Chapter 947: Nothing Goes According to Expectations (1)

The next day.

While waiting for takeoff aboard the charter flight headed to America, we received a call from the New Universe production team.

"What?"

We stared at the staff members on the video call screen, all of them wearing troubled expressions.

"...What do you mean the bookings worked out like that?"

-We got accepted everywhere.

"Everywhere?"

-Yeah.......

Jiho tilted his head.

"Isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t that mean we can go everywhere we wanted?"

-T that’s true.

"Then why do you all look like that...?"

If they’d successfully booked all the places they wanted, shouldn’t they be happy?

Watching the staff panic like some terrible disaster had occurred, I tilted my head in confusion before suddenly getting a bad feeling.

"PD-nim."

-Y yeah?

"Exactly how many restaurants did you contact?"

-Well.......

While PD Gu Jaeyoung awkwardly trailed off, one of the writers finally confessed.

-We contacted around fifty places....... ℯ

"......."

-And that’s just in America.......

All of us slowly turned toward Junghyun.

Ri Hyuk might’ve been the best at calculations overall, but when it came to food calculations, our family’s teddy bear was unmatched.

Junghyun counted on his fingers before answering.

"It’d take us a week to eat through all of them."

"......."

We stared coldly at the production staff.

No matter how famous we were for eating well, fifty restaurants was impossible.

-W we have our reasons!

-It’s not entirely our fault!

The staff hurriedly defended themselves.

-You guys don’t understand how difficult these bookings usually are. Chefs are notoriously arrogant, right? Popular restaurants in Europe and America, especially Michelin places, normally reject Asian broadcasting stations immediately.

"So that’s why you contacted so many places."

-We figured if we threw out a hundred lines, maybe ten would bite.......

PD Gu Jaeyoung’s voice weakened.

-But somehow every single one accepted.......

"......."

I quickly calculated things in my head.

If there were fifty restaurants, that meant roughly fifty chefs too.

For a moment, some horrifying image like “Master Chef: NewBlack Edition” flickered through my mind.

"But...."

Biju pointed out the strange part.

"If it’s normally that difficult, how did every single place accept?"

-Because of you guys.

"...?"

-The second we mentioned your names, it became a free pass. When we just introduced ourselves as a Korean broadcast team, they ignored us. But once we said NewBlack, everybody’s attitudes completely changed. One chef even offered to reveal his personal recipes.

We laughed awkwardly at the explanation that it was all thanks to our fame.

The production staff spoke with expressions that looked slightly existentially shattered.

-Whenever we tried getting overseas filming cooperation before, rejection was basically routine. Every famous foreign restaurant would immediately say absolutely not... and that was back when Joo Sehan was at peak popularity.

-You guys are seriously famous....

-Like, way more famous than we imagined.

The staff jokingly bowed and said, “Please take care of us, mighty NewBlack,” while we awkwardly waved our hands and bowed back.

Ri Hyuk asked,

"Anyway, we obviously can’t visit all of them, so we’ll have to choose. Are there any places we absolutely need to visit?"

-We definitely need to visit the restaurants run by famous chefs. Bobby Ross and Dante Cellini’s places for sure. Those two personally promised they’d appear on camera.

"...That’s an insane lineup."

Even ordinary Koreans knew those chefs by name.

-I cook with MUSCLE!

Bobby Ross, the gigantic black celebrity chef famous in Korea through memes like that.

A master of Southern American cuisine known for his hilarious television personality.

And Dante Cellini was famous as the brutally strict judge from a popular cooking competition show.

-“Selen, your dish was aesthetically beautiful.”

-“Thank you, Chef.”

-“To someone with trash-level aesthetic taste, perhaps.”

One of the most famous examples of “You should listen to people until the end.”

The fact that chefs more famous than most celebrities had agreed to appear made all of us exchange glances.

"I guess METRO became way more successful than we realized."

"I I guess so."

PD Gu Jaeyoung sighed.

-Actually, this is an incredibly fortunate problem. Normally we’d be chained to our phones and computers fighting for filming permission right now. Getting cooperation this smoothly is amazing. The only problem is figuring out what to choose.

"This is genuinely difficult."

-That’s why we contacted you guys. We’ll send the list by email, so let’s think about it together. We filtered it down to famous places first, but we still don’t know which ones are actually delicious.

"Okay, PD-nim."

We were just about to end the call when—

-Alright. Have a good American tour. See you in LA.

"Ah, PD-nim."

-Hm?

"Actually, I just thought of a really good idea."

The PD tilted his head curiously.

"We have a lot of fans in America, right? And locals would probably know the best local restaurants better than anyone else......."

-Ask the fans?

"Exactly."

-Oh? That’s actually a really good idea.

The staff nodded enthusiastically.

"Then I’ll make the post, so please keep an eye on the comments."

-Got it.

While the staff pulled out their phones and opened Instagram, I quickly typed out a post in English.

[Souffles who know good restaurants in LA, hands up!]

Then we happily hummed while waiting for the comments to start flooding in.

"Restaurants, restaurants."

"Restaurant recommendations~"

I refreshed the page immediately after posting.

[View all 487 comments]

"Oho."

Just as we started scrolling—

Blink.

[View all 3,387 comments]

Blink.

[View all 15,789 comments]

Bliiiink....

[View all 47,893 comments]

"......."

"......."

The comment count exploded exponentially every single refresh.

Blink.

[View all 105,765 comments]

Over one hundred thousand comments.

The production staff stared blankly at me.

"...Uh, wow. I guess I’m more popular than I thought."

-.......

The staff looked at me like, “And you think that’s an appropriate thing to say?”

There were way too many comments, but the Souffles’ recommendations ended up helping tremendously.

-There’s actually a huge overlap with the list we already made. We can use this for cross-verification.

Apparently they planned to compare the restaurants most frequently recommended by fans against the production team’s own list.

"This is seriously a Souffle list. Or maybe... a Soufflin Guide?"

"Or the Soufferin Guide?"

While throwing around names, I turned to my younger brothers.

"By the way, is it Michelin? Micheline? Which one is it?"

"It’s neither. It’s Michelin."

Ri Hyuk answered.

"I think Michelin is the company’s official pronunciation. The guide originally came from the tire company. You know, the Tire Man mascot place."

"PWAHAHAHAHA!"

"No, seriously."

"We’re not falling for that, Ri Hyuk. We might look stupid, but we’re not actually stupid~"

The members and I waved our fingers dismissively.

The idea that the Michelin Guide came from a tire company with a giant tire mascot was so absurd we burst into laughter.

"No way......."

Then I secretly searched it.

"......."

It was true.

Watching Ri Hyuk tremble indignantly while we all quietly pretended nothing happened—

"Ah. The scenery’s beautiful."

Outside the car window, the lush greenery of June swept past.

Early summer.

Warm air carrying the scent of grass drifted through the slightly opened window.

[Welcome to ARLINGTON]

A road sign flashed past.

The place our vehicle was currently driving through was Arlington, Texas.

At first I’d thought it was the Arlington with the national cemetery, but apparently America had multiple Arlingtons.

"Wow. It’s completely summer here."

"Seriously. I should put on more sunscreen."

Korea had only just entered early summer, but here the scorching heat of full summer had already arrived.

After applying another layer of sunscreen, I picked up my sunglasses.

Soon, our destination came into view.

[AT&T Stadium]

The NFL stadium that would serve as our concert venue for the next two days.

One hundred ten thousand people across two days.

A monstrous venue capable of seating over fifty thousand per show, radiating overwhelming pressure even from its silhouette alone.

"It kind of looks like Junghyun hyung."

"Seriously."

As the massive stadium loomed with an aura of “GOOOOO...,” Junghyun proudly rubbed his nose.

Today’s schedule was just a light rehearsal.

When we arrived at the venue, the American staff waiting for us greeted us enthusiastically.

"NEWBLAAAAACK~!"

"It’s been a while! Have you all been well?"

These were the same staff members we’d worked with during the Florida Tampa concert back in mid-May.

We exchanged high-fives and fist bumps with everyone.

For some reason, morale felt unbelievably high today.

"You know that, right? That thing?"

One staff member spoke excitedly.

"You’re the first artists ever to perform at AT&T Stadium for two consecutive days."

"Really?"

"Yep. Until now, everybody only did one-day shows. You’re the first."

Apparently attendance records had previously maxed out around one hundred thousand, and we’d just surpassed that.

At the mention of a new record, we exchanged delighted smiles.

"Then shall we start rehearsal?"

The rehearsal atmosphere was fantastic too.

Sometimes during tours there were days where you suddenly thought, ‘Oh? Today’s one of those good days.’

Today was exactly that kind of day.

Nothing particularly went wrong, and it felt like if the actual concert went exactly like this, everything would be perfect.

"Great work!"

"You all worked hard!"

We finished rehearsals in an incredibly cheerful atmosphere.

Now only a few technical checks remained, and while sitting in the audience seats resting briefly—

"So what have you been staring at this whole time?"

We answered our agent D’Angelo’s question.

"We’re filming a TV show in Korea right now, and this time we’re planning to search for great restaurants in America."

"Oh. Like Man v. Food. They travel around searching for famous restaurants too."

"Exactly. So we’re looking through recommendation lists."

The American staff immediately became interested.

Since many of them were originally from LA, they started recommending different restaurants from the list.

Then suddenly—

"Come to think of it...."

Something occurred to me that seemed perfect to ask the American staff.

The countries we’d chosen for the gourmet-themed New Universe episodes were America, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, England, and France.

All countries overlapping with our tour schedule.

While thinking it’d be good to choose iconic foods representing each country, another thought suddenly arose.

-What food best represents America?

The obvious first choices were hamburgers and hot dogs.

Which naturally led to another question.

"I wanted to ask you all something."

"Hm?"

"We’re planning to select representative dishes for each category... so which place has the best hamburgers in America?"

"You mean... which region has the best burgers?"

The staff’s expressions suddenly turned grim.

"Uh? Yes."

"......."

The previously cheerful and laughing staff instantly became deadly serious, causing us to exchange glances.

‘What’s wrong with them?’

‘I I don’t know?’

Beside us, our agent D’Angelo smiled knowingly.

"You picked the wrong question."

"...?"

"You’ll understand soon enough. A very intense debate is about to begin...."

At the time, we had no idea.

That it was the one question we absolutely never should have asked.

The Arlington concert ended successfully.

Now, once we finished the LA concert, the American tour would wrap up perfectly.

However—

"YOU’RE WRONG!"

"Are you disrespecting our city right now? Our city may be small, but our burgers are number one in America...!"

The unity between the staff continuing with us to the Rose Bowl had completely collapsed.

"......."

"......."

We blankly stared into space while Americans argued every single day.

-Which region has the best hamburgers?

Honestly, wasn’t it a pretty simple question?

We thought they’d just say things like, “The West Coast is good at this, the East Coast is good at that, the South has this style,” and move on.

Instead, the Americans became emotionally invested.

-“You idiots disrespecting Texas Whataburger? You can order four patties AND extra cheese! Fresh vegetables, perfectly seasoned meat, juices dripping everywhere, and then—”

-“Four patties and extra cheese? Eat that every day and you’ll meet God early. Five Guys is superior. It tastes magical.”

-“In N Out is the purest form of burger perfection...!”

"We’re not even going to chain restaurants anyway......."

"Exactly......."

Since our project focused on adapting food to Korean tastes, franchise restaurants had already been excluded from consideration.

We explained that.

The staff still remained deadly serious.

First they fought over hamburgers.

Then they started arguing over which region made the best chili sauce.

"Let’s move away."

"Agreed."

We only learned one important lesson.

Never ask Americans about hamburgers.

Even while quietly retreating, we couldn’t help laughing as they continued passionately arguing amongst themselves.

"Alright, then......."

Now that the Arlington concert had ended safely, it was finally time to head to LA.

Before the Rose Bowl concert, we’d spend some time exploring LA with the New Universe production team.

Of course—

"Hyung, are you really going there too?"

"Yeah."

There was somewhere else I needed to visit first.

"Hyung, I’m curious too! Can I come?? I really want to see how filming works in Hollywood...!"

"Sure. Let’s go together."

"Really? I can actually come?"

"Of course. Why not?"

At my answer, Jiho lit up with happiness.

The other members quickly chimed in with “I want to go too,” and I nodded.

"Let’s all go cheer them on together."

Our first destination in LA.

The filming set for my father’s biographical movie, Sound of the Sun.

A café on the outskirts of LA.

Normally, weekday lunchtime would’ve been moderately busy.

But now the place was overflowing with customers.

‘Damn it.’

The part-time employee sighed internally.

‘It’s packed again today.’

A massive line of customers waited to order coffee.

The employee glanced over the crowd.

‘Those people came yesterday too, didn’t they?’

People who’d never appeared before had suddenly become daily regulars for nearly a week straight.

Mostly women, though a handful of men were mixed in too.

Different races, different ages.

But all of them shared one common trait.

Sparkle sparkle!

Every single one of them was dressed up ridiculously well.

The entire café atmosphere radiated desperate “Please notice me!” energy.

One person pretending to casually stop by after jogging.

Another pretending to quietly work on their laptop.

They all lingered inside the café for one reason.

Ding—

12:30 PM.

The café door opened, and every customer’s eyes instantly turned.

"!"

"!!"

Their gazes resembled hawks locking onto prey.

The employee quietly smiled.

‘He’s here.’

The man responsible for increasing the café’s sales nearly tenfold had arrived.

‘He really is insanely handsome.’

A plain t-shirt with no design.

Simple jeans.

Yet his proportions were unbelievable.

His sculpted physique and delicate features naturally drew gasps from anyone who saw him.

And the glasses added an intellectual charm on top of that.

‘They said he was an actor...? His name was Geonwoo Lee?’

He was a customer from the nearby filming set who came in for coffee every lunchtime.

He’d sit by the window reading scripts quietly, and apparently rumors had spread because the café was now constantly packed.

‘Today I’m definitely giving him my number!’

‘He’s so handsome....’

‘What country is he from? He looks like nobility.’

People kept stealing glances while he ordered coffee.

Everyone carefully maintaining their chosen “natural encounter” concept.

Meanwhile, Geonwoo Lee sighed internally.

‘Do I need to switch cafés again?’

For the introverted Hallyu actor whose hobby was quietly reading scripts inside peaceful cafés, this environment had become incredibly exhausting.

Every time he looked up from his script, somebody approached him.

Today was no different.

"Um...."

"Yes?"

Still dressed in full Sun Myungju makeup, Geonwoo Lee looked up politely.

"Is something wrong?"

"If you don’t mind......."

A woman nervously pulled out a slip of paper with her number written on it, while several others behind her watched for openings like predators.

‘How should I reject them today?’

As Geonwoo Lee desperately tried to think of a way to decline without hurting anyone’s feelings—

"I’m......."

His eyes suddenly widened.

Ding—

Because of the handsome young man who entered through the café door.

‘Wooju?’

Apparently Wooju, who’d mentioned he planned to visit the set, had come looking for him personally.

The introverted actor’s eyes sparkled brightly.

‘Wooju!’

The moment their eyes met, Wooju silently asked with his gaze:

‘Need help, sunbae-nim?’

‘Yes. Desperately.’

Wooju waved cheerfully and shouted in a booming voice.

"Dad!"

"...?"

"Mom’s looking for you!"

The woman froze mid-motion while trying to hand over her number, staring back and forth between them.

"!?"

"Did he just say Dad?"

"Dad...?"

"He has a wife and takes off his wedding ring?!"

The instant the word “dad” appeared, people began retreating like a receding tide.

"No, wait, I’m—"

Geonwoo Lee desperately reached out to clear up the misunderstanding, but the customers were already backing away with cold expressions.

Watching his fake son walk over grinning brightly, Geonwoo Lee clenched his fist tightly.

‘Sun Wooju...!’