What V TV proposed were guerilla concerts in America.
The overall structure was the same as the guerilla concerts in Korea, but the detailed format was a little different.
The concerts would be once a week in one city.
It would be in one city but at multiple locations. They would move to a new location every 4 hours and do a total of 3 concerts. As a tradeoff, the set list would be short with only 2 songs.
The plan was to travel all throughout America in one month, not discriminating between the West and East Coast.
Instead of broadcasting live, V TV wanted to produce a documentary-like program of them performing throughout the month and air it world-wide.
Moving to a different location every 4 hours, the announcement posted on social media only an hour in advance. It could be a guerilla concert in the truest sense.
Furthermore, this was in America, not Korea where they were enjoying peak popularity already.
The guarantee of success of each performance was definitely lower.
Their decision to do a documentary-like program instead of a live broadcast probably took this into account too.
‘It probably means that they want to capture everything, both success and disappointment…’
HIT Entertainment debated internally for many days whether to accept this program or not.
The risk was too high.
A total of 12 concerts. If about 8 of them succeeded and only about 4 of them had disappointing results in mobilizing audiences, overall, it would fit the purpose of the program.
KK, who was not a top world-class singer yet, had a lot to gain from it. The 8 successes would stand out more.
‘However, in case the percentage doesn’t even match half of it…’
In Korea, they were already a top star that was able to mobilize more than 70 thousand people despite the sudden concert announcement one week before.
Even abroad, they were the most popular among Korean singers.
‘Connection’ also safely made it onto the Billboard chart and was performing as well as ‘Continue’ did.
The opinions were divided on whether there was a need for KK to go on a program like that when it was such a gamble.
If they needlessly try something new in America and get unimpressive results, their status in Korea could also become lower.
There was already a precedent of Korea’s top stars losing their popularity in Korea after failing in America.
In any case, as a company that respected the opinions of the members, the final decision would be made by the members.
However, HIT Entertainment is a management company. From the company’s point of view, they had to understand various advantages and disadvantages in advance and had to be able to suggest a direction so that the group KK could make a better choice.
Therefore, the time to tell the members about V TV’s proposal was delayed.
They didn’t want to needlessly upset the members right before the last concert.
In the middle of the split opinion among the HIT Entertainment executives, Team leader Lee Dae Hyung took a perfectly neutral stance.
#KK_please_come_here
That was the hashtag attached to the messages that exploded after the last concert.
It was a massive amount of messages.
Overseas, there was even a “#KK_please_come_here” on the trending topics that FaceNote aggregated internally.
If you looked by region, they definitely boasted undeniably high numbers in the Asia and American region.
It wasn’t just the trending topics on FaceNote. In America, KK was a key search word several times a day on portal sites that were as famous as Friends.
It was the first time that happened since the Billboard Award Ceremony. If it was to the point that they were in the trending topics on American portal sites, it might be true that ‘KK’s America’ that V TV would air might gain more popularity than HIT Entertainment predicted.
Looking back, album sales in America were also substantial.
Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung focused and checked the trending topics on FaceNote again.
‘#KK_please_come_here’ was 2nd place in the trending topics in America.
If the guerilla concerts were successful in America and the program got good ratings, KK would be perfectly settled in the American market.
***
After the last concert at the World Cup Stadium, which felt like a dream, ended, the members were given 5 days of vacation.
It was a truly precious break for the members, who had been running around doing the guerilla performances and rehearsals over and over again for a month without a single day of rest.
If it were any other time, the members would have caught up on appointments they’d been postponing or taken some time to themselves, but that wasn’t the case this time.
They genuinely needed a break.
The dormitory, which was called dormitory in name but treated like an inn that they just slept at, was occupied by the members 24 hours a day. For the first few days, all they did was sleep to replenish their stamina. Only after that did they start to do things to relieve stress, like play video games or exercise.
Meanwhile, Park Tae Hyung had a concern.
Once the vacation, which felt like rain after a drought, ended, filming for < Dancing Dancing > would come immediately after.
It was his first solo schedule, so Park Tae Hyung’s anxiety was astronomical.
Furthermore, the thought that he would have to ‘guide’ someone made him more nervous.
The concern, ‘Will I really be able to do it well?’ constantly crossed his mind, even when he was watching TV in the dormitory living room.
Of course, in the past, Park Tae Hyung would have been trembling, buried in his worries and unable to sleep.
But now, even though he still got anxious, he didn’t get overwhelmed by nerves.
Through KK activities, he had learned how to overcome his concerns and anxiety when getting set in front of the starting line and run with all his might.
KK was always the first group to arrive at the finish line without falling. The fact that he was a member of KK meant he had become a person who could make it to the finish line no matter what.
Furthermore, for at least the first shoot of < Dancing Dancing >, Park Tae Hyung wasn’t alone.
The KK members came to support Park Tae Hyung, who would be on < Dancing Dancing > as a judge and as a leader who would guide one of the teams.
Ilsan TBN Production Center.
The set of < Dancing Dancing > was a huge single-story building that was built for doing performance broadcasts such as public broadcasts.
“Wow…! Tae Hyung! Tae Hyung!”
As soon as he entered the set, Kim Won pointed toward the ceiling of the set and shouted.
Park Tae Hyung’s face, along with the faces of the other judges, was proudly embedded on a giant banner that said < Dancing Dancing >.
“Ooohhh….”
“This is dope.”
The members’ admiration made Park Tae Hyung blush.
The judges for < Dancing Dancing >, including Park Tae Hyung, consisted of the best dancesport athletes, ballerinas, and street dancers.
The plan was for experts of each field to guide the participants, who were united in their passion for dance.
Even amongst the four judges, Park Tae Hyung stood out from the rest. Everyone was the top of their fields, but none of them were known by everyone in the nation like KK was.
It was clear that all the focus would be on Park Tae Hyung. As such, it made sense that he was feeling the pressure.
The < Dancing Dancing > contestants immediately came running when they heard the news that the KK members had arrived.
“Ah, you’re here!”
“Yes. Hello.”
Gu Chul Min, who had brought the members, greeted the support staff with a quick nod. The members, who were standing behind him, also politely greeted the support staff. The support staff seemed rather apologetic and gave an even deeper bow.
The latter half of the broadcast drew in the audiences’ attention with the charm of the participants, the tension of the tournament program, and colorful performances, but first they had to create some buzz to make people watch the show.
In that sense, to the staff of < Dancing Dancing >, KK and Park Tae Hyung were nothing more than tools to help drive their program forward.
As staff of a new program, they had no choice but to treat them like servants do to masters.
“Please come this way! You can get ready in the waiting room over there.”
Gu Chul Min nodded his head and, along with the members, followed the support staff.
It was Park Tae Hyung’s first shoot, but < Dancing Dancing > had already had several shoots.
During the past shoots that Park Tae Hyung had to miss because of his guerilla concert schedule, the other three judges had selected the 20 finalists, and today was the day they would choose teams.
Park Tae Hyung had to team up with the head ballerina of the National Ballet Academy and create their team.
While the judging was taking place, the KK members were to join as part of the panel and give the ending performance for today’s shoot.
The KK members, who had arrived at the waiting room, got their makeup fixed as they waited until it was time to record.
First off, they were only going to be part of the panel so for the first time in a long time the members didn’t have to wear a stage outfit. It could be boring waiting in the waiting room, but the members got to show off their own style so they were excited and passed the time by taking pictures.
They were about to eat the steak boxed lunches that fans had sent before they went into recording.
Park Tae Hyung’s fan site had sent the boxed lunches because they knew that today was the day they’d film Park Tae Hyung’s first solo schedule < Dancing Dancing >.
The steak boxed lunches were delivered not only for the judges and the participants but also for all the staff.
It wasn’t for no reason that people involved in the broadcast were eager to do a broadcast with KK. Of course, hype and ratings were guaranteed, but also the working environment improved.
“Tae Hung should take a picture of this. Where did he go?”
Ahn Hyung Seo looked for Park Tae Hyung, who wasn’t there.
Park Tae Hyung greeted the ballerina whom he would create the team with, left to discuss details of the broadcast, and hadn’t returned.
They also had not heard from Gu Chul Min, who had left with the staff.
“Are they still not finished talking?”
Jung Yoon Ki muttered as if talking to himself.
“I’ll go check it out,”
Do Wook said as he got up from his seat.
It was the waiting room right next door anyways, and he decided that rather than call and break the flow of the conversation, it would be better to quietly check what was going on.
When he stepped out of the waiting room, people who seemed like participants each had a large number on their chest and were in gathered groups of two and three, chatting.
The people, who had not noticed Do Wook open the door and step out, continued talking.
The group right in front of him seemed to be a team of street dancers. You could generally guess what kind of dance they were doing just by looking at their clothes.
“Don’t you think whoever makes it on Park Tae Hyung’s team will 100% win the team battle?”
“F’sho, the stans will guarantee the live broadcast voting.”
“But there’s the separate expert score. And there’s battles within the team too, so…it could actually be disadvantageous, right?”
First off, participants were able to apply for a team. The judges selected from the participants who applied, or they could win and bring them from another team.
For participants, it was important what team they ended up choosing so it was understandable why they would say that. Although it was hard for him to listen to the negativity, Do Wook tried to accept it.
“Hey, but damn, that Park Tae Hyung…shouldn’t he be a participant instead? Who does he think he is, being a judge?”
“Why, isn’t he good at dancing? I think I’ve seen a video…”
“He’s still just an idol so his dancing can only be so good,”
A male participant in a torn denim jacket leaned against the wall and said. Each of them were participants who had made a name for themselves in the past through dancing. As such, they had a lot of pride. Pride was putting it nicely. Said in a different way, it was arrogance.
“Hey! Lower your voice. KK is really popular these days.”
“If popularity means that someone can dance well, shouldn’t comedians like Na Jae Suk do pop and lock?”
“What? Haha.”
The smug joke made the other two participants burst into laughter.
On the other hand, Do Wook’s expression crumpled. He was about to cough to make his presence known when made eye contact with Park Tae Hyung, who had come out of the waiting room next door.
And behind him, Jo Jung Min was heading towards the crowd.
—
Next chapter: Not Jo Jung Min again -.-