Chapter 31: One more time, Ok?! (1)

Do Wook knew from closely observing Park Tae Hyung practice that Park Tae Hyung was good at not only normal dancing, but was also talented in acrobatics. A move like back tumbling was a piece of cake for Park Tae Hyung.

“By….myself?”

“Oh? Yeah, since Tae Hyung is light. I was already questioning if the bridge was boring because it’s too simple. Do you want to try it?”

Park Tae Hyung was flustered, but Noh Yoon Tae enthusiastically accepted the suggestion and even went as far as clapping.

He gathered the dance team and had them do it in place of the members first. The dance team stood in the same formation as the KK members and danced the new choreography Park Tae Hyung made with Do Wook’s suggestion added to it.

“Wow, fantastic.”

It became a perfectly eye-catching bridge choreography to the point that Kim Won, who saw the dance, muttered.

Noh Yoon Tae then called Tae Hyung. The dancer who was in Tae Hyung’s place was taken out and Tae Hyung stepped in. The other members had no problems with the choreography, but they had to first check if Park Tae Hyung could match the timing of the back tumbling.

Noh Yoon Tae set the music to the bridge part and played the music.

Yes, I like you. You. I like yo

Boom―!

The six dancers made a gesture as if they were shooting a gun at Park Tae Hyung, and he stomped his feet to the beat. He did a back tumbling with light body movement in sync with the start of the bridge.

His movements were lighter than a butterfly’s wings. He was perfectly in sync with “You”’s rhythm so it felt like the song was alive.

‘As I thought, Tae Hyung is several times better at dancing.’

Do Wook was amazed. He thought that it was good when the dance team was demonstrating it, but when Park Tae Hyung did it, he appreciated its beauty.

Kim Won whistled with his fingers. The other members automatically clapped their hands as they muttered ‘that was the best’. They also thought that they couldn’t wait to practice the choreography with Park Tae Hyung and stand on the stage together.

***

Meanwhile, “Sorry But I Love You”’s popularity continued.

For now, there were only a few people who recognized their faces right away, but the KK members could easily hear their song even when briefly stopping by a convenience store.

KK, who got first place on Life Song for three consecutive weeks, also had a mini fan meeting in the small open area behind the SVS broadcast station. KK, who was meeting fans directly for the first time, also took a group photo with the 150 or so fans who gathered in the open area.

They had several music broadcast appearances, including radio appearances, and they also performed at one or two festivals they had never heard of before. As they did that, the KK members were slowly feeling their popularity.

‘At this rate, it’ll be a close call but it’ll be possible to be first place for four consecutive weeks!’

Do Wook analyzed after having looked at the album and music chart ratings daily.

Furthermore, as Do Wook predicted, KK surprisingly took over first place on Life Song for four consecutive weeks.

It was a tie with M2M’s first album. They were only behind them on album sales, losing by 50-60 thousand copies. On music chart ratings, KK was doing better.

After getting first place for the fourth consecutive week, the atmosphere around them also changed a little more. People started to see them as ‘the real deal’ instead of a fleeting one-time-hit rookie.

The following week, a solo female artist and other singers’ ranking rose, and KK’s ranking had a downward trend dropping several slots but they still maintained a high rank. KK had already achieved more than expected.

Immediately after, KK ended their title song activities to prepare for the follow-up song. It was a good time since members who were still attending high school were approaching midterm season.

They took about two weeks to prepare for the follow-up song and the members each took some time to focus on catching up with their studies that had been piling up. To prevent fans from leaving during that time, they continued to post selfies on the social media accounts the fan marketing team made for them and the fan marketing team edited videos of the members living in the dorms and posted them to I-tube.

Like that, the day of the first performance for the follow-up song came. To prove that they weren’t a rookie who would have one hit then disappear, they had to show a higher-than-average ranking for the follow-up song too.

It was the day they would receive the verdict that KK was the ‘real deal’.

***

The first broadcast performance for the follow-up song ‘You’ ended up being on a cable channel that specialized in airing music broadcasts.

HIT Entertainment had been releasing KK’s follow-up song concept photo and music video etc. on the official home page since three days ago.

At the news of the follow-up song broadcast, the fans started to share the music stream and ‘You’, which had not previously been in the Top 100 in the music chart previously, was able to get in the top 80 by the day of the broadcast.

The title song ‘Sorry but I love you’ continued to stay around 10th place.

‘If we want to make it so people will listen to a song just because it’s by KK, we have to get the name known more and at least the next album will have to be as good as the title song…’

Do Wook thought as he looked through the music chart. It was definitely nice that he could use the internet whenever he had free time now that he had his own cell phone.

‘They finished their activities but M2M’s ‘You’re So Pretty’ is ranked in the top 30.’

It was when Do Wook was checking M2M’s music chart rating.

“Do Wook, you look dope.”

Jung Yoon Ki, who had finished changing into his performance outfit and was passing by, said to Do Wook, who was sitting on the waiting room sofa.

The performance outfit for this performance was practically every-day clothes for a light feeling to match the light atmosphere of the song. It was everyday-wear, but he put a little more effort into it, adopting a ‘boyfriend look’ and giving off a vibe like he was going on a date on a beautiful spring day.

The idea was a sensational graphic t-shirt as the base with a matching collared shirt, hoodie, denim jacket etc. but Do Wook wore a white short-sleeve t-shirt with a denim jacket on top. The color blue matched Do Wook’s face especially well.

“Shouldn’t we take a selfie and upload it?”

Suk Ji Hoon, who also had his hair done, said as soon as he glanced at Do Wook and sat down.

“·····Ummm.”

As Do Wook hesitated, Ahn Hyung Seo ran over and positioned the camera.

Click, click, click.

After clicking the camera button three consecutive times, Ahn Hyung Seo picked the best picture of the three.

Ahn Hyung Seo immediately went onto KK’s FaceNote account and posted the photo with a short caption. In an instant, the number of shares increased and comments started pouring in.

-ViSam’s looks are crazy lol

-Hyung Seo, please take my bank account! I even changed my plan to unlimited data for you.

-Isn’t this the first time Do Wook and Ji Hoon took a picture together? Ji Hoon ♡♡♡

-Do Wook… If you make that kind of expression…My heart hurts a lot…Excuse me, someone please call 911…Do Wook…Take my heart

-Shouldn’t we call 112* first?
(TL note: 911, or 119 in Korea) is for the ambulance and fire department. 112 in Korea is for police)

The fans called the three of them together ‘ViSam*’, or ‘Visual Triangle’. It was because they had the most outstanding visuals among the KK members.
(TL note: The word for triangle is Korean is sam-gak-kyung, so they are shortening it to ‘sam’)

Looking at the comments that were posted immediately, Ahn Hyung Seo let out a satisfied laugh. Suk Ji Hoon also had a proud smile.

The number of followers on their FaceNote accounts were quickly increasing, with more than 10,000 followers already.

‘It’s been a big help that Ahn Hyung Seo is consistently updating on the FaceNote account.’

FaceNote was receiving an astounding amount of popularity already, but in the future, FaceNote would be an essential social network service (SNS) for the younger demographic to the point that it would be pivotal to internet marketing. Having a lot of followers on FaceNote would definitely give you certain ‘power’.

As he looked through other FaceNote accounts on his phone, Do Wook felt that he should also use FaceNote more.

While he was doing that he, as expected, saw M2M’s FaceNote account.

They were only using the FaceNote account to post M2M music videos and teasers. Therefore, they had a little less followers even though they were more popular than KK.

‘Ah, maybe by now…?’

Do Wook, who had been looking through M2M’s FaceNote, suddenly remembered something and opened the browser window.

(M2M Room)

‘Room’ was one of the biggest community sites. It was the freest place among community sites. Putting it in a positive light, you can call it free but on the other hand, there were so few restrictions that it was where the most negative issues happened.

Abusive language and slander were rampant, and privacy related rumors spread quite frequently.

He searched for it because it’s been some time since M2M debuted and they were very popular so he thought there might be a Room page for them. Sure enough, ‘M2M Room’ had been created.

Do Wook searched for keywords [Seo Jun, Kang Jun, School] etc.

As he thought, stories about Seo Jun’s real name being Seo Kang Jun, where the school he attended was, etc. had been revealed.

‘Hana High School…’

However, Bo Myung enrolled in a different school than Seo Kang Jun for high school. If he wanted to figure out which high school he attended, he had to first find out Seo Kang Jun’s middle school. He planned to then find out where Kim Bo Myung, among the graduates of that school, enrolled in for high school.

‘Then I should also be able to figure out what happened to the me of the past. That is, Kim Bo Myung.’

Do Wook’s gaze deepened as he looked at the cell phone screen.

The music broadcast staff came in and told him to get ready for the performance.

Do Wook put down the cell phone and straightened his clothes. Now, it was time to focus on the performance again.

***

The first music broadcast for the follow-up song happened as planned.

The choreography Park Tae Hyung prepared certainly drew a lot of attention. The moment Park Tae Hyung did the back tumbling, a loud shout erupted from the auditorium.

It was hands down the most amount of applause received out of any broadcast.

Practically the entire staff was also busy praising Park Tae Hyung, who was rapidly showing off his moves and spun 360 degrees.

“KK has so many people who are talented.”

It was to the point that Life Song’s PD Hyun privately said that to Oh Baek Ho. It was something PD Hyun could sincerely say about KK who were still rookies without needing to give lip service.

“I’m not just saying this because they’re my kids, but they’re really going to make it big.”

Manager Oh Baek Ho replied, unable to hide his satisfied smile.

Park Tae Hyung’s fans gathered videos of him doing the back tumbling at all the different performances, edited it, and shared it online. Thanks to that, it was causing a stir on the internet too.

It wasn’t a strong song, but it was a nice song to listen to so the music chart ranking was slowly going up, getting into the Top 20. KK’s song was ranked 6th on today’s Life Song.

It didn’t seem like the ranking would get any higher, but everyone considered it an incredible run for a follow-up song.

The companies and the members were satisfied, and Do Wook was the only person among them who felt that it was a pity.

‘As I thought. Was it impossible to get first place with the follow-up song? There must be a way…’