In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 318:

“Haha, hahaha!”

Ha Seung-ju, the MC, fanned himself with a cue card. He was supposed to say his lines, but he couldn’t stop laughing.

Everyone around him was laughing too.

The audience members who were wiping their tears from laughing so hard.

The managers and the music cafe staff who were covering their mouths from below.

“...”

Rihyuk’s face turned red as a beet.

His face was so flushed that it looked like steam would come out of his ears. We fanned him vigorously with our hands.

“Ouch, my stomach.”

Just when Ha Seung-ju’s laughter subsided and he was about to say his lines, Bijoo crouched down and picked up the buttons that had fallen off.

“Huh? Bijoo, why are you picking up the buttons?”

“They’re sponsored.”

He said with a shy smile, ‘Not ours...’ and the audience laughed again.

The MC said with a voice full of laughter.

“It’s amazing. I thought you were really cool just a moment ago, but now you seem so friendly.”

“Oh, that’s not good.”

I grabbed the microphone.

“We came out today to look cool...”

“It looks like you’re having a hard time...”

“No, it’s not over yet. Everyone.”

“Yeah! We’re cool!”

The youngest, who had no sense of coolness, made everyone laugh louder.

All eyes were on Rihyuk, who had taken off his vest that had lost its buttons. The MC asked.

“Are you okay inside? Did it not burst?”

“Yes.”

Rihyuk brushed his hair back and answered.

“It only burst on the outside. The inside is fine.”

“That’s good. If your shirt had burst too, the broadcast rating would have changed today.”

After the FD came up and took the vest, Rihyuk, who was now in a shirt, flapped his clothes and said.

“I guess it’s because I wore the vest too tight.”

“It looked like it.”

The MC asked.

“But how strong is your diaphragmatic breathing that you can do that? I’ve seen people who burst their stage costume belts, but...”

I answered instead.

“He has a great lung capacity.”

“Yeah. Rihyuk hyung, he’s really good at that too. He can make his stomach bulge like a basin by filling it with air.”

“Please edit that part out.”

I smiled as if to say ‘please’ to the PD who was in the control room.

Ha Seung-ju asked.

“Why? It’s funny.”

“If we go that far, we won’t be able to fix our image...”

“Well, if we go a little further, we’ll have to pay the membership fee to the comedy club.”

“That’s right. We are-”

We all held out our palms and shouted.

“Singers!”

“Hahaha!”

As the audience burst into laughter, Ha Seung-ju scolded us in a realistic tone.

“Hey, don’t do that. Every time you come out and say ‘We are~ singers!’ people laugh at you.”

“I’m sorry. It’s a habit.”

“You’re really unstoppable. I’ve heard the words ‘entertainment idol, entertainment idol’ a lot. But now I can see what it feels like.”

The audience made noises as if they agreed.

The MC looked at the cue card and laughed.

“I almost forgot what to say because I laughed so much. Shall we get back to the main point?”

He moved on from the button explosion incident to the main topic.

Ha Seung-ju looked at the audience and said.

“Every time a guest comes out, our writers do research. They research what people are curious about the music of this singer...”

This time, he turned his gaze to us.

“For New Black, there are overwhelmingly many questions like this. ‘Do they really produce their own music?’”

“Yes, a lot of people are curious about that.”

“They’re very curious, right? Whether Woojoo really composes, and whether the other members participate in the song work.”

Ha Seung-ju asked me.

“How do you feel when you hear that?”

“Hmm.”

I didn’t think for long.

“I think, ‘They might think that way?’ I think. It’s hard for people outside to know about the song work. And nowadays, composing is like a collaboration.” �

“That’s right.”

“And I think we didn’t have many opportunities to introduce our music.”

The younger ones nodded their heads seriously, and Ha Seung-ju smiled as if he agreed.

Then he joked.

“So you came out on the music cafe? To show that we are the musicians of this area.”

“Yes. We came out to show off our musicality.”

The slightly serious atmosphere was loosened by the joke. Ha Seung-ju skillfully led the corner that was already written in the script.

“Then, shall we introduce the songs of New Black here?”

“Yes!”

“Not you, but the audience.”

The audience said ‘Yes!’ with a laugh.

I said with a smile.

“We prepared a medley of our title songs. If we just do it-”

“Because I was bored!”

“I also prepared some lyrics.”

It was a song that I made by cutting out some parts of each song to make them flow smoothly as a medley.

As I put my hands on the keyboard, my siblings behind me picked up the microphones.

“Ah, ah, ah-”

They were just testing the volume, but people laughed.

‘Should we start?’ I turned around and saw my siblings wink at me.

I immediately started playing and began to sing the title song medley softly.

Fireworks-

Fire- works-

As I played, I repeated ‘fireworks’ as if to brainwash them, and then moved on to Masquerade.

The people sitting in the audience closed their mouths and squirmed.

Masque- rade-

Mas- querade-

As we sang in harmony with our eyes closed, Ha Seung-ju burst into laughter.

The laughter spread like paint in the auditorium.

“Hey! You said you came out to change your image!”

We nodded and brought our mouths close to the microphone as we moved on to Wind Flower.

Image change-

We’ll change and show you-

The hall erupted in laughter again.

The audience sitting in the seats laughed like crazy.

‘The button boy still likes red bean. How cute.’

As they each had different thoughts and sent their eyes with affection.

The MC asked a question.

“We don’t have much talk left. Soon we’ll have the second stage, ‘Thousand Dreams’.”

The people cheered as the OST of the famous movie was mentioned.

“A lot of people are interested in this song too. A Korean singer participated in a Hollywood movie project. Can you tell us the behind story?”

“Yes. Of course.”

Then they explained how they participated in the OST of Nostalgia.

How the full version of the song they just sent was adopted as the OST, and how the movie scene changed.

The audience was amazed by the story that the New Black members told.

“We signed a confidentiality agreement.”

“Do you write that too?”

They explained how they worked in a tight security to protect the Hollywood movie.

After that, everyone asked a curious question.

“By the way, how did you come up with this ‘Thousand Dreams’?”

“Oh. This?”

“Is it a secret?”

“No, it’s just...”

Woojoo said with a sheepish expression.

“I told you in the pre-interview too... I just thought of it.”

“Really?”

“Rihyuk listened to Falling Stars for the cover. When I heard it and heard the scene description where the song comes out... I thought I should do it like this and imagined it in my head.”

“Is that possible?”

“So, to tell you...”

Woojoo sat down at the keyboard again and played the melody of ‘Falling Stars’, which is now famous worldwide.

Then he repeated a certain part and said.

“Falling Stars has a falling atmosphere overall. Just like the stars are falling.”

“Hmm.”

“The sound goes down softly, right?”

Then he played the chorus of ‘Thousand Dreams’.

“So I thought it would be better to lift it up softly before that song comes out.”

“To make the emotion more when it falls?”

“Yes, that’s why I conceived the song. The dreams go up.”

As if a thousand dreams were floating in the sky like balloons, a cheerful melody flowed.

“And the dreams become stars and fall.”

As the melody of the stars pouring down continued, the audience unknowingly exclaimed ‘wow’.

Ha Seung-ju, who already knew the content to some extent, also opened his mouth for a moment.

Woojoo played the melody of Falling Stars and said.

“The person who composed this is really a genius. How did you think of this, I get goosebumps every time I listen to it.”

But the audience just blinked their eyes.

‘No. You’re more like a genius...’

They felt a subtle feeling at the sight of Woojoo admiring and praising ‘this song is awesome’.

They were very friendly until a while ago, but now they felt a huge distance.

After explaining the behind story of the song.

We performed ‘Thousand Dreams’ in front of the audience.

As I played the guitar, I sang cheerfully with my siblings, exchanging lines like we were in a movie.

“Wow!”

I smiled at the audience who applauded us after the song.

Their eyes sparkled every time I looked at them.

They had looked tired when we first appeared, since it was late, but now they were laughing happily.

Usually, some people would leave around this time during the music festival, but the seats were full.

My siblings grinned.

‘Success.’

‘Well done, slackers.’

I put down the guitar with a satisfied face.

Ha Seung-ju spoke.

“You listened to Thousand Dreams very well. The song will be released tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. It’s a worldwide simultaneous release.”

“I was disappointed that only Falling Stars was on MeeTube, but this is great. Don’t you want to listen to it soon?”

The audience answered ‘Yes!’ in unison.

Meanwhile, Ha Seung-ju held the microphone and said.

“Unfortunately, it’s time to say goodbye to New Black.”

“Aww...”

“Hey, usually the audience does that, New Black. Not the ones who are leaving.”

We made a sad expression and the audience laughed and clapped.

“It’s too bad to let you go like this. Can we see something before you go?”

“What kind of...?”

“You talked about composing, but you didn’t really show us any composing. How about improvising?”

Ha Seung-ju asked.

“Can you do it?”

“Yes. Of course.”

I sat down at the keyboard and my siblings moved.

“Huh? Are we doing it together?”

“Yup.”

Our youngest answered.

“We’ve been playing music for about two years, so we all know how to compose to some extent. We’ve been doing it together lately.”

“Oh.”

He seemed interested and I asked him.

“What do you want us to show you?”

“Um, how about a theme...”

Ha Seung-ju was thinking.

The hall was silent.

Then, a phone ringtone started to ring.

People murmured and looked around, and a young couple turned off their phone with a panicked expression.

And at that moment, I thought, ‘That’s it’ and laughed.

“Let’s do it with that ringtone.”

“The default ringtone of the Apple phone?”

“Yes.”

I pressed the keys and reproduced the ringtone, then started to vary it, and my siblings joined the rhythm.

After repeating it a few times, we made the main theme.

I smiled at the couple and brought my mouth to the microphone.

This is for you

My siblings added a chorus of ‘Ooh-’ and the couple bowed their heads, and Ha Seung-ju and the audience chuckled.

Rihyuk was the first to open his mouth to the improvised melody.

The ringtone that rings

In the dark

When everyone said ‘Oh’, Junghyun recited.

You forgot to turn on silent mode

Our chorus of ‘You forgot!’ made the hall explode with laughter.