Chapter 1049: Overcooked (2)

At that same time—

The festival planning committee at a certain university had called an emergency meeting.

[Urgent] Regarding celebrity bookings for the fall festival

The students gathered in the meeting room exchanged confused looks.

"What's going on?"

"No idea. Hyungjun hyung texted me and said I absolutely had to attend today's meeting..."

"Come on, though. No matter how urgent it is, how can celebrity bookings be an emergency?"

Everyone agreed with the complaint.

The urgent notice that had interrupted students spending their vacation preparing for the fall festival...

Was about celebrity bookings?

It made no sense.

They had already finalized their list of desired performers.

The budget allocation had even been completed.

So what kind of problem could possibly require this level of urgency?

Then someone voiced a dark suspicion.

"What if..."

"What?"

"What if every single performer we were trying to book fell through?"

"..."

"Oh, damn."

"No, seriously, that would be a disaster."

A sense of dread spread across the room.

One of the most important elements of a university festival these days was the concert lineup.

Whenever a school successfully invited a top-tier girl group like Daylight in the past or Serenity in the present, students inevitably joked:

"Now that's tuition well spent."

From that perspective, losing all of their planned performers would be a nightmare.

But why are they taking so long?

Nobody knew what was happening.

Growing increasingly anxious, they distracted themselves by reviewing preparations.

Meetings with equipment vendors.

Accounting documents.

Miscellaneous logistics.

Slurp—

The only sound in the room was nervous coffee drinking.

Then—

Bang!

The meeting room door burst open.

The festival committee president and vice president stumbled inside.

"Huff... huff...!"

The students who had been about to complain about their lateness immediately handed them water bottles instead.

Gulp. Gulp.

The president drank desperately before trying to speak.

"H-... hrr... really... really imporrtant..."

"Did he just say, 'something really important'?"

"I can't breathe—sorry. Anyway. We have a reason for this emergency meeting."

"What is it?"

Everyone looked up.

Laptop typing stopped.

Documents were lowered.

All eyes turned toward the president.

Finally, he spoke.

"NewBlack."

"...?"

"NewBlack is on the university festival booking list."

"...??"

At first, nobody understood.

Then their eyes drifted toward the idol group currently featured in online headlines.

NewBlack departs for the United States to attend the VMA, one of America's four major music awards ceremonies: "We'll return safely."

The students stared blankly.

"NewBlack is on a festival booking list? Hyung, are you sure you didn't accidentally look at a corporate event list?"

"I'm telling you, that's not it!"

The vice president swallowed hard.

"Apparently they're filming a university festival special for NewNiverse, so they've temporarily lowered their appearance fee."

"...!"

"That's why we're holding this emergency meeting."

The students continued staring at one another in stunned silence.

Then someone cautiously asked,

"It's real?"

"It's real! Every university is losing its mind right now! We don't have time for this—we need to start planning."

That was all it took.

Everyone immediately shoved aside whatever they had been working on and began the meeting.

Who will succeed in booking NewBlack for the fall festival season?

This wasn't just another event.

The fate of the entire festival was at stake.

A few hours later.

The exact same scene was unfolding at universities all across Korea.

"NewBlack!"

"What?"

"NEWBLACK!"

Students returning from meetings with event agencies were practically screaming into their phones.

Their ears hurt from all the shouting.

But what they were reporting was even more shocking.

NewBlack is available for university festivals?

Emergency meetings were inevitable.

Markers squeaked across whiteboards.

Reasons We Absolutely Must Book NewBlack

"Everyone, close your eyes and imagine it. The atmosphere would be insane, right? The crowd singing along would be absolutely unbelievable."

Why were girl groups traditionally so popular at university festivals?

Because they generally had broader public recognition than boy groups.

Because they performed songs everyone knew.

Songs everyone could sing along to.

And in that regard, NewBlack currently possessed the strongest public appeal in all of Korea.

Just look at 2018 alone.

Like The Sun, the musical number written and composed by Sun Wooju.

Rabbit Uncle, the global children's-song phenomenon.

White Night, the number-one chart hit of the first half of the year.

Ri Hyuk's solo covers from his King of Singers stages.

Answer, the Cold Brown collaboration that became one of Billboard's longest-running number-one songs.

WooBiz's WAVE.

And that wasn't even counting older hits like Nine, Goblin, Falling Blossoms, Fireworks, Coin, and VIBE.

It was a catalog overflowing with annual chart-toppers.

The competition among masterpieces was fierce.

And the craziest part?

People could sing along to every single one of them.

"The best part is this."

A student leaned forward.

"NewBlack's releasing a new English song this time, right? They'll definitely perform it at the festival."

"Whoa. You're right!"

They would get to see Overcooked performed live.

Up close.

Before almost anyone else.

And there was another important factor.

National idols.

Billboard number-one pop stars.

The chance to see the celebrities who had gathered ten million live viewers simply to promote Wooju's father's movie.

"What's NewBlack doing these days?"

"The restaurant thing?"

"That's just airing footage they already filmed. They're probably in America for the music awards right now."

"Not Billboard. The VMA. The MTV awards."

"Calm down, Souffle."

Either way—

The opportunity to see NewBlack at a university festival was unbelievable.

They were artists who could sell out the Olympic Stadium for three straight days and still leave hundreds of thousands unable to get tickets.

And their skill level was so overwhelming that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics had selected them as representatives of Korea.

"Want me to tell you what's really insane?"

"What?"

"If we're lucky, we might even get a Ri Hyuk solo stage."

"...!!"

"Don't you think he'd perform one of his competition songs as fan service?"

The current King of Singers.

Personally serving up a bowl of vocal perfection.

Everyone's eyes glazed over dreamily.

Then the designated realist of the group spoke up.

"It's nice to fantasize, but that's not the real reason we need to book NewBlack."

"...?"

"If we miss this chance, we're never getting them again."

"..."

Everyone fell silent.

There had already been jokes online.

Comments under NewBlack's old 2015 university festival fancams.

Those were the days... I want to see them perform at university festivals again...

└ Day 1: NewBlack

└ Day 2: School closure announcement

└ On Day 2, the university president has to come on stage and explain why the school went bankrupt

One student spoke.

"I asked the event agency whether NewBlack might do this again next year."

"And?"

"They said absolutely not."

"..."

He relayed the agency's explanation.

"They admitted they don't know NewBlack's exact rates anymore because NewBlack barely does corporate events these days. But their estimate was somewhere between one and two billion won minimum."

"For a university festival...?"

"Apparently they travel with huge support teams. Staff costs alone are insane. NewBlack basically moves like a corporation."

The students who had been basking in happy fantasies moments earlier suddenly felt as though cold water had been dumped over their heads.

Someone muttered,

"I saw something online once. Apparently an Indian billionaire offered five billion won for Rabbit Uncle at his daughter's birthday party, and NewBlack turned it down."

"That's crazy. If it were me, I'd sing all the way through a fourth verse."

"Five billion? I'd do a handstand."

After the brief laughter faded...

The room became serious again.

How do we actually book NewBlack?

A group that didn't care even when people offered absurd amounts of money.

What did that mean?

It meant appearance fees were effectively irrelevant to them.

They really are on another level.

People had become used to seeing WooBiz perform Rabbit Uncle and even conduct rain rituals.

NewBlack felt strangely approachable.

But now that they knew the reality...

The group suddenly seemed terrifying.

Money simply wasn't a factor.

They did whatever they wanted.

"So how are they choosing schools?"

"First come, first served?"

"If it were that simple, we wouldn't need a meeting. Applications are being accepted, and then NewBlack's company is making the final selection."

"That's actually good."

A familiar atmosphere immediately formed.

Like a giant group project.

"I heard that when they booked locations for Goblin Restaurant, local governments had to make PowerPoint presentations."

"Oh. So we need a PowerPoint."

"Let's use that Ri Hyuk font."

Students immediately began creating proposals.

Documents explaining why NewBlack absolutely had to come to their university.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A chance to hire a performer who normally cost twenty times more than their discounted fee.

And the effort didn't stop there.

"Hello, Professor."

"Hm?"

Professor Jeong Moonseok of Korea University's Department of Korean Language and Literature.

The same professor who had appeared on NewBlack TV and delivered the legendary line:

"This too is very goblin-like."

"Professor, if you have a moment..."

Then there was the robotics research team at KAIST that had become acquainted with Ri Hyuk during the freshwater fishing episode of Honey, Fishing.

And Kevin from APLB, who was known to be close with Wooju.

Students desperately searched for every possible connection.

Naturally, anyone who had actually met NewBlack rejected the idea immediately.

"We've met them before. That would probably backfire."

NewBlack had spent years managing a gigantic fandom without ever becoming involved in favoritism controversies.

Trying to use personal connections would likely hurt their chances.

The festival organizers quickly accepted that logic.

Then the proposal really is the answer.

Even though NewBlack had supposedly said they were simply accepting applications, students were already producing elaborate PowerPoints and promotional videos.

"Should we contact that advertising major alumnus?"

"The one who's currently head of the alumni association?"

"Wasn't there someone at our school who won a national PowerPoint competition?"

"We need a unique marketing angle..."

Ideas began flying everywhere.

The news hadn't fully spread online yet.

But universities across the nation were already mobilizing.

We will bring NewBlack to our campus.

The recruitment war that would later become known as the NewBlack Contest had officially begun.

JFK Airport.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

After greeting the enormous crowd of American Souffle who welcomed us with their usual explosive enthusiasm...

We climbed into local vehicles and headed toward Manhattan.

Passing through Queens.

Through the tunnel.

And finally into the forest of skyscrapers that filled Manhattan.

The memories came flooding back.

"How long has it been since we were here?"

"About three months."

Ri Hyuk answered.

After checking the schedule calendar, I nodded.

The Time 100 Gala and the Met Gala had been our last memories of New York.

Looking out at the traffic-choked streets of Midtown, Ri Hyuk remarked,

"Nothing's changed."

"Seriously."

Cars honked.

Traffic crawled.

The familiar yellow taxis weaved through the streets.

It was the same city we'd seen before.

But some things were different now.

"See that car at seven o'clock behind us?"

"Yes."

The driver chewed gum beneath his sunglasses.

"Paparazzi."

"Ah..."

"And the gray SUV beside it?"

"Yeah."

"Also paparazzi."

That was the difference.

There were a lot more of them now.

Add the stalkers from various countries who followed us constantly, plus the security vehicles traveling close behind...

"We might actually be causing the traffic jam."

"I-I don't think that's it. Manhattan's always like this."

Still.

Compared to our previous visit, our status had clearly changed.

We passed Midtown, where the Empire State Building and the United Nations headquarters stood.

Then continued north toward the Upper East Side.

Our hotel for the VMA preparations was located there.

The Mark Hotel.

The same place we'd stayed during the Met Gala.

"It's only about seven minutes from the venue."

"Really?"

I put on my sunglasses and stepped out of the vehicle.

Paparazzi cameras immediately began firing.

We quietly entered the hotel.

Even the brief sunlight outside felt scorching in the middle of August.

"Haha!"

The moment we stepped into the cool lobby, loud laughter echoed through the room.

A sharply dressed Black man spread his arms wide.

"Welcome back to New York, NewBlack!"

"Good to see you, D'Angelo."

D'Angelo Costa.

The local agent overseeing our American activities.

Beaming from ear to ear, he asked,

"Was the flight comfortable? I have so much to tell you. So much."

He looked as happy as someone who had just won the lottery.

The members and I exchanged puzzled glances.

What's gotten into him?

No idea.

His energy was even higher than usual.

The answer became clear later.

After settling into our rooms and meeting again, D'Angelo practically exploded.

"Ten million! My God. Ten million!"

"Ah..."

"Do you know what the media is calling Sunny? The Man of Ten Million! Ten million live viewers!"

The younger members nodded knowingly.

"See? It was because Wooju hyung is amazing."

"And the eldest hyung's achievements belong to the younger brothers too."

The younger members giggled happily.

Meanwhile, D'Angelo continued enthusiastically.

"The media attention is incredible. Do you understand what ten million live viewers means, Sunny?"

"Not exactly."

"It means you've entered an entirely different chapter. Companies, singers—everyone is watching NewBlack now."

Apparently our little demonstration toward Silver Screen—

Spend some money already!

—had produced effects far beyond what we'd expected.

"Look at this."

He showed us a giant Times Square billboard.

MTV was already advertising NewBlack's appearance at the awards ceremony.

"And the talk show invitations are pouring in. A lot of them want a Like The Sun musical performance."

"That's great, but..."

"I know. You're not interested."

"Right. We need to focus on Overcooked right now."

My father's movie still wouldn't be released for another three months.

Overcooked was the priority.

D'Angelo nodded.

"I agree. I just wanted you to understand how powerful the ten-million-viewer broadcast was."

Then he shifted the topic.

Overcooked.

The moment he mentioned it, he clenched his fist.

"Man..."

"This song is incredible. It's a shame the release timing got delayed."

"I feel the same way. It would've been perfect if we'd released it in time for the awards show."

When we released METRO the previous year, debuting it at the VMA had generated enormous attention.

Biju laughed.

"We wanted to premiere it there this time too, but scheduling didn't work out."

"It's unfortunate, but not a disaster. If promoted correctly, this song will be a hit. World Records is already preparing a major campaign."

Then he turned to me.

"Wooju, how's your performance preparation going?"

"Fine."

This year, NewBlack didn't have a dedicated stage at the VMA.

Instead, there would be a performance of Answer, the biggest hit of the first half of the year—my collaboration with Cold Brown.

Biju smiled.

"It's a little disappointing not having a NewBlack stage. But Wooju hyung still has one. Besides, I heard attending the ceremony doesn't guarantee a performance anyway."

"That's true, but..."

D'Angelo scratched his smooth cheek.

"There's a reason NewBlack doesn't have a stage this year."

"...?"

"Moonlight is premiering a new song at the VMA."

"Moonlight?"

"And they'll be performing with One Shot."

"...One Shot?"

My eyes widened.

One Shot was one of the legendary boy bands that had dominated the late nineties and early 2000s.

Even we couldn't hide our surprise.

D'Angelo nodded.

"According to my sources, One Shot and Moonlight are performing together. You understand what that means, right?"

The members exchanged glances.

The greatest boy band of the past.

The boy band currently being elevated by the industry.

NewBlack excluded from the performance lineup.

The intent seemed obvious.

Highlight Moonlight as the rightful successor to the great boy-band legacy.

D'Angelo's expression turned serious.

"The situation isn't exactly favorable right now."

He was about to explain everything that had happened while NewBlack had been away from America for the past few months.

Then—

"Hehehehehe..."

"Hehehe..."

I suddenly heard laughter behind me.

I turned around.

Four idiots were shaking with suppressed laughter.

"...Why are you laughing?"

Junghyun smiled confidently.

"We have faith."

"...Faith in what?"

"We strongly believe that hyung will somehow solve everything."

"Watching comfortably while treating it like somebody else's problem. Hehehehe..."

"Hehe! Hehehehehe!"

"..."

Well.

I wasn't sure about anything else.

But one thing was absolutely certain.

Performing Like The Sun had had a deeply negative impact on my younger brothers' personalities.