“Kyaaaaa―!”
“Do Wook!”
“KK, I love you!”
“Please continue doing activities!!!”
“Tae Hyung, please look this way just once! Please!”
On top of the SVS ‘Life Song’ stage. All the fans were shouting towards the KK members, who were standing by in formation on stage for the pre-recording of this full-length album’s final performance.
There was a large number of KK fans today, filling all 600 seats in the public hall where the ‘Life Song’ program was filmed.
Fan Marketing Team’s Do Ra Hee had expended so much energy taking count of the 600 or so fans, who had been standing in line since dawn, and managing them all day.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee didn’t manage them directly like before. She was managing them through KK’s Fan Manager, but she was honestly anxious because there were so many people and you don’t know what kind of accidents might happen. She was doing her best so that nothing unpleasant would happen on the last day of activities.
“Please don’t make personal comments!”
The Fan Manager, who had received instructions from Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee, yelled to the fans.
If they continued to make personal comments like ‘so and so please look this way’ instead of just chants even after the performance starts, that voice would get added to KK’s song. It would be a big disturbance. KK’s performance was a prerecording, but it was still live.
The members were also on egg shells around the staff and signaled to the fans to be quiet.
Do Wook, who had been quietly standing, put his index finger to his mouth and the venue immediately got quiet.
Do Wook picked up the microphone and said in a low voice.
“Everyone, thank you so much for coming out here. I’m sure it must have been troublesome from so early in the morning…but, you’re going to enjoy our performance together with us, right?”
“Yes!”
“Yes―!”
“I love you Do Wook!!!”
The fans replied in unison. Then, there were fans screaming loudly again.
“If you scream like that, your throat will hurt. We’re going to start our performance now, what if you have a sore throat while cheering for us?”
“It’s okay*coughcough*!”
The audience burst into laughter because of Do Wook’s enthusiastic fan who answered that he’s ok in a raspy voice that sounded almost like the mythical pterodactyl. The members also laughed and shook their heads.
Their worry that even Do Wook’s efforts would be useless at this rate only lasted briefly. Do Wook soon brought his index finger to his mouth again and gave a soft smile.
When he did that, the enthusiastic fans closed their mouths, clutched their chests, and had an expression like their hearts had frozen where they stood.
Do Wook’s soft smile was about to melt the 600 fans when PD Hyun Joo Hyuk yelled,
“Ok, let’s go!”
KK’s performance started.
The first act was ‘Continue’.
Along with a grand sound, the KK members jumped up in sync.
“Kyaaaaaa―!!!”
The deafening cheering felt like a part of the ‘Continue’ sound.
The members, who had jumped high, landed at the same time and started singing. Just watching the performance made one feel short of breath, but the KK members pulled it off effortlessly and continued smoothly to singing.
From rehearsal until now, they had done this performance hundreds of times. The KK members had everything down perfectly.
Jung Yoon Ki, Kim Won, and Suk Ji Hoon dropped to the ground on their stomachs and curled their bodies. Do Wook started running from one end of the stage and jumped over them.
There was a reason that the choreography for ‘Continue’ was difficult. In one way, it was just like an action movie. Do Wook jumped over them and handed off the microphone. Ahn Hyung Seo, who received the microphone, let out a high note in a refreshing way.
“I’ll be always* in your heart―――――!”
(TL Note: It was written in English like this)
Subsequently, Do Wook, who already had his own microphone in his hand, stood in the center and the members got in formation in the shape of a triangle.
Behind them, dozens of dancers surrounded them and the chorus started to play.
When Do Wook lead the chant with “Con― Con― Continue!”, the members sang “we keep moving forward’ in unison.
It was a grand song that would be admired timelessly.
They had developed their skills through practice, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t difficult for them. When they reached the last part of the song, beads of sweat kept on dripping from the members’ foreheads. However, there was still no quiver in their voices as they performed live.
“They’re in a class of their own,”
The sound Director, who had earbuds in his ears, took one earbud out and said to his subordinate next to him. The subordinate was already watching the performance, mesmerized.
“It’s like a pop singer is visiting Korea, geez.”
“I don’t think we can broadcast it like this. The acoustics aren’t doing them justice.”
Sighs poured out from the sound team over the unfortunate situation.
Immediately after, the members came out with their ‘Continue’ outfits and only a jacket. The next performance was ‘Go low, Go high’.
“Wooooow!”
“Ah, geez! They’re really cool.”
As the fans moaned, the prelude to ‘Go low, Go high’ started to play. The members swirled around the stage in their own rhythm.
Jung Yoon Ki’s fast rap poured out like a typhoon, and Kim Won, who took over, rapped in fluent English like he was dealing a heavy blow.
In the back, the remaining four vocal members got into pairs and sang while doing the wave. The KK members, who had a strong straight-and-narrow image, looked very sexy while relaxing their expressions and losing themselves to the rhythm.
When the jacket fell off about halfway from the dancing, Suk Ji Hoon just took the jacket off completely and threw it. He then started to unbutton his shirt one button at a time. This was one of the secret cards they had prepared for the final performance.
Suk Ji Hoon tried hard to make something that was uniquely his in the group. The ‘well mannered mangnae’ image was for offstage. He needed something to appeal to the fans and audience a little more onstage.
For a KK member, singing and dancing was a given. Suk Ji Hoon, who was trying to come up with something outside of that, practiced weight training harder than anyone else.
Despite being busy, he went to the fitness room at the HIT Entertainment office building, sat on the bench press, and trained his upper body muscles.
Suk Ji Hoon didn’t do any particular exercises outside of what he usually did. He increased his muscle mass only by drinking protein shakes. As expected, when he started going to the fitness center in earnest, he easily gained muscles.
When he had unbuttoned about three buttons, his chest muscles could be clearly seen through the gap. As if they had been waiting for this, the camera got a closeup of it.
“Kyaaaaa!!!”
“Wow.”
“What the, crazy!!!”
“Ji Hoon…Our Ji Hoon…”
The fans, who were visually attacked by the hidden muscles of the mangnae Suk Ji Hoon, were besides themselves and covered their mouths. KK was thoroughly exhibiting the charms of a respectable mature man.
“You go low!”
“We go high!”
The six members did a cool spin-kick while practically screaming. When their toes, which had shot high up, came down, they took off the jacket that had been buttoned up and threw it towards the camera.
The camera screen turned black and KK’s performance ended.
All the people, who had been watching KK’s performance that had just ended, couldn’t take their eyes off KK. It was an awesome performance. It was so incredible that they even wanted to burn the image of KK going offstage into their memories.
The members, who had successfully completed the performance and came offstage, dropped to the ground as if their legs had turned into jelly as soon as they made it backstage.
When Ahn Hyung Seo dropped to the ground, Gu Chul Min got worried and approached him to check how he was doing. However, it wasn’t just Ahn Hyung Seo. Jung Yoon Ki was also holding on to the pillar behind the stage and breathing heavily.
They looked so helpless. It was hard to believe that these were the same members who had been smiling, winking at fans, shooting love bullets, and doing kicks with overflowing charisma just moments ago.
Even Do Wook, who was second to none when it came to physical strength, was breathing heavily and just standing there, frozen in place because of the numbness in his hands and feet.
One of the dance team members who was next to him massaged Do Wook’s arm.
Kim Won barely made it to the waiting room and went straight to the sofa to lay down. It was difficult to overcome the pressure that was rushing from his chest from hyperventilating.
Park Tae Hyung and Suk Ji Hoon weren’t in particularly good shape either. They both were barely able to swallow the water the coordinators brought them.
The choreography for both of the songs was intense and KK had performed them live. It wasn’t an easy feat for a person to accomplish.
Over the short span of 6 minutes, KK gave their everything. They were able to get through the performance without wavering even for a second because they overcame their physical limitations through mental strength.
The aftermath of pouring out all their energy over a short period of time was substantial.
They felt like they were going to die.
You could say that this period of time, after a performance, was the hardest. It didn’t last long, but there was a brief moment where the thought that they might die crossed their minds dozens of times.
‘Still…we did it again,’
Do Wook thought as he took deep breaths.
It was a successful performance. People were cheering, and it was a very satisfactory performance to him on a personal level too. He was able to give it his all to show what he wanted to show.
The thrilling joy the members felt on stage helped them endure the difficult time.
***
KK ended their activities for their 3rd full-length album with a small company dinner where they cleared 30 plates of pork belly.
When they got back to the dormitory, Manager Oh Baek Ho was there waiting for the members.
It was so he could tell them that they did a good job.
The reaction to today’s broadcast was simply the best. Everyone was happy, saying that another ‘legendary performance’ had been born. Suk Ji Hoon’s slight display of his upper body was also screenshot and being shared. Suk Ji Hoon laughed pleasantly.
“You all did such a good job. You worked so hard during this activity period. Especially Hyung Seo…take care of yourself from here on out.”
“Of course. My fellow members, thank you all.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden?”
The members exchanged warm sentiments with each other, then returned to their respective rooms.
They didn’t have anything scheduled for the next 2 days. The physical toll of this activity period was definitely substantial. Honestly, the members wanted to sleep for the next two days now.
And so the members returned to their respective rooms. Manager Oh Baek Ho had to speak with Do Wook about something, so they stayed behind in the living room.
“You must be tired too. The thing I need to talk to you about isn’t that serious…I spoke with Instructor Lee Kang Yeon and we decided to go with ‘Snow White Sister’ for your next project.”
“Ah…Ok”
Do Wook had already read the script for ‘Snow White Sister’ too and thought it was a good project. Still, he gently nodded his head, thinking to himself, ‘I guess it’s happening’.
To Do Wook’s knowledge, it’d be hard to call ‘Snow White Sister’ a hit drama, but it was considered a well-made drama.
“There is an additional script Instructor Lee sent over but it has aliens in it…it seems fun but it was so absurd…”
“What? Aliens?”
“Yeah. It’s not even a sci-fi drama but it’s about falling in love with an alien…It’s like E.T. You don’t need to look it over, right?”
When Do Wook asked, surprised, Manager Oh Baek Ho laughed heartily and asked, “Isn’t it a really bizarre drama?” in a tone that was different than usual. He had brought it up because he wanted to laugh about it with Do Wook.
However, what surprised Do Wook wasn’t that it was a drama with an ‘alien’, or that the alien was the main character. A romance drama that had an alien in it could only be one thing. However, he was surprised that that drama script had come to him.
“Ah no. I, I, I want to take a look.”
Do Wook’s eyes, which had been full of exhaustion, were shining again. Manager Oh Baek Ho asked again, a little taken back by the unexpected reaction,
“You want to look it over?”
“Yes, that. No. I think I don’t need to look it over. I want to do it. Alien. Yes.”
It was an opportunity he absolutely couldn’t pass by. Do Wook knew that he was going to look impatient but he replied quickly, unable to hide his excitement.
Manager Oh Baek Ho looked at Do Wook with a dazed expression.
Since it was a script sent by Instructor Lee Kang Yeon, Manager Oh Baek Ho had also looked into the industry rumors surrounding the project.
It turned out that there was a reason the ‘Boyfriend from Outer Space’ script was sent to Do Wook.
The top star that the writer had originally wanted had declined the script. It wasn’t only Manager Oh Baek Ho who was reluctant about the script because of the topic of ‘aliens’. Most management companies declined the script because they were reluctant about the topic.
It was the industry’s judgement that ‘something like that would never work’.
They lowered the age group because of that and the script ended up getting sent to Do Wook too. Therefore, Manager Oh Baek Ho was able to decline the script guilt-free. However, seeing Do Wook react so enthusiastically, he couldn’t help but be puzzled.
They had not given a response to the people at ‘Snow White Sister’ yet and it had only been a few hours since his call with Instructor Lee Kang Yeon, so it was still possible to reverse their decision.
“Uhhh…su,sure. Look over the script first. See if it is the alien you’re thinking of…”
***
As expected, it was ‘that alien’ that Do Wook was thinking of.
‘It got a rating of 40% or so…It was a big enough drama to be called a craze. To think that such an opportunity came to me.’
Do Wook clenched his hands tight. If he didn’t know the future, he might have also frowned upon seeing the topic. However, the moment he saw the synopsis and script, he was certain again.
‘It’s fun.’
If you stepped out of your prejudice and read the script properly, you could feel that it was easily entertaining enough.
If one were to fail with this script, the only way to achieve that would be to have the protagonist really dress up like E.T. However, there was no way they’d dress him up like that, and he might be called an alien but it was the role of a ‘handsome man with abilities’.
Lee Kang Yeon was once again in awe of Do Wook for recognizing that aspect.
Instructor Lee Kang Yeon was well aware of that fact too, but she was not confident that she could persuade HIT Entertainment on a drama that the industry determined wouldn’t work. Possibility is always accompanied by uncertainty, so there was nothing Instructor Lee Kang Yeon could do.
However, Do Wook was different. Do Wook was certain.
Do Wook persuaded Manager Oh Back Ho and the company. It was agreed that Do Wook would have the final say anyways.
And so Do Wook accepted the role of the male lead in ‘Boyfriend from Outer Space’.
The only thing left was to have a meeting with the writer of ‘Boyfriend from Outer Space’ and finalize things.
Do Wook decided to go to the writer’s studio personally. He went to the studio with Manager Oh Baek Ho and rang the doorbell. Do Wook then was startled by something falling from the sky and stopped in his tracks.
“That’s…”
Something heavy was falling.
—
Next chapter: We meet the writer for ‘Boyfriend from Outer Space’