Chapter 1020: We Call the Rain (4)

The Souffles could only stare in bewilderment.

"?"

"??"

Because of what was happening right in front of them.

'Huh?'

'Why are they here...?'

Running into NewBlack on the street?

That could happen.

Running into NewBlack at a famous Korean beef restaurant?

The odds were actually pretty high.

In fact, before long, there would probably come a day when people could run into NewBlack in Antarctica.

But...

'This is the attendance check area for a music show recording??'

This was where fans checked in before attending a prerecording.

One of the hardest places to meet an artist.

"Tada!"

"SamBlack has arrived."

The three members flashed peace signs and winked.

The moment the long-legged, mannequin-like men appeared, Souffles of every gender instinctively took a step backward.

'Uh... um...'

Unlike a fan signing event, where they had time to prepare themselves mentally, this was completely unexpected.

Jiho pouted.

"What is this, Souffles? Why are you running away~?"

"Uh, w-we, we, we..."

"If you run away, we'll run away too."

Step.

At those words, Ri Hyuk also took a tiny step backward like a sparrow.

As if to show he had no intention of attacking, Junghyun raised both hands and cautiously retreated as well.

'What are we, wild animals?'

The Souffles were looking at them like zookeepers facing lions and tigers.

Only then did the fans finally relax and burst into cheers.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaah!"

They had come to watch WooBIZ's prerecording and ended up meeting SamBlack right in front of them.

Even ordinary pedestrians wandering around Sangam-dong were stopping to stare from a distance, pulling out their phones while muttering, "Oh my goodness."

Now that their guard was down, the Souffles eagerly fired off questions.

"Why are you here today?!"

"We came to attend the public broadcast."

Ri Hyuk answered on behalf of the group.

"There were things we'd always been curious about while doing prerecordings. We wanted to see the actual process fans go through before entering. How they spend their waiting time and things like that."

"Ahhh..."

"We also wanted to see whether there were any inconveniences or issues we could bring up to the company."

It sounded like they had come to personally experience the prerecording process from a fan's perspective.

After speaking logically for a while, Ri Hyuk cleared his throat.

"And... while we're at it, well... we had some free time, so... uh... we thought we'd cheer on the older members too..."

"Ri Hyuk hyung is embarrassed!"

The youngest member suddenly shouted at full volume.

Everyone burst out laughing.

'Wang Jiho's voice is seriously so loud.'

As laughter spread through the crowd, Ri Hyuk jabbed Jiho in the side while glaring at him.

Either way, it was shocking news from the Souffles' perspective.

While everyone's fingers flew across Twitter and other social media platforms...

"Look over there."

One fan pointed toward the fan managers standing in the distance.

The fan managers responsible for running the public broadcast were standing neatly with their hands clasped.

Unlike the delighted fans, however, their eyes were trembling.

"Don't they look incredibly nervous?"

"I've attended public broadcasts dozens of times, and I've never seen those people make expressions like that."

"This is..."

Then someone spoke up.

"Doesn't this feel a bit like that?"

"Hm?"

"Like the secret royal inspector from historical dramas."

The group immediately exploded with laughter.

The secret royal inspector has arrived~!

For some reason, it felt like they could hear a very familiar phrase.

Attendance check.

While the fan managers verified attendance and fastened wristbands around fans' wrists, Wang Jiho's eyes sparkled.

'Fans! Our fans!'

Like a golden retriever that got excited whenever it saw people, the youngest member lit up whenever he met people who liked him.

"Hello!"

"Uh... h-hi."

Of course, things felt a little different from the fans' perspective.

Most fans needed time to mentally prepare themselves and rehearse what they wanted to say before they could talk to their favorite idol.

'I haven't even been to a fan signing event yet...'

As the flustered fans stumbled over their words, Jiho spoke first.

"I'm cuter in person, right?"

"Huh? Ah... yes..."

It really was fascinating.

Among NewBlack, Jiho had the fairest skin after Ri Hyuk.

Tiny beads of sweat glistened across his flawless, translucent skin under the summer heat.

"!"

"!!"

Whether male or female, everyone found their hearts pounding at his appearance.

A plain black T-shirt.

Jeans.

A pretty birthstone necklace as his only accessory.

One hand tucked casually into his pocket.

Yet somehow every little detail stood out.

"Where did everyone come from?"

"Uh... um..."

"??"

Those sparkling puppy eyes made people feel like they absolutely had to answer.

One fan who had been caught in Jiho's gaze blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"F-from Twitter."

"...?"

'Ah, shit, that's not what I meant!'

Their brain and mouth had completely disconnected.

While the fan internally screamed at their own mouth, Jiho suddenly gasped and covered his mouth.

Then he extended a hand for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you!"

"...?"

"I came from Instagram!!"

The surrounding Souffles burst into laughter.

The embarrassed fan covered half their face with one hand while reaching out.

Jiho enthusiastically shook their hand.

"Want a high five too?"

"Uh... sure..."

'Why a high five...?'

Nobody knew why a high five was necessary, but Jiho happily clapped palms together like an excited girl from the Alps.

'His energy is impossible to handle.'

Seeing the fan's system rapidly crash, Junghyun quietly grabbed Jiho by the back of the neck and pulled him away.

The fan was finally rescued.

Junghyun bowed slightly.

"Sorry..."

"No, it's okay."

He looked exactly like a dog owner apologizing for an overly friendly pet.

Meanwhile, the captured youngest member blew kisses toward the fans, making everyone laugh even harder.

'Seriously, Wang Jiho...'

'What would Jiho even be doing if he hadn't become an idol?'

After finishing attendance check and receiving their wristbands, SamBlack waved at the Souffles.

"We'll see you in a little while!"

"Bye~!"

After chatting with the fans, the three turned around.

The fan managers were organizing letters and gifts collected from fans.

Quietly observing their work, Ri Hyuk called out to one of them.

"Excuse me, manager."

"Y-yes?"

"After watching your work today, we realized something..."

Ri Hyuk asked,

"...You need more staff, don't you?"

"!!"

The fan managers' eyes shook violently.

It felt as if a glowing LED lifeline had suddenly descended from heaven.

At the question, they nodded so hard it looked painful.

Nod nod nod!

Ri Hyuk nodded and wrote something into his phone's memo app.

"We'll bring up staffing reinforcement with the division head. Is there anything else you need?"

"!"

At first they had thought SamBlack had appeared like secret royal inspectors.

Now it felt more like the king himself had come incognito.

Like commoners pounding a petition drum and crying, "Please hear us out!" the fan managers rushed to speak all at once.

"We'll discuss it with the team leader first."

Fan managers were responsible for handling fan signings, mini fan meetings, public broadcasts, and keeping stalker fans away.

While SamBlack listened and learned about on-site operations, the fan managers who had finished preparing to return to the station asked,

"Aren't you coming with us?"

"No. We'll see everyone again later anyway. We thought we'd spend some time around here first."

They really intended to kill time the way actual fans did.

The fan managers laughed and headed back.

Left behind with road manager Kyung Minsoo, a former security studies major, SamBlack looked down at their wristbands.

Jiho snapped a verification photo and grinned.

"I'm glad we came. My dad always says the answer is at the site itself."

"That's true. Farming's the same. You have to see things with your own eyes."

"Exactly. Dad says if you're always out in the field, competitors can't steal things and nobody can embezzle money either."

For a moment, they could almost hear Chairman Wang Hyeontak's booming laughter.

Ri Hyuk nodded.

"I'm glad we came too. I think we've gotten a good understanding of how things actually work."

It was something they had always wondered about.

What does everything look like from the fans' perspective?

Concert ticketing.

Transportation.

Entering venues.

All of it.

Knowing those things would help them later when planning events.

They'd be able to think, Ah, this would be difficult for fans.

Even their stage comments could become more thoughtful.

Of course, they had never had an opportunity to examine music show operations like this before.

'We've always been operating as a five-member group.'

But now that WooBIZ had debuted as a unit, SamBlack finally had the chance.

"No personal banners. No personal cheering goods..."

Ri Hyuk quietly recited the attendance guidelines.

Beside Junghyun, who was holding a parasol decorated with carrots, Jiho pointed a portable fan toward his older brothers.

"Why is it so hot when it's not even lunchtime yet? Hyungs, let's go find somewhere to kill time~"

"Hmm..."

No matter where they went, people would probably gather around them.

After thinking for a moment, Junghyun listened to the surrounding conversations and picked the place that seemed least crowded.

"Let's go there."

"The K-net Café?"

"Yeah."

The three headed toward the employee café located in the lobby of K-net's headquarters.

After ordering plenty of coffee and desserts for everyone, they greeted the nearby tables and sat down.

"Alright."

The youngest rubbed his hands together while picking up a fork.

"Now we eat dessert and kill time."

"Sounds good."

"Ah! Don't touch anything yet. I need pictures first."

Ri Hyuk had just placed his fork over his favorite Earl Grey cake.

At Jiho's protest, he reluctantly slid the fork away with a pout.

While the youngest busily stood up, sat down, and snapped photos from every possible angle, Ri Hyuk turned to Junghyun.

"Hyung. Today we're really doing this like fans. Waiting around before a public broadcast and everything."

"Just like Souffles."

Soon they pulled up WooBIZ's music video and stared at it while chanting,

"Woooooow!"

with absolutely no soul whatsoever.

Then they introduced themselves.

"Hello. My username is WangJihoFanboy."

"I'm SeoRiHyuk™."

"My username is SproutingPotato."

At the next table, a K-net producer nearly sprayed vanilla latte out of his nose.

As coughing erupted among nearby employees, SamBlack continued their roleplay.

"Who's your bias in WooBIZ? Mine's Jiho!"

"You only ever look at Ri Hyuk."

"Junghyun's the tallest, so he's easiest to see. The other members are too short to notice."

Listening quietly, the surrounding employees thought:

'This doesn't sound like a fan gathering.'

'It sounds like a gathering of solo stans.'

While everyone secretly enjoyed the spectacle, Jiho finally sighed in satisfaction.

"Wow. Talking like Souffles is so much fun."

"It really is."

"How long has it been? Feels like thirty minutes."

"No."

Junghyun checked his watch.

"It's been five minutes."

"..."

"..."

The three silently stared into space.

'Waiting... is harder than we thought.'

Laughter suddenly echoed through the waiting room.

When I turned around, Mingi hyung was sitting on the sofa, staring at his phone while laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

"What is it, hyung?"

At first I thought he was watching a MyTube video of Lisa from Sugarfish, his favorite idol.

Instead—

"It's because of your younger members."

"Huh?"

It was a post on social media.

[WangJihoSweetPotato] @Go_gu_33 · 17m

I want to die. Seriously.

The post had already accumulated an absurd number of reposts and likes.

I clicked the attached video.

Jiho was asking where someone came from.

The fan stammered,

"F-from Twitter."

And Jiho immediately replied,

"I came from Instagram!"

Our puppy is a genius lol

No but why is "F-from Twitter" so funny lol

Cutest twenty-one-year-old on Earth

Why am I laughing this hardㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Biju and I tilted our heads.

"Hmm?"

"What is this?"

Something looked strange.

The video had clearly been filmed in front of K-net headquarters.

After spotting the attendance wristbands on the little troublemakers, Biju and I blinked.

"They came to the public broadcast today?"

"Yep."

"We had no idea..."

"They asked us to keep it a secret. They wanted to surprise you."

We weren't particularly surprised.

Unless Junghyun suddenly declared, "Hyung... I want to quit being an idol and become a farmer," the younger members' weird behavior generally fell within expected parameters.

"Still, this is really nice."

Biju smiled brightly.

"I'm happy we'll get to see them later."

"Same."

The fact that they had come all this way just to support us made me genuinely grateful.

Ding—

A message arrived from Ri Hyuk.

Ri Hyuk [File Name: Suggestions Regarding Prerecordings.txt]

Ri Hyuk [This is just a draft. I'll organize it properly and send another version later.]

Biju pretended not to see my phone.

I quietly lowered it as well.

"..."

"..."

Anyway.

I was grateful to the younger members for coming all the way here to support—

"Oh my."

"Hm? What's wrong?"

"I think they're trending in real time now."

The three members who had come to support WooBIZ had somehow stolen all the attention instead.

Biju and I quietly folded our arms.

"Those little..."

"Tch."

I gave Biju a meaningful look and stood up.

"Biju."

"Yes."

"We're not losing either."

Wonseok hyung followed behind us carrying a large cardboard box.

Written on the side:

[Congratulations on Rookie Idol WooBIZ's Debut!]

Warm steam and the fragrant scent of rice drifted from inside.

These were the gifts we planned to hand out while greeting everyone.

-We don't have physical albums this time.

-Right.

-Is there anything we can give out instead of signed CDs?

Normally, idols greeted people with signed CDs during debuts or comebacks.

But this was a digital single.

So instead—

"Hello! We're rookie idol group WooBIZ~!"

"Please take some rice cakes~!"

We went around greeting fellow artists while handing out rice cakes.

"They're freshly made and still warm~"

"Oh! Uh... th-thank you!"

Each waiting room received a plate of steaming rice cakes.

Everyone accepted them with dazed expressions.

Then they cautiously tasted one.

Immediately, thumbs shot up.

"Wow..."

"Good, right? They're seriously delicious."

The shop had been Biju's recommendation.

It belonged to Ara's parents.

Ara was the leader of Scarlet and had filmed Our Family Is Alien with me.

Earlier, her father had personally delivered the order.

"Alright. We've greeted all the singers. Where next?"

"Let's visit the staff too."

"Sounds good."

We distributed rice cakes to the K-net staff as well.

Writers.

Production crews.

Editors.

Everywhere we went, cheerful voices greeted us.

"We'll enjoy them~!"

At the department responsible for editing fancams, we shamelessly offered rice cakes while saying,

"Please make our Biju look extra handsome, hohoho."

A perfectly reasonable bribe.

We also visited the staff responsible for WooBIZ's relay dance video.

Of course...

"What kind of person hands out rice cakes this early in the morning? Your senior is on a diet! Do you think rice cakes can just slide down my throat? Whoever thought of giving out rice cakes—"

Then the veteran director's eyes met ours.

"..."

"..."

"Whoever handed out these rice cakes has made my heart flutter!"

"..."

"They're delicious!"

Behind him, our dancers and K-net employees were desperately trying not to laugh.

We smiled innocently.

The director's pupils trembled nonstop.

Soon afterward, he filmed the relay dance with the passion of a man creating the masterpiece of his life.

"It... it turned out well, right?"

"Yes. It looks great."

We promoted rookie idol WooBIZ.

We handed out rice cakes.

We filmed the relay dance.

We completed the pre-interview with the music show MCs.

All that remained was the prerecording.

Mingi hyung called out.

"Guys, the outfits are ready."

"Okay~"

We headed toward the basement waiting rooms to change clothes.

Then—

Rumbleeeee—

An ominous sound echoed from outside.

Biju and I turned simultaneously.

"?"

"??"

WooBIZ's WAVE had been released on Monday.

Its addictive melody was currently sitting at No. 1 on the music charts.

Bada— Bada

Nobody

No one at all

Can stop us

The song played everywhere.

At water parks where people splashed around.

In department stores and supermarkets packed with people escaping the heat.

'It's really everywhere.'

'Our kids' song is literally everywhere...'

Sangam-dong, where the Souffles were wandering around, was no exception.

No matter which café they entered, WAVE eventually started playing.

A refreshing melody that seemed to wash away the oppressive summer heat.

"Ugh, it's hot."

"So hot."

The Souffles were gathering near K-net headquarters once again for the prerecording.

As they walked, pedestrians whispered among themselves.

"Who are those people? Why are they all carrying umbrellas?"

"Seriously."

Whisper whisper.

The sight of Souffles carrying both raincoats and umbrellas attracted plenty of attention.

The Souffles lowered their heads.

'This is embarrassing.'

'Why were the fan gifts raincoats and umbrellas...?'

'Who uses an umbrella as a lightstick?'

They couldn't help it.

It was the worst heat wave in recorded history.

Early August temperatures in Seoul had reached 39°C.

You could probably fry an egg on the asphalt.

The air shimmered visibly from the heat.

Pedestrians looked on curiously.

'There isn't even rain in the forecast...'

Then suddenly—

The wind grew damp.

The blazing sky began to change.

"?"

"??"

A localized summer shower.

Shhhhhhhhhh—

Rain started pouring over Sangam-dong.

"Whoa!"

"Ahhh!"

People rushed toward building awnings and nearby cafés.

The Souffles calmly opened their umbrellas.

They smiled at the people who had been quietly mocking them only moments before.

Heh. This is what it means to be prepared.

Jealous?

But the moment the umbrellas opened—

Bzzzzzz—

Lights suddenly began illuminating the shafts and ribs of the umbrellas.

'Huh...?'

'Wait... what?'

The Souffles stared blankly at their glowing umbrellas.

Then people started pointing.

"Look! There's writing on them!"

"Oh my goodness. They must be NewBlack fans."

Sparkle sparkle!

LED letters lit up across the umbrella canopies.

[I AM A NEWBLACK FAN]

'Sun Wooju.'

'Kim Biju.'

'We're going to kill you.'

Grinding their teeth, the Souffles took off running with their glowing umbrellas.