In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 259

Woojoo couldn’t believe they followed them all the way to the plane.

And somehow they knew their seats too. They sat around them casually, like natural fans. Woojoo was stunned for a moment.

What the hell.

Woojoo could understand how they found out which plane they were taking, but how did they know where they were sitting?

The questions piled up one after another, but Woojoo stopped there.

He was too sleep-deprived to think any further.

Woojoo frowned at the throbbing headache that started to bother him.

He was already stressed out by the flight and the lack of sleep, and now this unexpected problem added to it…

Woojoo wanted to massage his temples, but he was afraid it would stimulate the fans who were watching them nearby, so he just brushed his hair back without a word.

“Woojoo.”

“Hey, guys. We’re here.”

Woojoo ignored the voices calling their names or the camera shutters clicking and turned his gaze to the window.

The managers tried to stop them, but it was no use.

They wouldn’t listen.

Sometimes they encountered rude people who asked them to do things, like saying ‘Hey, make me laugh’ because they saw them on TV. They usually backed off when Dowon Hyung glared at them with his shoulders stiff.

But Woojoo doubted that a grim expression would have any effect on these people who followed them to the same plane.

The only consolation was that he was sitting by the window, and the members and the staff were surrounding him.

Woojoo tried to soothe his bitter feelings and glanced at his siblings.

He wondered if they were okay.

Woojoo covered his mouth and whispered to Bijoo, who was sitting next to him, “Bijoo, are you okay?’

He smiled and answered, “Yes, I’m fine.”

The others were similar.

They were so calm that it made Woojoo feel silly for worrying. At first, he was puzzled by their behavior, but then he realized why.

“Woojoo, do you want some water?”

Minki Hyung, who was sitting in front of Woojoo, handed him a water bottle.

“Hyung, look at this. I found one good thing among the floral patterns.”

The youngest showed him a new floral item on the online shopping mall and diverted his attention.

…was the text message from the fan that popped up on the screen.

“…”

“…”

Jiho quietly switched his phone to airplane mode.

He didn’t look disgusted or anything, and his expression didn’t change at all. Woojoo thought their maknae had grown up a lot.

Swoosh.

Junghyun, who was sitting next to Woojoo and Bijoo, used his large body to block them like a shield.

Rihyuk also joined in, but it didn’t help much. It felt like a paper doll flapping its arms.

Woojoo felt grateful for their silent consideration.

They weren’t surprised, were they?

This was the first time the fans followed them all the way to the plane.

But since there was someone who was afraid of flying, they seemed to have decided to stay calm themselves.

It was like when children say, “We have to protect Mom” when an adult panicked in a crisis situation.

Woojoo would have waved them off and said it was enough if it was any other day, but today he gladly accepted their help.

“Hoo…”

Woojoo took a deep breath and looked at the view of Gimpo Airport.

He felt a small coziness from the people around him.

When he was young, he used to pull the blanket up to his chin when something scary happened, and it was a similar feeling of security.

But even so, he ignored the fans who kept trying to get a reaction from him and plugged in his earphones.

…This was so stressful.

He prided himself on having more patience than anyone else, but when so many problems came at once, it felt like he was overloaded.

Of course, 80% of it was because of the plane.

Vroom.

Woojoo almost jumped when the engine started to vibrate.

The headache got worse as the plane vibrated while slowly moving to the runway.

He grabbed the handle as the plane sped up.

His heart was pounding like he had caffeine, even though he didn’t, and the sound of it started to echo in his ears.

When a few seconds felt like hours, he felt a slight sense of relief along with the feeling of floating.

…It was over.

Bijoo leaned his body and whispered, “Hyung, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Woojoo reached out to Bijoo, who looked at him with concern, but his hand was sweaty.

He only noticed it now, but his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

He smiled and shook his head.

“It’s really okay. We’ve taken off, right?”

The stress was definitely less after taking off. There would be another challenge when they landed, though.

Woojoo told the members not to worry about him and closed his eyes.

He felt sleepy as the tension eased.

He stayed up all night because of the flight, but it seemed to work.

He would be fine after a nap.

Woojoo relaxed his stiff body and left the rest to sleep.

“I did it…!”

“What did you do? You crazy person.”

“I feel much better after sleeping. Hey.”

Rihyuk narrowed his eyes and stared at Woojoo as he stretched.

“Are you really okay? You always say you’re okay.”

“Of course.”

Woojoo patted his shoulder and smiled.

“Your concern for me is very touching. Don’t forget that and do well in the future.”

“You’re fine, really fine.”

Woojoo smiled as he watched Rihyuk shake his head vigorously.

Meanwhile, he was serious.

Woojoo had slept like a log for almost two hours after getting off the plane, and he felt refreshed.

He was the type who could easily shake off stress with a little sleep.

Of course, the fans were still there, just like before.

The same plane, the same airport.

They followed them and took pictures as he walked with their siblings.

“Should we just run away, Hyung?”

Junghyun asked him, and Woojoo shook his head.

“What about Bijoo? He may have more stamina than Rihyuk, but he’s only one battery level ahead. He’ll run out soon.”

“I can carry him and run.”

“Ho-ho. That’s an option…”

Woojoo admired the friendship that treated a friend like a dumbbell, but he gave up because it would be a disaster if they fell while running.

An idol who got corned at the airport, they couldn’t be known like that.

Woojoo decided to ignore the fans.

This was one of the penalties that he had to accept as they became more successful as an idol.

Woojoo could try to deal with them if they followed them to the taxi or if they were clearly stalking them, but it was impossible to handle them at this level.

The good thing was, compared to the past TNT or Teen Spirit, who had similar popularity to them, they were only one-tenth as bad. Woojoo thought the reason why TNT moved their dorm for the first time was because a Chinese fan bought the next door.

Teen Spirit was not even worth mentioning.

They used to say ‘fucking’ to the fans as usual, but the fans were stimulated by that and increased.

Anyway, you couldn’t enjoy only the good things.

“Ah.”

Woojoo had a good idea.

While the staff were taking care of the luggage and the managers were surrounding them, Woojoo told the members.

“I came up with a good solution.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s buy our own plane when we succeed.”

“…”

Woojoo couldn’t see their expressions because they were wearing masks, but their eyes were dull.

They looked at each other and widened their eyes.

“Honestly, it’s tempting.”

“If you shorten it, it’s sol-sol.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll search for the plane prices.”

Jiho scolded Bijoo, who was holding his phone.

“Hyung, what are you going to do if you search for a plane on a price comparison site?”

“Oh… That’s why only toys came out.”

“Leave it to me.”

The youngest, who was frustrated by the slow search of the Hyungs, moved his fingers quickly.

“I found a cheap model. It’s owned by a famous Chinese star, and it’s 30 billion won, which is pretty cheap.”

“…”

“This is a Gulfstream that Hollywood stars ride. It’s about 80 billion won. If you take out the options and get a discount, it’s about 75 billion won…?”

“…”

Woojoo asked seriously, “Can we do a joint purchase? With Street Boys or other idols, one Nth of it.”

“Aha.” Rihyuk asked me kindly, “Are you all going to give up your entire fortune?”

“…”

“Be realistic. What Jiho just said is the price of the aircraft without operating costs. If you think about maintenance and fuel costs, it will cost several hundred million won a year.”

“It’s not several hundred million won.”

“Really?”

The commoners were happy, thinking it was cheap.

The youngest smiled brightly.

“It’s about 5 billion won.”

“…”

They gave up on the private jet right away.

So they decided to try renting a plane, a charter plane, when they succeeded later.

TJ Entertainment also rode a charter plane when they had their concert.

But the charter plane was also unrealistic as they talked about it, and they all had gloomy faces.

“You never know,” Junghyun said. “We might hit it big later and fly around in a private jet.”

“That’s right. One Billboard No. 1 would do it.”

“I’m going for an Academy Award.”

They were so excited.

It was hard to imagine themselves sitting on a private jet, sipping chocolate milk, because it seemed so far-fetched.

Only Junghyun had a serious expression, saying “I’m not joking.”

Woojoo said with a smile, “Okay, let’s buy a private jet when we hit it big. Assuming we keep doing well at this rate…”

Woojoo asked Rihyuk to do the math.

His eyes lifted up as he muttered like a magic spell, then he held up five fingers.

“Five years?”

“Fifty years.”

They all burst into laughter.

“We can take it when we go to our 70th birthday party.”

“Wow. We can do a world tour for our 50th debut anniversary. Let’s take our grandsons and granddaughters too.”

“Subtitle: Searching for Youth.”

“Hahaha!”

They imagined themselves on stage, wrinkled and old, and their Soufflés waving their light sticks slowly with patches on their wrists.

The concert hall where they looked at each other with affection, saying “Oppa, you’re still alive…!” and “You’ve aged a lot too…!”

Suddenly, Woojoo remembered the old fan meeting joke, when they said they would go to the Daejeon Expo where all the Soufflés from around the world would gather. Maybe they could rent a whole plane if they became world-famous.

They laughed as they imagined the global scale.

Maybe because of that conversation, Woojoo felt less anxious about the fans.

“Guys, let’s go.”

They followed the staff who had packed their bags.

Seokhwan Hyung, who had finished talking to the local coordinator, said, “There are quite a lot of Japanese fans waiting for you, so be careful.”

“Really?”

“More than you think.”

They looked at each other and smiled.

It seemed like there were fans waiting for them here, just like when they went to Taiwan or Shanghai.

Woojoo took off his mask, and Rihyuk asked me with a surprised face.

“Why did you suddenly take off your mask?”

“The Japanese Soufflés have never seen our faces before. We have to show them our bare faces.”

“…”

The kids looked at Woojoo with a strange expression.

Was his answer that impressive? Woojoo chuckled to himself, and Rihyuk said with a pitying look, “Hey.”

“What, I was cool, right?”

“Wipe off the saliva mark on your mouth first. It shows.”

“Oops…”

While Woojoo used his phone as a mirror to make his face look human, the kids walked with excited faces.

Especially Rihyuk, he seemed to be floating on air.

He was mumbling with a slightly flushed white face, as if he was preparing a Japanese greeting.

“Are you going to greet them in Japanese?”

“Yes.”

Rihyuk smiled.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this day. Finally, I can use it in real life.”

“…They won’t hear you, though.”

Usually, when they visited overseas, they felt this way, but their voices were almost drowned out by the screams of the Soufflés.

Sure enough.

“Kyaaaah!”

They were startled by the sound of the fans who were waiting for them.

As they waved their hands and greeted the Japanese Soufflés, Rihyuk took a deep breath.

Then he greeted them…

“Mina-san…!”

“Waaaaah!”

“Mina…”

“Aaaaaah!”

They laughed as they watched Rihyuk desperately trying to use his Japanese.

The same day.

A Japanese entertainment news program.

[Here is today’s show business news.]

A humorous narration came on.

[A K-pop concert at Saitama Super Arena. Here is the scene of the popular Korean idols arriving in Japan this morning.]

The background screen that said ‘K-Pop Concert’ disappeared, and a brief scene of the idols arriving in Japan was shown.

A circle in the bottom right corner showed the faces of the Japanese panelists.

The faces of the idols waving at the airport flash on the screen.

[New Black, the shining number one on the Korean music chart, has arrived. A boy group of five with prince-like beauty that makes girls go crazy!]

The scene of the fans flocking to greet New Black makes the panelists widen their eyes.

They seemed to wonder who they were to receive such a frenzy.

The bald male panelist smiled broadly at the picture-like beauty of Seon Woojoo, who was waving his hand.

And then.

[Mina-san! Konnichiwa!]

The Japanese words were marked in bold white captions.

The member with a snow-white face tried hard to say “Konnichiwa!” but his voice was drowned out by the fans’ cheers.

He raised his tone, but he was still buried.

The sight of Seo Rihyuk, who was sadly saying “Konnichiwa!”

The female panelist murmured “Kawaii…” with her eyes wide open, and the news about the K-pop concert began in earnest.

Their debut in Japan was successful.

They had so many fans without doing anything…

It wasn’t a huge crowd, but considering the nature of the Japanese entertainment industry, where they had to start from scratch and grow with separate promotions, this amount of fans was very encouraging.

The news of their arrival was delivered to the PR Team by their managers, and they were so excited that they sent out press releases to the reporters like crazy.

Even after they got into the car driven by the local coordinator, Woojoo could see the fans waving placards with ‘Woo Jenmin’ or ‘James’ outside the window.

…How come they were all the same, even though they had different nationalities?

They didn’t have to be the same.

Seokhwan Hyung explained to them while they were leaving Haneda Airport.

“You know your reality show, right? ‘It’s The New Black.’ The one that aired on HBS MTV. It was broadcasted on MTV Japan.”

“Ah…”

Woojoo should bow to the reality show PD later.

They also got a lot of reactions in Taiwan thanks to their reality show, and Japan seemed to be similar.

Woojoo tilted his head.

“But is that enough to have fans?”

“Well, it seems like there are quite a few ways to get to know you guys. First of all, if you watch Korean variety shows, you can’t miss you guys.”

“We did appear a lot…”

The idol fans jokingly called them ‘Double Black’.

They said you couldn’t avoid New Black if you turned on the TV, look at the music charts, or browsed SNS or YouTube.

One idol fan went to a temple stay and found a ginseng with a New Black photo on it, and that was where the joke started.

“They’re everywhere…”

“That’s awesome…”

“Right? Hyung. We must have rolled a lot.”

Woojoo smiled contentedly and said, “We’ll roll more.”

They were getting good results for their hard work. They had cut down on sleep and activities for their comeback.

Seokhwan Hyung shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason why fans were created. The company did a survey on your overseas fans, asking them why they became fans and stuff like that.”

“Oh, what was the reason?”

“Because you’re handsome.”

“…”

“Because you’re handsome.”

“…”

Woojoo laughed and asked, “What about being good on stage, or being funny?”

“…Oh, that was also a reason. Being good on stage was second. Being funny was third.”

“Oh, really. As expected.”

“About 13 percent.”

“…”

“First place was 80 percent. If you include the fun of looking at your faces, it’s about 84 percent.”

Woojoo wondered for a moment whether he should be happy or not, and then he decided to cheer and have fun.

He looked around the window and tried to find the differences from Korea.

He was amazed to see that the driver’s seat was on the right.

He did various things to pass the time, but there was one thing that took up most of the time.

“Jiho, Jiho. Do that. Do that.”

“Wait a minute.”

He made a holy expression and said, “Mina-san~ Seo Rihyuk-desu~” and they clapped and giggled.

Rihyuk patted Jiho’s back.

“Are you trying to kill me? When did I ever do that?”

“Hey, what’s wrong with that? It’s exactly the same.”

“I didn’t do that, okay?”

“Really?”

Woojoo imitated Rihyuk’s expression perfectly and raised one hand to shout.

“Mina-san…!”

His greeting was drowned out by the fans’ screams as he made a faint and sad face.

“Konnichiwa…!”

“Hahaha!”

“Wow, amazing. They say the original is the best, and it’s true. How can you express Rihyuk’s insignificance with just one expression, Hyung?”

Everyone was clapping like seals, except for someone who was sighing with a red face and telling them to get out.

They felt happy as they sacrificed Rihyuk’s pride.

Then they heard about the schedule.

“After checking in at the hotel, we’ll go to the venue where there’s a separate booth. We’ll also have some events there.”

Seokhwan Hyung smiled at Rihyuk as he looked at the dense schedule written on the A4 paper.

“There are also some talk segments, so I’ll ask you to speak Japanese well, Rihyuk.”

“Why are you doing this to me, Manager?”

“Because it’s fun,” Seokhwan Hyung said with a benevolent smile.

“Rihyuk is the special MC for the K-pop concert tomorrow, right?”

“Yes…”

“I’ll ask you to do well on that too. Just like before.”

“…”

They laughed and snickered.

“After the concert, we’ll have a separate promotion in Tokyo. We’ll probably have some free time on the last day.”

“Wait a minute, Manager.”

The stylist manager interrupted.

“Woojoo, no floral clothes during your free time!”

“Absolutely not! They look like yakuza clothes.”

“Don’t even buy them! No floral pajamas either.”

The stylists shouted in unison, ‘No floral clothes for casual wear!’, and the younger ones also shouted, ‘No!’

Tears blurred Woojoo’s vision.

He brought three sets…

As they listened to the explanation about the photoshoot and magazine interview schedule, Seokhwan Hyung asked Woojoo something as if he remembered something.

He looked a bit uneasy.

“By the way, Woojoo.”

“Yes?”

“There’s a personal schedule that came in for you… I think I need to ask you about your intention for this.”

“A personal schedule?”

“Yeah. It’s a casting request from a Japanese terrestrial TV show.”

“Me?”

That was nonsense.

It was such a ridiculous story.

Woojoo got a casting request from a terrestrial TV program in a country where he set foot for the first time today?

He looked puzzled and the manager explained.