Chapter 776: The Great Legacy (21)

As the narration introducing the Album of the Year presenter played—

[Album of the Year! Your presenter....]

An actress in a red dress walked onto the stage.

It was Yeo Eunsun, the actress who had recently shot to stardom with her powerful performance in a film about the Busan Masan Democratic Protests.

"Hello. I’m Yeo Eunsun."

After introducing herself with her gentle features, the actress read the line written on her cue card.

The nominees were introduced shortly after.

Albums from Street Boys, Teen Spirit, Serenity, and finally ours appeared on screen, drawing loud cheers.

"......."

Unlike during the Mango awards where I had felt a strong premonition of winning, this Album of the Year award was honestly impossible to predict.

If judged purely by performance, we should probably win.

But the shock of the previous Song of the Year result was enormous.

"Now then. I will announce the winner."

The presenter tore open the envelope.

As I noticed the pupils of the younger members widening, the presenter peeked inside the envelope and smiled.

"I’m honored to call their names."

At that moment—

Souffle’s screams exploded.

"Congratulations. NewBlack."

At the same time, the younger members and I jumped to our feet and embraced each other.

What more needed to be said?

Relief and joy tangled together as we placed our hands on each other’s shoulders and nodded.

"Congratulations, seniors!"

"Congrats."

We smiled at the greetings from Trickster, Han Taehyun, Street Boys, Teen Spirit, and others before heading toward the stage.

Perhaps because of the tension, my legs felt slightly weak.

My tongue felt a little twisted too.

I accepted the trophy from the presenter and stood at the center of the stage.

"Congratulations. I’m a fan."

"Thank you."

Biju.

Ri Hyuk.

Jiho.

Junhyun.

I met the eyes of the younger members standing behind me one by one, then exchanged a final glance with Junhyun.

Then I brought the microphone to my mouth.

"First... thank you very much for giving us such a big award. I am potatoful."

The younger members behind me and the actress in the red dress suddenly burst out laughing behind their cue cards.

I turned around and looked at the laughing Souffle in the audience.

"Did I say something strange?"

‘That’s Sun Wooju for you.’

Seeing their favorite idol make a slip of the tongue at the start of his speech, Souffle smiled warmly.

Memes began exploding in real time.

-potatoful [verb]

To feel extremely grateful

A mistaken pronunciation of “thankful”

-So cute lol

-It would’ve been natural if he just moved on but he had to ask and make it worse

-Wooju has returned to his roots

-He must’ve been looking at Junhyun’s face

-That’s definitely it

-Look how much Junhyun likes it

-Junhyun likes anything that sounds like a vegetable

-W App confirmed his mom read vegetable fairy tales during pregnancy

On screen, Wooju coughed awkwardly and continued his speech as if nothing had happened.

Soon afterward came the Artist of the Year award.

"Congratulations! NewBlack!"

After winning Album of the Year, NewBlack also won Artist of the Year, completing a double grand prize victory.

Breaking news quickly spread.

[Breaking News] NewBlack wins two grand prizes at KMA

[Two grand prizes] NewBlack says “Potatoful”... Souffle replies “We are potatoful too”

2017 KMA in Japan — “No surprises” as NewBlack wins two grand prizes

As entertainment news flooded out and “NewBlack potatoful” climbed Twitter trends—

Idol forums and SNS exploded.

Because of the Song of the Year controversy.

-They seriously have no shame

-A song ranked around 60th winning Song of the Year? Comedy show

-Is this your first time watching KMA?

-(scoring criteria screenshot) It’s technically possible if they gave everyone else zero

-Come on this isn’t right

-Look at the criteria before complaining

-No you’re the one raging the most

-People like you just make your idols look bad

-K Net should rank their employees and then let the judges flip everything at the end

Among strong nominees, Wonder Child—whose song ranked the lowest—had won Song of the Year.

Then someone posted a message.

[KM Entertainment collaborating with K Net on next year’s audition program]

The mystery was solved.

K Net had apparently gifted the award to the agency partnering with them for a large project next year.

-Their scheme is so obvious it makes me angrier

-They saw the numbers and decided to only mess with Song of the Year

-Casual viewers just see NewBlack won two grand prizes and move on

-They’re terrified of another HBS scandal

K Net had given NewBlack two grand prizes to appease the public.

Then {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} manipulated the Song of the Year scoring.

Fans were furious.

For NewBlack fans—

Even a triple crown would have been reasonable.

-They barely did variety this year and focused on music... and this still isn’t enough?

-Do they need to perform on Mars to win three?

-If our group wasn’t national idols they would’ve given us just one

-How do we even top this next year

Souffle’s reaction was actually mild compared to others.

Meanwhile fans of Street Boys, Teen Spirit, and others who had only received minor awards complained.

But the most furious fandom was Serenity’s.

-Save girl groups you bastards

-This reminds me of last year again

-Idiots

-They nominated Candy Love instead of Party Girl and then did this

-If Coin won we would’ve accepted it

-Minno lost another award to Kangmin

-MOP claims to be a big company but it’s weak

-Actually NewBlack is just insane

-Fandom life is so hard

But the fandom of Wonder Child, the group that actually won the award, was in complete panic.

‘What do we do?’

‘We don’t even know why we won either!’

The backlash was so intense they could barely post defending comments.

It was the biggest crisis since their debut.

‘Honestly earlier we thought our group was going to die.’

Those five minutes between Song of the Year and Album of the Year.

During that short time, Souffle’s reaction had been terrifying.

Wonder Child was one of the three major boy groups competing with Street Boys and Teen Spirit.

Their fandom was strong.

But in front of NewBlack, the scale was different.

‘My hands are shaking.’

Fans tried to type replies but their fingers trembled.

Thousands of tweets.

Over a hundred pages of forum posts in just minutes.

‘We can’t fight this.’

Some fans even mocked Souffle.

-Our group is top tier now, right?

-Why be scared

-We just accepted the award

-If you’re jealous win Song of the Year too

But provoking them had been a mistake.

Soon Souffle responded with overwhelming force.

Posts flooded everywhere.

Old controversies resurfaced.

‘Why provoke them?’

‘If they hit back we’re dead.’

Even antis who usually mocked fandom wars stayed silent.

That was why most Wonder Child fans were actually relieved when NewBlack won two grand prizes.

‘Thank god they got two.’

The situation was still burning, but Souffle’s reaction had softened.

"Ha...."

Wonder Child fans finally exhaled.

‘If we just survive a week it’ll calm down.’

Then—

A notification appeared.

[Official] K Net responds to Wonder Child controversy: “Judged fairly according to criteria... we do not understand the controversy.”

‘You bastards! We’re the ones dying!’

Wonder Child’s fandom tore their hair out.

At the same time, Japanese internet communities were also blazing.

News headlines spread.

NewBlack wins two grand prizes at K Net Music Awards

Because the ceremony had been broadcast widely in Japan, reactions appeared everywhere.

Polls appeared on portals known for being critical of Korean culture.

70 percent voted “not good.”

Comment sections filled with extreme reactions.

-Cultural thieves

-Dokkaebi is just Oni stolen by Korea

-Since when did Oni become Dokkaebi?

-Disgusting

-All that national budget and this is the result?

But Souffle simply smiled.

‘It worked. It exploded.’

The measure of success was often proportional to how loudly antis screamed.

That meant many people had watched the stage.

Offline conversations appeared too.

"Did you see NewBlack’s stage?"

"They’re so handsome."

"That dancing guy was adorable."

Anyone who had actually watched the performance could only praise it.

Especially the final Dokkaebi stage.

Beautiful men with colored eyes swirling their robes.

It was mesmerizing.

Clips of the main dancer with golden eyes performing a solo dance spread rapidly online.

Media outlets quickly tried to react.

They suggested the car sounds in the background represented vehicles from Japan’s colonial era.

They speculated the goblins symbolized monsters who lost their palace.

But the rumors had little effect.

Anyone who had seen the performance simply dismissed them.

There was also another reason people ignored the media spin.

A certain video clip.

"What do you think, Hashimoto?"

"There are definitely some lacking parts."

It was Hashimoto Kenji criticizing Paul Laurent’s piano performance.

The broadcast clip had already been removed from MyTube.

But the internet never forgets.

The video spread everywhere.

-It’s embarrassing

-How long is this guy going to call himself a rival

-Occupation: rival

-Does he have hearing problems?

-He has no global achievements

-I feel embarrassed

-Is it true his father was Korean Japanese?

-Is he secretly a Korean spy?

Because the clip had spread everywhere, Hashimoto Kenji’s reputation collapsed.

Media outlets quickly stopped mentioning the supposed rivalry with Sun Myungju.

Instead—

They began focusing on Hashimoto Kenta, Kenji’s son.

Unlike his father, he actually showed promising talent.

Media praised him as elegant and noble.

But then—

Kenta posted a photo on SNS.

A commemorative picture of him smiling awkwardly with the members of NewBlack.

@Kenta_Prince

Hard work never betrays you.

I will also work hard like NewBlack to go out into the world!

It sounded like the protagonist of a passionate manga declaring admiration for a cool hero.

The media’s attempt to frame NewBlack as hardworking mediocrity and Kenta as a cool genius collapsed instantly.

Their only mistake was simple.

Hashimoto Kenji’s son had absolutely no sense of the narrative.

The following days became a continuous celebration.

"Congratulations!"

As soon as we returned from Japan on a charter flight, the company rented an entire restaurant for a celebration dinner.

Eat.

Drink.

Celebrate.

Cheers echoed everywhere.

"Artist of the Year NewBlack!"

"NewBlack! NewBlack!"

I waved to the cheering staff and ordered more premium beef.

Then I spoke to my exhausted friend chewing meat across the table.

"Hyungseop. Are you happy?"

"Yeah...."

"Why? Something wrong?"

"You keep talking while I’m eating...."

Still, it was a joyful time.

Watching the noisy employees, I said dramatically.

"You should be grateful. A dinner with us was auctioned for a million dollars."

"Wow! What an honor!"

"Potatoful, Wooju."

Everyone laughed.

I sighed.

Ever since KMA ended, people kept teasing me.

Shouting “Potato!” instead of “Kimchi” in photos.

Friends messaging constantly.

It was a good day though.

We had won two grand prizes.

Seokhwan whispered.

"K Net apparently argued internally about the Album award."

"Really?"

They had originally planned to give it to Teen Spirit or Serenity for balance.

But changed it because public backlash would explode.

The youngest asked,

"How did you know?"

"NBS has many former K Net staff."

In the end, despite being called the strangest awards show ever, 2017 KMA had ended successfully for us.

Soon we returned to the company.

The next morning—

We entered the CEO’s office.

And froze.

Director Jo Gyuhwan and Park Gyuho sat there.

Along with Kwak Sihyun, Lemon Entertainment’s top actress and number one star.

She greeted us with a gentle smile.

"Hello."

"Hello, sunbae."

Director Jo looked at his watch.

"Come in. We have something to discuss."

The atmosphere was serious.

As my mind processed the clues, a thought formed.

Park Gyuho spoke.

"Kids."

"Yes, sir."

He asked carefully.

"Would you be interested... in receiving company shares?"