In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 121:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 121

The Proper Attitude Towards Luck

When Woojoo woke up, he saw a strange ceiling.

A luxurious hotel room.

Woojoo looked at the dawn sky outside the window and calmly recalled what happened yesterday… Yeah, right.

“Ugh!”

Woojoo threw off the bed sheet and ran to the bathroom. He clutched the toilet and gagged for a long time.

The food he ate yesterday was 59,000 won per serving.

He didn’t care about anything else, but if he threw up such expensive meat, he would remember it for a long time.

Woojoo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and leaned his head against the cold bathroom wall for a while.

His head was throbbing with a headache.

At that moment, the light turned on and he saw Kim Deoksoon, the old lady, standing there in her pajamas.

“Are you okay?”

“…Uh, Grandma. My stomach is a bit queasy. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“You’re sick. You’ve been acting crazy since the barbecue place. How can I not worry?”

“…”

Come to think of it, Kim Deoksoon’s eyes had dark circles under them.

At first, Woojoo thought she didn’t remove her eye makeup, but it turned out to be dark circles.

No way.

“Grandma, did you stay up all night because of me?”

“No.”

“Just sleep…”

“I said no. Why would I stick to a drunk guy who passed out all night, stick to him.”

She said no, but it seemed like she did.

“Why wouldn’t you stick to me, I’m not pret…”

“Are you still drunk?”

“Ugh!”

As he gagged again, Kim Deoksoon’s thick hand patted his back.

After a while, Woojoo sat at the table in the hotel room, lost in thought.

5 a.m.

The black night view of the city was visible through the window.

Behind it, Kim Deoksoon’s reflection was seen on the glass as she opened a cup noodle.

Woojoo smiled faintly.

“I was just about to have a hangover cure, good…”

“It’s mine.”

“…”

“What, you want some too?”

“No, I don’t.”

Two cup noodles were ready.

Woojoo had a live broadcast later, so he drank the broth sparingly, but it still felt like his stomach was settling.

As he enjoyed the spicy and salty broth, he burped.

“…So who brought me here?”

“Junghyun carried you.”

“He’s worked hard. … But did they cover my face when we entered the hotel?”

“I wore a mask. You were the one who came out like a chaebol chairman on a wheelchair, everyone was laughing at you.”

“…”

He was doomed. How was he going to face the other family members in the morning? Woojoo covered his face with both hands and muttered.

“I won’t let you off the hook, Wang Jiho.”

“…Don’t be too hard on him. He already got scolded by his sisters yesterday.”

“He deserved it.”

How dare a minor drink alcohol? Woojoo felt the Confucian spirit burning inside him.

Grandma laughed.

“But he’s a good kid. He stayed until one in the morning yesterday, didn’t he?”

“Really?”

“Really. He said he would wait until you woke up, and the four of them were circling around you like puppies who lost their owner. I was so amused that I took a picture of it.”

“…Pfft!”

Woojoo laughed at the picture that Grandma Kim Deoksoon took with her phone.

It looked like a scene where the grandchildren gathered around the bed of an old man who was dying. The siblings were sitting around the bed, looking down at him.

“I can’t live, really.”

“They said they were going to take a video with your phone and leave.”

Woojoo went into the phone album and there was really a video. He was curious and pressed the play button briefly.

The four of them bowed their heads to the phone camera.

-One, two, three, hello. We are the siblings.

-But why are we greeting?

-Isn’t it weird if we don’t…? I feel awkward if I don’t greet before I say something to the camera.

-Is that so? Okay then.

-It’s an occupational disease, this.

-You also greeted with us, don’t pretend to be objective.

-Yeah, somaek.

-Grandma, please scold this guy!

-Kids. Don’t fight. This is a letter of the heart for Woojoo Hyung. We don’t know when he’ll wake up…

-Hyung, Woojoo Hyung is alive.

There was another 10 minutes of video, so Woojoo turned it off for now.

There was something more important on his mind than that.

Yesterday’s Around the World With Dice.

Woojoo licked his tongue at the missed calls, messages, and notifications on his phone.

“It seems that people watched more variety shows than I thought.”

“The manager said they watched it like crazy. I was curious too, so I asked Bijoo to crack his smartphone, and there were a lot of articles too. I was amazed when I saw that.”

“Oh, what part?”

“You’re really brave, sir. You said that. You’re going to have a lot of luck from this month on…”

Woojoo proudly plugged his ears.

Seeing that, Grandma Kim Deoksoon’s mouth moved violently with consonants like ‘ㅆ’, ‘ㄲ’.

Of course, she was angry.

But Woojoo had a secret weapon to appease her.

“Grandma.”

“What.”

“I have something to show you. I got it from the variety show I went to.”

“What? You jerk.”

He opened his bag and took out a small box. He had wrapped it in several layers of envelopes to prevent it from getting crumpled.

“Open it.”

“What is this? I can’t see anything. The letters are too small.”

“It’s a luxury package travel voucher.”

“…!”

Their Mrs. Kim Deoksoon’s eyes widened like she had touched a golden ticket.

Her pursed lips quickly relaxed, and her eyes softened. Woojoo smiled contentedly.

Money was the best.

***

6:30 a.m.

At the time when goosebumps rose on your arms from the chilly air, they said goodbye to their family at the hotel lobby.

They were going to have breakfast at the buffet and then go back to their homes, and New Black had to go to the salon for makeup.

“Grandma, please call me when you get on the bus at the terminal.”

“I know, I know. Keep your wits about you. Don’t make a fool of yourself on TV by messing up the name of the bread again.”

They hugged for the last time and got on the van. Theyopened the window and waved to their family.

They could only return to their normal lives after they disappeared like dots.

Minki Hyung tuned the radio frequency and started a conversation.

“Yesterday’s broadcast was fun.”

“Did you watch it too?”

“I watched it for monitoring. I watched it with my parents at my hometown, and they were so happy when I told them I was in charge of you.”

The relatives’ kids asked him to get autographs for them, and the road manager laughed.

Then he pointed to his glittering phone with his chin.

“That’s all the calls coming in related to you guys.”

“…What is it?”

“Isn’t it amazing? The reporters who used to be hard to reach are now contacting me first, asking me what the schedule is like, or calling from some cable channel.”

It could change depending on how the second part of Around the World With Dice, which would air tonight, turned out, but for now, it was perfect.

Woojoo turned to the siblings to share the excited mood, but they were looking at something else.

“…Why are you staring at me like that?”

Their pupils followed him every time he moved. They were like motion sensors.

“Did I get something on my face?”

“You look too fine, that’s why,” Rihyuk said. “The person who collapsed last night is acting like this. Really, are you okay?”

“Of course I’m okay.”

“Oh, don’t smile so smugly and say that. Are you really okay?”

“Ouch, our Rihyuk was so scared?”

“You’re fine. Totally fine.”

He turned his gaze to the window, annoyed. Woojoo chuckled as he watched him.

At that moment, a large hand rested on my forehead.

Bijoo was holding Junghyun’s arm as if it were a stethoscope and putting his hand on Woojoo’s forehead.

Junghyun, who was chewing on a gummy worm, answered, “36.7 degrees.”

“Hmm… that’s normal. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“…What are you guys up to?”

Woojoo laughed incredulously.

Luckily, Minki Hyung had a thermometer in his car and lent it to him. Woojoo inserted it in his ear and it showed 36.8 degrees.

“How do you match it so well?”

“I’m a bit versatile, you know.”

Junghyun looked proud, but Rihyuk clicked his tongue and said, “Don’t succeed in weird things, Junghyun Hyung. Our fans always think it’s a lie.”

“That’s right. I can’t even talk about Hyung at school. No one believes me.”

“So what? It doesn’t matter.”

Junghyun and their brothers were chatting casually in the back seat.

Meanwhile, Bijoo was writing something like ‘last night 37.3 degrees’ on his phone’s memo app.

He met Woojoo’s eyes and smiled sheepishly.

“It’s a habit from taking care of my brother…”

“Ah.”

“But are you really okay, Hyung? I heard you get drunk with just a drop of soju on your tongue.”

“Who said that?”

“Grandma did.”

“…She talks too much, Kim Deoksoon.”

The brothers in the back seat laughed and Woojoo felt embarrassed.

“I can drink at least a sip of soju. The problem is when I go over that, I collapse.”

“You’re really weak with alcohol.”

“Rihyuk, are you old enough to drink?”

“…”

“Hyung, Hyung, then you can’t eat rice cake with alcohol?”

“No, I get drunk if I do.” Woojoo said kindly to the youngest who asked him, “I wouldn’t have collapsed yesterday if it was just soju or beer. Someone made a somaek with cola.”

“…I’m sorry.”

He looked so dejected that Woojoo found him cute.

Woojoo must still be a bit drunk. He thought their youngest was cute.

“Don’t you want to drink that much?”

“I don’t want to drink, but when I go to school, the kids tease me like ‘Ehehe, Wang Jiho has never drunk alcohol~’.”

“They’re weird kids. Don’t mind them.”

“So I was curious yesterday and tried to put some in cola. It was really hard to make. I had to sneak around my sister and mom’s eyes and collect it… I didn’t know Hyung would do a one shot.”

“Well, technically, it’s the fault of the person who did a one shot of someone else’s glass.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

Woojoo smiled sweetly at the guys in the back who nodded.

“Rihyuk, you said you slapped me yesterday.”

“…Now that I think about it, I guess the bigger mistake was making that soju-cola mix in the first place.”

“Oh, right.”

As they talked, Bijoo grabbed Woojoo’s arm and spoke with a serious expression. What did he want to say that he looked so earnest?

“Hyung, I’ve been thinking about this since last night.”

“Yeah?”

“From now on, you can’t drink anything that someone gives you on the street. Got it?”

“What, why all of a sudden…?”

“Even the drinks from the fans are off-limits. You have to let Junghyun try them first and then drink them.”

“I’ll do the taste test for you.”

“Bijoo, but if the fans give us something, we have to drink it.”

“No, you can’t. And don’t drink if someone invites you for a drink either. From now on, you can’t even have a sip of anything. No matter how close they are to you.”

His voice was sweet and pleasant, but his words were all gentle nagging.

Woojoo thought about covering his ears like he did with his grandmother, but he gave up.

He didn’t have any travel vouchers to use on him.

***

Woojoo was looking at his phone the whole time, from getting his hair curled and makeup done at the salon to going to the waiting room at the PBS broadcasting station in Yeouido.

It wasn’t just him, all five of them were like that.

-[Last Night TV] Around the World With Dice’s highest rating minute, the chase with black goat

-New Black’s first variety show appearance, they captured both humor and emotion

-Who are the hot searchers ‘New Black’?

No matter which portal site Woojoo went to, there was at least one article about them on the main entertainment section.

The comments attached to them were also at least 500 each, and they were all positive.

-ㅋㅋㅋI watched it with my dad last night and we cracked up…^^*

-As a fan of Around the World With Dice, I really enjoyed watching it. I thought it was weird that PD Gu brought some unknown idols (no offense, don’t curse me) but he had a good eye after all. It would have been boring without the black goat.

-I liked them after watching yesterday’s show ㅋㅋ

Sometimes Woojoo saw comments like ‘they’re desperate to get famous’ or ‘they’re too arrogant for rookies’ when he sorted by recent, and he felt a surge of anger, but then he realized they weren’t wrong and agreed.

They did want to get famous, and they did try to get more screen time. So what?

Instead, Woojoo and the others each downvoted them once. The comments with -5 disappeared like dew in the morning.

Woojoo went to various communities and searched for ‘New Black’ and there were quite a few posts.

-New Black seems like they’ll get a lot of ads

-They look like rookies but they hit the jackpotㅋ

-I realized why the agencies are so desperate to send their idols to Around the World With Dice’s show

-They must be getting a lot of offers

-ㅋㅋ what… Then what about Girls On Top, they were Screen on Top

-But one of them made a meme of blowing up the food. As a fan of Girls on Top, I’m very satisfied ㅋㅋㅋ

Would they get any ads?

Woojoo doubted it.

When they filmed the school uniform ad, they heard the staff members say that the advertisers didn’t spend their money on temporary fame.

They had to see at least a quarter’s worth of potential.

If they could keep this momentum going until their second album, then things might change.

But it was true that they were getting a lot of offers.

Several cable channels had already asked them about their schedule, and even one of the terrestrial channels had contacted them.

They heard at least four of them on their way to the station.

The company was also in chaos because of that, and they had a staff meeting on Chuseok day.

They said they would tell them the details after the recording was over, but it was all good news.

The only bad news was.

“Ah, I want to leave a message for the fans.”

“Minki Hyung, can’t we write a little bit? Just a small message to the fans…”

“No.”

“Then how about a proof shot on SNS?”

“No.”

The younger ones looked at Woojoo with eyes full of regret.

Woojoo shook his head too.

“We can post it after today’s broadcast. It’s not too late.”

“Don’t you think the fans are curious about our reaction? I think we should at least leave a message…”

“I know how you feel. But let’s just wait a little longer.”

Woojoo wanted to brag to the fans and say ‘Did you see us on the show?’ but the company wouldn’t let them.

Woojoo agreed with them.

The reporters were looking for stories by digging through their fan cafe and official SNS.

They were re-examining everything from their appearance on the cable channel GBS’s ‘Go to the Scene’ to our past remarks.

In this situation, they had to be careful about every word and action.

They couldn’t afford to lose the luck that they had finally found.

His younger siblings looked sullen, but they soon accepted it.

It was a pity, but Woojoo thought the fans would understand.

Besides, today there would be many videos uploaded to the company’s official account, such as greetings for Chuseok and reality shows prepared for Chuseok.

-[2014 Chuseok Greetings] Strong and Powerful Morning! How are you, we are New Black

-[Chuseok Special] #1. The Origin of Chuseok (feat. Expert Teacher Seo)

-[Chuseok Special] #2. Shall we make songpyeon? (feat. Non-Cook)

There were also videos of making songpyeon to send to the winners of the event they had done in advance, and other videos of us playing yutnori in hanbok.

They had a good laugh when Junghyun broke the yut stick.

Yeah.

For now, they decided to postpone the online meeting with the fans and focus on the schedule that was right in front of them.

“Hello! We are New Black!”

They greeted the broadcasting staff with enthusiasm every time they met them inside the PBS annex.

They usually glanced at them and left, but sometimes they said, ‘Oh, hello’ and went on. Then they laughed among themselves, as if they were talking about yesterday’s broadcast.

They arrived at the public hall at 9 a.m.

Two hours before the broadcast started, they greeted the PD who was directing the complex camera equipment and cables.

“Oh, New Black. Long time no see.”

He was someone they already knew.

The production team that planned today’s PBS live Chuseok Special ‘2080 Music Quiz Show’ was the same one that made ‘Ha Seungju’s Music Cafe’ that they appeared on.

The PD, who had the script tucked under his arm, smiled.

“Wow, you guys did well on the variety show yesterday. By this time next year, you’ll be hard to book, won’t you?”

They all smiled warmly at his joke.

Then the PD immediately started to swear half-heartedly at another staff who made a mistake.

“…”

Woojoo smirked and crossed the stuffy public hall studio.

The people who were going to appear today were waiting in the audience.

The concept was that celebrities and ordinary participants would join together, but when they approached, the people who were flipping through the script looked at them.

And the first one to react was not from the celebrity side.

“Huh? …New Black?”

At that moment, they were the ones who were surprised.

It was the first time that people recognized them before they greeted others.