With a trembling heart, KK was in the waiting room behind the Republic of Korea University’s auditorium getting ready to perform.
“Oh! We’re still first place on the chart!”
“Didn’t I tell you this would happen when it went through the roof at dawn!”
“Haaaa…I think I can breathe a little now. It’s probably ok to relax a bit since we’ve been 1st place on the chart real-time for 12 hours.”
Ahn Hyung Seo, Jung Yoon Ki, and Suk Ji Hoon gathered together on waiting room chairs and checked the music chart. Suk Ji Hoon’s words made Ahn Hyung Seo and Jung Yoon Ki briefly have a blank expression.
Honestly, now that KK’s name value was so huge, in some ways it was a given that they’ll rank first on the real-time chart within a few hours of release.
The problem was ‘can we maintain that ranking?’. Even if people saw the KK name and gave the song a listen, if the song wasn’t good they’d quickly press the pause button and their ranking could drop quickly.
With the recent influx of winter ballads, the music chart ranking was changing day by day.
“Didn’t they say Yeji’s special album will be out tomorrow?”
Ahn Hyung Seo muttered as if talking to himself. Yeji Eun was a musical powerhouse who had a strong hold on not only the younger generation but also middle-aged people with her pure voice. She definitely was a singer whom people thought was a shoo-in to take first place in the music chart.
“Our songs placed consecutively so we’ll at least save face. Man.”
KK’s album was ranked 1st to 6th on the music chart. The title song ‘Connection’ was first place, and below that were the B-side songs. That alone already meant they were half successful.
The thought of losing their music chart first place in less than a day left a bitter taste in their mouths. Jung Yoon Ki tried to calm himself down.
He was worried about how many people would come to the guerilla performance that would take place in a little bit and worried about the music chart ranking.
Confidence was there one minute and gone the next. In a word, it was going back and forth.*
(TL Note: I found it funny that it said “in a word” but “back and forth” is more than one word haha. It was like that in Korean too.)
Even though they were on top, getting evaluated was bound to be scary. It was even scarier because they were on top.
“Don’t worry about it too much.”
“Do Wook…”
Do Wook, who had returned after finishing getting ready, said to the three of them. Suk Ji Hoon looked at Do Wook with an expression like he was trying to grab at straws that were floating down a river.
“It’s going well, why are you so worried?”
“This is all…huuuu…”
Ahn Hyung Seo tried to explain, but let out a sigh.
As Do Wook had said, things were going well. The reaction to the new song they had released, ‘Connection’, was fervid.
Not only the music chart ranking, but the views for their music video on MyTube was rising quicker than ever before.
It was even ranking incredibly well on foreign music charts. They made it onto the Billboard chart in an instant.
They were making tremendous achievements in the span of just one day. They weren’t at a level where they had to worry about Yeji Eun’s album that was releasing tomorrow.
Of course, even without Ahn Hyung Seo explaining, Do Wook was well aware of the anxiety.
They were only human, they couldn’t help but feel anxious. Furthermore, the comeback performance was a completely different type of performance. It was impossible to predict whether the performance would be a success or a failure.
No one had attempted this before, so there was no precedent either…KK was now making a path that was unique to them.
One by one the members were drawn into Do Wook’s sincere black eyes.
Do Wook wanted to ease the members’ tension too. He wanted to take on some of their anxiety. However, each of them had their share that they had to endure. Until they stepped onto the stage, there was nothing they could do.
Once the performance started, their bodies would react automatically. The distracting thoughts that roamed in their minds would disappear, and only the voice of the song calling to them would fill their head.
“…I’m just nervous, that’s all,”
Ahn Hyung Seo said, taking a deep breath.
“I…”
Park Tae Hyung, who appeared afterwards, suddenly spoke up.
“In my opinion….as much as ‘Continue’, no…I think it’ll do better than ‘Continue’.”
It was rare for Park Tae Hyung to talk so firmly about something. Park Tae Hyung seemed to be fairly certain about it.
The new song ‘Connection’ was exactly KK’s music color: sophistication itself.
If ‘Continue’, which caused a craze overseas last time and led to them winning the Billboard Rookie of the Year Award, was a powerful song, ‘Connection’ was a joyful but soft song.
Even the group dance that came to mind when you thought of KK didn’t have disciplined movements, but was made up of wave-like movements.
You wouldn’t know the full choreography just by watching the music video, but KK’s new choreography style made fans eager to watch their performance.
Park Tae Hyung was certain that once they watched the performance, people would fall more in love with the song ‘Connection’ than when they simply listened to the song.
Park Tae Hyung, who understands songs through his body, had already done so.
Of course, if they wanted a lot of people to watch the performance without doing a broadcast, today’s performance had to be successful both online and offline.
At Park Tae Hyung’s words, Jung Yoon Ki also relaxed his tense expression and said as he laughed,
“Man, Tae Hyung is saying so, so it must be true.”
The rest of the members nodded their heads as they laughed.
At that moment, the waiting room door opened and a staff member popped their head in.
“Please be on standby! 10 minutes until showtime!”
“Umm!…”
Not hearing Kim Won, who was going to ask how many people had come, calling out to him, the staff member disappeared after yelling into the waiting room. On the other side of the waiting room door, the staff were busy doing preparations.
He probably wouldn’t have answered anyway even if he had asked. Even Manager Oh Baek Ho left the waiting room and went to manage the situation around the stage to avoid the members’ questions.
The KK members causally huddled in a circle.
“Huuu…Man, no matter how many people are out there…let’s give it our all and give the best possible performance,”
Jung Yoon Ki said in a trembling voice, then looked at Do Wook.
“I K!”
Jung Yoon Ki continued Do Wook’s cheer and yelled,
“You K!”
“Let’s go!!!”
The KK members’ boomed throughout the waiting room.
***
At the same time.
At the Friends Headquarters building, executives involved in the project, including the President of Friends and the meApp Business Director, had gathered and were getting briefed on the meApp live broadcast in the largest conference room.
“This is really extraordinary!”
The Friends meApp Business Director clapped as he looked at the screen.
On the screen, the number of people accessing and subscribing to meApp in real time was rapidly increasing. One blink and the number went up.
There were a whopping 350,000 people accessing meApp to watch the live broadcast. There were already articles about the number of people logged in.
The number of meApp subscribers was at an all-time high, and Friends’ target number of meApp subscribers was already achievable within one day. It had become the largest streaming site domestically.
The performance hadn’t even started yet, and considering that there were nine more performances left, it was a tremendous target achievement rate.
Mobilizing this many people was possible because there were KK fans not only in Korea but also overseas.
Fans from all over the world flocked to the site, creating a tremendous effect. In China, internet was still heavily regulated, but the government eased regulations for the Korean site allowing Chinese fans to participate.
The number of Chinese KK fans was one that was hard to imagine in Korea.
The Friends’ site trending searches were plastered with keywords related to KK such as meApp, KK, Republic of Korea University, guerrilla, KK comeback, connection.
It was quite an interesting event, not only for KK fans but also for the general public.
“Director Park, this is seriously a huge hit!”
The meApp Business Team Manager, who had been watching the screen with him, said.
To Friends, which aimed to expand its business beyond the Internet portal site into broadcasting, meApp was a project they had heavily committed to.
“This is on the level of a mega hit!”
Director Park said excitedly, looking like he was about to break into song.
“Wow, Assistant Manager Shin, you would go on and on and on about KK, and now…the results are something else. We probably would have had to promote it for a full year otherwise. The overseas situation is even more astounding!”
Using their entire capital, which had been intended to hire several stars as models, to produce performances just for KK was followed by a lot of concerns. However, through various evaluation tables and comparing profit models, Director Park had made the current choice, and he was grinning ear to ear over the fact that it was the absolutely right choice.
“I wonder if Assistant Manager Shin is crying at the venue right now.”
“What’s the venue like?”
When deciding on advertisement models, Assistant Manager Shin had insisted multiple times that, even though it’d cost more money, they should put KK as the main model, who is guaranteed to have a bigger promotional effect. At the same time, he was sent as the representative of meApp to oversee things on set.
The manager answered Director Park’s question.
“He said it’s incredible. Right now, fans who weren’t able to get into the venue are lined up outside of the Republic of Korea University.
“What? Not everyone was able to get in?”
“Yes.”
The capacity of the Republic of Korea University’s auditorium was 5000.
Director Park’s bright expression gradually disappeared.
“My, my…”
“What? Is there some kind of problem…”
“It’s not just a hit, it looks like this will really be huuuge.”
“Ah…”
The manager nodded his head. Everything was beyond their expectations.
It wasn’t just KK, Friends officials, the general public, or fans who were paying attention to the results of today’s performance.
Broadcast officials and officials of large agencies were also grinding their teeth or being on edge as they waited for the results.
KK’s performance in partnership with Friends. If they were able to make a sensation by just live broadcasting online instead of through a broadcast station, it would cause a crack in the power that they had solidified until now.
Broadcast stations would no longer be the only way for stars to reach the public.
It would create an additional window for so many singers.
Also, for KK, there already were no limits.
At that moment, the number of people logged in was over 400,000. There was one minute left until the concert.
***
The screen the meApp subscribers were looking at showed an empty stage.
In the upper right corner of the screen, there was a countdown. Despite there being only a minute left until the concert, everything was muted so it was hard to read the situation at the venue just by looking at the screen.
However, a packed audience that filled all 5000 seats.
And despite that, thousands of fans who couldn’t get in surrounding the Republic of Korea University auditorium to at least hear the sound coming out of the building.
Fans all over the country, no, 400,000 fans globally who couldn’t go to the venue but wanted to be a part of the performance in any way.
Everyone confirmed it with their own eyes, and articles were pouring out about the passionate fans. The only ones unaware about the situation was KK, who had earplugs in.
In order to capture the dramatic moment when KK got surprised, people from meApp and the people in charge of the concert asked KK to have earplugs in until the moment they’d get on stage.
They couldn’t hear anything at all.
The members saw the signal from the staff and, one step at a time, started to walk up to the stage.
The first person to move was Do Wook.
They were blinded by the strong stage lighting. The things they couldn’t see from backstage, which was nothing but darkness, started to be visible one by one.
The moment they were able to see Do Wook’s silhouette, the audience at the concert venue cheered in unison.
The cheering felt like it would pierce through the auditorium roof.
Do Wook slowly took the ear plugs out.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa―!!!!!!”
Do Wook’s ecstatic expression with his mouth open as he looked out at the audience was shown full screen on meApp. At the same time, numerous comments were quickly getting posted in the comment section. It was to the point that the server, which Friends had already expanded to some extent in preparation for the number of people, became unstable.
Do Wook reined in his emotions and stood at his designated area.
Following this, the other members came up and, like Do Wook, witnessed the sight in front of them.
Once all six members were on stage, the prelude to ‘Connection’ started to play.
—
Next chapter: KK’s first guerilla performance is a success but what is this new thing that the members agree to do??