In front of New York Times Square.
It was almost midnight, but the front of Times Square was still crowded. They said it was much less crowded compared to during daytime, so it was hard to imagine how packed it would be with New Yorkers and tourists during peak times.
The crowd was one thing, but, standing in front of Times Square, what caught their eye was definitely the brilliant lights coming off the digital billboards.
They felt like they were mesmerized the moment they arrived at the center of Time Square.
“Oh. It’s really extravagant.”
“It’s so huge…”
“We finally made it to Times Square!”
Standing where they could see the largest billboard, the KK members looked up at it in admiration.
“It’s making me cry. Sniffle!”
Ahn Hyung Seo said dramatically, pretending to wipe a tear with his sleeves. The other members were busy looking around and paid him no attention.
The members had toured all over the world, but they’d only been to a handful of famous tourist locations. They were on a tour, so for the most part, all they got to do at the different countries was eat at places close to the venues.
They got to go sightseeing only if the schedule could accommodate it or if they were filming nearby, and even then only briefly.
In the case of America, they had come before when doing the collab album with LIL, when they came to receive the Billboard Award, and to appear on a TV show, but they had never been to Times Square.
Of course, they didn’t come just to sightsee today either.
“Wow. What is…”
Kim Won raised his hand and pointed to the biggest one among the giant billboards. The members turned their gaze to it.
“Ooohhh…”
“It’s kinda fascinating.”
They were showing ads for Korean companies.
Around them, tourists from all over the world were looking at the ad as they passed by. Seeing the logo of a familiar Korean company in an unfamiliar land, the KK members felt a sense of pride.
“I feel like if someone didn’t have patriotism before, they will after seeing this.”
Everyone laughed at Suk Ji Hoon’s words and agreed.
At the same time, the members felt they could understand a little bit how the Korean public, even those who were not KK fans, were proud that KK was gaining a lot of popularity and receiving a lot of love abroad.
Do Wook took out his cellphone and checked the time. Manager Oh Baek Ho was looking at his wrist watch.
“15 seconds left!”
Do Wook shouted in a slightly tense tone and the members fixed their eyes on the screen.
“10!”
Do Wook looked at his cellphone and started the countdown. The members all took a dry swallow as they looked at the screen.
“Now…!”
Do Wook said as he also looked up at the billboard.
Exactly at midnight, a large white KK logo appeared on the black screen of the billboard.
‘FINALLY, KK IN THE U.S.A.’
With a typewriter-like sound effect, the sentence started to form one letter at a time. Afterwards, a montage of KK’s ‘Continue’ and ‘Connection’ music videos started to play.
The members looked around at their surroundings.
People passed by without recognizing the young Asian men dressed casually in hoodies and jeans, but there were quite a few people who were interested in KK, who was in the video that appeared on the billboard.
There were also a few young women who stopped and watched the billboard video like the KK members were doing.
It was the members’ first time seeing the ad too. The ad was released for the first time at midnight on the large billboard in Times Square, the MyTube page, and the V TV channel.
They could have easily checked it from their hotel, but the members came out to Times Square to share this special moment.
After the music video montage ended, moments from the guerilla concerts in Korea, provided by meAPP, quickly went across the screen in a panoramic format. It was made in a way that would make anybody watching the ad reminisce of KK’s guerilla concert.
Afterwards, a snapshot of the program, which V TV shot in a studio ahead of time, came up along with each member and their name.
After introducing the six members, the large logo saying reality program [COME HERE]*, produced by V TV, came on the screen.
(TL Note: Clarification just in case, the reality program is called COME HERE)
‘They are coming to see you soon.’
It was the last phase*.
(TL Note: The word used was phase, but maybe it was meant to say ‘phrase’)
They’ll come see you soon. It was just as the ad said. KK’s America guerilla concert. The concert at their first stop, New York, was none other than tomorrow.
Among the numerous other cities, it was almost a given that New York would be the first stop.
It’s the center of American culture* so it has symbolic meaning. Furthermore, it’s a city where many Koreans live so there was less burden psychologically for KK.
(TL Note: As a southern California resident, I disagree XD What about Los Angeles?)
After the ad showed up the first time, it was mixed in with the other ads and, when its turn came, the ad for KK’s program appeared.
“Now! It’s going to come up again!”
The members gathered in front of the billboard with excited expressions and got in formation like when they were taking a group photo for an album jacket.
“Baek Ho! We’re all in it, right?!”
“You have to take the picture properly!”
“Punk, you can just take it however. Stop nagging and stand properly. We’ll miss the ad!”
He may have spoken like that, but Manager Oh Baek Ho stepped back far enough so that he could get as much of the billboard as possible too. Then he sat on the ground and passionately took photos with the cellphone.
Each of the members either made a V or a heart with their fingers and smiled broadly.
Inside of the car on their way back to their lodging.
Ahn Hyung Seo was muttering, his cell phone in his hand so he could post the picture they just took.
“We came to New York…have you all seen it…the good news? The advertisement in Times Square…we came to see it with our own eyes…Please look forward to it…”
Ahn Hyung Seo, who said it out loud as he was writing it, briefly adjusted his posture and asked,
“I probably shouldn’t say we’ll see them tomorrow, right?”
“Man, is that even a question?”
“Very soon…We’ll see you very soon…Can I write that at least?”
Jung Yoon Ki, who had been firmly scolding Ahn Hyung Seo, was uncertain about that.
They had agreed to not give any clues at all about the guerilla concerts, but even Jung Yoon Ki wondered, ‘That much is ok, isn’t it?’
Do Wook, who was watching the two of them struggle, said,
“That’s probably fine, isn’t it?”
“Oh, ok!”
With those few words from Do Wook, Ahn Hyung Seo stopped worrying and posted it as is.
“I posted it!”
As soon as Ahn Hyung Seo finished talking, comments started getting posted on Facenote at a scary speed.
There were a lot from Korean fans, but there were particularly many comments from people living in America.
The fans had already learned about the new reality program through the various advertisements like in Times Square, on KK’s official account, and on V TV’s official account.
Furthermore, along with the advertisements, V TV had officially posted an announcement with details about the concert. It wasn’t just a reality program being broadcast but it also involved guerilla concerts in America too, so it went without saying that American fans in particular were pretty much in a frenzy.
Three consecutive concerts in one city.
The overseas fans were desperate enough to send tens of thousands of messages attached with hashtags, so to them it was a dream come true.
However, even though they heard the news, there was nothing they could do right away.
They didn’t know when and where the concert would be. All they could do was wait for fortune to smile on them.
One thing that at least gave them hope was that it was limited to ‘somewhere in New York’.
They were really nervous because they had no way of getting more information, but there were hundreds of comments from fans in English that the thought and hope that they may be able to see a KK performance soon was enough to make them overjoyed.
“I guess they’ve been waiting for us for a really long time…”
Ahn Hyung Seo said as he looked at the comments. The other members were already looking over what Ahn Hyung Seo had posted.
After winning the Billboard Rookie of the Year Award, they did do a very brief tour, but to American fans it was nowhere near enough.
The activities at that time was before ‘Connection’ was released. The current vibe was different.
They were on a much higher level compared to during ‘Continue’.
‘Connection’ perfectly inherited the pleasant vibe of ‘Continue’.
The fact that it had been on the Billboard Chart from when it was released until now, so for more than 13 weeks, was proof enough. It wasn’t merely on the chart, it was maintaining its position around 30th place.
You could listen to KK’s ‘Connection’ at any tv or radio station all over the world that plays pop songs, and in the streets too. KK’s song was already incorporated into the global pop market.
It wasn’t just KK’s songs but also KK as a boyband that people overseas were enjoying, so there was an increase in the number of people who love the group KK itself.
As the song ‘Connection’ started getting more love, the number of fans increased, and as the number of fans increased, things like album sales and streaming views increased…and the virtuous cycle continued.
Since there was a significant number of new as well as established fans, there were obviously a lot of people who wanted to watch them perform.
Furthermore, when overseas fans were watching the guerilla concerts happening in Korea, they wanted to feel the joy that Korean fans felt for themselves.
Of course, there were only a few opportunities so they couldn’t help but feel desperate.
“It’d be nice if we can accommodate a lot of people tomorrow.”
“Yeah. And we’re doing it three times, so…they should be able to make it to at least one of them.”
“You think so?”
Manager Oh Baek Ho chimed into Do Wook and Ahn Hyung Seo’s conversation.
“When you get to the hotel, don’t do stupid things and just go to sleep. You all know you have three performances tomorrow alone, right?”
“Of course!”
“Yes, sir!”
The members responded enthusiastically.
If it was for someone who wanted to see them, even if it was for only one person, the members really wanted to give a really good performance.
***
The next day, Saturday afternoon 2:30 pm.
After finishing getting ready at the hotel, KK got in the van and was on their way to the venue.
They weren’t able to rehearse at all due to the nature of the performance, but the members were already ready for any unexpected situation from the numerous guerilla performances they’d done.
The first concert was at 3 pm.
There were only 30 minutes left now.
The original plan from V TV was to move venues every 4 hours, but, after taking into account various situations, they shortened the time even more.
Saturday, a weekend, 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm. They decided to do the performances every 3 hours.
With the first performance coming up, at 2 pm the venue announcement was made on the KK FaceNote account as well as the Times Square billboard.
[COME HERE – Lincoln Center – 3 PM EST]
As soon as the concert venue was released, KK fans went wild.
The online chaos was worse than yesterday. News that teenage girls were already swarming to Lincoln Center were popping up everywhere too.
There were also people who were confused by the sudden crowd and posted personal videos asking questions.
“This is…”
Do Wook muttered as he looked at the pandemonium from the fans. They were concerned about the number of attendees, but it looked like they at least wouldn’t have to worry about the online reactions.
They were all unable to hide their excitement and hoped that the car would arrive at Lincoln Center quickly.
Since it was a reality program that included the concerts, there was a cameraman in the van that the KK members were in.
Several cameras were installed in the car too.
The cameraman, who looked very gloomy after having received some kind of message, called Do Wook over.
For this program, they were not using an interpreter and were going to have Do Wook and Kim Won do all the translating.
When Do Wook turned around, the cameraman, who had briefly put down his camera, delivered the urgent message from the PD in charge.
The PD in charge had gotten a DM on his personal FaceNote.
‘I KILL YOU ALL.’
That was the first sentence of the message.
—
Next chapter: A decision needs to be made on how to deal with this urgent situation.