Chapter 190
We can do it bigger.
AWY, comeback show ‘Blue hour’ completed… Eye-catching concept ‘Wolfman’
AWY, dominates domestic and foreign music charts with all songs ‘Trust and listen idol’
-This is crazyㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Other groups do easy listening songs or concepts as they get older, but these guys always try something new and I like that
-The clothes ripping thing is genius idolㅠㅜㅠ
The excessive wolfman concept, which was expected to explode only in Asia, surprisingly started to get reactions from the West as well when the music video was released.
-I live in the US and the reaction to AWY here is not good
-I’m a student in France and someone asked me if I know AWY when they found out I’m Korean
└You got Do You Know-edㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-AWY’s reason for getting more attention overseas analysis
There is a series called ‘Me and Vampire’ that has been one of the best-selling books in the world for the last 50 yearsㅇㅇ
It was a book that drove the teens and twenties crazy in Korea and around the world, and this AWY concept hits that vibe perfectlyㅇㅇ
It’s also mentioned a lot on TV and radio, and I think they’ll become a Hallyu idol like Media with this promotion
└Wowㅋㅋㅋ awesome
└Nationalist
└Media is trash, are you AWY-dom?
└Stop summoning my idol who went to the army, I know you’re popular
-I’m happy that they’re famous, but I don’t like nationalist fansㅠ
Nationalists or sales-obsessedㅇㅇ They don’t spend money on idols and feel vicarious pride by empathizing with successful kidsㅠㅠ They don’t buy albums and act like fans and lecture the kids, it’s so annoying
└You’re talking nonsense
└You’re not a fanㅋㅋㅋ You seem like a fancoinㅋㅋㅋ
└Fans and singers are not one body, auntie
└Hey, learn how to troll again
[Official] AWY (AWY) pre-orders 1 million copies, breaking their own record
AWY, will they become the second million seller with pre-orders alone… 1 million copies, new record
-AWY is already on the K-pop chart?
,000 copiesㄷㄷㄷ
└What, did all the group orders explode at once?
└└And it’s not even all of them
-Hey, it exploded again
,000 copiesㅇㅇ
└Is there more to explode?
└Is it rigged? There’s no more place to explode, right? The group gallery and personal gallery orders are all done, right?
└└Do you mean they’re buying their own albums?
└└└No, not that
└└Then whatㅋㅋㅋ Do you think they’re buying their own albums? Their trend is similar to Media before they blew upㅋㅋㅋ
-Look at the rigged bird earlier
Choi Ian’s Chinese fan receipt authentication came out
Chinese Ian fans bought 150,000 copies
└Crazy
└What, a personal fan surpasses my idol’s salesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└I’m not even their fan, but I’m watching the numbers go up while lurkingㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Will they surpass 600,000 copies by today? My sales-obsessed heart is racing
The week of music show activities began with Nnet. AWY got up early in the morning and headed straight to the broadcasting station.
“Isn’t it good that we don’t go to all the music shows?”
“If we did music shows every day, we would have collapsed, right? We’re getting old and losing stamina. It’s not like when we debuted.”
Kim Myungjin, who had been listening quietly, snorted.
It was bad news for the fans who had less bread crumbs, but AWY decided not to appear on any other music shows except Nnet and the three major public broadcasters.
They didn’t need to promote themselves separately through cable music shows, and it was more profitable for the agency and the singers to do one more online fan signing instead of that time.
“Myungjin hyung is laughing at us.”
“Kids, you know you’re still in your early twenties, right?”
“Yes, we do.”
Kim Myungjin shook his head and stopped talking at the shameless faces of the members. They were still in their twenties, but they were already whining about being old and having no stamina, which made him chuckle.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been to Sangam.”
“Wow, our waiting room is spacious.”
The members were assigned the largest waiting room among the waiting rooms.
“Our live broadcast order is also the last.”
“That’s why it’s good to be popular.”
The members smiled broadly and flopped down on the sofa.They couldn’t be sloppy because there was a rehearsal fancam, too.
The members touched up their makeup and hair while holding their phones in their hands.
“How many albums have we sold so far?”
“Uh… crazy.”
“What, what is it?”
Kim Joo-young showed him his phone screen without a word. Ian’s mouth dropped open.
“890,000…? That’s not the total sales, that’s just the first week?”
The first week sales of an album are called the initial sales. Even after four days since the album was released, the fans were still buying it in bulk.
Ian’s words drew the attention of the other members, who gathered around Kim Joo-young’s phone screen.
“Wow, are we going to sell over a million copies just with the initial sales?”
“Legendary.”
They thought they would lose a lot of fans because of the long hiatus, but instead, their fandom became stronger. Some fans even bought more albums to support the members.
“If we’re doing this well…”
Lee Joo-hyuk, who had been silently watching the situation, scanned the faces of the members through the mirror.
“We can have a concert at a bigger venue.”
Ian turned his head and looked at him.
“A bigger venue…”
When they debuted, they thought it was obvious that they wouldn’t be able to fill up large stadiums like Jamsil or Gocheok.
Now, even the large stadiums wouldn’t be enough to accommodate all the fans who wanted to come to their concert.
‘I want to have a concert soon.’
Ian’s heart pounded hard.
***
“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”
As they became popular idols, they felt that the attitude and tone of the staff and PDs at the broadcasting stations changed subtly.
They had a pre-recording after the rehearsal. Awi performed two songs, the title track and a b-side track.
“Hello, everyone.”
“Kyaaa!”
There were more fans who came to the pre-recording than last time. The members interacted with the fans who came, and finished the pre-recording after three takes for each song.
“They said we have a mini fan meeting on our way home after the broadcast.”
“Oh, awesome. I wanted to do that.”
It was more like they had more schedules, but the members were in a good mood. When was the last time they met their fans like this? It had been over a year.
“Can you wait a moment?”
The members, who were eating sandwiches prepared by their agency, stared blankly at Kim Myung-jin, who opened the door of the waiting room and asked someone for permission.
“What is it, hyung. Who came?”
“Another rookie group came to see you… You’re all fine… That’s good.”
“Of course we are. When were we not fine?”
Kim Myung-jin narrowed his eyes at Jo Tae-woong’s shameless answer, and the members pretended to be innocent.
Didn’t they stick to the wall like spiders, saying they were playing a zombie game, or wear a fake nose they got from somewhere and play a quiz game? They felt that the members’ image could be in danger if they let their guard down.
“Are you all okay? They seem to be your fans.”
“Of course.”
The members’ eyes sparkled with anticipation. They had received greetings and signed albums from various rookie groups while they were in this waiting room.
“How many times is this?”
“Third? Wow, but we’re so popular that they all come to greet us…”
It wasn’t like Awi had been around for so long that someone would come to see them. They were just trying to get a glimpse of the top idols. It would be even better if they mentioned them on Y-app or something.
“It feels a bit weird…”
It was rare for someone to come and greet them, when the rookie singers they met in the hallway just said hello loudly and left.
But this time was different. Rookie idol groups who had debuted recently or had less experience than Awi inevitably visited Awi’s waiting room.
The members waited eagerly for the door to open.
“Come in.”
Kim Myung-jin opened the door, and a girl group with fresh faces came in timidly and lined up. They bowed deeply and shouted loudly.
“Hello, seniors!”
“Hello.”
They couldn’t just sit there and greet them, so the Awi members also got up from their seats and welcomed them.
“We’re the new group that debuted today! Blue Garden! Please take good care of us!”
The members clapped loudly and cheered for the rookie group, who chanted their slogan and bowed again.
The rookie group’s faces turned red when the popular seniors greeted them more warmly than they expected.
“Wow, you debuted today?”
“Congratulations on your debut.”
The members were no longer flustered and skillfully led the rookie singers.
One of them, who looked the most nervous, opened her mouth and repeated the word ‘fan’ several times before shouting.
“We’re fans, seniors!”
“Oh, who are you a fan of among us?”“We’re fans of all of you!”
Suddenly, Jo Tae-woong’s playful side kicked in.
“Hey, but there must be someone you really like, right? What do you like about us? Can you tell us?”
“We like everything! Joo-hyuk is soft and charismatic, Jin-hyuk is good at rapping and has a unique personality, Hyun has amazing dance moves.”
After that, she spoke fluently about the strengths of each Awi member. She didn’t seem to be embarrassed by her extravagant expressions, which were more like praise than compliments.
“Tae-woong is good at acting and humorous…”
“Wait, stop.”
Jo Tae-woong, who had been listening to her with a smile at first, blushed when it was his turn to be praised and covered his face with one hand.
“Th-that’s enough.”
“We decided to debut as idols after watching your debut stage, seniors!”
Look at her, she’s like a female version of Lim No-eul. Usually girl groups would look up to other girl groups as role models… Ian shook Jo Tae-woong’s shoulder, who was embarrassed.
“He doesn’t usually act like this, you know? You really met your match.”
“Tae-woong has met his nemesis.”
Park Jin-hyuk also chuckled and pinched Jo Tae-woong’s red cheek. While they were talking to different members, those who hadn’t heard their praise yet stood in front of her, who looked the most difficult.
“What about me? What about me?”
“Joo-young is good at cooking and cleaning and has many talents.”
“Wow.”
“Can I ask too?”
“Seo-dam has an amazing voice! And a good vocabulary and hosting skills…”
Kim Joo-young and Park Seo-dam smiled proudly. One of the Blue Garden members who came out behind her handed out an album to each of them.
“This is our album!”
“Wow, thank you. We’ll listen to it well.”
“Wait… Myung-jin hyung! Where are our albums?”
“Here.”
The Awi members took out albums according to the number of Blue Garden members and picked up name pens.
“We can’t be the only ones to receive signed albums.”
“What are your names?”
The Blue Garden members smiled brightly. They told their names and received the albums with trembling hands.
Ian went to the person who had praised the members earlier and asked her name as he signed the album.
“What’s your name?”
“Seo Hyun-ju! Please write Hyun-ju!”
“Can I ask your age too, if you don’t mind? You look so young, I’m curious…”
She looked like a middle schooler, to be honest. He wondered if it was okay for her agency to debut someone so young, he even felt a bit nosy.
“I’m 23 years old.”
“What.”
She looked the youngest, but she was older than me? Ian looked at her in surprise. The other members who overheard also raised their heads. Kim Hyun even dropped his pen in shock.
“Really? You don’t look like it at all?”
“Wow, you’re a noona.”
It was a bit late to debut as an idol, wasn’t it? She must be really talented.
Ian handed her the signed album with a smile. He saw a mark on her head. The same mark that indicated that he had met her somewhere while doing Awi’s schedule.
She was like Lim No-eul, a fan who became a singer and came to see them.
***
“Thank you for coming to see us on purpose.”
“Thank you!”
The Blue Garden members who shouted loudly left Awi’s waiting room.
“Wow… I thought they would be rude because they’re so popular, but they’re so kind?”
“Maybe they treated us like that because Hyun-ju unnie is a fan?”
“No, the other group that went to greet them earlier said they were all kind too?”
Blue Garden had visited other senior groups to greet them and came to Awi last.
‘Oh, yeah. Here, take the album.’
Some of the senior groups they had visited earlier either waved their hands while looking at their phones, or didn’t even answer and let their managers receive the greetings.
‘What, they’re kids.’
‘There’s no pretty one.’
They had no manners for rookie singers. They spat out rude words, and when they asked which agency they were from, they ignored them when they said the name of their agency, saying it wasn’t a big one.
On the other hand, the Awi members thanked them for coming and signed their albums, and even gave them snacks.
“As expected, the top is different.”
“I wish we could see them more often. But that’s not possible, right?”
“Is Hyun-ju unnie going to ascend?”
“Leave her alone, she wants to keep that moment in her head.”
Seo Hyun-ju held the signed album of Awi members in her chest and made a dazed expression.
“But I think I can remember that moment until I die too… Wasn’t Choi Ian really handsome?”
“He was so handsome. He was really smiling while signing for us, and there was a halo behind him…”
“I couldn’t even talk to him, you know. Why did I do that? I regret it.”
“They said they remember their fans well, maybe they’ll greet us if we meet somewhere?”
The Blue Garden members screamed and stomped their feet.