Chapter 946: I’m going to buy New Black at the supermarket (17)

It was definitely a gift sent with good intentions.

A warmhearted present celebrating the explosive success of hitting twenty percent ratings.

“Have a wonderful trip to Antarctica, just like your pledge promised!”

So why did it keep sounding like I was hearing phantom voices?

-It’s supposedly cold enough to freeze you to death there... kekekeke! Go suffer properly and come back!

"No, seriously. What kind of grandmother tries to send her precious grandson to Antarctica...?"

"Don’t forget you’re the one who made the pledge in the first place...."

"......."

At Ri Hyuk’s words, I stared off into the distance and made up my mind.

"I’ll take revenge."

"But can you even get revenge on your grandmother?"

At the maknae’s question, I was about to confidently answer, ‘Of course I can!’

In my imagination, Kim Deoksun was cackling away like some vampire demon.

-Just you wait, Kim Deoksun! My.......

-?

-Receive my hug!

The moment I imagined wrapping her in a warm embrace, the entire revenge fantasy turned soft and fluffy.

"Heheh......."

"......."

Ignoring my younger brothers’ pathetic stares, I looked over at the production staff, who were busy finding padded jackets in their sizes and admiring them.

"Oh wow~ the quality is amazing. I thought they’d be heavy, but they’re surprisingly light."

"Expensive stuff really is different."

"This is insane. These must’ve cost a fortune."

The production staff marveled at Grandma’s financial power before turning to me.

"Wooju, please tell your grandmother we’re really grateful. She didn’t have to send gifts like this......."

"Tell her we’ll wear these and have a wonderful trip to Antarctica."

"Wow, at least nobody has to worry about what to wear if you actually go."

We laughed and nodded along.

For some reason it felt slightly mocking, but if the ratings really hit twenty percent, who cared about Antarctica?

"If ratings hit twenty percent, we could go anywhere. Even space......."

"That mouth! Watch your mouth!"

"Hyung! Don’t say stuff like that!"

Under the barrage of complaints from my younger brothers, I defended myself.

"...I just meant that’s how incredible it would be. What cable variety show has ever hit twenty percent?"

"Well, that’s true."

It really was an absurd number.

Honestly, even when people jokingly told us “Go to Antarctica!” they were saying it as genuine encouragement.

After trying on the jacket, Junghyun said,

"I should call your grandmother later. These clothes are seriously amazing."

"You like them?"

"Yeah."

With the hood pulled over his head like an Eskimo, Junghyun said,

"You could wear this to Alaska too."

"Ah."

Right.

There was Alaska too.

"Alaska existed."

"Wow. Antarctica’s presence is insane. Hyungs, we completely forgot we’re supposed to go to Alaska too!"

"Honestly, Alaska feels possible if things go well."

The first episode had already hit 8.9%, so depending on how things progressed, Alaska genuinely seemed achievable.

I declared,

"But dreams should always be big."

"That’s right!"

"Let’s work hard and make it to Antarctica, everyone!"

"Antarctica! Antarctica!"

"Penguins! Penguins!"

The production staff nodded proudly as the members and I pumped ourselves up together.

"That’s right! Let’s make it to Antarctica!"

"Exactly! There’s nothing we can’t do!"

We were all passionately talking about making it to Antarctica when—

Among the production staff and members building morale together, one person was unusually quiet.

"Hmmm......."

PD Gu Jaeyoung stroked his chin while staring at the padded jackets.

"There he goes again."

At PD Oh Taejun’s words, we laughed.

It was a familiar sight.

Even when we’d first met him, he’d spent ages lost in thought before suddenly blurting out, “Since you served in the military, you’re good at digging trenches, right?”

-Variety show fanatic.

Just like I lived obsessed with music, PD Gu Jaeyoung lived for variety shows and nothing else.

As we wondered what bizarre idea was currently forming inside his head—

"Wooju."

"Yes?"

"You promised something when ratings passed ten percent, remember? That you’d send everyone on trips to wherever they wanted."

"Yeah, I did."

That was why we’d asked the production staff to write down their dream travel destinations.

"Why, PD-nim?"

"Then... can I choose Antarctica?"

"...?"

"I found a travel program that does Antarctica tours. Apparently you can depart from Buenos Aires and take a cruise to Antarctica......."

I immediately cut off the brightly sparkling-eyed PD.

"W wait, PD-nim. Why Antarctica?"

"Variety show scouting."

"......."

"......."

Before true madness, everyone who’d just been enthusiastically chanting “Antarctica!” moments ago fell into horrified silence.

"The more I think about it, the more fun it sounds. We could talk about global issues related to climate change, and there’s plenty of entertainment value in watching the cast suffer......."

"W well, that’s true."

"So even if ratings don’t hit twenty percent, what if we just go anyway?"

"!"

"And what if going to Antarctica itself makes us hit twenty percent? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy? Honestly, I think this could guarantee twenty percent. ‘National idols set foot upon an unexplored continent.’ Isn’t that an incredible catchphrase?"

It felt strangely seductive.

Like the devil of variety shows whispering into our ears.

-If you offer yourselves as sacrifices, I can guarantee twenty percent ratings!

Just as we were unconsciously starting to fall for it—

Ri Hyuk, the embodiment of NewBlack’s logic and reason, raised his phone and showed us a video.

[At this time of year, Antarctica’s temperatures are truly murderous.]

[Wheeeeeeeeee!]

A documentary clip of baby penguins getting blasted by snowstorms while crying “Kyuuu...” and clinging desperately to their parents.

It instantly snapped us back to reality.

"W well, if we go before hitting twenty percent, that defeats the entire meaning of the pledge. Since it’s such a good concept, maybe we should save it for later."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

PD Gu Jaeyoung nodded as if convinced.

"But I can still pick Antarctica as my overseas vacation destination, right?"

‘He’s not giving up.’

‘He’s seriously fixated on this.’

While PD Gu Jaeyoung excitedly asked the other staff members, “What do you think? Isn’t it good?”—

Tap tap tap tap.

Beside us, co-director PD Oh Taejun quietly started sending messages to someone.

"What are you doing?"

At our whispering, PD Oh Taejun answered,

"There’s one person who can stop him whenever he starts going crazy."

"Oh."

There was someone capable of restraining one of the nation’s top three PDs?

The instant PD Oh Taejun finished texting, PD Gu Jaeyoung’s phone began vibrating.

"Hm? Hold on."

PD Gu Jaeyoung answered with a casual “Yeah, honey,” before stepping out of the meeting room.

And three minutes later—

PD Gu Jaeyoung returned, wiping cold sweat from his forehead.

"Uh......."

"?"

"I’ll take... Hawaii......."

We burst into applause and laughter.

"What kind of lunatic tries to take his wife and children to Antarctica......."

Everyone burst out laughing at PD Gu Jaeyoung’s dejected muttering.

PD Oh Taejun said,

"Exactly, hyung. Let’s save Antarctica for later."

"Yeah.... But you tattled on me, didn’t you?"

"Alright! Let’s start the meeting!"

Smoothly changing the subject, we finally began the actual meeting.

After the New Universe driving license special ended, it was time to discuss our second major project.

In truth, the theme had already been decided.

-Cooking.

It matched the concept for the global album we’d soon begin working on.

-If possible, shouldn’t the concept create synergy with the global music release too?

No matter how many Billboard awards we won or how many times we performed after being named among the world’s hundred most influential people—

"We couldn’t beat one braised fish recipe made by Biju. That’s when we truly realized the greatness of cooking shows."

We smiled nostalgically as the production staff agreed.

"It really was delicious. My family’s obsessed with the recipe lately."

"It didn’t even smell fishy."

"That braised fish deserved the hype. I watched it late at night and somehow ended up searching for braised fish restaurants on delivery apps before I knew it."

We nodded too.

"The buzz around it was no joke."

"I went to the Mission Singer meeting recently, and even there people told me to pass along that Biju hyung’s braised fish looked amazing."

"Seriously?"

Everywhere we went, people thanked Biju for the braised fish recipe.

Watching all this, we’d come to one conclusion.

-Let’s do a cooking-themed special.

If it exploded properly, it could genuinely send New Universe’s ratings skyrocketing.

Since everyone had already agreed on the concept, both our side and the production staff had come prepared with ideas.

"We’ll go first."

"Alright."

The door opened and a large screen rolled in with a mechanical hum.

Actually, calling it a moving electronic whiteboard would probably be more accurate.

"Ahem."

Ri Hyuk, in charge of the PowerPoint presentation, stepped forward wearing glasses.

Jiho whispered,

"Why’s he wearing glasses?"

"Someone on the fan cafe yesterday said Ri Hyuk wearing glasses was legendary visuals. That’s why he’s acting like that."

"Huh? Which Souffle told such outrageous lies......."

"I can hear you, you know?"

Ri Hyuk glared at us over his glasses.

Fans always praised him with comments like “pure and elegant” or “intellectual charm” whenever he wore fake glasses, but honestly—

To us, he looked like a strict dorm supervisor with a terrible personality.

Like he’d deduct two hundred thousand points from Gryffindor just for making eye contact.

"Ahem."

Standing before the electronic board, Ri Hyuk began the presentation.

[What Do We Want To Do In New Universe?]

"For this special, we want to open a restaurant. You know those variety shows where celebrities run restaurants and serve customers?"

"Yeah. They’re trendy lately."

"We want to try something where NewBlack operates a restaurant."

Ri Hyuk continued,

"But we want to find a location domestically."

"Domestically?"

"Most of those shows film overseas... but no matter how much we think about it, there’s basically no benefit for us."

These restaurant variety shows.

Food truck shows, celebrity-run restaurants—those kinds of programs usually filmed overseas.

The exotic scenery provided visual appeal for viewers.

And it let them capture authentic reactions from foreigners unfamiliar with Korean celebrities.

"The problem is this. No matter where we go, there are fans."

"True."

"And... this sounds a little self-important, but nowadays people overseas recognize us pretty often too."

When separated individually, people often didn’t recognize us.

But when all five of us were together, even random foreigners sometimes reacted with, “NewBlack?”

The production staff nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. Overseas filming doesn’t really offer much advantage."

"We thought the same thing. The reactions we’d normally expect probably wouldn’t happen."

No matter how we imagined it, all we could picture was Souffle fans giggling while surrounding the restaurant in a complete siege.

As Ri Hyuk wrote notes onto the electronic board, he continued.

"And overseas filming also doesn’t really fit New Universe’s core concept."

We all nodded.

-New Universe’s goal: a variety show closely connected to the public.

Recently, the variety trend had become heavily focused on observational programs centered entirely around celebrities themselves.

Which naturally created a bit of distance from ordinary viewers.

Our strategy with New Universe was targeting the gap created by that trend.

-Make viewers feel close and personally connected.

The driving license special was easy for viewers to relate to because almost everyone had dealt with getting a license at some point.

The picnic atmosphere with guests.

Fan meetings involving ordinary fans.

Everything New Universe had filmed so far followed that philosophy.

"So suddenly opening a restaurant overseas feels disconnected from New Universe’s purpose."

A variety show aiming to become closer to the public suddenly shouting “We’ll promote Korean food overseas!” would feel strange.

If the concept itself had been a K-food promotional program, or if we were already a national variety show on the level of Joo Sehan, then it would be different.

But New Universe was still a rookie show desperately saying, “Please love us, viewers!”

Main writer Yang Mihyun asked,

"Then what kind of food are you planning?"

"You mean menu selection?"

"Yeah. Korean food? Ramyeon? There are so many categories."

"We’ve been thinking about doing something a little unique."

This part was my turn.

"Since we’re already on tour overseas, we came up with an idea that could create synergy with the tour."

"What is it?"

"There are foods we occasionally eat overseas that we really enjoy... and we thought about adapting them to suit Korean tastes."

At my words, Ri Hyuk switched slides.

[Summary: Koreanizing Foreign Food]

"Dun dun!"

"Until now everyone’s focused on globalizing Korean food, so we want to try turning world cuisine into K-food instead!"

"Exactly!"

The production staff burst into laughter.

"We were thinking it’d be nice to visit local restaurants during the overseas tour and choose menu items that way too."

"That’s actually good."

"Seriously. That’s a solid idea."

It was also easy to attach meaningful messaging to it.

-NewBlack giving back to viewers! We’ll treat you to all the delicious foods we enjoyed overseas!

PD Gu Jaeyoung asked,

"Or what about going simpler? Like using Biju’s homemade recipes."

"Hmm, honestly that feels a little burdensome."

Biju smiled awkwardly.

"The braised fish recipe was one of the best recipes I’ve ever made, so people will probably expect that same level from everything else."

"Ahhh."

"So from my perspective, it’s pretty stressful. I’d constantly have to surpass the braised fish recipe."

The braised fish Biju developed for Ri Hyuk was basically one of his hidden trump cards he revealed occasionally.

It wasn’t realistic to keep producing recipes of that level nonstop.

After some additional Q&A with the staff, we finished our presentation.

Now it was the production team’s turn.

As they brought out the materials they’d seriously prepared, we all reacted with admiration.

"Oh."

"Oho...."

Our presentation had mostly been broad ideas.

The production staff’s presentation, meanwhile, was incredibly detailed.

Restaurant budget.

Expected filming duration.

Potential chefs to recruit.

The ideas were already highly developed.

[Selling Street Food To Students Outside Schools]

[NewBlack In The School Cafeteria]

[Serving Food In Rural Villages]

"Honestly, most of these were rejected midway through brainstorming. We just wrote down every random idea that came to mind, so don’t worry about them too much."

"Some of them actually seem pretty good though. Why were they rejected?"

PD Gu Jaeyoung answered,

"Because we’re not confident we can control the crowds."

"Ah... right."

"Remember Jungpyeong Rest Stop?"

"How could we forget...."

"Realistically, the only one there that might actually work is cooking in a corporate cafeteria. At least those only allow authorized personnel inside. But even that would still be difficult."

Jiho asked,

"Why?"

"Because casually cooking in a restaurant and mass-producing food in a cafeteria are completely different scales."

I answered for them.

I’d seen military cooks before.

They practically rowed giant paddles inside enormous cauldrons.

"Anyway... after going in circles, a regular restaurant setup still seems best. We’ll control numbers through reservations or something similar, and since you’ve already proposed the menu concept, we’ll handle the detailed planning."

"Okay."

"However...."

PD Gu Jaeyoung sank into thought again.

"Let’s make the scale bigger."

"How?"

"Add a gourmet travel concept on top of the restaurant variety show."

"...?"

PD Gu Jaeyoung explained his idea.

"The thing I regretted most during the driving license special was using footage of you getting your licenses as prerelease content on MyTube."

"Ah...."

"At the time, ratings were so precious we were desperate for any promotion possible. But looking back now, it feels like a waste."

"True. There were a lot of funny moments."

All the chaotic stories from the driving lessons came flooding back.

"So this time, we show the process of preparing the menu from the very beginning. The second half becomes restaurant preparation, while the first half works like a gourmet show where you search overseas for foods Korean viewers would enjoy."

A concept where we searched for menu ideas for the restaurant.

Walking around streets trying foreign food.

Visiting famous restaurants and filming meals there.

Honestly, it sounded good.

"I like it. We could eat at restaurants and maybe even interview chefs if we’re lucky."

"I think there’d be a lot of small, enjoyable moments."

There was something we’d realized while filming New Universe.

Instead of forcing gigantic laughs like traditional variety shows, we should focus on smaller enjoyable moments like observational entertainment.

That was the key to longevity.

When we nodded enthusiastically, the production staff smiled too.

"Then we’ll start contacting restaurants."

"Okay."

Quietly and steadily.

We resolved to build good entertainment that way.

Several hours later—

The New Universe production team began sending emails and making calls to countless restaurants.

[Inquiry Regarding Filming Opportunities]

They needed to know in advance which restaurants would allow filming before planning the shooting routes.

"Please let just one place work."

"This restaurant belongs to a really famous chef. We should probably contact them too, right? I heard they’re extremely strict though......."

"Send everything. Every single one. We just need one success."

From famous local restaurants to franchises operated by celebrity chefs.

‘Please, just let one work!’

Filled with desperate hope, the production team sent out their inquiries.

And those messages began arriving at famous restaurants overseas.

"Chef! Chef!"

"Hm?"

World-renowned chef Dante Cellini frowned, his white eyebrows knitting together as he checked inventory inside his restaurant.

"What is it?"

"A Korean broadcasting company contacted us. They want to film here."

"Hm.... Are they famous?"

Successful chefs were, fundamentally, successful businessmen.

People who never ignored opportunities that could benefit their reputation or restaurants.

"If they’re reasonably famous, then approve the filming and—"

"It’s NewBlack!"

"!"

Dante Cellini immediately sprang to his feet.

"Tell them yes immediately."

The moment he heard famous celebrities wanted to visit for filming, he instantly accepted.

‘Build connections!’

Even a single photo with currently rising stars would be hugely profitable.

One of Cellini’s restaurants had actually been co-founded through investment from a close Hollywood celebrity friend.

"If it’s NewBlack, then I should personally explain the dishes myself. When’s the filming schedule?"

Just as one world-famous chef was deciding to clear his calendar—

The emails New Universe’s staff had desperately sent hoping at least one place would accept were now rapidly spreading throughout elite restaurant circles.

"NewBlack? Tell them yes immediately."

"If even one clip gets uploaded to MyTube or TikTok, this is guaranteed profit."

"All the members are appearing?"

"Cellini and Ross accepted? Then tell them I’ll personally demonstrate our kitchen process too!"

Famous chefs whose names even ordinary Koreans would recognize were now competing with each other to accept the appearance requests.

A lineup that would later shock Korean viewers once it aired.

-I’m appearing too!

-Who’s NewBlack? Hm? Billions of MyTube views... wow, they’re huge.

-Yeah, we absolutely have to do this.

The emails originally sent in hopes of landing just one restaurant...

Were rapidly snowballing into something enormous under the name NewBlack.