It was an understandably concerning situation from Korean fans’ perspectives.
It seemed like activities in Korea were put on the back burner and they were focused on activities abroad. In fact, KK’s next events were an appearance on an American TV program and an overseas concert tour.
They had done overseas concert tours every year, but there was definitely something different.
The overseas tours in the past were concentrated in Asian countries. Now, however, on top of India and Middle Eastern countries, Los Angeles and 5 cities in New York as well as South American countries such as Brazil, Chile, and Mexico were added to the overseas tour schedule too.
Since their appearance on < Michelle's Night >, small-scale performances in Sydney, Paris, and London were added, so they truly had to ‘travel the world’.
It was an enormous tour schedule.
The concern wasn’t simply about the tour schedule getting extended. It was definitely unfortunate for Korean fans that they wouldn’t be able to see them in Korea often, but KK becoming global stars was something to be proud of.
However, there were a lot of concerns among fans regarding their next album.
One Man, who was first to make it onto the Billboard chart, also adjusted the direction of all activities towards America and the overseas markets after making it onto the Billboard chart.
As a result, over two-thirds of the lyrics in the title song for his next album were in English. One Man didn’t completely lose his music color, but it became closer to pop songs and you could feel how much they were catering to the overseas market in the song.
There definitely must have been as much pressure as there were expectations. There were obvious signs of it.
One Man’s accomplishment was extraordinary, but in the end, songs are judged individually. The Korean public was cold towards One Man’s new song. It topped the music chart only for a few days and that was because people who had been looking forward to it were checking it out.
Compared to the immense popularity his previous song had, it performed very poorly.
Just as in Korea, the song didn’t perform too well overseas either compared to his previous song.
That was One Man and the people who planned One Man’s album’s mistake. He had suddenly gained popularity overseas, so they tried to keep the popularity going by putting in effort to cater to those overseas, but it only disappointed both the demand in Korea as well as overseas, who had been drawn in by the novelty of ‘Korean’ craft.
Since there was this precedent, the fans couldn’t help but be concerned that KK would feel the pressure to meet expectations and try to cater to overseas in their next album, causing them to lose popularity.
Of course, there was an even greater number of fans who had faith that KK would get through it with no problem.
Despite that, the reason that comments kept popping up was because of a few anti-fans who were inciting fear.
There are definitely more people hoping you’ll fail the more successful you are.
KK was on the brink of going beyond Korea and becoming global stars, so there were even more of that kind of people.
Among them, there were many fans of M2M, which had debuted a few months before KK and was doing better than them but suddenly changed course.
M2M, which had risen in popularity again after recruiting Chae Eun Ho, was already following closely behind KK. Of course it wasn’t enough to surpass KK, KK was a huge mountain to climb.
Despite that, M2M fans who were empowered by the recent rise in popularity and couldn’t stand KK, who was M2M’s junior, doing better than them were doing everything they could to create discord.
After the Billboard Music Awards award ceremony was over.
The six members took a picture all together in formation with the trophy. They wanted to express their gratitude to the fans, who probably were the ones who cheered and congratulated them the most in this moment.
Ahn Hyung Seo was in charge of posting the picture.
After they received the award, when Reina’s performance, which Ahn Hyung Seo had been looking forward to so much, started, Ahn Hyung Seo’s eyes were all red from trying to hold back his tears even as he applauded.
It was only after the award ceremony was over and the final remarks were said that Ahn Hyung Seo burst into tears.
Do Wook, seeing Ahn Hyung Seo in that state, patted his shoulder. That made Ahn Hyung Seo bawl even more.
Ahn Hyung Seo and the other members only had the mental capacity to take pictures after swimming in a sea of emotion like that for a long time.
In the car on their way from the award ceremony venue back to the hotel.
Kim Won, still in disbelief and emotional, kept muttering something in English, almost like a chant, as he looked at the trophy.
It was like a prayer he was saying to the heavens.
“Won…uh…you’re scaring me…”
Park Tae Hyung, who couldn’t bear to listen to it any longer, cautiously said to Kim Won. Only then did Kim Won become quiet.
Ahn Hyung Seo had logged on to the fan cafe to post the picture, but lost himself in reading fans’ comments.
Reading the comments from fans who were happy for them as if it were their own accomplishment, Ahn Hyung Seo began to tear up again.
Ahn Hyung Seo clicked on a thread that had a lot of comments and came across a post he didn’t expect to find.
“Hmm…? There’s this kind of post…take a look at this.”
It was the comments expressing concern about KK’s future activities.
When Ahn Hyung Seo held out his cellphone, Do Wook, who was sitting next to him, carefully looked over the comments.
“Ah…”
“We definitely are staying overseas a while…even for the near future…”
Ahn Hyung Seo muttered, understanding the fans’ concerns.
“Well, maybe I should write that they don’t need to worry too much about that. We’ll soon…”
“I think their anxiety will definitely settle down if you do that.”
“Right?”
“But I don’t think that’ll be necessary…as you said, it’ll be soon anyways.”
“True…”
Ahn Hyung Seo quickly agreed with what Do Wook said. If Ahn Hyung Seo addressed it, it might only cause more rumors. Their concerns would die down when the next album was released and activities started anyways.
Do Wook thought,
‘We can endure this level of negative responses.’
Rather, Do Wook knew that the satisfaction one feels when these anxieties are resolved is greater. They would definitely get to feel the pleasure of public opinion getting reversed.
Ahn Hyung Seo nodded his head and posted the picture on the fan cafe.
In an instant, hundreds of comments started getting posted. A majority of it were congratulatory comments and gratitude towards the KK members for not forgetting to thank the fans.
***
[We’ll see KK on American TV! Cool Coke model…]
[KK unexpectedly chosen as American ‘Cool Coke’ mode!]
[First Korean group to be a local model in America. It will be broadcasted all throughout America!]
[How far does their popularity go? KK’s charm has completely captured America too!]
[The GOAT advertisement model, KK’s face on the Cool Coke package…]
[The global stars from Korea, Exploring KK’s charm]
[KK, Going beyond Korea, Cool Coke model in America too!]
After winning the Rookie of the Year Award at the Billboard Music Awards, KK’s momentum was unhindered.
KK going on radio or tv shows abroad became a regular occurrence. Among them, the biggest accomplishment was becoming the models for a local American ad.
‘Cool Coke’, the world’s No. 1 soda company, was a cola company that KK had already modeled for in Korea.
The company had sent them a contract request even before the Billboard Music Awards.
It wasn’t just a regular ad. They were becoming models for a local American advertisement. On top of that, KK’s face would be engraved on every coke package in America.
KK had risen in rank and was getting treated as full-fledged global stars.
-It’s so incredibly amazing T.T T.T T.T T.T Truly unprecedented global popularity T.T T.T Even Lee Hyung Ho, who made it to Hollywood, wasn’t at this level T.T T.T
-Other than athlete Park Jae Sung, they are the definition of national prestige
-It’s incomparable lol They are both too incredible lol
-There’s no way it won’t be a big success
-I think I’ll have to go to America immediately to get that haha ;;;
-Key Rings who live in America… please do a group purchase for us…T.T T.T T.T I want the cola
-Did you see the picture? It’s so good. I’m going to New York to buy some cola
-I’m a Key Ring who lives in Texas. Their popularity here is no joke. I went to school and there was even a fan meeting for people who like KK. T.T It was hard moving here from Korea in middle school, but KK’s been a huge strength in my daily life
-Getting surprised every day is hard work too lolol
-I work at a company in India and because I’m Korean my boss asked me if I know KK
-If they keep this up, activities in Korea really will be a thing of the past
-I’m rooting for you KK T.T It’s unfortunate, but what can you do T.T
-They’re getting exported overseas~~~!!@!!
At the same time, fans were gradually accepting to a certain degree the fact that activities in Korea were a long ways off. Since KK’s popularity had risen this much, it was a reality they couldn’t change.
However, not long after the overseas tour started, Korean fans got unbelievable news.
[KK, surprise comeback after the end of the overseas tour!]
[KK is doing a comeback! Attendance to all the award ceremonies in Korea…under discussion]
[Comeback early next year, KK reveals plans for activities in Korea…]
[“Global stars, but nothing has changed…” KK sudden interview]
[KK Park Tae Hyung, becomes judge on < Dancing Dancing >!]
.
.
.
It was comeback news they couldn’t even have imagined.
According to the article, after they’d finish their overseas tour schedule, they’d attend both the Music Awards as well as the Acting Awards in Korea and do a comeback immediately after.
It was a hard to believe schedule.
Right now, there was an overflowing number of places overseas, not just America, that were asking for KK.
Nevertheless, KK decided to do activities in Korea.
The fans had been hoping for activities in Korea, but they still couldn’t hide their bewilderment. They knew that realistically, it was a hard task.
Additionally, it was hard to believe that they also prepared an album on top of everything else.
When it was revealed, KK’s turnabout plan became a big subject.
Seeing the fervent reactions, Do Wook had a satisfied smile.
After doing American activities that started with the Billboard Music Awards for 1-2 weeks to solidify their standing abroad with the overseas tour, they would be coming back to Korea.
This event schedule was the idea Do Wook proposed during the meeting that took place on the day of the < MIichelle’s Night > filming.
Do Wook knew very clearly that activities in Korea were just as important as overseas activities. The overseas popularity they were currently enjoying was also gained through the internet and social media from their Korean activities. There was no need to make an irrational move to change direction now.
They also planned on doing the music for the next album the same way they had been doing.
World-class producers and composers had reached out to KK’s people, but after consulting with Album Production Team Leader Shim Joon, Do Wook decided to not accept their songs except for a few tracks.
The title song would be a song Do Wook had composed right before he started filming < Sweetheart from the Universe > and they would use the songs that were supposed to be in the OKAY album as the B-side track.
The mental burden was unavoidable, but they still planned to do what they did best.
Suk Ji Hoon’s departure from ‘Camping 48 Hours’, which raised concerns among fans that he might do activities in Korea, was a personal problem.
Since Suk Ji Hoon had been focusing on entertainment shows, they thought he would continue to do only entertainment shows. ‘Camping 48 Hours’ was a program they were grateful to. It got Suk Ji Hoon’s name known and increased his popularity a lot. However, right now, Suk Ji Hoon wanted to do music.
That was why he quit being a child actor and became a trainee. Just like Do Wook or Jung Yoon Ki, Suk Ji Hoon had ambitions to do composition.
Suk Ji Hoon thought that he could still do entertainment shows later, but if he didn’t do music now, he’d miss his chance to do music production.
“I guess they really weren’t expecting a comeback. They’re going totally crazy.”
“Yeah.”
Manager Oh Baek Ho said as they headed towards the airport after finishing a small performance at the Korean Cultural Center in London.
Do Wook nodded his head as he dragged his suitcase.
“You said you have somewhere you have to go to as soon as you get back to Korea?”
“Yes. But, before that, I think I’ll have to meet with Department Head Jo Anna.”
“With Department Head Jo?”
“Yes.”
Do Wook’s reply made Manager Oh Baek Ho look at him with a questioning expression.
—
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