In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 38

That was the moment.

A week ago, on the way back from Gangwon-do, his face looked exactly like that.

He plugged in his earphones that didn’t play any music and stared out the window gloomily, lost in his own thoughts.

Seon Woojoo didn’t think much of it then.

He soon returned to his usual calm expression.

But now it seemed different.

His face looked much more serious than before.

What was wrong with him?

As Seon Woojoo pondered, he caught a glimpse of Wang Jiho and Seo Rihyuk’s uniforms.

Blue jackets and red ties.

The famous high school uniforms that many idols attended.

They looked slightly disheveled today, unlike usual.

Well, he could understand Wang Jiho’s uniform. He was always running around like a puppy.

He came home with dirt on him every day.

But Seo Rihyuk’s uniform looked similar to Wang Jiho’s today.

Why was he talking about this?

It was because their main dancer would wake up early and iron their uniforms every time they went to school.

Kim Bijoo didn’t iron them today.

Seon Woojoo thought he missed it because he woke up late, but he guessed not.

Not only the youngest, but also the quiet Seo Rihyuk had wrinkled uniforms.

As he thought that far, he noticed some strange things.

Kim Bijoo’s recent odd behavior.

He was fine when everyone was around, but when he had some time alone, he would space out.

Like someone who had something on his mind.

What should he do with him?

If it was someone else, Seon Woojoo would just go and wrap his arm around his neck and joke, “Do you have any worries? Do you want me to give you some advice?”

But he seemed awkward for that.

He had a nice personality, but not an easygoing vibe.

He had an aura that made Seon Woojoo feel like he shouldn’t be careless.

And the reason was that he couldn’t follow his emotions.

For almost five months, from last December to now, he watched them and figured out their characters.

Especially Kim Junghyun, Seo Rihyuk, and Wang Jiho.

They were easy to understand.

But Seon Woojoo still didn’t know what kind of person Kim Bijoo was.

He seemed to have a lot of thoughts in that small head, but he never said anything.

“Hey, what are you doing? Aren’t you eating?”

Seo Rihyuk, who was sitting across from Seon Woojoo, looked at him.

He came to his senses and saw that everyone was eating.

Kim Bijoo had returned to his normal expression, as if he never had that face.

He laughed and played along with Wang Jiho’s tantrums, and comforted him.

Was it his imagination?

He looked so fine that Seon Woojoo wondered if he had seen something wrong, but it wasn’t.

No one noticed it right now, but Kim Bijoo was holding his chopsticks upside down and eating.

He was the one who always organized the fridge in order. He wasn’t normal.

Well. Anyway, let’s eat first.

They had somewhere to go today.

It was also the day to decide the direction of their work.

But when he looked at the meat, there was less than usual. It had been 1.5 times more since they went to the Music Cafe.

He didn’t need to look for the culprit.

The sauce that fell from the bulgogi plate was like ants chasing sugar, gradually heading to one place.

“…”

Wang Jiho, who met Seon Woojoo’s eyes, flinched with his cheeks full of food.

Then he defended himself confidently.

“I’m still in my growth period, Hyung. Ouch!”

Seon Woojoo grabbed his cheek like cheese.

****

After finishing their meal, they picked up an ice cream each from the convenience store and walked along the alley, watching the sunset.

“Hyung, are you not angry anymore?”

“A little.”

Not a little, but completely.

Unlike the younger ones who held a bar each, Seon Woojoo had an expensive Haagen-Dazs bar in his hand.

He enjoyed the crunchy feeling of hazelnut.

As he seemed to feel better, the youngest quickly stuck to him like an excited puppy and chattered.

“I was really tired. They teased me all day long because I kept smiling.”

“Then don’t smile.”

“I’m a celebrity now, Hyung. I have to manage my image.”

He made a mature expression with his flushed face, which made Seon Woojoo laugh.

If he was going to say that, he should at least take out the Chupa Chups he was holding in his hand.

“And I hate it when Gil Chaekyung acts friendly but subtly disses me, you know how cunning she is…”

“Gil Chaekyung?”

It was a name he hadn’t heard in a long time.

The day they went to work at Hwai Entertainment, the youngest member of Girls on Top who blatantly ignored them.

She was the girl group member who became his mortal enemy after Wang Jiho rejected her confession in elementary school, saying she was ugly.

“You’re in the same school as her again?”

“Now we’re in the same class as vocal majors. Anyway, she led the teasing by posting screenshots in the class chat room since Friday morning.”

“If you were in the same school in middle school, and now you’re in the same class, it’s almost like you’re destined to get married.”

“Hyung, are you crazy?”

Wang Jiho shook his head vigorously.

“I don’t even want to imagine it. I’d rather have dirt in my eyes than that.”

“You have to do it if you have dirt in your eyes.”

Kim Junghyun, who was quietly listening to his words, put down his red bean ice cream. Then he asked seriously, “Jiho, what if she has a hundred billion in assets? Would you do it then?”

“What are you talking about, Hyung? My dad has a hundred billion too.”

“What about a trillion?”

Seo Rihyuk threw his ice cream stick into the street trash can and joined in.

“Junghyun Hyung. If you had a trillion in assets, would you marry someone like Wang Jiho? I’d rather go for that guy over there.”

“With Woojoo Hyung?”

“Well, he doesn’t do any housework, but at least he has a good visual. It would be fun to look at his face.”

“That’s true, I agree.”

Seon Woojoo nodded his head as he listened.

“Okay, Junghyun. I’ll go for a trillion.”

They made a fuss like high school students who were talking nonsense.

The youngest’s eyes turned into triangles.

They cheered up the youngest who was tormented.

“Do you hate being teased?”

“I should be the one teasing others, not being teased by them.”

“You have a rotten mind from the root. I admire you.”

Seon Woojoo patted the youngest’s shoulder and spoke.

And then he realized something again.

The audio was missing again.

He turned his head and saw Kim Bijoo walking alone in a distant place.

His eyes were far away in the sky.

He was looking at the evening sky that had turned red.

Seon Woojoo thought his brown hair looked like gold in the sunset. Seo Rihyuk came to his side and asked, “Why is he like that since earlier? He even picked up the chopsticks the wrong way.”

“Did you see that too?”

“Of course I did. I wanted to point it out, but he seemed to be in a bad mood.”

“Me too. Bijoo Hyung was totally weird today. He even tore my uniform… Ouch!”

Seon Woojoo felt like he was going to get addicted to the feel of his cheeks.

They were so soft that they stretched like rice cakes when he pulled them.

“Grow up, will you? Is Bijoo your mother?”

Seo Rihyuk tilted his head at his words.

“Didn’t Bijoo Hyung do your laundry for you a few days ago? You pretended to sleep on the sofa after the work was done because you were tired.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“Really?”

“…I always feel sorry for Bijoo. That’s why I work hard on the work.”

Seon Woojoo ignored the eyes of the brothers who were scolding him and changed the subject.

“Junghyun.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you know anything? You and Kim Bijoo are the closest.”

“Ah.”

But Kim Junghyun’s reaction was strange.

He looked like a computer.

It was as if a [loading] message and a gauge showing how many percent it had progressed would appear on his face.

“Well, you know. Everyone has some problems they can’t tell anyone.”

At his sudden words, Wang Jiho, Seo Rihyuk, and Seon Woojoo exchanged glances.

“Is he sick?”

“No. It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Um…”

There was one thing he knew for sure.

Seon Woojoo would never tell Kim Junghyun about any secrets he might have in the future.

How could he be so bad at hiding his expressions?

“Uh…”

“Let’s just stop here, Hyung. It seems like it’s none of our business, judging by your reaction.”

“Why? I’m curious.”

The youngest, who had no sense of the situation, glanced at Seo Rihyuk, who looked at Seon Woojoo as if asking for his opinion.

He nodded.

“Well, let’s save that for later.”

Only then did Kim Junghyun visibly relax.

He was like a hard granite a moment ago, but now he was like a soft plastic lump.

“Let’s focus on the work first. That’s urgent.”

“Oh, I forgot about that.”

Seo Rihyuk asked, “So what’s the method you’re going to use on us today?”

****

The New Black studio on the second floor of the company.

They had only received the studio a few weeks ago, but thanks to their team’s housewife’s interior design, it had changed neatly.

There were toothbrushes and other living supplies.

The cabinets were neatly organized.

It was a very modern feel compared to the Scarlet studio next door.

They had a pink sofa with leopard print cushions.

Standing in front of the sofa, Seo Rihyuk asked Seon Woojoo and Kim Junghyun, “So what are we doing now?”

“It’s nothing special.”

Kim Junghyun answered for Seon Woojoo.

“We’re going to play some music for you. Just listen. You don’t have to do anything special, just sit still and listen.”

“So how long is it?”

“Hyung, how many songs do we have?”

Seon Woojoo clicked on the folder icon on the laptop screen.

And he calculated the time based on an average of three minutes per song.

“Well, not much. About five hours.”

“Wait, what? Five hours?”

He smiled at the youngest, who was eyeing the entrance. He used the evil smile he learned from their manager.

He locked the door with a bang.

“Any more questions?”

Seon Woojoo laughed as he saw his brothers close their eyes and resign themselves to their fate.

“I knew it.”

***

The premise of the experiment that Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo were doing was simple.

The musical color that they liked the most would be their color and our identity as a group.

He thought that while watching the music cafe.

Just like the expressions of his brothers watching Something, they would have music that they unconsciously liked and disliked.

So he thought that if there was a musical color that they all liked, that would be their group’s identity.

Of course, everyone’s tastes would be different.

But if they looked for the music that they all liked and wanted to do, there would surely be an intersection.

If you pass light through a prism, it splits into different colors depending on the wavelength.

If you thought of light as a genre of music, then if you looked closely, there would be a song that could contain all of their colors.

This was the process of passing light through a prism.

The differences between them were not a problem at all.

As long as they know the musical foundation, the rest was easy.

For example, if Kim Junghyun liked hip-hop, they can make a song with Kim Junghyun as the center under the overall direction.

They just needed to add hip-hop elements to the music that they liked and wanted to do.

That was why Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo searched the Billboard charts and various music sites in their country and selected the music.

About 300 songs, roughly by genre, mood, and emotion.

It was also a hassle to classify them, so they asked for advice from the A&R team.

They were skeptical about why they were doing this, but well.

There was no harm in trying.

“Let’s start now.”

They set up a camera and sat together on the sofa.

And they played the music.

One song, two songs, three songs.

The songs continued, and they skipped the ones that didn’t get any reaction from the intro.

Most of them were heavy metal songs that made ‘wooo’ noises.

Seon Woojoo had expected it to take five hours, but they had to take breaks every two hours because Wang Jiho complained of hearing hallucinations.

He didn’t know how long it took.

They finished the experiment and collapsed on the sofa with exhausted bodies.

“…Do you really think this will work?”

“We’ll have to find out.”

Seon Woojoo heard the damp voice of Seo Rihyuk, who had sunk like a wet cotton, and he also lifted his heavy body.

Then he asked Kim Bijoo, who was lying next to him, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fineee…”

“I didn’t ask you, but I’m not okay, Hyung.”

Seon Woojoo felt sorry as he looked at the younger ones who had become ragged.

It seemed like a good idea before he thought about it, but now that he did it, he felt like a fool.

Should he have just discussed the musical color with them?

“…I’m sorry, guys.”

Seon Woojoo said that and sat down at the studio table.

Kim Junghyun came rolling his chair while chewing a banana.

“Shall we monitor it now?”

“You’re going to help me, right?”

“…”

“Don’t mumble your answer while eating a banana.”

“Ugh, why is my throat so dry?”

He drank some water and looked at the sofa where the others were lying and then at Seon Woojoo, and came to him with resignation.

“Play it, Hyung.”

That was when the analysis work began.

At first, Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo sat at the table and quickly flipped through the videos, checking O, X, and so on.

This one was liked by four of them, but one didn’t like it.

This one was liked by two of them, but three didn’t like it.

As they made a checklist like that, they noticed something strange.

“Hey, this…”

“It works?”

Songs that all five of them preferred and liked.

As those songs appeared one by one, they saw some patterns.

The emotions, atmosphere, and narrative that those songs shared.

Their common theme of preference was love.

Not limited to the love between men and women that killed each other, but a broad sense of humanity.

Not a concept that was bound by gender, but the affection between parents and children, friends and friends.

Their favorite atmosphere was warmth.

Even Seo Rihyuk, who seemed to prefer a cold atmosphere, liked a warm one.

Not just a refreshing song, but the tone of the song.

A song that looked at people from a warm perspective was their taste.

A warm song with a broad theme of love.

Finally, their favorite emotion was joy.

There was no limit to this.

They liked both the lively joy of dancing and the calm joy.

“I think it’s starting to take shape. Don’t you see it?”

“Yes, I do.”

Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo combined the Untitled they had worked on and the results they had analyzed in their heads.

Their goal was a refreshing summer atmosphere.

The musical direction they wanted to do was a warm and joyful song with a broad theme of love.

He could roughly picture it.

Five boys who had fun all day, and at night, they lit a bonfire on the beach and sang and chatted happily.

He imagined the atmosphere of Jules Verne’s <15 Boys Adrift>.

Then the pieces clicked in his head.

It was perfectly conceived, as if it had been blocked before.

He couldn’t even imagine standing on stage with this before.

Now he could even draw the audience’s expressions.

“Kim Junghyun, look at this.”

He quickly pulled out an A4 paper and turned on the composing program.

As he did, he drew shapes and explained excitedly.

“Move this part back a little, and move this one forward. The chorus goes a little longer than now.”

“Oh.”

“Then it’s perfect, right?”

After thinking for 10 minutes, Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo looked at the paper as if it was a treasure.

“Did we do it? It seems like we did it?”

“It seems like we did.”

They opened their eyes in a daze.

Then they looked at each other’s faces and smiled.

He felt a surge of affection for Kim Junghyun, who was in front of him.

About 0.3 Kim Deoksoon’s worth.

Everything seemed beautiful now that their worries were gone. It was a moment of joy for Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo.

“What’s going on? Are you done?”

They turned around and saw Kim Bijoo rubbing his eyes behind them. Seo Rihyuk and Wang Jiho also came over, blinking like goldfish that had just woken up.

Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo excitedly explained what had happened.

They told them how they had struggled, what had blocked them, and how they had solved it.

They looked confused, as if they couldn’t understand their rambling.

That was when he decided to explain the experiment from the beginning, step by step.

And their expressions gradually changed to something strange.

What was wrong with them?

As he wondered, Seo Rihyuk burst into a shaky laugh.

“Guys, you know what? You didn’t have to do all this. You could have just asked each other for your favorite music lists and compared them.”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t that an easier way to find common ground?”

Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo looked at each other.

“Oh, right.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Seo Rihyuk’s face twisted like a demon.

“Oh, right? You guys are unbelievable!”

Their happiness of finding a title for ‘Untitled’ was short-lived.

That day, Kim Junghyun and Seon Woojoo got scolded by their siblings for almost an hour.