem to be a perfect circle. The curve is a bit…”
“Right.”
“…?”
“It looks like a moon from the front, but if you look at it sideways, it will look like a Soufflé pancake.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes. The designer reflected the idea of Bijoo.”
They all stuck their chins to the table like dogs sniffing.
“It’s true!”
“Really?”
It really looked like a double-layered Soufflé pancake when they looked at it sideways.
The concept was that the five stars were spinning around the Soufflé.
“It’s pretty…”
“How did this come out of our horrible design?”
“Right. Did they really make it based on the design we gave them?”
“Yes,” Assistant Manager Hong answered. “He gathered all the ideas you gave him and made it.”
“Wow… He’s not a pro for nothing.”
They gave him ideas like the people who participated in the world’s most useless item contest.
This was…
It was like a flower that bloomed from rotten soil.
Woojoo praised the designer who sprouted the bud.
“We have to pay a lot of design fees to the designer, right?”
“…We paid a lot.”
“This is what my dad always said, the power of money.”
The light stick was really luxurious.
It was the prettiest after their Lady Deoksoon.
Woojoo admired the light stick that had the touch of the designer everywhere, and Junghyun looked at the surface of the sphere.
“Manager. But what are these dots on the surface?”
“Huh? Really! There’s something like a stain here!”
“Is it defective?”
“Kim Junghyun. Stop scratching it with your fingernails. It’s not yours.”
“Yes…”
As Woojoo looked at the round sphere with specks embedded in it, wondering if it was dust or crystals, Assistant Manager Hong smiled meaningfully and called the intern.
“Turn off the lights for a moment.”
“…?”
“Assistant Manager. Why are you suddenly turning off the lights…”
The explanation came after the lights went off.
“You need to turn on the light stick to explain this part.”
“Oh.”
“Rihyuk contributed a lot of ideas for the performance. You can adjust the brightness in several levels.”
Thud- The light stick turned on.
“Wow!”
“I just turned it on. Guys.”
“Wow!”
“…”
Assistant Manager Hong, holding the light stick, chuckled.
As they admired the glowing light stick, saying ‘awesome…’, she lifted the light stick like a torch.
“Do you see these specks on it?”
Then he shone the light stick on the wall.
The weakest brightness.
As she adjusted the angle, the specks on the surface of the light stick created a picture of light and shadow on the wall.
Like a constellation lamp.
“Huh…?”
A round moon.
And around the moon, small stars were scattered. It looked like a night sky made of shadows.
It looked like stains at first glance, but it became a night sky when she adjusted the angle.
“Wow…”
As they marveled at it, Bijoo raised his hand.
“It’s pretty. But what does it mean?”
“The designer came up with the idea. He thought it would be nice to have a night sky with the moon and stars. It has a special meaning for you guys.”
“It does?”
They tilted their heads.
Then they looked at the shadowy night sky on the wall and narrowed their eyes.
Assistant Manager Hong smiled.
“June 19th, 2014. The night sky of the day you debuted.”
Silence fell.
Their breathless eyes turned to the picture on the wall.
“How is it?”
“…”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s not just that we like it…”
They answered with a smile.
“It’s the best.”
“We love it. Really.”
They stared endlessly at the shadow on the wall with the keyword June 19th.
As they stored the scenery in their memory for a long time, Rihyuk asked, “But isn’t the brightness too weak? I don’t think we can use it as a book lamp.”
“Ah. Of course. This is the weakest brightness.”
“What’s the normal brightness?”
“Uh, wait a minute… Junsung. How do you adjust this?”
The intern showed Assistant Manager Hong something on his smartphone and told her.
Ah, she said with a smile, “That was the weakest brightness, and the normal brightness is…”
And at that moment.
Whooooosh!
Assistant Manager Hong’s face, smiling brightly, disappeared in white.
Before they could dodge, a wave of light attacked them.
It was like in a movie, when a bomb exploded, the characters disappeared with a flash. That was them.
They all covered their eyes.
“Aaaaaah!”
“My eyes! My eyes!”
“Ahh, it feels like I got hit by a flashbang!”
“Sorry, guys! Ouch! My eyes…! Junsung!”
“I can’t see either! Assistant Manager…!”
That was how ‘eye-popping’ became one of the candidates for their light stick name.
The meeting room lights came back on.
“…”
“…”
Everyone was sitting with a stunned expression.
Rihyuk was rubbing his eyelids with his eyes closed, and Woojoo was blinking constantly.
Spots were flickering.
“The afterimage won’t go away.”
“Me too. Hyung. Something is floating in front of my eyes.”
Bijoo reached out his hand to the air, as if trying to catch something.
Junghyun said that if they stared at each spot, they could erase them, but it didn’t seem to work for them.
Woojoo opened his eyes wide and turned his head.
“Are you okay? Both of you?”
“Uh, yeah…”
The two employees nodded blankly.
The intern was looking for the switch while leaning on the wall earlier.
His siblings were mumbling with a dazed face.
“What kind of brightness is that…”
“I thought my eyes were going to pop out. I was waiting for the normal brightness, but then suddenly, whoosh!”
“Seriously. If Junghyun’s cornea got damaged, that says it all.”
“But why is it so bright?”
“Wait a minute. The performance was as Rihyuk Hyung requested…”
At the youngest’s words, their heads turned at the same time.
Rihyuk, who was rubbing his eyes, looked up sheepishly and frowned.
“What?”
“You did it.”
“Rihyuk Hyung influenced the performance decision, right? This is your work, Hyung?”
“No, I…”
They started to scold Rihyuk.
“Rihyuk. We asked you to make a light stick, not an industrial light.”
“We can’t do our concert like this.”
“I don’t think I can do music shows either.”
It was true.
If they cheered with this brightness, it would be a disaster.
After the pre-recording, the fan manager would say, ‘Okay, our Soufflés, close your eyes and calm down. When you’re ready, we’ll let you out one by one from the last row!’
The concert reviews would be ‘Our kids are the light… I only saw the light.’
Junghyun nodded.
“When I was young, I went to the harbor with my dad. The lighthouse I saw there felt like this.”
“Come on, guys. Calm down. This can’t be…”
As Rihyuk was denying it, Assistant Manager Hong came back to her senses and added, “Rihyuk is right. That was the maximum brightness.”
“Oh…”
“I meant to do the normal brightness, but I pressed the wrong button and got the maximum brightness.”
“See? Maximum brightness.”
He looked at them with an ‘apologize now’ look in his eyes.
“It’s the same with maximum brightness.”
“Yeah. Why does the maximum brightness have to be that high in the first place?”
“It could be useful in case of unexpected disasters or emergencies. I hope it never happens, but later this light stick might…”
“Light stick?”
“It might save someone’s life.”
Woojoo was almost convinced for a moment.
“But still, why does it have to be a light stick?”
“There’s no law that says it can’t be.”
“…”
Woojoo was speechless for a moment.
It sounded weird no matter how he heard it, but it had some persuasiveness, so he decided to let it go.
In the meantime, they heard the explanation of the rest of the specifications.
It was mostly about the technical aspects, and Rihyuk seemed to be satisfied with his smile.
“We’ll start production soon. We’ve gathered internal opinions, and we’ll launch it after we hear from you what needs to be improved.”
“Oh, I have a few things.”
They gave feedback on what they felt while looking at the light stick.
As they talked about the size of the hand strap and the brightness of the light, the other person took notes diligently.
“Got it. I’ll talk to the manufacturer more about that part. Anything else you want to say?”
“When will it be released?”
“Soon. We’re planning to launch it when we recruit the second batch of Soufflé.”
“I can hear them. I can hear the fans coming in.”
They all laughed at the youngest’s joke.
It was when they smiled with the boxes of light sticks that they each received.
Assistant Manager Hong was struggling to pull something out.
“Assistant Manager?”
“…Just a moment. Ugh, this won’t come out.”
Something was popping out of the huge air purifier box that they had wondered about at first.
Seeing the two of them grunting, Woojoo winked at Junghyun.
Their strongman walked over and plucked something out like a cabbage.
“Wow…!”
It was like a giant sweet potato.
“Wow…?”
It felt like the Lion King soundtrack was playing.
They were shocked by the sight of Junghyun holding something in both hands like Simba.
“No, that is…”
They were speechless.
Assistant Manager Hong, who had prepared the thing, also burst out laughing.
“This…”
“Is that a light stick?”
“It looks like a light stick no matter how I look at it.”
It was almost identical to the light stick we had just seen.
Except for the size.
It was about a meter long.
It was like a torch that the Olympic torchbearers carry. It was the size that Junghyun had to hold with both hands.
Junghyun looked at what he was holding and said, “Wow.”
That one word summed up their feelings.
What the hell was this?
They were looking for someone to explain because it was so unreal.
“What, what is this?”
“Snort. Snicker.”
Assistant Manager Hong snickered for a while and then said, “This is… When I tried to reflect the performance that Rihyuk asked for at first, it had to be this size to be possible. It was a mock-up that I made as a joke at the planning meeting…”
“The President saw it.”
“Yeah.”
Woojoo imagined the scene behind it.
“The President said it would be fun to make this version too, so I made two.”
One was in the President’s office, and the other was given to them.
“This is the real one and only light stick.”
“So this is the thing that I… mentioned at first.”
“Right.”
Woojoo said to Rihyuk, who had a blissful expression, “Rihyuk. Can you lift this?”
“I can lift this… Aaargh!”
“Pfft! Hahaha!”
It turned out he couldn’t.
They laughed for a long time. The thing in front of them was too absurd.
It was like a siege weapon, not a light stick.
If a picture of it went online, people would react like ‘How is this real…?’
Woojoo decided to show it to the Soufflé fans when they did the light stick review later.
“It can generate its own power.”
“Wow…!”
As they turned the small handle at the end, the light stick flickered.
“Hahaha!”
Everyone laughed except for Rihyuk, who was moved to tears.
It was a light stick that condensed the romance of men, no, of all children.
Every time they tested the performance, Assistant Manager Hong and the intern also watched with curiosity.
After testing for almost 30 minutes, the meeting finally ended.
“Okay. Then let’s see each other again when we film the light stick review video.”
“Yes!”
“Don’t mess around with that big… stick.”
They nodded at the Assistant Manager’s words.
“Hey, Assistant Manager. Do you think we’re kids?”
“Yeah. The fans said I looked mature on stage.”
“Okay. See you later.”
They shook hands with Assistant Manager Hong and the intern bowed as they left the room.
They smiled politely as they saw them off.
One. Two. Three…
After counting calmly to ten, Junghyun peeked his head out and gave them an OK sign.
“Are they gone?”
“They’re gone.”
They jumped up with excited faces.
“Hey, let’s do it. Let’s do it.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
“Come on, gather up.”
Deputy Seo Pilgeun of the A&R Team walked down the hallway, loosening his stiff shoulders.
“Is it because Woojoo came to Korea? Why are my shoulders so tense…”
He walked cautiously, hoping not to run into anyone.
-Hahaha!
“Ah!”
Woojoo’s laughter sounded like a devil’s howl.
Deputy Seo Pilgeun, who had unknowingly stuck to the wall, turned his head around, looking for the source of the laughter.
‘The conference room?’
The voices of the New Black members were coming out of the conference room.
-Let’s try again. Junghyun. Again!
-Lumos!
At that moment, a flash of light that seemed to brighten the whole world burst out of the conference room.
Along with the frivolous laughter.
-Hahahaha!
-Kyaa!
-Hehehe!
The bright hallway darkened again.
-Let’s try the Statue of Liberty this time! The Statue of Liberty!
-The Statue of Liberty? Um… not Junghyun. Hyung! Woojoo Hyung, do it for us.
-Just a sec.
Then, with Woojoo’s voice saying ‘Welcome to New York’, the conference room lit up again.
The sound of clapping like seals and the giggling laughter leaked out.
“…”
He had no idea what they were doing.
He wanted to open the door and ask, but Deputy Seo Pilgeun shook his head.
‘I can’t get involved. It’s work if I do.’
He ran away desperately.
【TheNewBlack.Official has started a live broadcast. Watch it now!】
As the SNS notification popped up on the phones scattered across the country, the Soufflés opened their eyes wide.
‘It’s them…!’
Lemon Entertainment had announced that the members would introduce their light sticks live today.
The Soufflés turned on the live broadcast with a pounding heart.
‘Huh?’
It was pitch black.
A dark screen.
The live broadcast had started, but all they could see was darkness. The Soufflés tilted their heads.
-Is there a broadcast error?
-Guys???
-???
-What is this
-Say hello to brazil!
-Why is it black
And as they were thinking that, someone grabbed the camera and the camera angle spun around.
Slowly to the right in the darkness.
It was like a horror movie.
As the Soufflés looked on with ‘…?’, someone appeared with a flash of light in the distance.
Five people showed their faces.
‘What, what is this.’
They followed Woojoo, who was clutching a giant torch, as the other members of New Black walked behind them.
They were walking like models, but the lighting was terrible.
The torchlight only illuminated the bottom of their faces, making them look like they were playing ghost pranks with flashlights.
Or rather…
-They’re monsters
-Monsters, huh
-They must be from the legendary homeland
-Is it Halloween in Korea??
-The kids are crying. Guys…
-I’m a film student. That’s a cinematic way of showing the duality of human nature.
-They look like monsters;
They thought they were making cool expressions, but they looked like five monsters in a strange scenery.
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