Chapter 1199: Extremes (10)

Inside the snow vehicle.

The men, still bundled in outdoor gear and basking in the heater's warmth, took out their thermoses.

Pourrrr—

The sweet scent of cocoa filled the air.

The King Sejong Station crew smiled blissfully as they savored it.

"Ahh."

"That's the stuff. Cocoa only tastes right somewhere cold. It's like hot fish cake broth on a rainy day."

Everyone agreed, laughing together.

"Ehehehehe!"

"Ehehe!"

Laughter rang out from a distance, and they turned their heads.

"Junghyun! Catch me if you can!"

"Okay!"

"Ehehehehe!"

Junghyun ran like Patrasche while Wooju giggled like a boy from the Alps.

"Ha ha!"

Biju burst into laughter as he recorded them on his phone.

"Ri Hyuk hyung!"

"Hm? ...Urgh!"

"Ha ha ha ha! Wang Jiho, the sharpshooter who never misses, has arrived!"

"Hey! You'd better stop right there!"

The youngest members were playing childishly in a snowball fight.

The King Sejong Station crew laughed fondly at the sight.

"I'm jealous. They're having so much fun."

"Man, I miss my twenties. Back then, I could run around all night like that and my joints would still be fine the next day...."

"Ah, the good old days."

Everyone raised their cocoa cups in a toast, smiling warmly.

Was it just their imagination, or did the cocoa somehow taste like alcohol?

As they watched NewBlack's seemingly endless stamina with envy, someone said,

"They remind me of my nephews. They can play at a kids' café all day."

"Did you see that study from France? Apparently, children have so much stamina because of the quality of their muscles. Their muscular endurance is on par with national athletes, but since their muscles are smaller, less lactic acid builds up."

"NewBlack looks slim too, but up close, they're all muscle. Maybe that's why they're like children?"

The scientists briefly explored the similarities between NewBlack and children before sensing that something was strange.

"Hm? Why is it so quiet?"

Silence had fallen over the entire area.

The laughter of the NewBlack members, who had been running around excitedly just moments ago, was gone.

They all turned at once and spotted NewBlack huddled together like a flock of penguins.

Are they admiring the scenery?

At first, they thought the members might simply be looking at the landscape together, but on closer inspection, the formation was oddly distinctive.

They looked like penguins holding a strategy meeting.

The crew tilted their heads as they watched them whisper with their heads pressed together.

"What are they doing?"

"Having a meeting...? No way."

Just then, the leader clapped his hands, and the members turned toward the snow vehicle.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

With their leader at the center and the others running in formation like his underlings, NewBlack charged toward them.

The crew stood from their seats as the members came running over as if something urgent had happened.

"Is something wrong?"

The NewBlack members breathed clouds of white air, their faces flushed with excitement.

"We want to go back to the station!"

"Already?"

They had not even been there for an hour, so the crew looked puzzled when they said they wanted to leave already.

But they soon nodded.

The eyes of the members asking to return were practically sparkling with anticipation.

"All right, then. We'll get ready to head back."

"You're all cold, right? Want some cocoa?"

"Yes!"

While the other crew members handed cocoa to NewBlack, one researcher inspecting the area around the snow vehicle spotted someone nearby.

It was Gu Jaeyoung, reviewing the footage on his camera.

"Producer Gu. The members said they want to head back."

"Yes, yes. I heard."

The King Sejong Station researcher asked him,

"They all look incredibly excited. Do you know why?"

"Wooju probably got inspired."

At what Gu said next, he understood why the NewBlack members were so thrilled.

"It's become a tradition for them to make a new song whenever they travel somewhere. I guess something pretty incredible is about to come out again."

Gu Jaeyoung laughed as he held his camera.

As soon as we returned to the station, we gathered in our room.

"The reason I was stuck all this time was that I couldn't decide on the song's concept. I didn't know what direction to take it in, so I couldn't bring myself to touch it."

The others nodded.

Junghyun spoke with an understanding expression.

"That happens sometimes. You come up with a really good melody, but you don't know what to do with it."

"Exactly."

Biju asked,

"You said it would be a school concept earlier, hyung. Then what kind of feeling will the song have?"

"Give me a moment."

I turned on my laptop.

After clicking the mouse and quickly building a rough framework that would convey the general feeling, I turned the screen toward them.

"Something like this."

When I pressed play, a simple version of the song began to flow.

[??-??]

It was so rough that it was not much different from a cell phone ringtone.

But I had faith.

I knew it would sound different to our members.

"...!"

Sure enough, the others' eyes began to widen.

Without saying a word, they bobbed their heads to the drumbeat as they listened.

I closed my eyes as well.

The completed version appeared in my mind at once, like an aerial view of a finished building.

On Beauty.

It felt like the kind of song that could carry a subtitle like that.

The foundation of the song had, in fact, been the aurora I had seen in Alaska.

Perhaps it was because of its transcendent beauty.

Back when I first thought that I wanted to convey the beauty I had felt to the listener, I had been completely at a loss.

How do I express that beauty?

But after coming to Antarctica, especially after what I had just experienced, a thought occurred to me.

The aurora I had seen had been beautiful in and of itself, but perhaps who I had seen it with mattered even more.

The cold night air.

The warmth of the members carried through the blanket.

Our laughter as we made wishes together.

The excitement and joy.

I wondered whether I would have been moved to the same extent if I had watched the aurora alone.

In the end, perhaps I had found the aurora so beautiful because the moment I had shared with the others had been beautiful.

That was where I found my starting point.

People needed other people in order to be happy.

[??-??]

I remembered when we had competed on last year with youth as our theme and sung about the beauty of being young.

Times that had been beautiful in the same way as youth.

Moments I had not recognized at the time, only to look back later and realize how happy I had been.

Running off with friends to eat tteokbokki and fish cakes, sitting in the stands by the school field to cheer during interclass matches, holding brooms and putting on a miniature concert while cleaning, and so on.

Looking back, every moment had been full of laughter.

I thought the reason we could laugh over the smallest things was that so many friends had been around us.

"What do you think?"

"I really, really love it."

The result was a wonderful song.

Refreshing, yet beautiful.

It had the same refreshing quality as or , but the texture was different.

If felt like watching fireworks burst over a beach, then had the freshness of children laughing together in a 1990s arcade as they fed one-hundred-won coins into the machines.

The current working version of felt refreshing and beautiful.

If we filmed a music video, it would probably contain scenes like an empty school and memories of a summer day.

Jiho said,

"It kind of has that feeling. We were young...☆"

"That's exactly it."

The other members shared their impressions as well.

"Honestly, I don't have many memories of my school days... but I think I understand it. An abstract kind of joy from being a student? I know I don't actually have those memories, but while listening, it feels like a memory is being created anyway."

"It makes me think of high school. Kim Junghyun and I had so much fun back then...."

"Me too."

Even Junghyun offered that kind of impression, and a smile spread across my face.

Usually, after I played them a song, the conversation turned to technical details.

The fact that their impressions came first was a good sign.

Just as people talked about how a truly entertaining movie made them feel instead of immediately discussing its direction or narrative logic.

"Ah...."

Jiho scratched the back of his head.

"Listening to this makes me want to go back to high school. I really want to go to school again."

"Me too...."

"I don't care much about college, but I do want to experience high school properly one more time."

As my underlings reminisced about middle and high school, I told them,

"And there's one more good thing about this school concept."

"What's that?"

"We get to wear school uniforms. Hehehe!"

The others froze.

Five years ago, back around the time of our debut, they probably would have reacted like this.

-Ha ha ha ha! This hyung wants to wear a school uniform~~!!

-Aww, did our Wooju want to wear a school uniform? ...Sorry, hyung.

-Should I lend you mine if you want to wear one that badly, hyung?

I could vividly imagine them teasing me as though I were someone desperate to wear a school uniform.

But five years later.

"...."

"...."

We all looked off into the distance.

At the mention of wearing uniforms again, my underlings' pupils trembled.

"Uh... maybe it wouldn't be that bad?"

Kim Biju, age twenty-five. Six years since graduation.

"Hm. I'll vote in favor."

Kim Junghyun, age twenty-five. Same as above.

"Well, I mean... it's just a school uniform. But I'm in favor."

Seo Ri Hyuk, age twenty-three. Four years since graduation.

"Hm-hm. For my hyungs, I suppose I can wear one again even though I haven't been out of school that long."

Wang Jiho, age twenty-two. Three years since graduation.

"...."

"...."

When I stared at them, they avoided my gaze and cleared their throats.

"You had fun making fun of me back then, didn't you?"

"Let's forget the past. All of us."

"Right, right."

"You realize things in hindsight."

I clicked my tongue and laughed at how completely their attitudes had changed after five years, then turned the laptop back toward them.

"So you're all in favor?"

"Honestly, there's not even anything to debate. The song is this good."

The others agreed with Ri Hyuk.

They all seemed to like it that much.

"All right. Then I think we've settled on the title track.... From here on, let's hold a meeting about the new album."

"Okay."

"Throw out any ideas that come to mind. It can be about the concept or the promotions."

Ideas immediately began pouring out like a flood.

Junghyun said,

"What I really liked while making was that we didn't try to put some huge meaning into the song."

"Me too."

"So what if we don't try too hard to load the lyrics with meaning this time either? Maybe we can approach it more casually."

As Ri Hyuk, who had taken the role of secretary, wrote up the minutes, I agreed.

"I agree. Like , let's focus less on the theme of the song and more on pure enjoyment."

"Okay."

That was something we had learned after .

The harder we tried to include profound contemplation or a weighty theme, the more difficult the work became, while the more casually we approached it, the better the process and results tended to be.

Biju said,

"Still, it feels like a waste. I think there would be a lot we could communicate...."

"Then what if we make several music videos?"

Just as Ri Hyuk said that, Jiho, who had been listening quietly, widened his eyes and raised his hand.

"Oh! Oh! I just thought of something."

"What is it?"

"We want to communicate a message, but it would be hard to fit everything into the song. So instead of a music video, what about doing it in a slightly different way?"

We looked curious at the mention of a different approach.

"A different way...?"

"Turn it into a web drama, like when we filmed ."

"Oh."

"Our new song could be positioned as the main title track for the web drama."

It was a pretty good idea.

Jiho tapped quickly on his phone and showed us something.

"This wasn't actually my idea. I got it from TeenSpirit. Yeonhu filmed a web drama recently because he wanted to try acting."

"Oh."

"Apparently, it's a drama with students as the main characters."

<Our Love, Episode 1: And So Love Began>

It seemed to be a web drama popular among teenagers.

Yeonhu stood in front of a female student with a school bag slung over one shoulder, blocking her path in a delinquent pose.

-Hey! Kang Sihu! Move!

-...Kim Sumin.

-What? Why?

-Let me ask you one thing. Do you like me?

-What are you talking about? Just move.

The girl shoved his chest and continued on her way.

Yeonhu scratched his shaggy hair as he watched her walk off.

Then he swept his hair back and gave a deadly smile.

-Ha. This won't be easy.

"Pfft!"

"Pff!"

Unable to hold it in, we clutched our stomachs and began laughing.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Ha ha ha!"

After pounding the floor and laughing for a long time, we saved the video with blissful expressions.

Biju asked expectantly,

"What do you think, hyung? Did you copy it?"

"Give me a second... yeah. I got it."

With the others watching expectantly, I swept my hair back and copied Yeonhu's expression.

It was a perfect impression, right down to every facial muscle.

"Ha... this won't be easy."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"As soon as we get back to Seoul, let's storm TeenSpirit's dorm."

As we delighted in finding something new to tease him about, Jiho said,

"Anyway, since Yeonhu was appearing in the web drama, he also sang the main OST. What if we do something like that?"

"That sounds good."

"Right? Since it's a web drama, it wouldn't cost that much, and don't you think it would let us convey what we want to say more effectively?"

It was a good idea.

We could focus on the pure enjoyment of the song itself, then communicate everything outside of that through the format of a web drama.

Junghyun asked,

"...But if we film a web drama, what exactly would we film, Jiho?"

"Huh? Good point."

It would be difficult to make something like one of those serious school series on television.

Those were proper dramas.

Aside from Jiho and me, the others had limits to their acting skills, and if acting became that much of a priority, it would put the cart before the horse.

Jiho asked,

"Then what about a slightly unusual school story? Something mysterious and dark, with ghost stories and things like that."

"I vote against ghost stories."

Ri Hyuk immediately objected, and Jiho backed down.

"Then we could use something like an aurora as a motif... magic? Something like that?"

"Magic...."

As I smiled fondly, reminded of the children's show that I had watched as a child, we all looked at one another.

"Wait...."

Because the same thought had crossed all our minds at once.

"Magic...."

"...School?"

KG International's apparel division.

Urgent news reached the department of the general trading company that managed countless brands under its umbrella.

Deputy Manager Woo Heesun, who oversaw public relations, asked her subordinate,

"It's related to NewBlack?"

"Yes."

An emergency meeting was convened at once.

At the news that Lemon Entertainment, NewBlack's agency, had contacted them, not only the department head but even a director made their way to the conference room.

The employee assigned to give the report looked bewildered.

It was just one call from Lemon Entertainment....

All Lemon Entertainment had done was make a simple phone call, yet the executives were behaving as though the company's fate hung in the balance.

Still, it did not seem excessive.

Considering the weight carried by NewBlack's name, it was only natural.

There was also a history between NewBlack and KG International.

-The number one school uniform brand, Everdream!

KG International was the parent company of Everdream, the brand that had secured an overwhelming lead in the school uniform industry after NewBlack appeared in one of its advertisements during their rookie days.

It really has been a long time.

Deputy Manager Woo Heesun smiled as she waited for the report.

She had been the one who met NewBlack back then while leading Everdream's advertising project.

The advertisement had become a hit, and thanks to that achievement, she had since been promoted to a position overseeing much larger projects.

A great deal had changed in five years.

...We're holding a meeting just because NewBlack called.

The image of the rookie idols, tense because they were filming a school uniform commercial as their first advertisement, contrasted sharply in her mind with the sight of an entire department being summoned over a single call from Lemon Entertainment.

As she reminisced, the director seated at the head of the table asked,

"So... what did Lemon Entertainment contact us about?"

"Do you remember Everdream's magic school commercial from 2014?"

"Of course."

There was no way he could have forgotten.

It had been a famous advertisement that even climbed the real-time search rankings.

The employee swallowed before relaying Lemon Entertainment's message.

"NewBlack would like to purchase the rights to that advertisement."

"...?"

"They're apparently planning to film a web drama. If they purchase the rights, they intend to use Everdream uniforms—"

The director shot to his feet.

"Immediately."

"Sir?"

"Send them a reply immediately. Politely."

The director of KG International, one of the country's leading conglomerates, broke into a wide grin that revealed all his gums.

"Tell them we'll give it to them for free."