The professor closed his eyes at the youngest’s claim that he had copy-pasted a sentence from AntWiki.
Everyone cracked up, hiccuping with laughter.
"Did I do sothing wrong?"
Ri Hyuk whispered sothing to the youngest, who tilted his head.
"Whoa. Really? At university, copying from a wiki is a big problem?"
"Even in high school howork you should know that."
"How would I know when I barely went to school properly. I just walked around with a backpack."
"...What a boast. Truly a boast."
Regaining his composure, Professor Jung Munseok spoke.
"Student— no, Jiho. I appreciate that you put effort into your research... but you should avoid using wiki-type sites as references."
"Yup."
"They have a lot of incorrect information. Just on this page I can see seven errors."
"Understood. Still, I learned sothing useful before college."
The youngest stuck out his tongue a little and went oops, and we turned away with cool expressions.
"Professor, please continue your explanation."
"Yes."
Professor Jung Munseok, who specializes in folktales featuring dokkaebi, began with confidence.
"I was just now..."
"Just now?"
"Where did I leave off?"
Everyone laughed.
When we told him he had gotten to the part about how dokkaebi resemble NewBlack, the professor nodded.
Junhyun laughed.
"AntWiki must have really shaken you."
"Not at all."
Wearing a kindly smile, Professor Jung continued.
"I said you resemble dokkaebi. First, in folktales, dokkaebi love and enjoy singing and dancing."
"But doesn’t everyone like that?"
"And they love food."
"...!"
"For example, in a dokkaebi deity folktale from Jeju, the dokkaebi are said to love eating pork."
When our eyes shone, the professor, delighted, kept explaining.
"Also, the form of a dokkaebi is not fixed and is very diverse. It can be a broom, then a small child, then an old man. It can appear as a young woman or as a man."
Professor Jung Munseok looked at us and asked,
"After the shoot was scheduled, I researched NewBlack. I heard your concept changes drastically with every new album, correct?"
"Yes. That’s right."
"I think that too is a common point between dokkaebi and NewBlack."
It felt like when you take a personality test and think, that’s exactly .
Junhyun marveled.
"Maybe dokkaebi and we were destined."
"I think we picked the right title, hyung."
As I nodded at Biju’s bright smile, Professor Jung blinked and said,
"...Did you know this beforehand and choose ‘Dokkaebi’ for the title?"
"No."
"Oh."
I could see his brain spinning at full power behind his gaze.
"...That too is very dokkaebi-like."
At his easy storytelling that flowed on naturally, we all clapped and burst out laughing.
When we praised how good he was at variety, the professor gave a bashful smile.
"Ah, and I forgot one thing earlier. There is one more thing you have in common with dokkaebi."
"What is it?"
"They have a superhuman side."
"..."
At that, Junhyun tilted his head.
"I don’t think we have anything like that..."
My brothers and I swallowed our words.
Flashes of past exploits crossed my mind: dueling the black goat called the Overlord of Yeoncheon County, being adored by a special forces unit mber, opening a stubborn jam jar that refused to open for anyone.
Junhyun looked at us and asked,
"Hm? What is it?"
"Nothing."
I decided we were just a bit very healthy.
Ri Hyuk laughed.
"We are a little unusual each in our way, but I don’t think we have any special traits..."
"Booooo!"
The sound ca from the NewBlack TV staff. We widened our eyes and shouted.
"Hey. Since when do colleagues on the sa show boo the cast? Isn’t this too much?"
"So an. Seriously."
As we protested, PD Sung and the crew kept on with the boooo.
Jiho glared.
"If you keep that up, I’ll have Ri Hyuk hyung boo you back. His voice is super loud."
At the sight of cast and crew booing back and forth, Professor Jung laughed that this too was very dokkaebi-like.
The professor continued.
"Anyway, dokkaebi have superhuman abilities, with many tales of them ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ turning a pond into flat ground and such. They also create things with a dokkaebi club."
"That’s where we differ."
Biju laughed.
"We don’t have anything like superpowers."
"..."
No. There is one person here.
As I hid the prickle of guilt, I suddenly thought again about my ability to mimic movents.
Even now, the professor’s facial expression beside was transmitting vividly.
Every ti he gestured, it felt like it etched into my mind.
Sothing was definitely up with my brain, but I still had no sense of what the chanism was.
"There are several types of dokkaebi, to begin with."
Professor Jung Munseok’s guide lecture on dokkaebi went on.
By the ti we reached the final part about Koreans’ view of life and history as related to dokkaebi, Ri Hyuk nodded and said,
"In the end, people in the past believed in dokkaebi in order to wish for things hard to achieve in reality. Like becoming rich."
"That’s right."
The professor smiled, satisfied.
"But you’ve been giving excellent answers for a while now, Ri Hyuk."
"Yes. I did my prep in advance."
"Really? What did you use for study material?"
"I studied by reading your works, professor."
At the model-student reply, Professor Jung’s smile spread like a full moon. As if to say, what a fine college student.
"You read my works?"
"Yes, here."
With a prim smile, Ri Hyuk held out a sheet as if for an autograph.
"I studied by reading your master’s thesis."
"...!"
In that mont the professor’s eyes opened wide.
He swallowed, looking deeply embarrassed, like he had co face to face with sothing that should not be.
"You studied by reading my master’s thesis?"
"Yes."
"Ah..."
What is it.
Worried for no reason by Professor Jung’s reaction, I wondered if he had so bad mory attached to the thesis.
To us and the staff looking on with puzzled eyes, the professor explained,
"Well... a master’s thesis, you see... during the master’s course, you sotis write when you don’t know much yet but are full of confidence."
"Aha."
"Looking back now, my face gets hot."
I related.
"So it’s like how we get embarrassed when we watch our practice videos from when we were trainees."
"Yes... that’s it. Hahaha."
I felt like we had learned an interesting fact.
Smiling contentedly, we shouted to the viewers of NewBlack TV.
"Viewers of NewBlack TV nationwide. And college students."
"Take note. Professors’ weakness is their master’s thesis."
The crew burst out laughing along with us as we cackled.
Professor Jung, who had been laughing along with a blank face, looked at us.
"Playing mischievous pranks on humans..."
The professor smiled wistfully.
"That too is very dokkaebi-like..."
At the perfect ending line, everyone burst into laughter.
A few days later.
Subscribers to NewBlack TV World got a notification that a new video had been posted.
"Another crumb?"
Souffles, who had been devouring behind-the-scenes videos from the Japan tour and the year-end stages, wiped their mouths and ran.
[waddle waddle!]
They had eaten so many crumbs that it felt like even their brains had gotten fat. The fans, moving as a flock, reached the video.
[Introduction to Korean Culture] What is a Dokkaebi
It was a video introducing what a dokkaebi is to overseas subscribers, since it was the title of the special album.
"If it’s delicious, we eat it too."
Though the content was made for foreigners, NewBlack World videos always entertained dostic fans as well.
Soon the fans burst out laughing.
From greeting the professor with a small gong and cymbal to the youngest’s censored AntWiki line and finally the professor’s weakness.
[The dokkaebi professor who dropped by NewBlack TV and left a blast of fun today]
(Professor Jung with flas CG in his eyes at the bold declaration of scraping from a wiki.gif)
(Professor Jung’s pupils going unfocused at the master’s thesis.gif)
lolololololololol
Hilarious from the start of the year lol
Whoever makes the English subtitles is working hard lol "The professor’s kryptonite is the master’s thesis"
I got dizzy when he said so boldly that he scraped from a wiki to the professor
But is that true??? Do they feel weird if you read the master’s thesis?
Case by case.. depends on the professor yeah yeah but generally it’s like seeing your emo crying selfie from school days ㅠㅜ
My goodness,, I’m going to use this well from now on
Moved by Ri Hyuk’s dedication to look up even the master’s thesis.. or maybe you couldn’t help it
With a face of total enlightennt, "that too is very dokkaebi-like".. lol
While dostic fans chatted about the content like that, overseas viewers smiled with satisfaction too.
"Right. The professor’s weakness is... no, that’s not it."
Their questions about dokkaebi were answered.
Why soone says "Mr. Kim" to a stranger, why a blue fla appears, and so on.
Their curiosity about the music video teaser was resolved.
They did not know exactly what it was, but it seed like a monster embodying NewBlack’s identity.
"They asked us to smack our main’s fans if they started spouting nonsense..."
As overseas Souffles watched the comnts to manage anything that looked like nonsense, another bit of news reached fans in Korea.
"NewBlack ca to Gyeongju"
(A proof shot gif of NewBlack mbers with colorful hair and the subject’s face covered in stickers)
I saw a familiar face so I went ye. Then he replied yo yeah and suddenly reacted;
It was Jiho.
They were laughing among themselves, surrounded , and said let’s take a photo, so we did, and I was like uh uh uh?? and when I ca to my senses there was a signed paper in my hand..
"Gyeongju??? Do they say why they ca??"
"[OP] I didn’t get to ask that properly.. but from what the swarming staff were saying, it seems they ca to film a music video"
"Aweso lol you should have asked Junhyun for the lottery numbers"
"[OP] They said that kind of thing is not allowed"
"So you couldn’t ask why they ca but you did ask for lottery numbers.."
"I thought the one with purple-mixed hair would be Wooju but it was Jiho; their hair colors are all reversed overall"
Starting with that, reports ca in of seeing NewBlack all over Gyeongju, and the Souffles blinked.
"What are they doing?"
A new project they did not know about was underway.
[busy buzzing]
There were really crowds of people all around.
"Whoaaaa—!"
In the morning it had felt like there was no one nearby, but by evening there were crowds of people with phone caras.
"Hello—!"
"Whoaaa!"
This was Gyeongju Central Market.
While the staff prepared the shoot, we approached the people with phones and chatted.
"Okay. We’ll take questions on the spot. Ask us anything."
"What is 297 tis 47?"
"Who are you? Souffles, right?"
We all burst into laughter at soone’s question hidden in the crowd.
Just then a grandfather leaning on a cane asked,
"What did you co to do today?"
"Our special album song is coming out. We ca to film a choreography video for it."
"Choreography?"
"Dance. Dance."
As Biju swayed his hips with a little dance and people squealed, the grandfather watched Biju’s rolling waist and said,
"Oh dear, how indecent."
"..."
We patted Biju as he buried his face in us, head turned away.
As small chuckles flowed, soone shouted to ,
"I like your hair."
"Right?"
"Yeah. rmaid color."
I smiled brightly.
It felt good to get a pretty verdict on the hair I dyed cherry red this ti.
How much horrific pain I endured for this bright shining red hair.
— Argh argh
— Wooju. We haven’t even started the bleaching yet.
— My heart hurts.
— Hey. If anyone has snacks, stick so in Wooju’s mouth.
I thought my head was literally going to split.
But it couldn’t be helped.
To match the dokkaebi concept, we had pushed the idea, "How about we all dye to colors different from our personal colors this ti?"
The youngest and I swapped colors, so I was red and Jiho was purple. Biju and Junhyun were pale green and blue respectively.
"What about ?"
Asked Ri Hyuk, whose hair was dyed gold.
"How do I look?"
"Hm."
The citizen who had complinted shouted,
"You look like Malfoy."
"...If anyone has a staff, give it here. I’m going to cast a spell on that person."
"Quiet, Malfoy."
At my answer, my brothers clapped and laughed.
We grinned big at the citizens enjoying our little show and made a request.
"We’ll really shoot quick, so please bear with us a little."
"Take your ti. Take your ti."
"Thank you."
When the manager hyungs handed out Souffle bread and keychains they had prepared, people grew even more generous.
After greeting the people like that, we went over to the director sitting in front of the cara.
"You look exhausted, director."
"Yeah."
"If there’s sothing hard, please tell us."
"You shot it well, but it’s because you keep saying let’s shoot it even more perfectly."
"Not that."
We comforted the director as he let tears roll down.
"Starting from Nine, we also fild Nakhwa and Empire together. It’s ti you got used to it, director."
"I can’t get used to you. If I say this shoot is the hardest, you prepare the next one even tougher."
When the director ribbed us jokingly for being obsessive about completion, we said we would buy him sothing delicious after.
"I’ll buy Hwangnam bread and a Cheomseongdae latte."
"Get Hanwoo mulhoe too."
OK. I laughed.
Waving once more to the people watching from a distance, we went into a serious strategy eting with my brothers.
What kind of choreography we should do.
We reviewed the layout of Gyeongju Central Market we had studied in advance and drew the path in our heads.
"I’ll lead, hyung."
"Please."
Among us, Junhyun, who had the best spatial sense, would lead the choreography path.
Despite his destructive power, the reason Junhyun rarely broke things was that he was that good at dodging.
He was our kid who dodged everything except bullets.
"Whew."
I stood in front of the cara and focused, working to shake off the slls of delicious food.
It was an important project.
— We talked with the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Tourism Organization.
Since it was a very Korean song, we had thought, what if we shot the choreography video special version in places like palaces and traditional markets.
The public agencies lent a hand saying, "NewBlack? Go big," and the scale grew.
It seed we were being recognized for having promoted Korea well with NewBlack TV all this ti.
We got permission from public institutions and local governnts to shoot anywhere nationwide if we wished.
Even just in Gyeongju, where we started today, we had already gone around several heritage sites. Mostly places where you would think, "Can you really shoot a music video here?"
We might be the only singers who shot a choreography video while coming down the stairs of Bulguksa.
"Okay. Rolling. Cue."
For security, there was no music, but it wasn’t a big problem.
The choreography would only go in a little anyway, and the rest would be us tearing through the night market, eating tteok or snagging fish cake and so on.
Led by Junhyun, we hopped down the middle aisle of the night market, moving among citizens cast as extras.
Since it was also today’s last shoot, we decided to wrap lightly after a few takes.
"Thank you."
Even though we shot it in one take, we celebrated that there was not a single NG and shared a tearful high five with the director.
We shook hands with the Central Market vendors and expressed thanks.
"I’m a fan. A fan."
"Who is your favorite?"
"Yu Junhyeok."
"It’s Kim Junhyun."
"Kim Junhyeok?"
Junhyun said that’s right, I’m Kim Junhyeok, and smiled warmly. Jiho snickered and asked,
"Guess my na."
"An Jiho?"
Junhyun smiled fondly and patted Jiho. When I tried to dodge my turn, Ri Hyuk pointed right at and asked,
"Then what about this person?"
"Kim... Wooju?"
I realized the sitcom had stronger impact than I thought.
Even so, it was encouraging that even older vendors knew all our nas.
As we ate night-market foods like pork rib racks and grilled bulgogi, we emphasized,
"We are singers. We’re going to sing a lot this ti."
"Okay, all together. What is NewBlack?"
"‘Singers.’" we shouted with the vendors and took commorative photos, then patted our bellies.
We had eaten night-market foods as appetizers while walking around, so it was ti for the main course.
Manager Mingi said with a blank face,
"Really, your stomachs... I still can’t get used to them."
"If we dance, we digest everything."
Especially today, we had been moving and dancing all day, so we needed to replenish our energy.
"Let’s go. Today I, Sun Wooju, am buying."
"Whoaaaa—!"
As we went through the list of restaurants the Souffles had sent to find the best place in Gyeongju,
"Hm?"
a notification pinged on my phone saying an email had arrived.
It said in English that overseas royalties had been settled, and as I tilted my head, sothing ca to mind.
"Ah."
Biju exclaid.
"It must be the Blue Moon royalties."
"Looks like it."
Let’s see how much ca in, I thought as I lifted my phone and checked the amount on the statent...
Checked...
"Hyung. What’s wrong?"
"Hold on."
I rubbed my eyes and stared at the figure.
The total earned over two months by Blue Moon, which had been released at Halloween last year, from US streaming, download sites, radio, and broadcasts.
"What is this."
The number of zeros was a bit strange.
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