In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 72

“A car accident?” Yoon Seokhwan adjusted his glasses and asked, “What do you mean?”

“There was a collision with a truck at the nearby intersection.”

“What about the people there? Are they hurt?”

“No, it’s just a minor scratch on the vehicles, but the other party is making a big fuss and holding their necks.”

“…That’s unlucky.”

Yoon Seokhwan clicked his tongue.

It was something that happened often when dealing with celebrities.

But he had no time to sympathize with the manager on the scene.

“This is trouble.”

The fans had to drive all the way to the market, and there were waiting audiences everywhere, and the star singer who would decorate the finale might not be able to come.

The situation was not good.

He was calculating whether there would be any backlash on New Black, when the team leader from the event agency came running with a desperate face.

“Si, sir! Mr. Yoon!”

He was so urgent that he ran without an umbrella, and the team leader gasped for breath.

“You must have heard roughly what’s going on, but right now Teen Spirit is in contact…”

“Yes, I heard they can’t come because of the accident.”

“I just finished talking to the manager on the scene, and we’ve located them, so we’ve arranged for a vehicle. It’ll probably take about 40 minutes, though…”

Yoon Seokhwan’s eyes narrowed.

He guessed why the other person had spoken.

In two minutes, New Black would come down, and next was the turn of the rookie girl group Blink.

Even if they stretched their repertoire, it would be 10 minutes.

That was, another 30 minutes until Teen Spirit arrived.

The team leader from the event agency said with a frantic face, “I’m sorry, but can I ask you a favor? We’re in a situation where the fire is on our feet, so…”

“Did you ask Blink?”

“They want to help, but this is their first album activity, so they don’t have any repertoire to perform.”

“What about the other singers?”

“They’re all gone, and right now there’s no one but New Black. Some of them have already entered the tollgate. I’ve asked Song BoHyung to come as soon as possible, but he said it would take at least 30 minutes…”

So they wanted New Black to help somehow.

It was tricky.

If it was normal, he would have thought about it positively, but today the situation was complicated.

First of all, the rain.

The kids were already soaked and sticky, and if they stood up more, they might catch a cold and affect their future schedule.

And the audience composition was also the worst.

The middle-aged and elderly groups who were not friendly to idols, and the Teen Spirit fans who were waiting for their singers in the unpleasant weather.

It was a situation where they could get scolded for doing a good deed.

But they couldn’t easily refuse either.

In a situation where the only remaining singer was them, and they had to face the other party often, it was not easy to reject their request bluntly.

If they had enough benefits to outweigh the disadvantages, he might have considered it.

The team leader from the event agency seemed to sense his hesitation and quickly added, “If you help us with this, we’ll take good care of you. New Black will also get a lot of events, and we’ll solve this problem well. Let’s be good to each other. I’ll arrange a seat for you soon, so please help us with this…”

“I understand.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll talk to the members once.”

“Thank you!”

“But, I can’t guarantee anything. It’s not a matter that I can decide on my own. According to the company policy, if the artists refuse, I can’t do anything either.”

“That’s still better than nothing!”

The team leader, who seemed to be worried that he might change his mind, thanked him profusely.

Finally, the stage was over and the five members came down with flushed faces.

Yoon Seokhwan explained the situation briefly.

They all had the same thoughts, and as the story went on, they showed expressions of pity, confusion, and embarrassment.

“What do you think?”

The members, who had been looking confused for a moment, turned their heads to one person.

And.

That one person was deep in thought right now.

***

Woojoo was flustered.

He barely managed to catch the kids who fell on the stage, and endured the rain that poured into his in-ear monitor as they finished the event.

But now they wanted them to fill in for the stage.

Woojoo made an awkward expression and Seokhwan Hyung nodded his head as if he understood.

Woojoo was about to ask for his opinion, but it seemed like he had the same thought as him.

This was a curse.

Woojoo didn’t want to do it, but he couldn’t refuse.

Woojoo spoke to the event staff who had been looking at him with a burdened gaze.

“Are you the team leader?”

“Yes.”

“How long do we have to fill in for?”

“Until Song Bohyung comes as a substitute, it should be around 15 minutes.”

15 minutes.

“The MC will cover about 5 minutes with her speech,” he said hastily.

It was too polite to face a rookie singer who only released one album.

That meant the situation was urgent.

Woojoo looked at the anxious faces of his siblings and quickly checked their opinions.

“How about you guys? Any thoughts?”

The four of them exchanged glances and Bijoo stepped up as the representative.

“I don’t know how many songs we can do, but I think it would be better to help if we can. It’s not bad to get wet again when we’re already soaked, right?”

It was a difficult situation to reject, so they decided to accept it nicely.

Woojoo felt the same way.

He looked at the event staff and opened his mouth.

“We’ll try to go on stage for now.”

“Thank you! Really!”

The event team leader grabbed Woojoo’s hand and ran out into the rain like crazy.

He seemed too happy.

Woojoo felt a bitter feeling from the warmth left in his hand, but it was only for a moment.

He was in the dark.

It was like giving money to an old man who put out a can on the street and then running out of money to go home.

What should they do?

They had to fill in for 10 minutes.

A song usually took 3 minutes, so that was three songs.

They could stretch the speech to two songs, but then they would have to cover 8 minutes out of 15 with the speech.

Of course, if they did that, they would be disintegrated by the laser beam from the audience’s eyes.

In the end, it was a three-song repertoire.

What should they do?

Woojoo had to hand over the MR right away, but he didn’t even know what to sing.

This was an opportunity, Woojoo. An opportunity.

Woojoo vowed to make the most of this opportunity, but his mind was ahead of his head.

It was because of the pressure.

When was the last time he was this stressed?

Maybe it was the sound accident at the debut showcase.

Woojoo hoped to get some hint like he did then, but he shook his head.

He had to solve this situation with his own hands.

As he was wracking his brain and worrying.

Thump.

A hand landed on his shoulder.

There was only one person among the members who could raise his hand at this angle.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t worry too much,” Junghyun said, looking at Woojoo.

“We can think together this time.”

“…”

“Last time at the debut showcase, you were alone, but here we have time to think together.”

His pleasant bass tickled Woojoo’s ears.

“So, let’s think together.”

“…”

This was touching.

“We’ll do well together. And we’ll fail together. Isn’t that nice?”

He was joking at the end.

“What are you talking about, I don’t want to fail.”

“I’m in.”

“Junghyun, of course it’ll work out.”

“No, I meant what Woojoo Hyung said. Don’t feel pressured.”

Woojoo laughed at their bickering.

“Oh? He’s smiling. Guys. Woojoo Hyung is smiling now.”

“Wow, thank goodness.”

“…What’s with you guys? Was my face weird?”

“You looked too serious. Like you had all the troubles of the world on your shoulders. I thought the earth was going to end or something,” Rihyuk said casually. “Let’s think together like Junghyun Hyung said. We need to pick three songs for our lineup. The time we have left is…”

“Ten minutes, Rihyuk.”

“We better hurry then.”

“The manager just asked the staff and came back. He said we have about 20 minutes. The announcer will try to stall as much as possible, so we should think about what to sing. Hurry up and decide.”

Twenty minutes to choose three songs for a ten-minute performance.

That would be a good title for a song, Woojoo thought absurdly. His mind was blank as a sheet of paper.

But he felt more relaxed than before.

It wasn’t up to him alone. He had members to share opinions with.

“Let’s narrow down the list then.”

They went back in time from when they started their official broadcast activities.

There weren’t many songs they prepared since then.

Something

Between

Night Sea

Woojoo expected more, but that was all.

“That’s it.”

“It’s decided. Three songs.”

“No way. Between is basically a rearranged version of Something. If we do them back to back, the audience will hate it.”

“We did both at our music show, remember?”

“Hey, Wang Jihyo. There was a long talk break then.”

Between was the obvious choice to drop.

It was incomparable to Something in terms of popularity.

While Something was still above Fireworks on the music chart, Between was hard to find.

And most importantly, they had more practice with Something for their own events.

“Then what do we do for the last song?”

“Like we did at the showcase, Fireworks acoustic, oh wait. We just did Fireworks and came down.”

“We have to avoid the idol color as much as possible.” Woojoo said, “Because of the rain, the order got messed up and we had Street Boys, us, and Blink in a row. The audience age group is also higher, so they’ll be bored. If we do more idol songs, the reaction won’t be good either.”

“Hmm…”

The younger ones were stroking their chins and thinking, when Jiho seemed to have an idea.

“Come to think of it, that reminds me.”

“Of what?”

“Hyung, you said at the year-end evaluation, we should consider the time and place for the stage.”

He was referring to the three factors Woojoo used to think about when planning a stage: time, place, and situation.

Now that he thought about it…

He was too anxious to remember the three elements he usually considered.

Woojoo racked his brain.

A dark night, a slippery floor, a bored audience of idol singers.

What else?

Oh.

That was right.

“Seokhwan Hyung, who’s coming up next as a filler?”

“Trot singer Song Bohyung.”

Woojoo almost shouted in surprise.

He had a good idea.

But there was one thing he had to check first.

“Minki Hyung, sorry to ask, but can you get my USB from my bag in the car?”

“USB?”

“Yes, it should be in a black pouch. The black box next to it, don’t touch, ah, never mind. Just the USB.”

As Mingi Hyung ran to the car to get the USB, Woojoo briefly explained his idea to the younger ones.

Thankfully, they liked it.

“Not bad.”

Even Rihyuk, the most demanding of them, gave a positive reaction.

While Woojoo handed over the USB with the MR to the staff and gave them some simple instructions, they checked one last thing.

“Yes, is this Song Bohyung’s manager? Oh, are you driving yourself? When are you coming? Yeah, yeah, 15 minutes should be enough. Yes, we’ll wait for you. Yes, the sooner you come, the better.”

Seokhwan Hyung drew an OK sign to them after he hung up the phone.

Now they were done with all the preparations.

They had prepared as if they were roasting beans on a fire, so they didn’t know how the quality would be, but they decided to give it a try anyway.

And.

“Thank you, guys.”

Before they went back on stage, they gathered under the umbrella that the two managers held.

“Thanks to you, I…”

“Hey. We don’t have time right now, so save the cheesy speech for later.”

“Yeah.”

“Huh? I wanted to hear it.”

“Let’s talk later, guys.”

“…I’m really hurt, seriously.”

Woojoo rolled his eyes at the giggling siblings, but soon he joined their laughter.

It made him feel a bit less nervous.

They shouted a small fighting! and went back on stage.

***

The atmosphere of the event was not very good.

The announcer Jung Hyojin, who was the MC, swallowed her dry saliva at the cold mood.

It was after she said that Teen Spirit would be a little late.

Most of them had dissatisfied expressions, and the idol fans scattered around were very cranky.

In such a predicament, she used her skillful MC skills to revive the mood with witty remarks or improvised prize events.

Of course, that mood didn’t last long either.

“When is this going to end? Who are these people who are coming now?”

“They’re the ones who came out earlier.”

“The idols? Again?”

The family visitors who came out for a picnic complained.

Among the idols who came out today, the only group that the general public knew was Teen Spirit.

Especially for parents with teenage children.

Teen Spirit was as popular as TNT in that age group.

That was why they endured the performances of unknown rookies, because they expected to see the famous ones they saw on TV in real life.

But that was delayed too.

The elderly especially were very unhappy, and they clenched their lips, saying that they should play some trot instead of these weird and ugly young guys.

Of course, there were some who had the most intense emotions.

‘Ah, what is this? Really.’

The fans of Teen Spirit who had taken a bus for an hour from Seoul were boiling with anger.

Especially the homemasters who had put a lot of effort into the camera settings to take pictures and upload them to the website.

Some of the radical fans wanted to raise their voices to the organizers, but they shut their mouths as soon as they saw the PBS and Gyeonggi TV cameras around them.

They didn’t want to ruin the fandom image.

It was already an issue that a fan had cursed at a rookie girl group at the department store event last time.

So they all kept quiet and expressed their anger only through SNS.

Meanwhile, there was a commotion in front of the stage for a different reason.

“…”

Under the tent with the best view, the aides and attendants who were assisting the mayor were restless.

“The event management is really…”

His wife grabbed his arm tightly, so he stopped there, but Mayor Kim Younggeon did not hide his discomfort.

What was this?

They couldn’t prepare for the rain properly, the singers were late, and the order of the lineup was four consecutive idols.

This festival was the first event he had with the citizens since he took office.

He was elected in the local elections last June and moved from the city council to the mayor.

He thought there was nothing more unpleasant in the beginning of his term than the words that this festival was worse than the previous mayor’s.

The attendants quickly bowed their heads at the sight of the mayor turning his head, but he was looking at the audience.

At a glance, they had bored and annoyed expressions.

‘How can this work?’

He doubted that the group called Teaspoon or something could revive this mood.

He bit his tongue and looked at the stage again.

It was a cloudy day with rain, but even so, idol singers with striking appearances calmly walked onto the stage.

Please.

He hoped that they would at least maintain this atmosphere, even if they didn’t do well.

Mr. Kim frowned.

‘Why are only two of them coming up?’

He muttered, wondering if the rest had already left, when a gentle music started to flow from the stage speaker.

He thought it was strange.

Because the song that was playing now was not idol music.

Rather.

It was a warm melody that stuck to his ears.