Souffle blinked.

[Dance With Junhyun]

A very short trailer had gone up on MeTube.

A character clip.

A pixel “mini-me” Wooju bopped in from the side and started tooting a flute.

[piririlili. piririririri.]

A sound like blowing a recorder with your nose, and the lid of the jar beside him popped into the air.

[KWAaaaaaANG!]

Mini-me Junhyun rose from the jar like a cobra and began to dance to Wooju’s playing.

‘...What now?’

Souffle had developed immunity to most weirdness lately.

The gold coin incident was the only thing that had truly surprised them recently.

But watching this clip left them a bit bewildered. They had no idea what the intent was.

‘Is it this?’

Clicking the link at the bottom of the video opened a website.

[ta-dan!]

With a fanfare, NewBlack’s logo exploded across the screen. Then the copy:

[Welcome to the NewBlack Arcade!]

The five mini-mes strutted and waved.

Souffle smiled at the cute mini-mes of the members, then tilted their heads.

‘So what do you do here?’

An arcade.

Stick the word “NewBlack” on it and it felt loaded.

‘It wants me to log in first...’

After a popup asked them to verify their fanclub membership and they did, a nickname field blinked.

[whoosh!]

[Welcome.]

[Please enter your nickname!]

When they set their nickname to “Sinbad’s Insurance,” a flash of light—[fwaaaash!]—and a mini-me silhouette appeared.

[sparkle sparkle!]

An effect like pulling an SSR character.

‘Is it Gyuho...!’

Alas, what appeared were their own favorites.

[Hi!]

[This is our gift!]

As the mini-mes reached out, coins whooshed in.

Infinity (∞) coins appeared at the top right.

Staring at the blinking coins, Souffle looked to the middle of the screen.

[1. Dance With Junhyun]

[2. ???]

[3. ???]

Five slots from the left.

Only the far-left one was active.

‘...What is this?’

Clicking the [Help] icon up top brought up a detailed explanation.

‘An album promotion.’

It was a project to promote the next album.

They’d release one video-game-themed mini-game each week; if you cleared all five weeks of games, there’d be a small reward.

For each game cleared, you’d get a pretty physical badge.

Collect all five and you’d have the full master set.

‘Do they think we’re children.’

If they thought they could lure them with little badges—

‘So damn smart, Lemon.’

It was a very wise choice.

Their hearts went thump-thump at the thought of wearing all five badges like Infinity Stones.

A must-have piece of merch.

They could already picture their friends.

— Hohoho. So the young lady has collected all five.

— But of course. How many has our Sinbad’s Insurance young lady collected? Ohoho!

— The talk of Souffle Kingdom high society these days is badges, no?

The reality would be nothing like that, but... the truth was, their fan-hearts were burning.

And above all, this:

[The drawing for the 2nd full-album showcase will be conducted among fans who participate in all five games.]

It didn’t say clearing or high scores would raise the odds, but motivation surged anyway.

Fans who’d missed the last Goblin treasure hunt especially brightened.

Maybe this time.

It seemed Lemon Enter had taken feedback from the grumbling last time and limited showcase attendance to fans.

If it was a drawing among Souffle only, there was hope.

‘All right. Let’s dance, Junhyun.’

They clicked the game [Dance With Junhyun], and a simple guide appeared.

A rhythm game, basically.

You press the up, down, left, and right arrows in time with arrows dropping from the top.

“Sinbad’s Insurance” cracked their knuckles.

“Ahhh...”

Massaging their sore fingers, they clicked [Start].

[ Stage 1: Fireworks ]

With a refreshing intro, the five floated on screen and flicked arrows down.

Each member owned a specific arrow.

For example, Wooju threw right (→) arrows, and in the center, Junhyun danced while dropping down (↓) arrows.

‘Easy.’

The fan hit ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ the keys.

Left Right Left Left Left Up Up Down.

As they pressed in order—

‘Huh?’

Junhyun suddenly started dancing at 2x speed.

The arrows, which had been following a pattern, went wonky. Wooju and Biju, too, started flicking arrows like shuriken at double speed.

‘No—Ri Hyuk!’

Mini-me Ri Hyuk bungled the tempo shift, went “uh-uh-uh!” and spilled his basket of arrows in a clatter.

The confused maknae flung the wrong arrows.

Ri Hyuk, pissed, grabbed dancing Junhyun by the collar, and arrows started tangling everywhere.

“Aaaaaa! Uwaaaa!”

Their fingers knotted up, and they got obliterated on Stage 1.

Staring at their own reflection in the black screen, the fan closed their eyes.

‘Why are they reality-checking the boys’ personalities even here...’

Which made the difficulty explode out of control.

At first they’d fretted Lemon Enter would run out of budget making the badges because anyone would clear it, given they’d bragged about giving badges for clearing.

Turned out Gyuho had a grand plan.

“Hooooo...”

They exhaled and clicked the rhythm game to try again—

“Huh?”

The stuttering window closed.

They tried reconnecting, but still dead.

They prepared to blame the muggles who always swarm and crash things—then paused.

‘Right. Only fans can use this.’

“Sinbad’s Insurance” hopped into the community.

“Is this really a hundred pages...?”

There were already nearly a hundred pages of posts about the NewBlack game.

The culprits blocking the entrance to the site were Souffle pouring in from all over the world.

Everyone was clamoring to get in, and the lane was jammed.

“...”

The fan shed tears over a game they got to play exactly once.

The pretty boys who lived in the apartment under NewBlack had a hobby.

They’d sneak onto fan sites to lurk, and every time the fans swore up a storm, they’d go “Hoooo!” and relish it.

If they’d seen this, they would’ve loved it—this scene was spreading across Souffle communities.

— Fuck.

— Why is the difficulty like this.

— Who’s the genius who said “it’s hard so give infinite coins”? Come out here.

— Nerf it, for real [laughs]

— Hacking would be faster, no???

— I’m off to hire Anonymous

— ffsffsffsffsffs

— (screencap of a Japanese fan on Twitter typing “sibaal” in Korean after playing.jpg)

Souffle who were actually playing the game wailed.

‘Hard to snag even one badge.’

A rhythm game spanning eight title tracks up to “Goblin,” with a difficulty beyond imagination.

It was just griping about the difficulty, to be fair.

Most of them praised the game itself.

— It’s kinda fun though [laughs]

— Producer’s intent: have fun / Fans: shut up and give badge ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

— Badge ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

— I get mad and then giggle mid-game and feel insulted [laughs]

— The mini-mes were a masterstroke

— I’m just having fun... [laughs] Koreans being dead serious about games [laughs]

— But why is it harder than usual???

It was way easier than Newcademy had been. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

‘Newcademy was no joke.’

Pick the wrong choices and you turned into a black goat and got thrown in jail—a brutally punishing choice game.

Compared to that, a rhythm game was easy.

There were tricks, but the patterns repeated.

And yet...

‘Why does it feel so hard?’

With that question, Souffle did what they always did: hopped to game sites and other communities—and froze.

Searching for NewBlack game guides turned up nothing.

“Uh...?”

Then came the big realization.

A thud rang in their heads.

‘There aren’t any! No muggles...!’

This time, the company had kindly made content for fans only.

Unlike Newcademy, which anyone could play, only Souffle could make guides this time.

Everyone felt at sea.

— So this is the value of muggles...

— Without muggles, who makes the guides now

— It feels empty ㅠ

— Maybe the point was to make us appreciate normal people

— I searched for a guide like usual and nothing came up

— What idol fandom misses muggles and feels empty [laughs] It’s me, I’m that fool

— Come back, muggles ㅠㅠㅠ

But necessity is the mother of invention: Souffle, who’d relied on muggles’ guides, started moving on their own.

One by one, juicy tips were unearthed.

— In Ri Hyuk’s section, if you keep pat-pat clicking mini-me Ri Hyuk, he gets shy and can’t throw arrows

— If you keep clicking the space between Ri Hyuk and Jiho they start fighting each other lol big value

— Found a way to handle Wooju’s Phase 3 in “Falling Blossoms”...!

— What do you do when Biju starts dancing too??

— That’s just a hard fail

— Biju’s dancing is random; just go next ㅠ

— Sorry but can everyone tag these as [Game] please ㅠㅠ I clicked in and people were saying “rub Junhyun’s brow” and I had a heart attack

— (.gif of a cheerful pizza delivery guy walking into a burning room and freaking out)

With Souffle’s hive mind engaged, a few began to announce clears.

Then came the latecomers who memorized the strats and ground out badges.

Soon the vibe grew warm and fuzzy.

— God-game

— Truly a god-game

— A godly game that gives both feels and fun ㅠㅠ

— Man, that was great

— If they’re giving badges I’ll take ’em heh heh

If you lose it’s trash; if you win it’s a masterpiece.

Meanwhile, the arcade BGM started echoing in the heads of Souffle who kept playing.

Maybe because NewBlack title tracks were remixed into arcade sound for the rhythm game.

The next title concept clicked into place.

At the same time, they began to imagine what “Coin” might feel like, and the hype rose.

‘This is going to hit big.’

Clutching their thumping hearts in excitement—

‘Huh?’

Souffle who cleared Week 1 tilted their heads.

Overseas fans were crying.

Home-base Souffle, who usually tuned in to watch overseas fans crying, felt puzzled.

‘Why are they crying?’

Foreign fans were in tears because the game was hard.

— How are we supposed to clear this in one week?

— The fact that the clear window is one week... Uh, does “one week” mean something different in Korea

— No one told me the difficulty was “Korean”

— Dear Lemon staff. Please remember your country killed Diablo in six hours.

— Me: the game is hard. / Lemon: correct. / Me: THE GAME IS HARD!! / Lemon: correct!!

— My Korean mutuals told me this game was doable. That’s when I knew I was doomed.

As everyone smiled warmly at the lament that the difficulty was tuned for Koreans—

‘Huh?’

Something odd stood out.

It was supposed to be an event site for fanclub members only. But it was teeming with overseas fans.

‘...When did they even sign up?’

Among the foreign fans were little kids, sniffling and upset—also odd.

‘When did they join?’

And—

‘Why... are there so many of them?’

Staring at the swarming crowd, home-base Souffle recoiled.

Hundreds of thousands stepped back in unison.

“Hooooooo!”

“What is it?”

“Look. People are already clearing it.”

On the phone the maknae showed us, a ranking list. From 1st to 99th, every flag was a Taegeuk.

“What the—perfect scores... exist?”

We turned to Ri Hyuk.

“You said a perfect score was impossible.”

“I said it was one in ninety-nine thousand. I didn’t say impossible. Choose your words carefully. When did I ever...”

The four of us—excluding Ri Hyuk—hit play on a phone recording.

— I’m telling you there’s no way to get a perfect score. If a perfect shows up, I’ll draw a rabbit on my hand.

I grinned.

“Get him.”

“Aaaah! Not with a marker! That stuff is super bad for you!”

“A promise is a promise.”

So we drew a tiny, adorable rabbit.

“...”

He scowled at first, but apparently liked it—when we pretended not to look, Ri Hyuk took a photo of his own hand.

We looked back to the phone.

“Everyone’s really good.”

“Seriously.”

Biju laughed.

“At first we were like, ‘Who’s going to clear this?’ We thought we’d messed up the difficulty...”

“We underestimated Souffle.”

We smiled proudly at fans who came back stronger than ever.

Judging by the feedback circulating among fans, the event seemed to be running successfully.

This project’s plan was to roll out already-prepared mini-games.

To release the mini-games we’d made for future fan events as promotional content.

Just in time for the video-game concept, it was generating perfect synergy.

“Smooth sailing.”

The event was rolling, and the album work was, too.

Director Cho Gyuhwan’s advice—to recruit a trustworthy producer and distribute responsibility and authority as the scale grew—had been exactly right.

“Junhyun.”

“Yes.”

“It’s time to give the director his morning wake-up.”

“Okay, hyung.”

Junhyun tiptoed to the human shape sprawled on the studio sofa and whispered something.

“Hu-URK!”

Maybe he’d had a nightmare—Director Cho, sleeping under his coat, looked terrified.

Realizing it was reality, he relaxed.

“Hello, Director!”

“...”

“Director?”

“Ugh...”

His face went pallid again at the sight of us.

I smiled and asked,

“Bad dream?”

“Yeah.”

“Did it have us in it?”

“You know me well...”

“At this point, yeah, we’ve noticed.”

We burst out laughing as the director shook his head.

His Tibetan-fox face was exhausted.

“Maybe I’m getting old—my stamina’s not what it used to be. Back then, this would’ve been nothing.”

“I thought you were in your thirties...”

“Late thirties, soon.”

So spry and yet—he said to me,

“Wooju. When you hit your thirties...”

“Yes.”

“You crash.”

“...”

“You feel the fountain of youth drying up. When you hit your thirties, you’ll—”

His warm eyes met Junhyun’s.

He looked away.

“—Or maybe not.”

Laughing with us, he soon turned serious and worked on Coin.

Maybe because he’s the OG famous composer.

We work with truly skilled composers—PD Na Sangyoon among them—but the director really was the best.

He was just too busy and too loaded with duties for us to usually get to do this kind of fine-grained work together.

“Director.”

“Yeah?”

“We’ll make sure you sit on a mountain of money.”

“Hm? I already am.”

“Then we’ll make it two layers.”

I meant it dead serious, but something about it made him laugh.

Anyway.

With the director’s joining, the album work picked up speed, and February flew by.

— NewBlack take the most wins for “Artist of the Year (Digital)” at the 2017 Raon Chart Awards... “Monthly NewBlack?”

— NewBlack win at the Korean Music Awards... Song of the Year and Musician of the Year simultaneously... “first for a boy group”

— NewBlack’s Wooju on Song of the Year ‘Falling Blossoms’... “Such an honor... I’ll pour today’s joy into the next track.”

We picked up several awards at the late-February shows.

We even won at the Korean Music Awards, which meant a lot to me personally.

The Ministry-of-Culture-backed Korean Music Awards judge solely on artistic merit, so winning is very difficult.

A truly minor song can win the grand prize if the artistry is there.

For “Falling Blossoms” to win at the ceremony that values musicality above all—that meant the world to me.

“So doesn’t that mean I can step back?”

“No, Director.”

“...”

My goal is commercial music, but getting recognized like this as an artist is true happiness.

Especially as the first boy group to win.

Couldn’t get better.

So we spent February on album work and awards—and at the same time, prepping to attend the American awards show—

“...”

A piece of outside news we’d half-expected arrived.

— Two TNT members fail to re-sign... is this effectively a disband?