Chapter 116:
Chapter 116
Something feels uneasy…
Awi, the Nnet group, joins ‘Hip Hop Kids’ as special producers… They produce for Jeon Woo-joon, the lowest-ranked contestant
Awi will make a comeback next month with ‘Comeback Show’.
-Awi is on Nnet?
-OMG, I didn’t see this coming
-I thought Nnet was impossible lololol awesome lololol
Lee Ju-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk, who joined ‘Hip Hop Kids’ as special producers, worked on the songs with the contestants.
‘Hip Hop Idol’ was also a survival program. Jeon Woo-joon, the contestant matched with Lee Ju-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk, was in the lowest rank and had low self-esteem. He was in a state of apathy.
“Just do it your way, comfortably.”
“Woo-joon, it’s okay. You’re doing well right now.”
Lee Ju-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk comforted the contestant and boosted his self-esteem. Jeon Woo-joon was able to get out of his apathy with their encouragement.
‘Hip Hop Kids’ Jeon Woo-joon ranked second in the second round… “Thanks to the producers, Ju-hyuk and Jin-hyuk”
The song by Lee Ju-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk was very good, but the netizens’ evaluation of them also increased as they raised Jeon Woo-joon’s self-esteem, who was depressed.
It was because they persuaded and comforted him until the end, even though he gave up and showed an irresponsible attitude.
Moreover, the dramatic human victory of the lowest rank made the show quite a hot topic.
-Lee Ju-hyuk is awesome
-I didn’t like Jeon Woo-joon because he was a slacker, but I felt sorry for him when I saw him reading hate comments
-Awi is good at teaching people, like Woo-sang Yooni too
-When is Awi’s comeback?
-Holy shit they’re going to MStudio
-Awi is also on AMF?
Although overseas travel was canceled due to COVID-19, it didn’t mean that overseas activities were completely blocked.
Awi received an offer to appear on Japan’s music show ‘Music Studio’, and they were on the lineup.
“Wow, I’m going to MStudio.”
In his previous life, only a few idols from large agencies had appeared on Japan’s music show.
“Did MStudio lower its hurdle? Or did our popularity increase?”
Of course, Awi’s Japanese album sales must have been a factor for the offer. They had more than 150 cuts of video fan signing events for overseas fans, most of whom were from Japan and China.
[Probably both. Before, Media went to the army and then they looked for ‘Post Media’ and invited other Korean idols. Especially in America.]
And they also put their name on the poster for ‘American Music Festival’, which will be held online.
“How’s the venue booking?”
Thanks to that, the agency staff had a lot of work to do even though it was COVID-19. Seo Su-ryeon received a situation report every morning.
“We got an abandoned factory in Incheon. We also booked a company.”
“That’s good.”
The principle of Lee Byung-heon, the CEO of BHL Entertainment, was not to be sloppy even in rehearsals. The stage should be perfect and thorough, and he didn’t skimp on the money spent on the stage.
“Our AMF venue is an abandoned factory, how about we make the stage concept like a mechanic? With something burning behind.”
“How about riding on a crane?”
“Wow, that’s crazy. Ian’s idea is awesome.”
“Ah, but it might be dangerous.”
The members also exchanged opinions excitedly. ‘American Music Festival’, or AMF for short, was planning to prepare several stage sets like a concert.
“We don’t have to prepare anything for our MStudio stage, right?”
“Right. The stage time is short.”
Lee Ju-hyuk was disappointed by Jo Tae-woong’s answer. He wanted to prepare more diversely since it was his first appearance on a foreign music show.
“If we had more stage time, we would prepare like an award ceremony. Too bad Dance Break got cut.”
‘Music Studio’ was not broadcast live in two places. The pre-recorded stage video was scheduled to be broadcast.
“But it’s almost a full song anyway. They’re famous for cutting songs in half there.”
Park Seo-dam, who was in charge of Japanese greetings, memorized the greetings translated into Japanese.
“Seo-dam, but you don’t have to memorize that. Doesn’t it show up on the prompter?”
“I don’t want to look like I’m reading it. It’s better to speak naturally.”
Awi decided to focus on the stage set instead of giving up some of the realism. The busy ones were the agency staff.
“Cr… crane?”
“The overall picture seems good, but… isn’t there a safety issue?”
“I’ll try to contact the related companies.”
The staff who were busy making phone calls sighed deeply.
***
While preparing for the overseas stage, they also had a comeback ahead. The Awi members went back and forth between the dorm and the company practice room, focusing on the album work.
“MyKit is also making a comeback two days apart from us.”
“Then we can meet at Nnet.”
Miket returned to Korea just before the coronavirus outbreak and prepared for his long-awaited comeback. Coincidentally, Awi was also in their comeback period, so they couldn’t meet separately. This year, they met for the first time on a music show.
“Ian, you have pink hair this time?”
“It’s not pink, it’s grapefruit? or something like that.”
“Anyway, it suits you well. You seem to pull off any color, don’t you?”
“Pink is the symbol of men.”
Awi members changed their hair styles for their comeback. Ian had pink hair with a hint of orange. Kim Joo-young went blonde, and Kim Hyun dyed his hair a vivid blue. Lee Joo-hyuk laughed as he looked at their natural hair colors.
“Our hair is so colorful.”
“But you can’t bleach it twice. What if we go bald?”
Ian still felt a burning sensation on his scalp and scratched his head. Awi, who had their hair done at the salon, went to a studio in Ilsan. It was for the pre-recording of ‘Music Studio’.
Jo Tae-woong looked at Ian nervously.
“Do you remember the lyrics of ‘FEVER’ in Japanese?”
“No, that’s why we sang it like crazy yesterday and the day before.”
‘FEVER’ was Awi’s debut song. It was also the song they were going to sing on M Studio, and it was also the title track of their Japanese debut album.
The stage set up in the studio was decorated with metal sculptures on a clean white background.
“The stage is neat.”
“Isn’t the lighting too bright? This will reflect all our decorations.”
“We won’t see our faces later because of the light.”
Awi members wore flashy uniforms like their debut days and bounced lightly on the spot to warm up.
“Let’s record the greeting first before the stage.”
“Okay.”
The members headed to the chairs prepared on one side of the studio. In the middle were Park Seo-dam and leader Lee Joo-hyuk, who would mainly speak Japanese. The light came on the camera, and the members greeted as a group.
“*Nice to meet you. We are who we are! We are Awi!”
“*We filmed a performance video in Korea for our first Japanese Music Studio broadcast.”
“*We regret that we can’t meet you directly on our first Japanese broadcast stage, but we hope you enjoy it with us.”
After a short greeting recording, Awi members headed to the center of the stage. They put in-ears in their ears to prevent the sound from echoing in the large space, and checked the sound of the microphone.
“We’ll start recording!”
“Okay!”
The members turned their backs to the camera, and the song started. At the intro, Ian turned around sharply and looked at the camera with a microphone.
Ian’s face was caught in a one-shot on the camera, and his shocking visual caused a surge in real-time reactions.
-Who is the pink-haired guy?
-He’s cool!
Not only that, but they also showed powerful choreography without losing their pitch.
-Their voice and visual are so good
-They are really talented
-They are all so cool and dangerous
The stage was broadcasted, and ‘the person with pink hair’ hashtag ranked third in real-time trends in Japan.
***
After ‘Music Studio’ recording ended successfully, Awi headed to an abandoned factory in Incheon for AMF live broadcast.
The agency took the members’ opinions and stacked containers in a large abandoned factory, and decorated the background with two cranes. They were going to light a fire on the main stage.
“Wow, it’s really a crane.”
“We can do this, right?”
Ian put his arm around Park Jin-hyuk’s shoulder.
At the end of the song, Park Jin-hyuk and Ian climbed onto the crane bucket. And they jumped lightly down and took an ending pose with the members.
“We hired a safety officer separately, so it’ll be fine.”
“But do we have to do this? Don’t we need wires?”
Park Dong-soo and Kim Myung-jin looked at Ian and Park Jin-hyuk with worried faces.
“Hyung, it’s an American stage. We have to go cool.”
Park Jin-hyuk answered casually. Ian shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t feel like he would get hurt. He was just worried about Park Jin-hyuk. Park Dong-soo seemed to think the same as Ian and sighed deeply.
“I’m not worried about Ian, but Jin-hyuk, you make me nervous.”
“Hyung, I can do well too.”
“Let’s go for rehearsal!”
The members rushed to the center at the staff’s shout.
The song started, and even though it was rehearsal, they didn’t slack off on their dance and singing.
After the climax of the song, Ian and Park Jin-hyuk climbed onto the crane and sang. And they jumped down. They got up from the floor and looked at the camera.
“Wow!”
“Are you okay?”
“Are your legs and ankles okay? Check them out.”
The managers and the other members approached Ian and Park Jin-hyuk. They twisted their ankles and did some simple stretching.
“Are you okay? It’s not that high.”
“I think we’ll be fine like this.”
Ian and Park Jin-hyuk looked surprisingly fine, so the managers were able to ease their worries.
As the show time approached, the members changed their clothes and fixed their hair. They waited for their turn to perform in the center of the stage.
Ian swept the floor with his foot and said to Kim Joo-young.
“Isn’t the floor a bit hard?”
“Yeah, it’s dirt… It would have been better if it was asphalt.”
“Nothing will happen, right?”
“Of course not. We did our rehearsal perfectly.”
Ian frowned slightly. He had no worries during the rehearsal, but he felt strangely down as he was about to start the real stage.
‘I feel something is wrong…’
He had never been wrong about this feeling. The show staff lit up the stage set they had prepared in advance.
After a few minutes of waiting, the staff waved their hand to signal them. The members followed their routes.
[It starts.]
As soon as Jin said that, the camera lit up and the song started.
-The stage smells like money
-They are so good at live??????
-Don’t they climb on that crane later?
└Really?
They finished their dance and song without any mistakes, and Ian and Park Jin-hyuk jumped off the bucket of the crane. They got up slowly from the ground and stared at the camera, while the camera light went off.
A safety officer ran with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. The members bowed their waists and greeted the staff.
“Thank you for your hard work!”
“Thank you!”
Ian also bowed his waist following Lee Joo-hyuk, then went to Park Jin-hyuk who had jumped off the crane next to him. Ian tapped his shoulder.
“Hyung, we rocked the stage.”
“…Yeah.”
Park Jin-hyuk’s expression was not good as he forced himself to answer. Ian grabbed his shoulder.
‘No way…’
He was sweating profusely on his face, whether it was because of the stage or some other reason, and he furrowed his brows as if something hurt.
“Hey… I’m sorry.”
“Hyung!”
Park Jin-hyuk grabbed his ankle and collapsed on the floor.
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